Tears sprung to Izeria’s eyes. “I do love you. Give me another chance to…do it the right way. I’m the queen. I’ll send Rothair away if he won’t accept you.”
For a moment, I felt something inside me that wanted to believe this woman had loved me.
I had Peri. But that was all. I remembered moments when Izeria locked me away when I yearned for her to show me some affection. And then in some brief moments, she would pat my head or caress my face and cup my chin in her hand, and say something to me. “Wonderful.” “You are really becoming something.”
She was so ever present in my life. I wanted to become the thing she wanted me to be. If I hadn’t had Peri, I would be under her spell. I was sure of that. I would be like every other rock dragon who listened to Dvaro because he gave them food.
“Gods, we are stupid sometimes,” I said.
“No,” she said. “You’re not stupid. You’re my son.”
“I am Peri’s son.”
I still wavered, with her pleading eyes looking at mine, her posture even becoming deferential as she bent her knees and spread her hands.
“Give me Emi,” I said. “And I will negotiate peace for you. King Seron doesn’t want endless war. We have sympathy for the mist dragons. Your life will be spared.”
She bit her lip. “Ezeru…do you have the power to make these promises?”
“I don’t think any of them will struggle to forgive you as much as I do.”
She hesitated. I was shocked that any part of her was considering this. I was shocked any part of me was considering this.
Did some part of her love me after all? Was she willing to change?
Her eyes flicked to Rothair. “Brother—”
But no one lies like Izeria, I thought, just as Rothair broke free from the wall.
Chapter Thirty-One
Ezeru
He lifted his hands and a rush of magic shoved me back into the wall.
“We fight to the death,” he said. “Aurekdel is the one who exiled me out there, beyond the gate, when he was just a smug little boy king. I’ll never forget the sight of a crippled child punishing me.”
“He was a child. And you haven’t given him much reason to like you since—” I choked as Rothair waved his hands, sucking the air out of my lungs.
He wasn’t just a mist dragon, he could rely on the magic he learned from the humans, and I wasn’t entirely sure what he was capable of.
Izeria fled from the chamber. “Ezeru! He’s here! Seize him!”
I wasn’t a child anymore either, I reminded myself. I have as much power as they do. That’s why they fear me. Why they want me back.
I had fallen into the trap Seron warned me about, I realized. I gave them a chance they didn’t deserve. I already knew the answers. Even if Izeria loved me, she was perfectly fine with executions, cutting out tongues, forced marriages, beatings.
I stomped my foot in a fit of desperation as I strained to breathe, and a rock fell off the ceiling and whacked the side of Rothair’s head.
“Rrgh…” He briefly struggled to keep ahold of the magic. “Well, Ezeru, it was a nice attempt. But I’ve been waiting a long time to eliminate you from this world. You’re not my son. But I will have sons—with my priestess.”
“I’m not your son. That part is true. But you will never have a son… I’m going to kill you…”
He laughed, clenching his fingers. “You’re all alone here. And you will never have enough power to stand against me no matter what my sister did to you.” He whispered another chant and some horrible low sound seemed to rise around us. I felt the rock straining against him. What was this? He was spinning dark magic from the stones, draining power from the earth, and I felt the suffering of the rocks inside my bones. But how could I fight against power like this? He looked confident in his abilities, powers he had honed over decades of strife and determination. As much as I hated him, I could feel his skill.
I felt myself weakening. If I passed out, the army would be on us in another moment and that would be the end of it. Maybe they’d kill me. Maybe I’d wake up corrupted by mist, and I would never know what happened.
But you’re not alone, I thought. The love I felt from Himika and Peri and Aurekdel and everyone who had welcomed me, and the trust I forged with my fellow rock dragons, was not the kind of love that went away. No matter what.
My rock dragons hadn’t abandoned me either. Even when I ordered them to leave me to my fate.
I let out a roar and the rock dragons, who were just waiting for my command, burst into the tent and jumped Rothair.
His spell broke just long enough that I got free, straining for breath.
“We fight now?” the rock dragons asked.
“Fight,” I said. “Yes, fight.” I hated that I had to bring them into this. Some of them might die.
But I’ll do my damnedest to keep from losing any more rock dragons to something so stupid.
Rock dragons swarmed Rothair. He ran for the door, but I shaped it shut with a few bars of rock.
Rothair was forced to turn and face us. He slammed one palm forward and shot dark magic at me. He had gathered it from the stones; I felt their power warped and turned against me.
“This is evil magic,” I said.
“Evil? You see things in such a simple way.”
“You don’t work with nature. You force it to work for you.”
“Exactly! That’s what you do, if you’re fit to rule this world.” He tensed to attack, a confident smile on his face. I really was nothing to him.
I had always kept to my human form. If I showed the dark scales of a rock dragon in Izeria’s court, it was even more of a scandal than my usual existence.
Now, I let my dragon form emerge. I barely fit in the cave, but I made sure to slam Rothair into the wall as I changed, spreading my jaws around him. The rock dragons hustled back into the tunnel to get out of my way.
“Ezeru—wait. Is this how you want to fight me? Backing me into a corner? Dragon to man? You would kill your own father in such a dishonorable way?”
“You just told me I’m not your son.” I clamped my jaws on his arm.
He started chanting spell words, and I had no time to hesitate. I ripped the arm off his body, spitting it back at him before I could taste his blood.
He screamed and spat, “How could you!” Now, he finally took me seriously.
“You said you would have killed me along with my mother. The time for honor is long, long gone.”
“I’ve already sent Merrick an order to kill your priestess,” he growled through pain, and the ground rumbled with his magic. I felt the cavern shuddering with resistance as his elemental power turned against me.
“Your own sister made me,” I said. “You’re right. I was your biggest mistake.” I wrapped the rock around him, smothering him. The wall swallowed him, suffocating him, and I kept shaping it until every last thrashing inch of him was out of sight. I smoothed the wall behind him and then I waited, keeping my claws on the rock until I felt the rock settle with relief as his energy died away.
I turned back into a man, without even meaning to, and fell on my knees. Tears fell from my eyes and hit the rock. I couldn’t have said exactly what I was crying over.
I felt like a brute.
Then I thought, Gilbert will like this story when I come back and tell it.
If I come back to tell it…
The mist dragons were on me now. The whole army was heading for the cavern. The bars blocked Rothair in, but left ample room for me to be shot at. I scrambled to my feet, trying to shape the rock as fast as I could, but I was tiring. Killing Rothair seemed to have sucked the life out of me.
Or is it the mist…? I realized how hazy the air was getting.
“That’s enough,” I heard Izeria say as I slumped to my knees. “Where is Rothair?”
I looked at her, still angry and even a little satisfied through my glaze of exhaustion.
“Did you—really—?”<
br />
“He killed Elder Rothair?” The mist dragons were alarmed. “Where is he?”
“In the rock,” I said.
“Oh!” Izeria recoiled. “Capture him, but…keep him alive.”
The rock dragons started creeping out of the tunnel again, right into the mist.
“No,” I told them. “Go back. Please go back. They will kill you all.”
“No—get them! Knock them out and drag every last rock dragon out of that tunnel!” Izeria waved her arm. The mist dragons rushed the passage.
She looked at me. “You can watch them die. You can keep all your wits for that. And then I’ll show you. You are my son.”
I heard some scuffle behind her and a few screams. One of the mist dragons pounded a big drum, and more mist dragons came running in from the side passages.
But they weren’t the only ones.
Seron’s army came through the passage, dragons and humans with swords and spears, ice and fire.
“Shit…,” Izeria said.
“You were saying?” I could barely croak out the words. But I couldn’t resist.
Then I realized that I was passing out.
Seron once asked me what the limit of my magic was. It seemed I had found it…
Chapter Thirty-Two
Seron
We stormed the camp. I was terrified we wouldn’t make it in time. When I got the word that Ezeru was giving himself up to save Phoebe, I had to make a quick decision myself. I could rush back home, or I could stop Ezeru from turning himself over to the mist dragons.
An easy decision for me, despite the stakes.
Phoebe had four guardians, plus Aurek and Oszin with her. And I didn’t trust Izeria.
But part of it was plain old pride. I’d never been one to act on pride. I’d always been one for taking the high road. But I also remembered how the mist dragons came to our castle, pretending to be refugees. Aurek didn’t want to trust them, but that was the one time he decided to take the high road with me. And that was how they got me. Now, I had my own revenge to take on the mist dragon queen.
Man, I hope I don’t have anyone’s life on my head at the end of all this.
Losing Phoebe and her guardians was too terrible to contemplate. But maybe if we got rid of this toxic royal family once and for all, we could finally achieve peace, and I had to keep my eyes on that prize. This war would be our last. That sustained me.
“Ezeru!” I shouted.
“Help!” I heard a girl call in the human tongue. I turned and saw a girl with black braids. She looked a little like Himika (although far less beautiful, I thought privately). She saw the other humans and realized we were there to save her. A burly mist dragon slapped a hand over her mouth and nose and she passed out.
I charged at them. One of them slammed a stone club into my sword and a few sparks flew from the blade.
Some of these mist dragons had a lot of brute strength, I’d give them that. They didn’t just rely on mist.
“Tanu,” he growled. “We fought together, once.”
“That wasn’t me.”
“Too bad. You were good. Still are,” he admitted. “I liked you better on my side, but I guess we’re all loyal to our own in the end.”
“I’m loyal to honor,” I said.
“So, you’re a real warrior type under any name, huh?”
I was a little thrown. I didn’t like this familiar bantering. I’d never relished killing; I could do it to nameless hoards, but it was a lot harder to take a guy out when he was talking to me like he knew me, and I was pretty sure he hadn’t done anything wrong except to grow up in the wrong kingdom. Sure, he could have rebelled, but I knew how that would go for him.
“The rebels,” I said. “Are they all dead?”
“Not yet. The queen likes to make something of it.”
“Truly? They’re not dead yet?”
He suddenly slugged the club right into my gut. “Sorry,” he said.
A human stabbed him in the back and he collapsed forward. “King Seron,” the human said. “Come on, sir.”
“Damnit,” I muttered. We took on the other two dragons together and I got the limp priestess in my hands. Poor girl. She looks freaked out even unconscious.
I held her like I held Himika sometimes—her head slumped on my shoulder, my arm supporting her around her thighs, like a kid. These Gaermoni girls were so little it wasn’t hard to scoop them up. She was total dead weight, and luckily not much bigger than Himika. One handed, I turned and blocked a blow from another dragon, then glanced around. There was definitely mist in the air. It was making me feel weak and addled the more time went on, but my men seemed to be keeping on top of it. I could sense that this battle was turning in our favor. If they had any amazing tricks, they would have used them by now.
I turned and suddenly I met eyes with Izeria herself. Ezeru was slumped on the ground at her feet and she had a dagger in her trembling hand.
“No!” I lunged toward her.
“Stop or I’ll kill him!” she shrieked.
“Then why haven’t you done it already?” I kept coming.
“Ugh!” she screamed, jabbing the dagger into him.
“No!” I grabbed her and tore her away from him.
“T—Tanu—”
“Seron.”
Her eyes swept up and down my body and I think she could see I meant business. “King Seron…I—it wasn’t a killing blow. I couldn’t. I couldn’t kill him. I may have lied about almost everything, but Ezeru…”
“You think loving one person is enough to spare your life?”
“I’ve heard you’re an honorable man,” she said. “You know where all of this began. My people were all cast out because one bad group of mist dragons attacked your kings. And for that—we were banned from your halls. We lost the best hunting grounds and farming fields. Our children were killed in the battles that ensued. We weren’t welcome anywhere. You asked for that! My father…raised me in nothing but hatred and revenge and it’s all I know!”
“If it’s all you know, what am I supposed to do with you? I do want peace. I do want honor. I am going to take all your rebel prisoners home with me and welcome them to my kingdom. But I don’t think you’re redeemable. Even reasoning with you now—I can’t trust you.”
“I—I wanted to make a deal with Ezeru. I wanted Rothair to stop Merrick from killing Phoebe,” she said. She lowered her gaze. In a small voice, she said, “Can you…heal me?”
Ezeru stirred to life. “Don’t…Seron…don’t. We need to kill her. Don’t listen.”
I lifted my hands to Izeria’s face.
I had always been a healer at heart. My children would be healers too. But they could use their gift the way it should be used. Not to save the lives of wounded soldiers.
To help mothers give birth. To save people from injuries. To ease an old person through their final days. They could decide what suited them, but I would give them a world of peace.
In Izeria, I felt darkness. Hatred. Pain. Layers of it. There was the smallest glow buried under it all—the potential for redemption, but it could just as easily die under the weight of resentment and loss. She could poison everything around her. She could lie and cheat as she already had. She was responsible for a lot of cruelty.
Aurekdel, I thought, would never let this woman live.
I frowned, and I drew bright magic from the crystal all around me, and then I pressed my fingers to her eyes and gave them the focused brunt of the crystal’s light magic.
She screamed and jerked away from my touch. I took the dagger from her before she could get any ideas.
“My—my eyes…!”
“Izeria, you’ve mocked my best friend long enough,” I said. “You’ve taken things from people like it’s some sort of game. I can’t spare you without consequence. When we get home and I’ve had a chance to rest so I have magic to spare, I will do my best to heal you. But you’ll also have to heal yourself. We’ll talk. You will help me facilitate
peace between my people and yours. If I sense the slightest whiff of betrayal out of you, that’s it. The only thing that is keeping you alive is that the crown is on my head.” I looked at Ezeru. There was no use looking at Izeria anymore. The light magic probably wouldn’t entirely destroy her eyesight, but it was definitely going to damage it, and she’d be seeing the flash for a long while.
He slowly nodded.
“How are your people?” I asked him.
“None lost,” he said.
“Where is Rothair?”
“The rocks ate him.” His expression was dark, but satisfied. “I’m sorry that it wasn’t what you would have done.”
I grinned. “You wear the dark crown well, my friend.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Himika
See you tomorrow, I signed to Peri—at least, I tried.
She paused herself. Thanks for your help. Your embroidery is so good.
“You look surprised.” I smiled wryly, abandoning the sign language. There was no way I could say what I wanted to say. “There wasn’t much I could do for the first twenty years of my life, so my embroidery is splendid, if I do say so…”
Phoebe laughed. “Better than mine.”
Peri smiled. I could tell she was enjoying the quiet evenings with all of us practicing signs.
Ijaru watched us and then said shyly, “I might be remembering wrong. The tutor said ‘thanks’ is actually like this, didn’t he?” She flicked her hand against her chest.
You’re right, Peri said. You’re very good, Ijaru.
“Ohh…well. We used to live near a source of sessi mist,” Ijaru said. “It’s what you use for learning languages. It’s actually useful for learning any kind of common knowledge. My father says I absorbed it so much as a kid that I have a quick tongue. Hand, in this case. It’s harder because it’s not ‘common knowledge’. But the more we practice, the more I remember it.”
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set: A Fantasy Romance Page 77