by Amelia Jade
The one who had spoken and the one to his right bore the figure of a dragon. She looked to the right of the woman who occupied the second dragon chair, and saw what appeared to be a bear. Scanning them all, she came up with seven different ones in total.
Wolf.
Gryphon.
Bear.
Dragon.
Tiger.
Pegasus.
The last one was actually more similar to a collage than any one animal. She thought she saw leopards, bats, and possibly even a whale, though they were much smaller individually than their other shifter relatives.
Perhaps that pair are representative of all the less common shifter species.
Her thoughts were interrupted as the same man spoke again, this time looking at her.
“For the record, please state your name.”
“Amber Klose,” she said, without rising, speaking firmly enough that the fourteen in front of her could hear, not caring if the others did.
“Do you know why you are here, Amber Klose?”
She noted how he made no attempt to introduce himself. Well, Tobias had implied that she would not necessarily be the most liked person in the room today. But Amber could handle that; she had done nothing wrong.
“I work for Imperial Petroleum Products. My company, unbeknownst to me, started building a pipeline through Cadia, without any permission from you. I discovered this two days ago, and at the same time, the work site I was at was attacked. I was knocked out, and the next thing I knew I was awake somewhere in the middle of Cadia. You obviously have a lot of questions, which I fear I will likely be unable to answer, as I am just as surprised as you.”
She still hadn’t risen from her seat, nor had she relaxed her calm, in-charge manner. A flicker of contempt crossed the face of one of the gryphon shifters, but she ignored it in her constant scan of the fourteen faces. As she did, one thing stood out to her.
There were more males than females, but barely. It was almost an even split, which surprised her. She had thought shifter society to be male-dominated. But this being their highest ruling council—to her knowledge, nobody really knew how the shifters governed themselves—the near equality was interesting to see.
Just another thing about shifters I’m going to have to reevaluate.
“You say you work for IPP. What exactly do you do?” This came from one of the wolves.
The question itself wasn’t hostile, nor was her tone of voice. But Amber sensed that if she did not answer it precisely, it could turn on her.
“I am one of a group of engineers who are overseeing the project in all its aspects.”
“I see,” the woman said. “And yet, as one of the leaders of the group, you had no idea about the course deviation? According to reports, it’s a good mile into Cadia already. The only reason we did not spot it was because we don’t frequent that area.”
Amber wanted to smile as she mentally thanked the woman for giving her the out. She wasn’t sure whether it was intentional or not, but it was there, and she seized it.
“Well, as you pointed out, I am but one of the group of over half a dozen. Primary construction is not my main focus either. I’m in design and structural safety. As you say, visiting the frontline of construction is not an area I frequent. In fact, I was filling in for someone who had come down ill. I suspect—though I cannot prove—that if they had gone out instead, or if anyone had known I was filling in, nothing would have ever come up.”
The shifter council muttered between themselves while Amber sat there, trying not to appear as terrified as she felt on the inside. She knew half the game in situations like this was a charade. It was no different than boardroom meetings with CEOs. She doubted all of the shifters here were that bad, but it was close enough that she could handle the pressure.
After half a decade of working as an engineer in the oil industry, Amber had developed a bit of a tough skin. It would take more than these fourteen to make her react.
“And why should we believe your claims of innocence?” The second gryphon shifter spoke at last, her voice ornery and shrill.
Like a bird call. Oh the stereotypes. Unbelievable!
“Why shouldn’t you?” she challenged instead. “I have no reason to hide. I came here peacefully, and agreed to talk to you. I’m just as furious over this as you are. There was no reason for my company to do this. None at all. Everything had been planned out to go around Cadia. I don’t know why they changed it. I can tell you with complete certainty that I was never consulted on the changes.”
“You say this, but you have no proof,” the woman pointed out.
“Well, I wasn’t exactly given warning before one of you decided to pick me up and drop me off in the wilderness,” she returned.
A firestorm of gasps and muttering erupted from behind her, though it stilled quickly when the female dragon representative raised her hand. Amber looked at her closely. She had yet to say anything, or even really react to the ongoing proceedings.
“Let us not start throwing accusations. Merritte, you do not have proof of her innocence, but nor do you have any proof of her guilt. Miss Klose has been quite forthcoming with her willingness to work with us. We will treat her with the respect she has given us.”
The gryphon shifter snarled, jerking back as if stung, but she didn’t say anything more. She simply crossed her arms and stared daggers at Amber.
If looks could kill, I’d be pinned to this chair through every limb, and then gutted from the inside, I’m sure.
“She does work for them though, Klara. She must know more.”
Amber held up a hand before Klara, the female dragon shifter, could respond.
“I would address that, if I might?”
“Please.”
“Someone knows something,” Amber said. “The plans were clearly changed at a very high level. It would be impossible to conduct such a drastic course shift without someone who wasn’t on site knowing about it. But it wasn’t me. Why would I have been attacked by my own people, if that were the case? Wouldn’t they have defended me when one of your flyers arrived, instead of handing me over? That’s all I can imagine happened. So, not only do you think I’m lying, but my people wanted me gone. Try to see things from my view.”
Klara nodded, though Merritte just continued to stare at her. Amber knew it wasn’t over. The meeting went on for several hours longer, though she became involved in less and less of it as the factions on the Council began to argue between each other.
In the end, they decided she would be sent back to Cloud Lake.
“You will be taken to the border of Cadia, and there you will be returned to your own kind.” Klara looked around. “Are there any objections to the nomination of Ezequiel, of the Fire Dragons, to be the one who returns her home? It would be fitting, after all, as he was the same who found her?”
There were none.
Amber’s heart soared. She was going to see Zeke again!
Until he dropped her off and she never saw him again.
The elation died abruptly as she realized what that meant.
And how little she liked the idea of never seeing his boyish smile again.
***
Amber had little time to dwell on the fact that this would be the last time she and Zeke would ever see each other. Mere hours after the conclusion of the meeting, or trial, or whatever it had been, Zeke appeared in her doorway.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, instantly aware that something was off.
“Nothing,” he said with a shake of his head, stepping into the room and automatically folding her into a hug.
Amber was caught off guard, but she didn’t resist. She allowed herself to mold to his body, pulling herself tight to his muscled chest, feeling his heartbeat in her ear as it worked rhythmically. She could hold this pose for an eternity, if he asked her to.
“Why do you look like you were yelling?” she asked softly into his shirt.
Zeke’s cheeks had been flushed, and
the fire in his eyes had been different from the way he looked at her, she could tell.
Looked at me? Listen to yourself! You need to bring that train to a halt. Yes, he’s hugging you tightly, with what feels like no intention to let you go. Yes, it feels natural and lovely as can be. But that does not automatically mean he “looks at you” in “a way.”.Assuming that could get you in trouble.
Zeke pulled back, his eyes focused on her, burning with a fire she knew was reserved only for her.
Okay. Maybe he does.
But you still don’t know what it means!
“Because I was yelling,” he admitted.
“At whom?”
“Whomever I could, trying to convince them not to do this.”
Amber was confused. “Do what? Send me home? Isn’t that their natural response, even if…” she trailed off, not able to finish.
Even if I don’t want to you.
“Yes,” he said angrily, having seemed to miss her stumbling mid-sentence. “But under penalty of death.”
“What?!” she yelped. “Nobody told me anything about that!”
He nodded grimly. “Exactly, which was one of the things I was yelling about. They don’t realize that you don’t automatically just know that. To them it’s second nature, that you would realize that they’re letting you go, but that you will be banned on penalty of death if you return.”
Amber shook her head in disbelief. “Wow. Why?”
“Compromise,” he said, practically spitting the word out. “The gryphons are a powerful faction, and they wanted you to stay and be executed already. Many of the others don’t exactly feel that way, so in order to win your freedom, they compromised with a threat of death if you return.”
She frowned, trying to understand. “Do they think that I’ll come back unknowingly or something?”
“No. Not that.” His eyes narrowed to slits as he looked past her, out the window. “Recall how you got here the first time.”
“I haven’t forgotten. I was dumped here against my will…Oh. They’re hoping it’ll happen again,” she realized.
“Hoping. Or planning,” Zeke muttered. “I don’t really know. Which is why I was arguing to take you all the way to Cloud Lake, and not your field office just outside of Cadia.”
She hugged him tight, her mind whirling with the news of the true circumstances behind her departure. Apparently political bickering between parties was just as brutal and savage in Cadia as it was amongst humans.
Taking her hand, Zeke lead her outside without any further conversation. He gave it a tight squeeze, staring right at her as he did, then backed away to the middle of the stone circle.
She watched as the inky smoke rose up around him, the shots of flame turning it a reddish tinge as the orb expanded rapidly. This time she wasn’t shocked at the ring of fire that came washing out over the stone, or the magnificent ocher-colored dragon that was revealed as the smoke abruptly disappeared into the air.
“I guess this is it, isn’t it,” she remarked, climbing up his wing with what felt like practiced ease, despite having only done it once before.
“Well, there’s still the few hours to take you there. So we’ll have that,” the dragon said, waiting until she was settled to launch himself into the air.
Amber held on tight as the ground dropped away, not trusting herself to speak for a minute or two, until things had leveled out a bit as he spun upward on one of the thermals that made his life so much easier.
“I wish we had more than just this,” Amber said at last, resting her head on his scaled neck, feeling his warmth reach out and embrace her, like she wished his arms could just then. “Can you come to Cloud Lake?”
Zeke hesitated. “Maybe someday. But it wouldn’t be for a while. Only Guardians are free to leave Cadia without special permission, and even then, they must file a report.” He paused. “It will be some time before I’ll be fully trained, if I don’t fail before then.”
“Stupid death ban,” she grumbled. “Otherwise I’d come back.”
She felt Zeke shake under her, as if startled by her words.
“Do you mean that?” he said after a period of silence, the mountains coming closer and closer, his powerful wings drawing them nearer with every beat.
“Yes,” she said firmly. “Yes I would.”
Zeke seemed to think something over, then suddenly he banked to the right, heading on a new course.
“Zeke?” she asked nervously as his course change became apparent. “Where are we going?” Amber craned her neck, looking around them.
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. Amber wasn’t sure why she did, but she just did. It felt like the right thing to do, as if he could be trusted.
“Then trust me now.”
“Okay,” she said, still looking around. “But can you at least tell me if the two people following us are supposed to be there or not?”
Chapter Six
Zeke
His head whipped around at Amber’s words.
No, they were not supposed to have anyone following them. Yet there behind them gaining fast were a pair of gryphons.
“Shit,” he cursed. The pair of them were hanging back, well out of any sort of combat range, but they were definitely trailing him and Amber.
You ignored your first lesson. Always watch the skies around you!
He swore some more silently, this time at himself. He’d become so wrapped up in Amber, that he’d ignored her safety, assuming that nobody would try anything while he was carrying her back to Cloud Lake.
Stupid.
He dove for land. They weren’t close to the vast forests of the Vallenwoods yet, massive trees stretching two hundred or more feet into the air. There was still a dense copse of boles ahead that he hoped to set down near, giving Amber some shelter while he dealt with their followers.
“Why are they following us do you think?” Amber asked.
“Because they want you dead,” he replied matter-of-factly. “Simple as that really.”
“Oh.”
“What I don’t understand is why they’re so adamant about it. They really want you it seems.”
A gust of wind caught his wings and veered him to the side slightly before he could correct. Glancing around he saw no clouds in the sky, but the feel of the wind told him a storm was coming. He’d have to keep an eye out for that as well.
“Are they closing?” he asked, heading toward the group of trees in front of them, getting closer every second.
“No. Not at all,” she said, sounding confused. “It’s like they’re holding back on purpose. They don’t even appear to be trying hard.”
Zeke contemplated that. Why would they just be following him like that? Were they hoping to separate him and Amber?
He glanced behind him. They were still higher, as if they were—
“Zeke!” Amber screeched.
His head shot around forward, to where two more gryphons were lifting off from within the very trees he’d hoped to hide Amber.
They were danger-close. He had mere moments to react. His rage at the trap they had set perfectly rose up in him. It swelled up within him, burning bright and fierce with a clarity he’d never felt before.
“No!” he roared, and spat a flaming ball of fire at the nearest gryphon, hitting it clean in the wing and burning it down to the tendons. The shifter shrieked and fell from the sky, landing with a thud, where it rolled and looked up at him, shrieking with pain and anger.
Zeke didn’t have time to spare however, as he was still reacting to the second gryphon.
“Hold tight!” he bellowed and rolled to the side, shielding Amber from the attack, his own claws lashing out as the gryphon tried to do the same.
Claw met talon and both shifters cried out in pain. Ruby-red scales tumbled to the ground below, blood flowing freely from two huge gashes in his underside.
The gryphon didn’t escape either, bleeding profusely from a deep pu
ncture wound to its hind haunch and adjusting to the fact that one of its wings was now badly damaged as well. It fell from the sky, but it was a controlled fall.
“Behind us!” Amber shouted.
The pair of gryphons that had been hanging back were now closing with all speed.
Zeke grunted and dove slightly downward to pick up some momentum, his huge wings spreading wide and filling with air as he forced them down. While dragons could get up to impressive speeds, acceleration was not their world. That belonged to the smaller fliers, the gryphons and the Pegasus shifters. They were the true masters of air racing.
“They’re still closing!” Amber called, sounding more relaxed now as he began to slow the rate of closure between them.
“I’m working on it,” he gritted out, wings beating faster now as he labored to stay ahead of the closing pair.
He wouldn’t be able to outrun them. They would catch up with him, but Zeke was hoping to clash with them on his own terms instead of theirs.
“Why are you so persistent?” he shouted back at them, hoping to stall them for a moment.
“Just give us the girl!” came the odd shriek-like reply.
Zeke shuddered. He’d always hated the way gryphons sounded when a human voice emerged from their beaks. It was far less easy on a human-trained ear than the hiss a dragon tended to add into their words. That just sounded like a drunk person, whereas the gryphon was a high-pitched shrieking sound that sometimes had words contained in it.
“And if I don’t?” he replied.
“She must be punished for her misdeeds.” The reply was firm and unyielding.
He rolled his eyes, which was one expression that translated well enough to his dragon form. “Didn’t you imbeciles hear? She didn’t do anything. She’s leaving now, and because of you she can’t ever come back, despite being innocent.”
“Unacceptable. She violated our territory. We cannot let that stand.”
Zeke contemplated that reply. They had been close to the borders of gryphon territory, but he had found her in a neutral area. Though he supposed it was possible she had awoken there initially, and made her way to where he’d found her. That was also a distinct possibility. Nobody, not even Amber, seemed to know where it was she’d been when first she came to inside Cadia. She had just wandered around.