“Fair enough,” Rhia said. “But now that we know Salcombe can track you, what can we do? We can’t wait for Tavarian to resurface.”
“You’ll have to come back to Dragon’s Table,” Jallis said. “Being close to the other dragon riders, who will be able to protect you, is the safest option.”
I sighed. “I know that, but I don’t think Headmaster Caparro will be thrilled about having me, since I’m a hunted woman. And I hate the idea of sitting around and waiting for Salcombe to find me. I want to take the fight to him.”
We argued about it for a bit longer, then retired to our bedrolls. Curling up against Lessie’s side, I closed my eyes and tried to relax, but my mind still raced. Going back to Zuar City and Dragon’s Table was all well and good, but Salcombe would only come after me, and that’s where all my friends lived. How could I safeguard my business and my friends, and still protect Lessie? Salcombe wouldn’t hesitate to use any of them against me, and I especially didn’t want to involve any of the orphans, who had so little. Sure, Salcombe was being detained by Zallabarian authorities, but he’d worm his way out of that situation in a day or two. He would manage to convince them that he was Warosian, not Elantian, and they would let him go.
What if he decides to ally with the Zallabarians against Elantia? a worried voice in my mind asked. Salcombe had a lot of knowledge and experience—he could do quite a bit of damage, and if he thought allying with Zallabar was the quickest way to get the remaining pieces of the dragon heart, he would do it without hesitation.
But deep inside, I knew that would be a last resort for Salcombe. He was a loner at heart, used to being in charge and doing things his own way. He wouldn’t want to have to work with someone else to get what he wanted, especially not a head of state from another country.
Would Salcombe be able to enjoy the newfound health his piece of heart provided him with indefinitely? Or would the strength eventually fade if he didn't find more pieces? If I were the dragon god, I would have set it up that way, so Salcombe would be forced to collect the rest of them. What would happen if I stole the piece of heart he already had? He didn't keep it on him, which must mean he had it tucked away in one of his many hiding places. If I got my hands on the heart, would I be able to sever whatever bond it had with Salcombe and weaken him again?
“I like that idea,” Lessie said, butting into my thoughts. “We should do it. If Salcombe no longer is in possession of the heart, that will likely sever his connection with the dragon god. Perhaps he might even come back to his senses without Zakyiar’s influence.”
“I’d love to do that,” I told her, “but I have no idea where to start.”
“You know Salcombe better than anyone else,” Lessie reminded me. “Perhaps there is some hidden clue in your mind you just aren't yet aware of.”
I pondered that idea as I stared at the stars, wondering if I subconsciously already had the answer to the piece of heart’s location. But even though I wracked my brain, going over all my conversations with Salcombe through the years, I couldn’t find anything. I eventually slipped into a restless, unsatisfying sleep where I wandered a series of dark corridors and wondered if I would ever find the light that would lead me out of this never-ending maze.
8
The next morning, we sat around the fire and ate the remnants of last night’s meal while discussing our next move. Ykos was doing much better already, and we were confident he’d be able to fly without pain in a few hours. In the meantime, he was resting comfortably while Kadryn and Lessie flew around the area, checking for threats and likely hunting as well. Dragons grew throughout their entire lives, and as a young dragon who was only a few months old, Lessie’s appetite was especially voracious.
“So,” I asked Rhia and Jallis, “I was thinking last night while I was trying to sleep, and I’ve decided the best thing I can do while I wait for Tavarian to come back is to return to Zuar City and see if I can track down Salcombe’s piece of heart.”
“Do you really think it’s in the city?” Jallis asked, sounding surprised. He scratched his chin, which was lightly stubbled and gave his normally clean-cut appearance a bit of a roguish look that I quite liked. “I would have thought Salcombe would hide it as far away as possible, or even in another country entirely.”
"It's very likely," I said, "but Salcombe loves Zuar City, and even though he had to abandon his primary residence, I'm sure he has another hidden one somewhere." Zuar City was huge—over one hundred and fifty square miles—and there were plenty of places he could have hidden his stuff. "I have to return to the city anyway, so I might as well make myself useful, and even if he isn't storing the heart in Zuar City, I may still find some clues that could help us thwart his efforts."
“That’s all well and good, but I don’t think the academy will let you go hunting for it at night,” Jallis pointed out. “They’re going to want you to stay on the school grounds. In fact, they may not even let you visit your shop.”
“Which is why I’m not going back to the academy,” I said. “I’ll need to find a place to lay low that has room for Lessie. I was thinking maybe Tavarian’s place—”
“You and Lessie can stay with me,” Rhia offered promptly. Jallis looked like he wanted to protest, but she kept right on talking. “My family home isn’t as big and grand as Tavarian’s, but it is secure, and my mother will be more than happy to have you. You shouldn’t stay somewhere alone, Zara, not when we know Salcombe will try to come for you again.”
"But isn't your family home on Dragon's Table?" I asked, biting my lip. "I guess we'll just have to come in at night so the guards don't recognize Lessie and me."
Jallis sighed. "I do think that you would be better off just staying at the academy and waiting for Tavarian to come back," he said. "But if this is what you want to do, of course I'll support you. We'll just tell the headmaster that we returned you to Tavarian's hidden estate."
My stomach twisted with guilt at the heavy note in his voice—I knew that Jallis wasn't the type to lie to his superiors, and this couldn't be easy for him. "Thank you," I said, wrapping my arms around his neck in a hug. "This means a lot to me."
Jallis hugged me back. “I just want you to be safe,” he said, his face pressed into my hair. “And I know that if you can find Salcombe’s piece of heart and get it away from him, it’ll make it that much harder for him to come after you again.”
He stroked a hand down my back, and I felt that familiar stirring of warmth low in my belly. It would be so easy to tilt my head back and let him kiss me. But Rhia was sitting right there…
Jallis seemed to sense my thoughts. He pulled away and gave me a rueful smile. Maybe next time, he seemed to say as he squeezed my hand.
The dragons returned with two trozla carcasses in their jaws and immediately sat down to feast in the clearing. The additional food seemed to give Ykos a burst of energy, and after they were finished, he decided to take to the air and do a few experimental circles in the sky.
“I think he’s about ready to go,” Rhia said after he’d landed again, smoothly and without a hint of discomfort. She scratched behind one of his horns, and he let out a loud rumble of contentment. “If we leave now, we should reach Zuar City by dark.”
Decided, we took to the skies and headed for home. Now that we were back in our own borders, the six of us were far more carefree as we soared over fields and hills, passing by towns that would normally take us days to travel to. Man, I loved flying so much. Racing across the rooftops had been the closest I’d been able to get to it before I became a rider, and part of me wondered if I’d loved it so much because my dragon rider blood had wanted to be as high up as often as possible.
“I don’t know how I survived without you,” I told Lessie as I stroked the side of her neck.
She let out a rumble of contentment. "It's a shame that you never knew your parents. I wonder why they were living in the lower city, when at least one of them had to be a dragon rider."
Instinctiv
ely, I reached for the dragon blade Jallis had given me, before remembering with dismay that it was still at Tavarian’s estate, along with my lock pick and other valuables. That blade was the only thing in existence that linked me to my past—it had been part of Jallis’s family collection, and when I'd picked it up, it had responded to me instantly, keyed to my family's blood. Jallis had admitted to me that his father had picked it up recently, which meant that I wasn't part of the Lyton family, as I'd initially feared, but some other house entirely. I wondered if Lord Lyton, Jallis's father, would be willing to tell me where he'd gotten it. Tracing the ownership of the blade was the easiest way to determine which family it had originally belonged to.
Except you can't visit Jallis's father, because his mother hates your guts, I told myself. You’re trying to keep a low profile, remember?
I'd have to put that on the to-do list for later. Luckily, it wouldn't take more than a few days to search the city and its surrounding environs—the pieces of heart all made a very distinctive, loud sound if I came within a mile of them. It was very likely Jallis was right, that Salcombe had hidden the heart somewhere else. If that was the case, I would have to go back to the academy and regroup. Perhaps once Tavarian returned, I could convince him to let me form some kind of search party, but until then it would be foolish for me to scour the entire country by myself. The last thing I needed was for Salcombe to smuggle one of those portable cannons across the border so he could shoot Lessie and me out of the sky.
“That will never happen,” Lessie said fiercely. “If he shows his bony face again, I’ll blast him with my dragon fire before he can get off a single shot.”
“I have no doubt, but I’d rather not take the risk.”
Since Lessie and Ykos were still not strong enough to fly such long distances, we stopped halfway through the trip to rest. Recognizing the patch of forest we flew over, with its orange-trunked trees, as the location of the hidden palace, I had us stop there so I could pick up a few artifacts for the shop.
“So, this is where you guys went the first time you flew together?” Rhia asked as we descended the rope ladder that hung from the edge of the giant hole in the forest floor. “To an underground palace from the Golden Age?”
“Yep,” Jallis said as he helped me to the ground. “As far as first dates go, I have to say it’s the most unusual one I’ve been on.”
“I wish someone would take me on a date like this," Rhia said as she looked around the room. The cavernous space was precisely how I remembered it—with a coffered dome hanging above us, hidden from the world by a thick carpet of loam and grass, and floors and walls of pure marble covered in vines.
"Isn't that what we're doing right now?" I teased, looping my arm through Rhia's. I led her down the long hall and through an archway that led into another room that sported the faded remnants of frescoes on its walls.
“Yes, it’s very romantic,” Rhia said dryly. “Are we going to have a candlelit dinner after this?”
I only smirked, and Rhia quickly fell silent as we walked through rooms upon rooms filled with statues and furniture and all kinds of ancient paraphernalia. The art in here was remarkably well preserved, since the place had been sealed off from the outside world for so long, but now that an earthquake had caved in several sections of the ceiling, I knew it was only a matter of time before nature reclaimed this place. I’d come here as often as I could over the years to rescue the wealth of art and artifacts hidden inside, but as a one-woman show, it had been hard to take very much at a time, especially since I was trying to keep this place a secret. But now that I had Lessie, I might very well be able to get more done around here once she’d grown bigger.
We didn’t spend too much time in the underground palace, just long enough for me to grab a few items, including a couple of beautifully carved animal statuettes and a set of gem-studded ritual goblets—items light enough for Lessie to carry without slowing her down, but would fetch a very high price. Since I would have to carry these through the city myself, I couldn’t afford to take anything big—Lessie would create quite a spectacle if she brought me into Zuar City herself, and news of our return would undoubtedly get back to the guards at Dragon’s Table.
We reached Zuar City just as the sun was setting, and the three of us perched on a hillside to wait for night to fall. “It’s so beautiful,” Rhia sighed as we watched the gas lamps being lit, one by one. As the sun disappeared from the horizon, painting the vermillion sky with shades of indigo and navy, the lamps began to twinkle like fallen stars.
“It really is,” I said. Standing out here, so far removed from the inner workings of the city, it was hard to reconcile the image of the bright, sparkling city with the underbelly of poverty and scum that existed beneath the surface. I made a mental note to check on the orphans tomorrow, after I'd gotten an update from Carina. We'd employed several of the orphans, but many others were still on the streets. The orphanage only kept children until they were around sixteen, then unceremoniously kicked them out to fend for themselves. Many of them lacked specialized skills to get good jobs, so they often resorted to begging or prostitution.
“Well, I guess it’s time to get going,” Jallis said when night had finally fallen completely. “Are you going to start your search tonight?”
"No." Tonight I would catch up with Carina and the shop, and let Lessie rest after a long day of travel. Stepping closer to Jallis and Rhia, I pulled two items out of one of Lessie's saddlebags. "Thank you so much for helping Lessie and me. I don't know what I'd do without you two. Please take these as tokens of my gratitude."
“Oh no, we couldn’t—” Rhia began, then stopped as I placed a lovely gold-plated lamp in her hands. She had admired it when we were in the palace, and I’d quietly taken it to give to her later. “Never mind. I’m definitely taking this home.”
I laughed, hugging her, then turned to Jallis. “I thought this might come in handy.” I handed him a small gold compass decorated with tiny sapphires.
Jallis’s eyes lit up. “It’s a wonderful gift,” he said, studying the compass for a moment. He put it into his pocket, then wrapped his arms around me. “But there’s something else I want more.”
He kissed me, and my whole body seemed to sigh, relaxing into his warmth. Twining my arms around his neck, I leaned into the kiss, our mouths moving gently together as we familiarized ourselves with the shape of each other’s lips. His tongue teased the seam of my mouth, and I opened just enough to let him in.
Rhia groaned. “Do I need to find you two a room?”
Jallis chuckled, withdrawing. “You could always make yourself scarce,” he said, waggling his eyebrows.
Rhia snickered. “As if. Someone needs to be around to chaperone you two.” She slid her foot into one of Ykos’s stirrups and launched herself into the saddle. “Now let’s get our red-haired princess back to her tower.”
We flew over the city, high enough that our dragons blended into the inky sky. Stars blazed above us, and the night wind whipped my hair around my face, a siren’s call. As we approached the Treasure Trove, Lessie dipped lower, and I felt a pang of regret. I wished I could stay up here with her. I loved my shop, but I wasn’t ready to leave Lessie yet, not when I’d spent the past few days wondering if I would ever see her again.
“You’re not leaving me,” she said softly, rubbing up against me through the bond. “So long as we’re connected, we will never truly be apart.”
Nodding, I stroked her scales. “Love you,” I said, and then dropped off her back.
9
I landed on the Treasure Trove’s rooftop soundlessly, thanks to my spelled boots, which Salcombe hadn’t taken from me. I clutched the bag of artifacts to my chest and watched as Lessie and the other two dragons soared upward and curved around, heading for Dragon’s Table. Rhia would get Lessie settled at her family manor, and then she and Jallis would return to the academy.
I just hoped they wouldn’t be punished for taking an unauthorized leave of
absence. Especially since they didn’t have any actual proof that they’d saved me.
If they do get punished, I’ll make sure to go up there and set things right, I decided as I climbed down from the roof. If anyone deserved to be penalized for this mess, it was me, not them.
On the ground, I turned to the storefront and was pleased to see Kira, Tiana, and Nate in the shop with Carina, helping her close up for the night. The two guards standing by the front door jerked in surprise, and immediately moved to block it.
“Sorry, miss,” one of them said gruffly. “The shop is closed.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “I own the shop. Now let me in.”
The guards hesitated as they studied me, their eyes lingering on my hair. “They said she had red hair, didn’t they?” one of them asked.
"She just dropped down from the roof," the other one said. "She's probably a thief, just trying to—"
“Zara!” Carina’s shocked voice drew their attention away. She stood behind the storefront window, clutching a giant silver platter in her hands. I grinned at the stunned look on her face. “What are you doing here?”
“Trying to visit my own shop,” I called through the glass. “You want to call your dogs off?”
The door burst open, and Carina pushed past the guards. "When did you get back?" she cried as she flung her arms around me. "I thought you were going to be away for months!"
“Zara!” the others called, their voices ringing with joy. Nate scrambled out the door to hug me as well, Kira and Tiana not far behind. “What are you doing here?”
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