“Dahna mist?” I asked.
“Very rare stuff,” she said proudly. “It allows a mind to be…reset. To become a new person and forget all the pain you suffered. If I get Dvaro out of the way, I’ll order the court to accept Ezeru as an equal. I won’t make this same mistakes again. But in that case, I need Peri out of the way, so it works out for everyone.”
“You’re going to wipe Ezeru’s memories?”
She patted my cheek. “Don’t look so horrified. It’ll be better for everyone. Dvaro is very controlling. He controls me, too…and I’m the one who did all the work. I got the rock dragons to serve him. I made Ezeru the strongest man in the kingdom. And my brother is forging the alliance with the Elders. My husband wants all that glory for himself, and he would never acknowledge that boy as his own, but that is my throne and Ezeru is my child. It makes him angry when I get credit for anything without his name attached and…well. I’ve tried to change him, and after a while, you have to admit to yourself that it’s impossible, don’t you?”
I swallowed. “Yeah—I guess we all feel that way sometimes,” I said. At this point, I just wanted to stay alive.
“Exactly.” She smiled sadly, and her eyes abruptly filled with tears.
I thought about my poor Moth. How she almost married Leonidas…how she said a part of her started to like him. I understood how it could happen. I wanted to see something good in Izeria, but it was dangerous even to try. Very dangerous.
But at this point, it seemed like I had no choice but to deal with the devil.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Himika
While we were sitting down to dinner that first evening in Hemara, a red-haired woman with an infectious friendliness came over to us. “I just wanted to thank—um—King Ezeru,” she said. “I’m Maja, the director of the castle nursery and I was watching over the children when we thought the rock dragons were attacking us.”
“Did they get close to the children?” I asked.
She nodded. “I was really worried. The move is always very hard on the little ones. They know people have died before and there is a risk of an attack. We try to reassure them but we won’t lie to them either…” She plucked the corner of her apron in the closest thing to a curtsey I had ever seen a dragon do, and bowed nervously. “Anyway, I must confess that I haven’t been sure about a rock dragon who came from the traitor’s court being among us, and all those rock dragons, but I saw how quickly he took care of the situation.”
Ezeru bowed back, rather stoic but at least that was better than standoffish. “Thank you…that’s very kind.”
This woman seemed like she could help us out, I thought. She had a trustworthy aspect. “The rock dragon children like to play,” I said. “Maybe the children could meet sometime.”
“That’s a good idea,” Maja said.
Now, that surprised Ezeru. “Play?” he said, like he didn’t know what that was. “Rock dragons play rough sometimes.”
“Like we don’t!” Seron said. “If our kids grow up with rock dragons, we could work out differences earlier on.”
“Let’s give them all a few days to settle in,” Maja said. “But I’d be honored to help with your mission to bring us all together.”
“That really reminds me of everything I like about being a queen,” I said, brightening my mood as I sat down to an otherwise depressing meal of hot greens, mashed swamp root, and fish eggs, liberally doused in my shaker of Gaermoni spices.
“I don’t understand why she would volunteer her children to play with rock dragons,” Ezeru said. “They’re not going to get much out of it.”
“Sure they will,” Seron said. “I mean, they can spend hours playing with a cat.”
“People are very…nice here,” Ezeru said, his brows furrowed low, like he didn’t trust it.
Of course, not everyone was nice to everyone else. The group of mist dragon defectors ate by themselves, watched by guards, and it was hard to tell which group was more hostile to the other. They looked like a trap full of mice, with the whole court keeping an eye on them. Only the young woman, Emiri, made some genuine effort to be friendly. Still, I was hopeful, because everyone had turned around to accept Ezeru pretty quickly.
After dinner, musicians sang for us, and everyone tried to relax. I fell asleep on Seron’s shoulder after such a long day, and woke up in his arms when it was over.
“Let’s get you to bed, moonlight.”
I could barely open my eyes. “Where’s Ezeru sleeping?”
“Apparently on the floor,” Aurek said, poking him awake. He’d curled up on the bare stones in the corner. “You can sleep in a real bed tonight, Ez. Come with us.”
“I’m okay here.”
“Nah, come on. The servants might trip on you in the morning. Sleep with your queen. Oszin’s not here…so we definitely have room.”
“You’re trying so hard to convince him; that means you’re sleeping in your own room,” Seron said.
“It means I’m sleeping on your left side, big guy.” Aurek laughed.
We were all very tired after such a long day of travel and moving back in, but I was very happy, falling asleep nestled between them. Kajira slept with Aurekdel; I could hear her noisy purr past the mountain of Seron’s shoulders. Seron was out in seconds, sleeping like a soldier, and Ezeru curled away from me nervously but relaxed a little when I rubbed his back.
I wonder where Oszin will fit when he returns?
If he…
I forced the thought from my mind and curled against Seron. I thought he was asleep, and yet, his arm went around me and held me closer, as if he knew my thoughts.
A few days later, we introduced the rock dragon children to the high dragon children. The rock dragons had been camped down in the bowels of the castle, but now ten of the youngest were brought up into the play room. Ezeru looked as nervous as if every one of the rock dragons was his own child, and Seron looked as proud as if every one of the high dragons was his own.
I have to say, it was really adorable.
Although not without some issues. Some of the young ones were frightened of the rock dragons, especially when a couple of them changed into human forms. Deep down, I knew I’d be scared of them at that age too. Kids weren’t always very nice to unattractive fellow kids. Maja had to console a few girls sniffling into her skirts.
It didn’t help that the rock dragons weren’t very mannered. “Pwetty dwagonsss,” a little rock dragon girl hissed, baring her teeth at a boy who backed up against Seron. They were all wary.
“Be nice,” Ezeru said, putting himself between them. He crouched in front of the rock dragon. “Remember what I said? They are pretty dragons, but they are also your friends.”
The rock dragon pointed at the crying kids. “Fwiend?” it demanded, as if insulted by all the tears.
Seron grinned. “Well, I can’t blame her for some mixed signals.”
I saw one of the attendants working in the nursery was holding Vorja. “Oh, Vorja is here in the nursery?”
“I strongly suggested to those mist dragons that I take him here to play,” Maja said. “They’re quite strange and they didn’t seem to be doing much with him except telling him to be quiet. The poor little shrimp.”
“Aurek’s been worrying over him. He didn’t come today—”
“Oh, I know that King—I mean, Lord Aurekdel, bless him, he can’t handle twenty children at a time.”
Seron came up behind me.
“Does he remind you of Aurek when he was a baby?” Maja asked.
“No,” Seron said.
I snickered. “Weren’t you also a baby? How would you know?”
“Aurek was always in everyone’s business,” Seron said. “I’m sure that didn’t change before my living memory.”
“How long are those mist dragons going to be here anyway?” Maja asked. “They are cute when they’re little…but then…”
Seron frowned. “I don’t know, but they’ve been trying to be frie
ndly. I know they’re not good at it, but they haven’t made any trouble.” He grabbed some of the toys, different creatures made of stone, and handed them out to the kids.
“Say thank you to the king.”
He waved his hands. “Nah, that’s not necessary. I mean, these are their toys.”
“I don’t want to share!” a girl shrieked as he handed a figure of a winged cat to one of the rock dragons. “That’s my cat!”
“Seesa! You’ll get it back!”
“I know how you feel,” I said. “I have a twin brother and I had to share all my toys with him.”
This seemed to fascinate the kids. “You have a brother?”
“Yes, the queen has a brother, Emperor Raio of the Sky World.”
“Ohhh. Is he stronger than King Seron?”
I snorted. “No.”
“Nobody’s stronger than King Seron,” Seron said, picking Seesa up and giving her a little swing.
“Except maybe King Ezeru,” I said. “He can turn into rock.”
“Really?”
“Maybe we need a contest,” Seron said. “Who’s stronger? Team Seron…or Team Ezeru? And we’ll solve it with tug of war.”
“Yeah!”
Ezeru looked dubious. “Mine don’t know what that is…”
“Well, they’ll learn. It’s easy enough.”
“Um…so what is it?” Ezeru asked.
The kids went nuts over this idea, and once Seron explained it, Ezeru looked like his competitive spark was lit.
“Which side are you taking?” Seron asked me.
“The rock dragon side,” I said, seeing which way the wind was blowing. Some of the rock dragons looked more interested in chewing on the rope than tugging it, and on the other side we had…Seron and his tree-size body.
“I hope it’s not a pity tug,” Ezeru said.
“Well, Himika won’t be much help,” Seron said. “I’ve seen her gently tap the practice dummies.”
“Oh, now I’m bringing it in your face.”
“No fair, I want the queen on my team!” Little girls were clinging to me. “It should be girls against boys.”
“I’m sorry. We would lose,” I said.
Soon we were tugging, my hands chafing on the rope—all the dragon kids were given permission to scale their hands for safety while I got scraped—but I didn’t care, because we were all laughing and having a good time and it brought out a boyish side not just to Seron, but even to Ezeru. Seron went easy on Team Ezeru at first, but when the rock dragons were starting to win, he took back the lead.
Ezeru gave the rope a good tug and then he let go for a split second, just long enough to pound his fists and stomp his feet against the rock floor, rooting himself in the floor and making his fists as strong as rocks.
“That’s cheating,” Seron protested, as all the high dragons kids went, “Whoooa.”
“We can use magic?” One little red-headed girl ran toward the middle of the rope and blew fire on it. It wasn’t strong enough to do more than singe the rope, but it got all the dragons riled up.
“No fire!” “Dragon girl use fire!” Some of the rock dragon kids tried to mimic Ezeru. They couldn’t seem to really figure it out but they were destroying the floor.
“Hey, I want to use magic too!” Another kid iced the rope so it burned our hands with cold. “Maaagic!” A couple of the little ones tore off their clothes and turned into dragons.
“Whoa! Calm down!” Seron shouted, grabbing one of them out of the air by his tail and dropping him on all fours. It was a mess but no one was really getting hurt.
Maja laughed. “Meet your soldiers of the future, King Seron.”
Even Ezeru was laughing into his hand until he was coughing a little instead. “I’ll fix the floor…”
“King Seron! Queen Himika!” Minister Avo suddenly ran into the room, frightening the rock dragons into the corners. “There’s been…a message.”
“A message?”
The world seemed to come to a complete stop around me.
Oszin.
Oszin…
“We need to have a meeting right away.”
“What is the message?”
“Himika.” Seron put an arm around me. Not in front of the kids, his expression said.
Ezeru met my eyes and I saw the same fear there. He gripped my hand. Oh…! He has someone to fear for too.
I think we both sort of led each other out of the room in a daze.
Sometimes…you just know.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Himika
When we came into the meeting room, Aurekdel was standing there with his fingers pressed into the table. He was the only one in the room besides a man in nondescript clothing that I guessed was our spy.
“We don’t know,” he said, the moment we walked in. “We really don’t have any word from Oszin. Or Peri.” But I could see that this was not especially good news.
Uncertainty…gods. Maybe that was even worse.
“What happened?”
“Dvaro is dead,” Aurek said.
“Dead? Are you sure?”
“I’m nearly certain,” the spy said. “Their castle is in chaos. It seems as if Izeria and some of the other dragons fled north. Others have scattered out and I had to withdraw from the region or I would surely have been killed. They feel that you may have orchestrated this, Lord Aurekdel.”
“They blame Aurekdel and not me?” Seron sounded like he wanted some credit.
“Seron, did you plan this?” I asked.
“Well, no, but—you didn’t either, did you?”
“Oszin offered to do it, and I supported him.”
“Oszin offered?” I asked. “What? How?”
“I gave him a vial of poison. He was only going to use it if the opportunity arose. I didn’t tell either of you, because—well, it was something Oszin wanted to do and it was something I wanted done.”
“And you knew it was something I would not want done!” Seron looked as angry as I’d ever seen him, while I went numb from head to toe. “You and Oszin…conspired together…and neither of you told me? You just casually decided you might assassinate someone?”
“Oszin was stifled down here!” Aurekdel said. “He has nothing to do. A man needs to be needed. If such an opportunity had arisen long ago, I would have taken it. I needed Dvaro dead. He’s been taunting me since the day I became king. He has no heirs. While I have no doubt someone will try to take his place, it won’t be the same.”
“So, your ego and Oszin’s got together and decided assassination would feel even better than getting Peri back,” Seron said. “And you did it without saying one word to me? Like it or not, I’m the king! And…your partner in all of this… Aren’t I?”
Aurek winced. “We are not getting any peace as long as Dvaro is calling himself the king and cutting out tongues and eyes and throwing people in prison for the rest of their lives! He’s a fucking tyrant, Seron!”
“But you’re playing right into it!” Seron pounded the table.
“And no one knows where Oszin is…” I had to sit down, and once I did, the tears started coming out of me. Maybe he was imprisoned. Tortured. Maybe he’d been killed and his body would be tossed into some vast lake, or burned, and I would never know if he had lived or if I should stop looking for him. I imagined my life descending into one long, fruitless quest for the boy I had loved and dragged underground.
Aurek moved to the door and put his hand on the doorframe, although he stopped short of leaving the room.
“Dvaro is dead,” Ezeru said. He made a sharp, humorless laugh. “Dead…” He looked at the ceiling. “I wanted to kill him, or at the least, see it done.”
“I’m sorry you don’t each get the particular stripe of delicious revenge you wanted,” Seron muttered.
“But I still hate Izeria more,” Ezeru said softly. “The idea that Dvaro could die so easily. Poisoned…just like that…after all his talk and all the people he’s killed and tormen
ted…” He started laughing a little more like he couldn’t help himself.
Seron glanced at me. He seemed disconcerted.
But then, I would never forget trying to kill Leonidas myself, and how frustrated I had been that I wasn’t strong enough to do it, and the satisfaction and relief of Abel shooting that arrow through him.
Well, it was no wonder at all that I loved Seron. It was so easy to love someone like Seron, or my brother, who tempered their strength with compassion. I didn’t know what to think. Was I a sunshine and roses princess after all? Or was I the girl who wrapped her veil around Leonidas’ neck?
I swallowed. Oszin chose this. I can believe that of him. And he wouldn’t want to lose heart, even if he was dead or lost. “Aurekdel…you should never have lied to us like that,” I said. “But the thing is done now, and it is to our advantage. Cool heads have to prevail and this will probably help us take back the northern gate.”
“Himika…” Seron put a hand on the table. “I suppose you’re right. I will be the cooler head here. Aurekdel, you can spend a night in a cell, though. No Himika for you. No wine, no books, no visitors, not even Kajira. Just sit there and think about the fact that I’ve never lied to you.”
“Fair,” Aurek said.
“We should tell the court what has happened,” I said.
“Yes.”
“I wonder what the mist dragons will say…,” Aurek said. “Watch them carefully.”
“Does this mean we should move north sooner than planned?” Seron said.
“Izeria is moving north,” Aurek said. “She would take Oszin and Peri with her.”
“I can send some of my best rock dragons to the castle to see,” Ezeru said. “I mean—their reports won’t be very detailed, but at least they should be able to move freely. The mist dragons can’t tell one rock dragon from another.”
“All right,” Seron said. “I’ll consult with Avo and the others first, but I think we’re at an agreement. The timeline should move up. This is our moment to seize the gate and unify this world, once and for all.”
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