Dragonsbane

by Shae Ford

  Jake sighed heavily. “Yes, I’ve been giving it a considerable amount of thought, and I’ve realized there’s only one thing I can possibly do: keep my magic to myself.”

  “No spells,” Kael agreed. “None whatsoever. It’ll be difficult enough getting the wildmen to do what I’ve asked them. The last thing we need is the smell of magic driving them mad. I think it’d be best if you stayed with Declan.”

  Elena glared when Kael turned to her. “I’m staying with the mage. And that’s final.”

  He leaned away as she leveled the spear’s head at his chin. “I was going to say that, anyways.”

  “You were?”

  “Yes. So there’s no need to go pointing things at me,” he said, shoving the spear aside. With the way things were going so far, he thought he was at greater risk of being killed in his own camp than by Titus’s army.

  When he told Nadine her lot, she stamped her tiny feet. “This is all your doing, giant!” she hollered at Declan. “I will not be made to sit idly while my friends do battle.”

  “You’ll do what I tell you, mite.”

  “Mot!”

  Kael could feel himself nearing his wit’s end, and the worst was still to come: he needed to talk to Gwen.

  They were camped beneath a cliff face that night. The craftsmen had spent the evening molding several large shelters into the rock: they bent the unforgiving stone back into caves and draped large, pelt tarps over their mouths to keep the snow out.

  Kael was rather proud of how well the pelts had been melded together, and how they’d thought to seal the fur to the edges of the caves’ mouths. For days now, the craftsmen had built shelters without his help — steadily improving their quality and speed. There was no doubt in his mind that the wildmen would thrive long after Titus lay dead, even if they insisted on living at the mountain’s top.

  A number of campfires ringed the space outside the shelters. Kyleigh and Silas sat near the largest one, busily devouring the carcass of a deer.

  “Curse the mountain’s breath — it bites at everything!” Silas hissed. He gnawed unsuccessfully at a chunk of red flesh on the deer’s leg. Judging by how his teeth scraped against it, the meat had frozen solid.

  Kyleigh held her portion above the flames for a moment, her brows bent in concentration. “It’ll be much easier to get a decent bite if you warm it.”

  “I don’t have to warm my meals, dragoness. My jaws are powerful enough.”

  “Suit yourself.” Kyleigh took her meat from the blaze and tore off a large chunk with her teeth, grinning smugly at him while she chewed.

  Silas finally relented. He thrust his deer among the flames and pulled it back with a huff. “It isn’t working,” he grumbled, jabbing it with a finger. “Why isn’t it working?”

  “You have to leave it in there for a moment, you silly cat. No, look …”

  She grabbed his wrist and bent him, forcing the leg to hang just right. His neck craned all around and he shifted worriedly on his haunches the longer Kyleigh kept it in. “Now, dragoness?”

  “No, not yet.”

  “But —”

  “Patience,” she growled.

  At last, she let go. Silas crammed the leg against his lips. “Ow! It’s hot!” He stuffed a fistful of snow into his mouth and tried the bite again.

  Kyleigh rolled her eyes at him. When she saw Kael approaching, she leaned back. “Where are you off to?”

  He sighed heavily. “To battle all the forces of the under-realm and the winter.”

  She grinned. “Send her my love.”

  He tugged on her pony’s tail as he passed.

  Gwen had a small shelter to herself in the middle of the wildmen’s camp. Its mouth was covered in a thick blanket of bear and wolf. The bear’s head crowned the shelter’s arch and seemed to snarl at him as he approached, bearing all of its jagged teeth in greeting.

  The light from one of the craftsmen’s makeshift lanterns glowed beneath the pelt door’s bottom. “Gwen? Can I talk to you for a moment?”

  “Fine,” she growled.

  “It’s about tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure you remember what you’re supposed to …” His voice trailed off. He’d been so focused on battling his way past the pelt door that it took him a moment to realize what he was looking at.

  Gwen stood before him, turned away — and she wore nothing but her leggings. Every muscle in her back was visible: they coiled as she bent to scoop her tunic off the floor. He could see where the swirling designs on her arms ended near the base of her neck, giving way to pale, slightly freckled skin.

  A ring of scars bent around her right shoulder blade like a bow’s arch. Each one was almost perfectly rounded — and about the size of a large tooth.

  “Kyleigh really bit you,” he said, though he could still hardly believe it.

  “She could’ve sent me to the under-realm with a roar and a burst of flame. But instead, she slung me into a cliff side,” Gwen muttered as she pulled the tunic over her head. The soft material fell down her back, covering the scars. “It took me an hour to dig out from under all the rock and snow — and my father kept me locked inside the castle for the rest of the winter while my wounds healed … but things certainly could’ve been worse.”

  She smirked as she turned around. She rolled the tunic’s sleeves up to her elbows, all the while keeping her eyes on his. “You must be the only man in the Kingdom who would walk up to a shirtless woman and ask after her scars.”

  Heat singed Kael’s face. “Well, I … you said I could come in.”

  “I did.”

  He didn’t understand why she was still smirking at him, or why her eyes shone so fiercely. But it took every ounce of his courage to keep from sprinting outside. “I wanted to talk to you about —”

  “I’m not pleased with your plan, mutt,” she said, crossing her arms. “I don’t see why we ought to spend so much time piddling around a battle we could easily win.”

  He’d lost count of how many times he’d had to explain it to her. “It’s not just about winning — it’s about keeping our people safe.”

  “Our people?”

  “Yes. Your wildmen might be able to hurl themselves over the gates and come out unscathed, but my friends aren’t as strong. I won’t put them to harm when there’s a better way to do things.”

  She raised a brow. “So destroying my castle is better?”

  “Castles can be rebuilt,” he said evenly.

  “So can bodies.”

  “That’s not …” He tugged roughly on his hair, but his frustration still came out as a growl. “I’m doing what’s best. For once, will you please just trust me?”

  “I don’t think so. I need to be convinced.”

  He was nearing the rather frayed ends of his patience, and anger bubbled in a pit beneath it. Still, he tried to hold on. “No, you don’t need to be convinced. You need to shut it and do exactly as I say. And when all this is over, you can thank me.”

  She sauntered closer. “Why would I do that?”

  “Because Titus will be dead, and you’ll never have to see me again. You and I will shake hands and part ways — and your people can go straight back to chasing imaginary creatures through the mountains.”

  “Why don’t I just thank you now?”

  “I wish you woul …”

  Kael couldn’t breathe. It took him a moment to realize why he couldn’t breathe. He got his answer quickly when he tried to take a breath and Gwen’s lips pressed harder against his. They were every bit as strong as she was, moved as roughly as her grip. Her fingers twisted his jerkin about his chest; her teeth scraped down his lip.

  Then she shoved him away.

  “What in Kingdom’s …? Why?” he gasped.

  She shrugged. “I admire you.”

  “Well, that’s no reason to just — just … I don’t love you, Gwen!”

  She looked at him as if he was stupid. “I don’t love you either. Love has nothing to do with it.”

&nb
sp; “Nothing to do with what, exactly?”

  Her arms crossed over her chest. Her eyes were level with his. “Where will you go, when all this is done?”

  He hadn’t exactly thought about it. He supposed it would be best to stay in Tinnark, now that the Countess knew about him … but could he stay in Tinnark? After having seen the Kingdom in all its many shades, could he go back to shriveled brown and iron gray? What would he do with Amos and Roland? And Kyleigh hated the mountains — he couldn’t ask her to stay with him in Tinnark.

  “You have a home among the wildmen, if you want it.” Gwen’s eyes moved sharply across his face, picking his struggle apart with ease. “My people listen to you. My brother loves you. If you stay with us, you can teach him how to rule as Thane —”

  “So you won’t have to? So you can spend your days killing beasts and mounting their heads on your wall? No thanks,” Kael said firmly. “I’m not going to give you an excuse to disappear.”

  “I won’t disappear,” she said with a smirk. “I’ll come back … on occasion.”

  “What do you mean?”

  A slight red blossomed down her neck as she shrugged. “You and I are a good match. Just because we don’t love each other doesn’t mean we can’t … work together.”

  It took Kael a moment to figure out what she’d meant. But when he did, he couldn’t believe it. “I’m not going to marry you, Gwen. I don’t want to rule the wildmen or live in a frozen castle, and I certainly don’t want to spend the rest of my life at the summit.”

  “Then what do you want?”

  “Kyleigh.” Her name burst from his lips like sparks from shifting coals. She was always there, always smoldering at the pointed base of his heart. He didn’t regret admitting it — not even when Gwen laughed.

  “The pest?” Her neck arched back as she laughed again, revealing the blue veins that snaked down her throat. “Oh, you poor fool.”

  Kael had to clench his fists to keep from punching her. “I’m not a fool. I happen to love her.”

  “You can’t love her,” Gwen gasped, still chortling. When she saw the look on his face, she stopped. Her voice immediately grew serious. “The pest is a beautiful creature, I’ll admit that. But she isn’t human. She can’t give you what I’m prepared to: a wife to grow old with, children to carry your name —”

  “I don’t care about having children,” Kael said vehemently. He thought back to the memory of Setheran and Amelia, about how heartbroken they’d been when they’d seen the symbol of the Wright in his eyes.

  He certainly didn’t want that life for his children. He wouldn’t want them to have to carry the same weight that crushed across his shoulders even now, the guilt that made the ground go cold beneath his feet.

  He’d rather they weren’t born.

  But Gwen wouldn’t relent. “What will happen when your skin starts to wilt, and the pest stays as beautiful as ever? Will you let her hold you through your twilight years? Let her spoon broth past your toothless lips?”

  “There are ways a whisperer can live for lifetimes,” Kael said, thinking back to the story Baird had told him, the story of Calhamos the Healer. “I can tell my heart to keep beating.”

  “Not without a reason, craftsman. You’re the mutt who couldn’t topple a tree because you thought its roots went too deep.” Gwen’s lips bent into a smirk. “What reason could you possibly find to convince your heart to beat forever?”

  He wasn’t sure. But he knew one thing for certain: “I’ll find one.”

  “Sure you will.”

  He could bear her smirk no longer. If he stood there another moment, he’d fight her.

  “Have your fun with the pest,” she called as he threw the blanket aside. “But someday you’ll come to your senses — and when you do, my offer still stands.”

  Kael stormed out into the snow, trying to shove her taunts aside. He breathed deeply as the thick flakes melted against the rage boiling beneath his skin. His anger had so blinded him that he didn’t see Silas coming until it was too late.

  He slammed his shoulder hard into Kael’s. “Out of my way, human,” he hissed as he passed.

  Kael was too furious to care. He sat on the ground beside Kyleigh and hardly noticed when the snow began soaking into his trousers. “If there’s a more insufferable woman across the six regions, then I’ll quit right now. I’ll jump off the mountains rather than risk ever having to meet her.”

  Kyleigh said nothing.

  So he ranted on: “How does she do it? How does she take a perfectly pleasant evening and twist it into the most frustrating, horrible — she’s horrible. That’s the problem. She’s completely —”

  “Right,” Kyleigh said quietly. “She’s right, you know. She’s right about me, about … everything.”

  He watched in disbelief as she tossed the deer’s bones into the fire, as she stood and straightened the hem of her black jerkin as if nothing was at all out of place. “What are you saying? You think I ought to go be with Gwen?”

  “I think you should consider it,” she said curtly. She tossed the flap over her rucksack and set it to the side. Then she stooped to wrap her arms about his neck. “You and I will always be friends, Kael … and more than anything under the stars, I want you to be happy.”

  Chapter 45

  Fate’s Shame

  Kyleigh was gone.

  She was gone before he could reply, before he could even fathom what she’d said. She was gone before he could tell her that she was wrong. Kyleigh slipped away into the frozen darkness, leaving Kael with all the things he wanted to say still burning upon his lips.

  It took him a moment to realize why he hadn’t spoken sooner: there were no words. All the many searing, twisting things that might’ve become words were still far too raw. They were glowing lumps he had no way to shape — a weight that sagged his chest. He didn’t have the slightest clue what to do with them.

  For a moment, he’d been certain … he thought she might’ve, perhaps … well, he thought she might’ve grown to love him back. He thought that if he was patient and didn’t press her that she would finally admit it. At the very least, he’d expected to battle her over it for years to come.

  But he’d never expected her to shrug and walk away.

  The strange feeling in his blood might very well have consumed him. It might’ve crushed him with its emptiness. But at the moment when his head dropped its lowest, he saw Kyleigh’s rucksack out of the corner of his eye.

  Its flap lay clumsily over its opening — its contents weren’t quite hidden. Kael didn’t have to lean much closer to see the red spine of a familiar book sticking out of its top:

  Tales of Scales: The Complete Catalogue of Dragons.

  He realized it must’ve been the copy she’d stolen from Baird. She’d stolen all the dragon books from Lysander’s library as well — he was fairly certain she’d nicked the first copy of Scales out from under his hammock. And it made him wonder …

  What was Kyleigh hiding? If she truly felt nothing for him … why did she go to such great lengths to make certain he never read those particular books? Kael knew he might never get another chance to find out.

  He glanced to make sure she hadn’t crept up behind him before he grabbed the book. His hands trembled as he flipped it open, as he dug through the first few pages to the passage he’d drifted off trying to read a year ago:

  Long have the race of men warred with the dragon, long have they envied him. Though the King bears his image upon his heart, he knows not the dragon's strength. He is Fate's first child and the most ancient of all beasts. His life stretches into the thousands of years, sword nor arrow can pierce his skin. The fire that boils in his belly is more fearsome than the core of flame.

  But even a dragon’s breath is paled by the fury of his love. It burns in his heart, sets fire to every drop of blood. The dragon loves most fiercely: none but the one he chooses can withstand his inner blaze. He protects his chosen with all of his strength, with every
mighty fiber of his soul. He will bear her pain as his own. He gladly suffers her wounds.

  For though the dragon’s eyes may gaze upon the passing of an age, his heart loves only once …

  *******

  It was near dawn before Kyleigh worked up the courage to return to camp.

  The last watch of the night greeted her sleepily from their posts. Hardly any noise came from the cavern shelters. Their fires had been doused by a heavy fall of snow. She’d sat so long beneath the stars that she’d had to brush several inches of white from her lap and the top of her hood. Now she faced the prospect of having to dig her rucksack from the drifts.

  She thought she might’ve found it when Gwen emerged from her shelter. The wildwoman stretched her arms high above her and shot Kyleigh a wicked grin. “Have a good night, pest?” she called as strode towards the watch.

  Kyleigh didn’t smell any other bodies within the mouth of her shelter. “Where’s Kael?”

  “How should I know where that mutt’s run off to? The last I saw, he was storming out and swearing vengeance.”

  Well, that was a relief. She’d been angry the night before — not at Kael or even at Gwen, but at herself. She shouldn’t have listened in. She shouldn’t have given the human in her any more reason to lose its grip. When she saw Kael marching away with black paint smeared upon his lips … well, Gwen was fortunate that Kyleigh thought to be angry with herself.

  It was in her anger that she’d shoved Kael towards Gwen. Now that the night had passed and the sun crept towards dawn, she realized that Gwen would never make him happy. It would be better if he waited for a human that could give him a life full of the love he deserved.

  Kyleigh planned to find him and tell him all this. She planned to apologize for the way she’d behaved. But first, she needed to find her rucksack.

  No sooner had she managed to drag it free of a pile of snow than Eveningwing greeted her from above. The chill morning wind whispered across his stormy-gray feathers as he circled overhead.