Soul of Smoke (27 page)

Deryn’s panicked thought cut through all of their minds.
Kavar is coming!

Juli felt Ashem’s heartbeat pick up. Kavar would have to be some distance away for Ashem not to have sensed him first. There was still hope. “
Head for the apartment in Seattle.
We’ll catch up.
”

“
We can’t
.” Rhys spoke this time, voice tense. “
We’re surrounded.
They’re closing in.
”

Fear filled Ashem’s mind, and Juli’s own heart began to pound. He looked at her. “Stay here. Keep Kai and Cadoc calm.” He used the strip of fabric in his hands to blindfold Cadoc. “Don’t let him take this off, don’t talk about Rhys where he can hear, don’t let him go anywhere. Do your best. If he transforms, run.”

Juli nodded, not wanting Ashem to leave. “
What happens if you die?
”

Ashem shook his head. “Griffith, take Cadoc there.” He indicated a denser patch of dusty green pines that would hide them. “Ffion, let’s go.”

He spared a brief glance for Juli before he turned to run uphill. “
For both our sakes
,
Juliet
,
pray you don’t have to find out.
”

Shivering, Juli followed Kai and Griffith deeper into the trees. Griffith laid Cadoc down gently, nodded to Juli and Kai, and walked out of the trees. The earth shook with his transformation. Overhead, flames split the sky. The battle had begun.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Just Stay

Kai crouched on a bed of dry, brown needles, the scent of pine all around her. For a second, there was no sound but the harsh in and out of Juli’s breath. Then a dragon roared, a sound like thunder. Kai jumped.

Juli didn’t. Her tennis shoes made a soft swishing sound as she paced back and forth through the pine needles, her head tilted to the sky, her gaze far off, as if she saw things Kai couldn’t.

Kai held Cadoc’s unbroken left hand. His right was a distorted lump beneath the strips of fabric Ashem had wrapped over it, but she’d seen. Guilt curled her insides. Whoever had hurt Cadoc had taken his assortment of masculine bracelets, armbands and necklaces. He looked oddly plain without them.

Something in Cadoc’s breathing changed. Juli paused. “He’s waking up.”

Kai glanced at her. “Is he going to be himself?”

Juli shrugged.

Cadoc groaned. His injured hand twitched beneath the bandage, and the groan turned into a gasp. He shot into a sitting position and clawed at the blindfold.

Kai touched his shoulder. “Cadoc?”

He jerked away. After a few deep breaths, he spoke. “Kai? They...they don’t know about you, do they? You can’t be an illusion.”

His smooth, melted-chocolate voice had gone rough. Kai fought the burn of tears. “I think so. It’s hard to tell what’s real, the past couple of weeks. Leave it,” she said as he reached for the blindfold. “Ashem wants you to leave it on for now.”

Cadoc released the fabric and reached out, searching. His fingers found her cheek, her hair. She pulled him into a gentle hug. Beneath the smell of sweat and blood lingered the scent of cedar wood and lemon oil.

Cadoc’s hand fisted in the back of her shirt, and he pulled her tight to him, shaking hard enough to break. “Real. Blood of the Ancients, you’re real. I’m free.”

Kai stopped fighting the tears, and they spilled down her cheeks as she clung to him, rubbing a hand along his back. She buried her face in his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

A gust of wind rattled the trees, a glimpse of azure flashing by as they swayed. Another roar, louder and closer, and then a noise like a thousand voices screaming. Cadoc released her, reaching for the blindfold again.

“Leave that on,” Juli snapped. She’d wandered to the edge of the thicket, still craning her neck to look at the sky. Her face had gone white. She turned frightened dark eyes on Kai. “It’s not going well.”

“Who’s that?” Cadoc asked.

“My friend, Juli. She’s heartsworn to Ashem. Long story.”

Lightning cracked, a deafening peal of thunder sounding in the same instant. Kai wondered if it had come from Ffion or some other silver dragon.

“Ashem is sworn?” Cadoc shifted.

Kai put a restraining hand on his shoulder. “You have to stay here.”

He reached for the blindfold again and shoved it onto his forehead. His amethyst eyes blinked, flicked over the thicket, and then met Kai’s. “Ah,
brânwen
. It
is
you.”

More thunder. He tried to stand, but Kai held him still. “You can’t go out there.”

“But what’s happening? Where’s...” He shivered.

Fear tingled at the back of Kai’s neck. “You don’t remember?”

Cadoc shook his head. “I remember calling out to Ashem...and...” His body went tense. “Rhys.”

Juli was suddenly on his other side. “Don’t think about him,” she commanded. “Don’t talk about him. Don’t say his name. Ashem says you’re under some kind of spell. Blood magic. You attacked him.”

Cadoc’s breathing had gone ragged. “I attacked Rhys? But—Stars, I...feel cold.”

“Don’t think about him,” Juli said, her voice firm. “You’re stronger than us. You have to stay in control.”

Cadoc didn’t seem to hear her. “I remember...
Lladd y brenin ddraig
...” His eyes unfocused, amethyst irises flat and cold as glass.

“No!” Kai took Cadoc’s rigid fingers in her own. She had to distract him. “Hey, do you remember that night I came up on the ledge? You were on watch? It was, what, my first or second night?”

Cadoc blinked, his eyes still glassy. Slowly, he nodded.

“You sang to me.”

He nodded again. The movement looked easier this time.

“Sing to me now?”

His right arm tensed, pressing his injured hand into his chest. “I can’t.”

Kai hated herself. Nothing like prodding an open wound to get a man’s attention. “You can. Please.”

Another roar. Cadoc tensed, his muscles like steel beneath her hand. His voice shook. “They’re my family.”

Kai squeezed his fingers. “I know.”

Juli stood from where she’d been crouching on his other side, her voice uncharacteristically soft. “If you go up there, you’ll lose control and attack again. Your mind is still...wrong. Fogged.”

“Ashem’s heartsworn.” Cadoc gave Juli a ghost of his old grin. “He didn’t do too badly.” Juli arched an eyebrow, and he laughed softly.

Wind whipped over them again, bringing a sudden, searing heat that made it hard to breathe. Cadoc closed his eyes, inhaling, and the heat disappeared as if he’d sucked it from the air the way he’d pulled fire from Rhys’s hands. His voice was unsteady. “Rhys is using magic.” He opened his eyes. They’d gone glassy.

Kai put her hands on either side of his face. “Sing to me.”

He took a deep breath, then another. “
Brânwen
—”

“Sing, Cadoc!”

Soft and hesitant, he began.

“
Fel
‘
roeddwn i ryw fore hawddgar
,

Yng nghwr y coed ac wrth fy mhlesar
,

Ar frig y pren mi glywn ryw glomen
,

Yn cwyno’n glaf
—’
Ow
,
beth a wnaf
,
am f’anwyl gymar?’
”

The tune was heartbreaking. His voice gained strength as he went. Tension drained from his face and his shoulders relaxed.

“‘
Rhyw g’ledi mawr sydd yn fy mynwes
,

Wrth gofio’r cur a’r poen a gefes;

Wrth gofio’r mab a’r geiraiu mwynion
,

I’m calon rhoes drwm glefyd loes—Fe dyr fy nghalon.’
”

When the song ended, he shook his head, wincing at the sound of a dragon’s scream.

“I can’t stay
.
”

“What?” Even rough, his voice was magic. Kai was still partially under its spell.

“I can’t stay. I know he’s here. I recognize his roar, I feel his power. I’ve got to leave before I lose control again.”

Kai’s brow furrowed.
Rhys.
Was he all right? Were they winning?

She wrenched her mind from thoughts of Rhys. She had to talk Cadoc out of being stupid. “What about your hand?”

He shook his head. “It’s too late for my hand. Tell them...tell him Mair is alive. She’s been hiding among the rogues. She wants to help.”

Kai swallowed. “You’re hurt. We’re in the middle of the wilderness.”

Cadoc pushed himself up on shaky legs. Kai had forgotten how tall he was. He smiled at her “Don’t worry about me, love. Nothing in the wilderness is as frightening as a dragon.”

Juli eyed Cadoc warily. “Do not leave these trees without putting that blindfold on.”

“Don’t leave the trees at all!” Kai protested, standing as well.

Cadoc’s face was so innocent it looked positively wicked. “I will be Orpheus leading Eurydice from the underworld.”

Juli narrowed her eyes. “Orpheus looked back.”

Suddenly her face went pale.

Kai stepped toward her. “Juli?”

“Ashem,” Juli whispered. She took off, sprinting uphill, dodging between trees.

“Juli!” Kai swore. She turned to Cadoc, torn. “Stay here. Please. We’ll win. I know we will. And then we’ll take you to Eryri, and they can fix your hand.”

Cadoc smiled sadly at her again. “I hope you fall in love with him,
brânwen
. You both deserve to be happy.”

“Just stay,” Kai pleaded. She took off after Juli.

Half-obscured by golden leaves, the enameled blue sky was filled with streaks of color on vast wings. They wheeled and dove through billowing clouds, spitting poison and flame.

Afraid to call out, Kai searched through the spindly white trunks of aspen trees. It suddenly hit her how cold it was, and she hugged herself, shivering. The trees on her left seemed thinner, so she veered that way. The aspens ended, and a cliff loomed above her, towering a hundred feet over her head.

“Juli!” she called, her voice hardly more than a whisper. “Where are you?”

No answer. No sound. Not even small animals or birds in the trees. Then a dragon roared.

She turned her face to the sky, but couldn’t see. Before her, the cliff was weathered and cracked and perfect.

She climbed, wedging quickly numbing fingers and toes into the fissures and crannies that offered themselves up beneath her hands and feet. She passed the point where the fall would leave her broken on the leaf-littered floor of the aspen grove, then twice that distance.

The wind picked up the higher she went, snatching at hair and clothes with cold, greedy fingers. Once, her foot slipped. She spent a mind-thrashing second dangling by her hands before her feet found holds again. Now above the golden canopy, she clung to the rock, pressing herself to the cliff’s frigid face every time a roar or thunder vibrated through her. She didn’t think about Rhys, didn’t think about Juli, didn’t think about the dragons who clashed in the sky behind her. There would be time for all of them when she made it to the top. She had to be able to
see
.

She pulled herself onto level ground, scooting on her belly until she was far enough from the edge to stand, her legs shaking like jackhammers, her arms pumpy. Above the cliff, the slope was wide and gentle except for an upthrusting of rock about a dozen feet away. The wind smelled of ozone and smoke. With shaking breath that misted in front of her, she counted her dragons.

“One, two.” Ffion and Griffith fought together a third of a mile directly in front of her. Ffion’s mirror-scaled body glittered as she flitted this way and that, seeming to surround two of the enemy dragons on her own as she drove them toward Griffith. He raked three-foot-long claws down the belly of a bronze dragon. It screamed, a horrible sound that made Kai clap her hands over her ears. Ffion opened her mouth, and lightning crackled along the hide of the bronze dragon’s companion, who jerked and twitched as thunder rolled over the valley.

Kai turned west. “Three.” Deryn led two more dragons on a zigzagging chase. As Kai watched, she flared her wings. One of her pursuers twisted in the air to avoid collision. As it passed, Deryn opened her mouth. From this distance, Kai couldn’t see anything, but she did hear the enemy dragon scream.

“Where are you, Rhys?” Kai muttered. “And where’s Ashem?”

As if in answer, the air
whooshed
as an ebony dragon soared over her head from behind. Great, red gashes in his belly rained fat drops of blood as he passed, spattering in the dust not ten feet from where Kai stood.
Whoosh
,
whoosh
,
whoosh.
Three more dragons appeared, giving chase. Ashem skimmed low across the aspens. They bent and swayed from the wind of his passage, and round, yellow leaves swirled in his wake like fistfuls of golden coins flung at the sky.

He spiraled upward. When they’d fallen behind several body lengths, he let himself fall back to the earth, head down, jaws open. A cloud of yellow vapor blew from his mouth, directly into the face of his closest pursuer. The dragon faltered, beat its wings weakly for a moment, then plummeted. The ground shook when it hit, tree trunks shrieking as they splintered and fell under its weight.

The other two dragons banked away from Ashem and his deadly mist. The path of one brought it close to the mountain, and a blood-red dragon launched itself from a rocky crevasse, breathing a white wall of flame that made the enemy dragon’s pale blue hide crack and blacken like an overcooked hot dog.

“Rhys!”

He and Ashem flew toward the center of the valley to rejoin Ffion, Griffith and Deryn. The enemy dragons were regrouping as well. Kai silently counted. Eight enemies left, and no black dragon among them. Hope bubbled up within her. Maybe Kavar was dead.

Behind her, stone ground against stone.

Pressure filled Kai’s skull. Nausea soured her stomach. Knowing what she would see, she turned. Kavar crouched on the rocky outcropping above her, a mass of huddled darkness.

“
Hello again
,
baby ape.
” His baleful silver eyes roved over her. He flexed his right foreclaw, the one she’d stabbed.

“Get out of my head!” Kai pressed her hands her ears as the pressure grew. She fought the urge to throw up. His presence was thick and oily and
wrong
.

“
I
can’t.
I
owe you pain.
” With a flick like the careless swatting of a fly, Kavar’s mind smashed into hers.

Kai staggered and cried out through numb lips. She fell to all fours, gagging.

“
Disgusting.
” Kavar smashed down harder. The pain was so intense, Kai thought her brain would liquefy. She wanted to die.

He leaped from the top of the rocks, landing in front of her with an earth-shaking
thud
.

“
Kai!
” Another voice in her mind, a voice that felt like shelter. She pushed toward it, but she couldn’t reach, couldn’t connect. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the crimson flash of the sun against rubies, too far away to matter.

She gave Kavar a mental shove. The pressure relented a little. She tried again, pushing outward hard. With a curl of his lip, Kavar lashed her with his horned tail.

Kai dodged, bringing her arms over her face. A horrible, burning pain tore down her arm. Her roll brought her within a foot of the edge of the cliff, one heel hanging over nothing. Hot blood gushed from the slash he’d opened in the underside of her right arm, soaking her torn sleeve and dripping to the ground.

Rhys spoke into her mind, low and urgent. “
Jump
,
Kai!
”

Memory flashed. Her own voice.
What would you do if I jumped off this cliff?
Rhys’s response, utterly confident.
I
would catch you.