“Never mind.” She hunched over her bowl, shoveling the food into her mouth quickly before it got cold.
I looked at my own bowl but felt too nervous to eat it.
“This is very good, by the way. So thanks,” she said.
And so it went, my first encounter with the only woman I would ever be allowed to love.
Chapter Four
Himika
All too soon, it seemed, we reached the southern gate to the dragon kingdom. There were two gates once, but this one had been shut for hundreds of years, while a spell had corrupted the northern passage and turned all dragons to cross its barrier into monsters. The northern one remained cursed, the entire region dangerous. That would be one of the many matters on King Aurek’s royal to-do list.
It was a long to-do list.
The entire situation was fraught and dangerous. The dragons had been trapped underground for hundreds of years, unable to trade with our world, until we nearly forgot they existed. They had no access to vital materials like wood. There were six types of dragons: ice, lava, crystal, metal, and two races that were hostile to King Aurekdel’s rule: rock dragons and mist dragons.
Rock dragons were considered “low” dragons, with lesser intelligence, capable of some very basic speech but not complex thought. Mist dragons, meanwhile, could control the different types of mists that seeped out of the ground and produced drug-like effects. They were not trusted or welcomed into the dragon society, and when the gates shut, the mist dragons had unified, collected an army of stupid, brutish rock dragons, and made several attempts on the throne. They were currently ruled by a dragon called “the Traitor King” who had set up his own shadow government.
I was briefed on all of this, of course. But there wasn’t much to be done with the information now. I knew so little of any dragons, friend or enemy.
The gates were controlled by the Priestess of the Gate. Phoebe Praeus was the priestess of the gate and also the young empress of the realm. She had opened the gate for us in advance of our arrival, and her handmaidens watched over the place in her absence. They greeted me warmly. Almost too warmly. They wanted to have tea and chat and ask how Phoebe was doing and I wasn’t in the mood at all.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m very weary.”
The price for pleading exhaustion was, as always, a round of pity. “Of course! You do look pale!” “Do you need healing tonic?”
“I just want to keep moving,” I said.
To begin the passage into the dragon kingdom, we all had to crowd past a stone cave, through an altar that opened into doors with carved figures of dragon kings and queens, and then cross a glowing barrier that circled around the rock. The carriages and horses must be left behind, supplies strapped onto backs. Still, the dragons carried a small fortune in luxury fabrics to bring back home, a dowry gift from my brother, and then there were spices and foods from Gaermon to help me adjust to the dragon’s diet. The dragon army was stuffed almost single-file into a long stone tunnel that slowly descended deeper and deeper into the ground.
Before we entered, Seron made sure I was near the back. “Some danger down ahead. Rock dragons are known to attack at altar room,” he said. “You stay safe close to guard.”
So Oszin walked next to me, with just one grouping of dragons behind us, one hand tight on his sword while the other held a lantern. He looked as nervous as I’d ever seen him.
“You don’t like tight spaces?” I whispered. “Don’t tell me you’re worried about a tunnel collapse. Or…maybe the walls…slowly closing in…” I brushed my fingers across the moist rock. “I do think they’re getting closer, the deeper and deeper we go.”
He glowered. “Shut up.”
“You have a lot of phobias for the head of my guard. I’m always discovering new ones. Lightning, spiders, snakes…”
“I have good reasons for all of them,” he said. “They can all kill you.”
“But you’re not afraid of fighting.”
“Everyone’s afraid of fighting. We all just get very good at hiding it. I hope the whole place isn’t like this.”
The tunnel abruptly opened into a huge cavern that demonstrated just how far we had gone downward, because now the cavern’s ceiling soared many stories above our heads. Smaller caverns led off into gods-knew-where. I saw some remains of what looked like balconies above.
I had heard about this room; it had an ancient altar dedicated to the priestess of the gate. Time had toppled some of the statues around the room, but a statue of the priestess and her guardians still stood, and flames burned eternally around the room, light caught by small canals carved through the rock in somewhat of a grid pattern with occasional larger pools. It had been a long time since a priestess had held court in this room.
“I wonder what was done here in ancient times,” I said.
“I would guess the dragons came in through those doors to see the priestess,” Oszin said, pointing at some huge doors which led to another passage. It looked like the dragons were heading out through another tunnel.
“Yes, but I wonder if it was like a religious ceremony? A party? A king holding an audience? I wonder if Phoebe will ever actually get a chance to use these rooms. She’s so busy cleaning up the Emperor’s mess.”
I heard some loud talk ahead and then Seron shouted in the dragon language. The dragons behind me drew their swords. Terror immediately drove me into Oszin’s arms.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have teased me about being scared, Moth,” he said, looking around to find the cause of the alarm. The dragons ahead of us rushed forward. The ones behind us told us to stay back.
“Aza, marro! Chi, chi!” A dragon woman seemed to be trying to order us to do something. I couldn’t tell if she wanted me to stay put or move forward.
“I—I don’t understand your language.” The other handful of human soldiers around looked equally confused.
“I knew we should have had more training drills together,” Oszin muttered. “But the ones we had didn’t go very well.”
Finally someone shouted in our own language, “The tunnel is blocked off! Cave-ins!”
Then I heard a rush of activity above our heads in all directions, on every level. It sounded like the feet of huge rats scurrying around in tunnels, but soon hundreds of golden eyes appeared in the shadows.
The dragon woman put her hands on my shoulders. “Chi ya,” she said, pointing me back to the cave. “Chi. Ya.” She said this very slowly, like I would understand that way, and then said a bunch of things very fast, before pointing at the cave and jabbing at the ground.
“Are you telling me to go back in the tunnel and wait? Okay…”
The golden eyes came forward, revealing themselves to be hundreds of black dragons about the size of wolves. They started scurrying down the walls and I was nearly paralyzed for a moment. Our world had been overrun by corrupted forms of these dragons for most of my life, but they traveled in small groups, and besides, I was always safe within the walls of Gaermon. I had never seen such a hoard of beasts.
I saw Seron across the room, shockingly graceful for his height and muscle. His back flexed powerfully as his sword flashed, striking rock dragons down in a swathe. Dragons had a different style of fighting than the Gaermoni; some used swords with a single edge with graceful slashes, while Seron had a long straight blade and his fighting style was expansive. He seemed, at times, like he had eyes in the back of his head.
He noticed me from across the room and I was a little embarrassed to be caught watching him. He grinned with exasperation, sheathing the sword and plucking a few arrows from a quiver on his back. “It’s okay,” he said. “They did attack just as expected. These are easy. You get safety in tunnel.”
My eyes widened as I saw him quickly fire one, two, three arrows tipped with jagged crystals, and despite the rock dragons’ tough hides, the arrows broke through, sending the dragons tumbling off the wall, screeching. Seron shot a few more arrows before drawing his sword instead
to finish them off. Seron was massive compared to the rock dragons. Well…Seron was massive by any measure.
Oszin scooped me up into his arms, tearing my eyes from the warrior. “Show off,” he muttered as he started running, but I had dropped my cane in my surprise at being grabbed.
“Oszin! My cane!”
“What?”
“You made me drop my cane! Don’t grab me like that! I need that thing.”
“Damn it. Someone—grab that—“ He spun with me in his arms, but it was obvious no one was paying attention.
The battle was breaking out in earnest now as the rock dragons started reaching the ground floor. Luckily, it seemed like they were pretty easy to fight. A few of the warriors transformed into ice dragons and scaled the wall, freezing rock dragons with their breath as they ran by. The rock dragons were tough, it was true. Many of them had rocks growing out of their skin to form impenetrable armor. They also had vicious teeth and their small size could be an advantage. The high dragons had to be careful about their transformations or they might crush each other or crowd the room.
The entire cave rumbled ominously like an earthquake. A lot of the dragons looked up or murmured with surprise. The eternal lanterns flickered wildly.
Oszin stopped in his tracks.
“Oszin, come on. We need to get back to the tunnel.”
He stared at the narrow passage. “Uh-uh. Not with this rumbling.”
“But Seron said—“
“I don’t care. There’s nowhere to run in the tunnel.”
The cave rumbled again, and yeah, he had a point. I didn’t want to go in the tunnel either.
Another rumble, and several stalactites plunged off the ceiling. I screamed as one of them dropped on top of a young man who never had time to react before the rock speared right through him, killing him instantly. His blood quickly spilled into a pool that dribbled into one of the canals.
The dragons scattered in panic, shouting. The rock dragons seemed unconcerned, giving them an edge. The rock floor then started erupting, rocks leaping from their places and crushing people’s feet.
I shut my eyes. I seriously couldn’t watch anyone’s feet getting crushed.
“No one told me rock dragons could control rock!” Oszin shouted. “I thought they were too dumb to use magic!”
“Yeah, that’s what everyone told us!” I cried back.
Now he tried to run for the passage just as a boulder rolled in front of it, blocking our way. He immediately veered right, finding shelter, or at least the illusion of shelter, in a corner of the room some distance from any rock dragon. I was gripping his clothes so tightly that I could hardly feel my hands anymore.
“What do we do?” I gasped.
“I don’t know.” He glanced up and around.
The rock dragons had all climbed down from the balconies now. The upper reaches of the cave were empty. His eyes lit on primitive handholds jutting out of the rock to the balconies.
“Can you grab my back?” Oszin asked. “Let’s get above the fray. Seems like nothing is happening up there, and high ground is always better.”
“I think so…”
He put me on my feet and then picked me up piggyback style. I awkwardly clutched my arms around his pack, praying that he didn’t fall. I probably wouldn’t survive if he fell on top of me, even from a small height.
But I shouldn’t have worried. Oszin had grown up scrambling up trees and over walls, and was surefooted. He quickly scrambled up onto a narrow ledge above us. A few crooked posts marked where a railing had once existed. There were several small rooms almost like boxes in a theater, along the railing. The stone room was dark and dusty. Oszin slid me down inside one of the rooms and parked himself at the entrance.
“Seems like they had it handled at first, but they didn’t expect the rocks,” he said. “But they’re driving the monsters down through the doors. They must have gotten the way clear.” He looked back at me. “Are you all right, Moth?”
“Just shaky.” I tried to stay straight on my feet, but without my cane I was forced to put a hand against the wall. I used my other hand to straighten out my long hair and arrange it evenly, some over my shoulders and some down my back. “I’ll be fine.”
He walked up to me and brushed his fingers to my chin. Even in the dim light, I caught the glint of gold in his eyes. “You’re trying so hard to be brave right now, aren’t you?”
“You’re trying so hard to be cool right now,” I shot back.
He brushed his rough thumb across the corner of my mouth, and my entire face tingled. “You had some dust there,” he said.
“Oh, okay.” I brushed my fingers across his cheek. “You had some too.”
Well, I suppose I already knew that once we had stormed down the gates of propriety once, it was going to happen again. Pretty soon his mouth was on me, our hearts beating fast together, as the battle raged on just outside.
Chapter Five
Himika
He tasted even better than I remembered. He tasted like everything I had ever wanted, everything I had been forced to deny myself, like pure lust, pure desire, pure masculine beauty and power. I could have lost myself in that forever.
The cave shook again, and I drew back. Oszin immediately took some throwing blades from his pack and went back to the entrance. I followed, peering past his arm.
The battle was still pushing out the doors. Almost all of the dragons had moved out of sight into the passage.
“The trouble is,” Oszin grunted, “I hardly even know what the strategy is. Normally I wouldn’t leave an empty space in favor of another tight passage but they must have an advantage there. I wonder if we should try and follow…”
“They’ll probably come back for me,” I said.
“Probably.” He shrugged.
I heard something above us. Footsteps?
We both shut up. Oszin put an arm around me and drew me back into the shadows. We lurked, watching, as the footsteps moved over our heads on an upper ledge. Some small rocks dislodged and tumbled past our vision. I wished we had more light. I knew dragons could see better in the dark than we could.
Now the steps moved to our side. Someone was moving down one of the rock ladders. Oszin and I stopped breathing entirely. His fingers clenched me tight. His hand was on his sword.
The cavern had grown eerily quiet, the sounds of fighting now off down the other passage. The room was empty, all the glossy shards of black rock scattered around, gleaming the way water does under the moonlight. The statues of the priestess and her guardians kept a silent sentry as the figure moved past us and now below us, taking the ladder we had used.
We both took a very quiet breath now.
A man walked into the center of the vast cavern. He was tall, strong in a wiry way and slightly hunched, with a wild mane of black hair. He wore black robes and boots.
Something about his posture seemed angry as he surveyed the room, lingering on the fallen bodies of dozens of rock dragons. He stopped in his tracks and turned one of the bodies over, regarding the face of the smaller dragon. Its eyes stared glassily, its fangs still bared to the world. He slowly turned it back, hiding its face.
He stood and shoved a hand through his long hair, getting it out of his eyes. Then he started to meld the shards of rock back together, shaping them into glossy black pillars. His motions were purposeful and laced with a sense of malice, his motions slightly jerky. It took a little while before I realized he was forming them into claws. It looked as if two black dragon hands were rising from beneath the surface of the earth, the claws splitting open the ground.
He didn’t seem to notice us, but it took some time. I realized I could no longer hear the fighting at all, and my entire body was starting to cramp painfully.
When he had formed two sets of huge black claws, he walked up to the statue of the priestess and struck her head off, letting it tumble down between the claws. Then he returned to the ladder and climbed back up past us, disappearing
again in the upper reaches of the chamber.
Oszin and I waited until we hadn’t heard a sound in quite some time. He looked at me. “That wasn’t good.”
“Was it the Traitor King?” I sat back on the hard ground, wincing.
“Are you in pain, my lady?”
Of course I was, but I just shook my head. It seemed like the dragons had lost us. In the chaos of battle everyone probably just thought I was safe with someone else.
“I have food in my pack, and a bed roll, so we can just wait here and I’m sure they’ll return once they realize,” Oszin said.
“Yeah…” I carefully crossed my legs, trying to get comfortable, although it was impossible now. My bones were aching and I felt as if I was aware of every inch of them. “When I’m healed, will you teach me to fight?”
He took the pack off his back and eased himself down against the wall, rummaging for some rations. I saw a crumpled paper in his pack and caught the words “Bring the Revolution”. He quickly jammed it down beneath the other stuff and gave me an amused face. “You want to fight, Moth?”
“Don’t laugh! Of course I do. Dragon women fight, so if I’m going to be a dragon’s bride, I want to fight too.”
“I’m not sure the queen should fight.”
“Seron said the king would fight if he could.”
“Learning magic would be a good place to start,” Oszin said. “You always had some natural talent in that area. When you bandaged my arm that one time it healed much faster than usual.”
“Oh, so you think I should be a healer?”
“Well, you have to admit, that makes more sense.”
“I have to admit nothing. I don’t want to be a healer. That’s such a princess thing to do. I mean, it isn’t that I mind healing you, but…hey, you don’t want me to fight, do you?”
“Why would I want you to fight? Then I’d be worrying over you instead of fighting myself.”
“You should worry about me less if I can defend myself!”
He sighed. “We should see what the protocol is.”
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set: A Fantasy Romance Page 4