05 Dragon Blood: The Blade's Memory (15 page)

“Is that unwise?”

“Probably. As to the rest, I’m not an expert, but I doubt there’s ever been a sorcerer alive who could detect magic across an ocean. And people have been finding us since we left Iskandia weeks ago. Remember the Cofah waiting along the coast? And somehow Cas’s dad knew to look for us on that island.”

He’s right. I have a range of thirty or forty miles, as far as seeing the world around me goes. I would have to be even closer than that to detect something like your light fixtures.

We prefer to call them power crystals.

I know. It’s amusing. I doubt there are many sorcerers who could have detected the landing of your fliers from the capital. I certainly haven’t seen anyone capable of that in Iskandia since I was dug out of the rocks.

Any idea how someone would have found our fliers then?
Ridge supposed it was possible this organization had scouts up and down the coast, not just in the city. If so, they could be much larger and better equipped than he would have guessed.

Sardelle didn’t tell you about the queen, did she?

The queen?
Ridge caught sight of dark gray smoke in the distance, several thick lines combining in the sky and being blown inland.

Yes. First off, she has dragon blood flowing through her veins. Second—

“Dragon blood?” Ridge blurted. The queen couldn’t be a sorceress. He shook his head. No, it wasn’t possible. Who would have trained her? How could she have kept that hidden from the king for years?

Relax, genius. While I suppose it’s possible she could have some training, she can have that heritage without being a sorceress or even knowing she has the aptitude. Like your hairy pirate friend here.

“Jaxi chatting with you?” Tolemek asked. “Or was that a response to my comment?”

“Yes. No.” Wait, what had his comment been? Something about the range of sorcerers?

“Let me know if she enlightens you on anything important.”

From what I’ve observed so far
, Jaxi continued,
about one in a thousand people here has some diluted dragon blood.
I doubt many of them could conjure any magic even if they were trained. They’re probably considered perceptive by their comrades, but little more. People like Tolemek and his sister, those who still have sufficient blood to have access to more power, most likely have ancestors who were among those who mated with the last of the dragons, back before they disappeared from this world. For someone whose dragon-loving ancestor existed two thousand years ago instead of a thousand, they could never become someone who would be considered a sorcerer, at least not in our time.

“Just how long have people been having sex with dragons, anyway?”

Tolemek looked at Ridge. “I see this is an important conversation you’re having.”

Ridge held up a hand so he could think,
Never mind that. Are you telling me that the queen is definitely not a powerful sorcerer?

Definitely not. She could conceivably know a few tricks, but she wouldn’t be a threat in a battle, and she certainly wouldn’t be able to sense the crystals of your fliers. However, as I was about to say when you interrupted me, she seems to be affiliated with the Heartwood Sisterhood.

Is that the organization that’s been harassing Sardelle?

We don’t have proof of that, other than a stack of pamphlets in the queen’s drawer, but the organization has been around for more than a thousand years, and they’ve objected to human-dragon sex since the beginning.

So, are they active again now because they know there’s a dragon in the world?
Ridge scratched his jaw. Even if he hadn’t known about the dragon until he had been sent to Cofahre, the attacks on Sardelle had started just before that. Someone else could have known about the dragon earlier than he had been informed. After all, someone had known to send Ahnsung to try and get rid of it.

Maybe they’re concerned that Phelistoth is going to fly over here and sex up all the young virgins.

Ridge shuddered. He hadn’t found anything alluring about the powerful creature. Mostly, he had been trying not to crawl under a table and hide when that big reptilian eye had focused on him. But Tolemek’s sister had been fearless around the creature. Maybe women would be more likely to be drawn to him.

Technically, the Sisterhood objected to young men being seduced by female dragons.

I had no idea the world used to be so strange.

Says the man who flies about in a mechanical contraption powered by a light fixture.

“You might want to finish it up, so we can plan something.” Tolemek pointed to the smoke. “I assume we’re not going to ride straight up to the bridge over the canyon.”

“No.” Ridge pointed ahead and to the left. A few farms still dotted the terrain, but Crazy Canyon was considered a park, and the quarter mile on either side of the canyon was dominated by beach grass and stunted trees. “See that path? We’ll take it and head down to the beach and then go into the canyon through the mouth.”

Ridge made himself watch the grass on both sides as they headed down the path, though his gaze kept being pulled toward the smoke. They had landed three fliers in the canyon, which meant three crystals that could have been stolen. If he had needed another reason to dread reporting in, he had it. He wondered what rank he would have at the end of all this, or if he would have a rank at all. He couldn’t predict what would happen if he showed up at the castle to take blame for Kaika’s presence. A part of him wanted to plan another incursion, to sneak in and rescue her without being seen, but that would be one more bullet shot into the already crashing flier that was his career.

Seven gods, you’re even more depressing to travel with than Sardelle.

Sorry.

As Ridge and Tolemek followed the cliff along the beach to the mouth of the canyon, the air smelled of burning wreckage, as well as salt water and seaweed. When the group had landed, they had perched the fliers on a ledge halfway up a canyon wall, a ledge covered with brush that they had painstakingly used to camouflage their craft. Whoever had found them must have known
exactly
where they were. He didn’t believe that Duck had been doing something foolish such as standing naked in one of the cockpits and singing ballads dedicated to lost loves.

That’s a somewhat more interesting thought than your earlier ones.

Duck naked?

Duck singing. I enjoy ballads.

When they had gone as far through the scrubby growth along the floor of the canyon as they could, Ridge and Tolemek found a place to leave the horses, then continued on foot. Ridge walked softly, trying to listen for the sounds of voices or other signs of humans, but the drone of the ocean made it hard to detect subtle noises.

There’s nobody here.
Jaxi sounded disappointed.

You’re certain?
Ridge was disappointed too. It would have been nice if something could have gone their way, if they could have questioned someone from that organization.

Perhaps the answers you seek will be in the pamphlet Sardelle absconded with.

Let’s hope.

They had to climb to reach the ledge from this side, and Ridge scrambled over the lip of it first. The sight of smoldering wood and twisted and blackened metal made him sick. Pieces had been blown away and flung all over the ledge, some falling all the way to the stream below. Little of the original shapes of the fliers remained.

He told himself that they were just machines, that he shouldn’t be emotionally attached, but it was hard not to mourn their loss. More, it was hard not to be angry at whoever had deprived the capital of craft that could have been used to defend against enemies.

Feeling numb, he walked across the ledge, staring down at the wreckage and looking for… he wasn’t sure what. A clue. A clue as to why this had been done and how those women had found the fliers to do it in the first place.

“Zirkander.” Tolemek pointed down at something.

Ridge climbed over a log and found him looking at a charred seat that had been thrown clear of one of the cockpits. Someone had pinned a note to it with a dagger.

“Subtle.” Ridge freed the paper and unfolded it. He read the short missive, then grimly shared the contents aloud. “Those who fraternize with witches will see all that they love destroyed. It’s not signed.”

Tolemek stared into the distance, maybe wondering if he would be as much of a target as Sardelle in all of this. Had the queen been the one to close his lab? Was it possible she knew of his blood, as well as his history and reputation?

Jaxi, can those who have dragon blood recognize it in others?

Not necessarily. Sardelle and I can, she because she was a teacher and learned to recognize those who would have talent, and I because I have a powerful enough nose to sniff such details out.

Since she hadn’t cared for his earlier dog analogy, Ridge tamped down an impulse to imagine Jaxi as a bloodhound.
For those with the more diluted blood you talked about, it wouldn’t be possible to tell?

Only through deed, or perhaps if they were in close contact for a while, they might get a hunch.

Ridge walked as they discussed, looking for more clues, ones that hadn’t been so intentionally left, ones that might tell more.

Someone might figure it out through investigating one’s history too,
Jaxi added.
Your Apex realized what Tolemek was by researching what he had done and understanding enough science to know that there couldn’t be a mundane explanation for all that Tolemek had created.

Yes, if Apex had figured it out, it was possible that someone else could have. Maybe the queen did more than knitting and making doilies in her spare time.

She also enjoys mystery and romance novels.

Yes, and that was why Ridge had a hard time imagining her as being behind anything. If she had been making pamphlets for the organization, maybe it was because she had been the secretary or head crafts lady. Maybe they had wanted decorative pages full of glitter and embroidered edging.

I don’t know anything about her, but underestimating her based on her interests might not be smart
, Jaxi suggested.

Yes, you’re right. I need more information. I’m guessing. It’s frustrating.
Ridge kicked a smoldering seat cushion. It flipped over a few times before landing, and something on the bottom caught his eye. He was intimately familiar with every part of a flier—hells, he had helped that engineer at the mines reconstruct one from parts—and he knew there wasn’t anything attached to the bottoms of the seats, aside from two metal strips that allowed them to be bolted to the frame.

“Probably just dirt,” he mumbled, but he hurried to the cushion for a closer look.

He stared down at it. It wasn’t dirt. Half expecting a jolt, he prodded the decorative piece of metal, a round iron pin about an inch and a half wide. Nothing happened.

Jaxi? Is this… something?

Given the definition of the word, I believe that qualifies.

I mean is it magic?

No. I don’t sense anything at all from it.

“I found one of your power crystals,” Tolemek called from the other side of the ledge. “Do you want me to pry it out of its casing?”

“Yes, thank you.” Ridge waved, glad at least one of the crystals had been left but more intrigued by this new mystery. There was something familiar about the angular design stamped on the front. He couldn’t have said when or where, but he felt certain he had seen something like it before. The pin itself had a roughness to it, with uneven soldering on the back. It felt
old
. Today, something like this would be made in a factory. And he doubted iron would be the metal of choice. It was heavy for a pin, at least if it was usually worn on clothing and not tacked to seats.

Ridge remembered Sardelle once saying that she hadn’t been able to sense that giant owl familiar that they had fought, that she had seen and heard it but not felt it with her mind.
Jaxi, when you say you don’t sense anything, do you mean that this pin is no different from any other inanimate object to you, or do you mean you can’t tell it’s there?

I can’t see it at all, except through your eyes.

Ridge decided not to find it odd that the soulblade was looking at the world through his eyes. How else, he supposed, would a sword “see” anything?

Exactly. The pattern seems familiar to me, too. Like it might be a letter or symbol from one of the old languages. Show it to Sardelle. She’s more likely to remember historical minutia than I am.

Is it significant that it’s made from iron? I remember Sardelle saying she couldn’t sense you through an iron box.
Ridge thought of the box under the bed in Therrik’s house and the way that had been lined with metal. Had that been iron? It had been too dark to tell, and he hadn’t looked that closely. If so, it made him wonder even more what was usually stored in it.

Possibly, but that’s not why I don’t sense it.
For as long as there have been sorcerers, there have been people with the knack of creating magical items that can be used even when the sorcerer is not around. An example is the communication crystals Sardelle made for you.

And the power supplies for the fliers.

Yes. And some sorcerers made items that could hunt other sorcerers or harm them in some way. Magic was never anything that united people, and there were dragon wars long ago, where humans got swept up in the action. Your texts tell you that people used dragons almost like pets or even tools, riding them into battle and ordering them to attack enemies, but there was some revisionist history there. In my time, it was understood that dragons were our equals and allies. Maybe if you go back farther, you will find that dragons were actually running the campaigns and using humans as pets. I don’t know for certain, but there were items that were made for hunting dragons—such as Cas’s ugly new sword—and for hunting sorcerers, as well. Naturally, it made sense to craft them so said dragons and sorcerers couldn’t sense them.