Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7) Read online

  “Give it another try,” Avery said, although there wasn’t an ounce of excitement in the words. “But I’m seriously drained. I’m not sure how many more times I can do this.”

  Raven kissed her sister on the side of the head. “We’re safe here. All we have is time. Just do what you can.”

  With one nod, Avery rolled her shoulders back and reached for the scroll again. “On the count of three.”

  Raven and Clarissa readied their pens.

  “One, two, three.” She touched the scroll, and they began again.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Please, miss, do you have any food?”

  Dianthe had been trying to walk through the camp on the beach at Serenity Harbor without being noticed when someone grabbed her hand. She kept her gaze down and pulled her hood as far forward as possible. While Sylas and Tobias could change their appearance at will and Sabrina was unknown to anyone on Ouros, if Dianthe was recognized, she could jeopardize their entire mission.

  She tried not to look at the person who squeezed her fingers. If she made eye contact, it would be too hard to turn away. These were her people, and they were in an awful state. The young fairies could hunt, but the elderly must truly be struggling. The person whose voice she’d heard sounded old and weak.

  She tried to walk on, but her assailant only squeezed tighter, refusing to let go, and Dianthe had no choice but to address her. She turned, peeking from under the hood… and recognized the person behind her immediately. “Willow?”

  The old woman smiled at the sound of her voice. “Di—”

  Dianthe cut her off with the press of her finger to the old fairy’s lips. She shook her hooded head. Behind her in his disguise, Sylas must have given Willow a look because her eyes grew wide with understanding.

  Willow lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m so happy to see you made it out alive. After the fire, we’ve assumed those we can’t find are dead.”

  “I’m not dead and neither is… my mate. But how are you getting on?” Dianthe thought Willow looked more frail than usual.

  “Hungry, my dear. There is never enough food. The younger ones collect pollen from Solaris Field every day, but I’m too old for that.” Willow’s wings sagged over her shoulders.

  Dianthe glanced back at Sylas, whose strange face contorted with concern. If people were relying on Solaris Field for food, it might be difficult to do what they came to do without being seen.

  “Oh, Willow…” Dianthe had to force herself not to hug the woman.

  “Some are beginning to rebuild. Dead houses of course. All the fairy magic in the world can’t grow saplings into proper dwellings. We’ve started coaxing the forest back to life, but who knows if that beastly woman will attack us again? She wants us to kneel before her and swear our fealty to the kingdom of Paragon and her own overinflated ego, but let me tell you, I’ll choose starvation over allegiance to Eleanor any moonrise. And as of now, the residents of the Elder Tree agree with me.”

  “Chancellor Ciro is standing strong?”

  Willow nodded. “Although there is pressure from the Highborns to give in. Every day it becomes harder to resist. People are hungry.” She pointed at a group of children playing in the sea. “Orphans. Their parents died in the fire or at the hands of the Guard. We all try to care for them, but…”

  “Keep the faith, Willow. The goddess knows and sees all,” Dianthe said.

  “If only the goddess would send us some help.” Willow’s voice cracked.

  Dianthe reached for the strap of her bag, intending to remove it and dig inside for one of her rations. A hand landed on her shoulder, stopping her. Sylas.

  “That’s not a good idea,” he whispered in her ear. His eyes scanned the surrounding crowd. They were all staring, suddenly quiet, everyone intent on her bag. He was right. This was dangerous. She recognized many faces—all good fairies to be sure—but hunger made people do desperate things. Could she get one ration out without exposing that she had more than one? If these people saw her give anything to Willow, would they attack her for it? Steal it from the old woman’s hands?

  Disappointed, she adjusted her bag on her shoulder. “Let us all pray the goddess hears us and sends help.” She gave Willow a slight bow goodbye and then allowed Sylas to lead her from the beach. Together, they entered the scorched woods.

  “It stinks of death,” she said. “Charred wood. Charred life. I wonder if this is what hell smells like.” Her boots were already covered in ash. Ahead of them, Tobias carried Sabrina, who appeared to be sleeping in his arms. The disguised dragon didn’t seem to mind at all. The way he kissed her on the head, Dianthe thought he might walk across Ouros with her in his arms if he needed to.

  “You did the right thing back there,” Sylas said.

  They were deep enough into what remained of the Empyrean Wood that they were alone. There wasn’t another soul in sight.

  “It doesn’t feel like the right thing. I’ve never seen Willow look so frail. One of my rations would have meant the world to her.”

  Sylas laughed. “Willow may be old, but she’s as tough as oak roots. She’ll survive. But if you’d given her a ration, she might have been killed for it.”

  “Seems as though we’ve made a lot of excuses why we can’t help lately.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she couldn’t tell if it was from the swell of emotion in her chest or the ash that floated in the air like snow around her.

  “What we’re about to do—hell, what we have been doing—will help these people more than a ration or putting an Obsidian guard in his place. We’re going to end this, Dianthe. We are going to make it so that this”—he gestured around him—“never happens again. To anyone. Anywhere in the five kingdoms. We are going to end Eleanor’s reign of terror.”

  “Do you really think it will ever happen?” The crushing weight of doubt compressed her chest until she could hardly breathe.

  “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have hope.”

  “Yeah.” She supposed she wouldn’t be there either if she didn’t believe they could make a difference. She’d had plenty of opportunity to back out. “Have you finally made your peace then with my participation in this mission? Aren’t you afraid I might have an errant vision that brings about our doom? The way you’ve treated me the past few days, I’m surprised the entire island of Aeaea doesn’t think I’m a snapping elderbeast.”

  “That’s not fair. Neither of us knew for sure what Aborella might have done.”

  Dianthe stopped, her boots kicking up ash between them. “Let’s put this to rest right now. You never wanted me to heal Aborella. I had a vision she’d help us and that vision didn’t pan out. But you helped me carry her back here. You stayed away so that I could heal her and build trust with her. And as reluctant as you might have been, you yourself invited her to join our cause. So stop this, Sylas. Stop it now. Because I did not inflict Aborella on us or on Everfield alone. We did. We did it together. And you are fully culpable, as much as I am.”

  “I wasn’t the one who had the vision!”

  “Raven said that even the strongest witches sometimes make mistakes. Spells fail. Magic isn’t infallible.” She shook her head. “I made a mistake, Sylas. Frankly, I was overdue. But you know what? People who love each other forgive mistakes. And they believe in each other even when it’s hard.”

  Sylas’s mouth dropped open as Dianthe stormed off. Was that what she thought? That he didn’t believe in her? His jaw started to ache, and he realized he was grinding his teeth. Hardheaded female. By the Mountain, they were walking through a war zone! If she didn’t realize that he was trying to protect her from this… this… horror of an existence, he wasn’t sure what to say. It was too late anyway. She was here. There was no going back.

  Still, for the next two hours, Dianthe walked beside Tobias, leaving him following alone. He was relieved when they finally broke from the Empyrean Wood and arrived at Solaris Field. Ouros’s two suns had begun to set, streaking the sky with aqua and li
me green, but it was the field itself that was putting on a show. In the mounting twilight, the sunpitcher plants, charged from a day of full light, glowed bright for as far as the eye could see. Sylas emerged from a world of skeletal trees and ash into a field of stars.

  Ahead of him, Dianthe reached into one of the conical flowers and plucked the glowing pollen from within. She dropped it into her mouth. The glow shone through the mahogany skin of her cheeks, illuminating the veins there, before disappearing down her throat. Beside her, Tobias set Sabrina on her feet. The vampire seemed to be more alert than before and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. His brother tried to follow Dianthe’s example and pluck the glow from the nearest flower but only succeeded at destroying the bloom.

  Sylas chuckled as he caught up to the group. “Nice try, brother. Only fairies can harvest the pollen without destroying the flower.”

  Tobias held up his glowing hand, the remains of the blossom stuck to his fingers like spiderwebs. “I see that now.”

  Dianthe snatched his hand out of the air and lowered it to his side. “Careful,” she whispered. “We’re not alone here, and you’re supposed to be a fairy.”

  A giggle reached them from across the field, and Sylas noticed the winged silhouettes of adults and children collecting pollen.

  “What should we do?” Tobias asked. “We can’t go diving into the lake with an audience.”

  “That won’t be a problem.” Dianthe led the way toward the lake. “No fairy would stay here after nightfall, especially not where we’re going.”

  She led the way to the right, carefully navigating the sunpitcher plants like only a fairy could. Somehow she seemed to glide between them no matter how closely they grew together. A fairy’s ability to live at one with nature had always seemed paradoxical to Sylas. They ate meat, after all. Fairies would go to great lengths not to kill a tree but would slaughter dozens of narwits to roast over an open fire at a gathering. Dianthe had tried to explain the logic: fast reproduction meant there were too many narwits. It was merciful, she’d said. If left to their own devices, the critters would eat all the vegetation, down to and including the roots, and then starve to death. Killing them was a way to both control the population and make life better for those left alive. Still, Sylas had struggled with the seeming contradictions in their culture.

  By the time they reached Solaris Lake, the suns had fully set. The only light was that coming from the plants and the lake itself, which glowed faintly green, just as Dianthe had said it would. It was subtle, the orb probably covered in lake grasses and mud. Had he not known what he was looking at, he might have assumed he was seeing a reflection from something.

  “At least we know we’re in the right place,” Tobias said, staring at the strangely lit surface.

  “We should make camp,” Sylas said. “We can retrieve it in the morning.”

  But Sabrina was already stripping out of her cloak. She was fully awake now, her eyes large and bright in the moonlight. “Why wait until morning? In the morning, the pollen gatherers will be back. I’ll go now.”

  “You’re not afraid to swim in dark waters?” Dianthe shivered, and Sylas was reminded that fairies feared the dark. It was when they were at their weakest. Her fatigue was evident in the dark bags beneath her eyes.

  “I can see in the dark.” Sabrina nodded in Tobias’s direction. “And if I need backup, so can my mate. Why don’t you two set up the tent, and I’ll go get us an orb?”

  At last Dianthe glanced at Sylas, for the first time since she’d stormed away in the forest. He almost gasped in relief. “Sure. That sounds like a good plan.”

  Tobias dropped the packs he was carrying and followed Sabrina to the edge of the water. She waded in without hesitation.

  “Are you finally speaking to me again?” Sylas asked.

  “I never said I wasn’t speaking to you.” Dianthe unzipped the tent bag and started staking down the base.

  “You never said anything. You haven’t said a word to me or looked me in the eye in over an hour.” He helped her move the supports into place.

  “I don’t want to talk to you. Every time I do, you make me feel bad about myself. Do you know I haven’t had a vision since the fire? I’ve never gone this long without one.”

  Sylas growled. “Maybe it’s a sign that your abilities have been tampered with as I suspected.”

  Dianthe kicked the spike deeper into the ground and gave a frustrated grunt. “Raven ruled that out, Sylas!” She shook her head. “I think it’s related to us. We’ve never had problems like this in our relationship before.”

  “Problems?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What kind of problems?”

  “Are you kidding me right now? We haven’t had a day of smooth sailing since you escaped the palace. It’s been one disagreement after another.”

  Sylas’s jaw clenched. “That was only because of Aborella. We’ve been… together since then.”

  “Damn it, Sylas. I’m not talking about sex. I’m talking about getting along. Not fighting every second of the day.”

  “I don’t know where this is coming from. We talk every day.”

  She stared at him incredulously. “For the first time, you don’t believe in me. You don’t trust my abilities. And because of that, I feel guilty for what happened. Do you know what I think, Sylas? I think you’ve gotten into my head. I think you’ve made me question my abilities. And I think because of that, I’m blocking my talent.”

  “Well… stop.” Sylas finished pitching the tent, wondering how the conversation had gotten away from him. “It wasn’t you I was questioning. It was Aborella.”

  She rolled her eyes toward the night sky. “You still don’t get it, do you—”

  “Sylas!” Tobias yelled. “Sabrina’s not surfacing!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dianthe ran for the lake, Sylas at her side. Tobias had already stripped and dove in after Sabrina, but he hadn’t broken the surface again. Deep within the lake, the water churned, sending up ripples and a few random bubbles. Shadows and silhouettes battled below, blocking out the green glow. What in Hades was going on?

  “Oh my goddess!” All at once, Dianthe realized what was happening. Why hadn’t she thought of this sooner? “I have to go in.”

  “What? Why?” Sylas’s eyes widened with alarm. He grabbed her arm as she started undressing.

  “It’s the water sprites.” She gestured in the general direction of the lake. “I’d forgotten that I used to play with them all those years ago. They’re scared. It’s natural they would see a non-fairy as a threat. I’m the only one who speaks ancient fae. I can make them understand what’s happening.”

  “No.” Sylas growled. “It’s too dangerous. You’re not going in there.”

  “Didn’t you hear me? I’m the only one who can help.” She fluttered her wings to fly over the water, but he pulled her down to his side.

  “Sabrina doesn’t have to breathe, and Tobias can hold his breath for ages. You can’t.” Sylas’s expression was pleading.

  She got the distinct impression he would have reached down his own mouth and extracted a lung to loan her if he could have. While she could sympathize with his protective instincts, she didn’t have time for this shit.

  “I’ve had your tooth. If I die, you can revive me.”

  “Don’t joke. Not about that.”

  “I can do this, Sylas! I know these sprites. Let. Me. Go.” She twisted out of his grip and flew as fast as she could over the deep water.

  “Dianthe!” he called.

  She dove straight toward the orb and the battle below. The water felt cooler than she remembered, and she tried not to shiver from her fear of what might linger below the dark surface. Fairies in general were stereotypically afraid of the dark, and she was no exception. By sheer will alone, she held her fear at bay as she descended into the murky depths.

  As she closed in on the orb, she made out the scene well enough by its green light. The sprites fought Tobi
as’s slashing claws and Sabrina’s biting teeth with crude weapons made from sharp shards of stone. Normally the creatures appeared vividly majestic, the lower half of their bodies from the waist down painted with silvery-blue scales and a long fin that ran from their coccyx to the tapered end of their tail. Above the waist, their androgynous torsos—it was impossible to tell the males from the females—were long limbed and graceful. Along with oversized eyes and long, flowing hair, it was easy to understand why they were renowned for their beauty.

  But that beauty had taken a dark turn. Tonight their razor-sharp teeth were on display, and they growled wickedly as they jabbed their sharp stones in Tobias’s direction. The sprites had captured Sabrina in a tangle of lake weeds, the same type that surrounded the orb. The sheer number of vines holding her proved her capture was intentional and not the accidental work of her own making. Tobias was struggling manically to free her while simultaneously fighting off the sprites. There had to be a half dozen of them or more now.

  Dianthe placed herself between the sprites and Tobias and spread her wings. Her fairy glow lit up the lake like a spotlight. The uniting vocabulary of all the natives of Everfield, regardless of species, was the old language, ancient fae. Technically you couldn’t merely speak it but must sing the words underwater to be heard. Using every ounce of air she had in her lungs, she told the sprites that the vampire and the dragon were trying to help. As passionately as possible, she described the attack by the Obsidian Guard, the burning of the Empyrean Wood, and the threat the empress of Paragon posed to Everfield. She explained that the orb held magic that could be used to stop her and save the five kingdoms.

  Out of air, she rose to the surface for a breath and then returned again. The sprites acknowledged that they’d smelled the smoke and had wondered about the cause. With most of their lives lived underwater, they rarely heard news of the outside world unless a fairy availed themselves of their lake and was willing to share. As she suspected, once they understood, they halted their attack. Still, they would only agree to help her if she removed the vampire and dragon from their waters. The sprites didn’t trust the outsiders.