The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set

by Foxglove, Lidiya

  “Sounds to me like you just want an excuse for us to spend time together.”

  “Don’t flatter yourself.” I grabbed the cracker-like bread he was eating and broke a piece off for myself.

  “You’re so rude,” he said.

  “I know!”

  “So what is that about?” I pointed at his pack. “‘Bring the Revolution’? That’s one of those anti-monarchy screeds. Who gave you that?”

  “I’m definitely not anti-monarchy. Obviously, I am pro-princess.”

  I snorted. “Smooth. So where did it come from?”

  “It has some good things to say, about…equality. I know the native Gaermoni aren’t any better than me, but they sure liked to tell me otherwise. Sometimes I just like to remind myself that I’m not crazy for thinking that. Not a lot of Kamiri in the soldiers’ ranks I can talk to. I don’t want to end the monarchy, but I don’t want to be dismissed because I’m an islander.”

  “Ah. I mean, you don’t hang out with the other soldiers that much anyway.”

  “You think the minute I walk away from you, I just shut down? We play cards and stuff. I have to hear shit.” But he was grinning at me and then crawled closer to me. “Are you worried I might get ideas about overthrowing you?”

  “Hmm.”

  He grabbed my wrist. “For once, there’s no one to protect you from me.” He took a bite of the bread in my hand.

  My heartbeat shot up again.

  We should never have kissed. I held back from him all those years, but now…

  I felt drugged, like I could think of nothing else but the taste of him, and how much I wanted more.

  “I want you,” I whispered. “I want you to have me before he does.”

  “Himika…damn…” His fingers tightened slightly around my wrist, and he edged closer. “You shouldn’t say these things.”

  “It isn’t right,” I said. “This is so much worse than a regular arranged marriage. These people cursed me. The ache in my bones right now is thanks to him. I can never love him. I already hate him too much…”

  Oszin’s eyes blazed at me, and then he moved close to me and put an arm around me. His lips crashed into mine, the kiss rough and brief. “I hate him too. I have loved you for years. I deserve you. Not him.”

  I had never heard Oszin admit bluntly that he deserved more than the world had offered him. A Kamiri had to be very careful in Gaermon. He had already risen far enough that he was the target of resentment and slurs from Gaermoni-born soldiers who ranked beneath him. Oszin had to be humble and respectful, or he might get a knife in his back.

  “I like this,” I growled. “You do deserve me.”

  “Mm…” Now he leaned me back as he kissed me more slowly, and I had to quickly unfold my legs, sending some pain up my spine, but I didn’t even care. I wished he could be truly rough with me; I wished I could feel his weight on me. I wished he could tear off my clothes and make a woman of me right here in this cave.

  We did our best with the situation. He was very careful not to put his weight on me, but I could still feel his body, close and protective, our clothes brushing against each other. His kiss was like fire, but fires needed to spread. I wanted more; needed more.

  “Oszin, I want you,” I said again. “You can be careful.”

  He paused soberly. “The dragon king will expect a virgin.”

  “I don’t care!”

  “You will care, when your new husband is furious at you in a way that can never be undone. And when he asks Seron, who might have stolen her virginity, and he says that she spends a lot of time with her guard… Besides that, we don’t know for sure how this spell works. Maybe you are required to be a virgin.”

  “This is such nonsense!” I spat. “You’re too reasonable!”

  “I have to be, or I’d probably be shoveling shit in the stable and not protecting you.”

  Some angry tears sprung to my eyes. “Never mind… I’m—being stupid, I guess.”

  “Moth…” He wiped my eyes with his fingers. “If there was any way to have you for my own, I would. You know I would. I can’t…be your first in that way. But I could…satisfy you, today. I could show you the way your husband should treat you.”

  I wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but I would take whatever of Oszin I could. “Show me.”

  He paused and unpacked his bedroll, spreading it on the hard floor before lifting me onto it. Then we resumed our kiss. His fingers slowly untied the sash of my simple traveling dress, loosening the garment so he could brush a hand over my bare breast.

  I stiffened.

  The Emperor had tainted me there, and I worried I would resist Oszin’s touch, but once his hand brushed my nipple I realized how very different it was to feel these hands that I loved and trusted. I knew Oszin so well. I knew these fingers, I knew these eyes, I knew his jokes, his fears and hopes. And when he touched me, it was like being touched by everything I knew of him. It was like a part of my own self uniting.

  “Ahh…”

  We shared tender kisses as he caressed my breasts and then he lowered his head to take the nipple between his teeth and nibble it, sending sparks of intensity straight down to my core.

  I clutched his head. “Please…more…”

  He slipped a hand under my skirts, between my legs. His fingers found the spot where my desire had concentrated and stroked through a thin layer of my undergarment.

  “Is this the right place?” he asked.

  I made a squeak of surprise that this touch could unleash all of the feelings caught up inside me and finally give them a way to break free. “Yes—it must be.” I flopped back on the bed roll, overwhelmed with the feeling of it, his mouth on my breast, his hand there in such an intimate place, giving me the most intimate of feelings. I felt like a violin that had never known the touch of a bow until now.

  I felt that his fingers were slick between my legs now, the more he touched me, and unconsciously I arched into his touch. I wasn’t strong enough to hold the position for long and was trembling. The feelings were growing stronger, coiling inside me. He looked at my face now, kissing my brow, as my breath came faster.

  “It feels like some sort of blasphemy to look at you,” he said. “But I want to.”

  “It’s not. Don’t stop.” I groaned with a mixture of the pain in my body and the tremendous release rushing down into my center, enough to make me dizzy. “Ohh…oh…”

  He kissed me, silencing my cries, and when the crescendo passed, he laid beside me and held me. For some reason I started sobbing.

  Well, actually, I knew the reason perfectly.

  That experience had not made things better. They seemed even worse than before. It only showed me that this was the only man I wanted.

  This is what it feels like to be touched by someone who loves you…someone who knows you…someone who trusts you…and it’s so different from when the Emperor put his hands on me.

  “Oszin…”

  “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said, holding me close.

  “No, it’s not, you liar.”

  He sighed heavily, and then cupped my face in his hands. “I love you, Princess. I can’t save you from this. But when you’re cured and your bones are strong, I think things will look a little different.”

  “Yeah…maybe. When you teach me to fight.” I poked his chest.

  “Hrrm.”

  “You seem frustrated,” I said. “Is there something I can do to you now?”

  His eyes briefly widened and he looked away. “Oh man, don’t ask me that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I have had so many fantasies of the things you could do to me, but at the same time you’re so…fragile, and beautiful, and forbidden…”

  “Don’t do that! Don’t treat me like a princess. Right now we’re just two people in a cave. You’ve had fantasies about me?”

  He shook his head. “I mean, yeah.”

  “Come on, Oszin. I have a brother. I know men can be gross.
” I laughed, sliding my fingers down until I brushed against a rigid shape in his trousers. I sort of expected it but it still surprised me. “Can I touch you there?”

  “If you insist,” he said, trying to feign disinterest.

  I rubbed his length through his trousers. It throbbed in a way that was strangely intriguing.

  But then I thought of the idea of the blind Dragon King in Oszin’s place. I imagined vacant eyes, hands with sharp claws like Seron’s, and the same throbbing appendage and—

  I must have gone totally stiff and pale for a moment and although I tried to hide it, Oszin knew me so well that he immediately jerked back from me.

  “No,” he said.

  “But I—“

  “No. I don’t want this from you. Not yet. Someday, yes. Someday I’m going to make you mine, Moth, I’ve decided. All mine. I don’t know how I’ll do it. But I will. If I have to kidnap you and run away with you to some far off land, I will.”

  “I’m already yours. And I want to make you mine, right now,” I said, feeling somewhat frustrated.

  “The truth is, I don’t think you’re strong enough to manage all the, um, repetitive motion required right now,” he said.

  “You ass!”

  “Well, it’s true! You can’t even get the water pump going at home!”

  A laugh sputtered out of me despite my annoyance. “Fine. So…then what? Should we try to find the dragons?”

  “Let them find us,” he said.

  Chapter Six

  Seron

  “Get out of the chamber!” When the stalactites started falling, I knew we needed to move out of the altar chamber.

  Rock dragons scurried around us, growling and leaping onto my soldiers. One of them almost nipped my ankle before I stomped on him. He shook his head, not even stunned through his tough hide. I didn’t have much magic drawn into my sword yet, but I thrust the blade at his neck. The skin wasn’t as tough at the neck and joints. When I drew blood, the lesser dragon screeched and backed off.

  “Pretty dragons,” the rock dragon hissed. “Not so many of you. The Mist King will take your king’s pretty blind head. Put on a stick for the rats to eat…”

  I ignored the creature’s jabbering. They mimicked whatever the Traitor King told them to say. Before he came along, they weren’t organized at all; they were just nuisances, scavengers and thieves who made trouble for dragons traveling though the realm. They could take a humanoid form as we could, standing around four feet tall, and used to be kept as slaves and pets by the high dragons, but this was abhorrent to us now. They made me uncomfortable; too smart to be mere animals, too primitive to be considered men.

  “Who is doing this?” I demanded of the rock dragon. “Who can command the rock of the cavern with so much skill?”

  “God man,” the rock dragon said, skittering back toward the wall. “Rock dragon god. He’ll crush you to bits.”

  “God? What god?”

  “He looks like you,” the rock dragon said. “But he is one of us.”

  A female rock dragon, running by, reverse course and barreled into the one I was questioning. She bit the nape of the rock dragon’s neck. “No, no,” she growled. “Master said secret!” Then she growled at me. “Back away, crystal. This talk is not for you.”

  I suppose I’d heard enough for now. Was it true? Was there a rock dragon who looked like a high dragon, and more dangerously, wielded magic with such skill?

  We expected the rock dragons to make some trouble near the exits to the sky world; what we didn’t expect was rock magic on such a high level.

  Every dragon had an element they could command, and so of course, rock dragons could command rock. But ‘command’ was a generous way of putting it. Rock dragons were a lesser race; that was a simple fact. They lacked the intelligence to study magic. Rock dragons could use the rock to armor themselves, but they gathered it up against their skin out of animal instinct. Their magic was instinctive, some of the more astute ones might knock the ground around a bit under our feet.

  They did not cause earthquakes, tear caves apart, or shape the rock at will.

  But someone had been manipulating the rock the way we could gather magic from other elements. Could it possibly be true? Had some rock dragon of unusual skill and intelligence been discovered in some remote corner of the kingdom?

  Every dragon in my squadron knew what this meant, and panic ensued. Rocks were the most common element underground. Anyone who could command them would have no end of power.

  We had to draw the rock dragons out, so I led them to the river where boats with Aurek’s reinforcements were waiting for our arrival. They had already heard the commotion and were ready to battle. The other crystal dragons and I tapped into veins in the rock, healing some injured members of the party and drawing power to our weapons. The lava dragons transformed, scaling the walls and unleashing fire on the rock dragons. We were on edge, but the cavern didn’t move again. The powerful rock dragon seemed to have left the scene.

  In the meantime, I realized I had lost the princess.

  The one damn thing I was trusted to protect, and I’d gotten caught up in the battle and lost her.

  “Has anyone seen the head of her guard?” I shouted, as my people were regrouping.

  “No,” several soldiers in the vicinity called back.

  Well, good that he must still be with her…but also bad. After all, I had to protect every last inch of her, and Oszin seemed as dangerous as anyone.

  “Hold the line,” I told Commander Gradak. I didn’t even want to tell him that I had lost the princess. I didn’t want Aurek to hear one word of this.

  I battled my way through an annoying patch of rock dragons, alert for any sign of one that seemed superior to the others, but it was the usual mess of scurrying little dragons that were quick to attack but just as quick to retreat. They had no strategy, but they had numbers. They were thick around the choke points of the room.

  I really should transform in order to fight them, but that would mean I had to keep my clothes in my teeth, and when I changed back I would be naked. I was trying not to alarm the princess.

  You’ve never cared about things like that before, I told myself. But I still couldn’t bring myself to do anything that made the princess dislike me anymore than she already did. Stupid.

  What kind of warrior was I if I couldn’t handle a few rock dragons in my human form? And my sword was getting charged with the magic of the crystals in the chamber. I fought my way back the way we’d come. The passage was littered with the bodies of rock dragons now.

  Then I caught sight of one of my own women. I scared off the two remaining rock dragons, who fled at the very sight of my sword shining with crystal magic, and cursed. Triika had always seemed a little too delicate to be a soldier to me, but she insisted on it. In our world, everyone had the right to die for the king. Only nursing mothers were barred from military service.

  When I saw the aftermath of a battle, all I could think was how stupid it all seemed. Triika’s life was gone, just like that, and for what?

  “May the crystals keep you, Triika.” I moved on, the way forward clear now.

  I stopped short as I walked into the altar room.

  What was this? The statue of the priestess had been violently beheaded, and the toppled rock pillars in the room had been shaped into giant, grasping claws.

  The emblem of the Traitor King.

  A chill slithered down my entire body.

  Only a rock dragon could have done this. And yet, no rock dragon could have done this.

  “Hey!” I shouted, my voice echoing up into the farthest reaches. “Who did this? I am Seron, the Champion of King Aurekdel Arzor ro Galliar, and you will answer for this act of violence against the sacred monument to the priestess! Come and face me!”

  The chamber was completely silent as the echo of my challenge died down.

  “If you’re looking for the guy who did this, I think he’s gone.” I heard a human voice ab
ove me. Oszin came out of one of the upper chambers.

  “Oszin! Do you have the princess?”

  “I’m here…” Himika walked out next to him.

  I could barely even hide my relief. “My lady, the battle will be soon over. The boats to Hemara wait you. Did you see…man who did this?” I wanted a word like ‘culprit’.

  “We’re coming down,” Oszin said.

  “Does the princess need help with come down?” I asked, looking dubiously at the hand holds.

  “I’m all right,” she said, as Oszin picked her up on his back like a sack of roots. She clutched him while he climbed down. I was appalled. She could easily have fallen off.

  “You danger her,” I growled at the young guard. Why on earth had her father put such a young and handsome man at the head of her guard in the first place, knowing she was promised to Aurek?

  “He protected me,” Himika said. “What endangered me was that fight. You can’t even guard the doors? This place seems so volatile…”

  “Rock dragons pack here. I expected the fight. It would be nothing, only for this man who uses rock magic. Only rock dragons use rock magic.”

  “I’m confused,” Himika said. “Rock dragons use rock magic. And you expected the rock dragons would be here. But you didn’t expect the rock magic?”

  “No,” I said. “Rock dragons are too stupid to use magic. Rock dragons are beasts.”

  “We saw this man you’re talking about.” Oszin found Himika’s cane and handed it back to her. I wished I’d realized she needed it; I would have beaten him to it. “He didn’t look like any of the other rock dragons. He was in human form and looked like a man. Big, tall, dark, angry guy. He did seem a little sickly.”

  Himika nodded. I felt like something had gone on between these two, but they didn’t show it any way that I could pinpoint.

  “I see,” I snapped.

  “So you don’t know who it is or what it means?” Himika asked.

  “It means the Traitor King has more tricks, I think,” I said. “But no matter. We’re stronger. The Traitor King is the false king, the weak king. Aurekdel and you will be strong and have strong children.”