“Yes… my massive brawn is an ever-present burden. It’s amazing I can fit through doorways without having to turn sideways.”
“He’s just cranky because he doesn’t have all of his beakers, test tubes, crucibles, and snakes with him,” Ahn told Sardelle.
“Snakes?”
“And spiders. Haven’t you seen his terrariums?”
“I haven’t been up to the lab, no.”
“The lab assistant has assured me the creatures will be tended,” Tolemek said, pulling a slide out of a case. “It’s largely the Micon Burner I’m missing right now. It’s useful for sterilization, combustion, and heating my hands when they’re cold.” He grimaced and flexed his fingers—he had removed his gloves to set up. “Zirkander, can I break this bubble?” He held up the board from the wreck.
“Did Nowon get to look at the intact sample?” Ridge asked.
The captain trotted over before Tolemek could answer and knelt beside the microscope. Tolemek handed him the board with its captured liquid and fiddled with the microscope settings while Nowon studied the machine innards by the light.
“Interesting. If this is what they’re doing with the dragon blood, it’s not at all what my brother thought. He mentioned weapons, yes, but the last I heard, he believed the Cofah were going to inject it into humans to enhance people, possibly giving them the power of the sorcerers of old.”
“Maybe they tried and that didn’t work.” Tolemek took back the board. He jabbed a needle into the back of it, drawing out some of the liquid inside the bubble without breaking the glass.
“Perhaps,” Sardelle said, “they still bear the prejudices toward sorcerers that their ancestors did. In my studies, I’ve learned that the Cofah had a… purging similar to the one on Iskandia.” She swallowed down emotion that welled up into her throat, reminding herself that this was distant history to these people and that they wouldn’t understand how recent it all had been for her. Except Ridge. She caught him gazing across the camp at her, his eyes gentle with understanding. “Supposing it’s actually possible to give a human being powers by injecting dragon blood into their veins—and I don’t know if that’s feasible or if such blood would be rejected or destroyed by the immune system—the Cofah may fear that in creating sorcerers, they would be bringing about their own destruction… or creating their own masters.”
Nowon was watching her intently. “What is your specialty?” he asked. The and-why-are-you-here hung unspoken in the air.
“I am a student of healing and history,” Sardelle said, then glanced at Lieutenant Apex. He’d only known her as an archaeologist, as per Ridge’s cover story. Would he be suspicious if she now claimed a doctor’s talents?
But he was frowning at the microscope. “Aren’t we prematurely believing we have dragon blood? I fail to see how it could be acquired unless the Cofah have found dragons, and that’s highly unlikely.”
Sardelle imagined some sealed amphora that could have been unearthed by archaeologists. Or miners. But even if someone a dozen centuries ago had found a dead dragon and exsanguinated it for some reason, the blood couldn’t still be alive today.
“I’m taking a look now,” Tolemek said, “though I confess I don’t know if dragon blood looks different from human blood at the microscopic level or not. I’ve never seen any before nor seen it described in textbooks. Dragons predate modern science. They predate most primitive science too.”
Sardelle found herself leaning over his shoulder as he peered into the microscope. Nowon did too. Even Ridge came over, apparently more intrigued by the results than by his map.
“The cells are still alive,” Tolemek said. “Interesting. There’s no nuclei in them, so it’s not human blood. Nor is it mammal blood. The cells are large, but that doesn’t necessarily mean much. Frogs have larger cells than humans.”
“There’s nothing that reeks of magic, eh?” Ahn asked.
“There are anomalies. You’ll have to let me know what qualifies as reeking of magic.”
“Weird concoctions that have a creepy blue glow even after all the lights are turned off at night.”
Tolemek frowned over at her. “I assure you there’s nothing magical about Illumination Goo Number Four. Bioluminescent plankton are the source of that glow. I captured the dinoflagellates from your own harbor.”
Nowon and Ridge shifted uneasily, and Apex openly scowled over at Tolemek. It might have been the talk of magic or the reminder of Tolemek’s scientific nature—and what he had done with it in the past.
Ahn noticed the reactions and looked like she wished she hadn’t spoken in the first place.
“Like a jar full of fireflies,” Sardelle suggested, though she suspected Tolemek might have applied some magic without even realizing it—she had seen the evidence of that in a number of his concoctions—if only to keep the plankton alive indefinitely. Like her, he would have to tread carefully in the modern world.
“Oh,” Ridge said. “That would make a useful light, I guess.”
Tolemek fished in his bag. “I’ll test the blood for an electrical current or some kind of charge that might suggest… enhanced properties.”
“We saw it power an aircraft and shoot at us,” Ridge said. “You don’t think that’s proof of enhanced properties?”
“It’s possible someone was using magic to control the craft from afar.” Tolemek withdrew a device similar in look and size to a thick compass, but with bolts for attaching wires.
Ridge met Sardelle’s eyes. She shook her head once. She would have felt something like that.
Tolemek attached probes on wires to the testing contraption.
Galvanometer, Jaxi supplied.
How do you know that? Are you poking around in his thoughts?
Of course not. I’m simply a student of the sciences.
And tools that hadn’t been invented yet when last we walked the world?
We’ve been free for weeks now. It’s not my fault you haven’t applied yourself to catching up and acquiring a modern education.
Why don’t I believe you, Jaxi?
I have no idea, but that is dragon blood as sure as I’m a powerful sorceress residing in a sword. You people could just ask me if there’s any uncertainty with these things. Also, you might want to keep him from poking around in there.
What? Why?
Before Jaxi could answer, one of Tolemek’s needles brushed the damp blood on his slide. A sizzle sounded, charging the air, and he was hurled away from the microscope. He flew several feet, knocking Ridge over, before landing on his back. His already unruly hair stuck out in more directions than usual, as if he had been struck by lightning. His eyes were frozen open, stunned.
Stunned… or dead.
Afraid his heart had stopped, Sardelle rushed to his side, laying a hand on his chest. It hadn’t stopped, but the beats were jumpy and erratic. Healing electrocution victims was not something she had much experience with, but she did her best to sooth the muscle and return it to its usual beat pattern. Fortunately, Tolemek’s body seemed able to recover with minimal intervention. He gasped in a breath and blinked a few times.
“Are you all right, sir?” Apex asked.
He and Captain Kaika had come to either side of Ridge, each offering a hand to help him up. Ahn rushed to Tolemek’s side, frowning with concern and clasping his hand at the same time.
“Yes, fine. Thanks.” Ridge waved his soldiers back and sat up, propping an elbow on one knee. He waited until Tolemek lifted his head and was clearly alive, then asked, “Should I feel jealous that you rushed over to check on him before me?”
Sardelle couldn’t imagine he’d had many occasions in his life to be jealous, at least not of women choosing other men over him. “From what you’ve told me and from what I’ve garnered from your superior officers, if I fell to the ground beside you every time someone knocked you on your lower cheeks, all the skin on my knees would be scraped off.”
“Probably true,” Ridge said.
“L
ower cheeks?” Captain Kaika’s lip wrinkled up in disbelief. “Who says that?”
“She’s very proper,” Nowon observed.
“It’s called being civilized,” Ridge said, rolling to his feet, “And well-mannered. Unlike most soldiers I know.”
Sardelle raised an eyebrow. She was accustomed to soldiers and knew that they would often choose different words to describe the anatomy, but it was a novelty to have them teasing her. She tried to decide if that signaled a modicum of acceptance or if it simply meant she was an aberration for more reasons than one.
“My manners are perfectly adequate,” Nowon said.
“Mine aren’t,” Kaika said.
“That is a truth.”
“Are you all right?” Ahn murmured to Tolemek. She didn’t seem the type to fling herself onto a man to demonstrate love and relief, at least when others were around, but she had a firm grip on his hand.
“I think so.” He rubbed his head. A charred scent lingered in the air around him.
“So, what did that teach us?” Ridge brushed snow off his hands and his… lower cheeks. “Besides that it’s a bad idea to stick a little metal prong into a strange blood specimen.”
“That whatever this is, it has tremendous energy potential,” Tolemek said.
Huh. He wasn’t willing to call it dragon blood yet. A hallmark of a scientist, Sardelle supposed. It always took them a few metric tons of proof before they were willing to upgrade something from a hypothesis to a theory, and even then, they used chalk rather than ink.
Because they don’t have smart swords that could simply tell them the truth.
And how can you be so positive that it’s dragon blood and not some strange new liquid that was made with technology or sorcery?
I can sense it, the same way I can sense whether a person has a hint of dragon blood in them. And you could sense it, too, if you opened your mind and paid attention.
Sardelle had sensed something, but, like Tolemek, she wasn’t quick to glom onto the possibility that the Cofah had somehow acquired a substance that hadn’t existed in the world for a thousand years.
That we know of. I have one more tidbit of information for you, one you’re welcome to share with your new friends. That dragon blood isn’t cut with human blood.
So it’s not from the offspring of a human and dragon union?
It’s not.
The thud of hooves sounded in the darkness beyond their encampment.
“Duck,” Ridge said, even before Sardelle stretched out her senses in that direction. He jogged to the edge of the camp and waved into the darkness.
The dark forms of five horses came into view, picking their way around the dead clumps of grass thrusting up through the snowy steppes. All of the creatures had saddles, but only one had a rider.
Lieutenant Duck slid off and saluted his commander. He had reins, but the rest of the horses had simply followed him. “Got your order here, sir.”
“Are these stolen horses?” Sardelle couldn’t imagine the lieutenant, goofy big ears and big grin, sauntering into a market to buy the horses—he looked no more Cofah than she did—nor was this the hour for horse markets.
“These are borrowed horses, ma’am,” Duck said earnestly. “I went a-visiting to a farm over yonder with a couple of apples in my pocket, made friends with this big fellow here—” he patted the dark stallion’s neck, “—and I guess that made him inclined to follow me when I opened the gate in his paddock. Some of his friends followed too. They must have heard about the apples.”
“And they saddled themselves up for you as well,” Sardelle said. “Impressive.”
“Horses like to dress up and look good when they go out, ma’am.”
“You needn’t be so suspicious of your gift, Sardelle,” Ridge said.
“Gift?”
“Those three are for you, Tolemek, and the person he aims to bring back.”
“We’re going tonight?” Tolemek asked.
“It’s a ways to ride, and I expect you’ll need to sneak aboard a train at some point,” Ridge said, “but this is as close as we dare bring the fliers. The region gets a lot more populated closer to the river.” He waved toward his map, still sprawled in the snow. “You’ll need to find a way to ship your sister home, because we don’t have any more seats in the fliers. If you want to go with her, that’s fine, but I need Lieutenant Ahn back here to fly her craft home. We’re not leaving any of these in the Cofah’s back yard.”
Tolemek massaged the back of his head. He had a dumbfounded expression on his face, and Sardelle wondered if the jolt had affected more than his heart.
“Sir,” Apex said, “you’re going to let him leave? And trust him to come back home when he feels like it? He could report to some Cofah military outpost and tell them everything he knows.”
“If he tried, he’d be thrown back in a dungeon,” Ahn said.
“If we don’t send him away, he’ll be here in camp, experimenting with that blood,” Ridge said. “He’ll probably blow us all up.”
Tolemek’s dumbfounded look faded, but he still seemed as surprised as Apex that he was being allowed to go. As if Sardelle wouldn’t keep an eye on him. She didn’t believe he meant to flee back to his people—he cared for Ahn and was being allowed to pursue the work he was passionate about in Iskandia—but she could stop him from wandering off if she had to.
I can if you can’t, Jaxi put in brightly.
“I will gather what I need,” Tolemek said.
“Sir, I would like to go with them,” Ahn said, her fingers twitching toward one of the horses, as if she wanted to run over and hop on at any second.
“I know you would, Lieutenant, but we’re moving the fliers as soon as everybody leaves. There are too many paths leading back to us.” He waved toward the horses, but he must be thinking of those crashed unmanned fliers too. “I need you here.”
“But after that, we’ll most likely just be waiting in camp until everyone gets back from their missions, right? I could help move the camp, then catch up with them.”
“Given that the Cofah have some new technology—” Ridge waved toward the spot where Tolemek had been examining the blood, “—I’m not feeling that secure in the notion that we’ll be able to stay in one spot undetected for days. We may have to move every night.”
Ahn clenched her jaw, but she didn’t continue to argue. She watched Tolemek pack, then ran over to her flier and pulled out her own bag. For a moment, Sardelle thought she meant to disobey, to throw the bag on one of the horses and ride off, but Ahn only pulled something out, then jumped down from the flier. She strode over to Tolemek, who pushed his hair behind his shoulders, and gazed down at her.
“Here.” She held out a pistol in a holster. “It’s a Maverick Eight-Eighty. Most accurate pistol in the world, as fine as all but the best sniper rifles and good for close quarters.”
“You think I’ll need to shoot my way into my sister’s…” Tolemek glanced around, saw a couple of others listening, and finished with, “hospital?”
“You might find all sorts of trouble on the way there. Especially with that hair. You don’t exactly look like a Cofah soldier anymore.”
“Maybe I should cut it off. You’ve made that suggestion a few times.”
“I suggested cutting it, not cutting it off. If you come back to me bald, I’ll pour that illumination goop on your head. Now here.” She thrust out the pistol again, and this time he took it.
“Ridge? May I speak with you?” Sardelle tilted her head toward a dark, private spot behind the fliers.
He nodded, but had a few more orders to deliver before joining her. “Nowon and Kaika, there are horses for you too. You’re sure you don’t want to take any of my people with you?”
“You’re not offering yourself, sir? You did remove our colonel from the mission, after all.” Kaika didn’t sound serious, but Sardelle watched Ridge, not liking the idea of him heading off into a secret and doubtlessly well-guarded Cofah installation,
not when he was sending her off in another direction.
Nowon rolled his eyes.
“I don’t have the special skills the others have,” Ridge said. “I just fly and shoot things.”
“We have no need of extra assistance,” Nowon said, and Kaika didn’t argue.
“It’s your mission,” Ridge said, though he gazed thoughtfully over at Sardelle.
Do you want me to go with them? Tolemek can probably retrieve his sister by himself.
His eyes widened slightly at her telepathic question, but he recovered quickly. I wish I could send you with them, but it doesn’t sound like they want help. They might not be comfortable with your kind of help, either. After all, it took me a while to grow cozy with the idea, and I’m delightfully open-minded.
Sure, you are. You nearly fell over when I teased you about the possibility that you might be telepathic.
Falling over wasn’t what was on my mind that night. He gave her a quick wink. But back to this. I know Ahn trusts Tolemek, but I’m not ready to let him wander off alone. You’re the one person he won’t think to cross if for some reason he’s tempted.
You’re thinking of Jaxi. She’s already threatened to kill him a couple of times. He’s quite polite with her.
He won’t cross you, either. He looks at you with respect. And wariness.
While Sardelle was debating whether she agreed with this assessment, Ridge faced the captains again. “We’ll be waiting at the coordinates I pointed out on the map for your return in three nights, unless that spot is compromised, in which case our contingency pick-up location will be the Miarga River Fork on the other side of the mountains. If we have to move again… put up a flare from the river. We’ll be watching and come get you.”
“Understood, sir,” Kaika and Nowon said at the same time, then ran off to grab their bags.
Nowon headed out of the camp, a dark quiet form without a parting word for anyone. Kaika, on the other hand, thumped Ahn and Duck on the arms as she passed, saying, “Don’t get too much napping in while you’re back here in the rear, kids.”
“Kids? Napping?” Duck stood up painfully straight. “I’ve been rummaging all up and down the countryside, hunting like a coonhound to find you all horses. And I flew you all the way over here, while you were snoring in the back.”
The Dragon Blood Collection, Books 1-3 Page 62