Chapter 12
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KATALENA
Scraping woke me.
I startled, bolting straight up in the cell’s bed. Somehow I fell asleep, though I didn’t remember doing so. A woman stood in my cell. Or rather, she held the plate of food I hadn’t eaten and my discarded blade and was swiftly retreating.
She looked… afraid.
“Wait, please.”
The woman did not.
“You must forgive Fora. She has not mastered the art of speech in her human form.”
In the shadows of the hallway, another woman stood. She might have been a member of my father’s court the way she dressed. Her golden hair was perfectly styled, and she might have been my mother’s age had she lived. Golden hair. Shining, not like a human. Beautiful, and entirely out of place in this place of bare rock.
“Who are you?”
She smiled. “I am Erryn. I have come to take you to bathe and provide you with clothes that are not torn, if that is something you wish.”
“So they are not going to kill me?”
A softer smile. “I could not say. But while you live, we do not hold that prisoners must live in discomfort.”
After being flown across the continent, I was in desperate need of a bath. “I would like that, thank you.”
With my legs still beneath the blankets, Varí crawled and slid beneath my skirt so he could cling to and accompany me. I didn’t think my shift would conceal him nearly as well as the wedding dress, but I wasn’t going to leave him behind in case it was not this cell I returned to.
When he clung to my undergarments once more, I stood. He was small enough that the shift concealed him. Mostly. If Erryn noticed him, she said nothing.
She didn’t wait, striding down the tall, broad hallway I’d been flown through. Was I allowed to see this?
I guess it didn’t matter. If they decided to kill me, I could tell no one. And now Endre knew that if I survived, even if I lived among humans, I would not divulge their secrets.
We crossed the great open space of the hollowed peak, the break at the top letting pale sunshine slide down through the air in nearly physical form. I’d never seen anything so large, nor experienced anything which made me feel so small.
One set of massive wooden double doors opened to admit us, and the entire world changed.
Where we stood was still carved from stone, but it was warm. Well-lit, with natural light from carved windows. Carpets ran along the floors, and there was art. Carvings. Bookshelves and couches and… I blinked.
It was like a palace. The great large hallway before me couldn’t contain a full size dragon, but it didn’t need to. It broke off into rooms, and humans—or dragons in human form—moved in and out.
“What is this place?”
“This is Skalisméra.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
I heard the smile in her voice as she kept leading me. “Then we have done our job well.”
This place sprawled. Even in these brief moments, I saw passages and stairs leading elsewhere. How many lived here? How long had a city been inside a mountain without anyone knowing?
Likely centuries.
Did Grandmother know?
I wasn’t sure if I wished she knew about their changing forms and mountain cities, or if I was happy she did not. Such knowledge might have taken her from me sooner. She was not as careful as she should have been, and though I believed her death to be natural, there were times when I worried I might wake to find her gone. Wiped out like the rest of dragon knowledge.
It didn’t take long to enter a chamber that was warm and damp, with a large pool steaming in the middle of it. “Clothes have been laid out for you there.” Erryn pointed to a chair in the corner. You may use whatever you like and take as long as you like. I shall be waiting in the next room.”
“Thank you.”
The tiled floors were wet beneath my bare feet as I walked around to the chair with the clothes. We didn’t have baths like these in Rensara. The tub the footmen filled and Helena had to continue heating was what I was used to. This? I already longed to submerge myself in the heat.
“I don’t want to drown you,” I said quietly, letting Varí out. He perched on the chair. “Before I completely undress, I need you to tell me if you have a human form.”
Varístared at me and released a puff of smoke. If he had a human form, the expression he was giving me now would be one of sarcastic expectance. Like I should already know the answer.
“Fair enough.” I reached out. “Let me take off your pouch so it doesn’t get wet.”
He held still long enough for me to untie the ribbons and set the pouch on the new and dry set of clothes. That he didn’t even question I would keep his coin safe, immediately jumping down onto the tiles, made me smile.
I shed the rest of my clothes, putting my necklace and blade harness with them. The girl, Fora, had taken it, but I hoped I could retrieve it or replace it. If they decided to let me live, it was better for me to be armed.
The water was hot. Not so hot I couldn’t submerge my body, but I didn’t think I’d ever had a bath so warm. Of course not, since the hot water needed to be carried away from its heat source. Steam floated on the surface of the water here, so there must be some way it was heated close by.
A laugh burst out of me at the mental image of another Varí blowing flames beneath the pool. However it was done, I wondered if the humans had attacked the dragons for things like this. People would do a lot for comfort and luxury.
Varí splashed in the shallow puddles along the edge of the pool, watching the way the splashes fell before leaping and landing over and over again to make the splashes bigger. I smiled, his joy feeding my own. This felt incredible, easing the tension locked in my muscles from the flight and any lingering tension because of the wedding.
Right. Because of the wedding and not because I dared a dragon to take me in the most carnal way possible so I wouldn’t have to go back to that same wedding.
A flush that had nothing to do with the heat of the bath crept up my neck. He hadn’t said yes, and yet had practically said he didn’t have the honor to refuse. Which meant he didn’t want to refuse.
I should not have been remotely disappointed by that, and yet it nibbled at the edges of my mind.
What would it be like? To be wanted by someone. Not just for who I was to the world or what marriage to me could bring them, but for me. The way Taia and Baris wanted each other. My time spent in their shop showed me the depth of love and respect they had for one another, and I’d never seen the equivalent.
Maybe it simply didn’t exist.
Or was so rare that no one could reasonably find it?
Pushing aside musings that didn’t matter, I investigated the collection of soaps and potions near the edge of the pool. I didn’t recognize their scents, all of them exotic and delicious. The one I chose smelled like some kind of flower mixed with mountain air.
My hands and feet were already changing texture from being in the water too long. It hadn’t seemed that way, but the water felt so good… I had no sense of time here.
A splash made me whirl, and Varí, now a bright turquoise color, popped up from beneath the surface of the water and paddled around with ease.
“So you can swim, breathe fire, and fly?” I asked as he swam around me in a circle. “That doesn’t seem fair.”
A puff of flame directly upward was his only answer.
I washed my hair and body, reveling in the feeling of deep clean that could only come from a bath like this. Even knowing I shouldn’t get used to it, I loved it.
Varí climbed onto my shoulder, little claws digging into my skin. He pressed his head into my jaw, and I scratched the top of his head. “Don’t get too comfy. We still have to hide you for a bit.”
He chirped low, like he disagreed. But I knew better than to trust anyone yet. I didn’t care that he was also a dragon. Who knew what they thought of small ones? Or ones that didn’t have a human form.
I used the towels to dry myself before slipping into the clothes they’d left. Simple and functional, they were deep gray. The skirt was full enough to hide Varí, and I didn’t leave the bathing room until he was settled under my skirt again, riding the harness on my thigh.
Quickly, I braided my damp hair so it was out of the way, and I knocked on the door Erryn had disappeared through.
“Finished?” She appeared to have been reading something.
“Yes, thank you.”
“Good. I’ll take you to your room, then.”
I startled. “My room?”
She was already moving, so I followed her. I was hopelessly lost in this place, but I knew we didn’t return the way we’d come. “Yes. Later you’ll meet with our leaders and they’ll speak to you about what’s to be done. In the meantime, like I said before, prisoners in Skalisméra are treated with the same respect they are offered. It has been determined you are not a danger to anyone here, nor are you likely to flee, so you will be given a room.
“Your movements will be restricted and monitored, but I hope you will be more comfortable.”
“Thank you.” My thanks were entirely earnest. Prisoners in Rensara weren’t treated like this. I’d never officially been to the dungeons in the palace, but I went there once accidentally when exploring the tunnels to get outside the walls. They would make the cell I’d spent the night in seem like a palace by comparison.
We went down several flights of a large, curving staircase that seemed like it might be the central area. Others passed us, not bothering to hide their stares. I tried not to stare back.
Erryn finally stopped in front of a plain wooden door down a hallway filled with similar doors, spaced widely apart. She pushed it open, and as soon as we entered, I couldn’t hold back the question pressing behind my lips. “You’re a dragon too?”
She turned and looked at me, the expression so similar to Varí’s when I’d asked him if he had a human form that I almost laughed.
“I’m sorry if I’m not allowed to ask.”
Erryn smiled then. “Yes, I am a dragon.”
“Everyone?”
She inclined her head. “You are the only human in residence at Skalisméra. There are occasionally others, but surely you understand why it is rare.”
“Of course.” I swallowed. “All of this is…”
A true smile. “Every human I have met has said the same. Food will be brought for you shortly, and I will escort you to your meeting when it is time.”
“Thank you.”
There was a very clear sound of the door locking. I touched it anyway, a zing of power climbing up my arm. So it wasn’t just locked, it was enchanted. What magic did the dragons still have? If they could heat pools of water merely for bathing, they no doubt had much more at their disposal. But dragons had magic in their bones in ways that humans did not.
The room was simple but beautiful. And I ignored it completely for what I’d missed when I first entered. Windows.
I felt Varí slide down my leg as I approached, and I could do nothing but stare. These windows faced south, on the other side of the Bowl. I’d always heard talk of it, but I never thought I would see it, and every imagined thought did not compare to what was before me.
Down the thousand-foot drop, spread out into infinity, was the sea.