The next day, the messenger came as expected, and we set out for Hemara.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Aurekdel
The trip to Hemara was the most dreaded event of everyone’s year. Irandal was our true home, after all, full of the pleasing energies of the crystals, the spacious rooms and the outside grounds where everyone had room to spar and play and take out the pleasure boats, and the villagers all came to see us, while the Shield Maidens lit up with their six weeks of hosting.
Then it was all over and we had to make a journey home that was just as perilous as the one that brought us there.
“But at least I’ll have my garden again,” Himika said, talking with Raia over their plans for trying new teas and expanding the bed of flowers. She had also brought a few pots with other local plants to try growing there.
Yes. The garden. Himika can make some more of that tea…
I kept trying not to think about that. It had only lasted for a short while and I still lost to Seron. It was far from a cure or even a true compensation for my blindness, but…I kept thinking about how it felt to have such a clear sense of my place in the world. It made me remember what I’d lost, after spending my life trying not to care or to mourn what was lost. I wanted to feel that again.
Of course, first we had to make it back safe and sound. That never felt like a sure thing. There was a lot at stake now.
Oszin must return safely. No matter that he was the one who came to me—Himika would be crushed. And I could hardly blame her.
I probably should have told him no…
But it was Oszin’s choice, in the end, and once a man has something drastic in his mind, I thought, if it wasn’t that, it would be something else.
We reached the swamp without incident, but tensions mounted. The bodies, mostly rock dragons, from the fight were still there, now rotting, although the creatures of the swamp would have gone a long way to picking their bones clean by now. I shut the curtains of our boat tight to block the sight and smell. My ears were pricked for more trouble, although Seron was as likely to notice trouble before I did.
Ezeru’s rock dragons were at the back of the caravan. We’d given him a boat, but it wasn’t large enough for all the rock dragons, so they were mostly on foot or in this case swimming, slowing our pace, but it should be worth it.
“Oof…I hate it when I can’t see,” Himika said, her voice muffled by her sleeve. “I wish Ezeru was closer to us in case the rock dragons attack again.”
Something thumped against the boat. “Gah!” Himika leapt to her feet, drawing her knife.
Seron had still insisted on being the captain of the royal vessel, even though he was supposed to be the one relaxing inside. Well, I knew that would never happen. “It’s okay!” he shouted.
“Are you all right?” Raia poked her head in through the curtains. “We just bumped into something.”
“Something?” Himika asked.
“Dead…somethings. From before. But—you just sit tight, okay?”
“Uh…”
“Good instincts,” I said, holding out my hand. “But why don’t you put the knife away and sit with me?”
“I like my knife…”
Far behind us, we suddenly heard the anxious calls of rock dragons—at least, I was pretty sure that was what it was.
“Crap,” Seron said. “I’ll go check it out.”
“Seron!” Now I shoved my way out of the curtains, breaking one of the fasteners. “You’re the king. You have to stay right here on the king’s boat, surrounded by your army. Ezeru can handle things back there.”
“Damnit,” Seron said. “This is stupid. How long do I have to stay here before I’m allowed to be a warrior king?”
“Yeah, King Seron’s our best guy!” some cheeky individual on a neighboring boat called.
I sighed. “Somewhere well between the first moment we hear an alarming noise, and the moment when everyone is dead but you.”
“Lieutenant Porro, please head toward the back to lend support if necessary and send someone back here with a report as soon as possible,” Seron said.
“Yes, sir.”
We heard screeching rock dragons in the back for many long moments. We all remained tense, ready for another planned attack. But the sound never seemed to get closer and then it stopped altogether.
“Sir, King Ezeru reports that five rock dragons were slain and the remaining twenty have surrendered to him and would like to join our party.”
“Oh—well. Very good, then.” Seron joined us inside the boat and even poured himself a drink. “Did you hear that?”
“Of course I did.”
“Ezeru…damn. He’s our secret weapon. Dvaro and Izeria thought this entire kingdom was laced with rock dragons willing to attack us, and now Ezeru’s picking them off like it’s nothing? We really might be able to pull this off. I mean…I don’t want to sound overly optimistic, but…after we lost people in Capamere, I really thought we were in for a tough fight. He’s been relying on the rock dragons for years.”
“Yeah, I have to admit, this trip has been easy so far… I was ready for that to turn into something,” I said. “Still a long way to go, however. And the mist dragons are much more dangerous than the rock dragons. What makes me nervous about this is that if they can’t rely on rock dragons to die for them, they’ll have to come out and fight themselves.”
“I welcome it,” Seron said. “No more hiding away, playing shadow king and queen.”
We kept pushing ahead, day by day, making good time. Much to my relief and some surprise, there was no trouble. But—we also noticed every day that Oszin had not returned with Peri. Himika was clearly getting nervous.
Oszin didn’t want me to tell her, but…
I was starting to regret agreeing to the plan, even though in any other case such a sneaky move would have pleased me. Playing to Dvaro’s arrogance seemed like a smart move.
“It will take time to work out the deal and he has to travel a ways,” I said, which was true, after all.
And then we were coming through the familiar canals to Hemara. Home. Always an occasion of both sadness and relief for me. I knew Hemara better than any other place; I rarely needed a cane there, but it was not our true ancestral home, and I would much rather that my senses and mental maps were in tune with Irandal. All my life, I had sworn to take back Irandal.
The boats docked in the belly of the fortress, soldiers entering first to make sure it was safe. Himika, Seron and I disembarked. Seron started unloading our bags, shouldering two of them himself. “Hey, Himika, did you want this valise?” I didn’t even try to point out that a king didn’t have to unload his own luggage.
I heard an odd sound coming from up the stairs, within the fortress. It sounded almost like a crying infant.
“What is that?” Himika asked.
A moment later, a soldier hurried down the stairs. “King Seron—my lord and lady—there are mist dragons hiding inside of Hemara. They say they are defectors and are begging for clemency. They have an injured baby with them.”
“How many?”
“It’s a fairly small group—a family of twelve, not including the baby. They’re begging forgiveness, as they’ve eaten some of our food stores.”
“I’ll meet with them,” Seron said. I grabbed his arm.
“Seron—no,” I said. “We can’t be sure if it’s safe. Don’t meet with them in a confined space like this.”
“Is that because of the mist?” Himika asked.
“Yes, mist dragons can store mist magic in their bodies and secrete it at will,” I said. “We can capture useful mist in jars and such, like the kulum and sessi mist, but they can absorb any kind of mist and release it any time they want. So, we shouldn’t meet them inside the palace. It’s hard enough to elude the mist outside, but inside it’s impossible. Tell them they have to come out immediately.”
Seron growled. “Aurek—they have an injured baby with them, for gods’ sake. How in
jured?”
“It’s—blind,” the soldier said, a little awkwardly.
“A blind baby? In what way?”
“In what way? I—I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean, did this baby lose its sight from a fever, or were its eyes physically harmed?”
“What does that matter?” Himika asked.
“Because Dvaro is not above injuring his own people. And this sounds like him, to think that placing a blind baby in front of me would bother me. I think it bothers him immensely that he’s been outsmarted by a blind guy, so I don’t trust it.”
“Gods above!” Seron shouted at me. “Stop being so damned suspicious! Not every mist dragon is evil incarnate; in fact, most of them aren’t. Our ancestors created this situation with just this sort of policy! One mist dragon screwed up and we started treating them this way. How would you feel if Tiriana had asked someone for help when you were sick, and your eyesight might have been saved, and they said no because they didn’t trust her?”
A lump rose in my throat. “Yes, I—understand.”
“We’ll have guards with you and outside,” the man said. “If they try anything, we’ll be on it.”
If they have dangerous mist absorbed, there’s nothing guards can do. But I kept my mouth shut.
“Let’s see them,” Seron said. “Personally, I’m glad to hear there are defectors.”
We walked up the stairs and the crying got closer. I wished Seron hadn’t made comparisons between my own childhood and this random baby, because damn it, it was tugging at my heart no matter how much I tried to resist. As we came closer I realized it was not a tiny baby, but old enough to be screaming, “Daaaa!”
“Shh, shh.” The woman holding the child seemed very tired. It sounded like she gave him something to eat. They all bowed as we walked in.
Himika squeezed my hand with a little catch of her breath as she saw them, and then she hurried forward. “Oh no—you poor thing. You all look like you’ve been through hell.”
“You are kind, my lady… We are very sorry to have eaten some of the food in the kitchens. We’ve been catching fish and trying not to trouble you, but we’re all afraid to leave this building for fear of Dvaro’s soldiers spotting us and dragging us back to Gemuru.”
“I’m told you defected,” Seron said.
“We were in his army, yes, some of us,” she said. “We wanted to serve our king, at first, but then we realized it was much too dangerous. We believe Dvaro and Izeria are not strong enough to stand against you, and that we have been on the wrong side all along. We were too stupid to know otherwise. Please—Your Majesty—forgive us.”
“Dadaaa!”
“Shh, shh!” The woman’s hand seemed to muffle the cries now.
I was still wary. It was rare I actually spoke to mist dragons, but when I did, I noticed they had different priorities. They valued power and strength more than anything. So of course, they would leave because they noticed Dvaro and Izeria weren’t ‘strong’—probably because they heard about Ezeru.
“It sounds like this child is asking for this father. Is that one of you?” I asked.
“My brother,” one of the men said. “He died fighting. His wife died in childbirth. And the child had a terrible infection, much like the one your former king suffered from in his youth.”
“You mean, me?” I was a little annoyed that they now seemed to be addressing Seron alone.
“Yes. Yes. I meant no offense. Please, tell me how to address you.” She prostrated herself, still holding the child, now on the floor with her.
“Lord Aurekdel,” I said.
A younger woman with a sweet voice piped up. “Lord Aurekdel…King Seron…Queen Himika…please, we beg you to offer us asylum. We will work in the kitchens or clean the toilets, anything you need done, no matter what. Just protect us from our king and queen.”
“Our peoples are at war,” Seron said. “So I’m sure you understand that we have to keep you on a sort of probation…but I will not turn you out.”
“Yes,” Himika agreed. She was standing very close to him now, and it sounded like they were looking at each other. Making agreements with their eyes.
I took a steadying breath. I just had to not care that I wasn’t in control, that was really what this boiled down to, wasn’t it?
Still, there was something about all this that disconcerted me.
“This child is an orphan?” I asked.
“Yes, he is.”
“And you’re…his aunt?” I wasn’t sure of her relationship to the man.
“Yes.”
“Can I hold him?”
“Of course, my lord.” I caught faint relief in her voice. When she handed the child to me, I used a little crystal magic to calm him, and he got very quiet and started to relax. “Do you mind if I keep him for a little while? My magic is good for this.”
“Not at all. Thank you very much.”
Niko and Ezeru came up behind us. “I can keep an eye on them,” Niko said. “I’m immune to their magic.”
“It looks like you need a healer all around,” Himika said. “Did something bite you? That looks like it might be infected.”
“Yeah, we’ve run into some beasties on the way,” an older man said. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“You can just call me ‘my lady’ or something like that,” she said. “Everyone does. ‘Your Majesty’ sounds so odd to me now!”
Seron got to work on getting everyone settled. I was left holding the sleeping boy as the room filled with a commotion of people and I felt some automatic dislike of the mist dragons because they didn’t seem protective of this child at all.
“Is that man your uncle?” I whispered to the boy. “What happened to your dad?”
He babbled out something sad and incoherent.
“Did you see something happen to your dad?”
My magic was putting him right out. He clung to my shirt with a death grip but otherwise went limp, burying his face into my chest.
“Gosh, I am a sucker for seeing you guys being nice to babies,” Himika said, coming up to me. “Poor little guy. What were you, interrogating him?”
“He’s out,” I said. “Let’s put him down.”
“You don’t want to give him back to them?” But then she said in a softer voice, “They are harsh, aren’t they? He’s crying and she just smothered his mouth with her hand. But…it must be stressful, trying to escape with a baby when you’re hungry and injured.”
We went to our bedroom and I put the child down on the furs and covered him up. Kajira landed next to him and sniffed him all over. I tapped his eyes with a finger and he started blubbering again. Kajira flew onto my shoulder, nervous.
“What are you doing?” Himika asked.
“It’s okay, kid.” I used magic on him again and he seemed exhausted enough to fall for it twice. I crossed my arms. “His eyes are…glass.”
“Glass?”
“They can look very real, especially with a dose of illusory magic that mist dragons are good at. Of course, if he changed into a dragon they would be the wrong size. Which makes me think this kid never changes into a dragon.”
“Why not?”
“Because someone punishes him when he does? Kids usually change back and forth a lot when they’re little. But harsh parents don’t always handle it well. Suddenly the kid is twice their usual size with fangs and claws, tearing through their clothes. The parent finds it a nuisance to change themselves; easier just to smack the kid, eh? Everyone gets frustrated at times, but a kid who won’t change is a warning sign. And the fever that took my eyesight doesn’t usually lead to the actual loss of one’s eyes. I can’t shake the thought…someone did something awful to him.”
Himika paused. “You might be a pretty good father after all.”
“Of course I will!”
“Well, you told me yourself that you don’t really care.”
“If it’s our child, of course I would. I mean, collectively ou
rs.”
“Maybe that’s why those people really left,” Himika said. “Maybe his parents tried to defect and Dvaro killed them and punished the child. Maybe they…don’t even want to talk about it and that’s why they look so…damaged.”
“Maybe. Yes. That’s possible.” I was not so rosy in my outlook.
“You really think…they came here to hurt us? That this is all a trick?”
“I—I don’t know.” I was actually feeling some concern for the mist dragons, but the very fact of my concern made me suspicious. If this is Dvaro’s plan, I can’t allow it to work on me. And isn’t it working on me right now? I’m here concerned over this kid, aren’t I? Something about this situation still rings false. But if it’s not Dvaro’s plan, how on earth could I turn away injured and hungry people?
Someone came up the stairs quickly. Niko was escorting the older man. “See, he’s here,” Niko said. “I told you.”
“I’m so very sorry. I didn’t realize you had Vorja with you. Didn’t mean to trouble you, Lord Aurekdel.” He sounded nervous and out of breath…like he just realized he had left the child alone with me in error.
“It was no trouble.”
The man scurried in and picked Vorja up. Of course he woke up and started crying again, but the man hustled him off down the stairs, even as he was still catching his breath.
I felt a little sick. “Niko…wait—you stay here. So…what’s your read on that group?”
“There is some danger,” Niko said. “But that’s obvious. If they fled from the mist king, he’ll be wanting to punish them. They seem traumatized and it’ll take time to get over that, but if they fled this man, more defectors might follow, so it’s best to have a plan for it.”
“Niko, they might be more likely to trust you, since you’re a fellow mist dragon. See what information you can get out of them.”
“Sure.”
Not like he wouldn’t have an agenda or anything. I didn’t really trust him either.
I clutched my head. “My paranoia has saved our lives before, but…”
“You don’t trust them at all, do you?” Himika asked. “I understand how hard it is to trust people after you’ve been hurt, but at some point, you have to…I think. I guess you’ve kept your people safe by keeping the mist dragons out, but you also haven’t gotten any closer to ending the conflict. Maybe you need to trust Seron now.”
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set: A Fantasy Romance Page 50