dragons breath 02 - dancing with flames

by Illene, Susan

  Phoebe broke into Aidan’s thoughts. I put it off, but I couldn’t figure out a way to locate the sorcerer on my own. He is well shielded—even to me. It was not until Bailey led me straight to him that I could see past the guise he’s put up to protect his domain.

  What did you make of him? Aidan didn’t like the idea of his sister anywhere near an unknown sorcerer, but he might have done the same in her position. He only wished he could have gone with them.

  Javier is ambitious and greedy, but it is too early to tell if he will become a problem for us. If he does not expand beyond the land he claims now, it would not be such a bad thing. I only worry he might want more—they usually do.

  That is what concerns me as well, Aidan said.

  He nudged his sister with his wingtip, and they descended to the open area in front of the fortress gates. Upon landing, they immediately shifted to their human forms. Aidan wanted to deal with Ember as quickly as possible so that he would not miss the midnight meal. He’d been thinking about it ever since returning that evening.

  They stopped in front of the gates and Phoebe addressed the guard on the right. “Is Ember within the keep?”

  “She has not left the fortress today,” he replied. There was curiosity in the guard’s gaze, but he did not dare ask why she wanted to know.

  “Do you have any idea where she is?” Aidan asked. The current guards would have just begun their shift when night fell. It was possible they may have seen Ember around the keep before that.

  The guard on the left answered, “I saw her in the great hall for first meal but not since then.”

  The other shifter only shook his head. They thanked the guards for their assistance and headed into the keep.

  “We’ll check her home first,” Aidan said.

  Phoebe stopped and turned to face him. “Her family could be there as well. This might get ugly—whether she’s with them or not.”

  That much was true. Ember’s family did not have any notable warriors, but they were known to fight dirty. It was one of the reasons their status within the toriq remained so low.

  Aidan eyed the guard headquarters back near the gate. “We will get assistance.”

  They managed to find four males who didn’t have any other pressing duties and instructed them to come along. As they made their way through the main thoroughfare, they ran into Ruari. Their older brother eyed them with suspicion.

  “What are you two doing?” he asked.

  Aidan leveled his gaze on him, unwilling to play their usual game. “Where is Ember?”

  “How should I know?” Ruari gave him an offended look. “I do not talk to her anymore.”

  Phoebe stepped closer to her elder brother, her expression accusing. “We know you talked to her the day the head guard was murdered. Do not act innocent with us.”

  Ruari worked his jaw. “I had nothing to do with that.”

  “Then tell us where your think Ember might be,” Aidan said.

  Comprehension dawned in his brother’s eyes. “You suspect she killed Nanoq.”

  Phoebe growled. “Will you tell us or not?”

  “I may know where she is at this time of night. There is a little-known tavern you two would never find on your own.” Ruari turned on his feet. “Follow me.”

  Aidan took hold of his brother’s shoulder and swung him around. “Just tell us the location. You are not going with us.”

  A determined expression came over Ruari’s eyes. “Oh, I am going. Ember has caused me enough trouble, and I will not have my brother and sister believing I had anything to do with Nanoq’s death. If that means I must help you, then I will do it.”

  Aidan stepped back, surprised. He hadn’t expected this sort of reaction out of Ruari. When he glanced at Phoebe, she showed the same astonishment. Their elder brother was always up to something, but perhaps he truly didn’t have any part in this.

  “Lead the way,” Aidan said.

  Ruari took them away from the main thoroughfare and wound through several narrow paths. The farther they went, the filthier the cobblestones became until it seemed only mud, piss, and dung remained beneath their feet. There were many animals kept within the fortress, including goats, chickens, and the occasional milk cow. The shifters who lived in this section of the keep did not clean up after their livestock as well as they should.

  Aidan’s nose twitched at the rancid stench. He was about ready to call it off, thinking his brother only wished to torture them, when Ruari stopped at a dead end. He nodded at a well-worn door that did not sit properly on its hinges. There was no sign to mark it. If not for the boisterous noise inside, one wouldn’t have guessed it for a tavern. This was in the seedier section of the keep where Aidan rarely visited, and by the expression on Phoebe’s face, she did not come here often, either.

  “Are there any other ways inside?” Aidan asked.

  His brother pointed to a second-story window that led onto the front overhang. From there, one could skip over nearby rooftops and lose any pursuers. All the structures were clustered close together and the paths too narrow in this neighborhood. If Ember escaped from that window, they’d surely lose her in moments to the darkness.

  Phoebe came to the same conclusion and pointed at two of the guards. “Climb up there and don’t let anyone out.”

  “And you two,” Aidan addressed the remaining shifters. “Guard this entrance. If Ember comes out, you must stop her.”

  They nodded and took positions on either side of the tavern door. After assuring themselves there were no other methods of escape, Aidan and his siblings went inside. His eyes began to water as soon as he entered. The odors in the alleyway could not compare to the insufferable stench within the tavern. Numerous unwashed bodies, spilled alefire (of low quality), and food left to rot on the floor filled the air. It was also hot and rather crowded.

  Ruari had to yell for Aidan and his sister to hear him. “She is over in the corner, sitting with two of her brothers drinking.”

  He turned his gaze that way and spotted Ember. Despite the nastiness of the place, she somehow managed to keep herself and her warrior garb clean. Her black hair was pulled back in a bun, and she just had a few loose strands in the front plastered to her face from sweat. Even a dragon could only handle so much heat. One could have almost baked bread just by putting the dough on a table in here. Their body temperatures ran so high it was never a good idea to have so many shifters in such a small space. Even in the great hall, the ceiling was three times as high as the tavern, and they restricted how many clansmen could be in there at any given time.

  “Let’s get her,” Phoebe said, shoving her way through the crowd.

  It took them several minutes, despite the distance not being that far away, but they eventually broke through the throng of patrons to the dark corner where Ember and her family sat. For a moment, she and her brothers continued to drink and shout at each other, unaware of the attention on them. Then Ember turned her head. Her eyes widened, and she leaped to her feet, reaching for a knife strapped to her belt.

  Phoebe leaped forward and punched the female shifter in the face. Ember fell into her oldest brother’s lap. As she gripped her broken nose, Phoebe yanked her up and tossed her to the floor. Several patrons stepped on Ember in their effort to get out of the way. Aidan’s sister jumped on her back, and a pair of manacles appeared in her hand. He could only guess she had anticipated this arrest ahead of time and put a set of bindings in shiggara for this purpose.

  Phoebe began snapping the cuffs into place. A roar came from behind Aidan, and he braced himself as a male shifter charged into him. He and Ember’s brother went down in a tangle, wrestling for the higher position. Aidan kneed the male in the stomach and crawled out from under him, then stomped on the shifter’s face. Ember’s brother—whose name escaped him—groaned. Aidan kicked him a few more times until he fell unconscious.

  When he turned around, he found Ruari had taken care of the other brother. The shifter lay sprawled next to his
chair with his face bloodied beyond recognition. Ruari might not be the greatest warrior, but he was strong and well trained. Aidan checked on Phoebe and found his sister had Ember on her feet, fully manacled.

  “Unless you want this place shut down, get out of the way!” he shouted to the patrons.

  Aidan received quite a few nasty looks, but the shifters moved to clear a path. Moments later they were outside and calling the two guards down from the rooftop. They moved steadily away from the seedier section of the keep and its foul stench. Every shifter who saw them stood agape as they watched their female prisoner led down the path. Ember’s hair had come loose in her fight with Phoebe, and blood ran down her face. Still, one could not miss the rage in her eyes.

  They hauled her straight to the dungeons, using an outside entrance on the east side of the castle. Ember struggled when she saw where they were taking her. Up to this point, they had not even told her why she was apprehended. She had to know the reason, though. If she had been innocent, she would have asked rather than fighting them the moment they showed up.

  Aidan took the lead, taking a spare torch from the entrance to light the way. This was the oldest part of the fortress and went quite deep into the earth. According to the history he’d learned as a child, his ancestors built their stone homes underground thousands of years ago where they could live until the castle was completed. It was the only way to stay safe from the pure dragons at that time. Thinking of the Faegud, he supposed his toriq was not that dissimilar. The only difference being his people had always chosen to live in shifter form, which was evident in the winding stairs being far too narrow for a dragon to traverse.

  They were deep underground by the time they reached the main corridor. It branched off in multiple directions, almost like a maze, but some areas had been sealed with stone walls when they’d fallen into disrepair. There was no point in restoring them. Their people did not have so many criminals to need more than half a dozen prison cells. Even then, Aidan had never seen them all filled. Only two prisoners sat in them now.

  Phoebe led Ember to the largest room first where most interrogations were done. Inside, there was only a stone table and two benches. One of the seats had metal hooks where the shackles could be connected. His sister shoved Ember onto that bench and locked her in place.

  The angry shifter glared up at Phoebe. “Why have you brought me here?”

  Aidan stood off to the side, careful not to lean on the grimy wall. “You are just now asking?”

  “You know why you are here,” Phoebe said, coming around the table to glare into Ember’s face. “Do not play stupid with us.”

  The female shifter turned to Ruari and gave him a pleading expression. “You have to help me. Whatever they think I’ve done, it’s not true!”

  Aidan grunted. “If that was the case, you wouldn’t have fought us when we came to see you in the tavern.”

  “My brother has a point,” Ruari agreed. “It does make you appear rather guilty.”

  Ember shifted on her seat, rattling her shackles. “Then tell me my crime.”

  “You killed Nanoq,” Phoebe said.

  “It’s not true!”

  She was a horrible liar. Even when Ember tried pleading with Ruari, her body language and tone rang false. There wasn’t an innocent bone in that female’s body.

  Phoebe braced her hands on the table. “Why did you kill Nanoq?”

  “I didn’t.” Ember jutted her chin out. “I hardly even knew him.”

  Phoebe lifted a brow. “Really? I went through his office, which was oddly missing a lot of documents, but when I searched his quarters, I found notes he’d written about you. He’d had an open investigation regarding serious accidents befalling several of our clansmen after they ingested powerful herbs they didn’t recall taking. He believed someone was slipping them into their drinks. On one parchment, in particular, he had circled your name several times. I can’t imagine he never questioned you.”

  Aidan and Ruari exchanged surprised glances. Their sister hadn’t told either of them about this development, but perhaps she had known it alone wouldn’t be enough to convict Ember. Phoebe would have needed more to convince their toriq of her guilt. Crimes such as murder had to have overwhelming evidence or else the accuser could get themselves in a lot of trouble. Dragons were rather particular in that way.

  “He questioned me once and searched my home…but he found nothing,” Ember said defensively.

  Phoebe straightened. “And yet his notes said you were seen near the apothecary around the time the herbs went missing.”

  That came as no surprise to Aidan. He had known Ruari took the herbs from the apothecary and given them to Ember soon after. Donar nearly died due to her drugging his cousin’s drink during his mealtime, just before he went back to work on the fortress walls. The herbs didn’t go into effect until he was at the top. He grew dizzy and fell off, sustaining serious injuries. Could Nanoq have figured these things out as well? If so, the Captain of the Guard had been keeping it quiet.

  “It is just a coincidence,” Ember said, jerking on her shackles.

  Phoebe cocked her head. “Perhaps, but is it a coincidence as well that a sorcerer who goes by the name Javier told me he gave you a garrote that fits the description of Nanoq’s murder weapon? Interesting also, that you supplied him with important information about our toriq in exchange. That alone is treason, for which the punishment is execution or banishment.”

  “She did what?” Ruari asked, his expression shocked. He turned an accusing look on Ember. “What were you thinking?”

  She clamped her lips shut and averted her face. Phoebe continued presenting her evidence piece by piece, but the female shape-shifter refused to speak again or even look at them. This went on for an hour before the pendragon entered the room. Throm pulled Phoebe outside while the rest of them stayed in the room.

  Ruari glanced over at him. “It is impressive what you and our sister can accomplish when you work together.”

  “You would do well to remember that,” Aidan said, giving him a pointed look.

  “Hah! I did not say you were that good.” Ruari’s lips spread into a mischievous grin.

  Aidan decided to ignore his brother.

  After more than fifteen minutes passed, Ember shot a pensive glance at the door. It was one thing to get questioned by Phoebe, but the pendragon could do things to her—or rather have things done to her—that no one else could. Aidan wondered if it would come to that, or if Throm would be satisfied with the information they had. It was more than enough to convict the female shifter, but they still had a lot of unanswered questions. The main one being what had motivated her. Ruari was a fairly good liar, but even he had seemed genuinely shocked by her actions.

  The pendragon came bursting through the door, his complexion red with rage. “Admit your crimes now, or I will resort to drastic measures.”

  Ember’s eyes watered, and her chin wobbled, but she said nothing.

  “I will not ask again,” Throm said, straightening to his full, imposing height. He might have been weaker than he was a year ago, but he could still be quite intimidating.

  The female shape-shifter looked away.

  Throm poked his head out the door. “Call Xanath. Tell him to get here right away.”

  “Are you sure you want to do that, father?” Phoebe asked.

  “Do you dare question me? I want the truth, and I want it now!” the pendragon shouted.

  She dropped her gaze and took a step back. “Of course.”

  Ruari scooted toward the far corner of the room. Even Aidan was starting to feel nervous around the pendragon, and he was rather certain he’d done nothing wrong—that his father knew about, anyway. Throm had that kind of effect when he was in a bad mood.

  A short while later, Xanath entered the room. The old sorcerer wore a long, black robe and his hair was gray and curly. He had been alive for slightly longer than Aidan, but he wouldn’t last much longer. While sorcerers didn’t l
ive nearly as long as dragons, they could extend their life through magic to three times that of the average human. It was one of the few spells they were allowed to perform within the fortress without requiring permission first. Of course, it took most of their magic to slow their aging process, and it had to be regularly maintained. Most of those who lived in the outside world would not make that kind of sacrifice. On the other hand, sorcerers who lived with shape-shifters usually only performed minor spells, such as ones to protect warrior garments, leaving them enough magic to extend their lifespan.

  “What is it you wish for, milord?” Xanath asked.

  “I want to know every crime she’s ever committed, and what her motivations are for attacking Nanoq. Get everything you can out of her,” the pendragon commanded.

  The sorcerer’s face blanched. “Are you certain? I could extract some details without irreparable damage.”

  Ember whimpered. She knew what was coming, and still she didn’t speak up.

  “I want everything,” Throm said curtly, then left the room.

  Phoebe came to stand by Aidan. “This is going to take a while.”

  “I know.”

  She glanced at him. “Midnight meal is about to start. Maybe you should eat and come back. I doubt you’ll miss much.”

  “No, I won’t make you watch this alone.” Their father had made them observe the process once before a few decades ago for another traitor who’d been giving information to the Shadowan clan about them. That shifter had fallen in love with one of their females, and he had been willing to do anything for her. He was long dead now.

  Xanath moved over to Ember. She pulled on her shackles, attempting to scoot as far from him as she could. He only came closer with a grim line of determination forming on his lips. The sorcerer was rarely called upon to perform dark magic, and he didn’t enjoy using it. If ever there was one of his race Aidan could say he liked, it would be Xanath. He had always been kind to everyone he met, unless commanded to do otherwise.