by Melody Rose
If you had told me a year ago that I would be surrounded by three dragons after having flown on several of them, I would have called you crazy. Nevertheless, here I was, with a dragon on either side of me with another floating out in front of me.
The whole situation was too baffling to imagine. I took a solid minute to relish in the unique sensation.
When I first met Monte, before I even knew he had a name, I was afraid of him. Dragons were such foreign creatures, with their own laws and their own civilization. Plus, the only dragons I knew of were the one Queen Irena bonded with and the one that helped Reon destroy the rest of the species. Once the late queen passed, the dragon disappeared from Andsdyer, and Reon’s djer was a traitor to the crown as far as I was concerned. I had no reason to like dragons, and every reason to hate them.
However, in the time I had come to know Eva and her clan, I discovered that the dragons were personable creatures with minds and personalities of their own. Like the more feminine Timone with her violet coloring and gorgeous horns, twisted like a unicorn’s. She was prone to asking nosy questions and commenting on my appearance, neither of which I greatly appreciated.
“The chance Kehn has to prove his worthiness to Eva,” Chyndron answered before I had a chance to jump in and change the subject.
“That he is worthy of what?” Timone said with a low tone. “To be her head of the guard or to be her lover?”
I closed my eyes and felt the heat rise up the back of my neck to the tip of my ears. I could not believe the dragons were discussing such matters right in front of me as though I were not present.
“Possibly both,” Chyndron said, considering.
“I do not believe,” I said slowly, the words coming out of my mouth like molasses, “that I deserve her consideration for either position.”
“But why not?” Timone protested lightly. “You clearly love one another, so it is only natural for her to want to pursue you in a more romantic manner.”
“As for being the leader of her guard,” Chyndron stepped in, “Eva will need someone to run the military part of her kingdom once it is established.”
My eyes popped open, distracted by Chyndron’s words. “What do you mean, her kingdom? Eva has no intention of taking Andsdyer from King Elroy. She does not want to rule.”
The red dragon and the purple dragon exchanged glances, with Timone’s eyebrows raised and Chyndron wearing a grim expression.
“You mentioned it,” Timone said with pursed lips. “It was your mistake, do not look at me as if it was mine.”
“What mistake?” I asked urgently. “What are you two talking about?”
Chyndron inhaled deeply before answering. “When we free the mountain from Reon’s rule, we hope to reestablish Rictorus as a fully fledged kingdom.”
“And that kingdom will need a queen,” Timone added with a bright, eager smile.
“You are hoping Eva will take up the mantle?” I concluded.
“She is our queen after all,” Chyndron said plainly. “It would only be natural.”
“You have not discussed this with her, have you?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.
“We have yet to find the right time,” the red dragon supplied guiltily, as if he knew it would not be received well by the young queen and thus had not brought it up.
“Eva does not want to rule,” I informed them. “She has told me herself that she has no desire to rule over a kingdom.”
“She has no desire to rule over Andsdyer,” Timone corrected pointedly. “Rictorus is a different kingdom entirely.”
“I do not believe you understand,” I interjected. “Eva may be the queen of this clan, yes. However, she does not wish to rule beyond that. You should not force her to do anything she does not want to do.”
“We will, of course, offer her a choice,” Chyndron said quickly, as though he knew he had made a mistake.
“Then you must be prepared for her to say no,” I said.
“I do not believe she will,” Timone said offhandedly. “Just as I do not believe she would say no if you asked to be with her again.”
I rolled my eyes. How did we get back on the subject of mine and Eva’s relationship so quickly? Timone was a master, it would seem, of slipping gracefully between subjects of conversation.
“Asked who to be with her again?” Myels asked as he emerged from the lake. He paddled out of the lake and onto the shore next to us. The white dragon stretched his neck upward and to the right as a series of pops ricocheted down his spine. He released a satisfied sigh. “Are we speaking of Kehn and Eva? Have they gotten back together? Who was closest?”
“Closest?” I peered up at the three dragons. “What is he talking about?”
“Myels,” Timone scolded with a hiss.
Myels swallowed audibly. “We may have had a wager going on when you two would be together, although Zulu and Lucien believe she is more compatible with Hannan.”
I stood amongst these three creatures, feeling suddenly very small and very annoyed. “I cannot believe this is what you all talk about!”
“To be fair,” Timone contemplated, “Gideonia and Monte refuse to participate. Gideonia believes the whole thing to be foolish, and Monte says it is too close to call.”
“Too close to…” I trailed off as thoughts of the two of them, Eva and Hannan, huddled together on the road interrupted my stream of consciousness. I nearly swallowed my own tongue at the idea of it.
“It was curious when Eva chose Hannan to be in her group,” Myels said as he frowned in consideration.
“We all know that Kehn was the strongest leader,” Chyndron said, coming to my defense.
“Can we please discuss something else?” I interjected as I threw my hands in the air.
“We have to pass the time somehow,” Myels said with a grin. “I have always been on your side, personally.”
“I no longer wish to be here,” I announced and began walking in the opposite direction. “If you choose to play matchmaker, I cannot stop you, but please, at least do it when I am not around.”
If the dragons said something while I walked away, I did not hear them. My head and my heart were too loud with the pounding in my chest and the swirling in my mind. It was too much that I lay awake thinking about Eva and how I might have blown my one chance to be with her, but now, to know that the dragons were placing bets on who ended up with whom? It was too much.
In all honesty, there were bigger problems at stake, like the riddle and finding the western piece. However, some part of me could understand their inclination towards such frivolous topics. It gave them hope to think of something happier for the future. It distracted them from thinking about the dangerous journey ahead.
Again, I understood it and would honestly encourage such insubstantial topics. As long as they did not talk about it right in front of me.
My irritation must have been showing on my face or in my body language because when I approached the main section of camp, where Stella tended the fire, she looked up at me with pinched eyebrows.
“What happened to make you so annoyed?” she asked without hesitation.
I grunted. “Who knew dragons were such relentless gossips?”
Stella barked out a laugh and then quickly covered her mouth. “Sorry, Heloise is still sleeping, but I would never have guessed. What were they gossiping about?”
“Nothing of consequence,” I replied sternly. I took a seat on one of the logs we circled the fire with.
“So you,” Stella answered. It was not a question. She just seemed to know.
“Possibly,” I said gruffly. “I do not like fodder for rumor and wagers.”
“You do not like attention,” Stella translated. She rocked back onto her heels and rubbed her hands on her skirt. “It is understandable why their talk would annoy you.”
“I got too much bad attention when I was younger,” I found myself explaining. “When Hannan and I first came to the court, we were all anyone could talk
about. The orphan boys come to live among the nobles. It is as though we were an entirely different species.”
“I remember,” Stella said wistfully. “For us children, you were the most fascinating things. We had all been friends for so long that it was a wonder to meet and befriend new people.”
“Although you were the only one who actually befriended us,” I recalled with a half-smile.
Stella returned my smile and rose to her feet. She crossed over to me and sat on my right side. She wrapped her arm through mine and rested her hand comfortably on my knee. It was an innocent gesture, one that meant nothing more than a symbol of compassion.
Stella had never made any kind of advance on Hannan or me, mainly because she was attracted to women, but also because she knew what both of us had needed when we were new arrivals. We needed companionship and kindness, not scrutiny and judgment. She had been one of the few to provide that to us.
“What happened to us?” I asked, more to myself than to her.
Stella first replied with a heavy sigh. “Life. We all traveled separate ways. You and Hannan feuded over being soldiers and eventually went in different directions and me? Well, I got left behind.”
“We did not leave you behind,” I responded, shocked at her confession.
“It is alright, Kehn, I am not upset about it,” Stella reassured me with a pat on my arm. “You both were older, and I rejected my introduction because you were not permitted one. Plus, I did not know what I wanted to do. You and Hannan always had such clear paths. I, on the other hand, did not.”
I stayed silent and let Stella speak. It seemed as though this was something she wanted to get off her chest for a while now.
“Yes, I had the greenhouses, and I love working with the plants,” she continued, and her face brightened at the thought of her creations. “But it took many years to find that. Even still, I did not like being confined to such a limited space.”
“I had no idea you felt that way,” I admitted quietly.
Stella leaned her head on my shoulder. “You are only the second person I have told, Heloise being the first. I love the greenhouses, I really do, but I have always felt there was something more I was meant to do than to grow plants.”
I kept my mouth shut, not able to relate to such a feeling of greatness. I always wanted to get by and be the best I could be, but that did not mean recognition or a position of power. It simply meant serving the king and kingdom that rescued me.
“When Heloise told me about Eva’s quest and the possibility of defeating Reon and the contamination once and for all,” Stella interrupted herself with a wistful sigh, “I thought, ‘Here is my chance to do something worthwhile.’ It was an easy decision to come with.”
“Even though we do not necessarily know where we are going?” I said, only half-joking.
“Even then,” Stella said with a bright smile. “I find I like that part most of all.”
“Uh, Kehn?” said a cautious voice behind us.
Stella unwrapped herself from me as we both turned to see Troylan standing erectly, dressed and with his bag slung over his shoulder.
“I do not wish to interrupt,” Troylan said as he held up a hand and began to back away.
“No, Troyan, no,” I said rapidly, “you are interrupting nothing. What is it?”
“In my opinion, sir, we should get going.” Troylan gripped the strap of his bag with white knuckles. “A storm looks to be rolling in, and quickly. We will want to leave soon if we are to stay ahead of it.”
Stella and I simultaneously looked up at the sky. Troylan was right. Since speaking with the dragons and Stella, the gray clouds darkened and traveled lower in the sky. They sharpened, gearing up to release their wrath upon the land.
I rose to my feet, and Stella followed suit. “Stella, wake Heloise up, and I will gather the dragons.”
“Lucien and I have been gathering some food,” Troylan explained. “I will get him.”
“Good,” I said with a nod. “We leave in ten minutes.”
13
“What was that?”
I leapt back from the shelf, dropping the book in the process, as all of the light zapped back into me. It felt like being shocked by static electricity from a doorknob. I hunched to my knees and fished around for the book in the dark. My hands landed on the rough cover with indented letters on top. I took the book in one hand and stretched the other out, calling to the light to illuminate the space again.
When the white glow from my hand beamed outward like a flashlight, the first thing I saw forced a gasp from my lips and anger to rise in my belly.
Polonis stood several yards from me, with Julei in his grip. The mole covered her mouth with one huge paw. The other was poised at her stomach, threatening to pierce it with his claws.
Julei held surprisingly still for a hostage. Her eyes widened in sheer terror, aimed straight for the claw scratching at the surface of her belly. Her violet irises flashed up to me, begging me to help her.
“Let her go, Polonis!” Freja demanded. The soldier had her sword out in front of her, held with two strong hands.
“Not a chance, my dear,” Polonis sneered. “I need the leverage.”
“Leverage for what?” I challenged, needing to know more about the mole’s sudden betrayal.
“The book,” Polonis snapped. “Give it to me, and I will give you the girl.”
“We can’t do that,” I said back to him, lowering my voice to an even keel. “We need the key, Polonis.”
“Well, so do I!” the mole shouted, his voice scattering through the Library.
“Why do you need it?” Freja asked, almost politely like asking how his day was going.
“He has taken the rest of the librarians, my family,” Polonis said, his voice transforming into a violent wail. “He has interrogated every one of us, but no one could tell him where the piece of the key was. Irena did something to the book, we told him. She cast some sort of spell on it so we could not smell it.”
“Smart woman,” I said absently.
Polonis shifted Julei’s body so that it stood right in front of his furry belly. “We only knew that it was in the center, but that was not good enough for him.”
“You mean Reon?” Freja growled.
“Yes,” Polonis confirmed with a sharp nod.
“Why didn’t he just come down here and get it himself?” I wondered, genuinely wanting to know the answer.
“He cannot come down here,” Polonis answered, his voice still weak and whiny, more like a rat now than ever before.
I gaped at the answer. “Why the hell not? He can’t be that big. I mean, he’s just a regular human, right? Or did I miss something?”
“That is not it,” Polonis snapped in an exasperated tone. “He cannot face the hole.”
“Face the hole?” I repeated slowly.
“The hole is a test,” Polonis informed us. “One must face the demons of their past when venturing down it. Only those with the sight can avoid it.” Polonis shook the girl in his arms to indicate her specialness. I jerked forward in response as he jostled Julei.
“Let her go, Polonis,” I commanded once more.
“Not without the book,” the mole argued.
“It would seem that we are at an impasse,” Freja observed.
“I would not bet on it,” Polonis sneered. “He knows you are here, and he has sent for what is rightfully his.”
“I don’t think this ever belonged to him, do you, Freja?” I asked sarcastically without ever taking my eyes off the mole.
“Never,” she agreed through clenched teeth.
However, the mole didn’t respond. He lifted his nose in the air and took a large, long, and loud sniff. Suddenly, the mole bared his teeth with a wail and spun his neck around to look behind him.
“You think you can sneak around me?!” Polonis growled to what appeared to be nothing.
While the mole argued with thin air, Freja took advantage of the distraction and charged
forward. With a running start, the soldier held her sword aloft and brought it down on the mole’s arm, slashing through the skin with an ear-splitting slice.
Polonis wailed, his gravelly voice resounding in full force as he clutched his injured arm. Julei ducked down and rolled out of the mole’s grip while he agonized. She crawled on her hands and knees to hide behind one of the bookshelves.
Satisfied that Julei was safe there, for the time being, I brought my hands together and threw out a violent beam of light. I aimed straight for where the mole’s eyes should have been and connected straight on target.
Polonis staggered backward against the blow, just as a weird ripple in the air behind him manipulated the space around them. The mole howled out once more as another wound opened up on his shoulder.
Hannan stood behind the rodent, practically invisible. He used his gift of blending in with his surroundings to sneak behind Polonis and attack. Now, he assaulted the traitor with a series of ongoing dagger wounds.
Freja brought the mole to his belly with one more devastating wound to his stomach. The mole fell to the ground, shaking the floor as he landed heavily, his arms splayed out as if he were on a cross. Even still, he made to get up as Freja approached, pointing the tip of her sword at his neck.
“Stay down,” she commanded with a growl.
The mole did as he was told.
“You will tell us how to get out of this Library,” she demanded. “Now!”
“I cannot just tell you,” Polonis heaved. His breathing was labored, and his whole body shook when he spoke. “I have to follow my smell. I could not describe it to you.”
“Try,” Freja snapped.
“There is another hole,” Polonis wheezed. “One that travels upward, makes it so you can fly right out of here.”
“Where is it?” The soldier jabbed her sword closer to the mole’s neck. He winced as she did so.
“I do not know!” Polonis said with a cough. A small dribble of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth and trickled down the side of his face. “I only know what it smells like.”
