Immortal

by Nicole Conway

  The nobles that had come to wish us well on our marriage brought stories and rumors with them, some that I wished I hadn’t heard. As much as Julianna tried diligently to change the subject, steering it away from those grim details, it just couldn’t be done.

  “Six hundred head of my finest cattle had to be butchered,” Count Davron complained. “All because a few of them started showing symptoms of the madness. Such a waste.”

  “Well, didn’t you hear? Baron Wingate’s own hounds turned on his youngest boy. The poor dear is doomed to lose his arm, they say,” another gentlewoman said in a hushed voice.

  Julianna’s face began to look pasty. “And they still can’t find what’s causing all this?”

  “It must be the work of the elves. That’s what everyone believes. How else can it be explained? It smacks of dark magic and witchery.” The Count’s wife muttered from behind her feathered fan. “The king himself has declared it a national emergency. Just think of what would happen if the dragons took ill.”

  I saw Julianna take a deep breath, as though trying to steady herself. Definitely time for a distraction.

  I slipped a hand around her waist and pulled her away towards the dance floor. “Come on. I haven’t had enough of you just yet.” My diversion didn’t seem to convince her, though. She knew me too well.

  As soon as we were alone, dancing to a slow waltz, she hit me with the full force of those worried, but lovely eyes. “Is that true? Could the dragons turn, too?”

  “Dragons are smarter than cows and dogs, Jules,” I assured her. “You really think Nova would try to hurt me?”

  She didn’t answer, but the troubled furrow in her brow told me she wasn’t so sure.

  Frankly, neither was I. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to happen—maybe something to do with the dream Jaevid had …

  I stopped myself there. I couldn’t let myself get caught up in that, not yet, not until I had some facts. I didn’t know if my dream was real or not, but most importantly, I didn’t know if Jae was alive.

  “What is it?” Julianna was staring up at me pleadingly.

  I almost didn’t tell her, but then I thought better of it. “There was this time, when we were in training as dragonriders, I asked Jae to talk to Nova. When he did, he said that she was afraid; that she and the other dragons could tell something was coming—something bad. I just wonder if this is what he meant.”

  She squeezed my hand tightly. “Felix, if the dragons turn … if they catch this madness.”

  “I know,” I said. “There won’t be anything we can do to stop them.”

  We finished our dance without saying another word, both of us imagining the horrors of what might be coming. The waltz ended and I escorted her to get a drink.

  We never made it to the punch bowl.

  One of the king’s elite guards, wearing that eerie, expressionless, white mask over his face, stepped into our path. He bowed and gestured to the open doorway that led out into the candlelit gardens behind my estate.

  “His majesty requests a private audience with you, my lord.” His voice sounded young, but it was muffled behind the mask’s thin mouth hole. Something about it was strangely familiar. “May I offer myself as a substitute escort for the lady until you return?”

  Julianna was looking him over like she was trying to decide if she should run or not. The masks freaked her out—or so she’d told me. I had to agree with her. And after that encounter with the Lord General, I didn’t trust any of them as far as I could throw them.

  But what choice did I have? You didn’t say no to the king.

  “Right,” I answered stiffly, and passed Julianna’s hand over to him. “See that you take good care of her.”

  The guard bowed again, much lower this time, and Jules shot me a dirty look over her shoulder. Crap. I was definitely gonna hear about this later. I’d just have to make it quick.

  I found the king standing alone before the burial site I’d erected for Jae. He looked small and fragile, hunched over a bejeweled cane as he eyed the large statue through the holes in his golden mask. He’d come dressed for the party, although I’d yet to see him talk to anyone. Come to think of it, I hadn’t even seen him come inside.

  “I hear you brought quite the entourage with you.” I spoke loudly, giving away my approach as I went to stand next to him. “I didn’t realize engagement parties warranted that kind of security.”

  “One can never be too careful,” he rasped, not taking his gaze away from the statue.

  “Were you expecting to meet an enemy here?” I decided to press my luck by not letting the subject drop without an answer.

  He wobbled some as he turned to face me. “I wasn’t sure who I would meet, based on what I’ve heard about your recent struggles. They say you went mad.”

  I stiffened. “Never mad enough to try assaulting a king.”

  He chuckled, which was an uncomfortably thin, dry sound. “Fair enough.”

  “You’ll have to pardon my rudeness, but I have a bride waiting on my return. I was told there was something you wanted to talk to me about?”

  He wasn’t in a hurry to get on with it, which was beyond frustrating. I watched him sigh, nod his head a few times, and turn back to face the statue of Jae and Mavrik looming before us. “Do you know why no one speaks my name anymore?”

  “No, your majesty.”

  “It was at my own request. All those years ago, as I buried what remained of my family—my progeny—I asked that no one in the kingdom ever speak my name again, because I buried myself with them that day. I had to, you see, in order to become someone terrible enough to carry out the vengeance they deserved.”

  I swallowed uncomfortably. “I see.”

  “I believe we must all do that, in some form, in order to be reborn. Names have unimaginable power—not just for the person bearing them. Just think of what power your own name, Duke Farrow, possesses now. It garners respect, fear, and admiration from your subordinates.” He stopped there and peered at me through the holes in his golden mask. “What does the name Lord General mean to you?”

  My heart took a swan dive into the pit of my stomach. Gods … did he know about what happened fledgling year? My mind raced, and in a matter of seconds I decided to play as dumb as I could. “I know you’ve yet to name a successor to the one that met with an unfortunate death a few years ago.”

  “Yes. I take the name of Lord General especially seriously. Such a person would be my right hand. It would have to be someone I felt I could trust unconditionally to be faithful to my every command. Someone who has sworn himself to me completely. Only then would they be granted all the power that name warrants,” he said. “Surely you can see why it would take me some time to find an appropriate replacement.”

  “Of course.” I dared to take a breath and let myself relax again.

  “To be my right hand would give you power you cannot imagine. There would not be a single door in this kingdom that would not open for you. Nothing would be beyond your reach. Command of every dragonrider in my service would be yours.”

  “The way you’re talking,” I interrupted. “It almost sounds as though you’re offering me the job.”

  “And if I was?”

  His words hung in the air between us. Me become the next Lord General? The offer was tempting. Beyond tempting, really. Even if I hadn’t given up the saddle, thinking of what it would be like to lead—to achieve the highest rank a dragonrider could ever have in his lifetime … It had me star-struck for a moment.

  “Of course, this would only be possible if you were to swear yourself to me eternally,” he added. “It would be an oath far more significant than the one that put you in my service previously. But the rewards would be great. You would be privy to the ancient secrets of magic known only to royalty—knowledge I’ve never entrusted to anyone else.”

  “And that’s all I have to do? Promise myself to you?” It sounded too
good to be true.

  “Yes. There would be a certain ritual, of course, to make sure that you kept your word. But since I have no doubt that a man like you would stand by his word until death, it would be purely a formality.” His voice sounded different, as if he were smiling behind that mask. “What do you say, Duke Farrow? Are you the dragonrider destined for the title of Lord General?”

  PART TWO

  JAEVID

  It’s not an easy thing to do—asking people to betray their kingdom, put their lives and the safety of their families at stake, and murder the man they call king. So I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t get a standing ovation at the end of my long explanation as to why we had to do it. Everyone was gathered around me, mute and wide-eyed, in the light from the kitchen hearth in my home in Mithangol. One-by-one, they began drifting away without a word. At last, the only people left sitting beside me at the kitchen table were Kiran, Beckah, her father Sile, and Felix.

  It was going to take some time for this news to sink in. It’s not every day you learn that your king is actually a traitorous, murdering imposter who’s been waging a genocidal war based on nothing but jealousy and bitterness. Unfortunately, time was not something we had a lot of.

  “So that’s why he always wears a mask,” Beckah whispered, thinking aloud. “To hide the fact that he isn’t human at all.”

  “It’s to hide much more than that,” I replied. “But yes, I suppose that’s true as well.”

  “None of this makes any sense, Jae.” Felix was shaking his head. “I want to believe you. I really do. But do you seriously want us to believe you’re the embodiment of this pagan elf god?”

  I sat back in my chair and let my hands drop into my lap. If only it was that simple. “I never said that. Paligno chose me to act in his place. That’s the reason I have these abilities—the only reason I’ve ever been able to do these things. He’s given me power and authority over the creatures of the earth with the understanding that I am to carry out his will.”

  “And now he’s commanded you to kill the King of Maldobar?” Felix sounded more skeptical with each passing minute.

  I frowned down at the tabletop. “He’s asked me to restore the balance to nature—to put the stone back in its proper resting place. If you think you know a way to get Hovrid to surrender it peacefully, then by all means share it.”

  “There is no other way,” Sile said suddenly.

  Everyone looked at him. Even I was surprised.

  “He can’t be reasoned or bargained with. Either we do this, or we stand by and watch him wipe out all that remains of the gray elf race while Paligno’s curse continues to spread and ravage this world and destroy everyone else left in it.” Sile fixed me with a grim stare. “I’ve spent a lot of time looking for some other means to put an end to this. Hovrid himself has tried to appease and manipulate the stone by using blood sacrifices. There is no alternative, either Hovrid dies or we all do. It’s that simple.”

  A stifling silence settled over us. I didn’t know what else to say to them. I couldn’t do this without their help, and yet nearly everyone had wandered off without any indication as to whether or not they believed a word I’d said. Not even my half-brother, Roland, had hung around to ask any follow-up questions.

  “You look tired. You know, some of us came a very long way to see you. I’m sure we could all do with a night’s sleep to clear our thoughts.” Under the table, Beckah took my hand. She must have been able to tell I was fighting that sinking feeling of failure. If she’d only known it was so much more than that.

  I nodded. Next to me, Felix puffed a loud, exhausted sigh. Sile still looked deeply aggravated as he got up, rubbing the back of his neck, and headed for the stairs.

  I watched him go and silently marveled at everything he’d seen and done. I believed I knew the majority of it now. He’d spent a large portion of his life trying to clean up the mess my father had made when he stole the god stone from the gray elves. So much of his sweat, blood, and time that could have been spent with his family had been invested in one thing—one chance at atonement for Ulric’s mistake.

  And I was that chance.

  In some respects, I imagined that had been fairly disappointing for him. Especially when we first met, before I’d hit the gray elf version of puberty and started looking less like a sickly, child-sized skeleton. I wondered if he’d questioned his own sanity when he volunteered to take me on as my sponsor and instructor. Any other sane person would have.

  It wasn’t until that moment that I realized there was a lot more furniture in my house than there had been when I left. Rather, I’d left it nearly bare because Ulric and my stepmother had all but pried up the floorboards and took them along with them when they moved out. Now there were pictures on the freshly painted walls, parlor chairs perched near the fire, wool rugs on the floor, and new curtains on the windows.

  Beckah had a knowing grin on her lips, like she’d been waiting for me to notice. “Well, you did say my parents could move in here if things got complicated. After your funeral, when we all thought you’d died, we moved here in secret.”

  “It looks good with a woman’s touch,” I said. “I’m not much of a decorator.”

  “My mother said it was the cleanest house she’d ever been in.” Beckah giggled and nudged my shoulder with hers. “I told her about all the furniture you made. Now she’s determined to pay you to make a crib for the baby.”

  I smiled. “I suppose when this is all over I could give it a try. I won’t have her paying me for it, though.”

  “Well, you know, after this is over, you might find occasion to make lots of cribs,” she mumbled and avoided my eyes. I could have sworn her cheeks looked a little red.

  I started blushing, too.

  “I think I might puke.” Across the table, Felix smirked from ear to ear. “A whole flock of pointy-eared lady dragonriders running around. Just what we need.”

  I blushed harder. I’d forgotten he was still sitting there.

  “Oh shut up. You’re the one getting married in a month. To the girl you’ve been bullying all your life, no less. I’m tempted to ask if you held her down and threatened to spit in her eye if she didn’t say yes.” Beckah fired right back without hesitation.

  “Wait, you’re getting married?” I couldn’t believe it. It had to be a joke. “To who?”

  Beckah batted her eyes sarcastically in Felix’s direction. “Julianna Lacroix.”

  My jaw dropped. “Wait—that Julianna? From the officer’s ball?”

  Felix’s ears were beginning to turn red. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s not make a big deal of it, okay?”

  A big deal? Last time I’d checked, he absolutely hated Julianna. She was the only girl he’d ever taken special care to warn everyone away from. He’d almost single-handedly made sure no one would dance with her at any ball.

  “You really think I’m just going to drop it after everything you—”

  Beckah cut me off, “Oh, Jae, he’s been holding out on you. He’s been engaged to her for years. Since they were children, even.”

  Now Felix’s whole head was red. He looked like a beet wearing a shaggy blonde wig. “I’m going to bed,” he grumbled as he stormed away from the table.

  “Humans,” Kiran muttered under his breath. He didn’t look amused.

  “I should go help get the beds ready,” Beckah announced, as she stood up as well. “It’s going to be close quarters, housing so many. We’ll have to put pallets out on the floor. My parents want you to have your room back, though.”

  I tugged at her wrist to stop her. “No, please tell them to keep it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I don’t sleep much these days, anyway.”

  Kiran cast me a meaningful look. “Paligno has a lot to say?”

  “Always. Seems like my loyalty is in question—as though he’s afraid I’ll lose my nerve.” It was strange to talk about my dreams so openly. I’d never
been able to do that before. Not without worrying that people would think I was out of my mind.

  Beckah brushed her fingers over my cheek. “You’ll do what’s right. You always do. Even when the courage of everyone around you is failing.”

  Across the table, Kiran cleared his throat noisily. Now he was the one grinning tauntingly at me. But before he could make a snide comment of his own, Beckah seized one of his pointed ears and pulled him to his feet.

  “You best keep your thoughts to yourself,” she warned him, wagging a finger in his face. “I am not a woman to be crossed. Human or elf—it makes no difference to me. Now come, we need help making the beds.”

  Kiran dragged his feet as he followed her, grumbling complaints in the elven language under his breath. It made me smile. That is, until I realized I was now alone at the table.

  I sat for a long time, listening to the strange, new sounds in my house. The fire in the kitchen and living room hearths crackled. Roland had disappeared upstairs, and I could hear Sile’s wife barking orders on the proper way to make the pallets on the floor for everyone to sleep on. She was giving Sile and my older half-brother a hard time if they didn’t make them to her satisfaction. Now and again I heard her baby let out an excited shriek or coo. Beckah laughed. Kiran argued in elvish. Quarters were going to be cramped, and I got the impression there weren’t enough blankets.

  But these were happy, warm, comforting sounds—sounds that hadn’t echoed through this house maybe ever. Certainly not when I’d lived here with Ulric and his family.

  For some reason, I just couldn’t bear to listen. I felt bitter, frustrated, and estranged as I walked to the front door. My heart was heavy in my chest. I needed some space and a little time to sort things out before I tried to sleep myself.

  Prax, Felix, and the other members of Emerald Flight were gathered on the porch, talking amongst themselves in low voices. A few of them were smoking long pipes, blowing smoke rings into the chilly night air. They all went silent and began watching me anxiously when I walked past.