Chapter 17 Adele
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ADELE
Islept, jerking awake later. “I fell asleep.”
“You needed it.”
“But the investigation—”
“Will still be there.” He brushed hair from my face. “Feel better?”
I considered, then nodded. “Actually, yes.”
“Good. Now let’s look at this with fresh eyes.”
We returned to the table, and he watched me study my notes, flipping between pages, comparing observations while muttering under my breath.
“The coughing,” I said. “It’s a respiratory irritant, something in the air that’s worse here than at Silvervale. But what would be present at one court and not the other when they’re so geographically close?”
“Different plants? Different minerals?”
“Possibly.” I tapped my pen on an open notebook. “I need to go to study the cliffside, go all the way to the peaks. Compare the vegetation, geological formations, and—”
A knock interrupted me.
Raoul opened it to Mirabelle standing in the doorway, her expression tight. “King Trevare requests your presence. There’s been a new development.”
I was already on my feet, notebook in hand.
We followed her through the corridors to a meeting room where Trevare paced, three of his advisors clustered nearby.
“What’s happened?” Raoul asked once the door had shut and we were alone with his advisors.
“Silvervale sent a messenger.” Trevare’s jaw was tight. “They’re threatening to close their borders to Goldwing dragons if we don’t stop poisoning their children.”
I shook my head. “Your children are suffering too.”
“We told them that.” The stern advisor from dinner crossed her arms on her chest. “They don’t believe us. They think we’re lying to cover whatever it is they believe we’re doing.”
“This is exactly the kind of escalation we were trying to prevent,” Raoul said. “Adele is investigating. We’ll have answers soon.”
“How soon?” Trevare asked. “Because Silvervale is demanding we allow their own investigators into our territory within a week, or they’ll consider what’s happening an act of aggression.”
Fates. This was spiraling faster than I’d anticipated.
“We need more time,” I said.
“Time we don’t have.” Trevare ran a hand through his dark hair. “King Raoul, you have relationships with both courts. Can you mediate?”
“I can try.”
I wasn’t sure diplomacy would work when babies were involved and tempers were running this hot.
“Do it quickly,” an advisor said. “Before this turns into something horrible.”
After we returned to our room, I tossed my notebook on the table. “I need to solve this before politics makes everything worse.”
“You’re doing everything you can.”
“I’m missing something, Raoul. Something obvious. I can feel it right on the edge of my understanding, but I can’t grasp it.”
“Let’s do some investigation outside, then.”
“Yes.” I stiffened my spine. “We’re going to find out what’s happening.”
He stroked my cheek. “We will.”
Within an hour, Raoul and I stood at the base of Goldwing’s sacred peaks, my collection kit strapped across my shoulders.
The peaks here were different from Silvervale’s, made up of paler stone, and I spied more vegetation clinging to crevices. The air carried a different scent. Spicier, with an underlying sweetness I couldn’t identify.
I climbed onto Raoul’s dragon back, settling into position, my hands finding familiar holds, my thighs gripping his scales.
These peaks are more complex than Silvervale’s, he said as we launched skyward. More caves, more vegetation.
“We won’t stop until we’ve visited them all.”
That’s my determined weather witch.
Warmth spread through my chest at the affection in his voice. I liked being his witch.
We climbed higher, and I studied the rock faces we passed. Vegetation dotted the slopes, including hardy alpine plants I’d need to catalog. But something else caught my eye. Flowering vines twisted through crevices, their blooms a delicate purple.
“Stop,” I said aloud. “Those vines. Can you get closer?”
He banked, bringing us level with a particularly dense patch. The flowers were small, bell-shaped, and absolutely shouldn’t be blooming this time of year.
I pulled out my notebook, sketching quickly. Can you hold steady while I collect a sample?
How close do you need to be?
Close enough to touch.
He maneuvered, bringing his big form within arm’s reach of the cliff face. I leaned out, one hand gripping a ridge spike, the other reaching for a flowering vine.
My fingers closed around a stem, and I tugged. It came free with a shower of tiny seeds that caught the wind.
“Got it.” I pulled back, securing the sample in a collection pouch. Did you see how the seeds dispersed?
Like snow.
Exactly like snow. My mind raced. Seeds that light would travel on wind currents, settle in valleys during certain atmospheric conditions. They also might be stirred up during temperature changes.
But it couldn’t be the flowers. There were too few of them, and the geographic distribution didn’t match what I’d seen at Silvervale.
Still. I’d found something worth documenting.
We continued upward, stopping at three different sites.
At each one, I collected soil and vegetation samples and used my magic to gauge air quality readings and mineral deposits.
Raoul problem-solved with me, suggesting approaches I hadn’t considered, holding position in challenging wind currents and even shifting back to his usual form once so I could use him as an anchor while I leaned out over a particularly treacherous drop.
“Don’t let go,” I said, my voice tight as I stretched toward the rock formation I needed to sample.
“Never.” One hand gripped the back of my pants, and he’d wrapped his other arm around my waist. “I’ve got you.”
The trust between us had become absolute.
At the highest peak, I stood beside a tall pillar carved from golden stone that caught the afternoon sun.
I turned in a slow circle, taking in the view.
From here, I could see Silvervale’s silver peaks in the distance, the valley between them, plus determine how air currents might flow through this geography.
“The timing,” I said, pulling out my notes from Silvervale. “The sun hits here later, which shifts when the temperature changes occur, which shifts when the air currents reverse.”
“Is that significant?” Raoul stood close, his warmth comforting in the thin, cold air.
“Maybe.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “Everything points to something carried on wind currents that settles at certain elevations during specific conditions. But I can’t identify what.”
“You will.”
“Babies are suffering. Courts are threatening each other. And I’m collecting samples like I have all the time in the world.”
“You’re collecting evidence so you can ensure you’re not missing anything. If it’s environmentally related, you want to implement the right solution instead of guessing and potentially making things worse.” His amber eyes held mine. “That’s doing the work properly.”
I wanted to believe him, but the weight of all those desperate parents, all those sneezing, coughing babies, pressed down on my chest.
“I’m missing something obvious,” I whispered. “I can feel it.”
“Then we’ll keep looking until you find it.”
We flew back to Goldwing as the sun lowered toward the horizon, painting the sky in shades of orange and gold. By the time Raoul landed in the courtyard, we were both tired.
But I had a cave system to explore.
We went down into the lower cave system, but the wind currents were wrong, flowing away from where the dragon shifter families lived, not toward them.
“It can’t be this. It must be something outside, in the mountain range,” I said. “Let’s go back to our suite and I’ll analyze the data.”
He flew me out through a cave and took me up to the courtyard, where we made our way to our rooms.
Our suite felt too quiet after the wind and open sky. I spread my samples from both courts across the table, adding notes from both sets of interviews and sketches of vegetation and geology.
Raoul ordered food brought up and sat across from me, watching as I worked.
“It could be an altitude-based allergen,” I said, talking through my thoughts. “Something that exists only at certain elevations and gets stirred up by wind patterns. It settles during calm periods.”
“That matches the timing.”
“But it doesn’t explain why both courts are affected at different elevations. Silvervale’s dwellings are higher than Goldwing’s, yet the symptoms are similar. If it’s purely altitude-based, the patterns should be different.”
I crossed out that theory and moved to the next. “Seasonal plant bloom. Something that flowers now, then releases pollen or seeds that become airborne.”
“Like those purple vines.”
“Similar, but it’s the wrong season for most alpine plants. And I didn’t see enough of them to account for this widespread issue. There weren’t any at Silvervale.” I tapped my pencil on a notebook. “Plus, the bloom cycle doesn’t match the timing of when symptoms started.”
Another theory eliminated.
“Mineral dust from shared geology. Both courts are part of the same mountain range, so they’d share certain mineral compositions.”
I pulled out my samples, comparing the stone from Goldwing with the rock from Silvervale. Similar in some ways, different in others. The mineral content didn’t quite match.
“Close,” I said. “But not exact.”
Raoul leaned forward. “What about something dragon-specific? An environmental factor that affects dragon shifters differently than other creatures?”
I paused, my pencil hovering over the page. “That’s actually not a bad angle. Dragon physiology is unique. Your fire production, magic, and even your respiratory systems are different from other shifters. Something that wouldn’t bother other magical beings could absolutely affect dragon babies.”
Hope sparked in my chest. This felt closer.
“But what?” I flipped through my notes, searching for connections. “What environmental factor would be present at both courts, affect dragon babies specifically, and follow this timing pattern?”
The answer danced out of reach, taunting me.
I moved on to the next theory. “Atmospheric pressure patterns. The timing of symptoms aligns with daily pressure changes, morning and evening when pressure shifts occur. That’s when temperature inversions happen and air currents reverse direction.”
“That explains the timing,” Raoul said.
“But not the geographic spread. Atmospheric pressure shifts would affect the entire region, not just these two specific courts. Other dragon settlements should be reporting similar issues, but they’re not.”
I dropped my pen on the table. “None of this adds up. The pieces are all there. I can see them, but I can’t make them fit together.”
Raoul rose and moved behind me, his hands finding my shoulders. He worked at the knots of tension there, and I leaned back into his touch.
“You’re tired,” he said quietly. “You need rest to process this.”
“I don’t have time to rest.”
“You don’t have time not to.” His thumbs pressed into a particularly tight spot, and I groaned. “Taking a break isn’t giving up. It’s being strategic.”
I knew he was right. Knew that I’d done my best work after stepping away from problems, letting my subconscious work while my conscious mind rested. But the urgency pressed at me, demanding answers now.
“What if this escalates while I’m resting?” I asked. “What if Silvervale and Goldwing actually go to war because I couldn’t solve this mystery fast enough?”
“I’ll handle the diplomacy while you handle the investigation. Together, we can’t be defeated.”
Lifting me into his arms, he carried me into the bathing area, where he stripped off my clothing, bathed me in the warm water, and distracted me with his amazing touch.