Chapter 23
23
Mekos knew that Sojee was right—not about the dull, boring way his father was courting Kaley. That was pathetic! Mekos had seen the way his father looked at her when she was turned away. It was embarrassing!
What Sojee was right about was that Mekos shouldn’t be upset at not being allowed to swim to the cave to get the feathers. Those boys went because they had no other use. All day, Mekos had been questioned by Daln and the other men about the processing.
Actually, the way the men looked at him with such hope was heartbreaking. His father’s dream of restoring the old homestead was what they wanted. To go back to their village, to have their wives and children and grandchildren near them. It was what gave them a reason to continue.
Mekos knew that dream was why his father was involved in the secrecy of trying to unite men to overthrow the Yuzans. They all wanted to put their country back together.
What his father didn’t know was that Mekos had been working toward the same goal. In his case, it was good that parents often had no idea what their children were doing. Today, when Sojee started talking about the Pithan Reaver, Mekos had nearly collapsed. But he’d managed to stay calm—until Kaley came up with one of her stories about the Reaver being female. Who the hell was that? He took off running. He needed to contact Lorcan to find out what was going on.
Lorcan said yes, there had been two raids by the Reaver.
“Who is it?” Mekos demanded.
“Not me,” Lorcan said. “I wouldn’t fit in the costume.”
Mekos rolled his eyes. Swan humor. “Find out what you can.”
“Yes, sir!”
Lorcan was twice Mekos’s age, twice his size. “I’ll be back when I can. Papá is still searching for Nessa. I don’t know if he’ll ever be found.” He pressed the chip in his arm and the screen disappeared.
Mekos knew the compound well and there was a door hidden behind an overgrowth of vines. It was narrow and short, too small for an adult, but thanks to his mother’s genetics, Mekos could easily slide through it. A memory of his big, solid father trying to catch his son when he was a child made Mekos smile. As a toddler, he could slide through windows that were barely open.
Because he was so lost in his memories, he wasn’t at first aware of the distant sounds and smells. He stepped behind a tree, put his hair back and exposed his ears. He was hearing something unusual, and smelling it.
It took him only seconds to remember what it was. Perus. The beautiful dragon that had bonded with Nessa was nearby.
Mekos left the tree and put his head back. Yes, he could also smell Nessa. His stench was as vile as his character. Mekos started to turn back. He’d tell the others that Nessa was near. Maybe that prince who’d lusted after Kaley had sent him. Maybe Nessa was under guard.
But no, Mekos smelled no other people.
Silently, he went across the grass and leaves in the way his mother had taught him. His toes barely touched the ground.
The dragon, so large and beautiful, saw Mekos but gave no alarm. It was as though he didn’t care who approached his master.
Nessa was seated against a tree and sound asleep.
Mekos stepped on a few twigs. They broke loudly, but Nessa didn’t stir.
Perus, head on his forearms, gave a look of Can you believe that?
Mekos kicked some rocks together.
Nessa woke, fumbled for a weapon and said, “Who goes there?”
“It’s just me,” Mekos said.
“Oh.” Nessa leaned back. He looked exhausted.
“Tough night?” Mekos asked. Cautiously, he approached Perus. The dragon lowered its head a bit, giving permission, and Mekos stroked the soft skin of his neck.
“He won’t let me do that,” Nessa said sulkily as he got up and yawned. He was wearing a long black velvet robe that had a border of gold embroidery. Jewels twinkled among the gold. When he saw Mekos’s eyes widen, Nessa gave a smug smile and looked Mekos up and down. “Been cleaning the stables?”
“Feathers,” Mekos said.
“Same difference. I’m glad I wasn’t born into the Order of Swans. Royalty suits me better.” When a hawk flew over and gave a screech, Nessa clung to Perus, looking like he was ready to fly away.
“If you’re afraid of being here alone,” Mekos said, “my father can take you to safety.”
Nessa gave him a look of disgust. “He wants to take me back to my father. Everyone wants me. I can’t escape. They pursue me endlessly.”
Mekos stopped stroking. “Who is after you?”
“Them!” He pointed to the sky.
Mekos didn’t hear or smell anyone. “Your father wants to find you. He—”
“Not him!” Nessa said. “Them! The Yuzans! They’re after me. They want to take me to that evil place.”
“To Empyrea?”
“Yes! The Yuzans are monsters. They want me to teach them things.”
“Teach them what?” Mekos asked. As boys, they’d spent a lot of time together. To his knowledge, there wasn’t anything Nessa had a talent for or that he’d bothered to learn.
“You have never understood. I’m royalty. I inherited the power of my grandfather.”
Mekos didn’t say, The man’s brutality? The greed that made him kill to get what he wanted? “Tell me what’s going on,” he said kindly.
“Perus can stay in the air only so long and wherever we come down, they’re there. Watching. Waiting for me.”
“They know where you are from your chip.”
“I disabled it.” He held out his arm to show a bracelet with orange stones.
Mekos knew the stones could be found in streams on Pithan—and they were worthless. They certainly had no power to disable the chips the Yuzans had inserted into every child at birth. Wonder how much he paid for that. Mekos was trying to think of a reply when he heard a sound he’d never heard before. He looked up. It was late and beginning to grow dark. Whatever was making the noise wasn’t yet visible. His ears twitched.
“It’s them!” Nessa fell to the ground and got under the protection of Perus’s heavy legs. The dragon showed no interest.
Mekos kept looking up. Two huge animals with riders flew into view. He’d never seen the creatures before. They had the head and wings of an eagle and the body of something like a deer, but with short, thick legs. The men were muscular and heavy, their faces deeply scarred. It was well-known that the winners of the cutting games were rewarded by being taken to Empyrea—and never seen again.
The men hovered above, looking down at them for minutes. Their eyesight wasn’t as good as Mekos’s and they struggled in the dim light. Finally, they reined their animals away and flew out of sight.
“See what I mean?” Nessa said. “They’ve been after me for days.”
As Mekos looked at Nessa cowering in fear, he began to form a plan. His father wanted to take Nessa back to the king, but it was impossible to catch him on a dragon. If Mekos could separate Nessa from Perus, he could be captured. Right now, pleasing and impressing his father was all Mekos thought of.
He gave a longing look at Nessa’s bejeweled coat. “When they first saw me, they thought I was you. Even my father couldn’t tell me from you.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Nessa said. He took Perus’s reins. “I must get out of here.”
“They’ll follow you. Can you send Perus alone to lead them away?”
Nessa looked at him as though he was stupid. “They want me , not a dragon. They know he can set them on fire—but not with me on him. I could be injured.”
Mekos sighed. “Maybe you could make a straw man and they’d follow that. A decoy. If it wore your gown, you’d fool them.”
“They could tell straw from me ,” Nessa said. “And only I know how to control him. I—” He broke off as he finally got the idea that Mekos was trying to send to him. “You.”
“Me, what?” Mekos asked, his eyes wide.
“You can lead them away, get close to them, then let Perus char them. When they’re dead, you can return for me.”
“Kill them?” Mekos said weakly. “I’m not sure I could—”
“Don’t be a coward.” Nessa was removing his robe. “Just keep your face hidden and they’ll think you’re me.”
“How do I control him?” Mekos had to work to keep the excitement out of his voice and replace it with what he hoped sounded like fear.
Nessa gave a whistle of four notes and Perus tiredly looked at him. “That calls him to you. Can you remember that?”
Mekos perfectly imitated the sound. Nessa whistled six more commands and Mekos repeated them. Compared to the exercises his music master used to give him, they were easy.
Annoyed at how easily Mekos learned the notes, Nessa said, “Keep working at it and you’ll get it.” He held out his robe. “Be careful of that. It wasn’t made for the likes of you.”
“I’ll try.” Mekos mounted Perus. He had to control his face at the jubilation that ran through him.
Nessa looked up at him. “Keep a firm grip. He doesn’t like to obey. Lead those men away then—”
Perus lifted in a swoosh of air. It seemed that the dragon wanted to get away from Nessa as much as Mekos did.
As soon as they were in the air, they went out of sight of Nessa on the ground. Perus seemed to feel Mekos’s happiness and he went fast, then slow. He rolled over. For all that Mekos was part fox, he was also half swansman. Perus’s flying antics suited him well. The stars sparkled in the dark sky and Mekos wanted to try to touch one.
He never wanted to stop, but he had a job to do. “We must find my father and tell him where Nessa is,” he said, and Perus straightened. Mekos ran his hand over the scales of Perus’s neck. “You don’t need stupid whistles, do you?” The prince would be easy to find when he had no dragon to whisk him away. “This should put those boys in place,” he said, and Perus gave a shiver of what seemed to be agreement.
In the next second, the big, scarred men on the strange flying animals appeared. “Starken-el!” Mekos muttered. He should have gone straight to his father instead of tumbling around in the air.
“We can outrun them,” he told Perus, but he doubted if they could. The head and wings of that creature were an eagle. They were fast and relentless in a pursuit. As beautiful as the dragon was, he wasn’t made for speed.
“Arit!” Mekos yelled. “Arit!” He was riding so fast he wasn’t sure if the light he was seeing was the little woman. She wouldn’t like being near Perus. Such animals tended to eat Nevers. “Tell Papá!” he shouted, and the light went away.
The strange creatures were gaining on them and Mekos knew he was going to have to reveal himself. They wanted a prince, not a worthless Lely. If they caught him, he didn’t think they’d be happy about being tricked.
He stood up, his feet in the stirrups, and raised his arms. “I am Mekos,” he called out.
To his shock, the men went faster. One held a big net and he unfurled it and tossed one handle to the other man. In the next second, they were flanking the dragon, with the extended net aimed at Mekos. “Not me!” he called out, looking at the men.
But their eyes were cold and determined. The net went over Mekos and he was pulled from the dragon, entangled in the ropes. Within seconds, he was drowsy. He knew there was some drug embedded in the fibers.
He quit struggling and looked up. Yes, the heads of the two creatures were eagles. Birds. He spoke to them in the language only the Order of Swans knew. “Take me down.”
Immediately, the creatures started down. The men fought them but centuries of the language of birds overrode them.
Before they got to the ground, Mekos was in a deep, drugged sleep.
When he woke up, it was early dawn and he was in a shallow cave. It took him a moment to be able to look around. He was still wearing Nessa’s jeweled robe, but there was no sign of Perus. There was a fire smoldering near him, and he could tell that the smoke had something in it. When he heard the two men approaching, he closed his eyes, instinctively knowing not to let them see he was awake. One of them threw more branches on the fire. As the smoke thickened, the men held cloths over their faces.
“You’re sure that’s him?”
“Yeah. I’ve seen him before.” He gave a snort. “I thought they were wrong when they said he’d show up with that nasty little prince. At least we got him.”
The first man kicked the fire to make more smoke. “But because of him, now we have to walk up. I hope he gives out. I want to drag him.”
“I hope his father and that big guy show up. I’d like to take them on.”
Chuckling, they went outside.
Mekos opened his eyes. They wanted him, not Nessa. But why? He wasn’t important. Or was this about luring his father to them?
The smoke had filled the cave and Mekos couldn’t keep his eyes open. All he knew for sure was that he was really and truly deeply afraid.