Page 73 of Ryld's Shadows
“Hello,” Dzev ventured softly. “Your eyes are blue again.”
Slowly Ryld pushed himself up. He was still lying where he’d fallen just outside the court of the aelfe. The ornate double doors were open, one hanging on by a single hinge. Everywhere he looked was destruction. Broken tree limbs, uprooted plants, churned ground. Blood. No bodies, thankfully. The thought of bodies brought a sharp stab of anguish.
“Breathe. Slowly. That’s it.” Dzev sat cross-legged a few feet away, apparently unconcerned with the rubble and the dust in his hair. “I’ve just had a bat messenger. Your Hank did not perish in the rockslide. He is with her ladyship at the drow court.”
“Hank is alive?” Ryld’s voice sounded raw, more like a crow’s voice. “He’salive?” The relief was almost overwhelming. “And Kai Hiltas?”
“Hank is well. And Kai…will be well again soon.”
Ryld exhaled. His head was spinning, and he was sure if he tried to move he wouldn’t make it more than a few inches. He was utterly drained. He looked around again at the destruction, the blood. “Is Lady Jessamine dead?”
Dzev’s expression twisted in distaste. “She has survived. I would say more’s the pity, but she has much to answer for.”
“What happened? Where are all the people?”
“You were, ah, quite angry when Lady Jessamine insisted that Hank was dead. Some of the destruction is from our war band trying to break in to find you. The rest, I’m afraid, was you.” Dzev gave him a sideways glance. “Did I mention you wereveryangry? Some of the aelfe fled into the forest. The servants, the workers, managed to scatter before any of the walls came down. We have Lady Jessamine and her mage favorites contained. As well as the leaders of her warriors. Deaths…” Dzev held up a hand for patience. “There were two. An aelfe horse panicked, threw her rider and trampled him. Another warrior tried to shoot you before you collapsed. I, ah, I killed him.”
Ryld absorbed all this information and nodded. It was still difficult to believe all the destruction around him in this once idyllic setting. “I would like to go to Hank.”
“I’m certain he is impatient to see you by now.” Dzev held out a hand to Ryld and turned his head to whistle. A night-black horse answered his call and came at a gallop. “Come. Starwind will take us there.”
Ryld felt like his bones creaked and his muscles were about to tear. Dzev had to help him mount. “Why do I feel as if I was beaten after running a long distance?”
“You used every last bit of magic you had, little brother. It took a long time for the storm to blow itself out.”
They were underway, Dzev holding Ryld securely, when Ryld asked, “What happens now?”
“AURA will come.”
Ryld wondered if Tenzin might come with them, and asked belatedly, “Why did you say Kai will be well soon?”
“Lady Jessamine attached a curse to him. She would not have been able to overpower him otherwise, but she was prepared.” Dzev sighed and shifted in the saddle. “Perhaps a bit too well. We have long thought she was not as bright and shining as she seemed, but I am chagrined that we were unable to foresee any of this.”
It wasn’t until they were nearly to the drow court that Ryld felt the fear creep in. He was going into the lair of a drow queen, willingly, feeling like a wrung-dry dishtowel. But he’d face anything to see Hank with his own eyes and know he was unhurt.
The hills into which the drow had dug their caves were forested, less barren and forbidding than the court Ryld had known. A pair of young drow guarded the entrance, but there were no giant spiders or riding lizards in sight. Maybe none of those had made the crossing with any of the drow here.
Of course they knew Dzev. They stepped aside with respectful bows as he and Ryld went past.
Perhaps he was simply too exhausted to feel panic, but that didn’t explain the sudden quieting in his blood, the comfort of being not just under a roof, but also below ground, the solidity of the earth all around him.
Hank sat in a chair next to Kai’s bed, and when Ryld stepped into the room, he stood.
“Hank…” Both of Ryld’s hands fluttered erratically and an overwhelming pressure lifted from his heart. He didn’t know why tears came, but they flowed down his cheeks as he went straight into Hank’s arms.
“Sweetheart.” Hank’s voice hitched as he held Ryld tight. “I’m so glad you’re okay. You just don’t know… Thinking of you alone with that…that…person.”
“Ryld…” Kai’s right hand was swathed in bandages, his voice a spare ghost of a whisper. “I hear rumors of dragons.”
Ryld leaned around Hank without loosening his embrace one bit. “Dragons?”
“Your shadows,” Dzev answered for him. “They were quite large and did somewhat resemble dragons.”
“Her mage?” Kai stopped to cough. “Dzev?”
Dzev’s bow was extravagant, his forehead nearly touching the ground. He was very flexible. “I am Dzev. It is…anenormoushonor to meet you, Kai Hiltas. I…please don’t think me ridiculous, but I have read everything about you.”
“Have you?” Kai’s mouth twisted into something like his normal wry smile. “Eager youngsters.”
