Dagger of Bone

by R. K. Thorne

  “What is it?”

  You are mates.

  She winced. “I told you—”

  No, you do not understand. Extraordinarily well-matched pairs exist among all magic-wielding species. And across them. Are we not linked? This sort of bonding is not necessarily romantic or sexual. You humans are so obsessed with reproduction. Just because you attempt it more often than every three hundred years. I don’t see what the fuss is all about.

  Her eyes widened. She had no response to that.

  This is more like paired in magic. And think—your two fates become more entwined each day, yet a month ago you did not know each other. Mates of this sort are born attuned to each other. Drawn to each other like magnets, and just as natural.

  “Can’t we use some other word?”

  No.

  She sighed. “Is there any way to test this theory of yours?”

  Not really.

  “Then I guess it doesn’t tell us much either, except maybe a reason why I can see and help him when no one else can. But I’m not exactly telling my father or Andius or the council that.”

  I agree it would not go over well.

  “Listen, this lock. If he is locked, is there any way to verify that? Or break it?”

  I am not sure.

  “And Pyaris was concerned. She said—what if something was being locked in? Or out? What if someone put it there for a reason? Why would someone do that?”

  I have no idea. But I can ask around.

  “Ask around? Who?”

  The other dragons.

  She hesitated.

  I will not name names.

  “We don’t have many leads, so I suppose you ought to try.”

  I will, Clan Leader.

  She winced again.

  Do not suffer at your title. You and the boy will win the day, and all will be right.

  She shrugged. “I wish I could be that sure. We might win. Or we might both be executed.”

  The dragon rose up suddenly, her wings spreading with the dreadful clacking and knocking of bone against bone, droplets spraying wildly into the air and rivulets streaming down into the pool. They are my clan. You are my clan leader. Do not doubt my power or yours.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just afraid.”

  The dragon sank back into the water. I know. And I’m just angry.

  “I know.” She did, of course, think they had a good chance to win, or she wouldn’t have suggested it. But she had nonetheless filled a pack heavy with supplies, as Nyalin had asked, and stashed it in her closet.

  As I was saying. He is your clan now, and potentially a mighty warrior. Strengthening all warriors in defense of the clan is only prudent.

  “Andius wouldn’t see it that way, I bet.”

  I am not talking to Andius. I am talking to you. Forget him.

  She swallowed.

  I will think on this matter of the new child of my clan and his strange magic.

  “He said the Obsidian Dragon waved him aside.”

  Curious. She is powerful. She ought not to miss a soul lock. I will look at him myself and then ask her. Most strange.

  “What if Elix put the lock there? Then the dragon wouldn’t go against him, would she?”

  You’re right, she wouldn’t. She may even have helped. But why would they do such a thing?

  “I don’t know. Why does Elix do anything?”

  Enough now. You must rest. If you need other aid from me, you have only to ask.

  How about figuring out what to do when her theft was discovered? But she didn’t ask that. Instead she said only, “Understood. And thank you.”

  Help was not something she could afford to turn down.

  Smoke was purring hard and shedding a fair amount of black hair on Nyalin’s lap that morning as he finished off a chapter in Unusual Magical Phenomena and waited for Lara to arrive. The air was still a little cold, but Smoke’s warmth helped. Her big blue eyes blinked up at him, slow and steady. He’d always noticed those eyes. Black cats never seemed to have blue ones, usually copper or yellow or green-gold. But Smoke was unique in more ways than one.

  She nudged the book with her snout, rubbing her face along the edge, and he took her hint and resumed reading.

  Before he’d gone a page or two further, something occurred to him. Very occasionally, for dense books such as this, authors would mention a list of the key topics in the back, as a sort of key for finding things. Maybe he could look for soul mates or something. The irony of looking for a soul mate in the back of an obscure magical tome did not escape him. But there was no index or key or any kind of additional help. The last chapter just ended with a note that perhaps future volumes might be written as more unusual phenomena were observed.

  Disappointed, he paged through the book again, studying the cover, the title page, things he’d skipped when he’d first started diving into the book. The title page caught his eye. Written by D. C. Ronigot and Ona Dewinter.

  Eyebrows raised, he dropped the book on the bed and stared. Well, damn. What did that mean? If they’d died on some ship somewhere, when had this book been written?

  A knock sounded at the door. Smoke hopped up and headed expectantly to greet their favorite tutor. He swung it open without much ceremony—Lara should have been here a few minutes ago—and stopped short.

  Four girls huddled together outside the door. About his age, maybe a little older. They were… giggling.

  “Is that a cat?” one whispered.

  “By Dala’s light, he has a cat!” A second cupped her hand toward the ear of another, but hardly lowered her voice.

  “Um…” Nyalin cleared his throat. “Excuse me? Who are you?”

  That sent a ruffle of smiling murmurs through them. They all looked at each other, as if trying to decide who should speak, except one who kept her eyes fixed on him. This apparently elected her the de facto leader as all the others began elbowing her. She frowned, elbowed them back, and bowed slightly.

  The others followed suit, and so he returned the gesture in kind.

  “The hero is also polite.” Her words were delicate and quiet, her head bowed.

  “Hero? Uh, I’m no hero.” Goddesses, what fresh insanity was this?

  “We heard Linali’s son had signed up for our clan Contests and that he’s fighting tomorrow.”

  “Well, that is a true statement. That hardly makes me a hero.”

  “He’s humble too!” the hand cupper said again in a loud whisper.

  “Did you… want something? I’m a little busy.” He gestured at the book, which was really a weak excuse as it hadn’t told him a damn thing yet, but anything to get out of this awkward situation.

  “Just to let you know you’ll have our support,” the leader said, actually batting her eyelashes now. “We’ll be cheering for you.”

  “Oh, uh…” He stared dumbly for a second before marshaling enough wits to exit the conversation without embarrassing himself. “Thanks.” He started to shut the door.

  “Wait! We made you this.” The fourth one, who heretofore had not whispered or batted any eyelashes but had simply stared, shuffled forward and slid a scroll onto the open book in his hands.

  “Uh… thanks again.” And before it could go any further, he quickly shut the door.

  Pressing his ear against the door, he listened to make sure they were gone before he examined the scroll. The paper looked like ordinary stock, four sheets rolled up, the holy glyphs for good luck carefully painted by skillful brushes. It seemed harmless enough, but he frowned at them on the desk.

  Another knock sounded. This time he cracked the door open only slightly and peeked out.

  It wasn’t Lara this time either, but when he saw who it was, he threw the door wide anyway.

  “Grel!”

  His brother greeted him with a huge hug and a slap on the back that did not rival Cerivil’s but was hearty nonetheless. “Nyalin! Look at you! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to stop by.”

&nb
sp; “I’m sorry I haven’t made it back to the Obsidian house too.”

  “Well, you’ve clearly been busy. Starting any ice storms yet?”

  A nervous laugh escaped him. “Not exactly.” He hadn’t thought of their cheating plan when it came to Grel—should he tell his brother the whole truth? Part of it? None of it? What would Lara prefer? He had no idea, and it didn’t seem fair to choose without consulting her.

  But Grel was his brother. The only person he trusted in nearly all the world.

  “Su said you were doing well.” Grel grinned.

  “Yes, improved. Magic still hasn’t come easily, but things are improving. We’re finding a few… workarounds. I’m actually due for a lesson in a few minutes.”

  “That’s great. I won’t stay long.” Grel ran a hand through his overlong dark hair and sank down to a seat on Nyalin’s bed beside where Smoke had curled up. “What’s this I hear about Contests? You’re fighting tomorrow?”

  “I’ve signed up.”

  “Wow. Exciting. I’ll be there to watch, by the way. I had to get over here to talk to you before the big day. So you think you have a chance?”

  He shrugged. “No idea. Not really. I figured it’d be good experience either way.”

  “I’m sure you’ll learn a lot. But no one knows the book-learning part better than you.”

  “And that is worth what exactly? Nothing.”

  Grel shook his head. “Don’t be silly. It’s worth a lot. Su was right, you look well in brown.”

  Nyalin held out his arms and twisted back and forth, showing off the crossover. “What can I say? I look good in everything.”

  Grel snorted as there was another knock.

  By Seluvae, let it please be Lara this time.

  And thank the goddesses it was. She smiled wide and looked about to launch into something when she caught sight of his brother on the bed and stopped short.

  Grel’s eyebrows flew up, and he rose to his feet. “Lara! Well met. Strength to you and your father.” He bowed deeply.

  She bowed in return. “Thank you. Luck to you, as well.”

  “You look different. Your hair—”

  “Is more manageable now,” she said, more of the joy draining from her face.

  “Both ways suit you,” Grel said graciously.

  “You’re too kind.”

  “No such thing,” Grel shot back. “I make an effort of trying to find out, but I haven’t found a limit just yet.”

  That was enough to charm a small smile out of her. “Were you two busy with something? I can return later—”

  “No, no,” his brother said quickly. “Don’t let me keep you from your lesson.”

  “Well, I just… found something in my research I wanted to share.” She looked at Nyalin hesitantly.

  He shrugged. “I have no secrets from my brother,” he said slowly. “I’d trust him with my life. But of course, you’re the one who knows what you’re going to say.”

  Grel raised his eyes, but Lara seemed appeased and launched forward.

  “Have you ever heard of magical locks?”

  “Of course,” said Nyalin. “One of the spheres of magic is basically all locks. Big things, small things. Isn’t that one of the basic spells?”

  “Yes, and we should tackle that one tomorrow. I have the charm for it.” She said the words casually but of course there was more to that meaning than Grel would know. “But I discovered that at the highest levels, the locks can be applied to things other than physical things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like souls. Like magic.”

  Nyalin blinked. “What does that mean?”

  Grel was rubbing his chin. “Huh. I’ve never met anyone who could cast it. But it’s supposedly possible.”

  “I never have either, of course. And why would you? But it might account for some of our difficulty.”

  “Is there anyone we could ask more about it?” Nyalin asked. “Where did you hear about it?”

  She faltered for a minute, a strange look crossing her face. Ah, yes. It was easy to forget and feel close to her, but they both had their secrets still, didn’t they? But what could she be hiding related to this?

  Grel spoke first. “My father specialized in fire, so he’s no help. Not that he would have helped anyway. There are several scholar monks with the Holy Sect of the Wolf who might know something, but the monastery is a day’s ride out of the city. At least. Maybe Varial of the Silver Clan… Or Attatu of Pearl has studied some magical curiosities. And of course, Emperor Pavan knows more high-level spells than anyone I know. Hey, I heard you talked to him to get this all arranged. How did that come about, anyway?”

  Lara’s cheeks flushed a little. “My father’s doing, actually.”

  Grel smiled. “A cleverer man than others, I think.”

  “Maybe.” She shifted her weight.

  “I can ask the emperor,” said Nyalin. “He’s been taking an interest, telling me tales about my mother.”

  “Now that’s a meeting I’d like to attend. But sadly I must go to a different one now. The feuds over market stall allocation never cease.” Grel rolled his eyes.

  “Thank you for coming by.” Nyalin bowed. “I’ll have to return the favor soon.”

  “No need. Stopping by is a nice way to escape the nonsense. At least for a little while.” His brother rose and ran a hand through his hair again, shoving it out of his eyes.

  “Oh, thank you for that book by the way,” Nyalin added. “It’s been… very interesting.”

  “What book?”

  “The one you left on my desk right before I left. I figured it was a gift. Unusual Magical Phenomena.”

  Grel blinked. “I didn’t bring you any book. Not recently, anyway.”

  Nyalin frowned. “What? Where did it come from then?”

  “No idea.” He shrugged. “See you later. And good luck in those Contests!”

  As Grel shut the door on his way out, Lara turned to him. “He heard about the Contests already?”

  Nyalin nodded. “I wasn’t sure how much to tell him. I never hid anything from him, but, well, this is different. I kept it vague. Wanted to talk to you first.”

  She smiled. “I appreciate that.”

  “So now that he’s gone, can you tell me where you heard about this? And if we have any chance of breaking a lock of that kind?”

  She frowned hard. “I… I can’t really. I promised I wouldn’t.”

  What was the big deal? “So someone told you. You didn’t just read it in a book. How do we know we can trust them?”

  Her expression darkened further. “I just… it’s complicated. We can trust each other, I swear it.”

  He sighed and tried to repress the sudden wave of hurt, but it didn’t work. “You said you’d be honest with me. I’m being honest with you.” Although he had a few of his own secrets too. Damn, he was a hypocrite.

  “I am being honest with you,” she insisted.

  He swallowed. “Okay. Okay, fine. I thought we were beyond keeping secrets from each other, but let’s move on. How do we break it?”

  She stepped closer to him, her eyes searching his face. “No, you’re right. We are beyond that.”

  Some weight in his chest lifted. He forced himself to wait. She’d tell him when she was ready.

  “The best way is to just show you. C’mon.” She started for the door, then slowed at the desk as she saw the half-unrolled scrolls. “What’s this?”

  He groaned. “Four girls with batting eyelashes showed up this morning and handed me these.”

  Lara raised an eyebrow. “News travels fast, apparently.”

  “Can you tell if they are harmless?”

  She frowned. “Do you have reason to worry?”

  “I always worry.”

  “Well, I don’t notice anything, but we can ask Pyaris to check for curses too. Okay, c’mon.” She gathered them up. On the way out into the hall, she flagged down a servant and asked them to send the scrolls with
a brief message to Pyaris.

  He followed her to her room. After so many trips back and forth between their rooms the last two weeks, he’d stopped trying to avoid being seen. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

  Lara closed the door behind them. “Okay, I, uh, have something to show you. But you can’t tell anyone.”

  “Do you need me to sign in blood?”

  “I considered it, but I figure we are already risking each other’s lives. What’s one more thing? But… but it’s a big thing.”

  “How big?”

  “Very.”

  “Hmm. Well, in for a copper, in for a gold.” He knelt beside her. “You can trust me, Lara. I won’t share this, even with Grel. Unless you tell me to, of course.”

  She nodded, but she was sweating now, her nerves more apparent after his words, not less.

  He reached out and laid a hand over hers.

  She stared at him for a long moment and brushed the side of his hand with her thumb. Then she pulled her hand away as she leaned forward. “All right. Brace yourself.”

  She drew a box out from under the bed. Inside it, shining satin and smooth silk swam in various shades of milk and honey, and for a moment his mind sketched just how exactly these garments might look like in grand detail.

  But her fingers just pushed the garments out of the way, and he pulled his thoughts back down to earth. A glimmer of something metallic caught his eye. Then something pale. Almost… bone colored.

  His breath stopped as it came into view.

  “It was you,” he whispered.

  She nodded, her face a mixture of calm resignation and numb fear. The dagger lay between them, loud in the silence.

  “Why?”

  “If I have it, they can’t give it to Andius, right?”

  “You didn’t anticipate he might try to fake a new one.”

  “He may still fail that.” An edge of hope rang in her voice.

  “Or we may succeed. And then what?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t want to bring you in on this, because it would incriminate you too. But I figured you had a right to know where the magic I was funneling to you is coming from.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Goddesses… we have that much power on our side?”

  Her features relaxed somewhat. “Yes. So you’re not going to turn me in to my father?”