Her eyes narrowed, and he expected her to try to probe his mind again, but she did not, at least not that he could detect.
“Of course.” Trip made himself gaze back into her eyes, even though he didn’t find it comfortable. On the chance that it would help, he tried to will her to answer. “Who betrayed you? Why are you so sure we’re at cross purposes?”
Kiadarsa stepped toward him and licked her lips. Trip noticed those lips, along with the rest of her face. She was, as Leftie had pointed out, quite attractive. But if she had seduction or who knew what in mind, he wouldn’t fall for it. Not that he could imagine her seducing him. Surely, if she wanted information, Leftie would be easy to read—and happy to go along with a seduction. And he was the one with a face that made women want to look twice.
“A dragon,” she said. “Tophurnikus, as we found out later. But Toph was what he introduced himself as. He came in human form, a beautiful man with flowing blond hair—golden hair—and deep golden eyes that you could fall into. That I did fall into. As did Jylea. We ladies had quite the adventurous night during one of the blizzards.” Kiadarsa smiled, her first self-deprecating smile.
Trip had no idea what to make of it—or the story so far—but he nodded and said, “Go on.”
It seemed incredulous that she was sharing something with him, and he figured he shouldn’t trust any of it, but he might learn something, even from lies. And she did go on.
“Toph claimed to be an Iskandian, but years gone from his homeland. An archaeologist and a treasure hunter. He knew all about dragon ruins, and we talked him into joining our team. While Aeolus was away, foolishly.”
“Who is that?” Trip had learned the rest of the Cofah researchers’ and soldiers’ names while he’d been working with them on repairs, or so he thought. He didn’t remember that one.
“Who was that, you mean. A bronze dragon that was found and released from one of the three ancient stasis prisons around the world.”
Trip had no idea what she was talking about—three prisons?—but he nodded as if this wasn’t news to him.
“He was an ally who was sent down here to work with us, a Cofah dragon from the old days, and one loyal to… another dragon ally. He even let me ride him, as he’d had a rider once, long ago, he said. He was helping us with our research before Toph showed up.”
“The old dragon didn’t simply know where the portal was?” Trip had assumed all of the magical creatures would know that, that they would be able to sense it from afar, even if they hadn’t themselves come through it.
“No. It was tampered with—enshrouded I should say—so it’s no longer easy to detect, even for dragons. Also, we had other questions related to it.”
“Such as how to destroy it,” he guessed.
“Indeed. Aeolus was helping us investigate other ruins, some that have been here since before his birth, to try to find all of the answers we sought. He said to be wary of any other dragons we encountered until we were ready to make our move, but I wasn’t wary enough. He had gone off hunting and then to an alliance meeting when Toph came, pretending not to be a dragon, but simply a human whose goals were similar to ours. He worked with us, but he secretly guided us toward the wrong conclusions, and he used his powers to affect our minds.”
Kiadarsa squinted at Trip, and his heart beat a little faster as he wondered if she had sensed his feeble attempt to get her to talk. Had that even done anything?
“I’m not a dragon,” he said dryly, then immediately felt stupid for saying it. As if a sorceress would believe him one under any circumstances.
“No,” she agreed. “I would sense that. I mean, I wouldn’t be fooled again, I don’t think. Toph was very good at dampening his aura and hiding what he was. I just thought he was a human with some dragon blood.”
“But he was a dragon that wanted to ensure you never found the portal?”
“Exactly. I believe now that we may have actually searched the right ruins without knowing it, with him using his magic to hide clues from our eyes.” Her hand strayed to her hip. To a pocket? The one with that page of notes folded up inside? “When Aeolus returned, he knew exactly what Toph was, and he soon saw how he’d been tricking us. He challenged him, even though he was just a bronze.” She looked away, toward the dark porthole. A few snowflakes drifted past it. “The battle was the day before yesterday. The two took their natural dragon form. Right in our camp. It didn’t go well. For the camp or for Aeolus.”
“The gold won,” Trip assumed.
“He might not have if it had been one-on-one. Aeolus was an old and crafty dragon, who had survived many wars. But Tophurnikus had many allies he could call to help. And he did. Dragons who resented the idea of humans disturbing their portal. We—the researchers—all ran to the cave when we sensed them coming. Aeolus told us to. I felt like we were abandoning him, especially when Toph had already injured him, and was up there in the air, wheeling about and cackling into our minds. But Aeolus flew off, trying to lead them from the camp so we could make it to the cave. He’d put some glamour on that cave early on, making it so it would be harder for other dragons to see into it. We made it inside, but not before I sensed his death. Not before I heard the laughter of Tophurnikus. Not before I sensed that they’d razed our camp.”
Jaxi? Can you hear me? Are you getting this?
Kiadarsa had turned back to him, though she gazed at his chest now instead of into his eyes. Trip didn’t know what to make of the story. It seemed to match up with what Dreyak had seen of the camp, of multiple dragons fighting, but why would Kiadarsa go from glaring at him and oozing distrust and hatred to standing before him and confessing all this? Confessing a story that did nothing to make her shine, since she and her colleagues had been duped. Did she have something to gain from telling it? Did she want his sympathy for some reason? Or was it all a lie meant to trick him into revealing something?
Oh, yes, Jaxi said. This is quite entertaining. I’m munching on garlic-roasted pumpkin seeds up here and listening.
Can you tell if she’s lying?
No, I can’t read her. She’s better at bank vaults than you are.
I think everyone is.
Give it time. You only learned the exercise today. Sorcery takes a lifetime to master.
Kiadarsa stepped closer to him, her gaze still toward his chest instead of his eyes. Her demeanor was much different from the confident one she had come in with, or the challenging one from earlier in the day. She stopped less than a foot away from him.
Trip was positive it wasn’t manly to panic when a woman came close, but sweat dampened his palms, and he could feel his heart slamming against his ribs.
Is she trying to seduce me? he asked Jaxi. If a telepathic voice could come out squeaky, he was sure his did.
I’m not sure. This is quite interesting.
Pumpkin seeds interesting?
Kiadarsa rested a hand on his shoulder, her thumb brushing the side of his neck.
Indeed. The seduction guess seems most likely, though I’m not sure what she wants or why she believes you’re a spy. She could just be drawn to you, I suppose.
Drawn to me? Jaxi, women aren’t drawn to me. Trust me, I’d know if I had this power by now. The urge to bolt filled him.
Well, other than Sardelle, have you been around any sorceresses? Women with dragon blood?
I don’t know any sorceresses, and for the other, how would I know?
You’d be able to sense it.
Then no, he said, though he highly doubted he could have sensed anything two weeks ago. Until Jaxi had started giving him these mental exercises, his sixth sense had been erratic.
Kiadarsa raised her eyes, but not all the way to his, just to his lips. If she tried to kiss him, he was going to sprint out of the room. Up to the deck to talk to a normal woman. Rysha. Yes, he longed to run and find her now.
“I’ve told you my lamentable tale,” Kiadarsa murmured. “Will you share with me who you’re working for? I need to know…
I can’t make the same mistake again. My people are counting on me.”
Trip had been prepared to flee, but he made his feet stay rooted to the deck. If he ran now, she would think he was hiding something.
“I am Iskandian,” he said firmly. “I serve King Angulus. Nobody else.”
He expected some sign of disgust from her, but she seemed too busy considering his lips.
“I mistrust Iskandians deeply,” she murmured. “And those with powerful auras who claim to be Iskandians, as well.”
“That sounds like a personal problem.” The flippant words came out before he could think better of them. He didn’t want to make light of the story she’d told him, but all of this was too strange, and he was positive she was toying with him, wanting to use him for some reason.
To his surprise, she chuckled. Then she inhaled deeply, as if she was breathing in his scent.
He found it bewildering. He knew his scent wasn’t anything appealing right now.
“I have to go,” he said, taking a step back.
He would have taken five steps back—or five hundred—at least enough to dislodge her hand from his shoulder, but he bumped against the door.
He expected that hand to dig in, to try and hold him there. But when she looked up, meeting his eyes, she had that scrutinizing look in hers again, as if he were some puzzle she meant to figure out. She drew her hand back and looked at it, then lowered it.
“Yes,” she said, the weird seductive voice shifting back to a more normal tone. “Of course. As do I.”
She stepped toward the door, but he was still standing in front of it. She frowned at him, the challenge back in her eyes. “Let me pass.”
“Of course.” He stepped aside.
She strode out, shutting it behind her.
Trip pushed a hand through his hair. Jaxi, what just happened?
I have some ideas, but I’d like to cogitate on them before sharing. It’s too bad Sardelle isn’t here. She’s more of a historian than I am.
Why would he need a historian to shed light on his women issues?
Since Sardelle isn’t here, you should ask Rysha. She’s a historian, one who didn’t fear studying the magical. Or at least magic related to dragons. I bet she would have some ideas.
I’m not telling her the sorceress wanted to get cuddly with me.
Why not?
Because…
Ah, because you want to get cuddly with her, and she may be upset? Well, if you choose to stay ignorant, there’s nothing I can do about it.
“Wonderful,” Trip muttered and walked out.
8
Rysha rested her hands on the railing of the airship, gazing toward the snow falling from the black clouds obscuring the stars. The flakes dropped straight down and disappeared into darkness below the hull of the craft, the ship’s running lanterns doing little to drive back the night.
How high were they? A thousand feet? Two thousand? Rysha couldn’t make out the icy fields below and wondered how Major Blazer could keep them on course in weather like this.
She shivered inside her parka. She knew she should crawl into the bunk she had been given, burying herself under the pile of furs atop it, but the quiet of the night drew her. There was something magical about being out here, sailing through territory she’d read about but never thought she would visit. If only the constant threat of dragons didn’t make it dangerous.
She imagined being an archaeologist, out there exploring the ruins those dragons had left long ago. Few people had spent much time down here in the perennial cold of the Antarctic, searching for signs of past civilizations, human and otherwise. She wagered there were a lot of temples and caves that mankind had never set foot in.
“Didn’t expect to find you out here, Ravenwood,” came Kaika’s voice from behind her. She ambled up to the railing, the shadows and her fur-trimmed hood hiding her face, only the bright orange tip of one of Blazer’s cigars visible. The sweet tobacco scent mingled with something else—vanilla?—and lingered in the air. “Figured you’d be curled up and sharing body heat with your strapping young captain. I couldn’t help but notice there aren’t any heaters in the cabins. I bet most of the crew sleeps in the boiler room when they’re flying around down here.”
“My strapping young captain? Trip?”
“I haven’t seen you making moon eyes at Duck. Or at me. Those are the only options for captains.”
“No, ma’am, but even if moon-eyeing were appropriate during a mission, Dorfindral wouldn’t approve of it.”
“So, leave him in the boiler room.”
“He doesn’t like being left behind.”
“If that’s true, and he can let you know that, that’s disturbing.” Kaika leaned her elbows against the railing and peered into the night ahead.
“Doesn’t yours give you the feeling it’s… feeling things?”
“Maybe, but I’ve been ignoring it. And keeping it in its box whenever we’re not in battle.” Kaika looked pointedly at the strap Rysha had found that let her keep Dorfindral in its scabbard slung across her back.
“You think I should be doing that?” Since Rysha couldn’t sense dragons coming from a distance, the way Jaxi could—or maybe that was Trip warning them—she’d deemed it wise to never leave the sword out of reach.
“It’s up to you. You know more about those things than I do. But… I’ve seen a friend killed by one. By accident. Someone spoke some of those command words to the sword to get it all riled up, and it’s like a rabid dog once it gets going. Hard to calm it down even with the other command words. ’Course we didn’t know how to tell it to stand down back then, but I’ve still seen Kasandral try to turn on people, even when those words were spoken.”
“Your friend had dragon blood?”
“No, he just got in the way. Between the sword and someone who did. Sardelle, to be exact.”
“I’m being careful, and I’m aware of when it tries to manipulate me.”
“Good.” Kaika withdrew the cigar and offered it to Rysha. “Puff? I won a couple off Blazer in a bet. I never much liked smelling like smoke when there might be enemies around, but it warms you up when the air is cold enough to freeze your nose hairs off.”
Rysha snorted, her nose hairs were doing fine. It was cold, especially when she was used to the temperate, if rainy, climate around the capital, but she didn’t think it was more than ten degrees below freezing. She wouldn’t want to be here in the winter, but that was a few months away.
Still, out of curiosity and some vague sense that soldiers were supposed to smoke and drink together when off-duty, she accepted the cigar.
“Pull the smoke into your mouth, hold it there a bit to enjoy the nuances of the flavor, then exhale through your nostrils. That’s the best way to do it.”
That sounded complicated, but Rysha lifted the cigar to her lips. The vanilla scent did smell appealing. Unfortunately, she inhaled more than she was probably supposed to, and thick warm smoke invaded her lungs. It irritated everything along the route, and she ended up coughing all over the railing.
With tears pricking her eyes, she handed the cigar back.
Kaika chuckled and accepted it. “Takes a few tries to get used to it.”
“Yeah,” Rysha rasped, wiping her eyes. “What was the bet?”
Kaika grinned at her. “This morning, when you were walking on the ice and reading, Blazer wagered you’d fall on your ass at least three times on the way to the cave. I said you wouldn’t.”
Rysha wrinkled her nose, not sure whether to be offended that she’d served as entertainment for the senior officers or pleased that Kaika had bet against her falling.
“I saw you on the obstacle course,” Kaika said. “You only look like you’d be a klutz.”
“Was that… a compliment?”
“I don’t know, but I thank you for not falling.” Kaika drew deeply on the cigar and blew out rings of smoke, clearly getting more out of the experience than Rysha had. “Got a question for you,
my scholarly protégé. Or I guess you would say that I’m seeking some confirmation.”
“Yes?” Rysha arched her eyebrows, glad for a chance to be helpful. That was more appealing than being the subject of bets.
“Jaxi’s not the only reason our new swords want to attack Trip, is she?”
Rysha’s shoulders—and eyebrows—drooped. She didn’t want to talk about Trip behind his back, and she also didn’t want to divulge his secrets. “Between Jaxi and the new soulblade, he’s carrying a lot of magic around.”
Kaika slanted her a flat look.
Rysha sighed. Did she truly have to confirm this for her? It sounded like she already knew.
“It took me a while to twig to it,” Kaika went on. “Because of Jaxi. But looking back, I’ve gotten that feeling from him since the beginning—that he’s a little odd.”
“He’s not odd.”
Kaika chuckled. “Don’t think I’ve run into any sorcerers yet, just sorceresses, so I don’t have a basis for comparison, but he reminds me a little of Phelistoth and Bhrava Saruth when they’re walking around in human form. They can pass for normal if people aren’t paying much attention, but there is this sense of otherness about them that puts you on edge. Of course, Bhrava Saruth can turn on his charms. Hm, that’s not the right word. Allure, maybe? Anyway, when he turns it on and crooks a finger at you, you’re perfectly willing to have sex with him, no matter what stupid things he’s saying about you being one of his worshipful followers.”
Rysha didn’t know what to say to that. She had never met either of Iskandia’s ally dragons, in human form or any other, and she hadn’t met any sorcerers, either. She’d barely met Sardelle, and she wasn’t sure if she had any kind of allure that went beyond standard human beauty. Obviously, General Zirkander was drawn to her, but was it because of dragon blood in her veins? Rysha had read of such things. It had generally referred to dragons, but the humans who had been direct descendants of dragons had apparently had a modicum of their allure too. As with magic, the farther removed from the dragon one was, the less powerful it was.