Where Dragons Collide (Dragon Ridden Chronicles Book 5)

by T. A. White

  Vale didn’t take offense to her expression, instead directing a short bow to Keel. “I’ll leave you to your discussion.”

  They waited in silence as Vale walked to the balcony doors, stopping there. His position was subtle, not making it too obvious that he was standing guard so they could speak without any inconvenient listeners eavesdropping.

  “I hope you kept your promise.” Tate stared at Vale in concern. He was going to be a problem. She could feel it in her bones.

  Keel clasped his hands behind his back, turning to face the garden. “Whatever new epiphanies Vale has had, they didn’t come from my lips.”

  He gave Tate a meaningful sidelong look. She pinched the bridge of her nose, understanding his message. Anything Vale knew was a direct result of her actions. The grandmaster couldn’t be held to account.

  “You got exactly what you wanted,” Tate said.

  She’d like to say she hadn’t seen this coming but she had. As soon as he inserted Vale into their travel party, she’d known it was likely to end up here. Her secret exposed.

  “I have to thank you.”

  “For what?” Tate asked.

  Keel gave her a chiding look as if to say she was wasting both of their time pretending not to know what he was talking about.

  “For showing him the world. He is a better man for having spent time in your company.”

  Tate’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not why I did it.”

  “Of course not, which is why it means all the more. You’ve given me a gift far beyond what I’d hoped for. Because of you, my disciple will walk a path different from his predecessors.”

  Tate wasn’t sure about that. Knowing something and accepting it were two different things. What she was challenged the foundation of his beliefs. Only time would tell whether he’d try to eliminate her or find a different path.

  For now, she’d wait and see.

  “I take it you have a purpose for approaching me in such a high-profile manner. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have left your cave,” Tate said, referring to the set of tunnels located in the cliffs that the guardians called home.

  Keel started to speak then stopped. He peered closer at Tate. “I detect disapproval in our lifestyle choices.”

  Tate leaned her hip against the railing and crossed her ankles. “It doesn’t matter to me how you choose to live your life. I just find it strange your sect chooses to dwell in the very place your Saviors fought so hard to escape. The people I remember counted down the days until they could leave those dank and dreary places behind.”

  Tate pretended not to feel Keel’s stare on the side of her face as she looked out over the garden.

  “And yet all but one of the Saviors spent the rest of their lives in those tunnels.”

  Tate frowned, trying to reconcile the people Keel described with the ones she remembered. It didn’t sound like them at all.

  Keel folded his hands on the balcony. “It sounds like your memories are coming back.”

  “Some. They’re still a bit disjointed.”

  Whatever the minor god had done to her in the Catsinth desert, it had unlocked something inside Tate. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about remembering. After so long, it felt strange to get the very thing she’d pursued so wholeheartedly.

  That wasn’t to say she remembered everything. There were still massive, gaping holes in her memories. But the little things had started to return.

  “I would like to hear stories about them some day.”

  “No, you don’t,” Tate said, feeling tired all of a sudden.

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “If I tell you, they become human. Not Saviors. Not gods. People the same as you and I.”

  Would Keel be able to hold them in reverence once he knew who they really were? Tate wasn’t so sure.

  It was much easier to worship a hero when you reduced them to an ideal. Someone without flaws or weakness. Unfortunately, the truth was that people were a lot more complicated. Putting someone on a pedestal was a lot harder when you acknowledged them as a person who dealt with the same shit as everyone else.

  For all that Tate didn’t agree with everything the guardians did in the name of her former friends, she also didn’t want to be the one responsible for destroying that faith. People needed faith to make the bad times easier to bear.

  “I think that’s why I need to know,” Keel said after considering her words for a while. “They should be remembered as they were—even if only by one person.”

  “More repentance for your sins?”

  His lips turned up in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You may see it however you wish.”

  Tate propped her elbow on the balcony and stared at the garden. If that’s what he wanted, then so be it. It actually worked in Tate’s favor. She’d been meaning to ask him for something and this gave her the opportunity she’d needed.

  “There’s something I need you to do.”

  She’d gone over this decision countless times. Considered her options and every contingency. Only to come to the conclusion that she needed his help. Without it she was flying blind.

  “That’s unusual,” Keel said, sounding intrigued.

  It made Tate want to clam up and pretend she hadn’t said anything. Trusting Keel wasn’t an easy thing to do. Yet, it was her only option.

  “I only show this to you so you know I’m serious.”

  Tate withdrew a cube half the size of her fist with geometric designs etched in each side. Originally, it had been bigger but sometime in the last few months, she’d figured out it could expand and contract when she touched certain spots on each of its sides.

  This way in its smaller, more portable version, she could always carry it with her.

  Tate touched two sides, moving her fingers in a pattern that had become familiar over the last few months. A narrow beam of light shot into the air. Jax suddenly sat before them, his gaze penetrating as if he could see all their secrets and desires.

  Keel made a choked sound, his expression frozen in shock. In the next second, he hit his knees, bowing before the image.

  She hadn’t anticipated such a dramatic reaction. It seemed she had underestimated Keel. He truly did worship his Saviors. To a point not even she had expected.

  “If you do that, you’ll miss the best part.”

  “What is this?” Keel asked in a hushed voice.

  “A recording he left me.”

  “You got this from the pocket dimension.”

  Keel sounded steadier than he had seconds before. Already he was beginning to recover his equilibrium. Despite that, his face was still pale when he raised it, and the way he looked at Jax had a bit too much fervor for Tate’s taste.

  “You could say that.”

  “But you didn’t tell anyone.”

  Tate lifted a shoulder. “Jax left the message specifically for me. It’s no one else’s business what he had to say.”

  Tate plucked the cube off the balcony, hitting the parts of the geometric design that would turn it off again. Once the image disappeared, she stuffed it into her pocket.

  Keel composed himself as Tate waited. It didn’t take long.

  “What is it you want?”

  “So. Many. Things.” For the dragonlettes to be safe. For Dewdrop and Night to live happy and long lives. To have a chance to enjoy Ryu without the world ending. “But in this case, I’ll settle for your help.”

  There was a sense of imbalance in the way Keel watched her. Jaxon’s image and the idea of the message he’d left Tate seemed to have affected him much more than she predicted.

  All that talk of learning who the Saviors were as people and still Keel could barely keep his calm at the barest revelation. This wasn’t even the smallest of the multiple bombs she could have dropped, which would have altered his entire perception of history and reality.

  Keel closed his eyes and shook his head once. When he opened them again, he was calm. The grandmaster he presented to the rest of t
he world. Someone who could face anything without the barest flicker of unease.

  “What do you need?”

  “I’m sure it’s occurred to you by now that your Saviors weren’t quite as thorough in their war as they should have been.”

  Keel’s chin dipped as he regarded her from beneath lowered eyebrows with a guarded expression. “I didn’t think you realized that.”

  So, she was right. She’d hoped as much.

  As the biggest repository and self-proclaimed guardians of the Saviors’ history, they would have access to records that the rest of the world didn’t. Since Jax had left her a message, she’d assumed some of his research would have made it into the guardians’ hands.

  “It was in the message.”

  Even if it hadn’t been, she would have figured it out. Nathan’s presence, the ancient Keel’s fellow guardians had accidentally woken under the city, pointed to as much.

  “Five escaped that Jax knew of,” she confirmed. “He managed to hunt down two. Three remain.”

  Keel had gone still and silent, a thousand thoughts moving behind his eyes.

  “How much do you want to bet our friend from under the city will try to wake them?” Tate asked.

  Nathan might have once been on the side of the Saviors but he’d long since gone over to the Creators. She wasn’t sure of his end agenda, but something told her it involved the guardians’ old enemy. The fact he was looking for weapons confirmed as much.

  “What do you need from me?” Keel’s gaze was steady as he focused on Tate.

  She nodded once, liking what she saw in his expression. Whatever his thoughts about her, she knew he would be a valuable ally against the Creators. The enemy of my enemy and so forth. To betray her in favor of them would violate the very foundation of his beliefs.

  She might have believed another capable of it, but not Keel. Underneath all that pomp and ceremony was a man who truly believed in his Saviors. He had gotten lost on the way but managed to find his way back to that faith.

  “Help, mostly. Jax would have left behind notes of his search. Knowing him, he would have used a code or something of the like. If we find it, I’ll have somewhere to start.”

  It was key Tate beat Nathan to the resting place of the Creators who managed to flee this world through rifts. If he called them back, Tate would be outnumbered and Aurelia would face destruction.

  Keel contemplated the night sky for several minutes as Tate waited patiently. After what felt like an eternity, he drew in a deep breath and exhaled, coming to a decision.

  “Very well, but I’ll need help.” His glance toward Vale told Tate exactly who he planned to ask.

  “Fine, I trust you’ll be discreet enough.”

  Keel started to leave and then paused. “There is one other avenue for answers you may not have considered.”

  Tate followed his gaze to Roslyn where she waited next to Vale in the balcony doorway. Her eyes were wide, leaving Tate with no doubt the other woman had at least seen Jax’s image, even if the rest of the conversation went unheard.

  “Damn it.”

  She’d forgotten about her.

  “The Duke of Spiritly’s line is descended from Jaxon Kuno. I suspect their collection of his writings and artifacts is even more impressive than our own.”

  “I didn’t think the guardians would allow that.”

  They were known to be zealous in their pursuit of any artifact or record from that era. Their monopoly had caused bad blood between them and other powers. They defended themselves by claiming to be the guardians of the Saviors’ memories and as such it was their duty to verify and protect all that they’d left behind. Never mind the fact that ‘protecting’ often meant hiding so it never saw the light of day again.

  “We can be open minded when necessary.”

  “More like you would have had trouble claiming the inheritance from the man’s children.”

  Keel lifted a shoulder in acknowledgment. “They made a very good argument to that point.”

  Not surprising. Public opinion would have crucified the guardians if they’d attempted anything against Jaxon Kuno’s descendants. The guardians would never have endured this long if they were prone to making bad decisions.

  Tate’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’m not really on the best of terms with the Duke.”

  Roslyn and her defection from the Spiritly family was a big part of that. Tate couldn’t even say she blamed the man.

  “I trust you’ll be able to overcome this hurdle on your own.” Keel patted her on the shoulder and started toward the ballroom. “Come by in a day or two. We should have something by then.”

  Tate grimaced at his back. Why did she feel the grandmaster found amusement in her plight? They were talking the fate of the world here. Shouldn’t he be invested in making her journey as smooth as possible?

  Keel ignored Roslyn as he and Vale departed, leaving Tate on the balcony. The moments crept past as Roslyn stared at her from the doorway. Eventually, Tate got tired of the standoff and leaned back, tilting her face up to the sky and staring at the stars.

  Footsteps alerted her to Roslyn’s presence.

  “I assume you have questions.”

  Quiet answered her.

  Tate waited, knowing this wasn’t the kind of thing you could force. Roslyn would either pretend she hadn’t seen what she had or she’d face it head on.

  “I always remember what you said when we faced the mad minor god,” Roslyn mused.

  Tate looked at her, trying to remember what exactly that was. She’d said a lot of things when Roslyn’s father helped Christopher kidnap her.

  “You told me there were many paths to greatness. That it’s what you do and what you stand for that counts.”

  Not knowing what to say, Tate settled for an awkward. “Ah ha.”

  The corner of Roslyn’s lips tilted up in a halfhearted smile. “I always knew there was more to you than you let on. I admired you and I thought if I could be near you, maybe some of your strength would rub off onto me.”

  “You never needed my strength. You’ve always had your own. A little different than what your family probably wanted, but no less vital.”

  Rosyln’s head dropped and her shoulders started shaking. Tate stiffened, thinking the other woman was crying. The peals of laughter rolled through the air. Did she finally break Roslyn? If so, where was Dewdrop? He was so much better at the emotional stuff.

  Just as Tate was about to go find him, Roslyn lifted her head, wiping the tears from her face. “I won’t ask if you don’t want to tell me. I trust you, Tate. Your mysteriousness won’t change that.”

  Those words held the echo of another’s, leaving Tate feeling like she was hearing someone else’s voice through the ages. The words weren’t the same, but they held the same warmth.

  “Jax would have been proud of the person you are,” Tate said suddenly.

  Maybe it was foolish. Maybe hiding Tate’s connection to Roslyn’s ancestor would have been smarter. It certainly would have been easier. But something made her feel like Roslyn needed to know that. A ghostly touch that compelled her to reveal her true thoughts.

  Vulnerability filled Roslyn’s face. “Really?”

  “Yeah, he would have loved you.” Tate’s eyes smarted as memories slipped through from where they normally hid. She’d gotten so lost recently thinking of how things ended and forgetting that there’d been good times once. They were the best of friends for a reason.

  Tate sniffed, forcing the memories and emotions back into their separate boxes. Now wasn’t the time.

  “I need to convince your father to let either the guardians or me look over Jax’s records,” Tate said, gazing at the horizon, not wanting to see Roslyn’s expression at this request.

  She was asking a lot; she knew that. Unfortunately, she suspected this was the only way. Roslyn had a much better chance of convincing her father than Tate.

  “You’re just like Jax, aren’t you? Asking for the moon and
everything beyond without a second thought.”

  Tate didn’t answer.

  Roslyn blew out a long breath. “I’m not sure how successful I’ll be. My father was not happy about my leaving. I’m afraid at this point, even you would have a better chance at this.”

  Tate clasped her on the shoulder as she started past her. “If you fail, then you fail. We can always go from there.”

  Her business finished on the balcony, Tate headed inside. Roslyn needed time to process and decide on her next steps. Rushing her wouldn’t do Tate any good. Reaching out to her family for the first time since the split was nerve wracking enough but add in the rather extreme request Tate had given her and you were talking impossible.

  The hum of voices wrapped around Tate as she stopped just past the door, scanning the room for familiar faces. As usual, she found Ryu first, as if drawn by a magnet.

  He still guarded the emperor. His obvious distraction was concerning, given the way his eyes locked onto hers as soon as she glanced his way. It told her he was as aware of her presence in the ballroom as she was his.

  It was how he’d known the moment Keel put himself into her path and they stepped outside.

  His curiosity had to be killing him. Ryu was one of only three people who knew everything—Dewdrop and Night being the other two. Others had been given pieces of the puzzle while Tate held back the parts that would help them connect the dots. Given how much Ryu enjoyed ferreting out even the smallest of details from his informants, he had to be itching to find out what they’d talked about.

  Tate smirked even as warmth over the concern she could see hiding behind his eyes filled her.

  It was nice to have someone who cared—not that Dewdrop and Night didn’t, but it was different with Ryu. They were each other’s person. That bastion when the world turned cold, able to drive off the loneliness that sometimes ate them up from the inside. People rarely realized how corrosive loneliness could be. It could eat away at a person as surely as acid, leaving them a skeleton of themselves.

  Tate had felt its touch and she knew Ryu had too. Truthfully all the dragons had. It was why she knew Ryu would be a force of destruction that would annihilate everything in his path if she was ever harmed—because she was the same way.