Chapter Eleven
Celeste
I shivered against the wind, once again finding myself drenched and freezing in Sigisvult’s company. I didn’t know what in the world we’d just encountered, but it terrified me. Half dragon men were hot, but murderous swamp ladies were, well, just unpleasant.
I was happy, however, that we had found Caridan so easily.
The flight back wasn’t too long before we were sitting in the company of those we’d been seeking for weeks.
The view from the small camp was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. I stood in the mass of dust and rock and stared up into the deep above, planetary rings infecting the sky, large and shimmering like I’d never seen.
Sigisvult came up beside me and grabbed my hand and looked down at me with a handsome smile as we approached the fire.
A blonde woman stood by the raging flames. She wore a heavy cloak and had long masses of blonde curls falling forward. She looked over at Caridan with a familiar, sad smile and didn’t quite seem to know what to do with herself.
Though a little older now, forties at least, from pictures I saw at her mother’s, I knew it was Ariella.
Besides her there were other humans afoot, researchers from Riddell sent to populate and cultivate the land. I looked down at the crumbling soil beneath us and wondered exactly how bad a job they had been doing in the last 20 years.
I breathed deeply and took a seat by the campfire, Sigisvult taking a seat next to me.
“We meet again,” came the high tones of Ariella as she offered a pleading smile to Ikar.
The white shifter nodded his hello to her, but refused to sit.
For his part, Vordamm was already digging into a bowl of mystery meat one of the scientists handed him. If he cared about the dramatic events that had clearly once unfolded between Ikar and Caridan he didn’t show it.
Those from Riddell were kind enough to give us space as we familiarized ourselves with those once banished from Udora, the lot of us sitting around the fire that raged near makeshift huts nearby. A small camp of colonists.
“You have a nephew,” Ikar said suddenly, looking over at the blonde woman nearby.
Ariella looked over at the white shifter and beamed, her eyes growing big and blue and endlessly pleased. “Meghan?” she smiled.
Ikar nodded. “Poammenus, a red dragon.”
Ariella raised her brows in small recognition and then looked to her mate. Caridan’s eyes shifted toward his chosen and then quickly to the ground at the mention.
“It’s Brenem’s,” Ikar confirmed.
“I don’t suppose you came all this way to tell us that,” Caridan said tersely, crossing his arms and leaning back against one of the huts nearest to the fire.
“You know, there’s a legend about you,” Vordamm suddenly interjected through slurps of his stew. “You guys, I should say,” he corrected, pointing wildly between the two.
“Is that so?” Caridan said skeptically with a slight raise of his brow.
“Rebels say your kid’s gonna come and kill us all, the Koth district. Retake Udora,” the orange dragon clarified, but it was clear that the couple had no idea what he was talking about.
“What do you mean retake?” the purple shifter asked, concern washing over his tone as he looked to Ariella.
Ikar raised a hand to Vordamm in annoyance and sighed into his hands before closing his claws into a steeple. “Rebels have broken out in Udora. They’ve been killing us for years… attacking our lands. Legend goes that a child will be brought back from a human and a Weredragon. A female.”
Caridan flinched, and Ariella immediately stood, making her way to him protectively.
“The girl will come back and rage fire on the land. The rebels believe she’ll pave the way as the new leader and take over. And we happen to know…” he raised his brows unsurely, “that you have a girl.”
Ariella suddenly let out an insincere laugh and placed her hand on Caridan’s shoulder. “And you have an interest in bringing our child back as your leader?”
“I have no interest in that,” Ikar said honestly.
“I do,” I piped up, rubbing my hands together for warmth in front of the fire.
“No,” Ikar snapped at me. “In fact, Bromis’ son took over.”
Caridan raised his brows in recognition but said nothing.
“I’m interested in you,” the white shifter said. “And only you.”
“You were the one who banished me,” Caridan enunciated through a snarl. “Do you remember that?”
“Do you remember why?” Ikar seethed back, the hairs near in his tail rising up in anger.
“I’m sorry you came all this way,” Ariella interjected slowly, looking around the group of us unsurely. “But we have no female.”
Ikar met her eyes in some sort of showdown, and I suddenly felt wildly uncomfortable. I looked at Sigisvult, who was also looking agitated, and then over to the blonde woman.
“You sure about that?” I pressed.
The blonde gave me a look I’d only ever seen replicated by my mother, a look that said I was truly in trouble. She seemed to scathe at my words and set her jaw angrily. “Pretty sure, yeah.”
“Because,” I tapped my nose and thought for a moment. “I’m pretty sure you do.”
“We do,” Caridan spat. “Two.”
“See!” I cheered. “That wasn’t so hard!”
Ikar looked over at the shifter in surprise and looked around the camp uncomfortably. “Twins?” he asked, and Caridan gave a nod in return. “Both breathe fire?”
Caridan huffed his acknowledgment and then snapped, “But you’re not getting them.”
“I’ve heard enough,” Sigisvult suddenly quipped, annoyed as ever. “You’re not willing to come back and help your own people from annihilation? Then I say let you and your wife rot in this blackened deathtrap of a planet.”
“Hey!” I scolded, frowning deeply at the shifter. “Raise your hand if you’re not helping.”
“Sigisvult!” I shouted, causing the shifter to stand and tower over me. “Shut up!”
“Do you know what we’ve done to find you? How far we’ve come?” the blue shifter yelled.
“Do I know?!” Caridan yelled back, jolting toward my chosen and roaring in anger. “Of course I know! I’ve known the exact distance from the day they banished me here!”
“You shamed your people,” Sigisvult spat, literally. “And you won’t come back to redeem yourself.”
“That’s right,” Caridan seethed. “I won’t.”
“Hey!” I yelled again, stepping up between them. The blue shifter stormed off into one of the nearby huts. I awkwardly followed Sigisvult into his makeshift home, a small hut in the midst of a curious city on a new planet, and gave him a piece of my mind.
“You’re not helping!” I yelled, shoving him.
“He’s not helping!” he corrected. “Why did we even come here? I thought this guy was looking for some kind of salvation. And what about his kids? He won’t even let us talk to them or see them. Hell, we don’t even know if any of them can really shoot fire!”
I rolled my eyes. “Look, at the very least, he saved us from that crazy swamp lady, and he deserves a little respect!”
We continued to argue this way for some time until I walked out.
By the time I reached the fire again, everyone from my crew had left.
The weather was even-keeled, with just a hint of humidity lingering in the air from the ceaseless fog. We sat by the fire, kept awake by the sounds of creatures nestling in trees and insects burrowing and chirping across the island.
I walked back out to the fire and saw Ariella and Caridan were the only ones left, huddled together and talking. I watched his features, still unreadable, but softer and more disappointed than they were a while ago.
Two shifters emerged from the shadows, both purple Weredragons, hiding near the shabby huts that the scientists had made their homes.
The male looked like Caridan, dark hair and purple scutes and scales. The girl, though, was white in color. She had natural blonde, curly hair, like her mother. The kind of hair that was so blonde it was almost white, her brows disappearing into her deeply tanned skin.
It was almost jarring to see a female Weredragon. I’d never heard of one before. But maybe the legend was true. Maybe she was ready to come and save Udora… or save the Rebels.
Both looked around 20 or so, somewhere around my age. The boy seemed shy and reserved, held back. He didn’t know the competitive nature of Udora, didn’t know the arrogance and strength he should have been parading around. I stared deeply at him and then thought on Sigisvult.
Maybe it was better this way.
Maybe Caridan was right and bringing his children back to Udora would breed nothing but contempt.
But then, I looked at the girl.
She was regal and ethereal as she took long strides over to her father. The silver of her scales reflected against the firelight, and she knelt down in front of Caridan on both knees, taking her hand into hers.
They exchanged a look, her slender wings never retracting even as she sat, allowing half of their mass to lay on the strange, crumbling ground beneath us.
She craned her neck to look at me. “What happens if we don’t come?” she asked in a deeper voice than I was expecting.
“Fhalanae,” Caridan scolded firmly, the anger building in his countenance.
“I, uh,” I stammered, suddenly confused as to how I became the person to ask such things. “I guess they die. The alliance with Earth will be severed and…” I shrugged helplessly. “Maybe they go back to taking women from Earth and slaughtering our men.”
“Maybe?”
“Most likely,” I nodded. “That means women like your mother won’t have a choice. They’ll just be taken and used.”
The young shifter stared at me direly for a moment and then looked back up to her father.
“My life” he paused and looked over at me, “has come down to a series of moments.”
Ariella watched the purple shifter as he nervously wrung his hands. He looked at me, bewildered and suddenly lost in thought.
The minutes dragged on in a comfortable silence before he continued, “Moments of regret, anger, hurt,” he explained casually, counting his fingers as he did so, “Moments where I’ve changed everything, where I’ve ruined everything, where I’ve saved everything. We’re all made up of moments. You want to make sure they’re good ones.”
Fhalanae nodded at his statement and smiled weakly as she said, “We can change everything.”
Caridan brushed his hand against his daughter’s shoulder. “And this is what you want me to change?”
Fhalanae didn’t relent. Her hands were pale, and her breath ghosted in the air. “It’s the only thing worth changing.”
Caridan’s face turned to a pained expression, and he blinked hard. “Some would say that love is stronger than war.” He trailed off. “That to keep your family alive, safe, content. That is what is worth doing.”
“It isn’t,” I piped up. “It isn’t the only thing worth doing.”
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes; the outcome of my actions ended lives and forced others to live with the scars.”
I nodded, but he didn’t know me. I was the kind of girl who had her mind set on something and would never relent. If I didn’t want to do something I didn’t do it, regardless of the consequences, and if I had her mind bent on a course or action there was no changing it.
Ariella leaned over to Caridan, their faces just inches apart as she whispered to him, secrets that I wasn’t allowed to hear.
“Look,” he said, searching for a more convincing tone, “I just, I’ve done this already… Just let someone come with me without thinking about anything else. How am I supposed to make my children do the same?”
“Don’t you want them to know Udora?” I asked.
“They know Chavatov,” he said. “And that’s enough.”
I watched them for a moment and wrung my hands several times before addressing Caridan for the last time. “Caridan, I’m asking for your help, but I will do this without it.”
He stared at me intensely, rubbing his thumb across his knuckles carelessly.
“We need you,” I reiterated. “You don’t have to stay if you want to continue your work here,” I shrugged. “But, give us one day… one day to make up for everything you are torturing yourself over. One day to save your people. I promise you won’t regret it.”
“I’ll go,” Fhalanae said firmly, standing up in front of her father, her white dress pristine and billowing behind her like some sort of hero. I stared at her in awe and nodded my head.
Caridan grabbed her arm, but she jerked it away.
I liked her already.
“It feels right,” she said just as firmly to her father. “I can feel it.”
With that statement, the twin child walked up, looking at me curiously and then at his sister.
“Then I’m going as well,” he stated.
Caridan let out a frustrated sigh and stared at his daughter, then looked over at me. “This wasn’t what I was expecting when I woke up today,” he said with a defeated sigh.
“What can I say?” Ariella smiled. “They’re just like their father.”
I gave a cordial nod, and within a few more minutes I entered Sigisvult’s tent. We’d argued so strongly before at his lack of etiquette that I didn’t even bother making conversation. I slept on the strange, hard ground all night and he never picked me up or even woke me up.
The next day was spent briefly traversing the landscape of Chavatov before making out way back to Udora. Caridan, his daughter Fhalanae, and his son Bozaldras all met us at the shuttle station, and by nightfall, we were already gone. Ariella, of course, joined us.
The four stayed to themselves mostly, though I watched Fhalanae make her elegant and graceful way over to Sigisvult.
We still weren’t speaking, not since the fire.
“Hello,” she said slowly as she took a seat across from the deep blue shifter.
“Glad you decided to join us,” Sigisvult said casually, extending a drink her way, eyeing the room slowly to see if Caridan was nearby.
Fhalanae declined the gesture and took a deep, nervous breath.
“You ever used your power before?” he asked.
She nodded. “Father has us train, just in case.”
“In case Ravayarus emerges from the water?” he said with an unmistakable flirtation in his eyes. I watched the gesture in horror and widened my eyes, listening on.
“Something like that,” the girl laughed. She tapped her hand along the sleek countertop and curved one leg over the other, leaning in to Sigisvult. “So, what’s it like?”
“What?” he chuckled lowly. “Seeing a female shifter or Udora?”
Fhalanae thought on it, tapping her fingers seductively against her mouth as she glanced at my chosen. She looked him over and offered a devious smile as she said, “Both.”
“Udora is beautiful,” he said easily, throwing back another sip of his drink before eyeing the girl with a drunken lust. “Mountains and spires, mossy grounds, blue skies. Nothing like Chavatov.”
“It has its good sides, too,” the girl defended lightly, spinning in her stool.
“We have beautiful waters that shimmer and sparkle. And hey, no monsters in sight,” he quipped.
The girl flashed her teeth to him at the comment and said, “I can’t wait to see it. Where I come from.”
“You’ll love it,” he assured and then leaned back to get a better look at her. “I can… show you, if you like.”
“I think I would like that very much.” The two locked eyes and I grit my teeth hard together. Sigisvult set his hands flat on the counter unsurely before reaching over and grabbing hers.
My heart sank.
“And what about me?” the white Weredragon asked, her wings fluttering at the question in the same way a girl might play with her hair to get a man’s attention. It made me feel sick.
“Beautiful, too,” he said with absolute wonderment. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You are something otherworldly.”
Her face flushed and she looked down as she smiled bashfully.
“But I’m not,” she corrected. “I’m from your world.”
“And we can’t wait to have you back.”
My heart raced as the pair continued their shameless flirtation and I stormed into the corridors below, pointedly ignoring Vordamm and Ikar on the way down. Vordamm went to chase me, but as his eyes caught sight of his friend, he stopped cold in his tracks.
“Celeste!” he called, and I stopped but never turned to face him. “He’s just… an idiot,” he said uncomfortably.
I turned around and smiled as if it was no big deal, but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.