Dance of the Dragon Sorceress

by Heather Rainier

  “In what way? We’re used to a certain amount of weirdness around here.”

  She tapped her fingertips against his upper arm, her gaze skipping around the terrace as she tried to find words. Then she said, “You remember how you said that creepy Soren Heinie-crack dude was a tangere and he could spy for Draconia and she could communicate through him?”

  Basile chuckled, enjoying the sensation of her lush form bouncing slightly on his torso with each movement. “She uses them as a conduit receiving and sending messages.”

  “Okay, I’m glad you put it that way because I felt like I got sucked into a pipe—sort of—only…”

  “Only what?”

  “Only it goes one way.” She rubbed her forehead, obviously struggling to explain.

  “Maybe you should just start from the beginning and tell me. If it was a dream, it’ll make you feel better to talk about it. If it wasn’t a dream, then we need to know. Maybe we can make sense of it together. Do you think Zayrgrud was attempting to reach out to you?”

  “No. That’s the weird thing. I think I reached out to Draconia. Not willingly, of course.”

  “I’m not sure whether to be terrified on your behalf or excited to get information. How do you feel right now? Do you still have the headache? Feel worse?”

  “No, the rest did me good. The ibuprofen I took earlier fixed my head.”

  Despite the circumstances, he had to grin over the amusing word pictures she sometimes presented them with. “I’ll take that as a positive thing. What is the first thing you remember from the dream?”

  “Nothing but darkness at first, but I heard a woman’s voice. It was only her voice I heard, so I assume she was alone. She was talking to herself.”

  “Can you recall what she said?”

  “It was jumbled up, like she was having multiple conversations. I felt like an observer but from a dark space inside her head.”

  “Close your eyes and breathe in and out slowly.”

  Her lashes fluttered closed.

  “What was the first thing she said?”

  She breathed out slowly and then said, “‘It’s nearly time. It’s all mine. They’ll be all mine, or they’ll be dead. Like her. I have her beauty. I have her sight. Her vitality and strength. Her attraction. If I have to consume every last one I’ll do it to—”

  “To what?”

  “To reign over the entire continent of Tangere,” Selena said from nearby.

  “Hey! Here now—” Fermin shouted as he lunged forward to place himself between Selena and them.

  “Fear not, Fermin Guggant,” Selena said. “You have nothing to fear from me, tangere. Neither have they.”

  Fermin looked to him for confirmation, and Basile nodded. “This is Selena Eryaras of Etherea, Fermin. She won’t harm us.” And hopefully she comes bearing good news.

  “You’ll forgive my intrusion. Remember me, Elaina?” Selena asked as she came forward.

  Elaina relaxed and let out a relieved sigh. “Of course I remember you, Selena. I still owe you a pedicure.”

  Selena’s gaze brightened, and she laughed as she sat down on the seat next to them. She peered at Elaina’s eyes and smiled. “When they told me Zayrgrud had given you his eyes, I thought they meant he’d healed your eyes and their explanation just got lost in translation, but those really are his eyes.”

  Elaina sat up in a flash. “You mean Flappy is blind?”

  “No. He’s completely healed,” Selena said. “How are you feeling, my friend?”

  “Better. How is Flappy?”

  “He’s fine—recovered very nicely from his ordeal. We almost lost him on the way to the Unsunderable Cliffs.”

  “He almost died?”

  “Well, that, too, but we were also attacked by dragon huntsmen as we waited for the dragon guard to admit us to their kingdom. They didn’t believe us when we arrived and had to fly down from the cliffs. One doesn’t just land at the top of the cliffs. That’s a good way to get incinerated, and I like my hair just the way it is, thank you very much—”

  “Selena.”

  “Sorry,” she replied with a wave of her hand as she flicked her long straight silver hair over her shoulder. “Anyway, they let us in. They saved him from fading further. He’d given nearly every bit of himself to save you. That’s why your eyes are different. Draconia’s poison is magic, and she used it not only as a means to kill you but also to drain your fairer characteristics from you.”

  “She took my sight?”

  Selena patted her hand. “Pretty much took your eyes completely. Nasty scavenging coyote bitch. Anyway…” She took a deep breath. “She tried to drain your beauty, obviously,” she said, pointing to Elaina’s hair. “But I think the white is just as beautiful as the black was. She’s never satisfied with what she has.”

  Elaina nodded. “That is exactly the feeling that I had, like she is voracious, hungry for more power, especially power gained from the dragons.”

  “That wasn’t a dream you had. To drain you of your beauty and power, a connection had to be created between the two of you. That’s what the magic in the poison did.”

  Elaina said, “Judging from what she said, it sounds as though she believes the poison worked. Permanently.”

  “Flappy reached you just before the last spark of life faded from you. He blocked her power and gave from his own life force to save you. From what you say, she didn’t bother to sever the connection with you. You were able to use it to slip into her subconscious.”

  “Not willingly,” Elaina said with a slight shudder.

  “I don’t doubt it. To put it in terms you might understand from your world, it’s like the drain from your shower backed up and then sucked you in when it started working again. You were party to her thoughts, which you have my condolences for because, with her, it’s always ‘me, me, me.’ Speaking of me, you wouldn’t happen to have the silver polish like what you have on your toenails in that handy-dandy backpack of yours, now would you? And maybe some sparkles on top of that? I was thinking maybe a—”

  Elaina nodded, and Basile’s frustration inched up a notch. She could barely stand without help, much less offer a mani-pedi or whatever it was called. “Enchantress?”

  “Patience, princeling. You royals can be such an impatient lot sometimes. You know what? Let me do what I should’ve done first.”

  “What?” Elaina asked, caution in her tone as Selena stood. Fermin came to attention, eyeing the enchantress warily.

  Selena chuckled and waved a hand at him. “I promise it’s just me, guardsman. Not one of Draconia’s tangeres.”

  Fermin grunted affirmatively but kept one eye on her while he continued keeping watch.

  Selena leaned down and grasped both of them firmly by their upper arms. She grinned at him and said, “Very nice. Do you work out?”

  “Hey now,” Elaina said, but there wasn’t any animosity in her tone.

  “No worries. I have my eye on a battle-scarred dragon lord.” She closed her eyes and whispered something under her breath and then beamed broadly.

  A wave of heat, and then cold, and then heat once more coursed in short, hard waves over his body. He cried out in alarm, holding Elaina close in case he accidentally pitched them both off the lounger. But Selena held them steady, watching them with expectation. “Feel better now?”

  Elaina sat up on his lap and stretched her shoulders out. “I feel much better, thank you. About Draconia…Can you help me make sense of what I saw in her head? I mean there might be something of use to us. I tried to straighten it all out, but I couldn’t.”

  “Straighten out Draconia’s thoughts? No wonder you had trouble. That would be an impossible task. But I can help you work through it.”

  “Can you. How?”

  “Because I’m awesome,” she said with a little smile as she took Elaina’s hand between her own.

  Elaina made no move to rise from his lap, and it was probably a good thing because her wiggling was causing him to grow
harder by the second. She glanced back at him, and the renewed hint of pink in her cheeks deepened as if she was well aware of that fact. Not that he wanted to broadcast his aroused state to the enchantress.

  “Too late, princeling,” the enchantress quipped.

  Basile had the grace to feel embarrassment. “My apologies, Selena, as well as my humble gratitude. I feel like a new man.”

  Elaina cleared her throat and squirmed just enough to let him know she agreed.

  “You’re very welcome, Basile. Now, back to Draconia. You know she’s coming?”

  “She’s bringing her legion as soon as she’s finished, but I don’t know what that means. Finished with what?”

  “A sacrifice,” Selena said, sadness entering her eyes. “This is going to be bad for the dragon huntsmen of the Western Kingdom. The true conflict is to save them, not to fight them.”

  “How so?” Basile asked. “If she brings the legion, they will decimate us. Even if Zayrgrud is safe, she’ll still wipe us out with that horde.”

  “No, she can’t because she no longer has their hearts on her side. She’s offering a sacrifice right now. That was the smoke you smelled, Elaina. She executed one hundred huntsmen.”

  “Why? How?”

  “She lured them to a clearing in the forest, away from the palace, and drained them of their life force with her magic, using the dragon huntsmen tattoos.”

  “She killed them for their life force? This is some warped movie script stuff here.”

  “No,” Selena said, a forlorn smile on her face. “Each of those men had a family, wives, and children. And she killed them like that,” she said, snapping her fingers.

  Righteous anger and guilt knotted together in the pit of his stomach. Those had been his father’s subjects and the people he’d been meant to lead. “She’s cannibalizing the companies in her legion for power.”

  “Yes, and right now, the dragon huntsmen don’t know the truth about the fires burning near Palais de Lune de Sang. She told the commanders of the remaining huntsmen companies that it was poachers and thieves who had been dispatched by the executioner. They wouldn’t follow her or do her will otherwise.”

  Elaina looked down at their still clasped hands and said, “If I can feel her coming, can she feel me?”

  “Judging from what you’ve told us, she thinks she’s already beaten you. If she knew you were there, the vision would’ve ended much differently. Her supposed success has made her cocky.”

  Gooseflesh broke out on Elaina’s forearms, and she let out a relieved breath. “Good. Does she know she nearly killed Basile?”

  “No. I thought about letting her know she had succeeded, but I didn’t want her to flip out and do something before we’d had a chance to prepare. She desired both Basile and Rainger and planned to draw them back to Palais de Lune de Sang once she’d consumed enough dragon life force. The dragon huntsmen, in their quiet rebellion of their official task, have been silent contributors to our cause. She was closer to that goal than I’m comfortable with.”

  “I would never have gone back to her, enchantress. No matter what.”

  Selena looked at him with those piercing silver eyes. “With all due respect, prince, if not for your nurturing little savior, you most certainly would have. Both of you. The life force of a dragon is greater than the life force of a human. She would be all-powerful, as well as immortal. Unstoppable.”

  If Selena could speak without a trace of doubt, knowing what she did of unseen realms, Basile couldn’t argue with her. If not for her help and interference, it might’ve happened sooner.

  “Savior? Why do you call me that?” Elaina asked.

  “Zayrgrud is the key to defeating her,” Selena said. “You came into our world, searching for a defenseless animal in need of rescue, but instead you found Zayrgrud. Thanks to your nurture, he’s more than just the future dragon king. He can save us from Draconia’s power-hungry madness. He has to because if he doesn’t she’ll end up consuming every last soul in the Western Kingdom and the rest of Tangere. Once she has that much amassed power, she’ll have the abilities of a dragon and she can defeat anyone, even me.”

  “You? She could do that?”

  “The bitch could try, but she’d have a fight on her hands.” Basile heard her bravado but knew that even Selena had cause to worry. She looked across to the horizon. “Flappy is on his way.” She pointed in the distance, but nothing was visible except for storm clouds. Then she stalked into the abbey, murmuring, “It’ll take him a while to get here, and I’m hungry. Has Tiggi got anything on to eat right now? I could sure go for some ribs.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Oh, that is nice,” Selena said as Elaina balanced the enchantress’s foot on her knee and carefully placed the last of the rhinestones in the line of glue on her big toe.

  “It did turn out pretty, didn’t it?” she asked as she sat back and looked at the result while Selena preened. The fae did like her bling, and the pedicure went perfectly with her dress and her hair.

  “So…” Selena began quietly, glancing over at the men, who were gathered around the table in the great hall, a map before them, making plans for whatever came next. “Tell me about Rainger and Basile.”

  “What would you like to know? I’m not sure what you mean,” she added as she blew at the glue to dry it. “These will need a few extra minutes to dry completely, so be careful with them. Do you want me to do your nails, as well? I make them pretty. We get you boyfriend?” she added playfully.

  Selena cocked her head at her. “You’re funny, but I know you’re putting on a brave front. Do you want to stay with them?”

  Watching them from across the room, Elaina noted the way Basile spoke with authority and the knights nodded, listening to him and Rainger when he motioned to the map. Basile stood with his arms crossed over his broad chest, feet spaced apart as if he was braced for any challenge, and Rainger mirrored him. A tugging sensation pulled at her heart, and she felt drawn to them.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Selena murmured, bending over to blow at her toes. “I can see that you love them.”

  “How?”

  Selena waggled her toes slightly in the soft foam forms that kept them splayed. “It’s hard to explain and might freak you out a little. Where others see people, I also see the patterns between them. And I see what happens when people who should be together don’t end up that way. The loose ends sometimes don’t ever heal.”

  “You sound as though you know what that is like. Am I right?”

  Selena shrugged. “There are people I care about. I just want them to be okay. If I can help make that happen, I think it’s worth the chance.” She gazed out the large window in the great hall, and her smile had a forlorn quality to it.

  “Lord Violet likes you.”

  The fae enchantress’s smile brightened a little. “I like him, too. Like, like. Like…really like. You know what I mean?”

  Elaina giggle-snorted and nodded. “I know exactly what you mean. You let me do your nails. We get you boyfriend.”

  “Okay,” Selena said with a nod and a little sniffle. “You make me pretty, I get you boyfriends, too.”

  “Deal.”

  Abruptly, Selena drew in a sharp breath and whispered, “Holy shit, I have to go.”

  “But—”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll finish. I’ll be back just as soon as I can. Flappy is nearly here, and he has something for you.”

  “Okay, be careful with your toes. Leave those on a while longer if you can.”

  Selena nodded and disappeared in the next instant.

  Elaina closed up all her nail stuff and packed it away then slung the backpack over her shoulder and hurried to the table. “Selena says Flappy is almost here.”

  “Where did she go?” Basile called after her, but she was already running out the door.

  She reached the great open entry hall and paused. Where would he go? The front gate? The upper terrace where they’d spent the mornin
g? Perhaps the painted dome?

  She growled in frustration. “I don’t have time for running all over this place.”

  “Come this way,” Rainger said, grasping her hand and pulling her toward the arched doorways at the back of the hall beneath the enormous staircase.

  “The hot springs? I doubt he can fit through the corridors.”

  “Not the hot springs,” Basile said, pointing to the other opening. “He’ll go to the cavern where the dragons stay once they’re grown.”

  “Oh.” Basile slipped the backpack from her shoulders and slung it over his own. “You’re spoiling me with all this chivalrous behavior,” she said as she hurried beside him.

  “Is it winning you over?” he asked with a grin.

  “Pretty much.”

  The cavern was lit with torches burning at intervals so the space was well lit going forward. Eventually they reached a much more expansive space.

  “My gosh, you could house a whole squadron of dragons here.”

  Rainger chuckled, and the others joined him as they led the way around a curve in the terrain.

  Not even out of breath from that rapid jog, Indigo the Gentle said, “Tell me, Elaina, are you very afraid of heights?”

  Basile snorted and answered for her. “Not at all! She is most entranced by the Falls of Innocentio. I was afraid she would take a dive from the painted dome and go swimming down below.”

  She chuckled and shrugged. “I doubt I’d ever do a swan dive through several hundred feet of space, but he’s right. Heights don’t bother me.”

  “You can turn into a swan?” Rouge inquired.

  Feeling a bit playful, she just chortled in reply and allowed them to think what they would.

  “Then a ride on a dragon would be nothing to you,” Indigo said with assurance in his tone.

  Basile chuckled quietly at the way her jaw dropped as she looked around. The large cavern had an opening at the other end that looked out onto the cloudy gray sky. Just then a shadow passed overhead. “I think he’s here. Look.”

  Elaina! a masculine voice suddenly said to her.

  Elaina stumbled and would’ve gone end over end if Basile and Rainger hadn’t caught her. She could hear them speaking to her, but she focused on the voice in her head. The tiny spark of their connection also flared to life.