Dragon-Ridden (30 page)

“What’s that?” Dewdrop asked.

“An item containing all of the
powers that the Gods had sealed,” Ryu said.

“After the war had ended, the Kairi
were left with two items: the fulcrum and its key.  The Aurelian Empire
feared that if it left the artifacts with the Kairi they would be able to
resurrect the power of Oriade and Kathos given enough time. The Kairi thought
that if Aurelia had both, they would do the same.” Tempest leaned back in his
chair. “So as part of the treaty the key was given to the Kairi to be kept in
their sea palace and the fulcrum was to be kept in the empire.”

“Wait, I thought Umi said her
family’s guards had been killed in the fulcrum’s theft,” Tate said.

Ryu nodded. “You are correct. The
Kairi feared we would be able to find a way to unlock the fulcrum, so several
of their guards along with the Aurelian guards remained with it at all times.”
To Tempest, he said, “Tell me your mistress didn’t orchestrate the abduction of
the fulcrum. We know she stole Oriade’s key, did she steal the fulcrum as
well?” Crossing to Tempest, he pulled him from his seat, asking in a deadly
voice, “Is that why she traveled here?”

Tate started to get out of the bed,
heedless of her undressed state. They wouldn’t get any answers if Ryu ended up
choking Tempest into unconsciousness. She settled back down when Tempest held
out a hand stopping her.

Gravely, he told Ryu, “I don’t know
if she orchestrated the event or simply took advantage of it. Either way she
does not hold the interests of the Kairi in her heart anymore. She wants power
and doesn’t care about the cost.”

“Is it possible she has it and just
says she doesn’t?” Tate asked.

Tempest thought over her question
before shaking his head. “It’s possible but highly unlikely. Her shock when the
Red Lady pronounced the tear a fake was genuine as was her anger. I don’t think
her acting is that good.”

Maybe. But- “Well, her acting was
good enough to fool the three of us. Ryu and I have experience spotting
deception. I, at least, totally fell for her innocent act.”

She’d walked right into the double
cross not even suspecting what was about to happen. It was a heavy blow to her
pride.

“Still.” Tempest looked like he
disagreed. “It would serve no purpose to pretend it was lost. Her final
objective is not the key. That was simply what she was willing to trade to get
what she wanted.”

It was Dewdrop who asked what was
on all their minds. “If she doesn’t have it, who does?”

They all looked at Tempest, who
having spent the most time with Umi and the key, would have the most knowledge.

He shrugged helplessly. “We don’t
know. We’d assumed that either the original thief, or Tate had taken it and
swapped it with the original.”

Tate became the sudden focus of
attention. She blinked back at them. “Well, I don’t have it.” She sighed. Under
suspicion once more. “The time in the market place was the first time I’d seen
the hairpin, and I didn’t exactly have time to substitute it for an identical
one.”

Ryu considered her thoughtfully.
“Older objects like this one often have a mind of their own. It’s possible that
the magic inside detached and reattached to something of yours.” He spoke to
Tempest as he talked through his theory. “Powerful items tend to develop a
sentience after awhile. If it felt threatened it might have sought sanctuary
somewhere else.”

Tempest nodded. “Yes. I’ve heard of
such instances as well.”

Tate didn’t like where this was
going. “That doesn’t mean I have it.” She folded her arms across her chest.
“I’m not the only one who had hold of it, you know.”

“What were you wearing that day?”
Ryu asked, ignoring her. He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he went through
the satchel she had left with him before going off with Umi. He pulled out
several pieces of clothes and piled them on the floor.

Tate sputtered. “Hey! Stop that.”

It was too late. He held up the
shirt and pants she’d worn that first morning and inspected each item
carefully, running his hands along the cloth. “Nothing,” he said in disgust,
throwing them back into the pile.

Tate folded her arms. “I told you.”

“What else were you wearing?” he
asked.

“A belt,” Dewdrop said snapping his
fingers.

Ryu nodded and off he went,
searching for her belt and anything else she might have been wearing. Tate fell
back on the bed. Nobody listened to her so why bother protesting?

An hour later Ryu had gone through
every object in the room. He would have been done sooner, but Tempest suggested
the key might have moved again. This required an inspection of every item she
might have come in contact with. Again, they turned up nothing.

Ryu put his hands on his hips and
observed the disaster area he’d created. Process of elimination said the key
had to be with Tate, but so far they hadn’t been able to find even a hint of
it. Ryu’s intensity when searching had gotten Tate thinking again. He’d been
too focused on the problem at hand. There was something he wasn’t telling her,
hidden motivations that had yet to be revealed.

It made her trust him even less
than before and she found herself holding back several of her thoughts.

“If we don’t find that key, Lucius
will kill you,” Dewdrop said conversationally, throwing the shirt he was
holding onto the already inspected pile.

“I had a feeling.”

“Is there anything we’re
forgetting?” Ryu asked. “Anything. Anything at all.”

There was one thing.

“Nope,” she chirped. “I can’t think
of anything.”

Tate disregarded her theory almost
as soon as it occurred to her. The only other thing that had touched the key
but hadn’t been inspected was Tate herself. She was sure, though, that if it
had transferred to her, she’d have felt something. She’d felt the magic of the
barrier stones and the Red Lady’s tentacles when she had tried to invade Tate’s
brain. Furthermore, Ryu would have considered her first if it had been a
possibility. Since he hadn’t, she assumed transferring to a person wasn’t
possible.

He eyed her suspiciously, as if he
knew she was keeping something back. She quickly rearranged her features to
reflect innocence and honesty. Nothing hidden here. No lie has touched these
lips.

He looked away and Tate fought to
keep the sigh of relief in at her bluff. Dewdrop didn’t look quite convinced,
and Night eyed her knowingly. She shrugged at them and shook her head.

She was in this too deep to put all
her cards on the table yet.

Night’s children began to get antsy
as the morning deepened. They weren’t the only ones, either. So Ryu decided
they needed a break to regroup and consider before deciding on a course of
action. Tate took the opportunity to find clothes and get dressed.

Sitting on the bed fully dressed,
she pulled up her sleeve to look at her tattoo. It had gone back to its
original sleeping position. She could still feel the intense heat her skin had
given off and see the Red Lady’s pain and fury as the tiny dragon spat fire at
her. Coupled with the voice that made itself heard in her head, it was clear
this was no ordinary tattoo.

Dragon-ridden. She tested the word.
For her the term was incomprehensible. She only recently learned that such a
being existed, and to find that she may actually be one seemed a little too
coincidental.

Every answer she uncovered about
herself and her past only seemed to lead to more questions. It was like an itch
she could never quite scratch. She constantly questioned if the choices she
made were right. If this was how the person she was before would have reacted.
So far she’d relied in large part on instinct and immediate concerns to form
her decisions, but recent events had made it clear that that wasn’t going to
cut it for much longer. Lately, everything she did only seemed to lead her
deeper and deeper into the muck. A part of her was beginning to think it was
normal.

She closed her eyes. Now was not
the time to be focused on the past. There would be time for that later, when
she wasn’t facing multiple crises at once. With a pang of regret she created a
box in her mind and sealed the anxiety and need for answers inside.

There was a knock at the door. Tate
answered, mildly surprised to find Dewdrop standing outside.

“Come with me.”

“I thought everybody was going to
meet back here,” Tate said a little confused.

He turned towards the stairs and
said over his shoulder, “There’s something you need to see.”

Tate debated following him. It was
possible he was leading her into a trap. He’d never told her why he was in the
Red Lady’s territory. There was a chance he could still be working for Lucius.

Once again curiosity took hold, and
she found herself responding to his urgency and ended up following him for
several blocks. Dewdrop plunked a hat on her head and wrapped a scarf around
his.

“What are we doing?” Tate asked in
exasperation. She needed to get back to the apartment. Perhaps if she told Ryu
she wouldn’t cooperate with him unless he told her what he was hiding, he would
let her in on the secret.

“Sh,” Dewdrop hissed, steering her
around a clump of people. “Act natural.”

She rolled her eyes. There was
nothing natural about this hat and his scarf.

“Look,” he whispered, nodding
across the street toward an outdoor café.

She humored him, thinking that if
she did she could go back to the room.

“I still don’t know why you dragged
me out here,” she said.

“Third table from the left. Be casual.
What do you see?”

She squinted at the table he
suggested. Her eyes kept wanting to slide away. The first time she looked she
didn’t see the table. The second and third time she was able to briefly train
her eyes on it before she found herself looking at the couple at the next table
over.

“What is this?” she exclaimed,
frustrated.

“It’s a ‘look away’ spell,” Dewdrop
explained. “My crew trained me in spotting them. Rich people like to use them
to hide their money. It takes a little getting used to, but if you look at the
table from the corner of your eye first, you should be able to see through it.”

Tate tried that, looking at the
next table and using her peripheral vision to see the one beside it.

“That’s Ryu!”

“Yup,” Dewdrop said with pride. “I
never would have noticed him if not for the look-away.”

“Who’s that beside him?”

“Don’t know. But whoever he is,
they don’t want anybody to know about this meeting.”

More proof that Ryu was up to
something. The waters were getting deep.

Tate was afraid they’d be spotted
if they hung around, but she really wanted to know what he was up to. The two
settled for a pass by the café before traveling around the block and changing
their hat and scarf for another pass. They traveled arm-in-arm posing as a
couple taking in the sights.

As they paused in front of a street
performer, Ryu and his companion got up and headed out.

In a prearranged plan, Tate fell
back, letting Dewdrop follow. After a couple of blocks they switched places.
They didn’t want their quarry to get too used to seeing either one of them. As
it was they were courting danger using only two people to shadow Ryu and his
friend. Normally the more people you used for a tail the harder it is to spot
it.

Their quarry didn’t seem concerned
about followers, secure in the power of the ‘don’t look here’ spell. They
didn’t look back. Not even once. It was a pretty powerful spell. Tate was sure
if it hadn’t been for Dewdrop, she could have passed within feet of them and
not known they were there.

Even following was difficult as the
spell kept redirecting her attention to inconsequential things. It was only
through sheer luck she was able to spot them turning a corner half a block
away.

She cursed and rushed to the
corner, slowing to a normal pace right before she reached it.

The path Ryu and his companion
followed took Tate and Dewdrop into nicer and nicer neighborhoods. The streets
were getting less and less crowded and the two dropped farther back to avoid
being spotted.

It was Dewdrop’s turn to take the
lead again, and Tate let herself slow down until he was almost out of sight.

Her legs were burning. Walking all
over the city over the past few days was beginning to have a toll on her
muscles. She knew after a week or two the exhaustion would lessen as her legs
got stronger, but right now they would have enjoyed a little rest. By now
they’d been following the men for over an hour and the past ten minutes they’d
been walking steadily uphill. Behind her, the city spread out with the ocean in
the distance.

Tate huffed up the hill. Where were
these guys going? All the way to the Upper? This was a part of the city she
hadn’t had an opportunity to explore. With each block they traveled uphill,
they got closer to the Upper City with its white-washed stone buildings that were
carefully maintained. The houses got bigger and bigger, and the land
surrounding them got larger with meticulously gardened lawns leading up to
stately front doors.

By now, the only people on the
street were well-groomed men and women moving gracefully about their business.

Up ahead, Dewdrop stopped to take a
look around. Tate stopped too, wondering if he’d lost the gentlemen.

He beckoned her over. Guess so.

“I lost the trail near here.”

Though disappointed, Tate didn’t
think they would have been able to follow Ryu for much longer anyway. At least
they had an idea of where he had disappeared.

“What’s in this area?” she asked.

Dewdrop folded his arms and
considered. “I’m not too sure. I’ve rarely been in the Upper City. They have
too many patrols here to make it worth a thief’s time.”