“Well, yeah.”
“I don’t know. I honestly can’t remember the guy. Jack never mentioned him. In the few hours a week we had together, we focused on more important things.”
“Like drawing imaginary maps.”
“Yeah. The future was more important than the past.”
“I hope he realizes the implications of my oath.”
“He will. The question is whether or not he cares.” Catori bit her lip and groaned internally. She had no filter. She really had to keep her big mouth shut. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. This isn’t ideal, but I mean your people no harm. I keep my word.”
“Like your vow to the Order?”
“My brother’s life was more important. And besides, vows bound by magic always trump all others.”
“Convenient, isn’t it?”
Leland emerged, drying his hair with a towel, another wrapped around his waist. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Beads of water glistened over the Paladin mark on his chest. He was well built and slender, and his muscles were on full display.
Catori frowned, feeling her cheeks flush, and tried to hide it by biting into another piece of sandwich. He looked good. No, better than good, he was a fine specimen of a man, and her eyes lingered, scanning every ripple, curve, and indention of his body. It sent a heated spark rippling into her middle which she didn’t understand, and she flinched, looking away. She wanted to look back at him but decided she’d better not. She refused to turn to face him even though she could hear him coming closer.
“You were saying?” Leland leaned forward onto the table, grabbed a handful of grapes from the fruit platter, and stuffed them into his cheeks like a squirrel.
“Nothing. It means nothing. I’m just tense. I hate this waiting game. It’s frying my nerves.”
“Me too.” He walked away, and she could hear the rustling of fabric as he put on the clothes.
A knock on the door made her jump. Bran had returned for them.
“Fenwick is here. Come on, time to plead your case.”
“Will he be open to any of it?” Catori asked as she fell in step behind the warrior and Leland hurried to follow along.
Bran inhaled sharply. “We’ll find out pretty soon, won’t we?”
Catori scoffed at the guy. He wasn’t helpful at all. “Thanks for the advice.”
“Listen, Fenwick is of the old world, not this modern crap. Why do you think we’re in a cave? We’ve been here a while. Fenwick is conservative but sometimes, if you’re lucky, he’ll listen to you.”
“Good to know. That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
Bran shook his head, his frown deepening. “Come on, we’re late.”
Chapter Thirteen
They were led to an oval room with a large table at its center. Twenty or so people were seated around it, with Fenwick dominating the chair at the center of one of the long sides. Another few dozen dragon shifters were crowded into the room, standing along the edges of the walls.
Fenwick was an older man with silvery white hair cut close to his scalp and thick, matching eyebrows. His face was cut into deep lines, and his lips were thin and tightly pressed together. He was a tall man who hovered over most of the men in the room, but he wasn’t the tallest of them all. His brawn told of a well-kept physique, and the scars crisscrossing one side of his face and down the length of his muscly arms told of many battles fought, most against sword or talons. Catori had to admit that he looked frightening. It no doubt kept the man on the throne.
“Catori of the Reinhardt clan,” he said as they approached the table. “I’d recognize your face anywhere. You look just like my sister, Catherine. Your mother.”
Catori’s mouth fell open at the mention of her dead mother. Her memories were still incomplete, but her mother’s face now emerged sharply in her mind. “Catherine Reinhardt was your sister?”
“Yes. My younger sibling.” He chuckled. “You could be her clone.”
Catori reached up to touch her face as tears sprung into her eyes. She hated to appear so weak, but the thought of the tender woman who would tuck her in at night flooded her with emotions she’d long ago shoved down into the recesses of her heart.
“Catherine… I barely remember her.”
“She was a fine lady. When she was alive, she and your father, Ian, were the rulers of the tribe. We followed them faithfully until someone betrayed us to the Lucidium Order. That was the day you were taken.”
“We were betrayed? By who?”
“No one ever found out, but steps were taken to make sure it would never happen again.”
“What sort of steps?”
He gestured at the caverns around him. “We returned to our ancestral home. This place had been abandoned for decades, but we brought life back into it. As the Order continued its attacks, we welcomed the survivors from other tribes. They knew this was one of the few safe places left. Of course, we cut our ties to the humans. There was no more mingling with them, no more servants of human blood. They were too dangerous to keep within our midst.” He pointed toward Leland. “That includes Paladins. Especially them.”
“I am no longer a Paladin. I swore an oath to Catori and cannot leave her side. If I do, my life magic will abandon me, and I will weaken and die.”
Fenwick’s eyes scrunched together as he mulled over Leland’s words. Several minutes passed as the council surrounding Fenwick murmured to each other and shook their heads. No one approved of Leland’s presence, that much was obvious, but Fenwick was not so quick to cast judgement like Brian. Speaking of Fenwick’s second-in-command, Catori noticed that he was nowhere in sight.
“Even with a life oath,” Fenwick finally, said, “this puts us all at risk.”
“I swear I’ll keep him in line myself.”
Fenwick’s eyes snapped to Catori. “You have not earned the council’s trust.”
“You said it yourself, I’m Catherine and Ian’s daughter. I came here for sanctuary after being a prisoner for years. How dare you question my loyalty? Jack trusted me with this location. I never gave it to the Lucidium Order. Does that not prove my worthiness?”
“If you didn’t tell them, then who did?” Brian stepped out of the darkness, having just returned from somewhere. He was breathing hard, and anger burned in his dark molten eyes.
Fenwick turned to face his second, lifting an eyebrow. “Speak what you mean.”
“They are coming. The Lucidium Order have our location. These insolent fools brought them to our sanctuary. Legions of them.”
Fenwick returned his eyes to Catori and Leland. “Did you give up our location to the Order?”
Both Catori and Leland shook their heads.
“No. We would never tell them.”
“Then how is it that they are here, at our doorstep?”
Leland frowned. “No, it can’t be.”
Catori turned toward her companion. “What is it?”
He faced her, his eyes full of panic. “Tarek.”
“But he never saw my map.”
“Yes, he did. At the lodge. It’s rare he doesn’t remember something, even from a glance. His photographic memory is an asset for a future Paladin. It’s why he rose so quickly to apprenticeship. He’s the youngest ever promoted that quickly.” He took a breath. “Damn him! He pretended like he wasn’t paying attention, but he was. I knew there was a chance, but I thought I could trust him.”
Catori’s shock filled her until rage burned in her eyes. She reached out to smack Leland but held her herself back. “How dare you not mention this? He went back and brought them here! I should’ve killed him when I had the chance.”
“Catori, I didn’t think he would do this. I’m sorry.”
“Fools!” Brian hissed. “We’ve been compromised because of you!”
“Stand down, Brian.” Fenwick straightened, his voice full of gravel.
“We ought to kill them both now.” Brian’s rage heated the room, and his dragon flashed be
hind his eyes.
“This wasn’t their fault,” Bran interjected. “Not directly.”
“The hell it wasn’t!”
“Enough!” Fenwick slammed his hand down on the table. “We’ll deal with this later. For now, we fight. Sound the alarm and get ready.” He pointed a finger at Catori and Leland. “You two come with me.”
Chapter Fourteen
The entire cavern was filled with warriors, running down the halls to gather weapons and place armor on their bodies. Catori knew they wouldn’t shift to fight humans. Not at first. For dragons, it was not honorable to transform until they knew the strength and ability of their enemy.
Catori pressed her lithe body to the wall to avoid getting run over. Leland and Bran did the same as they hurried down the corridor behind Fenwick.
“Where are we going?” Leland asked.
“To the armory then an alternative exit. I have to remove some artifacts from there, and we’ll be leaving afterward that.”
Catori’s eyes widened with a wild vengeance shining through them. “We’re not going to fight?”
“No. You’re not. You’re far from trained, and you’ll get in the way.”
Catori scoffed.
“I’ll join my warriors, but you owe this tribe for your slipup with the apprentice.” Fenwick didn’t glance back toward Leland, but as the young disavowed Paladin’s cheeks flushed. “Catori, you and Leland will guard these artifacts with your life. Your mission is to take them to another stronghold, the one run by the Valdar tribe in Alaska.”
“How will we find them? What of this tribe?” Catori yelped as a soldier rammed her shoulder while passing them by. He didn’t stop to apologize or acknowledge her at all. None of them did. This was going to be a fight for their lives, and nothing was going to distract them.
“You’ll have the map.” Fenwick paused in front of a door. He slipped a key into the massive wooden door and gave it a good shove. The worn hinges screamed but faded into the noise of the masses as they rushed in and shut the door behind them. Fenwick turned to face them.
The room was lit up by torches lining the walls. A great fire roared in a fireplace at the far end of the expansive chamber. Rack after rack was filled with with not only spears, bows, swords, and other archaic weaponry, but also guns.
“This is one of three main armories,” Fenwick said, “but this one also holds our artifacts—dragon heirlooms of power the Lucidium Order would kill for.”
He pointed. In the center of the room, above a small wooden table, was a marble-sized orb glowing a fiery color and flickering as though it was lit from within. It hung off a thin, silvery chain dangling from a small branch protruding from the middle of the tabletop.
“Is that… the Orb of Fire?” Catori asked as the trio approached the artifact.
“It is that. And so much more. It is the origin of our powers. Whoever wields it is the leader of all dragons.”
“Why is it here then and not with the ruler?” Catori asked, turning toward Fenwick as he circled the table, reached out, and grabbed the amulet.
“Because it belongs to you, Catori. You’re the last of the Reinhardt line, the ruling family of all the tribes of Draconis. I hoped you would return one day, I just didn’t know when. It would not allow another to wear it unless you had died. I felt that you had lived, but I didn’t where. Here. It is rightfully yours.”
“Catori’s the leader of all the dragons?” Leland’s disbelief rippled across his face. “No way. She was in the Lucidium Order’s custody for years. They would’ve known this and used it to their advantage.”
“Yes, but she did not yet possess the amulet, the true mark of the empress.”
Catori shook her head, but her eyes remained fixed on the charm. “No. There’s no way I’m the heir of this thing. There must be another.”
“There are no more Reinhardts. You are the last.”
“And if I’d died? Who would’ve been the ruler?”
“The amulet would’ve chosen from the council. There is no way to know who it would have gone to. It could’ve been anyone. Alas, it chose no one. Occasionally there has been no empress or emperor chosen, and the position was left empty. Every seven years, the council would gather and present possible heirs to it, but it has not chosen anyone in the last two cycles. And now we know why.” He turned toward Catori. “Our empress is still alive. I always believed it, but I couldn’t convince the others.”
He held the amulet out to her. “The chain is enchanted. It will never break or tarnish, and it will stretch when you transform.” Before she could step away, he unhooked the clasp and slid the chain around her slender neck. “There. See? It knows you.”
The fiery light of the amulet grew as it touched her skin, humming with magic along her collar bone. She could feel its warmth, something she’d never felt before, and smiled, peering down at the small, marble-like orb.
“It’s singing to me.”
“Yes. Your memories, your parents, your ancestors, will all be in that orb. Let its magic in, and you’ll know everything about our kind and our history. I wish I could tell you more, but time has run out.”
As the words left his mouth, a loud, resonating boom echoed through the caverns, shaking the ground beneath them. Dust and bits of rock peppered them from the ceiling, filling their lungs with dirt.
“We need to get out!” Leland called out, motioning for Catori to take his hand.
“Wait! Fenwick, the map. Where do we go from here?”
Fenwick was across the room, busy stuffing other artifacts into a worn messenger bag. He dashed back over to them and held it out to Catori. “Guard it with your life. Bran will take you to the second entrance; leave from there. Head north. Whatever you do, do not stray from the path. Take these treasures straight there.”
“But what about you?”
Another boom shook the ground beneath them, and a chunk of wall fell forward, shattering into a hundred shards at their feet.
“Go! I’ll be fine. We are dragons—we fight until we cannot fight any more. The young, old, and wounded will be flown to hideouts across the land. Go now!”
He pulled open the wooden door leading into the hall. No longer were there soldiers rushing by, but rocks littered the ground everywhere they stepped. Grabbing weapons and gear, both Bran and Fenwick loaded themselves with as much as they could carry. Following suit, Catori and Leland grabbed what they could as Fenwick ushered them to the hall and motioned for them to go. Bran picked up the pace and began the trek toward the far side of the compound as Leland and Catori followed. Fenwick disappeared behind them.
“This is crazy! How many Paladins would attack the mountain if they knew we were here, Leland?” Catori’s voice faded as another attack hit the caverns. Behind them, screams echoed down the hall, terrified and agonizing. Catori swallowed, afraid to know what was going on. Even so, the pull to turn and fight was strong.
“Too many for this small tribe. They’ll be slaughtered.”
“Not if they morph,” Bran yelled over his shoulder.
“Morph? You mean shift?” Leland’s eyes grew as he turned his head slightly before glancing back the way they were going. All three began running now. The collapse of the cavern was imminent.
“Yes. When we morph, one dragon can kill hundreds of humans. It’s when they catch us before the morph that we get slaughtered. Just like the last time.”
“Were you there? The last time I mean?” Catori’s words came out faint as she tried to catch her breath. They turned off into another hallway. It narrowed until they had to move in a single file.
“Yes. I was a child, but I remember when the Lucidium Order came.”
Catori bit back the tears as she remembered the incident too. All this hate, so much death… for what? For nothing. They’d captured her and Jack, two innocent children, and treated them like monsters. How her hatred grew toward the Order and even toward Leland. His brother had brought them here, and they both knew it.
“Damn Tarek. If I see him again, I’ll kill him for sure this time.” Catori cursed.
Leland remained silent behind her, but she swore she could feel him flinch at her words.
Next to the exit was a shelf with several backpacks on it. Bran picked one up and shoved it toward Leland. “Clothes and supplies for the journey. We exit here, into the night. Whatever you do, don’t look back. The Paladins might be able to see you once you’re outside. You’ll have to fly, Catori. Take the Paladin on your back, and don’t look behind you.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Wait! Where are you going?”
Bran’s mouth tightened as Catori grabbed his arm. His eyes slid down from her face to the hand wrapped around his arm, but he did not pull away. His brought his gaze back up, and it settled on the orb around her neck.
“Your Majesty, I’m ordered to escort you to the Valdar tribe of the north and protect you with my life after I help in the fight. I will catch up with you. Follow the map.”
“And everyone else?”
“Those who end up retreating or escaping will join us in the north only after dispersing for several weeks, to safe, hidden places we have set up across the world.”
“What of your brother? He won’t like you helping us.”
Bran placed his hand gently onto Catori’s. “My brother fights a good fight. He has been known for foolish decisions, but he will do everything in his power to keep our tribe alive. He will do as he is told.”
“Then why is he here now?”
Bran’s eyes widened as he turned to find his brother Brian holding out a sword, fire spilling from his partially morphed mouth. “Move, Bran. I’m ending this now.”
Bran shook his head. “No. We have our orders. I will not allow you to kill the empress.”
“Idiot. I’m here to kill the Paladin. Now move.”
Bran shook his head and placed himself squarely in front of his brother. Without hesitation, Brian kicked his brother in the knee, sending him to the ground. He slid down the side of the slope they were standing on, struggling to regain his footing.
A Plague of Dragons (A Dragon Anthology) Page 30