Dragon Blood 4: Knight (8 page)

Amber really wished he hadn’t asked her. No one ever liked the answer.
“Ronan.”

Roy groaned.
“We’re dead. All of us.”

Amos leapt to his feet again.
“You tricked me.”

“Sit down, Amos.”
Isaac stared up at his brother, waiting until he sat. He turned to Amber.
“Are you certain he’s your ally?”

She nodded, her smile widening.
“Absolutely.”

“How did you manage that?”
Isaac asked.

She glanced towards Amos.
“Maybe I tricked him too.”

Isaac shook his head.
“No. He’s far too smart to be tricked.”

“Or far too confident to have much faith in a mere human to survive long enough to become his ally.”

“You actually tricked Ronan?”

She shrugged at Isaac’s question. “
I’m still trying to figure that out. Maybe we tricked each other. It’s complicated.”
Like far too many other things in her life because of dragons.

“We need to meet with him,”
Isaac said.

She had no idea how she could do that without all hell breaking loose.
“I’ll see what I can arrange.”

“We’ll arrange it,”
Amos said.

“Good luck with that. No one arranges Ronan.”

The dinning room door opened and Dominic entered. His gaze darted to Amber before resting on Isaac. “Stanley sent me to look for you. To see if you need me to show you where his classroom is.”

Isaac rose to his feet, pushing his empty plate away from himself. “We know where to find it. You clean up the plates, Dominic.” His gaze travelled the table. “Lunch is over. Time to train.” He strode for the door.

Amber turned away from the angry look Dominic sent her as she followed Isaac and Amos, Roy beside her. She was going to have to keep an eye on Dominic. He might not be her enemy yet, but with the rate she was gaining them lately there was a good chance he’d eventually become one.

As soon as they entered the classroom, Stanley strode across the room, his eyes boring into Amber. “You’re late. You and Roy to the training room. Stay there until dinner.”

Isaac stepped between them. “They were with us. I wanted to meet the mage.”

Stanley remained quiet for a moment. “You should have sent word. She’s a disrespectful student that believes she can do as she pleases. Been with dragons too long and learned their undisciplined ways.”

Amber fought the urge to defend dragons, trying to remind herself that he had good reason to hate them. It didn’t help. She still wanted to argue his words.

Isaac nodded. “My apologies.” He strode to the front of the classroom. “Everyone pair up.”

Amber moved closer to Roy when Jennifer looked in her direction.
“Is this normal? High Protectors teaching.”
She sent the words to Roy only.

“Yeah. And other high ranked Knights. It’s so all students get as much training as possible.”

“High ranked. Are they not high ranked when they’re in Brisbane?”

Roy flashed her a grin.
“They weren’t in Brisbane at the time.”

“That is such a dragon comment.”
Roy looked away and Amber regretted her words.
“That wasn’t an insult. It was probably closer to a compliment.”

Isaac stopped in front of them. “Do you two need a personal invite to start?”

Amber looked around and saw that everyone else was mimicking the movements of Amos and Stanley’s mock battle. Their weapons didn’t touch, moving away at the last moment. How the hell did they expect her to be able to do that? She drew her sword and tried to follow the movements.

When Isaac called a halt and sent everyone to one end of the room to stand along the wall, she was grateful. That was until Isaac explained they each had to take turns against Amos. She met Amos’ gaze when he looked at her, letting him be the one to look away first when Josephine joined him in the middle of the room, sword drawn.

Josephine lasted about ten minutes. Only Roy lasted longer than her, nearly twelve minutes. Even Dominic, when he returned, didn’t last that long. Then Isaac called Amber and she strode to the centre of the room, her sword out. She’d begun to think they weren’t going to call her, instead they’d left her for last.

Amos dropped his gaze to her legs before meeting her eyes again. “Do you have another one of those dragon-leather vests on under your shirt to match those trousers?”

“Yes.”

“Then take your shirt off and put away your sword. Fight me with your skills, not ours.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve seen how you fight with a sword. I’m not having anyone believe I was tied against someone who fights like that.”

Amber grinned, sheathing her sword, pulling off her shirt to toss it towards Roy. She was surprised when he actually caught it. She’d half expected him to let it fall on the floor. “Rules?”

“Anything goes.”

Amber raised her hands, fireballs pooling in them. “Are you sure?”

His lips slowly curved into a smile. “Bring it on.”

She flung the fireballs at him, spinning to the side as he dodged and slashed at her with his sword. Another two fireballs followed the first two, barely missing him. His sword came towards her and she knew she wouldn’t be able to get out of the way in time. Becoming a goshawk she darted past him, raking her claws across his cheek as she went. Coming up behind him, she turned human, her hand brushing his back as she dodged his spinning attack.

“Lucky I didn’t have a dagger.” She jumped up, changing form to fly above the sword that slashed through the air where she’d been. Landing to become human again.

“It would have barely been a graze.” Again he attacked.

She dodged. “I guess that’s two strikes for me.” She nodded towards his cheek, warily watching him as he edged to the side, his sword motionless for now. Then he came at her with a flurry of attacks and she took flight, coming up behind him, dodging the swinging movements of his sword. Clawing his other cheek before she landed at the side of him in human form. “Three strikes. Does that make it my fight?”

“Not even close.” He attacked again, this time cutting her arm.

The scent of her own blood filled the air and when she tried to turn into a goshawk to dodge again, the panther forced it’s way through and she tackled Amos, his sword flying across the room. Her teeth were around his throat before she could stop herself. The room was filled with yelling, bringing her back to her senses. She let go of his neck, becoming human again, crouched over him. “My fight?”

Amos laughed, pushing her to the side so he could rise, holding out his hand, a dagger in it. “If it had been a real fight it would have been a tie.”

Amber rose to her feet, grinning. “Again? I guess we’re too evenly matched.” She pressed a hand to her arm, healing the wound. “Want me to heal yours?”

“You said you can’t heal Knights,” Josephine said from where she stood near the far wall.

“I might have figured a way.” Amber held up her hand. “By using my blood.” She turned to Amos. “Well?”

He shrugged.
“You better be right about this. If they learn I’m a dragon my brother will kill you.”

She pressed her bloodstained hand against his cheek.
“And your sister too, I’m sure.”
Reaching for the dragon in him she healed the claw marks she’d caused. She stepped back, lowering her hand.

Amos nodded. “Thanks.” He looked around the room. “You all did well. I expect to see even more improvement by the next time I’m here.” He looked in his brother’s direction and as one they headed for the door.

Roy crossed the room, handing her the shirt she’d thrown at him. “You outlasted all of us.”

Amber pulled her shirt on, wondering how many more of her clothes would end up bloodstained this weekend. “I’ve been in several battles, Roy.”

“You didn’t lose.” He gestured to the rest of the class. “We didn’t even get close to a tie.”

“Maybe he should have let each of you chose your own fighting style.”

“The sword is our fighting style. Against you a sword is useless.”

She met Roy’s gaze seeing the concern in their depths. She didn’t know what to tell him, then wondered why she should even want to reassure him.

“I’d like to see her try and survive a gun,” Jennifer said.

Amber faced her. “Didn’t you already see that?” She paused. “Ah no, that’s right. You and your father were too busy being overpowered by a single dragon in human form.”

Jennifer raised her fists, starting forward. “Why you-”

“Jennifer!” Stanley’s voice roared through the room. “Back in line. Now.”

She glared at Stanley for a moment before she took a step back. The look she sent to Amber promised retribution.

“You two.” Stanley pointed to Amber and Roy. “In line. Class isn’t over yet.”

Stepping into line, Amber wondered how many of the class hated her. Certainly Jennifer, possibly Dominic. She wasn’t sure about Roy. Holding something over someone could be dangerous. But what else could she do? Kill him because she’d found out his secret and he might want to kill her to keep her quiet? She couldn’t do it. Killing in battle was hard enough.

Stanley made them pair up and do more sword drills before he let them go. When Amber and Roy would have followed the rest of the class out the door he called them back. “An hour in the training room.”

Amber opened her mouth to protest.

Roy grabbed her arm, tugging her towards the door. “Okay, Stanley.”

When they were in the corridor, Amber pulled away from him. “We didn’t do anything.”

“So? You want to stand in there and argue with him and miss dinner?”

“Yes. Well, not miss dinner, but-”

“Come on. You’re wasting your breath.”

She stared after him, anger making her want to go back in and deal with Stanley. When Roy glanced over his shoulder she sighed, hurrying after him. It wasn’t fair. They hadn’t done anything wrong. Once they reached the training room she was tempted to sit down and watch Roy jog, but joined him, her pace slower than last time. While she jogged, she sent a text to both Ronan and Kade to let them know she was fine. Then several to Crystal to complain about how much she hated being here. There was still more time to waste before she could leave so she sent a few messages to Angela who she hadn’t chatted to in ages. When Angela had to go have dinner, Amber checked the time and nearly groaned. There was still fifteen minutes.

Ahead of them the door swung open and Isaac and Amos stepped into the room. Isaac stood with his arms crossed waiting, while Amos came to meet them.

“What are you two doing in here? Do you live in here or something? We’ve been looking for you for ages.”

“Circumstances,” Roy said.

Amber snorted.

Amos walked beside them. “If you’ve got something to say, then say it.”

“Stanley sent us here after class.”
She sent the words to all of them, then thought she better say something for anyone who might be listening. “We’re just so dedicated to training we spend every moment we can in here.”

“Why?”
Amos demanded.

“It doesn’t matter,”
Roy said.

At the same time Amber said,
“My fault.”

“What did you do?”

She smiled at Amos’ question.
“Became involved with dragons.”

Isaac uncrossed his arms when they reached him. “You’re coming to dinner with us. No time to finish your punishment tonight. You’ll have to do the rest of it in the morning.”

“Dinner? Where?” Should she warn them that she’d have dragons following her? At least two of them.

“Does it matter?” Amos asked.

“Yeah. I have to let Ronan know where I’ll be. He’ll get annoyed if I take off without telling him.” And she wasn’t stupid enough to go somewhere unknown with possible enemies.

“That’s good. We want to meet him. Somewhere private. Without anyone knowing,”
Isaac said. “Give him a call.”

“I’ll need to speak to him. Out the front.” She wasn’t going to text that to him and obviously they didn’t want her to say it out loud where the information could be heard.

“We’ll wait inside while you talk to him.” Isaac led the way.

Amber sent Ronan a text while she walked. It didn’t take long for a reply to come.
This better be good.
She smiled. It was right up his alley. Plenty of intrigue and who knew what hidden agendas.

Ronan stepped out of the Void when she arrived out the front, staying well away from the front door. “What’s going on?”

“I have three Knights who need to speak with you privately. And no matter what you learn you have to let them return here afterwards. Alive. And you have to keep their secrets. At least for now.”

“Knowledge is power, but it loses its power if it can’t be used.”

“Give them a year.”

“Why should I?”

She thought of several reasons, but discarded each of them.
“Because they’re the enemy of your enemy.”

“Which one?”

She slowly shook her head, a slight smile forming.
“I should have known you’d need a name. Most people have only one, if any.”

“I don’t have all night.”

“Tahmid.”

“Will this knowledge help us take him down?”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to think of a way to use it without telling anyone the information.”

Ronan stared at her for several minutes before he nodded.
“Call them out. I’ll organise my Golds to take them to my place.”

“And they’ll be safe?”

“If they don’t attack me, I won’t attack them. They’ll be safe for tonight.”
He looked away from her. “Chait, Alsandair. Out of the Void.”

Kade stepped out of the Void too. “What’s happening?”

“What are you doing here? Aren’t my Golds good enough to look after her?”

“You haven’t been here all weekend have you?” Amber asked before an argument could start.

“Of course not.” Kade crossed the space between them, sliding an arm around her. “Rian has a gold watching the place. He came and told me when Ronan appeared.”

She shook her head. “This is overkill.”

“Go and get your Knights,” Ronan said.

She looked around at the group gathered in front of her. “This actually works out better. Kade, you can take Roy.” Her gaze fell on Ronan. “Where are we taking them?”

“My water garden.”

With a nod, Amber drew away from Kade and headed back inside. She stopped, barely in the door when she saw that Martin, Dominic and Charles were now waiting with Isaac, Amos and Roy. She bit back the words that first came to mind, pretty certain they wouldn’t answer her demands of what they were all doing there. “Are we having a party?”

“Everyone wants to go to dinner,” Isaac said.

“Impossible. Ronan-”

Martin interrupted Amber. “We all go or none go.”

Amber’s hands went to her hips. How dare they try and interfere? It took her only seconds to come up with a plan. She checked first that the door was closed behind her. It was. “I spent all that time convincing Ronan that no one wants to harm me. That this dinner isn’t some diabolical plan to get me away from his warriors. The only way he’ll let you have dinner with me is if you join him at his house.”

“Then you arrange for all of us to go,” Martin said.

“I was barely able to convince him to let three join him.”

“Then you’ll have to cancel,” Martin said.

“And have him wonder what you’d planned to do? If they don’t go after I got them safe passage for the night it’ll look like they wanted to get me alone and harm me.”

“They need to go,” Charles said. “You don’t want to give Ronan an excuse to attack.”

“It’s safe to go with him?” Roy asked.

“I’ll go if you’re too afraid,” Dominic said.

“There should be a representative of the Queensland branch,” Martin said. “Roy can stay and Dominic will go in his place.”

“Are you saying Roy doesn’t belong here?” Isaac demanded.

“He’s your nephew. That would make him loyal to the New South Wales branch. Just because your sister and her husband chose to move to Brisbane doesn’t mean they’ve cut ties to their original branch,” Martin said.

“Ronan won’t accept that. I told him it was a family dinner I was invited to. Dominic doesn’t look like he’s related at all.”

“Since when do Knights feel loyalty to only their local branch, or even their state branch? We are Knights. We should be loyal to the entire organization,” Charles said.

Amber glanced behind her at the closed door. “You better hurry up. They’ll wonder what’s taking us so long.”

“Go,” Martin snapped.

Amber pushed the door open, holding it so Isaac, Amos and Roy could step through. Grabbing Roy’s arm, she strode towards Kade. “Take Roy.” Letting him go, she stepped up to Ronan. “Let’s go.”

Ronan’s eyes travelled to each of the Knights before stopping on Amber. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, kitten.”

Amber grinned. Before she could say anything, Ronan took her arm and they went through the Void to his water garden. When everyone had arrived she made introductions. Her words were greeted with silence. “I hope that once you’ve all finished glaring at each other that we’re going to have dinner. I’m getting hungry and the excuse we used was going out to dinner. I’m pretty sure they’d be asking all sorts of uncomfortable questions if I came back hungry.”

“Chait, take their phones.” Ronan waved him forward.

“Why?” Isaac asked.

“So you don’t use any locating app to find this place. Now hand them over if you’re not planning anything like that.” Ronan waved Chait forward again.

Isaac was the first to hand over his phone, followed by Roy and Amos. “How do we know you’re not going to do something to them?”

Amber stepped in front of Chait. “I’ll take them.”

“They need to be turned off first,” Ronan said.

“Why should we trust you not to do anything to them either?” Amos demanded.

“Who would you prefer to have them? Me or Ronan?”

Amos glared at her for a moment before he replied. “You.”

She took the phones after Chait had turned them off, not certain what to do with all of them. Keeping them in her hand, she asked Ronan, “Are you organising dinner?”

“Would I let you starve, kitten?”

“Only if it benefited you.”

Ronan chuckled. “A good thing for you that there’s no benefit to it at the moment.” He sobered, his gaze going to Isaac. “How did dragons infiltrate the Knights?”

“Tahmid is their father.”

Ronan’s head turned quickly towards Amber. “You better start at the beginning and don’t leave anything out.”

She did, with interruptions from both Isaac and Amos. When Ronan continued to stare at her, she asked, “What?”

“Does he have anything to do with you?” Ronan directed his question to the brothers.

Isaac answered. “No.”

“This could be useful.”

“How?” Amos asked Ronan.

Ronan smiled, looking like a predator who was within reach of an elusive prey. “I’ll let you know when I have all the details sorted.”

“Why should we be interested?’ Amos demanded.

“You want Tahmid dead, don’t you?”

Amos nodded.

“Then I’ll let you know when you can help. For now,” Ronan gestured towards the entrance to the house. “Dinner is served.”

“How do we know it’s safe to eat?” Amos asked.

“The meal hasn’t been dished up and the plates and cutlery are still in a pile on the table,” Ronan said. “But most importantly, I gave my word.”

“We don’t even know what the time is,” Isaac said.

Amber checked her phone. “It’s nearly ten. No wonder the panther is complaining.”

“Still the same day,” Isaac said.

Ronan chuckled. “Yes, you’re safe until midnight. Not everyone pays attention to the little details. That must be the dragon in you.”

“I prefer to think it’s the Knight,” Isaac said.

Ronan shrugged. “This way.” He led the way to his dinning room, letting them all help themselves to the food.

It was well after eleven when the meal ended and Isaac, who had been regularly asking Amber the time, said they needed to leave. Amber reached for Kade’s hand. His fingers tightened on hers.

“Can’t we stay a little longer? There’s still time before it’s the next day,” Amber said.

Isaac shook his head. “Time to go.”

When they all rose from the table, Kade drew her to his side. “I’ll see you Monday morning.”

“That feels like a decade away,” Amber muttered. She pulled away from him. “Take Roy.” As soon as he nodded, she crossed the room to Ronan, letting him take hold of her arm to return her to the Knights’ headquarters. Amber gave them back their phones the moment they arrived.

Ronan faced Isaac and Amos. “If anything happens to her while your nephew is guarding her I’ll hold you personally responsible.”

“The harm won’t come from us,” Isaac assured him.

“He better protect her from anyone who would harm her or you’ll wish for death.” Ronan disappeared back into the Void, Chait and Alsandair disappearing too.

Amber threw her arms around Kade, kissing him, her fingers threading through his hair. She drew back slightly, her eyes meeting his. “Angela was asking me about schoolies. You interested in going to it with me?”

“Are you crazy?” Roy asked. “You can’t invite a dragon to schoolies.”

“Feasting and celebrating. Sounds like just the place to invite a dragon.” Kade smiled. “It’s a date.”

She stared up at him, the word date ringing in her head. They’d never had one. Nothing had been normal about their relationship. Not one single thing. “Okay.” She let go of him. “I’ll see you Monday.” She followed the Knights inside, stopping when she saw her grandfather was waiting for her. What did he want now? She came to a halt in front of him, Roy stopping not far from them.

“Go on, Roy. I’ll show her to her room.”

“Will you be okay?”
Roy asked Amber.

She started to nod then stopped when she realised it’d look odd. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Charles waited until they were alone before he spoke. “Are you unharmed?”

She nodded.

“What happened tonight?”

“We had dinner.”

“You were gone a long time.”

She shrugged. “Ronan can be entertaining when he wants to be.”

“Is there anything I should know?”

Amber laughed. A sharp sound filled with disbelief. “You’re kidding me, right? Do you seriously think I’d share anything with you? How many times have you and Grandma threatened to kill me? I’m only here because we made a deal. I’ve tried giving your Knights a chance, but they’re not interested. Roy and his uncles are the ones that have been the nicest to me, which isn’t saying much since their only interest in me is to find out how easy it is to kill a mage.”

“Are you saying something happened tonight?”

“I’m saying that’s a stupid question to ask. In future don’t bother with it. The answer will always be no, even if there’s something to be shared.”

“While you’re here you’ll abide by our rules.”

“I never agreed to that. While I’m here all I have to do is give the Knights a chance and not attack anyone unprovoked.” A pity she hadn’t told Roy to wait in the corridor for her. “Are you going to show me to my room?”

“When I’m ready.”

“Forget it. I’ll find my own way.” She opened the door behind the counter, ignoring her grandfather calling out to her. Heading down the corridor she was relieved to see Roy waited for her at the end of it. He pushed away from the wall as she reached his side. “Didn’t I tell you I’d see you in the morning?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Amber smiled. He’d asked her if she’d be okay. “I guess not.”

He silently led her through the corridors, leaving her at her door. Amber watched him head to his own room. She didn’t have a clue if he was a friend or enemy and she hated not knowing. Yawning, she got ready for bed. Morning would arrive far too quickly and there’d be no sleeping in. They still had to finish up in the training room.