by Terah Edun
Raisa nodded. “Set your remaining horses free and grab what you need.”
They all did as instructed, further protests dying in resignation as they all came to the conclusion that the dragon’s way was the only way it would get done.
Deciding that it was better to have some slightly charred clothes over none at all, Ciardis repacked a small bag with less than half the weight of her previous and turned to Christian beside her to ask, “Do you really think this will work?”
“Which part?” he asked in a low voice as to not alert the irate dragon on the road ahead.
Ciardis gulped. “All of it. Getting to Kifar in days rather than weeks. Finding the collar of Diamis before the city is destroyed by a rampaging dragon. Fixing this soulbond before it devours three people instead of just one.”
She halted—unable to speak more.
“I don’t know,” he said gently, “But we’ll find out together.”
“You. Koreschie,” Raisa roared.
Ciardis couldn’t help jumping out of her skin at the rumble of the dragon’s voice across the open meadow. It echoed like a horn of war.
Christian however turned with a patient look on his face, unfazed. “Yes?”
“Cloak yourself,” Raisa ordered.
Ciardis frowned and stepped forward to intervene. “He can’t.”
“He can,” the dragon said flatly.
“You don’t understand,” Ciardis said urgently, “It’s a crime for him to cloak his true form with a human visage.”
Raisa snorted. “Why? Another of your stupid human rules?”
The road descended into an awkward silence. Ciardis could feel that Sebastian didn’t want to instigate another confrontation with Raisa. Not that they now seemed to be on agreeable terms with the ambassador and there was also the fact that the only thing left to roast by dragon fire was them.
Well, too bad, Ciardis thought spitefully. A situation like this was life or death for Christian.
Ciardis, wait.... Sebastian thought at her.
“Yes, it is,” Ciardis said with a ringing voice in the clearing, “It’s stupid, ignorant, and a crime against morality, but it’s true. If you force him to veil himself and he’s discovered, he could be killed on sight.”
The dragon eyed Ciardis speculatively as Ciardis waited for an irate outburst. Instead, the dragon chuffed into the air. That chuff began a full-blown chuckle and then the dragon said, “This is why I like you, Weathervane. You’ve always been forthright. Even foolishly so.”
Ciardis blushed but managed to stammer a respond. “So you’ll let him travel as such?”
“No,” said the dragon flatly, “A live koreschie is in far more danger if recognized for what he is when traveling through the Aether realm, than on the ground by a bunch of uptight humans.”
Ciardis blinked. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” Thanar said with a whistle, “That not everyone in the Aether realm is friendly and just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not there.”
Raisa nodded her lizard-like head.
Ciardis threw up her hands. “Then what do you suggest?”
“If I may,” Christian said mildly.
They all turned to look at the, until now, silent subject of their conversation.
“Do continue,” said Raisa.
“I suggest I cloak and glove myself so that no flesh is present, therefore none will know what I am if seen. But if we are asked to reveal ourselves within the desert, disrobing is an easy way to be forthright about my heritage,” the koreschie said.
Ciardis thought it over in her head.
“Any objections, Weathervane?” the dragon said in outright sarcasm.
“None,” Ciardis said with a smile at Christian, “It’s a brilliant plan.”
“Then it will be done,” Christian said as he reached in his pack and pulled out the necessary garments.
When everyone was ready, Raisa ordered them to all gather around her and to each place a firm hand on her scaled hide.
Ciardis moved into place just behind Terris. She watched Sebastian move to stand in front of her best friend. Then the water mage began to drunkenly walk around the dragon’s front ... presumably to grab an open spot under her other wing.
“One last thing,” Ciardis said before she put her arm on Raisa’s scaled shoulder.
“Yes?” murmured Christian from directly behind her.
Ciardis smiled and looked directly at the water mage. “We won’t be needing an escort where we’re going. Not from you nor your dirty driver.”
The water mage opened his mouth in protest. “But—”
Ciardis gestured to two of the guards. “Escort them both back to Sandrin and make sure that they’re brought before the court for any charges pending against them.”
The guards moved forward to surround the man and his driver without hesitation, while two soldiers remained behind.
Sebastian asked, “How do you know they’re wanted for something?”
“Two men like that,” Ciardis said dismissively, “how can you think they’re not?”
She heard Thanar laugh from Raisa’s other side. “You might have a darker side to you yet, Weathervane.”
That was the last thing anyone said before they all disappeared in a swirl of magic, guided by one very large dragon.
Chapter 23
As everything disappeared in the darkness, Ciardis felt the familiar, nausea-inducing tug at her navel that indicated she was about to travel from one realm to the next. She closed her eyes to shut out the sensation, wishing that she had something or someone to hold on to, but only the slick scales of their dragon bearer met her clammy hands.
All the previous journeys before, she’d had some knowledge of where she was going and how she was getting there. This time she wasn’t relying on an object tied to herself, but another’s judgment and their maneuvering between the realms. It felt unreal. As if this act of journeying to a realm that was a parallel copy of their own was more dangerous than what she had done before. If anything, it proved that her own journeys to the Aether Realm were nothing short of reckless. Because, she had to admit, this certainly felt no more precarious than slipping a bracelet onto her ankle and jumping on a whim.
Briefly she wondered where that object she had used was. The last time she remembered having it, the head of the Companions’ Guild had confiscated the Aether bracelet that Sebastian had given her in a sneering fit. Ciardis had no doubt that she would never see it again; the residual object that could take anyone from one realm to the next had been worth its weight in gold ... not that she knew that at the time.
But today she couldn’t rely on the cold metal to transport her.
Today she relied on a dragon mage so powerful, physically and mentally, that even touching the scales under her hand made Ciardis shudder with recognition.
It wasn’t fear. Not exactly. Just wary acceptance that Raisa was her superior in every way possible. The fact that the dragon tolerated her, and even seemed fond of her, gave Ciardis no comfort. At one point, the emperor had espoused the same fondness for his “personal” Weathervane as well. But the moment she stepped out of her place, and he found her to be an inconvenience, he had swiftly changed his tune. As cold and calculating as a cobra, he could turn from supporting her to threatening her family’s wellbeing on a dime.
She had allowed him to do this unchallenged, because he was the supreme ruler over all their land and a powerful mage in his own right.
At least, that’s how Ciardis had seen the emperor ... she wasn’t so sure about the infallibility of the man now.
It doesn’t matter anyway, she thought. The emperor is not my enemy, not in the same way he is Sebastian’s. I can fight many battles, but it is up to the emperor’s blood kin to take him down.
Or at least that’s what she told herself just as they dropped out of the dark magical hold that was like a void between worlds and into the Aether Realm.
C
iardis barely had time to suck in a breath before she plummeted from the air like a rock and screamed as everyone around her did the same. It wasn’t a long fall, maybe ten feet, but it sure hurt when she hit the packed soft dirt of a steep incline and rolled down the side like a lump of potatoes dumped from the cart.
As she was rolling down and got debris in her face, her hair, and all throughout her clothes, she realized that the steep hill she was rolling down too fast to stop wasn’t made of dirt, but a fine, grainy material that she recognized from her walks along the beach. She just hadn’t been expecting to be rolling down it like a barrel on a hill.
Sand, she thought frantically. It’s sand.
She needed to grab on to something to stop her fall. So she pushed her hands outward as she continued rolling and tried to grab the sand beneath her to stop her fall and search for anything to halt her progress. A rock. Tree roots. But nothing emerged, and as soon as she grabbed a fistful of sand, it eased through her fingers as softly as sifted flour from the kitchen at home.
When she managed to scratch her searching hands on something and almost dislocated her finger in the process, she hastily tucked her windmilling arms back into the precarious position of safety against her body. When she was beginning to think her fall would never end, she landed with a thump at the base of the largest dune she’d ever seen.
As she raised herself up on her hands and knees and sand started pouring from every loose pocket and open orifice she had, she looked up in horror to see more bodies falling down around her.
Before she could move, Terris fell straight down on her back, flattening Ciardis to the ground, and Christian landed on one of her arms. She didn’t see or hear who else landed where, because the next person knocked her out with a kick to the head and Ciardis fell into unconsciousness with a groan.
She woke up with the groans of another person in her ear, and the irate screeches of Rachael demanding someone help pull her out.
Ciardis looked up from where she lay with a sandy cloak half covering her face, and nearly burst out of laughing. Unfortunately, the merest movement of her jaw set off a world of pain that had her eyes tearing up.
Rachael hadn’t just fallen down the dune like the rest of them. She’d somehow managed to get her entire body below her waist encased in sand. How, Ciardis had no idea. But it was as funny as could be to see one soldier pulling at her arm and using his other to dig at her waist while the formerly perfectly coiffed woman screeched at the soldier and flapped her hand ineffectively.
She’d better start digging herself out, Ciardis thought as she winced at the pounding headache that was building on her left side.
However, she couldn’t do much more than think inappropriate thoughts tinged with mirth until she got her own situation under control. That is, at least until her jaw stopped feeling like a horse had kicked her straight in the mouth.
Wincing at the pain, Ciardis turned away from the sight and rose to her knees.
“Never fall down a sand dune first,” she grumbled as she looked around some more.
“Trust me,” said Christian dryly as he walked over to her and held out a hand, “landing on top is no walk in the park either.”
Ciardis gratefully took his offered assistance and stood with an aching head as she tried to dust off the sand inside and outside of her garments, to no avail.
“What happened to Raisa?” she said, disturbed. Everyone else was clearly present. Sebastian was kneeling over a soldier who looked too dazed to stand, and Thanar, being Thanar, was already in the sky.
Or maybe he never left it, Ciardis mused.
He could very well have used the winds to carry him aloft before they hit the sand and rolled down the dunes like a collection of beetles thrown from a jar.
An approximation not too far off the mark, said the airborne menace as he landed with a quick angle of his wings.
Ciardis put her hands on her hips and frowned in irritation, which quickly bloomed into outright pain as her facial muscles protested the movement.
“Ow,” Ciardis howled as she hunched over, trying to dodge the pain, with no luck.
“Here, let me help,” said Christian. He reached forward with semi-transparent hands and brushed her aching flesh with considerate delicacy.
As his fingers moved over her cheek, the pain died down with every movement.
Ciardis closed her eyes in ecstasy at the healing and said, “Thank you.”
She said it with all her heart. She could once again talk, breathe, or move her head without a sharp pain, like a stab going directly from her cheeks to her nervous system. It was as bad as being set on fire, if not worse, because it felt like her head was being stomped on internally.
“Everyone else all right?” Sebastian called out from where he knelt by the recumbent soldier.
“Yes,” called out Christian.
“No,” said Terris at the same time.
Ciardis looked over at her.
“Why do I feel like I was hit by a wildebeest and strung out to dry on a line?” Terris complained while stretching her shoulders. “And don’t say it was the aches and pains of falling down a sand dune. It’s more than that.”
Ciardis took stock of her situation now that she was pain-free. She realized that Terris had a point.
“I feel like I’ve been drained,” Ciardis said slowly. “Not of magic ... but of energy.”
Christian paused for a moment. “I have the same feeling. As if I’ve not had a good night’s rest in days.”
They all looked at each other. “Perhaps it’s an effect of the trip into the Aether Realm?” Ciardis asked.
“Perhaps,” said Christian, “but this is the first time I’ve heard of an exhaustion malady tied to the travel.”
Terris snorted. “Let’s ask the dragon.”
They all looked around before Ciardis asked, “Where is Raisa?”
“Maybe she landed farther away,” said Christian.
“We’ll have to look for her,” said Terris.
Then a loud shriek interrupted their conversation.
They looked over to see the shaman arguing with the soldier who was now trying to help her free a leg from entrapment.
“After we see to this one,” Christian said with a chuckle.
Sebastian looked over at the shaman with disinterest. “Thanar, help her, please.”
“Why?” was the complaint that immediately issued from Ciardis’s mouth.
She winced, not from pain this time, but embarrassment. She hadn’t meant to say that aloud.
An amused Thanar spoke in her head: My, my. The Weathervane with a heart of gold doesn’t want to help someone clearly in distress?
Shut up, Thanar, grumbled Ciardis. This is your fault anyway.
Dare I even inquire?
Ciardis snorted as she turned and glared at him. “You know exactly what you did and what you’ve done all along. You sabotage. You incite. You cause chaos.”
Thanar’s eyes darkened with amusement. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the sand dune today.”
“Someone woke up in enough pain to force her to see clearly,” Ciardis said through gritted teeth.
“As much as I’m enjoying seeing the two of you fight and Thanar being backed into a corner,” Terris said dryly, “we need to get back to the important topics.”
“Like what?” said Ciardis without taking her glare off Thanar.
“Like where’s the dragon?” said Terris.
“And where in the name of the seven gods are we?” said Sebastian as he stood and dusted off his hands.
Ciardis blinked, and for the first time took a good look around. She looked beyond her small group of ragtag travelers and out into the world beyond. There was sand everywhere she could see. But it wasn’t like the bright white sand of the beaches of Sandrin. That sand carried the tang of sea salt in the air and was littered with little bits of things that dug into her feet ... crushed shell, small bones, loose seaweed. They were all things so tin
y she couldn’t see with her bare eyes. But that was all right ... she had felt them with her magic. Until now, Ciardis hadn’t considered those objects disruptive to her walks along the beach. They were just there. Like the smooth rocks at the base of the cliff below the Companions’ Guild that she loved to walk along as the sun set. Or the soft, lapping waves that sometimes brought driftwood to the sandy shores.
But this. This was something more. Something she’d never imagined.
Ciardis took tentative steps and stepped in the sand. She could feel the difference with her magic without even seeing the color change. The texture of the desert felt different. Rough like a cat’s tongue rather the smooth serenity of the waves from home.
Ciardis blinked. Home? That’s the first I’ve ever considered the city by the sea as that.
But somehow ... it felt right.
In surprise, she knelt down and scooped up some sand. Standing she walked out futher as a tentative smile crossed her face and she squished the brown grains in her hand.
Ciardis couldn’t take her eyes off the distance. Sand in golden hues of dark tan swept across the land for as far as her eyes could see. Dunes rose up in dips and starts, like mountains of sand that wanted to block the sun.
She raised up her other hand and as another wind, this time fiercer, blew through their group, carrying so much sand with it that Ciardis had to squint and duck her head in order to avoid getting the grit in eyes. She turned in a semicircle, trying to turn her back to it as she let the sand fall from her fingertips. That placed her looking away from the direction from where the group had fallen down the dune.
Trying to speak over the fierce whipping winds, Ciardis shouted to her friends, “How far into the desert do you think we are?”
“Close enough to Kifar,” Thanar shouted.
“At least two miles away,” Terris shouted. “That’s where Raisa said she’d take us.”
The winds died down and Ciardis heard Thanar speak in disgust. “Do we have any idea where in the Aether Realm we are then?”
Ciardis turned to look around again.
“Well,” said Terris, “I don’t think so. She brought us here and she’s nowhere to be found. If I had my maps and we had kept to the route, we wouldn’t be in the middle of nowhere.”