Chapter 7 #2
“I’m worried about Mercury.” He sighed. “Part of it is that I just wish I could move faster, but that’s not the reason I’m here talking with you.”
Cain tilted his head, then leaned forward and reached out to pour tea into two cups. “Would you like any lemon?”
Talon tried to be patient. Cain could really be like somebody from a kung fu movie—the endearing kung fu master who drove everyone crazy with their incomprehensible sayings and admonitions to be patient.
He was a warrior. He wasn’t used to having to wait for his answers.
Talon cleared his throat. “Please, that would be lovely.”
Cain smiled a Mona Lisa sort of smile and nodded. “So you’re worried about Mercury because someone told you that you should be?”
“No, I’m worried about him because he still seems so confused, and it seems like he should be more healed now.”
“Hmm.” Cain made the noise completely noncommittal before picking up his tea and taking a sip. “Well, who knows how long he was actually in that tower?”
“I understand that.” Talon didn’t mean to shrug that off, but he supposed he did, and Cain immediately slapped him down for it.
“Think of your brother, think how short a time relatively in a dragon’s life he was in prison and what harm that did to him.”
“I want him healed. I want him to be happy. It pains my soul that he is hurting in some way.”
Mercury had been isolated at that outpost for goodness knew how long. Out in the middle of nowhere with no entertainment, no company. “Do you know how long he was there?”
Cain nodded to him. “I have an idea, yes.”
“Do you know why he was out there?” That seemed to be a more important question really, the one that ate at Talon. Why would anyone leave someone like that?
Cain searched his gaze and sat his tea cup down.
“I was contacted by a seer of Mercury’s keep.
It’s very small, very isolated. She had been under the understanding that Mercury was gone, had run off with his lover.
She didn’t inform me that he was a sekiine, or a slider, only that he had been put in danger. ”
“What does that even mean? Please just tell me.” He stared at Cain, bristling with frustration.
“I’m not smart. I’m not fancy. I’m just a guardian, just a warrior, and I want to protect my hailee and love him.
Simple as that.” He needed to help, to support his mate, dammit.
“What was going on at that tower, Cain?”
The seer shrugged, his expressive eyes going dark and stormy, and the tea sloshed in his cup like waves on a choppy ocean.
“I don’t know exactly. I do know that the woman who contacted me honestly believed he was gone with his lover.
It wasn’t until she found the lover’s body long dead in the keep that she knew to find Mercury.
By the time she found Mercury, his stone was gone. ”
“Wait, what?” He blinked, then carefully put the china teacup down as he began to pace. “The braaken was dead? What happened to him? What’s going on?”
“He was. His body was found in a make-shift grave, his head bashed in.”
“Does Mercury know?”
Cain held his hands out and open. “I have no idea. As far as Mercury himself is concerned, you know much more than I do.”
Talon wasn’t sure about that. Hell, he wasn’t sure Mercury knew much about his past right now.
“Why was Mercury left out there?” That was the question no one had effectively answered for him, and it was pissing him off.
“The seer for that keep—she is elderly; she couldn’t fly out to rescue him. You saw how challenging that area was.”
“That’s not what I’m asking!” Talon’s head throbbed, and he could feel Mercury’s concern poking at him. “You’re a seer. Why did they do this?”
“I have a theory or two, Talon, but no real information. What Mercury can do is the subject of a great deal of superstition and fear. It’s also considered a valuable skill.
But at the same time, keeps don’t want dragons like Mercury to be able to move about freely. ” Cain pursed his lips, then sighed.
“It could have been a multitude of reasons,” Cain finally finished.
Talon wanted to roar because he was so damn frustrated. “I need to know. Where is this seer?”
“Dead.” The word fell in between them like a lead weight.
“What?”
“She’s dead. At least as far as I know. They held her funeral, burned her on a pyre. The last thing she did was to rescue Mercury; she called me to save him.”
Talon was going to eat something, gnaw on a bar of metal. He was going to chew through a pile of glass in sheer frustration.
He did let a roar out, even though it was probably terribly inappropriate to do so with the seer. He simply couldn’t help it. He was so damnably angry.
Suddenly there was a commotion in the antechamber, and he heard Betty squawk.
Then the door blew open, and Mercury stood there, his quicksilver eyes shining, searching for Talon. “What’s the matter? What are you doing to my mate? That’s my braaken. You can’t hurt him.”
Both Cain and Talon just stood there for a second, staring.
“I’m serious. I will take him, and I will whisk him away from here and help him be somewhere safe. Don’t you make him angry. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it.” Patterns began to move and swirl under Mercury’s skin.
“Mercury.” Cain held his hands up. “No one’s harmed Talon, not in any way.”
Mercury focused on Talon. “Mate, are you sure? Is everything okay? You can tell me. I heard you. You’re very angry. I will help you.”
Actually, this exact second he was very honored and touched. His mate had come to rescue him from the big bad seer, and that was adorable. “I’m well, but I am glad to see you, mate; we were talking about you.”
That earned him a frown. “Did I do something wrong?”
“Of course not. What could you have possibly done wrong?”
Mercury shrugged. “That’s an excellent question, but you were angry. If you were angry and you were talking about me, then somebody must have done something wrong.”
Mercury did have a point. “Your old keep did something wrong by locking you away, and I found out that someone passed away.”
Mercury’s head tilted. “Who?”
Talon glanced at Cain, who offered Mercury a seat and a sad smile. “I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”
“All right.”
“Xenia passed away, the seer at your old keep.”
“She must have been ancient; she was old the last time I saw her.” Mercury didn’t seem particularly distressed; in all honesty, he seemed like he cared very little. Talon wasn’t sure what that meant.
“Did you know her very well?” Talon asked.
Mercury shook his head. “No? Seers usually stay apart from people. You’re the only one I’ve ever known who didn’t. Of course you’re only the second one I’ve ever known.”
“She’s the one who contacted me to have you saved, Mercury. She wanted you freed.” Cain stared into his hailee’s eyes, so serious. “Do you know why they sent you to the tower?”
Mercury nodded. “I had a lover. Biram. I was supposed to never slide; they said it was dangerous, that it was wrong. He asked me to do it, and I did.”
Talon reached for Mercury’s hand. He didn’t want his lover to feel alone. “Where did you go?”
Mercury stared at him. “He wanted to go home, but when we got there, it was dead. Everything was dead and rotted, the buildings were lost under the water. It was as if a war had happened. It frightened him. It scared me. So he asked me to take him back.
“When we got there, they were waiting for us. They were angry. They took him away, and they told me I had offended the gods themselves. They locked me up in the tower, and I was never allowed to touch anyone again. I don’t think I was supposed to know there was a war, but how can a war be so quiet?
That no one would know it? That no one would talk about it afterward? ”
His poor hailee. “What happened to Biram?”
“I assume that he went away at some point. I lost my stone—they came and took it from me, hurled it from the window, and let it crash down in there. I like to believe that somewhere it’s still waiting for another dragon.
” Mercury tilted his head. “If Biram comes for me, I do not want him. I’m sorry if he’s waited, but I have found my braaken, my mate, and I won’t give him up. ”
Talon hated this because at once he was so pleased that Mercury felt this way, and on the other hand, he was about to have to tell his lover something terrible.
“They found his body. Mercury, they found him dead. He had been killed.”
Mercury’s eyes widened, the silver swirling like clouds on a stormy sky, and his mouth fell open. “How? What happened to him?”
“Someone beat him down, Mercury. Cain said his head had been caved in at the back. I’m so very sorry.”
Tears welled up in Mercury’s eyes. How awful for him. “We were never meant to be mates. I know that. We were just casual lovers, but I did this. I got him killed.”
Talon growled and then he grabbed Mercury and lifted him into his lap. “No, you didn’t. This is not your fault. Murder is never the fault of someone else. It’s the fault of the people who did it.”
Mercury stared up at him. “Are you sure? If I hadn’t slid…”
“If he hadn’t asked you to—Neither of you are to blame for this. It’s the fault of whoever it was who knew what happened to his keep. Someone at your keep was responsible for it. Someone knew about this war or this genocide or whatever happened.”
Cain sighed, but there was a high color on his cheeks and Talon could tell he was angry more than anything else. “She had to have known. This seer. She had to have known what happened. Damn it. I wish she had told me so I could be prepared, so that I knew what to look into.”
“We’ll help you. Me and Reno. Triton.” Talon rocked Mercury in his arms. “We need to know because if this is going to be a threat to Mercury or to anyone else here, we need to take care of it now.”
“We’ll have a serious meeting about this tomorrow.
Everyone who is involved in the rescue of the omegas will come.
” He gave Mercury a pointed look. His hailee was wrapped in his arms, face against Talon’s chest, just hiding.
“For now, I think you should take your hailee home and spend some time together.”
“Yes, of course I agree.” He nodded, rising with Mercury in his arms so he could carry his sweet love back down to their apartment.
While he didn’t think Mercury had in any way been pining for his lost lover, at least not in recent times, this had to be a shock, and they would have to work through it.
“I feel awful,” Mercury said once they were out of Cane’s earshot, making their way down the long hall that led from his apartment. “I didn’t mean to get him hurt.”
“And I’m sure he didn’t mean to stumble over something that neither one of you was supposed to see, getting you locked up in a tower without your heartstone for years and years.”
Mercury searched his gaze. “Are you mad at him? At Biram?”
“No, sweet. I am mad at the ones who did this to you. I’m mad at dragons who wipe out whole keeps of other dragons and then act like it’s someone else’s fault or punish someone because they had the terrible luck of finding out what had happened.”
“And you’re not angry at me either?”
“How could I be angry at you? You’re my hailee, and without the situation I would never have found you. I hate that you were so unhappy. And I probably would give you your life back then if I could, but I’m selfish enough to be glad that you’re here with me now.”
Mercury nodded, wrapping both arms around Talon’s neck. “And I’m glad I’m here with you. My new stone is amazing. While I feel horrible for Biram and his people, I’m glad I’m not at my old keep anymore.”
“Good. I’m glad. I hope you won’t have terrible guilt about this. It’s not your fault.”
“I will try. It may take me a few days to work through it all, but I love you so much and I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
He squeezed Mercury tight, kissing his cheek. “Good. Now, I think we need to order milkshakes.” They had become his solution to a great many things.
Mercury just snorted the sound a little bit wet, but not unhappy. “I think that’s a great idea.”