He crashed into me when I stopped suddenly the moment we reached a corner. There was a lot of light coming around this corner, and I knew we were close, but I also knew it could be dangerous.
I let go of Raikidan’s hand and kept my voice low when I looked at him. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Raikidan opened his mouth to protest but I shushed him by placing my fingers over his mouth. He sighed and I slipped around the corner. Taking slow, careful steps, I snuck down the tunnel that led to a bright opening to the outside. I peered around the opening real quick to check for soldiers, and then snuck back to where I had left Raikidan. To my surprise, he hadn’t moved.
I grabbed his hand again. “C’mon, the coast is clear.”
“Eira, where are you taking me?”
“You’ll see, now let’s go.”
A single tug was all it took to get him to follow. I peered around the opening of the tunnel to make sure it was still clear, and then made a mad dash for the trees on the other side. Unfortunately, Raikidan was so bewildered about where we were that he was slowing me down.
“Raikidan, c’mon,” I hissed. “You’re going get us caught!”
Raikidan snapped out of the weird mindset he was in and picked up the pace. I didn’t slow much, even when we were safely hidden by the trees. I was determined to get to our destination.
“Eira, where are you taking me?” He sounded like he was trying not to laugh. “And where are we?”
I didn’t answer. I just kept pushing through the brush. I finally stopped and let go of Raikidan’s hand when we came to a small clearing that didn’t appear to be anything special on the surface. There were just a few flowers and other small wild plants growing about, and a large tree stump in the center that was rotting away with age.
I headed over to the stump just as Raikidan spoke to me. “This is where you wanted to bring me?”
I sat down on the stump and closed my eyes. My arms rested on my legs as I relaxed. “Yep.”
“Why? What’s so special about this place?”
“Listen, what do you hear?”
He was quiet for a moment. “Rustling leaves.” I smiled and waited. He looked around. “I hear nothing but sounds of a forest, and no city. Eira, where are we?”
I continued to smile. “The one place I always told you to never go, not that you’ve listened.”
His eyes widened. “We’re outside the city.”
I nodded and looked around. It had been a little while since I had escaped here.
Raikidan sat down on the ground next to me. “Why’d you bring me here?”
“It’s peaceful. My mom showed me this place. She let me come here whenever I needed to get away and think. I figured it could help you.”
He smiled. “Thank you. The sorry excuse of a forest the city has doesn’t come close to how peaceful this place is. It’s so calming to only be able to hear natural things. Crazy to know we’re only a few yards away from that wall of the city.”
I chuckled little. “Mom always tried to tell me this place was touched by magic. It was the reason you couldn’t hear the city. Not sure if she’s right, but it’d be interesting if it was. You know… you can come here whenever you want.”
“Really?”
I nodded. “I’ve been the only who knows about this place for such a long time. It’s nice to be able to share it with someone again. Besides, you seem to like not listening to me about leaving the city. I don’t know the method you’ve chosen to use to leave, but at least now I know if you leave, you’ll use a safer way. They do patrol around the outer wall so you have to be careful, but it’s easy to stay hidden until they’re gone.”
I squeaked when Raikidan pulled me into his lap and hugged me. “Thank you.”
I smiled. “Welcome.”
He rested his head against mine, and I blinked with confusion when a strange noise escaped his lips. But I knew this noise. It was that strange growling purr he had done before. I didn’t ask him about it, for fear he’d stop. I just listened. It was so soothing, it tempted me to relax in his arms, but I resisted. It wouldn’t be right for me to do that…
The sound stopped, and Raikidan spoke. “Thank you for bringing me here, Eira. It really has helped.”
I chuckled. “You already thanked me.”
“I know, but I want you to know how grateful I am.”
“I do know.”
“Tell me how to make it up to you.”
“Raikidan, you don’t need to make it up to me.”
“Yes, I do. You’re always going out of your way to do something for me.”
I shrugged. “It’s nothing, really.”
His grip tightened. “Give me something.”
I tried to get out. “Raikidan, let go.”
“No.”
A small chuckled escaped my lips. “C’mon, Raikidan.”
He began to tickle me. “No, now give me something to go on.”
I laughed and squirmed. “No, no, no, no, no! Please, Raikidan, stop. That tickles too much!”
He refused to relent. “Tell me how I can make it up to you and I will.”
I shook my head. “No, just stop the tickling!”
He didn’t listen. It got to the point where I was squirming so much we fell over—both of us laughing. Raikidan supported himself over me but I wasn’t about to complain since the tickling had stopped.
Raikidan’s chuckling quieted. “Aio eny suvy.”
My laughter ended instantly and I stared at him with confusion. “What?”
Raikidan blinked and then shook his head. “Nothing.”
I pushed myself back up, forcing him to sit up as well. “No, what did you say to me?”
He chuckled. “It’s nothing, really. Don’t worry about it.”
“Raikidan, you’ve said that to me before. What did you say?”
“Eira, don’t worry about it. It’s honestly nothing.”
“All right…” I looked away but then looked at him again when a thought came to me. “Would you teach me?”
His brow rose. “Teach you?”
I nodded. “Would you teach me your tongue?”
“Why would you want to learn?”
“Well, you’re forced to speak our tongue…” I shrugged. “I guess it’d be nice to see you not have to all the time.”
“It’s not easy to learn, if not impossible for a non-dragon. I can’t say you’ll be able to do it.”
“I won’t be surprised if I can’t. Remember, common was hard enough for me.” I grinned. “But I like challenges. And I managed to learn Elvish, so maybe I’ll get lucky.”
Raikidan grinned back. “All right, but you have to teach me that symbolic writing of yours.”
I nodded. “Deal.”
He pulled me into his lap. “We start tomorrow.”
I smiled and nodded. The sooner I began to learn, the sooner I’d figure out what he said to me. I’d also find out what he wrote in the book in the Library that one day.
I just hope I’m competent enough to learn.
Chapter 41
Aslow, deep, frustrated sigh escaped my lips. Raikidan’s language was really hard. Well that wasn’t completely true. It was difficult, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Although unnatural to a human, the way the words were put together were very primal and natural. What I had the most difficulty with was accepting how weird I sounded.
“Zudy,” Raikidan encouraged again.
“Zu…” I licked my lips. “Zud…” I sighed. “I suck at this.”
“You almost had it. Try again. Zudy.”
I sighed. The word was easy, it was the way it was pronounced and how the dragons spoke that made it hard. Not to mention that my language-learning s
kills were barely worth calling even subpar. “Z–zudy. Zudy.”
Raikidan smiled, but it faded away when I didn’t show any excitement. “What’s wrong? You did it.”
I shook my head. “It didn’t sound right.”
He chuckled. “It sounded fine.”
I snorted and then spotted the pad of paper and two pens I had set aside on the bed. Grabbing them, I held out a pen for him. “Let’s do something different.”
Raikidan nodded. “All right, have it your way. What are you going to teach me?”
I wrote down a few symbols on the paper. “The same words you’ve taught me.” I pointed to the words as I spoke. “Death, birth, and life. Now let’s see how well you can write them.”
Raikidan studied the three words for a few moments before he wrote them down. His quickness surprised me. His handwriting was also incredibly nice—even nicer than mine. I eyed him and then wrote down a list of words. I told him what all the words meant and he went to work. When he thought he was done, he held out his paper for me to compare.
I laid the papers together. “This word, wind, is almost right, but not quite. It needs more of a curve here.”
Raikidan nodded and retried writing the word. I shook my head, and he tried again, but he still didn’t get it quite right.
“Like this.” I leaned over and wrote the word. “See how it flows?”
“It’s like the actual meaning behind the word.”
I smiled. “Right. Now try again.” He did and this time he did it right. “Good. You’re doing exceptionally well.”
He shrugged. “It’s not that hard.”
I snorted. “Well then, if you feel that way, use the words I’ve given you and make them into sentences.”
“But you haven’t taught me the structure.”
“It’s the same as common. Just write, and I’ll check to see if you do it right.”
Raikidan grunted, and picked his words carefully as he wrote them down. I watched and was surprised at how well he was doing. When he finished, he looked up at me, and I turned the paper so I could see it better. All the words were written correctly and all the sentences made sense, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t just lucky.
“Do you know what you wrote?”
He snorted. “Of course.”
“Then tell me what they say.”
“Listen to the teacher. Fight to live.” He chuckled. “And just for you, I will never breathe fire on peasants.”
I laughed raucously. It was funnier when spoken. “You’ve done well. I didn’t think you’d pick it up as quickly as you did. Not many are able to get it in such a short period of time.”
Raikidan looked down at the pad of paper. “To be completely honest, the way you’ve made these words, they’re really close to my tongue.”
“Say what?”
Raikidan took the pad and wrote something down on it. I looked at it closely when he finished. Why does this look familiar?
“Our lives are connected. That’s what it reads. Now write your version under it.”
I nodded and took the pad to write the symbols. When I was done, I laid it back down on the bed and we both looked at it. My brow furrowed when I noticed how similar they really were. Two symbols even looked exactly alike.
Raikidan took his pen and connected the symbols. “These two words, lives and connected, are exactly the same. These other two are similar; you’d just have to flip them to be the same. The way you speak is a little different from us, so not all word positions are the same—but it’s pretty close, just like this phrase.”
I looked closely at the two sentences, and then looked up at him. “Show me more.”
“All right.”
He took his pen and wrote several sentence until the pen stopped cooperating. When ink wouldn’t flow any more Raikidan began to shake it. He shook it a little too hard and the pen went flying. I laughed as he looked at his empty hand with confusion.
After realizing the pen wasn’t magically coming back, his gaze snapped to the pen that was in my hand. “Give me your pen.”
I clutched my pen. “No, it’s mine. Go get yours.”
“Eira, just hand over the pen.”
“I said no.”
He lunged at me. “Just hand it over. It’s just a pen.”
I laughed as I fell back. “No, go get yours!”
Raikidan chuckled as he fought with me. It was hard to keep him from getting the pen since he was over me, but I did my best. We froze when the doorknob jiggled and then turned completely.
“Hey, Laz, can you help—” Ryoko stopped dead when she saw us.
I kicked Raikidan off of me. “It’s not what you think.”
A grin spread across her face. “Sure. I’ll just leave you two alone.”
“Ryoko!” She giggled and shut the door. I sighed and tossed the pen at him. “Here, take the stupid pen.”
“You’re embarrassed, aren’t you?” Raikidan stated.
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s something if you’re upset.”
I grabbed the pad of paper and looked at it. “Can you teach me these words?”
Raikidan sighed and moved closer to me. “Which ones?”
I pointed to the sentence. “The one you compared to my writing.”
“Ion zutyl eny xivvexmyk.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, those ones.”
He smiled. “Prepare to be frustrated.”
I laughed, and then took a deep breath to prepare myself for the torture I had asked to put myself through.
My eyes darted around as Argus and Blaze drove us to our destination in the limousine. Raikidan’s and my language session had been interrupted by the Council’s need, and although I honestly wasn’t thrilled to be doing this assignment, my feelings didn’t matter. The guys had been doing this assignment for some time now, so there was no negotiating this. I watched as Rylan and Raikidan fussed with suit cuffs, and Raid, in his dog form, swiveled his ears and panted.
Although Rylan did this a lot with Argus, Blaze, and a few others from the team, he couldn’t hide how nervous he was—and I couldn’t blame him. Gangs were not people you messed with, and that’s exactly what we were doing. Intel told us some of them knew things that would be helpful to us, but this particular gang our team was dealing with was supposedly loyal to Zarda, and was only putting on a front to infiltrate other gangs and have them removed.
Ryoko fidgeted next to Rylan. Seda seemed to be the only one who was calm in this car. This was the first time the women of the team were going to be included in this type of mission, and yet here she was, calm as could be. It was like she knew how this was going to end.
I tugged on the hem of my short dress and wiggled my toes in my uncomfortable heeled shoes. I couldn’t believe I was being forced to wear this. At least I didn’t have to talk. I was told all I had to do was look pretty. Look pretty. I snorted mentally. Right. Luckily, acting stand-offish wasn’t out of the question, so I had that going for me.
I looked around when the limousine came to a halt. Argus and Blaze looked at each other and then climbed out of the vehicle. The two doors on the right side of the limousine opened, and Rylan and Raikidan stepped out. Raid followed, and Ryoko and I were next. I accepted Raikidan’s hand as he offered to help me out of the limousine. When I was out of the way, Argus extended his hand and helped Seda out. While he was helping her, I looked around. The street looked abandoned and there were few lights. Even the full moon was dim due to clouds.
When Seda was out and standing next to Ryoko and me, Argus and Blaze shut the doors and looked at each other. I tried not to laugh at them—they looked so ridiculous in their sunglasses when it was night time. The two nodded and walked over to the front of the car, where they scanned the street, Raid play
ing his part by following and keeping watch next to Argus.
Raikidan placed his hand on my back and led me toward the house in front of us. I suddenly realized how quiet everyone was. Ever since we had poured into the limousine, all conversation had ceased. Realizing this elevated my anxiety about this assignment.
Rylan knocked on a low point of the door, and after waiting a few moments, someone opened the door. Rylan grinned at the man inside the house and shook his hand.
“Good to see you could make it, Jay,” the man greeted.
Rylan chuckled. “I’m glad you contacted us, Mason.”
Mason looked at Raikidan. “This the Big Boss?”
Rylan nodded. “It is.”
Raikidan held out his hand. “Raiden.”
Mason excitedly accepted Raikidan’s offer and shook his hand. “A pleasure to finally meet you, sir. Please, come in.”
Mason moved out of the way so we could enter, and led us deeper into the house until we reached a large, well-decorated living room with several couches and chairs. Most of the furniture was filled with the male residences of this house, save for two blonde-haired women who were on either side of a muscular man with white hair and almond-shaped crystal eyes.
“Ergren, sir, Jay and his company have finally arrived.”
The white haired man smiled. “Ah, welcome. It’s good to see you again, Jay, and it looks like you brought some friends.”
Rylan gestured to Raikidan. “This is my boss, Raiden.”
Ergren nodded. “Nice to meet you. Not to sound rude, but you weren’t the friend I was referring to.”
My gaze stopped wandering around when I realized this guy was referring to me and the other two ladies.
Raikidan rested his hand on my lower back. “This is Xephrya. Xephrya, say hello.”
I made eye contact with Ergren. “Hello.”
Ergren nodded with a grin and then looked at Ryoko expectantly.
Secrets Page 50
