Soul of Smoke

by Caitlyn McFarland

  Ffion’s nostrils flared, but she didn’t respond to Juli’s outburst. A quarter mile away, Rhys, Ashem and Cadoc had turned into a writhing ball of black and red, Cadoc fighting like a rabid animal.

  Kai had gone out to the ledge. Juli tugged her inside. “Come on.”

  Griffith and Deryn took off while Ffion waited.

  “But what’s happening?” Kai asked, resisting.

  Juli touched Ashem’s mind enough to observe his surface thoughts. “Ashem thinks Cadoc is under a spell. They’re trying to subdue him, not hurt him. Cadoc says Owain and Kavar are coming. We have to leave. Hold on.”

  Leaving Kai looking dumbfounded, Juli sprinted to the sleeping room, grabbed the coat she’d worn when they tried to escape, then snatched the thick comforter from Kai’s bed. She didn’t know if they’d make it back to the cave. It was better to prepare.

  By the time Juli came back out to the cavern, Ffion was bent low to the ground and Kai was scrambling up her back, seating herself between the ridges at the base of Ffion’s neck.

  Juli tossed the blanket to Kai and put the coat on. With one last, steadying breath, she clambered up Ffion’s silver side.

  Here we go. Ffion lifted her wings and stepped off the ledge. Air whistled past Juli’s ears. Kai’s hair came loose from its messy bun, filling Juli’s mouth when she took a breath to scream. She coughed instead, spitting and shaking her head.

  “This would be the best moment of my life under different circumstances,” Kai shouted. “Flying is amazing!”

  “Clearly, you are insane!” Juli still had her eyes tightly closed.

  “I think I can manage not to drop you.” Ffion’s mental voice was dry.

  Juli opened her mouth to make a sharp retort, but Kai gasped. “Oh, Cadoc.”

  Juli opened her eyes. Cadoc was surrounded by the others now. He fought, but his body had been driven beyond exhaustion. The others rebuffed his every attempt to break their circle, holding him in one tight place in the sky.

  Tentatively, Juli reached for Ashem again. Through him, she heard the dragons shouting to each other and at Cadoc, trying to communicate with him. Only Ashem remained grimly silent. He knew talking was no use. He was focusing his power, trying to knock Cadoc unconscious.

  Juli started in surprise when Ffion hit the ground with a soft thud. Kai slid from the silver dragon’s neck, crunching into a thin crust of snow.

  Juli followed, stumbling. Still absorbed in the aerial battle, she felt Ashem gain some headway. Juli observed, fascinated, as he shut down Cadoc’s conscious mind bit by bit. She gave Cadoc a tentative mental touch. When nothing alarming happened, she began to mimic Ashem like a small child clumsily imitating a parent. Still, it seemed to be effective. Either that or Ashem was suddenly working faster. Another minute and Cadoc’s attacks slowed. His wings faltered. He beat them once, twice, then his mind went dark.

  Cadoc plummeted from the sky. Kai shouted, but Griffith had slid beneath Cadoc, and Rhys held him from above. Even so, the mountain shook when they hit the ground.

  Juli and Kai ran down the slope into the sparse copse of aspen and pine where the dragons had landed. Ffion bounded ahead, her wings carrying her there in a few great leaps.

  They’d all become human. Cadoc lay prone at the center of the circle, also human, still unconscious. Juli could feel Ashem fighting against the weird magic that pushed, even now, to bring Cadoc’s body back online.

  “You can’t be here when he wakes up.” Ashem stood in front of Rhys, blocking him from reaching Cadoc. “His mind isn’t right. It feels like Quetzal blood magic.”

  “That isn’t the only thing wrong with him.” Ffion’s bird-like voice was filled with distress. “Ancients, look at him.”

  “Look at his hand,” Rhys demanded. “Ashem, let me be and look at it!”

  “I’ll look at it when you move away,” Ashem growled.

  Juli watched. The air between king and commander sparked with angry energy. Deryn put a hand on Rhys’s arm, murmuring softly. Finally, Rhys nodded. He turned and marched back uphill.

  Deryn couldn’t take her eyes from Cadoc. “We’re going to keep watch. Hurry, Ashem.” Rhys and Deryn transformed and took flight.

  Kai tried to get closer, but Juli held her back. “You can’t help him, Kai.”

  Ashem crouched next to Cadoc. He didn’t say anything out loud, but in his mind he swore softly for the second time that day. Juli slipped between the others and knelt next to Ashem. She had a pretty strong stomach, but at the sight of Cadoc’s twisted, mangled hand bile rose in her throat.

  “Can you fix it?” Juli asked into Ashem’s mind.

  He looked at her, his eyes bleak. “His bones have been shattered to slivers and healed that way. There’s nothing I can do.”

  In Ashem’s memory, Juli heard a strain of music and laugher. Apparently Cadoc had been a musician. He wouldn’t be playing instruments anymore.

  The sound of ripping fabric split the air. Kai had given Griffith the comforter, and the huge, dark man was shredding it into strips. Wordlessly, Ashem took the first few and bound Cadoc’s injured hand to his chest. Just as silent, Juli examined the blood crusted on his forearms, surrounded countless long, thin scars. It looked like someone had used a very sharp knife to try and turn his skin into ribbons.

  Deryn’s panicked thought cut through all of their minds. Kavar is coming!

  Juli felt Ashem’s heartbeat pick up. Kavar would have to be some distance away for Ashem not to have sensed him first. There was still hope. “Head for the apartment in Seattle. We’ll catch up.”

  “We can’t.” Rhys spoke this time, voice tense. “We’re surrounded. They’re closing in.”

  Fear filled Ashem’s mind, and Juli’s own heart began to pound. He looked at her. “Stay here. Keep Kai and Cadoc calm.” He used the strip of fabric in his hands to blindfold Cadoc. “Don’t let him take this off, don’t talk about Rhys where he can hear, don’t let him go anywhere. Do your best. If he transforms, run.”

  Juli nodded, not wanting Ashem to leave. “What happens if you die?”

  Ashem shook his head. “Griffith, take Cadoc there.” He indicated a denser patch of dusty green pines that would hide them. “Ffion, let’s go.”

  He spared a brief glance for Juli before he turned to run uphill. “For both our sakes, Juliet, pray you don’t have to find out.”

  Shivering, Juli followed Kai and Griffith deeper into the trees. Griffith laid Cadoc down gently, nodded to Juli and Kai, and walked out of the trees. The earth shook with his transformation. Overhead, flames split the sky. The battle had begun.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Just Stay

  Kai crouched on a bed of dry, brown needles, the scent of pine all around her. For a second, there was no sound but the harsh in and out of Juli’s breath. Then a dragon roared, a sound like thunder. Kai jumped.

  Juli didn’t. Her tennis shoes made a soft swishing sound as she paced back and forth through the pine needles, her head tilted to the sky, her gaze far off, as if she saw things Kai couldn’t.

  Kai held Cadoc’s unbroken left hand. His right was a distorted lump beneath the strips of fabric Ashem had wrapped over it, but she’d seen. Guilt curled her insides. Whoever had hurt Cadoc had taken his assortment of masculine bracelets, armbands and necklaces. He looked oddly plain without them.

  Something in Cadoc’s breathing changed. Juli paused. “He’s waking up.”

  Kai glanced at her. “Is he going to be himself?”

  Juli shrugged.

  Cadoc groaned. His injured hand twitched beneath the bandage, and the groan turned into a gasp. He shot into a sitting position and clawed at the blindfold.

  Kai touched his shoulder. “Cadoc?”

  He jerked away. After a few deep breaths, he spoke. “Kai?
They...they don’t know about you, do they? You can’t be an illusion.”

  His smooth, melted-chocolate voice had gone rough. Kai fought the burn of tears. “I think so. It’s hard to tell what’s real, the past couple of weeks. Leave it,” she said as he reached for the blindfold. “Ashem wants you to leave it on for now.”

  Cadoc released the fabric and reached out, searching. His fingers found her cheek, her hair. She pulled him into a gentle hug. Beneath the smell of sweat and blood lingered the scent of cedar wood and lemon oil.

  Cadoc’s hand fisted in the back of her shirt, and he pulled her tight to him, shaking hard enough to break. “Real. Blood of the Ancients, you’re real. I’m free.”

  Kai stopped fighting the tears, and they spilled down her cheeks as she clung to him, rubbing a hand along his back. She buried her face in his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  A gust of wind rattled the trees, a glimpse of azure flashing by as they swayed. Another roar, louder and closer, and then a noise like a thousand voices screaming. Cadoc released her, reaching for the blindfold again.

  “Leave that on,” Juli snapped. She’d wandered to the edge of the thicket, still craning her neck to look at the sky. Her face had gone white. She turned frightened dark eyes on Kai. “It’s not going well.”

  “Who’s that?” Cadoc asked.

  “My friend, Juli. She’s heartsworn to Ashem. Long story.”

  Lightning cracked, a deafening peal of thunder sounding in the same instant. Kai wondered if it had come from Ffion or some other silver dragon.

  “Ashem is sworn?” Cadoc shifted.

  Kai put a restraining hand on his shoulder. “You have to stay here.”

  He reached for the blindfold again and shoved it onto his forehead. His amethyst eyes blinked, flicked over the thicket, and then met Kai’s. “Ah, brânwen. It is you.”

  More thunder. He tried to stand, but Kai held him still. “You can’t go out there.”

  “But what’s happening? Where’s...” He shivered.

  Fear tingled at the back of Kai’s neck. “You don’t remember?”

  Cadoc shook his head. “I remember calling out to Ashem...and...” His body went tense. “Rhys.”

  Juli was suddenly on his other side. “Don’t think about him,” she commanded. “Don’t talk about him. Don’t say his name. Ashem says you’re under some kind of spell. Blood magic. You attacked him.”

  Cadoc’s breathing had gone ragged. “I attacked Rhys? But—Stars, I...feel cold.”

  “Don’t think about him,” Juli said, her voice firm. “You’re stronger than us. You have to stay in control.”

  Cadoc didn’t seem to hear her. “I remember... Lladd y brenin ddraig...” His eyes unfocused, amethyst irises flat and cold as glass.

  “No!” Kai took Cadoc’s rigid fingers in her own. She had to distract him. “Hey, do you remember that night I came up on the ledge? You were on watch? It was, what, my first or second night?”

  Cadoc blinked, his eyes still glassy. Slowly, he nodded.

  “You sang to me.”

  He nodded again. The movement looked easier this time.

  “Sing to me now?”

  His right arm tensed, pressing his injured hand into his chest. “I can’t.”

  Kai hated herself. Nothing like prodding an open wound to get a man’s attention. “You can. Please.”

  Another roar. Cadoc tensed, his muscles like steel beneath her hand. His voice shook. “They’re my family.”

  Kai squeezed his fingers. “I know.”

  Juli stood from where she’d been crouching on his other side, her voice uncharacteristically soft. “If you go up there, you’ll lose control and attack again. Your mind is still...wrong. Fogged.”

  “Ashem’s heartsworn.” Cadoc gave Juli a ghost of his old grin. “He didn’t do too badly.” Juli arched an eyebrow, and he laughed softly.

  Wind whipped over them again, bringing a sudden, searing heat that made it hard to breathe. Cadoc closed his eyes, inhaling, and the heat disappeared as if he’d sucked it from the air the way he’d pulled fire from Rhys’s hands. His voice was unsteady. “Rhys is using magic.” He opened his eyes. They’d gone glassy.

  Kai put her hands on either side of his face. “Sing to me.”

  He took a deep breath, then another. “Brânwen—”

  “Sing, Cadoc!”

  Soft and hesitant, he began.

  “Fel ‘roeddwn i ryw fore hawddgar,

  Yng nghwr y coed ac wrth fy mhlesar,

  Ar frig y pren mi glywn ryw glomen,

  Yn cwyno’n glaf—’Ow, beth a wnaf, am f’anwyl gymar?’”

  The tune was heartbreaking. His voice gained strength as he went. Tension drained from his face and his shoulders relaxed.

  “‘Rhyw g’ledi mawr sydd yn fy mynwes,

  Wrth gofio’r cur a’r poen a gefes;

  Wrth gofio’r mab a’r geiraiu mwynion,

  I’m calon rhoes drwm glefyd loes—Fe dyr fy nghalon.’”

  When the song ended, he shook his head, wincing at the sound of a dragon’s scream.

  “I can’t stay.”

  “What?” Even rough, his voice was magic. Kai was still partially under its spell.

  “I can’t stay. I know he’s here. I recognize his roar, I feel his power. I’ve got to leave before I lose control again.”

  Kai’s brow furrowed. Rhys. Was he all right? Were they winning?

  She wrenched her mind from thoughts of Rhys. She had to talk Cadoc out of being stupid. “What about your hand?”

  He shook his head. “It’s too late for my hand. Tell them...tell him Mair is alive. She’s been hiding among the rogues. She wants to help.”

  Kai swallowed. “You’re hurt. We’re in the middle of the wilderness.”

  Cadoc pushed himself up on shaky legs. Kai had forgotten how tall he was. He smiled at her “Don’t worry about me, love. Nothing in the wilderness is as frightening as a dragon.”

  Juli eyed Cadoc warily. “Do not leave these trees without putting that blindfold on.”

  “Don’t leave the trees at all!” Kai protested, standing as well.

  Cadoc’s face was so innocent it looked positively wicked. “I will be Orpheus leading Eurydice from the underworld.”

  Juli narrowed her eyes. “Orpheus looked back.”

  Suddenly her face went pale.

  Kai stepped toward her. “Juli?”

  “Ashem,” Juli whispered. She took off, sprinting uphill, dodging between trees.

  “Juli!” Kai swore. She turned to Cadoc, torn. “Stay here. Please. We’ll win. I know we will. And then we’ll take you to Eryri, and they can fix your hand.”

  Cadoc smiled sadly at her again. “I hope you fall in love with him, brânwen. You both deserve to be happy.”

  “Just stay,” Kai pleaded. She took off after Juli.

  Half-obscured by golden leaves, the enameled blue sky was filled with streaks of color on vast wings. They wheeled and dove through billowing clouds, spitting poison and flame.

  Afraid to call out, Kai searched through the spindly white trunks of aspen trees. It suddenly hit her how cold it was, and she hugged herself, shivering. The trees on her left seemed thinner, so she veered that way. The aspens ended, and a cliff loomed above her, towering a hundred feet over her head.

  “Juli!” she called, her voice hardly more than a whisper. “Where are you?”

  No answer. No sound. Not even small animals or birds in the trees. Then a dragon roared.

  She turned her face to the sky, but couldn’t see. Before her, the cliff was weathered and cracked and perfect.

  She climbed, wedging quickly numbing fingers and toes into the fissures and crannies that offered themselves up benea
th her hands and feet. She passed the point where the fall would leave her broken on the leaf-littered floor of the aspen grove, then twice that distance.

  The wind picked up the higher she went, snatching at hair and clothes with cold, greedy fingers. Once, her foot slipped. She spent a mind-thrashing second dangling by her hands before her feet found holds again. Now above the golden canopy, she clung to the rock, pressing herself to the cliff’s frigid face every time a roar or thunder vibrated through her. She didn’t think about Rhys, didn’t think about Juli, didn’t think about the dragons who clashed in the sky behind her. There would be time for all of them when she made it to the top. She had to be able to see.

  She pulled herself onto level ground, scooting on her belly until she was far enough from the edge to stand, her legs shaking like jackhammers, her arms pumpy. Above the cliff, the slope was wide and gentle except for an upthrusting of rock about a dozen feet away. The wind smelled of ozone and smoke. With shaking breath that misted in front of her, she counted her dragons.

  “One, two.” Ffion and Griffith fought together a third of a mile directly in front of her. Ffion’s mirror-scaled body glittered as she flitted this way and that, seeming to surround two of the enemy dragons on her own as she drove them toward Griffith. He raked three-foot-long claws down the belly of a bronze dragon. It screamed, a horrible sound that made Kai clap her hands over her ears. Ffion opened her mouth, and lightning crackled along the hide of the bronze dragon’s companion, who jerked and twitched as thunder rolled over the valley.

  Kai turned west. “Three.” Deryn led two more dragons on a zigzagging chase. As Kai watched, she flared her wings. One of her pursuers twisted in the air to avoid collision. As it passed, Deryn opened her mouth. From this distance, Kai couldn’t see anything, but she did hear the enemy dragon scream.