Soul of Smoke

by Caitlyn McFarland

  Cadoc had hardly known, either. Ashem had burst into their room, overturning Griffith’s bed when he didn’t get up fast enough. Cadoc had killed for the first time that night. Later he’d held Rhys back with bloody hands as Ayen’s dying scream pierced their brains. He’d still been holding Rhys as the power of the mantle washed over him, and his friend had gone from boy to king.

  “Cadoc?”

  His head gave a hard throb, and he took an unsteady breath. A strange, dizzy coldness had washed over him at the thought of Rhys, and he couldn’t seem to shake it.

  “Cadoc? Bach? How badly are you hurt?”

  When he didn’t answer, Mair, if it really was her, reached into her pocket and pulled out a water bottle. Light from the fire glittered off the translucent scales that spiraled over the back of her left hand. They shone iridescent in the dim light, at once all colors and none.

  She took a small vial from a different pocket and dumped it in the water bottle. “Drink. It will take away your pain for an hour or so. You’ll need to be able to fly.”

  Cadoc didn’t resist when she lifted his head and put the bottle to his lips. Glorious, cool wetness hit his tongue, and he drank, relishing the feeling of the water as it slid down his throat. Whatever painkiller Mair had put in, its effect was instantaneous, like fire in his veins. He drank the bottle dry, then rose unsteadily. She hadn’t noticed his hand, and he cradled it against his body to hide it from her.

  “Put these on.” She handed him a bundle of clothes then went to the ladder and looked up, speaking to whomever was above.

  He hesitated. It could still be Owain, still be a trick.

  But it could also be his only chance.

  Using his good hand, Cadoc eased the shirt over his head, grateful for the painkiller as some of his deeper cuts broke open and bled. He got his torn, bloodied pants off all right, but it took some work to get the new ones on one-handed. Finally, he managed. “I’m ready.” He wondered if his voice would ever sound normal again.

  Mair nodded her approval. “Let’s go.” She indicated the rope ladder. Cadoc limped over. He put his good hand on the rung level with his face, then stood there, numb.

  “Go on,” Mair urged.

  Cadoc let go of the ladder and turned to her, pulling his right hand out of the hoodie pocket. Mair glanced down and gasped. “Oh, bach.”

  “Do you have a way to take off these sundering chains?” Cadoc asked through gritted teeth. They’d embedded in the skin in places.

  Wide eyes never leaving his mangled hand, she nodded. “We got a key off one of the guards.”

  Shaking, she reached over his maimed fingers and pressed an intricately carved piece of quartz into an indentation in the cuff. It clicked open. With a sickened look on her face, Mair reached down into her boot and pulled out a small knife.

  Cadoc’s stomach turned at the sight of the knife. “How did you find me? How did you even know to look?”

  “Let’s just say I have a friend you might not expect.” Mair held out the blade.

  Wordlessly, Cadoc took it. He hesitated, licked his lips, and then sliced the skin that had healed over the fine chains, peeling them out, grateful for the numbing effects of the painkiller. He held up his left hand, and Mair unlocked that cuff, the chains sliding off easily. She secreted both binders into a pocket.

  “You go first,” she said. “I’ll hold the ladder steady. It will be easier that way.”

  Cadoc nodded, realizing it would be this way from now on. He’d lost a hand. He wasn’t a warrior; he definitely wasn’t a bard. He was a cripple.

  It took him long minutes and a hard struggle to make his way up the unsteady ladder. Mair’s weight on the bottom helped, but he was seven inches taller and a few dozen pounds heavier than her. He panicked for a moment when, at the top of the ladder, three pairs of hands reached down to haul him out.

  “Relax,” Mair said, climbing up in less than a quarter of the time it had taken Cadoc. “They’re with me.” She held out a hand and took something from a stocky, bowlegged Quetzal woman whose nose had been broken at least twice. “Penelope, was there trouble?”

  A tall, beautiful Derkin woman with olive skin and soft eyes answered. “No. Everything went as planned.”

  The other, a mousy, nondescript Elemental woman with a silver indicium on the back of her left hand, nodded.

  Penelope grinned and swept her gaze down Cadoc’s body. “I bet you’re pretty when you haven’t been beaten to a pulp.”

  He smiled, dry bottom lip cracking. “Pretty as a song.” Both smile and words were hollow. “And I’m grateful to you ladies for coming to my rescue. But I’m afraid I’ve got to fly. Owain...he knows where the cave is, or close enough. I’ve got to get to them before he does.”

  Mair, who had been inspecting the object the Quetzal had handed her, slipped it into her pocket. “Yes, it’s urgent you get back to Rhys. I would come with you, but my hold on power is tenuous, for now. But when I heard Owain had you, I couldn’t let this chance pass.”

  That strange coldness flooded him at the mention of Rhys’s name again. “I...”

  Mair put a hand on his arm and glanced at the others. “Wait here. I’d like to talk to him alone.”

  They nodded, and Mair led Cadoc through a tunnel to the outside. He put a hand over his eyes, blinking in the bright light, still reeling in disbelief. He was free. Mair was alive. It had to be a dream, an illusion. But when his eyes focused, he saw the bodies of two dead guards on either side of the cave.

  “What happened to them?” Cadoc asked.

  Mair smiled. “We did. Izel escaped, but we cut two from Owain’s number.”

  Nausea roiled through his stomach at the thought of his torturer still alive. “I don’t have time to talk. I have to get to them.”

  She grabbed his arm. “Bach—”

  Cadoc shrugged her off. “Don’t call me that. I’m not a child.”

  She shook her head, tendrils of long, auburn hair falling into her face. Age had made her no less beautiful. “I’m sorry, it’s how I still see you in my mind. All of you. But I wanted to ask about Aderyn.”

  “What about her?”

  Mair frowned. “Is she all right? Has she grown tall? A mother shouldn’t be away from her daughter so long.”

  “You have two daughters, Queen Dowager.”

  She sighed. “Seren was never truly mine. The Council took her from me the day she was born, flame the lot of them. I suspect you know her better than I ever did.”

  Cadoc’s thoughts drifted to Seren. Impatient, he pulled them away. “Aderyn is well. She’s sarcastic and makes Rhys do all the cooking. You’d be proud.” The foggy cold washed over him again, and he shook his head to clear it.

  Mair smiled. “I am proud. I have a message I need you to carry. Tell my children I’m alive. Tell them I can help. I won’t see Owain take the throne and the mantle from my flesh and blood.”

  Cadoc nodded, his injured hand once again held close to his body. “I will. And I have to go. Rhys isn’t...” Dizziness. “They’ll need me.”

  “Wait! He isn’t what? Is he injured?”

  Cadoc shook his head. “When I left he was...there was a girl...” Why was he telling her this? He shouldn’t be talking.

  Mair grabbed Cadoc’s arm again, her voice sharp. “He’s heartsworn?”

  Cadoc couldn’t stop himself from answering. “He is, but she’s not. At least, she wasn’t. I have to go.” Ancients, he was so tired.

  “She’s human?” Mair’s voice was flat. “He’ll force her. He’s just like his father.”

  Cadoc frowned. “He doesn’t have a choice.”

  She snorted. “What’s the girl’s name?”

  Cadoc closed his eyes for a moment, his thoughts blurring. “Kai.”

  “Kai.�
�� Mair smiled. “Heartsworn to a human girl. Like father, like son.” She laughed a little, deep in her throat. “The Council will be thrilled. Now, go to him. Perhaps you’ll be in time to stop a tragedy.”

  Cadoc nodded. “Thank you.”

  “May the wind carry you well.” She put a hand on his shoulder, then walked back into the cave.

  Cadoc called his fire. For a moment, nothing happened. Icy terror trickled down his spine. He inhaled, fighting for calm, and tried again.

  Fire flared around him, and this time, he became the dragon. Holding his shattered right foreclaw off the ground, he opened his wings and threw himself into the air. He was exhausted enough to lie down and never move again, but rest would have to wait. He had to warn Rhys.

  Ignoring another flash of numbing cold through his mind, Cadoc glanced back.

  He was alone.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Sparks

  Kai woke smashed against the wall. She let out a soft moan and pressed her forehead to the cool stone, listening to Juli snore, trying to ignore the knee digging into the base of her spine. They’d shared twin-sized beds since they were little, and Kai was used to spending the night on two inches of mattress. But after the hours of practicing last night, her arms and back were screaming.

  Juli gave a particularly loud snore, and Kai sighed, wondering how late she’d been with Ashem—not as late as Kai had been with Rhys, but late enough. Since yesterday, when Juli had gone to see him, there had been a definite shift in their chemistry. Kai wasn’t sure from one minute to the next if they would shout at each other or rip each other’s clothes off. Not that they’d gotten anywhere near that, as far as she knew.

  How to get out of bed without getting smacked in the face? She flipped off the covers and scooted downward.

  Slap! The sound of a hand against stone where Kai’s head had been only seconds before.

  “Ouch!”

  Kai sniggered. Juli kicked her. Kai smacked her leg. It devolved into a slap fight, and for the second time in days, Kai ended up on the floor in a swamp of bedding. Except this time Juli’s bony elbow was poking her in the thigh.

  “Stoppit!” Juli groaned and face planted into the pile of blankets. “It’s too early.”

  Kai looked around, but the sleeping room was empty. From the distant sound of voices, the dragons were having breakfast in the kitchen.

  Kai poked Juli in the side. “You’re supposed to be annoyingly chipper in the a.m. How late were you up with Ashem?”

  Juli sat up. Her short blonde hair stood out at crazy angles, at odds with the prim eyebrow she arched at Kai. “Not as late as you were with his kingliness.”

  “Yeah, but he was telling me about the war. What did you guys talk about? Or...do?” Kai dragged the last word out, shading it with innuendo and wiggling her eyebrows.

  Juli made a noise of disgust. “I am not going to dignify that with an answer.” She disentangled herself from the blankets and sat up. A new stack of books sat on her side of the bed. Juli picked up the top one and flipped it open.

  Without Juli to distract her, a pit formed in Kai’s stomach. She’d told Rhys she would heartswear to him today. Spending time with him last night might have eased some of her fears about Rhys himself, but it had only made her more afraid of everything that came with him. “What time is it?

  “Morning. Ashem has been awake for hours.”

  “Oh, has he?” Kai said in a syrupy voice, grateful for the distraction. “And what is your Arabian knight up to?”

  Juli gave her an appalled look. “The other dragons are supposed to arrive by tonight, so he’s busy. Thank goodness. It’s keeping him out of my head. Also, he’s Persian. It’s not at all the same.”

  Kai opened her mouth to say something intentionally annoying, but instead she sighed and stood. If she was going to become heartsworn, she really did want to talk to Ffion first.

  “Kai...” Juli rubbed her forehead with one finger. “I want to tell you not to do it. I want to tell you to run. They could be lying about who Rhys is.” She paused. “But Ashem believes it’s true. I’ve seen his memories. Dragons live so long most of them remember a time when they were the dominant species on the planet. They want that back, and with Rhys out of the way, Owain could do it.”

  “Yeah.”

  Juli cocked her head. “Did they tell you what would happen if you don’t heartswear?”

  Kai tried to remember all of Deryn’s shouting from the previous day. “I don’t think so.”

  Juli bit her lip, hesitating. “He’ll go insane. Eventually. From the pain. He might be able to last years, but eventually he wouldn’t be able to take it anymore and...well. You get it.”

  Kai nodded. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

  Juli rose. “I’m coming with you. I wouldn’t mind learning more about this heartswearing nonsense.”

  Kai frowned. Had she told her where she was going and why? Shrugging, she pulled a shirt on over the tank top she’d slept in.

  To Kai’s relief and disappointment, Rhys was nowhere in sight. Juli said he was in the hoard again, working out. They found Ffion in the kitchen, just finishing up her breakfast. When Kai asked to talk to Ffion, the small woman nodded and led them to the room Rhys had occupied until the previous night.

  Kai and Juli settled on large cushions big enough to remind Kai of beanbag chairs. Juli crossed her ankles; Kai drew her feet up beneath her. Ffion reclined across from them on a stone bench, one arm propping her head, a pillow beneath her elbow.

  “So...I know we haven’t talked much in the past few days,” Kai began.

  Ffion gave an elegant one-shouldered shrug. “It’s understandable.”

  “Right. Anyway, yesterday Deryn...um...educated me. I know Rhys is in pain, that he’s...you know, the king or whatever.”

  Ffion watched her, still and listening. Kai cleared her throat. Her fingers hooked through her carabiner. “There are things you tried to tell me that night about heartswearing. I’m sorry I didn’t listen. I was hoping you would tell me now.”

  Ffion sat up a little. “Of course.” She tapped her lips with her fingers. “Well, first, there’s the magic. Juli, perhaps you’ve noticed?”

  Juli kept her mouth shut and her expression neutral.

  “What magic?” Kai turned to Juli.

  Ffion sat up farther, her voice taking on a lecturing tone. “When a human becomes heartsworn to a dragon, they’re changed. They aren’t truly human anymore, but a dragon without a dragon body. Therefore, Wingless. As Wingless, you have the same magic as your mate. So, Juli, you’re probably able to hear the thoughts of those around you. Kai, when you heartswear to Rhys, you will be able to manipulate heat and fire.”

  Kai opened her mouth. Closed it. Turned, blinking, to Juli. “Have you been reading my mind?”

  Juli shrugged. “It isn’t very strong. Impressions. A gut feeling about what’s on someone’s mind. Nothing I’d call ‘mind reading.’”

  “It will be weak at first, but you have the same raw potential as Ashem, if not his precision. Your magic should develop fully within a few months.” Ffion tilted her head. “Though I’ve read somewhere that Azhdahā female magic worked slightly differently than the males. More subtle when it comes to reading minds. More like wind through the cracks instead of a hammer against a wall.”

  Kai regarded Juli with wide eyes. She wasn’t exactly keen on her best friend becoming a mind reader.

  “You’ll also get magic unique to the Wingless. They’re able to provide a short power burst to themselves or another magic-user. Though I’ve heard it can be quite draining for the Wingless.”

  Kai sat back in her cushion, recalling how Cadoc had woven fire through his fingers. She rubbed her thumb against her fingertips. When she heartswore to Rhys, she would be ab
le to do magic, too. She grinned.

  Abruptly, Juli craned her neck, trying to see down the passage. “Idiot man. He’s hovering.”

  Kai turned, but she didn’t see anyone.

  Ffion gave a quiet laugh, and Juli glared at her. “Don’t worry, the need to be together all the time eases up after a few days. When Griffith and I swore, it was like being followed everywhere by the world’s most colossal puppy.”

  Juli sat up straighter. “So this obsessive wanting will stop?”

  Ffion shook her head. “It’s always there, but it goes down to manageable levels. In any case, magic and...attraction aren’t the only changes. I’m sure you’ve noticed Juli’s indicium.”

  Kai and Juli nodded. Juli ran her fingers over her left arm.

  “Wingless indicium are, as you can see, mostly colorless, no matter who you’re sworn to. And I suppose you already know that you’ll have the lifespan of a dragon.”

  Kai shook her head “no,” though she’d suspected. There wouldn’t be much point in heartswearing—which could only be done once—with someone who would only live for a fraction of the dragon’s life.

  Juli went pale. “What do you mean, ‘lifespan of a dragon’?”

  Ffion’s smile faded. “Ashem didn’t...” She trailed off as footsteps echoed through the short passage.

  Juli looked thunderous. “Go away, Ashem!”

  Ashem’s deep voice came through the curtain. “If you want me to leave, petal, you’re going to have to come out here and make me.”

  “Petal?” Juli half-shrieked the word.

  Kai grinned. “Why, Juliet King, I do believe he’s your soul mate.”

  Juli stood. “All right, you gigantic black iguana. You want to talk again? I’ll talk.” She stalked to the curtain, giving Kai a not-so-gentle whack on the back of the head as she passed. “And you watch it, Monahan, or I’ll tell your ginger lover you wet the bed until you were seven.”