by S. J. West
I leaned down and kissed her cheeks and trembling lips.
“I love you,” I told her. “And I promise I will be back.”
I held Dena in the secure folds of my arms until Gabriel rapped on the outside of the door once more asking if anything was wrong.
Reluctantly, I let Dena go and coaxed the little dragonling inside the fox muff. As I stood to walk out the door, I couldn’t help but feel a since of foreboding. I tried to discount it as simply the uncertainty of how my talk with Dracen would turn out, but I felt a warning deep within the marrow of my bones that my trip would not have a happy ending.
The voyage to Ledmarrow Mountain seemed like it would never end. Aleksander and Fallon played cards most of the time. The card game seemed more like a test of manhood than merely a game of chance and circumstance. I got the uneasy feeling the two would have much preferred trading sword blows instead of poker chips.
Gabriel and I both read books to while away the long hours. I kept the dragonling inside my bedroom for most of the trip, not wanting Aleksander to know about her yet. The young dragon seemed content to stay in the room and didn’t try to follow me when I left. I think she sensed my need for her to stay a secret and obliged my wishes.
Aleksander seemed pleased in the fact he had been allowed on the excursion. He didn’t openly make any romantic passes towards me while we were in the company of my two protectors but there were times I caught him staring at me with a longing which spoke of how much he wished we were alone. It wasn’t hard to temper my reaction to him by reminding myself of the dangerous and important mission we were set on.
None of us talked much about what we would do once we reached Dracen’s home but I knew we were all silently contemplating the outcome of our fact finding mission.
On the first night of our journey, I had a dream which seemed more real to me than things I knew to be true. I was standing on top of a snow capped mountain. The sun was shining so brightly its reflection against the pure white snow causing me to shade my eyes with a hand as I surveyed the mountain range around me. A pair of strong arms encircled my waist from behind. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the man behind me. My heart swelled with love for him. Just as I was about to turn into his embrace I woke up, not seeing his face.
The dream seemed almost like a memory but not one of my own. Could it have been one from Queen Emma? If it was, who had the man been? If only I had been able to see his face I would have known who it was she loved so much.
We reached Ledmarrow Mountain at the end of the second day of our voyage. I wasn’t sure how Inara kept the ship floating in the air considering the gale force winter winds surrounding the mountainous terrain we had to pass through.
Ledmarrow Mountain was at the center of a mountain range which was five miles in diameter. Being the tallest of the snow capped mountains surrounding it, Ledmarrow was considered almost impossible to get to for any normal person. Situated at the most Northern tip of Vankara, the temperature in the area never reached above freezing. Dracen, a hermit by choice, had selected his fortress of solitude well.
Strangely enough, the air at the top of Ledmarrow was calm, like the eye of a hurricane, allowing Inara to land the airship on top of the mountain safely. Gabriel said Dracen had cast a spell which leeched the strength from the wind in the spot to power some of the devices in his home.
As we all began to don our thickest outer coats, Gabriel said, “Let me go in first. I know him well and would like the opportunity to speak with him in private.”
“Why, so you can warn him?” Aleksander asked in an accusing voice.
“Yes,” Gabriel admitted freely. “I’ve known him for a very long time. I owe him that much.” Gabriel looked to me. “With your permission, your majesty?”
I nodded my head causing Aleksander to start shaking his in disappointment.
“You may go Gabriel, but don’t keep us waiting.”
“Where exactly is the door to where he lives?” Fallon asked as he peered out the windows at the snow covered rocky terrain outside.
Gabriel pointed to a lone rock standing some two hundred yards from where the airship had landed. It was at least twenty feet high and ten feet wide.
“The door is there but very few have the ability to open it. Dracen cast a spell to only allow those he knows entrance.”
“So there’s a door in the rock?” Fallon asked.
“Yes, there is a passage way. If you are one of the few Dracen trust, all you have to do is touch the rock and the passage will show itself,” Gabriel told us with a last tug on his black leather gloves.
“I will return for you shortly,” he said, making his way out of the ship’s cabin.
We all watched expectantly as Gabriel trudged through the two foot snow drift coming to stand in front of the rock. He reached his hand out and dusted away a small portion of the snow on the boulder to press his gloved hand firmly against the rock face.
The snow encasing the rock began to melt away and a lighted passageway seemed to appear out of thin air.
“Magic,” Aleksander said dubiously. “Can’t say I’ve ever trusted it.”
Inara came into the cabin just then with her cheeks a rosy hue from the chilly elements. She was dressed in her brown leather uniform with only a thin brown woolen cape for added protection.
“I thought we were supposed to all go in together,” she said, looking at me expectantly for an answer.
“Gabriel wanted some time alone with Dracen first,” I explained.
Inara shrugged and walked over to me.
“So how are you holding up?” She asked.
“I miss Dena,” I confided. The little princess had not been far from my thoughts the entire trip. It felt good to be able to share my feelings with someone who might understand a mother’s longing to be with her child.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Inara consoled. “Besides, you’ll be able to see her the day after tomorrow. It’s not like you abandoned her, Em. I’m sure she’s being spoiled rotten as we speak.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Inara was more than likely right. I was just feeling guilty for no substantial reason.
Over half an hour passed and Gabriel didn’t seem to be any closer to coming out to get us.
“I don’t know about the three of you,” Aleksander said in an irritable voice. “But I’ve waited long enough.”
Before any of us could stop him, Aleksander barged out of the cabin, making his way towards the rock.
“I think I’m with Chromis on this one.” Fallon stood from his seat and made his way to the door of the cabin.
“Gabriel said we couldn’t make the passageway appear,” I reminded him.
“Maybe if we bang on it enough, Gabriel will remember we’re out here.” And with that Fallon exited the cabin of the airship.
“Well I’m not about to leave those two alone,” Inara told me, securing her cap snuggly on her head. “There’s enough bad blood between them without adding in the frustration of waiting.”
I could only agree with Inara, leaving Fallon and Aleksander alone was not the wisest idea.
When I stepped out of the airship, I had a feeling of déjà vu. It was just like the dream I had the night before. The sun was shining brightly against the whiter than white snow forcing me to shield my eyes. The landscape of the mountain range was almost identical. When had the Queen been here before? And with who?
Inara helped me trudge through the snow as Fallon and Aleksander both beat their fist on the rock and yelled at the top of their lungs for Gabriel to open the passageway. Once we stood beside them, they ceased their yelling and looked at me like two school boys who had been caught doing something wrong by their teacher. On closer inspection of the rock, I realized it wasn’t a rock at all but a large piece of gray marble with spider web veins made of gold running through it.
Inara ran one of her gloved hands against the smooth stone. “Guess no one is home. Or they’re choosing to ignore the two idio
ts banging on the door.”
“Damn thing won’t open up,” Fallon said, ignoring Inara’s jibe and striking the surface of the marble with his fist one last time.
I sighed. “I told you it would be pointless. Now we’re all cold and my dress is completely soaked. We should just go back to the ship and wait for Gabriel to come and get us.”
“Emma’s right,” Aleksander said in a resigned voice. “There’s no reason for us stand out here in the cold if all they’re going to do is ignore us.”
As I turned to go back to the ship, the skirt of my dress became twisted around my legs and I almost fell over backwards but was able to steady myself by placing a hand against the large marble behind me.
A faint popping sound drew our attention back to the stone. The gold veins running haphazardly through the marble seemed to magically coalesce in front of us into one vertical line which then split in two revealing the passageway. The passage angled downward towards the interior of the mountain in a corkscrew fashion. The grooves of whatever had made the hole acted as steps leading into Dracen’s sanctuary. Small glowing orbs of incandescent light floated in the air with no visible means of attachment.
“How did you do that?” Inara asked in a mix of confusion and amazement.
I simply shook my head, not knowing what to say. Had the spell recognized me from the Queen’s previous visit?
“Maybe Dracen made it so anyone of Vankar blood could enter when they needed his help,” Fallon said, coming up with a reasonable explanation.
As we descending down into the mountain, I made a mental note to ask Gabriel why and when the Queen had come to see Dracen and who had accompanied her. If the Queen had truly loved someone, perhaps that person was also the father of her child.
Chapter 21
“Let me go in first,” Fallon said, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword tightly as he stepped through the entrance of Dracen’s home.
I followed Fallon inside with Inara behind me and Aleksander bringing up the rear. After Aleksander stepped through the entryway, the opening to the cave disappeared causing me to wonder how exactly we were supposed to get back out.
Being careful of our steps, we reached the bottom of the tunnel a few minutes later and entered a large cavernous space deep within the mountain. The floating orbs which lit our way down through the tunnel were ubiquitous within the cavern which housed a small lake. Their light reflected in the pool of water like stars in a dark sky. There were numerous tunnels drilled into the walls of the mountain leading out from the lake patterned like the spokes of a wheel.
If it hadn’t been for the voices of argument echoing against the stone walls, one of them recognizable to us as belonging to Gabriel, we wouldn’t have known which tunnel to explore first.
With Fallon in the lead, we made our way towards the voices. The closer we got the clearer the words of the argument became.
“You promised you would never bring her here!”
“Like I said before, we had no choice,” Gabriel’s voice tried to reason. “Please, just listen to what she has to say.”
“If she comes in here, everything that was sacrificed will have been for nothing!”
Dracen’s voice was loud and irate. I was having second thoughts about speaking with him. If I hadn’t been with my other three companions, I wasn’t sure I would have had the nerve to go much further.
We finally came into the room where Gabriel and Dracen were. Dracen’s appearance was far more normal than I had expected. For some reason, I had this grand vision of him being an elderly gentleman with wrinkles lining his face and having long wavy white hair down to his ankles. The reality of him was quite surprising. He was fairly young, no older than forty, and handsome with a kind face. His light brown hair was cut in a short fashion but it was long enough to detect a trace of natural curl.
I was surprised to find Dracen’s chambers so…ordinary. The large interior looked like any other drawing room in a well tended home. There were even windows on the outer walls which let in what looked like sunlight. The scene outside the windows was one of a lake view with a dense forest behind the water. The illusion was stunningly real. You could even hear the faint chirping of birds in the phantom wilderness.
Dracen saw us first. His pain stricken eyes immediately fell on me and widened in a moment of unguarded surprise. He immediately turned his back to us and raised a trembling hand to his temples.
Gabriel turned towards us when he realized we were in the room. The look of surprise on his face worried me. If anyone should have known I could open the passageway it should have been him. Yet, he looked stunned to see us.
“I wish you would have waited,” Gabriel said, glancing behind him to a distressed Dracen.
“I’m sorry, Gabriel,” now I understood why Gabriel had wanted to come in first. It appeared having lived alone for so long in his mountain made Dracen unable to deal with strangers.
“We grew tired of waiting,” Aleksander explained, though he didn’t sound as agitated as he had been outside. Dracen’s odd behavior seemed to take some of the ire out of him.
“Have you found out anything?” Fallon asked Gabriel in a low voice as we came to stand in front of him.
“He didn’t do it,” Gabriel replied with certainty. “It’s what I expected to find out.”
“Then let him tell us himself,” Aleksander suggested.
Gabriel looked apprehensively over at Dracen who seemed to be refusing to turn around to face us.
“Dracen?” Gabriel’s voice was filled with uncertainty that his friend would even speak with us.
Dracen wiped at his eyes as though he had been crying, but when he turned to face us, I saw no evidence of any emotional distress. His expression only showed how apprehensive he was of us. But I noticed how his eyes deftly avoided looking directly at me as he seemed determined to only look at those around me.
“Dracen,” Gabriel said. “I would like to introduce you to Marshall John Fallon, Captain Inara Irondale, King Aleksander Chromis and Queen Emma Vankar.”
Dracen’s eyes moved from one face to the other as Gabriel made his introductions but he simply returned his gaze to Gabriel when I was introduced. The odd behavior of the sorcerer made me curious to know why I was having such a peculiar effect on him. I felt no intentional disrespect by his behavior. It was more like he just couldn’t bring himself to look at me for fear his composure would crumble if our eyes were to ever meet.
“We came to discuss the plagues,” I said to him gently, not wanting to frighten him away any more than I already was. If nothing else, I knew we were not looking at a mass murderer. Gabriel had been right; Dracen was not the source of the plagues. “I assume Gabriel has told you we know the plagues were caused by magic?”
Dracen nodded as he kept his eyes averted to the floor in front of me.
“Yes, he’s told me.” Dracen said in a soft voice. He glanced up at me and quickly looked back down. “I’m afraid I don’t know who could have conjured the spell. I didn’t even know the plagues were magical in nature until Gabriel told me just now.”
“How is it that the supposed greatest sorcerer in the world didn’t know?” Aleksander asked accusingly.
Dracen looked at Aleksander and smiled grimly. “I don’t get out much.”
“Master?”
At the sound of the strange man’s voice, we all looked to the entrance of the room. A young man dressed in similar fashion to the fae stood in the doorway. He had blacker than black hair and lily white skin, but the one feature which stood out to me was his bright blue-green eyes. They looked almost identical to the ones of the fae mage, Lorenna, who gave me the vial of melted snow.
“Come in, Karis,” Dracen’s voice sounded relieved by the other man’s sudden appearance. “We have guests.”
The fae walked into the room and came to stand beside Dracen. He studied us with undisguised curiosity and met my eyes with unflinching nerve.
“Are you fae?” I asked.
>
Karis nodded his head. “Yes.”
“From time to time,” Gabriel began in way of explanation. “The fae send Dracen one of their mages to apprentice under him. Karis has been with Dracen for quite some time. I believe you were only ten when you first came here?”
“Yes, I was ten.” Karis smiled at us but the friendliness of such an expression was not reflected in his eyes. I could tell he was merely performing a polite action for the sake of appearances. “I plan to return to my people very soon.”
“How the hell did you get here?” Aleksander asked. “We had a hard enough time getting here by airship.”
“I would assume Karis came by dragon,” I said, receiving a genuine smile from Dracen’s apprentice this time.
“You are correct,” he affirmed with an inclination of his head. “My father brought me here on his dragon. He will come back for me when the time is right.”
“I’ll hate to see you go, my son,” Dracen touched Karis on the back like a father would his own child. Having spent what had to be over ten years with Karis, I could easily understand Dracen’s fond attachment to the man.
But there was something about Karis’ carriage which bothered me. Perhaps it was just because of the natural tension of mistrust which had been bred into each of our races. Fearing the fae was like breathing, natural and thoughtless.
“Is there any possibility you could help us figure out whom or what is causing the plagues?” I asked Dracen, taking the vial of melted snow from my skirt pocket. I handed the vial to Dracen and watched it glow the same phosphorescent yellow as before.
Dracen immediately dropped the vial like it had caused him physical pain. The glass shattered against the white marble floor spilling out the liquid at his feet returning to its natural colorless state. Dracen’s hands shook as he looked directly into my eyes for the first time.
“Where did you get that?” He demanded, his voice almost a growl it was so low.
