The Dragon Rises Page 15

  “I am glad to see you are well,” he said. “We were worried about you. What has been happening? They told us they brought our messages to you, but we never heard back.”

  “It is a long story,” Reva said awkwardly. She had not thought of what she would say about the past few days when she saw Sam and Carlia, so she said only, “It seems the business of a kingdom is more complicated than I would have believed. Everything is a long discussion and an argument.”

  “What is there to argue about?” Tania broke in. “Stefan is a bad ruler, and the plague is also bad. He should be found and killed, and the plague victims should be given medicine.”

  “On all of that, you and I are agreed,” Reva said. “In fact, any rational person would agree. But the council is not made up of rational people.”

  “And Luca is trying to make them all happy?” Tania guessed. When Reva nodded, the Xanti girl snorted. “He needs to speak his mind and make them listen. This is not the Gold Council. He is the king.”

  He was not the king, and his council had several members of the Gold Council on it, but Sam drew Reva away before she could point out these facts.

  “Do not get too involved,” he told her bluntly.

  “Why not?” Reva crossed her arms. Though Sam had told her that he did not want to emulate his father, he was certainly beginning to act like Aron.

  “I do not trust anyone here,” Sam told her, then looked around. “Geraldo has the right idea. He knows that the Menti need to band together and get ready for the war that is coming. Everyone else, though, like your King Luca—”

  “Prince Luca. He is not crowned yet.”

  “Reva, it does not matter.” Sam shook his head. “He sits on a throne and makes decisions for everyone. It does not matter what anyone calls him, and anyway, you do not trust him either. I can tell.”

  “Oh, you can tell?” Reva felt her temper rise. “You know all about me and Luca, then?”

  “I know you came to find us today,” Sam said. “I know you came in through a secret passageway with Tania like you were sneaking around. I know that if everything was going well, you would have sent me and Carlia word even if you did not get our messages. Something is wrong. What is it?”

  Reva knew what Sam would say if she told him about Luca. He would tell her to leave Nesra’s Keep, and she did not want to hear that. She knew it was not the solution, but she also knew that she would be deeply tempted to do so. She did not like council meetings, with Lord Tinian saying things that sounded nice but were actually sly and accusing. She did not like Luca, either, when he was so afraid about people being offended that he would not do the right thing.

  So she said, “Mount Zean has erupted. Brother Axil says that means the final dragon king has been born.”

  Sam frowned. He leaned forward to whisper, and even with that he kept his voice so low that Reva could hardly hear it. “But there were already four of us.”

  “You and Carlia have scales of the same colour,” Reva pointed out. “In the myths, all four dragons had different scales and different flames. What if it was the four bloodlines?” She shrugged. “Or what if it means nothing, and it is only a myth?”

  “It is not a myth,” Sam said at once. “But it is not good news, either. Reva, the dragon kings tore apart the world with their fighting. If all four lines have come back, what might happen this time?”

  “Anything might happen,” Reva said. She wanted to stamp her foot. “Nothing is set in stone. The dragon kings were misled by a witch. If we band together, if we do not fight each other, but instead only fight to preserve peace, things will be different this time.” She paused. “Our families have set aside our differences. We are putting the past behind us. Are we not?”

  Sam’s guarded eyes made him seem doubtful, and Reva sighed. She had come here with such a clear goal: to make Luca shut down the Gardens of Anios. To ensure that Karine and Lottie and Rohesa would be safe. And yet, here she was, arguing about mythology.

  “I am sorry,” she said. “Myths do not seem very powerful anymore, once you have realised you are a part of them. I am not a dragon king, Sam, and neither are you. We are simply ourselves. Please, I do not want to talk about this. I wanted your help.”

  “About what?” Sam frowned.

  “Yes, about what?” A man with intense eyes and greying hair had drawn close to them while Reva was talking. When she whirled around to look at him, he gave her a mocking smile. “You should take more care to know your surroundings, my lady.”

  “Geraldo.” To Reva’s surprise, Tania said the man’s name like a warning. “She arrived here in rags just the other day. She was starving. Don’t mock her for the dress she’s wearing.”

  Geraldo turned his steely gaze to Tanis. “She’s the one Luca’s spending all his time with, isn’t she? When he should be building a Menti army instead.”

  Tania was opening her mouth to argue when Luca’s voice said, “I know what you think I should do, Geraldo.”

  Reva turned along with the rest of the Menti to see Luca standing nearby, with a man in black robes at his shoulder. The man regarded them all with a secret smile that said he was better than they were, and Reva immediately knew that this was Josef. Even though she felt guilty for judging him so quickly, she disliked him on sight.

  Luca and Geraldo stared at one another for a long moment, and Reva felt the need to diffuse the tension. She walked between them to distract Luca from Geraldo.

  “May I speak with you?” she asked him.

  He glanced at the mage first, but obligingly gave her his arm so they could stroll a few feet away.

  “I want to search for one of my friends,” Reva said. “I know it is unlikely that she is here in the city, but I was separated from her and the others after we escaped from the Gardens of Anios. I am afraid for her. I want to know she will be safe.”

  Luca swallowed when she mentioned the Gardens of Anios, but he seemed relieved that she was not pressing the issue of shutting them down.

  “I can provide a guard,” he suggested.

  “That is not necessary.” Reva smiled. “I will go with Sam and Carlia. We will search only for the afternoon. I do not want you to be worried.”

  He hesitated.

  “Please,” Reva whispered. “Luca, you have no idea what they have suffered. If they are here in the city, they are in danger. They are in danger everywhere they go while the Order of Insight has so much power.”

  You could make a proclamation telling people that Menti are no longer considered enemies of Estala.

  She was not brave enough to argue with him, though. Not yet. She could not bear to listen to another self-serving monologue about why he could not do the right thing. When he nodded reluctantly, she stepped back almost at once rather than speak with him any further.

  “We will go now, then,” she said, and she beckoned to Sam and Carlia and left the courtyard without looking at anyone else.

  She could feel the mage’s eyes on her back as she walked away.

  Luca

  Luca watched Reva walk away from him in frustration. Lord Tinian and Brother Axil had been arguing about the cause of the eruption, and when Luca had finally given up trying to make them stop, Reva had left.

  He had wanted to speak to her about the Gardens of Anios, but he was afraid of what she would say. If she spoke of the Gardens here, in front of Geraldo and the other Menti, Luca knew what they would think of him for keeping other Menti as….

  Slaves. He swallowed as he thought the word. He did not like to think about it that way, but Brother Axil was right. Luca was not allowing the Menti to leave the Gardens, and he had not arranged for them to be paid. They were slaves.

  He cast a look at the harbour, where the Xanti ships were spread out away from the docks. Luca did not have any training in naval warfare, but it was easy to see how those ships could become a blockade.

  He wondered what Serena would do, and then felt a wave of anger, both at himself and at her. Serena was beha
ving as though she were the queen, coming up with policies and making speeches in the city. She should not be doing that, and Luca should be coming up with his own strategies of dealing with Lord Tinian.

  He just did not know how.

  “So, Prince Luca.” Geraldo gave Luca an unfriendly look. “You have been absent for many days. Do you no longer train to defeat your brother?”

  “He trains with me,” Josef said smoothly. “Under my tutelage, his powers are stronger than they have ever been.”

  Geraldo gave a bark of laughter. “That’s hardly an accomplishment. His powers were never very strong. He has never wanted to train before now. He was lazy, and lazy boys do not defeat dragons.”

  “Geraldo.” Tania sighed.

  “What?” Geraldo said. “You know what we face. Do you want to go into this battle with a king who can use his powers, or a lazy boy who burns down tents because he can’t control his fire? Now that Luca is on the throne, we need to be building a proper army of Menti.”

  “We do not need an army,” Josef said. He smiled at all of them. “We need only Prince Luca. He will defeat his brother alone, in single combat. I have seen it. The rest of you are…unnecessary.” He shrugged.

  Luca swallowed. He had never considered facing Stefan without the aid of his fellow Menti. “I think Geraldo is right,” he told Josef. “We need more Menti than just me if we are going to face a dragon. Joss can use wind to make it difficult for Stefan to fly, or he could redirect the dragon fire. Tania works with water. Her powers are very well-suited to fighting a dragon.”

  The others smiled at him, and for a moment, Luca felt like a good leader. His father had always said that a good leader surrounded himself with people of great talent.

  But Josef smirked. “You are to be king. You may bring whomever you wish to the battle if it pleases you. But they are not needed. You will defeat Stefan alone. We should train, Prince Luca.” He turned and walked away without another word, seemingly expecting Luca to follow him.

  Luca regarded the other Menti. “I will persuade him to let us fight together.”

  “Are you a king, or aren’t you?” Geraldo crossed his arms. “You tell him, you don’t persuade him. He’s a nobody, Luca.”

  The others were nodding, and Luca flared up at that. They had no idea how hard it was to rule. It was not them dealing with the council meetings and the heated discussions. The situation was more complex than merely ordering things to be done his own way. There was the issue of the treasury, and the army. If Luca chose the wrong path, he could beggar Estala, and Stefan would take the throne again.

  He gave them all a hard look and turned to hurry after Josef. In his chambers, he found Josef already kneeling on the floor, drawing new runes in different colours of chalk.

  “Why are you using different colours?” Luca asked him.

  Josef looked up at him with a smile. “You are observant, Prince Luca. It will serve you well as a king. I am changing the runes because I have noticed some weaknesses in your talent. These runes will strengthen you there.”

  Worry stabbed at Luca. “You said I was strong enough to defeat Stefan in single combat.”

  “You will be,” Josef told him. “With these runes, and with your whole focus, you will be strong enough. You must not waver, however. You must not allow the talk of others to sap you of your strength. Think: where did you first hear the idea that a fire wielder could not defeat a dragon?”

  Luca blinked. To him, the idea was so basic that he had never questioned it. A dragon had scales and sharp teeth. It could fly. It breathed fire hotter than a forge. Before Josef arrived, he had never considered that he might defeat Stefan in single combat.

  Still, he remembered Stefan’s taunts. “Stefan told me that fire wielders were common, worth less than a copper coin, but a dragon was gold.”

  “Ah, your enemy seeks to weaken your resolve.” Josef stood with a shake of his head. “That Menti should believe such falsehoods about themselves and each other. The world has lost so much knowledge.”

  “What do you mean?” Luca perched on a chair. He removed his circlet and rubbed absently at his hair.

  “Menti believe their powers are given to them at birth, but it is not so. They have simply, by accident, found the trick of a certain type of magic. In truth, anyone can master any kind of magic with enough study.”

  “Is that true?” Luca frowned.

  “Of course it is true.” Josef gave him a sharp-eyed look. “Your father was very short-sighted to try to eradicate magic from this country, Prince Luca. Forgive me for saying it, but he crippled Estala. The kingdom could have been far greater with the Menti as its allies. Still, your father raised you, and for that, we must all be grateful. You will save us.”

  Luca could hardly pay attention to the part about his father. He was frowning. “You have seen people master new kinds of magic?”

  “I have seen things you cannot dream of,” Josef said. His smile was sleek and confident. “I had a chance to study such skills myself, you know. I could have learned to heal or shapeshift. Instead, I had a vision that I must come to Reyalon to teach a great king. So I left the sanctuary where I trained and came to find you.”

  “You had a vision about me?” Luca did not know what to think of that. What if he failed to become the great king Josef had come here for? Then again, what if he really could be a great king?

  “I did. I saw it all.” Josef gestured to the runes on the floor. “Come, Prince Luca. You must practice. You will triumph only if we can find the proper arrangement of the runes. Stand in the circle.”

  Luca stepped carefully over the runes on the floor. He always thought he should feel different inside the circle, but he never did. He wondered how the runes worked but was afraid to ask. He knew Josef would say that was less important than training.

  His powers truly had grown stronger since he had begun training with Josef. He could see that much was true. He held his hands apart and created a ball of flame in each. With a laugh, Luca tossed them up and began to juggle them.

  Once, when he was young and recovering from a bout of sickness, Brother Axil had taught him how to juggle. It had distracted Luca from his illness, and he had tried to teach Reva to juggle later, when she first arrived at the keep. She was terrible at it, but she gave it her whole focus. They had spent many happy afternoons in the shadowy walkways of the gardens, chasing after runaway sets of juggling balls.

  Luca caught sight of Josef’s face. The man did not look entirely pleased. He did not think this was fun, Luca realised. He only wanted Luca to be serious. Luca felt bad to be wasting the man’s time. He wanted to be the great king Josef believed he was, and he wanted to be a strong enough Menti to defeat Stefan.

  He merged the two balls of flame and set them to spinning in front of him. Sometimes, when he spun the ball very fast, little jets of flame would burst from the top and bottom of the axis along which the ball spun. Luca liked this, though he had no idea how to make it into a useful weapon.

  “Today,” Josef told him, “try making a string.”

  Luca concentrated on the fire. He kept it spinning the way he had seen women with spindles and wool, and he pinched his fingers on the top of the ball and drew the flame upwards. The thin length of it was rigid as he extended it farther and farther. At last, the ball of flame was exhausted and he had a long column.

  But it was not string, it was a rod. Luca frowned. In his efforts to keep the fire going, he was holding on to it very rigidly. He was afraid that if he did not, the fire would sputter out. He breathed in and out slowly and tried to release the tension inside himself. What was the worst that would happen if he did not manage this?

  He would have to try again, that was all.

  He pulled at different parts of the fire rod, and it began to bend. It was fizzing madly, trying to find fuel in the air, and he was beginning to grow tired. Just before the fire would have sputtered out completely, Luca managed to get the end of the rod to flick through th
e air like a whip.

  He was panting as he looked to Josef for a response. “That was good, no?”

  “You are learning quickly.” Josef sounded pleased. He brought a cup of wine to Luca. “Drink. Replenish your strength, then you can try again.”

  Luca took a sip of the wine reluctantly. He wanted a plain cup of water, especially after working with flames. He was so hot in the face that he could imagine himself back in the Shadow Valley, digging latrines under the hot midday sun. When he drank wine, his head became fuzzy and he did not feel as if his control over the fire was as good. He drank the wine, though, because he knew Josef would think he was behaving like a commoner otherwise.

  “Tell me about the council meeting,” Josef said as Luca drank. The mage was adding new symbols on the floor. “How was Brother Axil?”

  “What do you mean?” Luca frowned at him. He could feel the wine tugging at his balance. He set the cup down without taking the last few sips and hoped Josef would not notice.

  Josef hesitated. Finally he said in a regretful tone, “I have noticed that sometimes Brother Axil treats you as though you are a child, and he is your teacher.”

  “He was my governor.” Luca smiled. “He taught me everything. He brought me to the Shadow Valley when I was first coming into my Menti powers. He still teaches me a lot.” The wine he had drunk had given him a pleasant feeling toward the whole world, Brother Axil included. “I am glad he is on the council, even if he does not get along with Lord Tinian.”

  “Oh?” Josef looked up briefly.

  “Lord Tinian serves Xanti interests,” Luca explained. “He is also very concerned with money. When Serena made a recommendation to help the plague victims, Lord Tinian said it would cost too much. Brother Axil was the one who intervened. I am glad he did, but I think he would always oppose Lord Tinian.”

  “That does not sound like wise counsel,” Josef observed. “And why should he intervene? He knows you sit in the king’s chair. He should have let you handle it.”

  “He made a good suggestion,” Luca protested. He was not sure what to think anymore. Had Brother Axil done something wrong?