Hushed, Tales of Ryca, Book 2

by Shereen Vedam

  Her niece had a plan. Tamara saw it in her eyes. She would enter Isa, find a way for Fane to bond with a dragon, and then fly them out of that realm in search of Bevan. Marauding giants or difficult dragons notwithstanding.

  Even the possibility of being trapped on Isa did not faze Skye. The possibility expanded in Tamara’s mind.

  Silently, she pleaded with Skye to not go. She couldn’t stand to lose her, as well as Bevan. Her mother would never forgive her. Tamara could never forgive herself. She shook her head, hoping to discourage Skye.

  Her niece stared back, and then mimed the words, “I’m sorry,” and turned back to the keeper.

  Tears flooded Tamara’s eyes. She had nothing left now but to go home and tell her mother that without lifting a finger to help, she’d allowed Skye to walk into danger, as she had Bevan. The first time, she’d done it from a sense of impatience. This time, it would be sheer cowardice.

  Jarrod came over to Tamara’s side and sat beside her, taking her hand. There was such profound understanding in his gaze that a long dead part of Tamara woke up with a start.

  Her spine firmed, stiff as an ancient oak. Shaking off his hold, she stood and approached the old man.

  Don’t think.

  Don’t plan.

  Don’t worry about what’s to come.

  Live for this moment. One breath at a time. For once, do what’s right.

  “We are going to Isa, Keeper,” Tamara said. “You can either help us reach there safely, or stay out of our way.”

  Everyone in the room gazed from her to the keeper.

  Silence rang like a thunderclap.

  The keeper raised his hands blindly toward Tamara. “Come here, girl.”

  She looked at his foggy eyes and shivered. What was she doing? Don’t think! Just breathe. She knelt by the old man.

  The keeper put his shaky, clammy hands on either side of her head. He leaned forward until their foreheads touched and brought his uniquely, gagging scent. Whiffs of it invaded her lungs. No, don’t breathe, hold your breath.

  Just as she thought her chest would explode, dragons flew at her. At least a dozen. In the air. Chasing her. Screaming in rage.

  The keeper released his hold and she fell onto her hind end. She was back in his smelly quarters.

  Tamara’s tight chest deflated like a pricked bubble, air gushing out. Which was when it dawned that when those dragons chased her, she’d been airborne.

  The keeper laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked.

  The old man shook his head. Tears streamed down his wrinkled old cheeks. He hacked, trying to catch his breath between chortles. “Fane!”

  “Yes, Master? I’m here.”

  “Take my blessings with you to Isa.” He caught the boy by his neck and, still in great humor, brought him down to his level. “You’ve done well, boy. Beyond my wildest expectations. Now go. The queen of the dragons has spoken.” Then he laughed again, hacking and wheezing.

  “He’s gone mad.” Thyel said.

  Tamara cringed at that, afraid if she said she’d seen dragons in her mind, he’d call her mad, too. Instead, she stood and gave Skye a nod and then walked out the door, heading for the portal room.

  Queen of the Dragons, indeed. Somehow, he must have tapped into one of her nightmares and the old fool was making fun of her. Face hot with embarrassment, she wanted to get away from the keeper before he said anything else rude.

  Skye raced to catch up. Her niece’s slender fingers gripped hers, the only indication she appreciated Tamara’s support.

  Tamara squeezed back and made another silent promise to her mother. I will take exceptional care of her, mother. I won’t lose her, too.

  * * *

  It took Fane a while to send a homing pigeon to request and receive confirmation from a neighbor that he would look after the old keeper while Fane was away.

  Finally, all but the keeper convened in the portal room and Jarrod retrieved the Quinlin stone from his tome. He stepped up to the depression in the wall and gently laid the stone in its proper resting place.

  The Quinlin started to glow.

  He stepped back as the circle of light expanded. The stone’s vibration increased as the portal built, growing taller and wider, until it covered the gaping hole in the wall.

  “Are you sure you want to come with us?” Skye asked Tamara.

  “Wrong question.”

  “Right.” Skye squeezed Tamara’s fingers in understanding.

  She would never be ready for this. Tamara requested to be the first to step through. If the stone didn’t work and she stepped off the edge of the tower, it wouldn’t matter. She’d often imagined such an event occurring. At least this way, her sacrifice would save Skye. It was the least she could do for letting Bevan down when he needed her.

  At Skye’s worried look, Tamara lied and said, “The less time I have to think about it, the better.”

  She moved into the golden light and her body shivered and shook like the Quinlin stone in its resting place. Fear swamped her and she would have backed away except Skye, the foolish child, was right behind her. She hadn’t waited to see if her aunt was about to fall to her death.

  Tamara shut her eyes and mind to her fears and imagined walking through a lighted corridor. With each measured footstep, her heartbeat hammered like a summoning drumbeat.

  The walk seemed endless, filled with whispers, hundreds of voices speaking in tongues she couldn’t make out. A clear, oddly familiar voice asked. Tamara?

  Leave me be! Had she shouted that aloud?

  An explosion thrust Skye stumbling into her back.

  “What was that?” her niece asked.

  Tamara opened her eyes. They were inside a small crude temple made of wooden walls and a thatched roof.

  Fane, Jarrod, and Thyel came through next pushing her and Skye further into the room. The amazement on her friends’ faces mirrored her awe.

  “We made it!” Fane shouted. “This is Isa! This temple is exactly as my master described it.”

  To their right an alter constructed of a large flat stone held various implements carefully lined up. Fane ran to pick up a bowl and then a candle. He muttered in excitement over each find until, finally, his trembling fingers touched an iridescent scale the size of his chest.

  Tamara remained rooted as her friends and Skye wandered about, exploring various corners of the room. Her heartbeat continued to thud like the beating of a giant drum.

  Even as her surroundings skewed alarmingly, Tamara recognized the distortion for what it was. A clear sign of her fear, her world encompassing the space of her body, standing still, her right hand clasped safely within her mother’s left. Back then, she’d been unable to move a muscle, her thoughts skittering around the edges of her confinement like a panicked rat in a miniscule cage.

  Now, although she had all the freedom she could hope for inside this foreign realm, deep inside she knew there was no clear avenue to return home, which left her as trapped as she had been by her mother’s spell.

  She hugged herself as her blood cooled, then heated, and cooled again. Her legs shook so hard, she feared she might collapse. She headed for a bench on the far wall and sat. Bending, she laid her head on arms crossed over knees and allowed the swimming sensations to sweep through her.

  Finally, the queasiness stilled and she sat up and looked around. Straight ahead, Thyel studied the area they had just come through. The wall looked like a circular carved gateway. Within her hazy thoughts, she realized the tower room would have looked like this had it not been destroyed.

  Thyel ran his hand over an indentation. He picked up a handful of crumbly dirt. The remains of the Quinlin stone on this end? Had their use of the unstable receptacle at the other end destroyed the stone here, too, as the keeper predicted?

  Was that the flash that occurred when they came through? If the stone at this end had splintered a few moments earlier, while they were still inside the lighted tunnel, would they have
been trapped there with those incessant whisperers?

  Jarrod strode in front of her, blocking her view of the depressed shelf where the Quinlin should have been. He knelt until his face came surprisingly close. Taking her cold hands in his warm ones, he murmured, “We’re fine, Tamara. We made it through.”

  He’d read her thoughts again. She willed herself to remain tranquil. She did not want to visibly panic. It was bad enough he could read the darkest recesses of her mind.

  “Once we find Bevan,” he said, sounding not in the least concerned about that improbability, “we will fly straight home on a dragon.”

  Skye exclaimed then, pointing to a wall. “Look, a map!” She ran to study it.

  Jarrod looked over and his eyes widened with interest.

  History was recorded on that wall. Instead of being resentful of his distraction, Tamara softened, smiling indulgently at his keen interest.

  Skye’s find also gave Tamara the excuse to seek privacy, time to gain some self-control. “You’d better see what she’s found. Could be a map that shows us where the dragon nests are located.”

  “Will you be all right?” he asked.

  “Quite fine, Chief Councilor,” she replied, but with a tolerant smile. “Don’t let me keep you from your study.”

  He hesitated, then gave into his curiosity. With a nod, he went over to where Skye followed a route on the map with a forefinger.

  Fane and Thyel, too, joined Skye.

  Tamara was glad. She preferred to be alone. Her head had started to spin again. The room closed in on all four sides and made perspiration drip down her forehead to sting her eyes. Her heartbeat, while slower than earlier, still pounded away like a runaway horse.

  She spied a doorway at the other end of a corridor. Standing on shaky legs, she headed toward the sliver of light highlighting the edges of a door.

  “The map shows all of Isa, including the villages dotting the countryside,” Skye said in an excited voice.

  “Look! I know this village,” Fane replied. “My uncle lives there. He could tell us about the state of the dragons.”

  “Why not head straight for the dragon hold?” Thyel pointed at the map. “It’s closer.”

  “Because that would take us through giant country,” Fane said in a firm tone. “We don’t want to do that.”

  Her companions’ voices faded into the background. Their chatter seemed inconsequential compared to finding a way outside so she could see the sky.

  What matter where they headed? They would still be stuck on Isa. For now, all she wanted was to get out of this cramped little temple and see daylight, breathe fresh air. Hands braced against opposite walls, she followed the light that promised a sense of freedom.

  She pulled open the door and stumbled out into blessed openness. Fresh, cool air assaulted her face. She squinted into the bright daylight.

  The sky was painted in an unaccustomed grayish-blue hue. Thankfully, it was still high up and did not press down. The knots in her shoulders loosened. The land behind the temple stretched far into wide-open, grassy fields. By any measure, this new world was definitely not a tiny cage.

  Her teeth unclenched, and her sore cheek muscles thanked her. To the right were low-lying hills on the horizon, like freckles. A pretty sight. To the left, about a league away, a forest made up of strange spindly trees spread out in front of a mountain range whose tips were hidden by gray clouds.

  Among all this unfamiliar terrain, the three moons that hovered low on the horizon were pleasingly familiar. The sight gave her a warm reassuring embrace. She could as easily be standing on the castle gardens, looking at the horizon. This soil may be red instead of brown, but she felt sure those three moons were the same ones she’d seen last night from the castle balcony.

  Had it only been last night that her mother barged into Thyel’s room and berated Tamara on her conduct? The event seemed a lifetime away.

  Her perspective shifted. Had she approached her troubles with her mother in the wrong manner? Instead of rebelling against the queen’s every order, she should have proved to her mother that she was now an adult. One who no longer needed the queen’s protection, or anyone else’s.

  Perhaps this journey wouldn’t be a complete disaster. They might yet make it back home. A possibility that had seemed incredibly unlikely a few moments ago, now grew new wings.

  If they found Bevan and brought him home, her mother might see that Tamara didn’t need a caretaker. She could not only see to her own needs, but to that of her family and friends as well. Even without having a shred of magical talent.

  She rejoiced that she’d shown the courage to join Skye on this daring journey. Not only was she not trapped, she was in the midst of her very own adventure.

  She raised her arms and twirled, shouting, “I’M FREE!”

  “Munno!” a voice rumbled high overhead.

  Something plucked her up and raised her until air swept by painfully, plastering her hair across her face.

  Tamara screamed, fearing her nightmare had come to life. Eyes tight shut, she shouted, “Dragon!”

  “Dragon?” the voice above her mimicked her startled cry. She was spun around until she was dizzy and couldn’t make out what had her in its tight grip.

  Only once the spinning finally stopped did Tamara open her eyes and realize it wasn’t a dragon who held her in its fierce grip, but a giant man.

  Her assailant’s gaze remained focused on the sky above, the arm holding her swinging about with his continued frantic search. “Kanda? Kanda filty? Kanda dragon?”

  Her eardrums shuddered at the loud voice calling out practically in her ear.

  “Tamara!” Jarrod shouted in a tiny hollow voice from below.

  The world thankfully came to a stop as the giant stopped turning to look downward. Tamara’s head kept spinning for a moment more and she wondered if she was about to throw up all over the giant’s fingers.

  “Let her down!” Skye shouted up at them.

  Her head finally settling, Tamara leaned as far as she could over the giant’s fingers and craned her neck to look down. Far below, her friends and Skye had gathered outside the temple.

  “Kanda dragon?” the giant asked again.

  “I…I thought you were the dragon,” Tamara said.

  “Y?” the giant asked, turning his astonished gaze to her. “Y, filty?” Then he chuckled. “Y gulta, human.” He shook his head as if she’d said a silly thing, and with her still in his grip, he walked away from the temple.

  “Put me down,” Tamara shouted.

  He came to a halt and brought her up to eye level. “Cho?”

  “Because I don’t want to go with you.”

  “Ta munno,” he said matter-of-factly, pointing to his chest, and kept walking.

  “My friends will make you give me back,” she warned as his large legs ate up miles, leaving her group far behind.

  The giant looked back at the four tiny humans running after him. He gave a rumble of laughter and kept going, heading further into the plains.

  Tamara’s heart did a flip-flop of terror. He had a right to laugh. How would her friends ever find her if he kept going at this pace? She squirmed to get out of his grip, but he only tightened his hold, until she cried out in pain.

  The giant pointed a finger at her in warning but then thankfully, loosened his hold enough to let her breath, and then he kept walking.

  Tamara took a grateful breath. For a moment, she thought it wouldn’t matter if her friends ever found her because she would be dead by then. Then Jarrod appeared on top of the giant’s hand and Tamara let out a startled squeal.

  He pried at the fingers confining her, and she wiggled to get loose, whispering a heartfelt, “Thank you!” How could she have ever thought he didn’t care about her?

  The giant shook his fist and Jarrod went tumbling off.

  “Jarrod,” Tamara cried out, but he vanished midair. She breathed a sigh of relief. Thanks to his intervention, she’d almost freed herself
. Then the giant moved his fingers until she was firmly back in his grasp.

  Jarrod re-appeared beside her.

  “Nee da,” the giant yelled, flinging the hand that held Tamara, but this time Jarrod hung on to the large thumb.

  Tamara worked her sword free and used it to stab at the closest finger holding her.

  “Ahhhh!” the giant bellowed and sent both Jarrod and her flying through the air.

  Jarrod grabbed her dress and the two of them reappeared back by the temple.

  Tamara sheathed her sword and clung to Jarrod, afraid the giant would pluck her up again. If he did, she wanted Jarrod with her.

  “Cho?” the giant called. “Cho human? Ta munno!”

  The rest of her group ran up to them and they hid at the side of the temple.

  “Don’t make a sound,” Fane whispered. “Giants have great hearing.”

  The large man hurried back toward the temple. Jarrod encircled his arms around all of them, pulling close, and in one swoop, they found themselves on the far side of the encroaching forest.

  Tamara turned to thank him and found Jarrod pale and shaken. That had cost him more energy than he could spare. She hadn’t thought Jarrod’s magic had a limit. Obviously, she’d been mistaken. She put her arm around him in silent support and he sagged against her. His forehead burned hot to her touch.

  They looked back and saw the big man lift the little temple and look beneath it.

  Giving a “harrumph” of disappointment, he gave up. He set the temple down and walked away, scratching at his head with one hand and looking back every once in a while.

  “Thank you,” Tamara said once the giant was lost to their sight and it seemed safe to speak.

  “Yes, we all owe you our lives, Jarrod,” Skye said.

  Fane agreed and even Thyel reluctantly nodded in acknowledgement of Jarrod’s effort.

  “You’re welcome,” Jarrod said, “but let’s not do that again. I may not be able to transport all of us a second time.” He straightened beside her, seeming to have recovered a little.

  “Yes,” Fane added. “Everyone stay close.” Though his words addressed the whole group, his eyes were trained on Tamara.