Page 57 of The Storm of the Empire

“Of course. I’m sure the priests would be overjoyed to see our famous weapons master home to visit.”

Hazel managed what could pass for a blush. “Maybe I shouldn’t be seen. I don’t want to interfere or distract from the process. I’d just feel better knowing you had help here if something were to happen.”

Alora squeezed her hands. “Whatever you think is best, my darling.”

Just then, both females looked towards the entrance. “They are on their way,” Hazel said with trepidation. Of course, their hearing could detect the priests much sooner than I could.

I stood and looked around. There were not many hiding places in the home. Hazel took a place behind a dressing shade in the back corner of the room while I tucked myself into a wardrobe. Neither hiding places were very stealthy, but they would do without a thorough search of the room, and these were not highly sensed dragons attending. Just priests with their own agenda to concentrate on.

The priests arrived promptly, all smiles and warmth. I hated casting the doubt I had in Hazel’s mind. I didn’t know what I’d tell her if their actions were as they claimed, and I was wrong. I’d brought the Goddess’ disgrace upon myself wishing for either outcome. Either I was right, and that meant Alora’s egg being taken and possibly never seen again, or they would only protect the egg with the opal coating, and I’d lose Hazel’s trust.

Either would inflict a personal wound to my soul.

I prayed I was wrong and that Hazel would forgive me. I prayed for there to be any other explanation for the priests having eggs. Maybe I didn’t see what I thought I saw. Maybe?—

I stopped myself. There was no point in borrowing sorrow.

The priests came in a group of six. After accepting tea, they checked on Alora’s well-being and prayed on her continued health, then they turned their attention to the egg. They inspected it thoroughly, using tools to look at it and then listen. Then they weighed and measured it, proclaiming it healthy and decently sized.

All was good so far, but I watched vigilantly from the crack in the door as they prepared the precious supplies to paint it with the protective opal coating.

Two of them swept the egg back to the heat of the sands in the back of the room while the other four sat with Alora, explaining to her that the heat would cure the coating better. They didn’t try to leave the room with it, and Alora kept half her focus on the egg at all times. But of course her guard wasn’t fully up. They were priests. Perhaps the only fae you could always trust in all the Twelve Kingdoms. She had no cause to suspect them of any ill intent.

Seconds ticked by, and nothing untoward happened. I’d almost breathed a sigh of relief when a crash took my attention off the egg for a second. One of the priests had dropped his teacup, but I forced my gaze back to the egg, knowing this was it.

I barely looked back in time. From my vantage point, I sat helplessly as, in a swirl of robes and a flash of movement, I saw two eggs for the briefest of seconds before one was gone. Alora’s head turned back to the egg, and she smiled, seeing one almost identical to hers where it should be. My stomach dropped. I prayed Hazel had seen it too, but I knew in my gut she had because I could almost feel her sorrow from across the room. I was proud of her for holding firm in the circumstances and not trying to stop them. I knew it had to be killing her.

The priests who’d performed the switch packed up their equipment and took it outside. I cursed being stuck in the wardrobe, unable to follow and watch their movements.

The rest of the priests held a final prayer, then departed after their fellows.

Hazel and I slipped from our hiding places, exchanging a look that told me all I needed to know.

While Hazel said a few parting words to Alora and tried to seem appeased by the fact that no harm had come to the egg. I excused myself to watch the priest’s departure from a safe vantage point. I needed to see how they were traveling and which direction they set off in.

With Hazel in dragon form, we could track them if we needed to, and I didn’t want to let the egg out of my sight if at all possible.

We had to get it back.

NINETEEN

HAZEL

We said our goodbyes and left, which hurt more than I knew was possible. We couldn’t tell Alora anything, and it broke my heart into a million pieces. This was part of something bigger, and we needed help to stop it.

If we jumped in now and tried to stop them, it would blow the entire thing and possibly send the priests further underground so they’d never be found. I barely kept it together to get out of there before I broke down, but Luka managed to steer us far enough away from Alora’s home so I could fall apart.

I pushed my curls out of my face, my hands shaking. “What do we do, Luka?” I clutched my throat, trying to suck in a breath. I needed to get it together. I’d been bred for war my entire life, and I was losing it over an egg.

Maybe that was why the Goddess never sent me a ryder. Perhaps I wasn’t cut out for that deep a connection with another fae, if I couldn’t even cope with something like this. How would I cope in battle if something happened to my ryder? It could be I was not made to ever know for a reason.

“Hazel.” Luka cupped my face, forcing me to look him in the eyes. “Come back to me please.”

“We have to follow them,” I said weakly, but my entire body shook, and Luka was the only thing keeping me upright. I tried to stumble a few paces to go after the priests, but he blocked me, drawing me closer so I could lean against him.

“I know.” He pressed his lips to my forehead, holding my body tight to his.

“We have to go now,” I tried, but the trembling wouldn’t subside. My words became fractured.

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