A Dance of Dragons: Series Starter Bundle (30 page)

It was a wonder he didn’t fall flat on his
face.

But in almost no time, the tray was prepared
and he was backing out of the room.

"See?" Rhen scowled at the closed door
before reaching to grab a piece of ripe fruit. He stepped back,
jumping onto the tall bed in the corner of the room, sprawling out
until he was comfortable. Still frowning at the door, he took a
large, crunchy bite.

"Can I…" Jinji paused, fiddling with her
fingers before finally grabbing a slice of bread from the tray.

"What?" Rhen raised an eyebrow.

"Can I ask what happened to you in the
palace? And to the other men?" Her mind filtered back to Mikzahooq
as he stared out at the horizon, unabashedly proclaiming his own
death. He had known exactly what his king would do.

"I'm still not sure." Rhen shook his head
while he munched. "The second we got to that city, our fate was
sealed. King Razzaq had no plans to ever let any of us escape. But
I don't understand why or how. He must have spies within my
kingdom. He's been planning something for a long time, something he
was afraid I would mess up.

"War?"

"It has to be." Rhen stood and began to walk
slowly across the room, just to turn and walk back to the bed, then
back across the room, pacing. "I thought it was just the ships," he
said slowly, working through his mind, "but it has to be more. He
was stealing resources he could easily afford. Ourthuro is flooded
with gold, so why resort to thievery? Unless the entire point was
to see how much he could take before we noticed? Unless it was a
test to see how easily he might invade? Killing your people, that
was the first stage, the first unnoticed move against my father. He
is planning to attack, of that I am certain—the only question is
when."

"When do you think?" Jinji asked, ignoring
the mention of her tribe. She couldn't—wouldn't—tell Rhen the truth
until she knew he had magic inside of him, until she knew he would
believe her.

He stopped moving in the middle of the room,
jaw dropping open as he slowly spun to face her. His pupils
dilated. His nostrils flared wide. Jinji noticed his hands begin to
shake until they were balled into tight, trembling fists.

"The Naming," he said, deep and growling.
Rhen took a long breath. "It's so obvious. At the ceremony, my
nephew will be given a name of Whyl. It symbolizes the future of
the kingdom. Every lord and lady will be there. Every knight. The
outer cities will be defenseless. It's what he's been waiting for
all this time, a moment when we're all distracted."

Rhen's feet seemed to step of their own
accord. His mind was elsewhere. Jinji saw the vacant absence in his
eyes, the mounting dread. He reminded Jinji of a caged animal. His
movements became quicker, jerkier. The wooden walls of the small
room were like bars, containing him.

She sat in wonder, wishing there was
something she could do to help. But there was something behind his
expression that stopped her—some memory playing in his head. Her
thoughts filtered back to the afternoon not too long ago, when she
was sitting with Rhen on the crow's nest—her first sea adventure.
He had spoken of a younger brother, a brother who had been killed.
A murder he had tried to stop but couldn’t.

And suddenly it became clear—his hunched
shoulders, flexed muscles. He just cared so much. About his family,
his people. He cared. Why else would he have taken in a lost little
boy? Why else?

Jinji opened her mouth, not sure of what
would come out, but it was only air.

"The Naming," Rhen spoke right before her,
stealing the words from her throat, "it is likely in two weeks,
maybe less." He gripped his skull, sinking back against a wall.
"I'll be too late. We'll be there after all of the guests have
arrived. They won't have time to send word, to prepare their homes.
We'll all be too late."

"Rhen," she said softly, "I'm sure everyone
is prepared. It cannot be as bad as you say."

He nodded, trying to convince himself.
"You're right. They would have left a second in command; the men
must be prepared for an attack when the lord of the city is gone.
The people would not be helpless."

"Of course not," she quickly agreed, "and
you will talk to your father as soon as we arrive. There will be
time."

"There will be time," he repeated,
"everything will be fine."

He walked back to the desk, grabbing another
piece of fruit before crashing onto the bed again.

"I need to think on lighter things, Jin, or
I will go crazy trapped on this ship for a week."

"What sorts of things?" She leaned back in
her chair, relaxing just slightly now that he seemed more
composed.

"Tell me about the princess," he sighed.

Her body went rigid.

Jinji began to cough, doubling over in her
seat and clutching her stomach.

"Why?" She squeaked.

"Because I cannot stop picturing the face
hidden behind that veil of hers…or the body under that golden
dress."

"She was in a carriage." Jinji rolled her
eyes. She was very sure that Rhen had seen plenty of women—what was
hidden under any dress was no mystery. She shivered, remembering
the tavern. Some women left little to question even fully
clothed.

"No, I saw her before. She was holding
me."

Jinji jerked, widening her eyes as she
stared at Rhen, but he was looking dreamily at a painting of storm
clouds on the wall.

"Holding you?" Her voice was airy.
Shallow.

"I have this memory." He paused, smiled. "A
golden-veiled woman cradled my head in her lap, ran her fingers
over my cheeks, and then it ends. It had to have been the princess,
right?"

It was me!
She almost yelled.

Instead, Jinji clapped her hands over her
mouth, stuffing the proclamation back down her neck, swallowing it
down her dry throat.

All she could do was nod.

"I knew it," he said, leaning forward. "This
sounds odd, but I felt like maybe I knew her, somehow. Her eyes
looked familiar, golden-speckled and warm."

Jinji immediately studied the floorboard
beneath her feet.

"I think her eyes were blue," she
mumbled.

Rhen shrugged. "Maybe."

"I spent more time with her, they were
definitely blue."

"That's why you must tell me about her,
distract me." He sighed. "How did you even meet? How did you get
her to help rescue me?"

Jinji pursed her lips, unsure of what to say
without giving her powers of illusion away—a secret she would not
share, ever.

At her silence, Rhen looked up,
frowning.

"Come to think of it, how did you even get
into the palace?"

"I…" Jinji took a deep breath, swallowing
the saliva now pooling in her mouth. "I snuck onto one of the
flying platforms."

"The flying plat…oh, the giant pulleys." His
eyebrows lifted. "The gods, Jin! How?"

"Well, Captain Pygott, he threw me from the
ship and I swam under the docks, trying to remain hidden. I saw the
platforms and knew it would be my only chance, so when no one was
looking I swam over and climbed into one of the boxes."

Jinji tensed. She hated talking this much.
Her limbs felt squirmy as her chest squeezed with pressure.

"Genius." He shook his head in awe. "What
next?"

"Um," she paused, eyes flickering around the
room. "I stayed hidden in the box, I felt someone carry me and then
set me down. After a while, I got out of the box and realized I was
in the palace."

Rhen's eyes started to narrow.

"How did you meet the princess?"

"Well, I was running through the halls
trying to find you when I came upon her crying. She was sad,
someone she loved had just been killed." Jinji was hoping that
thought would distract him.

It didn’t.

He leaned closer, eyes pinning her to her
seat.

"And you didn't run into anyone? No
guards?"

"No," she shook her head. "No, the guards
were all with you. The princess hid me in a servant's robe. She
knew her father had taken you to the garden, and she convinced one
of the guards, her friend, to help. When no one was looking, we
pulled you away from the pool. He carried you to the carriage, hid
you in her traveling box."

Jinji was rambling. She felt words tumble
unbidden from her lips. Felt them fall to the ground, crashing
every time. Each sound made her wince.

Outright disbelief shone in Rhen's eyes.

"So you just walked into the palace,
befriended the princess, and walked out?" The sarcasm was not lost
on her.

"I was very lucky," she said, playing
innocent. "You were very lucky, too."

Rhen sat back as she said it. She could see
him weigh the words—almost believe them—but his gaze sharpened.

"We never did get a chance to talk about the
battle against the Ourthuri, the one aboard the
Old
Maid
."

"Hmm?"

She squeezed her palms together, turning
away from Rhen, observing the items on the captain's desk. Papers.
A feather. A dark black liquid.

There were scrawls all over the pages,
symbols she could not read or understand. But they meant something.
There were charts with the images Rhen had once described to
her—maps. She looked closer. One of those depicted her home. Did it
mean anything that she could not say which?

"Jin, what are you hiding?"

There was a light next to her, a flame
flickering inside a warm glass bulb. The oil was low. The cloth
holding the flame looked short.

"I really do not know what you mean,
Rhen."

"I think you do, or you would not be so
panicked right now."

Jinji leveled her gaze, meeting his eye.

"What are you hiding?" She asked.

As soon as the words were spoken, the
spirits sprung to life in her eyes—the fire spirits. They circled
his figure, dancing around him like a living flame. Only this time,
they extended beyond him, stretching out from his arm, connecting
him to the light. The fire arched in his direction, calling for
him.

With no plan, no thought but a need to know
the truth, to know if Rhen was like her and held magic in his
bones, Jinji acted.

She did not want to be questioned any
more.

She did not want to have questions any
more.

She just wanted to know, for the first time
in a long time, that maybe she wasn't completely alone.

Reaching her hand to the side, she gripped
the glass and threw the light onto the floor between them. It
crashed, breaking into a thousand pieces, sparking as oil slipped
over the floor.

"Jin!" Rhen shouted, jumping back.

The flames grew, spreading with the spill
then sinking into the wood.

Jinji looked away, looked at Rhen. He was
mesmerized by the fire.

Do it
, she thought. She didn’t know
what it was, but there was something the spirits were trying to
show her.

Something about Rhen they needed her to
know.

The flames grew, burning against dry wood,
creating a wall between the two of them. Smoke began to filter
through the window.

Jinji choked as the char grew.

Rhen had to act now.

The crew would notice any minute, would see
the black billowing into the sky.

He looked at her, green eyes prickling
something in her soul. The muscles in his neck were coiled tight,
pulling away from the fire as the rest of his body sunk closer.

And then he stopped fighting.

His hands sunk into the depths of the flames
and with a deep sigh of pleasure, the fire started melting into his
skin.

A different person might have screamed,
backed away, run in fear.

But Jinji smiled. Her heart sang. And
something so deep inside of her that she didn’t even know was there
thrummed with the rightness of that moment.

Then the fire vanished, leaving a black
stain on the wood at their feet.

"Rhen," Jinji said, but he was already gone,
running from the room as fast as his feet could take him.

14

Rhen

~ Dueling Sea ~

Rhen was sulking. He knew it. But he just couldn't
stop.

More than a full day had passed since the
fire, and his mind was still consumed with what had happened. He
had never shown anyone his gift—not even his own family. His
mother, Rhen knew, suspected something. But she never pressed,
never asked, and in truth, avoided learning more.

But Jin—the boy was different.

Rhen just couldn't get that look out of his
mind, that look on Jin's face that was positive Rhen would somehow
be able to stop the fire he had created. It was so confident, so
demanding—and more than anything, so unafraid.

And Rhen, instead of facing it like a man,
had run away like a little girl—a princess not even in corset
strings. Now too much time had passed, he didn’t know what to say
or how to start the conversation.