Dragon Storm (21 page)

The twins grabbed some food from the buffet and led her over to the king’s table, seating her before grabbing their own chairs on either side of her. All three of them ate heartily, which didn’t seem to raise any eyebrows here. Everyone at the table after all was a shifter and was probably used to the higher metabolism that required so much more food than regular folk. Josie was glad to be among them. She felt like part of the group rather than an interloper, even if she couldn’t fly. Her cat was content, basking in the ambient warmth that seemed to always surround the dragon shifters.

“Before we set off, would you grant me one small favor, Josie?” Roland addressed her directly as the breakfast party began to break up.

“Sure. What is it?”

“I have yet to see this magical cat of yours. Would you mind shifting for me?”

Josie grinned as she used the napkin to rid herself of crumbs. She’d finished eating and was ready to go when everyone else was. She stood and faced the king, who was also standing in preparation for departure.

“No problem. I’d be happy to show you my other side.” Josie called the cat and in a shimmer of white, she shifted form.

The king walked up to her, and the cat bowed its head to the monarch, without lowering its gaze. Josie’s ears swiveled as she caught murmurs from those around them. It seemed her shift had caused a bit of a stir among the other people in the hall.

“Don’t worry, love. Roland must have a reason for doing this,”
Connor reassured her silently, and she realized she was being put on display deliberately.

“Roland always has a reason,”
Darius seconded in her mind.
“If you think Nico is bad, Roland plays even deeper games of strategy. Don’t ever let either one of them sucker you into a game of chess.”

Roland held out one hand to her, and Josie raised one large forepaw and put it in his.

“You are beautiful, Princess Josie, in both your forms. You glow with magic, and your cat is one I recognize from my study of ancient texts. Will you show me your claws?” He let go of her paw, and she unsheathed her claws for his perusal.

Normally she wouldn’t put on a show like this for anyone, but Roland seemed interested in solving the puzzle she presented to his agile mind. If he could discover something important that might help his kingdom, she would be happy to help in whatever small way she could. These people were her people now too. Now that she was going to live in this world with her mates.

“Will you walk with me, Princess Josie?” Roland asked formally.

He didn’t give her time to shift, and she supposed he wanted her to walk the halls to the ledge in cat form. Well, all right. She didn’t mind, and the cat needed a good stretch before she had to be a passenger on a dragon’s back for who knew how many hours.

Roland strode out of the main hall with Josie at his side. Darius and Connor followed along behind her, grinning like fools at the attention she was getting in her cat form. Everyone they passed stopped and stared at her. She felt very conspicuous by the time they’d reached the ledge from which they’d depart and saw they’d gathered a huge crowd on their parade through the hallways of the Lair.

“Thank you, Josie.” Roland turned to her as they neared the edge. “I have learned a great deal, and so it appears, have our people.” He stepped back, and she knew then he’d done it so the Lair folk would know what she truly was. Why he wanted that, she didn’t know, but he’d definitely achieved his goal.

Josie shifted back in a cloud of white mist and smiled up at the king. Roland stepped farther away and a black mist enveloped him as he shifted to his dragon form. He had the most amazing emerald eyes as a man that held true in his dragon form. With a mighty sweep of his wings, he took to the air.

Darius and Connor gave her sweet kisses and tight hugs, then she was bundled up in a warm fur coat and given a small bag of provisions to carry. She said goodbye to Candis while the twins shifted shape, then climbed on Connor’s back and away they went.

They stopped only once during the long flight for the dragons to get a sip of water from a crystal-clear lake. The countryside was dotted with farms and forestland. It was hilly in places, and she could see mountains in the distance. All in all, it was a beautiful, fertile land, free of the smog of urban life. It was lovely.

Josie took a moment to stretch and felt the urge to do a little
t’ai chi
while she was in such beautiful surroundings. She hadn’t felt this much at peace in a place in a long time. Her mountain home in Oregon had some of this feeling, of course, but she was always cautious about hikers and day-trippers who came onto her land at least a few times a year. She never knew when or how she would be disturbed in her sanctuary, only that she would be.

She had none of that subtle stress here. No, these people were shifters of an even more magical kind. From all accounts the townspeople were used to magic and though her cat form might garner attention, she wasn’t likely to become the target of an insane news media if she was spotted running across the hills. For the first time since leaving her grandfather’s home, she felt truly free to be who she was.

“What was that you were doing?” Riki came up behind Josie after she’d finished her
t’ai chi
form and was reaching for an apple from the sack she’d carried. The men were still mostly in dragon form, some guarding while others refreshed themselves with food, drink or simply a moment of peaceful motionlessness.

“It’s a form of moving meditation called
t’ai chi ch’uan
.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“It has a practical side too. Each of the movements is either a defense or attack posture.”

“Really?” Riki looked truly interested. Josie explained a bit more as Riki sat beside her, taking another apple from the sack on the ground.

“It’s actually a martial art.” Josie stood and moved into one of the postures. “See? This is actually a block while this hand is in a strike position.” She flowed into the next move. “Watch my hands and imagine someone standing behind me. See the way my fingers are curled? Aiming for my opponent’s eyes. Gross, huh?” Josie smiled at Riki’s astonished expression.

She looked up to find Roland watching her with narrowed eyes. He’d shifted to human form and walked over without her knowing. These dragons moved like the wind.

Riki passed him the sack of food, and he pulled out a sandwich for himself before settling next to Riki on the ground. Nico appeared and sat on his wife’s other side, grabbing the sack out of his brother’s hands. Josie looked around for the twins, realizing they were the only two left standing in dragon form, their necks craned and their stances alert.

“I left the boys on guard duty.” Nico waved a hand in the twins’ direction. “Punishment for making us worry.”

“Nico, that’s not nice. They’re newly mated. They’ll want to spend time with Josie,” Riki protested.

“I know.” Nico grinned and placed a smacking kiss on his wife’s lips. “They’re young. They’ll survive. And they’ll think twice about worrying us again.”

“It really wasn’t their fault,” Josie protested, sitting again with the group. “They didn’t call the storm. At least not on purpose. I think it was meant to come for them. My grandfather said all of this was part of my destiny. Part of the prophecies of a time almost completely forgotten in my world—even by those touched by magic.”

“Your grandfather is some kind of mystic, Darius said.” Nico’s question was a leading one but she didn’t mind answering.

“All snowcats are revered by other supernaturals—particularly other kinds of shifters. Snowcat holds a position of spiritual power because, of all the shifter clans, we have the most magic. Or so my grandfather would have everyone believe.”

“Why is that? And in what ways are you more magical than others?” Nico continued his not-too-subtle interrogation. She decided to fill them in on her background. It was better if she told them without the elder brothers needing to pry it out of her. She figured they’d learn the story sooner or later anyway.

“The snowcat clan lives high in the mountains of Tibet. It’s a remote country with a long mystical tradition. Many kinds of holy men seek enlightenment in the Himalayas—a snow-covered mountain range that has some of the highest peaks on the planet. It was the playground of ancient wizards, including the founder of my line, the one known as Marpa. My full name is Josephine Marpa. My mother was human, my father was the heir to the snowcat legacy. When he died, my mother took me to her land, which is where I grew up for the most part, among humans. She died when I was a teenager, and my grandfather came to get me. He didn’t have high hopes for me. He didn’t even think I’d be able to shift, but I surprised him, and myself. My snowcat is strong, even though I’m only half snowcat by birth.”

She fished another apple out of the sack and leaned back against a convenient rock, continuing her explanation. “My grandfather is a holy man. A warrior monk. And he likes to keep up the tradition of snowcats being more spiritually connected and magical than all other shifters. It’s not something I enjoy. I wasn’t raised on his mountain. I grew up in the real world. But there’s no arguing that snowcats have more magic than most shifters in my world. For one thing, like you dragons, we take our clothes with us into the shift. Almost all other shifters need to disrobe before shifting or risk ruining their wardrobe.”

“That’s inconvenient.” Nico made a face.

“Very,” Josie agreed. “It’s also inconvenient to be a snowcat among other shifters. They all tend to want to make me into some sort of holy person, which I’m not. It’s even worse when they’re Buddhists, and they know I’m a descendant of Marpa.”

“He was a wizard, right?” Roland asked.

“So the legends say. Unfortunately, one of the world’s major religions also credits him with being one of its founders. Human Buddhists would never associate my last name with my lineage. It’s the shifters who are Buddhists who know I really am one of his descendants. They expect me to be wise and all-knowing. I hate to disappoint them when they find out I’m just as confused as everyone else is most of the time.” She chuckled, and the others followed suit.

“It’s not always easy to bear the burden of lineage. I do think it’s significant that we’re all descended from wizards, however.” Roland shot her a sideways look full of speculation. “In our case, the common ancestor is Draneth the Wise—he who joined with dragonkind. I wonder why the Mother of All put you in our brothers’ path.”

She liked that. The Mother of All. It was one of the names her grandfather’s people called the Mother Goddess. She didn’t know much about her mates’ religion yet, but she had an open mind where spirituality was concerned. Considering the way she’d been raised, straddling two cultures and belief systems, she knew firsthand that there was no one true way.

Her mother’s religion had looked to a male deity. Her father’s beliefs had taught ways to seek harmony with the Earth, guided by the Mother of All. As a shifter, Josie had always felt a little more comfortable with her father’s beliefs about the Earth spirit and the female flavor of creation than the stuffy church her mother had taken her to. Besides, the incense they burned in that place had made her sneeze.

Whatever deity anyone followed, Josie believed some higher power had been instrumental in bringing her in contact with her mates. Too many amazing things had to happen to bring them together to believe it had all been coincidence. Josie had never believed in coincidence. In fact, she was more likely to believe in things like destiny and fate—especially where true matings were concerned.

“All I know is that Darius and Connor are my true mates. My cat recognized them the minute she met them. Actually, she recognized them one at a time, but both were her mates. It’s like that for most shifters. A scent, a flavor, a feeling. We know our mates when we meet them. Of course, it’s rare to have two mates. I never did take the easy road in life. It’s illegal in most countries in my world to marry more than one person at a time. And it’s usually a man trying to marry more than one woman. The opposite is practically unheard of.” She quirked a smile at her own expense.

“Dragons are like that when they recognize their mate, as are the knights who partner them.” Roland finished his repast and tossed the organic refuse. “As you no doubt saw in the Lair, three-partnered marriages are the norm among knights, so you’ll have no problems here.”

“That’s one small advantage to coming here, I guess.” She stood and brushed off her pants.

“I hope you will find other compensations to living in this world, Josie.” Roland was as serious as she’d ever seen him. “I don’t think I could survive if any more of my family were taken from me.”

Whoa. That was a warning if she’d ever heard one. Josie decided to play it cool. He was the king here, after all. Still, he needed to know the truth.

“My grandfather said I had the power to call the storm that would take us between worlds. He also intimated that I would go back to my world at some point in the future, but I got the feeling my true destiny lay here. What that destiny is, we will discover together—Connor, Darius and I.”

Roland eyed her for a long moment, then he nodded. “Fair enough. We should continue our journey if we want to reach the castle by midday.”

Josie decided not to say anything to her mates about the conversation with his elder brothers. She figured they already had a pretty good idea what their brothers had been up to. The looks she’d seen pass between them when she’d mounted up on Darius’s back said as much.

The castle was like something out of a fairy tale. They flew over the top of a mountain and there it was, in the distance, built into the side of an even-more-dominant peak. A castle carved into the spire of rock with a rainbow of dragons flying around. When the closest dragons caught sight of their party, the loud trumpeting began, to be echoed by the other dragons within earshot.

Then Josie noticed the town. A city really. Built around the base of the castle, on verdant slopes. The farthest outskirts had open farmland and a few larger homes and compounds of different types. The whole thing looked like some fantasy artist’s concept of a magical medieval city. It was breathtaking.