Soul of Smoke

by Caitlyn McFarland

  Rhys shook his head. He was fairly certain that Protector Iolani, who was charged with the care and keeping of the Seeress, let her run away more often than not. “Citlali?”

  The pretty, bronze-skinned Quetzal woman seated next to Deryn blinked at him with innocent black eyes, twirling the beads threaded into her dark hair. “Yes?” On the other side of her, her heartsworn, Feng Sung-ki, gave her a sideways glance.

  Rhys raised his eyebrows. “Half the time she goes missing you’re with her, and you sit on the Council. Do you know where she is?”

  She shook her head, smiling ruefully. “Not this time.”

  Rhys sighed and glanced at Ashem, who seemed weirdly content. “Have you found Cadoc?”

  “He’s keeping his distance, but I’ve sensed him a few times. He thought we’d come here, so he’s hiding in the mountains outside the city.”

  Rhys nodded, feeling the smallest trickle of relief. “How is he?”

  “Alive.” Ashem pressed his lips into a thin line. “For now, he won’t be rejoining us. He’d attack you again.” He nodded to Citlali. “The Councilwoman is going to advise me on blood magic. We’ll decide what to do about Cadoc from there.”

  Rhys nodded, remembering Cadoc’s hand and knowing what it meant. Without his music, “alive” had become a relative term. “Next time he checks in, send him after Seren. If he can’t come home, he’ll need something to occupy his mind.”

  “That’s not a good idea.” Morwenna curled in her chair like a cat. She’d taken the one exactly opposite Rhys, so he couldn’t escape looking at her. “What if the curse he’s under activates on contact with any member of the royal family?”

  Citlali snorted loudly. “It won’t.”

  Rhys ran a hand through his hair. Citlali was the only Quetzal among all of Rhys’s people. As such, she was their only resource for understanding the finer points of Quetzal blood magic. “Will you explain?”

  She pushed a long, beaded strand of black hair behind her ear, then tapped the edges of her hands on the table. “Owain isn’t an idiot.” Her hands rose in the air, indicating an imaginary crowd. “If he killed the Seeress, rebellion. Ninety percent of his supporters poof in an instant.” She snapped her fingers. “The gold dragon is sacred. The curse won’t touch her.”

  Evan shifted. “Unfortunately, Seren might be the least of your worries. There are other whispers. There’s a leader among the rogues who...Rhys, she’s claiming to be your mother.”

  Rhys stared. Deryn stood so abruptly that her chair fell backwards. “Mother? Alive?”

  Evan shook his head. “I haven’t seen her myself, annwyl, but there are enough rumors—”

  “Where?” Deryn leaned forward, both hands on the table.

  “Somewhere in the north, in Canada or Alaska.” Evan said, his face troubled.

  “Where did you hear this?” Rhys’s voice was as sharp as Deryn’s.

  Evan looked to Tane.

  The big Mo’o shrugged. “From the Council. Maybe that male Wingless who was taking reports in Ashem’s absence. What’s his name? Harrow.”

  Rhys’s brain seemed to have stopped. His mother. Queen Dowager. Warbringer. Alive.

  He looked down the table to Deryn, still standing, eyes blank, face pale. It had been a thousand years, but if Rhys knew Mair, her re-emergence now would hardly be a coincidence. She had something planned.

  He pushed back his chair, and they all stood. “My mother, alive or not, is a concern for once we’ve returned to Eryri.”

  “But—” Deryn began.

  Rhys cut her off with a sharp shake of his head.

  “Four more vees are waiting to escort you, mo’i,” Tane said. “They’re in the Cascades. Owain won’t engage a force of that size. There would be too many casualties.”

  Rhys nodded. “Good. If there’s nothing else—”

  Juli cleared her throat, and the dragons all turned to her with expectant eyes. “Kai needs to go home.” She met Tane’s eyes. Evan’s. Morwenna’s. “She isn’t heartsworn. She has no reason to stay.”

  “Of course.” Though Rhys had been the one to tell her to say it, his pulse jumped. He saw Kai in his mind, straining to touch her mother’s image with gentle fingers, both of their faces stricken and tearstained. Griffith had been right that night on the ledge. Kai needed time, and so did he. The news of Mair only made the situation more urgent. If Warbringer was alive and making trouble, dragons would be even less likely to accept another Wingless queen.

  “I’ll take her.” Ashem’s voice was only slightly less flat than the table. He didn’t approve of the plan, cobbled together as it had been in the last few seconds before the meeting. “My heartsworn has some business to finish at home before she can join us. I’ll stay with her, and we can take Kai back with us.”

  Also as planned, Deryn spoke. “We can hardly afford to lose you for that long, Ashem.” Her voice was even flatter than his. In her words, Rhys was “being a sundering idiot.”

  “It shouldn’t be a problem, if the Invisible will come back with us.” Rhys glanced around, and the others nodded. “Good. Ashem will go with his heartsworn and take Kai home.”

  This was why he hadn’t wanted her at the meeting. Kai had to remain a secret. She would be safer, and he wouldn’t lose followers. Only Owain had seen her, and the others had shown up so quickly after, Rhys hoped his cousin would think she’d been with them. Though there wasn’t really a good explanation for a Wingless on the battlefield, ever. Wingless didn’t fight.

  He ignored a sharp feeling of loss. Surely, she could only be happy to go home. “If that’s all?”

  The others nodded and dispersed. Ashem approached as they left. “I need to talk to you about Ffion.”

  Rhys bowed his head. “I should have been there.”

  Ashem looked away, his jaw clenching briefly. “She’s pregnant.”

  “She’s...what? Ancients.” Cold fear knotted his stomach. The trauma of Griffith’s death would put Ffion in serious danger of losing the baby. A baby who would grow up fatherless. He felt a sudden, fierce determination. “We can’t let her lose the child, Ashem. It’s all—” his voice broke “—all of Griff she’ll have.”

  “That’s why I’m keeping her sedated. We’ll have to wake her to eat and drink, but otherwise, we need to get her back to Eryri. To someone who knows what they’re doing.”

  Rhys nodded, realization dawning. “That’s what they were arguing about. She didn’t want to go into confinement. Because of me.”

  Ashem looked at the floor. “Rhys, we’re sworn to protect you. Ffion hasn’t told me any of this. I took it from her mind. She didn’t realize she was expecting until after we’d left Eryri. Griffith wanted to go back, but she didn’t. She’s going to blame herself, though it was too late for them to leave anyway, with Owain flying around like a sundering murderous seagull.” He shook his head. “But if I’m to go to Colorado with Kai, you’ll need to get Ffion back to Eryri as quickly as possible.”

  “I will.” Rhys had been hoping he’d have more time with Kai to explain. To apologize. Ffion’s need, however, was more pressing. “Tell everyone to prepare to leave. I have to speak to Kai.”

  Ashem ducked his head and was gone.

  Rhys gripped the back of his chair hard enough that his knuckles went white and the wood groaned beneath his hand. Cadoc, gone. Griffith, dead. Ffion in danger of dying or losing her child or both. Even Ashem would be gone. His vee—his family—was falling apart, no m
atter how tightly he tried to hold it together.

  There was a splintering sound, and he looked down. The back of the chair had cracked beneath his hands.

  * * *

  Seattle really was as rainy as everyone said, though Kai thought it felt more cozy than dreary as she leaned on the railing. Across Lake Washington, the nebulous lights of the city proper glowed yellow against a navy sky. She knew she should be cold, but didn’t seem to feel it anymore. Without cold, wetness wasn’t much of a bother.

  “Are you all right?”

  Kai spun. A tall, beautiful, East Asian woman in red and black stood next to her. Her sleek hair was pulled back in an elaborate twist held with a pair of enameled combs and dripping with charms. “Who are you?”

  The woman smiled. “Jiang.” She tilted her head. “Who are you?”

  Kai looked out over the city, her mouth twisting. “No one. Just a human who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Silence fell over them. After a moment, the woman spoke again. “I’m a member of the Lung Clan. We’re empaths.”

  Kai pressed her lips together, trying to bring her brain into the present. “You can sense emotion?”

  Jiang nodded.

  Kai laughed without humor. “And mine are violent enough to bother you?”

  Jiang shook her head. “No, but, feeling the way you do, I didn’t want you to be alone.”

  Kai opened her mouth to ask Jiang to leave, but she suddenly felt lighter. Warmer. She would be going home soon, after all. She should be happy about that. Instead, she said, “Thanks.”

  Another silence fell. Minutes passed. Kai blinked tears and droplets of misting rain from her eyes and pulled up her dripping hood. “What are you doing out here?”

  Jiang came to stand next to Kai at the railing, looking out over the city. “Guarding the roof. I’m part of the Invisible. Part-time.”

  Kai got the distinct impression Jiang wanted her to ask about “part-time,” but the sound of the door sliding open distracted her.

  The outer walls of the penthouse were glass, the panes held up by thin, sleek columns of white. Rhys stood in front of the rain-beaded windows and closed the door behind him, his storm-heavy presence adding pressure to the air.

  “Majesty.” Jiang bowed, pressing the first two fingers of her right hand to her forehead.

  “Lung Jiang.” Rhys dipped his head. “I didn’t expect to see you. I thought you were at Cadarnle.”

  “Not for the next few months. In fact, I have a proposal for you, Majesty. If Commander Ashem Azhdahā and Commander Tane Mo’o approve. It involves Kavar.”

  Curiosity crossed Rhys’s face. “Speak to them now.”

  Jiang bowed again and went inside.

  Rhys came to stand next to Kai, leaning over the railing.

  Kai looked down forty stories to the street below. The cars looked like beetles with headlamps, the noise of traffic dampened by rain and height. “How was your non-human meeting?” she asked. “Oh, except it wasn’t non-human, because Juli was there.”

  Rhys straightened and tapped the railing with his fingers. Twitchy again. “It was fine.”

  “Right.”

  Silence.

  “Did you come out here to talk?” Kai asked after a long moment.

  Rhys nodded, but didn’t speak.

  “Okay. I have a question. I mean, we’ve talked about the mantle. I understand why you don’t like to use it, even if I think it’s a lame excuse. But what about Owain? Why didn’t he use it on you? Why didn’t he use it on me, when you jumped in my head and made me melt his eyeball?”

  Rhys rubbed his neck. “Owain and I can’t use the mantle on each other any more than we can use it on ourselves, and it doesn’t work on Wingless. It never has.”

  “But why didn’t Owain use the mantle on everyone else? He could’ve made them stand there while he killed them, couldn’t he?” Kai asked.

  Rhys took a moment to answer. “Owain wants to keep as many dragons alive as he can. Remember, once I’m out of the way, he wants to go to war against humans. He’ll need an army.” He let out a breath. “Aside from that, the mantle’s power is limited because it’s torn. The night you brought Deryn to our camp, I used it to send Kavar away. But I couldn’t send Demba or any of the others, because I only had enough power for Kavar. That’s why Ashem had to take you. He had to escape the others.”

  Kai frowned. “You used the mantle on Kavar? I thought you didn’t like it.”

  Rhys wiped rain from his forehead. “I wasn’t going to let him kill Deryn. Or you.”

  Kai internalized his words. He’d used her to save himself today, but how many times had he saved her?

  The question muddled Kai’s emotions further, so she shoved the entire messy lot of them to the back of her mind. “I don’t understand dragons. I’ve never heard of a war where the point was to not kill the other guys.”

  “We’re a careful, long-lived people. In a thousand years, we’ve only lost a few hundred dragons to this war. We’ve only had a true battle once. Ten years ago, when Iain died.”

  She looked up in disbelief. “You definitely don’t do war like humans.”

  “The results are close enough.” His expression was distant. “And I was arrogant enough to think the stalemate might last forever. That’s why I thought it was safe for Deryn and me to leave Eryri at the same time.”

  They fell into silence. After a minute, Rhys spoke. “I thought you might want to know that Ashem has been in contact with Cadoc. He’s fine. He’s close, actually.” Rhys glanced to the southeast, where the Cascades and Mount Rainer would be visible in daylight. “My sister, Seren, has run away again. I’m putting Cadoc in charge of the search for her.”

  “How generous of you.” Kai’s voice was dry.

  He gripped the railing. “He’s cursed, Kai. He can’t come home.”

  Kai threw her hands in the air. “Then maybe you should have him try to free himself. Maybe you should help him. He’s been tortured. He needs rest.”

  “Citlali will look into breaking the curse. I’m trying to keep him too busy to wallow.”

  “Oh.” A memory tugged at the back of her brain. “He wanted me to tell you Mair is alive. Something about her wanting to help?”

  His brows furrowed, and he stared at her for a long moment. Long enough that she stopped twisting her carabiners. “Who’s Mair?”

  He looked over the city. “My mother.”

  Kai blinked, confused. “I thought your parents were dead.”

  “So did I.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  He shook his head. “I won’t believe it’s her until I see her myself.”

  Kai wiped rain from her face, frowning, her mom’s agonized plea flashing through her mind. “Cadoc definitely seemed sure. I know people think she’s to blame for this whole war, but... I don’t know. She’s still your mother.” Her thoughts turned to her own mother, and she swallowed against a sudden tightness in her throat.

  As if he could read her thoughts, Rhys said, “I’m sending you home, Kai. You and Juli, with Ashem to protect you. Go back to your life for as long as you can. It’s...better that way, for both of us. Safer.”

  Kai stared at him. She couldn’t have heard right. “Go home?”

  Rhys ran his hand through his hair, shaking water from it. “If I take you to Eryri, Owain will find out about you in days. You’ll be a target. If he hurts you, he hurts me
. This way he won’t know you exist. Not even Evan and Morwenna know. That’s why I kept you from the meeting. Being heartsworn to a human could cost me soldiers and support on the Council. If I lose too many people, Owain will win.”

  “But... I don’t understand. Don’t they already know that we’re heartsworn?” She gestured at her left arm. “Didn’t they see?”

  Rhys shook his head. “No, and I don’t think Owain knows either. At least, not that you’re heartsworn to me.

  This is what I wanted, she reminded herself harshly. She had to see her family again, to figure things out with her parents. But even though she was angry with him, she also wasn’t ready to leave Rhys. The thought of not seeing him hurt her heart. She swallowed. “When?”

  Rhys looked toward the city. He was dripping, his hair almost black from the rain. “Now. It will be safer if you fly at night, and I have to get Ffion back to Eryri.”

  Poor Ffion. Even now, Kai couldn’t imagine losing Rhys. How much worse it had to have been for Ffion to lose Griffith?

  “Does Juli know?”

  Rhys nodded.

  The iridescent scales of her indicium blurred beneath droplets of rain. Somehow, in just over a week, dragons had become reality and her family a dream. Then she’d seen her mother on the news, and everything had snapped back into place. “How long will I stay at home?”

  “Until it’s safe.”

  “But you’re going back.”

  “I’m the king.”

  Kai squeezed the slippery railing beneath her hands. Without you, who will teach me to control the fire? He wasn’t cold, exactly, but he was so matter-of-fact. Kai didn’t want him to be matter-of-fact. She had no idea what she wanted.

  “Before you go...” He hesitated, his gaze far away. “Would you take down your shields?”

  Kai grasped one of her carabiners. Open, closed, open, closed. “So you can be in my head?” Nausea pooled in her belly, remembering how he’d shoved her aside, so much stronger than her. She could never be his equal. She might as well be his pet. Swallowing the bitterness, she shook her head.