by J. D. Monroe
“It makes me special.”
“Be specific. You’re not full Kadirai, are you?”
She shook her head. This was all in her file, so what was the harm? And the more they talked about her, the less she had to reveal about the Chosen. “My mother is Kadirai. My father was human.”
“You’re kuth-kadi. You shouldn’t have elemental power,” he said. “And you shouldn’t be able to get in my head like you did.”
She traced the tattoos on the back of her left hand. “Like I said. I’m special.”
“They’re kor-dalak, aren’t they?”
“I think so,” she said. “It took years.”
“Why not just use Kadirai or sul-kadi? They already have elemental power. Why all the trouble to make something that already exists?”
“The white flames, the psychic thing, that’s extra,” Marlena said. “It’s not the end goal.”
One eyebrow arched slightly. He didn’t know about the Aesdar, then. “And what is the end goal?”
She was so close to ascension, when she would finish the process and become one of the mighty Aesdar, a vessel for the righteous wrath of Vystus. Once she was done, she would become a dragon of incredible power, dwarfing the mightiest forces the Kadirai could muster. Even a legendary warrior like Velati would fall before them. If he saw her then, he wouldn’t look so annoyingly calm.
“To make us powerful,” she said.
“For what, exactly?”
“To end the tyranny of dragons.”
He scoffed. “Tyranny. For fuck’s sake, you’re, what, twenty-nine?” She pursed her lips. “You grew up in the suburbs of Colorado. What the hell do you know about tyranny?”
“I know the dragons have enslaved innocent people for centuries,” she said.
“Well that’s not…” he hesitated. “Some of them have. It’s not entirely true. And even if it was, those are dragons in Ascavar. What does that have to do with Wanderers here? You’re punishing the wrong people.”
“I don’t know how it all works,” she admitted.
“If I was going to work for someone who tortured innocent people, I’d sure as hell want to know exactly why. I would—”
“I know,” she said sharply. “You don’t have to keep reminding me.”
His pale blue eyes glinted as he regarded her, like he wanted to say something else to drive the harsh truth even deeper. The air warmed slightly. “How about we shift gears? Give me names, locations, something I can use.”
“They didn’t tell me a lot. Like I said, I was in training most of the time.”
“So why were you there when we showed up? What changed?”
“They stepped up security after you…”
A satisfied smile crept across his face. God, she was terrible at this. Catrina had prepared her to slash and burn her way out of a bad situation, not talk. “After we attacked the lab you already knew we’d shut down,” he finished. “Nice try. And you were supposed to be more help?”
“More than what they had,” she replied. She shrugged. “You were a lot more powerful than I bargained for. If you hadn’t been there, it would have been plenty.”
His eyes swept over her, locking onto hers. A warm thrill ran down her spine. “So the things you can do…you realize that normal dragons can’t do that?”
“I’m aware.”
“Is there a way to protect against your power?”
She drew a deep breath. “There is. We have artisans who’ve created an amulet that can neutralize compulsion, both mine and yours.” Many of the Chosen wore them even at the compound. Catrina had told her it wasn’t because they feared the Aesdar, but it was a flimsy lie. Some of the initiates even kept their eyes down in her presence. She tried to interpret it as a sign of respect, not fear.
“And do you have access to those?”
“There were a few in the house,” she said. “I don’t know where they make them or where they store them, though.”
“Is that the only way? Is it something you can block out?”
“Hybrids can do it. I’m guessing that was your strategy when you attacked us,” she said. He nodded. “They trained us to separate you as fast as possible, especially if we see a dragon with a rider.” His eyes narrowed. “But if you can stay mounted or at least in contact with a hybrid, you can block it out.”
“Like the Elegy,” he said.
“Just like that.”
“Does the Elegy affect you?”
“Not at all,” she said. It was a strange sound, nothing more. If anything, it created a pleasant vibration in her bones.
He tilted his head. “Interesting. I wish I could trust you out of those cuffs. That could be helpful.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she replied. “I want answers.”
“So do I.” He chuckled. “It’s going to take more than some carefully worded answers and information I already have to convince me of that.”
She leaned forward, into that cool aura that enveloped him. “I want you to trust me.” With her fingers mere centimeters from his dark-inked skin, she froze. His brow furrowed as he followed the motion of her hand, though he didn’t pull away.
It would take nothing at all to touch him, then to close the distance entirely and kiss him. Would his lips be ice cold like the rest of him, or blazing hot in wicked contrast? Her face went hot. God, what was she thinking? If she was going to seduce him, this wasn’t the way. She hadn’t bathed in a while, and she had to look horrific and smell even worse.
“And I want your people to quit killing mine,” he said. He was gentle, but he pushed her hand away, then braced his hands on his knees. “We don’t always get what we want.” He sighed. “Look, this is a start. I need more than this, though.”
“I don’t know much, though. I was in training.”
He shook his head. “You have to know names. Who’s in charge? Who reports to him? Where’s your home base? How many of you are there? What’s your next move?” She was silent. He held up his hands. “I’m a cynical man. I think you’re bullshitting me to stall for time.” He opened the messenger bag and pulled out a thick, spiral bound document, which he placed in her lap. It felt heavy as stone lying on her legs. “That’s a dossier on each of the people we pulled out of that house, as well as the ones that we could account for in Asheville. Read that. Do the math. If you can still play for their side, then you’re a lost cause as far as I’m concerned.”
“I’m not trying to play for anyone’s side,” she protested weakly. “I just want to do what’s right.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
She gingerly lifted the cover of the thick document. A smiling woman’s face beamed at her from the first page. She instantly closed it. “Why not kill me outright? Why waste your time?”
“Because you’re more useful alive,” he said. He tilted his head. “And for some reason, I don’t think you’re a monster. Maybe you were just training to be strong because you thought you needed to kill the big bad evil dragons. You thought you were doing a good thing, but this piece doesn’t fit.” He tapped the stack of papers. “And now you’ve got to figure out who’s lying to you. Am I lying? Or was it the people who stood to benefit from using you?”
She folded her arms over her chest. A hot thread of anxiety snaked around her spine and into her gut. “You want to use me too.”
“I said you were useful,” he said. “Slight difference. I’m also not lying to you, nor am I murdering innocent people.”
“But—”
“Just read the file. When I come back, I want real information. I want names and locations. Something I can use.”
“Or else?”
“Or else you’re not helping me, and we go back to where we started,” he said. He reached into the bag again and offered her a small zippered pouch. She unzipped it to find a travel-sized pack of wet wipes and a hairtie.
“What’s all this?”
“Thought you might like some creature comforts. Th
is isn’t exactly a four-star hotel,” he said. “Get reading.”
With that, he left her alone. As soon as he closed the door, she ripped into the wipes to clean her face and under her arms. After carefully combing her hair, she pulled it back in a ponytail. Was Velati actually being kind, or trying to wear down her defenses? With a clean face and greasy hair out of her face, she didn’t care.
How far could she take this act? She wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t know much. There was a workshop where the engineers built devices like the Elegy, but she wasn’t sure of its location. But she knew exactly how to get to Haven, and that was one thing she couldn’t give up. The mere thought of it sent a chill of dread down her spine.
With a deep sigh, she opened the document to read the first file, which belonged to Nassar Koldrun. Two pictures of Nassar were placed side-by-side in shocking contrast. On the left was a picture of a handsome, healthy-looking male sticking out his tongue for a selfie, while the picture on the right showed the same face looking pale and gaunt, dark shadows around his closed eyes. She skimmed the bullet points someone had typed up.
Taken from Syracuse, NY
Wanderer – arrived in 2006; second-year law student
Hybrid husband – reported safe, indicated missing persons report filed with police in May
She read the neatly typed medical report from the healers in residence, detailing the level of damage to Nassar’s organs. She’d spent time in hospitals when her father died, but this was an entirely different type of terminology. There were notes about al-hatari, medicines whose names she didn’t recognize, and sketches of elaborate runes and geometric symbols.
Each subsequent file showed the same grim contrast of before and after, as if to say look what you did to them. The knot of guilt in her belly tightened with each file. There was so much suffering in those silent, still images. Among the files were at least three dragons who had arrived here from Ascavar within the last few months. Some had lived here their whole lives. There was another teenager, this one a high school senior heavily involved in musical theater and soccer.
What was her crime? She could practically hear Velati saying it.
A few had minor brushes with the law; the worst of them was a bar fight that had landed the Wanderer in jail for a few days. A note on his file indicated that he’d been so afraid he would be sent home that he refused to use his compulsion on the bar owner or the cops and let them arrest him without speaking a word. He’d reported himself to the Skywatch and threw himself at their mercy. None of them sounded like criminals, not to a degree that would justify their punishment.
It was damning. Maybe Velati’s team had fabricated all of it. Hell, she’d never seen most of the subjects’ faces. For all she knew, these were random people, not even the ones the Chosen had been harvesting.
Right. That seems awfully convoluted, she thought. More than a dozen detailed files compared to a five minute phone conversation with Catrina…maybe the simpler solution was the right one. And if she was wrong, how far would she have to go to fix it?
“Have you lost your fucking mind?”
He winced at Dyadra’s acidic tone. She was dubbed the Silent Tempest because of her unmatched stealth in battle, not a hesitance to speak her mind. “I’m not wrong.”
After an evening training session, he’d suggested bringing Marlena out of her cell to test their trainees. It was fortunate that he’d waited until the younger dragons and their hybrid peers were out of the room before mentioning it to his old friend. “I’m sorry, perhaps I wasn’t clear,” she said. Her clear voice echoed off the stone walls. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”
“I heard you the first time. You don’t have to shout.”
Dyadra’s blue eyes gleamed. “You want to let her loose on our people?”
“We’re trying to teach them to defend against a force that we can’t simulate. It’s like teaching them to sword fight bare-handed,” Velati said. “She can approximate it.”
“She could also seriously hurt them,” Dyadra protested. She stalked toward him, staring up at him intently. Though she was slender and much shorter than him, he still remembered proud Kaldirah before her devastating fall, who stood an inch taller than him. Even now, her presence filled the room. “Are you thinking with your brain or your dick?”
“What the hell?” he spluttered.
“Answer me. I saw the picture of her. She’s kind of attractive. Are you thinking clearly?”
“I’m thinking about how we’re going to win this fight,” Velati said. She was attractive but that was hardly the point. “We both know this training will fall short when they hear the Elegy for the first time. And I won’t throw them into a meatgrinder if I can help it.”
She winced, but the expression of anger didn’t falter. “And what’s she going to do? Pretend to be an Elegy?”
“Whatever she is, the power is rooted in blood magic, like the Elegy.” He touched her shoulder gently. “I know you want to keep everyone safe. So do I. But we’re not prepared for this.”
She let out a growl of frustration and paced across the rubber floor. “I hate them,” she said. Her voice was steady, but a faint breeze whipped around her, betraying her inner turmoil. “I hate them for not having the sense to stay gone, and for hurting our people, and for interrupting my goddamn life.”
“I know,” he said. “What if we try it in isolation first? Rihz and me only, or another hybrid who’s willing. You and some of the others at the ready to drop her if she tries anything.”
“And if her first move is to snap your neck?”
“I’ll take responsibility.”
“Sure,” Dyadra said. “That’ll be a great comfort to me when you’re dead. I don’t want to say I told you so to your corpse, Velati.” She shook her head and sighed. “I hate this so much.”
“I know. You know I’m not wrong.”
“Don’t push it,” she said. Her pale eyes finally met his again. “I’ll talk to Sohan and see what he thinks.”
“He’s not in charge of you.”
“No, but he is in charge of this,” she said, sweeping her hand around to indicate the empty training center. “We left. He stayed. It’s his call.”
He bit his tongue. He would have stayed if he hadn’t been unceremoniously thrown out. “Call him down here.”
Velati’s heart pounded as he opened the door to Marlena’s cell again. Much to Dyadra’s chagrin, Sohan had agreed to a trial run, and Rihz had volunteered to help. He suspected Rihz was starstruck and had only agreed to please Velati, but he wasn’t going to turn down the offer.
When the door opened, he found Marlena staring up at him, eyes sunken in shadow. She looked haunted, but he wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion or emotion. The file he left for her sat on the edge of the stone bench. Had she even looked at it?
He didn’t trust for a second that she’d actually turned on the Chosen. It wouldn’t happen overnight, if it happened at all. But he also wasn’t convinced that she was evil, even if the people she served were. She was strong as hell, but there was still a naïve innocence about her. And as much as he wanted to take out his anger on someone, she would be more valuable as an ally than a scapegoat.
“Good afternoon,” he said.
“Is it afternoon? I can’t tell down here.”
He glanced at his watch. “It’s about one. Did you read the files?”
She nodded. “I did.”
“And?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” she said. Her bright green gaze locked onto him. “If all this is real, then I’ve been lied to.”
He wanted to blurt I told you so, but he resisted the urge. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“Did you come to show me more evidence?” she asked. “I think I’ve seen enough.”
He shook his head. “I actually came to ask for your help.” She tilted her head in confusion. “Right now, I think you’re holding back because you’re afraid, and I get it. But you
do have power, and I want you to use it on me.”
Her brow furrowed. “What?”
“My people are trying to prepare for whatever attack comes next. We know how to counter the Elegy, but the reality is that we can’t use it for training. Even if we had one, it would be too devastating. But your power could help us learn.”
She tilted her head. “So, you want me to hurt your people?”
“Just to show them what we’re up against,” he said. “I want to see how it works in training. Would you do that?”
She held up her cuffed hands. “You’ll have to take these off. I can’t do anything otherwise.”
“I know,” he said. He crouched in front of her, holding out his hands. She hesitantly placed her hands on his palms. Graceful curves of red ink tangled around her slender fingers like vines. Maybe Dyadra was right, and he was thinking with his dick. He saw the hint of attraction in Marlena’s eyes, the way she’d almost touched him yesterday. And he wasn’t above using it to push her in the right direction. He squeezed her hands gently, feeling her rapid pulse under warm skin. “I’m putting an ounce of trust in you. Right now, I’m the only one who’s taking even that much of a risk.”
“Why? Why are you taking that risk?”
“Like I said, you’re useful,” he said. Her brow furrowed. “And I don’t think you’re bad. I think you want to help people, but you’ve been misled.”
“I do. Want to help people, I mean.”
“Then this is a start. But let me be very clear. There will be other Kadirai around, and they won’t hesitate to kill you if you even flinch wrong. Do you understand?” She nodded solemnly. “Then let’s go.”
He left the manacles in place as he led her up from the dungeon and outside to the training center. Three palace guards fell in behind them. Two were armed with their traditional spears, but the third carried a gun on her hip. Marlena’s eyes roamed constantly. Whether her curiosity was her own or an instinct to gather information for the Chosen, he didn’t know.
Their trainees had all been given strict orders to rest for the afternoon, leaving the training center vacant. Four guards were posted inside the subterranean training room, along with Dyadra, Sohan, and Rihz. With a chill, he noted one of the blue-clad Marashti healers sitting on a bench, a leather satchel at her feet.