Chapter 1 Faolan
ONE
FAOLAN
“I’m not staying, and you can’t guilt me into it.” Every time I tried to leave, Jaxus attempted to pull me back in.
“We need you.” Jaxus wasn’t going to give this up easily, but I wouldn’t trade one prison for another.
“How quickly you forget we just did this.”
Confusion showed on his face. “What are you talking about?”
“We’ve hardly been out from under the rule of Kerani for a year, and for what?
Just to be forced into service here? For a King who only sees us as his property to direct according to his whim.
Is that really what you want?” I knew I was beating a dead horse, but I had to try and talk some sense into him.
He saw all the same problems in Kerani I did.
How was he missing the similarities here? I’d thought him smarter than that.
“It’s bigger than you and me and our freedom, Faolan.
It’s not just about resisting the control of the elders or the King.
We are up against an army of the undead, which I’ve seen with my own two eyes.
This isn’t just a threat to the twelve kingdoms. If we can’t win this war, Kerani will fall along with everything else.
No one is safe. We have a duty to protect—”
I held up my hand, cutting him off. “I feel no duty to Kerani, let alone this King. We were controlled by the same tactics at home. You traded one set of shackles for another. Can you not see it?”
“This is different.”
“If you say so.” I blew him off, and his expression told me enough, but I was done with the conversation. “I have a life here, a job which gives me freedom. Something I’ll never have taken from me again.”
“That’s not what I’m asking of you.” Jaxus’ frown deepened, and I hated doing this to him, but he was too idealistic, and it had blinded him. “I don’t want to go back to that life any more than you do.”
“So you can leave whenever you want?” I put my hands on my hips. He was delusional if he couldn’t see he was still living the exact same way, just with a different view.
His lip lifted in a snark. “That’s not fair.”
“It’s just the truth, Jaxus. You have people you care about here, so you are happy to be trapped. What isn’t fair is expecting the same of me.”
“We really need you, though. I need dragons I can count on.”
“Well, I’m unavailable. Maybe in the future.”
“What do you even have going on?” he demanded, like it was any of his damn business.
“Frankly, that’s none of your concern.” I quipped back, desperately hoping I in fact still had a job to go back to after leaving Captain Veles high and dry while also kidnapping a prisoner he was responsible for.
I needed to find the boat to make sure I didn’t ruin Captain Veles life, or worse, get him killed.
The circles he worked in wouldn’t be likely to forgive and forget, and I wouldn’t blame him if he wouldn’t either.
But I wanted to try. I liked working for him and being at sea.
So if there still was a boat, and I still had a job on it, I was going back.
Jaxus leaned back in his chair, looking at me like a disappointed father figure.
I shuddered. “Don’t fucking do that. We are the same age.”
“Do what?” He glowered.
“Look at me like I’m some petulant youngling.”
“Maybe don’t act like one.”
“I’m going. If you need me, come find me. But only if it’s an emergency.”
“We’re already in an emergency.”
I give him a flat look. “I see no emergency.”
“You saw how Kol came back.”
“There’s more to that story.” I hadn’t shared this openly, but it had been brewing in my mind for days. What about Kol had made him a target? Had this been done to Nyx, no one would have questions, but Kol didn’t add up.
“What do you mean?”
Did Jaxus really not see it? “Kol, why would they take him prisoner? Does it make sense to you? Why not just kill him?”
“To use him against Nyx,” Jaxus said, like it was the obvious answer.
“Did they, though? No. In the last year and a half, you didn’t hear a peep out of whoever was holding him.”
“They obviously had a plan.” Jaxus seemed annoyed, so I’d clearly hit a nerve.
“You’re not even considering that you might be missing something, are you? It makes no sense to take Kol and hold him for that long. He wasn’t the one who stood to become general, and they didn’t do anything with him but abuse him. What was the point?”
Jaxus scowled, but at least the seed was planted. “Obviously, he has some significance.”
“That’s my entire point. You don’t have all the information, and it’s noble what you’re doing for this kingdom, but there is more going on in this entire situation than any of you think. You’re just too close to see it.”
Jaxus waved me off. “Whatever use they saw in Kol is irrelevant. We have him back now, and there are other issues to deal with. The undead are out there in undetermined numbers, we are still under threat, and if we don’t want the entire continent to turn, we must be prepared to fight.”
“Well, you will have to do it without me. This is not my war.”
Jaxus shook his head. “If we don’t have a strong enough force, it will soon be everyone’s war.”
His words stayed with me as I rode to the port. A part of me felt like I was abandoning him specifically, but after being trapped in Kerani for so long, I had to fight for my freedom here. It wasn’t Jaxus I was abandoning. I just couldn’t allow myself to acquire another ball and chain.
And more than anything else, I’d had enough trouble avoiding other dragons while in the capital, and the longer I stayed, the more I risked discovery by a dragon who would report me.
I didn’t need the King up my arse, nor did I want to be hunted.
I’d have to exile myself to the fringes if the military got wind of what I am.
I’d overstayed my welcome, and I needed to make sure Captain Veles was okay.
I planned to get on any ship heading east and track Veles’ ship to wherever she sailed to rejoin his crew.
I arrived at the port ready to talk my way onto a crew but stopped in my tracks.
There she was. Veles’ ship docked right in front of me in all her glory.
The Goddess had always smiled down on me.