Shadow of Flame

by Caitlyn McFarland

  Married.

  Hell.

  Kai narrowly dodged a slice of Deryn’s blade that could have put out her eye. She drove memories of yesterday from her mind. This afternoon mattered. Acing Ffion’s crash course in dragon mattered, too. Kai assumed she was going to have to interact with dragons from all the different clans. She didn’t want to make a stupid mistake. Sparring with Deryn at the same time freed her mind from the ulcer-inducing stress of her circumstances and kept her in the moment, making it easier to concentrate.

  The question. What was the question? Right.

  “Serpent-dragons have no wings. There are three major clans: the Lung of East Asia, the Naga of India, and the Wonambi of Australia. The Lung and Naga are loosely related and have subclans, but the Wonambi are a clan unto themselves.”

  “Correct.” Ffion pushed bronze hair out of her eyes and wrote something in illegible dragon script in the open notebook on her lap. “How do you tell them apart in dragon form?”

  Kai dodged another swipe of Deryn’s blades. She jabbed with her own and missed. “The Lung have ruffs or manes and broad faces, like lions. The Naga are smaller. They have a fringe along their jaws instead of a full-scale ruff and more pointed features. The Wonambi are slender, lack any sort of ruff and have rounder faces. Their scales are patterned like stained glass.”

  If Ffion nodded, Kai missed it, but no one told her she was wrong. Deryn circled, coming in low. It was exhausting, drilling like this. But Kai needed it. She needed anything to keep her mind off the horrible woman’s suggestion that Rhys imprison and ignore her. Except for conjugal visits, of course.

  “Name the cousin-clans of the Western Hemisphere and tell me their identifying characteristics,” Ffion said.

  “The Noodinoon, of North America, who influence the weather.” One of Deryn’s blades nicked her arm and she gasped. She blocked—too late—and sliced at Deryn, but the taller girl danced away. Kai tried to remember the question. “The Mo’o, of the Pacific Islands, who influence the sea and the tides. And the Quetzals, of South America, who have blood magic.”

  Deryn came in close, feinting up and to the right. Kai moved to block, and Deryn ducked into a spinning kick and knocked Kai’s legs out from under her. Kai’s daggers went flying and she landed hard on her back, the wind knocked out of her.

  Deryn’s bony butt landed on her stomach. The tip of a dagger pressed against her collarbone, and Kai groaned. Or would have, if she could breathe.

  “What do they look like?” Deryn asked.

  “Quetzals and the Noodinoon have feathered wings,” Kai croaked, still out of breath. “Mo’o wings look like fins, and they live in the water nearly as much as they live on land. Tane, leader of the Invisible, is Mo’o.”

  Deryn stood and pulled Kai to her feet. “Not bad. At least you’ll recognize the clans at your ceremony.”

  “Yeah. At least. Which clans did we miss?” Kai asked.

  Ffion glanced at her notebook. “Bida, Derkin, Draig, Azhdahā.”

  Kai raised her eyebrows. “Ashem might be Azhdahā. I vaguely recall him saying something about it.”

  Deryn snorted.

  Ffion smiled, small and sad. “The Azhdahā were a great clan. Until they were hunted to near-extinction by humans. Ashem and Kavar’s mother managed to bribe a human to smuggle them to Ayen as she was dying.” Ffion fiddled with her notebook. “Objectively, it’s easy to understand why Kavar supports Owain and his war.”

  Kai raised a hand to her lips. She’d known Ashem and Kavar were the last of their clan, but she’d never known why. No wonder Ashem could be such a jerk.

  Deryn retrieved a towel from a stack on a nearby shelf and tossed one to Kai, who caught it and removed the practice padding to wipe sweat from her face and body.

  “Again?” Kai tossed the towel down next to a plastic water bottle. It looked out of place among the walls lined with ancient and exotic weapons, to say the least. She bent to retrieve the blades Deryn had given her.

  Deryn shook her head. “You have to get ready for the ceremony.”

  Kai closed her eyes, pressed her back against the cool, brown wall. She wanted to make sure she had the basics straight before they left. Or maybe she was just procrastinating. “Bida are the largest of the dragons, bronze-scaled, native to the southern edge of the Sahara. Their magic has to do with manipulating kinetic energy.”

  The dragon who had killed Griffith had been large and bronze. And hadn’t he been half Bida? Horribly, Kai wondered if Griffith was related to the dragon who had killed him.

  Her gaze caught on Ffion, and she decided not to ask. “Derkin come from the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. They deal with history keeping, memory and academics. They’re pale blue with yellow, brown or amber eyes.”

  Like Gina, the Derkin kidnapper Kai had killed. The memory still made her sick, but Rhys had been right. If she hadn’t taken out Gina—or Galatea, which Ashem had discovered was the woman’s real name—Kai would be dead right now.

  Or worse. She could be Owain’s prisoner.

  She shivered and buried the thought. “And then there are you guys, Elementals, also called Clan Draig. Four common types and a gold dragon every few generations, blah, blah, blah.”

  Ffion nodded. “Very good. Now, we’re going to change. You bathe, then we’ll all—”

  A throat cleared. Kai almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Rhys standing in the doorway. The sight of him made her heart flip-flop around like a fish on a dock, so it took her a second to register the tall, slender East Asian woman by his side. Kai thought she looked familiar, but couldn’t place her.

  “You should be getting ready,” Deryn said, frowning at Rhys.

  “I will. Soon. Kai, this is Jiang, of the Lung clan. She says you’ve met before.”

  The memory clicked into place. “That’s right. We met after—I mean, when we all went to Seattle. You were on the roof,” Kai said to Jiang. “You said you were a part-time member of the Invisible?”

  Jiang nodded. “Full-time, now.”

  “She was a spy,” Rhys supplied. “She spent a lot of time at Owain’s court at Cadarnle. The trap that allowed us to capture Kavar was her idea, but it also blew her cover. So she’s back as part of the Invisible.”

  “Nice.” Kai decided to pretend that wasn’t completely intimidating.

  Rhys cleared his throat again. “In light of everything, Kai, I thought it might be good to assign you a pair of full-time bodyguards.

  Kai narrowed her eyes, suddenly, irrationally afraid that he might have taken what that Ceri woman had said to heart. That he’d been avoiding her because he’d changed his mind. Not because she thought Rhys would do that, but because the idea that he’d want to go through with it—to pledge to her—seemed too good to be true. “To protect me, or to babysit me?”

  Rhys made a noise low in his throat. “To protect you. If my opponents want to comfort themselves by thinking of them as babysitters, I don’t sundering care.”

  “Well, I sundering might,” Kai said, thrusting her daggers into the sand. She made a frustrated sound and rubbed her face. Damn it. She was embarrassing herself, acting like a child again. She stood and faced Rhys, wiping her hands down her sides. “Sorry. Thank you. I’m not—” she blushed, wishing she didn’t have to have this conversation in front of Deryn, Ffion and Jiang “—I’m not angry with you. I appreciate what you’re doing. It’s a little off-putting that someone wants to stick me in a cell and use me for...um...breeding. I’m working through it.”

  He crossed the room and pulled her daggers from the sand then handed them to her hilt-first, his voice taut. “Never. I swear it. If you want, Seren can bind me to my word.”

  “I swear it,” Kai muttered as she took the daggers from him. She was relieved as much by his words as by the fervent expression on his f
ace. “And no. About Seren. I believe you. But thanks for being willing.”

  He leaned in, dropping his voice. “I know we haven’t been able to finish the conversation we started after Juli and Ashem’s pledging. Tonight, after the ceremony, there should be time.”

  His breath on her raised goose bumps down Kai’s back, making her voice breathy. “Sounds like a plan.”

  He inhaled, and Kai thought she caught a hint of his thoughts through the cracks in her mental wall.

  ...if we were alone...

  She swallowed.

  He stepped away. “Ffion, if you’ll consent, I’d like you to be Kai’s main guard as long as you’re up for it. Jiang will take the night shifts so you can sleep. She’ll also be in charge of Kai’s security any time we leave Eryri, and she’ll take over once you have the baby. But for now, I’d be grateful for your help. I need someone who can teach her what she needs to know.”

  Ffion considered, then nodded. “Yes. For now.”

  “Diolch. I have a few more things to do before the pledging.” His eyes met Kai’s, and it was all she could do not to step toward him. “I’ll see you all in a few hours. Hwyl fawr.”

  He bowed to them and left.

  Ffion groaned as she slid from the stool. “That was not a smart place to sit.” She put a hand to her back. “Ancients, I didn’t think I was supposed to have sciatica until later.”

  Kai’s stomach growled. Earlier, she’d been too unsettled to eat, but she was pretty sure if she didn’t get something in her belly before the pledging she’d probably pass out. “Do you guys want something to eat?”

  “I would like something,” Jiang said. She followed Kai from the training room. Deryn and Ffion’s voices faded as they crossed the atrium’s bridges to the kitchen. Kai took some fruit from a bowl on the counter. To her surprise, Jiang took one as well.

  “You don’t want meat? We’ve got some left over.”

  Jiang shook her head and leaned against the counter. “I’m glad you’re training. The king and queen of dragons are supposed to be unstoppable in battle. Fierce in a fight. Dedicated to defending each other.”

  Kai felt heat creep into her cheeks. “I’ve heard Wingless don’t fight.”

  Jiang shrugged. “You’re the queen. You can do what you like.”

  Kai laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think it works that way.”

  “It’s not like Eryri is much safer for you, between the Council and the spy and the members of Rhys’s own vee dragging you around by your hair.” Jiang took another bite of her fruit.

  Kai rubbed her head at the memory. Thankfully, Wingless healing meant it didn’t hurt anymore. “Yeah, well, at least the Council and Morwenna I can see coming.” Curious, because Rhys never talked about it in front of her, Kai asked, “What do you know about the spy?”

  “Nothing.” Jiang made a face. “Well, nothing I’d bring up to Ashem or the king.”

  “Intriguing,” Kai said, raising an eyebrow. “Now you’ve got to tell me.”

  To Kai’s surprise, Jiang actually looked worried.

  Kai straightened. “Jiang, if you suspect someone, Rhys and Ashem should know. I mean, when it comes to spies, you’re kind of a specialist. If he trusted your plan to capture Kavar, I’m sure Rhys would want your input.”

  Jiang’s mouth turned down. “All right,” she said slowly. “But please, don’t say anything. Not without proof. I don’t have an official vee—the Invisible is only temporary. I hope that this guard duty means the king will ask me to join his. It would be a great honor. I don’t want to cause turbulence. Everything I suspect could be wrong.”

  Kai nodded and leaned forward as Jiang spoke, her voice low.

  “I spied on Owain for a long time. My entire purpose was to rise in the ranks. To become trusted. That’s what spies do. I was in Owain’s court for centuries. By the time I left, I spoke with Owain and Kavar on a regular basis. I wasn’t in the inner circle, but I was very close.” She picked at the deep red skin of her fruit. “That’s where the king and Ashem should be looking. Close. But they aren’t. From what Henry Harrow told me, they monitor all communications except the members of the vee because Princess Aderyn threw a tantrum.” Jiang shook her head. “Harrow hasn’t found a trace of the spy’s communications, but maybe it’s because Ashem refuses to let him look in the right place.”

  Kai tensed. This felt like forbidden ground. “You think the spy is someone in the vee? What about the Council?”

  Jiang bit the last of the flesh off her fruit and tossed the pit into the trash chute in the wall. “No one on the Council is that close to Rhys.” She shrugged. “I think it must be someone in the vee.”

  Kai shook her head. So much for being useful. “No. I mean, it’s a great theory, but I just don’t see it. They’ve all been together a thousand years.”

  Jiang tapped her fingers against her lips. “That’s true, they have been together a long time. Unless—”

  Ffion and Deryn came into sight in the hall, Deryn spinning her daggers over her fingers. She sheathed them with a snick as she and Ffion passed the kitchen door. “Come on. We’re going to my rooms. It’s time to get ready for your pledging!”

  * * *

  Kai was pretty sure she was about to throw up. She stared at the ceiling, trying not to blink as Deryn applied black eyeliner and smoothing her hands over the yards of red fabric that draped her body. “Isn’t this...excessive?”

  They stood in Deryn’s rooms. Well, Deryn, Ffion, Juli and Jiang stood. Kai sat ramrod-straight in a low-backed, high-legged chair, her feet dangling. Jiang and Juli stood behind Kai, braiding or coiling or pinning, Kai couldn’t tell anymore. Her scalp had gone numb.

  Morwenna hadn’t been invited.

  “Quiet,” Deryn snapped, a frown creasing her brow and a makeup brush poised in her hand. “You’ll ruin it.”

  “What do you know of dragon history, Kai?” Ffion asked. She hadn’t relented after the sparring match, but Kai was glad for that. If she was going to spend time among the dragons from now on, she needed to understand them. She’d need context for their culture—and that meant learning their history.

  “Nothing.” Kai tugged at her skirts. “Only what Rhys told me about the war.”

  The rich scarlet cloth of the dress both clung and flowed, somehow. Her arms were bare, and the dress had a kind of cutout on the left side of her stomach and back, exposing the translucent scales of her Wingless indicium. The embroidery that bordered the cutout, as well as her collar and hem, mirrored its flame-like pattern.

  The whole thing was too gorgeous, too fine. A queen’s dress. There was no way she was going to be able to wear it the way it was meant to be worn.

  “Don’t move,” Deryn hissed, still painting Kai’s face.

  Ffion went to work buffing Kai’s nails. “Dragon history is vast. We have little enough record of it, thanks to several cataclysmic events and poor management, but it covers almost a million years.”

  Kai winced as either Jiang or Juli tugged too hard on her hair. “I have to memorize a million years of history?”

  Ffion ignored the question. “There were more of us, once. Many more. But then there was a plague or a war or both. Tens of thousands died. Dozens of clans disappeared and the ones that remained had to come together to survive. The Ancients used the last of the truly powerful magic to create the mantle and bind our species to one king, believing unity was the only way we could survive.”

  Kai tried to focus on Ffion’s voice. She wouldn’t puke. She wouldn’t faint. She wouldn’t imagine herself tripping in this insane dress in front of a thousand dragons.

  Oh, hell.

  Kai twisted her fingers in the chain of Rhys’s necklace, the pendant still tucked under her dress. She kept meaning to give it back to him, but she’d gotten used to the comfort of wearin
g it.

  Deryn, finished with Kai’s eyeliner, used one bare, bejeweled foot to kick Kai’s discarded human clothes out of the middle of the floor and into a corner. In one hand she held a pair of tweezers. In the other, a silver box filled with loose jewels the size of sesame seeds. She screwed up her face in concentration pinching the glittering stones in with the tweezers, dabbed them in some kind of adhesive and placed them at the corners of Kai’s eyes.

  “The Lung ruled first,” Ffion continued. “They were a great dynasty—their power lasted hundreds of millennia. Then, for unknown reasons, the last Lung king didn’t pass the mantle to a son or daughter, but to the chieftain of the Wonambi. Normally, the mantle can only be passed to the ruler’s closest blood relative, but the Ancients had created an artifact, a statuette in the shape of a Lung called the Sunrise Dragon, that allowed it to be passed to anyone. The Wonambi also reigned for millennia, until their last queen used the Sunrise Dragon to pass the mantle to the clan leader of the Naga.

  “In this way, the mantle has gone to each of the clans, each king or queen passing rule to another clan when they felt their time had ended. Before Clan Draig held the mantle, we were ruled by the Azhdahā. Their last king used the Sunrise Dragon to pass the mantle to Rhys’s great-grandmother, who was the Draig chieftainess. Rhys is only the fourth Draig monarch.”

  Deryn grunted. “If his grandfather hadn’t passed the mantle, Ashem would have been king.”

  Juli snorted somewhere behind Kai’s head. “No, thank you.”

  Jiang, wearing a sheath dress of green brocade, came around from behind Kai and picked up a bracelet from a small table piled with gold and ruby jewelry. She turned Kai’s arm over, exposing the long, raised scar. Jiang paused in the act of sliding on another bracelet. “What’s this?”

  Kai glanced down at the hideous scar and sighed. “Kavar and one of his tail spikes. Rhys had to cauterize it.”

  She’d become heartsworn moments after Rhys had burned the wound closed, and that had helped with the healing, but the ridge of white flesh would probably never fade all the way.