Ayden yanked off his glove, lifted the lid off the nearby crate of spiders, dipped his hand into it and pulled one out with his bare fingers. “From this, Sebastian.” The spider dissolved into a shower of ash that rained down onto the floor. Ayden dusted the remaining powder from his hand.
“And thus the gloves.” Sebastian half-smiled, nodding. “I wondered if that curse had worked, but you took off before I could test it. You could have been of great use to me, boy. I could have raised you higher than you ever dreamed.” He held up the parchment that still lay, wrinkled, in his grasp. “And you knew nothing of this?”
“I knew.” Ayden kept his expression neutral. “You didn't deserve her.”
Sebastian curled his fingers into a fist and pounded it against the table. “Didn't deserve her? She stole my truth serum!” He spread his hand wide to encompass the room. “It was here in this room, a result of much work and tedious study, and now it's gone.”
“It was a secret, wasn't it?”
Sebastian glared at Ayden, not comprehending.
“Selena told you in her last letter that she was taking the serum, and that she would not see you again. If the serum were not a secret, you would have had the entire army following you to this place to help you search. The serum was a secret.”
Sebastian at last opened his mouth. “All my taibe work is a secret, boy. Few know what I do behind the scenes.”
“Except Selena.”
Sebastian's face twitched. “Selena was nothing more than a passing fancy.”
“She was a Seer Fey, Sebastian. A guardian of your line. But you drove her over the brink of pain into voluntary death. You're nothing but Troll spawn.”
“How dare you insult me? I am King of West Ashwynd and rightful King of Lismaria! I have the power to raise you high or to grind you into the dirt.”
Scorn seared Ayden's mind. “Unlike you, Sebastian, I do not thirst for power and wealth at the expense of others.”
Sebastian folded his arms across his chest. A flush rose involuntarily to Ayden's face. He lowered his gaze to Sebastian's chin.
“Ah!” Sebastian's voice was triumphant. “Methinks I have discovered a chink in the brave lad's armor. All your grand words cannot hide it. You desire power and wealth after all, is that it? Perhaps not at the expense of others, but you'd like a little freedom, a little something to offer, am I correct? Now why would you want this? Is it a maid?”
Anger rose up to Ayden's throat. His eyes burned with it.
“I see,” Sebastian released a long, low chuckle. “Young love. So beautiful and rash in its ardor.” He tapped his fingers across his upper arm. “Tell me, boy, what you want, and I'll make it yours. A hundred thousand sceptremarks? Estates and holdings? A place in my army at the head of a thousand men?” Sebastian took one step closer. “An offer to bless a union between you and your maid?”
Ayden shuddered under the strong temptation. His jaw locked as visions of Kinna's brilliant green eyes swam through his mind. Her fire-red curls clustered over her shoulder, tumbling in a flaming river to her knees.
“It's yours, boy.” Sebastian took another step closer. “All yours.” He was close enough now that Ayden could reach out and grip his shoulder if he'd wished. “Just promise me your gift. To use however I see fit.” Sebastian's last words trailed off in a whisper.
A movement caught Ayden's peripheral vision; Sebastian's hand reached for the sword. Ayden reacted instinctively, bringing up his dagger as Sebastian's sword arced downward. The two weapons clashed hilt to hilt.
Sebastian lunged forward with the sword. Again and again, Ayden deflected it, his feet nimble as he danced first forward in offense and then backward, defending his guard. He slashed, ripping through the King's tunic, and a red line appeared across Sebastian's chest.
With a roar, Sebastian countered, and his sword carved a deep slice in Ayden's side. Ayden pressed the King around the table. Sebastian slammed against the bookshelves, tipping them sideways. The huge, dusty volumes fell with a great crash, scattering parchment and flawed bindings across the floor.
Sebastian's face darkened in anger. “You'll pay for that.”
“You said you could raise me high.” Ayden couldn't quite keep the cheeky tone from his words. “Put me in charge of armies, I believe you said. Load me down with estates and sceptremarks and titles were your words.” He slammed his dagger once more into the King's sword, and the hilt slipped from Sebastian's grasp. The sword landed with a clatter under the table.
Both men dove for it. Ayden reached it first. He rolled out from under the other side of the table and leaped to his feet. The King rose as well. He slowly spread his hands open. “You seem to have bested me ... this time.”
“This time.” Ayden nodded, walking in a half circle around the man. Carefully, he slid his dagger back into his belt and then flung his glove onto the floor.
Sebastian's eyes widened in horror. “No.” He backed up a step, stumbling against the table. “Please, have mercy.” He moved to the side, edging toward the high window.
Ayden followed him. “Is this the first time you have ever begged for mercy, Sebastian?” His lip curled. “Perhaps now you can relate to the hundreds, if not thousands, of those who have begged for mercy at your hands. Did you give it them?”
“Many times have I shown mercy.” Sebastian bumped against the wall. “Please, I beg you, do the same for me.”
Ayden held the sword to the King's throat, the tip resting in the divot between Sebastian's collarbones. He narrowed his eyes. “Did you give my mother mercy when she begged for it? My village? The people I loved?” He yanked the pendant over his head and held it out.
The King received it in his surprised palm. “What is this?”
“My freedom.”
As the amulet hit Sebastian's palm, a shock jolted through Ayden's body from his toes to the ends of his hair. He grunted through the impact of it. A slow smile spread across his face.
Sebastian eyes widened in terror as Ayden reached forward, slowly, his bare hand nestling beneath Sebastian's chin.
Ayden felt the trimmed beard of the King's neck, the smooth skin beneath it. Temptation bit him, whispered for him to close the windpipe and obstruct the pulse that thudded swiftly beneath the curve of his hand.
Sebastian's eyes bulged in panic. “What—”
Abruptly, Ayden stepped back, hiding his shaking hands. He felt light-headed and dizzy all at once, but he couldn't afford to show this to the King. “I bid you good day, Your Grace.”
Ayden strode to the door, pulled out the key and unlocked it. He exited into the hallway, slamming the door on Sebastian, staring at him dumbfounded from the opposite wall. He locked the door, pocketed the key, and took the stairs two at a time. At the next landing he stopped, backed up against the wall, and slid to the floor. Pressing his bleeding side with one hand, he buried his head against his knees and wept.
The small, lonely boy inside who had rarely felt the connection of another's physical touch was finally free.
Ayden could no longer hold it in.
Chapter Thirty-One
Cedric
The fight was turning, and Cedric could feel Ember's scales growing hotter by the second. The Dragon kept overruling him, too, which annoyed him to no end. He had hoped to achieve psuche with the beast before the match, but though the Dragon trusted him and even liked him, he hadn't given himself over to that soul connection that needed to happen before two could think as one.
So when Cedric pulled to the left, Ember shot to the right. “No, Ember!” he shouted. “If we are to win this, we must work together!”
The Dragon released a massive deluge of fire at one of the Poison-Quills in his fit of temper. The other beast returned in kind, and Cedric's tunic kindled. In a moment, it was gone, leaving him in only his breeches and boots as he clung to the back of the Dragon. “Circle around, Ember. Come in with the Mirage.”
The Mirage, with
Kinna upon his back, climbed to the roof of the arena and then dropped like a rock on top of the Poison-Quill nearest the stands. The crowd went crazy.
A burst of fire enveloped both Kinna and Chennuh. Cedric watched, petrified, until both burst from the cloud of flames, seemingly unhurt. His momentary distraction served him ill.
The other three Poison-Quills circled beneath Ember, shooting jets of flame in his direction. The fire was much more intense than anything he had felt yet, and both he and Ember barreled sideways, catching only the outside perimeter of the inferno. It was so hot Cedric's boots sparked and glowed. He reached down and yanked off the blackened leather. He looked at the area beneath, rubbing the unaffected flesh, thankful that his skin could handle such intense heat.
Anger fueled his next actions. He turned Ember toward Chennuh, and the two Dragons passed in the air. “Take down the Dimn!” he shouted. “Once they're gone, the strategy will be gone, too!”
Kinna nodded her understanding, and she and Chennuh circled around to the outside wall. Cedric urged Ember to do the same. He glanced back and screamed Kinna's name, but too late.
The Poison-Quill near her exploded his spikes in a shower of arrow-fast, deadly lances. Most of the spikes bounced harmlessly off of Chennuh's thick underbelly, but one found Kinna's leg, impaling her thigh. Blood fountained from the wound, darkening in a lurid, red circle on her gown, spreading rapidly.
“Help her, Chennuh!” Cedric watched helplessly from Ember's back as he fought for control of his own panicked beast. “The poison in those quills will kill in less than half an hour unless she has treatment.”
He may as well have been talking to himself for all Chennuh and Kinna could hear him over the noise. He glanced down at the faces of the Dimn. They all waited to see what Kinna would do. She sent him a desperate glance, and then he knew.
Just before the match, while they had waited, terrified, at the gate, she had murmured her news to him. “Chennuh can disappear, Cedric.” Her eyes had gleamed. “With a twist of the fin on top of his head. I'm going to use it to win this match for us.”
Now he watched as Chennuh bucked and writhed in the air, Kinna twining her arms desperately around his neck as she climbed toward Chennuh's head. A moment later, the Dragon and Kinna both disappeared.
The grandstands went completely silent. The only sound was the continuous roaring of the Poison-Quills. Cedric sat stunned on Ember's back, allowing the Dragon to take him wherever he wished. She'd done it. But now he had no idea where she was.
A flash of fire lit Cedric's peripheral vision, bursting out of thin air directly beside him. Ember rolled sideways, and Cedric clung to the Dragon's neck, recognizing Chennuh's warning.
He couldn't afford to lose his focus, not when Kinna's life had a time-stamp on it.
He pulled the rope tighter around Ember's neck and leaned forward. “Ember, if you've never before listened to anything I have to say, please, please listen now. This is to save a Dragon.” He glanced below at the Dimn, who were still looking wildly around for the mirrored Dragon.
“Dive!” Cedric yelled.
Ember dove straight and true, and so fast that the nearest Poison-Quill was taken completely by surprise as Ember roared past him. Cedric managed to yank a handful of quills from the Dragon's back. The tips lay sharp and moist in his hand, but none broke his skin.
He edged the handful into his left hand with the rope. His right hand gripped a single quill. He yanked on the rope. “Back, Ember!”
Ember miraculously obeyed him. He swooped low in front of the nearest Poison-Quill. The Dragon watched him coming, opening his razor sharp fangs, snapping just short of Ember's wing. They were so close, Cedric could touch him.
He did.
He slammed the quill, poison-side down, into the Dragon's unprotected snout.
The Dragon screamed, his wings beating the air. The membranes bashed against his own Dimn, who fell, insensate, to the ground.
Cedric's eyes burned. It tore him apart to destroy a Dragon. Survival demanded it, but when the fight was over, he would hunt Sebastian down and kill him for this.
Cedric eyed the unconscious Dimn. He couldn't tell beneath the armor, but the man's size indicated that he was Gustav. So much the better. Gustav was the Dimn leader. With him down, there would be no strategy to hold the other Dimn together. The man showed no signs of rising. Perhaps the Dragon had killed him.
Ember swerved suddenly to the side, and Cedric jerked his attention back to the arena. The injured Poison-Quill flew erratically across the arena, crashed into the gate at the far end, and lay still.
The quill poison moved more swiftly when the infected creature moved. Cedric prayed to the Great Star that Kinna would sit motionless on Chennuh's back until this was all over. He knew they were still in the arena; there was no way to escape the structure, what with the chains overhead and the iron gates at the entrances. But how long could they maintain their camouflage with Kinna's injury?
He must hurry.
“Try again, Ember!” He swung his Dragon around, and they aimed for the Dragon on the opposite side of the arena. The Dimn clambered up the leg of the Poison-Quill as he had seen Kinna and Cedric do, obviously trying to beat them at their own game.
Cedric shook his head. “Doesn't work on the Quills, Kandren!” he shouted. Sure enough, the man keeled to the side, pierced through with quills on his backside. He tumbled to the ground, where he tried to lift himself.
“Hold still!” Cedric shouted. “You'll save yourself.”
The man was panicked and wouldn't listen to Cedric. He strained to rise, to run, but he kept sliding sideways into the dirt due to the effect of the poison.
As Ember swooped near the Dragon, the Poison-Quill reared back, his head writhing. Cedric's quill was ready, and as soon as the Poison-Quill lunged at Ember, Cedric rammed the quill home with a sickening crunch. The Dragon screamed and thrashed.
Cedric wheeled Ember away, checking his shoulder for the location of the other two Dragons. Their Dimn looked frightened. Kandren, the Dimn who had stabbed himself on the quills, lay on the dirt floor, his eyes wide and staring.
Too late. Cedric's heart sank. He glanced around the arena. “Kinna, where are you?” he shouted.
In answer, a crash to Cedric's left jerked his attention that way. Myriads of mirrored scales fell in a heap across the ground, thousands of them adhering to the walls of the arena.
“What are you doing?” Cedric yelled. Chennuh's scales were essential to the Dragon's survival. They regenerated within seconds, but even so...
Another crash told him that Chennuh was doing it deliberately. The two Dimn on the ground looked confused as they turned their gazes from one shower of mirrored scales to the next. Time after time, all around the arena, Chennuh shed his scales, until the entire place was a glittering field of mirrors. Hundreds of Dragon reflections roared and writhed across the open space, and Cedric was hardly surprised when Chennuh reappeared directly beside him.
Kinna still clung to the Dragon's back, but her head lay limply against the scales. Her eyes were closed, and her hair trailed the wind.
Cedric couldn't read the Dragon's thoughts, but he could see a strategy in Chennuh's actions.
“Forward!” he yelled, and both Ember and Chennuh flew at the remaining Dragons and their Dimn.
Cedric could see what the Dimn saw. From every point around the arena, from thousands of reflective scales and hundreds of lengths of scale-crusted walls, a multitude of Embers and Mirages flew directly at them. Each Ember and each Mirage was a mirror image of itself, and they converged on the Dimn from a hundred different directions.
Dragons and Dimn whipped their heads in panic. The two Dimn screamed, and fire lit the air from both Poison-Quills at the same time. Ember and Chennuh barreled right through, and Cedric clung to Ember's back, his head ducked against the maelstrom.
They were out the other end, and Cedric held two more quills re
ady in his hand. As he dove for one of the Poison-Quills, the other one reared back and collided with Chennuh. The Mirage tumbled sideways, crashing against the ground not far away.
Cedric shouted Kinna's name. The Poison-Quill below him whipped his head in Cedric's direction, and Cedric slammed the quill into the Dragon's snout. Without pausing, he wheeled Ember and narrowly avoided the final Poison-Quill's fangs. As the Poison-Quill's snout passed beneath his feet, he threw himself from Ember's back and rammed the quill home. Clinging to the Dragon's snout, he steadied himself before dropping to the ground in time to feel an arc of fire pass over him. Both Dragons writhed and screamed, beating their wings until they keeled over, landing with heavy thuds in the arena.
As the dust and smoke cleared, the final two Dimn pounded at the gate of the arena, shouting to be released.
The Mirage lay to one side, deep groans issuing from his throat. Cedric sprinted toward him, clambering up his leg and leaping to where Kinna lay in a heap, her red hair draped across her white face.
“Kinna!” He knelt next to her, pressing his fingers against her throat. A pulse fluttered there, barely. With trembling fingers, he dug in his pocket, searching for the packet of herbs he kept there.
As Dragon-Master, Cedric always kept the remedy for the spikes nearby. One couldn't be too careful. How he wished he had given Kinna some before the match started. It was too late for regrets now.
He yanked up her dress. The quill had fallen out at some point through her flight with Chennuh. Blood stained her leg from her hip clear down to her knee. Black edged the wound, and blue veins spidered outward from it into an oval that covered her whole leg and disappeared beneath her gown as the poison sought her heart.
Wadding the leaves into his mouth, he chewed them up, forming a paste. He spit it out into his hand and mashed it into the wound, holding it tightly. With his other hand, he pulled out another leaf and began the same process, adding leaf after leaf. The veins looked duller, less angry than they had been, but he wasn't sure, not yet.
Kindle the Flame (Heart of a Dragon Book 1) Page 33
