“It has to be here somewhere,” Fes said.
He continued to search but came up with nothing. Her pockets were empty.
Turning to Indra, he said, “Don’t let her get up.” He hurried over to the saddlebags and searched the horses. He found a few other dragon relics and tossed them toward Indra.
Other than that, he didn’t discover anything.
When he went back to Elizabeth, she was laughing. “Did you really think I would make it so easy? All it would take would be for you to find it while we were traveling, and—”
Fes leaped toward her and landed on her chest, driving one of his daggers into the bone of her shoulder. “You will tell me where it is!”
“Or what? You will kill me? Do you think I fear death?”
“I think that you do. You search for power, and the people I know who have searched for power are the ones who typically fear what would happen were they to have none. So yes, I think you fear death. Where is the item that controls the golem?”
She shook her head. “You will never find it.”
Indra gasped softly, and Fes glanced over. “She must have swallowed it.”
Elizabeth struggled beneath him, and he shifted, driving his knee deeper into her chest to keep her from moving. “What?”
“Swallowed it. It would be the only way that she would have it with her. Something like that won’t go through her, and it would stay with her, preventing her from ever losing contact with the golem.”
Fes squeezed his eyes shut. He hated the idea of what he might have to do, but if he didn’t, would the golem continue to attack?
“Is she telling the truth? Would the golem hunt us all down?”
“I don’t know. It’s possible,” Indra said. “My magic isn’t like that, but I don’t know what her magic is like.”
And if her magic was the kind that would allow the golem to continue to hunt, then Fes needed to get to the stone that controlled it.
And yet, he didn’t want to lose Elizabeth. Even if she couldn’t be trusted, there were things she might know that would be helpful.
“Jayell,” he said.
She shook herself free from Carter. “What?”
“Can you use any of these relics?”
Jayell looked at the collection of relics on the ground and began to pick through them. One by one, there was a gentle pressure until an increased force began to push upon Fes. “This one,” she said.
“Good. I want you to use it.”
“For what?”
“To do whatever you can to keep her alive.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Something distasteful,” Fes said.
As Elizabeth watched him, Fes withdrew one of his daggers and jabbed it into her stomach. She screamed, but he ignored it, slicing through her flesh. The dragonglass dagger made quick work of the attempt, and he reached into the wound and felt around, searching for any sign of an item that would fit the description that Indra had given him.
Fes had to suppress a gag. As he searched around, he finally came across what he was searching for. He pulled it out and held it up.
Indra leaned toward him. “That would be it.”
The item didn’t look like much. It was covered in Elizabeth’s blood, but other than that, it was a small, stone sculpture, much like Indra had described.
“How does this control the golem?”
Indra held her hand out for it.
Fes hesitated but the golem thundered toward him, so he tossed it to her. She sucked in a quick breath, and there was a surge of power that Fes felt as a cool sensation that washed over his body, and the golem stopped.
“You shouldn’t be able to do that,” Elizabeth said, her eyelids seeming heavy. She no longer struggled as she had.
“I have the dragons blessing. Anything that you can do with the golem, I can,” Indra said.
Jayell looked over at Fes. “What now?”
He took a deep breath, looking around. Carter was gone. With her went the chance to get his money back.
Swearing under his breath, he made his way over to the horse carrying the massive pack. He peeled back the covering over it and ivory bone gleamed back at him.
Fes ran his hand along the surface of the skull. As all dragon relics did, it had strange striations along the bone. Color glittered along it, blues and greens so deep that Fes felt drawn to them, almost as if he should run his hand along it. Heat radiated from the dragon skull.
“There is power within it,” Fes said.
“I never imagined I would ever see anything like it,” Jayell said. “Now that you have it, what do you intend to do with it?”
Fes took a deep breath and looked behind him. The Toulen warriors had managed to free themselves and had separated from the fire, circling around it. Adoran and Ulesn led them. Both men watched him, but to Fes, the answer as to what he should do with the dragon skull was easy.
“It has to return,” he said, looking at Indra. “Did you know that your father had brought you to the empire to attempt to barter?”
“No. He wouldn’t have done that,” Indra said.
“It’s the answer that makes sense. Speak to Adoran. Speak to Ulesn. Either of them can tell you. He intended to bargain with Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth laughed darkly. “Bargain with? The fool is the one who brought me the golem.”
Fes jerked his head and looked at her. “What?”
“He brought me the golem. I never imagined he would have shared anything more, but get a few drinks in a man, seduce him a little, and he will spill all of his secrets.” She continued to laugh. Surprisingly, Jayell kicked her, silencing her.
“Would your father have had a golem?” he asked Indra. If so, it might explain why Indra was so comfortable commanding the creature.
“I had heard of them, but I could never have imagined my father would be the one responsible for it. There is a darkness within a golem. It’s a twisting of a dragons blessing.”
Adoran approached slowly. “Are you… are you injured?”
She took a deep breath and shook her head. “No. She wanted to keep me alive. She wanted to use me.”
“Will you return her to your lands?” Fes asked.
“I will return her to her home,” Adoran said. “And her clan.”
He debated whether or not he should say anything about Theole and the golem, before deciding against it. Indra could choose whether or not she revealed that on her own.
“I will accompany you if you will allow it,” Fes said.
“Why?” Adoran asked.
“A promise I made.”
He wasn’t certain whether that promise mattered or not. But maybe it mattered more than he realized. It was possible that Theole was quite aware of what he did and regretted it. Maybe that was the reason that he had assisted Fes, and the reason that he had demanded a promise for protection. Theole might have known what was coming.
Adoran studied Fes for a long moment. “The Deshazl are always welcome within Toulen.”
“Even Deshazl who aren’t entirely sure what it means for them to be Deshazl?”
Adoran smiled slightly. “I think you are beginning to understand more than you realize. You would not have been able to defeat the fire mage had you not embraced the Deshazl part of yourself.”
Fes thought back to the way the fire burned within him and how it had helped him get free. He wasn’t entirely certain what that meant—did it mean that he had some magical ability now?—but no longer could he doubt that he was Deshazl.
“What of her?” Adoran asked, motioning toward Elizabeth. “You allowed her to live.”
“As you said, I am Deshazl, but I’m not entirely certain what that means for myself. There are answers, and it seems to me that a fire mage—especially one as powerful as she has become—might be able to provide some answers.”
“You intend to bring her with you.”
“For now.”
“It will be dangerous,” Adoran
said.
“Not as dangerous without her equipped with her relics. She is less likely to cause any trouble, and besides, we will have a fire mage traveling with us who has not insubstantial skill.” He looked over at Jayell, and she nodded. Fes needed to begin trusting her. She had proven herself, and he might need her in the days ahead.
“You intend to return to Toulen?” Jayell asked.
“Only to see Indra back to her home,” Fes said.
“Then what?”
“And then I need to see a fire mage about a boy.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
They traveled north, skirting around the outside of the dragon fields and heading toward the mountains in the distance. It was the first time that Fes could recall having traveled this way. They made their way at a leisurely pace, not pushing the horses too hard, and the Toulen warriors remained separate from Fes, Jayell, and Elizabeth. Fes didn’t blame them. They had enough heartache from what Elizabeth had done to them, enough of their warriors destroyed.
They were stopped for the night when he felt a building heat and glanced over to see Jayell sitting near the fire, holding one of Elizabeth’s dragon relics. It was a small length of bone, possibly a claw or even a finger. From where he sat, Fes could see the striations in the bone, and the firelight made it seem almost as if streaks of black emanated from the bone.
“What are you working on?” he asked.
Jayell glanced up at him, frowning. “You can tell?”
“I can tell when you begin to use a spell. What are you working on?”
“This?” She held the length of dragon bone out in front of her, twisting it in her hands. “I was trying to determine whether I had any affinity for this bone. It’s not always easy for me to tell.”
“And what have you decided?”
“I think that I do. This relic is different than some of the others I have attempted.”
“What makes you say that?” He took a seat next to her and looked down at the dragon relic. In the days since defeating Elizabeth, something within Jayell had changed, and it was more than simply her countenance. It was the way she carried herself. Fes couldn’t entirely explain what it was, only the way it felt.
“There is a strange charge to the relic. I don’t know how to explain it any differently, but I can feel it.”
“Haven’t you said that some fire mages are more partial to certain relics than others?”
She looked over at Fes, smiling. “I don’t think I made that claim. I think you made that suggestion.”
Fes laughed softly. “Can I see it?”
She shrugged and handed it over. The bone was smooth and warm, much like most of the dragon relics were when they were still active. He traced his fingers along the striations and felt something of a pattern. He hadn’t determined what the striations were caused by, and whether that was simply the natural feature of the bone or whether it came from something else.
He focused on the heat simmering within him. In the days since defeating Elizabeth, Fes had taken to trying to focus on that sensation, wanting to see if there was anything that he could master that would help him be better able to understand what that power meant. So far, he had no clear answer.
As he focused on the heat, focusing on the power, he felt a soft reverberation.
“What was that?” Jayell asked.
“You felt it?” Fes said.
“I felt something. I’m not entirely certain what it was.”
Fes stared at the piece of bone. “Maybe there is something different to this one,” he said.
It was something that he would need to ask Elizabeth about when they had a chance, but he wasn’t entirely certain that she would answer. So far, she had been selective in the questions that she answered. Fes wasn’t sure that she was as weakened as he believed. There were times when he suspected that she was not. There were times when he swore that he could feel a surge of power from her, despite the fact that she had been stabbed in the shoulders and the belly. The Toulen warriors had proven to be adept at stitching up wounds, and they had patched up Elizabeth as much as they could.
“You need to find someone who can help you understand what it means for you to be Deshazl,” Jayell said.
“I don’t know that it matters,” Fes said. “The only thing that really matters is—”
Jayell rested her hand on his arm, silencing him. “I think it does matter. I know that you don’t know whether to believe that you have any particular abilities or not, but with what you have done, and what you have shown, I think even you have to acknowledge that there is something to it.”
“I have these daggers, now the sword, and that’s about it,” he said. Even as he said it, he knew that wasn’t entirely true. He knew there was more to what he could do than what simply related to the daggers. There had to be. Mostly, Fes didn’t want to admit that to himself. It was difficult for him, and it was difficult knowing that there might be something within him, some power that he didn’t understand. A power that he might never come to fully appreciate as the people who might have been able to teach him were no longer.
“I’m willing to help you,” Jayell said. “I will work with you.”
Fes looked over at her. There was an earnestness to her that was not there before. It was almost as if the attack and everything they had gone through had changed her. There was a part of him that questioned whether she remained honest with him or whether there was more that she still hadn’t told him. It wouldn’t surprise him to learn that she still hid something from him.
Even if she did, did that matter? She had helped. Without Jayell, he would not have been able to get to Indra. Considering how he viewed things, that was enough. That had to be enough.
“We’ll see. I intend to—”
Fes didn’t have a chance to say what he intended to do. One of the Toulen warriors came thundering into the camp and Fes glanced up, looking away from the fire to see the warrior riding in. He whispered something quickly to Adoran before the other man made a motion with his hand, and within a few moments, a dozen of the Toulen warriors who remained were galloping off.
Fes made his way over to Adoran. “What was that about?”
“It is nothing.”
“Adoran. If I’m going to ride with you, the least you can do is share with me what dangers we might be facing.”
“There are no dangers. We will stay ahead of them.”
“Ahead of what?”
“Soldiers by the looks of it. Not empire troops.”
“How do you know?”
“Other than the lack of empire colors? There is less organization and many more women among them.”
Fes frowned. “Rebels?”
Adoran shrugged. “It’s possible. I don’t know much about the rebellion to be able to answer that with any certainty.”
“I rode with them for a time. Let me go with your men.”
Adoran shook his head. “You won’t be able to catch them.”
“Not with my horse.”
Adoran frowned.
“If this is the rebellion, I might be able to offer help,” Fes said. And it was possible that it might be people that Fes knew. If it was the rebellion, could Alison be with them?
He looked over at Jayell. For some reason, he felt a twinge of guilt at the idea of encountering Alison. He had gone to Horus to ask the man to send word on Fes’s behalf and then had never followed through on the help that he had requested.
“Take my horse,” Adoran said.
“I could go with you,” Jayell said.
Fes glanced back at Jayell before looking over at Adoran. “It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a fire mage—I’m sorry, a Priest of the Flame—with us.”
Adoran glanced over to the fire and the spot where they had Elizabeth chained. “You have taken everything from her that would allow her to attack?”
“As much as I could find,” Fes said.
“Then it should be fine.”
Fes grabbed the reins
of the horse and jumped into the saddle. Jayell climbed in behind him, pressing up against him. This close, the heat of her body was comforting, a sensation that he found himself surprised by. It had been a long time since he had been close with a woman. The last might have been Alison, and that had been a long time.
As they rode out into the darkness, Fes used his connection to the heat, that strange pressure that he could pick up on, to search for evidence of where the Toulen warriors had run off. It took a moment, but he began to pick up on it. When he did, he guided the horse in the direction and found the Toulen warriors stationed not far from the camp he had just left, overlooking a path leading toward it.
When Fes approached, one of the warriors looked over at him, noticing the horse, and then frowned. “Adoran should not have let you come.”
Fes didn’t know the name of this warrior but didn’t care for him. “He shouldn’t let me come out here or with you in general?”
“Adoran should not have let you come.”
Fes grunted out a laugh. “I don’t think he had much choice.”
“Do you believe that you could have overtaken all of us?”
“I had no intention of fighting all of the warriors,” Fes said. “But I did help stop the golem, so I think that counts for something.”
The warrior glared at Fes, who decided to ignore it. “What did you find?”
“Stay out of the way,” the warrior said.
“Fine. If you won’t tell me what you found, then I will ride down and see for myself.”
As he started to go, the warrior grabbed Fes’s arm and kept him from moving. “That is not safe.”
“Why would you care?” Fes asked.
The warrior frowned. “There are soldiers down there. Probably two hundred of them.”
And if there were two hundred soldiers, Fes felt even more convinced that they would have to be part of the rebellion. Why would they have come this way?
He pulled his arm free and started the horse down the rocky slope, heading toward the path far below. The Toulen warrior whispered something in a harsh tone that Fes ignored.
Dragon Blessed Page 26
