by Raye Wagner
I sighed, handing him back our only form of sustenance.
I know you’re tired and hungry. This isn’t how I would’ve planned your transformation time. But, soon, you will get both sleep and food. I promise.
I got to my feet. “Let’s get this show on the road then.”
If there wasn’t a steak the size of a horse waiting for me when we reached the forest, I was going to find one. Even if it meant my fangs made an appearance. I stomped forward.
As the dot of light at the exit grew larger, Tyrrik reached out to touch my elbow. I nodded at his cautionary look and lightened my steps. And my breathing. Mistress Moons, did I really breathe that loud?
“What can you hear, Ryn?” Tyrrik murmured in my ear.
Now that I was breathing like one person instead of one hundred? I focused on the sounds rising before us.
Squirrels barking? There’s a larger animal out there. And . . . a stream. We could refill the water skin if we needed. Tumbling rocks. A gust of wind blew into the cave. There are birds playing in the air. But no Drae. My amazement echoed in my mind as I conveyed it all to the silent Drae by my side.
“Your senses are good,” he purred. “Very good.”
My chest swelled. I have a golden trinket, too.
“It’s a beautiful trinket. You will take good care of it.”
“Thank you,” I said gravely. “I will.” The weirdness of the conversation didn’t elude me, but, somehow, it was important that Tyrrik knew I could take care of precious things.
“When you are able to shift back and forth, you will have your ruby. When you can partial shift . . .” He stepped out of the cave, and I flung an arm up to block some of the light as I hurried after him.
“What were you going to say?”
He glanced back from a boulder several feet away. “What?”
I dropped my arm as my eyes adjusted and jumped from massive boulder to massive boulder after him. “You were going to say something after the partial shifting bit. I thought you might be offering something else. Maybe more treasure.”
He grinned.
9
Tyrrik bent his legs and executed a massive jump from the boulder we stood on to the next. The rocky foothills had disappeared, and we were climbing through the stony pass of the Gemond mountains. Large crevasses were scattered through the range, and I eyed the sixty foot gap, my human mind getting in the way of what my body was now capable of.
Do you expect a priceless heirloom for everything?
You set a precedent is all I’m saying.
I glared at the gap and decided a run up would be best. I stepped back to the outer limits of the boulder I stood upon and took the crossing at a run, launching off the boulder with a muffled squeal. The air whipped my hair back as I flew across the gap. I was moving faster than I ever had, but I knew, inherently, I didn’t need to worry. My senses were so much stronger now that everything seemed to move in slow motion when I focused. When I landed next to Tyrrik, I knew the best spots to place my feet. My abdominals and thighs were tensed to counter the forward motion, and my bodyweight was poised on the balls of my feet.
A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “How about when you are able to partial shift, I’ll give you a choice from my horde?”
He had a horde? Why did he have a horde?
He jumped forward again, and we continued leaping boulder to boulder down the hill.
My mind boggled at the possibilities of treasure. He had to have a decent collection. “Is it a Drae thing to collect?”
“No. Not all Drae do it. Male Drae collect items during their life, but not for themselves.”
I wasn’t really collecting shiny stuff for myself either, now that I thought about it—more because the objects deserved to be protected.
He landed on the rocky ground below, and I thudded next to him, not half as graceful, though I thought I was doing pretty well for being skill-less Ryn from Harvest Zone Seven. They didn’t cover boulder-bounding in turnip toddlers.
We walked on in silence for a bit. If walking could be applied to what we were doing. If I glanced to my side, I couldn’t ignore the fact that the sparse trees and patches of grass were literally blurring by. Yes . . . walking was certainly a loose term.
You said we’d fly.
I want to put some distance and a hill between us and the caves before we shift and go airborne.
But it’s faster.
Yes, but the emperor doesn’t know about that cave system, and I’d like to keep it that way. Also, we’re more vulnerable in the air and easier to spot. But it will mean one day of flying, instead of four days running, so I believe we must risk it.
The trees continued to blur by until Tyrrik slowed his steps, and we began picking over boulders again. He was leading me around the base of another hill.
“You know what you said about teaching me to shield my thoughts from other Drae?” I paused as he stiffened. “Could you teach me?”
Tyrrik remained still, his back to me, and when he spoke, his voice was icy. “If you wish it.”
My thoughts hadn’t been my own for a long time. Irdelron had seen through my lies, and he’d filled my mind with pain and horrors. Tyr had been able to hear me though it hadn’t bothered me before I knew he was Tyrrik. I didn’t want to rely on others to give me privacy. I needed to have power over who I let in and who I didn’t. And though I was used to Tyrrik speaking in my head now, I wasn’t sure I wanted him in there. At least, not all the time. And definitely not at his whim.
Tyrrik had already shown his jealousy of Kamoi, and we were headed to his kingdom. There were so many risks. This journey to the Zivost forest was apparently a risk, and I imagined a friendship with the Drae before me would be a risk too. Not to mention my evil Drae father. I needed to be prepared. Even if it hurt Tyrrik’s feelings, I needed this. I took a deep breath and said, “I do.”
His shoulders didn’t relax, and he stayed rooted to the rock he stood on.
I bounded onto another boulder. “Look, I just want to be in control of my mind.”
“Against me,” Tyrrik said shortly, heaving a sigh.
I puffed out a breath and turned to face him. “Against everyone, okay? I want to know I have control of my innermost thoughts, and no one will know them unless I will it.”
He jumped, moving from stone to stone ahead of me.
I hurried to catch up. “Surely you of all people understand?”
He stopped, and I pulled just short of barging into him. He glanced at me over his shoulder, black eyes searching my face. “If I do this, will you trust me?”
I clenched my jaw, keeping the scream of frustration inside. He was always manipulating me. “How about, for once, you give something with no strings attached?”
Darkness flooded his eyes, but I stayed where I was, staring up at him defiantly. He spun and continued over the boulders at a faster pace.
Another no-answer, but I wasn’t about to retract my words.
We reached the apex of the bend and began around the other side. Hopefully we’d take to the air soon. I was eager to stretch my wings again and maybe score that ruby.
“Think of our telepathy as flow of energy,” Tyrrik said when I landed next to him.
I ground to a halt, watching him continue. “What?”
He inhaled through his nose, his face fixed in the mask I knew too well. “You wanted to learn how to block me.”
Everyone, I immediately corrected.
“Do you want to learn or not?” he asked, jaw clenched.
Sheesh, someone wasn’t used to not getting his way. I couldn’t understand his tone. He was offering to teach me but also didn’t want to, and there was another element I couldn’t identify.
“Yes, Tyrrik. I would love to learn,” I said demurely. I peeked through my lashes as he threw me a suspicious look through his narrowed obsidian eyes. When he turned back around, I poked out my tongue.
“When you communicate with me, you send a bolt
of energy through our Drae connection. If you send a lot of energy, if your emotion is high, not only do I hear you, I also get a sense of the sentiment behind the words. If you put a lot of energy in and focus, you’d be able to send a visual too.” He faced me, his features soft and open. “Maybe even a smell and touch.”
“Whoa.” Those threads actually did mean something. Staring up at him, I scooted closer as I asked, “Really?”
He grinned, a wide carefree smile, and the boyishness it lent his face stunned me. I stumbled on the uneven ground, and my heart flipped.
“You okay?” he asked, frowning as he closed the distance to help.
I regained my step and ignored his hand but couldn’t stop the blush from creeping up my neck. I forced a laugh and quipped, “Pretty sure I’m a Drae and a Phaetyn.”
“So, if you send out energy to communicate, you simply draw it in, in order to—”
“Become a fortress of silence,” I finished in awe.
“Sure,” he said drily. “Something like that. Want to give it a try?” When I grimaced, he added, “Perhaps try to identify how it feels to communicate telepathically first.”
Testing, testing, teeeeeesssstiiinnng.
Tyrrik winced, and I smirked, but now that he’d pointed it out, I could see the thinnest of tendrils weaving between us when we spoke. I’d seen them intermittently ever since I shifted. I focused on the thin threads of energy; their essence was black and blue, a silky connection linking the two of us. I worked on pulling the blue threads in, but the notion of drawing anything in with my mind was counterintuitive. Even with my Phaetyn powers, I tended to push, and pushing was what I wanted to do here as well, not pull. I suddenly wondered if I would be able to see my Phaetyn power now too. Wow. I could fly, sense crazy far, and now feel and even see my energy. I tried to grab the wispy form, but couldn’t make sense of it. I had to put it in normal terms. Letting my mind wander, I thought of my mother towing water in from the well. Lowering the bucket and hauling it back up, the rope winding around the wooden reel.
Taking a deep breath, I did the same with my energy, imagining it was the full bucket of water and I was at the top of the well, pulling it up to me. Gathering that energy, my energy, closer and closer.
“That’s it,” Tyrrik whispered.
He was right in front of me; I could feel his presence, but I ignored him as I continued drawing the energy in like winding up the rope in the well to get the bucket of water at the end. As our contact disappeared, I shivered at the loss. It was uncomfortable, unsettling. But I kept drawing the energy in until it was within my body. “Now what?”
“Now, you practice holding it there,” he bit out. “See if you can hold it until we take flight.”
I took a firm grasp on the energy and opened my eyes. When my hold didn’t break, I began to walk after Tyrrik again. “That will keep my thoughts private?”
“Your thoughts, yes. I will teach you to block others from invading your mind once you have the hang of pulling your energy in.”
He was right. A light sweat broke on my forehead as I held my energy tight. The idea of keeping others’ thoughts out sounded fantastic.
“You did well.”
I smiled, feeling his pride through the link he sent, though the tendril of Tyrrik’s thought made me battle to keep hold of my own energy. After a moment, I had control again and cleared my throat. “Thanks.”
Over the next thirty minutes of travel, the boulders we hopped over flattened into a clearing. Tyrrik scanned the area as I focused on keeping the thread of energy inside. He jerked his head to a raised shelf and grunted in satisfaction as we crossed to it to find a small drop on the other side.
“Think you can manage that?” he asked.
It was a quarter of the drop of yesterday, but I couldn’t manage a witty retort. Instead, I nodded agreeably. “I should be okay with that.”
“You can release your energy now. We’ll need to shift.”
I’d been wanting to for more than twenty minutes now. With a heartfelt groan, I let the thread fly free. My energy shot straight to the other Drae, and I shivered in bliss as we reconnected. My gaze went to his face which lit with a fierce joy as our energies brushed against each other.
That . . . seemed unusual. Unease skirted down my spine at what that could mean. He better not tell me I was his other half or something stupid like that. “Umm, so all Drae can do energy thread stuff, right?”
His face smoothed. “No.”
I felt him pull his energy back, and I narrowed my eyes. “No, what?”
He schooled his features. “Not all Drae can do ‘energy thread stuff.’”
“But Drae other than us can, right?” I wasn’t sure I could handle that kind of special right now.
“Yes, Ryn. We’ve already established we’re not the only two Drae that can do energy mojo.”
I grinned. “You said mojo. I knew I was rubbing off on you.”
He rolled his eyes, and the air around him shimmered.
Drak, he’d known I was procrastinating. I could feel him gathering his power into himself.
“Think of the ruby, Ryn,” Tyrrik said. “I know you really want the shiny gem. You just need to . . . poof. It’s as simple as that.”
A moment later, a chuffing sound came from the Drae now standing over me. I tilted my head back and stared at his onyx scales.
With a booming leap, Tyrrik dove off the drop. With powerful draws of his wings, he rose into the air, just above the tree line, and began to circle.
My stomach churned. What if I couldn’t do it? I pushed some tendrils of my silver hair back.
Stop procrastinating.
I glared at the huge Drae and mentally ventured through the streams of energy between us until I was at his Drae form. I reached to feel his power; it was dark and mysterious and endless. I allowed my energy to dip into his, surprised at what I felt. It wasn’t cold—which is how I often saw Tyrrik—rather, his power was warm and comforting, like the dark nights in Verald with the hot air rolling in from the southern deserts.
This was what I felt when he helped me shift.
I stayed here wrapped in his power for a time, trying to use the feel of his energy and the sight of his Drae form to shift, unsuccessfully. I thought of the countless times he’d helped me shift in the clearing. He’d always touched my shoulder blades.
“Why do you touch the ridge of my shoulder blade?” I asked, already pulling his energy toward me. He was letting me. I could feel his acquiescence, and there was an indulgent edge to it; like I had wobbly legs, and he was nudging me up a steep hill.
The wings are extremely sensitive. It is the easiest place to get a reaction.
Something clenched within me, and I remembered how it felt when he touched my wings yesterday. He’d been gentle, but every nerve ending had stood at attention with his hands on them. I drew his energy close, slowly, nervously, coaxing it to curve around my shoulder until it hovered over my shoulder blade. Then, deciding if this didn’t work I’d have a tantrum, I let the energy connect.
Shimmering light burst around me. I catapulted into my larger form, scales erupting in the fastest shift I’d had yet. My neck extended high, and even in my Drae body, my breath came hard and fast from the huge jolt of energy.
Well done.
I panted in a crouch. That was intense.
I imagine so . . . you used my energy.
For a fraction of a second, I felt his triumph, and then he closed me off from his emotions.
Next time, use your own power.
Embarrassing. I could’ve done that with my own?
Yes. He seemed to consider his next words and then continued. Though it might’ve taken longer to get the hang of it. You should be fine now that you’ve experienced it once.
I pushed onto all fours and flexed my talons. He was right. Now that I’d done it myself, I knew I could replicate the release of my Drae. Is it the same for all of us? How we shift?
No. Ever
yone sees energy in a different way. You are visual.
I dove off the drop and beat my wings hard to lift to his looping level. The sun had moved, cursed thing. I’d spent at least an hour figuring out how to shift. My stomach grumbled, reminding me it still wanted steak. In Drae form, it sounded like an earthquake.
Tyrrik flashed his fangs beside me in what must’ve been a Drae smile.
Shut up, I’m starving.
In response, he took us higher.
As I circled upward, I noticed patches of vibrant green in the distance. What’s that back there? Could I really see all the way to Verald?
Tyrrik glanced toward Verald. That’s where Phaetyn powers have healed the land. Some might be yours, but those patches of green are how Draedyn knows there are still Phaetyn.
I ground my teeth together.
Without saying anything, Tyrrik picked up the pace.
We skimmed over the treetops, and I let my mind wander, seeing that Tyrrik scanned the ground and sky around us. Confident he was alert to any Druman underwing, I indulged playing with the air currents as I ran over the events of the last couple days.
I was now Drae. And, somehow, I didn’t feel completely out of my depth. My reptilian gaze slid to Tyrrik, and I acknowledged this was because of him; he’d made this easier. He didn’t owe me anything beyond what guilt might force him into doing. Tyrrik chose to help me, and considering everything, he’d been nice about it too. He’d also helped me in Irdelron’s castle, though in a completely botched way. Is that why Tyrrik had helped me today? No way.
Somewhere along the way, a new dynamic had snuck up on us, or maybe I was just slow to recognize the evolution. At some point in the cave, things became different, and the new undercurrents from Tyrrik made me uneasy. Those emotions were what I’d felt with Tyr. I didn’t want to be feeling them again, especially not when I was undecided whether I even wanted a friendship with Tyrrik. How was it that after two days in his company, the friendship thing seemed a given? I hadn’t consciously decided to give it. What if I didn’t want to?