by G. A. Aiken
Good.
There was a knock at the door, and Bram pulled the fur up to Ghleanna’s chin and said, “Come.”
The door was pushed open and Kleitos walked in. As human.
Bram smiled, enjoying the knot that could clearly be seen on Kleitos’s pasty white forehead and the obvious destruction of his nose. “How’s the head, old friend?”
The slithering bastard snarled a bit, then said, “The Empress requests your presence.”
“Why?”
“Don’t ask questions, Land Dweller. Just come along. I promise your pet will be perfectly safe.”
Bram glanced at Ghleanna one last time, unsure of what waited for him outside this room.
He walked to the door and stopped, glaring down at Kleitos. “She better be safe.”
“Or what? What will the peacemaking Land Dweller do?”
Bram jerked a little and Kleitos slammed back into the door, trying to get away from him. And to think Bram had at one time been afraid of this dragon.
Bram walked out and let Helena’s guards lead him to their Empress.
Chapter 9
Ghleanna woke up with a Fin standing over her. Again.
“Good. You’re awake.” He handed something to a young assistant behind him. “I’ve taken out the stitches. You’ve healed up incredibly well.”
Glancing around, Ghleanna sat up. “Where’s Bram?”
“Who?”
“My companion. The Silver.”
“With the Empress, I think. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” The Fin motioned his assistant away. “Now, I know you’re feeling stronger, but don’t let that fool you. You still need some time to recuperate. But I doubt you’ll be indisposed for long.” He gestured to her. “You’re quite the specimen. Built like a sturdy building. Are all your Low Born females like you?”
“You’ve begun to annoy me.”
“Sorry, sorry.” He smiled and it suddenly struck her that he was in his human form. Perhaps that was for ease of treating her. “Drink lots of fluids. Water. A little wine. Eat well but nothing too heavy. I’ve tied your left arm down to ensure you don’t move it around too much. The outside of the wound has healed up but I don’t want to take the chance you’ll rip something internally. Although if having your arm tied down irritates you when you sleep, and if you’re not a flailer, untie it when you go to bed. Understand?”
“I do.”
“Good. Good.” He nodded his head and walked out, closing the door behind him. She didn’t hear it lock.
Ghleanna sat up and threw her legs over the edge. She stood and quickly sat back down again. The room spun, and she closed her eyes, waiting for everything to stop. When it did, she blew out a breath and slowly got to her feet. Slowly being the key. Once she was up, she found a long cotton shirt that looked like it belonged to Bram. She put it on and went to the door. She carefully eased it open and, after a quick glance around, she stepped outside.
Ghleanna’s mouth dropped open as her gaze swept everything around her. This floor of rooms was just one of many. A rotunda built into the rock wall of the cave, with rotundas above and below that went miles in either direction. She leaned over a steel railing and gawked at all she could see. And she knew without being told that this was just a wing of the Empress’s palace. A place they kept their human “pets.”
No. She wasn’t a big fan of the Fins, but she could appreciate their engineering skills because this was amazing.
Ghleanna turned and saw the two dragons guarding her door. The two sleeping dragons. Her first thought was that they were lazy but then she wondered if they’d been on duty since her arrival. She knew a few commanders who did that at home. They’d get so caught up in whatever they were doing that they’d forget the little things. For instance, that dragons can’t stay awake all day, every day until your hostage leaves your custody.
About to return to her bed—even if she were completely healed, she wouldn’t be making a run for it without Bram—Ghleanna heard someone call out, “My Lord General!”
She looked over and saw a large dragon stop at the end of a hallway and turn to face whoever had called him.
Realizing how the sleeping Fins would look—and having been in the same position more than once when left on duty too long—Ghleanna went to the guards and lifted the eyelid of one, then the other.
“Get up,” she said low. “Your commander is coming.” She gestured with her free arm. “Get up, get up, get up!”
They did, scrambling to their claws and standing at attention just as the General made his way down to her room.
“What’s she doing out here?” the General demanded.
“I’m looking for my companion.” Not much of a lie. “Where is he?”
“I have no idea. But I want you back in your room.”
“Just admit it.” She walked up to him, leaned her head all the way back so she could see that far up. “You’re afraid I’m going to take you on. Right now. Just like this.” She held up her one fist. “Let’s go, General. Let me show you my skills.”
The General chuckled and shook his massive head. “Get some rest, Land Dweller. Perhaps, when you’re feeling better, we’ll have that challenge. Until then . . .”
“Your fear amuses me, General.” She grinned and headed back to her room.
The General moved on and one of the soldiers let out a breath. “Thanks for that.”
“No problem. But if you’ve been here for more than a day, you need a break. Have someone else take watch as soon as you can manage it. Besides—” she shrugged and headed inside her room—“it’s not like I’m going anywhere at the moment.”
“You sent for me, Empress?”
“I did, Bram. Please.” She motioned him closer. And he was surprised to find Helena in her human form, her bright blue dress glittering in the glowing light coming from the walls. “What do you think?” she asked when he stood beside her.
“It’s beautiful, my Lady.”
They stood on a landing that overlooked an enormous hot spring.
“Would you like to try it out?”
“No thank you, my Lady.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I’ll never be able to relax while I’m in it.”
“Because of Kleitos?”
“Because of all of you.”
The Empress smiled. “I do like your honesty. You know, Bram, when I sent you off the last time I truly never thought to see you again. And I never expected to see my lover return—but you did as you promised. You got him released.”
“I did. But I haven’t seen him since my arrival. Is he—”
“I had him executed,” she told him flatly. “For treason, a few years back.” She shrugged, not appearing remotely fazed by that. “Long story. Anyway,” she went on, “I’m relying on your innate nature now.”
“I don’t under—”
“A truce, peacemaker.”
“With me?”
“With Rhiannon.”
Bram blinked. “Rhiannon who?”
“Your queen.”
“The one you called wide ass?”
“One time. Gods that viper forgets nothing!”
“If you want my honesty, Empress, there is no way—”
“Make it happen.”
“Rhiannon will—”
“You’re not hearing me, peacemaker.” Helena stepped closer to Bram. “You will get me a truce. I want it and you’ll get it for me.”
“I can’t force Queen Rhiannon to do anything.”
“You can persuade her. You’re very good at that.”
“Yes, but—”
“And I am trying so very hard to keep your low-born pet safe. Yet Chancellor Kleitos loathes her. I have him on a tight leash, but . . .” Helena briefly pursed her lips. “What if that leash slipped from my grasp?”
Bram clenched his jaw, but said nothing.
“I’m sure you remember your time with Kleitos, yes? I’m sure I need not remind you.”
“Excellent. Then you’ll promise me, yes? A truce. A favorable truce with your queen.”
“Aye. I promise.”
“Excellent,” she said again. “Excellent.” Then Helena walked off, leaving Bram to stare off across the cavern, rage and hatred making him unable to move for quite some time.
Ghleanna waited up as long as she could manage, hoping to see Bram before she fell asleep. Human servants came in, bringing her food and a tub so she could bathe. She’d done that and eaten—but still Bram had not returned.
And while she’d debated whether she should go out and track him down—she’d fallen asleep. Yet now she sensed Bram’s return, and knew he stood over her—staring.
Ghleanna opened her eyes and gazed up at him.
“What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t think it was possible—but this situation has managed to get worse.”
“But you’re so calm,” she observed.
“That’s usually when you can tell everything has gone to shit.”
“I’ll make sure to remember that.” Ghleanna struggled to get up with one arm. She’d left the other tied down because she’d fallen asleep before she could take off the binding. “Perhaps it’s not as bad as you think.”
Bram caught her around the waist and lifted her until she was sitting up.
“I rarely blow things out of proportion, Ghleanna. When stakes are this high, I simply don’t have the luxury.”
Ghleanna leaned forward and caught Bram’s hand. She winced a bit from the pain, and he said, “I should leave you to sleep.”
“Like all the hells you will.” She tugged. “Come. Sit beside me.”
He did, stretching his long legs out on top of the fur.
“Now talk to me, Bram. What has you so worried?”
“She wants me to build a truce.”
“A truce? Between . . .” When Bram didn’t answer, “The Fins—and us?” Bram nodded. “She wants a truce with Rhiannon?” Ghleanna laughed. “Good luck to her then. Rhiannon hates her.”
“And Helena her.” Bram’s voice was cold, his gaze across the room. She could see that he was drawing in on himself. Protecting himself for some reason. She didn’t think it was anything she’d done, and he created truces every day. Why should this one bother him? “But her subjects tire of their limits. They want to travel farther inland and, in return, we’ll be able to use the seas. Especially during wartime.”
Ghleanna instantly saw the benefit of that. The thought of moving up the Northern Coasts and striking at the Lightnings almost made her tingle.
“That seems reasonable.”
“I am a peacemaker, Ghleanna. Not a miracle worker. Rhiannon will never agree to a truce with Helena. Never.”
Ghleanna winced. “Because of that wide ass comment? When Rhiannon took the throne?”
“It was said Helena’s exact words were, ‘I can’t believe that wide-ass cow now rules the Southlands.’”
“And after Rhiannon heard that, Bercelak’s, ‘I love your wide ass’ . . . not really helpful.” Ghleanna waved all that away. “No matter. Simply tell Helena no.”
Bram didn’t move. He didn’t speak. And yet Ghleanna could feel him recoil. Not from her, but from everything else.
Ghleanna pushed the fur off and got to her knees beside Bram. “What aren’t you telling me, Bram?”
“Nothing you need to know.”
“Are you protecting me?”
“You’re still healing. You need rest—not tales of the past.”
Fed up and worried for her friend—she didn’t remember ever seeing him like this before—Ghleanna straddled Bram’s lap.
He blinked hard, brought quickly back into the moment. “What are you doing?”
Ghleanna tugged off the cotton material that held down her arm and had covered her breasts.
“Ghleanna—”
“Look at me, Bram.”
He smiled a little. “I can hardly look away.”
“I meant look at my eyes, you pervy bastard.” She laughed and said, “Now hear me well. I am no weak female who cannot handle hard news. I am a Cadwaladr.” And her back automatically straightened, her chin lifted. “And we are in this together, you and I. For good and bad. So tell me what you’ve been hiding from me.”
Bram closed his eyes, his breathing deepened. The walls of this place were closing in on him as they’d done to her.
Ghleanna lifted Bram’s hand and pressed it to the wound on her chest.
“We’re bound together, Bram. Nothing can ever change that. Nothing ever will.”
“Understand, it is not shame that stops me from telling you the truth, Ghleanna. It’s fear . . .”
His words faded out, his gaze on hers, and Ghleanna’s brow peaked. “You fear what I might do.”
“As you said . . . you are a Cadwaladr.”
She appeared so insulted, Bram almost felt bad for what he’d said. But she always demanded honesty. So honesty was what she would get.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he argued. “It’s not as if I’m pulling this concern out of my ass.”
She gave a little snort. “You might have a point.”
“I just need to know—”
“I won’t touch her. The Empress. At least not without orders from you or someone who outranks me. There. Happy?”
“Fair enough.” Bram took in a breath, watched his forefinger ease across the scar of her recent injury. He focused on that so he could let the words flow.
“Many years ago. I was lured here.”
“By the Empress,” Ghleanna guessed.
“She wasn’t the Empress then, but yes. By Helena. I was young and she was . . . beautiful, and it never occurred to me that I was being used. Once I was here, they sent word to Adienna that they had one of her royals and they wanted her to return the Fin who had gone past the port towns and been captured by Adienna’s troops.”
“Adienna didn’t bargain.”
“No. She didn’t.”
“Then why did we not hear of this? This is the sort of thing the Cadwaladrs excel at. We should have been sent to fetch you.”
“It was Adienna’s decision to do nothing.”
Ghleanna leaned back, her scowl dark and dangerous, her voice flat. “She left you here?”
“Aye.”
“So what did you do?”
“I bargained my own way out. It wasn’t easy. I learned to enjoy fish. All kinds of fish. And, in time, they eventually let me go.”
“It couldn’t have been that easy.”
“It wasn’t.”
Ghleanna cupped his jaw in her hand. “They hurt you.”
“Yes. Some scales were removed to send to the queen. But that didn’t help.”
“But there was more, wasn’t there?”
“The Emperor’s chancellor decided to make me his personal project. I’m still not sure why.”
“He enjoyed your pain. I’ve known blokes like that. They’re never for the quick kill. Not if they don’t have to.”
“Chancellor Kleitos does like his pain. And he enjoyed mine.”
“But you got out.”
“I did. The Fin Adienna had in her dungeons was Helena’s lover. When Adienna wouldn’t release him, Helena came to me.”
“Because she thought her hostage would help?”
Bram chuckled. “No. She came to me to complain. I’m in chains, missing scales—bleeding quite profusely. And she’s complaining.”
“How’s that funny?”
“You had to be there.” He shrugged. “She complained and I listened, pretended I cared, pretended I empathized.”
“Then you manipulated her?”
“No. I persuaded. And promised I could get her lover out.”
“And she released you?”
“She had no choice. Her father would no longer help and Adienna wouldn’t bargain. Killing me would only ensure her lover’s death.”
&n
bsp; “So she let you go.”
“She let me go.”
“And, of course, you returned home and called for revenge.”
“No. I secured the release of her lover.”
“Why, Bram?”
“Because I’d given my word.”
“I’d call you a fool except that I’m sure it is the very reason you’re now the most trusted dragon in the Southlands. Which I’m sure is why she’s asking you to get this truce for her now. You helped her before . . .”
“More fool I.”
“You survived, Bram. Without anyone’s help.” Ghleanna’s head tipped to the side and she studied him. “It couldn’t have been easy for you to come back here.” When Bram only stared at her, “And yet you did. You came here to save me.”
“It was the only place I could think of at the time.”
She stroked his cheek. “Gods, I owe you more than I realized.”
“No. You owe me nothing.”
“Bram—”
“Haven’t you realized yet?” he asked, frustrated. Because the gods knew he didn’t want her pity. “I’d do anything to keep you safe? Anything at all?”
“I was to be protecting you, royal.”
“We’d run out of options.”
Ghleanna framed Bram’s face with both her hands, her dark eyes focused on his mouth. He didn’t know what he’d said to prompt this, but he watched her lean in, his breath halting in his lungs as her lips neared his.
But then there was that damn knock at the door.
Bram closed his eyes. Why? Why were the gods torturing him?
“What?” he snarled.
Kleitos in human form walked in. “I am sorry to interrupt, Lord Bram. But the Empress has requested your presence at the Senate.”
“Of course she does,” he muttered.
“Sorry, my Lord?”
“I said I’ll be there in a minute. Now go.”
“Of course, my Lord. I’ll be right outside.”
Kleitos slinked away, closing the door behind him.
“That was him, wasn’t it?” Ghleanna demanded after a moment.
“That was who?”
“The one who tortured you. The one who hurt you.”
“How do you know that?”
