by Eve Langlais
She crouched down and hugged her knees, burying her face in them, rocking. He placed a hand on her back and felt her shuddering. Probably crying. No. She couldn’t be crying. She’d survived so much. He had to fix this.
“Someone get me an axe.”
“To do what?” Lila riposted. “None of these trees are tall enough.”
The splintered remains probably wouldn’t hold up as a bridge either.
“There must be a spot that’s narrower.” Cam wrangled them back into a march, following the line of the crevice.
They got lucky a few hours later when they found a fallen tree, big and solid enough for them to span the crevice. It gave them a bridge to the other side. Then two more days of hiking, which still didn’t bring them to the border. By then, their water had run out. Most of the food, too.
Their once shining optimism turned as gaunt as their features. Despite everything, they all grimly trudged on. So tough this crew. And yet, they couldn’t go on like this. Which was why Cam called a halt at the next abandoned village they found.
The younger ones didn’t argue and piled into houses, not minding the dirt or disintegrating sheets on the bed.
He pulled Kayda and the others aside. “We won’t make it like this.”
“What else can we do?” Gorri asked. “We can’t go back.”
“I can move faster on my own.”
“You want to leave us again.” Kayda’s voice was subdued.
He could see the fear in her eyes. He didn’t care who watched. He drew her into his arms. “I have to find us some help. We’re only a few days from the Marshes. If I can get there—”
Kayda turned and walked away from him, her pace rapid. He had to jog to keep up.
“Don’t be mad.”
“I will be mad if I want to. I almost lost you once, and now you want to leave me again.”
“I’m coming back.”
“My father said the same thing.” The anguish in that statement had him leaning his forehead against hers.
“I love you, Kay.”
“Then don’t leave.”
“If I don’t go, then everyone will die.”
“Stay at least until morning,” she pleaded.
As if he could resist.
They chose a house that had long ago lost any semblance of a bed, but they didn’t care. They were frantic in their passion and made promises that night. Declarations of love and, if they survived, they vowed to be together forever.
“I can’t wait to be your wife,” she whispered.
He had never wanted anything more in his life. Their bodies intertwined for sleep. A deeper rest than he would have expected given the hard floor.
A rumble woke him.
He jolted. which woke Kayda. “What is that?”
He almost didn’t dare to believe, so rather than reply, he stumbled to his feet, slotting the weapons in reach before heading outside. In the light of dawn, he could see a cloud of dust heading for the village.
One by one, the remaining crew of the Necropolis ranged themselves behind him. When the many vehicles—a mishmash of parts and shielding—came to a stop, someone jumped out.
Given the helmet and outfit, he wasn’t sure of the identity until Casey shouted, “Cam! You fucking asshole! I am going to kill you for running off like that.”
There was a collective gasp at his back and a sharp chill to the air.
But Cam laughed. “Am I ever glad to see you.”
“Oh, Cam.” Casey, who never cried, showed signs of shiny eyes, only briefly glimpsed through her visor before she was on him demanding a hug.
The temperature dropped all at once. Was it him, or did the ground suddenly frost? Not a bad thing, as it seemed to hold down the ash.
“Who is this?” Kayda asked, her tone quite glacial.
Which was when it occurred to Cam to introduce them. “My sister, Casey.”
“And who is this?” Casey asked, appraising Kayda.
“The ash princess,” Kayda said, holding out her hand. “His fiancée.”
The look on Casey’s face? Priceless.
It was a crowded trip back to Eden, but Casey and the convoy of four other trucks sent out to locate him and the source of the problems made do, wedging bodies where they could fit.
The children exclaimed as they got sight of their first greenery. Squealed when Casey made them bathe at the first river they ran into before they went any farther.
The day after, Kayda spent a moment outside Eden’s walls, staring upwards at the vastness of it. “I can’t believe I’m here.”
At the time, he’d thought she referred to her freedom.
But as the days passed in Eden, he could see something was wrong with her. Could feel it in himself and even most of the crew.
He addressed it that night. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing.”
Cam leaned on the crenellations overlooking the marsh. The air was moist and warm. “It’s different here from the caves and the base.”
“It’s nice,” she said, but not convincingly.
“Nice, but it’s not home.” He glanced at her. He’d known something was wrong, and now that he’d said aloud, he finally understood the problem. “You want to go back.” A part of him had expected this from the moment he’d heard Gellie ran rather than get on the transport.
“I don’t know how we can. There might still be some stray dragons. And no food and—”
“Let’s do it.”
“Do you think we can?” The air tickled with suspended ice that melted on skin.
“We won’t know until we try.”
“I love you, Cam!” She hugged him close and kissed him.
And he’d found his purpose again. Making sure that love never died.
Epilogue
In a land once more covered in cold and ice…
Clad in a cloak of dragon leather lined in soft fur, Cam stood on the peninsula, no longer shivering in the arctic wind. The heavy garment around his shoulders was a strange thing for him to wear. A man who’d grown up in the often blistering Wasteland, then the humid heat of the marshes, and now? He was the bloody consort to a queen in the Diamond Kingdom of ice.
And he’d never been happier.
Behind him, he could hear banging and yelling. The music of rebuilding. It turned out more pockets of people had survived than expected.
When the ash stopped falling and the majority of the dragons followed the lava back into the Earth, the citizens of Diamond emerged. Pale. Grief stricken. But hopeful.
Once they realized someone had taken charge, a queen who had survived with them and had a hand in their liberation, they pitched into the task of carving out a new home from the ruins of the old. This was a kingdom that needed every helping hand it could get.
“You beat me here!” Kayda exclaimed.
Her voice didn’t surprise. His attunement to her presence was stronger than any bond he’d ever had with his sister.
Kayda ducked under his cloak to snuggle into his side. Not for warmth, he’d discovered, but because she liked being close to him. Craved him as much as he craved her.
“Any reason why we’re out here?” he asked.
“You’ll see,” was her mysterious reply.
Squawk.
Hearing Gellie, he half turned to grin at the not so small dragon, who’d bravely followed them into danger and then managed to stay safe until they came back to find him. He’d grown in that time. Kayda hadn’t been kidding when she said he needed room and ice to mature.
As if to make up for lost time, the dragon had multiplied in size—which caused some issues with the refugees who returned to the Cloudring.
Gellie’s existence required a proclamation to the citizens of Diamond and a warning to all newcomers that the ice dragon known to be a friend of the queen would not be harmed. Not that it proved necessary after a while, given Gellie’s good nature soon won them over.
The dragon came waddling over to the
m and trumpeted again, nudging both Cam and Kayda with his large snout.
“Easy there, big boy. You here for the surprise, too?” Cam asked, stroking him.
Trill.
Kayda had a mischievous grin. “Actually, he is the surprise. Show him, Gellie.”
Trumpet-doo. Gellie ran for the edge of the cliff, and Cam’s heart almost stopped. He’d grown fond of the little—erm, giant—bugger. At the last moment, wings that used to be stunted snapped open and the dragon leaped.
Cam stopped breathing for a second until he saw Gellie wouldn’t plummet. The dragon coasted on the currents and bugled happily.
“Well, shit. He can fly. When did he learn that?”
“Don’t you mean how?” She glanced at him. “Turns out not all of the ice dragons died. While you were visiting your sister last month”—the longest two weeks of his life without his Kayda—“I found a cave under the third spire that had been sealed shut. And inside—"
At that moment, a second dragon came plummeting from the sky, and Cam almost shouted a warning until Gellie rolled on his back and uttered a trilling laugh. Moments later there were five of them in the skies. Five ice dragons. One for each of the spires.
“I’ll be damned,” Cam breathed. “Our family just got bigger.”
“And soon to add two more.” She placed his hand on her belly. “Apparently twins run in your family.”
“Babies?”
“Your babies and they’re going to need us to be strong,” she said softly. “They are so lucky to get you as a father.”
He squeezed her close. “It’s me who is blessed.” He’d finally found his place in the world, and he’d do anything to protect it.
Somewhere in the world, a sightless crone cackled and rolled some bones. “You there. Yes, you, reading this book. Don’t be thinking you can escape your fate. New Earth isn’t done with the likes of you. Ozz might be saved, but there’s a whole world out there in need of valiant hearts and deviant minds.”
* * *
Author’s Note: Diving into an alternate world has been one of the most exciting projects I’ve done in a while. The intricacies of the different kingdoms and the perceptions based on where the people came from proved challenging. But if you made it to book six, then I hope that means you’ve loved the journey as much as I did.
Maybe enough to visit it again because I, for one, am now curious… What about the Ruby Kingdom? And the islands? What lies on the other side of the world? Guess there is only one way to find out. Poke me and demand some more Deviant Future stories…and maybe, just maybe, we’ll see where this world takes us next.
Looking for more books! You’ll find plenty at EveLanglais.com
