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“Hey, get up.”
Char swatted Rath’s hand away, but his brother had already smacked his shoulder and moved out of reach. A half night’s sleep hadn’t been enough for Char to recuperate from the ordeal with that creature the previous day. He didn’t know how Rath could sound so bright and cheerful.
Oh, right. Rath got a full night’s sleep.
“Good morning,” Rath called.
“Good morning,” Iris replied.
There was something off about her voice, like she was forcing a smile. Char sighed and rolled over, reluctant to leave his cocoon but opening his eyes to look across the campsite at her. She was sitting in front of the ashes from last night’s fire, hugging her knees to her chest and giving Rath a smile that was indeed fake.
Char sighed again and rubbed his eyes. Something was bothering her, and he needed to get up and find out what that was.
“Char made you take a shift last night?” Rath asked, rummaging around in the packs for breakfast.
“No, I talked him into letting me do it.”
Rath chuckled. “Talked him into it? Didn’t sound like that to me.”
Iris’ cheeks flushed bright red, and Char felt the back of his neck warm, too. That wasn’t something he’d wanted Rath to hear.
“I thought you were asleep,” Char grumbled as he sat up.
“I was tired, not dead. But it’s kind of nice to see Char losing his mind over a girl for a change.” Rath sat next to Iris and handed her some food. “Usually, it’s the other way around.”
“Rath,” Char warned him.
“What? She’s marrying you, so she deserves to know all about your sordid history, doesn’t she? See, Char and I have always had the tall, dark, and handsome thing going for us, but he’s also the strong, silent type, so it’s nearly impossible to keep the girls off of him at parties.”
Char groaned and hit Rath on the shoulder as he passed him to sit on Iris’ other side, but he couldn’t be too mad. Iris’ smile was more genuine now.
“Thing is, as much as he likes to dance, he rarely takes an interest in any of the girls hanging off of him. But when he does and he turns that charm on, they practically fall at his feet.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Char told Iris.
“I already knew all of that,” she said, her brown eyes sparkling as they met his. “It was pretty obvious at that party.”
Rath laughed. “You remember that? Wow, I thought for sure you were blackout drunk. I’ve never seen somebody get so wasted on a single glass of wine.”
She shrugged. “I guess I don’t have any tolerance.”
“You weren’t the only one without any tolerance,” Rath said, directing his smirk at Char this time. “I would have thought Char was drunk, too, if I hadn’t known any better.”
“That’s enough,” Char said. “Unless you want me to punch you again.”
“But I’m still feeling a little weak,” Rath whined in a small, pitiful voice.
Char snorted. “You’re feeling fine, and you know it. Are we just walking today, or are we gonna try a test flight?”
“Hm.” Rath rubbed his bruised jaw. “I think we’re far enough out to avoid being seen, but I’m not sure. The problem is my flight from yesterday. A keen-eyed guard in the castle watchtowers could have seen that, and with negotiations between humans and dragons on the table, even a perceived offense makes a truce less likely. That whole mess with Micah will have the king on edge, and then to have dragons sneaking around in human territory…” He sighed. “We’ll walk until midday and reevaluate then.”
Char swallowed his last bite of food and stood, offering Iris a hand. The fairies had already packed away the bedrolls.
“You don’t belong in leadership training, huh?”
Rath tossed a pack at Char with much more force than necessary. “Not this again.”
“Leadership training would mean he’d be a team lead, like Kelnor, right?” Iris asked.
Rath shot her a glare.
“I didn’t bring it up, and I didn’t say you should do it!” she defended herself.
“Yeah, that’s what it would mean. Kelnor’s been trying to get him to do it for a while now, but Rath keeps saying he’s not ready to settle down yet.”
“Because I’m not.”
“Does he have to settle down to do that?” Iris asked.
Char shrugged. “I guess that depends on your definition of ‘settling down.’”
“Father was married with two kids already graduated from flight school before he became a team lead,” Rath said. “You can’t get much more ‘settled down’ than that.”
“But he still took us out all the time,” Char reminded him. “It’s not like your life will end if you go for it.”
“I’m not doing it, so drop it.”
Char knew better than to push Rath when he used that tone.
They walked in silence for a while as the sun breached the eastern horizon and climbed higher into the sky. It brought with it an uncomfortable heat Char hadn’t felt since summer last year. He shifted his pack and tugged at his collar. The soldier’s uniform he wore had a seamless shirt with a high neckline. He missed his regular clothes with button-up shirts. Undoing a couple of top buttons would have felt good right about now.
“I may know where you can find more information about that creature in the tunnel,” Iris said.
Char and Rath both looked at her in surprise. She had her eyes on the ground, studying the grass beneath their feet as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. A thin layer of sweat glistened on her forehead.
“Where?” Rath asked.
“Micah’s tower.”
That explained her closed-off expression and flat tone. Char scowled and looked away from her, focusing on the fairies flitting and twirling in a carefree manner up ahead of them.
“Don’t you mean Jonah’s tower?” he asked.
“No, I mean Micah’s tower at the castle. I doubt he kept his permanent records at Jonah’s tower.”
“Oh, yeah, you mentioned he took notes of everything,” Rath said.
“Very detailed notes. He extracted magic from enchanted creatures, too, so if he ever encountered that thing, he would have documented anything he learned. He was very thorough.”
“How thorough?” Char asked, dreading her answer.
“Well…” She pressed her lips together. “He took notes as he worked, and then he transcribed them all into books later. I think he had quite a lot on me before I ever came to that tower.”
“How do you know this?” Rath pressed her. “What? The creep lied all the time,” he defended himself when Char shot him a glare. “We can’t believe anything he said without evidence.”
“Then find his journals, and you’ll have all the evidence you need,” Iris said. “I saw him taking notes about me. He came to my room the morning after the second extraction session to document the after-effects and my recovery.” She paused. “He didn’t get to study that very often, since he usually extracted all of a subject’s magic in a single session and killed them at the end.”
Char clenched his jaw and his fists. There had been no end to Micah’s cruelty. To torture her like that and then pester her with questions about her pain and misery? She had just been a test subject to him, useful enough to keep alive, but with no inherent value beyond what she could give him.
How could someone watch a person suffer like that and feel nothing?
“Okay, well, we still don’t know if he ever came across that thing, though,” Rath pointed out.
“If he found the crystal, he probably found that creature, too. He had to change the extraction process depending upon which species he was using, which meant he had to study them in their natural state, and then go through quite a few test subjects before he perfected his methods. He said he’d learned everything he could about the enchanted creatures he found within the human kingdom, and that’s why he was focusing on dragons next. So, either he’d already studied that creature, or he didn’t know about it.”
“Or didn’t tell you about it,” Char suggested, looking back at her.
She shook her head, still focused on the ground. “He would have told me. That was one thing he never lied about: his experiments. He was proud of what he’d achieved, and telling me his plans was a way to make me feel helpless and inferior so I wouldn’t fight back.”
Char took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “It’s over, Iris.”
“Maybe not.”
Rath’s dark tone just added to Char’s unease. When he looked over at his brother, Rath’s blue eyes were stormy.
“He wrote everything down?” Rath asked Iris. “Exactly how to do his extraction process?”
She nodded. “I think so.”
Rath came to a dead stop. “We have to go back. That can’t fall into the wrong hands.”
Char got a sinking feeling in his stomach as he realized what Rath was saying. Anybody who found that research could replicate it, and, since he had been the most powerful mage in the kingdom, other eager mages would look for his writings.
“It shouldn’t be possible anymore,” Iris said, following their train of thought. There was a hesitation in her voice that inspired no confidence in Char.
“I’d rather not take that chance,” Rath replied. “Is it protected at all? Is there some sort of shield or barrier to keep people from getting to it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. There probably was, but nothing he cast should be active anymore, since I stripped him of his magic.”
“It’s still too dangerous to go back,” Char interjected.
“It’s too dangerous not to go back,” Rath retorted.
“Wait,” Iris intervened. “I may have a solution.”
The fairies zipped back to her, as if in answer to her call. They darted around her, a few settling on her hair and shoulders, and Char watched all the tension leave her as a soft smile came to her lips.
“Thanks,” she told them.
Had she used magic to summon them? Char hadn’t seen her twitch a muscle. But if that was the case…
“We need Micah’s research. Anything he wrote. Could you get that from his tower at the castle and take it back to Rath and Char’s place?”
“And Jonah’s tower. If there’s anything that survived Char busting out of the place, we need it,” Rath added.
She nodded. “And Jonah’s tower, too.”
The fairies spun together and twisted into a golden tornado, coiling above her head and then scattering like fireworks. Then they were gone.
After a moment’s pause, Rath said, “You’re scary.”
She looked at him, head tilted to the side. “What?”
“The way you use magic without even trying. It looks easier now than it did when you had the amulet.”
“Oh.” She shrugged. “I guess once I learn how to do something, it’s easier to do it the next time.”
He grinned. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. How about you teleport us back home? Like Father John did with the orphans?”
“I… I can’t do that,” she said, shaking her head.
“You can’t, or you don’t know how?”
Char felt her stiffen again. He squeezed her hand and intervened on her behalf. “Rath, she doesn’t like to use magic.”
“She doesn’t?”
“No, she doesn’t, and if you keep pushing it, I’m going to push you about leadership training again.”
Rath frowned and heaved a dramatic sigh. “Fine, we’ll keep walking, even though it’s getting hotter and there’s no shade in sight.”
“And don’t try guilting her into it, either.”
Rath smirked. “Little protective, are we?”
“You’re really asking that?”
“There’s another thing about Char,” Rath told Iris. The mischief was back in his blue eyes. “He’s really stubborn. Once he sets his mind to something, there’s no changing it.”
She looked up at Char and smiled. “I can live with that."7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9rtTC73zi6
