Tempest (5 page)

“Damned rebels!” the man roared.

Kye smirked, saluting him with his sword before his blade met the soldier’s.

“Feels awful, doesn’t it?” Kye asked. He was face to face with the soldier now, their swords crossed between them. “Being killed outright for no reason,” Kye added, one hand slipping down just long enough to grab a dagger he kept sheathed beneath his cloak. The soldier didn’t see it until it was too late. Kye dropped his sword, surprising the soldier into stumbling straight into the dagger.

Another soldier crept up behind Kye as the dagger-ensconced man’s eyes widened, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Brennus stepped free of the trees, his sword above his head, and I swallowed against the nausea as he plunged his weapon into the back of the creeping soldier. We’d evened the odds.

Maeve appeared below me, her hand covered in blood, a cowering soldier pleading for his life beneath her. I dropped from the tree, my hand going to her wrist just as she lowered her sword.

Maeve’s astonished gaze met mine.

“Stop,” I said.

I looked down at the soldier. He was young. Seventeen at most, and I nodded at the trees.

“Go!” I told him.

He crab-walked backward on his hands before shooting off into the trees, his face full of terror. Lochlen was emerging from the woods, and he stopped as Maeve jerked her wrist from my grasp.

“What was that?” Maeve hissed.

My jaw tightened. “That was me showing mercy. Killing is one thing. Murder is another. He had surrendered.”

There was clashing metal behind us followed by more retreating men.

“Only three stand,” Daegan announced. “Should we chase them?”

There was momentary silence as Maeve and I faced off.

Kye’s voice broke the tension. “No,” he said. “Let them go.”

“They could pose a threat to us now,” Maeve argued, her eyes still on mine.

I exhaled. I liked Maeve. She was one of the few people I counted as a true friend. I let her see that in my gaze.

“We have the advantage. We know the forest, and the forest knows us. We just proved it. Those soldiers ran in terror. By the time they do regroup, we’ll already be in the Ardus. And if they run to the capital, then the stories they tell only martyrs our cause more. We look better having shown mercy. No one wants another king like Raemon,” I said softly.

A hand clamped over my shoulder.

“She’s right, Maeve,” Kye said. “We’ve been fighting this war too long. Death comes too easy to us. Drastona is right.”

Maeve’s gaze moved between the prince and I. Her arms lowered, and she re-sheathed her sword.

“We should go then,” she said, “and quickly.”

I closed my eyes as she moved past me, her jaw tight.

Kye’s hand tightened, and his mouth was suddenly near my ear. “She’s still in that cold place we go when we kill, Stone. We’ve all had to create one.”

Reality crashed down on me. There were bodies at our feet along with the rank smell of metallic blood and human filth. I gagged, and then in front of every rebel present, I leaned over and vomited, emptying the contents of my stomach onto the ground. Both of Kye’s hands went to my shoulders, and I grew rigid beneath his touch.

“It happens to us all,” Kye whispered.

Daegan snorted. “Aye. I threw up like a green fool after my first three skirmishes, I did.”

My cheeks burned, but I rose, breathing as shallowly as possible.

Kye straightened. “Let’s move,” he said.

The rebels re-sheathed their weapons and moved back to the campsite just long enough to grab the biggest supplies. Lochlen moved next to me, his reptilian eyes dilated.

“The desert journey begins now,” the dragon said.

Suddenly, Lochlen transformed, his body taking on the massive golden shape of the dracon. Maeve shrieked, and the other rebels froze. It was the first time anyone outside Kye and I had seen him as anything other than a strange-eyed man.

“Strap the water barrel to me,” Lochlen ordered, his voice deepened by the change.

Brennus and Daegan looked to Kye, who nodded. The two men approached Lochlen carefully, hefting the barrel onto his back and securing it tightly with a rope between the notches on his neck.

Kye gestured at the group.

“The king of dragons sends his son with us into the desert. Think about this. Our cause means enough to him to send the prince of dragons. We’ll survive the Ardus.”

“Or die trying,” Lochlen added.

We all gripped our weapons a little tighter, pulled our packs a little closer, and clung to our cloaks. Facing the east, we marched toward the Ardus.

Chapter 6

The trip east was quick, an hour at most to the border, and I spent most of it arguing with Oran. He wanted to go with us, he said. The desert is no place for a wolf, I’d reasoned. It was no place for a girl either, Oran had protested in return. I had finally used his pack against him, but he’d sworn his mate was strong enough to rule in his absence. It was, after all, why he had chosen her. In the end, Oran won the argument. Since the trees could not follow me into the sands, the wolf and Ari would represent the forest. I was not happy about it.

“Be safe,”
the trees whispered as we left the safety of their shade. I would miss their murmuring.

Heat blasted us at the border. The Ardus was as I remembered it, desolate and hot, abandoned by all except harsh creatures suited to the environment. There were shadows in the blue, cloudless sky, distant shadows that dove and flipped before flying upward again. The wyvers.

“Poison,” Brennus spat, his eyes on the dark shapes.

“Sand as harsh as glass,” Daegan added.

“A place no man should ever roam,” Maeve finished.

It was an old tale told to the children of Medeisia. It warned against the desert, warned against entering it, but children are daring. It had happened before, little ones who lived in towns not far from the Ardus sneaking into the sands. There was something fascinating about the desert, something alluring. I had often stared at it from my window at Forticry. It was bewitching, especially in winter when snow fell in Medeisia while the sun glared in the Ardus. It was unnatural. Dangerously beautiful.

“Stay close,” Kye said, his voice low.

We all stepped from grass to sand, our eyes on the sky. We knew the dangers of the desert; the heat, the risk of dehydration, and the sand storms that could pop up without notice. We’d brought a tent to huddle in together should one arise, but it was the wyvers and other creatures we knew lurked within the sands that worried us the most.

“They smell us,” Lochlen said, his draconic voice deep as he walked, his tail sliding behind him in the sand. “But they won’t approach us yet.”

Kye stared at the sky, his sword out and ready.

“How do you know?” he asked.

Lochlen’s reptilian eyes moved to the flying shadows. “Because they find us interesting, and they are curious. It isn’t often humans move into their domain. They’ll watch until hunger wins out.”

Sweat was already beginning to form along my chest and back, and I loosened the cloak while pulling its hood up over my head. It was such a change—from frigid winds to punishing heat—that my nose ran as we walked.

“’Tis an unnatural place,” Brennus panted.

His breath came fast, and I knew the change was playing havoc with his body too. He moved to pull off his cloak, but I stopped him.

“No, Brennus. The heat is suffocating, I know, but the sun will dry out your skin. You will thirst and you will burn, and we have nothing to treat infection. Remove it only at night.”

He glared at me. “You have healing powers, wench,” he groused.

Daegan pulled at his tunic. “Aye. He is right. You could heal us, no? This is too much.”

Sweat beaded up along my brow. Kye placed a hand on Brennus’ shoulder, his eyes moving from the two men, to the sky, and back again.

“The heat is going to make us all ill-tempered, but don’t let it rob you of your judgment. Stone can heal wounds, but dehydration is something entirely different.”

Both men scowled, but they kept their hoods pulled up.

We passed the sandstone outcroppings where I’d first met Lochlen before moving into open desert. There were nothing except dunes ahead, miles and miles of sand dunes. It was disheartening.

“Can we do this?” Maeve questioned next to me.

I didn’t look at her, nor did I answer. The plan to cross the Ardus had seemed so much better within the safety of the rebel camp. And then I thought of the document Raemon had forced me to sign, the document that ordered the assassination of a princess, and I inhaled sharply.

“We have to try,” I murmured.

In silence, we walked and walked, our weapons pulled and our eyes on the sky. The heat was too much for conversation. Lochlen stayed on the ground, his reptilian eyes sharp.

One step in front of the other.

I looked at the sky, my thoughts straying to the night in the forest when Captain Neill had ordered the trees burned. I’d made it rain then out of grief and anger. I glared at the sun. Could I do that again?

One step.

Rain,
I ordered.

Another step.

Rain,
I pleaded.

More steps.

Rain
, I begged.

Nothing. My head felt heavy, as if it were clogged up, and I realized the desert was fighting me. The magic that had created the Ardus could not be undone. Rain would not happen here.

“Stone,” a gentle voice inquired, and I jerked as I turned to face Kye. “Are you okay?”

I nodded.

Kye leaned close. “Your eyes,” he said softly.

“What?”

He squinted. “They’re different here,” he answered. “Lighter. Aqua instead of green.”

Kye’s observation garnered attention from the rest of the group, and Maeve drew near us as we walked, her eyes going to my face.

“Aye,” she breathed, “Kye is right.”

Brennus and Daegan mumbled words too low to be understood. Lochlen’s head swung toward me, his reptilian eyes full of something knowing, unfathomable.

“Interesting,” the dragon said before his gaze went once more to the sky, to the wyvers.

The shadows were flying lower, but they still didn’t approach us. I counted eight of them, but I knew there could be more. Could we fight them if they attacked?

Kye still stared at me. His eyes were the same, dark and very green. Why had mine changed? Because I’d tried to use magic?

“Is it so unsettling then?” I asked the prince.

Kye leaned toward me, his mouth near my ear.

“It’s beautiful,” he whispered.

I shivered despite the heat.

“There are rumors about the Sadeemian mages and light eyes,” Oran said suddenly from my feet, and I looked down at him. How he withstood the heat with his full coat was beyond me, but he seemed undisturbed by the sun.

“I don’t follow,” I said.

Oran looked up at me. “Could be, Phoenix, that your magic adapts wherever you are.”

Lochlen snorted and smoke lifted into the wavering heat. I was growing weary.

“Take your first water skin and sip often,” Kye ordered.

We all obeyed. It wasn’t until the skin was against my lips that I realized how parched I’d become. I had begun counting steps as I walked, and it had distracted me from the need to drink.

“Here,” I said, pouring some of the liquid into the skin’s lid so that Oran could drink from it.

His tongue lapped it up greedily. I placed a hand on his back, and loose fur covered my palm.

“It’s my winter coat,” the wolf explained. “It is beginning to shed.”

I stood, and we moved on.

For hours, we walked. For hours, the wyvers flew in circles above our heads. For hours, we worried and studied the sky.

It was a blessing when the sun began to lower, turning into a huge orange orb that caused wavering heat waves ahead of us. I saw things in those waves. Aigneis, even Raemon, his bearded face angry and red.

“Drink more, Stone,” Kye whispered, and I lifted the skin, swallowing before offering it to Oran.

“We’ll need to camp soon,” Kye said.

We had walked past many dunes that day, past odd desert plants and more sandstone, and we searched the landscape again as the sun dropped lower. Sunset came fast in the desert.

“There,” Maeve directed.

She pointed at a rising hunk of sandstone ahead, and we trudged toward it, sitting with multiple groans so that our backs rested against the heated rock. My feet burned.

Kye opened his pack. “Eat,” he told us.

We ate, our eyes on the lowering orange orb, on the shadows flying in front of it.

“They won’t attack now,” Lochlen repeated. “We have many days in the desert. They will wait until they think we are too weak to fight back.”

I looked at him. “I thought you said they weren’t bright creatures.”

Lochlen’s gaze met mine. “Not bright, but they are hunters. All predators are. They need not be bright to know that prey is easiest caught when weak or injured.”

“How comforting,” Maeve grumbled.

We ate in silence. Kye shared as much with the wolf as I did, but we were careful not to diminish our supplies.

It was Lochlen who finally spoke once the sun had disappeared, replaced by a beautifully vivid moon, bone white in the cloudless sky. It turned the desert sand pasty, draining it of color.

“Sleep,” the dragon said. “I will keep watch.”

Lochlen wasn’t as affected by the heat as we were. If anything, he reveled in the sun soaking into his scales, and I realized he was as suited for the desert environment as the wyvers. He just preferred the forest.

Out of fear, we didn’t pull our bedrolls out the first night. Instead, we wrapped our cloaks around us, settling our heads against the rock. It didn’t take long for sleep to come, my head sliding to Kye’s shoulder. One of his hands covered mine in the sand.