She threw the unused eye over her shoulder, and it splatted as it hit the rock wall of the cavern.
My belly lurched.
“How long before we have the others?” Lyssa turned to the shadow figure, her fists on her hips in the perfect display of the spoilt child she was.
What did she mean, others?
The shadow held a wraithlike arm out to the princess, who took it, allowing him to lead her back toward the staircase. “Sssoon, princess. Sssoon.” He started humming again, the tune the same one I’d heard that night, but this time words accompanied the song.
“A Faer child’s wings, consumed by your power.
A dragon King’s eye, eaten after death’s hour.
An Eldar King’s mind, drawn down to shadow,
and a Brownie King’s soul, turned mad as a crow.”
The words hit like a mountain falling atop me. My wings…my wings weren’t just some cruel whim. I struggled to breathe as they reached the stairs and began to climb.
“Only unicorn horn, freshly sawn,
and a Dwelven Prince, gutted at dawn,
will grant you the Darkness
and make it your pawn.”
NO! I knew right away who they meant. I almost shouted the name. As the light retreated up the stairs, disappearing to leave me lying in the dark, I drew my knees up to my chest and cried.
They’d taken my wings, and the eye of the noble being I lay hiding behind. My wings were gone. I hated what she’d done, but there was nothing I could do about it. The dragon…king?...was already dead. I couldn’t do anything about him either.
But Hoggan? NO! I wouldn’t let them kill him. The others in the rhyme—besides the unicorns—I didn’t know. I knew Hoggan. I loved Hoggan, and as I watched the light vanish, I vowed to the Maker that whatever happened, Hoggan would survive. I would do my best for the others, try to find and free them, but they wouldn’t kill my friend.
Then the other shoe dropped. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach as I realized the horrible truth. I’d thought I had to get past a dragon to find the key to break the curse…but the dragon had been the key, and when I’d come down here the other night, I’d broken the spell being used to protect it.
My hand flew up to cover my mouth. Guilt overcame me, and I just lay there on the cold stone, shaking and weeping uncontrollably. I’d killed the dragon king! After an immeasurable time, I straightened my stiffened limbs and got up. I walked in the darkness until my hand found the ruined head of the mighty being.
“I’m sorry,” I sobbed, my chest heaving. The words the dark figure sang still burned in my mind. They had my wings. They had the dragon eye. The eldar king was obviously Lyssa’s father, and by the sound of it, he was well on his way to shadow.
I had no idea who or where the brownie king was, but I vowed to find out, but only if it meant I could avoid being tricked into removing the barrier and allowing the dark form access.
But Hoggan and Firefoot? I would save them or die trying.
Chapter Six
The Coast
The wind gently whipped my braid as we soared above the plain. Glyran’s golden gleaming scales were beneath me and I couldn’t help but smile.
‘Yes, smile, little faerie. I am certain you have had little to smile about these last few weeks.’ Glyran’s thoughts were tinged with anger and sadness. We’d been flying for almost an hour, most of it in silence. I hadn’t dared try to talk to him, in case our ability to silently communicate was revealed to the princess, who flew on a beautiful silver dragon on Glyran’s left wing. All around and behind us were Lyssa’s court, a flight of over a dozen mighty forms bearing us toward the vast stretch of azure blue creeping closer on the horizon.
I hadn’t slept last night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the princess eating the emerald eye.
‘Is it safe? Can we speak without them hearing us?’
A mental nod came from the dragon. ‘We can now. I have fashioned a spell to shield us when we wish to do so. We need to be close to one another, however.’
I breathed a sigh of relief. I had so many questions, not just about what happened last night. ‘Can you tell me about the curse?’
Anger and frustration bubbled in Glyran’s mind. ‘Before I came to the Tree to get you, the king expressly forbade me to tell you anything about it. Part of the spell that gives them dominion over the dragons allows them to give orders. As long as the orders would not lead to harm of themselves or another dragon, we have to obey.’
I ground my teeth in frustration. Then I smiled a small, cunning grin. ‘What if I tell you what I know, what I suspect? You’d be able to tell me if I’m right or wrong, yes?’
Curiosity. Uncertainty. ‘Perhaps…but how have you gained knowledge of the curse? If the king ordered me not to breathe a word, he would also have ordered all his people.’
‘Yes, but not all the people in the Citadel are eldar.’
Understanding. Amusement. Pride. ‘I know Brecca has been in the Citadel for a long time, but I never took her for the type to snoop around. Not when she knows the repercussions should she venture places she shouldn’t.’
Brecca? I giggled silently but wondered at his words. Did he mean the warning the king gave me? ‘Brecca? No. I know she’d help me if she could, but the princess uses her to spy on me.’
Glyran barely restrained a roar as fury echoed through the link. ‘She’s using that innocent child in such a way? Grrr…if her father was only free, they would suffer for this outrage.’ The massive form below me shuddered as a wave of pain threatened to overcome us both, his physical, mine felt through the link. We both recovered quickly, and I chanced a glance at the princess. Thankfully, she’d been looking toward the ocean ahead and hadn’t noticed.
‘What happened?’ I suspected, but Glyran confirmed it.
‘I almost inadvertently revealed a detail of the curse. The pain was a warning.’
I gasped, my hands digging into the grooves between his scales. ‘If that was a warning, what would have happened if you’d actually told me anything?’
He snarled, mentally. ‘Nothing good.’ I supposed that was enough. ‘If not Brecca, then who? She’s the only non-eldar within the walls of the Citadel, besides you.’
I sent confusion down the link. Hoggan had said he knew Glyran…well, technically he hadn’t come right out and said it, but that’s what he’d meant, hadn’t he?
I shivered as an icy hand seemed to run up my spine. I trusted Glyran, but I didn’t know him well, and I’d spent a whole week with Hoggan, sharing all our secrets and desires. And the dragons were bound to the eldar.
Glyran’s words from just a few moments before slammed into me: Part of the spell that gives them dominion over the dragons allows them to give orders. As long as they would not lead to harm of themselves or another dragon, we have to obey. Could this have been his way of warning me? No…it couldn’t be. We were linked, mentally. I’d be able to sense deception, wouldn’t I?
No. Not if the princess had ordered him not to give anything away. Glyran was ancient. He’d be able to easily fool a child like me.
‘I did as you said. I went looking for secrets. I found them.’ I felt horrible, lying like that. But if Glyran was under Lyssa’s orders to reveal everything I told him, I couldn’t reveal the truth. If she found out what Hoggan had told me, she’d punish him, and I couldn’t let that happen. ‘I found some sort of library. A scroll mentioned something about the keys to unlocking the curse.’
Glyran stiffened, but there was none of the pain as before. ‘Glyran, you don’t have to answer, but if the keys exist, stay silent for ten seconds.’
Each second was like the toll of a clock, until the tenth arrived.
‘You have your answer.’
I shuddered. I was about to take a huge risk. ‘I think I found one of them.’
The emotions assaulting my mind almost overcame me. Bewilderment mixed with wonder, terror and hope combined with an overwhelming s
ense of concern for my safety. No matter what Lyssa was making Glyran do—if indeed she was—and it wasn’t a product of my own twisted paranoia, Glyran cared deeply for my well-being.
Eventually the maelstrom calmed enough for him to form a coherent thought. ‘I never thought…not in a thousand millennia, that the prophecy might be true.’
Oh no…not this crock of dragon dung again. ‘I…read about this ‘prophecy.’ From what I can tell it’s nothing to do with me.’ My thoughts darkened and the dread within me grew. I was about to lie again and it hurt. Then I grew angry, furious at the power the princess seemed to have over every facet of my life, but this wasn’t the time or the place. I needed answers. ‘I think it’s a dragon. One of the keys is a dragon, and it’s trapped somewhere below the Citadel. Ten seconds again, Glyran.’
The silence was accompanied with an incredible wave of love and pride, tinged for some reason with an edge of bitter sadness. Ten seconds. ‘You have your answer.’
The voice in my head was shaken and tragic, so unlike the strong and majestic being I thought I knew. What had provoked such sadness? And what reaction would he have when he found out the object of such a bond of love was dead, killed by my actions, if not directly by me. Worse, what would he do when he found out I’d lied?
I hated myself. The feelings of love toward me a moment before sickened me. I wasn’t worthy of him. Would he understand I did it to protect Hoggan?
Hoggan. He’d suffered at the hands of the princess. He’d healed me after she’d ruined my precious wings. He’d given me the map. At that moment I knew I loved him like another brother. The thought provoked a tear as I thought of my family. I’d deal with Glyran’s anger when…if…I ever told him the truth.
‘I will find the keys, Glyran. I will break the curse and free you all. I swear it.’ As a swell of pride and gratitude flowed through the link, I felt a tug from directly below, a thread flowing from Glyran’s fire within his belly to the gift he’d given me that first day.
It told me what I suspected. It was a message, delivered in a cocoon of living flame that washed over my consciousness.
‘She knows, child. She will use me to try to trick you to reveal all you know. This message will, I hope, reach you in time. It is triggered by a promise you made on our first flight. You didn’t know at the time you made it, but I felt it within you. You will free my people…all the races, from bondage. You will fulfill a destiny unknown to you. I cannot say more. Forgive me.’
The cocoon snapped shut, and I was left reeling. He’d known this would happen. Thank the Maker I hadn’t mentioned Hoggan. Our mental conversations were flashes in time compared to the eldar’s awareness, but I couldn’t risk giving anything away. I tightened my legs around Glyran’s flanks in understanding, and his chest swelled in acknowledgment. My fingers quivered as I caressed his scales.
I so, so wished I could talk to him, but even as I looked to my left, the princess gave a cruel grin and a spear of pain stabbed my head, a reminder of her dominance.
Maker! Our conversations might have been a flash in time, but the speed of dragon flight was unprecedented. Before us, the ocean stretched out, the light azure of the bay we approached giving way to deep, dark blue. Glyran banked left and spiraled down as my stomach lurched.
Amused laughter mixed with frustration. ‘One day, child, we will fly…free. Do you hear that, princess? Hear my thoughts.’
As we flew over a beach of pristine white sand, Lyssa glanced back. For a second I saw something, and I wondered if Glyran’s message was just for me. Could he have been speaking to her, somehow aware of the innocent child Hoggan had described to me? Her eyes met mine, and I remembered the forest she’d created, the feelings of familiarity and home she had granted me, even if it was for such a short time.
Then it was gone and Glyran chuckled as the princess threw a mental rod of lightning that speared toward his breast. I felt the impact through the link, a sensation not unlike a feather floating across my skin. The eldar couldn’t truly hurt the dragons. Glyran knew, as did Lyssa, but it didn’t stop her trying. I saw her eyes narrow as she turned to face forward again and felt her fury over the tenuous bond we shared.
Then her anger give way to a sensation that surprised me. I didn’t think she was even capable of it, but as I followed her gaze, my heart echoed the wonder filling the princess’s chest.
We flew low over a range of pristine ivory cliffs, the sunlight glinting off the cobalt sea to cast a riot of colors on the surface of them. The salt air filled my lungs, and my heart leapt at the life I felt around me. There were birds here; huge, white and grey creatures that flew up to meet us, circling and screeching.
And there was life, all around us, in the air and beneath the surface of the crystal-clear waters. Beings, unfamiliar but no less wondrous, sent greetings to the dragons. I caught a whisper of conversation between them, words alien and unknown, but the emotions behind them had tears prickling the backs of my eyes.
Love and affection flowed through the air, and I wondered briefly how the eldar could possibly miss it, but their faces were blank and impassive as we rounded a promontory.
Glyran banked as he flew through a fissure between two monstrous columns of white stone. A shiver caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end, and as the other dragons followed him through the chasm, I realized it was a doorway. Above, the sky shimmered with a barely perceptible lattice of pencil-thin pink lines, like the sky as it turned before becoming fully crimson at sunset. Some sort of shield?
‘Why do they need a shield?’
Ten seconds passed before Glyran sent a mental scowl. Another thing he’d been prevented from discussing.
Breath left me as our destination was revealed, instantly banishing my curiosity. Off the coast, nestled in the shallow waters, lay an island. There were more dotted throughout the bay, but this one was huge.
It was roughly crescent shaped, with mountains rising to caress the sky on three sides, and in the middle lay one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen.
Where the Citadel was all spires and towers, the city we approached was like a jewel, split apart and laid in the sea, with the facets polished into the colors of the rainbow. The slopes of the interior reflected the sunlight, and as we flew closer a kaleidoscope of colors filled my eyes.
‘It’s wonderful.’ Several minds joined mine in affirmation, which made me jump. Glancing around, I caught Astria’s eye, who winked at me. She’d heard me, as had the other dragons, but yet the eldar hadn’t.
‘Welcome, Jesaela.’ The voice seemed to come from all around, singing in my mind as Glyran and the others landed on the pristine white sands before a sprawling villa that stretched from the water’s edge back into the dense jungle foliage. Everywhere I looked, crystal rose from the sands, but unlike the dwelf-sung walls and buildings I’d seen back in the Citadel, these were natural. And more, the life I’d felt as I entered this place didn’t come just from the corporeal beings.
The stones talked, not consciously, perhaps, but I felt compassion as I ran my hand across a deep emerald outcropping, a slight shock of power passing through my hand and down my body to the sand caressing my feet.
Suddenly, the presence snapped away, withdrawing deep into the crystal, and I felt an undercurrent of resentment. Fear, even. I wondered briefly at the reason, before the explanation dawned.
“These are so crude, don’t you think so, Jes?” Lyssa stood beside me, the sound of the surf having masked her approach. I could feel the scorn emanating from her as she looked around. “Little more than mud huts when compared to the magnificence of the Citadel.”
I clenched my fists, biting my bottom lip to choke off a response. Behind her, Glyran’s molten gaze seared into her back, and he bared his foot-long fangs. I thought for a moment he’d actually attack. I knew exactly how he felt. I managed to stay silent…barely.
As the princess’s court gathered around her, I became aware of another group approaching
from the villa. They walked slowly toward us, and to my amazement I realized their bare feet left no footprints as they walked on the sand. It was like the beach danced around them. With each step they took, a spiral snaked across the fine expanse out to join another. Before they halted before us I sensed a symphony of music all around us, but again…only I seemed to hear it. The princess and the other eldar stood, stony faced, oblivious to the wonders around them.
Why did I feel like crying? What were these emotions filling me? Something deep within warned me not to reveal what I felt for these people. I mean…how could I feel anything for them? I didn’t even know who they were.
I shook my head. Lyssa’s scorn actually provided a familiar anchor as I regained my senses. There were a dozen in the group. A dozen to match our…no, not ours—the princess’s party.
At the head was a tall elf. Somehow, I couldn’t think of him as anything like the eldar I’d encountered so far. He just looked…nice. There was no other word that came to mind.
He smiled. His face was lined with scars I’d never seen before. When he smiled, the skin around his lips and cheeks crinkled into an expression that made me want to laugh. All of the beings with him smiled, and they did so in defiance of the gloom my party brought with me. His jaw was wide and strong, with cheekbones that made his face even wider. It was a face designed for the perfect teeth he displayed. There was nothing false in it, and as his eyes took in the party alongside me, their eyes dropped, unwilling to meet his relentless joy of life.
He looked at me and I took an involuntary breath. His eyes were the same emerald green of the deep sea beyond the islands.
“Princess.” The voice was deep, and his eyes held mine for a long second. He seemed to reluctantly break away, as if staring into my eyes was like looking into a memory, long lost. Then they were gone, his bright eyes passing over mine to bear down on Lyssa. I sensed a battle of wills before he bowed. “Welcome to my home.”
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