Dragonoak: The Complete History of Kastelir (56 page)

“This is good—did you make it?” Claire asked, eating faster when she realised it was not only cake, but
good
cake.

Kouris drummed her fingers impatiently against her knee, and I said, “I watched Akela make it,” eager, in a sense, to hear what they had to say. I doubted it was anything good, but from the moment I knew there was something they had to share with me, I'd no choice but to find out what it was, lest my heart never stop grinding against my ribs.

“Here's the thing,” Kouris said, hurrying to dispel anxiety, “The dragon-slayer and I, we're thinking of leaving.”

“Leaving? Leaving Kastelir, you mean?”

“Aye. Now, you know that we had nothing but good intentions when we came here. The dragon-slayer thought she could get help for her Kingdom, and I thought I could use my status to make that easier. Had Jonas been allowed to stick around, it just might've worked. But now Kidira and Atthis are too busy fighting with half the Kingdom over who gets to take the throne, and the other half would see them off their own. That's not even to mention what's happening with Agados.

“It wasn't the best plan, but it was a plan. We saw it through, and this one's stuck acting as Kidira's lackey, trying to prove her loyalties, and Atthis, he wants to act like nothing bad is going to come of this. And, if I'm being honest, I might be hurting more than I'm helping here. Can't be expecting to come back after so long and hope that nothing had changed. Doesn't leave us with many options, does it?”

Claire nodded along with Kouris as she spoke, picking the last cake crumbs from the napkin. Without looking away from Kouris, I handed her the other slice. The thought of leaving Kastelir didn't frighten me. If anything, it made me realise how much I wanted to be out of the castle, back on the road, where Claire wasn't being made to dress as a foreign soldier, stripped of rank and honour.

“Where we will go? Back to Felheim? To Thule?” I asked, uncertain whether trading one castle for another would do us any good. “Are there people there who will help us?”

Claire shook her head, chewing thoughtfully.

“There
may
be, though I do not believe so. The King clearly planned for this – planned for me to follow in his footsteps – and my entire life has been guided by him. I have only become acquainted with those he approved of, and he is not solely responsible for what is happening with the dragons. The web of those involved stretches further than I suspect, no doubt,” she said, sighing. “I did not expect Kastelir to help me, but I wished to warn them regardless—and I have done just that.”

“Okay. Okay—” I said, rubbing my hands together. I knew one thing for certain, and that was that Claire wasn't simply going to
ask
to leave. We'd be running. She'd make an enemy of yet another King. “What about the Queen? Queen Aren?”

The corner of Claire's mouth slanted downwards, and she stared at the cake in her hand, picking at it without eating any.

“The Queen has been ill for some time. Healers have purged the disease over and over again, but inevitably, only succeed in prolonging the decay. When last I saw her, I learnt that the healers were of little use to her. I should not like to trouble her, if such a thing is still possible,” she said, jaw tightening.

I put a hand on the back of hers, squeezing it, letting go so that she could finish off yet more cake.

Kouris' ears twitched as her gaze burrowed into the crumb-laden napkin, and in order to break the silence, I said, “Seriously, what is it?”

She didn't seem to hear me.

“Pane don't like chocolate,” Claire informed me, flicking a chunk of cake directly at Kouris' nose. Kouris snarled, teeth snapping together, and Claire said, “Couldn't say why, though.”

I laughed under my breath, but felt it ripple through my chest. Claire wrapped an arm around me as I leant against her, and I thought not only of the people we'd leave behind, of Akela and Katja, but of those Claire would have to face. The King, the Queen. Her brothers. A slew of Knights who could surely stand against her, along with the entirety of a nation indebted to them for the dragons they kept at bay.

“Don't reckon we'll be going to Thule, not straight away,” Kouris said, having brushed off her nose half a dozen times. “Best to be heading to the source of it all—where they're raising and twisting their dragons.”

“Oh?”

“The Bloodless Lands,” Claire clarified, and as she said it, it all slid into place. Where else would they be able to manipulate beasts the size of barns without anyone stumbling across them? “Or near enough.”

“Isn't that dangerous?” I asked, questions spilling from my lips. “ … Do you think the Phoenix Fire is still burning?”

“It won't be safe, but none of this journey has been, thus far,” Claire said, “And I doubt we shall get close enough to find out.”

“They're not gonna see us coming,” Kouris said, slamming a fist into her open hand. “They're not about to be wasting soldiers when no one ever crosses into the Bloodless Lands. That's just asking for their secrets to spill.

“Now, keep in mind, yrval, you don't have to be coming with us. We don't want to leave you behind, but we're not forcing you into this. You've been kept in the dark for long enough, and we wanted everything out in the open. We can take you to Kyrindval, or—”

“No!” I said, bolting to the edge of my seat. I wasn't going to back down, not after I'd come so far with them. “I followed you all the way through Felheim and Kastelir and up to Kyrindval, not knowing what was going on. And I'm not just going to go home or put up with Michael now that I'm finally starting to understand it all. I want to help. Even if that just means carrying bags and washing the dinner things.”

Kouris' lips curled into a smile and Claire pulled me back, neither of them saying another word. They didn't have to. I could tell that they hadn't expected me to stay behind, and had only made the offer in order for me to refuse it. They wanted me with them. They'd set out with their own missions and I'd insisted on following along, but now I wasn't simply a burden they were shepherding through Kingdoms.

I would've smiled, but found it hard to greet the plan with any real enthusiasm. All three of us were pre-emptively exhausted by what laid ahead; the weeks spent on the road, trying to remain inconspicuous with a pane in our midst, soft beds a distant memory. I closed my eyes, doing what I could to turn my thoughts away from the never-ending landscape that'd pass us by.

“I'll send a raven to your brother. Let him know to stay in Kyrindval,” Claire said. “We leave at dawn.”

Claire returned to Queen Kidira's side, and I headed to my chamber in order to gather my belongings and get an early night's sleep. The former didn't take long. I'd kept Claire's key around my neck since she'd placed it there, and my only other belongings of worth were the knife from Michael and the helm from Kravt. I sorted through the clothing I'd slowly been putting to use, and hoping it wouldn't be missed, folded as much as would fit in my bag.

I slid the bag under a chair, aware that it wouldn't go unnoticed if Katja turned up unannounced, and wrestled with the urge to find her and Akela. Confining myself to a chair, I came to terms with the fact that I wouldn't be able to give them a proper goodbye, even if they inexplicably weren't busy. I'd say too much in holding back the goodbye I felt I owed them; there'd be a dull finality in all I wasn't saying.

I wished, as I so rarely did, that I could write enough to leave them a note.
Sorry
couldn't have taken more than a few strange swirls on the page, surely. I knew this wasn't to be a momentary reprise from the castle. Fleeing Kastelir would make us their enemies, and any friendships I'd nurtured were forfeit.

But no matter how I valued the friendship I'd found in Katja and Akela, I couldn't leave Claire and Kouris for them. For anyone.

Sleep came in scattered bursts. Face in the pillow, I tried to convince myself I was already dreaming, but Isin was alive with the end of the festival, spirits raised at the expense of a necromancer's life. Had they known a second necromancer resided within their castle, not a soul would've drunk and danced into the night.

I gave up on rest for minutes at a time, pulling back the curtains, wishing Claire would knock at my door; sitting with my feet dangling over the edge of the bed, wondering where the harm in heading out to find her was; inevitably falling back into the nest of blankets every time.

Birds sang out to warn me of the encroaching dawn, and I groaned groggily, mind finally willing to succumb to sleep. My joints ached, protesting every step I took. I would've felt better had I not slept at all.

Dragging my feet over to the basin, I splashed warm water against my face, expecting it to work a miracle. The tips of my hair were barely wet when footsteps outside my chamber gave me reason to pause; I strained to listen, but they passed straight by, lost in the winding corridors beyond.

Kouris would fetch our horses, and I was to meet Claire by the servants' bridge we'd crossed upon leaving for Kyrindval. Another patter of footsteps passed, and the moment the sun made its intent known to the night sky, I grabbed my bag and shot out of the room.

The corridor was clear, but the rest of the castle was busier than I'd expected it to be. I tried not to be surprised by it. The Phoenix Festival had probably wound to a close hours or minutes ago, and if I ran into anyone, I would tell them that I was looking for something to eat; any peculiarities on my part would be put down to a stein of ale too many.

Plenty of people fluttered by, dressed in what appeared to be nightwear, but none of them paid me any heed. I slipped past the clusters of preoccupied people, as easily as though I'd been a shadow, and kept my destination in mind. I didn't have time to decipher what had drawn so many from their chambers, and hoped that another assassination hadn't caused the castle's residents to believe that the walls were closing in on them.

“—
here
?” one man asked incredulously, “How many were lost?”

I moved too quickly to hear any reply. I darted down a staircase, finding the ground floor, and happened upon a corridor that was unlikely to stay empty for more than a few seconds. Gripping the window-frame, I hoisted myself out, landing on the narrow path between the castle and the moat. I jogged the rest of the way, the shaky doubt that I wouldn't find the right bridge all but dissipating once I realised I could simply circle the castle over and over until I saw Claire.

I turned the corner and found Claire at the foot of one of the upper-bridges, exactly where I hadn't agreed to meet her.

She wasn't alone.

Soldiers flanked her, but I didn't have time to consider that she'd been caught leaving and our plans had gone awry; her dragon-bone armour spoke volumes that I wanted to deafen myself to.

“Claire!” I called out, sprinting her way.

Two soldiers caught my arms, holding me back. One of them said, “'fraid you can't come this way, miss.”

“
Let her through
,” Kouris growled behind me, causing the soldiers to flinch as she stepped out of the castle. They didn't consider holding me back, not with Kouris' eyes glinting as though she was waiting for the slightest hint of an excuse to knock them into the moat.

Akela was behind her, dressed in Luxon's dragon-bone armour, axe swapped out for a sword, but I couldn't spare more than a second to stare at her.

The soldiers let me barge my way through, and though Claire had heard me call out, she moved towards Calais.

“Claire!” I tried again, gripping her arm and wincing at the smooth bone beneath my fingertips. She tensed, one foot already in the stirrup, needing to leave, to leave
now.

“Rowan,” she said, dragon-bone boots scraping the stone beneath as she put both feet back on the ground. “I
have
to leave. There is a dragon within Kastelir, and I am the only one capable of slaying it.”

“But...”

“This is my
duty
, Rowan. Please,” she said, helm covering too much of her face. Once more, she was but a Knight, dragon-bone becoming her. “Stay here.
Wait
.”

The dragons she had slain before were as nothing. The one that had found its way to Kastelir – that had been
sent
to Kastelir – was far more vicious than any she had faced before, all fire and fangs, intelligence burning bright at its core. It wasn't that I didn't have faith in her; the fear roiling within me had simply managed to cover it in a thick haze. I left my room that morning believing that we were to be free of Kastelir, and minutes later, all I could think was how foolish the King and Queen had been to think they had time.

“I—”

I'd spent too long focused on what Claire had lost, on all that she'd left behind, and hadn't once dreamt that she could slip back into her old role so easily.

She didn't wait for me to say anything else. The gates swung open, and the soldiers shouted for her to move out. Climbing onto Calais' back, she looked at me one last time, mouthing
I'll be fine
as she gripped the reins.

“Northwood,” Akela called from the back of her own. Luxon's armour didn't fit her as seamlessly as Claire's did, but ill-fitting dragon-bone armour was still dragon-bone armour, and not to be squandered. “Do not be fretting. In no time, we are returning, and then you are making
me
a cake to celebrate. Yes?”

Hooves beat against the bridge and armour clattered as the soldiers moved out, accompanying Akela and Claire through the city. Kouris came to my side, and without her having to say anything, I knew that she was leaving too.

“I'll take care of them both,” Kouris assured me, and all I could do was grip her fingers and squeeze them, arm falling limply by my side.

It wasn't until they were out of sight, gate locked behind them, that I was able to do anything but stare. The sun didn't waste any time in lighting up the sky, and the faint smell of smoke drifted towards me from Isin, stirring me to action. Of course I couldn't stay here. I had to get Charley, to head after them; any of them could be hurt, and it was up to me to help, to heal. It didn't matter if Akela saw what I could do, if the soldiers knew what I was. We were leaving. Claire would slay the dragon, and we'd be gone before anyone could think to march us back to the castle.