In the Time of Dragon Moon (31 page)

“I intended to give my daughter the chance I never had.”

“To marry a Pendragon king?”

“Why not? She was Prince Desmond's age. My daughter came here as a pure maiden. Her father was fey,” she added with a glance to King Onadon. “She would have fulfilled the prophecy you've all longed for if she married a Pendragon.”

“If you had that in mind, why kill Prince Desmond?” King Onadon asked.

“Would you let your daughter marry a cruel womanizer? He tried to rape Uma,” she said, nodding in my direction. Heat stormed my cheeks. I looked down at my hands. “Tell them what you discovered back on Dragon's Keep, Sir Geoffrey,” she commanded.

Sir Geoffrey stood up, uncertain.

“Sit!” King Arden ordered, and he dropped to the bench again. “You are not in charge of this trial, Tanya!” A hush fell on us all. I heard small rustling noises of cloaks and clothing as people shifted on their seats.

King Onadon said, “Did you think I would condone your twisted methods to put fey blood on the throne? If any fairies plotted with you on this, they went outside my authority.”

“I didn't need anyone's help. I have my own powers.”

Jackrun said, “You are no doubt a woman of tremendous power. Not every half fey can command the kind of wind you used to push my cousin off the cliff.”

Jackrun knew how to win her attention. A slow smile crept across her face.

He went on. “Did you also use your fairy magic to hex the queen? To keep her ill?”

I found myself holding my breath, grateful for the question as much as frightened by it.

“Hex her?” Tanya raised a brow. “No.” I felt my insides folding up like a fan. “Adela was infertile and going mad all on her own,” said Lady Tanya. “All I had to do was stand back and watch.”

“Enough,” said King Arden. “You sicken me to death. I don't want to hear any more.”

Tanya leaped up.“I sicken
you
? Your wife was no innocent. Look what she did to me.” She yanked up her sleeve, showing her ruined arm, then tugged her thick skirts up to her knees to show the ropy burn scars on her legs.

“I made sure to show Adela who I was while she was dying. She saw the scars she gave me when she burned me. And I told her I killed her son.”

• • •

I
T
WAS
NIGHTFALL
before the kings and council reached a decision. King Onadon proposed taking Tanya back to DunGarrow, and imprisoning her in a cell of mirrors with no escape from her reflection and no means to shatter them. It seemed an apt punishment for one who had hidden so much for so long. But King Arden had lost his son and his wife. “She must be beheaded,” he said. No one crossed him.

Castle Green, Wil
d
e Island

Full Dragon Moon

October 1210

A
FT
ER
THE
SENTENCING
, they dragged Tanya away. I stepped out of the tent and saw Dragon Moon rising full and bright in the darkening sky.

The flames of the long-poled torches roared in the wind, flying sideways like bright orange flags. We were in the twilight hour when there was no daylight to cast our shadows and we became shadows ourselves.

Across the green, Jackrun stepped out from under the awning with King Onadon. He was talking, gesturing. The crowd had broken into many small groups around the lawn. I could not hear him.

Vazan flew down and settled on the grass. “We will leave tomorrow,” she said. I heard the longing in her voice, for home and for her first good meal in six months. I stroked her scaled neck. She let me touch her now. So much had changed between us since the day I'd stitched her wing. I had removed the stitches, but I could still feel rougher skin in the place where it had torn.

“It's strong,” she said.

“I can see that. But strong enough to fly all the way to Devil's Boot with a rider on your back?”

“Yessss.”

I should be overjoyed at the thought of going home at last. “The king's soldiers are still there,” I said to her.

“We'll ssssweep them off our land,” she said with confidence.

I would arrive in Devil's Boot with my own terrible news. No one back home knew Father was dead. I would have to tell Mother.

“Uma?”

Augusta had stepped beside Vazan. I'd been too distracted to sense her approach. It surprised me to see Vazan lowering her head to greet the princess. Vazan did not bow to anyone, not even my father when he was alive.

Augusta nodded. “Rivule Vazan.” I felt a pang of guilt for suspecting her when I'd first met her in Dragonswood.

The princess had her eyes on Jackrun. “He used his dragon power well the other day,” she said. “He told me you encouraged his gift.”

I nodded, suddenly shy.

“If I'd remained on Dragon's Keep, I would have helped him. No one else in his family did. But I think that will change now. He deserves the freedom to grow into his dragon power.” She did not say
as I've grown into mine.
She did not have to say it. I saw animal power and dragon beauty in her. I saw the way she balanced the different parts of herself. I felt a sudden kinship with her, as I was beginning to do the same.

“Princess, I'm wearing the gown you loaned me when I stayed with you.” I fingered the mysterious soft green cloth that seemed almost a living thing; the gown had welcomed me, but it was hers. “I can return—”

“Please, keep it, Uma. You look beautiful in it, and I have plenty. The fairies make my gowns now.”

“Thank you.” Did she truly think I looked beautiful in it?

Jackrun stepped across the lawn to talk with King Arden.

“Princess, your brother the king seems to have accepted you back in the Pendragon family now. It means you can visit your family here and on Dragon's Keep if you like.”

“Yes, but I am not planning to stay among men, Uma. I do not want to try to fit in, not anymore. I live in Dragonswood.”

“The queen is dead,” I said, “and her son. The ones who hurt you are gone. Are you sure you want to live apart?”

“Uma,” Vazan said, “you do not understand.”

The princess rested her hand on Vazan's chest. I felt a wave of envy when Vazan did not hiss and back away. There was something the dragons seemed to know about Princess Augusta; even Vazan knew it, and she did not count herself a creature of Dragonswood.

“Uma does not have to understand to be a friend, rivule,” said the princess. She turned her copper eyes to me. “I'm happy in Dragonswood. Well loved. It is not where I was born, but it's become my home.”

I heard contentment in her voice, and the challenge in it. “Vazan mentioned you're returning to Devil's Boot,” she said.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“I found my home in an unexpected place. It was not where I grew up, but a place where I could grow,” she offered.

Across the lawn, Jackrun was laughing with his grandfather, his head thrown back. “How many hearts will you break if you go?” asked the princess.

“Princessss,” hissed Vazan.

“Let Uma answer, rivule.”

I could not answer. Too many tears filled my throat, blocking my words.

“Uma,” she said, lifting my chin. “Think on it not only with your head but with your heart.” She turned and walked away with Vazan. The dragons on the far side of the green bowed their heads as the princess approached. Even Lord Kahlil bowed. They did not hold their heads down long, dragons would not, but the gesture showed the love they had for her.

• • •

T
HE
FIRST
FEW
stars appeared as Jackrun crossed the green, his stride long, his arms swinging. His hair had tugged free of its leather strap. I drew in a long breath as he moved closer, as if my breath were pulling him toward me.

“Veritas vos liberabit,”
he said.

“What?”

“It's Latin for ‘The truth shall set you free.'” Jackrun stepped closer. “I need . . . I have to swim,” he said. “Will you come with me? Do you mind?”

We went out the gate, taking the road between castle and graveyard, leading to the cliffs beyond the amphitheater. Farther south, we climbed down the zigzag stairs to the deserted beach below.

“I won't be long,” Jackrun said. “Sorry, Uma. I'm too full of everything that's happened. We can talk once I've . . .” He left the rest unsaid, hurriedly pulling off his cloak and shirt. His muscled skin shone in the full moonlight.

Someone in Dragonswood had removed the stitches from his arm. The small, even patterns in the scales matched perfectly. A scar line would remain, but there would be no distortion. I smiled to myself. I'd done well by him.

“You're healing quite quickly,” I told him.

“I am, thanks to you,” he said, pulling me close to him. “Now, no peeking.” He jumped out of my arms and ran toward the water, where he pulled off his breeches. I was surprised to see a second, longer scale patch running down the back of his right leg. He had been too far away the other times I'd watched him swim for me to see this second patch. Jackrun raced for the water, strong limbed and swift footed on the uneven sand.

I slipped out of my shoes, lifted my skirts, and headed for the water's edge as he dove into a curling white wave. The sea swirled around my ankles. I was used to steaming pools at the base of our mountain, not this freezing ocean. I couldn't go in after him. I didn't think he wanted me to.

Jackrun's arms rose and fell in rhythm on the surface until he was no more than a black dot in the water where Dragon Moon made a shining path of polished pearl. The path shone right up to me as if I could walk out on it, but it was all water, all moonlight, all wish.

I stood watching, trembling with cold as Jackrun swam back. Bending down to gather driftwood, I busied my hands and watched under my lashes as Jackrun dried his body off with his cloak before tugging on his shirt and trousers. His wet hair stuck out at odd angles.

Cold as it was here by the shore, he did not bother putting on his cloak. When he saw me shivering, he took a slow deep breath and sent a soft yellow flame down by our feet, lighting the driftwood logs. Then he shot me a smile, waiting.

For a moment I didn't understand what he expected me to say, then I knew. “You didn't have to summon anger to make fire this time.”

His smile widened. “My power returned as I got stronger, just like you said it would. When it did, I decided to experiment with it, see what I could do.”

I thought of the explosive flames he'd roared to destroy the pyre, the soft breath he'd used just now to kindle our beach fire. Destructive fire, warming fire: The two couldn't have been more different. Princess Augusta was right. He deserved the freedom to grow into his dragon power. He'd have the freedom he needed in Dragonswood. Suddenly Dragonswood and Devil's Boot seemed as far apart as the earth and moon.

Jackrun broke a stick across his knee with a loud crack. “Vazan told me you were leaving.”

“Yes, tomorrow.”

He tossed the broken pieces in the flames, looked down, and slid his fingers through his wet hair. My scalp tingled. “Come closer,” he said. “Look into my fire and tell me what you see.”

Some fey had the fire-sight. I would not pass his test. “I don't have fey powers, Jackrun.”

“No, but you are a seer.”

“What do you mean?”

“You thought Sir Geoffrey used fey magic to draw you to his hiding place, but the man was not fey after all, was he?”

I knelt to brush the thin layer of sand from my ankles, using the moment to turn Jackrun's words over in my mind. Only men could be seers in my village, yet the Holy Ones had gifted me with sight more than once. The vision in Vazan's cave led me to fox in Dragonswood and to the kea.

“Adan?”

I looked up. “I told you not to call me that,” I said.

Smile lines formed in the corners of his eyes. “Adan?” he asked again. The word fell like rain on a parched place deep inside me. This time I let it soak in. He had seen me for who I was, spoken truth.

I stood again, planting my feet.
Look into my fire and tell me what you see.

The flames flew upward in long leafy shapes of growing light. They pitched and swayed. How could anyone see visions in such constant motion? If I could see something, it would be the face and form of the one who'd made this fire with his breath so I could have him twice, across from me, still damp from his swim, and in the ever-moving blaze.

“I see only fire,” I whispered.

Jackrun swept the blowing hair away from my face. He'd worn his finest castle garb to sit with the council today, and still, loose threads hung from the cuffs of his damp linen shirt. He could never quite fit into the courtly fashion. I'd been trying to hold my emotions in my heart, already preparing to leave him tomorrow, but the little threads undid me.

My eyes burned. Jackrun brushed the tears from my cheek with his finger, kissed the place where they had fallen, and put his arms around me.

“Don't,” I whispered as he leaned down. “I'm leaving tomorrow. This will only make it worse.” But I didn't pull away when he kissed me. His body was still cool from his swim, his lips were warm. It was a kiss that grew deeper, sadder. He held me close in the circle of his arms as if he would refuse to let me go. I wove my fingers through his dark hair at the nape of his neck.

I don't know how long we would have kissed like this if we hadn't heard the telltale swooping sound and felt the warm wind swirling over our heads. Babak gusted in. I moaned his name before we drew apart.
Jackrun
.

Babak landed on the beach directly in front of us. “Come,” he said. “Both of you.”

Jackrun retrieved his cloak. “Is it the king?”

“Yes, the king.”

Babak flew us back up along the cliffs.

“What about the king?” I asked.

Babak swiveled one eye back. “He wants to see you, Uma.”

The answer startled me. Jackrun tightened his grip around my waist. “Don't be afraid,” he said into my ear.

I glanced back. “Do you know something about this, Jackrun?”

“I might.”

“Tell me,” I said. Jackrun held his tongue as Babak circled down. Many had left the green, but the fey king and the English king remained by a newly built bonfire along with Jackrun's family, Princess Augusta, and the dragons.

Jackrun leaped down and helped me dismount. Vazan narrowed her silver eyes at Babak. “We have been waiting. What took you so long to find them?”

“I did my besssst!” he hissed. Would these two ever stop fighting?

Lady Tess motioned me over to King Arden.

I curtsied, awkwardly, then stood with my feet spread apart on the ground, a warrior's stance, though I did not feel much like a warrior at the moment. I wanted to feel the earth's power wicking through me as I faced the king. “Vazan, will you come here?” She lumbered over, wrapping the tip of her red tail around my skirts. “
Tuma-doa—
thank you, rivule.” I felt a little better with her on my left and Jackrun to my right, but not much.

Jackrun bowed. “Tell Uma what this is about, will you, sire?”

King Arden's shoulders were hunched as if he carried some great invisible weight. I had no herbs to heal his grief, no mixture for the pain in his soul. I could only pray.

His Majesty appraised me. “You are a fine physician, Uma Quarteney.” I saw admiration in his look. “You attended my poor wife, God rest her soul, and saved my nephew Jackrun's life after the wolf's attack.” I'd helped him too, though that would remain a secret between us.

Jackrun reached out and gave my hand a squeeze. I blushed twice, first at the compliment, and then at Jackrun's boldness, touching me here in front of everyone. Jackrun did not let go of my hand until he gave it another squeeze and even then he linked his smallest finger with mine.

The king was still addressing me. “Tanya tricked us into thinking you were a murderer. I am glad for your sake the truth came out in time.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.” This was as close to an apology as you could expect from a monarch.

“I am sure you are pleased with the outcome of today's proceedings,” he added.

I did not think beheading Tanya would ease his suffering. And I'd preferred King Onadon's suggestion of a mirror prison for Tanya, but he would not want to hear my thoughts on execution. “I am, Your Majesty.”

“Jackrun spoke to me of your concerns for your people. My soldiers have been stationed there long enough. I've already sent a messenger to Devil's Boot with an order for my army to break camp and come home.”