I opened my eyelids to find Isla sitting cross-legged beside me. Her eyes were closed and her lips were moving but either I had lost my hearing or no sound was coming out.
I let out a little groan as I lifted my head off the mattress. Her eyes flew open and she leaned over, pressing a hand to my forehead as her beautiful blue eyes stared into mine. I could feel a heavy weight on my stomach and lifted a hand to feel Scruffy’s body nestled there.
‘Well,’ Isla said, taking her hand off my forehead. ‘That went well.’
‘You think?’ I let out a groan, sat up on the edge of the bed, and looked around. We were in a small, dark room, with a door made of metal bars, and one tiny window.
‘We’re still alive.’
‘I wish I wasn’t.’ I moved Scruffy to the mattress beside me so that I could bend forwards and put my head in my hands. It hurt like a bastard.
‘You say that, but I know you, and if you were dead you’d be really, really annoyed.’
I let out a laugh which quickly changed to a groan.
‘Shame we didn’t bring Sabby,’ Isla said. ‘She’d have had you fixed up in no time.’
I looked up at her through my fingers. ‘I’m pretty glad we didn’t bring her. In fact I’m wishing we hadn’t come.’
She waved a hand in the air and sat back down on the end of the mattress, curling her legs up underneath her in one graceful movement. ‘It’s just like school camp. The first day all the kids are boo-hooing and wanting to go home, but by day three they’re all having a lovely time.’
I shook my head. ‘I don’t remember ever having been concussed then locked in a prison cell while on school camp.’
‘Oh,’ she said, ‘you just haven’t lived then.’
I stretched out my mind feeling for Emerald. She wasn’t there.
Sitting bolt upright on the bed, I tried again. Still nothing.
‘Oh no,’ I said.
‘What?’ Isla tilted her head, her face taking on a serious expression.
‘Emerald’s gone. What if they’ve killed her?’ Tears welled in my eyes. Why hadn’t we taken a stance back at the meadow when there was only Lance and Turos? We may have had a chance then.
Because you were looking for a reason to get out of there. A reason to leave.
The ugly little voice in my head had seen what I hadn’t. I’d been so keen to come with Emerald, not for her sake, but for mine. I was selfish, and mean, and….
‘She’s alive,’ Isla said. ‘They said they were going to put you both on trial. They wouldn’t have killed her if they were going to do that.’
‘You think?’
She nodded.
I was silent while I contemplated her words. ‘What are we being tried for?’
‘She’s being done for deserting, and you’re being done for dragon theft, amongst some other things. There was rather a long list.’ She smiled at me. ‘You’ve been pretty busy.’
‘I haven’t…I didn’t…I…what in the Great Dark Sky? They told you that?’
‘They came and read out your charges while you were unconscious.’
‘Did you tell them it wasn’t me?’
‘Oh yes, that would have sorted it all out. Silly me, what was I thinking.’ She tapped a finger against her chin.
‘You don’t seem very worried.’
‘These things normally sort themselves out. No use worrying until I have to.’
I refrained from mentioning that barely a month ago things hadn’t worked out so well. She had lost her brother and I had lost my…pain slammed into me.
Aethan, Oh Dark Sky, Aethan.
By now he would be married to Ebony. By now he would be enjoying her lush body. By now he would have forgotten about me.
‘Stop thinking about him.’ Isla slapped my arm.
With difficulty, I stopped the Aethan and Ebony slideshow that was playing in my mind. ‘How did you know?’
‘You had that look on your face. You know, the one where you’re about to throw up.’
I pushed Aethan back to the corner of my mind where I kept him, and refortified the walls I had placed around my heart. The pain only eased a little, but it was enough to let me breathe again.
‘What are we going to do?’
‘Well, I was thinking I might have a nap. I didn’t sleep well last night. I could hear Scruffy snoring through the wall.
I looked over at my little, white familiar, curled up on the end of the bed. ‘He was farting too,’ I added.
He opened one eye, yawned and then turned around-and-around while he kneaded the hard mattress with his front paws. Finally he let out a contented grunt and lay back down. A few seconds later a foul smell wafted over us.
Isla coughed and shuffled along the bed away from him. ‘He never used to fart in front of me,’ she said.
I shrugged. ‘You live with us now.’
A second wave washed over us.
‘I liked it better when he was trying to impress me,’ Isla said through her fingers.
‘Count yourself lucky. I never got a grace period.’
‘If he doesn’t stop this it’ll be our dead bodies they put on trial.’
‘You’re on trial too?’ I turned to face her fully.
‘Oh yes.’ Her voice sounded like she was trying not to laugh. ‘I’m being tried for aiding and abetting a criminal.’
‘Scruffy?’
She shook her head, ‘Although, if they could smell this they’d have him up for crimes against humanity.’
She tensed and a few moments later I could hear footsteps echoing down the passageway outside our door.
‘It’s show time,’ she said, standing.
Two guards appeared in the doorway.
‘Only two?’ Isla’s voice had a teasing edge to it and I was guessing it had taken more than two to get her there.
‘We have orders to kill the hound if you resist.’
Her face took on an ominous look, which I was guessing made us look more like sisters, because I was sure I had an identical one on mine.
I resisted the urge to hurl insults at him and instead picked Scruffy up, holding him close to my chest. He opened his eyes, looked around, and then promptly went back to sleep.
One of the guards let out a low laugh.
‘What?’ I snarled.
‘He’s just funny.’ He shrugged his shoulders, pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked our door. ‘It would be a damn shame to have to kill him.’
‘Nice eye make-up,’ Isla said as she strode out of the cell in front of me.
His facial expression darkened and I noticed a purple bruise under one of his eyes. His mate let out a chortle and elbowed him in the ribs.
I let out a laugh of my own and followed Isla down the hall. I was guessing she had given him that bruise on the way in.
Two more guards were waiting at the far end. As we approached, they turned and took a corridor running off to the left. We followed.
Enough turns later that I couldn’t have found my way back to the prison cell even if I had wanted to, we arrived at a large hall.
Stairs the full width of the right side of the hall ascended till I could see the blue of the sky. Two enormous wooden doors dominated the far wall of the room. They stood open, allowing me to see a crowd. The united rumble of their voices was a low murmur to my ears.
Isla elbowed me and nodded her head to the right. I looked up to see Emerald trying to negotiate the stairs. A metal hood covered her head. It was connected by chains to metal rings on her legs which were making it difficult for her to walk. Black liquid stained the scales beneath the rings. Blood.
I gasped and started to move towards her but one of the guards drew a sword and looked pointedly at Scruffy. Tears of frustration stung my eyes and I couldn’t help but feel that I had betrayed her as I watched her stumble.
If only we hadn’t brought Scruffy. I was pretty sure Isla and I could take the four guards easily, then we just had to free Emerald and get back up the stairs and then….
The harsh reality of our situation crashed into me. Because then we would be pursued by other dragons and their riders, and even if we out-manoeuvred them we would still be stuck in a different world with no idea how to get back to our own.
Our only choice was to behave ourselves and hope that they let us go back home. That really grated.
So, instead of fighting, I watched my friend be led down the stairs and into the room. The voices in the courtroom hushed as she entered. Our guards led us to the opposite side of the room from where Emerald stood on a dragon-sized platform.
I was guessing it was the metal hood that was making communication between us impossible and I didn’t like it one bit. Her eyes were sad as she rolled them towards me.
‘All rise for his Majesty, King Bladimir,’ a voice intoned.
Chairs creaked and scraped along the floor as the silent congregation stood and bowed their heads.
Bladimir swept into the room, his long, black cape open to reveal a red velvet shirt and black pants. He strode to the front where a bench sat high on a platform, climbed the stairs to it, and sat down. Turos followed closely behind him. I gritted my teeth as the smug bastard took up the position on the King’s right.
‘There is not enough room in here for Lance,’ Bladimir said. ‘He will give his witness statement from the hall.’
There was a snort and then the enormous head of the black dragon appeared in the doorway. He looked over at Emerald and snorted again. She met his gaze for a few seconds before lowering her eyes again. Without having access to her thoughts I couldn’t be sure, but if I had to give a name to the emotion in her eyes I would have said shame.
For the first time since the whole saga had begun, I began to wonder if perhaps Emerald had done something wrong.
‘Be seated,’ Bladimir said.
I positioned Scruffy on my lap as I slumped into a chair. Isla remained standing.
‘Your Lordship.’ When Bladimir looked at her, Isla curtsied; a feat I would have found impossible in the black, leather pants we were wearing. ‘It seems that we have no legal representation. I bid permission to act on our behalf.’
If I hadn’t known that underneath Isla’s ditsy, happy-go-lucky personality there was a political mind that could rival the best, I would have broken out in a cold sweat.
Luckily he didn’t know what I did. ‘Of course, Princess.’ He gave her a condescending smile and she fluttered her eyelashes and blushed.
I still couldn’t work out how she could do that on a whim, but it sure had come in handy over the last couple of weeks. All Isla had to do was blush when Mum roused on us for our latest skulduggery (Mum’s word) and Mum’s face would soften and before you knew it we were getting fed lemon cake.
I sighed. Dark Sky, if we got out of this alive I’d take as many tongue lashings from Mum as she wanted to give us.
Bladimir picked up a piece of paper and read from it. ‘We are here today to bear witness to the testament of Silvanta Dragontears, Isadora Gabrielle and Isla Gabrielle.’
I looked at Isla and raised my eyebrows.
‘Well you are a Gabrielle,’ she said. ‘Besides, it can’t hurt to use your Royal name in your hour of need.’
Bladimir cleared his throat and stopped talking. He stared at us until Isla blushed again, and I squirmed in my seat. I felt like I was back at school.
‘Silvanta Dragontears, you are charged with deserting your country. How do you plead to this charge?’
Emerald snorted and shook her head.
‘I’ll take that as a guilty,’ he said, writing something onto his piece of paper.
‘I object.’ Isla jumped to her feet and strode to the front of the room.
Bladimir looked up with a startled look on his face.
‘As Silvanta is capable of communicating her thoughts, there is no need to guess what she is trying to tell us. Unless you remove her hood so that she can talk, this trial will be nothing but a farce.’
‘To the other defendant?’ Bladimir flicked a hand in my direction. ‘She is a criminal. How could we trust what she tells us?’
‘I’m sure that Silvanta is quite capable of confirming the accuracy of the translation with a simple nod of her head.’
Bladimir stared at Isla for a second, his mouth working as he tried to come up with a good reason not to allow it. Finally he nodded his head and said, ‘Very well. Remove Silvanta’s hood.’
Two of the guards came forward and unlocked the rings from her legs. I winced as I looked at her torn flesh. One of the scales was half hanging off, and another was missing entirely. She bent her head as they lifted the metal hood and staggered to the side with it. It must have weighed a tonne.
As soon as it was clear of her head, her thoughts rushed into mine.
I’m sorry.
Are you okay?
She looked down at her legs and then back up at me. I’ve had worse.
Emerald, what did you do?
‘How does she plead?’ Bladimir’s voice interrupted before she could answer my question.
‘Not guilty,’ I said.
‘And to the charge of deserting her mate?’
Emerald’s head hung low and her misery seeped into my mind.
Emerald?
I just wanted to be something more.
More than what?
She shook her head. More than just a female.
Is that such a bad thing?
Female dragons live in the mountain, lay eggs and raise the hatchlings. They do not fly so high into the sky that air becomes thin and exhilaration fills them. They do not carry riders, or fly into battle, or hunt for fresh meat. They do not swim in the ocean or burnish their scales on the sand. But most importantly…they are not allowed to bond. Her words, which had been impassioned, now had a feel of resignation about them. As if by admitting all of that, she had sealed her own fate.
I took a deep breath. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have more than what you did. To be more than what you are.
Maybe not in your world.
‘If you are quite finished.’ Bladimir’s voice had a bored edge.
‘She pleads not guilty to that as well, your Lordship,’ I said.
‘Is this true, Silvanta?’
You didn’t desert him. I said the words urgently before she could shake her head. He deserted you by not allowing you to be what you want.
You don’t understand.
Yes I do. You couldn’t have been happy with him the way things were. You had to spread your wings and find yourself so that you could come back to him.
She chuckled in my head. You humans spend so much time thinking about emotions. But, strangely, I find I can relate to that.
She looked over at Bladimir and nodded her head.
Lance let out a bellow of displeasure from the doorway.
What’s up with him? I asked her.
You never asked who my mate was.
I looked over at him. Lance? Big, bad Lance was your mate?
She flickered her eyelids a few times and looked at him sideways, a small look of satisfaction on her face. He could have had any of the females, but he chose me.
So what happened?
Santanas came. He wooed me with tales of adventure and when he left, I went too.
So I’m guessing Lance wasn’t very happy with that.
She shot him a look again. I hadn’t seen him again till this morning.
I was suddenly struck with how lonely she must have been for all those years. Tricked into slavery by Santanas and then unable to return to her home.
Have you tried to explain to him?
His mind is blocked to me. She gave her head a little shake and her gigantic eyes shone with wetness. Santanas told me I would only be gone a few weeks. That was thirty years ago.
You still love him. It wasn’t a question. I could see it on her face and feel it radiating into my body.
What you feel for your man. That is what I felt for Lance.
He’s not my man any more.
‘If you two have quite finished your discussion,’ Bladimir’s voice dripped with sarcasm, ‘it would be good to proceed.’
‘What did she say?’ Isla managed to get her mouth to stay still as she whispered to me.
‘Lance was her mate. She still loves him.’ I garbled it under my breath while keeping an eye on Bladimir to see if he noticed.
‘So Silvanta, when you left, was it your intention to bring back a faery horde to enslave us?’
I let out a laugh. The man was so far from the truth it didn’t bear thinking about. ‘She was bored,’ I said.
Lance let out a snarl.
‘Not with you.’ I held my hands up to placate him. ‘With where her life as a female was leading. She didn’t want to be stuck in a hill, popping out babies.’
Lance’s eyes narrowed, but I could tell he was listening.
‘Come on,’ I directed my words at him, ‘you knew she was different. That’s what attracted you to her in the first place. But then you expected her to give up the very thing that made you fall in love with her.’
‘That’s not true.’ The look on Turos’s face was almost comical as the words burst from him. ‘I mean, she never talked to me about it.’
‘Oh,’ I said to Turos, ‘and you didn’t notice anything? Like maybe she got a bit depressed just before she left.’ I was guessing now. I mean did dragons even get depressed?
‘I thought it was the pregnancy.’
My eyebrows rode up my face as I turned to look at Emerald. You were pregnant?
He said a couple of weeks.
What happened to the baby?
She shifted uncomfortably, but didn’t answer.
‘Santanas offered her an adventure. She saw it as her last opportunity to have some fun before she settled into a life of mediocrity.’
‘You mean you offered her an adventure,’ Bladimir said. ‘You are the rider bonded to her. It must be you who took her.’
‘I’m eighteen,’ I said. ‘I wasn’t even a twinkle in my mother’s eye when Emerald, urr, I mean Silvanta left.’
‘That’s impossible.’ Turos slammed his fist down on the table and leapt to his feet. He towered over us as he glared at us from the platform. ‘Now you tell falsehoods.’
‘Angry much?’ Isla muttered.
His eyes flashed as red flushed his cheeks.
‘It’s not him,’ I said. I had a feeling that a very, angry dragon was living in his head. I looked over at Lance. ‘If you would just talk to her, this whole mess could be sorted out.’
Little flames shot out of his nostrils with a puff of smoke. If he didn’t gain control of his emotions we were all going to be barbequed.
‘Maybe it’s a little soon,’ I amended.
‘He wants custody,’ Turos said.
‘Of what?’ Isla asked.
‘Of their child, after it hatches.’
‘That was thirty years ago, how would….’
Turos held his hand up to stop me. ‘Dragon females can incubate eggs in their bodies for as long as they need to until they deem it safe to give birth.’
‘Elephants can do that,’ Isla said. ‘Well, not the egg part.’
‘We do not know what this ephelant is,’ Turos said.
Isla opened her mouth but I nudged her with my elbow. Now was probably not the time to correct his English.
‘And frankly we do not care. We want custody of the egg once it has been laid.’
Tears filled Emerald’s eyes as she bowed her head in agreement.
‘Well, now that has been settled, we can set punishment for Silvanta for her desertion.’ Bladimir rubbed his hands together.
‘Don’t you think she’s being punished enough?’ Isla asked.
‘She was told she would only be away for a couple of weeks,’ I added. ‘She’s spent the last thirty years mourning the loss of her land, her friends and her mate.’
‘And now you are making her give up something she treasured enough to harbour in her body all this time. A lesser female would have given birth for the company alone. But she chose to keep the child safe.’ Isla slapped her hand onto the table to emphasise her words.
Bladimir’s face turned purple. ‘I don’t see how this is any of your….’
‘It is enough.’ Turos looked at Lance and I was sure by the look on his face he was asking him if he were sure.
Lance nodded his head once and Turos repeated himself. ‘It is enough.’
‘One down, two to go,’ Isla muttered.
It wasn’t much of a win though.
Emerald closed her eyes and lay down. Even if I wasn’t feeling it in my head I would have known she was miserable. Every line of her posture shouted it.
She had finally got what she had wished for most, she had come home, but she felt even more alone than before. Having Lance so close to her, and how their time apart had affected him…she was torn between the agony of her own loss, and her knowledge of what she had done to him.
I had an urge to claw at my insides to purge the desperate darkness, and if it hadn’t been a mirror to my own emotions over the last month, the despair would have brought me to my knees.
Isla reached out and took my hand and I realised that tears tracked down my face. I sniffed and wiped my free arm across my cheeks. Then I glared up at Turos, daring him to say something. But the expression on his face was thoughtful, not vindictive. Which was a real shame, because I was looking for an excuse to break his nose again.
‘Well,’ Bladimir waved a hand at me, ‘I think this is proof enough that these two are fully bonded. Guards, take her away and ready her for execution.’
Isla let out a hiss and Emerald’s head came up as her tail lashed from side-to-side. She let out a roar as steam oozed out of her nose.
I jumped up, backing away with Scruffy clutched to my chest. Just let them try it. I’d show them what I was capable of.
‘Wait,’ Turos yelled over the shrieks of the audience. ‘There is another way we can be sure.’ He turned to his father. ‘If Lance were to read Silvanta’s mind he could bear witness to the events of that day. He could verify if this is the person who stole her away.’
I looked over at Lance. He didn’t appear very happy about the suggestion but he wasn’t breathing out fire, so I guessed that was a yes.
‘That’s if you’re okay with it?’ I didn’t realise Turos was speaking to me until Isla nudged me.
‘Okay with the one idea which may save my life?’ I shrugged my shoulders. ‘Oh, why not?’
A small smile touched the corners of his mouth and for the first time I noticed how attractive he was. White-blond hair spiked over a face that held the most extraordinary iceberg-blue eyes. His bronzed skin only added to the effect of the colour combination. He moved with the ease and grace of a fighter, and I was betting that all seven foot of him was corded with muscle.
I didn’t have to be told to know he was dangerous, and I suspected I had only landed that blow on him because he had let me.
He let his gaze wander down and then up my body, lingering on my chest before returning to my face, and then he winked. Annoyingly, I found myself blushing. It seemed Lance wasn’t the only bad boy in the room.
‘How do we do it?’ I forced my shoulders back and looked him in the face.
He shrugged. ‘Lance and Silvanta need to link.’
Emerald and Lance looked at each other, staring into each other’s eyes, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t just Emerald in my head. I could feel a large male presence that I assumed was Lance. Turos’s touch was much lighter.
Careful Lance, Turos said, the faery isn’t used to this.
The heavy presence withdrew slightly and suddenly I had thoughts of my own again.
I, ahhhh, it was funny hearing my voice echoing in three other heads, I didn’t realise we would all be able to hear each other.
Handy during battle. Turos directed his next thought at Emerald. What happened that day?
There was a pause while Emerald composed herself. Her emotions concerning her mental link with Lance were convoluted. Finally, she began.
You were away, Lance. I could feel the egg building inside of me, so when the other females came for me, I went to the mountains. She was in a cavern inside the mountain. Steam swirled and rose from patches of larva. Dragons lay in groups around stones…no…eggs. I was looking at the dragon hatching ground.
I wasn’t ready. She directed the next thought more fully at Lance. To never fly with you as we used to. To never skim over the tops of the clouds, or plunge into the ocean.
Suddenly I was with her as she and Lance played in the sky. They chased each other, snapping at each other’s tails and they raced each other, skimming across the surface of the water as salt spray coated their scales. Then, as the sun set, they walked along a deserted beach, their tails wrapped as one. I wasn’t ready to give that up.
Lance was silent in my mind, but I felt his anger ebb.
So I told them I would come back, and I left to wait for you, to say goodbye. Her pain was palpable. On my way back down the mountain a man appeared before me.
My teeth gritted together as Santanas, my grandfather, became visible.
He said he had a mission for me. That it was vitally important. My chance to make a difference. I told him I was waiting for you to come back but he promised me I would be back before you did. She was silent for a moment. So I let him hop on my back, and when he opened the gate to the other world I took him through. But it was all a lie, and he never did bring me home.
My throat was thick with unshed tears. If I had thought her present pain was bad, it was nothing compared with what she had experienced when she had realised that Santanas had tricked her. She had fought him but he had won, and once he had broken her spirit and her mind he had forced the bond. She had touched the mind of a mad man, thirsty for revenge and blood. I was surprised she was still sane.
How did you end up bonded with Isadora? Turos asked.
After Santanas was trapped, I wandered lost for many years. Then one night she found me in her dreams. She reached out a hand and she touched me, and I could feel she was good and kind. I didn’t want to be alone anymore, so when she opened her mind to me I bonded. She was only ten at the time.
I smiled at the memory.
I’ve never heard of such a thing. A dragon binding twice in a lifetime.
Perhaps, it was the first thing that Lance had said, it is because the first bond was forced on her.
I’m so sorry Lance.
You didn’t mean to leave me?
I love you. She did a dragon version of an embarrassed cough. I mean I loved you.
I felt them drawing off into a far corner of my mind and turned my attention to Turos to give them some privacy.
Why did you do it? I asked.
Do what?
Help me?
He let out a chuckle. It’s quite simple really. If I don’t save your life, I’ll never get to do this to you.
I was overwhelmed with pictures of him kissing me, his hands roaming over me as he shed my clothes from my body. It was frightening in the clarity of the detail, but the look on his face as he stared into my eyes made it even more terrifying.
I felt my breath catch in my throat as he ravaged me with his thoughts. I snatched my mind away, staring at him with a look that I was sure was laden with shock. I was stunned by the suddenness of the mental assault, but more stunned by the fact that I hadn’t been totally opposed to it.
A tiny part of me had enjoyed watching it. Had loved the feeling of power that came with the knowledge he desired me. That part would have gone with him right then and there and let him play out that wild fantasy.
‘So now you know the truth,’ I said, amazed at how steady my voice was.
‘More importantly,’ Turos said, ‘now you know the truth.’
‘She is innocent?’ Bladimir asked.
Turos broke his gaze with me and turned towards his father. ‘Innocent for now.’ His grin spoke of other things.
After this trial I was going to get Emerald, and she, Isla, Scruffy and I were heading straight back through that hole in the sky.
‘So,’ I said, ‘can we all go home now?’
‘We will need to find a dragon willing to carry you home.’ Bladimir shifted uncomfortably.
‘If Silvanta is not welcome here she will be coming home with us.’
‘You forget one thing.’ Turos was wearing that insufferable little smile again. ‘First she must lay and hatch Lance’s egg.’
Damn it. I had forgotten about that. ‘How long will that take?’
‘Oh, a week or two. Maybe three.’ His little smile stretched into a broad smug one. ‘Just long enough for us to get to know each other better.’