Chapter Nine #2
Dahes wasn’t allowed to send any monsters into Viven directly, but I was technically still on neutral territory.
The Black Sands were central, with the cliffs being common ground on Moriann’s side, while the forest was the one on Viven’s, but no kingdom owned one more than the other.
All three landmarks were fair game. So for all I knew, Dahes could have put monsters into the Inyaer.
Either centuries ago before the end of the war or maybe even hours before this.
What if the Tallik wasn’t the only beast he sent after me?
Immediately, I gunned toward the surface. When I broke the water, I inhaled, finally catching my breath for the first time since I left Moriann.
The Tallik screeched at the bank where I’d jumped in. Its torso raised, only a portion of its snake-like body left on the ground, making it almost as tall as the trees canopying over us.
Four arms came out of its thick, scaly chest all ending in sharp talons, and down its back were thick thorns similar to the ones on Dahes’ throne.
It honestly made me question if it was actually Tallik thorns that made up the seat.
They were both white. It was the one widely known fact about Talliks—their skin was translucent and they didn’t stop their hunt until they rolled in their prey’s blood.
By the time they were finished, every inch of their scales were painted red.
I kept my eyes trained on it, never looking away, as I tried to swim backward toward the waterfall.
It moved immediately. One second it was across from me, the next it came to the side, sliding its body over the rocks of the fall, trying to get better access to me. Its talon slashed the water a few feet in front of me before it wailed and retreated.
Its teeth snapped, the first two rows hitting before the last two clamped down. It was the second row that did the most damage, when it locked onto something there was no unclamping it.
I cursed as I realized my hands were now bare. I’d dropped my dagger when I fell into the clearing…
A roar sounded overhead at the same time the Tallik screeched, leaning back to gain momentum before it tried to reach me again.
I didn’t have time to look up before heat clung to the air and fire erupted around the bank. I ducked under the surface, just barely missing the wave of fire that exploded everywhere.
I stayed under until I couldn’t anymore, watching as the flames hissed and receded across the surface.
Everything was hot when I forced myself to come back up to breathe.
I hadn’t realized how cold the lake was before, how my entire body was numb, until the fire heated the water a couple of degrees.
One minute the Tallik was screeching at me, thrashing its tail back and forth, and reaching its claws across the surface, and the next, a dragon was hovering over its charred bones.
Dragons’ fire was the second weakness a Tallik had, the only thing hot enough to melt through their thick scales. Not even the sharpest blade could pierce it.
The bank vibrated as the dragon landed onto the ground, the flames licking out around it. Its scales were a pearly cream, so different from the translucent white of the Tallik’s it just burned off.
It was beautiful.
It was probably the first time I’d ever looked at a monster and thought that. Not that I wasn’t still absolutely terrified of it, because I was.
Maybe it was just the fact that there weren’t any guts dripping from its teeth, or that there wasn’t a drop of blood on it.
Or maybe it was because the dragon didn’t smell like it was rotting from the inside out.
Or maybe I was deluded into thinking it was my savior for temporarily sparing me from the lesser of two beasts.
I looked closer and caught glimpses of a shimmer. Its scales almost looked iridescent as the suns reflected off it, making the perfect camouflage to get lost in the clouds or the Moriann fog.
It was also the largest beast I’d ever seen before, triple the length of the Tallik it had burned to a crisp, and Talliks weren’t known to be small. The dragon could barely fit inside the clearing.
I was treading water, gawking up at the dragon, before I heard feet thud against the grass. A splash sounded the next second, and I didn’t wait. I dove back underwater before even looking at what followed me into the lake.
I made it five seconds before something wrapped around my waist and pulled me up toward the surface again.
I started thrashing. Kicking. Screaming. Anything to break free of whatever was holding me.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” A low voice brushed against the back of my ear. It sounded humanoid, but I also knew I couldn’t trust that. There were numerous creatures of Dahes that could speak the common tongue. “Stop screaming before you attract another monster.”
I was yanked backward, and instinctively, I tried to pull away, to swim in the other direction.
“And stop fighting me,” the voice deadpanned.
I was dragged back toward the bank, toward the dragon and the bones of the Tallik.
For a second, I thought about fighting again, my body screamed at me to try and flee, but I also knew this was exactly what Dahes wanted.
This had to be the drakin I was waiting for, the dragon alone was proof, even if I couldn’t get my brain to believe it yet.
“I don’t need your help,” I snapped when I finally found my voice. Even if I had to play the role of a damsel, I didn’t need to be carried.
He didn’t let up, but I heard a rough laugh before I was pulled the rest of the way onto the bank. “Could have fooled me.”
I turned around, about to make a retort back, when I lost my voice just as fast as I’d found it.
The boy—man—standing before me was striking.
His muscular physique looked like it was shaped by the Gods and Goddesses themselves, crafted into a perfect weapon of flesh and bones.
And that didn’t account for the various actual weapons that donned his uniform.
Steel kissed him everywhere. Daggers and knives were strapped into every nook and crevice that I was surprised he hadn’t accidentally cut himself.
A large sword took up the entire length of his back.
The metal looked so heavy I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to lift it if I had the opportunity, and I wasn’t weak.
I’d seen numerous people from my hunts, but they were starved and brittle, barely having enough muscle on them to put up a fight against me.
But him—he looked like he could snap me in half with one hand. His entire existence was built for fighting and death and nothing else. There was no way I could fight him off. The rider before me was lethal all on his own, and that didn’t account for the actual dragon at his back.
What the hell had I gotten myself into…
I backed up a step, tripping over a rock, and was about to fall back into the water when he caught my arm.
I steadied myself, moving my feet forward until I found my footing again. He immediately drew his hand back, and I realized that my Token never came out. I was still tangible. He’d touched me.
“She won’t hurt you,” he said, his voice just as hard.
“She?”
“My dragon.”
I stole a glance at the towering creature again.
Its neon yellow eyes were glaring at me, and I didn’t even want to know how large its teeth were.
The dragon tucked her wings into her side, and huffed, steam immediately engulfing me that I swore I’d be wet from it if I hadn’t just come out of the Inyaer.
She turned, her hind legs making the ground shake before stepping back to lay further down the bank.
A dragon.
Just casually laying down by the lake.
“What’s your name?”
“It’s—” I paused, my gaze snapping back to the rider’s. Dahes told me I couldn’t tell King Elion or anyone in Viven who I was. He said that I had some sort of reputation. Did they know my name was Magnolia? Did they know Dahes called me Mag?
“It’s Nollie,” I said, almost on instinct.
It’d been so long since I used that nickname, so long since I heard someone say it, and the moment the name left my mouth, I regretted it.
It opened up too many painful memories, felt like I was washing the burns on my feet with the tip of a blade.
It was what he used to call me, what Masin called me.
I love you, Mas.
I love you, Nollie.
I love you more—we used to say in unison.
I blinked rapidly, trying to wash away the memory before it stung as I remembered I was supposed to recite a speech. “Dahes must have sent it after me after I escaped Moriann.”
The drakin rider looked skeptical, and I honestly couldn’t blame him. I was strong for my size, but no one in their right mind would risk climbing the Senith and crossing the Sands.
His eyes were the lightest shade of brown I’d ever seen, his shaggy hair multiple shades darker, almost black. There was a wave to the ends that made me want to run my fingers through it just to see if it was as soft as it looked.
Sun-bronzed skin contrasted his pale gaze, making his eyes that much more striking. I wasn’t sure if everyone in Viven had a dark complexion from the constant exposure of the two suns, or if Morianns were just all pale from the lack of it.
I loved it. Loved that he looked nothing like Dahes, that he had color to him, making him seem alive. Everything in Moriann was either dull or dead.
The rider looked from me, to the waterfall at my back, then back at me. Yup, he didn’t believe me. I suddenly became aware of my slip—of how the fabric ripped up my leg as I sprinted toward the water.
“How did you climb the Senith?”
“My Token,” I answered, which really wasn’t an answer at all, but he didn’t question me on it.
“Why was Dahes after you?”
“He wasn’t,” I blurted, then forced myself to swallow, “until I left.”
“No one has ever escaped Moriann before.” He crossed his arms, looking me up and down again, and I tried not to grimace under his assessment. It was so strange, felt so foreign as he studied me so thoroughly, to have someone else witness my existence after so long in solitude. “Why did you leave?”
I shrugged, feigning indifference. “The same reason anyone would.” There was a beat of silence between us before I gave him my real answer. “Moriann has no food. It’s cold. You’re lucky if you have a home. There’s more death than life. Crimes aren’t punished and the amount of stuff you see is—”
He cut me off. “I get it.”
The look he gave me was so assessing that it reminded me of Dahes for a split second, except his was molten heat instead of frozen ice. His eyes traveled over my bare arm—on the lack of a criminal mark, which meant I was Moriann-born.
“I’ll take you to my king,” he said after a moment. “The Valdern is still considered middle territory. King Dahes will continue to send monsters after you until you’ve crossed into Viven.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“I’m not doing it for your sake.”
“Right.” I had no idea why his statement bothered me. It was exactly what Dahes predicted. King Elion wouldn’t want to leave me and risk Dahes sending more creatures so close to his border.
“You’re going to have to trust me.”
“Trust you? With what?” I asked, but as soon as the words left my mouth, I knew. His dragon stood on her hind legs before crouching down at an angle.
The rider started walking toward her. “She won’t hurt you,” he said again, then jumped onto the dragon’s back, leaving me standing on the ground alone. He moved so gracefully that I had no idea how he managed to climb her so fast.
“How am I supposed to get up there?” I asked, hating the panic immediately creeping into my voice.
“You climbed the Senith, but this height frightens you?” He mocked, but his expression remained neutral, bored even.
“I stabbed a dagger into the cliffs to get up. I figured that wouldn’t go over well with a dragon.”
He laughed, barely, just a single syllable leaving his lips.
“You aren’t climbing her,” he said, looking down at me, and Suns, his gaze was melting.
I hated that I found him attractive. How I kept staring at the hard lines of his face, and noticing even the small details across his skin.
I wasn’t here for this. I had to figure out who Hael was, learn his weakness, and then get back.
“Unless you want to be incinerated,” he added. “Only riders can go on a dragon’s back.”
I shuddered, looking at the bones of the Tallik, and remembering how quickly the dragon burned it to a crisp, envisioning her doing the same to me.
Claws wrapped around my body before I got the chance to ask what I was supposed to do. The dragon moved so fast I couldn’t even scream before I was scooped up, and instead of its talons digging into me like the thatcher’s always did, they completely engulfed me.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
And then I was being carried into Viven, exactly as Dahes predicted.