Smoke and Flame (Rise of the Dragons Trilogy Book 2)

by N. R. Hairston

  Trout’s face went hard. His silver hair rested in lush waves around his shoulders, and his brown eyes were narrowed as he watched the siblings, almost like he was waiting for them to make a wrong move so that he could attack. I scoffed. He and Iago both needed to chill until we found out what had happened to Lantana. This was the closest we’d gotten, and I guess that’s what had them on edge.

  “What do you want?” Trout finally asked the pair. “We can’t teach you to float. Either you’re born with it, or you’re not.” He gave Reid and I pointed looks. “Well, most of the time anyway.”

  Iago had his head down, and he seemed to be thinking hard about something. “I can help you,” he said, looking up. “At great cost to myself, so you better know where she’s at.”

  Yemsa shrugged. “I only know where they took her when they left here. I’d say that’s better than nothing.”

  Trout whispered something in Iago’s ear, and Reid turned to me, while Coen sighed loudly from the corner.

  Reid’s eyes took me in, again searching my face. “You gave into it, didn’t you? That dragon clawing just under the surface.”

  I looked at him and frowned. Was that what it was? Were we really one with the dragon? So much so that it could leap forward and take control? My stomach rolled, and I knew we needed to find out more.

  I looked at Reid, always aiming to be honest with him. “It felt good, letting loose like that. It felt natural, but also unstable. I don’t want to lose control like that again unless I have to.”

  He nodded like he understood. “I can feel it too, you know. Kind of hard to fight that call, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” I said, looking down at my hands. “Yeah, it is.”

  He squinted at me, then started to rise. “If you need to go to the bathroom or want something to drink...”

  “No,” I told him, causing him to sit back down. “It can wait. I want to see how this plays out. It’s the first clue we’ve gotten about Lantana in a while.”

  Trout and Iago finished talking, and Iago looked at Fletcher and Yemsa. “I can help you fight them. If you can float in the air with them, then they stop being a threat. If you keep killing the ones that come here, then word will get out, and soon you won’t have a Yango problem. After what Alisa did, you may not have one now, but I wouldn’t take that chance.”

  Fletcher put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. I got the impression he wasn’t won over yet. The look on his face said he thought this to be a little too good to be true. “How will you do this, Iago?”

  “Tell me about the place my sister was taken to. Tell me what you know.”

  Fletcher and his sister shared a look and then she turned to Iago. “They brought her in a couple of weeks ago, and put her in the tomes.”

  Iago raised a brow.

  “It has bars, and holds people inside so that they can’t go anywhere.”

  Oh, she meant jail. They put her in jail.

  “Why was she put there?” Iago asked, his jaw tight with tension.

  Yemsa shook her head. “I don’t know. They bring people here sometimes, to hold them. They work out a deal with Pav, he’s high up in the Senate. No one really knows what’s going on with him, but there are rumors.” She didn’t say anything after that.

  “Well, what are the rumors?” Coen asked, waving a hand through the air. “We want to get a move on, you know.”

  She shot him a hard look then turned back to Iago. “You’ve all been hurt. Going there now would be foolish. Gracstor is a world full of shadows and deceit. They smile at you while they’re stealing your land and robbing you blind. Greedy, money-grubbing, rakes, the lot of them.”

  I looked at her, a little surprised at the venom in her words and figured she’d had some personal dealings with them, maybe.

  “Then you go with us,” Coen said, raising a little in his bean bag chair. “If you’re familiar with the world and know how to navigate it, then we need your help.”

  Trout nodded at him and turned to the siblings. “If we can help you rid yourselves of the Yango, then I’d say helping us find Lantana is a small price to pay.” He watched them closely, his shoulders thick with tension as he waited for a response.

  Fletcher looked at Iago. “He hasn’t told us how that help will come about.”

  Iago pushed purple hair out of his face. “I’ll enchant the shoes of everyone who wants to fight.” He looked at the siblings’ feet and said a few words under his breath. Purple light flew from his mouth and wrapped around both Fletcher and Yemsa’s shoes, sinking in.

  “Now rise,” Iago said to them, his voice low and commanding.

  They stared at him hard and then Yemsa closed her eyes as her feet left the ground. Fletcher grunted, eyes wide, as he watched his sister, then, after he’d gathered himself, he too began to rise.

  They looked at each other, both in midair, elation on their faces as if they’d just found the missing link, and in a way, I guessed they had.

  “And you can do this for everyone here?” Fletcher asked, as his feet touched back to the ground.

  Trout’s jaw tightened with anger, but it was Iago who answered. “If you help me get my sister back.”

  “We’ll help you.” Yemsa came back to the ground. “But we can’t leave the people here unprotected. You have to do it before we leave.”

  Iago thought about that, and his voice was cold as an icicle when he spoke. His yellow eyes lit up with the intensity of his emotions, and a strong tension filled the air. “I’ll help you, but if you don’t keep your word, I’ll kill you, both of you, and anyone else stupid enough to challenge me. I can’t say it any clearer than that.”

  “And he’s not much of a joker,” Trout said. “If he says it, he means it. So, if you’re promising your help, you better give it.”

  Fletcher bristled, his hands turning into fists at his side. “Don’t ever threaten my sister again.”

  Iago rose, slow and dangerous, like a snake moving in for the attack. He rolled his shoulders, and his voice was tight and controlled when he spoke. “I will kill you and your sister and hang your corpses in the town square for everyone in your world to see.”

  Fletcher launched toward him, but Trout sprung up and pushed him back. “Don’t do that again,” he said, his voice hard as steel. Goose pimples went up my arm, because though I’d seen these two fight before, I’d never seen them like this, cool and deadly. It stunned me, and I didn’t know quite how to feel about it.

  Yemsa raised her hands, and Coen hopped from his seat and went to stand on the other side of Iago, shoulders out, hands at his side as if waiting for an attack.

  “We could kill you all in the blink of an eye,” she hissed, while Fletcher made a move to stand slightly in front of her as if to protect her.

  “Lebro doi,” Iago said, and green light flew from his mouth and wrapped around both brother and sister. They twisted and turned, trying to knock it off, but it sunk deeply into their skin anyway.

  Iago took a few steps forward, and I could see Fletcher and Yemsa still trying to break free to no avail. Iago towered over them. “You move when I tell you to. You talk when I allow it.”

  Coen sighed and shook his head. “Iago,” he said, his voice sounding like it was running out of patience.

  Iago looked at him, his eyes glowed green, and his face held a fury like I’d never seen. Coen turned to Trout, with a look that said, “do something.”

  Trout put a hand around Iago’s neck and then nuzzled him there, before whispering something in his ear. Iago’s body stayed stiff for a second then he nodded, and after a few moments, he seemed to relax.

  Trout turned to the siblings. “We’ve been through a lot lately. Lost a lot of people we loved at the hands of the Yango. We don’t mean any harm, but don’t ever threaten him again.” He said that last part with a little more bite to it.

  “Deben Inty,” Iago said, and the green light flew out of them, and they could move again.

  Neit
her looked grateful, and I wasn’t sure they weren’t going to attack.

  “Show us where she was,” I said, coming to my feet, hoping to defuse the situation before it got out of hand again. “I’d like to see where she was kept while she was here. Maybe she left something behind.”

  The pair barely turned my way as both seemed unwilling to let Iago too far out of their sight. I didn’t blame them.

  “We can do that,” Yemsa said. She set sharp eyes on Iago. “But we can’t fight each other. It does the Yango’s job for them. Both our worlds, it would seem, have been hurt by them. Why not work together? My brother and I are not your enemies.”

  From the intense look on Fletcher’s face, to the way his body vibrated as he stared at Iago, I wasn’t so sure he agreed with that.

  Iago didn’t seem to notice, or maybe he just didn’t care. “Okay,” he said. He looked Trout over, and the other man nodded. “Show me where my sister was, then gather your people together. It will be faster if I do this all at once. Tell them to bring as many pairs of shoes as they can. In three days’ time, I’ll come back, and I expect you to be ready to go to Gracstor.”

  The two nodded, and I let out the breath I’d been holding but, wondered why he would wait three days. I would think he’d want to get to his sister immediately. I looked to Trout and Coen, but neither seemed surprised by this, so I guessed there was a reason. I just didn’t know what it was.

  Yemsa walked to a small table by the front door and opened a drawer, pulling out a small bag. It was made of cloth and tied with a thick white rope. “They’ll let us in, but it comes with a price, and the men and women who run the jail are some of the most foul this world has to offer.”

  Iago tensed when she said that, and I knew he was probably thinking of the treatment his sister may have received while she’d been there. If they’d treated her bad, or hurt her in any way, he’d kill them, and then we’d never make it out of here alive.

  Chapter 16

  Yemsa and Fletcher told their neighbors to spread the word that they may have help in defeating the Yango. They told them to gather everyone and bring them to the town square.

  They also told all those we passed on the way to the tomes. It was still dark here, but I could see the first hints of light cracking through the sky. The day was already hot enough, so I was glad for my tank top and Capri pants.

  I was still a little stiff, and my head felt like it’d been kicked in. If Iago wanted to wait three days, whatever his reasons were, I was all for it.

  Taking a look around, I realized this world wasn’t that different than my own. Late model cars and trucks traveled up and down asphalt streets. The sidewalks were concrete, and the storefronts were mostly brick and vinyl.

  The air was fresh and smelled of lilies and springtime, making me wonder how it could be so peaceful here after the fight we’d just had with the Yango.

  We walked until we came to a large red building. The bricks were old and dingy, and I wasn’t even sure a good pressure washing would’ve helped. The door was wooden, the brown paint, chipped and dirty.

  Coen turned up his nose, and I flashed back to the expensive clothes he’d been wearing when we’d first met him. “You really expect us to go in there?” He didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea, but I wondered why he thought now was the time for such eccentricities.

  Iago rounded on him as did Trout.

  He held his hands up. “I’m just saying...”

  “Do it anyway,” Trout said, raising his brow in a challenge.

  “I don’t even like Lantana all that much,” Coen said, and Iago grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him close.

  “No one cares who you like,” he hissed at the other man, his face hard, veins popping in his neck. “Unless you want to go back in a box, I suggest you stop this bullshit right now.”

  Trout rolled his eyes, and then grabbed Iago’s hands and removed them from Coen’s clothes. Iago bristled at first, but once he saw it was Trout, he calmed down and allowed himself to be led.

  Trout looked at Coen and shook his head. “There’s something wrong with you. Do you want his attention that bad that you wait until he’s standing on his last nerve ending to test him?”

  Coen tsked, but he didn’t look all that sorry. “Can never get a reaction out of him otherwise. The only people he knows exist are you, and Lantana, whom I happen to like very much.”

  Trout let out an exasperated sigh. “I know you do. He knows that too, and normally he wouldn’t react, but right now’s not a good time.” He looked at Coen, an incredulous expression on his face. “And you know that, so what in all Litvan is wrong with you?”

  Coen huffed out a breath and looked at Iago. “I’m sorry. I promise to behave myself from this point on.”

  Iago gave him the once-over and then turned to the siblings. Whether he accepted Coen’s half-hearted apology or not, I couldn’t tell.

  Reid put a hand around my shoulder and pulled me close. “Why did you really want to come here?” he asked.

  I thought back to the heated exchange that had taken place earlier between Iago, Fletcher, and Yemsa.

  “I was trying to stop something like this from happening, but Coen seems determined to make a scene.”

  “Not our business.”

  “If it affects our group, and how we fight together, it is. We saved each other back there. The Yango are ruthless. We have to have each other’s back. There’s no room for distractions when we’re fighting the Yango.”

  He looked at me and shook his head, then turned as Yemsa began to speak. “We’ll have to go down here.” She pointed to a pair of concrete steps that led into what I assumed was a basement. “Just stay on your guard, try not to piss anyone off, and if someone says something to you just absorb it and keep going.”

  Fletcher nodded. “Most tome keepers are looking for a fight. Don’t give it to them.”

  I looked at Coen and wasn’t so sure we could keep that promise. “Will it fall back on you two if one of us gets out of hand?” I asked. “Will you get in trouble?”

  Yemsa looked a little shocked that I would ask the question, then must have remembered that I wasn’t from her world, and didn’t know their customs and such.

  “My father is Edgar Handguard. He is on the high senate, and anyone who touches me will find their whole family dead by the end of the day, and they know it.”

  I took a step back, surprised at the venom in her voice or that she would think that was a good thing. “Okay,” I said, because what else was there to say to something like that?

  Everyone around me seemed blood-thirsty, and I guessed that’s what happened when a world was under Yango control for too long. Litvan and this world had been under the Yango thumb for years now, so maybe they’d just had enough.

  Reid leaned over and whispered in my ear. “We’ll fight if we have to, but only if we have to. We need to find out what they know about the Yango and do what we can to get Lantana back.”

  I nodded. That was our main goal, and we couldn’t afford to lose sight of that. No matter what we saw down there, we needed to stay focused on getting Iago’s sister back and being able to make it home safely.

  We walked down what seemed like over a hundred steps and then came to a large circular door covered in rusted barb-wire. We stood on a brown wooden platform and below us water splashed against a cluster of large rocks. Down here it smelled like unwashed bodies, fish, and feces.

  Inside, we saw a large wooden table, covered in newspaper. A man stood by it, cutting up fish and throwing the guts in a large red bucket. I wondered if he’d gotten the fish from down here? I decided he probably had when I saw two men in the distance, with fishing rods in the water.

  “It’s just rank down here,” Coen said, a frown on his face as he looked around.

  Reid took in his surroundings, his arms crossed in front of him. “This is the second jail we’ve been to. I think it’s starting to become a habit.”

  I chuckled, tho
ugh I saw nothing funny. This place was disgusting, as had been the one before it. “They don’t call them jails around these parts, remember?”

  “There’s a lot of differences between some of the worlds we’ve visited, but some stuff is the same.”

  I looked at the two with the fishing rods and agreed.

  Yemsa rattled the little bag of money and called out to the man cutting the fish. “Pip, open up. We have business inside.”

  He put the knife down and wiped his hands on his white apron. He was a big man, with muscles so huge it was probably an effort not to bust out of every shirt he put on. His head was bald, and he had a tattoo of a roaring lion on it.

  He didn’t look pleased to stop his task. His air was so menacing that I knew if I ever came across him in a dark alley, I’d surely take off running in the opposite direction. He wore a deep scowl as he pushed the button that allowed the barb-wire to rise.

  “What do you want?” he asked, his voice gruff and hard.

  Yemsa held up the money. “We have business here.”

  He gave her a hard stare, and she dropped the bag of coins in his hand and motioned for us to follow her inside.

  I gave Pip a wary look as I walked past. Just because Yemsa was protected by who her daddy was, didn’t mean the rest of us were.

  The smell was even worse when we stepped inside, and I shuddered when I saw the small metal cages, some with two or three people inside of what was already a cramped space.

  The floor was solid concrete, and since they had no beds or any other furniture, I wondered how they slept at all.

  I took a closer look at one of the cells and saw a man and two women. Their hair hung in clumps, and their features were so gaunt I didn’t think it possible for them to lose more weight and survive.

  Their clothes were dirty, ragged, and torn. Since they had no blankets or covers, I wondered how they withstood cold winter nights, especially being this close to the water.