Dragon-Ridden (29 page)

“I thought this was your room,” she
said confused.

“It would have been too cramped
with all the people you brought back with you so I figured it’d be best to get
another room.”

She blew out a breath not even
wanting to think about how much that cost. This place wasn’t like the Crow’s
Nest where a room could be rented for a short time at a moments notice. This
place was more for permanent lodging and wouldn’t necessarily have an available
room. She peeked up at Ryu who watched her with unblinking eyes. Once again,
his actions left her with more questions than answers.

“Your old friend’s with them too.”

Friend? Oh, that’s right. Night and
Dewdrop had rescued Tempest while making their escape. She’d been so consumed
with her own concerns earlier that she’d never figured out why. She shrugged.
There was time for that later. Right now she was starved. Right on cue her
stomach growled. Loudly.

She blushed furiously when Ryu
laughed and handed her a plate of cold meat and bread. She attacked it with
gusto. “I can’t believe how hungry I am,” she said with a full mouth.

“I can,” Ryu said studying her. She
tried to slow down, but her stomach rumbled again. She gave up trying to be
civilized, instead cramming it in and swallowing before even tasting it. “You
were unconscious all of yesterday and part of this morning.”

She looked woefully at her empty
plate and gave serious consideration to licking it clean. With a sigh she set
it aside. At least some of her hunger had been taken care of. She could wait
until she got something a little more substantial to eat.

Ryu handed her a turnover, one with
meat and potatoes in it. She snatched it from him and munched on it as well.

“You spent a lot of energy healing,
yesterday,” he said. “You’ll be a little shaky until you replenish it.”

She paused in her snack and then
twisted from side to side. “My back doesn’t hurt.” She tried to look over her
shoulder but couldn’t really see anything. She tried to reach around her to
touch what should have been a wound but only felt unblemished skin.

Ryu caught her arm and pulled it
down. “We had a healer in yesterday to work on you.”

“I couldn’t feel any scars,” she
said in awe. “That must’ve been some healing.”

He inclined his head. “Indeed.”

An awkward silence fell between
them. Awkward on Tate’s part anyway. Ryu seemed content to sit and watch.

Tate plucked at her shirtsleeve.
Thank goodness someone had had enough sense to make sure she had a shirt while
she was sleeping.

A thought occurred to her.
“Shouldn’t you be heading back to your place now that I’m awake?”

He shook his head. “The healer said
that somebody would need to keep an eye on you until you felt better.” He
handed her a glass of water. “Here, you need to drink plenty of liquids to
replace some of the blood you lost.”

He poured a glass of water and
passed it to her. She drank gratefully, the liquid soothing against her dry
throat. She finished the glass and reached for another.

“Let that one settle,” he advised.

Tate slumped back in bed now that
her immediate needs had been addressed. It was a relief to be out of the
tunnels. She hadn’t realized how much it bothered her to be down there until
she no longer had to deal with the constant state of nervousness.

Ryu leaned forward and took hold of
her arm. She lifted her head and raised an eyebrow at him in question. She
tried to jerk out of his hold when he started to peal her sleeve back, but he
held her firmly in place.

“What are you doing? Let go.” She
could only watch in helplessness as he finished exposing her arm and the
dragon. It peered up at him in curiosity with its tongue flicking in and out in
curiosity. The thing uncurled and pranced down Tate’s arm to her wrist to bat
playfully against Ryu’s fingers. He rubbed one finger along her back and the
resulting silent purr of the beast vibrated against Tate’s skin.

She jerked away sharply. His
fingers slid off her wrist slowly, letting her know she gained her freedom only
because he let her. The dragon flicked its tail and wound its way back to its
perch on her upper arm. The sleeve fell down hiding it quickly from sight.

“This changes things,” Ryu said,
staring at her arm.

“What do you mean?” Tate asked
sharply.

A knock came at the door before he
could respond. Ryu answered it, preventing Tate from asking any more questions.
She narrowed her eyes at his back. This wasn’t over. She’d get answers out of
him eventually.

There was a quiet murmur of voices
as Dewdrop and Ryu talked.

Tate pointed at Ryu. “I’m not done
with you. I want answers.”

“You’re so suspicious of
everything,” he said with a cheeky grin.

 “Can you blame me? You sent
me on what was supposed to be a relatively easy information gathering run. All
I had to do was watch them and then report back. Instead the very people I was
supposedly helping sold me out to two separate criminals, Night Lords, no
less.” She slapped the bed jostling one of the cubs. “Furthermore, it seems
like all of them are convinced I have something that I don’t and seem willing
to do whatever it takes to get it back. They’re not too picky on how they do
it, either.”

She threw the covers back and swung
her legs out of bed, wanting to stand while she shouted at him. Seeing that she
had no pants on, she quickly pulled the covers over her again.

“Here’s the part I find simply
fascinating. It was you who set all this up.” Ryu’s face was impassive as she
railed at him, and Dewdrop looked like he was trying to fade into the woodwork.
“So, yes, Ryu, to answer your question I am extremely suspicious of everything
at this point because it seems that everybody has been keeping secrets and
using me to further their own agenda. Including you.”

Whew. She hadn’t really meant to
say all that, but once she started, she hadn’t really been able to stop. He
kept acting like her suspicion was unwarranted, but in her mind, he’d done nothing
to prove it wasn’t.

“Um, maybe I should just-“ Dewdrop
turned to make an exit.

“Don’t you go anywhere, Dewdrop! I
have a lot of questions for you.” Tate folded her arms.

There was another knock on the
door, forestalling any further questions. With a hint of relief, Dewdrop
answered. Tate bit her tongue in frustration at the interruption.

Night and, to Tate’s shock, Tempest
filed in to the room.

The twin cubs yowled and ran to the
edge of the bed before leaping off it towards their father. Night placed a paw
on each, licking them when they tried to hook their claws into his fur and
climb. They bounced around him as he stretched out along the floor purring
softly to the two. Once he was settled, they cuddled against his chest and
nuzzled him.

Tempest shuffled over to the chair
Ryu indicated, holding himself gingerly as if he were in pain. He’d aged
considerably since Umi and Kadien had sold Tate out to Lucius. The pain lines
around his eyes and mouth made him look considerably older, but there was a loss
of innocence about him that Tate recognized. He held himself like someone who
had lost the ideals upon which his world was founded. It made her uncomfortable
knowing that; however unwittingly, she’d been part of making that happen. Once
gone, that innocence of faith wasn’t easily restored.

Ryu nudged Tate over so he could
sit beside her on the bed. She went, not because she trusted him, but because
she was still the tiniest bit afraid of him. She wouldn’t let that stop her
from getting answers, but it did mean she would treat him with caution.

Tempest eased himself slowly into
the chair, grimacing in discomfort.

“What happened to you?” Tate asked.

“The Red Lady happened,” Dewdrop
said from his post against the wall.

Tate turned back to Tempest. “Is
that true?”

He nodded, unable to look at her.

She glanced at Ryu, but he was
focused on Tempest with an all-consuming intensity. Curious.

“Why isn’t he fully healed like
me?” she asked Ryu.

His jaw tightened, but he didn’t
answer.

Shamefaced, it was Tempest who
responded. “When he found out what my l-… Umi had done in trading you to the
Night Lord, he refused to let the healer treat any but the life threatening
injuries.”

Hmm. Tate twisted to look up into
Ryu’s face, staring as if the answers to his actions were written there. He
finally turned to meet her eyes. He flicked her on the forehead, saying, “I
thought you wanted answers.”

“I do,” she said, rubbing the
stinging spot.

“Well you won’t get them staring at
me.”

Tate rolled her eyes. He was right
though. Much as she hated to admit it. Unless she’d developed amazing powers of
suggestion, she wouldn’t get anything if she’d didn’t start asking the right
questions.

She got lost in thought while
staring at Tempest trying to figure out the right question. She held up a hand
to Ryu. “Do not flick me again.”

He settled back down, letting her
think.

“Why were you at the Red Lady’s
mercy?” she finally asked.

There was a long pause while
Tempest stared at the floor. She thought he wasn’t going to answer her question
until he finally lifted his head. “She had never had a Kairi in her collection
so Umi traded me for services rendered.”

Tate nodded thoughtfully. She’d
suspected as much, but she needed him to confirm it. How helpful he was would
depend on how bad Umi’s betrayal had been.

“Because she didn’t have the key,”
Tate said slowly, thinking back over what she’d overheard. She felt Ryu’s
sudden interest but ignored him.

Tempest closed his eyes but nodded.

“What is this key?” Tate asked.
Since everybody assumed she had it, she needed to know exactly what it was.

The answer, when it came, came from
an unexpected quarter. “It was supposed to be the hairpin me and Tom stole.”

Tate looked at Dewdrop and then at
Tempest who nodded. That sounded right.

“It was, and it wasn’t,” Tempest
finally said. “The hairpin was simply the form that carried it. In reality,
it’s the piece of magic held in the pearl that everybody wants.”

Ryu leaned forward. “Oriade’s tear.
You brought Oriade’s tear here? To Aurelia?” Ryu was off the bed and pacing.

“What’s Oriade’s tear?” Tate asked
keeping an eye on Ryu.

Tempest hung his head and rubbed
his hand. Tate shifted uneasily. This was going to be bad.

“Tempest? What is Oriade’s tear?”
Tate asked again.

“Outsiders aren’t supposed to
know,” he whispered. “I could be charged with treason.”

“Treason,” Ryu mocked. “You’ve
already committed treason by taking it out of the sea palace. Why stop there?
You might as well keep going.”

Tate waited knowing nothing she
said would persuade him to give up his secrets. Asking a man to betray his
loyalties wasn’t something to be done lightly, but Tate needed answers if she
was to find a way out of this mess.

He seemed to come to a decision and
raised his head with a resolved expression. “To understand what Oriade’s key is
and can do, you have to first understand a little bit of history about my
people.” He paused and cleared his throat. “During the second race war, two
lovers rose quickly through the ranks. One possessed an incredibly powerful
ability to affect water on a massive scale, but that power was unpredictable
and unmanageable. He could use it, barely, but only at great cost to himself
and others. His love, however, had the ability to channel that power and return
it to him in a useable form. Her help allowed him to wield his power freely and
without regard to consequences. Together, the two were unstoppable, massacring
army after army by manipulating the water in their enemies’ own bodies. They
could also controlled the sea routes by making the sea impassable to any but
their allies.”

Tempest stopped speaking long
enough to take a sip of water. The lovers sounded impressive, but Tate couldn’t
quite figure out how they fit into the current stream of events.

“After the massacre of the city
Imala’s children, Oriade realized that they had become like the very people
they had been fighting against. She believed the lack of consequences over
their power’s use was corrupting her people. Turning them into monsters. She
tried to talk with her leaders, including her lover, but they refused to
listen, only seeing what they could create. She decided that to create balance
in the world and save the principles of her people that she would have to
leave. Knowing she was the key to victory, Kathos, Oriade’s love, had her chained
and imprisoned somewhere where they could still access her abilities. Upon
hearing her cries for help the gods and goddesses who had saved us so long ago
took notice of what was happening in the world below. They agreed with Oriade
that the killing was ripping the world apart, pitting brother against brother
and father against son. Whole generations were lost in battle. So, they struck
Kathos with a deadly disease killing him before letting the disease move on to
his army. Those infected had their powers stolen and sealed as penance for
their sins. Oriade, upon hearing of her love’s death and her friends’ plight,
wept and begged the gods to take her powers too. Her tears coalesced into a
single pearl that contained all of her abilities, putting them out of reach of
those who would abuse them.” Tempest took another sip of water to sooth a dry
throat.

Tate regarded him skeptically.
“That’s it? That’s what everybody wants? A tear some woman cried?”

“It’s not just any tear,” Ryu said
tiredly.

Tate looked at Ryu. “Is that what I
was supposed to get back?”

“No, no you weren’t. You were
supposed to be tracking the fulcrum.” He said tightly.