Dragon Blood (Reclaiming the Fire Book 4)

by Alicia Wolfe

  Breathing hard, my armor clinking, I made my way toward the dark spot, meaning to go to the trail beyond it, and Davril came after. With a look over my shoulder, I saw that the spiders were coming all too swiftly. Fuck! There was no time to get to the trail.

  I paused when I reached the dark spot in the cliff wall. The water of the stream rushed into it, and I heard the play of water on stone. Suddenly I realized what it was and laughed.

  “A grotto!” I said. “The playboys come down that trail when they want to, uh, you know, have fun in the grotto. It’s all part of the resort.”

  “It will have to do,” Davril said.

  He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the cave, having to bring us both into the water. It surged and splashed around my hips, seeping into my armor. It made me slow. Just as we entered the passage filled with echoes and gurgles, I looked to see the spiders scaling the side of the cliff right toward us. Damn, but I hated those things. At the sight, fear chilled me to the bone.

  “They’ll follow us!” I said, hearing panic in my voice. I tried to force it down, but it didn’t want to go. “They’ll come in here after us. We’re trapped.”

  Davril’s jaw jutted out. “They won’t get us that easily, Jade.”

  He raised his hand toward the opening. Light flashed out, and power rippled through the air. Rocks rumbled, then split.

  “Back!” he said.

  We edged away from the opening just before it caved in, filling the air briefly with dust and jamming the flow of water. It sealed us in, and the spiders out. Fortunately the whole thing didn’t just cave in on us.

  Darkness surrounded us. I could see like a cat, but even I need a little light to see with, to amplify. Here there was nothing—absolute darkness.

  The ring of steel reached me, and when I could see again Davril held aloft his shining sword.

  On the other side of the rocks, spiders shrieked and beat at the stones, but they held fast.

  “You did it,” I said. I hadn’t been aware of holding my breath, but I sucked in a deep lungful. “We’re safe.”

  “At least for the moment.” He turned from the opening and waved his sword around, making the light illuminate the grotto, or part of it. “Let’s see where we are.”

  The illumination played off of rocky walls and a low stone ceiling, along with bubbling water with steam rising from it. I had thought the entrance blocked, but the water still moved. The steam made me hot, and the water slowed my movements. In frustration, I began ripping off my armor. Davril seemed to agree with the idea, and he tore off his plates, too. Before long we wore only our gambesons, the padded tunics knights wore beneath their armor, but these were water-logged and awkward without armor. We yanked these off, too.

  Wearing only our underwear and weapons, standing hip-deep in a magical grotto made for lovers, we stared at each other by the light of his sword. Both of us dripped with water and sweat, and my blood raced like fire. I knew his must, too. His deep chest rose up and down, and I felt my heart beating rapidly.

  “Is it true?” I said.

  He blinked. “Is what true?”

  “What you said. About being glad I’m here.”

  Faint humor touched his features. “Well, I would hate to experience this alone. Then who would believe me?”

  I stuck my tongue out at him, and he laughed. What I really wanted to do was run my tongue up his chiseled chest, but I held myself back.

  “The water’s still running,” he said. “Maybe there’s another entrance.”

  He plowed through the grotto, water surging about him, and I followed close behind, not wanting to lose the light. The sound of the spiders scraping the rock dwindled behind us. We followed the tight tunnels of the water-filled caves carefully, half-expecting some new monstrosity to jump out at us, but nothing did. On the contrary! I felt dizzy and light-headed … and really, really horny.

  “Fuck,” I said.

  Davril didn’t reply, but I thought I noticed a bulge in his pants whenever he rose up in the water a bit. It was an impressive bulge.

  “Enchanted water,” he said at last, his throat tight.

  And the two of us naked and still on fire from battle. Damn, but why did he have to be mad at me? This place could be a lot of fun. I resolved again to return to the Floating Gardens someday, hopefully with Davril when he had settled down.

  I knew it was killing him to be mad at me, too. A guy with that bulge going on, stuck with a willing and randy girl, who, I’ve been told, isn’t bad to look at, well, he had to have an iron will and an even more iron stubbornness to resist like he was. That meant I hadn’t underestimated his degree of anger—at all. Unfortunately. Still, I thought I detected a bit of a thaw in his manner toward me. If nothing else, this new crisis was helping to heal our wounds.

  But it might split the Fae community in two, right when the Shadow was set to pounce. We had to solve this thing, and now.

  At last light appeared ahead. It grew stronger and stronger, and soon we stepped out from the caves into a shallow lagoon with green fields and forests stretching along the far shore. We splashed out into the lagoon, glancing all around as we did, but there was no sign of the green spiders. They were on the other side of the hills the grotto had been set in. Crazy to think this place was that big, but it was.

  When we came to the far shore, Davril sat along the bank, his legs drawn up.

  I smirked. “Whatcha sittin’ for, Dav?”

  He narrowed his eyes at me but said nothing.

  “Tired?” I pressed.

  I stretched my arms over my head, sticking out my chest. His gaze jerked to my breasts, then hastily moved away. I giggled.

  I continued posing provocatively, bending over and so on, while he manfully tried to ignore me, meanwhile waiting for his magically produced boner to subside. If I was hoping for him to reconsider things and jump on me, I was disappointed. He was a hard one, but he was also a hard one.

  At last he stood, his boner gone (for the moment, I vowed), and we pushed on through the woods. We must have been a sight, me in nothing but wet bra and panties carrying a dagger and Davril in his clingy Fae briefs holding a glowing sword. My stomach growled again, and I was happy when I saw trees up ahead bearing fruit. When we drew closer, I saw to my surprise that the fruit was hot dog wieners. A nearby tree sprouted buns. And a nearby bush secreted mustard.

  “I love magic,” I said. “But who wants a lukewarm hotdog?”

  Davril pointed a stone simmering with heat nearby. “Behold, the stove.”

  I laughed. Plucking the fruit, Davril grilled us both some dogs, and I tried not to be a jerk about licking my wiener. I knew he was still self-conscious about his scanty outfit. And his stiffy, although quite reduced, wasn’t a hundred percent gone. I didn’t think it would take much for it to return. The after-effects of the Horny Hollow were still wrapping around me, too. I was as randy and flirty as a schoolgirl. I knew we had serious business to manage, but it was difficult to think with my head buried in a sultry fog and my loins on fire.

  After we’d eaten, I felt much better, and we pushed on, hoping to come across a pathway or a patrol of Fae Knights. We had no way to contact anyone. We were completely cut off.

  “Do you think Lady Sunheart sent those things?” Davril asked me.

  “Well, we were on the way to see her when they attacked, and they were blocking off the way to her place.”

  “That doesn’t mean she’s the one that—what, what’s that sound?”

  I heard it, too. A scraping, slithery, stealthy sort of noise.

  We threw ourselves to the ground and crept forward, toward the sound. Peering around a tree, we saw something that sent shivers down my back and made gooseflesh pop out along my arms.

  Several tall, gaunt shadow-forms, floating above the ground, were drifting their way through the trees. Fortunately they didn’t come toward us but along a path perpendicular to ours. They were horrifying, menacing things, that sent fear radiating out from t
hem. Coldness filled me as I watched them. I shivered, but with a different dread than that the spiders had produced in me. With them I had simply been afraid of a new menace. With these I was afraid for my soul.

  To my surprise, Davril put an arm around me, sensing my unease, and I warmed at his body contact.

  At last the shadows passed out of sight.

  “What … were they?” I said.

  “I don’t know,” Davril said. “Something … fell.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Those things felt dark, Jade. The wraiths. I think they must have a connection with Lord Vorkoth.”

  “The Shadow … here, in the Floating Gardens?”

  “Or his agents, yes.” Davril stroked his chin. “I think there is more to all this, Jade, than we’d supposed.”

  A long moment of silence passed. At last he seemed to realize that he still had his arm around me, and he removed it.

  “Do you think the wraiths, or whatever, are connected with the green spiders?” I said.

  “I don’t know.”

  “So what now?”

  “Well, we were on the way to see Lady Sunheart when all this happened, and I’ve seen nothing that says we shouldn’t have that interview. Let’s find some clothes and pay her a visit.”

  Chapter Ten

  Lady Sunheart glanced up as we approached. We were once more outfitted in our knightly uniforms, only now without the armor, having returned to the temporary barracks and dressed ourselves. We’d received some raised eyebrows, but our fellow knights had seen our scratches and our somberness after seeing those wraiths, as Davril called them. We’d reported to Lord Gleamstone, then come here directly, along with several knights to back us up, just in case Mia Sunheart put up a fight. If she was the villain, then that was all too possible.

  “Glad to see you again,” she said. She was no longer receiving a massage but was practicing fencing in a large room in her bungalow. Her sword swished the air and she sliced it, practicing her forms as she went.

  “Didn’t get enough war earlier?” I said. “When you almost helped Jereth fuck all this up?”

  “Jade,” Davril warned.

  “Well, she did!”

  Mia sliced the air one more time, then turned to us. Sweat glimmered in her red hair. “You mean when I met with Jereth to bring justice to Therin’s killer?”

  “Lord Deepnight has not been found guilty,” Davril said. “And it is not your place to mete out justice, but the Queen’s.”

  Mia pursed her full lips and blew a strand of hair out from before one eye. “I’ll try to keep that in mind.” Her attention switched from us to the knights she’d brought with us. Her own two consorts stood at either side of the room’s only door. Swords hung from both their slender hips.

  “How can I help you?” Mia said.

  Davril widened his stance, either consciously or not preparing for battle. Seeing his movement, I did the same. Whether Mia noticed or not, I was not sure. Either way, she kept her cool. Well, as cool as a sweaty red-headed vixen in tight clingy clothes holding a sword can be.

  “When you told us about Neva, you knew it would send us to the Coolwaters,” Davril said.

  “But of course. You would have to interview them next, wouldn’t you?” She sounded more amused than alarmed, as if all this were just some game to her.

  Davril’s voice was hard. “Did you know that going to them would also lead us to Taron Deepnight?”

  Her eyes sparkled with thinly veiled humor. “How could I?”

  Davril studied her, probably noticing what I did. She was lying. That was clear as day. She didn’t even bother to hide it.

  “Why?” I blurted. Davril raised a hand to silence me, but I continued on: “Why would you do that? It almost started a war!”

  Mia stared at me, her amusement turning to a simmering anger—not at me, I sensed. It had lain there all along, and likely had something to do with her motives, whatever they were.

  “My side would have won,” she said.

  “The numbers would indicate otherwise,” said Davril.

  “Only if the Coolwaters stayed on your side. But they’re teetering on the brink right now, and one good push will send them to my side. To Jereth’s side.”

  “Is that why you did it?” I said. “To give them a push?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Come on,” I said. “If you knew about Taron, or whatever looked like Taron, being there when Therin was killed, you knew that would tip the balance. You knew the Coolwaters would be enraged at learning that someone on their own side had killed the beloved of their daughter.”

  Mia planted the sword on the floor, tip first, and leaned on it, just slightly, taunting us. “If only I were that foresighted.”

  “What about the spiders?” Davril said suddenly.

  The change of subject caught me by surprise, and it seemed to catch Mia out, too. She looked at Davril blankly.

  “Spiders?”

  “Yes,” Davril said. “Emerald green spiders, of giant size. They attacked Jade and me in the forest just a little while ago.”

  “Just when we were on the way here,” I added.

  Mia furrowed her brow, looking honestly confused. “I don’t understand. Are you accusing me of this?”

  “Do you deny it?” Davril said. His hand curled around the hilt of his sword.

  Mia leaned back, taking the weight off her own sword. Her voice came out cold, but it was the coolness of battle and indifference, not of malice. She would defend herself, but she took no joy in it, as she had obviously done in manipulating us earlier. She had caused one situation and taken satisfaction in it, but if she wasn’t taking satisfaction in this one then maybe she hadn’t caused it. Or at least so went my thinking.

  “Wait,” I said, before Davril could order her placed under arrest. That would doubtless bring violence, and while I wasn’t a chicken I didn’t want to shed blood without good reason, especially if it was my own or Davril’s.

  “Yes?” said Mia.

  “What about the shadow-wraiths?”

  For the first time, concern touched her eyes. “Wraiths?”

  “Agents of Vorkoth. We saw them earlier, too.”

  Davril seemed annoyed with me for mentioning this, but he didn’t rebuke me.

  “Well?” he said. “What do you know about the wraiths, Mia?”

  She shook her head, red hair swishing. In that instant she reminded me a bit of Ruby, who had similar hair and a similar way of shaking her head. But in just about every other way she was Ruby’s opposite: worldly and cynical, manipulative and opulent.

  “I don’t know anything about that,” she said. “I would have come to Lord Jereth, or even the Queen, if I had. But …”

  “Yes?”

  She pursed her lips, looking thoughtful. “Those green spiders of yours …”

  “Yes?” Davril and I said in unison.

  She appeared to think about it for another moment, then nodded her head. Staring off into the distance, as if recalling something, she said, “Back in the old country I warred against the legions of Vorkoth. As my kingdom crumbled, I came to Calista, just as you did. And like you I led my hosts against Vorkoth in concert with hers. But I don’t think you ever warred alongside Lord Greenleaf, did you, Davril?”

  “Greenleaf? What does the Grand Vizier have to do with this?”

  Now amusement did return to Mia’s eyes, but I sensed it was only because she knew what she was about to say would hurt us. “He had a ring, wrought from some alchemy, and it connected him with certain spheres. Outside dimensions. And he could use that ring to summon creatures from it to fight for him. It was an emerald ring, the same color as his robes and eyes, and all the creatures he summoned with it were of the same hue. They fought for him, with us against Vorkoth. Yes, I think I remember that sometimes he would summon spiders. Giant ones.”

  Davril and I glanced at each other. I read the question in his eyes.<
br />
  “I guess it’s worth checking out,” I said.

  We left Mia and her consorts. On the edge of her territory, hidden in the trees, Davril turned to the four knights with us and addressed their leader: “Stay here. Keep a watch on her.”

  “What do you suspect, sir?”

  “I think she’ll try to cause trouble. She’ll alert Jereth that Greenleaf is the traitor. Whether he believes her or not, he’ll use it as an excuse to summon his followers again, and they’ll storm the Big House.”

  “We don’t want that,” I agreed.

  “We’ll keep watch,” the knight said, saluting.

  “Detain her if she leaves, if you can do it without bloodshed,” Davril said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  We left them and returned to the barracks, where we fetched more knights, half a dozen this time. Lord Greenleaf was surrounded by loyal guards, and he was powerful. If he really was behind all this, we had to be careful. We consulted with Commander Gleamstone, then the Queen herself. She was shaken by our news but understood the gravity of the situation, and she sent out word ahead of our coming to the guards protecting Greenleaf.

  They admitted us as we entered the second-story office of the Big House where he was going through some papers, and I could tell by the tenseness of his face that he had some idea of what we were there for. He must have noticed the buzzing amongst his guards.

  “What is the meaning of this?” he said.

  Our knights waited in the hall behind us. We hadn’t wanted to forcibly arrest him but were hoping he would come quietly.

  “I think you know full well,” said Davril.

  Lord Greenleaf said nothing. I took the opportunity to study him with fresh eyes; I noted the metallic green robes he wore, the matching sheen of his eyes, and the green ring he wore on his right little finger. For the first time I noticed the glimmering movement inside it. Had that been what summoned the spiders?

  “We know it was you,” I said. “Fess up or it’ll go harder on you.”

  Greenleaf let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Very well, I suppose there’s no point in dissembling further.”

  “So you admit it?” I said. “You’re Therin’s murderer?”