Draka

The mountain may or may not have already had a name. Herald didn’t know of one, so to us it was Sunset Peak. We left a small cairn of stones that Herald somehow found to mark our visit. As we left, we descended far faster than we had climbed. Herald had started to shiver lightly on my back, and I wanted to get her back into the warmer air below. On the way back we stopped at a clear stream to drink and for Herald to fill her waterskins, and then it was straight back to the mountain.

I left Herald by the entrance. There was still a pile of firewood there, and I left her to start a fire and warm up as I went off to hunt. It took me barely half an hour, flight time included, before I was back with a small boar, gutted and bled, but it was still late into the night before Herald declared the meat she’d sliced off cooked well enough to eat. Not that the time mattered. Neither of us had had much of a sleep schedule for the last several months.

“All right, time to spill,” I told her after she’d glutted herself on wild pig, “You’ve been sneaking out. Why?”

I couldn't see her blush in the low light of the fire, but I knew her well enough to know what it meant when her face went rigid and she looked away the way she did. “I have no idea what you mean,” she lied terribly.

“I can literally feel what direction you’re in at all times. I know you keep going to the same place. And it's not like no one’s ratted you out. They just won’t tell me what you’re up to, but I’m pretty sure that Mak knows. And you know she’d tell me if I asked, I just haven’t. So…?”

“Dammit,” she muttered, looking away. “You’ll be mad.”

“Yeah, nah, I promise I won’t. But I am dying to know. I’m worried about something happening to you, escort or no, and you know I can’t just let that go. So do you want to tell me, or do I need to figure it out on my own?”

“Urgh!” Herald groaned and put her face in her hands. “I do not know why I thought… Okay. Fine. So, I do not know if you have noticed that there are more soldiers around than normal?”

“More than I’d expected, yeah.”

“The border is apparently a little more stable, and the new regiments have been deployed, so they are rotating the regiments. Letting the soldiers come home for a few weeks.”

“Right.”

“And Maglan—”

“Oh. Oh! And you're embarrassed about it, so...!”

“Yes?” I could almost feel the heat coming off her. “We missed each other!”

“Nah, yeah, I get that! But sneaking out for… damnit, booty call doesn’t translate… Sneaking out for late-night trysts with your beau? And your brother’s escorting you? He’s okay with this?”

She smiled helplessly. “I do not know what to tell you. He is a romantic, and he never teases me about… what Mag and I might be doing. Also, ‘trysts’? ‘Beau’?”

“I’ve been reading your ‘romance’ stories. Anyway, why not just invite Maglan to the inn?”

“Do you remember when we talked about him? Down by the gate, only a short time after… you know? And I was worried about keeping you secret from him?”

“Yeah.” She’d been afraid of what I might do if I couldn’t trust him. “But the secret’s pretty much out now.”

“And you have some issues with jealousy.”

“Yeah,” I admitted.

“So… I did not want to risk introducing you two. I wasn’t sure how to handle it yet, and even if the secret slipping is not a big risk anymore, I did not want to make it hard for you.”

“Yeah, I get it,” I said, looking away. This was the one thing she didn’t seem to trust me on, and as fair as it was, it still stung.

“Oh, no, Draka!” she said gently. “I trust you! I do not think that you would harm him, let alone kill him, but I also know you. You will do what you must. You would break him, if you had to, and I do not want that. I do not know if this is something that will last, but I do love him, in one way or another.”

“I said I get it!” I pouted, getting up. “I just don’t like it. And if you’re running around the city at night, at least do it Shifted. I know Tam would fight like a demon to protect you, but on the streets at night you’d be safer alone, in the shadows.”

She looked like she was about to object, but stopped herself. “You are probably right,” she admitted after a moment. “This power is so new to me, I often do not consider it.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes it feels like it’s all I think about, “ I huffed. I paused, then said, “I want to meet him before he goes back to the border. Now come on. Let’s go sleep.”

It wasn’t like I could stay mad at her. Once we got to the nest, and Herald had aired out the pillows and the blankets and poured my troll money on the mat of coins, we snuggled up as cozily as ever. She was right to worry, I thought as we settled in. I was jealous and possessive. I hated the idea that this guy I’d never even met was taking even a crumb of her affection away from me, as though her love was a finite resource. And if I felt like I couldn’t trust Maglan, I would break him. I didn't care about his silence, but if I thought that he was hurting Herald…

And, said Conscience, at the back of my mind, who could say that my jealousy wouldn’t drive me to find reasons not to trust him? She was right. It was better for her to keep us apart. And it would be best if I could leave it at that, but that wasn't happening.

Then she rubbed my neck affectionately, and all my jealous worries melted away.

“Hey, Draka?”

“Yeah?”

“I will bring him to the inn, once everything is settled, all right?”

“All right.”

“Good night,” she said, snuggling up under my wing. “Sleep well.”

“You too, little sister,” I murmured, and soon I drifted off to dream.

I drifted in a lightless void. Instead of falling into someone’s dream, I was in a still and comfortable emptiness, but just as aware as I had been the previous times I walked among people’s dreams. And this third time pretty much confirmed what I had suspected. I’d found what I needed: I was sleeping on my hoard, and had a Nest Heart burning inside me. The right place, and the right fuel. Now to do something productive with it.

Spending some time out with Herald, taking her to see the sunset, those were things I had wanted to do. And the hoard always called to me, so checking up on it, making sure that it was safe and whole, that had been a weight off my shoulders. But this, diving into the dream world, had been my real purpose in leaving the city.

I had one very specific person in mind. I didn’t know if it would work, but I thought it might. All the pieces seemed to be there. She knew me, and I’d certainly put the fear in her. I’d done much less to the thug whose dream I’d accidentally fallen into, so I figured it was worth a shot.

I focused. Her face, her voice, even her smell were as clear in my memory as they had been the night I’d visited her. I focused, and I pushed, and when I found the barest hint of a connection I grabbed on with all of my will, and dragged myself along, and then—

Kesra looked just as I’d seen her that night in her bedroom, but she was smaller. Child sized. She sat on the floor between a wooden wall and a dressing screen, wearing only a worn, oversized tunic. Her eyes were screwed shut and she held her hands over her ears, pressing hard, trying to block out the grunts, the sounds of flesh on flesh and of a young woman pretending to enjoy herself that came from the other side of the screen.

She looked like she was trying not to cry.

“Oh, hell no!” I growled. I’d wanted to leave a message for Zabra. I had not expected to get kicked right in the heartstrings by dropping in on Kesra’s childhood trauma.

I did the first thing that came to mind. I picked up the tiny woman in front of me. “Think of a safe place,” I commanded her, and then I left. I just took a step at a right angle to reality, taking her with me and letting her guide me to a better place.

We emerged into a field full of ripe yellow grain. I thought that I could see Karakan’s walls in the distant north, and a villa with some accessory buildings to the south. Wherever this was, it sure as hell beat the place I’d found her.

Kesra herself had grown to her full size as soon as I dropped her, and she was staring at me in absolute horror. Her mouth was opened like she was trying to scream, but couldn’t find her voice. At the same time she was trying to crabwalk backwards, but not going anywhere. She may have picked the destination, but this was my dream now, and she was going to listen to me. I willed Charisma to help me choose my words and be convincing. I still didn’t know if it worked like that, but it couldn’t hurt.

“Kesra,” I said, leaning in close. “I came here with a message for your sister. But what I just saw, honestly… If that was how your childhood was, you have my pity.”

I scowled mentally. That wasn’t the right way to start. That wasn’t the tone I needed to set. I tried my hardest to bring out Instinct, to channel that smug, ruthless superiority. To quash the little voice of Conscience telling me that Kesra was probably mostly innocent, and that there was no way that I could go through with the threats I intended to make. There was no room for guilt or doubt. I needed her to take me deathly seriously.

Her mouth worked soundlessly, then she managed, “How? How are you here?”

“Does that really matter? You’re dreaming, and here I am. What you need to understand from this is that you can’t hide from me. Ever. Wherever she takes you, I can find you. I want you to tell her that, and be sure that she understands, because I don’t think that she really understood the last message I left with you. Do you remember what I said?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Anything she did to you, you would do worse to me.”

“Right. Now, she fucked that up, but I chose to show a little mercy. When she had one of my people beaten, I took Tarkarran instead of you. Wasn’t that nice of me? The next time I won’t be so kind.”

“You… took Tarkarran? What did you do to him?”

“I killed him, of course,” I hissed. “And don’t pretend like he didn’t deserve it. Now, here’s my message. Listen carefully, because if she ‘misunderstands’ this one I’ll come visit you, flesh and blood, and it’ll be a much nastier conversation than these last two, yeah? Tell Zabra that if she wants to live, to continue to spoil you and enjoy her current lifestyle, she needs to think long and hard about what she can offer me that’ll make up for what she’s done to me and mine. She wants to talk. Fine. I’m willing. But the only thing my friends want from her is her still beating heart in their hands, and I like to spoil my friends. Tell her that.”

As I spoke Kesra had been growing smaller and smaller, until she was back to the size of a child. Now she sat hugging her knees to her chest, weeping as she asked me, “Why are you doing this?”

I snorted, pushing away the guilt nagging at me. I didn’t owe her anything, and she’d already dismissed my reasons, but I decided to indulge her. “I already told you. You chose not to believe me, but the truth is the truth. Your sister, whatever she means to you, is a monster. I don’t know everything she’s done, but I’ve seen kidnapping, slaving and torture for myself, and two women who are important to me are among her victims. Vengeance and retribution. That’s why.”

I looked around. We were clearly outside of some wealthy farm south of the city, unless the location in Kesra’s mind was wildly off from reality. “This looks like a much nicer place than where I found you,” I told her. “I think I’ll leave you here. Sweet dreams.”

“Wait!” she shouted after me, but I had already begun to step out. By the time she finished that one word, I was already gone.

I woke with a start. Herald grunted unhappily where she lay half flopped on top of me. The need was back. I was surprised, and a little annoyed, that I hadn’t been able to try to go to anyone else’s dreams after Kesra, but the energy of the last Heart I ate had been weaker the last few days. Perhaps it had gone into my healing, somehow? I had healed very quickly, thanks to Mak and Kira, but I hadn’t needed to eat as much as I would have expected after the kind of wound I’d received. And now even the slight remaining twinge in my chest was gone, so that was nice.

I looked down at Herald, who’d relaxed back into me almost instantly. There was no reason to wake her. We weren’t in such a hurry that a few more hours of sleep would make any difference. I readjusted my wing over her, laid my head on the mat of silver coins that made up most of my bedding, and went back to sleep.

The next time I woke, Herald was gone. I forced down the familiar panic that something was missing. A quick check with my dedicated Find Herald-sense showed her up by the cave entrance, so I got up and headed that way.

I smelled smoke before I got there, and when I arrived I found Herald sitting by a cheery little fire, warming up left-over boar from the previous night. “Good morning, great sleepy one,” she said, grinning. The sun was falling almost straight into the cave, the angle just wrong for it to hit the back wall. “I hope you do not mind me leaving you alone. Nature called, and it was either the ledge or deeper into the cave.”

“Mmm. How’d you sleep?”

“Wonderful. No nightmares! And you?”

“I don’t dream much anymore. But I did dreamwalk!”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure I need to have a Nest Heart in me, and to be sleeping on my hoard. That’s how it was the last two times.”

“Sounds plausible,” Herald said, turning one of the large skewers of meat a little. “You know, I have been eating more and more meat lately. Greens and bread and such just do not taste as good.”

“Good on ya,” I encouraged her. “You have the money now, and you’re a great huntress. Barbeque for every meal, I say.”

“So, do you want to tell me about your dreamwalking?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. I scared the piss out of Kesra. The Blossom’s sister.”

Herald blinked at me in silence for a while, the pause becoming slightly uncomfortable before she asked, “Why? And how? I thought you could only do that with Kira and Jekrie and me and… you know. Those of us who are loyal to you.”

“I don’t think that’s it. I’ve found Ramban, the scholar, before. And remember how I told you about those Barleans, Tellee and her nephew? The one whose house you used to get into the drains? I found one of the thugs from that night, by accident. So I think it might have something to do with how big of an impact I’ve had on someone. Something like that. Not sure. Anyway, I found Kesra, and I left a message for Zabra with her.”

Herald considered my words, handing me a skewer of meat, then picking up one of her own and chewing a piece of pork thoughtfully. “They are still all people you have touched with your magic, correct?”

“Yeah.”

She nodded. “Perhaps you are right. What was the message?”

“Eh… she can’t hide Kesra from me — almost a total bluff there — and she’d better think of something more valuable to us than their lives if she wants our meeting to go anywhere. Something like that.”

“Mmm… not awful, I suppose. Shows that you are confident and that you feel that you are negotiating from a place of strength. Though I may not be the best person to give an opinion on this. Most of my experience comes from stories. You should perhaps have run it by Mak first, but what is done is done.”

“I figure that either it scares her and she brings that energy to the meeting, or it makes her do something stupid. Worst case she ignores it, and I have to do something to Kesra. Which, honestly, I’m not sure how to handle that. I’ll have to grab her and stick her somewhere, I guess. Maybe leave her with Jekrie. Probably can’t bring myself to actually hurt her.”

“And that is why you are my favorite dragon.”

“Wow. Beating out all that competition? I’m flattered.”

“Still, you need to do something about this habit you have of kidnapping young women. Try kidnapping an old man to break the pattern, perhaps.”

I experimentally worked my hand into the correct shape to flip her off, but the gesture didn’t translate. We finished most of the rest of the cooked boar in silence, with Herald wrapping the best of the left-overs up in waxed cloth.

“I need a Nest Heart before we meet with the Blossom,” I told her when we were done, “and I need to practice finding them. Want to come?”

“Do you think I would ever forgive you if you went without me?” she countered. “Let me check my gear.”