“Dragonian justice is swift,” Rion said. “We don’t have much time.”
They had only about an hour. Lucan paced, barely containing the pain of having to make such an agonizing choice.
“What do you want to do?” Rion asked gently.
God help him, he didn’t know. By going after her, he was risking the Grail and humanity’s future.
But how could he live with himself if he left her to die? If he didn’t try to save her?
His choices had consequences. Terrible, catastrophic consequences. He could either abandon the woman he loved to torture and certain death—or allow humanity to become extinct on Earth. The rational part of him told him he had to forget her, that somehow he had to move on.
But the dragonblood pounding through him reminded him she was his life mate. That life without her would be pure misery. With his mind battling his heart, he felt as if he was being ripped apart.
“Have you seen my future? Are Cael and I reunited?” He hadn’t wanted to know the truth earlier, but now he couldn’t bear not knowing what the future held.
“I’ve seen nothing helpful. Just bits and pieces. Us fighting together.” Rion sighed, his face compassionate. “I’m not even sure if we’re battling on Pendragon or some other world.” Rion clasped his forearm. “I would give you more if I could.”
Lucan spoke to the computer. “Get me every detail on Dragonian weapons and detection systems and a schematic of the residence.” Lucan gestured to Rion and led him toward his own shipboard locker. “Come with me. I want to get you up to speed on our weapons.”
“So if the computer finds us a rescue angle…”
“It won’t hurt to prepare for a fight.” He handed Rion a laser pistol. “Notch one is stun. Two is injure. Three is kill.”
Rion slammed the setting to kill. “What else have you got?”
For a time, the veil will thin, the worlds shall touch, and mankind will reach into the heavens.
—THE LADY OF THE LAKE
25
A few hours ago, Quentin had flown Cael back from the mountains to Carlane. He’d ordered his men to chain her to a chair in a lower room of the residence. Now she was trying to smile at Jaylon, who stood shifting from foot to foot in front of her. Quentin, the bastard, wasn’t above using her family, even a small boy, to get her to give up the Grail. But even if Cael wanted to tell him the Grail’s location—and she didn’t—she had no idea where Lucan and the artifact were now.
She only had a short time—time to reflect, Quentin had said—before his men resorted to torture. If she revealed the Grail’s location, Quentin had promised her a painless death at sundown. With the murder accusation and her fingerprints on the knife in Shaw’s back, she couldn’t prove she was innocent.
Even if the Elders or some of the believers wanted to try to rescue her, the residence was built like a fortress. Over the years these ancient stone walls had been upgraded with modern security systems and would be impossible to penetrate.
For Jaylon’s sake, Cael pretended the chains and the guards around her didn’t exist. She pretended that the threat of being tortured to death wasn’t making her head light-headed with fear. “You look better.”
“I am.” Jaylon puffed up his chest with pride. “The healers said I’m a miracle. But I know the truth. You healed me.” Jaylon bit his lower lip, and his eyes grew round with worry. “They say you’re a murderer.”
“Just because they say a thing doesn’t make it true.”
“Why won’t you give them the Grail to heal other sick children?” Jaylon asked.
Funny how a small boy was the first one to ask why she’d acted as she had. No one else had had the sense to do more than make demands. Even her sisters, huddled together on the opposite side of the room, had urged her to take the easy way out and give Quentin the Grail.
How could she explain the stakes to this precious child so he could understand? She thought for a moment and then spoke gently. “Suppose everyone was sick with a fever and there wasn’t enough medicine to go around. Some people would be very sick, but many would just be a little sick. Whom should we give the medicine to?”
Jaylon looked down and scowled, then looked her straight in the eyes. “Those who are very sick?”
“But suppose those who are very sick needed lots of medicine. And those who are only a little sick needed only a little medicine.”
“Then it would come down to which choice would save more lives.”
Proud tears came to her eyes. “That is what I have done. By giving the Grail away, I have saved more lives than would be saved if I gave it to those who keep me here.”
“It’s not fair.” Jaylon advanced another step.
He was close enough for her to breathe in the sweet baby scent of him, but a wise soul looked back at her from those childish eyes. She’d never lied to him and wouldn’t do so now. “Life isn’t fair. But the Goddess doesn’t ask more from us than we are able to give.”
“I don’t want them to kill you.” His eyes filled with tears.
Her stomach clenched. She didn’t want to die. She especially didn’t want to die in terrible pain. This dear child, who had been through so much, must have recognized her trembling. Jaylon slipped his tiny hand into hers.
Sonelle gasped. “Don’t touch her.”
Jaylon pretended he hadn’t heard.
Cael’s voice sharpened. “Tonight I’ll face my own mortality and you’d deny me a bit of comfort?” She lifted her head, but Sonelle would not meet her eyes.
“Why must you be so stubborn?” Sonelle’s words, proud and resentful, cut Cael to the bone.
Hurt that even now her sister chastised her, Cael lashed out. “Yes, I’m stubborn. Stubborn enough to have gone after the Grail to save your son.”
Sonelle’s neck reddened. “For that I will always be grateful. Thank you for saving him.” The words came out stiff, formal.
But Sonelle’s thanks shocked Cael almost as much as the sorrow she heard in her sister’s voice. Apparently, it took Cael’s impending death to win Sonelle’s sympathy. Still, it was an unexpected gift to know her sister would mourn her. Cael swallowed hard. “Take good care of Jaylon.”
Sonelle nodded. “I’m sorry your life… has come to this.” She held out her hand to her son. “Jaylon, let her go.”
“No.”
“Jaylon, you will obey me.”
“It’s all right.” Cael nodded to Jaylon. “Do what your mother says.”
His lower lip quivered. “I’m staying right here.” To his mother’s horror, he crawled into Cael’s lap, flung his arms around her neck, and sobbed.
Sonelle shook her head and rejoined Nisco.
Meanwhile, Jaylon cried himself to sleep on Cael’s lap. His presence, his touch, his tender affection were a most cherished gift. Cael wished her arms were free to hold him. But she could nuzzle his hair, breathe in his innocent scent, and take comfort in his weight and his body heat.
Nisco wrung her hands and sighed. “I’m so sorry this is happening to you. To us.”
“Have they threatened you again?”
Nisco shook her head. “But once you’re gone, we’ll lose everything. Our home on the sacred grounds. I don’t know what we’ll—” She drew herself up straight. “I’m sorry. Here I am going on about a silly house when you…”
“Isn’t this what you always wanted? To be free of me?”
Nisco shook her head, her eyes tearing. “I didn’t want this. Not for you. Not for me. Not for Jaylon.” Her gaze swept over the sleeping child and softened. “Is there anything I can do?”
Nisco’s offer touched Cael. She was about to answer when she yelped at a sudden pain in her hand. Still on her lap, Jaylon held a small sharp knife. There was blood on her palm. Blood on Jaylon’s palm. He was placing his palm to hers, letting their blood mix.
“By the Goddess, Jaylon, no!”
“Yes.” He lifted his face to hers, his eyes calm.
“Why woul
d you do such a thing?” Cael demanded, struggling against the chains, unable to move.
“I saw the male dragon fly you to the medical center. I want to be like him.”
Sonelle looked from Cael to Jaylon, her expression confused. Her gaze dropped to their bloody hands. And she fainted. Nisco rushed to her.
“Jaylon,” Cael said, “why do you think mixing our blood will turn you into a dragon?”
“The healers at the medical center saw the male dragon, too. They said you’d broken a taboo and must have given Lucan your dragonblood. Were the healers right? Will your blood make me—”
“I don’t know. Do you understand that if you change into a dragonshaper that you’ll be feared?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Sweetie, you’ll likely live out your life alone.” Of course, he hadn’t thought this through. He was a child. “Why, Jaylon? Why do you want to be a dragon?”
He answered without hesitation. “Because I want to be strong and brave like you.”
I rode forth to war, and part of me prayed that I would return no more to hopeless love.
—ARTHUR PENDRAGON
26
Nisco patted Sonelle’s cheeks. “Open your eyes. Wake up.”
Sonelle moaned softly and regained consciousness.
“There’s something I must tell you,” Cael said.
Sonelle struggled to her elbows. “About the Grail?”
“About your son.”
“Jaylon?”
“He may have dragonblood.”
Sonelle turned even paler. “What?”
Cael kept her words calm. “Don’t faint again. There’s no time. Quentin and his henchmen will be back soon.” Goddess help her, they would torture her. Breathing hard, mouth dry, she forced down the panic. Pain would come soon enough.
“What does having dragonblood mean?” Sonelle asked, as if afraid of the answer.
“Jaylon may become like me.”
“A dragonshaper?” Sonelle backed away.
“Lady Cael is more than a dragonshaper,” Jaylon cried.
Nisco pulled him to a far corner of the room, away from the discussion.
“How could you?” Sonelle said to Cael. “Not my Jaylon.” Her eyes were wild with panic. “You’re lying. There are no male dragons.”
“There are now.”
“It’s not possible.”
“Later Jaylon can tell you about what happened. Be gentle with him. Be patient—”
“Don’t tell me how to bring up my son.” Her face twisted in fear and horror. “How could you do this to him?”
Cael sighed. “Jaylon will need your help and your love.”
“No one loves a dragonshaper. You know that.”
Her sister’s words sliced like a knife. Lucan had loved her, but he was lost to her. Somehow Cael stifled her pain. “You’re his mother. Sonelle, please, for the love of the Goddess, listen to me for once. Being High Priestess or High Priest is lonely.”
“I’m not stupid. I understand that it isn’t always wonderful. But you live in a palace. People adore you.”
“People fear me. It’s taboo to touch me. I would not wish that for Jaylon—”
Outside, the scream of an engine unlike any Cael had ever heard screeched across the heavens. As if renting the air, the terrible sounds thundered through the residence.
Was the Goddess showing her displeasure by shaking the moon with a giant quake? A deafening clamor filled the air, like the cries of a thousand wounded birds of prey.
Quentin burst through the door, his eyes black and demonic, his weapon in hand.
Cael spied the open door at his back. She flicked her gaze to Nisco in the corner and, with a jerk of her head, indicated she should take Jaylon and run.
Sonelle started to bolt but froze. Quentin aimed his weapon at her. With his attention on Sonelle, he didn’t notice when Jaylon and Nisco made their escape.
Sonelle finally managed to move, but before she could reach the door, Quentin fired. Soundlessly, Sonelle dropped at his feet, her blank eyes staring sightlessly at Cael.
Stunned, horror-struck, Cael blinked. One moment her sister had been alive, the next she’d passed into the Goddess’s realm. Now Quentin was aiming his weapon at Cael.
“Last chance.” Quentin spoke over the screeching metal that sounded like a hundred crashing skimmers. “Tell me where the Grail is or I’ll burn off your toes, then your feet, then your hands. Inch by inch, you’ll die.”
The floor shook. Stones separated and cracked. Bursts of light shot into the room. Quentin scrambled for cover behind a row of shelves.
Flying debris filled the room as a huge metal machine crashed through the far wall, the thunder so loud her ears pounded in pain. Mortar and stone tumbled, and one wall of the residence toppled and shot up a dust cloud. Cael stared in shocked silence as a foreign metal object the size of a skimmer slid across the stone of the storage room floor, engines screaming, sparks flying.
The object was round, black metal, shiny. Alien. Some kind of transport? A spaceship?
By the Goddess. Was this Lucan’s ship? If so, could anyone inside have survived the crash?
She expected Quentin to call for his men, but he strode straight to her and placed his weapon against her forehead.
She closed her eyes and prepared to meet the Goddess. At least there should be little pain.
Still, she shook with terror.
“Fire that weapon and I’ll destroy the Grail.” Lucan spoke softly, his voice edged with fury.
Cael opened her eyes. Lucan was exiting a hatch in the side of the smoking ship with the Grail held firmly in his grasp. Rion covered his back, firing at soldiers who were attempting to pour through holes in the damaged building.
Firing a strange weapon, Lucan wiped out the guards in one swiveling burst of white light.
Lucan had come. He had come to save her.
She didn’t know whether to laugh or sob or curse. But her eyes drank him in like a starving dragon in need of platinum. He had a long cut over his forehead, a bruise under one eye. His tunic was shredded, matted with dirt and soot and blood.
He’d come for her.
But he shouldn’t have. His ship was smoking, sparking. Smashed. The brave fool was going to get himself killed or blow them all up. And now how would he get back to Earth? Yet she was so happy to see him her pulse raced, her hearts danced.
“Let her go,” Lucan demanded, hefting the Grail over his head, “and I’ll give you the Grail.”
Keeping the gun to her head, Quentin reached into his pocket and pulled out the key to the lock that kept her chained. “Hand over the Grail and I’ll give you the key.”
“Don’t believe him,” Cael said. “He killed Sonelle.”
“She was a means to an end,” Quentin boasted. “Unimportant.”
“Not to her son,” Cael argued, hoping to distract Quentin as Lucan edged forward.
Rion took up a position by the door and cut down all who entered. But it was only a matter of time until the military brought in heavy armor and more soldiers swarmed inside. Even with superior firepower, Rion and Lucan couldn’t hold off an entire army.
Lucan stopped advancing on Quentin when the two men were at arm’s length. He held out the Grail with one hand, reached for the key with the other. Then he tossed the Grail straight at Quentin’s face.
Quentin dropped the key and the gun. His fingertips touched the Grail. And Lucan lunged and tackled the man to the floor. The Grail went flying, clanging as it rolled. Wrestling, the men tumbled, arms and legs punching, jabbing and kicking.
Rion grabbed the fallen key and freed Cael. “We have to get out of here.”
Cael kneeled and scooped up Quentin’s weapon. She rammed home the energy clip and turned to see what she could do to help Lucan.
She peered through the dust. Quentin had pulled another weapon from somewhere. Lucan backhanded the other man’s wrist and Quentin yowled in pain, then kneed Lucan in the kid
ney.
Soldiers broke into the building through a damaged area and another wall crumbled. Cael fired, pushing them back as they dived for cover, wishing she had a clear shot at Quentin. But with the men rolling across the floor, she might hit Lucan by mistake.
Rion kept firing steadily. Outside, the military forces were unifying and coming closer. Merlin suddenly flew in through the open ceiling, and for a moment the owl appeared to dive right at Rion.
What in the universe? The bird had an uncanny ability to tell friend from foe. Why did he look as if he was about to attack Rion?
Cael searched for a reason, peered into the smoke, and her throat closed with fear. “Jaylon.”
The boy was running toward the residence, past soldiers who were firing at Rion from behind overturned vehicles, downed trees, and rubble. Ducking and weaving, the boy stayed low. But he’d been running straight into Rion’s line of fire until Merlin swooped down and flew straight at the barrel of Rion’s weapon.
Terror for the boy slamming through her, Cael shouted, “Rion, don’t shoot the bird. Or Jaylon.”
“Jaylon?” Rion frowned, lowered his weapon, and peered through the smoke and haze. “The kid’s here?”
Jaylon tried to run straight past Rion toward his mother’s body, but thankfully, Rion scooped him up, placed him in a protected corner, and kept firing. “I can’t hold much longer.”
Lucan killed Quentin with a kick to the head just as the military, wearing uniforms that identified them as serving the Division of Lost Artifacts, broke through on three sides. The scientist was dead, but General Brennon’s troops were overrunning the residence.
“Retreat to the ship,” Lucan ordered above the smoke and noise.
“It’s on fire,” Rion yelled back.
They had mere seconds before the soldiers converged on them. Lucan rammed another energy clip into his gun. Rion grabbed Jaylon and pushed the boy behind him, then used his body to shield Jaylon as they both retreated to the center of the room.
More men poured into the residence.
“Follow me.” Adrenaline pumping, Cael ran to Jaylon, picked him up, and raced out of the lower room and up the stairs. Merlin flew overhead. Rion and Lucan followed, taking turns to stop and lay down covering fire.
Lucan Page 26