TEN
“Mercedes! Wake up, Mercedes! I want to talk with you.”
My brow furrowed, but I didn’t open my eyes. I had been reading Abuela’s journal when a headache had started to pull at the back of my mind. I had decided to meditate, something that Dwyllverys had been encouraging ever since I could sit up for long periods of time.
“Hello! Mercedes, I know you can hear me!”
Slowly, I cracked open a lid and I saw the same familiar, twitching, unidentifiable visage of my nemesis.
“What do you want?” I hissed.
I wasn’t dreaming, I knew that much, which meant that the faceless man was visiting me in reality. Something he had only done once before, in that hot spring bath so long ago.
“Oh no, no, no. I want your full attention. Come one, both eyes open. It’s not like you’re anywhere interesting, unfortunately.”
I sighed and complied. The man was dressed differently than before, in lush, royal colors and fabric that looked far too expensive to be anything but noble.
“You’re with the Prince,” I surmised with a weary sigh.
“Hah! Yes. Very good. But that’s not what I wanted to share with you!” He was about as happy as I had ever seen him, almost giddy in his excitement. “On a side note, I don’t suppose you could have been somewhere with at least a modicum of useful information in it.”
“Nope. I guess I’m just inconsiderate that way.”
“No matter! It doesn’t really effect this either way.” He held out a hand to me. “Come. I want you to see my side of things.”
I stared at the offered hand, suspicion practically shouting at me with a megaphone. But at the same time, I was intrigued. We had never touched except in violence. What would happen if we willingly made contact?
So, I did it.
My fingers slid into his hand, and surprisingly his skin was warm. I don’t know why, but I had almost expected it to be cold and slimy to the touch, much like his personality. One moment, we were in the healing room, the next, the world recolored itself and shifted, until I was standing in one place I had never wanted to return to.
I stumbled back, although I didn’t know when I had even stood, and I could feel my heart rate skyrocket.
“What are you doing? Why are we—” I stopped short, the sound of my voice surprising me. Instead of my usual tone, my voice was lilting, almost like a sigh. I sounded like… like…him.
“It’s startling, isn’t it?” My eyes jerked back to the faceless man, and the difference was almost shocking. I still couldn’t define his features, but unlike every other time, he sounded as if he was actually there. Unlike me. “Meeting outside of the dream state is always a bit tricky. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish what’s real and what isn’t. But I want you to know that everything you’re about to see is real.” He tugged on my hand gently. “This way.”
Strangely, I followed him. I knew the most plausible reaction would be to rip away and run, run, run until I was back in my own body, but I felt anchored by our connected palms. Besides, I shouldn’t pass up an opportunity to know what the faceless man was up to—even if he was willfully showing me this, it didn’t mean that I couldn’t spy a detail that he hadn’t planned on.
We walked past empty cell after empty cell, and I was sure that this was somehow a trap, until we reached the same one that I had just escaped from.
It had a new occupant, and a cry punched its way out of my throat as I recognized the blond hair of the Dragon Prince.
“Gael!” I cried, rushing forward. But the faceless man yanked me back. Tears sprung into my eyes and rage pooled in my belly. The golden warrior was stripped of all his finery, save for the blood-soaked pants that clung to his frame. He was strung up a dozen ways from Sunday, with chains about his wrists, ankles, middle and neck. Worst of all, was the open, gaping wound in his side, blood still lazily trickling from it to drip onto the ground.
“See! What did I tell you?” He was as gleeful as a kid at Christmas. “Something that you would want to see, right?” Suddenly he whirled me to him. “So, do you understand, little Mercedes? We have your precious little Prince. If you want him to make it back to his pretty little palace with all of his pretty little limbs intact, you come turn yourself in to the royals—alone, of course.”
My mind was spiraling with fear and shock, but one tiny voice of reason rose above the clamor. “How do I know you won’t kill him the moment I’m in your clutches?”
“Good question! You’re learning so much, aren’t you?” He finally let go of my hand, and I knew there was a smirk under that jumping, blurred veneer of his. “We’ll meet in a neutral area, right by the water so your precious little dragons can fly away at the first sign of trouble.” He laughed, and the sickly sound made my stomach churn. “So, the ball is in your court, dearie. You for the golden boy. Give yourself up, and he lives. Or, you can just not tell them at all. I mean, of course they’re going to place the life of their beloved little princeling above yours. Maybe he’s not worth what you know is waiting for you.”
Terror licked at my belly, clawing at my throat and threatening to turn me to stone. But I persisted. I had to. If I wanted to do right by this realm, I had to tramp down my emotions and look at this objectively. “But why?” I asked with a gulp.
That slowed the faceless man’s jubilation, and he cleared his throat. “Why what?”
“Why would you want me? I mean, I know why you might want to get your hands on me, but why would the human Prince, who is definitely not you, agree to letting possibly the most valuable asset he could have go? The only way that makes sense is if both of you think that I will somehow be worth more to you than Gael.”
“Clever, clever.” He clicked his tongue. “I suppose I could answer that question. It seems that the idea of you being a seer was more than enough to convince the Prince of your value. Perhaps getting you involves a little bit of sacrifice, but we’re both certain it will pay off in the end.
“We’ll give you seven days to send a raven, or the pretty boy will have a full royal welcome with all the bells and whistles.”
“I understand.”
“Good!” He spun me away, and gave me a condescending pat on the behind. “Now, back to your body with you.”
“How…how do I get back?”
He laughed again, and I discretely imagined punching him in a dozen different ways. “Look at me, still forgetting that you are comically unknowledgeable about even the most basic parts of herding. Take a deep breath, and reach out. You should feel the tug of your body, and can follow it right back into your shell.”
I closed my eyes once more, and did as he said. True enough, I did feel a faint sort of, I don’t know, hum? It wasn’t quite solid enough to be an actual sound, but it was definitely there.
Then, just as I wrapped my mind around the string, a door opened and I heard footsteps come down the hall.
“Ah, Perin! What are you doing down here with our guest?”
My eyes shot open and I saw none other than the human Prince standing before me, smiling amiably at the faceless man. For a moment, I was sure this was where the very drawn out trap was going to be sprung, but then I realized that he couldn’t see me. To him, I wasn’t even there.
I turned my head back to the faceless man—no, Perin, apparently—and didn’t even bother to hide my smirk. “What an interesting development,” I murmured. He roared something nasty at me, but I just laughed and reached out for that tie once more. Wrapping my hand around it, I yanked myself back into my body.
I crashed into myself, and unlike every other time, it physically hurt. The air was knocked from my lungs in a gasp, and my pain radiated from the back of my head.
My vision cleared, and I realized I was looking up at the ceiling, and not the wall as I had been previously. That didn’t quite make sense…
I tried to sit up, only to realize that my legs were in the way. Wait, what was going on?
I rolled onto my side, and that’s when it all clicked into place. I had fallen over the edge of the bed, and had landed back first, legs up on the hard floor.
At least no one was around to see it.
But the slapstick of the moment faded quickly as everything that had happened in the past few moments flooded me once more. I jumped to my feet, my body only protesting at a dull roar, and threw the door open.
I knew my enemy’s name now, which meant I could find out exactly who he was. And, I didn’t know if he realized it or not, that little detail was all I needed to have the very first hints of a plan.
Sure, I would take his little deal and go to the palace. But what he didn’t know is that I would be arriving a little early.
*
“Absolutely not,” Myrik snapped, his face grim.
“Come on!” I argued. “This is a golden opportunity, pardon the pun.” I looked to the Queen, Dwyllverys and Jayne. “Back me up here!”
The albino dragon shrugged, her finger tapping her colorless lips. “I don’t know. I get the basic premise, but I feel like the middle part has too many assumptions. Mostly around how you’re actually going to get into the dungeons.”
“Okay, that I get.” I nodded thoughtfully and looked over the crudely drawn map I made of the castle. It was quite rough, considering it was all from memory and I hadn’t come close to seeing even half of the castle. “What do you suggest.”
“Any plan that doesn’t involve using you as bait,” Myrik countered. “If you’re so valuable to these people, why would we actually deliver you into their hands?”
“Because they have Gael! I would have thought that would have been obvious.”
“Gael is a centuries-old man who has escaped from worse situations.”
“Is that so?” the Queen murmured. “Please, enlighten me. What situation was that?”
Myrik opened his mouth, clearly surprised for the Queen’s input, before realizing he probably didn’t have any comparison to make. “Is it my job to remember his own history? He’s your Champion.”
“Yes. He is. And if Lady Mercedes thinks she knows a way to save us, I would think we would help her refine her plan, not dismiss it entirely. Perhaps you are letting another issue cloud your feelings on this matter.”
Myrik stood ramrod straight, his eyes flicking from me to his ruler. We hadn’t touched since our night spent devouring each other, but I could still feel the raw attraction between us. It seemed instead of quenching that flame, our roll together had just made it burn that much more alluringly.
“Are you accusing me of being emotional?”
“Perhaps. I do not believe I have seen you so envigored in many decades. I hope it is something pleasant that has you distracted?”
He grumbled something out and Dwyllverys unsuccessfully tried to swallow her snorted laughter.
“You know,” Jayne murmured, “all of this plan is focused around being caught sneaking into the castle trying to free Prince Gael, getting caught, then breaking him out when their guards are down. But, as Dwyllverys said, I feel this has too many assumptions of how they might react.
“But, what if we were to actually deliver you in chains? As if you were unwilling in this exchange. I feel like that would put them at ease more than anything else, and they would assume you were going to be broken from our betrayal.”
“Oh,” I murmured. “That’s actually not a bad idea.”
“But that just begets a new plan. We’ll have Gael, but Mercedes will be theirs, so we’ll have to rescue her. You are taking dozens of extra, risky steps to essentially put us back in the same spot.”
“I do not think as much,” the normally quiet dragon responded. “Because they will not be delivering Gael to us.”
I blinked, surprised. “Why do you say that?”
“If there is one single thing that we have learned from these human royals is that they are incessantly greedy and easily offended. They will want to prove that they are more clever than Mercedes, who currently has bested them. A sort of revenge, I suppose.”
“So, you’re saying they will lay a trap?”
“Yes. I believe it is almost certain.”
Now even Myrik was nodding in agreement, a welcome change from the constant arguments. “I think Jayne’s right. So then the question becomes, if they have both Gael and Mercedes, doesn’t that put us in a much weaker position than we were to start?” Then his own darkened expression illuminated, and he looked to the map once more. “Wait. You said that one of the escapees told you of a collapsed winery hall?”
I nodded, a foolish grin spreading across my face. “Yeah, why?”
“Note that I still think that this is complete and under idiocy, but I might have an idea.”
*
I pulled at the ropes wrapped around my wrists, trying to scratch the itch just under the restraints.
“Are you alright?” Jayne murmured.
“Yeah. Just anxious.”
“I understand. This is certainly no little undertaking. Putting yourself into the hands of the enemy is a great risk. I hope you know how much I appreciate what you have done, and what you will do for my people.”
“Oh, you know, that’s just me. A regular Robin Hood, man in tights.”
“Who?”
“Never mind.”
I looked out at the landscape spreading out before me. It was beautiful, but I might have appreciated it more under different circumstances. We were sitting near the top of one of the peaks; Myrik, Jayne and myself. It was the last moment of calm I had before everything went ass up, so I wanted to enjoy it while I could.
“Are we all ready?” Myrik asked, voice low. I could tell that he was still upset about all of this, but after several more hours of planning, arguments and the like, we all came to the conclusion that this was the best chance we had.
“Just one more moment,” I said softly, looking out at the expanse. There were trees just around the edge of the range, but just beyond that were sharp cliff faces with crashing waves far below. I could still faintly hear the whitecaps breaking against the rock, and I willed it to soothe the worry brewing within me. Once I was ready I stood and brushed off my hose.
The dragons had thought it strange that I insisted on wearing what they considered men’s clothes, but they didn’t fight me on it—which I was immensely grateful for. The pants gave me a greater range of movement, as well as an added layer of protection in case anyone else wanted to get a little handsy. I also kind of hoped that it could potentially throw the Prince and whoever else he might cart along through a loop.
“Let’s go.”
“Alright. Stand back.”
Jayne and I walked to the corner of the little cleft we were on, and Myrik’s form began to violently stretch and buck. A few moments later, the ebony dragon was sitting before us, his four legs precariously perched on the small ledge. Slowly, he flapped his wings until he was hovering just a few feet in the air.
We both crossed to him, positioning ourselves so he could easily grip us in his hind talons. Once he was sure that we were secure, he took to the air.
This was now my third time being carried via dragon, and it was just as cold and uncomfortable as I remembered it. At least I wasn’t quite alone this time.
“I’ve never been carried anywhere before!” Jayne called to me, his voice barely able to make it over the winds. “This is very strange!”
“Don’t worry,” I called back. “You get used to it after your lower half goes numb!”
“That does not sound enjoyable at all!”
“Because it isn’t!”
I laughed, and it was a nice moment of levity with how serious the past seven days had been.
Seven days, wow. I was very lucky that I didn’t own any sort of pet, because they would either be dead or taken by the ASPCA. How long had it been since I had been ‘home’? Two months? Three? Six? It was so hard to tell. Time passed so differently here. A day was still a day, but I was deliriously unconscious more often in this reality. I felt like I had lost so much time, and wasted so much more.
But now all that waiting is done. I was being delivered to the enemy in what had to be the most complicated ruse I had ever tried to pull off. Not that I normally went through with dramatic, prison escape capers that spanned half the continent, but it was becoming more common by the day.
We flew for several hours, and it was about as arduous as one might expect. But we had picked such the distance on purpose. It wasn’t the farthest point from our new stronghold, as that would be too obvious. But it was far enough to protect our location. Or at least that was the hope.
Finally, we saw the very edge of the shore in the distance, and could barely make out a line of little dots.
That was the humans, coming to collect me.
Myrik suddenly soared upwards, the sheer g-force of it all making my face pull back unflatteringly. Just when the air grew too thin, and my head started to throb, he let us go.
It was back to the rollercoaster feeling, and my stomach politely requested to leave my body as we hurtled downward. There was a crackling and popping beside me, then suddenly I was being yanked upwards by crimson claws.
That was Jayne, my tap in for the journey. We needed someone refreshed for the quick getaway that inevitably would happen.
Jayne cut his speed, flaring out his wings in what I’m sure was an impressive display to the humans waiting below. We approached carefully, and I noted several groups of archers and even a trebuchet sitting just beyond the main group.
I was sure that Jayne noticed, and he confirmed by swooping hard, to the other end of the beach.
He dropped me unceremoniously in the sand, and I struggled to my feet as the crimson dragon landed, kicking up sand all around us.
And there we stood.
I could see the royals waiting uncertainly for us, no doubt expecting us to move to them, but we didn’t take a single step. They would either have to come to us, or go home empty-handed. And we all knew that they would never give up such a plush prize with me dead in their sights.
It was a very strange sort of standoff, and it was basically the epitome of awkward, but after long enough, the line of horses slowly moved forward. Leaving me to wonder, who the hell rode horses on the beach? That just seemed impractical.
It took them several minutes to come within range of us, and when they did, they still stopped in a neat little formation a dozen or so feet away.
“I don’t see Gael,” I called, trying to sound both worried and surprised.
The Prince allowed his mount to take a single step forward. The look of satisfaction was almost too much, and I was looking forward to wiping it off with my foot. “Do you think we would risk having him here, knowing your forces could descend on us with impunity?”
“Oh, but…how will we know you’ll do what you say?”
He bowed from his saddle, as smarmy and self-righteous as I expected. “You have my word.” He took in the bonds locking my arms together, as well as the one around my neck. “It seems that you can trust us more than the dragons you are faithful to trust you. I take it you didn’t like our offer?”
Jayne roared from beside me, and snapped at the air about halfway between us. I flinched away, and added a little warble to my cry.
“I knew we couldn’t trust you. I told them that this was going to be a trap and that we couldn’t take you at your word.”
“How disappointing,” he called back. “You’re saying these shifting lizards put more stock in our word than you?”
“Seems so.”
He and the men surrounding him laughed. I hoped they found this equally amusing when I shoved their own egos right down their throats.
“Well, in the pursuit of establishing trust between us, I offer a token.”
He snapped and one of the armored knights around him slowly clopped forward. Well, it didn’t quite clop against the soft sand, but the idea was the same.
Jayne and I both tensed, waiting for him to jump off his horse and attack us, or explode, or something. But instead he just moseyed over.
It wasn’t until he was a few feet away that I noticed he had an odd sort of…wiggle to him? It was hard to put my finger on it, but it seemed like his body wasn’t absorbing some of the shock and adjusting as an experienced rider would. He just was bouncy, like he was bloated and couldn’t compensate for the movement.
Then an awful, rotting smell hit me and I knew exactly what was going on.
“I told you, it’s a trap!”
I dove to the ground just as a volley of arrows were loosed to arc over me. Jayne jumped to the air, and took off with a speed the larger dragons would have never been able to achieve. That’s why we had chosen him for this part, after all.
But little ol’ me, stuck on the ground, had no choice but to huddle into the tiniest lump I could make as arrows peppered the ground behind me. I was painfully aware that it only would take one misaimed shot to end all of this plan, but I could only pray.
The knight had finally slid out of his saddle, clattering to the ground with six or so arrows dappling his body. The shining helmet tumbled from his head, and I was greeted by the purple-black, swollen face of the Duke.
I didn’t even have to fake the scream that ripped from my throat, and I rolled away in a blind panic.
Thankfully, the arrows stopped, and I managed to pull my bound arms out from under myself and roll onto my back. Before I could get up, I felt the sand shifting, and looked up into the faces of the Prince and two other un-helmeted men who were with him. I briefly wondered if one of them was Perin, but the hair didn’t look quite right.
On another note, I needed to learn the Prince’s name, because there were far too many royals on both sides to keep calling them by their titles.
“I’m guessing that you had no intentions of releasing Gael,” I said with a sigh.
He nodded to another one of his soldiers, and they slid down from their horse to yank me up.
“The dragons should have listened to you after all. Although I was hoping we could capture at least two of them here, but alas, we will have to be grateful for what we were able to procure.”
“Yeah. You wouldn’t want to be greedy, would you?” I sniped back as I was shoved onto a spare horse that was brought to the little formation.
“In my experience, I’ve found that there’s no such thing as greed. Just those who want things, and those who want it harder.”
Of course, the Prince would have a mantra like that, but I kept any further comebacks to myself. So far, our plan had gone perfectly, so I should have been thrilled.
But I couldn’t help but feel the dark lick of fear up my spine. Once more, I was in the hands of the enemy.
I just hoped this went better than the last time.