Of Dragon Warrens and Other Traps

by Shannon McGee

  I wished I could shut my eyes and pluck these dream memories back to the surface as I could with my own memories, but hard as I tried, they remained just behind a rippling water-like veil in my mind’s eye. That pressed home for me what I already knew: eventually I’d need the mages’ help with figuring out the hows and whys of these visions.

  Before I spoke with the mages, however, I wanted to hash everything out with Aella. She was level-headed, and she had more exposure to strange magic than I did, from working alongside Ito, Belinda, and other mages within the many mercenary companies. I was also more comfortable talking with her in general, especially since we’d had our discussion.

  The leaders of Twelfth Company were good people, and I liked them, but they were intimidating. I quailed internally at the idea of bringing this information to them without putting it in proper order. It would be just my luck that I’d fumble and be dismissed as crazy or delirious from the healing.

  Revealing Michael was alive and that I was having visions were both so important that I intended on talking to Aella about both things immediately after we finished discussing us. Unfortunately, as she held me, and I tried to line all my thoughts in order, I made the mistake of letting my eyes close.

  For close to an hour I slept in the crook of her arm, as dead to the world as a hibernating bear. She probably slept as well, because when I woke to a gentle knock on the door, her breath stuttered as though she had been startled awake.

  Despite the matters weighing on my mind, I received my next two visitors with a grin. It was good to see Kaleb and Dai, and especially good to see that they were not any worse for wear after the hunt. They congratulated me on surviving my first fight and surprised me by complimenting my “battle scar.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, looking to my arm. “You can’t even see it yet. It might be terrible looking.”

  Kaleb took the small hand mirror off the dresser by the door and held it out to me. “Look for yourself.”

  Pink and shiny with newly healed skin, there was a small round mark on my left cheek that had come from the droplet of drake spit that had struck me. I had never been vain of my appearance, but I couldn’t help but wince at it. I wasn’t mercenary enough to truly appreciate scars, yet. Still, it was small, unlike Aedith’s, and there was a good chance that it would become less noticeable as time went on. Even in the past week the weal on Aella’s face had become fainter, likely spurred on by the healing that had touched it when Belinda burned out the infection.

  “I was told that the skin on my arm was… well I was told that it was worse. Why the difference? Not that I’m not grateful that my cheek didn’t rot off.”

  “I think this first spit was at the beginning,” Aella said, brushing my cheek with gentle fingers. “They hadn’t got the glands pumping enough to do any real damage. It takes the young ones a minute. When the other one latched onto you, that was when it had a chance to really get worked up, and its spit got full of the acid.”

  I made a noise of understanding, trying to smooth out my hair with one hand. I needed a bath. I didn’t smell, so someone must have got most of the grime off me when I was brought out of the sewers—I wished the god’s blessing on whoever had done that. However, that did not mean that I was clean. I also had it in my head that I might try and hobble my way down to the dining room to eat a little more. The food I’d had only an hour or so ago had not been nearly enough. I just wasn’t quite sure I’d be able to wrest myself out of the bed. Not without help at least.

  “Have you all eaten? Actually, what time is it?” I asked, trying to twist to look out the window behind me.

  “It’s late afternoon.” Luke had returned. He stood in the doorway with a new tray of food.

  My mouth watered. “Is that for me?”

  Luke smirked. “If you say pretty please— oye! Yeah, it’s for you.” He said the last part hastily as Aella stood and took the tray from him, glowering. He held his hands up. “I was only joking.”

  “She needs to eat. You’ve been wounded this badly before. You know how hungry a healing like she’s had makes you.” The carefulness which she practiced in setting the tray on my lap was an interesting counterpoint to how sharply she spoke to our friend, and I reached out to gently brush her wrist.

  “It’s fine, Aella. Luke wouldn’t be himself if he wasn’t bugging me,” I said, though privately I was pleased by her protective mood.

  Owing to the fact that they assumed I was too tired for a long visit, Kaleb and Dai only stayed long enough to see how I was feeling. Lucas seemed prepared to leave with them, having completed his delivery. When I signaled him, he stayed when the other two rose to go.

  “What’s up?” he asked curiously, plopping himself onto Aella’s empty bed when they had gone.

  “I was going to just tell Aella at first, but since you’re here I’d like to know what you think as well,” I said grimly. “Don’t give me that look. It’s not a secret that I’m asking you to keep from your mother.”

  Aella was giving me a suspicious look, clearly not believing me. “If it’s not a secret, then why wait until it’s just the three of us?”

  I tugged at a loose piece of hair. “It’s something I want to figure out fully before I go to the commander—and I will be going to the commander with it, trust me.”

  “You’ve been asleep two days, what could possibly have happened in that time?” Luke asked, not unreasonably.

  “A lot, actually.” A gusty sigh billowed out from my lips. “Aella, you know I’ve been having dreams since we left Nophgrin?

  “Yeah, well, nightmares really.”

  “Yes, well I thought that was all they were. I never really remembered much when I woke up. Just fire and smoke.” I rubbed my forehead. “While I was passed out, I had the full dream, and I still remember it. Now, I’m not so sure if they’ve been dreams at all.”

  “Taryn, I think that’s the healing talking, dearest. I know they’re scary, but they’re only dreams.” Aella rubbed my good shoulder comfortingly.

  “No, they’re not. Or, at least not this one. I saw Michael. He’s alive.”

  Aella’s hand had stopped moving. She moved her head, so I would look at her. “You’re tired. You’ve had a rough week. I’m sorry, I know it’s hard, but Michael is dead. That’s just the way of it.”

  I shook my head fervently, breaking away from Aella’s light hold. “You don’t understand. In my dream I was Michael. I smelled the fire. I felt the rope. I can still see Beth’s face looking at me—him—as he was put to the post.”

  “Taryn, Aella’s right,” Luke interrupted, sounding as though he wished to be anywhere else. “They sound like bad ones, but dreams are all that they are. We saw the pyre from the road.”

  “He did burn,” I whispered in agreement, remembering the dry heat as though it had been on my own skin. “I could feel the fire as it burned through his clothes, but as I—as he was burning, something happened. He got away.”

  Luke looked unconvinced. “Didn’t you just have a chat with one of your mates from back there? She would have told you if he was alive.”

  I scowled, frustrated by having to explain something I did not fully understand myself. “The fire completely blocked him from view, and then something happened. I don’t think they would have known that he didn’t burn up inside of it.”

  “Ok, this isn’t a fun point to argue, but you were just told that Michael was wearing a charm. One that kept him from using his magic.” Luke said. Aella remained silent, her brow furrowed as she listened to the both of us. “And without his magic, he couldn’t have possibly escaped.”

  “Yes, but that’s the thing. I knew that Kaleb had given Willy a charm that bound Michael’s magic before Ito told me about it today. I saw it in my dream. I know more than that too. When the fire burned the charm off him, that was when it flared up. When it did that, he wasn’t burning anymore either. The fire was cold. It wasn’t him that magicked the fire though. It was Master Noland, and
Michael knew it.” I shuddered, remembering the glee I had felt race through me. I stopped that thought, shaking my head. The glee I had felt race through Michael as he realized that Master Noland had come for him at last.

  Luke had risen from his lounging position, so that he was sitting cross-legged, his elbows propped on his knees, his chin resting in his hands. His fair eyebrows were drawn together, but I was relieved to see that he didn’t look like he was about to deny me again.

  Aella was quiet. She gnawed at her lower lip, gazing at the blankets without truly seeing them. Absently, she pushed her curls out of her face. They sprang forward again.

  “You really knew about the charm?” she asked. “Someone didn’t tell you before now? Or maybe you had the dream of him burning, and then you heard about the charm today, and your brain just, sort of, fit it in?”

  “No,” I said seriously. “This was real. I’d stake my life on it.”

  “So,” Luke’s voice was thoughtful. “Do you think this is a magic thing or a twin thing that brought you this vision?”

  I hitched my good shoulder helplessly. “I don’t know. We’ve never had visions of each other before now. Once, when we were younger, I fell from a tree in the field and Michael knew. Or, he didn’t know exactly. He said he knew something was wrong. I always knew when he was getting into a fight, even if he was in town and I was in the field.”

  “When we,” Aella gestured to me, “had that bonfire, and stumbled across his workspace, he knew something was wrong with you then too. You told me so,” she reminded me.

  “That’s true,” I agreed. “We’ve never had actual visions though. So, I don’t know. It could be part magic and part twin.” A yawn came, unbidden. “There’s more to it too.”

  Luke groaned. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You think I’m happy about this? But it’s not anything wilder than what I’ve already told you.”

  “That’d be a hard feat to accomplish,” he muttered, and I glared at him.

  “Listen. After Benjamin tried to attack Aella and me on the road to Forklahke, I had a dream. Lady Famai was in it. I thought it was only a nightmare, but now I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.”

  “I don’t remember you mentioning anything about that—and we were sharing a tent then still.” Aella sounded mildly offended.

  I shrugged. “It was the night we stayed outside Goatstrack. You and Luke and stayed out late, and I thought it was another nightmare. I also didn’t know you as well back then. I just wanted to forget about it. Anyway, if you two will stay with me, I think I’m ready to talk with Belinda and Ito and the commander. I just wanted to sort it out with you two first. Do you believe me?”

  Luke chewed at a thumb-nail for a moment, then he said, “Sounds to me as though your sibling feud isn’t quite over. And with Lady Famai being involved, well… Aella, you going to talk to her about…?” He trailed off, meeting her eyes meaningfully.

  She scowled. “I was going to wait until she was feeling better.”

  I cleared my throat. “If this is about Lady Famai asking questions about me, then I already know. Victor told me when you sent him to fetch me.”

  “We don’t know why she was asking about you,” Aella hedged. “I thought perhaps she was just a bored noble-woman looking for a commoner to spend time on. Now though, I’m not so sure. If Michael is alive and your visions are connected to him…”

  “And if the lady was in one of those visions…” Luke added.

  “Right,” Aella nodded. “Then her taking such an interest in you and your magic could be suspicious.”

  “I’m more than suspicious,” I said, a little heat stirring in my voice. “I can’t prove it, but I think she unblocked my memories on purpose.”

  “You really think so?”

  I nodded. “You remember she told us at the river that she was of a set that liked to ‘help’ budding mages? That sounded familiar to me. I didn’t know why at first, but now I remember. In the dream I had, she was talking to Benjamin, and I was hearing the discussion from inside a caravan. I didn’t know her then, but it sounded an awful lot like her, and she was saying the same things.”

  “If these visions are real, then I’d bet coin that it was her,” Luke said. “But if the only other vision you’ve had—really the only other vision-type skills you’ve ever had—was connected to Michael, does that mean Michael and Lady Famai are connected?”

  “If Master Noland wanted to make sure that there were no loose ends, it would make sense for him to send someone to check up on Michael and you. Especially someone with the ability to see magic in others,” Aella mused.

  I nodded. “Exactly. So, I think that she lied to Benjamin and used him to find me so she could check up on the other half of Michael’s failed experiment.”

  “But Benjamin wouldn’t work for someone who was harboring Michael,” Luke protested. “Right?”

  “Not knowingly, but it would be easy for a noblewoman to hide him. All she’d have to do is order Benjamin to stay away from whatever caravan she had Michael squirreled away in—on pain of death if he disobeyed. I wouldn’t have had the guts to disobey her. Would you?”

  “Never thought I’d say this, but I’ll be happy to leave Dabsqin,” Aella muttered.

  “I can’t argue with you there,” Luke said. “Besides all your nonsense,” he grinned cheekily at me and blocked himself with an arm when I threw a pillow his way, “I’m almost out of my sun protection balm!”

  I sat up as Aella fetched back the pillow for me and situated it behind my back. When I spoke again, my voice was grim. “All right. So, before we call for your mother, what exactly did Lady Famai want to know about me?”

  Aella readily obliged in telling me, and I heard her out in stony silence. Lady Famai was practiced in courtly deceptions. All of her questions had been small and casual, spread across several servants. However, the servants at the inn dealt with nobles regularly, and they were wise to her tricks. She had asked much too frequently to go unnoticed. I took a moment to bless Bao, god of luck, that Aella had got close enough with the servants in our short stay that they informed her of the strange behavior.

  All the lady’s inquiries worked to confirm my suspicions that, even if I could not prove she was working for Master Noland, something was not right. She wanted to know if anyone could tell where I was from, how long I was to be staying in Dabsqin, if I was new to being a mercenary, and who among the mercenaries I was closest to.

  Aella quirked her head to the side. “What do you think?”

  “I think she knows who I am.” I tugged at a hank of hair. “Perhaps not that I’m Michael’s sister or even who he is. We can’t prove that yet. Sometimes a dream is just a dream. Maybe the mages will be able to help, but as for now, I think we can say that she knows that I’m connected to Master Noland in some way.”

  “But how?”

  “Well, it seems pretty likely that they work together. But whether or not that is true, from what I’ve seen, magic feels differently depending on who it comes from. Belinda said that, when Michael cast his spell, there was an otherness to it. My magic technically comes from Michael, who seems to have gotten it from Master Noland. Maybe she can tell that way?”

  “That sounds right, but I don’t know.” Aella sounded apologetic. “You’re right. We need the mages and the commander. Probably Kaleb and Dai as well. Luke and I will fetch them—right Luke?”

  Luke nodded, rising to his feet as she did. “Yeah, there’s no telling where they’ve all got to, but hopefully everyone is still here at the inn. We’ll be back as soon as we can, and we’ll figure this out.”

  They scurried off with all due haste, and though I wished I could have helped in their search, once they were gone, exhaustion pulled at my limbs and dragged down my eyelids. Once again, I slept. However, without Aella to anchor me this time, my dreams were filled with whispers and shadow men. When the sound of the door opening startled me into wakefulness, I had to
stare at my visitors for a moment before truly recognizing them.

  Everyone was present who we had thought was necessary. I brought my knees up to my chest to make room for Aella, Lucas, and Kaleb on my bed. Ito, Dai, and Belinda sat on the other mattress. Aedith remained standing between the foots of the beds.

  “Aella tells me that you have some news that might interest me?”

  Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself. The very thought of what I was about to tell them was causing my heart to beat too quickly. Best to have it over and done with.

  “I think Michael is alive.” I said, “And I think Lady Famai works for Master Noland.”

  Explaining everything to the adults took time. I found myself repeating things often enough that I wanted to scream. I was tired and being tired made my head ache, which in turn made me irritable. This was important though; it was too important to let my tiredness make me short or make my explanations confusing. I needed them to believe me, so I strived to be patient and to speak clearly.

  Dai’s face was the worst part. He looked so disappointed when I started to talk, I had to look away from him at first. His dark eyes held betrayal, and I could only imagine what he must have been thinking. How frustrated must he have been to find that I was still preoccupied with Master Noland?

  Relief swamped me dizzily when slowly, as question after question was asked, his face lost that disapproval and became more thoughtful. Still, it made my heart wrench that after all this time, all this effort convincing him I would not be a liability, it seemed I might be after all. Eventually silence descended on us as everyone digested the information they had been given.

  To my surprise, it was Dai who was the first to speak after silence had prevailed for almost half as long as my explanation had lasted.