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I followed Zoran out onto a half-demolished balcony.
He glanced around, emotionless. “I never thought Aedus would take it this far.”
“Your brother did this?”
Zoran nodded. “That’s Aedus for you.” He picked up a broken piece of stone and hurled it out into the clearing. “Always overreacts.”
I peeked over the edge to see a small stream of smoke. The volcano had nearly gone cold.
“When I was banished, the dragons scattered as well.” He scanned the area. “Looks like the volcano died out. Probably Aedus’ doing as well. He wanted to make sure this place was destroyed.” With a sigh, Zoran went back inside.
I hurried after him and trailed behind him deeper into the palace. It was a shame that everything had been ruined. Just by the assortment of things thrown about, I could tell it had once been beautiful. Zoran pushed open a door barely hanging onto its hinges. I peeked around him and saw a bed skewed across the ground.
“Was this your room?”
He nodded and entered. “What’s left of it, at least.”
“It’s cleaner than I thought it would be.”
“Hmmm...” Zoran gave me a confused expression as he kicked a chair out of the way.
“I mean it’s not cluttered. But back home the room is overflowing with your stuff. This”—I glanced around—“well, it’s just too nice to be your room.”
Zoran narrowed his eyes at me.
Smiling, I gave a nervous laugh. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“It should be taken into account that this house is much, much larger than my home in the garden. So I’m sorry if my ‘clutter’ of priceless artifacts from every era of existence is ruining the flow of my room.”
“I get it,” I muttered. “I’m sorry. It was just an observation.”
He didn’t respond and went to examine a fallen painting. With a sigh, he carefully removed it from the frame and rolled it up.
“What’s that?” I hurried over and tried to get a look at it. All I saw was the tops of trees.
“A keepsake. Hold it for me.” Zoran passed me the painting and knelt down by the wall. He tapped his knuckle on a few different stones.
“What are you looking for?”
“Shh...” He checked a few more until one gave off a hollow sound.
Zoran pressed his palm to the tile and fire spread across the floor. The section glowed a deep blue before pushing down and moving to the side. Zoran lifted out a pendant. The crystal rod was a solid black with a silver cap that oozed down from the top like lava. The chain was molded into it.
Black smoke from within the crystal filtered out from the tip and wrapped around the canvas in my hands. The painting turned into smoke and was sucked back into the pendant.
“Wow.” I flexed my hands. “That was so cool. Where did you get that?”
“Personally made it for myself to transport items. It’ll only respond to my fire. It would have been useful when I was moving overseas, but I was forced to leave this place before I could gather any of my belongings.” Zoran made the few other objects in the secret compartment disappear before he tapped his foot and the panel moved back into place. He put the chain around his neck.
“Couldn’t you just make things magically appear back home? You always do that smoke trick.”
“It has a distance limit, Fin,” he replied, running his finger along the cracks in the wall. “It’s hard enough to concentrate on dispersing myself into something as fickle as smoke without having to worry about something else getting lost in the journey.”
“Oh, then that crystal really does come in handy.” I thought for a moment. Something about this situation didn’t seem right. “Wait, did you—?”
Zoran smiled. “Do you really think I would agree to come here unless I was the one planning it?”
My mouth dropped open. “Curse the gods, you bastard. You tricked me. The deal is off. You get nothing.”
Zoran snatched my wrist and slammed me up against the wall. “Don’t blame me for using a situation to get what I wanted. It’s not my fault you’re such a curious little sparrow.”
“I hate you so much right now.” I squirmed, trying to get free. “That wasn’t fair.”
“Oh, Fin, really? We’re going to debate what’s fair now?” He patted my cheek before going back to examining the wall.
Clenching my jaw, I stared at the floor. “It was a dirty trick and you know it.”
“Not my first one, either.” He pressed his hand to the stone and it slowly started to heat up.
I moved out of the way and stood behind him as a doorway formed. It glowed blue as it swung back.
“How many secret hiding places do you have?” I glanced around the room.
Zoran peered over his shoulder. “With brothers like mine, I’ve gotten good at hiding things. Thank the gods for that,” he said with a smirk, “or you might not be alive.”
“You’re not funny.”
Chuckling to himself, he entered the hidden passage. I stayed right behind him, feeling a little unsure.
Zoran swiped the spider webs out of the way. “Disgusting creatures.” With a wave of his hand, he sent fire spiraling down the hallway. It ate away any debris that had formed. “Much better.” He dusted off the front of his coat.
We continued on toward an opening up ahead. It was too dark to see what was inside. We walked down a small set of stairs into the room.
I pressed up against Zoran’s back. “What is this place?” I had learned from the garden that dark places in a god’s palace usually had creatures trapped in them.
Zoran snapped his fingers and a fire ring formed around the ceiling.
“Curse the gods,” I whispered. “Are those...?”
“Dragon eggs,” replied Zoran.
The room was filled with shelves and had eggs carefully placed on stands along them. The eggs were organized by color, from the golden ones to the deep blue. Black and white ones were positioned on circular tables in the center. Compared to the others, they were few in number with only four white and two black.
“Damn it,” sighed Zoran, kneeling down. He picked up the shattered remains of a black shell. “Aedus didn’t even find the room and he still ruined one.”
I squatted down next to him. “Maybe it hatched.”
“Not likely.” The god rubbed his forehead.
“You never know.” I picked up part of the shell. “It looks like it could have.”
“It’s too cold.” Zoran stood and looked around the room. “The others made it at least. Maybe now some of the dragons will finally stop holding a grudge against me.”
“Why do you have the eggs?” I rose to my feet and examined the shiny black shell.
“To protect them. Dragon eggs are tricky. There’s no set time for a baby dragon to hatch. The conditions have to be just right. Sometimes it can take years. So the dragons would come and go, and I would keep the eggs safe here.”
“Keeper of dragons,” I recited.
He smiled at me. “Yes, until Aedus blew up a couple hatcheries. I haven’t seen a dragon egg in years.” He ran his finger gently over a white one. “The dragons hide them in the caverns. Who knows, by returning these, they might trust me again to watch over the eggs. It sure would help their numbers and stop the tar beetles from packing them off.”
Zoran took out his pendant and started putting the eggs inside. I watched from the steps. This was going to take forever, but Zoran was being overly careful with each one. I glanced down a connecting corridor.
“Zoran, what’s down there?”
“The underground lake where I use to keep the human piranhas. There’s a tunnel that leads directly to the sea.”
“You’ve had those disgusting things for that long?”
“One of my best creations. Second to you, of course.” He gave me a smirk.
Rolling my eyes, I sighed. “Can I go take a look?”
Stopping what he was doing, Zoran faced me. “Can I trust you not to blow anything up?”
I groaned. “Yes. I’m not that explosive.”
“Hmmm...” he replied. “I suppose you can go.”