Grief clouded Tavarian’s eyes. “I was devastated when Halldor and Rhia sent word that you and Lessie hadn’t made it out of the Hellmouth.” He slid an arm around me, drew me close to his chest.
I leaned my head against his heart, letting the strong, steady beat soothe me.
“Muza sent me a message a few days later to let me know that he’d retrieved you and you were recovering on the island, which was the only thing that got me through these past weeks. When I saw him flying toward the Warosian fleet, it took everything I had not to jump on his back and fly straight to you instead of toward the enemy.”
I briefly imagined kissing Tavarian on Muza’s back, ignoring the world while the Zallabarians fired on our open shores, and cringe-laughed. “I’m glad you made the right choice on that one.”
“Indeed.” He rested his chin on the top of my head. “Tell me about the Hellmouth.”
So I did. I told him about the pirates we'd hired to take us to the island, about the noxious gas, about the trials I'd had to face and the bargain I'd struck to get the death god to destroy one of the two pieces of Zakyiar's heart. The whole story came out in a rush, and by the time I finished I actually felt relieved. Finally, here was someone who I could share the entire experience with, someone who would not only believe me, but truly appreciate what I had gone through!
“Incredible.” Tavarian shook his head, looking awed. “You actually met Derynnis himself. I do worry about what is going to become of the weapon he creates with the second piece of heart,” he said. “Hopefully it doesn’t find its way back to our world.”
"I think he only gives them out very rarely, and since Derynnis hates the world of the living, I don't think we have to worry." Still, I shivered a little at the thought. A weapon powered by even a single piece of Zakyiar's heart would be mighty indeed.
I told Tavarian about our time with the free dragons, and the spell Yalora and Serpol had attempted to cast on Lessie and me. "It's too bad it didn't work, though," I said, a fresh wave of disappointment filling me. "If it had, Serpol could have done it on you and Muza, too."
“That would be quite something,” Tavarian said. He looked dumbstruck at the possibility. “I’m amazed that Muza kept this from me. He and I are going to have to have a long talk about this tomorrow. There is nothing for him to feel guilty about—if there is a way for our souls to be safely separated, then of course we should take advantage of it so he can start a family and live a long, happy life. I will talk with Serpol tomorrow and see if we can collaborate on the spell. I picked up quite a few useful things during my time in Warosia—perhaps I can help figure out how to fix the problem.”
“That would be great.” I beamed, my heart swelling with hope. “How was Warosia, anyway? I gather the mage you met taught you more than just how to use the horn?”
“Oh yes. Arisa is very knowledgeable. She taught me how to activate the protective runes, and also how to angle the horn correctly. Apparently, it is best used from higher distances, which means the wielder must either be on dragonback or on an airship. If I’d used it from the admiral’s ship, the blowback would have damaged his fleet.”
“That would have been awful.” My stomach twisted at the thought of the Warosians being caught in that blast. That would have ended our freshly minted alliance for sure. “What else did you learn?”
“A few spells here and there, but mostly more about magical theory and how to use my power more effectively. Arisa has an extensive library filled with magical texts, many of which I’d never seen before. I could have stayed for months, reading and learning.” His eyes shone at the prospect.
A spurt of jealousy hit me, unexpectedly. “Months, huh?” I asked, sliding a hand along his biceps. “Just you and her and a pile of books?”
Tavarian frowned. “Preferably just the books,” he said. “While quite helpful, Arisa is rather…bossy. I am not certain the two of us would make good housemates.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You don’t think I’m bossy?”
“You are, but in the right ways,” he said teasingly.
“Good answer.” I grinned, the jealousy dissipating as quickly as it had struck. "I'm glad you got what you needed from her. It scares me to think how bad things could have gone if you didn't arrive with that horn."
“Indeed. Though, I admit, it was horrifying to see it in action.” A haunted look entered his eyes. “The magic ripped through those ships as if they were paper. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such carnage.” He swallowed hard and looked away.
“It isn’t your fault, Varrick.” I cupped his cheek in my hand, making him meet my eyes. “It’s the autocrator’s, for sending them out there—for starting this whole stupid war in the first place. You did what needed to be done, and you saved hundreds of lives in the process.”
Tavarian closed his eyes, leaning into my touch. “I agree. But I still regret having to kill so many men, especially now that I know many of them are unwilling conscripts.”
“All the more reason to end this war as quickly as possible.”
“Agreed.”
We lay there in silence for a while, soaking in one another’s presence. The sounds of our breath. The warmth of our bodies. The sensation of skin against skin. I’d nearly fallen asleep when Tavarian asked, “What do you think of getting married now?”
My eyes popped open. “What?”
Tavarian stared down at me, his expression solemn and intense all at once. “We nearly lost each other, Zara,” he said, tightening his arms around me. “And every time we separate, I am acutely aware that we may not see each other again. I want to spend the rest of my life married to you, Zara. Even if that life might be cut short."
Tears pricked my eyes. "Don't talk like that," I said fiercely. "We're going to survive this war." But both of us had come close to death so many times that I had to admit Tavarian's fear wasn't unreasonable. "I want to marry you too, but the thought of having a ceremony and celebration in the middle of all this...and without Carina and the orphans...it doesn't seem right. At the very least I want them here with us."
Tavarian's brow furrowed. "Maybe we could have the ceremony at the Hidden Valley.” We’d left the orphans there, at Tavarian’s secret estate, after a heartless investor had purchased the orphanage and kicked them all off the property.
I laughed. "You really do want to get married, don't you?"
He chuckled. "Yes, but I know how foolish that would be. And while the orphans might be tired of the hidden valley by now, Carina would never abandon your shop." Carina and I owned the Treasure Trove together, though lately it seemed more and more like it was her business and not mine since I hardly ever brought treasure back to the shop anymore. I felt guilty every time she paid me profits. Perhaps, when this was all over, I would let her buy me out for cheap. I'd still bring treasure to her—I was a treasure hunter at heart, after all—but I'd be like every other freelance hunter who brought wares to her. It didn't seem right to take so much of the profits when I wasn't putting in nearly the amount of work she was.
"You can worry about the shop after we've taken the country back," Lessie said sleepily in my head. "Now go to bed, Zara. Your thoughts are keeping me awake, and after all this travel I deserve some good rest."
"Yes, you do." I smiled, snuggling in close with Tavarian, then closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift off. Tomorrow, the council would be meeting to hash out a plan of attack against the Zallabarians. Autocrator Reichstein had already proved to be a wily adversary; I would need all my wits about me if we were to come up with a foolproof plan to defeat him.
6
After breakfast the next morning, Tavarian and I met with the other council members in the circular chamber we'd designated as the council room when we'd first moved into the estate. Jallis, Rhia, Halldor, and several older dragon riders attended, along with Captain Ragorin, our infantry leader, and Petro Messei, the Warosian Admiral.
"So, both Zara and Lord Tavarian have made it bac
k to us," Byron, one of the dragon rider lieutenants said. "This is good news! But you have brought two strange dragons with you, neither of whom seem to have riders. Who are they, and where did they come from?"
"Are you serious?" Halldor said. "That's the question you want to ask first?"
"I will tell you all the truth," Tavarian said. "But you must swear an oath that what I say will not leave this room. A magically binding oath," he added, as the other started to agree.
Byron scowled. "Now, that's hardly fair, Tavarian," he protested. "You owe us an explanation!"
"I owe you nothing," he said. "And considering what I have done for our cause, I think I am worthy of a little trust at this point. If you can't give that to me, then this conversation is over."
A tense silence fell over the room. "It’s fine,” Daria said, volunteering herself as the voice of reason. "We'll do it."
Tavarian went around the table, performing the oath on each of them. It was a blood pact, sealed with a slice on each palm and a magical incantation. Tavarian had cast it on me, too, toward the beginning of our relationship, when he'd revealed to me that he was a mage. That vow had been a little more extensive than the one he was enacting now--he'd made me promise not to divulge any secret he told me without permission, not just one. Kind of annoying, but then I wasn't a tattletale anyway.
"Very well." Tavarian said once it was finished and settled back in his chair. He'd used his magic to heal the small cuts he'd made, and if not for the unnerved looks on the others' faces, I wouldn't have known anything had happened. At first I didn't understand why the others were so unsettled, and then I remembered that most people never saw magic performed outside of healings. To feel Tavarian's power rushing through them, binding them to their own words...they hadn't been prepared for it.
"Tell us, then," Byron said impatiently. "Where did these dragons come from?"
"Muza is my dragon," Tavarian said. There were shocked gasps, but Rhia, Jallis, and Halldor didn’t seem surprised. “I sent him away after the conquest of Colitar, because he was heartsick after being forced to kill so many people over a pointless war that was all about greed and had nothing to do with defending our country. I refused to put him through another battle like that, so I found a remote island for him to live on."
"You just left your dragon there, all by himself?" Byron asked, incredulous. "But it's been decades, Tavarian! How could you expect a dragon to live by himself on an island, without a single dragon or human for company?"
"Because he wasn't alone." Tavarian took a deep breath. "There were other dragons on the island, too."
A stunned silence fell over the room. Then, "Other dragons?" Ullion choked out. "You mean to tell us there's a whole island of abandoned dragons out there somewhere? Where are these riders who have left them behind, then?"
"Not abandoned dragons," Tavarian said. "Free dragons. They have never been bonded to a rider."
"That's impossible," Byron said flatly.
"It's not impossible," I butted in. "I went to the island myself, which is how I ended up bringing Serpol back here. He's one of the free dragons. His ancestors are amongst a handful of dragons who managed to flee the war entirely before Akron the Defender and his mages could bring them under their control. They were never subjected to the bonding spell."
"And you never thought to tell us about this, Tavarian?” Byron sputtered. “The dragon population has been declining for years! We could have bred these dragons with ours, used them to bring up our numbers!"
Tavarian slammed his fist on the table. "How dare you speak of them that way," he seethed, shocking the others--he very rarely displayed any sort of temper in public. "You are dragon riders, and you know better than anyone else that dragons are not simple beasts to be tamed. These free dragons are just like ours--intelligent and strong-willed, but also independent. They would have never risked mixing their bloodlines with our dragons and passing the bonding spell onto their young. They are free, and they will remain free."
Byron gave an exasperated huff. "You could have at least recruited them to help us with the war effort," he said.
"We have," I told him. "That's why Serpol is here."
"As if one dragon is going to make so much of a difference."
"He already has," Halldor snapped. "He and Muza helped our Commandant get back here safely. Which is more than can be said for you."
"All right, all right." Jallis held his palms up, taking on the role of peacemaker. "Enough arguing about this. It's not productive. Besides, we should be grateful that Tavarian and Muza arrived when they did. If they hadn't, some of us might not be sitting here today."
"It is fortuitous indeed that Muza arrived when he did, as Tavarian could not have used the horn aboard our ship without damaging it," the Admiral said. "But being angry at Tavarian for not recruiting all these dragons is foolish. Your defeat at the hands of the Zallabarians should have shown you that dragon warfare is becoming outdated. If you hope to continue defending your country after you've taken it back, you must start embracing modern warfare."
The rest of the council grumbled about this, but eventually they agreed with the admiral. Now that they were finally settled, Tavarian and I gave our reports, he about the Warosian alliance and his time studying with their mage scholar, and me about making it to the Hellmouth and destroying the piece of heart. The council was cheered by both, but especially by the success of my mission.
"What a relief!" Jallis exclaimed, clapping me on the shoulder. "It was bad enough that we had to deal with the Zallabarians--the last thing we needed was a battle with the dragon god on top of it."
"Does this really mean he's gone?" Daria demanded. "That he can never be resurrected?"
"As far as I know, yes." An uneasy feeling stirred in the pit of my stomach, but I brushed it aside. There was no way to bring the dragon god back without all five pieces of the heart--that was clear. I refused to spend any more time worrying about it when there were other things to discuss.
"What about Salcombe?" Rhia asked. "Do you think he survived?"
"There's a fifty-fifty chance," I admitted. "Most people wouldn't be able to survive their ship getting hit by a hurricane, but Salcombe is like a cockroach, and he did have the dragon god's power behind him." Truth be told, I wanted to consult Caor about it, see what he thought, but my divine mentor had been suspiciously absent these past few weeks. Was it because I'd been on the dragon archipelago? The gods didn't much like dragons, though Caor did seem to tolerate Lessie at least. I spun the tracking ring he’d given me around my forefinger, hoping he’d turn up soon.
"We'll worry about that when we have to," Tavarian said. "Now, can anyone tell me how the resistance effort is going?"
"Surprisingly well," Captain Ragorin said proudly. "The Zallabarians are distracted right now, which means our operatives have had more breathing room to hold meetings and recruit more resistance members."
"Distracted?" I asked. "How so?"
"As it turns out, too much victory can be a bad thing," Ragorin gave me a smug smile. "The Zallabarians have become over-confident, and as a result they have overextended themselves. In addition to holding Elantia, they now face three other enemies: the Warosians from the south, the Traggarans from the west--now that you and Tavarian have successfully botched that alliance--and then, to make matters worse, they have also attacked the Carrosians."
"The Carrosians? Really?" Rhia gaped. Carrosia was a vast country to the east, easily twice Zallabar's size. "That's madness!"
"It would seem that the autocrator has become too greedy," the Warosian admiral said thoughtfully. "Attacking on so many fronts means ever-lengthening supply lines. They must be severely stretched by this point."
"Exactly," Ragorin said. "Traggar is on the offensive now, constantly poaching both Zallabarian and Elantian colonies overseas, which of course Zallabar must defend. Zallabar is scrabbling to draft even more men for their occupation armies and to expand their navy with new ships, now that t
hey no longer have the Traggaran navy to rely on as they'd planned."
"New ships," Lessie said. "Like the ones that tried to attack the dragon archipelago?"
"I guess so." I didn't say anything about that out loud though. I didn't want to give the others any hint of the archipelago's location.
"Anyway, it is clear the Zallabarians simply do not have the resources or attention to hold onto everything they've grasped," Ragorin continued. "Which means this is the perfect time for us to strike. Their troops are all tied up at these other locations, so they cannot send more reinforcements if we launch an attack now."
"Not to mention that there's a lot of civil unrest in Elantia right now," Jallis put in. "Because of the lack of troops, the Zallabarians have been relying on older officers they've brought out of retirement--who, of course, aren't what they once were--and local collaborators, who have quickly become despised by civilians. These collaborators are wealthy Elantians who have further enriched themselves by cooperating with the enemy, so naturally they are being reviled by the rest of the country."
"That is all well and good," the admiral said, "but what are our own numbers like? Do we have enough recruits from the resistance to augment our own forces? Even if the Zallabarians are 'overextended,' as you say, their armies are still many times greater than yours, and that was before so many of your soldiers were killed."
A ripple of resentment went through the room, and Captain Ragorin coughed. "We don't have as many recruits as we would like," he admitted. "Whether or not we succeed depends very much on the mood and reactions of the population and whether or not they will rally to our side. Many Elantians despise the dragon riders--half of them blame the dragons for their plight, and the other half think the riders have abandoned them."
“Well, that's hardly fair," Lessie protested angrily. "The majority of the dragon force was kidnapped and held by the Zallabarians!"
Secret of the Dragon Page 5