by JD Monroe
She jolted a little, as if he had slapped her. Then she looked down. A wide seam opened across her throat, spilling blood down her smooth chest and onto her fine clothes. Crimson tears streamed from her eyes, staining her smooth cheeks. “Because of you.”
“No,” he said, though he knew it was true. “You’re not real.”
“Tarek,” the voice whispered again. There was a strange lilt to the voice. It didn’t belong to Ivralah, but he recognized that little flip on the r.
“Gabrielle!” he shouted. He whirled on his heel and called for her again. As he was about to shout her name again, a sharp pain blossomed in his chest. He looked down to see Ivralah’s hand buried to the wrist in his chest.
“You will not leave me again,” she hissed, her eyes narrowing to slits.
The shadow passed over them again, and he looked up to see the white dragon circling high overhead. There was an eerie blue glow in its eyes. “You’re not real,” he said again. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her away. If it wasn’t real, it certainly felt real as her nails raked against his insides. Retching from the pain, he yanked her hand free of his chest. “Gabrielle! I’m here!”
“Tarek!” Her voice was louder now, with a resonance that felt more real than anything since he’d fallen into this dream place. He imagined her face, her high cheekbones and those warm eyes that said you’re home, you are mine, and made him believe it. He imagined her shape, the full swell of her hips and the proud nose and the cascading dark hair over her shoulders, the coarse feel of it between his fingers. “Tarek!”
He spun around to see her behind him. He whipped his head around again only to find that Ivralah had disappeared. When he turned back to Gabrielle, she was still there. Thank the Skymother.
His relief was short-lived. Gabrielle was pale and ashen, and she was not alone. Ashariah was with her, her hands clamped on the human woman’s wrists as she stared up at the endlessly circling dragon.
“How are you here? Is this real?” Gabrielle asked.
“I’m real,” Tarek said. “This isn’t, but I am.”
Gabrielle nodded. “We have to get out of here.”
“I think that Ashariah has trapped us here with her. We have to get her to wake up,” Tarek said.
“It’s that dragon,” Gabrielle said. “I’ve seen it in her visions more than once.”
Tarek nodded in agreement. He faced the princess, placing his hands on her shoulders and shaking her lightly. “Princess, you must return to us.”
“Trapped,” Ashariah murmured. “No escape.” Her eyes were milky white as she stared without blinking up at the sky.
“No,” Tarek said. “You just have to wake up. That dragon isn’t here. It’s only in your head.”
“It’s here,” Ashariah said. “Don’t you see it?”
Tarek sighed and grabbed her wrist, trying to pull it away from Gabrielle. But the princess tightened her grip, digging her long nails into the woman’s wrist. Gabrielle yelped in surprise as blood trickled down her hand. “Let go,” Tarek ordered.
“I know you’re afraid, Ashariah,” Gabrielle said, gritting her teeth. “But we’re here. You’re safe at home. Your mother is watching over you. She needs you to come back.”
“Home,” Ashariah murmured.
Tarek nodded rapidly. The doctor was onto something. “You are in the heart of Adamantine Rise, under the Skymother’s gaze in the gardens. Nothing can hurt you there. Do you remember how I played chase among the Bones with you? And you brought me the finest stones you could find?”
Her eyes slowly dropped, searching Tarek. “Home.”
He nodded. “Home.”
Ashariah looked down at Gabrielle’s hands, then raised her eyes slowly. “Promise me.”
“I promise,” Tarek said. “I will protect you.”
“So will I,” Gabrielle said.
Then Ashariah closed her eyes and the world around them shattered.
Reality returned like a slap in the face. First a chestful of cold, dry air, then the hard ache of stone under his body. Tarek sat up and gasped violently. He patted himself down, and yelped in pain when his hand touched the tender spot on his chest where Ivralah had plunged her hand into him. Plucking the linen shirt away from his chest revealed a fist-sized purple welt. The illusion was powerful enough to wound him in reality. That was nothing he had ever seen.
As soon as he realized he was awake, he looked over to see Gabrielle slowly sit up, blinking slowly as she looked around. “What happened?”
He didn’t answer, just threw his arms around her and crushed her to his chest. He breathed deeply, inhaling the sweet scent of her skin and feeling for the steady pulse against his chest.
“Ashariah?” The queen’s voice, vulnerable in a way he had never heard, broke his intense embrace. “Ashariah!”
Gabrielle pulled away from him, but her hand found his as they both rose to a crouch to peer over the edge of the princess’s sickbed. The princess had opened her eyes. Her fingers fluttered like she was playing the piano, and one foot started to move. “Mother?”
“Oh, praise the Skymother. My sweet child.” Without regard for her regal appearance, the queen laid over her daughter, pressing her cheek to Ashariah’s.
Pride swelled in Tarek’s chest as he watched the reunion. Ashariah was weak, and could barely move her head, but Halmerah was overjoyed. The reunion was short-lived as the burst of energy turned to anger. “My child, who did this?”
Ashariah shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “There were four of them. One silver, one gold, and two white dragons that were…monstrous. They had awful green eyes, and…” she trailed off, her eyes widening.
“The white dragons had some sort of magic that I have never seen,” Tarek interrupted. “I believe they cast a spell that kept Ashariah in its grasp. It showed me a nightmare. Did it show you something?” He turned to Gabrielle.
She nodded. “It was seeing the dragon in her memories that triggered it for me,” she said. “At least I think it was. I don’t really know anything about magic, so I’m kind of guessing.”
“It was powerful enough that it affected us both by contact, long after Ashariah encountered them,” Tarek said.
“Like a disease,” Gabrielle mused.
“This is nothing I have ever seen,” Halmerah said, her expression going stony once more. She stood suddenly and rearranged her dress, mussed by her enthusiastic embrace. Her features hardened to imperious stone. “I must tend to a matter of extreme importance. Do not worry, my child. The ones who did this to you will pay dearly.”
“I don’t understand,” Ashariah said. She started to sit up, but winced at the movement. As she sat up, her gaze found Gabby. Her eyebrows lifted in recognition. “You. Doctor Rojas?”
“How did you know that?”
“I heard you,” she murmured. “And you got my message.”
“Your message?”
“I couldn’t talk,” she said. “But I knew you were trying to understand what happened. So I showed you.”
“The visions,” Gabby said. “And you wanted me to trust Tarek.”
The princess gave a slow nod that clearly took a great deal of effort. Her gaze flicked to him, and she smiled faintly.
The queen followed their exchange with interest, but waved her hand dismissively. “Daughter, if you can remain awake, I will send Councilor Eszen to speak to you.” She turned to Gabby and Tarek. “Have the healers examine her to ensure there are no lasting ill effects, then be in the war room. We have much to discuss.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
After one of the healers proclaimed Gabby free to leave, pressing a cup of hot tea into her hands as she went, they immediately walked up the winding stairs to the chamber in the upper levels of the fortress. A hushed excitement buzzed through the halls. There were far more weapons than she’d seen previously. By now, she should have known better than to think it can’t get any stranger. Yet here she was, following Tarek into a stone cham
ber filled with the queen’s advisors.
A brisk breeze blew in through the open windows along the war room’s perimeter. The windows overlooked the lower levels of Adamantine Rise and the city beyond. A stone table in the middle of the room displayed a detailed three-dimensional map, painted carefully to represent the city below and the surrounding land. Plain wooden chairs surrounded the table, with one blue-cushioned chair at the end where Halmerah stood.
Though the queen had ordered Gabby’s presence, her councilors made no effort to hide their disdain, which only added to her discomfort. The one exception was Councilor Eszen, who gave her a nod of acknowledgement before finding his seat. She had a pounding headache from her trip into Ashariah’s fear-addled mind. After the sheer strangeness of the whole evening, her mind drifted to thoughts of her normal life out of reflex. But she found herself resisting the idea. And that resistance had an irresistible form: it was Tarek. A day ago, all she’d wanted was to wake up in her bed, but now that pull seemed to go both ways. The relief of being home, where things were familiar and safe, meant she wasn’t here with Tarek.
Ugh, she was in trouble. Logical Gabby had left the building, apparently.
“How come the preparations?” Halmerah asked, jarring Gabby out of her thoughts. The queen took her seat, and the standing councilors all followed.
One of the councilors, a pale man with dark hair that shone blue-black like a crow’s feather, spoke up. “We have spoken to the Circle of Edra and the city guard. They are mustering at the gates of the city and clearing the common areas as much as possible. We are preparing one of the underground shelters for the Vak if things become untenable.”
“And the Adamant Guard have positioned themselves throughout Adamantine Rise. Every able body is armed and ready, my queen,” Captain Navan said. He sat immediately to the queen’s right. “I have dispatched scouts to the Splintered Pass, as well as to the Talons to watch for Ironflight movement.”
“Very well,” Halmerah said. “I also wished to speak to you of what happened to my daughter.”
“Our condolences,” a woman in red robes murmured.
Halmerah ignored her, apparently unimpressed with her sympathy. “I spoke with you previously of the attack. Councilor Eszen has spoken with Ashariah and Lady Gabrielle in an attempt to understand our enemy.” The weight of inquisitive eyes fell on Gabby as the queen mentioned her. “Eszen?”
The chesnut-haired man rose from his seat. “My research is not yet complete. Upon speaking to the princess briefly and comparing her story with the visions reported by Lady Gabrielle, I believe the source of Ashariah’s affliction to be the large white dragons she saw. She insists that she never made physical contact, and that her mind was affected simply by making eye contact with these creatures. We have no precedent for this in our history.”
Everything was painfully still and quiet as the council stared at Eszen. He seemed unperturbed as he spoke matter-of-factly. “The fact that Lady Gabrielle was afflicted by making physical contact, as was Tarek Windstriker, tells us that whatever this psychic effect is, it is transferable.”
“It’s contagious,” Gabby murmured.
“What?” Halmerah asked.
Her cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“Please share,” the queen said. Her expression was open and encouraging, not angry.
“I said it’s contagious,” Gabby said with more confidence. “Like a disease.”
“But you touched the princess to help her before,” Eszen said. “When you cared for her in your world.”
Gabby sat in silence for a long stretch to think. “What if it wasn’t active yet? Diseases in the human world often have an incubation period. There may have been a window where she was unconscious due to her injuries, but the full effects of the magic hadn’t really hit her yet.”
“Then how did you see her visions?”
“She made me,” Gabby said, the realization hitting her as she said it. “That wasn’t the magic at all. She just made me listen to her in whatever way she could.”
“She compelled you,” Eszen murmured. His eyebrows arched as if something had just struck him. “If she compelled you prior to Tarek’s arrival, then—”
“Councilor?” the queen said. Her tone was indulgent, but firm. “Is this germane to our discussion of dealing with this enemy?”
“Uh…no,” he admitted. “I believe I may know why Lady Gabrielle was unaffected by the attempts to compel her, though. I’d like to conduct a few more experiments to confirm.”
“Will you need her any further?” Tarek asked.
Eszen tilted his head. “I-I don’t know.”
“Su’ud redahn, if it pleases you, I would take her home in the morning,” he said.
Tarek’s words hit her like a blow to the stomach. With his jaw set and eyes cold, he didn’t even spare her a glance. Home was what she wanted, wasn’t it? Home meant her normal life. But home also meant no more Tarek, and it surprised her how much that hurt.
“Why the urgency?”
“If we face a battle, I would prefer that she be spared. As a friend to the Stoneflight, I cannot ask her to risk her life for our wars,” he said.
The queen’s eyes narrowed. “Very well. Carry her home, then return here immediately.”
His eyes went wide. “Return?”
“You are needed here,” the queen said. “Captain Navan has already sent an additional patrol of forces to help guard the Gate. Your expertise is better served here at the moment.”
He stared at her, his jaw hanging. Then he shook himself and nodded. “Yes, of course. Thank you.”
Her ears rang as she watched him. He was looking out for her. That was what she had to believe. And she didn’t belong here. But for as scary as all of it had been, she couldn’t deny that part of her wanted to be here. And here was a relative concept; it seemed to be tied to one particularly handsome dragon.
“If we are finished discussing the very pressing issue of the Vak woman…” one of the councilors said archly.
“Mind your tongue, Thiven,” the queen said sharply. “I will conduct my business as I see fit, and your insipid attempts to curry favor do you no favors. Let us continue to the preparations. Captain Navan, prepare an armed envoy to Ironhold. Though she has behaved with dishonor, I will still observe our ancient ways and give Tarim a final chance to make peace before I rain down war.”
“Yes, su’ud redahn,” Navan said.
“Are you sure?” Tarek said quietly.
“Should I send word of your prisoners?” Navan said, as if Tarek hadn’t spoken.
Gabby glanced at Tarek. His teeth tugged at his lower lip, and he was tense, leaning toward the table as if he was going to lunge. Tension creased his warm eyes. It was nice to think he might be at least a bit forlorn about her leaving, but she knew it was more than that. She tapped his hand lightly. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I can’t shake this feeling that there’s more going on.”
“Say something.”
He shook his head. “It’s not my place. I’m surprised they even brought us here.”
“Tarek is concerned,” Gabby blurted. The room fell silent as the entire gathering turned to look at her, all of them oozing disapproval.
“The Vak woman speaks for you now?” Thiven asked. “Is it not enough that—”
“Tell them,” Gabby said, ignoring Thiven’s glare. They figured she was inferior anyway, so what did she care if they thought she was rude? She knew the feeling of being ignored and talked over, and had learned from college onward to speak up and apologize later if necessary.
To her surprise, Halmerah didn’t look angry. In the ring of glares, she was the single person who looked receptive, her face smooth and her eyebrows raised. “Well?”
Tarek took a deep breath. “I accompanied Captain Navan to speak with both the Prince and his guard. They both swore there was no plot to attack us.”
“And you believe the Ironfli
ght to be honest?” Eszen asked. “Since when?”
“Not necessarily,” Tarek said. “It just…” He glanced at Gabby. She nodded at him. “When have we known the Ironflight to be so indirect? Their methods in this situation are erratic, at best. They attacked the princess, but let her live. They left behind weapons, of obvious make. They literally carved their symbols into Surik and Dakhar’s bodies. And yet they send the Prince to attend your feast as if nothing happened?”
“Prince Zayir is renowned for his cunning,” Netha said.
“I know this,” Tarek said. His hand clenched into a fist as he spoke. “But this is not the way of the Ironflight, cunning or not. If this was their plan, Zayir would be the decoy while hundreds of the Iron Blade infiltrated the city.”
Navan’s eyes widened. “Perhaps that is exactly what has happened.”
Tarek shook his head. “I don’t think it is. Consider the flames.”
“The flames?” Eszen said skeptically.
“There were none. Most of the Ironflight are fire dragons, yes?” Tarek paused, looking around at the table. There were a few reluctant nods, and more than a few puzzled expressions. “Then why were none of Ashariah’s guards, nor Ashariah herself burned?”
“She was attacked in the human world,” one of the councilors said. “My understanding is that our affinities are far weaker there.”
“They’re weaker, but any of them would be a fool not to use it as a weapon,” he said, unbothered by the attempted explanation. As he spoke, his shoulders slowly rose and his voice took on strength. It filled Gabby with an odd sort of pride to see him being bold. “Then there’s the psychic attack. Which we’ve already discussed, but you can’t dismiss it as something for Eszen to read about when it’s convenient. In Ashariah’s visions, there was a monstrous dragon, bigger than anything I’ve ever seen. There is something unnatural in this, but I’m not sure it’s the Ironflight. No. I’m certain that it’s not the Ironflight.”
There were murmurs as several of the councilors spoke to each other. They started arguing across the table. Finally, Halmerah raised a hand. She stared at Tarek, as if to say we will talk about this more, and spoke loudly. “Tarek, I trust your observations and your insights, I do. But how does this affect what we must do to prepare ourselves?”
