He made a tsk noise with his tongue and then said, "Of course you wouldn't tell anyone. Otherwise, I wouldn't have told you. But I wanted you to understand why it's not possible for you to ride me again. It's not that I don't enjoy the... closeness. But I prefer to know how the other person feels before I let myself get too attached to anyone, and there are very few ways to get more attached than to allow the rider bond to strengthen."
Bells rolled her eyes. "Are you ignoring my suggestion on purpose? Are you just too lazy to go looking? We need to find a wagon if you want to transport that mirror tomorrow. Now get going. We can split up and check house by house. I heard humans used to have wagons as toys for their children, left out in the yards. Can you imagine?"
Jaekob shrugged. "Not really. What a waste of resources. Still, I saw stranger things among the humans who still remained when dragons Arose. I think I saw toys in the front yard at the house across the street. Let's start there."
Bells led the way outside. She didn't want to look at him and feel her regrets, nor did she want him to see those regrets written on her face.
The next morning, Bells and her aching feet walked with Jaekob as they approached Mikah's manor with the disturbing, evil mirror trailing behind then in a wagon. Just in case the source of the powerful evil behind the mirror could see through it—scrying, as in the tales her uncles told her as a child—they had covered it with a blanket Jaekob found.
They’d spent nearly all night searching for the wagon. The trip back to the manor gates had only taken—she looked up at the sky, checking the stars—an hour, at most. The had to go much slower than she’d imagined with the wagon to avoid tipping it. It toppled far too easily to have been a child’s toy, she decided, but couldn't imagine any other use, either.
Jaekob said, "First, I'm going to yell at these lazy guards. If they don't see me coming by now, what use are they? We're at war, but they aren't acting like it. Better I yell at them than for our enemies kill the lazy fools."
Bells patted his back and rested her head on his shoulder as they made their way toward the gate. She said, "Don't be too upset. Who knows what we've missed in the time we've been gone. It seemed like forever to us. Maybe it did to them, as well. We don't know."
He harrumphed, smoke trailing up from his nostril, but he stopped complaining.
When they arrived at the gate, the two guards stood at attention, saluting, awaiting his arrival. As soon and Jaekob counter-saluted, one swung the gate open hastily and the other said, "Welcome home, sir. How fares our prince and his lovely companion this night?"
Jaekob shoved a fingertip into the man's chest, his face a mask of anger. " Do you really think she feels lovely right now, after we've been gone all day and return covered in sweat and road dirt?"
So much for him stopping his complaints. That poor guard... Whether he answered yes or no, Jaekob would yell at him some more. The guard went into the rigid pose soldiers everywhere used to escape trouble with a superior. It was a soldier's version of playing possum, as far as she could tell, and she had seen it work regularly since arriving in Philadelphia.
"Sir! This private doesn't know what the prince's friend knows or doesn't know. Sir."
Bells saw Jaekob winding up to begin into a fresh outburst, but she stepped forward to spare the hapless soldier. "Well, if you don't know whether the future First Councilor's lady friend is attractive or not, maybe you know how to raise the Crown of Pures in an emergency? They need to see the latest threat Jaekob stopped."
The soldier snapped a perfect salute at Jaekob, who returned it so quickly that it had to be just an ingrained response. The soldiers performed a crisp about-face and broke into the odd, measured run all soldiers seemed to use to run mile after mile. She had seen them doing it when she first arrived as well as almost every day since, and she still thought units running in step, each soldier taking steps precisely the same length, was an impressive feat of training.
She turned to Jaekob, but he looked less impressed. A faintly pulsing halo showed up around his silhouette as agitated bits of yellow and purple aura showed clearly, even though she made an effort not to look at it. The storm playing itself out in his aura was a striking contrast to his expression and body language, which radiated calm and confidence.
She said, "Penny for your thoughts, as the humans used to say."
Jaekob pulled out a pad of paper and a pen, human-made stuff, and began to scribble something down. Without glancing up, he said, "Actually, I'm concerned about whether that was the right decision. It's not that I don't trust your judgment, but what if the black mirror is some sort of a trap for the Black Khan's enemies in the Crown of Pures? I have to think about these possibilities, even if the chances seem remote."
Bells bit her bottom lip, nodding slowly. She could see his point, and she hadn't thought of it herself, mostly because it had never been her job to think of military strategies. Although it also wasn't her job to give orders to that soldier.
She lightly bit the inside of her cheek as she tried to think of the best way to apologize when Jaekob handed the sheet to the remaining gate Guardian and said, "Take this urgent message to Chief of Security Brandon immediately. It is top secret, do you understand?"
The soldier clicked his boot heels together and stood rigid. "Yes, my prince. I will let nothing stop me from delivering this right away."
Jaekob nodded, and then he wore an odd half-smile as he shouted, "Are you waiting for written permission? Do you need authorization to turn around written in triplicate?"
The soldier, too, wore the odd combination of a half-smile and steel-hard expression as he saluted and said, "No sir. By your leave, sir."
"Outstanding," Jaekob said. "Dismissed." He watched as the soldier sprinted away.
Bells couldn't make heads or tails of what she had just seen. "Can I ask you a question?"
"You can ask. I may not have an answer."
She rubbed the back of her neck as she thought about how she wanted to phrase it. After a couple of seconds, when she still hadn't asked her question, he raised one eyebrow at her. She decided to charge ahead and let the chips fall where they may. "Okay, first of all, you two were yelling at each other. But it seemed somehow different from the yelling you did at the first guy. Did you know the second Guardian?"
He shook his head. "No, there are far too many of us for me to know everyone. Although, truth be told, I do know many of them, at least their faces. The first soldier had the misfortune of being the one closest to me when I unloaded my frustration. Since I'm an officer and they aren't, he had to just cradle the eggs and deal with it."
"But the second man was sent on an important mission, so you wanted to... what? Yell at him? Keep him loyal? I don't understand."
He smiled, his whole face lighting up, even his eyes. "I never thought about how it must look. Among dragons, and probably among the soldiers of every race, in every place, there is a certain camaraderie between soldiers on the same side, even when they are of different ranks. But any unit functions on discipline and chain of command first, individual loyalties a distant second. So, it becomes sort of like a game, and if both people play their role in a certain way, it's good for motivation. Don't ask me how."
Bells nodded, although she didn't understand that at all. Getting yelled at didn't sound like the kind of thing that would lead to brotherly or sisterly love between strangers. This wasn't the time to ask about that, though, and she had already wasted enough time. She got to her point. "What was on the note? I understand quite clearly that I overstepped my bounds, and I'm really sorry. Thank you for not embarrassing me in front of your troops. I don't know why that matters to me, but it does. But what can I do to help now?"
He didn't reply at first, and Bells felt her heart beating faster. She counted heartbeats as she waited for him to say something. Anything. One, two... Six...
He reached up to brush a stray, dirty lock of hair from her face rather than answer right away, and she watched his gaze roa
m over her face, her ears, her neck...
Goosebumps shot down her arm and a tingle ran down her neck to her knees. It was gone as quickly as it had come, but she couldn't help but smile at him. Somehow, it was the perfect gesture to let her know all was well, even though she had messed up.
Thankfully, he smiled back and said, "I'm having my father's security chief organize a detail to protect the Crown members. Now that the pixie is out of the bread box, so to speak, there's no putting her back in, and the Crown is going to insist on seeing this mirror. No," he said, holding up his hand as she opened up her mouth to protest, "there isn't anything we can do to stop them, short of pulling rank. That's not something I'm willing to do in the middle of a war. Fighting one enemy at a time is more than enough, thank you. So, we just need to make the best of it and see if any of them know anything about the mirror or the magic behind it, and try to do it as safely as we can."
She reached up to his hand, which still brushed hairs from her face to behind her ear, and grabbed it. She put her cheek into his palm and held it there, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of the tender moment. His hands were rough and calloused, the antipathy of the moment itself. His hands were hard as steel, but when they touched her, he was always as gentle as he would be with a newborn babe. Just because she couldn't tell him her feelings didn't mean she couldn't enjoy the reassuring touch between friends in a way that was decidedly not how friends would take things.
When she realized she'd been holding his hand for a while, she gasped and her eyes flew open. The first thing she saw was Jaekob peering down at her with the most tender look she had ever seen on his chiseled, hard-as-steel features. He had an odd, faraway look in his eyes, as though he were looking right through her, but when she opened her eyes, his gaze snapped into focus. He took a half step back and withdrew his hand with an awkward smile.
The sound of hooves approaching broke the moment. Jaekob spun around to find the source, while Bells stepped to one side to get a better view around him. A single horse sprinted toward them, its rider standing in the stirrups and whipping its reins. She used her senses to telescope in on his face and recognized Mikah's Chief of Security, Brandon or something like that. There was always an awkwardness between him and Jaekob whenever she had seen them meet, and their conversations always focused strictly on business.
This time was no exception. Brandon yanked on the reins and the horse skidded to a halt a few feet from the prince. He practically leapt from the saddle. When he was five feet away, he stopped and saluted crisply. "Sir. Chief of Security Brandon reporting as ordered, my Prince."
Jaekob didn't salute back. "At ease. So, what are we looking at?"
Brandon shook his head. "I could ask you the same thing, sir. What were you thinking, sending for the Crown? We haven't even had our mages look at this thing, yet, and I can feel its power burning into me from here. Granted, it's nothing near as strong as the Sword of Fire," he said, inclining his head toward Bells and giving her a wink, "or even as powerful as your father's legendary sword, which wouldn't stand a chance against the beautiful young lady's. Still, if we don't know the nature of the threat, we can't protect the Crown representatives from it."
Jaekob gave him a lopsided grin. "Oh, don't I know it. My lady friend, as the guards have taken to calling her, took it upon herself to rescue a Guardian from a major tongue-lashing by sending him to fetch them before I was ready. The damage was done, so I rolled with those dice. But I'm not stupid, so I sent you that urgent note. Where are we with preparations?"
Brandon clapped him on his upper arm with his empty sword hand. "They're on their way. As you can imagine, the elf king, Eios, was the first one to rush out the door from his cozy little bed to announce his personal representative will be there. It seems the self-styled leader of the Crown of Pures is eager to see this new device that couldn't be destroyed by the Sword of Fire."
"Everyone knows Mikah rules the Crown."
"Yeah, well, only for a little while. Eios manipulated that council for centuries, so who really leads it? And his rep, Tallon, is a crafty point-ears, but not as crafty as his master. We lucked out. Anyways, don't worry about your back, kid. I'll be watching it. They won't be able to slide a knife into it as long as I'm around."
Jaekob didn't smile, although Brandon hadn't either, which Bells found confusing. Jaekob replied, "Thanks. I appreciate it. We can't let anything happen to the Crown, even if they are too stupid to stay away from an unknown threat like this one. It certainly could have waited until the mages had a chance to tell us more about it, as far as I'm concerned."
Brandon said, "Well, aren't you just flying true north today? I have to leave to go make sure the preparations are done, but two of my soldiers will arrive anytime now, and I need them to take the mirror and you both to the meeting place. It's to be your father's amphitheater, by the way, in case you get lost on your own property."
Jaekob nodded and waved as Brandon headed for his horse and then rode away. Then he turned to Bells and said, "Come on. I'll show you the way. I don't think you've seen the amphitheater before, have you? Humans built this one out of stone in the old Greek methods for my father in exchange for protection from the Crown of Pures and the White King alike."
Bells grinned. An amphitheater sounded like fun. "I can't wait. Would you do me the honor of escorting me there?" She held out her arm for him.
In truth, she missed the ancient amphitheaters beyond the Veil. After eons of being used by communities to tell stories of every kind to pass oral traditions and legends from one generation to the next, the audiences' emotional energy had charged the very stones that built its walls. It had once been the same here on Earth, although few Earth amphitheaters lasted long enough to have much of a charge, anymore, and most of those that had were no longer in use.
"I'd be delighted." Jaekob slid his arm through hers to walk arm-in-arm, heading to the far corner of the property where the amphitheater stood. Sadly, he didn't set a pace that allowed her to enjoy those few moments alone with him before the inevitable chaos of meeting with the Crown of Pures.
By Creation, she hated even dealing with the Crown, and hated even more the thought of having to stand up for Jaekob. He had honor, which seemed to be an alien concept to the other Crown members. Eios had very few limits on what he would do to get the Crown for himself, which was why Mikah rarely attended.
Jaekob reminded her of that fact at least twice on their way to the amphitheater, warning her to be on guard. He didn't really need to bother, though. No fae had any love for the Crown of Pures that had enslaved them.
Bells stood with Jaekob off to the amphitheater's stage left. Just behind the stage, a white wall rose up at least fifteen feet, once the backdrop for the property owner's huge projector in the manor's media room, which Pures had no use for. Apparently, the human had enjoyed entertaining guests. Briefly, she wondered about the man's fate. Or woman's, she reminded herself—in the last few dozen years that they ruled the planet, humans had been much better about that sort of thing, though it came too late to save them. Sad.
Jaekob nudged her and nodded his head toward the seating area. "It looks like half the Dragon Council is here, too. There has to be at least two dozen dragons up there."
"That surprises me. How many dragons does Philadelphia need to rule it?" Other than Guardians, Bells felt sure she had only seen about that many dragons in total during her time at the manor.
He smiled and shrugged. "No, you misunderstand. I mean the entire Dragon Council from around the world. Each councilor represents a certain number of dragons."
"Oh." She was just as surprised at that answer but for the opposite reason. "Is this mirror really that important to dragons around the world? I mean, I get why local dragons would care, but it's not like that mirror"—she hitched her thumb at the recovered mirror standing center stage—"can send fog to Asia from here."
His slight smile turned down into a frown. "The Councilors never waste a chance to get
together and jockey for position, and it presents the perfect opportunity to talk to allies or negotiate with enemies without drawing any attention."
She couldn't help but smile. "Is that the cynical version or the real one?"
"Oh, I'm quite serious. Look at them now and you'll see them mingling freely. But if you look closely, once the meeting is underway, all the loyalists sit to one side, while all the opposition leaders sit together on the other."
She cocked her head. That was new information. "There's more than one opposition leader?"
Jaekob didn't answer, instead peering out into the crowd. She followed his gaze, and found Darren standing among a small cluster of dragons near the center of the seating area. She glanced at Jaekob again, and his eyes had narrowed. She put her hand on his arm lightly, and he came out of whatever thought he had been lost in.
"This thing is about to begin," he said. "Soon, we'll have to get on stage."
Bells felt the blood rush from her cheeks. "Us? Up there?"
He nodded, his eyes locking onto hers, and she felt like they were suddenly the only two people there. He said, "Don't be afraid. I'll do most of the talking, of course. I'm a dragon, after all."
That sounded wonderful, all except for one part. "If you're going to handle it, then why do I have to go up there?" For a moment, she wished she were back on her farm. Anywhere but here.
"Don't sell yourself short, shorty. I may have rank, but you have the Sword of Fire, and we need to remind them of that fact. The only reason the city still stands free is you and the sword. In fact, it's the only reason we retrieved that mirror, whatever it is. Mikah and I need them to see that the wielder of the sword stands with us." He reached up and brushed a couple of loose strands of hair from her cheek and over her ear. "Don't worry. You'll do fine."
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