She looked from Marut to Grayling to Zhao.
“Don’t look at me,” Zhao shrugged. “I can’t even purify water, at the moment.”
Grayling pointed at the water. "There is a tunnel about two hundred yards down that lead to the shore of the underground cave and water system that feeds this lake. We'll have to swim down. Your father would need a Water Dragon or a Water Witch to get down here. The water will also mask our scent with little or no effort."
Agne looked at the water and trotted over sticking a paw in it. "It's cold! Terrible!"
"It isn't cold: it is part of being a Fire Dragon. Water is an opposite power." Grayling wandered out a few yards into the lake. "It's actually quite nice. And if you want to get the quintessential Fire Dragon question out of the way…."
"What is that?" She squinted one eye, as she looked at him and backed out of the freezing water.
Retea smiled at Zhao, "You were right about her; sheltered, but maybe that will work to our advantage today."
Zhao put his hand on Agne's shoulder, "I have never seen a Fire Dragon that didn't have to be coaxed into the water out of fear that their fire will be put out."
"Well that’s just stupid, the glands that produce our ability to breathe fire are part of our anatomy," she said, sounding haughty. "How could the water put it out? That is outrageous."
"It cannot, Your Highness. Your glands will continue to produce the fuel if you keep your magical balance to do so." Grayling said, with a gigantic grin on his face. "For someone so young, you have a certain type of wisdom about you that suggests you are more on top of things than you lead people to believe."
She snorted, blowing a hot breeze over the water that caused it to steam.
Marut smiled and wagged his tail, nodding.
"I may not have left the castle until a few days ago, but we had a vast library, and I had accomplished teachers. One question, though, I have never been swimming?" Her question trailed off as she pointed at the water with her tail.
Grayling and Marut both swam out, and said, "Use your tail.”
“Just relax your legs; Almost like flying."
"I won't sink?" She made a face. Getting in that water was the last thing she wanted to do.
"No, you're also an Air Dragon, just take in a few deep breaths and relax into the water, swoosh your tail," Marut said, laying his head down on the surface as he swam around. He reminded her of a big white crocodile.
Agne smiled and stepped into the water. She took two big breaths and swam out to Marut, slowly wagging her tail in the water. "Hey, swimming is easy. It's still frigid though," she said, heading back to the shore.
"What about us," Zhao asked, pointing to himself and Retea. "You said two hundred yards. I can swim, but I am not sure I can hold my breath that long? My Water magic isn’t that useful. I am almost at the level of non-magic. I can’t manipulate the water well enough to allow me to breathe."
Agne smiled at him. “There is a difference between a block and having weak magic. I could feel your Water magic pull as we were flying. Plus, we flew at about fifteen thousand feet, and you didn’t react to the temperature difference; that is a natural Water based trait.”
He rolled his eyes, but recomposed himself quickly.
“You are more susceptible to the effects of some emotions, especially ones that are Fire based – such as anger fueled revenge.” She hoped she wasn’t harping on the topic, but he was clearly still blocked, and that meant only one thing; he was still harboring revenge in his heart.
He frowned, making a face as he glanced at her.
“Okay, won’t mention it again.” She put her tail straight up in the air as a sign of surrender. “At least, not until we get somewhere we can talk more privately.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
"I usually have Grayling take me. Air Dragons control air, just keep your face in their mouth and you'll be able to breathe." Retea patted Zhao's shoulder, thankfully changing the focus of the conversation.
Marut smiled, "His dragon is also a Fire Dragon. We may want to test that superheated air," he said, joining Agne on the shore. He patted her back with his tail when she shivered.
Zhao put his hands on his hips but said nothing about the back pat.
"Oh yes, we'll need to check that. We can’t leave your rider behind," Grayling said also stepping out of the water and walking over to Agne, "Open your mouth, and slowly breathe out; try to leave the Fire magic out."
She did, and he immediately recoiled, "Hot! Too hot! Marut has to take him." He sank his snout into the lake, and then pulled his head up.
"Marut! No way, he'll bite my head off."
"No, he won't," Agne said, shooting a warning glance at Marut. "Because if he kills my rider I know where his hiding place is. Besides, I seriously doubt he would want to be excommunicated, and eating my rider would do that."
Marut smiled, "Of course not Princess. And Zhao, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if you left, but I am not a killer. And I am not sure I appreciate the insinuation. Especially from the kidnapper." He went over and ate a mouthful of the flowers. “Just because that’s something you would do, doesn’t mean it is something I would do.”
Grayling chuckled.
"Nice, really mature," Zhao said folding his arms. "Flower breath, and pollen nose! Thanks."
"You're welcome," Marut smiled and took another mouthful.
"Marut!" Agne frowned. “We can’t be in hiding and have him sneezing. You, of all dragons, should know that.”
"Sorry, Your Highness," he said smiling, but the shine in his eyes suggested he was not sorry.
Retea smirked, "You two are going to have to find a way to get along. Zhao is her rider, Marut, if you want to be in the Princess’s life, you will have to get Zhao's approval along with hers.” Then she pointed at Marut. “And, you're swimming behind us because it won't take long for that grass to do its job on your stomach."
“Yes,” Zhao said folding his arms and nodding. "I would never choose against her, but it would be nice if Marut would stop acting like I am a male dragon competing for females. I love her, but not like that."
Agne blushed, "I know. I also noticed that you seem to spend a lot of time smiling at Retea." It was nice to hear a rider express her opinion. Already she had heard Retea speak more than Ja Hua.
This time, Retea blushed, "Alright, we should get going. If the troops came this way after searching the Minister's house, we should be long gone before they arrive here." She patted Grayling's shoulder, and then walked toward the water.
Grayling nodded. "Follow me, the princess in the middle, Marut in the rear. I want trusted eyes on her the whole time." He took Retea by the head, and swam into the water, sinking below the surface.
Marut nodded, and smiled at Zhao, the flowers still stuck in his fangs. Agne smirked at them.
“Alright Princess, we have to get out of here now,” Marut said, flying off with Zhao in his front paws. He stuck his tail in his mouth to keep him from screaming. “Now! We have about two minutes, maybe less, before he realizes we have runaway.”
ROUKER OASIS
“Marut!” she said, jumping into the air after him. He flew really high, straight up into some fluffy white clouds.
“Sorry princess, but I don’t trust him. He disobeyed orders- twice. He was told to leave Zhao at the temple for his safety, and he flew passed the lake your aunt wanted you to hide at. I am white, and you are a light purple, we can hide here. For a few minutes,” Marut said hovering over her. “Zhao, I am going to set you down on the Princess – who is going to hover very still.”
“I’ll be still,” she whispered, “Marut, you are scaring me.” Actually, that had been three times Grayling directly disobeyed, but she was glad she was not the only one who noticed.
Zhao screamed as he gripped her horns.
“Shut it, they will hear us. I can smell other dragons coming.” Marut hissed at him. “Come, follow me, and stay in the clouds.”
; She followed him, thankfully just in time to reach the next cloud formation, as flames blew the other cloud formation away. Her gut was right; she had been betrayed by Grayling.
“Princess, are you up here?” She heard Loutic ask. “It’s General Loutic. We are here to take you home.” His tone suggested he may really be concerned for her, but she didn’t believe it. He was her father’s best minion.
“I know I heard a human male scream, or it could have been a little girl,” Chactau’s baritone voice chortled.
Agne wasn’t worried about him because he sounded like he was much lower than Loutic. Being of the Earth, Chactau was not very fond of heights. If magical laws were true, the higher he went the weaker his powers became.
“Fine, I’ll let them know she didn’t fall for Grayling’s bait. I knew she was too smart for that,” Loutic said, his voice trailing further away as he descended. “I told that one-step-above-a-Common-Dragon, she wasn’t stupid… I am going to go make him pay for his inability to listen to reason. He could have simply asked her to come last night, and then this wouldn’t be happening right now. It would be in the process of being over.”
“Later. They are here I know it. We just have to burn off these clouds.”
“You mean I have to.”
“Yes, please, get on with it.”
Loutic snorted, “Because an Air Dragon wouldn’t be fifty miles away by now—with a Water Wizard bonding to her scales to make the clouds that much harder to disburse…Are you sure I should be wasting energy on that? We’ll have to find her another way.”
They didn’t know Zhao was blocked. That meant they thought she had more power than she did.
Marut took off motioning for her to follow. They both turned on the Air Dragon speed. There would be no way those two could catch up with two Air Dragons in their element. Agne hoped Zhao would hold on tight, so far he was nearly choking her, but it didn’t matter. The only thing she could think of was - get away.
Her thoughts shifted – why didn’t the generals bring an Air Dragon with them? She would have been caught if they had. Maybe they meant for Grayling to act as the Air Dragon? For that matter, where was Grayling? Surely he realized by now they didn’t follow him into the underwater cave.
They flew in Fight or Flight mode for at least an hour. Marut slowed to fly closer to her, “The edge of this cloud front is ending. I am the same color as the formation since I can hide in plain sight against the clouds, I’ll peek out to make sure the way is clear.”
She nodded and Marut flew forward in the clouds. Once he disappeared into the clouds, Zhao leaned forward pulling slightly on her horns.
“Agne, I am so sorry. Everything I do hurts you more and more. Retea seemed so, I don’t know, normal. She didn’t act suspiciously in any way. She was so kind at the temple. I had no idea she was a spy for your father.”
“It isn’t your fault, Zhao. You have known her less than a day. And, I saw how she looked at you. Her eyes shined when you were sitting behind her this morning. It is possible that my father got to Grayling before he was able to reconnect with Retea. Loutic did mention talking last night, as you recall Retea was with you. She may not have known.”
Marut returned, “It’s a small mountain range. If we fly to the right, we can stay in the clouds and keep the land to our left wing.”
“I know it isn’t safe right now, but when we can, we need to land,” Agne said, softly, “Zhao is upset, he called me Agne and not Lilac. His grip is also not tight enough. He could fall.”
“Look, Agne, I am so sorry. If I fall, you should let me go.”
Marut smiled, and pushed him off Agne’s back.
She hissed at him, and dove, but Marut caught her tail in his.
“As I said there is a mountain range. If Zhao will stand up and stop being melodramatic, I could use his help protecting you. If nothing else, you can lean up against the back of her head and take some arrows for her. Then you can actually serve a purpose as you die.”
She felt Zhao’s hand on the backward bend of her right rear leg. “Just fly off with Marut, he will take care of you.”
She dropped to the ground. “Just stop it. I’ll carry you in my jaws if you don’t start behaving like the young man I gave my oath to take as a rider. Zhao, you saved me, you have to know that.”
“Marut picked up on Grayling’s betrayal, while I was off at the Air Temple with his spy of a rider. I was concentrating more on her breast size than what the priests were saying.”
“You don’t know that,” Marut said, frowning. “As you are aware, Air Dragons have the strongest sense of smell, and for some unknown reason, her pheromones went wild when she smiled at you. I think the princess is right, I don’t think she knew what Grayling was up to. Her scent was honorable. And she has an unexplainable interest in you. Because, trust me, I would have smelled a human spy.”
“Okay, if you two are back to insulting each other, can we move on now? I can’t imagine we got that far,” Agne said trying not to snort flames. She didn’t want to burn the cloud cover off but was getting annoyed.
“I am sor..’
“Zhao, if you don’t stop apologizing to me, I will bite you myself.”
It was considered extremely uncivilized for a royal dragon to bite anyone. They usually got Common Dragons to do it for them – if they thought someone needed biting.
“No need, I’ll do it for you, my Princess,” Marut said, smiling. “And, we went about two hundred miles.”
“Really,” Zhao said, climbing back on Agne and grasping her horns.
“Yes,” Marut rolled his eyes, “If you had a proper saddle, we would have been further. But I am worried about losing you.”
“Really, Marut. You are concerned about my rider,” Agne said, smiling.
“He’s only worried because of how my death would affect you.” Zhao patted her neck. “Let’s go, I have delayed us enough. I’ll just find some way to think about it later. But, I honestly wouldn’t blame you if you left me right here or sent me away when we returned home.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Marut said, taking off, but Agne could see he was smiling.
They flew along the mountain range for a while before they abruptly ended into a small wooded area. It transitioned from a small scrub-palm forest into a desert.
Marut titled his wings, and banked hard to the left. “Follow me, I think there is an abandoned human village over here. I can’t remember. Ah, it’s an oasis, the desert has reclaimed the village.”
There was no longer any trace that a village was ever here.
“Have you traveled the entire planet?” Agne asked, impressed with Marut’s knowledge of where things were.
“No, wrapped up in those children’s scrolls were maps. I have studied them extensively, but they are at your aunt’s house. I couldn’t get to them before we had to leave, so they are, hopefully, tucked away with my tea set. I have to go on memory.”
“Something tells me your memory is pretty detailed,” Zhao said, holding tighter to Agne’s horns. “Do you have a plan or are we just going to fly around?” She felt him lean his head on her left horn.
“Memory detail is a basic Air Dragon trait,” Marut said, not looking back as he gave one lazy flap of his wings to slow down. “The plan is to carry out the Air Minister’s suggestion. Since we cannot trust that she will be able to maintain her strength with her new pups being threatened, we’ll avoid the caves. Instead, we’re going to steal that book of spells, and then end this tyranny.”
“Just like that?” Zhao sounded skeptical. “Aren’t we going the wrong way?”
“We’re heading to a destroyed village just north of Sea’ An’Tia. need to find an Earth witch; I just hope she still lives there.”
“What do we need more people for?” Zhao asked, “The last time a bunch of people went in for a precision mission, everything went wrong, and then everyone abandoned me. One of them even had the nerve to suggest I be bridled after we were discovered. As
if he wasn’t even part of it. Then the Blood King destroyed my village as retribution.”
They descended again banking east, set to circle the oasis, Agne assumed to make sure no one was there.
Marut snorted, disbursing a small gray cloud surely meant to be rain for the plains once it developed. “That wasn’t a precision mission. That was a group of self-important princesses who were severely misguided in their feeble and futile attempt to take the crown, and were unceremoniously executed for it. Poor South Dragons Ridge was innocent. Even you and your so-called conspirators were: they conned you.”
“I will find a way to make my father pay.” Agne crinkled her brow. “My father’s rider is a powerful Earth witch. She will have that book of Earth spells with her. I have never seen her without it. We need an Earth-based magical human, a really strong one who hates my father and would be willing to engage in a coup d'état with us. What are the odds that you would simply find one walking around?”
“Simply walking around? Zero.” He banked south. “I don’t see anyone.” He descended closer. She could see him scanning the ground.
She restrained the urge to ask who he was actually working for. His network was too big to be a simple information smuggler, and she seriously doubted he was only eighteen. Zhao was eighteen, and acted like an eighteen-year-old. Marut was closer to twenty-five or twenty-six, and he had, obvious to anyone over the age of nine, completed schooling on a very high level.
“It would not be a coup d'état; that’s an illegal takeover. It’s not illegal for the rightful heir to exercise her authority as the Crown Princess to seek justice against a murderer.” Marut said, sounding sure of himself, then his tone changed as he banked west again. “And you, Zhao, are very lucky to have the Princess because without her you aren’t even capable of pulling together a half-witted kidnapping plan. A bit of advice, if you are really going to be the Queen’s rider you will need to do better, faster than you are currently progressing. Grow up for the sake of us all.”
“Marut,” Agne said, quietly, as she followed him. “We are just pups compared to my father’s army of dragons who believe that everyone should live under their claws. We need to find an adult, a really powerful one, and if possible recruit some of my father’s more powerful troops. At a minimum, we need at least a team representing all four elements. After all, he has more than one such team. All of them are very loyal and will lose a lot if my father is unseated. They have generations of serving the crown, and their pups would lose noble status. They will fight- even if we are to win the crown, keeping it won’t be that simple. We need allies; powerful ones.”
The Lilac Princess and the Blood King Page 12
