by Susan Illene
Bailey tapped her watch. “We were in there for four hours.”
That sounded about right, judging by the position of the sun in the sky. Aidan gestured at the map still in her hand. “By the looks of it, we must head north next, into Shadowan territory.”
“How far into it?” she asked, staring at the parchment and worrying her lip.
He came to her side and studied it again. “We will need to compare this to your modern map before I can be sure.”
Kade hurried toward them. “I cannot believe the cave did not take me.”
“Are you truly surprised, uncle?” Aidan growled.
“Of course, I am!” Kade furrowed his brows. “I had thought I would surely be selected since I was the one to receive the visions.”
He almost sounded convincing enough, but Aidan pressed further. “Did you know if we did not pass the test that we would be trapped inside there forever?”
His uncle shook his head vehemently. “No. Nothing in the prophecy mentioned that, though it did say those who were not pure of heart would suffer consequences for attempting the trials.”
He gave him a hard look. “Then it is a good thing we were apparently pure of heart.”
Kade gripped Aidan’s shoulders, desperation in his gaze. “You must tell me what happened while you were in there. I swear to you I would have rather experienced it for myself if I could have.”
His disappointment did appear genuine. Aidan kept his uncle in suspense for a minute longer—it served him right for not warning them—before giving a brief explanation of what occurred inside the cave. Kade didn’t need to know all of it, but he did give his uncle the highlights about their test, and how the first shifters came to be. Many questions followed.
“I cannot believe I missed it,” Kade said, still outraged.
Conrad crossed his arms. “I would have gladly traded places with you.”
Kade narrowed his eyes. “I thought for certain Miles would be the human selected instead.”
“Hey, I’m not complaining,” the man in question replied.
Aidan looked up at the sky, noting they were losing daylight quickly. “It is too late for us to leave now. The Shadowan will already be roaming up north.”
“We will leave as soon as possible in the morning,” Kade said, glancing around them. “For now, we will shelter in the same place as last night.”
Bailey nodded. “That will give us time to compare maps and figure out which route to take.”
“Though it will mean losing another day of the protection spell Xanath placed on us,” Aidan reminded them.
His uncle frowned. “Yes, we will have to make up time as best we can tomorrow.”
And hope they didn’t run into too much trouble.
Chapter 19
Bailey
We were on the road by shortly before eleven in the morning. Since the shifters could barely keep their eyes open, they rode in the vehicles with us for the moment. Phoebe took the bed in the back of the RV Hauler while the men rode with me. Kade sprawled in the backseat of the truck, and Aidan sat in his seat with his head resting against the window. I hadn’t had many opportunities to watch him sleep before and couldn’t help glancing over periodically while I drove. He’d stayed up later than me the last couple of nights, and every time I got up in the morning, he was burrowed in his camrium blanket with his arm over his face. Who knew a man that could turn into a fire-breathing dragon could look so peaceful?
Unfinished road construction ahead forced me to start paying attention to the highway. Most of the cones had been blown into the nearby ditches and fences, but the barriers still stood. No one had bothered to move them since D-day. I idly wondered if I came through here a year from now, would it all still be the same?
The construction crews had left the other half of the highway as dirt, having not repaved that section yet. It was probable that it would never be finished. I couldn’t help but think that the world had more or less came to a halt and many things had been left undone. It was rather depressing, but also freeing. If we could get the dragon situation under control and begin to rebuild society, we could do so many things differently. What would it be like five or ten years from now? Would we be better off than we were currently? All those questions and more crossed my mind as I followed Miles’ RV hauler and the miles passed us by in an endless sea of hilly terrain. Eastern Oklahoma wasn’t nearly as flat as the central part.
We came up on the Robert S. Kerr Reservoir and crossed over it, driving along a divided highway. Not another soul was around aside from us and there were no boats on the water. That was the hardest part about traveling—not seeing many signs of life. Were people still living around here, but hiding? After getting past the reservoir, I spotted a general store ahead. Some silly part of me hoped it was open because it would have been nice to see something still up and running, but my hopes were dashed when I saw all the windows had been boarded up. I should have known better. Regardless, I needed to make a stop soon.
I grabbed the CB microphone and spoke into it, “Hey, Miles. Think we can make a pit stop before we cross the interstate?”
No way did I want to be caught with my pants down once we entered Shadowan territory. At least, not until it couldn’t be helped. Taking a break now would give us that much longer until we needed to stop again.
“Yeah, give me a few minutes, and I’ll find a place,” he said, his voice crackling over the radio.
When he finally pulled over, we were next to a long stretch of woods. It wasn’t worth trying to find an actual bathroom since the water didn’t run anywhere and nearly every toilet was clogged and overflowing these days. Also, we needed to avoid places where people might be lurking and take offense to our using their place to do our business—hence why it was just as well we didn’t drop by the closed general store. The less trouble we got into this trip the better.
Aidan stirred from his sleep and looked around. “Where are we?”
“Last stop before we leave your territory. If you need to, uh, use the woods, this is the time to do it.” It occurred to me then that I’d never asked what sort of facilities the shifters used in their fortress. Did they all use chamber pots like they gave Danae and me in the dungeon or did they have something a bit more modern?
He noticed me giving him a funny look. “What?”
“Do you…do you use chamber pots everywhere in the fortress?”
“No.” He shook his head. “We have something like your toilets.”
My jaw dropped. “How? There’s no running water.”
Aidan’s eyes lit with amusement. “Perhaps not in your human cities, but we’ve had a long time to figure out how to force water through pipes without…electric pumps, as you do.”
“How do you know about that?” I asked.
“We have humans living with us, remember? The topic comes up every once in a while.”
It was too bad they’d never let me stay at the fortress. I wouldn’t care how many shifters I had to live with if it meant having running water. “You don’t have washers and dryers, though, I bet.”
He frowned. “I do not recall mention of those.”
“They are machines that wash and dry clothes. Before you all arrived, we used them, but now we’re stuck cleaning everything by hand without electricity.”
“We wash by hand as well,” he said, nodding. It was good to know they weren’t a perfect little utopia in that fortress.
Kade rose from the backseat. “We have our human servants clean our clothes for us.”
I scowled at them both. When they started laughing, I left the vehicle and headed for the woods. Since the season had changed, there wasn’t as much vegetation to hide behind, but I managed to find a semi-secluded spot to relieve myself. I made sure there was no poison ivy lurking around first, though. The damn stuff might not have leaves in the winter, but it could still give you a rash if you came too close to it. A lesson I’d learned the hard way, of course. As I was leaving, I c
aught most of the rest of our group looking for spots to go, including Aidan. His uncle waited by my truck with his arms crossed. There was something in his gaze that told me he had something to say.
“You’ve grown close to my nephew.”
I stopped in my tracks and looked up at him. “We’ve become friends.”
He shook his head. “It is far more than that. Do not try to fool me.”
“Are you saying you have a problem with it?”
Kade was quiet for a moment. “Seeing the future is a great burden, especially when it means you learn things that you dare not repeat for fear of changing what will come.”
His tone was regretful. I could tell something was really bothering him, and he was having difficulty keeping it to himself. “You saw something about me, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
I took a step closer. “What was it?”
“As I said, telling you would change things. I cannot risk that.” He gave me a pitying look. “All I can say is that you have dark times ahead, but you must not lose faith—no matter how difficult life becomes or how long your struggles last.”
My body turned cold, and it had nothing to do with the chilly weather. “Is this about Verena? About the promise I’ll be breaking?”
His gaze bored into me. “Give Aidan a chance. It is through him that you will find the strength to get past the dark times.”
“But I don’t…”
Kade moved away from the truck. “I must go mark my territory.”
As I watched him go, I caught Aidan coming out of the woods. He strode up to me. “What is it?”
“Your uncle.” I gestured in the direction Kade went. “He said some things.”
“What things?” Aidan asked, glaring at his uncle’s back.
“He said I’m going to have dark times ahead.”
Aidan moved closer to me. “I don’t suppose he told you anything specific?”
“No. He said this was a case where it was important not to tell me the details so I wouldn’t change what will happen.” I sighed. “What does that even mean?”
Aidan pulled me into his arms, and I allowed myself to revel in his heat. “Whatever it is, he would only keep it to himself if there is something good that will come from the bad. I have learned this about my uncle before.”
“So I’ve got to suffer through the terrible stuff first.” I wished his uncle hadn’t said anything to me at all. It was a lot easier to assume a bright future if you didn’t know any better.
“I will be with you.” Aidan leaned down and kissed my forehead. He didn’t even care that most of our group was back and watching us. “We will face those troubles together.”
“Kade told me you would be the one to get me through it somehow.”
He nodded. “I promise I will always do my best to be there when you need me.”
We broke apart when Miles walked up. “If you two can spare a moment from your cuddling, I want to go over the maps before we cross into Shadowan territory.”
“What route are you thinking?” I asked, moving closer to Miles. Aidan hovered over my shoulder to look at the map as well.
“I figure we keep going north on Highway 59 until we link up with 62. We’ll cross over into Arkansas there.” He pointed at the border between states.
“From what our clan has been able to gather, the Shadowan hold the land all the way up to this part of…” Aidan paused as he traced his finger up the map and read the words, “Missouri.”
Unlike the shifters, pure dragons didn’t form their borders according to state lines. They did sometimes use landmarks like rivers, highways, and mountains, but they weren’t exactly map readers. I didn’t think they could read at all, actually. With the Shadowan, their territory crossed four states once you included a thin sliver of south Kansas. It seemed rather stupid that they’d fought so hard for the small part of Norman we’d taken from them—they had plenty of land.
I dug through a pouch on my leg harness, pulling out the other map the guide had given us at Robbers Cave and compared it to the one Miles held. “The next fragment is going to be somewhere in the southwest Missouri.”
“We’ve still got at least a few hours of driving to do, and that’s assuming we don’t run into any trouble,” Miles said, frowning.
“Then we need to go faster whenever we can because I doubt we’ll get that lucky, and I want to get there before dark.” I folded my map up and put it away.
“We will continue to ride in your vehicles for now.” Aidan looked up at the sky. “If we fly, it will make it easier for the patrols to see us.”
That was a good point. “And if they attack?”
Phoebe, Kade, Conrad, and Danae gathered around to join the discussion.
Aidan glanced at each of them. “The first thing you need to do is get the vehicles off the road and cover them with the camrium blankets. This is why we brought such large ones in anticipation of this.”
“Yeah, we got that,” Conrad replied. “But is there anything we can do to help?”
Phoebe narrowed her eyes at him. “Stay in your vehicles. The last thing we need is to be distracted by humans who can’t survive dragon fire.”
“You can keep your crossbow ready,” I told Conrad. He didn’t like feeling useless, and he’d get himself in trouble if he didn’t have some sort of role to play. “If any pure dragons get to you and pull the blankets off, you need to be ready to defend the trucks. We’re screwed without them.”
He nodded. “I can do that, no problem.”
Aidan looked at Kade. “You will stay with the vehicles as well and protect the humans.”
“Is this your way of keeping your old uncle out of danger?” he accused.
I patted Kade’s arm. “I’ll be stuck on the ground too, but you know some of the dragons will try coming after the most vulnerable targets. We’ve actually got the rougher job.”
“That’s not…” Aidan began.
“Let’s go!” Miles announced, cutting him off.
I tossed my truck keys to Conrad. “You’re driving. I need to be able to hop out of the vehicle fast.”
He grinned. “This is going to be fun.”
We got the vehicles back on the road and continued our way north. Kade sat up front this time while Aidan and I took the backseat. Unable to sit still with Aidan and all his radiating heat next to me, I pulled my sword from my sheath and started sharpening it with a stone I had in my pack.
He watched me work. “You’ve gotten better at that.”
I’d been horrible at sharpening blades when he first began training me. “The first time I tried stabbing a dragon with a dull sword, I learned.”
“What happened?” he asked.
He knew it had to have occurred when he wasn’t around because he never let me go out without the sword freshly sharpened. It pretty much had to be done after every couple of kills because dragon scales were tough to cut through even with zaphiriam blades. One of the first times I hunted without him, I forgot and paid the price.
“The dragon took a small chunk out of me.” I held my left arm up. “It would have been worse if not for the bracers, so he only got a few of his teeth in my bicep.”
Aidan ran his fingers over my smooth skin. “Take care. Getting bitten in the same place too many times will leave a scar.”
I glanced at my shoulder where faint tooth marks remained. I’d nearly died in that battle. Not from the bite wound, but from being knocked off a three-story roof right after my shoulder was crushed in a dragon’s mouth. “This one only took once.”
“You allowed your opponent to bite too deeply.” He sighed. “I wish I could have been there to help.”
He’d been in Texas then. Neither of us bothered to mention that it had been my dad who came to my rescue. While I’d lain in a haze of pain and vulnerable to a dragon bent on killing me, my father had showed up and killed the beast. It was the closest I’d ever gotten to meeting my dad in my life. By the time I had recovered
from my injuries, he’d left town to return to Tulsa where he did most of his hunting. He had only come down to see me once he heard there was a fellow slayer in Norman, but for some reason after the rescue, he’d decided not to stick around. Aidan suspected it was because I wore shifter clothing. To “The Shadow,” as dragons referred to my father, it was an embarrassment that his daughter aligned herself with any type of dragon.
I had no way of knowing if that was why he left, but even if it was, he could hardly judge. He hadn’t been around to help me. Sometime after he got my mother pregnant he’d accidentally crossed over into Kederrawien and stayed there until the dimensions collided back together. I didn’t know how he’d survived that long in the other world, but he’d developed quite a reputation. Now, he hunted in the Tulsa area and left the Oklahoma City area for me to handle. That was what he told Earl just before he left, anyway.
“That’s I-40 up ahead. You guys might wanna look sharp,” Conrad said, pointing at the interstate about half a mile up the road.
It looked to be in good condition. The bridge didn’t show any signs of damage, so people could travel on it if they didn’t mind the risk of roaming dragons to the north. We were currently in the town of Sallisaw. There were no signs of life, but I noted that to my right was a very large cemetery with quite a few freshly dug graves. People must have been around somewhere if they were burying bodies recently. On my left, there was a gas station, but only the pumps remained. The building itself had been torched by pure dragons some time ago, along with several trucks that only had parts of their shells left. The farther we traveled on this trip, the more sights like that I saw. I might have grown used to it in Norman, but a part of me wanted to believe the rest of the world hadn’t been as affected. This trip was taking away all my delusions.
Everyone was silent as we drove under the interstate bridge and continued our way north along Highway 59. On the other end, after we entered Shadowan territory, I was relieved to find quite a few buildings still standing, including a motel and a casino. There were even some cars and trucks in the parking lots we passed, though I didn’t see any people around.
