He had been traveling for many days. His mission was to win back the gate, and that was all he thought about. He was impatient. The queen and her brother, Elder Rothair, gave him spells they said would make me strong, but they only made him feel itchy and anxious. He needed to fulfill his mission.
He was not sure what came after, when the mission was over, but he didn’t suppose it really mattered. He tried to keep the queen calm. She was always nervous, wanting to drive the caravan faster. No one else really talked to him. He was different from them. He was a crystal dragon. He was like the enemy, but this was the place where he—
Belonged? Does that seem right?
This is the place where I am. I belong nowhere. I don’t need to belong anywhere. I have a job to do. I will kill the crystal dragon king.
He had some memory of him waving a sword around. He was a small child, and blind. He wasn’t very good at it. Tanu wanted to touch the sword, and a man caught his shoulder and said, “No, that sword is for the king. Stay back and let him have his fun. He’ll never be strong like you are.”
He always had everything he wanted, the crystal dragon king, even though he was too weak to fight. Tanu had many memories of him, each one isolated like a floating bubble, and each one a reminder of the high dragon king’s selfishness. His queen spoke of him bitterly because he had been so cruel to the mist dragons.
Tanu was the strongest man in the kingdom. He would avenge these people. The mist dragons held their distance from him and looked at him with awe.
It made him a little uncomfortable, truthfully.
Near the back of the caravan was the prisoner. Izeria wanted him to cut out his tongue. This seemed messy, but he would do it. At least it would be one thing he could do to prove himself now, but he was glad her brother wanted to wait until they reached the gate.
He kept feeling like he had something to ask Rothair first, but he couldn’t think.
The wine settled his thoughts, rendering them blessedly blank again. They started moving. It would be a long day of walking with the supplies through the tunnels, just like every other day. That was fine with him. Maybe he’d get to hack open a licking snake or two to keep things interesting.
But this turned out to be a different sort of day.
Some humans met them in the tunnels. Rothair immediately rode up to meet them. “My brothers!” They embraced each other.
“We made it,” the men said, pleased. “And this must be your sister?” “Your Majesty…!” They bowed.
They spoke a different language, the human tongue, but for some reason he understood a fair amount of it.
“These are my fellow Elders,” Rothair said to Izeria. “Well, a few of them anyway.”
“Our numbers are many,” said the man in front. “We have kept faith and magical tradition for centuries. We controlled the gates once, and we will do so again, and we’re all eager to form this new alliance, Your Majesty.”
Rothair translated this for Izeria and then said, “Why did you come all this way? We’ve almost reached the gate ourselves. Dare I hope…?”
“Oh, yes. Yes.” The man glanced back and beckoned.
They brought a young girl forward. She looked tired and had shadows under her eyes, like she had slept poorly. Her black hair was in two girlish braids over a dirty but attractive human dress of blue cotton with darker blue fish printed on it.
“This girl is Gaermoni,” the man said. “No wonder she was hard to find. But with the monsters out of the way, she decided to come north to sell her wares. What a good thing you did.” He patted her hand, trying to soothe her nerves. “Emi, this is Elder Rothair. We believe he is one of your future guardians.”
“Let me see you.” Rothair walked up to the girl and brushed her braids off her shoulders. “Don’t be afraid. You look of age. How old are you?”
“Eighteen…sir…”
“Good, good.” He pulled a stone out of his pocket. He took both her hands in his and slipped the stone up her skirt, pressing it to her tailbone.
“Ouch!” She winced back, and tried to get away, but Rothair gripped her tight.
She went still, staring at him.
He kissed her—and deeply, his tongue thrust into her mouth. She didn’t fight him until he drew back, and then she wiped her mouth and made a little exhalation of terror.
“You are mine,” he said. “When Priestess Phoebe is dead, your powers will stir and awaken my own strength. Don’t be afraid of me. I’m your first guardian. I’ll protect you always. You have a great destiny, Emi, as I’m sure they told you. Wouldn’t you like to have all the power, the fortune, the handsome mates that Priestess Phoebe has?”
“I—I—does that mean you and I—” Her eyes swelled with tears. “I want to go home.”
Rothair looked angry. Tanu thought he might slap her. But then he softened. “You’re my mate. You’ll change your mind as you get to know me. And we’ll find the other two.”
“Aren’t there three…?”
“No. Because Emory is dead,” Rothair said. “He was killed by the current guardians. They killed one of their own. Well, Emory was already a sad case. The emperor castrated him. Your other two guardians will be more human than dragon.”
“Did you help the Emperor?” she asked, mustering a little more gumption. “The Emperor is my enemy. He killed our king and kidnapped our princess.”
“No,” Rothair said. “That is, I helped him when it suited me, and not for any longer. We Elders are independent. We’re going to cooperate with Queen Izeria, here, and restore balance.”
“But you want to hurt our Prince! Emperor Raio!” She yanked her arms away and started crying. “I want to go home! I don’t want to be with you!”
“Take her somewhere to rest and be calmed,” Rothair told a nearby handmaiden.
Izeria crossed her arms. “So that’s the potential? Such a little thing.”
“Well, they always are. They’re young women. Once the sigils awaken, she can’t help but love me.”
“And you won’t be able to help but love her.”
“It wouldn’t be terrible to love someone.”
“My lord Rothair,” the elder said. “I have more to report. We sensed bands of rebels hiding in the northern caves. We’ve been trying to locate them, but we aren’t dragons. We don’t see well underground, and we can’t carry enough supplies to venture into the tight caves. You know the terrain. You might want to send someone after them.”
“Rebels? Of what kind?”
“I think they’re mist dragons, but I’m not sure.”
“Mist dragons.” Izeria glanced back, baring her teeth. “I don’t know why any mist dragon would not stand with us. We’re the ones fighting on their behalf. It breaks my heart. I’ll send someone to bring them here—alive and whole. Dvaro always reserved his harshest punishments for traitors, and if they think they can escape me, they’ll have another thing coming.” She looked at him. “Tanu?”
“Yes, my queen.”
“Do you want to taste blood?”
As she stepped closer to him, he smelled the smoky scent of the scales on her hands. Anger boiled inside him. “I want to taste the blood of the crystal dragon king.”
Izeria looked at Rothair. They exchanged a few expressions.
“Tanu is a superior warrior,” Rothair said.
“You don’t wish…to see Ezeru…at all?” Izeria asked her brother. “Not one part of you wishes he was here? If I would have had another chance with him, I could have—”
“When will you understand that I don’t give a damn about a twisted little rock dragon? You have to name an heir, Zeze. It cannot be him. I think it’s better that he’s gone.”
“It’s not better. I made him powerful. You don’t give me any credit for what I did for him. He’s not a simple brawler. He’s magnificent. He was Dvaro’s secret weapon and he wouldn’t have left if Dvaro had appreciated him more.”
“You are…” Rothair gave her a cutting smile and
quickly collected himself in front of the other elders and said, “I’m sorry, my friends. Old family argument…you know. Let me get you something to eat.”
“Who is Ezeru?” Tanu asked. He knew that name, the same way he knew other things, without really knowing them at all.
“He was a child of mine who was lost. But you’re here now. And Rothair is right. Your fighting skills are vastly superior.” She lifted one shoulder toward him.
“Do you want me to track the rebels?”
She smiled. “I thought you’d never ask. But take a few men with you. When we reach the camp, we’ll take care of all the prisoners.”
* * *
Something inside him was simply relieved to be away from the camp, moving freely through the tunnels. He ran his hands along the crystals, sensing where the veins had been disturbed, while the other dragons searched for signs of foraging, hunting, campfires, footsteps and the like.
“This is harsh terrain,” one of the young soldiers, Tozu, said. “Hardly any mist here for us to tap…”
The terrain worked well for Tanu. There was plenty of crystal, much of it good for healing. He was good at healing, but no one asked him to do it.
“And an awful lot of rock dragons…,” Tozu continued, noticing a spot where they had roughed up the rock looking for insects to eat.
“They’re on our side,” said the older soldier, Iruku, a burly short dragon with an axe.
“But for how long?”
“I don’t believe it,” Iruku said. “I don’t believe that one weird rock dragon is really turning all the other rock dragons to his side. That boy hardly said a word when he was at the castle.”
“Yeah, but that might be because Dvaro was always punishing him for something or other,” Tozu said. “And he’s not a boy. He’s only a year younger than I am, you know. Something’s definitely going on. The rock dragons have been talking about a rock dragon king. Who else would it be? Elder Rothair as good as said so, didn’t he?”
“I don’t know. I’ll believe it when he see it. Anyway, we have so many of them up here and Dvaro’s been feeding ‘em since before you were born. These are the loyalest little monsters you’ll ever see. Have we been attacked yet? Eh?”
“No…”
“Ezeru is the queen’s son?” Tanu asked.
“No,” Tozu said. “He’s a rock dragon. We shouldn’t be gossiping anyway…”
Before long, he sensed something in the crystal. Crystal were particularly sensitive to the presence of people and their consciousness; they absorbed strong emotions. “Someone came by here. Someone who was afraid.”
Now they were on their trail. His mind went blank. He was hunting. He would bring the traitors out. They were aiding the crystal dragon king.
“No, please! Please! Spare the children!” A woman flung herself on the ground in front of us when we had her cornered. She looked up at him in terror that changed to confusion. “What—you’re a crystal dragon?”
“I fight on the side of the true queen,” he said proudly. “The high dragon king has abused his privilege.”
“But—”
Iruku struck her face. “Be quiet! You’re under the custody of Queen Izeria now, and if you behave yourself, she might go easy on you for trying to hide. Come on, come out… These are your children?”
A boy and a girl emerged, with stolid faces. Their mother had probably trained them to keep quiet in the face of the enemy.
The children are too old, he thought. The girl has breasts; she’s probably just barely old enough to bear a child. The boy can work.
Izeria would be merciless on them.
She has to be. Why don’t you trust your own queen? They’d kill us. We have to be perfectly willing to kill them. Maybe more than willing. Maybe ahead of the game.
“Please…I’ll come with you, I won’t struggle. Just let my children stay here. They’re just children.”
“They’re not children. They’re old enough to think for themselves,” Tozu said.
The woman looked wretched. “Please,” she growled.
“You are a turncoat and a traitor,” Iruku said, hauling her to her feet and binding her hands. “Tanu, get the younger ones.”
They didn’t fight him. He felt the girls’ slender bones in his hand, limp with resignation, as her tears started to flow. They weren’t warriors. They were just weak children. His large hands shook as he tied their wrists together, but his mind felt nothing except vague dizziness that he shook off. It had been a long day, after all. He brought them back through the tunnels to our boat, where more soldiers were waiting to guard them.
“We have more to catch before we head back,” Iruku said. “Come on.”
Chapter Seventeen
Oszin
I was kept at the back of the caravan with other prisoners, where I didn’t usually have much idea of what was going on. We shuffled along for miles, our hands and feet chained. Our rations were the worst, and this, considering that dragon food was already awful.
One day like that seems like a week, so by the time we reached the northern caves, Himika seemed like a distant memory. Everything did. Moth’s laugh. The dragon dances. Aurekdel’s red-gold hair and strange golden eyes and scaled hands, and the haze of incense around him as I made love to his queen. Ezeru jumping in the water fully clothed and climbing up the rock face to shift the waterfall. Seron taking the crown, looking reluctant but strong. Every moment of my life in Hemara and Irandal started to turn into a dream. But that dream sustained me.
That place is home now.
I hadn’t realized that I had come to love the high dragon kingdom. I didn’t love the darkness or the strangeness, but what I loved was that they welcomed me almost as an equal. In Gaermon, Himika’s father had been very generous to let me guard his daughter. He recognized my talent. I’m not sure I could have gone any farther. With Aurek and Seron, I sensed that my only limits were practical. I wasn’t a dragon. I could accept that fact. But if I was good at it, I knew they would let me do it.
Ijaru and her father Morhu occasionally slipped me a bite of extra food, although I tried to refuse, because that food was also awful and they needed their strength as much as I did. It was embarrassing that they were grateful to me just because I had refused to have sex with Ijaru. After a few days, though, I realized that helping me gave them some small way of rebelling against Izeria.
After what seemed like an endless march, we reached the northern caves, and that was when Ijaru came to me. “The humans came today. They brought a girl with them. Rothair says she’s his priestess.”
“A priestess?”
“Well, they said she’s…a po-ten-tial? It’s a human word. I don’t know much about it. But that has something to do with what you’re doing, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. A potential. So if they kill Phoebe, she’ll become the priestess.”
“Fee-bee?”
“Phoebe is the priestess who should have control of the gates. The gates bring balance between humans and dragons. If there is a war, she could shut the gates. The priestess has a sense of these things beyond other people, so she knows how to create peace. At least, that’s the idea. It’s been so long since we had a proper priestess that we don’t know for sure. But the northern gate has been shut for a long time. The elders had control of the priestess. Rothair is thinking that if he can just kill Phoebe, he and the elders can get control of this girl again.”
“What would happen then?”
“Well, she would also be able to control the other gate. The one near my home country. They’d have a lot of power. For example, she could allow the mist dragons to move freely between the gates and help the elders control the humans, while locking the high dragons up underground forever.”
“And Izeria would be more powerful than ever…” Ijaru lowered her head. “I’m so scared. It feels so hopeless.”
“It’s not hopeless.”
“What if the new priestess doesn’t like Elder Rothair?”
“I bet that isn’t what she wants either.”
“So we just have to stop it from happening.”
“Yeah, like I stopped my father from losing his hand.” She rubbed her arm. “No offense, Oszin, but you’re chained up right now. I don’t think you can stop anything.”
“You’re really cheering me up here!” I said, getting kind of annoyed. “I didn’t ask you to bring me more of this so-called food.” I sighed. “Hey—listen, Ijaru. Really. You’re probably putting yourself in danger by befriending me.”
“I just…want to believe…that someone can…do something.” She sniffed.
“I haven’t given up hope. My grandfather used to say, you give up hope when your head’s rolling off a chopping block or your intestines are in your hand.”
She gave me a horrified look.
“I don’t know, it sounded funnier in Kamiri maybe… The point is, we don’t actually know if it’s hopeless yet, just because we can’t do anything right now. The future hasn’t happened yet. A lot of things have not gone as your queen planned.”
I could talk a good game, but once she left, we walked into a series of rooms that was clearly a military camp, with supply rooms and heavy wooden doors between chambers that were built by humans. The dragons started settling in, and I was shown to a holding cell with some other prisoners, behind a huge gate of iron bars. I hadn’t seen any of the prisoners before. Their numbers included children, and many of them were crying.
I sat in the corner and listened to them share stories about how they had been caught by a big, silent crystal dragon. “What will become of us now?” “The queen will have no mercy.” “I’m so sorry…” “If she cuts out my tongue, let me tell you now…”
Rothair told Izeria to wait until we reached the northern camp before doling out punishments. My time was coming.
No one fed us for a while. I heard some music outside. They were probably feasting their arrival. Eventually, Izeria came with some half-drunken soldiers behind her, most of them older.
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set Page 68