Core

by Teshelle Combs

“Can all the riders hear him? Or could Cale learn it?”

  The rider raised his eyebrows at her. “No. It is for me and Rane alone. To understand another tongue, one must understand that race's core. No one can understand a black dragon core, not even another no-ir.”

  “But since you and Rane share a core, you can speak to one another.”

  He nodded. She noticed that the rider did not like to look at her while she talked. She was thankful. Something told her that a no-ir looking a person in the eye when they spoke did not necessarily mean they liked them.

  “What’s your name?” Ava asked.

  The rider huffed and stood up. “I am not as forgiving as my dragon.”

  He said something to Rane before ushering Ava downstairs. Once they were back in the darkness of the dungeons, the rider tossed Ava into the cell. He threw

  a different set of keys in after her and crossed his arms.

  “Unlock your dragon, then pass the keys back,” he said.

  He’s testing me. Ava raced to Cale and put a hand on his head. He was beyond words, not much more than gasps and grunts. She had been gone from him too long.

  “Cale, lay still,” she commanded.

  He obeyed and she unlocked his shackles. Then she walked the keys back over to the rider and placed them in his hand.

  “Shiloh,” he said, avoiding her eyes. He left in silence.

  Cale struggled to sit up. It was as if the rider had taken all of Cale’s energy with him as he left. Ava hurried to him once again. Earlier, when she had been fending off Pendulus, she heard Cale screaming, but she had no idea how serious it was until she examined him.

  All the places where Shiloh had touched him had turned black. Thick scabs formed over his skin as Cale’s body began to mend. Ava touched one of the marks and he winced, grabbing her hand.

  “I’ll heal,” he said through shallow breaths.

  He touched the bruises on her face, his own hands still shaking. He wanted to cry at the spiraled wound left on her skin from their abduction. Pendulus had caught and dragged her with his whip, and her flesh had been seared badly. It’ll scar, he thought with dread. He would have to look at it every day and know that he’d caused it. How could I let this happen?

  Ava reclaimed her arm and pressed her forehead to his. They closed their eyes, their breaths mingling in white puffs of cold.

  “I’m sorry I’m so afraid,” he whispered.

  She opened her eyes, meeting his golden ones with hers. “You don’t have to be sorry with me, Cale.”

  He shook his head. “You don’t understand.” He took her hand again and winced as he looked at the marks on her arm. She never will. He kissed the spaces in between the bright red grooves. With each kiss he sought forgiveness.

  “Stop, Cale,” she said, pulling her arm back. “I’m fine. I promise.” She wished she could hide it from him. “It stings, barely. I’m not dying.”

  Cale didn’t argue with her. She didn’t comprehend the reality of where they were. Not like he did. He didn’t want her to, either. Let her be brave.

  Ava bit her lip as she pulled herself up. The siren that had torn into her leg, she would never have to see again. But the pain in her ankle just wouldn’t quit. And Shiloh had not held back when he plowed into her. She let her resignation take over and laid her head down on Cale’s lap. She would have offered hers to him, but she knew that Cale would never sleep. Not in a place like this.

  She closed her eyes, and Cale ran his hand over her matted curls. He watched her drift off and made a point to remember what it felt like to have her close to him. He was amazed at how she trusted him, despite his fear, despite his inability to protect her. Ava slept as though she was home. She rolled over and pressed her face into his shirt like she always did. Her breath warmed his belly, and he smiled and groaned at the same time. She’s worth it…even when I’m not.

  When Ava finally stirred, Cale’s eyes were dry and red-rimmed, his throat parched. But he didn’t complain. He only watched her stretch. He knew that she tried to hide her flinches from him. It didn’t matter. He felt every one.

  Ava sat up and moved as close to him as possible, for his sake. She remembered what he had said when they left the siren battlefield. Just let me be close to you for a little while. She played with his hands as she told him about being taken by the blue dragon, about the pit, about the pearl.

  Cale frowned. “I’ve never heard of any pearl,” he said. “Maybe Karma or Cameron would know.”

  “Or maybe our new friend.”

  Cale scowled. “You’re going to talk to him about it?”

  “You said yourself that the no-ir aren’t evil. He was just doing his job.”

  “I don’t understand you, Ava. The people who want to help you, you shut out. And the people who hurt you, you empathize with.”

  Ava frowned, lowering her eyes. “I let you in.”

  Cale’s core flickered in his chest, enough to make him smile. “Still don’t know how I managed that one.” He sighed, giving in. “Just…don’t trust him.”

  Ava scoffed at her dragon. “Just because I don’t hate him doesn’t mean I trust him.”

  She waited by the cell bars until Shiloh passed by. His steps were so quick and so quiet that Ava would have missed him if not for the ruffling of his cloak. She reached out her hand in an effort to get him to stop. He glared at her, and Ava lowered her eyes. I hope this is respectful, or I’ll just look pathetic. It worked. Shiloh approached, his own eyes looking anywhere but at Ava’s face.

  “I need to ask you something,” she said.

  “I am busy,” he said. “And I do not fraternize with prisoners.”

  “Okay sure, but just listen. As a keeper of the peace, I’m sure you’ve heard of all those siren attacks. Well, I was kidnapped by the leader of the uprisings.”

  He stepped closer, his interest piqued. “Get to the point.”

  “He was blabbing on about this pearl….”

  Shiloh’s eyes shot up to meet Ava’s, then darted away again. “Go on.”

  “That’s all I got. What pearl is he talking about?”

  Shiloh was only half-listening to her. His thoughts were elsewhere. He made that humming sound in his throat like he was thinking. He did not look at Ava, but she could tell he was very serious by the way he furrowed his eyebrows. “If I were you, I would be very careful who I mention this to.”

  “Like…like who?”

  Shiloh looked around as though there were ears growing out of the prison walls. “Do not speak of it in here,” he said. “Not all of these prisoners are innocent.”

  Ava couldn’t hide the twitch of the smile on her lips. “Does that mean you think we’re innocent?”

  “I am not your judge,” he snapped.

  “Fine then. What can you tell me about sirens.”

  He looked around to see if any other guards were present. “What do you want to know? And speak faster.”

  “Why are the nightfolk so…sad?”

  “Why are red dragons so passionate. Blue dragons so intelligent. Green dragons so clever? It is the center of who they are.”

  “Their core?”

  “In a way. They are the beings that have given in to sorrow. Whatever their core was before is replaced with emptiness. They become…other.”

  “So they’re… they’re real people? They just became those creatures?”

  “I will leave now. I cannot be seen talking to you.”

  He turned and walked away, the black cloak around his shoulders flapping as he made his way up the staircase.

  “How’s Rane?” Ava asked before he vanished completely.

  Shiloh paused, but he didn’t bother to retreat down the steps. “I will tell him that you asked for him.” And he disappeared up the stairs.

  “See?” Ava said, limping back over to Cale. “I told you he isn’t so bad. He thinks we’re innocent. Sort of.”

  Cale scoffed. “How do you know he’s not one of the people we should have
kept that information from?

  Ava ignored her dragon. She sat down and rolled up her pant leg so she could see the teeth marks the siren had left on her. The wounds were ugly, the skin around them puffy and swollen.

  Cale felt like someone punched him in the stomach when he looked at it.

  “I never knew that about sirens,” he said, trying to distract himself. “I don’t think that information is in the blue archives. At least not the ones that Karma has access to.”

  Ava nodded, biting her lip as she touched her fingers to the wounds. “I have a feeling that the no-ir have a lot of information and skill that no one knows of. Everyone’s been too afraid to ask questions.”

  “Well, they are the bringers of death. That’s all most people need to know. People aren’t crazy like you, Ava.” He paused, trying to remember her exactly the way she was. He wished he hadn’t dragged her along to the no-ir prison. He wished he’d been a better dragon.

  “You’re the only person I trust,” he said. It was important that she knew the truth. “The only one I trust entirely.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t,” Ava said, biting her lip as she rolled her pant leg back down. “I suck.”

  Cale messed up her hair, and she slapped his hand away. They flinched in unison.

  Eighteen

  Sirce

  Cale jumped awake, his eyes open in an instant. The dark, stone walls and the iron bars confused him as his mind struggled to right itself. Where am I? He coughed into the crook of his arm. It had been days since the cold had started seeping into his lungs. It made his brain move more slowly, and the food the no-ir riders tossed into their cell was hardly enough for a red dragon to stay sharp.

  Ava was still curled against him. She shivered through most of the nights, and if it wasn’t for Cale’s warmth, she would not have survived for as long as she had in the sky-borne dungeon. Cale was afraid for her. She was more tired than usual. The cold was taking its toll. But what he felt at that moment was more dangerous than hypothermia. He shook her and she mumbled, too deep into sleep to focus.

  “Ava, wake up.” He frowned at how sluggish his own words sounded.

  She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “What? What?” She reached for her dragonblade, forgetting that it was gone, that she was trapped in the no-ir prison.

  “Something’s coming,” Cale said, his voice croaking out. He grabbed Ava’s hand too hard.

  “Ow,” she said, reclaiming her arm. “Would you relax? Something’s always coming.”

  But he was looking out to the cell bars, staring at the slanted moonlight flickering through them. The sound of footsteps filled his ears. Shiloh opened the door and looped the keys back onto his belt.

  “Follow,” he said.

  Cale and Ava got to their feet and walked haltingly through the open cell doors, this time, going downstairs instead of up. The more Cale moved, the more his muscles reawakened. But Ava was hurting. He knew it. It made his own pain even worse. She kept up well enough, hiding flinches and groans from her dragon the best she could.

  “I am surprised,” Shiloh said as he hurried down the stairs, leading the way, “that you are still alive.”

  Ava was already out of breath. “You thought I’d be dead?”

  “Yes,” he said plainly.

  Ava almost missed a step, but Cale caught her arm. “I’m offended by that,” she told Shiloh. “I don’t give up that easy.”

  “We have had very few humans in these dungeons. Most last only a day. Perhaps two.”

  “Well, we’re not dying here,” Ava said.

  Shiloh did not pause as he reached into his cloak and handed Ava a small vial. “Drink it quickly.”

  Ava wanted to ask what it was, but she didn’t bother. If he wanted to kill me, I’d have been a rotting corpse by now. She popped the cork off of the vial and sloshed the thick liquid into her mouth. It burned her throat instantly, but she felt heat flood her body.

  “Thank you,” Ava said with a sigh. She felt awake. Alert.

  After leading them through a labyrinth of stairwells and doorways, Shiloh stopped and pointed them to the corner of a bare stone room. “You must strip and stand still. I have arranged it so that you will not be separated until the last possible moment. I will return shortly.” And he left, slamming the heavy iron door closed behind him.

  “How considerate,” Cale said. He was being sarcastic, but Ava knew that he was grateful.

  Ava and Cale turned their backs to each other and took their clothes off. It was the most awkward Ava had felt in a long time. At least it’s Cale. She stood in her corner, naked, and squealed as the roof opened and a cascade of ice water fell over her. It did the same to Cale and he cursed.

  She didn’t realize just how much she should have thanked Shiloh for the drink he’d given her. She would never have been able to recover from the combination of the icy water and air without it.

  The water was soapy, Ava soon found out. It stung her eyes, but she rubbed it all over her skin, glad not to smell like waste and old food any longer. The soap that she was covered in smelled like nothing at all, and she missed the orchids of Great Nest. Another douse of ice water rinsed them both off.

  A towel floated down form the hole in the roof and Cale caught his before it could hit the floor. He rubbed the coarse material over his skin and winced. I might as well dry off with steel wool. Next, a gray shirt and a black pair of pants fluttered down. Two brand new black boots startled him, smacking him in the head as they clunked to the ground. Cale put it all on, amazed that it all fit him.

  “Are you dressed?” Ava asked. “I need help with buttons.”

  Buttons? Cale almost wanted to laugh as he fastened the line of buttons going up the back of Ava’s dress. Nothing could have suited her less, not even the dress that Onna’s mother had stuffed her into for their dance. The new monstrosity was gray, just like Cale’s outfit, with silver crystals woven into the fabric. It was loose in all the wrong places, nearly swallowing her petite frame. The fabric covered every inch of her, from the top of her neck to her wrists and ankles.

  “Why do you think we’re dressing up?” Ava asked.

  “For the court, I guess.”

  “That’s… that’s good, right? A fair trial and we’ll be on our way.”

  Cale nodded, trying to be positive. None of this has been fair. Why it would it all change now? Shiloh opened the door and didn’t bother to look at the two of them.

  “Follow,” he said.

  They hurried down more stairs, Ava tripping over the hem of her gown every few seconds. It was impressively dark, but Shiloh did not miss a step, as though he had the place memorized by heart. I wonder how old he is, Ava thought. How many times has he gone down these steps?

  “Shiloh…if you were in our place, what would you say to the court?” Ava asked.

  The rider didn’t answer.

  “Shiloh–”

  “Be quiet,” he snapped, leading them further down.

  The last stairwell had no railings. It was so narrow that Ava could feel gravity trying to pull her down into the void below them. There, in the darkness, Shiloh stopped them. Ava could only tell that he put a finger to his lips because, suddenly, his gray skin was luminescent. He had turned it on like a light switch. He reached into his pockets and pulled out two pouches and a piece of parchment.

  Ava took the familiar leather cloth and opened it. A black and white feather lay inside.

  Shiloh lifted an unlit torch from the wall. He held the tip of it to Cale, and the red dragon summoned up his strength and spit on it. The flame flickered to life slowly.

  Ava could only blink at Cale. No wonder reds spit when they’re upset.

  Cale looked at Ava in disbelief, finally understanding what Shiloh had been doing. He had gone to Great Nest on their behalf. It was a bold move, and one that must have been done in secret. Cale wordlessly thanked Emaline for having the courage to defy the greys to such an extent.

  The parchment was yellowe
d, as though the paper was a century old. Cale could just make out the signatures of Emaline, Jethro, and Maurice. He opened his pouch and revealed a small, ugly, rather ordinary stone. He placed his rock and Ava’s feather on top of the parchment, hesitated, then crumpled it all into a ball.

  “What are you doing?” Ava hissed.

  “I don’t know.”

  He handed the torch to Ava, then held the wrinkled parchment up in his palms.

  “Light it,” he whispered.

  Ava shook her head. “We’ll destroy it, Cale.” They had worked so hard to find it. Traveling to Peru, fighting off Shiloh and Rane, facing Exile. Has he lost his mind?

  “Just trust me.”

  With her heart stilled in her chest, Ava tilted the torch toward Cale’s hands. The edges of the parchment burned slowly, the ink catching and fading as the fire passed through it and to the rock. Then, without warning, the concoction exploded, nearly knocking Cale off of the stair case. Ava reached out and grabbed him to her, her heart gone from silent to racing in less than a moment.

  It was over.

  “Is that it? Are we pacted?”

  “I…think so.”

  Cale opened his hands. Inside was a small scarlet stone. He opened Ava’s palm and placed the stone inside. Ava closed her hand around it, wishing she had time to examine it thoroughly.

  “Don’t lose it,” Cale whispered. They would need it when they took the last step. Their first flight was supposed to be the easy part, a celebration of their pact, but to Cale, sunrise at Great Nest felt years and years away, evidence that their pact was successful.

  Ava held her hand out to Shiloh.

  The rider shook his head, looking away.

  “Please,” Ava said. “Please, Shiloh. I don’t want them to take it from me.”

  Shiloh studied his hands before snatching the stone from her hand. He stood and hustled down the stairs, making up for the time they’d lost. Even when he hurried, he didn’t.

  At last, they reached the final door. Cale could tell because of the fine carvings in the wood. Pictures of all of the races of dragons, all in second form. It was beautiful, but Cale wanted to flee back up the stairs. His instincts, his “gift” as Emaline called it, made him want to throw up. His mind told him to run. Be brave, he told himself. For once, be brave for Ava.