Page 34 of Killian
“I heard of your gift,” Noirin commented, then fixed her narrowed gaze on her cousin. “I am glad of it. Glad to see you. Glad to be here with you. I will not accept being parted again. Do you understand?”
Tears gathered in Aleksander’s eyes, and his mouth was pinched. “Please. Please,you must go. I cannot answer for why Fate made me this way. I curse her for it. I curse her daily. But I cannot change it. I cannot change the will of poisonous dragons. Leave me be. Find some happiness now that you can get far from this castle and the evil embedded in its stones.”
“You are a King,” Brogan retorted sharply. “OurKing. But your order to leave you behind is not one I will ever honor. We go with you or we stay. We are united in this.”
“We will be hidden from other dragons,” Marcus promised. “I vow it. We yearn for simple lives, and each of us is willing to do what it takes, are we not?”
“Yes,” Dravyn replied along with the others. “I ache for nothing but a garden of my own where I need not hide my talent with seeds. Never have I known a proper family, but I welcome such a thing with all of you.”
“You have enough Dukes here to protect you, Your Highness,” Duke Zane insisted.
“I will never use that title,” Aleksander snarled. “Cursed Fate…I asked for none of this.”
“A simple life,” Noirin said. “It can be ours. But only if you come with us.”
Aleksander swallowed thickly. “If I go…you must make me a promise. If the dragons find us again, you run. You run far from me or cut me down where I stand so no one spends a minute tortured or in servitude because of my so-calledgifts.”
“If anyone gets near you, we have failed,” Brogan said. “So, I make that promise because you have my vow that I will cut my own throat before anyone gets near you again. Do you understand?”
Closing his eyes, Aleksander bowed his head, and Dravyn hated the stoop in his once-proud shoulders. “Undo the shackles.”
Marcus raced forward and eagerly unlocked Aleksander with the third key he tried on the massive ring.
“Come,” Duke Zane ordered. “We must remove the rocks to find the hidden tunnel. It will lead us out to a clearing. Or at least that is what the ancient map of the castle I found promised.”
Soon, they had a small opening made, and Aleksander squeezed his thin frame through. “Step back, I can use my ability to knock the rest out of the way.”
Dravyn watched with admiration as his cousin blew the rocks aside so they could join him in a long tunnel that smelled of damp earth. It was not long before fresh air hit Dravyn’s nose. He and his dragon exulted as Duke Zane wedged an ancient rotting door out of the way. Freedom awaited them.
“If we can manage a march, we can get past the grounds and fly to the plot of land Marcus has found us,” Duke Zane said.
“Since I cannot shift until we are out of view, we have little choice,” Aleksander stated flatly.
“We need not rush,” Marcus commented as Dravyn took another painful step. “It will take some time for anyone to figure out we are missing.”
“We travel with royalty, Duke Zane,” Dravyn said. “Will someone not think our traveling party strange?”
“Stop calling me Duke Zane, we have equal titles. No one will miss the son of Imperial Duke Bernal. It is remarkable I still breathe. We will answer no questions to strangers nor, I suspect, will we find anyone willing to speak with us. There are no dragons about, and our human and magickind neighbors detest us. Dragons have spent the last century and a half murdering anyone in our path.”
“Killing magickind?” Dravyn echoed.
“Aye,” Marcus replied. “Bernal and his ilk were proud whenever word reached their ears of another devastated village.Were I any less proud of my beast, I would forsake being a dragon altogether.”
“Wish that I could,” Aleksander commented softly.
As Dravyn trudged across a vast field under a darkening sky, he wondered what had become of Killian. Was he lost thanks to dragon fire? How many others who Killian loved had been killed? Dragons had once been a race of honor, and Dravyn wondered what the former Emperors who lived anew as soldiers of The Council thought of their former brethren now. Dravyn quickly realized he was now in a world unrecognizable to him, and he feared for the future.
Chapter 13
1523
Castle Leolinnia
Fatigue weighed Killian down, so he’d left his relentlessly expanding garden to lounge at Castle Leolinnia. His sister and her mate had journeyed there with him but were below stairs in the Great Hall, deep in conversation with Saura. As for Killian, he sat in the solar with a perpetually scowling demonic necromancer, a pair of sentinels, the Arch Lich, and a light warlock. The sentinels were kissing deeply below an array of stained-glass windows.
“I swear I can hear their tongues,” Kaedan complained with a frown for Benton and Baxter. The sentinels paid him no mind as they continued to taste each other.
“I’m surprised you can hear anything over the sound of your chewing,” Chander drawled. The black faintly glowing dagger he twirled between his fingers moved so swiftly it was nearly a blur to Killian’s tired eyes.
