Dragon's Honor (The Dragon Corps Series Book 1)

by Michaela Kendrick

  “Cade. She’s right.”

  Aryn and Cade turned back at the same time, and Aryn felt her eyebrows rise. This, she hadn’t expected.

  “Someone,” Cade said, his voice deathly soft, “had better start explaining things.”

  “If you recall, that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do since I came in the door. May I sit? Ms. Beranek, don’t shoot me, please.”

  Aryn crossed her arms, watching as Talon pulled out the desk chair and sat. He was dressed simply, in the sort of undersuit dockworkers wore, black pants and shirt clinging to his muscular form, but a hint of red glittered under one black cuff.

  “Now,” Talon said quietly. “Williams, tell Ms. Beranek why the Dragons have never managed to overthrow the Warlord.”

  The look Cade gave him said he was pretty sure this was a trap, but he complied.

  “We tried,” he told Aryn shortly. “Three times. I wasn’t on those missions, but every Dragon knew about them. We were supposed to go in and clear the way for an infantry assault, but it never worked. We’d land, get a few targets in…and then the brass would tell us to pull out. They said Intelligence told them the mission was a no-go. But we tried, Aryn. We were the Dragons, we were never going to give up on getting Ymir back. And that’s why I told you what I did.” His voice strengthened. “If we couldn’t take out the Warlord…what chance do you think the rebellion has?”

  Her mouth fell open in disbelief. He couldn’t possibly think…

  “I think you can see he’s not lying to you, Ms. Beranek.” Talon looked almost pitying. “And while I hate to do this, well…now it’s your turn. Tell Williams the truth. Tell him what every citizen on Ymir knew before the Dragons did.”

  When she looked into his eyes, she saw the fury there, and something unlocked in her chest. Talon was telling the truth. And that meant… She closed her eyes. Only half of her believed this could be real, but she didn’t want to be the one to tell Cade this.

  “Aryn?” Cade whispered.

  “Cade, I don’t…” She had to find the words. “I don’t know what they told you. I don’t know what happened. But I saw those missions. I saw the Dragons come, and I watched them kill people. But, Cade, those weren’t the Warlord’s people that they killed.”

  “What?” His gaze darted over her face.

  “They were resistance fighters.” She wanted to stop herself, but she couldn’t. “After the first time, we knew to be afraid. We’d hide them whenever the Dragons came, but we couldn’t. They always found them.”

  “That isn’t possible.” His head was shaking, a tiny movement. “Intelligence doesn’t make mistakes like that.” He looked over at Talon. “They impersonated us.”

  “They didn’t,” Talon said. There was pity in his eyes. “I ran all three of those missions, Williams. I was there. I know now that she’s right.”

  “Intelligence doesn’t make—” Cade began again.

  “No. They don’t.”

  The two men stared at one another, and then Cade’s face went grey.

  “No.”

  “Yes.” Talon was staring back at him.

  “It’s…no.”

  Talon looked down at his hands, steepled in front of him. He paused.

  “Who?” Cade asked him. “It could only be Soras, or Gerit, or—”

  “Soras.”

  “For fuck’s sake, do you really expect—”

  “I found out five months ago,” Talon interrupted. “I have run every verification that exists. I have followed the trail. It’s true, Williams. You already know it’s true. The Warlord always wears a mask.” To Aryn, he added, “’Soras’ would be Admiral Aleksandr Soras. He was a legend in the Alliance Navy, and then fifteen years ago he changed careers. Now, he runs Alliance Intelligence.”

  “Which means,” Cade added, when he saw that Aryn still did not understand, “he commands the Dragons. They report to Intelligence, not the Navy.”

  “And he’s the Warlord?” Aryn wanted to laugh. “You’ve both gone insane. There’s no way. He couldn’t possibly get away with it.”

  “On the contrary, he’s the very best person to get away with it.” Talon met her eyes sadly. “Sixteen years ago, the Dragons led an assault on Ymir, did you know? The nearly succeeded in taking it from the Warlord. They almost certainly would have, because they had reinforcements coming in. But the transport crashed.”

  “A Navy transport,” Cade guessed. There was grief in his voice.

  “No one had told Soras what the ships were doing, I’m sure. Intelligence played it close to the chest—maybe they’d realized there was a leak somewhere. But once Soras figured out what was going on…” Talon rubbed at his forehead, a nearly identical gesture to Cade’s.

  “He took them out.” Cade let his eyes drift closed.

  “And remember…” Talon prompted.

  “I know.” Cade nodded back.

  “What?” Aryn looked between them. It was like they were talking in code.

  “The head of Intelligence was assassinated,” Cade explained. “By the Warlord. And of course, then no one else wanted the job after that, which suited him just fine.”

  “They took Soras on without even a vote.” Talon’s voice was shaking. “As it says in the transcripts, they trusted him to avenge the soldiers that had been lost.”

  “And the Dragons didn’t know,” Aryn whispered. She shook her head. All these years, and it only now made sense. She heard people speak of the Dragons in hushed tones at Society events, and even though so many of the rich on New Arizona were the Dragons’ enemies, they never spoke of them with anything less than admiration. It had a romantic quality: the most elite forces of the Alliance, fighting for justice and peace.

  And they had thought they were. She wanted to cry.

  “That’s why you wanted me back.” Cade looked at Talon. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”

  “I couldn’t afford to until I knew you’d be loyal.”

  “I was a Dragon!”

  “So is everyone on my squad,” Talon spat. “But half of them are his.” He was on his feet now.

  “Half? What about the other half?”

  “A few of them are on this ship.”

  “What?”

  “I needed them. There might be others who would help, but…I don’t know who to trust any longer. I need to get in there somehow, and…” He paced, sinking his head into his hands. “And I needed a team. People like you. People who wouldn’t rest until the Warlord was taken down.”

  Aryn looked between them.

  “And of course you knew I’d find out.” Cade let out a deep breath and looked at the ceiling. “Did Ellian ever even want a bodyguard?”

  “Oh, he did. I just took advantage of the opportunity.” Talon waved a hand at Aryn. “Same way I took advantage when she went looking for weapons. We’ve been trying to arm the resistance for months, but we couldn’t get the funds. Although I thought it was you, not her.”

  “I can’t blame you for that.” Cade looked over at Aryn, his mouth twisting into something like a smile. “I could hardly believe it when she told me.”

  “Why is it so hard to believe?” Aryn demanded heatedly.

  “Because very few people in this world take action.” There was approval in Talon’s eyes. “It takes a rare person to do what you have done.”

  “Don’t encourage her,” Cade said sounding pained.

  “No?” Talon grinned. “We’re all in this rebellion together, now. Their intel. Our fighting. We can finally take this damned planet back.”

  Cade groaned softly.

  “Cheer up, Williams. Life is about to get interesting again.”

  Chapter 21

  Cade wasn’t sure what he’d expected. Some hellhole of a place with fiery mines next to the spaceport, probably. Whatever the case, Ymir was surprisingly beautiful: rolling hills covered in greenery, the launch pad new and immaculate—well, Ymir was hardly a hub of transportation—and the beauty of the main city not
far away. Even the rain simply lent a certain softness to everything. Perhaps the Warlord had seen to it that anyone coming in had to pass through this pretty wilderness before seeing the mines. It was a good trick, already making Cade doubt what he knew about the planet.

  He knew enough to be on his guard, however. Cade stood in the steady drizzle, his arms crossed, and watched the crates being unloaded from the ship. How had he not noticed them in the first place? Their shape fairly screamed contraband. He could only wonder what the men in the control tower thought, though they’d made no move to stop anyone.

  He had to hand it to Aryn. No matter how infuriating her actions, they were bold enough that she had the element of surprise on her side. Cade was sure Ellian knew something, but even he might not guess what was right in front of his face. Hell, Cade had seen Aryn pawn her necklaces, he’d seen the weapons specs, and he still hadn’t put two and two together.

  It was not good for his pride, but—at the same time—oddly charming.

  Footsteps sounded behind him, and Talon came to stand at his side on the ramp.

  “I still can’t believe you,” Cade told him bluntly, and Talon did not have to ask what he meant.

  “You would have done the same in my place.” He was not the least bit chastened.

  “You couldn’t get the weapons some other way?”

  “Given that the Warlord is in the intelligence networks? No.”

  “So you conned us both into helping you.”

  “Essentially, yes.” Talon’s voice was light, but he fidgeted with a ring, a touch of red glinting against iron. He sighed, finally. “Williams, can you blame me? I needed you. And I needed her.”

  “Uh-huh. I see Nyx is here.” Cade’s eyes had picked out three of the Dragons so far—there was no hiding that self-assured gait, even with dock workers’ clothes—and he was sure there were more of them. Perhaps one or two in the crates with the weapons, if he knew Talon. The man wasn’t going to move contraband without a guard.

  “She figured it out pretty soon after I did.” Talon’s eyes also tracked the woman, her dark hair drawn back in a braid that circled her head. She moved lightly on the balls of her feet; no one ever heard Nyx coming. Silent as nightfall—it was how she’d gotten her title. Cade couldn’t remember for the life of him what her actual name was. He was glad to see her—he’d always liked her, no matter how quiet she was, and he had no desire at all to go up against her.

  “So you’ve got Nyx, and I saw Tersi and Sphinx earlier. Who’s that one?” Cade leaned back against the doorframe, nodding his head in the direction of a young man lurking by the crates. “He needs a bit more work on pretending to be unremarkable.”

  “He’ll catch on. We call him Loki.”

  “What is he, twelve? No wonder you need my help.”

  Talon snorted quietly.

  “Looks it, doesn’t he? He’s good, though. Reminds me a lot of you at that age. Although, I think he might have lied on his paperwork. Best guess, he’s seventeen.”

  “And good enough for the Dragons?” Dragons tended to run older than other special forces. Age and cunning trumped youth and speed every time, or so they said.

  “He applied after I found out.” Talon looked over. “And I needed another one who would be loyal to me—not Soras. So I hired him, even though he’s very nearly as pigheadedly stubborn as you are. Likes to go charging in headfirst. He’ll be a distraction, if nothing else.”

  “Jesus, you’re cold.”

  “You have to be, in this business. I can’t do this on my own.”

  “So you set me up.” He knew the conversation was circling. He still couldn’t believe it. He wondered what he hoped Talon was going to say.

  “I put you in a position to learn the truth,” Talon corrected. “Although I admit I didn’t expect you’d become quite so…devoted to your job.”

  Cade said nothing. He could feel Talon’s watchful gaze on his face. The man had seen everything; of course he knew. He probably could have seen it before Cade did. But that didn’t mean Cade had any intention of confirming the man’s suspicions.

  “You look tired,” Talon said, after a moment.

  “I couldn’t sleep.”

  The past night had been a torment. Cade lay awake at the foot of Aryn’s bed, the hard floor pressing against his head. Cots weren’t made for men his height, and in any case, the discomfort of the floor suited him. He needed a distraction from the thought of Aryn, only a few feet away. He spent the night hoping she would sit up and say his name—give any indication that the kiss troubled her as much as it troubled him.

  It had been a bad idea. She’d made her choice over and over, and he couldn’t seem to accept it. Who cared if they wanted each other? She was married. She had her reasons, presumably. He wondered bitterly if he was only fascinated by her, and not in love at all. If she was no more than a puzzle he couldn’t figure out. But he knew, even as he wondered, that it was more than that. It had been something he could deny until he’d actually felt her against him.

  “About Aryn,” Talon said quietly. His eyes flickered over to where Aryn stood, deep in conversation with a woman in mining overalls. She had given Cade a very unpleasant look when she arrived, but it was clear she was no threat to Aryn.

  “What about her?” Cade looked over.

  “You remember when I told you that Ellian’s a vengeful bastard?”

  “I remember,” Cade said flatly. “You don’t need to remind me.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “It won’t come to anything.”

  “That’s optimistic. Face it, Williams, if you didn’t want her, you wouldn’t be looking at her like that—and if you had any sense at all, you would have walked away by now.”

  “She…doesn’t feel the same. So it will never come to anything.”

  The corner of Talon’s mouth twitched, but he said nothing to this.

  “What? What is it?”

  “It’s nothing.” Talon crossed his arms. “If you tell me it won’t get in the way—”

  “It won’t.”

  “—then I’ll believe you. I’ll need to be away for a few days, though, getting these weapons out to the resistance. It’s going to be dicey. He’s got the roads on lockdown now, and there are 31 districts to hit.”

  “Take your time,” Cade advised. It was what Talon always used to tell him when Cade wanted to get the mission done quickly.

  “I don’t think we can.” Talon looked over. “We picked up chatter on the way that he might be getting his weapon.” Frustration sounded in his voice. “And if I could only figure out what it fucking was…”

  “If we move fast, we can take him out before we have to care.”

  “It’ll have to be very fast.” But Talon was smiling. “Someone’s hired three carriers full of mercenaries, and I’d be willing to bet it’s him.”

  “How can you possibly know that?”

  “Who else needs that many?”

  “Good point. Is it possible that’s the weapon?”

  “I don’t think so,” Talon said instantly. He’d thought about it, then. “It’s a rare person that can just wander through a town, killing everyone in it. With fifteen thousand troops, there’ll be a damned lot of them that can’t do it. He’ll know that. He’s probably trying to keep the resistance penned in with a show of force. He’s terrified of them, Williams.”

  “They do seem oddly fearless.”

  “That’s because he’s going about being a dictator wrong.” Talon smiled mirthlessly. “It used to be that if they didn’t make trouble, he left them the hell alone—you know, other than making them work in the mines. But he’s starting to lose it. He’s been running night raids to get people he thinks are resistance fighters. Public executions…with their families.”

  Cade looked over at him. He’d seen it before, all the Dragons had. It never got any less shocking, though.

  “Now they don’t have anything left to lose,” Talon said quietly. “An
d if you want to keep people in line, they have to have something to lose. Otherwise, you have no leverage.”

  “I suppose there’s that.” Cade considered. He sighed. “Look. There’s something else you should know about Aryn.”

  “She’s pregnant with your child?”

  “No!”

  “I was just preparing myself.”

  Cade gave him a look. “She was part of the resistance.”

  He had the rare luck of seeing Talon Rift surprised by something. The man gave a low whistle, looking up as the boom of another ship echoed through the clouds above them. The whistles sounded, calling for everyone to get off the launch pad, and they made their way down the ramp.

  “You’re sure?” Talon asked him, as they walked toward Aryn and her friend.

  “Yes. Why?”

  “Because if she’s been calling them, Ellian’s had a window into exactly where they were.”

  “I don’t think he knows.” Cade raised his eyebrows.

  “Williams.” Talon drew him aside, behind one of the crates. “Ellian Pallas knows every damned thing that goes on in his line of business. I’ve seen deals that no one should have known about disrupted because he saw someone moving in on his turf.”

  The back of Cade’s neck prickled, and Talon saw his look.

  “Indiscretions?” he asked shortly.

  “Yes.” No point in denying it.

  “Then you’d better pray I’m wrong,” Talon told him. Dark eyes met Cade’s. “Unfortunately, that very rarely happens. So what you should be asking yourself is, if he knows about everything you two have apparently done, perhaps excepting the weapons, as I intercepted those messages within his network before they hit his monitoring system—which no one has thanked me for, by the way—then what’s his game?”

  Chapter 22

  For a moment, Aryn thought she was dreaming.

  “Samara?” She had wanted to see her friend for so long, and now here she was, her eyes widening as she spun around. She staggered when Aryn collided with her, their arms wrapped tight around each other.

  “Aryn?” When Aryn did not let go, Samara nudged her with her head. “Are you all right?”