by Eva Brandt
“If it pleases you, we could assist you in locating him,” Emmerich offered. “We are all excellent trackers.”
While I did not think the flood had been their fault, I could still appreciate and respect the fact that they were taking responsibility for the consequences of their arrival. Even so, I could not dump the task on their shoulders without adequately preparing them for it, nor could I take advantage of their willingness to help. “First of all, I do not blame you for his disappearance. I believe that there is something else at work here that has no direct connection to your actions. However, I do admit that finding Jack is exactly the task I had in mind for you.”
I got up from my seat, suddenly feeling like I couldn’t breathe in the closed off space of the office. “I’m afraid the situation is a bit more complicated than it appears, and before you can attempt to go find him, you need to know the whole story.”
The balcony doors opened as I walked up to them and the blizzard welcomed me in its embrace, soothing my senses. The three dragons followed me outside without me having to ask them to.
I leaned against the banister of the balcony and idly swept my hand through the air, playing with the snowflakes. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I commented as I took a deep breath and filled my lungs with the icy air. “The view from up here.”
Today, the sky was cloudless, and while the rays of the sun did very little to provide heat, they seemed to make the white expanse of my realm glow with an almost surreal light. In the distance, the evergreen forests where Jack and I had played as children stood out like beacons, reminding me of simpler days and moments I had thought forgotten.
I was so lost in my memories I almost yelped when Raijin provided an answer to my rhetorical question. “It really is. The most beautiful sight I’ve ever witnessed in my life.”
I wasn’t sure I believed the flattering remark, as I had no doubt his homeland had its own charms. If nothing else, our conversation from the night before had made it clear that he had to be just as attached to Terra Dracones as I was to my own realm. But as skeptical as I might have been about his assessment, the fact remained that the dragons had insisted on staying here, by my side, which made it all the more important to proceed to the topic we actually needed to discuss.
While melancholic musings about my kingdom’s attributes were all well and good, I was actually needed to do more than play with snowflakes and reminisce about my old friend. If I wanted to get to the bottom of this, I had to begin with bringing my guests up to speed.
“I appreciate your compliment, but now is not the best time to discuss such matters,” I said. “First of all, the mission which I want to entrust to you is one of great delicacy, and I must have your word, the word of all of you, that you will be discreet while accomplishing it.”
Technically speaking, they had already promised to assist me, but assistance and discretion were two different things, and I had a feeling that once the dragons heard about the nature of my worries, they might be inclined to do something rash. They had proven to be temperamental before, and I didn’t want to take any chances.
One by one, they all made the promise in question. “Of course, Your Majesty.”
“You have our word.”
“We will not fail you.”
I rewarded their easy compliance with a smile that would’ve probably been an impossibility two minutes ago. “Good. Now, here is how it all began. Jack and I were childhood friends. The history behind that is a little... complicated, as he heralds from the family who used to rule this land. He and I knew one another before my father took over Chronikos. I was actually born in The Realm of Eternal Youth, where my youngest sister, Eranthe, is now queen.
“In any case, the dynamic between Jack and I changed somewhat after my father became the ruler of Chronikos, and the wedge only increased once I took the throne of The Realm of Eternal Ice.”
I hadn’t really been surprised about it at the time, and I hadn’t blamed him for it either. Jack had always had a problem with authority figures, especially female ones, and I hadn’t been exempt from that just because of our history. If anything, the opposite had been the case. The past had still weighed on us, no matter how much we might have tried to hide it, and while I had accepted that burden as part of my responsibilities, I’d hoped to give my friend a better fate.
“That is actually the second reason why I offered him the post of guardian of The Bridge of Frosted Leaves. I knew he had no desire to stay here. He never much cared for The Palace of Serenity. He happily accepted my suggestion. As far as I know, he’s always been satisfied with the position, although whenever he comes to me to report in, he always ends up pranking January or one of the yetis.
“But as I said before, despite our friendship, Jack is also royal blood, from the previous dynasty. That’s always had some unfortunate political connotations, and I fear it may have something to do with his disappearance.”
“Do you think your missing subordinate is attempting to dethrone you, Your Majesty?” Raijin asked, the air around him suddenly thick with barely restrained power. “If that is the case, we could—”
I cut him off before he could finish offering a suggestion which I suspected would involve far more violence than was warranted at this point. “Not at all. Jack has never cared much about political disputes and grudges, and even if he had, he’s never resented me for the past. He’s also much too lackadaisical to ever want the throne for himself. No, I’m more concerned about Jack’s father.”
“His father?” Emmerich repeated, his dark eyes burning like fiery coals. “Do you think he may have been involved in this disappearance in some way?”
While warranted, the simple inquiry threatened to resurrect my migraine. “That’s a complicated question. Ded Moroz works for me now, as an advisor of sorts, and he’s shown me nothing but loyalty. He didn’t occupy an important position in the previous regime. Granted, there might be leftover bitterness from that time, but I never deemed it strong enough to warrant this kind of behavior.
“Still, I have to consider the possibility that he would want to stage this disappearance and blame it on me. It’s not really his style, and it is unlikely that he’d force his son into such a plan, but it is an option that needs to be taken into account.”
Despite the fact that Ded Moroz’s loyalty had always been to the realm, he’d also loved his family. That had come with serious complications after my father had taken over Chronikos. Half the time, I didn’t know what he actually thought about me and to what extent he still resented us for what had happened. Either way, I could not exclude the possibility of him turning on me, even if he had not shown inclinations toward such schemes before.
“It will look bad, won’t it?” Kerryn asked. “The fact that you granted us a pardon even if we’re technically to blame for the whole thing.”
His voice was almost as low as the Yuki-Onna’s, and yet, the actual words echoed around us like the rumbling thunder of Tarasia’s fiercest storms. “Maybe, maybe not,” I replied. “Some people might indeed be inclined to resent you for your indirect involvement in the flood, but they will set aside their personal feelings since they trust my reasoning. In any case, we’ll have to deal with this situation one step at a time. No matter who the culprit might be, I do need to find Jack. I owe him that much, at least.”
I probably owed him more than that, but it was something I could not explain to the dragons. It was much too complicated, and much too painful to get into at such a time. Maybe one day, I would tell them, if they did decide to stay longer, like they had said. But not now.
The dragons didn’t press me for further answers. “We will find him for you, Your Majesty,” Raijin promised instead. “You have our most solemn vow.”
The others echoed him, and despite my highly problematic situation, I couldn’t help but smile once again. As much as I hated the thought that Jack was missing, the task of finding him would serve as a good test for the dragons’ capabilities and mi
ght help me determine where we all actually stood with one another.
Better yet, if I was satisfied with their performance, I would even give them a reward. It would be suitable, after all, since they weren’t my staff per se, and they were assisting me with a difficult mission I’d have had trouble accomplishing on my own.
I still had that present from Pandora which I’d never gotten to use, and some ideas from the last Bacchanal I’d been invited to which I had yet to put into practice. As far as I’d been able to tell, their response to the dress I’d worn the night before had been promising. Why not take it a little further?
Chasing away my past doubts and self-consciousness, I allowed my magic to flow over them once again. “Excellent. I am pleased to see your zeal. Accomplish this feat, and you might even receive a prize.”
The tendrils of my power danced across their bodies, emphasizing the meaning of my words. I could feel their pulses accelerate as desire thrummed through them, responding to my incorporeal touch. Any dilemmas I might have had on whether they wanted me or not instantly evaporated.
It would have been so very easy to take what I wanted, right then and there. But I was a queen, and I had a duty to my nation and to my friend. I retracted my magic and leashed my personal desires once again, hiding them under my well-practiced and well-suited mask of ice. “But obviously, at this time, discussions of prizes are a bit premature. You should shift into your other forms. We will now travel to the bridge to investigate the situation at hand.”
My dragons happily embraced my instructions, and as I watched them shift, I couldn’t help but think that my day had finally taken a turn for the better.
Hey, I might’ve been the avatar of winter, but I had needs, and apparently, three dragons who were very willing to fulfill them. My sisters were going to be so jealous.
Five
The Bridge of Frosted Leaves
Emmerich
Soaring through the skies of Tou Cheimóna was an experience I’d probably never forget, for more than one reason. I’d always enjoyed flight—it came with being a dragon—but as a firedrake, I’d had a little more trouble at high altitudes than others of my species.
I had no such trouble now. For the first time, I could fly just as high as my longtime rival-turned-ally Kerryn and our former, shared foe, Raijin.
It should’ve been strange, especially since it was so much colder here than in Land der Drachen. In fact, this whole place was so different from our home, from everything I had ever known in Terra Dracones. But despite this, it felt right, just like being with the queen of this beautiful realm always had, from the first moment I had set eyes on her. It was an omen if I had ever seen one, a sign that we had chosen a correct approach to our situation.
Our conversations with Cheimon had already confirmed this. The night before, she had been kind and welcoming, effortlessly seductive in an almost innocent way. This morning, the innocence had been set aside. She had acknowledged and tentatively accepted our suit. Although she had not outright stated so, she seemed open to being shared, and she had displayed a degree of sexual attraction toward us. She had even promised us a prize, and I was hopeful that it would involve getting rid of all those cumbersome clothes that hid her beautiful body and making her scream in ecstasy. As much as I had appreciated the lovely and very revealing dress she’d picked for our dinner, I would still prefer absolute nudity and fully intended to make it happen sometime in the near future.
Despite my optimism regarding our relationship, though, I found myself infuriated at the news of the threat she faced. She might have glossed over the details, but it was obvious to me that she had a great deal of enemies that were threatening not only her reign, but her life. This was unacceptable, and a problem that needed to be fixed as soon as possible.
It took every shred of self control I had—which, admittedly, was not a lot—to keep myself from demanding that she allow us to remove her enemies from existence. Judging by her demeanor at the palace and her reaction to the offer Raijin hadn’t gotten the chance to fully make, she would not appreciate me eviscerating the man who was, for some reason, her advisor. She truly was a gift beyond anything I had ever expected, and if I wanted to prove myself as her potential mate, I had to respect her decision.
Currently Cheimon was riding Raijin, and I was dragon enough to admit that I was jealous of not having been picked as her mount. However, I understood the logic. She was unaccustomed to draconic bodies and my wings and Kerryn’s would’ve hindered her.
There was time enough for her to ride us all, in more than one way. In the meantime, I still needed to address some issues we had not had the chance to discuss at the palace. I might not be able to eviscerate her enemies yet, but perhaps later, between the three of us, my fellow dragons and I could convince her of the advantages of this course of action.
“Forgive me for speaking out of turn, Your Majesty, but you mentioned Ded Moroz was your advisor,” I said. “How exactly does that work and where is he now?”
Still holding onto Raijin’s crest, our lovely female turned toward me. “Ah, yes. Well, in the early days of my rule, he actually played more of a part in court life. I took the throne at a fairly young age, and I was still unfamiliar with the subtleties of leadership. His sole interest has always been in serving the land, so I trusted him to provide me with accurate information on what the citizenry might like, despite the less than ideal relationship between my family and his.
“I don’t include him as much in my decisions as of late, since I no longer feel that it is warranted. Prior to your arrival, I had sent him to the new dam on the Topaz, to make sure the flooding that was affecting the land was under control. I have no doubt you’ll meet him soon, though. I can’t imagine news of what happened won’t reach his ears, even if I didn’t actually tell him about it.”
“I assume he won’t react well to these developments,” Kerryn commented. “Is there any approach in particular we should take should he attempt to be violent?”
“Let me handle Ded Moroz. I have no doubt that he will be upset and may blame you for this debacle, but responding to any hostile action with violence of your own would not work, and may even undermine my authority.”
That made sense. She was the queen and the female, so she had the final say. It stood to reason that she’d want to deal with the potential threat herself. It did render my original evisceration plan moot, which was unfortunate. Ah, well. I’d just have to find another way to assist her. We’d promised to help her track down that Jack Frost male. I would start there.
She had not mentioned exactly what she needed us to do for this purpose, but she had recruited me and my two companions for this mission herself, and she wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t have a specific plan and course of action in mind.
As if guessing my thoughts, Cheimon decided to provide us with further instructions on what we’d actually be required to do. “Your task will be to focus on finding Jack,” she said. “Once we arrive at the bridge, I want you to take note of his scent and magical trail, and see if you can track him down through your own means. My previous attempts at the palace failed, and that doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence regarding my own ability to pursue any leads we may find.”
The slight tightness in her voice instantly put me on the edge. “Why is that, Your Majesty?”
“Nothing moves in this realm without my knowing it. If I concentrate on a certain presence and connect with the realm, I should in theory be able to find that individual. Naturally, I can’t do this with every single being. There are some prerequisites. I need to be familiar with the person, with the feel of their essence. But as I said before, Jack and I were quite close when we were children. I should not have had this problem in his case.”
The idea of her being ‘quite close’ to anyone except me, Kerryn and Raijin made me bristle, much like the obvious affection she had displayed toward the Jack Frost male at the palace. I reminded myself that I had no real claim to he
r present and future, let alone to her past. Also, the ‘wedge’ between her and Jack Frost seemed to indicate he was not a threat to our incipient bond. If that turned out to be false, he’d have to be removed in a way that didn’t anger our female.
It was much too soon to think about that. For the moment, she was clearly upset by her inability to find Jack Frost, and we had to provide her with comfort, no matter what. I wasn’t sure how to approach this, so I was actually a little grateful when Raijin did it in my stead. “Do you have a theory on the reasons why this could have happened?” he asked.
“Only two explanations come to mind. The first is, as I said, a possible intervention from Ded Moroz. I don’t find this very likely, as he is not as powerful as me, and he shouldn’t have been able to block my abilities, even if he did preserve his natural magic after I became queen. The second option, which I think might explain everything, is an attack from an outside factor. I would not be able to sense Jack if he was outside my borders. I’ll make a second attempt once we reach the bridge, just in case he decided to cross it and went off on his own into my sister’s territory, but I have a feeling it will not be so easy.”
“Well, if there is a trace there to find, rest assured that we will track it down,” I promised. “Easy or not, we will figure out what happened.”
The conversation died after that, as we were approaching our destination. Cheimon directed us all to descend, and soon, the bridge came within view.
The structure itself was unlike anything I had seen before. Most draconic species didn’t need bridges all that much, but we were accustomed to the rocky overpasses we used to learn how to fly. Our current location was nowhere near as simple, or as easy to describe. I wasn’t even sure the word ‘bridge’ was appropriate.