Sugar & Dragon Act I: Temptation (Sugar & Dragon #1)

XV Dago

The blue castle floated a chariot above the rippled sea like an unruly piece of sky wanting to get a better look at its reflection. The sun was already high, but the refreshing breeze made its rays caress the skin with pleasant warmth. Apart from the thousand shades of azure, there was nothing around but silence…

“ARE YOU FINISHED YEEEEET?” yelled the green-eyed dolphin, emerging from the water suddenly but not unexpectedly. He’d already done this fifteen times in the last fifteen minutes.

“Sweet nightmare,” Dago muttered, wiping his fingers with a tissue. In a loud voice, he added, “Can’t you just start collecting them?”

“And how am I supposed to do that without hands?” the dolphin asked with astonishing logic.

“Just like dolphins do?”

“And how should I know how they do it? Do I look like a dolphin to you?”

Dago looked up at the column, which cast a shadow on the white table where he and Galenos were eating breakfast. He took a deep breath and stood.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t do it after all?” the woman said suddenly.

He looked at her. He liked her airy cornflower blue dress but not the seriousness on her face. He felt instinctively that the incoming discussion would be less fun than he would have liked, but he asked politely, “What exactly shouldn’t we do?”

“Catch clams.”

Having realized what this was about, Dago took another deep breath. Right. Shellfish were animals and Hera Galenos was Hera Galenos. He should’ve expected that. Just…

“Why are you only telling me this now?”

She had enough decency to blush.

“I hoped that by the time we got here, I would find some information in your scrolls that would negate the need to collect koralion.”

He crossed his arms. “And? Have you found it?”

“No,” she admitted, but her eyes flared with defiance. “But I also haven’t found anything that would indicate we must have it.”

“Of course not. I remind you again that apart from transforming into a daimon, which is an ability inherited from dreamy ancestors, no magus has ever managed to cast a transmutation spell. If you want to be certain, you should ask a morpheus who could logically explain how they use magic. If you know someone like that, I’ll forget about you treating my magical reserves like free fuel and gladly move the castle to a new location to talk to them.”

Hera blushed even more but didn’t avert her eyes. “If no magus has ever cast a transmutation spell, it would mean that Master Homer has nothing to do with this case and someone else is behind it. But, as we’ve already agreed, this is our only reasonable lead and we have no choice. We have to rely on human knowledge, according to which koralion may or may not have magical properties.”

“So what, then? You won’t search for koralion until we try everything else? And what if everything fails?”

Until now, the maga had rested her hands freely on the table, but now she moved her left hand so that her fingers wrapped around the wrist of her right one. She always did this when she felt discomfort.

“Then… we ask for it?”

Dago stared at the woman, not believing his ears. Did she just suggest that he—the business magnate, future Archmagus, dragon —would ask the shellfish to kindly expel their congealed saliva?

Seeing his expression, Hera hastily added, “We will borrow or buy it from someone who has it already. Then the new shellfish wouldn’t have to open against their will.”

Dago frowned. He didn’t like her plan. His plan assumed finding as many koralion as he could and selling the excess. Did she really expect him to forgo an opportunity for profit after spending so much time preparing for this trip?

And then he heard it.

“Please.”

He went still.

The woman’s fingers around her wrist seemed to tighten their grip. Her cheeks were covered with a dark pink, and her shapely lips quivered slightly. In her eyes, the request was mixed with shame…

Dago swallowed. Koralion suddenly seemed to him like a meaningless piece of sea snot, but he couldn’t change his mind so quickly in public. Galenos was too honest to consider her current behavior a game, but he couldn’t let her even suspect that he could be manipulated. He had his pride, and even the fact that she stripped herself of hers to defend the shells couldn’t make him disown it.

If he gave in to a chaotic impulse, he would look like a besotted fool, even though he was neither stupid nor in love. That would be a lie… and he couldn’t say it. If Galenos deserved anything, it was honesty.

“You turn a few bags of sugar into gold and we’ll be even,” he said, adopting the most neutral tone he could muster.

As the full meaning of his words dawned on her, her eyes widened and then flashed with angry sparks. “You’ve planned it from the beginning!”

This accusation puzzled him, but he kept quiet just in case, hoping that a blaze of words would spark after the outburst of emotions…

“You knew I would be reluctant to catch clams and you planned to use that to your advantage!”

That wasn’t true, which Dago genuinely regretted— why didn’t he think of that? —but this time he decided not to overdo honesty. No one would suffer if Galenos thought he was a brilliant strategist… which he was. A tiny befuddlement didn’t detract from his value.

It was truly unfortunate that reputation was everything in business.

“You guessed that I might want to persuade you to produce gold, and you agreed to this trip anyway,” he remarked. “If you want to get angry at someone, look in the mirror… or take a sea bath to cool down your emotions.”

To encourage her to do the latter, he walked to the edge of the island, took off his tunic, and jumped into the water, from which he soon emerged as a white dragon.

“We’ll be gone for some time,” he said, noting with satisfaction that her anger had turned back to embarrassment. “Apart from Dorian, I’ve never entrusted anyone with the care of the castle, so I hope you will appreciate this gesture and will not abuse my trust. If you get tired of sunbathing, you can go sightseeing, but please do not enter the room opposite the library.”

He swung his tail and splashed her, enjoying her squeal and the sight of her cornflower blue dress, which was now completely soaked and clinging to her appetizing curves.

“Have fun, sweetpearl,” he added because he couldn’t stop himself. He dove, feeling a new energy spreading through him.

It was playtime.

For the next three hours, Dago did what the technical limitations of his private pool didn’t allow—he indulged his daimon’s instincts. He chased fish with Dorian. He chased Dorian. He was chased by Dorian. He floated lazily. He explored the colorful corners of the reef. He chased a shark. He floated lazily again. He rescued Dorian from a shark. They chased fish again…

When they both blew off steam, he sent the imp to spy on Hera.

“The seal is unbroken,” a gray pigeon informed him, landing on his tail.

This news gave him a peculiar pleasure. Until now, he wasn’t sure whether Galenos would be able to curb her boundless curiosity and refrain from entering his bedroom. He thought that she would use the opportunity to find out something about her rival… and future husband, who would have the full right to take revenge in the event of her wrongdoing. But not only had she not broken his trust, she’d also decided to trust him herself, allowing herself to see only what he showed her. That was… stimulating.

“Go play somewhere for an hour more,” he said to the imp. “And don’t spy on us.”

The pigeon cocked his head, watching him curiously with his poisonously green eyes. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want you to have nightmares.”