Rogos locked down—borders and coasts. Wards in place. Diplomatic ties to Paragon broken. All roads in and out of the kingdom, as well as the Sanguine River, are now occupied by Paragon. Nothing is getting through trade routes. DOG underground is compensating. Trying to meet demand best we can.—RZ1
Colin scribbled a message to Rook, the Rogos Red Zone One leader of the Defenders of the Goddess. Message received. Hold the course. Preparing next phase. He strapped the scroll to the bird’s leg and sent it back the way it had come. Then he strode across the deck to Leena.
“We’ve got a problem,” he barked.
She started as if he’d woken her. Didn’t sleep well last night either, did you?
“What’s wrong?”
“Just received a falcon that Rogos has closed the borders and the coasts. They’ve cut diplomatic ties to Paragon.”
“No…” Her face fell. “But that means sailing around to Niven will be impossible. If they’ve locked down the borders and the shoreline, Niven’s beaches will be enchanted to keep out all foreign vessels. You won’t be able to fly through. They’re defending against Paragon. Every effort will be made to prohibit a dragon from getting in. If the wards don’t stop you, the archers will.”
Colin couldn’t bring himself to feel bad about this turn of events. “We’ll have to go back until I can arrange for safe passage.”
Leena grew restless at this idea. “Wait… There’s one place on Rogos’s shores that I know will be safe for us to enter, a place used exclusively by scribes on the edge of the Mystic Wood. It’s not easily accessible except by elves, but if Indigo can get us near, I can guide us in.”
“Guide us in? That sounds ominous.”
“In all the time you spent in Rogos, did you never learn about the Mystic Wood?” She raised a teasing eyebrow. At least she was looking at him again.
“I was there to earn the trust of the people. Aside from crossing through the wood on the main road to Asfolk, I didn’t see the need for an in-depth study. I have heard that it’s uninhabitable.”
“That’s an exaggeration. Not many elves live there, but it’s not impossible. The wood is enchanted and fraught with peril. It’s served a military purpose for Rogos for centuries. For example, had you tried to navigate off the main road on your journey, you might have found yourself stuck in one of the tar pools or attacked by one of the many venomous animals. Even the trees can be lethal if you eat the wrong berry or touch the wrong bark. It’s designed to stop anyone who doesn’t belong in Rogos from reaching its people undetected. Only an elf has any hope of navigating it, and even then, it is filled with deadly obstacles one must actively defend against.”
He snorted. “It’s a means of defense, then, similar to the winters in Darnuith. I never realized.”
“We don’t advertise it, and those that go in never come out to tell the tale. There is a reason we’ve been able to maintain neutrality all these centuries, Colin. Rogos’s defenses are quiet but deadly.”
“Hmm.” Like your beauty, he thought, still feeling the sting from the night before.
“The scribe’s pass is a small inlet on the southern shore. If Indigo can get us close, you can fly us to the dock.”
“Why not keep going? I probably can’t make it all the way to the temple, but I can fly us to the main road.”
“I don’t recommend it. You’re a dragon, Colin. For the first time in centuries, Rogos has ended diplomatic relations with the dragon kingdom. It will be safer if we walk and you keep your wings tucked away until we reach the temple.”
“Great. So now we’re taking a stroll through the enchanted wood. This is a bad idea, Leena.”
“Don’t be concerned. I know a safe path… at least, in theory.”
“In theory?” He raised an eyebrow.
“All scribes learn of the path, to use in case of trouble, but it isn’t as though I’ve ever actually used it. What opportunity would I have had?” She gave a laugh that turned into a snort. “We left Rogos when we could take the main road through Everfield. I never thought we’d have to come back this way.”
“Fantastic,” he mumbled. “I’m all aglow with faith in this plan.”
She shrugged. “Do you have a better idea?”
He faced her and circled one finger in the air. “Yes. We turn this ship around and return to Aeaea where we wait for the three sisters and then safely transport you home using magic, or else get special permission from High Lord Niall to drop you off somewhere.”
Her eyes darted from his to the water rippling off the side of the boat. She seemed to consider it for a moment, then shook her head. “I know it’s the safer thing to do, but I can’t. I need to get back to the temple, Colin. I’m sorry.”
“Why?” It was a fair question even though he suspected he knew the answer. They’d been over this. But he wanted her to admit it once again. He wanted to hear her say it.
“I don’t trust myself around you,” she blurted. She gripped the side of the boat but didn’t turn her head to look at him.
“Then you admit you have feelings for me.”
“If I didn’t, we wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t have had to leave Aeaea.”
“We didn’t have to.”
This time, she did turn, and her expression held something close to torment. “We did. We do. We must.”
It took the better part of the day to reach their destination. The Mystic Wood appeared on the leeward side of the boat in an explosion of deep green foliage and intensely colored blooms. Nothing in their world rivaled the beauty of this place. Roots tangled into the water off the bank, surrounded by an inviting silver mist. Teal vines coiled around the knotty tree trunks and grew in swags between the gnarled branches. A scent like pepper and tea blossom met his nose.
“There.” Leena pointed to an inlet that was impossible to see if you weren’t looking for it. “Beware of the vines. They’re poisonous and plentiful here, where they survive on the salt of the sea.”
Moments later, he heeded the warning as they neared the coast and he had to duck beneath vines that stretched from one bank to another. The boat slipped closer to shore, Indigo steering around a point of land that reached across the narrow way.
“Almost there,” Leena said. “There’s a safe place to disembark just down here.”
Indigo nodded, his pearlescent face gleaming in the dappled sunlight. He dropped the sail and took up the oars.
Out of the corner of his eye, Colin saw a fuzzy brown creature the size of a small bear burrow into the ground offshore. “What was that?”
“Wood rat. Harmless unless provoked, but they carry a tick whose bite could kill you if you don’t seek immediate treatment from a healer.”
Colin grunted. “Any other deadly creatures I should be aware of?”
“Dorinclees. Uh, it translates roughly to silent cat. They’re a type of cougar that lives in the trees. When their mouth is closed, it blends into the rest of their face, making it look like it doesn’t exist. Thus, the name. Their claws likely won’t break your dragon skin, but they could rip me apart.”
“Good to know.”
“Drop anchor here,” Leena commanded.
The oread did as she requested. About a hundred yards ahead of him, Colin could make out a small wooden dock.
“It will be quieter if we fly to the end of the dock, but don’t go any farther.”
“And we need to be quiet why?” Colin slid on his pack and stretched his wings.
“The, uh… you’d call them razorwings.”
“Razorwings.” Colin didn’t like the sound of that.
She tipped her head and spoke to him like a child. “Too much noise can attract a type of bat that slices its victim’s skin with a barb on its wing and then drinks its blood.”
“Fabulous. Just what I wanted to hear.” He handed her the other pack.
“It’s better to know what you’re getting into.”
“Mmmm.” He swept her into his arms. “Ready?”
“Yes,” she answered, but her voice sounded strained.
He understood why. He felt it too, how naturally their bodies fit together. Suddenly he was in no hurry to make it to shore. He’d hold her like this all day if he could.
“Indigo, remember to pass on that message I gave you to Sylas,” Colin said, delaying their departure another moment. He’d given the oread the scroll the falcon had brought him from Rogos.
“I will not fail you, sir.” Indigo’s tinny voice came on a breeze.
Something large and dark moved in the water, perhaps awakened by their voices, and swam under the boat, sending waves lapping against the hull. Colin watched it circle behind them. With a sigh, he resolved that they needed to get a move on.
Colin flapped his wings and rose into the sky, soaring to the small dock and landing gently on the wooden planks. But he took his time lowering her onto her own two feet.
Leena straightened her robes, brushing the natural fibers as if his touch had covered her in sparks. Well, the feeling was mutual. He smiled to himself and followed her as she walked briskly into the forest.
Not a word was spoken as they navigated a narrow trail through the trees. Even when he noticed a bright-blue snake swallowing a wood rat whole only a few meters from the trail, he held his tongue. This place was brightly beautiful but undeniably dangerous. Not unlike Leena. Gorgeous, exactly the type of woman he’d always dreamed of… and she’d crushed his heart into powder with one kiss. The thought balled into an icy knot in his gut.
They climbed a steep incline, and then the path widened into a suitable road, still surrounded by forest but with far more room on the trail.
She fell back to walk beside him instead of in front. “We’ve passed beyond razorwing territory. We can speak now.”
He grunted his understanding but remained silent. She glanced back at him, noting his somber mood.
“You haven’t forgiven me for the kiss, have you? I can’t say I blame you. I should have been more cognizant of your feelings. Please accept my apology.”
“You already apologized,” he mumbled. “I’ll tell you I forgive you if you want to hear it, although there’s really nothing to forgive. I was a willing participant. You know I wanted to kiss you. I could have stopped you, and I didn’t.”
“Yes, but—” She grimaced.
“But what?” His tone passed exasperated and went straight into the territory of annoyed.
“It was a bit like offering you a bite of cake without offering you a whole slice.”
Her tone was such he knew she didn’t mean it to be insulting, but his dragon coiled tighter all the same. He stopped, his boots kicking up dust from the packed dirt road, and narrowed his eyes on her. “You’re the one on the diet, Leena. I can have all the cake I want. I can eat it all day, every day. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If anyone is the cake in this scenario, it’s me!”
Did he really just call himself cake? By the goddess…
“Uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest…”
“If you want to try another bite between here and the temple, you know where to find me,” he added with more swagger than he actually felt.
For a fraction of a second, he thought he saw her eyes widen and her face pale, but then she turned from him and nodded as she walked quickly ahead. “It was a terrible analogy. I’m simply happy that you’ve forgiven me and we can put this all behind us.”
“Good. I’m relieved we are both adults here and have moved beyond this whole situation, because the suns are setting and we’re going to have to make camp soon. And there’s only one tent.”
He had to suppress a laugh when she turned to him, jaw dropping in horror. “Why is there only one tent?”
He snorted. “Because when we left Aeaea, I thought I’d be flying you into Niven. I only packed this thing for me because I was planning to visit our faction of rebels in Rogos before I returned to Aeaea.”
“I can’t stress what a bad idea it is for us to camp here.” She shivered. “But it is getting dark… and cold.”
“Can anything in these woods actually kill a dragon?”
She shrugged. “The tar pits, I suppose.”
“Then let’s find a place far away from those.”
She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, right here on the road is probably our best option, but starting a fire would be a very bad idea. Light attracts wood rats.”
He allowed his pack to slide off his shoulder. “All right, then. No fire and we camp on the road.”
He got to work setting up the tent while she pulled her robes more tightly around her.
Chapter Eight
This was a disaster. Leena helped Colin set up the tent, horrified at how the day had turned out. She’d insisted that he take her back to the temple in order to distance herself from him, and now she’d be forced to sleep in the same very small, very close tent with the dragon. Dear goddess help her. She couldn’t decide if it was a nightmare scenario or a fantasy come true.
“There. Plenty of room for two,” he said, putting the last two pieces together. “Unfortunately, without a fire, we’ll have to settle for a cold dinner. I packed some bread and cheese for the journey back. We can share.”
“Kind of you.” She eyed the small tent in the darkness, then the big dragon standing at its door. Her mouth went dry. Maybe it was a test. If the goddess had put her in this position, perhaps she wanted Leena to prove to herself that the chemistry between her and Colin was a shooting star that simply needed time to burn itself out. It was a tent, not an altar meant for marriage. She held up her canteen and the small bag she used to hold her sundries. “I’ll be right there. I just need a moment.”
He nodded, then disappeared inside. It would take more than a moment to prepare herself for being so close to him again. The night wrapped around her like a shroud, creeping in intensity from a thin, gauzy twilight to an inky blackness that brought with it a chill that seemed to seep through her skin. She prepared herself for bed in the dark and then lingered on the road until a rustle of leaves deep in the woods sent a different kind of chill through her. Steeling her resolve, she slipped into the tent.
And had to force herself not to turn around and walk back out.
The interior glowed with the light of a small lantern, the dragon’s naturally high body temperature warming the small space. He’d stripped down to a pair of shorts and was stretched out along one side of the tent, although his sheer enormity meant that he took up a bit more than half. She hugged the opposite wall before lowering herself to the wool spread he’d folded and placed on her side.
“You can have the blanket. I don’t need it.” He handed her a cloth wrap filled with a corner of a loaf of bread, a large hunk of cheese, and a handful of dried fruit.
“I suppose you don’t get cold,” she said, tearing herself off a bite.
“I feel the cold. It’s just not uncomfortable to me. We dragons are highly resistant to extreme temperatures. I was born near the heart of a volcano.”
She chewed, using the food as an excuse to think of a response that would take her mind off the smooth, taut skin that covered the swells and valleys of his chest and abs. “Elves are born at home,” she squeaked, then coughed and took a sip of water to hide her nerves. “Usually, a midwife comes to the house.”
“Were you born at home?”
Leena stared at the bread in her fingers and frowned. She hated talking about her childhood, but then, he couldn’t know that. “Yes, I was.”
He stretched back, nesting his fingers behind his head, and stared up at the roof of the tent. “I guess I was too, considering the Obsidian Palace is built into the mountain.” He flashed her a grin. “No midwife required. We hatch from eggs, usually on our own.”
As a scribe, Leena was vaguely aware of dragon reproduction, but she’d only read descriptions in scrolls. “Do you mean that your mother wasn’t even there when you were born?”
He shook his head. “Dragon queens lay their eggs in a p
lace we call the cradle. It’s a cave, deep within the mountain—a holy place with a mural and an altar to the goddess. The queen lays her eggs in carved depressions in the stone, and they incubate there in the heat of the volcano under the watchful eye of Aitna. I don’t remember much about the day I was born except seeing my twin, Sylas, for the first time. He was the same color as my paws and tail.”
“You’re born in your dragon form?”
He nodded. “I shifted for the first time a full season after I hatched. That’s when our magic manifests our rings.” He held up the garnet on his finger. “Mine matches Sylas’s, although the setting is different.”
“Fascinating.” The tension in her shoulders relaxed, her natural curiosity trumping any discomfort that lingered at his nearness. “You weren’t close to your mother, then.”
“No.” He snorted. “Hardly knew her.”
Leena frowned. They had that in common. “What about your father?”
He sighed. “Killian was a decent dragon. He spent time with us… mostly in the training room, mind you. The pits. He came from a wealthy merchant’s family and was a champion in his own right. That’s how he’d met our mother and become her consort.”
“The pits are where you fight each other for sport?” She wondered what that was like. It sounded barbaric to her, but elf culture was so different.
“Yes, and for the royal family, status in the ranks was considered a badge of honor. It’s all related to our military, the Obsidian Guard. We trained to be warriors and to fight side by side with the other soldiers if we ever went to war. All royal heirs are trained to be military leaders.”
“Melee combat isn’t practiced in Rogos.”
“So I am told. The rebels I’ve met from Rogos say your army is made up almost exclusively of archers.”
She nodded. “And engineers.”
Colin’s brow knit. “I hadn’t heard that. What do engineers do in the army?”
Leena adjusted her legs under her. “Build things. The crypt key is just one of many feats of elf engineering. We’re extremely gifted metalworkers. You fought in the pits as a youngster. We battle our mechanical creations in an arena where we animate them with magic. We call it the Animus Games.”
The Dragons of Paragon Page 5
