Touch of Ice (Dawn of Dragons Book 1)

by Mary Auclair

  “And you accepted?” Henriette was visibly shocked.

  “I refused. Then he threatened to take it all back. I had no choice.”

  “You couldn’t risk telling him about her.” Henriette’s smile returned, soft and warm. She always understood. “Don’t torture yourself. You did what you had to do to save her. In the end, it all turned out fine. We’re safe now. Nothing can hurt us here.”

  “Yes.” It wasn’t the complete truth, but it was as much as she wanted to tell Henriette. She couldn’t go into detail about the dangers that lurked ahead, or what she’d done to ensure Tallie was cured. The lies she’d told, the people she’d put at risk.

  All for Tallie.

  I would do it again.

  A movement attracted her attention, and the door opened to reveal Aldric. At the sight of him, her belly quivered with excitement. She allowed the feeling to grow, getting up to greet him with a tender kiss. When his lips touched hers, a fire spread in her body and she reached to touch his cheeks.

  Later.

  Yes. He had forced her hand, but there was no denying that he had gone above and beyond anything she had had any right to hope for. He cared for her—for them—and that was all she should ask for.

  “Doctor Dyfed is here for Tallie’s treatment.” Aldric’s arm slid around her waist, and he turned to motion to a man and a woman wearing long, close-fitting blue uniforms. Delradon doctors.

  The two doctors walked inside the room, pushing a rolling chair in front of them. The chair was strange looking, covered with a shiny metallic fabric and a round device at the top. It made Endora feel nervous to look at it, partly because she understood so little of Delradon technology and medicine, and partly because the goal for which she’d put her life at risk was so close at hand.

  “She’s playing with Shari in the bedroom.” Endora watched as the doctors installed their equipment—blinking lights and strange, wand-looking devices—in neat rows on the dining room table. Fear coiled its icy tendrils inside her, taking hold despite her efforts to push back against the black hole of her ignorance.

  “Where is Mistress Hael?” Aldric looked around, frowning.

  “I sent Hael away.” Endora made a face. She knew she was in for a fight with Aldric, but she really couldn’t stand the stern, aloof Delradon woman who orchestrated Shari’s life like the girl was a trained poodle instead of a child. “Shari needs time to play, to just… be.”

  Aldric stared at her, lifting his eyebrows in surprise.

  “She’s just six.” Endora kept talking, the words she’d rehearsed flowing out of order, lacking the convincing edge she wanted. “Hael is too severe, she never laughs, never smiles. I’ve never even seen her touch Shari.” She took a deep breath. “Maybe Shari could come live here, with us.”

  “Live here?” Aldric looked around. “This isn’t a separate home. You won’t be staying in here forever. As soon as the threat is gone, all of you will be able to enjoy the castle. As for Mistress Hael, Tallie will begin her education with her as well.”

  “No she won’t!” Endora scoffed, then immediately regretted it as Aldric frowned, all amusement gone from his face. “I mean, I don’t want Tallie spending all her days alone with a stranger.”

  “Tallie has much to learn.”

  “Yes.” Her cheeks flamed at that simple statement. As much as her instincts as a mother pushed her to defend her daughter’s education, she knew Aldric was right. Tallie had been taught to read and write and the basis of mathematics, but that was all Endora had to offer her daughter. She knew nothing of the Delradon world and knew little more than what remained of the human knowledge passed down to Henriette by her mother, and her mother before her. “She can’t be as ignorant as I am of your world. Not if she’s going to grow up in it.”

  Aldric opened his mouth to answer but a small coughing sound from behind made him glance over his shoulder. Doctor Dyfed stood, his eyes cast down and his hands behind his back.

  “You may begin the treatment.” Aldric motioned to the clean dining room where a large, cushy chair had been placed. “The guards will see you out when you’re done.” He returned his gaze to Endora. “We will discuss this later. For now, Tallie needs you.”

  Endora watched as the Delradon doctors prepared the rotating device that administered and controlled the nanites as they scoured Tallie’s body in search of cancerous cells, wiping clean the sickness in her body in a matter of minutes. The anger she’d felt before returned, boiling up before she could quench it.

  “So fast. So simple.” Her voice shook and when Aldric looked at her, she saw surprise in his face. “If I hadn’t been compatible with you, if I hadn’t accepted your offer, I could never have afforded the price of those treatments. No human could. She would have died, just like my grandfather did. The Delradon could save us all.”

  Silence descended on the room and Endora saw Henriette from the corner of her eye, holding both Tallie and Shari close to her.

  “Did you try?” Aldric tilted his head to one side, his voice still and quiet but his eyes gleaming. Two pools of precious silver, reflecting the light. “Did you go to the Delradon hospital in Hylberia and ask for the treatment?”

  “Of course not.” Endora crossed her arms over her chest tightly. “Why would I do that to Tallie? It’s three days’ ride on horseback, four by cart. They wouldn’t help us anyway.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “They didn’t help my grandfather. Wouldn’t even let him through the door. He had pneumonia, he could have been cured.”

  Endora hated the tremor in her voice, but she hated the hurt in Aldric’s eyes even more. He was the High Lord, the one responsible for everything in the Kingdom. When all was said and done, he could have shared the Delradon technology, could have prevented countless human deaths.

  He could have saved Tallie, but he’d chosen to take her life hostage, blackmail her into agreeing to sell her life for the treatment. She knew she wasn’t being fair but she resented it anyway.

  Aldric’s face stilled, and his eyes moved to the doctors working on the machine’s calibration. They glanced up at him and doctor Dyfed’s face lost all color before he quickly returned to his work.

  “The Delradon hospital has a fund created especially for those who cannot afford those treatments. A fund for humans who can be cured with our technology.” Aldric frowned and his eyes turned cold as he addressed the doctors. “Isn’t that so, Doctor Dyfed?”

  “Of course, my Lord.” Doctor Dyfed almost dropped a shining blinking device. “The lady must be mistaken. No human has been refused treatment at the hospital since my father took over, nearly fifty years ago, when you became the High Lord.”

  “Are you saying I’m lying?” Endora couldn’t contain her anger and she faced the doctor head on, holding his golden stare. “That I didn’t see the man who raised me die a slow, painful death in front of his wife, while your kind did nothing to help?”

  In the background, Henriette made a small, choked sound.

  “No.” Doctor Dyfed’s eyes flicked between Endora and Aldric in rapid succession, and the instrument shook in his hands. “I meant no offense, my Lady.”

  Endora’s heart pounded fast as she understood. As High Lord, Aldric send money to the hospital to cover the cost of treatments for those too poor to pay for it, mostly humans. The hospital was keeping the money, leaving them to die. Her anger turned cold and she knew that, for the first time, what she felt was dangerously close to hatred.

  Looking at Aldric’s profile, the hardness of his jaw, the way a vein pulsed in his neck, she understood he felt the same way. His wrath was like a glow around his skin, cold and fiery hot at the same time.

  In a strange way, it soothed her to know the man who now shared her life—the man she was fast falling for—did not leave her people to die.

  “You can expect an inspector at your establishment soon.” Aldric’s voice was laden with threat, with the cold edge of a blade that would know no m
ercy. “In the meantime, I expect to hear about your generous—and free—treatments for any human or Delradon who comes to your door and who cannot pay for your service.”

  Doctor Dyfed nodded, then urged his assistant to prepare the remainder of the equipment. They worked fast, with precise, efficient motions.

  “I’ll leave you alone with your daughter,” Aldric said, turning to the children. “Come now, Shari. You have to go back to your own room.”

  “But I’d like to stay with Tallie.” Shari reached for Tallie’s hand, holding it in her own. “I don’t like being alone.”

  “I’ll tell you what.” Aldric smiled with an easy, comfortable warmth. “Tomorrow, I’ll have a bed prepared for you in Tallie’s bedroom, so you can always sleep there if you like. And Tallie will join you in your lessons with Mrs. Hael, right here in the Lady Endora’s apartment.” He glanced at Endora. “So you will never be alone again.”

  Endora watched, her throat closed, as Aldric got to his feet, then extended his hand to Shari. The little girl smiled, then grabbed the offered hand and followed Aldric. As he walked past her, he paused.

  “I will be back to see how Tallie is doing after her treatment.”

  “Thank you.” Endora knew she should say more, should tell him she didn’t think it was his fault, but she didn’t.

  The door closed after Rasha’s tail as Aldric left the room with Shari, and Endora turned to watch the doctors. The treatment was about to begin.

  “I’m not tired!” Shari said, bouncing on the bed, her little voice trembling with each jump. “I wanna play with Tallie again after she finishes her treatment.”

  Aldric watched the child, not knowing what to say or do. He was never usually alone with Shari, much less at bedtime. For the first time in a long time, he was at loss for what to do, what to say. The girl was giggling and jumping, her long hair bouncing up and down behind her like flowing raven’s wings.

  She’s mine. I am responsible for her.

  The thought came often since Shari lost her father and came to live at Whispering Castle, but for the first time, it was accompanied by a warm, possessive feeling. This child was his, and he would do everything in his power to make sure she grew up safe.

  No, not just safe. Safe and happy.

  The door opened and Aldric turned to see an old, familiar face.

  “Junco,” he said, smiling at the old servant. “What are you doing here? You are assigned to the Lady Endora exclusively.”

  “Yes, Lord Aldric.” Junco bowed her head, then looked up at him, her pale orange eyes shining softly. “But Lady Endora asked me to put Shari to bed.”

  “Isn’t that Mistress Hael’s job?” Aldric cocked his head, suddenly realizing that the governess was nowhere to be seen, at almost Shari’s bedtime. “Where is she?”

  “Oh.” Junco looked down with wide eyes. “Lady Endora dismissed her for the evening. She doesn’t like Mistress Hael to put Shari to bed. She usually does so herself, but tonight she had to stay with Tallie for her treatment.”

  This was news to him. Endora, putting Shari to bed? She was taking care of Shari like she was her own daughter within in a matter of days.

  “I’m not tired,” Shari repeated, still jumping up and down. “I don’t want to go to sleep.”

  “Well,” Junco said, taking her hand and gently coaxing her down to the floor as she produced a white sleeping gown. “Let’s just get you changed, and we’ll see how you feel.”

  “I won’t feel like sleeping.”

  Aldric watched, mesmerized, as Junco dressed Shari, then laid her down in her bed.

  “I won’t sleep,” Shari said, shaking her head as Junco pulled the blankets over her body.

  “I know.” Junco smiled. “You keep repeating it.”

  Shari yawned, her eyes momentarily closing as Rasha curled up at her side. Junco sat on the bed and sang a slow, soothing song. It was one from the old world, one Aldric remembered his mother singing to him. As Junco’s soft voice died down, the child’s eyes closed and her chest heaved deeply and slowly.

  Junco turned to him, her smile creating a web of wrinkles around her face. “She’s asleep.”

  “How did you do that?” Aldric asked in a low, quiet voice, not even trying to mask how impressed he was.

  Junco chuckled, piling up Shari’s laundry in her arms. “She can play until she falls down. She’s a lot like your sister Ylmira, and you before her.”

  Aldric swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. “You knew Ylmira?” He frowned, unable to remember. Junco was one of his oldest servants, perhaps even the oldest, but he had no idea how she’d come to be in his service.

  “I began my service as your lady mother’s handmaid.”

  Aldric looked at Junco with a renewed interest.

  “Your sister was a lovely child.” Junco turned to him when he stayed silent. “She was always so full of life, so spirited. She was a lot like your lady mother.”

  Aldric frowned, the images of his mother coming to him in waves through the span of time. Her beauty, first of all. Pale porcelain skin over dark raven hair, red lips and pure, dark garnet eyes like a midnight sky at full moon. Cold and perfect, never smiling or frowning, Ela Darragon had been an ivory tower, shining out of reach over the lives of her children, right up to the moment Ylmira died.

  “Whatever Ela was, she changed.”

  Aldric turned to leave.

  “She loved you, and she loved your sister.” Junco turned to face him and looked directly into his eyes. “She wasn’t always like you remember, you know.”

  “My parents hated each other.” Aldric breathed in deeply. “There wasn’t much space left for anything else in their lives.”

  “They weren’t always like that.” Junco’s knowing, direct stare was full of the pain of a long bygone era. “Your father was crazy about her.”

  Pain shot through him, as fresh as the day Ylmira died. So many years ago, yet so fresh it could have drawn blood.

  “My father loved nothing but the Darragon name.”

  “No.” Junco shook her head, contradicting him. “Dierno cherished Ela with all he had. The first few years of their mating were happy. Then the Great War began and everything changed.”

  When Aldric didn’t speak, Junco shook her head and picked up the last piece of clothing from the floor. She walked past him to the door, ready to leave.

  “How could my mother be at risk in the Great War?”

  “Ela wasn’t a target until she raised her voice against those who would hurt those of mixed blood and their children.” Junco’s face became still, and he saw the haunting expression of old fears and pain behind the pale orange eyes. “When she was threatened, Dierno was in a frenzy. He assigned her to her rooms, shut her out from the world. She tried to reach him but he wouldn’t listen.”

  “He wanted to protect his mate.” The memories he had of Dierno Darragon, his father, all corroborated that fact. Beneath his thick layer of ice, his father had protected his family through the darkest pages in Delradon history. He had done his duty, and Aldric wasn’t about to hold that against him.

  “Your father was a protector.” Junco nodded. “He simply forgot that sometimes, when we try to protect those who are closest to us, we end up smothering what we love the most.”

  Aldric’s throat closed and even if he’d wanted to ask more, he couldn’t have. Junco slipped behind the door and disappeared in the hallway, the muffled sound of her footstep fading away.

  Was he destroying the very family he was trying to build?

  Chapter 15

  “That will be all, Hael.” Endora stood in the doorframe of her living room, blocking access to the rest of her apartments. “You can come back tomorrow for the girls’ lessons.”

  “Lady Shari is my responsibility.” Mistress Hael pursed her thin lips, making a cobweb of fine wrinkles spread around her mouth. Her pale yellow eyes the color of dead grass glinted with barely repressed anger against the sickly white of her skin, and
she refused to move. “I will not leave these apartments without her.”

  “Shari is staying with me from now on.” Endora tried to suppress the irritation in her tone but the woman was rapidly using up all her patience. “I thought I made myself clear on this.”

  Mistress Hael clicked her tongue with an impatient, irate sound. She crossed her arms over her chest, making it clear she didn’t accept Endora’s answer.

  From somewhere beyond the living room, giggles bounced off the walls. Sounds of happiness, full of innocence and joy. Sounds that should make anyone who heard them smile, but not Mistress Hael, whose face was sour.

  “The Lady Shari is heir to the Donos family.” Mistress Hael flipped her head in the direction of the laughter. “She will sleep in apartments befitting her status, unless I am personally instructed otherwise by her guardian, Lord Aldric.”

  Endora’s eyes reduced to slits as she stared the Delradon woman down. Everything about her was cold and unfeeling, from the tight bun holding her gray hair in place on her nape to the dull, dry sound of her voice. Even her homely features, raw and sharp, told of a woman whose life was dictated by unbending discipline and blind obedience to a strict set of social rules.

  She was a woman who was used to ruling the lives of smaller, defenseless people and did not appreciate being told otherwise, especially by a human.

  “Your objections are duly noted, but for tonight at least, Shari and Tallie are staying together.” Endora kept her voice steady but made no attempt to disguise her irritation. Mistress Hael’s attitude was getting on her nerves.

  “It is not proper to allow a Draekon Lady to play like a…” Mistress Hael looked like she was searching for the right word, then her yellow eyes flashed. “A common peasant.”

  Endora’s jaw clenched and she stared hard at the woman. Her dislike had just turned into all out loathing.