Jallis laughed. “Even if you didn’t have dragon rider blood in your veins, even if you’d never come to Dragon’s Table, you could never be just a street rat, Zara.” He turned his palm over and threaded his fingers with mine. “You’re so much more than that.”
“I—” My skin warmed, and suddenly I found myself flustered. One minute, I’d been ready to knock him out cold, the next minute I was blushing like a schoolgirl. Would it always be like this with him?
“Shh.” Jallis reached inside his coat pocket. “Don’t say anything. I have something for you.”
He pulled out a long, cylindrical object wrapped in cloth, and handed it to me. I didn’t have to unwrap it to know it was the dragon blade I’d seen in the display room—the moment I took it, I felt a familiar hum in my veins, my blood responding to the power embedded into the weapon.
“No way.” I tried to shove the weapon back into his hands. “I can’t accept this.”
“You have to.” Jallis held his hands up, refusing to take it. “It belongs to you.”
“I—what?”
“I should have told you when you first held it,” Jallis said apologetically. “But I was in denial about it. Dragon lances are keyed to the owner, and can only be properly wielded by someone of the proper bloodline. The fact that it responded to you, that you were able to wield it, means that the original owner is from your family tree.”
I was stunned. “That’s impossible,” I blurted. “That—that would make you—”
“A relative?” Jallis laughed. “No. I did some digging, and I found out that my father acquired that piece. It’s not a family heirloom. I know, I was horrified too, at first.”
“I’m glad to know I haven’t been kissing my cousin,” I said dryly. A wave of relief slid off my shoulders—I hadn’t actually slept with Jallis, but it would have been awful if I had only to find out we were related. “But…won’t your parents be angry?”
Jallis shrugged. “I’ll deal with them, if they even find out it’s missing.” He closed my hand over the hilt in the center of the weapon. “Zara, I know how much this has to mean to you. It’s the only surviving link you have to your parents. I want you to have it, please.”
“Thank you.” I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat. “This…it really does mean a lot.”
Jallis smiled. “I know it does.”
We locked gazes, and that warm feeling spread through me, like I’d unexpectedly swallowed a mouthful of mead. Jallis’s eyes softened, and I felt the same stirring of desire I had back in his family library, when he’d kissed me. It would be so easy to let him walk me back to the Treasure Trove, and take him up to my room…
“Jallis.” I took a breath. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I love it when conversations start like this.”
I laughed, despite myself. “It’s just…I like you, a lot. More than I should,” I said to him with a rueful smile. “But even though we’ve had some good times together, the truth is, we haven’t known each other that long. I just don’t want to lead you on, or give you false expectations, especially after what you went through with Aria.”
“I get it.” I expected Jallis to be hurt, even angry, but he only smiled. “You don’t want to commit, and that’s okay. I’m not going to demand anything you’re not ready to give. I’ve already been on the receiving end of that flow, and it didn’t go well.”
I gave a sigh of relief.
With that out of the way, we left the tavern together, heading back to the shop. My spirits were high as I stepped out into the night. I was eager to get to my workbench so I could unwrap the dragon blade and examine it further. Maybe it would offer some clues as to my parentage.
“You don’t have to walk me home, you know,” I said as we turned a corner. “I can get back on my own.” Jallis couldn’t stay—he had to get back to Dragon’s Table, and it would be faster if he went directly from the tavern.
“I know.” Jallis slipped his hand into mine. “But I want to.”
My grin was cut short by the sound of a blade whizzing through the air. “Watch out!” Jallis cried, shoving me aside. The throwing knife stuck fast into the wall a few feet away from me, exactly where I would have been if Jallis hadn’t pushed me away.
“Looks like she’s got a knight in shining armor to protect her, boys,” a gravelly voice said. Four men stepped from the shadows, all carrying clubs and blades. “It’s a good thing I brought a few extra for this job.”
“Who are you?” Jallis demanded, drawing the sword at his hip. “What do you want?”
“Why does it matter?” the leader said, brandishing his own blade. “You won’t be needing my name six feet beneath the ground.”
He lunged at me, and I brought the dragon blade up to parry his blow. I grunted as his blade came down on mine, but managed to push him to the side. A second man came, bringing his club down, but Jallis was suddenly there, his back against mine as he caught the blow with his own weapon.
In wordless agreement, we solidified our stances, back to back as we faced off our attackers. My dragon blade whirled, the blades elongating and retracting as I needed them to, and I parried and sliced, thrust and blocked. The first attacker went down as my blade sliced his abdomen open, his guts spilling beneath him in the street. The second stumbled back, his throat slashed, then slumped against the wall, his lifeblood sloshing down the front of his shirt.
It was a bloodbath.
“We need to get out of here!” I yelled as Jallis felled the last man. Grabbing his arm, I yanked him into an alley, and we ran for our lives. The sound of shouts and rushing footsteps echoed behind me, and I knew the Muncies would happen upon the scene any second.
Jallis and I didn’t speak for a long time as we raced through the streets, taking a zigzag route back to the Treasure Trove. I wished I could take to the rooftops, but I didn’t know if Jallis was any good at rooftop running, and now wasn’t the time to teach him. Several times we flattened ourselves against dirty walls in dark alleyways or crouched behind trash cans to avoid the Muncies, our hearts pounding and our palms sweaty. It was a good hour before we finally made it back to the Treasure Trove.
“Okay,” Jallis said, leaning against the sofa in my apartment. His eyes were wide, his skin flushed, his forehead glistening with perspiration. “Now that we’ve successfully cheated death, do you want to tell me what the fuck that was all about?”
“It’s a long story,” I said warily.
Jallis barked a laugh. “I’ve got plenty of time to hear it,” he said, gesturing to his bloody clothes. “It’s not like I can go anywhere dressed like this, can I?” He pushed a hand through his sweaty hair. “Dammit, Zara. I thought the first time I killed someone was going to be in battle. Not on a dark street in the middle of the city.”
“I’m sorry you had to stain your hands with peasant blood,” I snapped, then immediately regretted my words. His face went white, his hands fisting at his sides. “That may have been uncalled for.”
Jallis shook his head. “Just tell me what’s going on, Zara. The truth.”
“Okay.” I let out a long breath. “Rhia told you about why I went up to steal the dragon egg, right?”
Jallis nodded. “To save your friend’s brother. But what does that have to do with this?”
“There’s more to the story,” I told him. “I didn’t tell Rhia this. I haven’t told anyone about this except for Carina. But I didn’t go up to Tavarian’s estate to steal the dragon egg. I went to steal a piece of the World Eater’s heart.”
Jallis snorted. “Come on, Zara. I told you to tell me the truth.”
“I am telling you the truth!”
He stared at me, and I knew the moment realization dawned on him. “Dragon’s balls,” he whispered. “We were researching this in my family library. Is that why you asked? Because you’re still trying to steal it?”
“No!” I shouted, then winced at the sound of my too-loud voice. “No.
I mean, I don’t know. I’ve been trying to find out more information about it. The man who wanted me to steal it, he scooped me off the streets and raised me. He taught me almost everything I know. He’s convinced that Tavarian is collecting the pieces of heart so he can summon the dragon god back from the dead. But I’m not so sure.”
Jallis’s jaw dropped. “Tavarian, summon the dragon god? I always thought there was something uncanny about him, but I didn’t think he was crazy.”
“I didn’t either,” I said. “But I used my senses the last time I was there, and I found the piece of heart. It’s buried on his island, which means Salcombe, my mentor, was right. He has at least one.”
“That’s impossible.” Jallis gripped his temples, as if he were trying to stave off a headache. “None of the dragon riders are supposed to have them. They were all hidden away by mage families.”
“That’s exactly why Salcombe thinks he’s collecting them for nefarious purposes,” I said. “But I wanted to be sure, so I put out a call saying that I had another piece of the heart, and that interested buyers should send their inquiries to the Blue Daffodil.”
“The bar we were at?” Jallis asked. “Ah. So that’s what those letters were about.”
Nodding, I pulled the crumpled letters from inside my jacket and tossed them onto the table. “There’s one in there that’s pretty threatening. The writer said that if I tried to sell the heart to anyone else, he’d come after me and/or my friends. He also said he’d set up a meeting, but I think it was a lie. I think he sent those thugs after me to kill me and then steal the heart from wherever I’d supposedly hidden it.”
“Except that they didn’t kill you,” Jallis said. “Do you have any idea who sent the letter?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t look like Tavarian’s handwriting, either.”
“And yet he’s the only one we know who has a piece of heart,” Jallis said flatly. “The only one we know of who had motive to send those guys after you tonight.”
I sighed. “That’s what it looks like.”
“Okay.” Jallis folded his arms. “What are we going to do about it, then?”
I raised my eyebrows. “We?”
He laughed. “I just killed two men, Zara. As far as I’m concerned, I’m in the thick of it now. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“There is,” I said slowly, a plan forming in my mind. “But you’re not going to like it.”
17
“This is crazy!” Rhia shouted over the wind. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this!”
I glanced sideways at Rhia, smirking. She was astride Ykos, her hair streaming behind her as she gripped the pommel of her mount’s saddle. “I didn’t talk you into it,” I shouted back. “You invited yourself along.”
“Yeah, well, if I was going to roll out of my warm bed to help you get off Dragon’s Table without being seen, then I sure as hell wasn’t going to be left behind while you two have all the fun.”
“Is it too late to take your place?” Jallis asked, half-joking. “I bet the sheets are still warm. You and Zara should be able to manage fine without me.”
I smacked his arm, and he chuckled. The sound alleviated some of the nerves knotting in my stomach, but I was still ridiculously nervous. This plan was half-cocked at best, a nightmare at worst, and we’d managed to get off Dragon’s Table without being seen—a feat unto itself.
“How did you manage to haul the saddles out of the stable without being stopped?” Jallis asked Rhia.
“I bribed one of the stable hands into helping me,” she called back. “He’s under the impression that my secret lover and I are going out for a midnight ride.” She waggled her eyebrows at us.
I snorted. Because the bond between dragon and rider was so strong, I was able to send a message to Rhia via Lessie, who had transmitted it to her via Ykos. Without getting into details, I told her to grab Kadryn’s tack and get him saddled near the cliffs where Lessie had practiced, where we could take off without being seen. The dragons were allowed to go to and from the stables as they pleased—there was no containing them, after all—so the guards would think nothing of seeing a couple of dragons roaming the fields or even flying a few lazy circles in the sky. It was us, the riders, that were the tricky part.
In addition to saddles, Rhia had also brought a pair of black trousers and a sweater for Jallis to reduce our chances of being spotted on Kadryn’s back. I’d already changed my clothes prior to leaving my apartment, and we’d burned Jallis’s bloodstained coat so we wouldn’t leave any evidence behind.
Lessie, of course, had been annoyed at being left behind, but I couldn’t risk flying her again without a saddle. There was no Aria around to shoot me out of the sky this time, but my near-death experience had told me how foolish I was. At least this way, with Jallis to hold onto me, my chances of falling off and cracking my skull open on the rocks were greatly reduced.
“Okay,” Jallis said in a low voice, his breath warm against my chilled ear. “We’re coming in.”
A wordless exchange passed between Kadryn and Ykos, and the two dragons dove into the clouds, heading beneath the island. Our plan was to approach from below, rather than above, to avoid the watchful eyes of any guards or servants. Thankfully we didn’t need to land anywhere near the mansion itself, but we didn’t want to risk being spotted from the air.
We landed smoothly, touching down in a clearing in the middle of a thickly wooded area. The forest was deathly quiet as we dismounted, the night creatures gone silent in the presence of the dragons, the ultimate predators.
“All right,” Rhia said. “Where to now?”
“Hang on.” I closed my eyes and opened my senses. Immediately, that GONG reverberated in my skull, giving me an instant headache. I had to deliberately turn down the signal to avoid a migraine, but even so, the headache didn’t go away. Tension knotted at the base of my skull, in my shoulders, twisting my stomach.
“It’s this way.”
Rhia and Jallis followed me, their boots crunching as they stepped on sticks and rocks strewn across the dirt path. I doubted there were any guards patrolling the woods here, but even so, their loud footsteps made me cringe. I was used to being able to move stealthily, without making a sound, but Jallis and Rhia were my friends. They didn’t deserve to be left behind.
We hiked for a good hour, up and down steep hills, until we found ourselves in a small vale. The gong was so loud in my head that, even with my inner sense turned as low as I could manage it, my brain felt like it was rattling around in my skull.
“Zara, are you all right?” Jallis asked, reaching out to touch my shoulder. “You look like you’re in pain.”
“I’m fine,” I ground out. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“Get what over with?”
I froze at the familiar voice, soft as the night wind whispering around us. Cold as the ice that froze my blood with fear. My heart plummeted as Captain Marcas stepped out from behind a boulder, and with him, Lord Tavarian.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” I blurted.
“Is it not?” Tavarian stepped forward. The moonlight bathed his black hair in silver, transforming his eyes into mercurial flames. He was angry, I realized—the emotion poured from him in waves, even though his expression was as implacable as ever. “Did you and your friends simply sneak onto my estate for a late-night stroll? Or did you come out here, far away from the creature comforts of my mansion, looking for something?”
I swallowed against the ball of fear in my throat. What should I say? Did I dare reveal to Tavarian that I knew where the piece of heart was? That it was buried just ten paces away, deep in the dirt? But then, he had to know, didn’t he?
“Well?” Captain Marcas barked, startling me. “Speak up, Miss Kenrook. What are the three of you doing out here?”
“I think Lord Tavarian already knows what we’re doing here,” Jallis said, stepping forward. He bravely met Tavarian’s gaze as he shielded me with hi
s body. “We know you’ve been collecting pieces of the dragon god’s heart. And we know you’ve got one buried here. You can try to silence us, try to kill us all, but people will ask questions. You can’t sweep all of our deaths under the rug.”
“You think that I’m going to kill you?” Tavarian asked, sounding thunderstruck.
“You already tried tonight, didn’t you?” Jallis accused. “Four men jumped us in an alley tonight because they thought we had a piece of the heart! Who else would have sent them but you?”
Tavarian pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” he said tightly. “But it would appear you have a lot of explaining to do, Miss Kenrook.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Rhia said before I could respond. “Although his wording is vague, so I don’t know what exactly he’s claiming ignorance about.”
Captain Marcas frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Rhia’s talent is discerning truth from lies,” I said shortly. I pinned Tavarian with a frank stare. “Let me be more specific, then. Did you send men to kill me tonight?”
Tavarian raised his eyebrows. “You presume to interrogate me?”
“Is that a yes?” I challenged.
He gave me an exasperated look. “No, I did not send anyone to kill you.”
“Great. Have you been collecting pieces of the dragon god’s heart?”
“No.”
“Do you intend to resurrect the dragon god?”
“No.”
“What is the meaning of these questions?” Captain Marcas cried, throwing up his hands. “And why are you entertaining them, Lord Tavarian?”
“Because,” he said slowly, “there is a piece of Zakyiar’s heart buried near here, and I want to know why Miss Kenrook is looking for it.”
“All truth,” Rhia confirmed in a shaky voice. Her face had gone pale, and I realized that up to this moment, she hadn’t quite believed there really was a piece of the dragon god’s heart hidden on the estate. She had hoped I was wrong.
Call of the Dragon Page 20
