Hamasa woke up with a groan and, once again, trapped against Valerius’ chest and, again, on a horse. Unlike the first time, this was not a gentle saunter through the woods. Nerva was sprinting, the rocking and jerking of her under him making him instantly motion sick. Was this what a ship voyage would feel like? His eyes popped open and he struggled to turn, to look around and get his bearings in the dark, until Valerius let out a pained hiss at an unfortunate elbow strike.
“Marya?!” Hamasa demanded in dizzying concern. Or maybe he was still dizzy from the galloping pace. He hated human travel.
“Right here, Hamito. You all right? You went down hard,” Marya asked, her words heavy with concern yet a little thin in the rushing air. Hamasa rolled his head sluggishly towards Marya’s voice, and blinked. Marya was on a horse. A beautiful silver horse.
“Horse?”
Marya grinned and winked. “Stole it from those bastards. They still have another if they can catch it. Found out Valerius ain’t just a bastard to me, he’s kinda a gulero to everyone.” She sounded a little impressed at this, but Valerius merely snorted loudly.
Hamasa tipped his head back to stare cross-eyed at Valerius’ chin. “You’re hurt, aren’t you?”
“It will hold for now,” he said shortly. At the sheen of sweat over his face and the deep grooves around his mouth, Hamasa knew that it may be holding, but it wasn’t painless. Not in the slightest.
“We need to stop. You need to rest,” Hamasa protested, trying to gingerly twist around to see the wound. The arm around him tightened.
“You’ll make it worse. Stop moving.”
“We can’t stop, Hamasa. They’ll be on us in no time. We have to keep going.”
“We need to find a place to hide then!” Hamasa countered.
“Where? It’s all flat nothing ‘round here,” Marya said, throwing her arm around them. The Ajul Mountains were far behind them, flat, grassy hills stretching out in all directions ahead as they continued to gallop west.
“I’ll be fine. We need to make it to a town and we’ll lose them there,” Valerius muttered, his breath hot and choppy against Hamasa’s ear. Something warm and wet pressed into his back and the arm around him loosened minutely. Hamasa’s eyes widened. He’s bleeding again. “Thank you for your concern, my lord.”
“Not a r-lord,” Hamasa whispered, feeling useless, especially with wrists still trapped in the cuffs. They must not have had enough time to try to find the key. Or there hadn’t been one. They were ensorcelled. It would probably take another mage or a dragon to free him.
A shiver of awareness ran down his spine and his tongue licked the air instinctively. Of course he couldn’t smell anything other than horses and blood, but he could hear a whistling. With a quick “hold on!” at Valerius, he grabbed the reins and tugged Nerva to the right. A bolt shot past them.
“Mirda!” Marya shouted.
“Marya, get out of here! It’s probably trained to come to his call rike Nerva!” Hamasa called over.
“But Hamasa—”
“Go, now!” Valerius interrupted. Marya’s mouth tightened, but she nodded and dug her heels into the horse’s sides. Like a bolt from a crossbow, the steed took off, hooves churning up dirt and stones from the road.
“We have to face them. Nerva can’t outrun them with two on her and after so little rest,” Valerius said, grunting under his breath as he lifted his trident on his good side.
“You can’t fight them ar-alone!” Hamasa disagreed, mind whirring with… with nothing. They had no choice. Even if he would’ve chosen to use his inherent magic now, he couldn’t thanks to the ensorcelled cuffs. “What do we do, what do we do, what do we do?” he chanted. Another whistle and Hamasa steered Nerva sharply to the left, the bolt passing close enough to Nerva’s eye to spook the mare into loping faster with a shrill whinny.
“Let me off and I’ll slow them down. You can draw even with Marya and keep going,” Valerius said decisively. “You need to go back to the Sovereign, my lord. Whatever you do, get back to Riyushu.”
“I thought you weren’t crazy?” Hamasa yelled over his shoulder.
“My lord, they’re right behind us,” Valerius retorted, twisting at the waist with a wince that Hamasa could feel.
“You are not going to die!” Hamasa said, tears burning his eyes. I saved you. I saved you. I won’t let you die now!
“Hamasa,” Valerius murmured. His hands tightened around the reins and Nerva slowed. Hamasa clenched his eyes shut, wishing he could shut out the sound of Valerius’ softly resigned voice. Ignore the painful thump of his heart at the sound of that voice saying his name.
It really is him. Did she send the Lances for me, because of him?
“Kana’iro the Red, come with us and I’ll let the Lance live! He’ll bleed out if you don’t stop now.” Gaius’ voice was thin and reedy from wind and distance, but clear enough to hear and yank Hamasa out of his own wildly churning thoughts. Valerius twitched at the sound, but the centurion was too far for the knight to make out the exact words. Unlike Hamasa, who felt each word like a physical blow.
“I won’t. I won’t,” Hamasa chanted, teeth clenching.
A blast of freezing air startled Nerva into rearing, mane whipping Hamasa’s face and hooves striking the air. Hamasa threw himself against Nerva’s neck and clung tight to Valerius’ arm wrapped around him, fingernails digging into the meat of his arm to desperately hold him in place. Valerius had instinctively kept hold of Nerva’s reins himself, otherwise they would’ve fallen off together. The dampness spread over Hamasa’s back and he gritted his teeth to hold back terrified tears.
There was so much blood.
“Looks like you’re out of luck, Kana’iro! Our ally is here,” Gaius called.
“No…” Hamasa looked up to where the huge creature hid, shadowed cleverly by clouds. His mouth spread into an awestruck grin, lips parting in giddy relief. “No, that’s not your ally,” he whispered.
“My lord, what—?” Valerius actually sounded anxious.
An enraged draconic scream rent the air. The clouds shredded around a plummeting body that shined silver in the starlight. Not black. Not green. But icy white. The dragon’s wings spread to slow the descent, a screech proceeding a whirlwind of snow from an open maw. The two horses whinnied high and terrified, and Hamasa wheeled Nerva around in time to see a wall of ice steaming with cold blockade the road behind him and cut the centurion off.
“We’ll find you again! I’ll make you come with me next time, Kana’iro the Red!” Gaius shouted from the other side of the ice wall.
The sound of hoof beats rapidly retreated as icy air blasted over Hamasa’s and Valerius’ back. It buffeted Nerva several steps forward and had Hamasa and Valerius leaning over the saddle horn with matching groans. Shivers wracked Valerius’ body, but Hamasa felt his own body’s heat surge higher to combat the unnatural cold. Luckily, the runes on the cuffs didn’t register it as magical. Yet. If he got too cold, it would probably counteract eventually.
He didn’t think it would be a problem, though. Not when the gleaming White dragon soared low and coasted to a graceful landing. It turned, sinuous and catlike, wings tucking close to the glowing body, tail whipping over the road. Delicately clawed feet picked over the dirt until the dragon stopped just in front of them. Glowing blue eyes met Hamasa’s. Abruptly, the dragon stood rampant, wings extending so wide they filled all of Hamasa’s vision, almost blocking out the night sky. Just as beautiful as Hamasa remembered. Tears sprang to his eyes from sheer, overwhelming relief.
Icy wind whipped over them as the dragon roared. Nerva neighed high-pitched and screeching, the whites showing in her rolling eyes, but Hamasa and Valerius’ sure hands on the reins kept her in place. Hamasa was smiling, widely and recklessly, heart thumping in painful joy until the sound of hoof beats jarred through the frozen air. Hamasa’s throat tightened and he wheezed between his teeth. Then, he realized from what direction they came.
“Hamasa! Valerius!” Marya shouted, reining the stolen horse to a halt on the other side of the dragon. She was far enough away Hamasa couldn’t make out her expression in the night’s darkness. “Sovereign’s curse, this is a dragon,” Marya gasped. The silvery stolen horse shuffled in place restlessly, but didn’t try to run or rear back. A horse used to dragons.
“We told you to keep going,” Valerius called out, too tired and in pain to sound irritated. Or stay in the saddle.
Hamasa let out a cry, twisting and grabbing at Valerius as the bigger man slumped and slid to the side. But with cuffs and his position and his puny human strength, Valerius’ tunic slipped through his fingers and he fell with a horrible thud to the ground.
“Valerius!” He scrambled off Nerva’s back, carefully rolling Valerius over and cupping his face in warm palms. “Valerius?”
His eyes darted over Valerius’ torso and inhaled sharply. His heart stopped seeing how much the knight had bled out during the chase. It soaked through his kimono, past the waistband of his hakama to his thighs. He was so pale in the moonlight, he looked blue. Fear clawed at Hamasa’s chest as he pressed his hand to the darkest part of the stain, grimacing at the squish and resulting groan. The knight didn’t wake.
“Eternal Sun, help him,” Hamasa choked out past numb lips.
The dragon cocked their head and, with a shimmer, shrunk into a much smaller human body. Clothed with very thin layers, and barefoot. The dragon’s hair was almost as white as the scales had been, but, similar to Hamasa, the dragon had the same brown skin, mottled with patches of white, and a slender, whip-thin frame.
“Hamasa? You need to explain!” the now humanoid dragon demanded.
“Hold up, you know Hamasa?” Marya asked. She jumped off the stolen horse to hurry forward. The spear swung in a swift arc to stop and horizontally cross in front of the dragon’s chest. The dragon looked down at the staff, and slowly the dragon’s gaze travelled up to the hand, and then the girl that held it. Inhumanely glowing blue eyes met hers. She gulped and her arm shook. “Don’t you try and steal him, too. We got enough problems, dragon.”
Hamasa tore off Valerius’ kimono to bare his chest, not caring enough to listen to them. He gagged, the back of his wrist pressing to his mouth, at the sheer amount of blood and the grotesque hole in Valerius’ side. There was so much blood he could taste it. It coated the back of his throat and tongue; a sickening mimicry of honey.
“You’re either very brave, or very stupid,” the dragon said dryly. “I’m not going to steal Hamasa. I have no need of that. He’s my lifemate.”
“Lifemate?” Marya repeated dumbly.
The dragon rolled gleaming blue eyes, the pupils slitted like a cat’s, and an inner, translucent eyelid blinked vertically. Marya yelped and stumbled back. The dragon walked around Marya to where Hamasa pressed blood-soaked cloth to the wound, sniffling. As the chill wrapped around him, Hamasa glanced up, eyes wild and desperate.
“Help him, prease.”
The dragon sighed and touched Hamasa’s face. This close, Hamasa could see the patches of white were very faintly scaled—not quite human skin. Like Hamasa, his features were masculine.
“This is what happens when you play with humans, Hamasa. I told you that twenty years go.”
“Arash, please,” Hamasa whispered. Arash sighed again.
“You’re much better at this. Fire heals better than ice.” Hamasa stared mutely, lips pressed into a thin line, and Arash held up both hands. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t.”
Hamasa backed away, dropping the ruined clothing and kneeling with his bloody hands clutching Valerius’ uselessly. Arash’s nose wrinkled in distaste, but he lifted a hand and grew a single, long, silver claw from his finger. He traced a few lines of curling letters from right to left into the mess of blood on Valerius’ torso. The words flashed bright white and then sank into his skin. Hamasa licked his lips, but all he tasted was salt and snot and blood.
Arash tilted his head. Narrowed his eyes. Then, he leaned down and blew over the wound. Ice frosted over the torn flesh, crusting and solidifying like a scab.
“The tissue and muscle inside the wound has knitted together, but my spells can only do so much. I focused on the worst of it. He needs human care or a more suitable mage—” he side-eyed the teary Hamasa “—very soon. That ice bandage will prevent his flesh from re-healing if left too long.”
“I’m…” Hamasa lifted his arms to show the cuffs.
Arash’s eyes flared so brightly blue, it left sparks in Hamasa’s eyes when he blinked. “How did you allow this? Did those filthy mortals I chased off do this? I’ll tear them apart!” Arash snarled, already half on his feet, his nostrils flaring and tongue flicking over his lips.
“Just help m-me get them off and we can go to the nearest town. Valerius needs help.”
Arash growled savagely, eyes still burning, but nodded nonetheless. “You’ll have a lot of explaining to do, qal’bi.”
Hamasa flamed bright red and held up his cuffed hands. Arash rolled his eyes. He leaned down, eyes flicking up to meet Hamasa’s, and breathed over the bespelled iron. Frosty air swirled over the cuffs. They glowed a rosy pink under the sheen of ice, then shattered like struck glass.
“Now that’s done, what in the world is going on?” Marya yelled, hands thrown up in the air.