Dragon Blood (Reclaiming the Fire Book 4)

by Alicia Wolfe

“Thank God,” I muttered. “For once I didn’t want to be right.”

  Davril’s mouth twitched in a smile. “I accept.”

  After that it was all pretty easy. We led Jereth’s company to where the Queen hid with her own people. More had found her since we’d left them, and they were waiting. They sprang out of hiding as we approached and hemmed us in.

  “Be well, and be at ease,” Davril called to them. “I bring you Prince Jereth, laying down his arms against the Queen. None of his people are armed.” And indeed they weren’t. Mia Sunheart wasn’t thrilled about surrendering, and she’d been complaining of it bitterly since Jereth had made his pledge. But all knew that the only way off the Home Isle was by way of peace, and the only honorable way that could be achieved now by was to make amends with the Queen.

  When Jereth was finally brought to her, standing regally before a tall tree, just as beautiful and majestic as she was, he said, “You win, Mother. Or rather I concede.”

  Her voice was softer than I would have expected. “You did not need to. You could have killed us all.” Events had been explained to her by this point, and she knew roughly all that had occurred.

  Jereth shook his golden head. “No. Without the Strongwalls we were evenly matched, and I was about to lose the Coolwaters now that the truth of Taron’s innocence was known. You would have had the upper hand once more.”

  “So it was a calculated move, your surrender?”

  His eyes were proud, but no longer arrogant. “It’s time for me to come home, Mother. It’s what I wanted all along.”

  She stepped forward and stroked his cheek with her hand. At the sight, I admit I misted up a little. Feeling much better, I stood beside Jereth, with Davril on the other side. We were guarding against him, just in case.

  “Good,” Calista said.

  “Not me,” said Mia Sunheart. “I’m not surrendering. I’m not going anywhere, Cali dear. If you have a prison that can hold me, fine. But otherwise I will go back into exile, and take any that will follow me.”

  “As you wish,” Calista said. “I hope that someday before it’s too late you will see the error of your ways.” She started to say something else, but just then the Veil dissolved. The light, which had still been streaming past the magical barrier, had nevertheless had a strange hue as it passed through. I had barely noticed it before, but all of a sudden the hue changed, becoming normal once more. We all glanced up to see the stars, unimpeded by the magical construct.

  “We’re free!” Lord Greenleaf said. “Thank the gods.”

  “Yes, but free to do what?” said Jereth sadly.

  Calista’s attention returned to him. “You cannot simply take up your old life, my son. Davril was right on that. You must pay your penance, and any that wish to return with you.”

  “I leave that up to you, Mother.”

  She tapped her chin, clearly thinking it over. What was she to do with him?

  “Actually,” I said, smiling a little. “I have a thought about that.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jereth stared around him at the gloomy hall. “I don’t think this is necessary.”

  “But I do,” said Calista. Davril and I flanked her this time, not Jereth, and more knights were behind us.

  Jereth wasn’t alone, either. Over half of his following had decided to follow him out of exile, to return to the good graces of the Queen—in time, anyway. First they had to atone for their sins. And atone they would. We were in Castle Strongwall, the vine-encrusted, haunted castle in which the Strongwalls had lived, under siege, for years.

  “And the Strongwalls don’t need this place any more,” Calista went on. “Their retainers, such as they had, have been relocated, as have their innocent relations. We have no other use for this castle, and we need some place to keep you … some place that isn’t in the Palace.” She was referring to the palace dungeons, I knew. I’d gotten more than a good look at them once before.

  Jereth narrowed his eyes at me. “That was your idea, Jade. I hold you responsible.”

  I grinned at him. “My pleasure, brat. Better here than the dungeons, though, am I right?”

  “You need to put your human back on its leash,” Jereth told Davril.

  Davril’s fingers gripped the hilt of his sword. After Jereth had surrendered, Davril had gone back and retrieved his blade of light. I would’ve, too. That was one sweet sword. “I will pretend I didn’t hear that,” Davril said.

  Jereth swung his attention to Lord Greenleaf, standing nearby. “And what of you? Are you joining me here, Grand Vizier?”

  “That would be amusing, seeing as how I tried to prevent you from making amends with Her Majesty,” Greenleaf said. “In fact, it would probably serve me right, to be stuck here with you. But Her Majesty has decided to grant me clemency.”

  “You’re pardoning him?” Jereth asked his mother, beside himself.

  “Well, he was right, wasn’t he?” Calista said. “You weren’t acting in good faith, and you were just trying to gain advantage.”

  “That’s not true. If it were, I would not have surrendered. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to be placed here.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Or maybe it’s like you said at the time; once the truth came out and the Strongwalls had been put down, you would have lost to my side anyway. Surrendering was your best option.”

  “I could have gone into exile, like before. Like Mia did.”

  “She only escaped because I didn’t have enough soldiers left to keep you all—thanks to your butcher’s work. I haven’t forgotten that. Neither has Mia, I’m sure. One of her consorts died in the fighting. She may be in exile because of you, Jereth, but I doubt she’s your biggest fan anymore.”

  Jereth folded his arms across his chest. “How long am I going to be confined here?”

  “Until I’m satisfied you’ve reformed,” Calista said. She paused, then, in a milder tone, said, “That time may be shortened with good behavior. For example, I believe we had a deal …”

  Jereth eyed her knowingly. An infuriating smile played at the corners of his lips. “You wish to know what Nevos is after, then?”

  “I do.”

  “Very well. I suppose you’ve earned it.” He looked around him at the various knights and courtiers, both on his side and Calista’s. “But I will only reveal the truth to you, alone, Mother.”

  “Very well.” She dismissed everyone from the grand living room, dominated by the huge fireplace and many slouching chairs and couches, all half-hidden in the gloom. Davril and I started to leave as well, but she called us back. “You’ve earned the right to hear this, too,” she said. “Besides, I want there to be witnesses to this. In case something happens to me.”

  “It better not,” Davril said.

  Still, we remained in the room at her side while the others completely filed out. Greenleaf looked put out by this, but he didn’t argue. He likely expected to be filled in on what he’d missed later.

  “Well?” Calista said, when we were alone with the rebel prince.

  Jereth smirked. “Desperate, aren’t you?”

  “If it gratifies you to have some advantage over me, enjoy it now,” Calista said. “Now please, just live up to your end of the bargain. We had a deal. If some arrangement could be worked out between us so that you could return to my court, you would reveal what Nevos is after. What the Shadow desires.”

  “It would be a great help to know where he’ll strike next,” I agreed.

  Jereth gestured at the gloomy surroundings. “And you consider this being in the court once more?”

  “It’s as close as you’re going to get,” Calista said. “It puts you on the path to returning there, someday. It fulfills my side of the agreement. Now. Yours.”

  Jereth let out a dramatic sigh. He strolled to one of the windows and twitched aside the drapes. Nothing but thick vines growing over the outside could be seen. His entire view of the panorama of the city had been blocked. In the distance, from down a hall, I heard
the wailing of what might have been a damned soul. This place truly was cursed, I realized. No wonder the Strongwalls had turned evil. I began to worry that this wasn’t the best place to leave Jereth.

  Well, we would have to deal with that later.

  “Spit it out, Junior,” I said.

  He gave me a withering glance, then faced us fully, turning from the window. His face was composed. “I have a secret from you, Mother.”

  “I’m sure you have more than one,” Calista said.

  “When we left the Fae Lands, you closed the gateways behind us, sealing our home off from our eventual return.”

  “I know how to open them, and I make sure the Shadow can’t open them from his side. It takes a great many spellgredients, and I fear that someday we will burn through them, but so far it has worked. And in time, when we’re ready, we will return, and we will destroy the Shadow and retake our world.”

  “And how will you do that, Mother?”

  But Calista said nothing. Just the same, there was an odd glint in her eye, a sort of serectness, but also a resolve. I realized that she had a plan for returning to the Fae Lands, and that she might have been working on it in private all along. Then again, of course she had. She didn’t want to abandon her people and live in my world for the rest of her immortal life. But Jereth didn’t know that, or at least didn’t trust to her ability to see it through, which is why he had risen against her. Maybe she should have told him her plans. Maybe that would have prevented things from reaching the head they had. On the other hands, I wouldn’t have trusted that brat with my world-saving secret, either.

  “Fine,” Jereth said. “Keep your mysteries. If you do have any. But I couldn’t trust to your vague claims and hints, Mother. I had to safeguard our future. I had to save our people.”

  For the first time, a touch of fear entered Calista’s face. “What did you do, Jereth?”

  He paused. “I hid a gateway, Mother.”

  “You … hid a gateway?”

  “Yes. I call it the Last Gateway. You thought you had closed it, but in secret I prevented its collapse, only gave the illusion that it had, and then I hid it so that it would be safe from both you and the Shadow, and that when I had enough backing I could return through it and liberate our people.”

  Calista’s hands opened and closed at her sides, as if she were fantasizing about throttling her son. “You left a way for the Shadow to cross over, you fool. Don’t you see what you’ve done?”

  “Wait a minute,” I said. “Did you … did you tell anyone about this?”

  “I told the lords and ladies of the houses that supported me,” Jereth admitted. He didn’t sound happy about it. “It was the only way to garner their support. They had to know I had a plan. A plan greater than yours, Mother.”

  I snapped my fingers. “Von Strongwall said something about that. That you had a secret, a way …”

  Davril ran a hand across his face. “Blast! Jereth, do you realize what you’ve done? If Von Strongwall knows of this infernal Last Gateway, then it’s a good bet Nevos does, too.”

  Jereth looked haggard, but the idea didn’t seem to surprise him. “You wanted to know what Nevos was after. Well, I figured that had to be it. I didn’t realize when I made this bargain that one of my loyal houses wasn’t so loyal, after all. I didn’t realize that Nevos already knew about the Last Gateway. But I suspected he might have heard some rumors. Our paths intersected in the underworld, and two of my knights went missing. I believe Nevos captured them and tortured them for information, and they were close to me. They knew about the gateway.”

  Calista’s voice was sharp. “Did they know where it was? How to find it?”

  “If they did, Mother, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we? The Shadow would already be ripping up this world like he did the last.”

  My mouth had gone dry. “Then where is it, you fool? Where did you hide it?”

  Jereth spread his hands and smiled. “That would be telling.”

  “We had a deal!” Calista said.

  “No. Our deal was for me to tell you what Nevos was after. I’ve done so. But the actual location of the gateway will be an entirely separate deal. And it will be the one that gets me out of here and back into your court, where I will be free and have my title restored.”

  “Impossible! You would rally your supporters and dethrone me.”

  “Would I?”

  “I can never trust you again,” she said. “At least not until you’ve spent some time in reflection and have accepted responsibility for what you’ve done. Until you’ve changed as a person. I think being here will do you some good, honestly.”

  “As much good as it did the Strongwalls? Face it, Mother, I’m not going to change, and this isn’t the place to do it. Neither is the palace dungeon,” he hastened to add. “There is no such place, Mother. Except …”

  “Yes?” she said, almost breathlessly.

  “The Fae Lands,” he said.

  Her face hardened. “Then you will just have to wait.”

  “And you will, too, Mother. For answers. For I have none now to give.”

  Epilogue

  “That little swine!” I said, balling a fist. “I can’t believe he would do that. After the deal we had, to renege like that …”

  “Did he renege?” Davril mused. “I think maybe he didn’t. Oh, he didn’t say all he could have, or should have, but in his mind he upheld the letter of the bargain, if not the spirit. And remember he did surrender. He had us at his mercy, and he surrendered.”

  I glanced sideways at him. We were in Lady Kay, flying back to the Palace from Castle Strongwall—soon to have a different name, perhaps. Queen Calista and her entourage had departed on their pegasi. Davril and I had just gone off duty. My plan was to go hang out with Ruby for awhile.

  Unless something else, something very specific, happened. But at the moment I couldn’t think of that.

  Wind streamed through Davril’s short blond hair, but his blue eyes were firm.

  “Don’t tell me you’re taking up for that rat,” I said. “That stinking rat! He caused all that mayhem, all that blood was shed because of him—”

  Davril held up a hand, forestalling me. “I know, Jade. I know. I’m not defending him. He deserves his fate, and more besides. But I am glad that the Fae community has taken a major step toward healing, and I don’t hold Jereth entirely responsible for what happened at the Floating Gardens. It was Nevos who orchestrated the murders in an attempt to divide us, not Jereth.”

  “Yeah, I guess. Jereth was just Nevos’s tool. He is a tool,” I agreed with myself. “But you’re right, Nevos was behind all this.”

  “Him, and the Shadow. They’re our real enemies, Jade. Never forget that.”

  I hissed out a breath, some of the fight going out of me. “I won’t. But now how are we going to find the Last Gateway?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe we can strike another deal with Jereth, one that suits our interests better than the one he would want. Or maybe we can find it ourselves, without him.”

  “If we can, then Nevos can, too.”

  Davril grimaced. “True. The race is on.”

  “Winner take all. No pressure.” I wished for a cigarette, but Ruby had made me give those up some time ago. “I’d go for a drink right about now.”

  Davril shot me a look, then turned his attention back to navigating the route between rearing skyscrapers and the fantastic castles that perched atop them. Sunlight stroked their walls and towers and battlements. Ahead of us the skyscrapers opened out, and there in the near distance was the tallest one of all, with the most splendid structure atop it—the Palace itself. Beautiful and white, it shone gorgeously under the rays of the sun. Already the Queen and her entourage on their gleaming-white pegasi were reaching the top of one of the slender towers.

  Davril’s voice softened. “You are a big part of the reason it’s over,” he said. “The whole mess. Without you, we wouldn’t have been able to
exonerate Taron or overcome the Strongwalls.”

  I started to say Don’t you forget it, but stopped myself. Instead, in an equally soft voice, I said, “You weren’t so bad yourself.”

  He glanced at me again, and our eyes met. Instantly I felt my cheeks burn.

  Clearing his throat, he turned to face the front once more. A strange silence fell over us, but it was a warm one. Even a hot one. We had been through a lot over the last few days, and our bond was much tighter than it had been. Old wounds had healed, or so I believed. Davril was opening to me. And there were things said on the field of battle that I felt needed clarification.

  I gathered my courage. “What did you mean, back on the bridge?”

  He feigned ignorance. “The bridge?”

  “Don’t be like that. You know what I mean.”

  “Well, I remember a bridge. Maybe not the bridge …”

  I swatted his arm, and he smiled. I felt a glow.

  “Anyway,” I said. “You told me then, as the Strongwalls and their knights were about to kill us, that you wished that things could have been otherwise with us.” Batting my eyes, I said, “What did you mean by that?”

  His smile faded, but the warmth didn’t leave his eyes. “I think you know what I meant, Jade.”

  Gulp. “Well, uh … I mean, that could be misinterpreted. Maybe you could just … say it?”

  He didn’t say anything, though, and the warm silence we’d been experiencing became tense. It wasn’t a bad sort of tension, though. It was electric. Sexual. I wanted him, and I knew he wanted me, and what we’d been through on the Floating Gardens had brought us together. Hopefully for real this time.

  We didn’t speak again until we’d reached the Tower of the Shield, and Davril saw to putting Lady Kay in her stable. One of the pegasi nuzzled her chrome as she went by, and I swear Lady Kay nuzzled him back.

  Davril and I, still strangely silent, feeling that electricity between us, moved up from the hangar into the tower. I meant to take a shower, change and hit the road (well, metaphorically) on Chromecat. Unless.