Soul of Smoke

by Caitlyn McFarland

  Kai’s cheeks heated. “Nothing.”

  “Are you literally climbing the walls? You haven’t even been here a day.”

  “It’s good rock,” Kai said defensively. On the ground, her headache returned. Her stomach cramped, reminding her that it had been a really, really long time since she’d eaten something and kept it down. “Is there any food here?”

  He cocked an eyebrow then walked toward a bend in the opposite side of the cavern, motioning for her to follow. As he approached, fires sprang up in the large alcove. It was a kitchen, of sorts. There was another fire pit, a low wooden table and a waist-high stone shelf that ran much of the perimeter of the room, like a countertop. There was even a basin-like sink sunk into the stone with a spigot above.

  Something that could only be accurately described as a cauldron sat in the embers of the fire pit in the center of the room. Looking up, Kai spotted another chimney-like hole in the ceiling. Cadoc pulled a stone bowl off a set of shelves, which were filled with an assortment of bowls, plates and fat, round cups, all made of ceramic and stone. To one side of the shelves, a heavy curtain with a cream and brown pattern covered the entrance to another tunnel.

  “What’s down there?” Kai asked.

  Cadoc glanced toward the curtain. “Only storage. Here.”

  He handed her a bowl and gestured at the cauldron. Kai peered inside. It was about a quarter full of beans and rice. She sniffed it. It smelled faintly of spices.

  “This is what dragons eat?” she asked dubiously.

  Cadoc glowered at the food. “Only when there’s nothing else to be had.” He took the bowl and dipped it in the cauldron. He handed it, filled to the brim with an assortment of beans and fluffy brown rice, to Kai. She took it then looked around. “Do dragons use silverware?”

  Cadoc handed her a round, shallow spoon that had seen better days.

  “Thanks.” Kai leaned against the stone countertop and shoved a lump of rice and beans into her mouth. It didn’t taste like much, but it was warm, and it was food. She closed her eyes in contentment, fighting the urge to stick her face into the bowl and snork it like a starving dog.

  Cadoc watched her, a smile hovering around the edges of his mouth. “There will be meat, soon. Well, tomorrow or the day after.”

  “Won’t I be home by then?” Kai asked, mouth full.

  “Soon after. Deryn and I are leaving tomorrow morning to hunt. Ffion and Griffith will be gone, too. Scouting for any stragglers from Kavar’s vee. If they don’t find anyone poking around, we’ll all pack up and drop you at home on our way. We’ll be gone about two days.”

  Kai swallowed a half-chewed lump. It stuck in her throat and she coughed. “We can’t just, I don’t know, sneak past whoever’s out there and get me home today?”

  He shook his head. “Sorry.”

  Choking down her disappointment with another mouthful of food, Kai shrugged. It hurt her that Juli would be so worried, and it frustrated her to think of what new restrictions her parents might dream up. Still, as long as she was only gone three days, it might be okay.

  “So, you’re leaving?” She pushed thoughts of home from her mind and narrowed her eyes, mentally counting dragons. Cadoc, Deryn, Deryn’s brother Rhys, the two that had left, the tiny woman... Fee-something. Cadoc had just said it... Ffion. And massive guy, Griffith. And then Ashem.

  She paled. If Cadoc, Deryn, Ffion and Griffith were leaving, she was going to be stuck here with an unconscious guy and Ashem. “I have to spend two days alone with Ashem?” Her voice might have been a little shrill. She pressed her lips together and took a breath.

  Cadoc laughed. “It won’t be so bad, brânwen. He’ll stay out of your head. And Ashem only eats people when he’s annoyed.” He looked out to the red light of sunset spilling across the floor of the main cavern. “Ancients, I’ve got to get out onto the ledge. I’ve got first watch.”

  Dread settled over Kai. She was going to be stuck here with no one to talk to for two days. She trailed after Cadoc. “Can I sit with you?”

  His mouth curled into a grin. “Until the end of time, love.”

  Kai almost choked on her rice. “Um...”

  He winked and jerked his chin in a follow me motion. They walked onto the ledge, which was far colder than the interior of the cave. Kai ate her beans and rice while Cadoc swung one leg over the edge and pulled his guitar into his lap. His fingers ran like liquid over the strings and he started to sing, the notes of the guitar intertwining with his chocolate voice.

  Kai didn’t understand the language—but she could feel the words, all longing and sadness. It went on for a long time—long enough for her to finish her food and set the bowl aside.

  When the song was over, she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “That was beautiful.”

  He let out a short, self-deprecating laugh. “Thank you.”

  “What language was that?”

  “Welsh.” He caressed the guitar.

  “Is that where you guys are from? Wales? The mystery language is Welsh?”

  “Yes. Though it’s been a long time.” His voice was soft, and he stared into the distance at something beyond the moonlit valley.

  “Question.”

  Cadoc smiled. “Yes?”

  “Why do you speak Welsh and English and not...dragon.”

  He laughed. “Dragon?”

  Kai nodded.

  “We—dragons—have a language. It’s old and fairly dead, but we write in it a bit. When we’re actually dragons, our speech is telepathic.” He touched his forehead with a finger then touched Kai’s. “We speak whatever language our clans raised us speaking, mostly local human languages, and we try to keep up as times change.” He sighed. “But it’s been a long time since I’ve been back to dear Cymru.”

  “You sound like you miss it.”

  “I do.”

  He sounded sad, so Kai changed the subject. “Can you play any songs I might actually know?”

  Cadoc’s sadness dropped away. He gave her a stern look, taking up the guitar again. “Darlin’,” he drawled in an awful American accent, “I know all the songs.” He strummed a chord and sang the first line from “Blackbird” in a ridiculously high falsetto. Kai laughed then sang along with him. After another line, Cadoc stopped singing, though he still played, alternately strumming and plucking to accompany her.

  She caught his eye, surprised to see genuine pleasure on his face. After a few more lines, he sang again, harmonizing. Silence crashed over them as the song ended, and Cadoc stared an instant too long before he started to laugh. Kai laughed with him.

  “You’ve got a voice like fine gossamer, brânwen.”

  Kai snorted. “Thanks. You, too.”

  They laughed again, and Kai shivered. The sun had set, the light changing from orange and red to the washed out grayscale of a nearly full moon. Frigid night sank into her bones.

  “Are you cold?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “That is an untruth.” He set the guitar aside and took her hands. Grinning wickedly, he exhaled warm breath on her fingers. A wave of tingling heat pulsed through her body. She gasped.

  “Better?”

  She could see the moon in his amethyst eyes. For a moment, they stared at one another. Then he let go. “If you need a little warming, that trick works like a charm. No good for anything serious, though. If you’re too cold, it can do some damage.”

  “Wow.” Kai grinned. Magic. This, she could get into.

  “You like that, do you?” He put a palm up between them. A white flame appeared. It darted along his fingers, rolling over and between them like a magician’s coin.

  Kai laughed, entranced. She’d always had thing for fantasy, for magic and make-believe.

  He closed his hand. The little flame d
ied.

  “That was amazing!”

  “I’m a talented man, brânwen.”

  Kai wrinkled her nose. “Brahn-wen. You keep saying that. What does it mean?”

  He reached over and twisted a strand of her hair around his finger. “Raven. For your hair. Fair raven. White raven. A symbol of victory and good luck. Perhaps not according to the mythology, but according to me.” He let his hand drop then picked up the guitar and played again, for once refusing to make eye contact.

  The song ended, and he began another. Not liking that they had fallen into an awkward silence, Kai touched Cadoc’s wrist when he finished the next song.

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Sorry, I’ve been wondering. What’s this?” Kai pushed up his sleeve. Red-orange scales glimmered in the moonlight. Beneath her hand, the design was pebbled and warm. It felt like...scales. She wasn’t sure why that surprised her, but it did. She resisted the urge to trace it with her fingers, and released his wrist.

  He cleared his throat. “An indicium. We take human bodies, but we are always dragon. They’re same color as our scales. Left arm for women, right for men.”

  Kai grinned, once again caught up in the magic. “Tell me more.”

  He laughed. “You’re asking the wrong person. Ffion is our resident scholar. Or I suppose you could ask Griffith. I imagine he knows whatever she does.”

  “Why? Is he her boyfriend or something? Do dragons do that?”

  “Her what?” Cadoc looked confused then his expression cleared. “Ah. That’s what humans do to test each other out, isn’t it? Boyfriend, girlfriend, maybe we’ll be together and maybe we won’t?”

  Kai nodded.

  “No. We don’t really do that. He’s more like her...ah...husband. Except that’s not really the word.”

  Kai sat back, aghast. “They’re married? What are they, like twenty-two? Are you guys a crazy religious cult or something? Child marriages and no dating? Seriously?”

  Cadoc laughed, warm and rich. “Ffion and Griffith aren’t children.”

  “Still! Why would anyone get married so young? And if ‘husband’ doesn’t work, what is the right word?”

  “They’re heartsworn. Mates. It’s...more.”

  “More? What does that mean?”

  “That’s a question with a long answer.” He stopped playing and tinkered with the tuning pegs, giving her a sidelong look. “Care to trade the rest of it for a kiss?”

  Kai snorted. She liked Cadoc. He had zero shame. “I’ll just ask Ffion.” Whenever she had a chance, anyway, since everyone would be gone for two days.

  He sighed. “The sting of rejection. Alas.” A tune even more poignant than the first coiled through the air. He didn’t sing; the haunting, heartbreaking notes spoke for themselves. When it finally ended, Kai felt like she was waking up from a trance.

  Cadoc nudged her. “I’ve kept you late enough, I think.”

  Kai protested, but he put his hands over hers, engulfing them, warming them. She hadn’t even realized she was cold again. “I appreciate your company, brânwen, but you should go to bed. My watch will be over soon, in any case.”

  “Okay.” She hesitated, and then shrugged. “Would it be weird if I asked you to play that song again before I go? The first one?”

  “I’d love to.”

  Music drifted into the air.

  Chapter Six

  Deserted with Dragons

  Ashem sensed the moment Kai woke, her mind lazily turning from inactivity to wakefulness. She’d slept through the others leaving. She’d slept through breakfast. He was beginning to think she’d stay asleep if he picked her up and tossed her into the half-frozen river that snaked around the base of the mountain.

  Not that he would. Well, not without reason.

  Because of her sensitivities, Ashem stayed out of her mind, only aware that she was awake and in the other room. She stayed there for a long time. He scowled. When she finally got out of bed and made her way to the kitchen, his scowl deepened, and he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to attempt.

  Ancients, please do not let this girl be my heartsworn.

  She rounded the wall into the kitchen area, starting when she saw him.

  “Oh! Hi.” She watched him warily.

  He folded his arms across his chest and jerked his head toward the cauldron in the fire pit. “There’s food.”

  “Thanks.” Kai reached for the waistband of her pants. Apparently not finding what she was looking for, she closed her hand into a fist. Ffion had found some of Deryn’s old clothes in the hoard for Kai to sleep in. The loose fit only emphasized her boy-like figure.

  Kai half-turned away from him. “So...everyone is gone?”

  “Yes.”

  Silence.

  “So...I’m guessing you’re not Welsh like the others. Where are you from?”

  Stars, he hated small talk. He shook his head and went to the sink to clean his bowl.

  Kai folded her arms across her own chest and scowled back at him. “This is going to be a super fun couple of days. Can you hand me a bowl?”

  Ashem grunted and pulled a stone bowl down from the high shelf. He held onto it for a moment, looking from it to her.

  Blood of the Ancients, just get it over with.

  He held up the bowl. Kai watched him expectantly, as if she thought he would move forward to hand it to her. He didn’t. Instead, he shook it slightly.

  Kai made a disgusted noise and walked over to retrieve the bowl. At the last second, he reached up and skimmed his fingers across the smooth, freckled skin of her cheek.

  Nothing happened. He let out a long, low exhale of relief. Thank the Ancients.

  “Um. What are you doing?” Because it’s super awkward. The thought was strong and directed straight at him, so he heard it. The shields she’d put up before were gone, though he sensed them. If she needed, she could snap them back up in an instant.

  He dropped his hand. “None of your concern.”

  “Well, it is my face.”

  Ashem scowled. His purpose accomplished, he crossed the kitchen and pulled aside the curtain that hung across the tunnel to the lower levels, Kai’s bemusement radiating behind him.

  He decided he would spend the day watching gemstone records of old battles and working out new drills for the vee. Rhys wouldn’t need him for a few hours, and he’d already strengthened the barriers around the cave. If anyone other than the members of his own vee happened upon it, they would suddenly remember they needed to be somewhere else. It took an incredibly strong personality to break through a barrier unaided. No one had ever managed before, except Kavar. But that was more because he was Azhdahā, and Ashem’s twin brother, than because of any particular personal strength.

  “Whoa. What’s down there?” Kai peered past him into the darkness.

  Ashem didn’t bother looking back. “Don’t follow me.”

  He heard her snort as he walked down the passage. Though it was low, her voice echoed after him.

  “I’d rather eat rocks.”

  “Ass,” Kai muttered, glaring after Ashem. With the bowl, she scooped rice and beans from the giant pot in the embers. She swiped her cheek with her other hand, as if she could wipe away his touch. “Weirdo.”

  A weirdo with secrets. Cadoc had said the lower caverns were just storage. So what was Ashem doing?

  She shoved her food into her face with angry efficiency and stuck her bowl in the sink. The tunnel begged to be explored, but it was dark, and Kai didn’t like the idea of Ashem swooping out at her like a giant, angry bat.

  A spigot overhung the basin, and she twisted the knob near its opening. Water trickled out. She rinsed her bowl, stalked back into the sleeping room, and fell face-first into her pile of blankets.


  Deserted with dragons. Alone with Ashem. Confined in a cave. She could already feel her muscles itching with the desire to go and move. And she missed Cadoc. At least he talked.

  She pushed herself onto her elbows and considered climbing the wall of the cavern again. But she had no bouldering mats, and the thought of Ashem catching her scrambling around on his walls made her cheeks burn. He’d probably be an ass about that, too.

  The small archway caught her eye. For the first time that morning, she remembered that Ashem wasn’t her only option for company. Curious, she sat the rest of the way up.

  Deryn’s brother, Rhys. Even unconscious, he’d be better company than Ashem.

  She pushed herself out of bed, kicking the blankets and pillows into a not-very-neat pile and flopping the mattress half-over it. Juli would be ashamed, but Kai didn’t care. She hoped Ashem found it. She hoped it annoyed him.

  Kai stood and padded toward the doorway in bare feet, fighting down an unexpected surge of butterflies. She hadn’t seen much of Rhys—it had been dark, after all, and he’d been more worried about Deryn and survival than introductions. But she remembered that heavy feeling in the air, and eyes that had flashed like blue fire in the moonlight.

  She edged up to the archway. It opened to a short tunnel, the far end covered with a heavy curtain like the tunnel in the kitchen had been. Firelight flickered around its edges.

  Kai slid forward quietly, uncertain. She pulled the curtain aside a couple of inches and peeked through the gap.

  Apparently, she wasn’t as sneaky as she thought.

  Rhys reclined, fully awake and staring from a mattress on the floor. A small, ancient-looking book was open in his hands, but he closed it and dropped it into the blankets bunched at his side.

  His deep red hair was disheveled, the blue of his eyes bright, if a little hazy with sleep. She could see him better than she had before; his face, masculine and strong, his gaze intense. The way he looked at her was in equal parts terrifying and compelling.

  “Kai?” Mild surprise in his voice, as if she’d had an appointment and showed up a few minutes early. He winced as he pushed himself upright, his gray blanket falling. Bandages covered his right shoulder, spots of red staining its white surface. His torso was bare, every muscle defined in the light of fires flickering along the walls. The scale tattoo swirled like flame over the right side of his body and down his arm. A long, fresh-looking scar rippled over the taut skin of his stomach; the largest and newest of a handful of marks that crisscrossed what skin Kai could see.