Page 86 of Heir of Draga

Kaiden raised a black brow at her. “You work quickly.”

She sighed, feeling oddly comfortable with the winged male. He kept those beautiful appendages tucked close to his body to avoid the wind and they never brushed the ground though they were long enough to. It fascinated her to see they weren’t feathered, but rather scaled. It took everything she had not to touch them.

“I’ve waited my whole life to be here,” she admitted, switching to Drakesthai despite her embarrassing accent. She may as well practice after studying for so many cycles. “It’s why I chose to learn the language from the last two living scholars who knew it. I studied everything I could get my hands on, even read the reports from the spies the Prince of Thieves had here. I find it extremely perturbing there is literally nothing about the source of this disease in our records, or anything regarding your assistance in the war two hundred cycles ago.”

Adelina turned to face him and studied the talons at the apex of each wing, appreciating how sharp and deadly they were. “Based on everything I’ve studied we attempted to reach out with our medicine when we discovered the sterility only twenty cycles ago, but were denied time and again. What we knew about your people other than that was little more than shadow and rumor.” She paused as she considered the situation. “Why not take our help if you were so desperate?”

Kaiden sighed and his wings shifted ever so slightly, as if he were uncomfortable with her question. “If you’ve waited your whole life to be here, then I should give you a tour,” he said, deflecting.

Adelina raised a brow in question, allowing him the time he needed to find an answer to her question. “Would you mind if I recorded our tour and conversation? The vid will be edited later, but my people are desperate for hope.”

Kaiden nodded. “That’s fine.”

She took a tiny recorder from her pocket and tapped the side before tossing it into the air. It caught and zoomed around, darting around the outside of the eyrie a bit while the technician on her ship was alerted. Kaiden’s eyes widened as he watched the device go up the face of the mountain, over the bridge, and over all the starships currently on the landing pad.

“These recordings you do are strange,” he said as the device made its way back. “Watching the vids from your galaxy was surreal. Do your people not value privacy?”

“Recorders only run constantly in the public areas of the palace and the palace grounds,” Adelina explained as Kaiden led her off the balcony and back into the castle. “It keeps the royals accountable and allows our people to be constantly up to date with current events. It also makes the royals more relatable when we don’t have the time to tour the system more than once every cycle or two. Our ships aren’t very fast. But we have them on other planets as well just not to the same extent. It’s the quickest way to receive information. We don’t possess Khara’s tech.”

Kaiden nodded and only glanced at the recorder once before he launched into a description of their surroundings. “I’m sure you realized, but the Royal Eyrie is carved into a mountain that resides next to an active volcano,” Kaiden explained. “Hai Delta is not everything you see. It is actually mostly water. There are a few islands among the oceans, but most are active volcanos, and some are more active than others so we reside here for the most part.”

Adelina looked out at the landscape with renewed interest. She hadn’t seen much of the planet while they’d descended. She’d been more concerned with ensuring they had all they needed, that she would be able to make the right impression.

As she looked up at Kaiden again she noticed he was about arm’s length from her which was strange. Adelina was used to being closer to a companion, even if they were no more than acquaintances. But as she watched the way he moved his wings she wondered if he didn’t even realize there was space between them…though the females didn’t have wings.

She supposed he probably didn’t spend much time with females.

“In Draga we usually don’t stand so far apart,” she murmured. “Do you feel as Prince Vasili does?” Adelina’s chest tightened painfully as she waited for his response. Ever since she’d laid eyes on him, she’d cared what he thought.

It was a warning and a foretelling. That same string that had tied her and Nash, and then her and Varan together tugged on her heart and led her to Kaiden.

Adelina felt terrified for a brief moment when Kaiden didn’t respond right away. What was going on in that head of his?

He looked down at her with something like concern. Kaiden noticed her discomfort, but didn’t move closer. Instead he stopped before a set of stairs that spiraled downward and studied her. “I used to feel as Vasili does,” he confessed. “Before I met Prince Nash and the Kalan spies you spoke of. After interrogating the spies I requested they be banished rather than executed. It made me rather unpopular, but I stand by that decision.”

The recorder zoomed around them and Adelina smiled for her people, keeping her shoulders back and her chin up despite the way Kaiden loomed over her. “What made you change your mind? Why spare them?” Adelina had so many questions, but at the moment this was the most important one.

Drakesthai males passed, lower ranked by the sigils on their armor. She ignored them and focused on Kaiden.

“We all grow up knowing the Kalans of Draga poisoned us, praying for our eventual genocide. But the spies I interrogated knew nothing about this disease or its origin. We thought they were here to see how well it’s done over the last two hundred cycles. When I found they were completely ignorant I couldn’t execute them in good conscience.”

Adelina bit the inside of her cheek. Kaiden was honorable as well as gorgeous. It didn’t help she’d fantasized about the Drakesthai since she was barely ten cycles old. She’d hoped a dragon prince would carry her off to his tower like in all the old stories of princesses and dragons.

“Then Prince Nash arrived,” Kaiden continued, interrupting her train of thought. “And he was even more clueless despite speculation in the Council that the Corinthians of Khara had been in on the genocide due to your continued alliance with each other.” Kaiden crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at her with a carefully neutral expression.

Adelina didn’t dare take a step back and cede more space to him despite how much it hurt her neck to stare up at him so. “And when you met me?” she asked.

“I didn’t expect someone so small,” Kaiden chuckled, easing up on his stern expression a bit. “We knew a bit about Princess Raena, but nothing about you. Prince Nash spoke so highly of you though and he was convinced you would make it here despite the precarious situation he painted for us.”

Instantly she wanted to know exactly what Nash had said, but she shrugged and waved a hand for him to lead the way as if it didn’t matter.

Kaiden took the cue and went down the steps first. Flames on torches lit on their own as they descended. It was some strange combination of tech and old world light Adelina didn’t quite understand the appeal of, but it certainly added to the atmosphere of Hai Delta.

The stairs took them down into a lower level where it was a bit less public and seemed to get into the inner workings of the eyrie. He led her through the tunnels and corridors, explaining how they were going deeper into the mountain where they did a multitude of work, but most of it was farming and food preparation. Some was medicine and such as the closer they got to the volcano the more fertile the soil was, and the growth was outrageous.

Adelina had never seen gardens inside and without sunlight before, but the greenery was stunning. So many different kinds of food were grown as far as she could see. The caverns were deeper and the ceilings higher. There was no rhyme or reason to their direction or build. It was as though each addition had been an afterthought as they tunneled their way to the volcano.

Then he stopped before doors nearly the width of the entire mountain. Kaiden grinned at her and then keyed in his access code.

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