Drinking Destiny

by Pippa Amberwine

  “That’s great,” I said and then told her all about the Chemosys raid and rescuing Carol.

  “That’s brilliant! So you’re actually a lot further on with this than I am now?” Famil asked.

  “It seems so, yes,” I said.

  “I hadn’t even considered the different blood types of the various dragons. Shame that it had to be the sun dragons with the most effective blood.”

  “Why’s that?” I asked.

  “I’m surprised that Jevyn hasn’t mentioned it.”

  “To be truthful, we only found out very recently. Jevyn did mention that they are looked down upon in Dracos society.”

  “They are. I actually feel sorry for them. They are very rare and very delicate, but it isn’t their fault that the gift they are born with isn’t at all needed anymore.”

  “How many are there?”

  “In the whole of Dracos, I couldn’t say. I used to see one around every now and then in the marketplace. He used to have the most threadbare of the stalls with almost nothing on it. I asked him why, one day when I was there, and he said it was better than begging. He was too proud to do that.”

  I thought back to Ypalde and her sad sewing box. It looked like pride was probably one sun dragon trait that should be held in high esteem.

  “It does cause you a problem though,” Famil continued.

  “How so?” I asked.

  “Well, if you only have one sun dragon, and not a particularly healthy one by what you’ve told me, she’s never going to be able to supply enough blood to make a cure possible.”

  “Carol seems to think she might be able to create enough by combining the DNA of different dragons,” I said. It sounded pretty much like what she had said, but I was no scientist, so I hoped I’d gotten the gist of it right.

  “Good idea. The other option is to create an artificial blood. It would be about as complicated, but it might be quicker. I’ve heard there’s a company in Grayfair who is working on something like that for the outbreak of the virus there.”

  Jevyn’s ears pricked up at the mention of Grayfair.

  “Really? Do you know who it is? And how do they know about the outbreak. My mother said it was being kept quiet,” he said.

  “I do. I heard mostly through rumors. It’s a company called URS. Unlimited Resources Scientific. It’s a smallish business that’s just been set up, but they live up to their name with the resources. They seem to be throwing everything at this problem.”

  “Cole Pitt,” Jevyn said.

  We exchanged a glance.

  “That’s him,” Famil said. “He’s the CEO apparently. I have no idea who he is, but he must be a recent arrival. I mean you know what Grayfair’s like. A mixing pot of all sorts.”

  “So, there are humans there?” I asked.

  “I assume there must be if he’s there.”

  “He isn’t at the moment. He’s on Earth, sniffing around our little operation,” Jevyn said, his face showing the same kind of distaste as it had for Carol’s sandwiches. “We need to find out what he’s up to.”

  “That sounds sensible,” Famil said. “Listen, Katie. I’ve run out of vampire blood to experiment on. Is there any chance . . .” Famil trailed off with a tight smile.

  For the second time that day, I rolled up my sleeve. I was a lot happier about Famil having my blood on Dracos because at least it wasn’t going to get contaminated or contaminate anything else in the environment Famil worked in.

  I hesitated to say the same about the blood I left at Carol’s, but until we could persuade Nindock that he needed to invest in a decent lab for her, it was the best she could do. Famil slipped a cotton wool ball over the spot where she had taken the blood and pressed it down for a few seconds. When she took it away, there was no mark or blood.

  She raised her eyebrows at that.

  “I heal quickly with the virus,” I said. “It’s one of the side effects.”

  “Right. Well, that’s all done. What’s next for you two?”

  I looked over at Jevyn.

  “I think we’ll go back to Pathya and through the rift. We have work to do back at home,” Jevyn said.

  Both Famil and I looked at Jevyn for a few seconds after he stopped talking. It took him a few seconds to realize why.

  “I meant back on Earth,” he said, correcting himself.

  We were both wrapped in hugs again before we bade our farewells, a moment that seemed to bring a tear to Famil’s eyes.

  If I didn’t know any better, I could almost believe that Famil, the dragon who had been friends with Jevyn since they were children together, was wishing Jevyn a real goodbye, as if she expected not to see him again for a very long time.

  It didn’t make me feel good to know that I wished it were true.

  Chapter Nine

  Jevyn

  Pathya City marketplace, Dracos

  I WASN’T SURE what Katie was thinking on the way back from Eastborne. She barely said a word after all, and my psychic powers being somewhat lacking, the chances of me knowing for sure were pretty much zero. I wondered if that was the same for all men trying to understand a woman’s mind.

  I’d seen Earth TV, which was full of references to this kind of thing, but until then, I’d thought of myself as intuitive enough to have a reasonable idea of what someone was thinking.

  But at that moment? I really couldn’t say.

  Had she read something into the hug I’d given Famil? Something the gesture wasn’t intended to convey? I’d known Famil since I was a child, so it was only natural to embrace her.

  Was Katie thinking about us? I had been, ever since we got the message to come back and the news about the outbreak of the virus in Grayfair. My mother was newly determined to close down all of the rifts, and in my role as her son, I understood why. If the Grayfair outbreak couldn’t be controlled, it could spell disaster for Pathya, and I couldn’t let that happen in good conscience. I had a duty to all of dragonkind, and if it meant having to sacrifice something precious to me, then that was all there was to it.

  I had to let Katie go if it meant keeping my people and planet safe.

  But I didn’t want to.

  Katie had become more precious to me with every waking moment I spent on Earth. I had feelings for her that I could only explain one way.

  But I couldn’t ignore duty.

  “Do we have time to visit the marketplace, Jevyn? If this is going to be my last opportunity to visit Pathya, I’d like to do something nice before we head back to Earth.”

  “Yes, we do. It sounds like a great idea,” I said, injecting some additional enthusiasm into my voice to make up for the lack of enthusiasm in my soul.

  Shopping was not my idea of a fun time.

  I noticed Katie looking at me with a slightly puzzled expression and offered her a smile.

  “You need to work on keeping your facial expression in line with what you’re saying, you know,” she said with a grin.

  I dropped my chin. “Sorry. I have a lot on my mind.”

  “I know. That’s why I suggested the market. Maybe it would take your mind off things. Give you something else to think about. I mean, what could be more romantic than walking through the market with me on one arm and something to eat in your other hand?”

  “What is it with you and food?” I asked, my tone light. But a slight darkness washed over Katie’s face.

  “You noticed, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It goes back to when the new virus first hit. It messed everything up on Earth. People were dying left and right, and food became in short supply, so whenever we found any, we ate. If you didn’t, you didn’t get your share, so now, when there’s food, I eat. Simple as that. Whether the virus means you need more energy or something, I’m not sure, but I guess it does, hence the appetite.”

  “Right. I understand now.”

  “So, what, did you think I was just being greedy or something?”

  I looked at her again. I wanted to be su
re she didn’t think my words had been meant as any kind of criticism. They weren’t. It was just a genuine curiosity. I could see she was trying to be serious, but it wasn’t long before a grin slid onto her face, one that I matched.

  “I would never think that. I was just amazed that someone so small could pack away so much.”

  She backhanded my arm. “Who are you calling small?”

  “You. You’re small compared to me at least.”

  “I’ll still kick your ass if you give me any trouble,” she said.

  I looked at her as she cast her eyes about at the stands in the market, and I believed her. I hoped it would never come to that.

  “There,” I said, pointing at a stand a little farther along the street. “How does the best pie in Pathya sound?”

  “Sounds like some cheesy advertising slogan,” she said, giggling.

  “That’s no slogan,” I said. “It’s the truth. You have never tasted anything like these bad boys.”

  “You’ve been spending too much time with Frankie, talking like that,” she said, but she grinned as she pulled on my arm, and we headed toward the stand.

  When we got there, the line we saw in the distance seemed to have gotten longer, but the smell of the food baking in ovens behind the sand kept me there long enough to get to the front eventually.

  Katie had her arms wrapped around one of mine against the cool wind that was blowing gently through the market. Other smells wafted across, but the aroma from the pies was as intoxicating as it had been when I had been a small child and was brought to the market by one of the people who looked after me.

  It had always been a wild adventure to be out of the palace, and to actually eat outdoors with my hands was something I always enjoyed, used as I was to the stuffy atmosphere in the palace when mealtimes came around. No stiff, formal clothes. No waiting for adults to start eating first. No having to sit quietly, not speaking unless I was spoken to first.

  It had been amazing to get out into the world that way, although the woman who allowed it to happen was fired when my mother found out. That was the end of that little episode, and the one small sliver of freedom I’d experienced as a child disappeared, never to return.

  Even the play sessions I had with Famil and some of the other children were tightly organized to the point of being, at times, boring.

  But standing with Katie on my arm, waiting to be served, brought back those same feelings of freedom.

  “What will you have?” Katie asked, looking at the large chalkboard with a list of the various fillings available.

  I took a look over the list, wondering if my favorite from childhood—apple and cinnamon—was still available.

  It was there, halfway down the list.

  “Apple and cinnamon,” I said.

  “You have cinnamon here?”

  “Of course. Why?”

  “It’s just . . . I didn’t think you would.”

  “Well, we do. Pathya and Earth are different versions of the same place, separated by dimension. Some things are very different, but inevitably some things have stayed the same. Apple and cinnamon are two things, putting them in a pie is another.”

  I smiled down at her. She shrugged at my explanation. I wasn’t entirely sure she quite grasped it, although when she looked at the map back in the palace, she seemed to be able to place Grayfair as being where New York was on Earth.

  “I think I’ll have savory. Meat and potato sounds good,” she said.

  “It is. That’s my favorite of the savory ones.”

  “Apple is my favorite sweet pie. Hey, maybe we could go halfsies and share?” she suggested.

  I draped my arm around her shoulder. It was such a typical Katie thing to say. In the time I’d known her, I’d come to realize that although she took on too much and liked to have control over things, she only ever seemed to think about other people before herself, a trait I found very endearing and refreshing after being surrounded by people with exactly the opposite outlook for most of my life.

  Eventually, after a stomach-rumbling wait, we made it to the head of the queue and, once we’d been served, headed off to sit on a bench.

  “Oh, my god, this is delicious,” Katie said as we chowed down on the savory pie first.

  I would have verbalized my agreement, but I had a mouth full of deliciously tender meat; soft, floury pieces of potato; and a crust that was in equal measures flaky and crusty.

  It was, by any definition, utterly delectable.

  I was worried that Katie’s eyes were going to roll up into her head when she took the first bite of the apple-and-cinnamon pie.

  Once that had been consumed, we sat for a few moments watching people go by, going about their everyday business while we wiped our mouths and fingers clean.

  “You ready for a walk?” I asked once we had sat in companionable silence for a couple of minutes.

  “Not sure I can after all that pie.”

  I jumped up, stretched my legs a couple steps to drop all our trash into a bin, and then turned back, my hand extended to help Katie to her feet.

  She held out her own hand, which I grabbed, and I gently pulled her upright and then in toward me, allowing me to wrap my arms around her. I lowered my lips to hers. She tasted like a warm, soft, and utterly beguiling human version of the pies.

  Much as I had hoped that I would be able to maintain my relationship with Katie, I couldn’t help but feel that we were beginning a long, sad goodbye. When we broke the kiss, I knew Katie was feeling the same by the way she pulled herself to me, not letting go, with her head pressed into my chest.

  When I heard a quiet sniff and reached down to lift her chin and look into her eyes, they looked back at me like pools of liquid, catching reflections of the bright sky in their beautiful and undeniably sad depths.

  “Jevyn. I—”

  I felt a tap on my shoulder and twisted to see who it was. A man I didn’t know had stepped back away from me but was looking at me, hard-eyed.

  “Your highness? I bring a message from Truth.”

  Damn. I’d forgotten all about him and his ultimatums about not coming into the marketplace anymore.

  “What does he want?” I asked, letting go of Katie for a moment.

  The man shrugged. “I don’t know. He asked me to take you to him. He says he has news for you.”

  I looked around to Katie. “What do you think?”

  “I think we should try and stay on his good side. You might need him one day.”

  I nodded my agreement.

  I turned back to the man. He wasn’t armed and looked like a working man who was doing as he was asked, rather than one of Truth’s cadre of hardcore followers.

  “Very well. Where will I find him?” I asked.

  “He said I should take you to him.”

  “In that case, you’d better lead on.” I grabbed Katie’s hand tightly. My guess was we were heading into the seedy part of the city and market where Truth plied his trade.

  It wasn’t long before that was proved correct as we wound our way through the market into its murkier, darker depths. Every street corner had a gaggle of people conducting what was undoubtedly some kind of illicit dealings, accompanying it with quick, hard stares at us.

  I wasn’t scared. I could handle myself, and I had no doubt that Katie could too, but if any of the disparate little groupings decided to form a hunting party, any action we did take might have to be a case of fleeing rather than fighting.

  The messenger angled around a corner, and we followed him around quickly. I feared it might have been some kind of trap, but we found he was standing by a doorway, holding the door open.

  “In here,” he said and flicked his head toward the doorway.

  I went first, still worried that we might be walking into something. Inside the door was a narrow, unlit hallway. The floor was damp, and in places, puddles reflected what little light was coming in from outside. I couldn’t make out where from, but water was dripping down from
the ceiling somewhere farther along the hall, plinking into the pool of water it had created.

  A door stood open a few feet farther along the hallway, and when the messenger shut the door from the outside, it offered the only light in the place.

  “Go through there,” he said from behind me. I heard Katie draw a sharp intake of breath when he spoke.

  “You okay?” I asked over my shoulder.

  “Yeah, he just made me jump when he spoke.”

  “Stay close, and stay ready.”

  “It’s nothing like that,” the messenger said. “He just wants to talk.”

  “That’s what he told you, huh?” I said quietly over my shoulder.

  “Yeah. Why would he want to hurt you?”

  “I dunno, but I prefer to be ready for anything.”

  “Suit yourself.” I could almost hear him shrug.

  The door out of the hallway was only half open, so I pushed it a little wider, letting some more light into the hallway. Then, I stepped through, ready for action if needed. When I stepped inside, I found Truth, sitting behind a desk as if this horrible, dark, dank building was some office where he conducted his business. In a way, I supposed it was.

  “Jevyn,” he said, not rising to greet me. “Come on in, your highness.” As usual, Truth reserved a good helping of ironic tone of voice for the time he spent talking to me.

  He was alone in the room, which although it was lit, and dry underfoot, was still in a state of disrepair. The one window—the only source of light—was grimy and stained, the walls had strips of paper drooping down where dampness had gotten to it, and the ceiling had more than one dark patch of mildew blooming on it.

  “Nice office,” I said, determined to show him I wasn’t going to be deterred either by him or the surroundings.

  He smiled wryly. “Thanks, I decorated it myself.”

  I couldn’t help a grim smile back.

  “So, what was so urgent that we had to delve into the depths to come and see you? Oh, you remember Katie?”