Soul of Smoke (28 page)

Kai jumped. The wind whistled past, the golden crowns of the aspen trees rushed to greet her. For one eternal moment, Kai knew she was going to die.

Red-scaled claws closed over her shoulders, gentle and unbreakable. Rhys swung her up, away from the cliff, pulling them into the sky.

Kavar roared. As Rhys looped around the mountain and over the peak, the black dragon sprang into the air and hurtled after them.

Rhys skimmed across the slope, dangerously close boulders and dry, wind-swept grass. He caught his wingtip on a spur of stone, his flight going erratic, and dropped so low Kai had to run her feet along a grassy strip of mountainside.

Kavar gained.

Rhys thrust down with his wings, heaving them back into the air. But their speed was gone. Kavar was on them. The Azhdahā reached forward with scythe-like claws and raked Rhys’s back leg. Rhys roared and twisted, shooting white fire. The black dragon flared his wings, pulling back.

Below them, a ravine opened. Rhys flipped sideways and arrowed through the opening to the narrow canyon, Kai pressed against his warm, scaled belly.

Behind them, there came a crunch of stone and a roar of anger and pain. Kavar had tried to pull the same maneuver as Rhys and crashed into the wall. Apparently dazed, Kavar clung to the cliff side like an enormous, disoriented bat.

Rhys angled them around a sharp bend, Kavar disappearing from view. He released Kai—who fell ten feet to the ground, rolling as she hit—and landed. “
Run for that cave.
”

Kai staggered, dizzy from the flight and loss of blood, then got her feet under her and sprinted toward a small opening at the base of the canyon wall. She dove inside. Fire flickered on the canyon walls, and Rhys ran flat-out toward her, human, sliding into the tiny cave like an MLB all-star.

As Rhys hunkered down next to Kai, Kavar flew around the sharp curve in the canyon. The black dragon didn’t even pause, but flew on.

Chest heaving as he panted, Rhys turned to her. “Are you all right?”

Dizzy, Kai looked down at her arm. Blood still sheeted from the long slice. She felt very, very cold. She staggered, then sat down hard on the ground. Vision blurred. Breath came fast and shallow.

Rhys knelt and took her injured forearm in strong, warm hands, pulling back the bloody fabric. “
Uffern dân.
I’ll kill Kavar, I swear it.”

“Not if I kill him first.” Kai’s voice was oddly breathy. She noticed a damp, red stain spreading across the calf of his pant leg. “You’re bleeding, too.”

“I’ll be fine.
Mae’n ddrwg
,
cariad.
” Rhys’s voice shook, but his hands were steady as he smoothed back her tangled hair, his fingertips brushing her skin. She felt the shockwave of his touch as if from a distance. Suddenly, his hands froze. He took in a sharp breath.

“What...?”

His fire-blue eyes stood out in sharp contrast to his pale, strained face. “It’s Ashem. Griffith is wounded.”

Kai didn’t want him to go. “They need you.”

Fists clenched, Rhys looked toward the cave entrance, then at Kai. “You first.”

He moved behind her, pulled her down so that her back was cradled against his chest. With his left hand, he grasped her bleeding wrist. Kai almost passed out at the sight of the gaping, sliced skin, her entire forearm soaked red and still dripping blood.

With a loud tearing, he ripped away the sleeve and tossed it aside. The first finger of his right hand hovered over the top of the ragged cut. “If you need to scream, scream into me. This is going to burn.”

He touched her. Searing pain rocketed through Kai’s body, and the sick, sizzling smell of burning flesh wafted through the air. She turned, pressed her face into his chest, and screamed.

He ran his finger steadily along the length of the cut, cauterizing her flesh, breathing hard. He leaned his cheek against the top of her head, murmuring words she didn’t understand. “
Mae’n ddrwg gen i
,
mae’n ddrwg gen i.
Bydd yn drosodd yn fuan.
”

After some indeterminable amount of time, he released her arm. She turned it toward her and bit her tongue to keep from throwing up at the sight of the shining, angry red line of bloodstained skin that ran from wrist to elbow.

Rhys shifted as if to stand.

Kai tensed. “What are you doing?”

He wouldn’t meet her gaze. “If I don’t come back, wait a day, then keep going through this canyon. When you get to the other end, head southeast. There’s a town. It might take you a day or two to get there, but you can.”

She was half-turned toward him, now. He raised a tentative hand to her face, running one finger along her lips. It felt like goodbye.

Kai wasn’t ready for goodbye. She slid her own hand up to press his to her cheek, ignoring the screaming pain in her arm. The heat and rushing flame of the fire garden he’d made only an hour ago seemed to surround them, invisible, the air sparking in the scant inches between their bodies. One of his arms came around her waist.

His clean, wild scent surrounded her, his warm breath brushed her skin. “I wish we could have known each other better.” His gaze went to her lips for a long moment then he released her and leaned back.

He was leaving, and if she didn’t do something, he wouldn’t come back.

“No.” She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and tugged him toward her. He didn’t budge. With a soft growl of frustration, Kai changed directions. She pushed him backward, overbalancing him and landing on his chest.

“Kai...” His voice was half question, half desperate plea. “Please...”

She lowered her head, hesitating for one eternal second. One kiss away from giving up her life, her family, her dreams.

Then again, dreams could be changed.

Their lips collided, soft and hot. His hands gripped her hips, his fingers tightening, pulling her hard against him. The kiss deepened, and he made a sound between a gasp and a moan.

The cave around them seemed to fall into darkness and silence; a place where no one and nothing existed except for them. The silence was replaced with the sound of rushing wind. Her left arm itched, but she hardly noticed. Her mind opened, and something new flooded in. It felt
right
, as if she’d been waiting her entire life to become more than she could ever be alone.

Fire scorched her veins, searing away pain, searing away cold. Like smoke, their souls flowed together, twining and merging until there was no distance, no difference. The world burned, and they were flame.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

No More Pain

Yes.

No.

Ancients...

A torrent of energy cascaded over them, washing away the ache in his chest as if it had never been. Rhys was no longer only himself; he was more. Better. Complete. He was
aware
of her, the way her heart pounded, the way her arm throbbed. Fire licked through his veins, leaving power in its wake.

He could burn the world.

Her weight on top of him, he forgot everything but the soul-deep need to come closer, destroy every barrier.
Knowing
she wanted him as much as he wanted her was going to drive him mad.

“
Griffith!
No!
” Ashem’s anguished mental shout pierced Rhys’s mind like a shard of ice.

Kai pushed away. “What?”

Ashem’s voice was like a river of cold.
Rhys
,
Griffith...
He’s dead.

The world narrowed into one fine point of light. No sound but harsh breath. Rhys sat up, his insides constricting. “No.”

Kai put a hand to her head and slid from his lap.

Ashem spoke again. “
That bastard Demba killed him.
” He paused. “
They’re distracted.
Take Kai and run.
”

The part of Rhys’s mind not wrapped up in Griffith’s death was aware that Kai was registering the changes in her body. The new strength. The sudden dampening of the pain in her arm. The magic that burned through her, allowing her to sense and manipulate heat.

Grief made it hard to speak. He tried to shove it back. Later, he would have time to mourn. “I’ve got to go.”

Kai blinked at him. “Did I just hear Ashem in your head saying Griffith...?”

Jaw set, Rhys nodded, fighting down another wave of choking emotion. “I need you to stay here.”

Kai stood straight, clutching her injured arm. “He can’t be dead. I just saw him! He carried Cadoc into those trees.”

Rhys could feel her numbness, her confusion. She’d never lost a friend to quick, violent death.
Oh
,
Ancients.
Ffion.
“He’s gone, Kai.” Rhys’s eyes burned, and he dug his nails in to his palm. “Ffion won’t be able to fight. She’ll be in too much pain. I have to get to her.”

She was blocking his way out of the cave, her expression half fear, half wonder. “You think you’re going to die. I can sense it. I—I know what you’re thinking.”

Rhys pushed her gently aside. It wasn’t as easy as it had been a few minutes ago. She was Wingless, now. Stronger. Faster. Even so, Wingless didn’t stand a chance against dragons. It was why they didn’t fight. “As long as Deryn survives, there’s hope.”

Kai folded her arms over her chest. “I’m coming with you.” Behind the words, he heard the thoughts. “
Don’t leave me alone here.
Please
,
don’t go without me.
”

“Sunder me,” Rhys muttered, then clenched his jaw as the full meaning of the words hit him. Kai was a virtual stranger, and yet, if they were sundered, if anything happened to her... He pressed his knuckles into his eyes. “I’ll take you close enough that you can see what’s happening, but that’s all. I can’t—I
can’t
put you in danger.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.” He turned and strode into the canyon, its tall walls casting the wide bottom in uneven shadow. His leg hurt where Kavar had raked it, but it was healing.

He felt Kai follow him, physically aware of her location, her health, her body...

She gasped, and he spun. But she was only examining her uninjured left arm. A pattern of fine, translucent scales swirled up the back of her hand and wrist, shimmering with rainbow iridescence in the sunlight. She pulled up her sleeve, turning her arm this way and that, tracing her fingers along the intricate whorls and loops. She pulled her shirt up, revealing a taut stomach and narrow waist.

Rhys pulled his eyes away, but not before seeing that the pattern covered the entire left half of her body, as his covered the entire right half of his. He swallowed and fixed his eyes on the ground ahead. “The takeoff will be rough. Are you sure you can hold on?”

She nodded, dropping her shirt and hooking a fall of thick, black hair behind one ear. “Yes.”

He moved into the center of the ravine and opened his mind. It was harder than usual. He’d gone from dragon to man and back again more than he could ever remember doing in one day. Thoughts of Griffith and his new sense of Kai kept intruding.

Finally, Rhys wrenched the fire over himself through sheer strength—a strength he hadn’t had ten minutes ago. The world shrank. Rhys looked down at Kai, who was surrounded by the white halo that marked her as his heartsworn. Energy crackled through his bones and fire sang in his blood. Time seemed to have slowed just slightly, or else he had sped.

No wonder the Council preferred their soldiers to be heartsworn.

Kai scrambled deftly up his shoulder and settled in the hollow above his wing joints, far enough away that she wouldn’t interfere with flight. It felt good to have her there, a small weight that balanced instead of anchored. Small comfort, but comfort nonetheless.

“I’m ready,” she called.

“
Hold on.
” He leaped, sweeping his wings down. Their tips brushed either side of the small canyon’s walls as he labored into the sky. Above the cliffs, he caught a thermal and soared. The mountains unfolded beneath them in waves of pine and aspen, the sun flashing off a blue lake snugged amongst the trees.

He flew up the mountain, back toward the battle, and they burst over the peak. On a clear, gentle slope about halfway down the other side, Deryn flew in low, tight circles around Ffion, who was crouched over Griffith’s unmoving body. She lifted her head and gave a wailing keen.

Five of Kavar’s vee orbited them like buzzards. Across the valley, too far to tell which was which, Kavar and Ashem clashed like warring patches of night.

They were closer to Deryn and Ffion, now, and Rhys could see that Griffith lay on his back, his neck twisted at a nauseating angle.

Rage exploded. Rhys had believed Ashem, but seeing Griffith drove out all coherent thought. Griff, the kindest, most patient man Rhys had ever known, was dead.

He couldn’t lose Deryn and Ffion, too.

There was no time to let Kai down, but he didn’t sense any fear in her. Like him, she was angry. Ready, even eager, to fight.

He dove.

One of the five dragons darted in, only to be driven off by a screeching, deranged Deryn. As he approached, he could see blood running red from slashes in her azure hide and smeared around her mouth.

A faint tingle brushed the back of Rhys’s mind. Fire magic. Rhys swore. “
Stop
,
Kai.
You’re too new to the magic.
If you draw too much
,
you’ll injure yourself.
”

She shouted something, but the wind of their flight snatched it away.

“
Speak with your mind.
”

When she did, it wasn’t like the mind-speech of dragons, but a language deeper than words that went straight to his heart, where he could feel her desperation. “
I
want to help!
”

As one, the dragons broke off wheeling around Ffion and Deryn and dove for them. One for Ffion, three for Deryn.

Fear clamped cold teeth into Rhys’s chest. One of Deryn’s attackers was Demba, the huge, sleekly muscled Bida. Even from this distance, Rhys could see blood spattered over his scales.

Griffith’s blood.

Fire filled Rhys’s chest, surging up his throat.
Too far.
Too far.
He pushed himself harder, seconds dragging between heartbeats.

Demba opened his jaws. A silent ripple of air emanated outward, nearly invisible from this distance. It slammed into Deryn, and she was knocked wings over tail. She hadn’t been flying high, and she crashed hard into the ground and skidded downslope, leaving a furrow of overturned earth in her wake.

No!
Rhys came within range of the nearest dragon, a male air Elemental about twice Ffion’s size, and blasted him with flame. The silver dragon screamed. Rhys didn’t stop, but careened into him, ripping and tearing, barely conscious of the other dragon’s claws and teeth as they slashed through his own scaled skin. Carried by forward momentum, he wrenched the silver sideways as they crashed.

Kai went flying. She hit the ground and rolled. Horror froze Rhys, but he could still sense her, in a way. The fall had knocked her unconscious, but she was alive.

A rock shifted behind him. Rhys brought his tail around, scoring a long line of red down the mirror-like hide of the silver dragon, placing himself between it and Kai.

The silver recoiled. Rhys darted forward and bit at the dragon’s neck. It reared onto hind legs, and Rhys surged forward, knocking the silver onto his back. Rhys’s claws sank deep into the other dragon’s belly and he dragged them through soft flesh.

The silver tried to take an awkward, running leap into the air. Rhys opened his mouth and bathed his opponent in flame. The silver dragon’s dying screams echoed through the valley, became human, then cut off. Nothing was left of the enemy but a pile of ash and charred bone.

Regret clouded the edges of Rhys’s mind. The world held one less dragon.

His eyes found Ffion, still in her dragon body, still hunkered over Griffith. One of her attackers lay on the ground a short distance away. She favored one side, swaying dizzily and making pitiful keening noises.

Thinking her weak, one of Deryn’s attackers peeled off and headed for Ffion. Rhys vaulted toward her—when Iain had died, Morwenna had been barely conscious for days—but with a crazed roar, Ffion met the enemy in a flash of silver wings and lightning. She fought like a rabid, mindless beast, protecting Griffith’s body.

Something whistled past Rhys’s ear. Deryn’s attackers had noticed him. One, a large male Quetzal, raised its foreclaw and shot two more poisoned spurs at him, one right after the other. An hour ago, they would have hit him. But Rhys was heartsworn now; his body reacted faster.

He dodged then lunged at the Quetzal as Deryn led Demba, her last pursuer, in a spiraling chase. Rhys let the full weight of his body slam into the Quetzal and snapped his jaws, closing them on the Quetzal’s wings. His mouth and eyes filled with rainbow-colored feathers.

The Quetzal buried long teeth in Rhys’s right shoulder; the same shoulder Kavar had torn to shreds. Rhys roared and grabbed the Quetzal by the feathered frill that ran down the back of his neck. He wrenched the other dragon’s teeth from his shoulder, losing chunks of flesh. The Quetzal hissed and sunk his claws into Rhys instead, gouging them deep into his neck and chest.

Rhys swung around, ramming his enemy’s head into the nearest boulder over and over again. The Quetzal’s body went limp, claws releasing. Light glittered off him as if shining through a million prisms, and the Quetzal shrank into a dark-haired man, blood pumping from a hideous wound in his head. The gush slowed to a trickle. The sight made Rhys sick. So few dragons. So much death.

“
There you are
,
cousin.
”

Rhys’s heart turned to lead. Something huge and white slammed into his injured shoulder, sending him sprawling.

Owain. The Quetzal had been nothing but a distraction.

Like a lion on a gazelle, Owain smashed Rhys across the face with one huge foreclaw and lunged, clamping his jaws around Rhys’s throat. Owain bit down, cutting off Rhys’s air. Rhys opened his mouth, gasping, but air didn’t come. He tried to breathe fire, but it pooled in his throat. Owain started to twist, straining the muscles of Rhys neck too far.

The movement exposed the scales underneath Owain’s chin. Rhys slashed, drawing blood. Owain’s grip didn’t loosen, but he stopped twisting and hunkered down. “
Stop fighting
,
Rhys.
Our people need a strong king
,
and I need the entire mantle to be strong.
This is the only way.
”

Rhys thrashed, his lungs screaming. “
Our people need to survive.
You’ll pile human and dragon bodies so high neither race will be able to see the sun.
”

Owain flicked his wings. “
I
am the savior of dragonkind.
”

Rhys writhed, instinct taking over. He needed
air
. But his movements only drove Owain’s teeth deeper into his flesh. Memories danced before Rhys’s eyes. Early memories. Owain flying with him. Owain teaching him the first form of the spear.

Owain sending assassins after him the night Ayen died.

Black spots appeared in Rhys’s vision. “
You can’t win against the humans.
All of us will die!
”

Owain’s voice held sorrow. “
I
would rather kill every last dragon with my own teeth than see our people diminish and disappear
,
hiding in holes in the ground.
”

Thirty yards away, the ground boomed with the impact of another body. Ashem had fallen from the sky. Dozens of slashes covered his belly, and his entire body glistened darkly with blood.
Gwaladr...
He dragged himself toward Rhys, but Kavar slammed down on top of him. Ashem roared, claws and teeth flashing. Fighting. Dying.

“
Rhys...
” Ashem’s mental voice was little more than a whisper. “
Hang on
,
they’re almost—Juliet
,
no!
” Juli had appeared from a thicket of trees, running for Ashem.

“
Rhys...?
” Kai’s horror flowed over him as she regained consciousness and realized what was going on. She sat up.

“
Kai.
” Her presence brought comfort and grief. Consciousness flickered. “
Run.
”

She was running. He felt her legs pumping, her body flushed with adrenaline, her lungs sucking in the oxygen that his were denied. But she wasn’t running away; she was running toward him, fumbling with magic she had no idea how to use.

His dimming brain registered her power, spinning inside her like a burning tornado. All there, all within his reach. He just had to...