Draka

Finding the small group of travellers wasn’t hard and it didn’t take long. I flew low and fast over the road, staying just high enough to keep Kira from flinching whenever we passed a particularly tall tree. Since I could fly far faster than the humans could travel even on horseback, I caught up with them maybe ten or fifteen miles into the forest, well before they’d need to leave the main road to reach my mountain.

I spotted them riding at a trot in a tight group, Rib at the front and Pot at the back. As I approached I angled my wings to make a little extra noise. There was no way they could miss me when I tore through the air so close above them, and I saw Herald turn, look up, and wave to me before I even passed them. A few hundred feet up the road I reversed course in a turn so sharp that I had to tighten my grip on Kira or have her ripped from my arms. I set her down, more gently this time, then landed and sat down to wait for my humans to arrive.

“That’s a hell of an entrance,” Rib called from down the road. Her voice lacked its usual irreverent cheer, but no matter her mood she couldn’t help herself, and it was good to hear her at least attempt to take the night’s disaster in stride.

“Are you all okay?” I called back. Lalia hadn’t said that any of my people got hurt, but it might have slipped her mind.

“Yeah, all good,” she said as they got closer. This took a little while, since the horses didn't know me and needed careful coaxing. “We were all out when it started, and your girls had their stuff ready to go, so someone got it into the yard before the fire got to it. Bad shit, though!”

“Who is this?” Herald asked. She took in Kira’s generally shabby appearance, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. I could almost hear the gears turning in her head for a moment, and then she shook her head, looking at me with exasperation. “Draka, you promised!”

Sitting tall in the saddle she towered over me, something I'd slowly become unaccustomed to, and I felt the full weight of her disapproval. It was a welcome surprise, in a way. I needed someone who could tell me off, even if it rankled.

“I promised I wouldn’t fight unless it was necessary,” I said. “It was! And they won’t even know that she’s missing!”

“When you say that it was necessary…”

“They were slaughtering villages to capture magic users and send them back to… wherever. So I stopped one of the deliveries.”

Herald’s face went slack. “That is sick!” she said after gathering herself, going quickly from dismay to fury. “And this woman–”

“Was a slave, more or less. A healer who was forced into the role of keeping the prisoners healthy, or so she says. Her name is Bekiratag, she speaks Tekereteki, and I want you and Mak to talk to her. To make sure that she’s telling the truth and see what she knows.”

“This woman speaks Tekereteki?” Mak asked haltingly in that language, doubt writ large on her face.

“Better than you, maybe, Homer,” Kira mumbled. It was the first thing she’d said since we left Karakan, and it was, perhaps, not the best first impression she could have given.

Instead of getting angry, though, Mak turned to Herald and asked “Homer? Do you know what a Homer is?”

Herald shook her head. “The root word is ‘home’ but there must be some kind of context I am missing.” She turned to Kira. “Would you mind explaining what a ‘Homer’ is, and why you say it as though it is a pejorative?”

Now it was Kira’s turn to be confused. “Pejorative…” she said under her breath, clearly not familiar with the word.

“Insult,” I told her in her version of the language, and she nodded to me with clear embarrassment. “Thank you. Homer. You know? From the home province. Like the two of you.”

Herald snorted, sounding more amused than insulted. “I was born a Karakani citizen. My sister and brother were only children when they arrived, and grew up here. And our parents… I do not know where they came from. I always assumed the city, but they would not say, and they died proud citizens of Karakan. So save your insults. We are Karakani, nothing else.”

“Our parents fought too hard for this,” Mak added, “for you to lessen it.”

"Enough bickering," I told them. "Kira, get up with Makanna. In front." I gestured to Mak. "I don't think that she'll try anything, but I don't want her behind you, alright? She's cavalry, so you should be fine."

We continued along the road, with me being the one holding us back. I didn’t bother with running among the trees. It was dark enough, even with the group’s lanterns, for me to simply vanish into the shadows if we met anyone, and I was feeling more and more fed up with hiding.

Trying to distract myself I said, “When I left Karakan you had things to tell me, about your day out. So? What happened?”

Mak’s head snapped around and she started to say something, but Herald beat her to it. Beaming, she said, “I found Mak outside a bar, is what happened!”

Confused, I looked between the two. Mak looked mortified. “And why does that make you so happy?”

“Because,” Herald said, looking at her sister proudly, “when she slipped away from us I thought that I would find her drunk off her arse somewhere. And do not look at me like that, Mak! You know what you are like when you are under stress, and these last few weeks…” Her voice shook at the end. She took a deep breath and continued. “So when we found her sitting outside a tavern, without having had a single drink, you can believe that I was proud of her!”

“Herald, why would you–” Mak said. She’d been looking steadily more horrified as Herald spoke.

“You snuck off?” I interrupted her.

She couldn’t look at me. “I did.”

“And you were planning to get drunk?”

“Planning? No. I wasn’t planning anything. It just happened. But then I found myself outside one of my regular places and… I couldn’t go in. My feet wouldn’t move. Just the thought of having a drink made me feel sick. But I couldn’t leave, either. So I sat there.”

We walked in silence as she awaited my judgement. “Well done, I suppose,” I said after thinking it over.

She looked at me. “You’re not angry?”

“I’m not happy. You took a stupid risk. But you fucked up so much less than you might have that I’m mostly relieved. So, well done. Don’t let it happen again, or I will be angry.”

Once the conversation died down, Kira started up again, asking more questions about the sisters’ background and didn’t seem at all satisfied with the answers she got. For all that she disliked anyone questioning her status as Tekereteki, she had a lot of trouble with the opposite. To her, anyone looking as distinctly Tekereteki as Herald and Mak couldn’t possibly be anything else, which didn’t exactly endear her to the only two humans there that she could speak to.

“Do you intend to keep her?” Mak asked me in Karakani after one too many attempts by Kira to figure out where their parents had come from. She couldn’t seem to wrap her head around the idea that anyone might choose to leave.

“She knows things about the raids in the south, and she’s a healer so, yes. We’re keeping her, at least until the Wolves can take her.”

“Do you mind if I make her join me for some sword practise?”

Ardek choked off a laugh behind us. It was good that he could laugh about it, at least.

Herald sighed. “Let us give her a chance, first. I do not think that she means anything by it. She is just so weirdly patriotic that she does not get it.”

“This bonding thing she talks about…” Mak said. “I wonder if that’s what our parents were fleeing.”

“Were either of your parents magic users?” I asked.

“I don’t know. They were very tight lipped about their advancements, even to us.”

“Well… that could be it. Or they could just have been deep in debt. Impossible to say. Did they really never tell you these things?”

“I was too young to care while they still lived. Tam and Herald were even younger. Besides, they didn’t like to speak of Tekeretek. I regret it now, but… well. I regret many things.” She smiled at me sadly. “Things I’ve done and things I never did.”

“I know,” I told her. “But at least there are some regrets you can do something about. I know that you regret what you did. I know that you never wanted to do it. I won’t forget that you did it, and I’m not ready to forgive you. But I know.” Even though I probably should forgive her, I thought to myself. On some level I was even glad that she’d betrayed me the way that she had. If she hadn’t, who could possibly know what horrors the two of them would be going through? Death would probably be the best outcome, but it didn’t seem likely. The torturer had been hinting to Mak that they were planning to sell her, and probably both of them, as slaves when they were done with them. I couldn’t imagine that illegally captured slaves would have a long or pleasant life to look forward to.

Even thinking about it made that comfortably familiar rage begin to rise again. It was a moment before I realised that the horses had put some distance from me.

Herald was the one to approach me. Of course she was. “Draka,” she said soothingly. “You are growling.”

I was. I forced myself to stop doing that, then slowed down, putting us behind the pack. “I was thinking about what they did to you,” I said. “And what they might have done, if Mak had not… brought me there.”

Herald nodded. She was trying to be strong in the face of her memories, but I could see her shrink in on herself a little, and I immediately regretted bringing it up.

“I understand,” she said softly. “I think about it, too. Often.”

"Do you talk about it? To Mak? Lalia?" She didn't talk about it to me.

"No," she said with a shuddering breath. "I… even this is almost too much."

"Alright. But they say," I lowered my voice so only she would hear. "Back home, you know? Talking about it is the first step towards healing. If you are ever ready…"

"I know." It was as much acknowledgement as I could hope for under the circumstances.

“We will get them,” I promised her. “We will regroup at the mountain until Tam and Val return, and then you can go back to the city. Garal and Lalia are staying at your inn, and I can find a place nearby to hide during the day, and then we can really start getting back at the Blossom.”

“I will look forward to it,” Herald said. She still looked haunted, but after that there was a hardness in her eyes that promised an absolute lack of mercy. I had seen the same look even before she and Mak had been taken, and wondered if this had always been in her, or if it was my influence.

I didn’t care much either way. I liked her the way she was, and she needed to be hard for what was to come.

“Right, so,” Rib said when we stopped to rest an hour later. “Dear cousin Mordo didn’t straight up order us to stay away from the city, but he did say that we should stay with you lot until we’re absolutely sure that you’re safe and secure, however long that may be. Now, I’m not suggesting that he’s trying to keep his uncles on his good side by keeping us relatively safe in a time of uncertainty, but…”

“But he’s definitely trying to pawn us off on you until things settle,” Pot said, “which might sound insane, but we’ve been kind of working him in your favour.” He grinned at me, and Rib nodded.

“Yeah,” she said. “And you showing up all piss and dragonfire about fulfilling your promise and helping out did you all kinds of good in his book, I know that for sure. So, ah, do you mind if we stick around for a couple of days?”

Did I mind if I could steal two of Rallon's scouts, especially two as pathologically cheerful as the cousins? What kind of question was that? It was an absolute win in my book, even if I may have to suffer the occasional pine cone. I couldn't look too pleased, though.

“As long as the other humans are fine with it, I don’t mind," I told them. "You’ll need to get used to being up at night, though.” I looked at Rib. “Without your little vials.”

Rib sucked in her upper lip and gnawed it a bit, then said, “I can try?”

"I’m not asking you to give them up. They’re useful. Just don't rely on them so much."

"Yeah. I'll try."

While I talked to Rib and Pot, Kira sat next to Herald. I watched her out of the corner of my eye, and wondered if she was about to finally make Herald's temper snap, but she didn't say a word until I'd laid down and pretended to take a nap. Even then she waited a few minutes. She didn't say a word about the sisters' parents or origins. Instead she said, quietly, "Herald? Is that right?"

Herald looked up. She'd been taciturn since our short conversation, and didn't look eager to change that.

"Yes."

Kira glanced towards me. "Are you and your sister… do you hold to the old faith?"

"What?" Herald said, sounding more annoyed than curious.

"Well, you… there is the dragon. I thought…"

"I do not know what you are talking about, so speak plainly. What does Draka have to do with religion?"

"Dragon worship!" Kira whispered. "You… do you worship her? Like in the old days?"

Perhaps I should have thanked Kira. Herald looked at her incredulously, then at me, then I saw her grin hugely before she covered her mouth and smothered a laugh. The others looked at her curiously, and Mak stood and walked over.

“What do you talk about?” she asked, not taking the time to correct herself before speaking. “What is funny?”

“Dear sister, do you worship Draka?” Herald said, still grinning.

Mak frowned. “What is this question?”

“Do you?”

“Respect, yes. Obey, yes. Worship? That is a crazy question.”

“And you?” Kira asked Herald. “You avoid my question. Do you worship the dragon?”

“No. No, I do not. She is my dearest friend. I adore her and respect her and, like my sister says, I obey her wishes, within reason. But I do not worship her. Is that common where you are from?”

“No. Illegal. But it lives on, they say, in some small villages. Beyond the notice of the temples and the law.

“Do you have many dragons in Tekeretek, then? I do not remember reading anything like that.”

“No. None for a long time. I think that they pray for the dragons to return. Not everyone is happy under the King and the council. I thought, maybe, that was why–”

“This again,” Mak said sourly. “We have told you. We do not know why they left. To escape slavery, that is all they said. If they worshipped dragons, they hid it well.”

“But then–”

“But nothing. You are a prisoner. Perhaps you forget? Be quiet now.”

“At least stop asking about things we have already answered,” Herald said a little more gently. Compared to Mak she didn’t sound or look the least bit offended. Amused, if anything.

"I am sorry," Kira said, looking and sounding genuinely apologetic. "I do not mean to offend. I just want to know about people. I like conversation."

"If you want to talk," Herald said. “Why not tell me a little about your home? I only know what I have heard of the city, and nothing of the provinces.”

Kira was hesitant at first, but once she got going there was no stopping her. There was something about Mallinese refugees and vast plains, but mostly I tuned out at that point and actually napped for the next half hour, or however long it was until Pot decided that the animals had had enough rest. But Herald and Kira got along fairly well after that, talking and actually laughing every now and then as we continued on towards the mountain. They even managed to drag Mak into their conversation. No matter what she said, Mak was clearly curious about her parents’ homeland, so long as she herself wasn’t being badgered about it, and it wasn't like she could avoid it, seated behind Kira.

Meanwhile, Ardek was finding common ground with the young lord and lady. Probably because he was Karakani street trash, and they both wanted nothing more than to be just like him. Neither of them had talked to him at all during their short stints as his jailors, and they were making up for lost time, asking for pointers on how to properly pronounce some of the foulest and most obscure slang I’d ever heard. Some of it may not even have qualified as human language. I had no idea what a ‘snipe licker’ or a ‘petty filch’ were supposed to be, but at least their conversation made the long walk a little more interesting.

There wasn’t much that listening to the others could do to alleviate my boredom, though. I couldn’t really have a conversation with them since I needed to keep some distance from the horses, and I could only travel that same stretch of road, and that same path through the forest, so many times before it got old. Travelling on foot at all was frustrating. Humans were so slow! I’d never thought about it while I was still fully human, but now that I could easily cover a hundred miles in just a couple of hours, everything else felt barely above standing still. But my humans could only go so fast, and they could only push their horses so hard. Even my slowest cruising speed on the wing was a gallop for a horse, and it would look really bad if I abandoned them because I was bored. I wanted to be a leader, and a leader didn’t get bored. A leader showed patience.

Or whipped everyone on so that they’d pick it up, I grumbled to myself, but morale wasn’t great as it was. Sure, they were all talking, but there was an edge to every laugh that told me that the situation was fragile. I had my Command advancement to thank for that little insight.

Of course they were on edge. Nobody believed that the fire had been an accident. It had been too sudden, and spread too quickly. The mess had been set up to prevent and contain an accidental fire, and neither the great oven or the large cook fire should have been lit at that time of the night. No, the fire had been a deliberate attack for sure, which meant that either the Blossom still had people in the Wolves, or at least access to their HQ, or they had another enemy to worry about.

Then there was the timing. The Wolves were planning an operation to get rid of the raiders in the south. How many people knew about that? My humans had recently returned. Who might have seen them? The rivalry between the Wolves and the Cranes wasn’t exactly friendly. Would they do something like this if they could? There were too many unknowns, and the Wolves had lost too much, for anyone to relax and feel safe. Even out here.

Kira and Ardek, of course, had their own worries.

Besides that it was getting close to sunrise and they were all exhausted. All except for Rib. She’d been hitting one of her vials when she thought I wasn’t looking, but my peripheral vision was excellent. I didn’t say anything, though, since it was good to have at least one person totally alert, especially a scout. I just wondered just how much money she was spending on the things, and what would happen when she inevitably ran out. She could only carry so many.

Nobody wanted to think about what was going on, so they talked. Any topic of conversation was better than tense, worried silence, and if it was fun or interesting, so much the better. Personally I was mostly frustrated. Not only would there not be any attack on the raiders for a while at least, but I had been hoping to use this return to the city as an opportunity to begin my campaign against the Night Blossom. Now I’d have to wait. Again. I was beginning to wonder if it was worth being so careful, or if I should just leave the others at the mountain and fly back into the city myself. Four of them were fighters. They could take care of themselves. And Ardek had told the Wolves a couple of locations that belonged to the Blossom. Maybe I could just go and hang out on a nearby roof for a couple of nights and see if any familiar faces showed up. Then I could follow them and do something terrible. It would send a message, and it would be very cathartic, which I needed badly.

It was probably not a good idea, I knew, but a girl could dream.

It was twilight when we arrived. The nights still felt quite short, even though the leaves had started to turn. I wondered if the summers were short here and, if so, how long winter would be. I’d noticed people dressing a little warmer lately, too, but I didn’t feel the difference. Something about my biology, magic or otherwise, kept me comfortable no matter the temperature. Considering how cold Kira had gotten while we flew, that was a very good thing.

Being pretty much unaffected by the weather didn’t stop me from enjoying the morning air, though. A light rain had started, not so much as to bother the humans but enough to bring out all the scents of the forest. Pine and moss, late blooming flowers, the vaguely pleasant smell of decaying wood and…

And blood, and that damned bear!