Chapter 33
Yalina
“No one touches her!” Jah’ruud’s shout echoes off the dam wall and rings out around the valley, and the wind howls to life, stirring whirlwinds of dust around our feet.
“A wind spirit! An ancient one!”
“Prepare to defend the dam.”
All the guards drop into a fighting stance, wings spread, claws ready.
“Wait!” I step forward, holding up my hands. “I did not come here for violence. I have nothing to hide. I am within my rights to be here. This is Vathiran territory.”
“This is Vathiran trickery,” mutters one guard.
“She’s likely a spy.”
“Where are the others?” The guards twist and turn, but Jah’ruud and Kaelun have vanished.
There’s a roar from the lead guard. Just then a blast of wind sweeps me off my feet. Aurelion catches me, hunching forward and tucking his wings in tight to his body. He pulls me close and shelters me as sand whips through the air and guards are blown away with an outraged shout.
The lead guard and one of his younger-looking followers hunker down as we are, withstanding the wind. I hope Jah’ruud knows what he is doing here. We are perilously close to the edge of the precipice.
There’s another shout, and the second dragon goes tumbling out over the valley. I turn away, horrified to look. Just as I do, a force like a rough boulder tears me from Aurelion’s grasp and flattens me on the ground, knocking all the air from my lungs.
There’s a ferocious growl, and the next moment sharp teeth close around the back of my neck.
I know instinctively these are not Aurelion’s teeth.
The breath on my neck is foul, stinking of garlic and pungent herbs.
I shiver as they close tighter, pricking the skin.
The venom in his bite could kill me. I remember what Aurelion said.
“Harm her and I’ll kill you myself.” Aurelion’s voice is cold and steady.
I close my eyes and pray he has this situation under control.
There’s a hiss from the guard who is pinning me to the ground and a growl from my dragon prince.
Rough rope is tied around my wrists, and finally he removes his teeth from my neck.
I can breathe again.
I’m pulled to my feet. Held close to the burly guard. “You’ll both come with me until I know exactly what is going on here. I do not like any of this.” He drags me forward, and Aurelion follows warily.
“Where are the others?” he says.
I do not answer.
Aurelion narrows his eyes. “I do not know. Perhaps they are killing your soldiers even now.”
Another cry from the valley below seems to confirm this.
If anything, this makes the guard more skittish. His hold on me tightens until tears spring to my eyes.
Hauling me unceremoniously over his shoulder, he spreads his wings and leaps over the precipice.
My heart is in my mouth, but for now the air is still and we drift toward the ground and a camp set up in a clearing where the scrub and dry bush of the desert has been cleared to make a site for an outpost. There is a post fixed into the sand, and the guard ties me to it.
He glares at Aurelion, who is watching him like a viper waiting for an opportunity to strike. “How do I know you can be trusted?”
“I would not trust me if I were you,” he sneers. “I am your death. You sealed your fate when you put your teeth on my mate.”
The guard sniffs. “Needs must.”
“Fight me if you have the courage.”
My heart clenches, but the guard only inches closer to me. “Perhaps I should just kill her now, then.”
“Do not touch her!” Aurelion leaps forward, but the guard is too quick, snapping at me with a vicious movement.
I suck in a breath, but his teeth close around nothing.
Aurelion freezes. His expression is tortured.
The guard pulls another length of rope from his belt. “As far as I’m concerned, you’ve turned traitor and can’t be trusted. Give me your hands.”
At that moment at least twenty more dark shapes fly overhead, and the guard grins. “Give up now. Your friends are about to be annihilated.”
I press my lips together so as not to cry out. Surely not.
Aurelion circles the clearing, wings held out from his body, eyes on the other dragon.
Our guard is growing anxious. He keeps glancing back toward us then off into the darkness. More shouting and a burst of flame. A roar.
I hope Jah’ruud and Kaelun are not hurt.
Suddenly a quiet, familiar voice whispers in my ear. “Do not be frightened. Step back when I give you the signal.”
I look around but see nothing. Only blackness. Perhaps it is my imagination, but the shadows seem to have grown deeper still, creeping up to curl around my ankles where I stand.
“Kaelun?” I whisper.
A brush of his hand on my neck makes me shiver.
Aurelion makes a dart for the guard who has stepped away from the place I am bound.
“Come with me,” whispers Kaelun from the darkness.
“Don’t leave Aurelion here,” I hiss.
There’s no reply. I wish I could talk to him—ask what his plan is. A moment later Aurelion growls.
The guard hisses and takes a swipe at him.
There’s a snap, and my arms are free. Kaelun grabs my hand.
Then a howl of wind tears through the quiet and all the air is sucked from the campsite, dragging at us like a swollen, flooded river drags at your legs if you step too deep.
With a little scream I stretch forward, grabbing hold of Aurelion’s wing—the only part of him I can reach, even as Kaelun tugs on my hand.
The strength of the wind increases. Sand stings the exposed skin on my arms and shins.
Branches and scrub are tossed into the air, and even the pebbles on the ground skate forward from the force of it. I shut my eyes tight.
The next moment we have stepped from one place to another in the pitch black, unable to see to orient ourselves.
I gasp, staring around blindly, clinging tight to Kaelun and Aurelion.
Aurelion growls and breathes out a lick of flame, briefly illuminating the rocky walls of a cave, Kaelun’s face, and the sandy floor.
The flame dies.
“Where are we?” I whisper.
“Where is the nightborn liar?” growls Aurelion.
“That’s nightborn rescuer to you, dragon.” Kaelun steps forward, and it’s as if he’s stepping through a door. One moment he is not there, the next he is standing in front of us.
He holds out a large piece of wood. “Here. Make yourself useful.”
Aurelion growls but breathes flame onto the stick until it catches alight.
“I figure we wait here until Jah’ruud is finished showing off, and then we make our escape,” says Kaelun, placing the stick gently against the wall of the cave.
“Escape to where?” Aurelion is clearly suspicious.
I have to admit, just fleeing from this seems like a bad idea.
The guards will report back to King Tharael and he will retaliate.
Even if Jah’ruud destroys them all—something I’d rather not contemplate—there will be retaliation if Tarquenor discovers who is responsible.
Given the situation, Vathira is the most likely suspect. ”
“Would you prefer I tied you up and left you to the mercy of your friend back there?” Kaelun scoffs. “I figure the first step is to release the water in the dam and maybe even smash the wall somehow. Then we make it back to Vathira before more dragons come.”
“We cannot destroy the dam!” Aurelion snaps.
“Whose side are you on anyway?” asks Kaelun. “Oh, right. The other side. Yalina, give up on him. He is clearly our enemy.”
“There does not need to be sides. Aurelion is right. If we destroy the dam, we risk starting a war.”
“You think they haven’t already by building it there?” Kaelun says, astonished.
I chew my lip. “To go to war is not a simple choice. Many will die. If there is another choice, we should consider it.” I turn to Aurelion. “What do you say? Would your brother listen to reason?”
He sighs, scrubbing a hand over his face. “I wish I could say with certainty that he would, but…”
At that moment the wind outside the cave picks up to a howl and the torch gutters. Jah’ruud sweeps in, pausing abruptly as we all look at each other. Then his brow knots into a frown. “You brought the dragon.”
It is not a question, but I know he wants to ask me why.
Aurelion bristles.
Kaelun folds his arms across his chest. “She did. Gods only know why.” He turns to me. “We came on this journey because you said you needed answers, Yalina. Well now I think we have them. Surely you cannot marry him now.”
They all turn to me, Kaelun’s expression skeptical, Aurelion’s distraught, and Jah’ruud’s unreadable.
“I—” My palms sweat and my hands shake as I lift my heavy hair from the back of my neck while I try to find the words. But they won’t come. I do not have an answer now any more than I did every other time I tried to find one for this question. “I—”
“She does not wish to choose,” says Jah’ruud eventually.
The air comes out of me in a burst as all the tension I was holding in escapes. He has said it exactly. And that is my problem.
“...and she should not have to,” he finishes, looking around at the others.
I blink. “I should not?”
“How would that work?” asks Kaelun.
“You’re asking me to share?” Aurelion says at the same time.
Suddenly a certainty wells up inside me, firm and strong and absolutely unshakable.
I stand straighter. I look at each one of them in turn—Kaelun with his quick and clever eyes and inhuman grace; Jah’ruud with his power and his poise; and Aurelion, all fire and arrogance though beneath the surface there’s something small and vulnerable.
“Yes. I am. I will not give them up. Do not ask it of me. You say you will die if I am not your mate, then have me, but have them too.”
It has never been done before, but why should I not?
Perhaps Kaelun is right. There must be some advantage to being solhara after all.
My people want me to choose a husband who will be a powerful leader to our people and bring a strong political alliance.
Well, I’ve chosen three. I only hope they choose me back.
I look around the circle of astonished faces. Jah’ruud is the first to recover. “You know my choice,” he says immediately.
I smile at him gratefully. Thank the gods for him always knowing my heart and how to help me find the words to ask for what I want.
“And mine too,” says Kaelun quickly. “Even if it ties us to this jerk.”
My heart skips a beat, and I smile at him as well. Though I wish he would not antagonize Aurelion so.
We all turn to Aurelion. His wings flit out and in and he lets out a long sigh. “My choice can only ever be you, rhkash. I do not like it, but you force my hand. I suppose that is only fair since it is what I would have done in order to keep you.”
I squash down the guilt trying to creep into my heart. Why should I not insist on what I want for once? And if they do not like it, they are each free to make a different choice, to pay the price.