Thad jerked it back. "You think this hurts? Wait till I break it."
The guards stopped, and the one in front held up a hand, motioning for us to stop. I shrank back a little in my hood, looking down to hide my face.
"What do you got there?" asked the guard in front, addressing Thad.
Thad grabbed my cuffed wrists and I whimpered, trying to pretend he was hurting me. The chain between my cuffs clattered a little, and when the guard noticed the shimmering runes on the cuffs, he looked leery. "A high magic mage?" the guard asked Thad.
So this guard did not know who we were. Good, then not all of the guards in Karth had been compromised.
"Yes, and I'm not sure how much longer this charm will hold, so if you'll excuse me…" Thad was starting to pull me forward when an arm stretched out, blocking our path.
This arm didn't belong to the guard we'd been speaking to. It belonged to another guard who had been standing near the rear of the small group.
"You look familiar," said a raspy voice I thought I'd heard before, but I was too afraid to look up lest I be recognized.
I felt a prick of Thad's anxiety. "And you stink like ale," he said easily. "Hard to do your job when your senses are impeded."
But before the words were out of Thad's mouth, the guard ripped my hood back. My heart pounded in my ears and Thad's anxiety skyrocketed through the roof. Very slowly I glanced up. It was Denn Faris's father, Lorimer Faris. He had been a guard at the wall in Valdon and had caught me once when I'd tried to escape with Fleck. I could only assume that my uncle had since stationed him here to look out for me.
"Well, well, well," Lorimer sneered, his ugly face twisted in cruel mirth like a pumpkin on Halloween. The other guards looked confused, however; clearly they didn't recognize me, but I doubted it would be long before Lorimer chose to enlighten them. "And your escort is…" He ripped back Thad's hood; Thad's face was as blank as an empty canvas. "Thaddeus Mendax."
A few of the guards looked to each other. This name didn't mean anything to them, but mine would.
"What's going on here?" asked the guard who had spoken initially.
Lorimer looked between Thad and me as if trying to piece something together. It seemed he couldn't figure out how Thad could be here—with me, no less—without his knowing about it. "I’m not sure," Lorimer said slowly, as if dragging the question out might give him time to solve the mystery. "But the lady you have before you is Princess Daria Regius of Valdon, granddaughter of King Darius Regius and second heir to the throne of Gaia."
Great. Exactly what I hadn't wanted to happen.
His words were met with heavy silence. A few of the guards shifted, their curiosity turning to disgust, and the people who had been within hearing distance suddenly looked back at me with disdain in their eyes. There was whispering and murmuring, and a heavy cloud of resentment simmered all around me.
"Are you sure?" asked another one of the guards, appraising me with a look on his face that said I was not what he would have expected.
"Oh, I'm sure all right," Lorimer said. "I guarded the wall at Valdon and caught her trying to escape once. Meeting someone for an afternoon tryst, were we?" He leaned close to me. "I heard from Denn what a little whore you are."
My blood boiled beneath my skin, but Thad squeezed my arm so hard I had to bite my cheeks to keep from crying out in pain.
"Or was that when you were plotting your way into the games so that you could take Pendel away from its people?" He chomped on these last words and a bit of his spit flung out and landed on my nose. I couldn’t wipe it off, though. My hands were cuffed.
His words had the desired effect. Now all of the guards looked hostile, and a small but angry crowd started forming around us.
Apparently, all of Pendel thought about as highly of me as Sir Randik had.
"Lieutenant Faris." Thad inclined his head, though his eyes narrowed. "I would appreciate it if you did not notify the entire city that we're here. I've been instructed to keep this as quiet as possible. Which is why we were trying to be discreet."
Lorimer licked his lips, his eyes twinkling with endless possibilities. I could see that he believed Thad, and he was anxious to be in on this profitable secret. He glanced back at his small squadron. "I'll escort these two to…where did you say you were headed?" He looked back at Thad with genuine interest.
"I didn't," Thad replied flatly.
Lorimer smiled. He had an ugly smile. His lips were already thin, but when he smiled they completely disappeared, and all the wrinkles in his face deepened, making it look as though someone had carved a hash symbol on each of his cheeks.
"I'll be back, boys," Lorimer said to the other men. "Going to see justice served."
The first guard who had spoken seemed to have finally put his personal feelings aside and come to his senses. "But this is the princess. Are you sure King Darius shouldn't be notified that his granddaughter is here? I can't imagine he'll be too happy knowing we've held her prisoner."
"I'm on my way to alert him now," Thad said, leveling a gaze on Lorimer that told him to be quiet.
Lorimer licked his lips again, watching me. He looked like a reptile.
"Now, if you'll excuse us," Thad said.
The other guards stepped aside, giving Thad and me room to pass through, but Lorimer followed closely behind.
Thad stopped, stood up tall, and glanced over his shoulder at Lorimer. "Lorimer, what are you doing?"
"Like I said. I'm coming with," Lorimer said.
"No, you're not. My orders were to bring her alone, and—"
"Well, my orders were to report immediately if I so much as caught a whiff of the princess, and I say there's something here that smells foul."
Thad and I exchanged a quick glance, then Thad's eyes fluttered shut in frustration. "Fine." He opened them again and squeezed my arm as he led us forward.
We had to lose Lorimer, somehow, and I had to keep up this disguise until then. What we needed to do was get off this main street. There were people and guards everywhere, and no telling which of them would come to Lorimer's aid if we attacked him out in the open like this. What we needed to do was sneak down one of those narrow passageways—preferably one without people.
"The quickest way to the dungeons is that way." Lorimer pointed down a narrow alley that look just like every other alley we'd passed.
"We're not going to the dungeons," Thad replied, sounding bored.
Lorimer was quiet and then said, "You're taking her to the steward, then? That's a smart move. Let him see the infamous princess who conned her way into the games and lied and cheated in an attempt to take Pendel. Perhaps he'll have her publicly flogged."
"There will be no flogging," Thad said. "I'm sorry, but can you stop talking? You're giving me a migraine."
Lorimer didn't hear, or chose not to. "And I'll tell them what a whore she is. I have it from my son, Denn, that she made her way around the entire class of new Academia graduates, trying to win them to her side for when she took Pendel. Clever, princess, and you've got the looks to get away with it, I'll say…" His eyes slid over my body in a way that made me want to punch him. "But unfortunately for you, whores don't inherit crowns."
My legs shook as I walked, clenching my teeth to bite back my retort. We needed to lose him now. I wouldn't be able to hold my tongue much longer, and by the sideways glance I was getting from Thad, I could tell he was afraid of this, too.
"Ow," I said suddenly. "That hurts."
Thad's confusion swelled. "Deal with it," he said, his expression in stark contrast to his sharp tone. He was trying to figure where I was going with this.
"Let go of me!" I struggled against his arm, pretending to kick him but getting off balance at the last moment.
Thankfully, Thad caught on, and right before Lorimer stepped in to help, Thad's grip eased and I bolted. My boots slapped on the hard pavement as I shoved past people and vendors and plants. It was surprisingly difficult to run with my hands tied toge
ther; it threw my balance off, and I almost tripped over my own feet a few times. I glanced back just in time to see Thad and Lorimer chasing after me, with Lorimer in the lead. Still sprinting, I managed to grab the leaves of a huge fern and jerk it over so that it fell with a loud crash upon the street. This bought me a few extra seconds while I sprinted, glancing down each and every passageway, trying to find one that was dark and vacant enough.
Not such a good idea in the midday sun.
Conscience, not now, please.
And then I saw the perfect arched stone pathway. I had to correct my momentum so fast that I nearly lost my footing, and I grabbed hold of the corner of the entrance to keep myself upright. I scrambled down broad steps and straight for the tiered lines of laundry spanning between buildings like a giant cobweb of fabric. I glanced back; Lorimer rounded the corner and Thad was right behind him, his eyes and hair wild.
I ran straight into the laundry, ducking around and under the lowest tier until I was in the center of it all, and then I allowed myself a deep breath. The wind around me swirled and twisted in a cyclone, ripping down shirts and huge sheets and pants and socks. Lorimer had reached the vortex of clean laundry, unsure of what to do next, with me standing in the eye of the storm. I knew he was there—I could feel him—but I couldn't see him through all the fabric. Very slowly, I tiptoed through my fabric cyclone and to the side of the alley, holding tight to my chain so that it didn't rattle and give away my location. When I felt Lorimer move forward, I struck. I pressed my palms together and slammed the sides of them into the cluster of nerves at the base of his neck, and he collapsed in a heap, unconscious. And then all the laundry stopped spinning and drifted down on top of him like great leaves in autumn, burying him from sight.
Thad was standing at the edge, looking impressed, arms folded over his chest. "You know, Rook, you could have just hid around a corner and attacked him from behind."
"Yeah, well, I couldn’t exactly find anything big enough to hide behind that was also out of sight from everyone else." I pursed my lips. "And I'm a little limited, you know." I held up my cuffs and shook them, letting the chain rattle.
Thad arched a brow. "You aren't supposed to be able to do magic with those things on."
"It wasn't magic," I said. "It was Cian."
Thad gasped. "What, you two are pals now? I thought that was just a fancy wish of your father's."
I shrugged. "So did I."
Thad folded his arms over his chest and scowled. "Well, that's hardly fair. You get the wind elemental and the magical ability of a high magic mage."
I looked down at the small rise in the fabric where Lorimer's unconscious body lay. "We need to get out of here before he wakes up."
"You could kill him," Thad said quietly.
I glared up at him. "No. There's been enough death."
Thad looked like he'd expected this answer and sighed. But it didn't stop me from turning around and kicking Lorimer hard where I thought his stomach would be. "That's for lying about me to the guard." And then I stomped my foot where I thought his crotch should be. "And that's for your pig of a son."
Thad smirked at me. "You done? I need your arm again."
Thad and I left Lorimer and the laundry, exited the quiet pathway, and continued up the main street like nothing had ever happened. Though I did feel sorry for whoever had strung all that laundry, because they'd find a right and dirty mess. Luckily, there were fewer people here, and none seemed to recognize us. When the street forked in thirds, Thad took the one farthest left, which led us up a very steep and strenuous incline. It reminded me of the streets of San Francisco.
"I hope you know where you're going," I grunted. "If I find out that I've climbed all this and there's nothing…"
"Relax," Thad panted, squeezing my arm. "I know where I'm going."
He eventually stopped before the face of one of the buildings to admire a fresco.
"Thad," I huffed, trying to put my hands on my hips, but then realizing I couldn't stretch them far enough apart. "I don't have time to be admiring artwork."
The fresco was a picture of dragons. There was one great white dragon rising above the rest, and on that great white dragon sat a rider. They were sailing over a luxuriant land of mountains and river and wildlife, the picture so crisp and so clear I could almost see the wind ruffling the man's hair and almost hear the beat of the dragons' wings…
"Ah, I think this is it," Thad said, pointing to a spot in the green fields.
I looked at Thad. I looked at the spot. I looked back at Thad. "How is that spot any different than the spot of green five inches to the right?"
Thad rolled his eyes and grumbled something that sounded like, "And she's the one who inherits all the special powers." He moved his finger in a circular pattern around the spot. "Look harder. See it?" he asked.
"See what…" And then I saw it: it was an autostereogram. Like I was staring at a Magic-Eye picture, where if you stared hard enough, another image came to life—a 3-dimensional image made of the background. And that's exactly what happened. The green in the grasses layered themselves into a 3-dimensional image of… "But what is that supposed to be?" I tilted my head as if changing the angle might help, but all I saw was a symbol that looked a little like the letter "D," but with strange accents.
"It's the symbol for Draconi, I think," Thad said, looking over his shoulder, as if checking to make sure no one was watching.
"Draconi, as in those with the blood of dragons?"
Thad looked back at me, surprised. "Yeah, how did you—"
"Long story," I said. "But why is that symbol important?"
"Because there are still some people in this world that believe the line of the Draconi wasn't lost. Your loon, Arioch Prime, is one of them."
"And what do you think?" I asked.
Thad rubbed his chin, and then shrugged. "I don't know. I don’t really care, either, and I won't until I see a dragon—"
"I've seen a dragon," I said. "Two, actually."
He gaped at me and dozens of questions filled his gaze. I briefly wondered how he would've missed the dragon in Thieves, but then thought he and Denn and the others had probably run off shortly after our fight. They certainly hadn't been around when we'd been fighting the guards near the shortcut.
"The story will have to wait," I said. "You're taking me to Arioch Prime, and I'd rather not keep Alex and Vera waiting any longer than we have to."
Thad still looked a little stunned, then blinked and gazed back at the fresco as if he'd suddenly forgotten what he was looking for.
I decided to help him and pointed. "The Draconi symbol…?"
"Right." He raked a hand through his hair, then looked back over his shoulder at me. "You've really seen two dragons—"
"Thad."
"Okay, okay…" He looked back at the wall, trailing his pointer finger over the symbol. "There has to be a way to activate it somehow…" His eyes darted over that one little place, and he checked back behind us, again, to make sure no one was around.
We stood there about thirty minutes while Thad tried all sorts of things: enchantments and charms, touching the symbol this way or that way, tracing it or holding his fingers on different points. He only paused when people walked by.
I didn't know where it came from, but I had a thought. Acting on this sudden whim, I walked right up to the letter and breathed hot breath upon it.
"Well, that isn't gonna…" Thad's voice trailed as the image changed.
The symbol darkened until it turned black, and then the triangular space between the lines turned red, and the entire thing popped out of the wall like a button. Thad and I exchanged a glance, and I pushed it in. The red glowed brightly, there was a pulse of energy, and a door appeared, just like it had always been there, right where the river had been. Windows slowly popped into view where the mountains had been, golden light glowing behind, and Thad and I watched while our fresco slowly transformed itself into the face of a very charming stone house.
And then the door opened.
A man appeared in the doorway, tall and thin with a face full of wrinkles and cropped white hair crowning his head like snow. He wore a loose tunic and plain brown pants that looked as if he'd filled them out at one time, but long life had stolen his former girth. It was his eyes that held me transfixed—clear and blue like the sky on a bright and sunny day. They reminded me of someone else, too. They reminded me of Tran.
And when those eyes settled on me, he smiled a gentle and reminiscent smile. "Oh, I've been waiting an entire lifetime for you."
Chapter 22
The Weight of Truth
He ushered Thad and me through the door, glancing briefly at the street beyond. People walked past, though none seemed to notice us. It was as if they simply didn't see us standing there, or, for that matter, his house. And when I stepped through the door, I found myself in a room the likeness of Dumbledore's office.
A great atrium stretched upward, stuffed to the brim with rows and rows of books and knickknacks, and metalwork was scattered all over the floor and the broad steps leading to his desk because there simply wasn't room enough for it all. There were great brass spheres attached to large brass rings like planets in orbit, moving slowly around a central sphere like a small solar system in motion. There was a Newton's cradle the size of a small swing set standing beside it, and a giant pendulum hung from a place so high in the ceiling I had to squint to find the top. The pendulum's base looked like a fat, titanium pencil, and it was drawing large, sweeping circles into a sunken, shallow pit of white sand in the stone floor. And all around the pit of sand were strange markings and runes, shimmering gold in the light, and as I looked closer, I noticed that the shapes the pendulum had been drawing in the sand weren't really circles. It had drawn layers of the same symbol I'd seen on the wall outside—the symbol of Draconi.
"It is the symbol of your past," the old man said in the sort of voice that told stories around roaring fires where all the children gathered eagerly.
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