by Jada Fisher
But Helena didn’t know that, and Ukrah heard the appreciative gasp that slipped past her lips as they approached the city at full speed.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed, her hands over her heart. “I heard that Rothaiche M’or was large, but I… I never quite imagined it’d be like this.”
Ukrah couldn’t help but grin slightly. She remembered her first time ever being in the city, all overwhelmed and in awe of the structures. It was almost sad that she had lost some of that wonder, but she supposed that she really had spent too much time in the pale-face lands to find them as overwhelming and foreign as she once did.
Maybe, when everything was done and this vessel business was taken care of, she could just travel around and observe things for herself. Just experience the wonder and beauty of the strange, wet land without a mission hanging right over her head.
She could only hope.
“I can’t believe that I’m going to the house of the world savior,” Helena said with a long breath. “The woman who cleansed the land. I… I feel like I’m a bit underdressed.”
Athar laughed at that. “The day my wife cares about w-what someone’s wearing is the day I know she’s finally gone mad like s-she’s always threatened.”
“Really?” Helena asked. “She’s not one for decorum?”
Even Ukrah had to snort at that. “Hardly. In fact, most of the time, I think decorum irritates her.”
Does anyone else find this conversation incredibly banal considering you have found a literal ancient spirit housed within a woman?
“Nope,” Crispin answered quietly. “And why do you have to be such a wet blanket about everything?”
“He was the same way when I first found him,” Ukrah said, just as softly. “I think it’s just how he shows affection.”
I am a guardian of what was and what will be. I do not show affection. I am here to help you on your journey and that’s it.
“And what a help you’ve been,” Crispin muttered.
“Who are you two talking to over there? I can hear someone.”
The two of them exchanged a look, but it was Cassinda who answered strangely enough. “It’s their little bird. I would say he was a familiar, but he’s far too pissy for that.”
Tayir let out an indignant sound and pushed himself out of the pack he was in. What, can everyone hear me now? This is a sacred language! For vessels only!
“Bird?” Athar asked, glancing behind him. “What are you all talking about?”
“You can’t hear him?” Cassinda asked, sounding completely surprised.
“Hear who?”
“Nothing,” Ukrah said quickly. “Look! I can see the manor!”
That was enough to kill the conversation right then and there, Athar shouting out an order that made Ethella shoot forward, her wings tucked in.
“Well, Fior,” Ukrah asked. “You wanna go see your rider? Take me to her.”
The brindled dragon let out a happy sound and dove. Ukrah’s hair flew back and her lips pulled away from her mouth. It was thrilling in an innocent way, the type of way that she didn’t get to enjoy much in her life. Too many times it seemed excitement was tied to her doing something that was directly threatening her life.
But as they rushed toward the ground, it quickly became clear that something was wrong.
Happiness and excitement shifted to dread.
The front windows were shattered, sparkling in the grass like miniature stars. Even before they landed, Ukrah could see furniture hauled out of the house, the door hanging from its hinges.
Athar didn’t even wait for Ethella to fully land. He jumped from her back, rolling as he hit the ground. He was on his feet a breath later, calling for his wife.
Ukrah didn’t think she would ever forget the terrified tone of his voice as he bolted into the house. She thought she had seen and heard Athar in about every flavor and tone he came in, but the utter heartbreak and fear was entirely new. It struck through her, and when Fior landed, she found herself sliding to the ground and staring in horror at the completely ransacked manor.
Fior let out a high, mourning keen, rushing over to the barn that led to the underground where the other brindles were.
“What is happening?” Crispin whispered behind her. “This isn’t possible.”
“I take it this was not the welcome you were expecting,” Helena added, Ethella finally having landed and Cassinda having helped her down.
“No,” Ukrah said, fearing the worst—that they would go inside and Eist would be dead, murdered in her weakened state. That it would be her fault that they had left the god-woman alone and vulnerable.
She walked toward the door as if possessed, terrified of what she would learn, but unable to bury her head in the sand. Then Athar burst right back out, breathing hard, his broad face paler than a sheet.
“She’s not here,” he gasped, his voice sounding absolutely ragged.
Ukrah and Crispin both rushed forward to steady him, his massive form wavering. “What do you mean, she’s not here?” Ukrah asked, her head spinning.
“I mean sh-she’s gone. S-s-s-someone’s t-t-taken her.”
8
Search and Rescue
Ukrah had never imagined that she would end up bursting through the main doors of Dille’s room, but that was exactly where she and the rest of her party found themselves when they recovered from the shock that Eist was missing.
But perhaps it would have been wise to knock first.
Doors flew open from what Ukrah guessed was the bedroom, weapons flying out in a wall of silver. Ukrah held up both of her hands, barely calling a barrier up in time for the weapons to burst into little clouds of dark black.
The governess stepped out a moment later, a loose robe around herself and wearing a long, soft-looking sleeping shift. Yeah, they had definitely woken her up. Hopefully she would understand.
“What…is the meaning of this?” she asked before her gaze flicked to Athar. “Something is wrong.” Her eyes went to Helena. “But you have the vessel?”
“Eist is gone,” Athar said, stumbling forward and gripping Dille’s dark shoulders. Ukrah had never seen him so completely weak, every ounce of fight taken out of him.
“Gone?”
“They took her. Someone took her.”
Ukrah thought that her heart was already squeezed as tightly as it could be, but it tightened that much more as he collapsed to his knees, clinging to Dille. “You have to find her. You have to.”
“Whoa there, breathe for me, my friend. Eist is gone? Are you sure she didn’t flee? You know how strong she is.”
“The other brindled dragons are gone,” Ukrah offered. When Dille shot her a sharp look, she swallowed and explained. “Fior went to check in the barn. When he came up with no one with him, I figured that meant they were empty.”
“Right.” Dille stroked Athar’s head before gently pulling him to his feet. “Take me to your manor. If she fled, I’ll know. If someone did take her…” The witch’s eyes flashed. “We’ll find them and make sure they find out just how bad of an idea that was.”
Athar nodded and they were rushing right back out, Dille snapping her fingers as they moved through the halls. A moment later, a dark cloak sank down from the ceiling, connecting to Dille’s shoulders and covering her from the chill of the night air.
“Is she a vessel too?” Helena asked, a bit breathless as they strode back to Eist’s estate.
Dille actually looked back at that, smiling toothily. “Hardly. I’m just a witch.”
“Just a witch,” Cassinda muttered. “She’s the Governess of Rothaiche M’or and one of the holy four.”
Helena’s eyes went wide. “The Dille. Of course. In the future, will I get more warning when I am about to meet literal legends?”
“Probably not.”
And that was that until they reached the manor. When she saw it, Dille sucked in a breath. It was getting harder and harder to see with the sun having completely set and
the stars beginning to shine above, but that didn’t seem to bother her at all.
“This… This is bad,” she breathed, going up to the door. Her hands slid along the entryway, and the hair on the back of Ukrah’s neck raised as something filled the air.
A moment later, a greenish-blue mist started to rise from the ground, spreading out like water all around them. Ukrah stepped closer to Crispin, searching for Helena’s comforting presence, but the feeling of apprehension faded as the mist settled closer into the ground, coalescing into tighter concentrations until they settled.
And it was hoofprints that they revealed, glowing with the shifting, cloudlike magic.
“There,” she said, letting out a shrill whistle. A breath later, there were two distant roars. “We’ll follow these. Your dragons must be exhausted, so let them follow along behind us. We’ll ride mine.”
“She really does have two?” Helena squeaked, her question being answered as two truly massive shapes approached them at a high speed.
But Ukrah didn’t have the time to enjoy Helena’s shock. No, in fact, it felt like she had no time at all, her fear bundled tightly in her middle.
All things considered, they moved quickly, barely wasting a single moment. And yet each and every breath seemed to pass too quickly, everything ramping up into a frenzy of fear.
Eist couldn’t be missing, and yet she was. The god-woman hadn’t devoured the Three and banished the Blight and saved everyone just to end up the victim of a random robbery. But if it wasn’t a random robbery, that meant she was targeted, and that whoever had targeted her had been smart enough to actually kidnap the woman.
Because even though Eist was with child, Ukrah knew she would have put up a fight. Even swollen and nauseous and tired as she was, the god-woman was a formidable foe.
And yet there were no bodies that Ukrah had been able to see. No blood. Had she been tricked? Or had something else happened entirely?
She had no idea, and the fact that she had no idea drove her mad. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. Sure, her life had seemed to be one terrible fight after another, but she was never supposed to have to worry about someone kidnapping her hero. The woman who she still dreamed about saving the world.
And yet they followed the hoofprints dutifully, no one saying much as the red dragons rushed forward. While neither of them had the outright insane bulk that Ethella did, they were incredibly long and tall, cutting out entire sections of the night sky as they raced along the path that Dille’s magic had revealed.
Even though it was barely a handful of moments, it still took far too long before the prints all stopped in front of a building fashioned in a familiar style. Ukrah was entirely ready to land when Dille and Athar both let out their own streams of curses.
“What?” she asked, eyes darting around, trying to figure out what she had missed. “What’s wrong?”
“I know this property,” Dille hissed. “It belongs to the Sect of the Three.”
Ukrah’s stomach dropped. She remembered those folks and how they had interrupted her and Crispin’s nameday. “So, we go in there with weapons drawn. Make them pay.”
To her surprise, it was Athar who shook his head. “She won’t be there.”
“What, why?”
“Because if they took Eist here, it was to deliver her to witch hunters. Humans wielding magic is illegal and sacrilege under the Three.”
“But she doesn’t even have any magic!” Cassinda argued. “At least not anymore.”
“No, but she is the one who returned magic to the world. Caused the rise of heathens, as they say. They must have somehow known she was alone and compromised.”
“Which means we have a spy.”
“Or multiple spies.”
“What do we do then?” Ukrah said, her voice pitching higher in her distress. Eist was in the hand of witch hunters? What if… What if they tried to do to Eist what Ukrah’s village had tried to do to her?
Despite all the time that had passed, Ukrah’s mind flashed with what it had felt like to burn alive. To be surrounded by heat and smoke and people who hated her so much that they wanted to expunge any evidence of her existence from the world.
The thought of Eist and the little human inside of her going through that made her nauseous, and before she could stop herself, she was retching over the side of her borrowed mount.
“Whoa, whoa there,” Crispin soothed behind her. “It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna find her.” She could feel his head move as he looked to Dille. “Right?”
Ukrah managed to get it together enough to see the governess nod, her mouth a thin line. “Yes, we will. But if we’re going to take down a group of witch hunters, we’re going to need to arm ourselves. Also, one of your visions would certainly come in handy.”
“Why?” Ukrah rasped. She wasn’t sure she could just call one up like that. She wasn’t sure she could even stand. She was so wracked with guilt and horror at what had happened.
“Because witch hunters are pretty smart. They use old religious talismans and certain charms to keep them from being corrupted by the ‘corrupted energy flow’ of our world. There are too many of them to just look for the blank spots, so finding specific ones can be…difficult.”
“And you think I can help?”
“If there’s an old spirit in you, I’m almost sure that you can.” She whistled again and then they were turning, flying speedily back toward the great building that had first welcomed Ukrah onto the insane path her life had taken.
It was different arriving there as the full darkness of night set in, landing on what could only be a large roost built for all the dragons that might need shelter there, then heading into a side door.
The corridors were dark at first glance, but the sconces on the wall would pop into bright flame as they approached, causing a ripple of light as they moved along that winked out once they passed.
In any other circumstance, Ukrah might have been able to be impressed by it. Charmed. But her mind was solely focused on Eist.
What if she couldn’t summon a vision? She had managed to dream with Crispin and Helena, but those two instances were almost a week apart and had plenty of buildup before them. In both of those situations, she hadn’t already been battered and bruised.
Voirdr made a grumbling sound as they walked along, winding in between her legs. He could clearly tell that something was wrong, that everyone was tense with barely withheld emotions, but his little dragon mind probably couldn’t wrap around what was bothering him. She wished that she could catch him up and cuddle him, cooing in the sappy way he liked, but there wasn’t time.
What if their time was already up and they didn’t even know it yet?
That thought made her shudder and she shoved it from her mind. She had to cling to hope. She had to.
They ended up in a room entirely similar to Eist’s planning room, but twice as big with several different maps attached to the walls, different colored lines and markings on them.
Dille saw her look and quickly spat out names as she pointed to each one, striding across the room to a large table with yet another map on it.
“Those are known energy lines we’ve found. Those are raiding hot spots. There you have magical dead spots and ancient repositories we’ve found. That one’s a relief map.”
She reached the table and pulled off her cloak, dropping it to the floor. Like some sort of wind was blowing, the piece of fabric picked itself up, spinning across the room to land on a hook. “One of you go into that red cabinet. Grab me four candles and two of the incense sticks from the jar with the purple labels and one of the charcoal drawing sticks.”
Crispin rushed to do so, because of course he did, and moments later, he was returning to the governess with the items that she’d asked for. Quickly, efficiently, Dille laid them out at the corner of the tables, holding the sticks in either of her hands.
“You, come here.”
Ukrah did as she asked, coming around the table
to stand next to Dille. The woman handed her an incense stick, closing the desert girl’s fingers around it. “Hold this. Breathe it in. Let the warmth and the smell fill you, okay? Make it take up all the space in your mind that you can.”
Ukrah nodded, uncertainty lancing through her, but she gave herself over anyway. Dille nodded, then snapped her fingers.
The incense in Ukrah’s hand burned hotly for a moment before fading entirely, leaving only a smoldering, glowing tip. Like Dille had ordered, she breathed deeply, letting her nose fill with the citrusy, woody scent and taking it in.
It was warm, heady, and she tried to concentrate on making it slowly unfurl within her. It was difficult considering that her mind was so full, that she was so anxious about finding Eist that every moment seemed like she was one step closer to having the world spin out of control.
“Deep breaths. Listen to my words, but don’t focus on them. You only focus on that scent. Let it take over you while my voice drifts.”
Ukrah tried to do just that. Not to hold on too tightly to reality. Her head was beginning to feel heavy and thick, like it was full of syrup. Her limbs were letting go, the tension in her muscles dripping down her to puddle on the floor.
You’re connected to the people around you, aren’t you, Vessel?
Ukrah blinked blearily, the words barely registering as Dille’s voice. It was so similar to Tayir’s at the moment. That was… That was strange…right? But she couldn’t quite figure out if it was. Instead, she wanted to tell the woman that ‘vessel’ was not her name, but that would interrupt the incense. Interrupt the warm floatiness she was drifting in.
That’s right, you are. She means a lot to you, doesn’t she?
Why was the governess asking such silly questions? The god-woman had sensed Ukrah the moment she’d arrived. Eist had been a part of her dreams, pushing her, coaxing her along. Leading her to the path of her destiny.
I want to find her, but she’s hidden. Do you think you could help me find her?
How so? Ukrah could hardly think. She could only smell the incense and feel it all in her head.
