The wizard fled into a passage followed by the pirate heir of Tyr and half a dozen of his men. The few that remained fell quickly as the two dragons entered the battle with claws and fangs.
Hector and Horace positioned themselves between Alexander and the approaching dragons. Isabel came to his side, helping him to his feet.
“Stand down,” he commanded. Hector and Horace lowered their weapons but didn’t sheathe them.
“Hello, Lady Bragador,” Alexander said as Anja poked her head out from behind him. “Your baby is safe.”
“You stood against those who would harm my child,” she said.
“I did,” Alexander said.
“Why?” Bragador asked, wariness in her voice.
Alexander shrugged, wincing from the movement of his wounded shoulder. “She’s innocent,” he said.
Bragador’s eyes narrowed. “You were injured fighting those who would have killed my Anja.”
“Yes,” Alexander said.
“I still don’t understand why,” Bragador said.
Alexander sighed, leaning heavily on Isabel.
“I’ve sworn to protect the Old Law,” he said. “Anja is innocent. She doesn’t deserve any of this. Also, I knew that you would stop helping my enemies if your child was safe.”
He adjusted his weight and started to fall. Isabel caught him and helped him to the ground.
“He’s lost too much blood,” she said, drawing her belt knife and cutting his trouser leg open to get at the wound. “Oh Alexander, this isn’t good,” she said, tearing his pant leg into strips for a bandage.
“Hector,” Alexander said, pointing toward Jack, who was still unconscious and invisible. “Jack is right there, feel for him and take his hood down.”
Bragador and the other two dragons looked on with suspicion while Anja nuzzled in close to Alexander. Hector found Jack, removed his hood and started inspecting his wound.
“He’s out cold,” Hector said, “but his breathing is steady and he hasn’t lost much blood.”
“Lady Bragador,” Alexander said, slightly slurring his words. “I spoke true when I said we come in peace. Those men we fought were Phane’s. He sent them to steal your egg and use it as leverage against you.”
Isabel tightened his bandage; he gasped in pain and took several deep breaths to steady himself.
“It seems that Anja has taken a liking to you,” Bragador said.
Alexander smiled, gently stroking the baby dragon’s brow. She leaned into his affections.
“You may stay here until your wounds are healed,” Bragador said.
“Thank you, Lady Bragador,” Alexander said, opening the door to his Wizard’s Den. “I’m afraid I can’t meet the price of our bargain. My sword was destroyed.”
Bragador frowned, her slightly glowing eyes seeming to swirl with fire. “It would seem that the item you came to bargain for has been stolen by the same people who stole my egg.”
Alexander closed his eyes, shaking his head.
“We’ll get it back,” Isabel said, as she slathered healing salve on his shoulder wound.
“I don’t see how,” Alexander said. “My leg wound won’t heal for months.”
“Don’t worry about that right now,” Isabel said. “You need to rest.” She motioned to Hector and Horace. They carefully lifted Alexander and carried him into the Wizard’s Den, placing him gently on the nearest bed, then carrying Jack to the next bed over. Anja followed after Alexander, resting her head on the side of his bed and whimpering softly.
Bragador pursed her lips and shook her head as Alexander drifted off to sleep.
***
Isabel couldn’t quite focus. There was a thrumming in her head and she felt like she had to do something, but wasn’t sure what it was or why it needed to be done. She was standing over a man. He seemed familiar but she couldn’t quite understand why. The more she tried to concentrate, the louder the thrumming in her mind grew until it drowned out reason, replacing it with something else.
She looked down through the dim light and saw a knife in her hand. That was it, she was supposed to kill this man, but why? He was asleep, injured, harmless. The thrumming grew louder still.
She raised the knife, poised to strike, if only to silence the maddening noise coursing through every corner of her mind. Her thoughts were thick and gauzy, she struggled to understand what was happening, but the thrumming drowned out everything else except her purpose.
A brilliant flare of light erupted before her.
“Isabel, no!” Chloe said.
She stopped, blinking at the little woman floating on dragonfly wings, trying to understand why she looked familiar, too. Then she looked down again and the thrumming in her mind vanished as she remembered.
She looked at the knife in her hand, then back down at Alexander. As the realization of what she was about to do sank in, she dropped the knife, one hand going to her mouth, the other to her stomach, her head shaking back and forth in denial, tears streaming down her face. She backed away from him, staring at her love with a mixture of terror and gratitude, slumping to the floor against the wall. Alexander stirred but didn’t wake.
She was trapped in her own skin. Phane’s darkness was doing its work, undermining her free will, pitting her against those she loved most. Alexander was hurt, vulnerable. She had nearly killed him. If Chloe hadn’t stopped her, she wasn’t sure she would have realized what she was doing until it was too late.
“I have to leave, Chloe,” she whispered through her tears.
“No, Isabel. He needs you,” Chloe said.
“I need him too, but he’s not safe with me around,” Isabel said. “I didn’t know what I was doing, couldn’t understand what I was about to do. Oh Dear Maker, if I’d killed him …”
“But you didn’t,” Chloe said.
“Only because you stopped me,” Isabel said, getting to her feet and looking around at her sleeping companions. She swallowed hard, then sniffed back her tears.
“I have to leave … now,” Isabel said. “Tell him that I love him with everything that I have and everything that I am. Tell him that I will always love him, no matter what happens.”
“I will tell him,” Chloe said, “but he won’t understand.”
“I know,” she whispered as she bent over Alexander and kissed him gently on the forehead. “But he’ll live.”
Isabel got her pack from the foot of her bed, strapped on her sword and headed for the door to the Wizard’s Den without looking back, lest she lose her nerve.
“And Chloe,” she said without turning, “watch over him.”
“Always,” Chloe said.
Isabel left, crying, not daring to look back. She made her way to the cave entrance and out onto the beach. It took the better part of the night but she found the entrance to the cave where Captain Kalderson was hidden.
She found her way to the little boat they’d used to reach land and pushed it into the water, rowing steadily toward the ship.
“Lord Reishi?” a man said from the railing. “Is that you?”
“No,” Isabel said. “It’s Lady Reishi. Help me aboard.”
Captain Kalderson was there by the time she’d climbed the rope net and clambered over the railing onto the deck.
“Where’s Lord Reishi?” Captain Kalderson asked.
Isabel swallowed hard and shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Dead,” she said. “Cast off … quietly or the dragons will find us.”
Even in the dim light, Isabel could see the captain’s eyes go wide. He nodded and started making the rounds, rousing his men and issuing orders in hushed tones. It wasn’t long before they were sailing away from the dragon isle through the darkest part of the night.
Isabel stood at the aft railing watching the dragon isle recede into the night, the orange glow of the volcanic cauldron shading the clouds overhead in orange, tears flowing freely down her cheeks and rage boiling in the pit of her belly.
“We’re nearly past the spires,” Captain Kalderson said to her quietly as if he didn’t want to disturb her grief.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“Take me to Karth,” Isabel said, wiping the tears from her cheeks as she turned away from the only man she’d ever loved.
Here Ends Blood of the Earth
Sovereign of the Seven Isles: Book Four
www.SovereignOfTheSevenIsles.com
The Story Continues…
Blood of the Earth (Sovereign of the Seven Isles: Book Four) Page 42