* * *
My captors were obviously in a hurry to get out of the mountains, claim their bounty, and unload me on Prince Creepy-Eyes. I probably would have been more panicked about things if I hadn’t spent so much of the journey unconscious.
As it was, I spent an unknown number of days and nights swimming in and out of awareness. Sometimes I would awake to find myself being hoisted over a horse, only to pass out again when we started moving and the bruising abuse to my stomach began anew. Sometimes I would come around, choking, to find water flowing down my gullet. Sometimes I was awake, but in a strange sort of fugue state—events flowing around me without seeming to touch me in any sort of meaningful way.
The worst part was when I aware enough to remember what had happened. Was Nyx still alive? Had he died of his injuries, taking Lisha with him to the spirit world? Had the others returned to find me missing? Would they stumble over the corpses of man and dragon on the trail as they approached the valley? What would they do? How would they react?
Oddly, what would happen to me once the scouts turned me over to Prince Oblisii never really occupied my fractured thoughts. I knew, on some level, that it should have. I’d pricked the pride of a powerful man. He’d tried to kidnap me into his harem, and I’d escaped. Not only that, but I’d run straight into the arms of his estranged brother… figuratively, at least. In truth, I’d had no clue at the time that Rayth was, in fact, the disgraced Prince Rathanii in hiding—the eldest son of the current king.
All of these things meant I should be worrying about my ultimate fate at Oblisii’s hands. Yet, the idea that I’d be returning to the palace in Safaad to face the prince’s wrath didn’t truly seem real; not until the scouts hauled my exhausted carcass through an unassuming side gate leading into the palace compound, and that gate slammed shut behind us with a deafening clang.
Chapter 5: An Unpleasant Surprise
Aristede
THE MORNING SUN was just beginning to dapple the ground beneath the forest canopy as Rayth, Eldris, and I traversed the steep trail leading toward the valley we’d called home these past two years. It was a pleasant enough day for travel, on the warmer side of the autumnal tug-of-war between the seasons.
“Admit it, Rayth,” Eldris teased. “Our little troublemaker is starting to grow on you, despite your best efforts.”
Eldris had been needling our fearless leader intermittently about Frella over the past few days. I watched the exchange with interest, curious if Rayth would respond to his words with irritation, stony silence, or cold anger.
“Perhaps so,” he allowed after a short pause, surprising me. “If nothing else, she’s far more palatable when she’s hurling deadly projectiles at our enemies, rather than at me.”
“Goodness,” I murmured, allowing irony to lace my tone. “Could it be that the icy facade is finally beginning to thaw after all these years, my friend? I feel I should be making a permanent record somewhere, to commemorate the date.”
Rayth grumbled something surly under his breath, and I caught Eldris’ eye with a wink. He chuckled, the sound warming me more than the sun filtering through the rustling branches above us.
In some ways, the last week or so since the aftermath of the battle in the valley had been the best of my life, even with the lurking danger circling around us. Despite my fears, allowing both Frella and Eldris the kind of intimacy with me that I’d avoided religiously for years hadn’t brought the sky crashing down on our heads. Indeed, what I’d feared would be a disaster was turning out to be a considerable boon—for me, at least.
I couldn’t help wondering if Rayth, too, would eventually succumb to the charms of our northern goddess. A more interesting question was what, exactly, it would mean for the rest of us if he did. It was impossible to picture Rayth smitten. Such an image simply didn’t gel with my understanding of the man. One thing was certain, though—it would make an already complicated situation even more complicated.
Nyx had already succumbed to Frella’s charms, I was reasonably certain… to the extent that he was currently able, at any rate. The lad had been hurt badly when he was younger, and it still showed. There was more to his story than had yet been told, and I truly hoped that he would one day be able to put that burden aside in favor of living fully in the present.
Not that I was any kind of paragon when it came to keeping one’s head out of the past—but I was slowly getting better. Nyx had a ways to go yet. Rayth, I suspected, had even farther to go.
For the thousandth time, I wondered about the identity of the woman who’d scarred Rayth to the extent that he now regarded the entire female sex with distrust. That question had recently gained an even sharper edge, since Nyx had revealed the wine-soaked bastard’s true identity as a disgraced prince of the realm.
“You should make another attempt to bond with the red dragon upon our return, Aristede,” Rayth said, changing the subject without any attempt at subtlety. “And both of you should talk to the hellion about bonding with the male.” He shook his head ruefully. “Of all the multitude of things the girl could have chosen to be timid about, it just had to be that.”
I refrained from offering an opinion regarding the matter of Frella’s inability or unwillingness to enter into a soul-bond with the white dragon, since I had very little room to talk on the subject. Eldris, it seemed, had no such compunctions.
“She’s trying, Rayth. They’re both trying. If it were easy, you and I wouldn’t have taken two years to do it. And I dunno about you, but I still have no idea why it happened the way it did for us.”
Rayth grunted again.
“I’m fully aware of the new urgency, Rayth,” I told him in a placating tone. “As is she. I can’t believe we’ve come this far to fail now.”
Before either he or Eldris could reply, my mare shied sideways on the trail, nearly plowing into Eldris’ gelding. I gripped hard with my knees to keep from being unseated, wrestling with the reins.
“What the hell?” Rayth growled, steadying his stallion as Eldris and I got our unruly mounts back under control.
The mare balked, refusing to move forward—resisting the press of my heels and tossing her head.
“Well, this can’t be good,” I observed in a studiously casual tone, drawing my sword from its sheath with my right hand and keeping a tight hold on the reins with my left.
The others did the same. Eldris took the lead with his more phlegmatic gelding, approaching whatever awaited us that had set the animals off. Rayth urged his stallion to follow, and a sharper thump of my heels got the mare moving behind them. As we rounded a bend in the trail, Eldris drew a sharp breath and pulled his mount to a halt.
“We have a problem,” he said grimly. “A great big one. Stay back, you two.”
With that, he dismounted and handed his horse’s reins to Rayth, who cursed under his breath upon getting a clear view of the trail. I nudged my mare forward until I could see past him, and my stomach sank. Ahead of us, Lisha crouched across the path, her wings spread wide in the confined space between the trees and bushes.
Nyx lay in an unmoving heap beneath the protective cover of one of the dragon’s wings. The beast’s neck arched, and she glared at us in clear warning.
“He’s not dead, or she would be, too,” I said, unsure who the words were meant to reassure. “Rayth, we need to back away. Nyx is afraid of both of us. I wouldn’t like to bet our lives on his dragon refraining from roasting us if we get too close while she’s protecting him.”
Rayth nodded, his lips pressed into a tight line, and reined his horse back a few steps—drawing Eldris’ mount along with him. I followed suit, trying rather desperately not to let my thoughts fly in the direction they wanted to. Not yet. Not until we knew what had happened. Apparently, Rayth didn’t share my reluctance.
“There’s no sign of the hellion?” he called.
“No,” Eldris called back, sounding about as happy as I felt about the fact. “There are two dead horses and two dead riders h
ere, though.” His voice grew softer, pitched for the green dragon rather than us. “Easy now, beautiful. You’ve gotta let me get to him so me and the others can help him, all right?”
For reasons never elucidated, Nyx didn’t exhibit the same kind of fear around Eldris as he did around myself and Rayth. That had always struck me as rather odd, since— deserved or not—the dark-skinned Kulawi people had a fearsome reputation in Utrea. Regardless, it was in our favor now, if it meant Lisha didn’t see Eldris as a threat to her unconscious master.
“That’s it, lovely,” Eldris was saying, still in his deep, calming tones. “You let me help him once before when you were both upset, remember? I’m just gonna crouch down and take a look at him now. Move your wing for me so I can see a bit better, yeah?”
An unhappy, bleating warble signified the dragon’s concession, and I relaxed minutely. Minutes passed like cooling treacle.
“Well?” Rayth called.
“Bad knock on the back of the head,” Eldris reported. “And I think a couple of ribs might be cracked—there’s a hell of a bruise on his side. I don’t see any broken bones in his arms or legs. No way of knowing about the rest until we get him somewhere with better light, and get his clothes off.”
“Peel his eyelids up. Are his pupils reacting?” I called, trying not to think too closely about what a severe head injury might do to a man. It didn’t help that Eldris’ face was still black and blue on one side from just such an injury, acquired less than two weeks ago.
“Yeah,” Eldris reported a moment later. “One’s bigger than the other, though.”
I made myself think logically, falling back on years of experience in battlefield medicine. “We need to transport him with as little jostling as possible. It’s a long way to carry a stretcher, but—”
“Let the dragon carry him,” Rayth interrupted. “She’ll be able to sense if his injuries are being aggravated.”
“Oh, yes,” I realized. “Of course. Eldris! Lift him onto the dragon’s back. Carefully. Lay him face down, straddling her. Try to support his head and neck while you’re moving him.”
“Done,” Eldris called a few moments later. “I think she understands what to do. She laid herself down right next to him so I could get him onto her. I’m going to walk back with them. Skirt around us and go on ahead, you two.”
“We’ll see you there,” I replied, and started searching out the best way to bypass them on the trail without getting too close.
“The lad had better wake up with some answers,” Rayth muttered as we crashed through the brush, dodging low-hanging branches.
“Worry first about whether he’ll wake up at all,” I shot back. “It’s still early morning. There’s a good chance he’s been lying there unconscious all night and part of the previous day.”
“Two riders dead, and Frella gone.” Rayth scowled.
I took a steadying breath. “It’s possible she’s just gone back to the cave for something. Supplies, or...”
“It’s more likely she’s been taken. If she were here, she would have retrieved whatever supplies she needed last night, assuming she was willing to leave Leannyck alone and injured in the first place, knowing that the three of us were due back soon.”
I was silent, not willing to contemplate that idea until I’d confirmed she wasn’t at the cave. We reached a less overgrown area and urged the horses into a trot until we could be certain we’d passed by Lisha and her unconscious burden. Once we regained the trail, I spurred the mare into a gallop, heedless of the hard journey the animal had already undertaken over the past few days.
As ever, she rose to the challenge, her long strides eating up the distance. Behind me, Rayth followed at a less frantic pace, his stallion only recently recovered from a fetlock strain. The chestnut mare Frella had recovered from the bandits and the black one Nyx had chosen for himself lifted their heads from their grazing in alarm as I thundered into the valley.
I rode right up to the mouth of the cave before reining in my mount, who champed at the bit and blew hard through her nostrils in reaction to the abrupt halt. It was quiet. If Frella were here, she would have been at the cave entrance as soon as she heard hoofbeats, I was sure. I dismounted and let the mare go free, still saddled and bridled.
The fire pit inside the cavern was cold and dark. The cave was empty. In desperation, my eyes scanned the familiar space—perhaps she’d been injured as well. She might have come back here only to collapse, unable to manage the return trip to Nyx’s side.
But, no.
Outside, I heard Rayth’s horse approach with Eldris’ gelding still in tow. A few moments later, he joined me, casting a quick gaze over the interior.
“She’s not here, Aristede. Now, what do you need to prepare for the lad’s arrival?”
A familiar and wholly unwelcome darkness opened like a pit inside my chest, and I swallowed hard against the emptiness. Frella was gone. Right now, there was work to be done. Nyx would have answers, once he awoke… more answers than we had now, at any rate. I forced my thoughts into the familiar ruts of dealing with injuries after a battle.
“Build a fire,” I said. “Heat a bucket of water, and get me a second one from the coldest part of the spring. Find clean towels. Boil a smaller pot for infusing herbs. I’ll gather what I’m likely to need from my medicinal supplies.”
“Very well,” Rayth said, as though he wasn’t nearly as familiar as I was with this process. Possibly, I should have been irritated with the realization that I was being managed. All I could summon in response to Rayth’s no-nonsense manner was gratitude, though.
I went outside and caught the loose mare, retrieving my saddlebags and quickly stripping off her saddle and bridle before slapping her on the rump, sending her away to graze with the other horses. Rayth had tied his and Eldris’ horses a short distance from the entrance, to deal with later.
The bulk of the medicinal supplies I’d brought in Dhakar were still here in the cave, so I brought the smaller pack I’d taken with us for emergencies over to the storage area and started rummaging. It was dark inside the sheltered cavern, but most of the packages I could recognize by shape, size, and the odor of the contents.
Rayth was already busy laying the fire.
“A scouting party of some kind seems the most likely culprit,” he said, arranging kindling beneath the larger chunks of wood. “It would mean that my brother acted without hesitation, but there has technically been enough time for the escaped bandit to make her way to Safaad, and for a small, agile party of riders to make it back here if they were given clear directions explaining the route through Dhakar.”
I couldn’t help looking up at him in surprise—not because of his theory, which was quite sound, but because he’d just acknowledged the prince as his brother. I knew, however, that he wouldn’t appreciate me drawing attention to the fact.
“That would make sense,” I allowed, gathering the pouches I thought I’d need into my arms.
The kindling sparked into life beneath Rayth’s flint striker, licking greedily at the twigs and dried leaves. As flickering light spread outward from the hearth in an orange pool, Rayth’s eyes caught on something on the ground. His brow furrowed.
“What?” I crossed to join him, following his gaze.
Something had been scratched in the loose dirt next to the fire ring. Rayth’s boot had obliterated one corner of the simple drawing, but after tilting my head this way and that, it became obvious that it was a crude illustration of a sapling with a snare attached.
“They must have gone out yesterday to check the traps for game,” Rayth said.
“And left this so we’d know where they were if we returned while they were out,” I finished.
It wasn’t precisely helpful to our current circumstances, but it did offer a fuller picture of yesterday’s events, at least. I blew out an unhappy breath.
Outside, Eldris’ voice called out, and I raised my head. “You two in there?”
“Yes,” Rayt
h replied, loud enough to carry beyond the stone walls.
“Perhaps you, at least, should leave before the dragon comes in here,” I suggested, still unsure how Lisha would react with Nyx unconscious and unable to control her protective instincts through the bond. After all, I’d nearly been on the receiving end of a gout of flame from the little green female myself, and Nyx had far more reason to fear Rayth than to fear me.
“No,” Rayth said. “We need to get past this constant worry about our safety. She’ll fry me, or she won’t. And perhaps if she sees the two of us helping the lad, she’ll start trusting us more.”
I swallowed a sigh. “At least call the black dragon here, in that case. Her presence might help.”
He shrugged. “Very well. I suppose it can’t hurt.”
Not unless we end up with a full-blown dragon fight on our hands, anyway, I thought, but kept the sentiment to myself.
“We’re comin’ in now,” Eldris warned. A moment later, he entered next to Lisha, one hand resting on Nyx’s upper arm to steady him on the dragon’s back. Lisha ran a wary emerald eye over first me, and then Rayth, but no fiery expulsions followed.
“Bring him close to the fire,” I ordered, gesturing to a bedroll. “He’s probably chilled after spending a night unconscious on the ground, and I need to be able to see him properly.”
Between us, Eldris and I managed to get Nyx off the dragon’s back and settled on the nest of blankets without jostling him too badly. I was painfully aware that if his spine had been damaged in the attack, we might have already doomed him by moving him to the cave—but since the alternative was leaving him lying in the open, far from our shelter and supplies, there was little to be done for it now.
Leathery wings flapped outside, followed by the nervous whinnies of the horses tied near the cave. Both the sapphire and obsidian dragons poked their noses into the cave moments later. Eldris, ever fearless, patted Lisha’s neck and gave her a gentle shove toward the entrance.
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