Revelation of the Dragon

by J Elizabeth Vincent

  His bushy eyebrows shot up as he turned.

  “I have another job for you, if you’ll take it. I want you to go to Kannuk.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Allies

  So, it was decided. Tibbot would go to Kannuk and speak with the Keepers, starting with Daire Denholm, to see if there was anything they could or would do, if there was any information that they could provide. The Keepers could not be counted on to shelter the Ceo San children; Shira was certain of that. They hadn’t sheltered her or her family when she had begun changing as a toddler, and at Gwyn’s joining, Dennari Denholm had confirmed the Keepers’ helplessness to act against the king. But Mariah had to hope that perhaps the Keepers would at least know someone who could help them. If the Keepers in Kannuk were willing, Tibbot would start building their network there, visiting more temples and more Keepers and recruiting as much help as he was able.

  Shira was still doubtful, but her conversation with Dennari gave Mariah hope. She’d shared most of that conversation with Tibbot, hoping that he’d be clever enough to find something in the words to work with, some little loophole that he could use to garner assistance from the mysterious Keepers. After all, Dennari had left her temple for Gwyn’s joining and had answered some of Mariah’s questions. Perhaps there was something the Keepers could do, if only she or her friends could find the right way to wheedle it out of them.

  So less than two hours after she had returned to their little hideout and with half a day’s light ahead, the unlikely group had headed west through the woods. They would have left even earlier, but Han—he had insisted on her using his first name now that they were allies—and Tibbot had spent a good deal of time arguing about whether the soldier should abandon his official armor and implements and then about their route. Mariah had listened to them quietly. She stepped in only after Shira gave her a nudge.

  “Han, Tibbot is right. A lieutenant traveling with three common citizens is bound to be noticed. It will be bad enough if someone you worked with recognizes you, but we shouldn’t announce it to everyone we pass. Shira can bury your stuff.” Tibbot’s wrinkled face settled into smugness until Mariah turned to him. “I think we should go with Han’s plan. Visit the village first, let ourselves be seen moving west before we cross the river. Once we’re out of sight, we can cut northeast. I’ll have rested by then, and we’ll be able to make better time.”

  Deep in the woods, next to a small lake called Sanden Pond, there was a small village known as Sanden Point. It was isolated but still connected to the world by a small path that led through the woods to Anguina Road in the north, the road that led to Direstrand to the northeast and to Adis Ador to the southwest. Han had suggested that their little group detour through Sanden Point with a twofold purpose: They could gather supplies and perhaps throw pursuers off their trail, making them believe that Mariah was fleeing to Adis Ador. He hoped—they all did—that if his fellow soldiers were busy heading west, it would give the little party enough time to get safely into Laikos.

  “If this is a trap,” Tibbot had muttered, craning his neck up to eye the bigger man, “trust me, you won’t live to see us taken down.” The fox was convinced that Han was trying to lead them into a snare, even though he himself admitted that the village was so isolated that he had never seen a single soldier in or near it, even since he had returned from Glenley.

  With that settled, they had so few supplies among them that it took them only a short while to depart. Knowing that she was too tired to fly far or fast, Mariah had reluctantly agreed to ride with Han on Shadow. Shira hadn’t liked that at all, but despite his superior physical condition, Han couldn’t come close to Shira for speed when she was in her bear form unless he was on his horse. And the horse was still skittish around her besides.

  Now, Tibbot’s fox ghosted before them, scouting, rotating his head as he moved, listening for every sound. He would stay with them until they crossed Chagan’s Run and moved east toward Laikos. Shadow followed at a canter, Mariah and Han on her back. Shira brought up the rear on all fours, her presence unintentionally driving the nervous horse forward and forcing her to set a good pace.

  Despite her better judgment, within the first hour, Mariah found herself drifting off as the steady movement of the horse lulled her into sleep. When she could no longer fight it, she let herself go, Han’s arms a cage on either side of her as her head lolled forward. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but her own body gave her no choice.

  * * *

  Two weeks later, Tibbot left the trio before they crossed the Okton Bridge over Chagan’s Run. Their time together had been amazingly peaceful compared to the harrowing days she had spent alone, flying from camp to camp, mapping out the places where Rothgar’s troops trained Ceo San child slaves to grow into fierce warriors for his armies. Once she had recovered from that initial exhaustion, Mariah and Tibbot had served as scouts for the little group, guiding them around potential threats and disruptions.

  There hadn’t been many, as the woods were fairly quiet in winter. They took no chances, however, eschewing fires even at night. Mariah was sure her bones had permanently turned to ice. Shira’s normally pink lips were now almost always a pale bluish purple.

  But perhaps their ruse in Sanden Point had worked. The most they had come across since were farmers and other peasants scrounging for firewood or hunting. If Han’s captain was actually out looking for them, Mariah told herself that she must be off track because they hadn’t come across even a single soldier.

  However, after they had spotted their first hunter in the woods, Han had surprised them, insisting that Tibbot and Shira both remain in their human forms until they were sure the man had left the area. She hadn’t considered that particular danger before, but when Mariah spotted the same hunter a day later, heading out of the forest with a group of fox pelts slung over his shoulder, her heart lodged in her throat as her mind swam with images of Ceo San caught unaware and ending up over cook fires or with their furs wrapped around someone’s back.

  When they finally reached the eastern edge of the Foxgrove one mild evening, the Okton Bridge stretching before them beyond the trees and over Chagan’s Run, Mariah’s nerves began to hum. Despite the hunter’s threat, she had found a bit of peace traveling the woods with the little company. Now, they were back in the king’s domain, where every person they met could be an enemy waiting to turn them in or take their lives.

  Shira stepped up to her side and folded her gloved hand around Mariah’s. “We gotta be optimistic, lady. There are allies out there too. After all, we found each other.”

  “I hope you’re right.” She squeezed Shira’s hand hard as Tibbot came up on her other side.

  “Be careful of him.” The old man nodded back to the spot where Han stood patiently with Shadow as they said their goodbyes.

  In their time together, the lieutenant had done nothing but offer assistance. He had even shared stories of Eaglespire with Mariah, stories that often touched on her parents’ lives and things, however small, that he remembered about them. But he was who he was, she reminded herself, and there was still the possibility that he was playing a long game, as Tibbot had called it, an extended bluff to win them over before he betrayed them.

  She nodded to the old man, both an acknowledgment of what he had said and a goodbye.

  “You take care of her,” Tibbot grumbled to Shira, who chuckled in response.

  “Don’t you worry about us. You got your own job to do.”

  Despite his better judgment and his distrust of bears, Shira had begun to win the old man over. Or so Mariah thought. “I’m just sayin’ not to get her killed. Your monstrous teeth ain’t gonna do her no good if you don’t use your brain.”

  Shira’s chuckle turned into an outright laugh. “Well, you best be on good behavior yourself. Those Keepers don’t put up with your kind of nonsense from what I hear. You might have ta show some respect. Ya do
know what that is, right?”

  It was Tibbot’s turn to laugh, although it was a low sound, much more subdued than Shira’s. “I’ll look for you on the wing,” he said to Mariah. “And if I don’t see you, I’ll find you one way or another.”

  Shira suddenly bowled Tibbot over with a hug, and Mariah smiled, squeezing his shoulder once the shorter woman let him go. “Thank you, Tibbot. Gods’ luck.”

  “Gods? I’ll make my own luck, thanks.”

  And with that, he melted into his fox form and slipped back into the trees, his small body darting among the dark spires as he ran north, parallel to the river, and disappeared.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Leadership

  The forest of Laikos felt like the land of the dead. A thin crust of snow blanketed the ground, and a coating of ice covered the trees. It was silent, save for the wind and the occasional, sudden crack when a limb broke off. A shiver went through Mariah as she stepped forward, extricating her foot carefully from the snow, cautious not to let the remains of dead vines that hid beneath the snow tangle around her ankle. The cold from the night’s storm still felt heavy in her bones.

  Late the previous afternoon, when the impending weather had become obvious, they had veered south, away from the forest on a short detour, and Han had managed to beg shelter from a local farmer. The timing had been good, as the man had been outside scrambling against the flurries to get his animals secure before the gale hit. Han had offered to help the man with that and anything else he needed to finish in exchange for a night’s shelter. In short order, the four of them were able to finish the job. The man, who had offered only his first name, Rune, had been in his middle years and weathered from his years working the land. He lived alone and had little room and not much extra food, but he was happy to allow them to sleep on the floor in the main room of his cottage. There would have been more room in his barn with Shadow, but at least they had the warmth of the banked fire before them and had not frozen any limbs off.

  Before the sun rose, they had woken, thanked Rune, and been on their way through the still, silent landscape that the storm had left behind. With a detour back toward the North Road to throw off any pursuit should the farmer turn out to be more than he seemed, they still reached the southern edge of Laikos just after the sun reached its peak. The pale yellow ball provided no warmth, though, and the air remained frigid and biting.

  In front of Mariah, Shira led the way, and Han, holding Shadow’s lead, followed only a few yards behind. How could the forest be so quiet?

  She remembered her first night in Laikos with Shira and Xae. She had been so enthusiastic just to find a little stream where she could bathe, but her companions had been reserved and paranoid, the darkness of the place and Shira’s memory of it overwhelming them both. Xae had even refused to sleep on the ground and had fluttered up into a tree in his raven form for the night. If anything, her companions’ intuition had been proven right when they had been rounded up by wolves the next day. Not wolves, really. They had been Ceo San, but they had been so close to their animal forms, so base and primitive, that it had shocked Mariah.

  She hadn’t understood how such a thing was possible. But that was before she had spent days in her hawk form after she had fled the king’s dungeon. So desperate had she been to flee as far as she could that she had refused to change until she had reached the safety of Grof and received reassurances from Rose that she was safe once again. For days after, she had felt a little shaky, unsure with her long human limbs and tremendous appetite. Now, she understood the pull of her animal form. Her hawk was faster and less clumsy with keener senses.

  The wolves of Laikos lived in the heart of the king’s domain, protected only by the forest around them. Every time they ventured into the world of men, they were threatened with capture and slavery. She was sure they knew a thing or two about desperation. The forest was nearly dripping with it now. It made her itch to change and fly up above the tree line, out of its confines. She was sure that Shira felt it too. Her friend was hunched in on herself, furtively scanning the area around them. They had been in the forest for several hours before they encountered another living thing.

  A crash resonated through the trees, and Mariah’s head snapped left toward the sound. Her companions reacted as well, and a low, bearlike growl rumbled through Shira’s chest, a noise that belied her pretty face and deep brown eyes, the dark curls cascading down her back over the hood of her cloak. Han, just behind Mariah’s shoulder, went completely still. A small yelp, half bark, half whimper, sounded before a gray streak darted through the trees to their left and took off ahead of them.

  Han reached for his bow, but Mariah stopped him with a hand on his arm.

  In a flash, she changed and followed the creature on the wing. He was easy to follow through the bare forest. She caught up with him quickly, trying for silence, but he heard her anyway. The wolf turned, taking up a defensive stance. He jumped, snapping at the air as if that would keep her at bay. He was alone, his fur matted and scraggly, his form emaciated as if he hadn’t eaten properly in weeks. Brown stains—dried blood?—spotted his fur, some fresher than others. His gray eyes were wild, darting rapidly toward her, away, and back again. How had the pack allowed him to sink this low? Had they kicked him out? Was he really a wolf and not a Ceo San? Was he rabid?

  Mariah landed on a branch and stilled her wings, trying to show him that she was no threat. He slowly backed away, and then, after one last half-hearted growl, the creature turned and ran again, his ears flat and his tail tucked in low. She let him go, waiting until he disappeared before she took flight again to rejoin her companions.

  Han and Shira were waiting where she had left them, neither of them looking at each other, the silence complete once again. Mariah changed once she was close to the ground and dropped, landing gently on her feet. She opened her mouth to chide her companions for their constant awkwardness with each other but was cut off by a distressed howl from behind her. It increased in pitch before it was suddenly cut off.

  Without a word to her companions, Mariah ran back toward the sound.

  “Lady!” Shira shouted, but she kept going.

  They hadn’t seen the poor, pathetic condition of that animal. Was something hunting it? She realized with surprise that she would not let any harm befall it if she could help it. Even as she ran, her long legs loping over the ground and her feet somehow escaping the tangle of vines, Mariah pulled her short sword and held it down at her side, ready for whatever threat lay in wait.

  She slowed as a gray and white shape took form ahead. It was another wolf, a powerful-looking one, just short of being full grown. Its eyes, pale blue, watched her steadily as she approached. On the ground, under one paw, the wild wolf lay still, its eyes closed and its throat torn out, the evidence of its death all over the muzzle of the wolf above it.

  Mariah resisted the urge to gasp and throw her hand over her mouth at the sight, to throw up what little food she had eaten that day.

  “Why did you kill him?” she demanded, stopping about ten yards from the pair and slowly bringing up her sword. The animal before her was strong, well fed. “He was weak, helpless. He was no threat to you.” She stared at the wolf’s eyes, refusing to back down. It returned her gaze, sitting calmly back on its haunches.

  Her companions arrived behind her with a clatter. “Lady,” Shira whispered fiercely, “we don’t need to get in the middle of this. Trust me.” In a louder voice, she said. “So sorry, there. Didn’t mean to interrupt anything. We were just leavin’, right?” She grabbed Mariah’s arm. “Right?”

  Han stepped up silently behind Mariah’s other shoulder.

  “No,” she replied firmly, shaking Shira off and keeping her eyes on the wolf. “We weren’t leaving. Now answer me.”

  “It’s not alone,” Shira whispered in her ear.

  Mariah eyes darted up long enough to spot the other gray for
ms among the trees, more forms than she could count. They all stood poised, looking in her direction, as if waiting for the wolf in front to command her death. She heard the slow slide of Han’s sword as it came out of its scabbard.

  Mariah’s fortitude failed her when the dead wolf suddenly changed. Instead of a starved animal, on the ground in front of the new wolf lay a man of indeterminate age. His brown skin was sallow and sagging, his ribs stark beneath his short, dirty leathers, the flesh of his throat ragged and bloody.

  Her breath caught in her own throat, and she resisted the urge to turn away.

  “Why do we keep comin’ back here?” Shira muttered.

  Mariah’s hand tightened on the handle of her sword. “Why did you kill him?” she demanded of the lead wolf, her mind racing. Loleon and Ember were the alphas of the Laikos pack, and she was sure that this wolf was not either of them. Where were they? And just who was this?

  With a great huff, the man’s killer looked down and then changed. Suddenly, before Mariah stood a young woman, dark skinned and well-muscled. A braid of long, shimmering black hair fell over one shoulder. Her eyes were pale blue, and her own leathers were supple and oiled. Taking a cloth from her belt, she took a moment to carefully wipe the blood from her face before she finally looked Mariah in the eyes. “It was his choice. Connell chose to follow my father. He chose to die.”

  Mariah’s breath caught in her throat, and her arm went limp, falling back to her side, leaving her sword hanging from limp fingers.

  “Ruby?” Shira echoed her question. Neither of them had recognized her. The wolf that they had known had been smaller, thinner, as had the woman. She had changed dramatically in the months since they had seen her.

  Ruby nodded briefly and gestured with a hand to the wolves around her. Most sat, taking different positions, keeping an eye on the woods around them. One changed into a muscular young man and came forward, hefting the body up onto his shoulder and taking it away through the woods and beyond Mariah’s vision.