Chapter 8 #2
“I do have a habit of picking up strays. Especially ones who might bite me for the trouble.” I was staring at Tallu as I said it, and it took him too long to look back at me, his eyes crinkling as he recognized the teasing in my tone.
I leaned closer, whispering in his ear. “As long as you remember which parts of me I like bitten, I feel it has been a good arrangement so far.”
Tallu snorted, then looked back at Na?. “You are not wrong. Exposing yourself will be dangerous. You will have to listen to what we say and do it.”
I wasn’t sure if he realized that he was attempting to give orders to a creature who could easily eat both of us and still have a dessert of whatever herd of cattle was nearby.
“I am not yours to order, Dragon Chosen Emperor Tallu of the Southern Imperium.” Na?’s eyes shifted in the light, and her teeth grew long and sharp, hanging over her lower lip. “Lest you forget exactly I am the dragon who chose you.”
Tallu’s face went hard, but I held up both hands. “We are all friends here. Do you want out of my satchel or not?”
Na?’s chin lifted. “Let us finish the lesson. Time grows short.”
It was strange, having Tallu watch as I tried and failed and tried again. I couldn’t help glancing at him, to see if he was bored or disappointed, but his eyes were fixed on me, as though he was desperate to touch me but knew he couldn’t.
When I licked my lips, he fixed his gaze on my mouth, and I felt it like a physical touch, his eyes so focused I became aware of the sensation of my heart beating and thrumming in my chest. I barely managed to wrench my attention back to Na?, who seemed more annoyed than anything else at the entire experience.
When Na? grew frustrated at my distraction, she ordered us both to bed, and I whispered all my secrets to Tallu, all the desperate longing I felt and the hope I had that soon my powers would be able to help us against our enemies.
He cupped my face, and I could feel the frozen bits of time beginning to slip. There was so much more to tell him. Now I realized I was not imagining things when I heard electro magic or blood magic being worked. The voice I imagined Asahi taking.
Was that only my imagination, or was it something worse? The poison that had nearly killed him, poisoning my mind instead of my body? Or was I hearing him like a foreign animal, his true thoughts so grossly dark?
“Tallu—” I whispered, but his eyes were already closed. We would have time.
The next morning, it was almost as though none of it had happened, except I woke to Tallu’s warm arm pinning me against his chest, his nose in my hair. He inhaled deeply as he woke, his arm pulling me closer. His scent enveloped me, and I let my eyes slip closed for a moment.
Just a moment, because I heard the sound of the toggles on the tent flap being slipped free, the canvas lifting up.
I opened my eyes just in time to see Asahi crouch low, his blade already drawn at Na?’s neck.
Sagam was a split second behind him, two throwing knives already held tight between his fingers.
“Who is this?” Sagam asked, his eyes fixed on Na?. She opened her eyes but didn’t move, her breath slow and even.
Curled on the pillow reserved for the dragon, Na? looked even smaller, barely older than an infant. She wore one of my shirts, and it covered her entirely, her tiny hands curled around the cuffs.
“Our daughter,” Tallu said, sitting up. He put his legs over the edge of the cot, his feet finding his shoes, and when he stood, he pulled on his robe, the heavy fabric spinning before it settled, cloaking him.
Sagam didn’t even move his gaze. “I hope I would have noticed if you were with child, Your Highness.”
I made a face. “Why am I the one pregnant with child? You know I do not have the hips for it.”
“Get their blades out of my face,” Na? said, and both men startled at her voice, so high and clear.
Sagam tensed, the muscles in his arm pulled back, ready to throw his blades. “Who is she, Your Imperial Majesty?”
“The dragon,” I answered before this ended in bloodshed. Likely the Dogs’ since Na? could shapeshift back into her larger form and use their blades as toothpicks.
Sagam took a step back, his eyes turning for a split second to Tallu, as though to confirm the truth in the words.
Asahi tensed, his blade drawing up, pushing her chin higher.
I slid my hand under my pillow, wrapping a fist around the dagger I had stashed there.
If I had to attack Asahi to save his life, I would.
“Foul creature. Is my blade faster than her claws?” Asahi’s lips didn’t move, his voice a hiss.
I shook my head. There was no way measured, calm Asahi was saying such a thing, but was it his madness or my own?
“Release her,” Tallu said. “We will say she is our daughter, which will add some confusion to anyone who suspects us of not being merchants. What bandits travel with their child?”
Asahi tightened his grip on his blade but then sheathed the sword in one long movement. Sagam dropped his arms, his blades disappearing under his coat. “Are you sure, Your Imperial Majesty?”
“We’ll need clothing for her at the next town,” Tallu said in answer. “For now, fetch her something suitable and send in the Kennelmaster.”
“We cannot leave you alone with her,” Sagam said, his voice nearly pained.
“How is she more dangerous as a child than as a dragon?” I asked.
“She can speak as a child,” Asahi pointed out, his voice rough. When he looked at me, there was nothing but concern in his eyes. “And lies are often more potent than blades.”
“I believe I am adept at telling lies from truth,” Tallu said shortly. “Am I not the one who has exposed all the secrets of the most seasoned liars in the Imperium?”
Asahi opened his mouth, but Sagam brushed a hand over his elbow, so subtly that it might have been an accident. Asahi closed his mouth, his frown obvious only in the tilt of his eyes. Both Dogs bowed, and then we were alone.
“Well,” I said, stretching. I released the blade under my pillow. “I suppose that went about as well as could be expected.”
“I do not like them,” Na? said softly. “And I think you should not either.”
“They are friends I have made since coming to the Imperium,” I said, remembering the way she’d phrased it. Friends whom you could call on, but whom you did not quite trust.
The Kennelmaster came through almost immediately. He glanced at Na? where she sat on her pillow, her expression curious. “Sagam said you wanted to speak with me?”
“This is the dragon,” I said. “We’re going to claim she’s our daughter so she can travel with us.”
The Kennelmaster’s brows tightened, his confusion carved onto his face. But he didn’t protest, merely examining her with a sharp eye. Na? raised her chin, staring at him with an unblinking gaze.
“The eyes,” the Kennelmaster said slowly. “We’ll need to do something about them.”
Na? blinked, and suddenly, her eyes were brown.
Surrounded by her pale lashes, they looked out of place.
Asahi returned with an old shirt and a pair of pants.
I wasn’t sure where he’d gotten them, but Na? stood, and the others turned away as she stripped, pulling on the clothes and tightening the laces.
The shirt hung loose, but I stepped forward and bound the laces of her pants tightly, tucking the shirt inside so it wasn’t as obvious that it came down to her knees. Then I bent low, rolling the hems of her pants up to her ankles.
The Kennelmaster turned back, giving her a critical look before nodding. “Good enough.”
Lerolian and two other blood monks walked through the wall, startling when they saw Na?. One of the blood monks went to his knees, his eyes wide.
Lerolian frowned, but with the Kennelmaster present, I didn’t dare ask him what was so upsetting. Finally, Lerolian said, “She looks like a child. But we must remember, she is not one.”
I frowned back at Na?. Lerolian might mean it in the sense that she wasn’t a human child, but I knew it was more than that. Her body was a child, even if her memory had a legacy.
“We need to go if we plan to reach General Maki before any rumor of our presence outpaces us.” The Kennelmaster took one last, long look at Na? before nodding and leaving the tent.
We traveled faster, the cart bouncing over the road. It was harder to sleep moving at that pace, but I was exhausted. Using magic drained me, left me feeling parched and hollowed out.
I didn’t even realize I was asleep until Tallu gently woke me. We slept in a camp, then traveled even faster the next day, arriving at a large city that straddled both sides of a river, an enormous bridge linking the two halves.
Stopping at a small inn, we were immediately shown a private room, and the innkeeper herself came to speak with the Kennelmaster.
Tallu sat in the corner, hood drawn up, with me next to him, powdered but with my own hood up to cover my pale hair.
Na? sat across from us, her eyes moving around the room, her head tilted as though she could hear what the innkeeper and the Kennelmaster were whispering about.
The Kennelmaster sighed as he settled into a chair, rolling his shoulders, a series of pops audible as he moved. “She says she hasn’t seen any hint of the other generals.”
“She’s one of your Dogs?” I asked, even though it wasn’t a guess.
When we had passed through the main room, it had looked as though the place catered to merchants and traders.
In such a large city, she probably saw plenty from all corners of the Imperium.
Who better to know what was happening across the empire?
The Kennelmaster grunted, and that was the only confirmation I was likely to get.
Lerolian and the other blood monks dispersed into the inn, returning with gossip about the rest of the empire, as well as what they were saying about Tallu himself.