The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set

by Foxglove, Lidiya

  He opened the case for me. “Help yourself. They’re not much good down here.”

  I laughed, lifting the necklace and holding it against my dress. “This is the creepiest jewelry store I’ve ever been to.”

  “That’s not what I brought you here for, however. Hold the lantern, will you? It might take me some time to find it…”

  I lifted the lantern behind him to light his way before realizing the light was only for me. So I used it to get a closer look at all the gems and metal work. I couldn’t even count all the objects in this room that would be worth an absolute fortune above ground.

  I heard a small crash. Aurek was stepping around a large shield to carefully touch some swords on the wall. “I hope you know what you’re doing!” I said.

  “I’m looking for a short sword,” he said. “Very light, with a delicate blade… Never mind, I think I might have found it.” He drew a thin blade formed of translucent black crystal from a scabbard. “Yes. This is the sword for you, my dear. How does this feel?” He held the hilt out to me.

  An unexpected thrill went through me when I wrapped my hand around it. “It is light. Almost too light. Is it strong?”

  “This is a blessed weapon,” he said. “It’s stronger than it looks.”

  “I feel magic in it,” I admitted. I wasn’t used to feeling magic. I wasn’t a mage. But this was so strong that it was immediately apparent.

  “This sword is named Irhonda, the Defender of the Defenseless. It was made just for someone like you. The weaker your body is, the stronger the sword becomes.”

  “How?”

  “It sings to its marks, as they say. The sword helps you fight. It will sort of know what you’re trying to do. I hope you never have cause to feel how remarkable it is, because you’re not allowed to practice with such weapons. A sword like this is also not to be toyed with. It’ll cut through dragon hide if you’re not careful. Keep it under the bed or someplace where you’ll know where it is and can get to it if we’re ever attacked. It’s the only one of its kind.”

  “Wow.” I didn’t have anything more profound to say. I had dreamed of something like this. “Thank you.”

  “I’m just sorry it’s necessary.”

  A tall middle-aged man poked his head into the room, sounding breathless as he said, “Hey, we’re having the council meeting in a few minutes and we’ve got some fascinating intel. I hope I’m not interrupting anything, but you left the door open.” He bowed to me. “Princess. I mean, Queen. I haven’t said that word in a long time. So nice to meet you properly. Please join us.”

  “This is one of my ministers,” Aurek said. “Tanair, minister of communication.”

  “Nice to meet you.”

  “Himika and I have some things to talk about in the meeting as well,” Aurek said. “We’ll be up.”

  The ministers were all waiting for us in a long room dominate by a table with a map etched into the surface. Five big windows overlooked the lake. Some winged cats were perched on the sills outside catching winged insects that seemed drawn to the lanterns burning inside.

  The ministers all stood and cheered when we came in. One of the female ministers presented me with a woven basket filled with various strange but beautiful sweets and fruits nestled in thin paper. “This is for you. Welcome to the council!”

  I was getting a little overwhelmed. Was all of this real? “You’re being so nice to me.”

  “Shouldn’t we be? You’re our queen now, and it must be hard to come so far from home,” said a tall man with long black hair and a calm face.

  “You offered us hospitality in your own realm,” Seron said, pulling out chairs for Aurek and me.

  “I suppose we’re more formal at home, that’s all…”

  I almost felt chagrined. I cursed at Rin for sending me here. I was crying and giving him a death glare when the carriage tore me away from home. I told Oszin I’d run away with him. I had fought coming here as much as I could without actually refusing, because in the end I wanted to be healed and I knew it would be dishonorable to say no.

  Now, I wasn’t even healed, but these people were getting under my skin. I wasn’t supposed to like Aurek. My life wasn’t supposed to be ruled by curses and prophecies.

  Some part of me still didn’t trust that it wasn’t some sort of…trick.

  Aurek introduced me to the council. There was an empty seat where Raia’s mother had been. They all told me she was wonderfully wise, if a little cold. “Like all ice dragons,” one woman muttered.

  “Better cool heads than hot heads on the council,” the man with the calm face said.

  Aurekdel broke the news first. “The consummation of the marriage, I am very sorry to say, did not break the curse on Queen Himika’s bones.”

  “What?”

  “That’s impossible! The books all said—“

  “I know,” Aurek growled.

  “And you’re entirely sure that you finished?”

  “I know when I’ve finished! I am open to suggestions as to what on earth to do now.”

  “Maybe it takes several tries…or does she have to get pregnant?”

  “Or try getting the seed in different places.”

  “Maybe when you’re done, you should tilt her upside down.”

  “The prophecy did say that this princess would come long after the old king was gone, but…do you suppose it had to be his seed? Do we have anything that might have the King Orvenu’s seed on it? An old cod piece, perhaps?”

  My skin was burning. Aurek slapped his hands on the table. “Never mind. How about you write down suggestions after the meeting and pass them to Lord Seron?”

  “Yes, sir.” Avo, the minister of war, clamped his broad jaw on a pipe between words. He was a massively muscular man with very unkempt dark hair who looked like he never smiled. “We have other business of import abut the rock dragon that was encountered near the gate. Some delayed reports have come in of a young man who looks like a high dragon with all the traits of a rock dragon. They match the other description. He seems to be a protege of the Traitor King called Ezeru. The Traitor King has long marked his territory with the symbol of grasping claws, and now this man is doing the same, only he shapes the rock itself and he attacked the statue of the priestess. What does he want? I don’t like it one bit. He’s gotta be a half-breed, or—a quarter breed, even, who has earned the Traitor King’s attention.”

  “Ezeru,” Aurekdel murmured. “That means an unwanted thing…a cursed one. So his father was a high dragon.”

  “How do you know that?” Avo asked.

  “It’s a guess, because a rock dragon mother would not name her child Ezeru. A high dragon father, however…”

  “Maybe the mother is a high dragon,” Azo said.

  “What woman would let a rock dragon touch her?” Viruta, the trade minister, shook her hands like she’d touched something awful.

  “Aw, come on, if men do it you know women do it,” Avo retorted.

  “I’ve never known a woman who had the slightest interest in fucking a little rock dragon gnome,” Viruta sniffed. “Men are the ones who don’t give a damn what hole they can find.”

  The ice dragon, Denero, was sitting next to her and shot her a look. “I motion for Viruta to leave the room until she stops being an instigator just because she is having marital problems.”

  Seron walked over and put a hand on both their shoulders, which seemed to instantly pacify them.

  “I’m sorry,” Viruta said. “That was out of line. As you were.”

  “Actually, Avo is right,” Aurekdel said. “Rock dragon males won’t get hard unless they have a natural affinity for the female. Sort of like going into heat. A high dragon woman couldn’t provoke one of them into a dalliance. But I’m glad none of you know that…”

  “How you know that?” Seron asked.

  “Erimon was reading the old records to me one day, from the days when we kept the rock dragons.”

  “Anyway, we don’t actually
know a damn thing about what this guy really is,” Seron said, pacing around behind the ministers.

  “What matters is not how this creature came about, but who he works for and what he’s capable of,” Avo said. “And that’s what concerns me, because he attacked a mine in the north caves and five people died, plus the mine is now unusable. He simply caved the whole thing in from a distance by moving the rock. The messenger was so shaky she could barely talk. She said he can turn his skin to rock and nobody can touch him.”

  “If it’s only one man, it shouldn’t be that hard,” Seron said. “Every armor, no matter how good, has weak points.” He pointed two fingers at his eyes.

  “But his attacks are long range too,” Avo said. “He scares people. Everyone’s going to get really jittery about moving the court to Irandal with that going on.”

  “I could take him out,” Seron said in a lower voice.

  “You can’t leave again,” said Ibrina, the domestic affairs minister. “Not during the move!”

  “You stay put, Seron. Send a group of scouts,” Aurek said. “I want more information. We need to know if he acts alone or if there are more of his kind before we do anything rash. Dvaro loves surprises. We’ve seen that over and over. Whenever we panic, he has the upper hand.”

  “Well, I wasn’t in a huge hurry to leave the comforts of home,” Seron said, giving me a brief look like he was already thinking about the next night we’d spend together.

  I’d been dreaming forever about being part of actual governance and now I was thinking more about the guys. Ugh. Get it together, Himika. I needed to see Oszin and remind myself what I really cared for.

  “I saw this rock dragon with my own eyes when he didn’t know anyone was watching,” I said. “I don’t know much about rock dragons versus high dragons, but I saw him pause over the bodies of the rock dragons who had been killed. When he struck the head of the priestess, it almost seemed like an afterthought, like he was more upset to have lost people. I almost feel bad for him if he’s the only one of his kind.”

  “I also have a soft spot for the fish born with feet,” Aurek said, which completely confused me until I realized it must be a metaphor. Swapping languages was hard sometimes even with magic. “But we don’t have any room for sympathy right now. Just prudence. Send the scouts, but…try to see if we can catch an underling. Put Mero on that team, he’s good at getting prisoners to talk. But…I will authorize him with discretion to kill, if this rock dragon seems to be more of a dire threat than we can allow.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Aurek signed an order by tracing letters in a slab of crystal with his claw. He paused. “I didn’t think of it, but would you like to sign the order as well? Or do you disagree?”

  “I—“ I was surprised to be asked. “I don’t think I know enough about it. The safety of the kingdom is more important than anything else. But is it possible this rock dragon could be persuaded to our side if it meant fewer deaths of other rock dragons? Maybe?”

  “Maybe,” Aurek said. But he handed the crystal to Avo and I guess that was that.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Aurekdel

  After the meeting, Himika needed a rest, so I escorted her back to the room.

  “Are you all right? Can I get you anything?”

  “No…I’m just…having one of my little spells. Sometimes it hits me…” I wasn’t even sure what was ‘hitting’ her. Fatigue? Pain? She sounded a little breathless and I could hear the grimace in her words. I put a hand against her cheek and neck, and her skin seemed faintly feverish. It felt to me like her body was trying to either heal her bones, or maybe reject them. I couldn’t quite tell.

  I felt sick. My ancestors did this to her.

  “Just let me nap. I’ll feel better by dinner. Don’t worry, Aurek. It’s normal.”

  It shouldn’t be normal.

  I had no idea why lifting the spell didn’t work. I was all too familiar with the blow of knowing damage couldn’t be undone. But I had trusted in this curse; after all, the prophecy said this cursed princess was destined for me, and she had appeared. Everything had worked as it should until now. Something must have gone wrong, but all the writings were so straightforward that I didn’t know where to turn.

  I went to the library, and I spoke to my head advisors, but they could only say the same thing I already knew. They could ‘look into it’. And we all knew perfectly well what was in the library.

  “Hey, Aurek.” Seron was with me at this point, trying to urge me to eat because I had not sat down for breakfast or tended to any of my usual duties. “Maybe we should go talk to Morlis. When I grabbed him to heal Himika, he said some really strange things. Like…that he was there when your mother died.”

  “Oh really?”

  “He didn’t want to talk about it, just kinda threw it out there. The sword I gave Himika, supposedly she gave to him when she was dying so the mist dragons wouldn’t get it. Anyway, that might be where it ends, but the fact is, he’s a mage, he was here before those dark years, and he clearly knows more than he lets on. I’d never heard him say such things before.”

  “Fine by me. Let’s pay him a visit.” I stopped in my tracks and whacked Seron’s coat. “Let’s invite the kid.”

  “This guy Himika is in love with?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Why are we inviting him?”

  “I shouldn’t have said ‘invite’. I mean, he’s coming with us, like it or not. Because, I want to see what he’s about. Himika loves him and right now she’s crushed. I feel like I need to make it up to her.”

  “I still don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

  “Either way, I should meet him.” I turned to one of the guards. “Please, fetch the captain of Princess Himika’s Gaermoni guard and send him down to the boats.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Soon enough, a human came down the stairs and joined us at the docks.

  “So you wanted to see me? Your Majesty?”

  He had been taught our language, the same as Himika, but his accent made it clear that he was not of our world. It was slightly more lilting than Himika’s own accent. He was nearly as tall as I was, and Seron said he was handsome too. I was also getting that impression from him; there was a certain easy confidence to him. Maybe a bit of a chip on the shoulder, though.

  “Yes. Oszin, right?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty. How is she?”

  “You don’t have to stick with the Majesty business. Save it for court. Aurek is fine. You’re Himika’s head guard, I understand. So you’ve been very close to her.” I didn’t answer him yet.

  “I have always fulfilled my duty to be at her side,” he said, with a hint of wariness.

  “No doubt. Well, if you’re going to remain close to my bride, I figured I should get a sense of your character.”

  “Yes, sir. That’s fair.” His wariness was smothered away. He’s a tough one, I thought.

  We climbed into one of the smaller rowboats and put on our masks to protect against the mists.

  “I could row, sir,” Oszin said, sounded almost bemused as Seron and I took the oars.

  “No. You relax. Tell me about yourself. Where were you born, what did your parents do, how did you end up as the princess’ guard at a young age?”

  “Ah…” Oszin paused. “I’m afraid there isn’t much to say about my background. I’m a Kamiri. My people come from the islands south of Gaermon. My parents are farmers who work on a small plot of land.”

  “Oh. Hmm. Is it typical for Kamiri to work as palace guards?”

  “Not really. But the best way for us to get ahead is to become a soldier. The military will take anyone. I signed up the second I could. I wasn’t going to spend my days on that farm. Well, I ended up being really good.” He laughed dryly. “Everyone in that class hated me. But really, I just trained harder.”

  “That is always the secret to success no one wants to admit,” I said.

  “The crown prince, Himika�
��s brother, noticed me and they bumped me up to the elite training program, and when I was done, they gave me the job of protecting the princess. There’s not much else to say about me. I don’t do much besides guard the princess and sleep. If anyone were to hurt her, I would give my life to destroy them. That’s why I followed her here and I hope I can continue fulfilling the oath I swore to her father.”

  `“Are you offering me a veiled threat, Oszin?” I asked.

  I could practically feel Seron squirm. He was more diplomatic.

  “No, sir,” Oszin said. “It’s—it’s not a threat to you. But it is a fact.”

  “Oszin, I must tell you that unfortunately, Himika has not been cured of her curse. Her bones are still crystal. I don’t know why. We’re going to see one of our older mages to ask him for advice. She will still need you. I can’t be with her every moment.”

  He jerked in his chair. “She’s still sick? And you—”

  “The marriage was consummated last night, yes.”

  Oszin made a barely restrained sound of frustration and anger. “The whole point of this marriage was to heal her. Will you send her home? You need heirs.”

  “We are wed,” I said. “Dragons take that oath very seriously. I will not send her home.”

  “She’s a human! She needs sunshine!”

  “I will be journeying to the sky kingdom now and then,” I said. “She’ll see the sun again. But she pleases me very well, Oszin, so I won’t be sending her home.”

  Oszin’s hands scraped through his hair. “I’ll stay with her,” he said, in a voice that sounded like he wanted to throw me overboard.

  “Hey, there are a lot of fish out today,” Seron said, trying to lower the tension. “We should have brought poles. Oszin, you fish?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Oszin

  My hands gripped the seat of the rowboat. Aurekdel…Himika…the thing is done…