CHAPTER SIX
FRASER IS NOT A TYPICAL nereid.
He’s bigger thanks to his human father. Stronger, too. It’s what made him such a deadly, efficient killer. In his element, he was nearly unmatched, even by other nereids. Out of water, his human half kept him strong where other nereids would wilt.
From Ozora’s personal journal.
There on the cliffs, in the middle of the night, Fraser’s storm-dark eyes widened, this time with curiosity and...was that hope? What it meant, however, he didn’t say.
“Why?” Something in that simple word riveted me.
He’d once more put on that coldly indifferent mask, and his tone was still terse, but he no longer reeked of rage.
It was the nuanced meaning wrapped around that little word that caught me.
More than asking for a reason to believe Taenya, layered within were also, why him?
Why now? Why did it have to be the three of us?
What more was there in bringing the three of us back together with all this baggage and history we shared?
“Because she convinced me, and when I first met her, I was still planning on killing you.”
All those old suspicions once more overtook him, and erased the curiosity of earlier. “Is that so?” he said, with all the emotion of stone.
“Oh, for the goddess’ sake!” She slapped her palm to her face.
“I didn’t mean... Dammit. Cassyrra!” She turned to her dragon.
“I’m screwing this all up. I’m too tired to be diplomatic.
” She hurried through her next words as if she had to get them all out right then and there.
“Just. Listen. That’s all. Then you can walk away, okay? ”
He folded his arms but nodded.
“You have to help us, or your hippocamps will die. I’m not kidding, it’s real,” she repeated, “it’s that simple. You decide if you want to hear how to save them, or not.”
Cassyrra huffed a gust of smoky wind over us.
She dropped her head low, so it was next to the ground, and her throat vibrated as she rattled off a sort of grumbling purr.
This close, her vocalization was palpable.
It danced across my skin, a not-unpleasant buzzing sensation that caused the hair on my arms to rise.
++Thank you for meeting us as I requested, Captain Connell.
I know this is a difficult start to your reunion, but the danger is great.
The invaders of old have returned, and we are the only ones who know it.
We must prepare, for they are already on the move.
You should all rest for the night. Let us meet here again tomorrow morning and speak of these important things when we’re refreshed.
My friend will meet with us then, and I’m sure you’ll find her answers to your satisfaction.
She is a creature of great knowledge and power. ++
The words rolled into my mind, gentle and calm, but vast with power. Compassionate but stern. My heart did this odd flip, as if I was sorry I’d disappointed her but also inspired to do better.
It surprised me to hear she’d asked Fraser to meet us, but since she could speak mind to mind, it explained why he wasn’t intimidated by her.
“Excellent idea, Cassyrra.” Taenya’s relief came through loud and clear.
“We can’t get her here, right now, anyway,” she muttered to herself before straightening and fixing her fierce green stare on Fraser.
“I’m telling you, this will all make sense tomorrow.
I promise. Can we please just call a truce or something? ”
“The alternative being we stand here staring at each other all night? I don’t suppose your pet is going to let me just walk away without agreeing to your little breakfast discussion?”
“Nope.” Taenya sounded like she’d reached her last nerve.
“Fine.” Fraser sighed and scrubbed his hand over the scruff covering his jaw. He slid his gaze to the men standing on either side of him. They turned from us and huddled together, whispering before Fraser spun to face us. One man headed toward the keep.
“Come back tomorrow morning,” Fraser said, then shrugged.
“Or not. I’d rather you not, and I’d be happier if you didn’t.
But I’ll be out here—” he waved his hand, a broad sweep across the field, “—waiting. Tomorrow, two hours after dawn.” There was that humorless, sharklike smile again. “I give you my word.”
Taenya glazed her response with a false sugary sweetness that said she didn’t trust his word for a second.
“Great. Appreciate the offer of breakfast, too. Doubt we’ll find anything to eat at my old home.
I hear it stayed abandoned.” Her answering grin had about as much humor as his.
Cassyrra shifted her weight from foot to foot but didn’t speak.
Fraser grunted and turned his back on us, striding to the cliff. He disappeared down the stairs while the second man followed the first toward the keep.
“Generous of him.” Taenya’s voice was dry with sarcasm. “Let’s go.” She gave Cassyrra an affectionate pat as the dragon extended her foreleg for us to climb.
Taenya’s home sat on Hastrior’s north coast.
It was a quick hop from the keep’s field to the abandoned DeLange estate.
Cassyrra’s wings boomed as she settled onto the overgrown lawns and gardens that topped the cliffs.
Hastrior's peninsula was a flat tableland situated on granite cliffs that overlooked the sea.
The wealthy kept their estates on the north side, and the DeLange house was one of many abandoned mansions.
Families had fled when the city crumbled. Why it deteriorated was a mystery, with many rumors but no clear reason. Fraser, and Gordon were the easy ones to blame but, why hadn’t some other city leader stepped forward?
“Even though I wasn’t here, I still heard about Gordon’s brief but failed attempt at city governance,” Taenya said as she shoved open the double doors that led to the entry of her former home.
“I thought Fraser was bad, it sounds like he was much worse.” Her back was turned but the brokenness in her words resonated.
We took a couple steps across the dusty marble floor, but stopped when from the outside, Cassyrra uttered a deep growl.
“Give her a moment to search,” my new companion said as a purplish mist flowed from the dragon’s mouth to form a sphere.
The glowing form hovered over one forefoot that she’d raised to meet the numinous cloud.
Talons curved to hold the mist-filled orb delicately with the sharpened tips while the dragon began to hum and glow; vibrant teal radiated from a tattoo-like design that encircled her forearm and flowed to the sphere.
Numinous energies wove together and created a net of teal around the amethyst mist and the dragon flicked her talons sharply outward, as if flinging away the brightly-colored ball.
The orb-spell rose and grew, faster than my vision could follow, to enclose DeLange House in a magical globe and fill the hall briefly with a diffuse, pale violet mist that carried a scent of lavender and myrrh.
“We’re good,” Taenya said, “let’s see how the old place held up.”
Not that well, it turned out. Cassyrra’s spell ensured no intruders hid within, and now shielded it from any others, but the inside was still a wreck. Transients had passed through and taken advantage of the dry rooms to sleep in before moving on, and left most of them unpleasant at best.
As luck had it, the ballroom that overlooked a wide, over-grown lawn was without obvious signs of recent occupation, just the thick dust and cobwebs of the years.
“Have any cleaning spells?” Taenya asked. “I haven’t had a chance to make any lately.”
“Maybe...yes.” I pulled out a talisman bespelled to remove dust, dirt, and debris on floors and furniture.
In Emberglen, when the wine flowed long into the night, hosts often didn’t want to expend the effort to clean the leftover mess.
I had plenty of customers who bought these bespelled lace, ribbon, and herb packets regularly.
Had. I winced, and veered away from those memories, forced myself to refocus away from the loss. Taenya smiled when I held one up.
“This ought to clear enough of the room that we won’t be sneezing in our sleep,” I said, “I don’t know how comfortable the floor will be though.” I only had one cleansing talisman, but it cleared a wide swath near the windows so we could be near Cassyrra, who was curled on the lawn outside.
“Got that covered.” Taenya grinned, snapped her fingers, and spoke brief cantrip to activate a prepared spell.
Obedient to her command, a numinous doorway, like a teleportal, opened with a whistle and pop to form a wide black square outlined in emerald and violet that hovered some eight feet in the air.
Almost as soon as I saw it, it dropped to the floor with another high-pitched whistle, and left in its wake a tent.
The materialization of a fully assembled and cheerfully-colored tent was the last thing I expected, and I had to close my jaws with a click.
Thick door flaps were tied back on either side to reveal a cozy, warmly lit interior.
Another pop, and the portal snapped closed, leaving the tent resting on the cleaned marble.
Slowly I turned my head to give her a look filled with equal parts incredulity and gratitude. Her answer was a snort of a laugh at my silent query and a quick lift of one shoulder.
“Cassyrra and I have been Bonded for two years, and we usually don’t sleep near towns or beds. I don’t like sleeping in the dirt, or cleaning it off the tent. So I try to set it up in a clean spot.”
Her smile stretched all the way across her face when she glanced over her shoulder at the dragon.
“There are advantages to being permanently linked to an Adept, even if I did have to explain why I needed a bed, and other necessities.” With a slight tilt of her head and lilt to her step, she led the way inside.
“Come on, we’ll be comfortable, and fed.
I just didn’t want to let on to Fraser.”