by Lea Doué
“Wait… Keir, it’s over! It has to be over now. We’ve said the words.” And meant them, too, if she was any judge of kisses.
He squeezed her hand as he shook his head. “I can still feel the change coming. We’ll figure it out, but I have to get out of here.”
Weak sunlight shone ahead, and they finally reached the mouth of the tunnel. The edge of the sun dipped into the water.
Keir’s hand was burning hot. There was no time to get him to the top of the cliff.
Think, Neylan. Could Gram have been wrong about what it took to break the curse? She’d said Keir needed to find his red dragon girl, and then she’d said to mind the words.
So, what were the original words that told how to break the curse? Free your red dragon girl, and you free yourself.
Baz had found his red dragon girl, but he’d also had to free her.
But Neylan wasn’t trapped.
Or was she?
Physically, she was free. The rope hung next to her, waiting to pull her to safety. But sorcerers had many ways of trapping people. She shared her thoughts with Keir and then said, “I think you have to free me, somehow.”
“Did he curse you?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s more likely a spelled item of some sort.” She’d taken a number of things from his hands, giving him the perfect opportunity to ensnare her, but Zared hadn’t been practicing nearly long enough to be able to do that. He did seem fond of spells and potions, though, things that Idris could have given or taught him in a shorter amount of time.
“Are you wearing clothes he made right now?”
“No.” She mentally double-checked every item—all hers.
“Then what else could it be?”
“I don’t know.”
Still hunched over, he put an arm around her waist. “You need to get up the cliff. I don’t want to hurt you when I transform.”
“What about you? This space is too small!”
Steam began to roll off his skin.
“I could jump just before—”
“You’d hit the ground before the transformation finished.”
“There’s a chance—”
“Or you’d hit the ground as a dragon. Either way, it’s a three-story fall. There’s no way you’d have time to get your wings ready to fly, or even glide.”
“Your hair!” In his excitement, Keir stood straight and bumped his head on the stone.
“What?”
“Your hair ribbon.” He fumbled with the silver ribbon Euna had woven into her braid.
Wist helped him, yanking out pins and throwing them over the edge.
Within seconds, the silver ribbon followed, fluttering away on a breeze.
Keir’s scars began to glow, and he fell to his knees, panting.
“It didn’t work!” She twisted the flower cuff. “All that’s left is this, and Ivy made it herself. Except for the ribbon, and that came from you. There’s nothing else.”
“Wait, what ribbon?”
She held out her arm. “The green moonflower ribbon. It arrived just before I left home. You said you wanted me to wear it always.”
“Neylan, I didn’t send that.”
It only took a split second for the realization to hit. Zared! What a rotten little well-dressed rat. She grabbed the knife from her boot and handed it to Keir. “You do it. The whole thing, just in case”
He grasped the knife in both hands and she helped him slide it under the cuff. He sliced it through the middle and threw it over the edge.
Ivy would understand.
Keir groaned and crumpled into a ball on the tunnel floor, but the steam clinging to his skin slowly disappeared. He pulled her down with him and wrapped her in a tight hug. “You did it.”
She sobbed, relief making her limbs watery. At the same time, hot anger coursed through her at Zared’s treachery. He’d deceived her from the beginning. He was the reason her presence hadn’t broken Keir’s curse the first night she’d arrived in Mazereon. She would never know exactly what he’d done to that ribbon, because she would never again seek answers through sorcery.
Keir smoothed her wild hair from her face. “Um, darling, how are we supposed to get down from here now?”
“Euna and Majesty are waiting… .” She glanced around and then gasped.
The rope was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Neylan and Keir leaned on each other as they got to their feet at the mouth of the lava tunnel. The rope that had been dangling from the top, attached to Majesty so Euna could hoist them to safety, had disappeared.
Neylan peered over the edge at the waves bubbling on the beach, the last rays of the sun disappearing below the horizon, but she saw no evidence that the rope had fallen.
Keir cupped his hands around his mouth. “Euna!”
Wist, who was flying in circles outside the tunnel, suddenly squawked and did a nose dive towards them just as the rope dropped down next to Keir’s head.
Euna’s voice came to them faintly from above. “Hurry! Please, hurry!”
“Sounds like she’s in trouble—I’ll go up first.” Keir stepped into the loop and tightened it around his waist. He kissed Neylan quickly. “Once I find out what’s going on, I’ll pull you up.”
She nodded and tugged twice on the rope to let Euna know he was ready.
As Majesty pulled, Keir climbed. He made it to the top in under a minute.
The rope dropped back down, and Neylan wiggled into the loop, securing it over her thighs as before. She couldn’t climb like Keir and would have to rely on being dragged to the top.
The rope went taut, and she rose inch by inch. Wist grabbed the rope just above her hands and flapped, trying to help. If only his muscles were as big as his heart, she would be up in no time.
As soon as she neared the top, Keir’s hand reached out and he yanked her up and over the edge. Wist dove into her hair.
“There’s a razor-tail circling overhead,” Euna said. “Maj spooked.”
“You need to get to the tower.” Keir lifted Neylan onto Majesty.
“What about you?” Neylan scanned the sky, but if there was a razor-tail there, the darkness hid it well.
“I’ll be right behind you,” he said.
Euna didn’t wait for further instructions, and Majesty shot forward.
What were the chances the same razor-tail would show up a third time on its own?
Zared had said something about Idris training guardians for his lost kingdom. Could he mean dragons? But razor-tails in particular were extremely volatile around sorcery. It made them angry, unstable, and—
Unstable. Why did that sound familiar?
The book from the tower. It had mentioned something about alarming control in the same sentence as razor-tails. And something else about breaking the bond.
Did Zared somehow have control of the creature?
Majesty’s talons slung chunks of grass and clods of earth behind her as she sped along, until the tower finally appeared in the distance. Seconds later, a razor-tail screeched, and a gust of wind marked its passing overhead.
Majesty ducked, and then she lurched to the side, skidding over the grass as she limped to a halt.
“Its tail got her shoulder!” Euna said.
Oswald rode up, sword at his side and bow in hand. “Your Highness, are you all right? What are you doing here?”
“Long story. There’s a sorcerer on the loose, and he may be headed this way.” She was about to mention Keir when he came running up.
At the same time that Oswald took in Keir’s human form in the darkness, Keir saw the gash on Majesty’s shoulder. Though their eyes were full of questions, neither voiced them.
“Your sorcerer may be here already. Our second horse is missing, and it wasn’t taken by the dragon,” Oswald said. “Ysmay is at the tower with her bow. We need to get you there, Your Highness.” He held out his hand to help her mount behind him.
“The princess will be co
ming with me.” Zared rode out of the darkness on the missing horse, a dark stain covering the lower part of his shirt. He addressed Oswald. “Don’t try anything with those weapons. I’ve got one far more deadly in the air.”
An ear-splitting screech pierced the darkness.
So he was controlling the razor-tail. If she could figure out how, perhaps she could break whatever bond he had with it, like the book mentioned.
“She’s not going anywhere with you.” Keir grasped her hand and gently moved her behind him.
Majesty crouched on the ground, whimpering softly as Euna staunched her shoulder wound with her cloak. If pressed, the tough little dragon could probably get Euna to the tower, and Keir could ride with Oswald.
Neylan stepped out from behind Keir, one hand on his arm, and spoke to Zared. “I’ll come with you on the condition that you call off your guard dog and let them get to the tower.”
“No,” Keir whispered fiercely.
Zared smirked. “Deal.”
Turning her back to him, she looked up at Keir and whispered. “Trust me. Please. Ride for the tower as fast as you can, but keep your eye on the razor-tail.”
“I don’t like this.”
“I know what I’m doing.” Sort of, although she had no idea if it would work. At least it might keep them all safe.
He put a hand to her cheek. “Be careful.”
She nodded. “Go.”
He sprinted to Oswald and clambered up behind him. They took off at a gallop towards the tower. Euna and Majesty followed as quickly as the injured dragon could manage.
Neylan took her time walking to Zared’s side.
He met her halfway and dragged her up so that she was forced to ride sidesaddle in front of him. “I’m keeping my eye on you this time.” Nudging the horse into a trot, he headed for the woods.
She had her eye on him, too, but she was looking for anything that might tie him to the dragon. He wore no rings, but the silver chain of his pendant peeked out from the edge of his shirt and winked in the moonlight. If she remembered correctly, the coin was stamped with the outline of a dragon… and had been given to him by his “former master,” Idris. The sorcerer in search of a kingdom. The man gathering a dragon army.
That had to be it.
She waited until they’d nearly reached the wattle fence surrounding the clearing. Prepared to jump, but bracing herself for a fall, she grasped the chain and yanked with all her strength. The pendant fell into her hand, and she threw it as far as she could into the deep meadow grass.
“You fool! Do you realize what you’ve done?” Zared’s grip tightened around her waist.
“Evened the playing field,” she gasped at the pain burning up her back.
“You’ve signed their death sentence. Look!”
The razor-tail, which had been circling far overhead, swooped down towards the meadow—but it wasn’t headed in the direction of the riders nearing the tower.
It was headed towards Zared and Neylan.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Your bracelet will keep it at bay. I wove a protection spell into the moonflower ribbon.”
So that’s what he’d done to it. She held up her now-bare arm. If only she’d known. That explained why the razor-tail hadn’t been able to reach her in the tree when she’d gotten lost in the woods. He’d ruined Ivy’s precious gift for what? So he could make pretty dresses? Her stomach churned, and she felt like she might be sick.
Seeing her bare wrists, Zared cursed and spurred the horse into a gallop.
Oswald and Keir turned as well, and then headed in their direction. Ysmay was already running towards them from the tower. She shot an arrow.
The razor-tail let out an ear-piercing cry and swerved towards the attackers rushing at it. Juveniles were not normally as confrontational as a full-grown pack, but this one had been enslaved by sorcery for who knows how long. It was understandably furious.
Neylan scratched Zared’s arms and kicked at the horse’s leg with her heels, trying to get away.
A terrified Wist dug his talons into her scalp. She’d nearly forgotten about him.
“You’ll regret this later,” Zared growled, struggling to subdue her and spur the horse.
“Not likely.” She dug an elbow into his ribs.
He punched her in the stomach hard enough to knock the breath out of her. “You’re going to get us killed!”
The horse jumped the wattle fence, landed with a teeth-jarring thud, and then slowed down enough to weave its way among the trees.
The screech of the dragon reached them through the canopy directly overhead. Leaves and twigs rained down as the razor-tail lunged into the branches, but it failed to break through.
“Let me go, Zared. You’ll go faster without me.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, I can’t return to Master Idris alone,” he said, a note of panic entering his voice. He ducked a branch and swore. “You’re what he wants. The dragon was an experiment.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. Focus, Neylan. And think! Zared was stronger, and she was exhausted and had no weapons. What did she have?
A dragon. She had an aconite dragon. “Wist,” she whispered forcefully, trying to make it sound like a cough. “Wist.”
The razor-tail roared from somewhere behind them, but it was impossible to tell if it had entered the forest. Zared glanced over his shoulder.
Wist scrabbled through her tangled hair and tiptoed onto her collarbone.
“You still have that thing? I knew I should have made those moonflowers stronger.”
Her skin prickled with anger. So, he admitted to poisoning Wist on purpose. Well, let him have a taste of his own medicine. “Wist, spit.”
Wist didn’t hesitate, and he didn’t need to know where to aim. Instantly, he leaned forward and projected a wad of venom at Zared’s face. The sticky green substance landed on his upper lip and nose.
Zared screamed and swiped at the venom, which spread it over his skin even more. Within moments, it covered his fingers and half his face. He jerked the horse to a stop and jumped off. Howling in pain, he pulled handfuls of grass, which he used along with his shirt to try to wipe his face clean, but it didn’t work.
Free at last, Neylan snatched up the reins and swung her feet into the stirrups. Wist chirped encouragement into her ear. She guided the horse slowly in a wide arc to avoid backtracking and running into the razor-tail, relying on Zared’s cries of pain to drown out her passage through the underbrush and draw the creature away from her. When she reached the fence, she urged the horse over, thankful it seemed to have been trained as a dragon soldier’s mount, alert, but not skittish. Oswald and Keir caught up with her near the stables.
They all stopped, and the horses pawed the ground.
Ysmay ran up a few seconds later. “It’s still circling, testing for weak spots in the canopy.”
Oswald handed his sword to Keir and then addressed his wife. “Get the princess inside.”
Without missing a beat, she jumped up behind Neylan, keeping her bow ready. “At a walk, please, Your Highness. We don’t wanna draw attention to ourselves, and the horses are trained not to bolt.”
The horse moved forward at Neylan’s touch, head up and muscles taut, but keeping its pace slow and steady.
Oswald’s horse neighed and thundered away in the opposite direction.
“Duck!” Ysmay pushed Neylan’s head down as the dragon rushed by overhead.
The wind of its passing whipped her hair into her face.
Oswald’s bow twanged behind them once, and then again. He barked an order as tree branches cracked and splintered somewhere in the forest.
Neylan’s own heartbeat drowned out any further sounds until they nearly reached the tower, when a blood-curdling scream split the air and then stopped.
She looked back, but there was nothing to see in the darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Two hours later, Neylan sat at the kitchen table insid
e the black tower, her hands wrapped around a steaming cup of tea, and Keir’s arm wrapped around her. The caretakers sat across from them.
Euna had been tucked in upstairs with Wist at her side and slept soundly, much like Majesty, who lay snoring in a corner, her shoulder bandaged. Once cleaned, the wound had proven to be less serious than it had first seemed. She would be able to make the trek to the palace in a week.
“If I don’t have threescore more grey hairs after this… .” Oswald rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t care if he was a sorcerer, I don’t like losing anyone to one of those beasts.”
“Mmm.” Ysmay propped her chin on her hands. “You did your best, love, but that creature had a grudge, and there wasn’t anything gonna stop it.”
Neylan shivered and Keir tightened his hold. They had stopped the razor-tail, but not before it had put an end to Zared. She hid her face in Keir’s shoulder. She’d wanted to protect her family from such things, but you couldn’t always fight fire with fire. Some knowledge was best left alone.
“You know, in all its years,” Oswald said, “this old tower has held only three sorcerers. They always seem to wind up somehow doing themselves in. Hazard of the trade, I guess.”
“You should get some rest,” Keir murmured in Neylan’s ear. “We’ll be getting an early start in the morning.”
She nodded and excused herself to join Euna upstairs. As she slipped under the blankets, she embraced her confusing grief over Zared’s loss, letting quiet tears soak her pillow, while also focusing on the fact that Keir was free.
The curse was finally broken.
*
“Euna, have you seen my blue slippers?” Neylan peered under the bed in her room at the garden manor.
“Right here.” Euna wheeled into the room waving a pair of shoes.
Neylan frowned. “Those are yellow.”
Euna handed her a crumpled piece of paper. “This is a good note. I promise.”
Two weeks had passed since they’d returned from the black tower. Baz had discreetly handled the arrangements for Zared’s burial, while ensuring that the people of Mazereon knew the razor-tail had been defeated. Vanda had officially asked Neylan to stay on as her tutor and companion, and had also chosen two ladies-in-waiting… who both agreed not to wear red for at least six months.