by Meagan Hurst
“You will be a force to be reckoned with when you rule,” he murmured as he shook his head in amazement. “Imagine the poor mortals who come running to you in the hope that you will agree with their imagined or improperly perceived wrong-doings. Unless they are legitimate, and something you feel is worth the time correcting, they will have to learn tolerance. Your immortals won’t fight your rule because of this. It is a very wise avenue to take.”
Z shrugged. “I watched Tenia’s downfall from afar. You’d be amazed what you learn from watching others.”
Dyslentio regarded her with a strange expression on his features. “You are aware when it started it wasn’t a horrible kingdom?”
“I am well aware of the successes upon which it was built. It did fine for millenniums until things started to unravel. I can even pinpoint when the turning point was; it was fifty-seven years ago following the law that was passed to ‘protect’ civilians from the ups and downs of the economy. Once that went into effect other things were passed that just destroyed the kingdom as a whole. What amuses me the most is it was destroyed by the very people the general public thought was protecting them, when in fact those in power only wanted to serve their self-interest. They occasionally handed a tidbit to quiet the small masses who protested the direction the kingdom and its king was going in, but it fell on deaf ears in the end. Those are the people I saved, though. Unfortunately, it looks like they have already planned a repeat of that event in a short order.”
“It doesn’t require much to fell even a vast empire,” Nivaradros pointed out in a soft voice. One that spoke of his people’s—his family’s—fall from power. “Just a few mistakes and an awaiting enemy. Or, as in Tenia’s case, an awaiting buildup of magic caused by their own stupidity.”
“I still cannot believe you managed to force that many different magics from a variety of beings to weave together a shield that could withstand the magic that was released,” Dyslentio murmured in awe. “It is…unheard of. If it had been your magic, that would have been one thing, but every mage uses their power differently because of their thoughts and experiences. It makes spells antagonistic toward each other. It is the reason backlashes and mage storms happen. The effort alone should have killed you.”
“It did,” Z pointed out sourly. “But it had to be done. There was the smallest of chances I could have done this on my own, but it was easier to spread out between the heirs. Yes, it was hard to take all those magics and force them into a single entity, but the other option had a higher rate of failure I could not risk. Between the magic that I, the Shades, and the Heirs offered, it was enough—barely.”
“I cannot comprehend the mental capacity it would take to coalesce that much magic without having a doubt that it would work. You couldn’t have doubted yourself, or it would have failed.”
“We were looking at the possible end of the world, there wasn’t much room for doubt.”
“That is not how most beings would have seen it.”
“Agreed. The average human would have failed—”
“I’m going to say every other human would have failed.”
Scowling, Z inclined her head. “Fine. No other human would have succeeded, and half of the immortals would have failed by trying to turn it strictly into an advantage, while the other half would have considered the risk too great an undertaking.”
“Which means you are the sole being in this world who would have done what was required,” Dyslentio finished smugly as though he had made a point. And he had; she was just unwilling to acknowledge it.
“I think this conversation has concluded. Dyslentio, why don’t you make your request of the Dragons?” Z suggested sweetly as she raised a brow at the Kryhista.
“Now?”
“Indeed.” She smiled as she saw Nivaradros and Veilantras exchange an irritated glance. “Dyslentio wants to accompany us to the Isle,” she explained. “And I am tentatively willing to agree with his proposition.”
Chapter 8
Silence. It was not, in Z’s opinion, a good kind of silence, but the one that preceded a rather large explosion. Nivaradros was staring at her with a mixture of emotions she couldn’t even grasp, and Veilantras was watching Dyslentio with an expression that implied she was trying to find a more…delicate sentence than the one thought of first.
“It is far too dangerous, Dyslentio,” Nivaradros finally forced out in a tone that managed to attach a hiss of anger to every syllable. “The Dragon Court is…vexing. And insulting to those they find beneath their perceived superiority.” His tone was dry enough to add to the fire he had already built. His eyes were neon enough to warn both she and Dyslentio he was holding his temper back, but his motions revealed just how much he was in control. Z was impressed.
“You’ll require more support, Nivaradros,” Dyslentio told him. “Z and Veilantras are both solid allies, but their words will be lessened or dismissed. It will be impossible for the Council to do that to mine; our friendship is unheard of after all.”
Veilantras found words, but Z doubted they had anything in common with her original choices. “He has a point, Nivaradros,” she admitted after pause. “Z’s been compromised in their eyes because she is yours, and we know how they feel about our relationship.”
“I take it everyone is okay with the idea of possibly feeding Dyslentio to the Dragons?!” Nivaradros snapped, his temper escaping.
“I believe Z would protest,” Dyslentio replied. He moved to her side and nuzzled her shoulder.
Reaching out without thinking, she stroked his neck and met Nivaradros’s burning eyes with resignation. “Are you going to have an extended fit of rage? Or can we move to where you agree, I get to finish eating, and we can plan our next move through this damn snow that is such a pain to travel though?”
Veilantras and Dyslentio laughed as Nivaradros’s eyes dimmed to a calmer color and he theatrically covered his eyes with his hands. “Do you see what I have to deal with?” he demanded of both Veilantras and Dyslentio.
“It’s good for you; she is good for you,” Dyslentio observed with a laugh. “You are possibly good for her as well.” The last was said as an afterthought and with feigned doubt. Nivaradros stared at him with the stony expression Z knew he adopted when he was trying not to gape.
Veilantras chuckled; her eyes had long since returned to their calmest shade. “Nivaradros, they do have a point. I am…shocked to learn of your relationship with Dyslentio. It completely negates half of the argument the Council will attempt because it displays you were allies and friends with someone long before you met Z.”
“I am not the only friend he had,” Dyslentio observed with an edge in his tone. “I am simply one of the few who survived the wars and the politics that surround and engulf the world.”
Z blinked in surprise and glanced at Nivaradros. She knew he had been friends with Zyrhis’s mother, but it hadn’t really occurred to her that he might have had a group of friends at the same time. Nivaradros met her inquiring gaze steadily. He ignored Veilantras as if he was only willing to speak about this to her.
“There was a small gathering of us who traveled together at one point,” he admitted, every word drawn out as though he wasn't confident speaking them. “It did not seem relevant since most of them are deceased and it was a very long time ago. We wanted to explore the realms, and it was far easier to do when you had a mixed gathering.”
“Like the Heirs,” Z murmured.
“Entirely unlike your Heirs,” Nivaradros countered. “We did not have you, and we did not even have a unifying leader, cause, or desire. We accepted the fact that everyone had their own personal agenda and would use it against the rest of us. We also knew any one of us could and would kill whoever they could if they saw an advantage to it. It was…a walking threat, but we were young enough that it was possible to be friends for that short amount of time. Even Dyslentio was one of us.”
“Indeed, although I do believe you had the dubious title of ‘least likely to b
e assassinated.’” The Kryhista glanced at Nivaradros before he snorted softly. “We numbered seven at our height. One Syallibion, one Ryelention, two Nialtians, and another Kryhistian.” His eyes closed. “Of our group, Nivaradros and I are the two still alive.”
Z winced. It wasn’t good odds. She eyed Nivaradros in the hope he would correct Dyslentio, but instead she found him nodding in agreement. “Ariemee was killed while traveling with us when Jyrikan decided her death would benefit his plans. Jyrikan and Keravie died in a war between their people and the Ryelentions. And you know when Zyrhis’s mother died,” Nivaradros added quietly to Z.
“And the Ryelention member of your group?” she asked instead of answering him. The death of Aysastia wasn’t something she wanted to talk about, and she knew Nivaradros disliked discussing it.
Nivaradros hesitated. “Byriatyn.”
“He’s not dead,” Z said shortly. “He is—or was—very much alive.”
“You know of him, I take it?” Dyslentio murmured as he glanced at Nivaradros with a look she couldn’t decipher.
“He made the most… eloquent attack on my life? Yes, I know him quite well. It took several months for me to not to keep track of him while he was within the same room with me.”
“You managed to let him wander around unobserved?”
“By ‘not keeping track of him’ I mean I didn’t follow him everywhere with my eyes. As if I would have been stupid enough not to keep tabs on him at all!”
“That sounds more like the Z I know.” Nivaradros turned to Veilantras and sighed. “Do we take the Kryhista or do we figure out somewhere sort of safe to stash him?”
“I’m standing right here!” Dyslentio snapped.
“I’d be more comfortable with his safety if we left him behind,” Veilantras admitted, paying the fuming Kryhista no heed. “But it sounds like he would be a benefit to have on your behalf. You have been very…lax in responding to your summons.”
“Things came up. Zimliya’s condition, a possible magical end to the world, my condition, Zimliya’s condition again, and a few small wars.”
“I’m not saying you didn’t have good reasons, but from the viewpoint of the Council, you haven’t been as willing to comply with their summons as they think you should be. Especially since they offered you a seat.”
“I am terribly sorry I have offended their delicate feelings,” Nivaradros muttered in a sarcastic tone. “I had no idea I had wounded them this grievously. I am not going to treat them with the respect they have decided they deserve. They have never once treated me with anything outside of caution and insults. I will not fly to any command they give me, and yes, I know I cannot fly any longer—”
“Say what?!” Dyslentio broke in sharply. “Why are you unable to fly?”
Nivaradros didn’t even spare him a glance. “But I will not allow them to gain even a wind current of power over me. Over Zimliya. I am a Dragon, but I will never answer to the Council. To borrow an entirely mortal phrase—they burned that bridge some time ago. I am going out of courtesy to you, and I am going to reaffirm what they suspect. I am no longer bound or answering to their laws in any manner. I will answer to Zimliya’s laws alone.”
“And you wonder why I am concerned about this meeting,” Veilantras grumbled.
“Why are you unable to fly?!” Dyslentio repeated. When Nivaradros didn’t answer, his eyes moved to Z. “What did you do?” he demanded in a voice icy enough to freeze the snow around them.
Z took a step back without thinking—eyes on his horn, which had adopted a glow. “I didn’t do anything!” she snapped back. “If the Dragon doesn’t want to tell you, I am not getting involved.”
Nivaradros’s eyes edged dangerously close to neon. “Dyslentio, she had nothing to do with it and no prior knowledge. In fact, if there has been any issue between us, that would be it. It is not important and I would appreciate it if you didn’t try to attack Zimliya.”
Dyslentio’s attention remained riveted on her and Z had a feeling he wasn’t going to back off. “Dyslentio…I will fight you if you make me,” she told him softly. “I would rather not. Are you going to waste my healing?”
The sharp mood in the clearing turned dangerous, and Z sighed. Calling Kyi’rinn to her hand, she watched the Kryhista for signs of an attack. She would, as she had said, fight him. Though she never wanted to fight—especially not immortals—she wasn’t about to just lie down and let someone kill her. Especially for this perceived wrong.
“Dyslentio, stand down!” Nivaradros bellowed as he moved between her and the Kryhista. “This is not—in any manner—her doing.”
“But is it her fault? Did she cause you to sustain injuries that cannot be repaired?!”
Z grimaced as Nivaradros stiffened. “Zimliya, seal the area.”
“Is there a particular reason you want my magic over yours?”
“You are the more powerful and talented of us; I trust your magic in this more than mine.”
He was being serious, and that worried her. Inclining her head, she reached for her magic and reached for the element she touched even less than shadow; absence. Throwing it around them until not even the ground had purchase, she added a layer of magic as well, which was tricky since absence technically nullified all magic.
“You’re safe to speak—if you choose to,” she informed Nivaradros softly. “I feel it is unwise to tell him.”
“It is, but at this point I am disinclined to lose him, and you would kill him with ease in a fight. Since he is too foolish to let this lie, I have decided to accommodate him with his idiotic request. Are you certain we cannot be overheard?”
The look she gave him should have killed him. She was rather glad it hadn’t, but if he was going to insist her magic was more powerful, insulting her right afterward was not in his best interest. “No, I left a handy-dandy little hole so someone can eavesdrop. Because I want this spread all over the lands.”
He didn’t even blink at her sarcasm. Instead he turned back to Dyslentio. “You will make a binding oath to me or I will let her kill you.”
The Kryhista’s eyes blazed. “A binding oath?! Just what the hell happened, Nivaradros?”
“Something that cannot be spread. You know what the result was to a point; do you want that to be common knowledge?”
Silver eyes blinked as Dyslentio sighed. “Fine,” he muttered. “But I cannot imagine why all of this is necessary.”
Z noticed Nivaradros was smug sometime later when he finished explaining the basics. Dyslentio was just staring at him—and at her. “I am sure you understand why this is not to be made common knowledge, although at this rate I shouldn’t try to stop it,” the Dragon added the last bit sourly and in an undertone. The undertone was ineffective as everyone heard him.
Dyslentio found his voice and turned his anger on her. “How could you let him do that?”
Z was starting to understand how Nivaradros felt when people went off on him for his past deeds. “I didn’t,” she said tiredly. “I didn’t even know anything about it until long after the fact—as Nivaradros explained.”
“Enough!” the Dragon hissed while he exchanged glances with Veilantras. “Zimliya is mine, Dyslentio. Surrendering this form would have changed that. I’ve already explained everything to you in detail. Had I not accepted what was offered, Zimliya would have died—you would also be dead, now—and I probably would have done something stupid as a result. Her life belongs to me. I was not about to surrender her to death because of some damned magical arrows!”
“Which you didn’t. Can we move on?” Z snapped. She had had enough. It was days—years really—like this that reminded her why she considered immortals such a pain in her ass sometimes. “If you two need something to argue about we can always go back to Dyslentio coming with us to the Isle.”
They took her up on that, and Z found herself even more irritated. Letting her magic fade, she exchanged a resigned glance with Veilantras. The female Dragon chuckled softly and ge
stured for her to follow. Glancing at the two males of the party, Z nodded and moved to trail Veilantras as Nivaradros and Dyslentio began to descend into yelling.
Veilantras shifted once they were in an area where she could. Shaking herself with care the Dragon glanced down at Z and smiled. “Come, let’s leave the boys to their argument. I am sure it will take adequate time since you are not there to calm it. With their history, I doubt Nivaradros will harm the Kryhista.”
Z chuckled and moved onto the Dragon’s back. Veilantras waited until she was settled before taking to the skies and Z struggled to keep her guilt under wraps. Even though she was not as close to Veilantras as she was to Nivaradros, she could feel the female Dragon’s pure delight and joy at being in the sky, and the argument between Dyslentio and Nivaradros brought her feelings about it to the surface. Veilantras flew for a good hour until the very beginning of the morning before she folded her wings and dove down through the clouds to a ridge that led to a cave on the side of a glittery mountain. It was protected, and Z could feel the power in the wards from where Veilantras landed.
The Dragon’s wings managed to knock some of the snow out of the way, but Z still landed in about a foot of snow when she slid from Veilantras’s back. “One of your lairs?”
“A secondary one,” the Dragon agreed since she knew Z knew about her lair on the Isle. Dragons weren’t supposed to have lairs outside of the Isle, but Z saw no reason to report this to anyone. Shifting back to her mortal form, Veilantras gestured for Z to precede her into the cave. “In case I need to say it,” she added in a resigned tone, “I have no plans to harm or kill you.”
“Well at least I know it’s not planned,” Z teased as she headed into the cave. As she walked fire began to appear in ribbons upon the stone and it lit the way with light and shadow. It was elegant, but Z had been spoiled by Nivaradros’s magical talents and Veilantras’s power paled in comparison.
The main room was decorated in a similar fashion as the halls leading to it, and Z settled onto the floor as Veilantras did likewise. The female Dragon watched her before smiling and shaking her head. “I owe you an apology.”