Revelation of the Dragon

by J Elizabeth Vincent

  Mariah was pulled down on top of him as Ruby crashed into him right behind her, knocking him off his feet. Mariah lifted herself out of the wolf’s way as she finished off the captain, brutally and efficiently. Only a moment passed before Ruby and Mariah were back in the fray, helping Shira, Teneth, and the remaining free wolves. It was over in seconds.

  As the last of the guard fell, an eerie silence suddenly filled the area, broken only by the sound of heavy breathing from the wolves and Shira. Mariah landed and transformed again, surveying the grim scene.

  Xae’s sudden cry brought her head whipping around to the far side of the corridor. The raven was perched on Han’s thigh. The soldier was slumped against the wall, and one of Rothgar’s Trappers lay dead at his side, his eyes open. Han’s dagger was sticking out of his neck, but a red-spattered sword lay open in his limp hand.

  Mariah’s eyes went to Han’s fist, which was clutched against his side, just beneath his ribcage, where the seams of his armor came together. Blood seeped between his fingers. Too much blood. Mariah ran to him as Xae changed and tore at his own cloak. Mariah came to her knees next to Han as Xae pressed the fabric to the injured man’s side, trying to staunch the flow.

  “Come on, stop, stop,” he chanted, as if he could stop the bleeding by sheer force of will.

  “Han,” Mariah said, touching the man’s bearded cheek. He didn’t answer at first. He barely stirred. “Han! Please.”

  His head lolled in her direction, and his hazel eyes fluttered open. “Mari.” He smiled weakly. “You’re okay.”

  No, she wasn’t okay. This wasn’t okay. But she nodded anyway. “You saved me with that warning. Thank you.”

  “I got … distracted … Mari.” His words were interrupted by a cough. It was a more horrible cough than she had ever heard, even from Tibbot when he’d been so terribly ill in the king’s dungeon. “Mari, please, stay free. For me. For us.” His hand lifted briefly off the floor to gesture to her companions.

  “I’ll try,” she choked out. “But I … I have to find Rose and Jahl.”

  The weak smile returned, and he brought up his own bloodied hand to brush her cheek. “Of course you do.” And with that, his eyes drifted closed and his hand fell back to the floor.

  “Han!” Mariah pleaded. “Stay with me. Please.”

  But it was too late. He was gone.

  She tried to breathe, to get a hold of herself, but rage filled Mariah and drowned everything else. Jumping to her feet, she cried out, the sound more angry hawk than human. Her wings sprouted in a rush, tearing the leather breastplate from her body and spreading with a loud snap.

  Where? she screamed in her mind. Where?

  Shutting out her companions, Mariah heard only silence in her mind for several moments. After another demand, Old Cat Eyes finally responded. His voice was tired, resigned.

  The solarium. I told you, he waits for you.

  As Mariah turned to her friends, he said one last thing. It was faint and didn’t seem directed at her, but she heard it, nonetheless.

  I tried, my queen. I tried.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Rothgar Draydon

  Ruby was the only wolf who followed them deeper into the keep to find Shira’s parents and face the king. The rest remained behind in an attempt to get Han and the bodies of their packmates out of the castle. Although none of Mariah’s party knew how the wolves had gotten into the castle in the first place, Xae, nervously glancing back at her, told the wolves how to reach the tunnel that he and the others had used to get in.

  In disgust and impatience, Mariah unlatched the cuff from her wrist and threw it onto the ground. It rolled a few feet before she turned away from it. Xae followed suit. Mariah’s wings still filled the hallway, beating an impatient rhythm like a cat’s swishing tail. Shira squeezed her hand, and as Xae, Teneth, and Ruby joined them, she spared Han’s body one last look before turning toward the center of the keep and moving toward the king’s solarium.

  An iron fist gripped her heart as she prepared to face Rothgar Draydon for the first time.

  * * *

  The little group encountered no resistance. In fact, the corridors were empty, as if they had been cleared on purpose. Even in her current frame of mind, the deserted halls worried Mariah. The words of Old Cat Eyes echoed in her thoughts: He waits for you.

  She hadn’t yet told the others what he’d said. They were already in danger, had been from the moment they had entered the city with her. How was this worse? Still, she second-guessed herself. Should she have come alone, planned from the beginning to bargain her life for those of Shira’s parents?

  Regrets would do her no good now. They would not bring her friend back to life or save the Ceo San from their so-called king.

  Mariah walked on, still gripping Shira’s hand. She needed no map. Once again, she could feel the god pulling at her, but it was different this time. He was not holding her hand. Instead, his presence was like a magnet drawing her in the right direction, withering any resistance she might have had.

  The ceilings rose as they made their way toward the center of the keep and emerged into a grand foyer. The rough stone floors ended here and were replaced with polished, white-veined black marble. Tall, smooth, white columns set at wide intervals stretched to the ceiling, and colorful frescoes covered the walls as they curved around the room. Mariah paid the art no mind, only pausing long enough to scan the room and find the double-doored entrance to the king’s solarium. It was unguarded as well.

  She hesitated then, letting Shira’s hand finally fall from hers. Folding her wings in, she turned to face the others: Teneth, Ruby, Xae, and of course, Shira. “Rose and Jahl are probably well guarded. The king … he knows we’re coming,” she finally admitted. “Perhaps you should wait here. Wait until I send them out and then run. Get out of the castle as fast as you can.”

  “What are you playin’ at, bird brain?” Shira asked. Mariah could tell that she was trying for levity, but the tension in her voice was impossible to miss.

  “This will be a negotiation, not a fight,” Mariah said softly. It was a setup; it could be nothing else. Perhaps she could at least get Shira’s parents safely out before it was over.

  “No,” Shira said quietly.

  Xae stepped forward. “I’m with Shira. I will not leave them. Or you.”

  Ruby came even with the two, a smile spreading across her face, bringing out the beauty that was so often hidden behind her fierceness, a fierceness Mariah hadn’t even known existed the first time they’d met. Ruby ruffled Xae’s hair, surprising the boy, who was, after all, just a little younger than her. “I didn’t come all the way from Laikos to stop now. My people are now free from my father, and my father is free from the king. I am now free to repay the debt I owe you. If not for you, my people would still live under my father’s tyranny. My life is a small price to pay in return for what you’ve given us.”

  Mariah’s throat closed up around any reply she might have made as Teneth joined the others. “I follow you, High Chosen, and no other.”

  Mariah took a shuddering breath, refusing to let her emotions sway her. “All right then. Let’s go.”

  And they moved forward to enter the king’s solarium.

  The first thing Mariah noticed was the heat. As the doors swung open, it rolled across the small party in waves. The solarium itself was tremendous, wider and taller than the entrance hall by far, with pillars that seemed to disappear into the heavens. Colored beams of sunlight dappled the marble floor as they shone down through an enormous stained glass dome far above.

  The arched crystalline structure should have been the most impressive thing in the solarium, but Mariah stumbled back into the others when she saw the great beast resting on a raised platform far beneath it.

  Her knees trembled as she took it in. The enormous red creature was covered with shining scales,
its massive wings curled in around an equally massive body and its horned head resting on its front legs. It was bigger than most buildings she had seen, large enough to fill almost the whole cavern of Firebend. She sensed a great sadness in the creature as she met its large, green, cat-slitted eyes. He blinked.

  It was a dragon. The Dragon.

  “Old Cat Eyes?” she gasped.

  “Don’t tell me! She doesn’t even know your name?”

  Mariah started, but it wasn’t the Dragon who spoke. The source of the deep, mocking voice became apparent as a man in his middle years came around the side of the great beast, circling around him in a wide arc. The man’s wavy dark hair was peppered with silver, as was his trim beard, and he was dressed in black armor with gold curling in ornate patterns around his shoulders and chest. A black velvet cape hung from his shoulders, fastened by a shining dragon-shaped clip at his throat. Beads of sweat—no doubt from the heat—gathered on his forehead. Something about him felt familiar, as if they had met before.

  “His name, my dear, is Arrynas. He is the Dragon, make no mistake, legendary first of the Ceo San. And as I’ve told him he would all the years he’s been my prisoner, he has failed to keep you from me.”

  “Rothgar.” She refused to use his title, to give him even that small honor, as her mind scrambled to process what her eyes and ears were telling her.

  As the king reached the area in front of the Dragon and continued toward her, the beast’s eyes followed him. It was only as the king stepped over one of them that Mariah noticed the enormous iron chains snaking out from under the Dragon on each side and running to sizeable black hooks on either side of the room.

  Her gaze flicked back to the beast. His eyes as they followed the king were filled with hatred.

  Is it true? she asked him in her mind. Are you really …?

  The Dragon looked at her again and nodded once. Although you know me as Old Cat Eyes, his mental voice said drolly, my true name is Arrynas. I am not Ceo San, but the people have always called me such. His tone changed, imploring her. Will you not take this last chance to turn back? I will protect your retreat.

  His words pained her in a way she could not describe. I cannot.

  The king seemed unaware of their exchange, and Mariah found him chuckling. “I have spent years trying to find you, you know. I’ve sent my guard chasing you nearly the world over. The last I heard, you were heading out of some gods-forsaken little village in the Foxgrove toward Adis Ador. Atha will be disappointed that her chase has been in vain. She’s probably halfway to the sea by now. Won’t she be surprised to learn that all I had to do was wait for you to come to me?” He stopped before he was within sword reach.

  Why do you not kill him? she asked the Dragon.

  It was Arrynas’s turn to laugh, although it was a melancholy sound she could hear only in her thoughts. I cannot.

  Slowly, she slipped the bow from her back. Xae and Teneth had drawn their weapons as well, and a pair of growls told Mariah that Ruby and Shira had changed into their more deadly forms. Except for the sword at his waist, the king had no defense that Mariah could see, no guards to protect him, but he did not respond to their display, only studied Mariah as she pulled an arrow out of her quiver and nocked it. She raised it to aim at Rothgar’s head, trying to hide the trembling in her hands. “I have come for Rose and Jahl Caden. You will release them.”

  “Dalinore,” the king called, his voice unconcerned.

  From the side of the room, a tall woman in white stepped out from behind one of the pillars, pushing two shackled figures toward the king.

  Mariah’s breath caught in her throat, but she held her aim steady. This Dalinore, tall, pale, and spare, was wearing Keeper’s robes. But as they got closer, she saw that a black dragon had been embroidered into the fabric on one side of her chest.

  A pained roar came from Shira, and the figures looked up.

  “Shira!”

  Their clothes were threadbare, and their faces were worn, but they were indeed Rose and Jahl. Their eyes drank in the sight of their daughter, but Mariah did not miss the terror in them.

  She looked at her friend. Shira’s legs twitched, as if she wanted to run to them, but her eyes kept flickering to the king and to the Dragon, unsure of what they would do if she tried.

  The Keeper pushed the couple to their knees, and they cried out as their bonds tightened. The woman held a slim blade in one hand and their chains in the other.

  “Kill them,” the king said without preamble.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Surrender

  Forcing the Cadens forward with a yank of the chain with one hand, Dalinore moved the blade toward the back of Jahl’s neck.

  “Wait!” Mariah screamed over Shira’s roar, swinging her bow toward the Keeper.

  “Why would we do such a thing?” the king asked, but despite his words, Mariah saw him raise a finger, and the Keeper paused.

  Mariah shut down the questions swimming in her head about the dark-haired woman. For now.

  “I have you where I want you,” Rothgar continued. “Kill Dalinore if you must, but before you can do any more damage, my guards will be on you. You’d be a fool to think you could escape them.”

  Mariah’s head spun around to find half a dozen of the king’s soldiers guarding the exit. Three were Trappers, and their slaves knelt before them, gazes directed toward the floor. Mariah turned to Arrynas, and the king laughed.

  “He won’t help you either, my dear. As you’ll soon see, he works for me and me alone.” Confidence dripped from his words.

  Although her own words tried to stick in her throat, Mariah forced them out, as she let her bow drop downward. “What do you want?”

  The king considered her silently for a long moment. “I think you already know. You stand between me and my goals, hawk. Until you are subdued, I cannot have what I want. I would have you serve me as our giant friend here does.”

  Mariah swallowed. Hearing it said so plainly was painful. She forced herself to answer. “Think how much better your plans will work if I don’t fight you. As it stands now, my people have orders to do everything they can to depose you if I am taken against my will.” The lie came easily.

  “Them?” He eyed her companions with obvious derision.

  “These are only a few,” she said, speaking with much more confidence than she felt. “There are many, many more.”

  The king’s eyebrows rose, and the Dragon’s eyes widened as her friends began to protest.

  “You can’t do this, Mari.”

  “Together or not at all.”

  “Are you saying you’d come to me willingly?” the king interrupted, speaking over them. “Serve me willingly? I suppose you’d expect me to let your friends go?”

  Transformed once again, Shira pulled at her on one side, and Xae on the other, but the voice of Arrynas in her head overwhelmed her senses. You cannot do this, young one. I know these people are precious to you, but if you continue on this path, not only will they die. All of Whitelea will suffer.

  Mariah looked to Rose and Jahl. Her plump face a more mature version of Shira’s, the older woman lifted her head as much as she could, meeting Mariah’s gaze. Despite her imprisonment, stubbornness and strength shone through the woman’s brown eyes. “Do not do this,” she said hoarsely. “Your life is more precious.”

  Mariah’s heart tore in two.

  And then another, softer voice spoke behind her. Teneth. His words were so quiet that Mariah doubted that the king could hear them. “High Chosen, please reconsider. The Sovereign need you. You must fight. We are lost without you.”

  The Dragon, however, heard him. High Chosen? Is it true?

  Mariah met his great green gaze once again. Yes, the Sovereign have named me such. They think I am meant to lead them. But it would appear that I am fated to disappoint them.

/>   One corner of the Dragon’s mouth curled up in a fierce smile that made Mariah shudder. His demeanor completely changed in that moment between breaths. Do this thing if you must. Just remember what I told you when you were in his dungeon many months ago.

  His words rang through her head, clear as a temple bell, and she knew what she had to do.

  “You must trust me,” she said aloud to her companions. Ruby, still in her wolf form, was the only one who remained silent in response. Mariah understood that the young woman knew that leadership sometimes meant sacrifice. She herself was just starting to see that. Over her companions’ protests, to the king, she spoke, choosing her words carefully, “I will come willingly, but only after you have let my friends go, including the Cadens. When they are safely away, I will come.”

  The king considered her, his eyes moving from her to Arrynas and back. Perhaps he expected some conversation between them, but he couldn’t have heard it. “You know what you are agreeing to, yes?” With one finger, he pointed to a small walnut table off to one side that she hadn’t noticed before. Laid out on top of it as if they had been set there just for her were a shining golden cuff and a matching chain. “Forgive me if I don’t trust you to stay willingly after your friends are gone. And in case you think I’ll give you time to get away, know that our bonding will commence immediately. There is no turning back from that.”

  From Mellar’s words back in the Cellar, from his stories about cuffed Ceo San who had been freed of their Trappers but longed for another, she knew it to be true.

  She nodded.

  “Release them,” the king commanded Dalinore.

  Slowly, as if she didn’t want to obey, the woman sheathed her dagger and helped Rose and Jahl to their feet before unlocking their bonds.

  Mariah returned her bow to her back and swung around to face Shira and Xae. She hugged them tightly, her head between theirs. “Get them out,” she whispered as softly as she could. “The Dragon is with me. I will do my best to escape.”