I looked up into the face of Ezeru. I recognized him. His form was unmistakable. He was tall, gaunt but unmistakably strong, his skin almost alabaster pale but tight with wiry muscle visible when he lifted his arms and his long sleeves fell back to his elbows. His shoulders were a little stooped, his eyes deep set and dark, his lean face surprisingly regal, framed by his long black hair.
He didn’t look like he wanted to hurt me, but I was frozen in terror.
Should I try to stab him?
There was absolutely no way he wouldn’t see that coming. In fact, as soon as I so much as thought about it, his eyes moved to the hilt of my sword.
He spread his hands, a gesture that seemed to signal peace. “I’m not here to harm you,” he said. His voice was gravelly, like a very roughed up version of Aurekdel’s soft, seductive tone.
“Okay…” I leaned on the wall, my foot still hurting so badly. “So…so what then?” I asked warily.
“I want your help,” he said.
“My—help? Aren’t you…Ezeru?”
“You know my name,” he said.
“Don’t you work for the Traitor King?”
“So he thinks,” Ezeru said, his eyes narrowing. “But I would aid your king, if he would aid me. I’m looking for a mist dragon named Sillu.”
I gasped. “You mean Niko! The guardian. Sillu…”
He nodded, and coughed. He seemed sort of frail, but definitely not frail like I was. The pain was getting to be too much.
He saw me faltering. “Will you help me?” he asked. “I need your oath that you’ll grant me asylum. I need your help, Queen Himika.” He sounded a little angry. This was a demand.
And I knew if I gave this man an oath, Aurekdel was going to be furious. He didn’t even want Niko to come to the castle.
“I need to speak to the king,” I said.
“No. You will not speak to the king. You will swear to me first. That man—Dvaro—he is a tyrant. A torturer. He still has Sillu’s mother. He cut out her tongue. He beats the rock dragons, the children, the mothers, all of them…” He grabbed my chin. “I need your oath that you will help.”
My heart was pounding at the grip of his cool skin. “I…I…okay. I’ll give you my oath, but the king is still the king, sir. Please.”
I don’t think he trusted me. Well, he was probably wise in that. “You’re hurt, aren’t you?”
“Uhhhmm…” I didn’t like admitting it, but it was probably obvious, considering I was squirming and flushed with pain. “My foot…”
“That’s too bad.” He frowned. “I can’t bring you back to your own people until the battle is over and my people have gone. I’m going to bring you to Irandal.”
“All the way to Irandal? But—they’ll be worried sick looking for me! They’ll tear up the place! To them, it will look like I drowned! Where are we, anyway?”
“This is part of the aqueduct system, I think,” he said. “I need the mist dragons to think I’ve died. So you must die with me, at least for a day.”
“Ohhh no, Ezeru. You don’t understand. They will kill every rock dragon they see up there.” I was horrified just imagining what Oszin would do if he thought I drowned in that dark, swampy water.
“No help for that,” Ezeru said.
He looked cold and unsympathetic. I was soaking wet from head to toe and although the most intense pains in my ankle were beginning to subside, it still throbbed deeply. I splashed the clean aqueduct water on my face and hair, letting it wipe away my panic. The underground was always temperate, but I was starting to shiver.
“Can you walk?” Ezeru asked.
The horrifying thing was, I’m not sure I could walk.
“I can carry you.”
“I’ll walk.” I clutched Kajira, as she started to howl. She seemed to want to go the other way. I stroked her back, limping badly—we were going against the current. My shoes were gone. I wasn’t sure when I lost them.
“The aqueduct has maintenance entrances every several miles. We can rejoin the route from there.” He looked at me, knowing quite well I couldn’t walk several miles. “I suppose we can wait for your convoy there, instead of going all the way to Irandal. I can see that you won’t make it.”
“I don’t understand anything that’s happening. You escaped King Dvaro to ask for my help…but…”
“He ordered me to kidnap you,” Ezeru said. “He gave me one ship with a mist dragon crew, and a hundred rock dragons.”
“Are you a rock dragon? They said your father must have been a mist dragon. Everyone says you’re very unusual.”
He coughed. “That’s true. I’ll tell you to sate your curiosity, because I need your help. I am a half breed, as you say. Queen Izeria gave me strong mists day and night as I grew up, the kind that give you strength and mental focus. She was testing rock dragons to see if there was any way to make a superior type. They wanted someone who could fully control the rock. And they got it. I have abilities they barely even dreamed of at first. Dvaro made sure my abilities were well honed and now he’s finally sending me out to terrorize the populace. I’m sure you’ve heard of some things I’ve done.” He looked at me carefully.
“I saw you,” I said. “You dropped rocks on dragons and killed them.”
“I can’t say I have much love for those high dragons either.” His dark eyes were scary.
I shivered. “Well…if you want Aurekdel to trust you, you might want to keep that to yourself.”
“Right now, there is no one I hate more than Dvaro. I realize that I am considered an abomination. I don’t expect much from your king either. I’m doing this for Perina. I must save her. I fully expect I will be shunned at your court, but if I can find her a place of happiness, that’s enough for me.”
“And that’s Sillu’s mother?”
“Indeed.”
“They improved your mind and body with the mist magic? Does it fade if you don’t have the mist?”
“It doesn’t seem to. She stopped the treatment years ago.” He glared ahead. “I have stated the facts now, and I won’t speak of it again.”
“But the rock dragons…they’re…more like animals.”
I expected him to get angry at me for saying that. I’m not sure why I said it, then.
“And on the inside, I guess I’m an animal too,” he said. “I’ll be the pet that turns on his master.” I felt incredibly vulnerable, but I wasn’t afraid of him in the same way I was afraid of people who reminded me of the Emperor.
“If what you say is true, and we can trust you, then…I think Aurekdel would want to help you. Mist dragons killed his family and he definitely hasn’t forgotten that.” Aurekdel had no love for rock dragons either, and they were admittedly not lovable. The way they came at us in hoards with toughened skin and sharp teeth, rushing to their deaths while yelling taunts, was terrifying.
But I’d figure that out later. All I really cared about was getting back to the men I loved before they lost their minds.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Seron
“Himikaaa!”
Oszin’s scream was enough to strip the scales off my ears.
I watched Himika’s hair disappear under the water, but even though I was larger and faster in dragon form, Oszin got to the spot with almost supernatural speed, leaving Aurekdel behind.
I could see Aurekdel’s senses were overwhelmed in this chaos. He called for Himika too, but he didn’t know what was happening. Water churned around him, rock dragons and panicked tumpskins screeching everywhere. Thank the gods the carnivorous fish didn’t like this much noise…
I couldn’t help Aurek right now. I dove after Himika, plunging into the dark water, using all four of my legs and tail to feel for her. Oszin and I scrambled through the shallow depths. A rock dragon jumped onto Oszin’s back and he turned with a roar of fury and chopped its head off.
“Where the fuck is Himika?” His eyes were crazed.
“What about Kajira?” Aurekdel called. “No wi
nged cat is stupid enough to drown!”
“She’s—she’s not here.” I was completely confused. One minute, someone was grabbing her, and then she was—gone. We should have seen signs of a struggle under the water, if nothing else. And it was so shallow here!
“She has to be here. She has to be here. I swore I would protect her. She can’t drown in this—this underground hell.” While the mists dulled the senses of some of the other soldiers around me, Oszin was turning into a berserker. He locked on the nearest rock dragon and stabbed him through, deftly evading the rock armor. The water was starting to take on a reddish hue in places.
Aurekdel had managed to clamber up on the wreckage of the boat. “Maybe it was Ezeru,” he said, flinging out a hand, demanding our attention. “He’s a rock dragon. Everything is his element. These caves are no exception. He might have an escape route. Seron, find the captain of that boat and bring him to me.”
“Oszin,” I said. “You’re a monster. Keep it up. You can protect Aurekdel for me, yes?”
Frankly, I don’t know if Oszin heard a word we said. But no one was getting through him. When he finished off the few rock dragons nearest to him, he scrambled onto the boat next to Aurekdel, crouched, and shot an arrow straight into the heart of a rock dragon that was climbing the wall.
That was the first time I’d ever really seen him in battle. The last time we were ambushed, he was good, but more focused on defense than attack.
No wonder they gave him the position of the princess’ guard. It wasn’t to give her something to look at after all. As they say, some men are good, and some men are reincarnated legends…
I scrambled through the water, trying to find the leaders of the hoard. The rock dragons always had at least one mist dragon to lead them, and Aurekdel was right, they had to be on the boat. In dragon form, it was easy to run along the murky bed and keep my head well above the water, but the confines were close. I dodged rocks, my tail and limbs scraping plants that got in my way and soon I was on the ship.
I looked around, sniffing the air, before I looked inside the cabin. No one there.
Then I felt something I half expected—claws grazing my tail.
I turned to face the mist dragon.
The thing that made us all nervous about mist dragons was that their scales could absorb the properties of the mist and store them. Different parts of the realm put out different mists, so you never knew what magic they were packing. Something to enhance their own abilities? A toxin? An enchantment?
But you could also be sure they’d run out of it.
Meanwhile, my element, the crystals, were laced through this cave.
As I assessed my opponent, he was obviously nervous. He’d surely heard of me, and wasn’t confident he could match me. Plus he kept looking around. It seemed like something wasn’t going right for him. So I had to bet he didn’t have anything too great up his sleeve.
I was worried and furious. I just went for it, lunging at him. I couldn’t kill him, though.
We circled, snapping, trying to pin each other down. I lifted my wings, pure intimidation. He was quite a bit smaller than me. Most dragons were.
My scales flashed, and as he squinted, I snapped at his neck, getting ahold of him, shoving his head underwater. He thrashed, catching small breaths before I shoved him back down. I got a better hold on him, lashing my tail to keep a few stray rock dragons back. I raked my claws on his back and he screeched.
“Turn human and I’ll let up!” I snapped. “The king wants to speak to you! As you can see, you’re getting slaughtered.”
He was breathing hard. I heard him relent. “Fine—!”
I eased my weight off him when I felt him turn. In human form, he was short but strong, with dark reddish hair and an expression of deep annoyance, like he felt insulted to be brought before Aurekdel.
The Traitor King had been relentless in slandering Aurek’s name. The mist dragons didn’t think much of him. When I shoved the man through the murk just below Aurek’s feet, he spat.
“Blind boy king,” he said. “So I finally have the dubious honor of fighting your lackey.”
Aurek struck him across the face with his cane. “We’ve gotten you good, haven’t we? When all you have left are words? Where is my queen?”
The battle was starting to die down. Rock dragon corpses clogged the water. The man looked around and growled.
“Is Ezeru here?” Aurekdel asked. “Capture the rest of the crew and add the boat to our convoy,” he told the soldiers around us.
“Ezeru has taken your queen,” the man said. “That was our plan all along.”
“Was it?” I asked. “Because you seem like you keep looking for someone.”
“But Ezeru does have your queen,” the man said. “Stupid rock dragon. I knew I couldn’t trust him. He must be taking her straight back to the king to claim the glory for himself when he was supposed to rendezvous with me, but it doesn’t matter—you’ve lost her either way.”
Oszin had lowered his bow, but he still had an arrow fit to the string. “Where is she?”
Aurekdel lifted a staying hand to Oszin. Oszin looked very frustrated that Aurekdel was handling the situation, although of course that was how it had to be. Aurek crouched in front of the mist dragon. “So Ezeru is going to bring the queen back to your king, and throw you to us? He has abandoned you to the enemy? I know what you’re thinking. You shouldn’t have trusted a rock dragon.”
“Clearly,” he said, through gritted teeth.
“How about we make a deal? Tell me where Ezeru might have gone. If we find her, we’ll let you go. If we don’t, you’re going to rot in the dungeons of Irandal.”
“Dvaro will kill me if I come back without that fucking rock dragon freak.”
“He’s pretty unforgiving, your Dvaro,” Aurekdel said. “But it looks like you have a choice between our mercies. My position is clear. If Himika dies or is lost, I have zero. Or you could make your way to the sky world. There are options these days.”
“We marked this spot to ambush you because it’s above the aqueduct,” he said grudgingly. “Ezeru is down there. I’m sure.”
Aurekdel was usually good at keeping his face unreadable when dealing with an enemy. I think he realized a long time ago that reading facial expressions was just another advantage for his foes, so he would give them nothing. But now, he couldn’t hide his relief. Even as he struck the man across the face one more time. It was rare enough that he got to punish a mist dragon for all they’d done to him. “Put him in chains,” he said. “Until she’s found.”
Chapter Forty
Ezeru
Queen Himika was a very stubborn girl. It was clear that she was determined to walk, no matter how much it hurt. She was very slow.
“That’s enough of this,” I said. “I’m trying to respect your wishes, but we don’t have the time.” I scooped her up.
She shot a look of complete indignation at me. “Hey! I’m the queen.”
“The queen should not have to muddle through the water and tire herself.”
“The queen should not have to be manhandled by a stranger!”
“Do you want to see your husband again, or not?”
She went silent, sagging in my arms.
“Why did you knock off the priestess’ head?” she asked.
“The priestess?”
“The statue. In the cave.”
“I was angry. How was I to know it was the priestess?”
“So you weren’t trying to send a message about killing the priestess?”
“All I know about the priestess is that she opened the southern gate to the sky world. But that’s not of any interest to me. I would want to live near the rock.” As we tried to have a conversation, her cat kept howling over us the entire time.
It was hard to think of this girl as a queen the way Izeria was a queen. She was quite young, and so small and light that she was easy for me to carry. Her ankle was bleeding and bruised, and she squirmed
in pain now and then, but bore it stoically. Her hair fell down in a long curtain, rumpled and wet, but nevertheless impressive, and she was dressed in a gown of a thin silk, like nothing I had touched before. Her sword hung off her waist but it hardly seemed to have any weight, like a toy.
I started to feel awkward about holding her. “Do you know the crystal dragon named Morlis?”
“Oh, yes! He went missing! Have you seen him?”
“I’m afraid so. See, I will tell you this story as well, as more proof that I want to ally with you, but it’s not a happy one. King Dvaro has been holding the woman he loves prisoner for many years.”
“You mean, Seron’s mother?”
“Yes. Her mind was somewhat warped by the queen’s spells, and we thought she had forgotten most of her life at the palace. Dvaro has holding her at the palace for many years. Morlis finally came to her.”
“You mean, he wasn’t kidnapped? He chose to go there? Why would he do that now?” She made a sound of frustration. “I feel like there’s something I really don’t understand about the dragons. Is he still there?”
“He…seems to have committed suicide. And Tiriana as well.”
“Oh—dear! Suicide? Why?” She gave me a stern, suspicious look. “I’m not sure I believe that.”
“I have the note he left…” I put her on her feet for a moment to get it out, as she immediately looked interested. “See if you can make anything of it.”
She read the etched crystal very carefully.
“‘Reunited with our beloved’…that makes it sound like a suicide pact. ‘As the good king weds the queen of prophecy…the Traitor King shall not use us. Only the gods can judge us now’? Judge them for what? ‘A true king is made by fair deeds and wisdom. Long live King Aurekdel’.”
“I am quite sure King Dvaro planned to use them at some pivotal moment. He was infuriated that they died,” I said. “I would guess they wanted to prevent him from ever having the chance.”
“That seems very drastic! As if they had no hope of being rescued! And…poor Seron. He didn’t even know his mother was alive. But…it will be something else to tell Aurek…” She fidgeted. “You’d better be telling the truth. I have no choice but to go along with this, but you’d better be. Aurekdel isn’t perfect, but he’s a good king.”
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set: A Fantasy Romance Page 25
