by Jaymin Eve
Where was their territory?
As the dragons surged forward, we crossed closer to the water world, which was … House of Royale – I recognized some of those blond students, some with hair so white it was a blinding beacon on top of their heads. They were taking turns to dive into the water, graceful despite the fact the platform was quite a ways up from the water. I blinked a few times, then more rapidly as I caught glimpses of scales as they disappeared below the surface. Jero must have caught my fiftieth gasp for the day.
“They’re mermaids,” I said.
He tweaked my nose. “Good try, doll, but we call them Caramina. Cara means ‘tail’ or ‘appendage’ in our original language. Which roughly translates to ‘tailed folk.’”
Sounded like a mermaid to me.
I tried to see the final house, the one made up of the sector of trees. That had to be the Leights. There were only a few of them left on the platform. I hadn’t seen their house at school before, so I tried to catch all the details I could. They had dark skin, varying in shades from light brown to a beautiful ebony. They also had long hair, most calf-length or longer, thick and wavy. I was immediately envious. There didn’t look to be a single strand of frizz or fuzz, despite their waves.
So unfair.
I strained to see what their special gifts were, but just as one stepped toward the end of the platform, the dragons changed direction, and then all I could see were the billion-plus trees that made up their land. The dragons moved fast, their powerful wings pulling us with great speed through the sky. I lost sight of the platform completely, focusing on the world below. The mountain ranges were vast, rising and climbing in no discernible pattern. The weather was quite mild, but it looked cold in some areas below.
“You don’t have clouds?” I asked, keeping my voice low. I had not missed all the questioning looks I was getting from the other House of Darken members, some of them downright hostile, but I was too busy enjoying my first ever trip to an alternate world to really care.
Star let out a light giggle, the sweet sound drifting along the air. “Clouds are fascinating. I really enjoyed seeing them.”
I couldn’t help but snort, a far less sweet a sound. “Astoria is the perfect place to see clouds, although not really the fluffy white variety. More mean and stormy.”
She hadn’t answered my question, and even though I really wanted to know – the emerald sky was untouched by no other color or object that I could see – I didn’t want to ask again.
Jero came to my rescue. “No clouds. It doesn’t rain here. Water comes from other sources.”
The way he stumbled over the word water, I wondered if it was different here, maybe called something else.
So I asked him.
He shook his head, that caramel-streaked hair tumbling across his forehead. Piercing blue eyes locked on me, eyes I could no longer call sky blue, since their sky was emerald. “It has the same sort of properties as water, but it doesn’t exactly taste the same. It will keep you healthy, though, so don’t worry.”
“What do you call it?” I knew it wasn’t going to be water.
“Water,” he said drily.
I snorted again, so ladylike. “Well … I did not see that coming.”
Jero cracked up then. He might not have been able to move his feet, but his hands worked fine as he alternated between laughing at me and ruffling my hair. “I’m just messing with you, pumpkin. We call it legreto, liquid life.” Their accent was so beautiful that even English resembled poetry when they spoke it. Then they had to up it by using their native language, which literally sounded like music on their lips.
Damn them.
Legreto. I let the word roll around my mind; it rolled so smoothly off Jero’s tongue that part of me wanted to speak it out loud. I was just opening my mouth when a set of dark eyes met mine, dark eyes with twilight twinkling strongly within them. Lexen had been quiet since greeting his dragon … friend. I hadn’t forgotten that he was an overlord, whatever that was here, and all of the reverent looks that he received made a lot more sense. He was important.
“Your hair!” I had a sudden realization. “The symbols are the same that were on the platform.”
I knew they had seemed familiar. I found myself staring at the intricate symbols etched into the side of his hair, just the one side, which somehow suited him perfectly. “What do they mean?”
He grimaced, reaching up to touch them. “They’re a cage of my position. Unique messages, written in the old language. All of the overlords have them. Mine formed at birth, so I’m next in line for whenever my father steps down.”
“Can a woman be an overlord?” I asked, wondering if this was a patriarchal society.
All of them nodded. “Yep,” Star said, sounding proud. “Sometimes there are multiple children born with the marks. Sometimes there are none and then the houses will vote for their next overlord.”
“Those who are voted in, rather than born to the position, get their symbols after their initiation,” Jero told me.
I really wanted to know what Lexen’s symbols said, but I was a little afraid it was like asking someone their weight: personal, and none of my business.
“So … what do your symbols say?” Holy shit, where was my filter? I tensed, waiting for the slap down, but it never came. Lexen wasn’t the one to answer though.
“‘Draygone Lord, Ruler of Skies,’” Star trilled. “Lexen is the first to wear the draygone lord symbol in thousands of years. Father is so proud.” She said draygone not dragon, but since they sounded similar, and no one had corrected me before, it must translate.
I thought it was a little odd that we would call the beasts something so similar, but maybe the myth of dragons on Earth actually originated from Daelighters.
Jero, Marsil, and Star all looked proud of their brother. Lexen just looked resigned, like he knew it wasn’t something he’d earned, or probably even wanted, but he was stuck with the position. Kind of like being sent to Earth, another obligation. But what did Lexen truly want? What made him happy?
Before I could dig too deeply into his psyche, the dragons started to descend, swinging in close to one of the mountains. It had to be a hundred miles wide, and almost that tall. The huge creatures weaved expertly in and out, using air currents to glide toward the base. I lifted myself, standing as tall as I could to see everything. The mountain, while looking similar in structure and shape to ours on Earth, was made of a material other than rock, more like … an opaque diamond, with swirls of color intersecting throughout. Snow caressed the top, cascading down in long stripes of white. Except…
“How do you have snow without rain?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the peak.
“The draygones,” Marsil said simply. “The draygones are responsible for most things in Darken. Always look to them first.”
“How is it you live with dragons and they don’t eat you?”
The silence was long. I had to turn from the mountain to look between them. “They don’t eat you, right?”
Jero shrugged. “It has been known to happen. I wouldn’t suggest wandering off on your own.”
I was waiting for him to laugh again, tell me he was joking. I mean, the white and black beasts pulling this carpet looked absolutely terrifyingly ferocious, but Lexen had walked right up to Qenita. ‘Dragon lord’ was making a lot more sense now.
The carpet did a huge drop then. I caught my shriek as it was about to burst from my lips. I pressed a hand to my chest; my heart thundered. We were really moving fast now, and a lot of the chatter from other Darkens died off.
“Do you think this council meeting is going to reveal anything new?” Marsil asked, his tone serious. “We haven’t even been Earthside for half the allotted time. Seems odd that they would request our return so quickly.”
I remained quiet, not wanting them to remember a stranger was in their midst. I wanted to hear this.
Lexen, who had been focused on the mountain we were approaching – we looked to b
e only halfway down its massive height – turned to his brother. “No doubt it’s to do with Emma’s guardians. If they have indeed been taken from Earth to Overworld, it’s a direct violation of the treaty. The council is not going to sit on that.”
Marsil growled, which was so odd that I had to look twice to make sure it had actually emerged from him. “This is about the Imperials.” His voice was a low rumble. “Ever since Laous became overlord … he’s up to something.”
Jero clenched his fists. “I can’t believe no one interrupted the initiation ceremony. The council has been trying to keep Laous from taking that position for years.”
“Laous was the one to propose that the overlord families send their children to Earth.” Lexen’s voice was hard. “Father only agreed because another war between the houses would be devastating. We’ve hardly started to recover from the last one.”
I was following along with about half of what they were saying, but the definite vibe was just how bad news these Imperials were. Maybe they should get those munch-happy dragons on the case. Problem solved.
We dipped again, and this time, despite whatever amazing stability magic this carpet had going on, I didn’t keep my balance. Falling forward when your feet are locked in place is not something I would recommend. For my hands to break my fall, I had to bend my knees, because flexible I am not, and then I almost ended up face-planting and snapping my ankles at the same time. Once I was down, it was impossible to get up, but at least the suction holding my feet released before my ankles actually broke off. I tumbled forward, this time landing on my face. The carpet was a thick, soft material – thank freak – so I didn’t stress too much, deciding instead to have a nap.
A nap sounded really great, actually.
“The overlord is going to love you, poppet,” Jero said, grinning broadly.
I rolled over to see him better, and also to free my arm so I could flip him off. I was surprised to find Marsil glaring at his brother. “Leave her alone. This must be a lot to take in. Remember when we first got to Earth. It was hard to adjust, and we were prepared for it.”
Ah, always such a sweetheart. I was totally keeping him.
I joined him in staring Jero down. Okay, from my current flat-on-my-back position, I was staring him up, but the glare was the same. Lexen let out a low rumble of annoyance, leaned over, and in a swift motion pulled me up to my feet. I expected him to drop me down as soon as I was vertical, but he kept me in a tight hold pressed to his body. My feet were almost on the ground but he was pretty much holding me up. Tingles raced along my skin and it was all of a sudden very hot.
His next words barely registered: “The oblong will not engage your feet again,” he said, his voice rumbly in my ear. “Not while we are in motion. I sense that you’ll not be safe standing alone.”
In an ironic twist, I actually felt safe. I hadn’t felt like this since my parents died. Despite his prickly nature, there was something solid about Lexen. About all of the Darkens. Like … I could rely on them. Which was weird considering they had kidnapped me and I had only known them for a couple of days. Even Lexen … he might hate me, but I sensed he wouldn’t let his dragons eat me.
I’d never had that sort of connection before, a bond that seemed to supersede the normal time required for trust and comfort to develop in a friendship. I mean, maybe this was a very complex form of Stockholm syndrome – I had been alone and hungry, no way to find my guardians, when the Darkens had snatched me up and deposited me in their lives, giving me the essentials I had lacked.
Don’t get attached, Emma! A last-ditch, desperate attempt to convince myself.
I had to try, because if everything went according to plan, I would find my guardians, return to Earth, and never see any of them again. It would truly be like the last page of a book. The End before I was ready for one.
Lexen continued chatting to his brother about the council and this meeting. My head was spinning a little, so in a bid to calm my mind I pressed my face into the firm chest I was being held against, breathing in the scent that clung to Lexen. It was not a smell I could give a name to, a mix of that first snow, a crisp, outdoor smell and smoky fire. I was immediately transported back to my last Christmas with my family. We always put up the tree, sang carols, had hot cocoa around the fire…
So much pain shot through my chest that I gasped, hopefully low enough that it was lost in the shirt beneath my face. I choked, holding in my next gasp, my head spinning even more than it had been. Before I could freak out, or cry, or faint – all three were possibilities – a warm hand pressed into my spine. The firmness of that touch grounded me for a second, brought me out of the horrific memories threatening to drown me. Lexen moved his hand up and down so minutely I doubted anyone else even noticed, but it was enough for my breathing to even out, syncing to the strokes.
My heartbeat slowed to a normal rate. I swallowed down the tears. No doubt we looked quite intimate, but Lexen’s bulk was hiding me from the rest of the Darkens. Only his family could see us, and they were still talking away like this was normal.
“Is she okay?” I heard Star whisper in a lull of conversation.
Okay, so they had noticed.
“She has flashbacks,” was Lexen’s short reply.
Sucking in a deep breath, I turned my head, that bittersweet scent clinging to me now. “She can talk for herself. I’m fine. Thanks, Star.”
She gave me an awkward hug, considering she couldn’t step any closer and Lexen was still holding me steady. I felt heat tinge my cheeks and ears. My blushes were usually more than a little obvious, despite my skin tone. Hopefully no one noticed, because it looked like we were about to land.
I had been expecting to land at the base of the mountain, but we actually stopped about twenty feet above the rolling green land. Then the dragons spun us three-sixty degrees so we were facing what looked like a reinforced, shimmery golden doorway carved into the side of the marbled mountain. Well, not so much a doorway as a huge barrier. Lexen, who could apparently move his feet again, handed me off to Jero and stepped to the edge of the oblong. I untangled myself since the carpet was no longer moving and I didn’t need to be carried like a child. Jero grinned down at me, ruffling my hair.
Ass.
Lexen murmured something that was not English and waved his hand. There was a grating sound and then the metallic door opened, dropping down onto the edge of the carpet. Lexen and his family stepped to the side – dragging me with them – letting everyone else leave first. The chatting Daelighters stepped into the mouth of the mountain and disappeared into the darkness.
“Do you need help?” Jero asked, donning his arrogant smile.
Unlike Lexen and me, who were stuck in our gym clothes, this particular Darken was wearing his suit and thousand dollar shoes.
“No thank you,” I said primly.
No jumping was required; the platform was at least six feet wide, so I should be safe to walk across. As long as I didn’t look down. There was a decent drop on either side. Sucking in deeply, filling my lungs with the sharp, slightly smoky air, I picked up my feet and moved. I was one of the last to cross, and my pulse rate only calmed when I was standing safely on solid mountain.
The entire student body of Darkens was moving into the cavern, which opened up into a large tunnel. I wasn’t a huge fan of tunnels, what with the chance that a billion, trillion tons of rock could fall on my head at any moment, but this one at least was wide and well ventilated. There were also plenty of lights scattered along the wall, just above my head height. I had no idea how there were lights attached to a mountain, but like everything else I didn’t understand, I was putting it in the alien technology category.
Lexen pushed through the crowd, making his way to the front. When he spoke, everyone paid attention. “When we reach the silver city, go and find your families. They will let you know the date and time for the council meeting.”
“What’s the Silver City?” I asked Star, who was leaning close to me
, her arms crossed and a slightly bored expression on her face.
“It’s the main city in Mount Draygone. There are multiple cities, situated across multiple mounts. This is the largest, and our home.”
“So this mountain is called Mount Dragon?” I clarified. “The city within it is the Silver City? And what are those lights made from?” My curiosity was apparently unsatisfied with “alien technologies.”
She chuckled, and then nudged me forward. The group had started to walk; she made sure I kept up. “To answer, yes, yes, and they are flames from the draygones. They can shoot and place a flame anywhere and it will burn forever without need of fuel or energy source. We have been blessed with many great conveniences through our bond with the majestic rulers of this land.”
Note to self: do not insult the dragons while here. They were a big deal, a very big deal.
The stone surrounding us did not change color or texture as we walked. It appeared someone had carved and polished this path, bringing the multifaceted mineral on either side to shine like the most precious of diamonds.
“How big is Overworld?” I found myself asking as I tried to map the planet in my head.
I knew there were sections, at least three, with the Imperials somewhere else, and while the land of Darken seemed vast, could it really rival Earth in size?
Jero, who had been slightly in front, dropped back. “Overworld is huge,” he said, his Discovery Channel voice kicking in. “Larger than Earth actually. Our four houses – and their lands – are part of a small sector … what you would call a country. There are lots of these sectors. Ours is called Dae. They’re all vastly different, and for the most part none of us interact. It’s forbidden to travel outside your sector.”
“So your sector is the only one who has dealings with Earth?” I asked.
Star and Jero both nodded. “Yep,” he answered. “We’re the only ones with the ability to cross to Earth, or for humans to cross to us. None of the other sectors even know about the treaty.”
