Ezeru

“Here…it’s the tea. For your lungs.” Himika dropped a cloth bag in my hand and then she looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “Be very careful. Don’t get cocky. You stand out.”

“I swear I will return,” I said. “I’ve never had anyone to look at me like that before.”

She threw her arms around my chest and squeezed me tight. I put my arms around her in return. It really was difficult to say goodbye to such a girl. Even the most glorious afterlife would be pointless without her.

Aurekdel gave me a brief, solemn bow. “Be very careful.”

“She just said that.”

“Well, it bears repeating.” He shook a finger. “I know you want revenge on that woman. I do too. That feeling can be quite powerful. Or perhaps some noble whim might strike you. Just keep your head down. Gather what information you can, turn as many rock dragons as you can easily manage without arousing suspicion. That’s it. If you can get Oszin or Seron it would be a bonus, but that will be much more difficult. Back in a week, no matter what.”

“I understand, Aurek. I’ll see you next week.” I took off the black crown and handed it to him. “Keep this for me.”

The second I started to turn, Aurek gave me a brief embrace too. Before he drew back, he dug his claws into my arms. Then he stepped back to console Himika, who was trying to look brave but really just looked small to me. The thought that I might never feel her touch or hear her whisper in my ear or taste her sweet body, and I almost regretted that I had ever suggested it.

I left in a hurry now. I had already said goodbye to Peri and everyone else.

The rock dragons were ready to move out. They had some meager supplies packed to their backs, but they didn’t need much. They could create armor from the rocks around them and hunt for food anywhere.

Outside the walls of the village, I took off my clothes and stashed them inside an abandoned barn. I would turn into a dragon for the duration of the trip. I was larger than the others, so I would stick out, but I suspected in a group, I could still blend in.

I had only taken the very best of my rock dragons, for a band of about twenty-five, like a small tribe that might naturally be roaming the caves.

“Remember, if we see other rock dragons, we tell them that the rock dragon king is outside the gates in the human town,” I said. “But you don’t tell them that I am the rock dragon king.”

“Yes, yes.”

I wasn’t used to being in dragon form at all. As a child, Dvaro didn’t like to see me as a human, but he liked me even less as a dragon. I realized my dragon legs weren’t used to running on all fours, so I was always getting out of breath. One of the older females started bringing me handfuls of bitter herbs to eat, scolding me, “You weak dragon!”

Then the other dragons got mad at her. “You speak bad words to our own king? King Ezeru is first king and best king! We never had best king before. Pretty big king, too.”

“I tell him truth,” she said haughtily. “He need become strong.”

“I’m becoming stronger,” I said. “I’m not used to being a dragon so my body needs time. It doesn’t happen in one day.”

“Strong dragon king needed, I say,” the old woman huffed.

Nuru dashed forward and growled at the old woman. “King is strong human to make human baby with queen,” she said. “Then we have peace because king and queen make special baby to share.”

“Ahh…” The old woman nodded.

“That made more sense than what I said?” I muttered.

“I know,” Nuru said. “I have baby.”

“You’re not pregnant, are you?”

“Mmhm,” she said, holding her tail high.

“Then you shouldn’t have come to fight.”

“Oh no, I like fight. Human girl not fight, but I fight.”

“Human girl wanted to fight…,” I said. “But we wanted to keep her safe because babies are important. Your baby is important too.”

“Okay. But King? Can I have marriage dress now like pretty dragon?”

“You’re doing it out of order, Nuru. You’re supposed to get married first and then have the baby. But I suppose…maybe.”

As usual, traveling with the rock dragons was like somewhere between managing small children and a pack of wolves. When we ran into a big angry furry animal in the forest, with claws and fangs, as large as I was in my dragon form, the rock dragons killed it themselves and tore it up into pieces to cook on the fire that night. They even cut off the fur pelt to tan and tied up the skin in some trees to dry out.

“We come back later,” Nuru said.

Times like this I realized I didn’t always know what they could actually do when they weren’t trapped in a castle.

Although the human guards expected us, we avoided them anyway, moving over the rocky terrain where no human would choose to travel. I had looked at some rough maps of the entrance to the gate, but for centuries this area had been an abandoned ruin, the caverns considered too dangerous to enter. Rogue, twisted rock dragons prowled around on the hunt. They were corrupted by magic and I couldn’t get through to them. They would even attack my dragons. All we could do was put them out of their misery.

Inside the caverns, I put my hand on the wall and tried to read the rocks to find the gate. I sensed a maze of tunnels. Intentional, perhaps? In the south, there was only one true gate, but here there was no single gate. We came to a huge ceremonial entrance carved from the rock, much larger than the southern gate. No wonder this was called “The Mouth”. Stone dragon statues lined the wide tunnel. I sensed many other passages running parallel. I knew this was the primary gate where trade used to flow, so it made sense that many roads would come through. The priestess must be able to seize control of the entire cavern in times of war.

Some of the rock dragons held glow crystals, but mostly we made our way in the dark, comforted by the presence of our element. Here, we encountered other rock dragons, and my rock dragons would all gather around and chitter to them about me. I had trouble convincing them the first time when it was me by myself, but they had a herd mentality, so once you got a large group on your side, I didn’t need to do much else.

We evaded a few guards easily. They didn’t pay much attention to a few roaming rock dragons, just as I suspected. It wasn’t long before I thought I caught a familiar scent.

Oszin?

Soon, we found a small camp, where the smell was strong, and now it was only a matter of following it. I chittered behind me, urging my dragons to be quick and silent, and not to scare Oszin, since he might not know us at first.

And then, I was turning a corner and there he was, with two mist dragons close to him: a girl and a slightly older man with a missing hand, the stump wrapped in bandages. They looked nervous but I didn’t sense any aggression between them.

“Eek! What a huge rock dragon,” the girl said.

Oszin looked all right…so far. He had a sword drawn.

“Oszin,” I said. “It’s Ezeru.” Thank the gods, he could speak, and he sounded fine.

“Ezeru?” He exhaled with relief. “Guys, it is him. It’s Ezeru.”

“I can bring you home,” I said. “The queen will be so happy.”

“Gods, I don’t believe it. Did you come to rescue me?”

“Of course. You and Seron.”

“How did you get in here?”

“No one pays attention to rock dragons,” I said. “They’re everywhere.”

“How is Himika?”

“She’s pregnant, but I’m afraid the child isn’t yours. She had a cycle after you left.”

“That’s—wonderful! I mean, I’m just happy she’s all right.”

“You look very thin… We’ll have to catch you some good food.”

“Being thrown in a cell for a few months will do that… I just want some food from the surface. Rice, bread—anything.”

“Oh, there’s been so much bread in Istim, of every kind you can think of. It’s very good.”

“This is Ijaru and Morhu. They helped me escape. I’ll tell you that story later, but—they’re friends. They’re mist dragons who rebelled against Izeria.”

“What about…Seron?” I asked.

Oszin’s relief and happiness turned quickly to a shadowed expression. “I don’t know. He’s…I mean…there’s still a little of him in there, but—she—did something—”

Just thinking about it made my chest tighten. Oszin stopped when he heard me struggling for breath. “Sorry.”

“It’s…fine. It’s my weakness.”

“It’s horrifying, what she does,” Morhu said. “Now matter how strong a man is, the mist can destroy everything that made him. She could kill your friend if she keeps dosing him like that.”

“Damn. I wanted to bring Seron home too, but everyone will certainly be happy to see you. You need food and rest—and someone to tend to your wound, Morhu.” I snapped my fingers at one of the rock dragon tribe healers, Shiku, who was already creeping up to him with her little claws spread eagerly.

“I heal now. I have herb,” she said.

“No, not now. Plus, you must ask first.”

She looked at Morhu. “I heal now.”

“Shiku, we need to head back home where he can get sleep,” I said. “I’m sorry. They love to keep busy.”

Ijaru giggled. “I’ve never seen such friendly rock dragons!”

“You have it right,” Oszin said. “The two of us can’t save Seron. I already had him alone. He allowed me to escape, but…like I said…he’s not really all there.”

“She has been merciless in forcing him under her control,” Morhu said. “Your friend may be lost to you, I’m afraid.”

I couldn’t handle that thought right now. “Let’s…go,” I wheezed.

Himika was quite right about her healing tea being needed as much for calming the mind as for the lungs. Izeria, I realized, had become my great weakness. As soon as I thought of her I was on the brink of panic, even when I knew logically that I had escaped and was with friends.

We hadn’t made it far before the rock dragons stopped and started sniffing and moving warily. They often sensed things a moment before I did.

Aknu chittered. Danger.

A moment later, I heard it too. They were coming from behind us.

“Someone’s coming,” I told Oszin.

“I guess you showed at the perfect time, huh?” he said wryly. He grabbed Ijaru. “Get back.” Ijaru and her father moved behind the defensive line.

I looked at Oszin. “We need to be aggressive. They could use mist on us. I’m going to try and seal the tunnel.”

“I’m ready.”

I started shaping the rock into jagged spikes, up from the ground. I didn’t have enough time to do more than that before the mist dragons came around the tunnel, but at least it kept them from charging us. We rushed down the tunnel while they struggled over the spikes.

“There’s a larger cave behind us,” I said. “If we can reach it, the mist won’t be as potent. Climb on my back.”

“Oh—okay.” Oszin grabbed on, and I shaped some of my rock armor around his hands to help secure him, although not so much that he couldn’t get free. Ijaru and Morhu turned into dragons as well and we all ran, but the tunnel was tight, as so many of the tunnels were. We were only as fast as our fastest members. Morhu was weak and missing a hand.

I roared a warning of danger.

Some of the mist dragons had nearly caught us and I started to smell something mild and sweet. This mist would weaken us. I shoved my nose into Morhu’s tail, forcing him forward. He stumbled and fell, but I broke free into the larger cave. Oszin slid off my back. Morhu limped out of the way. The bandages had mostly broken off his wounds when he transformed, and Shiku was fussing over him.

Ijaru screamed as the mist dragons burst out of the tunnel and into the cave, quickly surrounding us. They were all in human form. There wasn’t enough room here for them all to turn dragon.

“We’re here to arrest Ezeru and bring him to the queen! Ezeru, surrender and no one else will be hurt.”

It looked like my dragons outnumbered them two to one. Well, I could handle most of them on my own if I could avoid a potent dose of mist. Oszin nodded at me.

“Never!” I said. “Attack now!”

I could already see their leader braced to give a command to release mist on us. I guessed the mist they absorbed would weaken us. They’d already tried it and I doubted they would have anything else up their sleeve. Of course, that was bad enough. I tore open the rock wall and drove spikes through the heart of one of them. He had stayed too close to the wall.

“Shit! I told you guys, don’t get too close to the rocks!” the captain said.

They lost their form a little in trying to evade my powers. They could avoid the walls, but much of the ground was also made of rock. I touched the rock beneath me and felt the shape of it radiate outward ten feet along the floor of the cave, shaping it to grab another man by his feet so he couldn’t move and was an easy target for Oszin’s blade.

“You freak!” the captain said.

It didn’t take much to remind me why I hated mist dragons.

“Your queen wanted me to be powerful. She got her wish,” I said.

The rock dragons were joining in the attack, using all their skill of forming packs and communicating with each other with chitters and growls that the mist dragons couldn’t understand. They helped scatter the mist dragons and drive them toward Oszin and me. Oszin moved quickly, keeping the dragons distracted.

“Oszin! Get him!” I shouted, seeing a mist dragon moving toward Aknu from behind. Aknu was my second in command at this point; he was sharp enough to direct the other rock dragons and he usually handled it well enough that I could focus on my own magic.

It was inevitable that once the initial barrage shook out, some of the mist dragons would be able to release clouds of mist into the cavern. As soon as I breathed it in I felt my energy drain out of me. The mist smelled sweet, pleasant even, if you didn’t know what it was for.

My breath came shorter.

Don’t panic. How much of this is in your mind? Fight it off. You’ve taken care of these dragons and now you’ve brought them here to fight. You have to keep them safe.

Oszin raced to block an attack from one of the mist dragons against a rock dragon.

You have nothing to fear from Izeria anymore. This is what true friends look like.

I climbed the rock wall, getting out of the mist clouds, and sensed the rock above me. When I touched rock, it communicated to me—telling me where it was strong and where it was weak, where it began and ended, how old it was, where water flowed around it, and how easy it would be to shape.

I needed to get rid of all these mist dragons so none of them would report back. I sensed a weak rock above one of the soldiers, and quickly broke it off from the ceiling. The huge stone slammed down on him. Rock dragons immediately swarmed it, adding weight to crush him in case he still lived, but he looked dead to me. Still, I was proud of them for trying.

I took out another two quickly. We only had a few left. I could see how Oszin and my dragons were dragging from the mist.

“You—retreat.” A voice suddenly spoke authoritatively behind us.

It was Seron.

“Seron!” I dropped down from the wall, landing heavily on all fours. “Seron, that bitch Izeria has been controlling you.”

“Ezeru—” Oszin’s voice had a hint of warning that said, We should probably quit while we’re ahead.

Seron was wearing a heavy leather coat and boots in the mist dragon style, but it was the look in his eyes that made me feel as if I was staring at a stranger. It was Seron’s face, but not his eyes. I knew what sort of damage Izeria could do.

“I’m going to kill your king,” Seron said to me. “But I’ll kill you first.”

“You’ll break Himika’s heart. Please—you have to remember her. I can’t kill you, Seron.”

Seron drew his sword and took a step toward me. “Clear out,” he said. “If he wants to fight me like a dragon, I need room.”

“Coru!” the captain called at one of his men.

The man just laughed. “Not yet.”

I looked behind me to see what Coru was doing that he wouldn’t follow an order, just in time to see him crouched in the shadows, firing an arrow at Aknu. Aknu had been on a higher perch to direct the others. Now I watched him tumble from the rock. He turned into his human-type form as he fell, which told me that even as he lost consciousness, Aknu was still pretty clever. It would be easier to carry him out in human form. Nuru screamed, rushing toward his collapsed body.

Coru ran toward the captain, but I flung out an arm and the entire wall broke loose and slammed into him, an avalanche of rock that buried him out of sight in an instant.

I staggered back a step. Even my magic wasn’t unlimited. “Seron…,” I gasped. “You can heal. Please—remember. Help me with him.”

“The queen wants you,” he said, holding out a hand. “Come with me and I’ll heal the rock dragon.”

“Seron.” I looked back at Aknu’s fallen body. Nuru had rushed to him, wailing, as Shiku hurried to try and heal him. But all Shiku could do was give him herbs and bandages, not the magic that saved lives so effectively.

“My name is Tanu,” Seron said.

I shuddered with the horror of what had been done to him. If Izeria had enough mist left, she could turn my powers against Himika, Aurekdel and the rest.

Nuru lifted her head. “You our king! You stay! Aknu would die for you!”

“Damn it!” I backed up, cursing loudly. “Damn your queen to die, and to suffer first,” I told the mist dragons.

“You are a traitor to the queen,” Seron said, and he ran toward me.

If Seron was really lost to us, if he was really willing to kill me, then…

This might be the end. If he killed me or I killed him, it would ruin the brief, wonderful happiness we had enjoyed.

I had one chance to stop this. I had to summon up more power than ever before, and more quickly than ever before, but at least I had already been getting to know this cavern over the course of the battle. The more I spoke to the rock, the more it spoke back. With a roar of desperation, I shaped the ceiling to the floor and the floor to the ceiling, forming a wall of rock between Seron and the rest of us.

“He still lives,” Shiku said. “But he badly hurt.”

“How badly?”

“Badly.” She took some medicine and linen from a pack and quickly tended to the wounds. “But such happy human bandages,” she said, pleased. “So soft.” Shiku always said ‘happy’ to mean anything that was good.

“Love hurt! My heart hurt too!” Nuru wailed, caressing his black hair with her scaled paw. The rock dragons didn’t use their human forms very much. He seemed so small, like a child, except for his rather gnomish face. I wondered if my child would look like that. Even though the rock dragons were pretty ugly by any human standard, in that moment I felt a surge of protective love for him and I didn’t care.

“Oszin, put him on my back and let’s hurry.”

“Yes.” Oszin slung Aknu over one shoulder, climbed up my back, and settled him there. They were pretty heavy together, but I moved as quickly as I could.

As I rushed through the tunnels, I felt a small hand weakly pat my back.

I stopped. My heart plummeted. “Aknu?”

“He’s awake,” Oszin said. “I think he might need to rest.”

Nuru rushed toward him, climbing up my back the moment I stopped. “Aknu love! Please hold on.”

We were forced to stop and rest, making camp. Shiku did her best to treat Aknu, shooing me away because she said, “You are too dark in the mind. Bad for healing.”

Aknu’s skin was very pale. Usually Nuru was hovering around my food and bothering me, asking questions—now she was just resting beside him, keeping vigil, not saying a word. I kept thinking of that expression on Seron’s face.

In the morning, I made eggs for Oszin and me, while Ijaru and Morhu were content to eat river grass and raw shellfish with the rock dragons. I knew Oszin would expect something a little more human. We had been too tired to speak last night. Now we met eyes over the cookfire, and Oszin looked pained although he forced a smile. “It’s funny watching you cook in dragon form.”

“He might be lost to us,” I said, in a low voice. “The mist can change a person permanently. I know this…”

“Moth is stubborn,” Oszin said. “She won’t accept that. She’d have to see it with her own eyes.”

“He might kill her.”

Oszin groaned. “I’ll protect her, but I can’t stop her from doing what she wants. Aurekdel is still the acting king in Seron’s absence, right?”

“Yes.”

“Seems like Izeria did something to him to make him hate Aurekdel,” Oszin said. “They’ve always had some arguments. It’s like she stripped him down to that anger and nothing else.”

“Maybe they have to fight, then. There will have to be some sort of reckoning. The mist can’t be undone.”

“Seron would win,” Oszin said. “He would kill Aurekdel. Unless Himika ordered us to kill him, and we all fought against him.” He stared at the nice lizard egg I scrambled for him.

“You’ll need your strength,” I urged. “Himika is the queen. I suppose you’re right. She might have to choose. We can’t protect her from everything, as much as we might want to. A terrible thing has happened, and if Seron won’t listen to reason…then we might have to do the unthinkable, but Seron is Himika and Aurekdel’s champion, and so…it wouldn’t be fair for us to make that decision.”

“My poor girl,” Oszin said.

“She’s very strong,” I said.

“No one’s that strong.” Oszin shoved some lizard egg in his mouth and made a face. But I was very glad to have him at my side, except that I wasn’t sure how to tell him about certain events that occurred since his departure.

“In the time since you left,” I said. “Himika…and I—have mated many times.”

Oszin shrugged, still grimacing so I wasn’t sure whether his distress came from me or the lizard egg. “I’m not—surprised, exactly.”

“You weren’t there so I couldn’t ask if you wanted to fight for her hand.”

Oszin laughed sarcastically. “I’ve already had to get used to Aurek and Seron. I guess at this point, what’s one more?”

“I wouldn’t have intended to pursue a married human girl,” I said. “But it was…an urge that went beyond sense.”

“I’m glad Moth hasn’t been too lonely,” he said.

Nuru walked over to me, interrupting us with the expression on her face. Her posture was low to the ground, deferential and defeated. She patted my leg with one paw. “Brave king. Aknu wish to talk with you.”

“Nuru…” My throat closed up with dread.

“Hurry.”