by Ben Wolf
Though, if he were honest, he would’ve wanted her around anyway.
“Come on.” Calum had definitely grown accustomed to fighting—he’d overcome the slave traders without much difficulty, especially compared to his fight with Tyburon. “Let’s regroup with Magnus.”
When they made it over to Magnus, he held an emerald the size of a grapefruit in his hands.
Even though Calum had spent the majority of his life harvesting precious stones from rocks, he couldn’t help but gawk at it. The emerald was the biggest gemstone he’d ever seen. It was a rich dark-green color, so deep that the sunlight couldn’t even reach its center.
“Where did you find that?” Axel’s eyes widened.
“Roderick had it,” Magnus replied.
“That’ll fetch a small fortune. I could retire. We all could.” Axel rubbed his hands together.
Magnus shook his head. “No chance.”
Axel’s brow furrowed. “Hey, the agreement is that we split whatever we find.”
“Except this was mine to begin with,” Magnus said.
Axel scoffed. “Yeah, right. How do I know you’re not just saying that?”
Magnus glared at him.
“Fair enough.” Axel nodded.
“What is it?” Lilly asked.
All three of them looked at her, and Magnus held it up. “This is one of the last Dragon Emeralds known to Kanarah.”
“A Dragon Emerald?” Calum raised an eyebrow.
“Yes.” Magnus stared at it. Into it.
Lilly leaned forward. “What does that mean?”
Magnus smiled. “Dragon Emeralds have three phases. This one is in its first phase. When in a human’s possession, it amplifies their strength to that of a Saurian’s, or even greater. That is why Roderick put up so much trouble when I was fighting him.”
“Yeah, I saw that.” Axel chuckled. “Looked like he was beating you senseless, Scales.”
Magnus ignored him. “Once a Saurian reaches a certain point in development, he or she can use a Dragon Emerald to transform into a Sobek.”
Calum and Axel stared at him, but Lilly nodded.
“That’s the second phase of Saurian development,” she said. “I’ve seen a few in Aeropolis before. Kahn sent them as emissaries to Avian, the Premier of the Windgales.”
“Who’s Kahn?” Calum asked.
Magnus’s eyebrows arched down, and he exhaled a long hiss through his nostrils. “He rules Reptilius.”
“And he’s the only dragon in Kanarah, at least since Praetorius died about a year ago,” Lilly said.
Silence hovered among them as they stared at the Dragon Emerald. As before, Calum knew there had to be more to the story, but he didn’t want to ask. Magnus didn’t seem to want to talk about it.
Calum glanced at Magnus. “So… can you use it?”
Magnus lifted his golden eyes to Calum’s. “Perhaps.”
“Perhaps?” Axel tilted his head. “You don’t know?”
“My skin has hardened some, which means I am showing the necessary signs of growth—” Magnus shook his head. “—but I cannot be sure.”
“So why don’t you just try it?” Axel asked.
“I am not sure I’m ready.”
“What happens if you try it and you’re not ready?” Axel pressed.
Magnus shook his head. “I do not know. For all I’ve learned in my two hundred and three years, I never learned how to tell when I would be ready to use this. It is a carefully guarded secret.”
“Wait. Stop.” Axel shook his head. “You’re two hundred years old?”
The news had come as a surprise to Calum, too, so much that he couldn’t speak.
Magnus blinked at Axel. “Two hundred and three.”
“What?” Axel almost screeched the word.
“Saurians live a long time,” Lilly said. “Ten times longer than humans or Windgales. Before he died, Praetorius was over five hundred years old.”
“Older,” Magnus muttered.
Lilly glanced at him. “Really? I learned about him in—well, growing up. I was taught he was just over five-hundred. How old was he?”
“I never had occasion to ask him.”
Silence reigned anew as Calum and Axel processed the news about Magnus’s age.
“I thought you were forty,” Axel finally said. “Maybe forty-five. But two hundred?”
“And three,” Magnus added. “If it helps, just pretend I am forty. It makes no difference to me.”
Axel raised his hands. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Calum had to agree with him, but even more so, he found new admiration for Magnus. It was pretty incredible that he’d lived so long, and Calum could only imagine the things he’d seen in his lifetime—things that Calum would only ever know as a part of history.
“What do you have to do to try it?” Lilly asked. “The emerald, I mean.”
Magnus’s tone lightened up, as if he were glad for the change of subject. “I hold it in my hands and press it against my bare chest.”
Axel nudged him. “Do it. See what happens.”
“No.” Instead, Magnus dropped the Dragon Emerald in a leather pouch and tied it to his belt. “It does not feel right.”
Axel rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I still think we should sell it.”
Magnus turned to Lilly. “How does your shoulder feel?”
She gave him a half-smile, rotated her left shoulder, and winced, though not as dramatically as before. “Better. Thank you for your help. And thank you all for stopping Roderick and his men.”
“Our pleasure.” Calum couldn’t help but smile at her.
Axel stepped in front of him. “Anything for you.”
Calum’s jaw tensed, but Lilly’s smile quelled the frustration rising in his chest.
“You’re welcome to come with us, if you like. We’re heading across the Valley within the next week or so,” Axel said. “We can make sure you get there safely.”
Lilly nodded. “I’d like that.”
“Great.” Axel smiled.
Calum thought he looked like an idiot, but he was also glad Axel had asked her to join them. He wasn’t sure he would’ve found the courage if it had fallen to him.
“Let us collect our bags of food, loot the slave traders for weapons and supplies, and get out of here.” Magnus’s head swiveled. “I do not care to linger here any longer than we must. If any soldiers show up, count on a multitude of trouble.”
They spread out and began to gather what supplies they could. With a sack in his hand, Calum approached one of the downed slave traders but stopped short when the he moaned.
Calum brandished his sword, but the slave trader just lay on the ground with his hand on his forehead. Calum set down his pack and walked over to him. Better to put him out of his misery than to let him suffer.
Calum stopped short when he noticed a sword that resembled a large meat cleaver on the ground next to the slave trader. Now that he’d stepped closer, Calum recognized the slave trader’s dark-green armor, his curly black hair, and his dark eyes.
Sure enough, there, staring up at him, was none other than Nicolai, the bandit he’d allowed to go free after defeating Tyburon.
“Axel?” Calum called. “Come over here. You’re not gonna believe this.”
When Axel saw Nicolai’s face, his eyes widened. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Upon seeing them, Nicolai exhaled a breath and closed his eyes. “Oh, no.”
“So much for promising to stay out of trouble,” Axel said. “He stops being a bandit and ends up a slave trader. He couldn’t have done much worse with his second chance.”
Nicolai opened his eyes and rubbed his forehead with another moan.
“Well, I guess this time we have to finish him off.” Axel unsheathed his sword, and Nicolai let out a yelp.
“Wait.” Calum’s hand kept Axel from swinging. “He’s unarmed, and he’s mostly harmless. We can’t just kill him.”
&nbs
p; “His weapon’s right there.” Axel huffed and didn’t lower his sword. “Calum, you need to move. This lurch had his chance. Two of them. He wasted them both. His time has come.”
“You’re not killing him, Axel.” Calum’s firm voice sounded more convincing to him each time he employed it, and he’d employed it a lot recently.
“Who’s gonna stop me?” Axel scoffed. “You?”
Calum had no desire to measure sword lengths with Axel. Instead, he said, “Maybe the reason he keeps falling in with a bad crowd is because he doesn’t know any good people.”
Axel eyed him. “What are you suggesting?”
“I’m not saying we’re the purest souls around, but we’re certainly not slave traders or bandits.” Calum tilted his head and stared down at Nicolai, who moaned again. “Maybe if we bring him with us, we’ll rub off on him. Maybe there’s hope for Nicolai yet.”
Axel had started shaking his head even before Calum finished talking. “No way. He’s not coming with us.”
Calum waved Lilly over, then he refocused on Axel. “You need to start looking for the good in people, Axel. When we started out, you didn’t want to travel with Magnus just because he was a Saurian.”
“Yeah, and now we get along so well.”
Lilly walked over and stood near them, her eyes locked on Nicolai. She seemed ready to bolt into the sky if he so much as looked at her wrong.
“My point is that Magnus, even though you may not like him, is valuable to the group. He’s saved both of our lives on countless occasions.” Calum stared down at Nicolai. “Who knows what Nicolai might become if we spare him?”
“If we finish him off, I know for a fact he won’t be a bandit or a slave trader anymore.”
Calum sighed. Magnus started toward them from a couple dozen yards away, where he’d been sifting through a slave trader’s pack.
“Am I allowed to say something?” Nicolai raised his hand from his forehead a few inches, revealing a nasty red bump.
“No.” Axel pointed his blade at Nicolai.
“Yes,” Calum countered.
Nicolai gave him a slight nod. “Please don’t kill me. I know I made a mistake by joining this bunch of—”
“Got that right,” Axel muttered. He folded his arms but still held onto his sword.
“—of slave traders, but this is the only type of life I know.” Nicolai swallowed and sat up, his dark eyes fixed on Calum. “I’d be honored to join your group, if that’s what you’re offering.”
Axel rolled his eyes. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Calum glanced at Lilly, then he focused on Magnus, who stopped short when he noticed Nicolai on the ground.
“Is that who I think it is?” Magnus squinted at him.
“Yeah. We were just discussing how we should kill him,” Axel said.
“Actually, we were discussing how he might join our group.” Calum cleared his throat and looked at Lilly. “If that’s alright with you, Lilly.”
She glanced between Magnus, Calum, and Nicolai. “He was new to Roderick’s outfit. He didn’t mistreat me, but I’m not inclined to trust him. I put him out with Aliophos Nectar when I was escaping. I could’ve killed him then, but I didn’t.” She exhaled a sharp sigh. “I hate to say it, but maybe there’s a reason for that.”
“Right, but he’s still one of them, and he was a bandit before that.” Axel raised an eyebrow at her. “Surely you don’t want him traveling with us after all of that.”
Lilly stared at Nicolai. “Like I said, I don’t trust him—”
“Me neither.” Axel raised his sword again, and Nicolai recoiled.
Lilly stepped between them. “—but we can’t just execute him. We all make mistakes. If he wants to change, he will. Everyone deserves a second chance. ”
“Last time was his second chance,” Axel muttered.
“I want to change.” Nicolai nodded. “Believe me, I want to change.”
“Really?” Axel huffed and lowered his sword. “Come on, guys. You don’t actually believe him, do you?”
“Here’s how I see it,” Calum said. “Either he changes, or he’s on his own again. It’s only a matter of time before he meets a foul end with the way he’s been living.”
“Yeah, like right now,” Axel grumbled.
“Please give me a chance. I’ll show you I can be different.” Nicolai tentatively stood to his feet and stepped toward Calum, then he turned to Lilly. “I was just following orders. I’m so sorry. I won’t do wrong by you anymore.”
Lilly rubbed her wounded shoulder. “We’ll see.”
“You mess up, we toss you out on your own.” Calum glanced at Magnus, who nodded, then he looked back at Nicolai. “Crystal?”
“Clear,” Nicolai replied.
Calum extended his hand. “Welcome to the group, Nicolai.”
That night, Commander Anigo tugged on the reins, and Candlestick slowed to a halt. Sure enough, as the message had read, he found the moonlit bodies of nine slain men near the western edge of the Golden Plains.
He’d only taken five soldiers to investigate the claims of the farmhand who’d deserted his post to deliver the news. He left the rest under Corporal Jopheth with orders to watch all of Kanarah City’s gates at all times should they return. They were to be killed on sight if necessary, or captured if possible.
Under almost any other circumstances, he would’ve had the farmhand thrashed, but instead, Commander Anigo wrote him a decree that granted him the remainder of the day off. The catch, of course, was that he had to show Commander Anigo the location of the bodies.
“You said you saw the fight?” Commander Anigo asked.
The farmhand—Commander Anigo hadn’t bothered to learn his name—stood at the edge of the fields and rubbed his arms. The night wind carried a harsher chill with it than previous nights, and the farmhand had neglected to don a shirt before running to Kanarah City.
“Yes, sir.” He shivered. “Heard metal clashing. Knew somethin’ was up. Ran over to see what was happenin’ and caught the end of it.”
Commander Anigo’s eyes narrowed. “What did you see?”
The farmhand rubbed his shoulders. “Looked like a bunch of men swingin’ weapons around. I didn’t care to get too close. Hid in the grain. Safer there.”
“The winners—did you see them?”
“Yeah. There was a girl with them. I think she was a Windgale. Saw her flyin’ around at one point. Either that or she can jump higher than anyone I ever seen.”
Captain Fulton’s killer? The slave girl?
If so, then these slain men might’ve been the slave traders responsible for the debacle at the auction. Had they chased her and run into some other force? Surely she hadn’t slain nine strong men on her own. “What else?”
“I saw two armored men and a Saurian.”
Commander Anigo’s eyes widened. “Which way did they go?”
The farmhand’s teeth clicked. “They headed west, toward the road.”
Commander Anigo urged Candlestick to face west. Had his three outlaws come to the aid of the Windgale girl? If they had left together, he’d be hunting four fugitives instead—convenient, given Captain Fulton’s untimely death.
If Commander Anigo could bring all four of them to justice in one fell swoop, he was assured a glorious return to Solace, indeed. Perhaps even a promotion; after all, he’d been eligible for promotion to captain for nearly a year now.
“That’s all I saw, sir. Do you—can I go home now?”
“You are released.” Commander Anigo glanced back and saw the farmhand disappear into the grain. He turned to two of the soldiers accompanying him. “You two, go with him. Make sure he returns to his assigned post. I don’t intend to chase another escaped worker.”
The soldiers nodded and rode their horses after the farmhand.
Commander Anigo looked at the two other soldiers accompanying him. He pointed at one of them. “You, ride back to Kanarah City and have Corporal Jopheth ready a plato
on of soldiers for a long-term search.” He pointed to the other one. “You, come with me.”
As the other soldier rode north, the remaining soldier asked, “Where are we going, sir?”
Commander Anigo faced the mountains to the west. “We’re going after them.”
At their campsite for the night, Calum sat on Lilly’s left, constantly battling his emotions and feelings. Part of him was thrilled to be sitting next to her, another part was terrified of saying something stupid to her, and another part was enraged that Axel was sitting closer to her than he was—much too close to her for Calum’s comfort.
Across from Calum sat Magnus, and Nicolai sat next to him, dabbing at the bump on his head with ginger fingers.
“So, unfortunately, we cannot just walk into Kanarah City and head straight to Trader’s Pass,” Magnus concluded the story of their journey from the quarry all the way through their rooftop escape from Kanarah City. He clacked his talons against his breastplate. “We cannot risk the soldiers recognizing us.”
“But now that you’re here—and Nicolai, too, I guess—we can get across.” Axel winked at Lilly.
Calum noticed it and wanted to knock the smug expression off his face.
“I would not go that far, Axel,” Magnus said. “Even if we divided up and entered the Pass using Lilly and Nicolai as extra people to throw off the soldiers, and even if I removed my armor, it is still a considerable risk. I would rather not put Lilly in any more danger, especially considering what she has just endured.”
Lilly smiled at him. “Thank you, but I’m capable of handling myself.”
“Forgive me. I did not mean to suggest otherwise.” Magnus turned to Nicolai and sighed. “And Nicolai… well, I fear we cannot fully trust you yet.”
Nicolai shrugged. “I’m not offended. I know I’m good at ruining things.”
“So what are we gonna do?” Calum asked. “Try to go individually?”
Axel leaned forward. “We could try to—”
“Shh,” Magnus hissed, his golden eyes wide. “I hear something.”
Calum and Axel froze.
A low growl emanated from the darkness on the north side of the camp.