by Terah Edun
Men, harrumphed Ciardis in her thoughts.
“What exactly would they need you for?” Ciardis purred with bite on her tongue.
Rachael turned her upturned gaze away from Thanar’s alabaster face and back toward Ciardis.
“Well, some of our supplies are still smoldering,” Rachael said dryly. “If we could retain something ... that might be a good idea. You all might be expecting a fun romp through the desert, but I’m a native of the environment. I know what days without food and water in scorching heat looks like.”
Ciardis blinked. That was the longest sentence she had heard from the woman yet, and the most intelligent to boot.
Not that I thought she was just a pretty face, she said to herself. Except ... she kind of was until proven otherwise.
Outwardly, Ciardis said, “Right ... well, perhaps you could help save some of those supplies.”
Rachael raised an eyebrow of her own and subtly tilted her head up to Thanar.
“What do you think?” she said breathily.
Whatever admiration Ciardis had been feeling for the woman evaporated on the wind just as quickly. She felt her blood rising so fast that she didn’t even notice that once again Thanar didn’t twitch a muscle in acknowledgement of the seductress.
Ciardis let out a slow breath. Trying to calm herself. She watched as Thanar finally looked down and said to Rachael, “I think we should get to work.”
Ciardis heard the “we” like a wound to her heart. She was tempted to blame the outsized reaction to one word on the damned soul bond.
Tempted my foot, I will. I wouldn’t feel this tortured otherwise, she snarled to herself. After all, it’s just Thanar.
She watched silently as the two of them walked off, and she barely resisted rolling her eyes as she turned back to contemplate the dragon and man staring each other down in a silent test of wills.
“They still haven’t said a word?” she asked Terris.
“Nope.”
Ciardis sighed and sat down on the soot-covered ground.
When she looked up at Terris, the woman had a furious look on her face and her hands on her hips.
“What?” asked Ciardis.
Terris shook her head slowly while the beads of her individual braids clacked in the wind. “Girl, whatever funk this is that you’re in, snap out of it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ciardis cried—shocked.
“It means we don’t have time for your ‘woe is me’ fest,” Terris snapped in a tone of voice that Ciardis had never heard from her as she walked away ... straight toward Sebastian.
Ciardis watched as Terris took up an arms-crossed position side by side with Sebastian and looked up into the face of the dragon that had destroyed their supplies and nearly killed quite a few of them.
Ciardis stood up and stared around, wondering what she could do. But it looked like Thanar and Rachael had the supply gathering well in hand, and the water mage had set about calming the animals. So she walked up to join her best friend and her fiancé reluctantly. Very reluctantly.
Ciardis didn’t want to be near Sebastian, and she feared letting something, anything, slip about Maradian’s secret map to the dragon ambassador. Even if she didn’t speak it aloud, Raisa was too perceptive by half sometimes.
But Ciardis didn’t have much of a choice. So she listened as Sebastian spoke.
Chapter 22
Sebastian said in a voice of tightly controlled fury, “Well, if we had a choice about traveling to Kifar by foot before, we don’t now. We can’t make it on the road with the supplies we have left, let alone on what remains of our transportation.”
Ciardis looked around, and he was right. The stagecoach, or rather what was left of it, was a smoking pile of thin metal frames and charred wood. All of the desert mules had been incinerated, along with four horses. Ciardis was just grateful that the flames seemed to be aimed only at the human and kith part of their contingent that could shield themselves well.
Ambassador Raisa crossed her scaly forearms in front of her as she snorted. “As I’ve been telling you for the past half-hour, stop whining and we’ll be there in three days or less.”
Sebastian whirled on her. “That wasn’t your call to make.”
“On the contrary, human prince,” the dragon ambassador said while blowing rings of smoke out of her nose. “It was. The city of Kifar’s protection accord still stands under dragon claws.”
Sebastian shouted, “If that accord was so important to you, I’d think Sahalia would have done more over the years to make sure Kifar remained as part of the unified empire instead of remote and destitute.”
Ciardis had never seen Sebastian this angry before. He was so furious that he couldn’t contain his emotions and magic behind his usual barrier. She felt the roar of anger cresting over her like a rising wave with each passing moment—threatening to engulf the two of them in its fury.
Raisa bared her teeth.
“I said the protection of the city was our main concern. The people can rot for all we care,” Raisa snarled. “The city’s remote and closed-off nature worked in our favor.”
“Until that very remoteness allowed the princess heir to plant an attack with no one around to notice,” said Terris softy.
Raisa turned a frustrated gasp upon her and hissed. Not at Terris, but at the truth in her words.
Ciardis felt a shudder go through her. Not of fear. Not really.
Of anger. This dragon had the nerve to hiss at Terris, who only spoke the truth, while it had barred their only way to save a city that its people had long abandoned.
Ciardis shook her head. “Semantics. Political semantics, and I’m tired of it. Answer us honestly for once. Is Terris right? By negligence is Kifar coming under the very type of attack you would have hoped to prevent?”
Raisa raised her sinuous head and glared with fiery eyes. “I know not of what type of attack there will be—”
“A wyvern of some sort,” Thanar interjected smoothly from behind Ciardis somewhere. She didn’t care to turn and question in.
There was a deep pause.
Then Raisa demanded, “You’re certain?”
Thanar answered, “As certain as you that your people’s pets can reduce that city to rubble within hours.”
Raisa reared back her head and hissed, but this time it was a cloud of sulfurous mixture that was emitted.
Raising her hand to her face, Ciardis stumbled back with a grimace.
“What is that?” she muttered as she tried to clear her nostrils of the foul smell, like a mix of rotten eggs and the remains of a peat fire at the same time.
A growl issued from Raisa’s throat. “That cannot be allowed.”
Ciardis let out raucous laughter. Part exhaustion. Part disbelief. “That’s what we’ve been saying all along. Do you think we left the safety of Sandrin and the courts to journey on a lawless road just for fun?”
Ciardis couldn’t help the dry tone of her voice as she said the last half of that sentence. She knew full well that the “safety” of the courts was about as secure as the stagecoach they’d been using to traverse the territory. Unfortunately, they’d gotten less than a day’s ride from the capital before testing that theory out.
Snorting in her head, Ciardis thought, Well, I was only at court for a few days before I was tormented or abused in some way. Why should this be any different?
Though, she had to admit, she’d expected less tormenting from an ally. Fickle and absent as Raisa was ... she had still saved Ciardis’s life.
Unexpectedly, Ciardis felt Sebastian reach out to her mind. Do you think she’s here as an ally?
Wary of setting him off but realizing that perhaps this was an olive branch of peace, she replied, I would hope so, but we don’t know.
Ciardis was long past taking potential allies at their words and giving enemies the benefit of the doubt. People she had thought were allies had turned out to be enemies, and those supposed to be enemies had been paw
ns. The world was no longer black and white in her eyes, but murky shades of gray. Which made life far more dangerous.
Letting out a deep breath as she watched the dragon slowly puff in and out the odious fumes, almost as if she was counting to ten and trying to calm herself down, Ciardis did something she hadn’t done before.
She walked over and reached out to put a hand on the dark green scales of the dragon before her. Squeezing gently enough to feel the indention of each scale the size of thumb on her flesh, Ciardis said, “We will do everything we can to prevent the destruction of Kifar. But we need to move, and fast.”
“No,” said the dragon softly. “What you need to do is get there now, instead of weeks from now.”
The urgency in her voice couldn’t be mistaken.
Ciardis sighed and shook her head. “All right, then humor me. How are we going to get there?”
“I already answered that,” said the dragon with a huff.
Then Ciardis waved her hand in the air as if to erase her previous thought. “No, what I mean is how are you going to carry ten of us?”
Raisa smiled for the second time that morning. It was just as unsettling as the first time.
“That, sarin, is the right question,” Raisa said as she walked back down to the road to gain some space.
At a distance of about ten feet away, she spread her wings to their full and majestic span. With the wings spread out, Ciardis could finally see the softer, but still scale-covered, flesh on her undersides. The webbed skin there shone with an emerald-green sheen tinged with palest yellow as all of her scales glimmered in the morning sun.
She’s magnificent, Ciardis thought, and what’s more ... she knows it.
“You shall ride with me on the winds in between realms,” declared Raisa.
Thanar snorted from his perch on top of the stagecoach. Although perch wasn’t the right word. He lay spread out on thin wooden slats and metal framing that looked like it could barely hold the weight of a cat, let alone a full-grown daemoni.
Magic, Ciardis decided as she took a closer look and realized he was hovering just above the thin frame rather than lying directly on it. That, however, didn’t stop him from spreading out like a sunbathing cat in their favorite spot as he peered down at them a few feet below. He looked like a delectable buffet. All tight leather pants and bare chest.
She glared. She wasn’t in the mood. She wished the flame had taken his head off with the shirt, but one couldn’t have everything.
Besides, it’s not like the fire really touched him, she thought wryly.
“Something to say, daemoni?” Raisa called up.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” drawled Thanar. “You’re speculating that you can venture into the Aether Realm and hop from that realm into this one.”
“Your point?” asked Raisa.
“It can’t be done,” said Thanar.
“Well, perhaps it just takes a certain level of power,” said Christian.
“I didn’t say it’s never been done. I said it can’t be done,” snapped Thanar. “No mortal can travel from this realm to the next and reappear somewhere else.”
Ciardis blinked, thinking she had misheard.
She looked over at Sebastian in disbelief and turned to Thanar to object.
Before she could, she felt Sebastian stamp down on her foot, which made her yowl instead.
Everyone turned to look at her.
The water mage with soot-charred robes said, “Something wrong, lady companion?”
The cheekiness in his voice was just enough for her to grimace at him, but not enough to call him out on it. He had seen what Sebastian had done, she was sure of it. The fact that he took the moment to take pleasure in it only made her dislike him all the more.
“Not a thing,” Ciardis managed to murmur through the pain as she grabbed Sebastian’s hand tightly.
Was that really necessary? she said to him tightly. It’s not like we can’t talk to each other mind to mind even without touching.
She felt him pause and re-weigh his options.
Then he spoke. We can’t do that any longer.
And whose fault is that? she thought, the disgust in her tone palpable.
She felt irritation flow through their mental bond like a sore that wouldn’t heal.
Fine, she snapped. At least tell me why you just tried to break my foot.
She felt reluctance that he couldn’t hide sift through the bond.
And so help me God, Sebastian, if you say it’s not necessary to explain right now, I will tell the ambassador and Thanar here and now what happened with us.
What? she heard Sebastian finally exclaim. You’ll tell them we’ve been able to travel between the realms and to different locations for ages?
I will, she confirmed.
That was through a residual magic object, he thought. That’s hardly relevant here.
Then why is your heart beating so fast? she thought, not in triumph at catching him in a lie but in sadness that he felt the need to lie in the first place.
She felt Sebastian recede into his mind.
Sebastian, she whispered, you trusted me once. Try trusting me again.
I do trust you, he whispered. But I can’t trust them.
Who? she cried in frustration.
All of them, Sebastian snapped back finally.
How touching, Raisa said in a sinuous whisper into both their minds. Ciardis could tell, because Sebastian reared back as if he had just been bitten.
And perhaps he had. He hadn’t been aware that Raisa could read their minds. Ciardis had.
Ciardis sucked in a sharp breath. “That was uncalled for,” she told the ambassador sternly. “You breached our privacy.”
The dragon eyed her lazily. “As if I care about your privacy. Now tell me more about this residual object.”
Ciardis felt Sebastian’s hand clench into a fist before he remembered that he was still holding her hand.
He dropped her hand so hurriedly that he almost threw it away from him.
Ciardis felt hurt as she swallowed her pride and said, “It’s none of your business.”
The dragon tsked. “Now, what did I just say about privacy, Weathervane?”
“The what?” asked Thanar as he jumped down from his perch.
The dragon cocked her head at him. “Ah, so you were unaware as well, daemoni prince?”
Thanar smiled like a cat in a canary cage. “I am vastly interested in becoming aware now.”
“Oh, just shut your trap,” Sebastian said in disgust as he rifled his fingers through his black hair. “Your only interest in this is one-upping me.”
Thanar shrugged. “I never said it wasn’t.”
“Weathervane,” said the dragon with a warning in her tone.
Ciardis looked at Sebastian, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze. His entire profile, from his stiff shoulders to his crossed arms, said he was furious.
So once again it was up to her to face the facts and navigate the tough waters.
“Fine,” Ciardis huffed. “A year ago, Sebastian gave me a bracelet as a suitor. A bracelet with the power to allow the traveler to go from one realm to the next.”
“And where would a human prince have found such an object?” said Raisa.
At the same time, Thanar asked, “Is that all it does?”
“I don’t know,” said Ciardis as she felt Terris reach from behind her and squeeze her hand, “and yes.”
Raisa looked over at a mute Sebastian. “No use pouting, prince heir. Tell us more.”
Sebastian turned angry eyes on the dragon. “The bracelet has no relevance to you or your goals, since I assume you weren’t relying on us to get you from here to there.”
“Touché,” the dragon said with a cough. “We shall see how relevant it becomes, but it’s safe to say that no matter where you got the bracelet from, it originated from dragon crafts masters.”
“What makes you say that?” asked Christian.
“Becaus
e, koreschie, only the dragon race has mastered the talent it takes to travel between this realm and one of the next,” Raisa answered proudly. “With accurate navigation, that is, and very little time dispersal.”
One of the next, thought Ciardis. What does she mean by that?
“And you can use this navigation to get us to Kifar while going through the Aether Realm?” Thanar said suspiciously.
Raisa nodded. “Within two miles of the city, more or less.”
“More or less?” said Sebastian in a snide tone. “What does that mean?”
“It means that your human maps are outdated and inaccurate,” snarled Raisa. “If I had dragon maps this wouldn’t be a problem, but seeing as none are currently present I’m estimating the location of the city based on what I know.”
“How do you know we won’t end up smack dab in the middle of the desert?” Terris asked.
“I assure you, we will,” Raisa said dryly, “since that is where Kifar lies. But I have the memories of my ancestors. I can take us to its doorstep if necessary. I just prefer to give us room to drop from one realm to the other by doing so at least several hundred meters out. Just in case the terrain has changed.”
“Excellent!” shouted the inebriated water mage.
Ciardis turned to look at him with a wrinkle of her nose, as everyone else did.
“What are you so excited about?” Ciardis asked.
The water mage shrugged. “You don’t think I volunteered to go on this trek out of the kindness of my heart, did you? Most water mages don’t like deserts, and for a damned good reason.”
“Then why?” asked Sebastian in a decidedly unpleasant tone.
The man shrank back but answered honestly: “Gold. The city is supposedly filled with it.”
“Dragon gold,” hissed Raisa.
“I ain’t going to touch yours,” said the water mage. “Just want to go to the public mines. I’d make my own way from there.”
Ciardis shook her head, but Raisa didn’t look any more interested in pushing the point further now that she had established her own dominance.
“Idiot,” muttered Terris.
Ciardis didn’t disagree.
Finally, she shrugged. “Then let’s go.”