03 - Sworn (32 page)

“No,” she said, not sounding amused. “I fed them to the young ones to fuel their growth and offer protection. Why?”

I shot Aren a warning look. The shells were obviously important to dragons, and I doubted she’d want to hear that we used them for potions. “I don’t know,” he said. “Someone else was curious, and I said we’d ask.”

“Fair enough. You asked. Let’s go.”

The dragon held me close and pushed off the ground with her powerful hind legs. White spots appeared in front of my eyes as we shot into the sky. When they cleared, I chanced a glance downward from between Ruby’s thick, scaled fingers and found the forest already far below. Aren had mounted Florizel, and they were gaining on us. Aren made eye contact as they passed. I waved to show I was okay, then wrapped my arms around a finger and held tight. He shook his head in disbelief, and they went ahead to lead us in the right direction.

We flew high in the clouds through the morning. Once I made myself comfortable, I found that the regular beating of Ruby’s wings and the slight rise and fall of her body in the air were quite relaxing. The cold mist gradually soaked my clothes and made me shiver, and Ruby pulled me closer to the warmth of her body. I smiled and patted the palm of her hand.

I didn’t feel myself drifting off. When I woke, we were descending toward a misty forest. I shifted to try to see more, and pushed at a claw. Ruby spread her fingers slightly so I could peer out, then twisted her neck to speak to me.

“I need one hand for landing,” she said. “Just trust me.”

Easier said than done. One paw released me, suddenly exposing me to the cold air and rushing wind. I clung to Ruby’s fingers as we dropped, and ducked as a sharp claw tightened over my head. No matter how small I made myself or how tight I held on, I felt I was going to slip out of her grasp.

We landed on a familiar road. Aren and Florizel waited next to the dark ridge of stone jutting from the ground. Ruby set me down and chuckled as I ran toward Aren on trembling legs.

He held me for a moment, until the shaking stopped. “You survived,” he observed.

“So did you. Guess it all worked out. Should we keep going?”

“Did you have a pleasant flight, little horse?” Ruby asked.

Florizel’s eyes widened. “Fine. Thank you,” she whispered, and flicked her ears back as she moved to walk on Aren’s other side.

We walked down the road and turned off when we reached the long drive that led to my aunt and uncle’s house. As we approached the small hill that hid the gates from view, unease crept over me. I slowed.

“What’s wrong?” Aren asked.

“I don’t know.” In truth, a sense of deep foreboding had filled me. We might find my family, but there was no guarantee what condition we’d find them in. “I’m nervous.”

“Only one way to get past that,” he said.

We topped the rise, and I stopped in my tracks. I blinked hard to clear my eyes, but the vision didn’t disappear. The gates were closed, as they’d been in my dream. The roofline beyond sagged in the middle, dropping out completely where vines and branches had pulled it in.

I ran forward and veered toward the crumbled wall at the last moment, knowing that there was no point trying the gates. They would be stuck tight, just as they’d been in the dream. I leaped over the break in the wall, though Aren yelled for me to stop.

I had to see what lay beyond.

Aren caught up with me as I stepped back onto the drive inside the gate. Florizel vaulted the gap, but Ruby stopped short.

“I’ll wait here,” the dragon said. “I dislike walls. And I’d hate to frighten anyone.” She sounded uncertain about that last part.

“Much appreciated,” I said, but my mind was already on what lay before me.

Matthew and Della’s apartment had collapsed, leaving wooden beams and pieces of the slate roof strewn around the ground-level carriage shed. My skin turned cold, and my heartbeat quickened as I turned to the main house.

The lanterns beside the front door were green with moss that grew thick inside the glass. The front door hung off its hinges like a drunk stumbling home after a long night, and at least half of the windows were shattered. The grass between the flagstones on the walkway grew higher than I’d ever seen it, and new honeysuckle plants trailed over the walls, blooming larger and brighter than they had any right to early in the season.

“This is impossible,” I whispered, afraid to shatter the eerie silence. “This kind of damage should take a hundred years, not a season.”

“Agreed.” We approached the crooked front door slowly. Aren paused. “Should we knock?”

My throat tightened. “I don’t think there’s much point. Do you think there’s anyone in the house?”

He stepped back and looked the decaying building over. “Not in there, as far as I can tell. Should we look around the grounds?”

“No, let’s go in. I’d like to see if there’s any clue as to where they went.” I wanted to collapse into tears, but there was no time for that. Not if there was still any hope.

Florizel lifted her nose and sniffed the breeze. “I’ll look around the garden. I’m feeling hungry.”

I nodded absently, and she hurried away from the dirt and decay of the house.

I forced myself to forget that Aren sensed living minds, not dead bodies, and tried not to imagine what I might find when we entered. What I really wanted was to back away, to forget the whole thing. Instead, I pushed the door fully open. It fell completely off its hinges and slammed to the floor in a puff of dust, and I coughed as I stepped over the threshold.

The house was better-preserved inside. A thick layer of dust coated the front stairway from steps to curved bannister, and my boots left dark footprints on the floor. But the walls stood strong, and the floral wallpaper that Aunt Vic had loved so much was only peeling a little.

I turned back to Aren, who wore a tight expression as he took in our surroundings. “I’m going upstairs,” I said. “Can you look around down here?”

“Sure,” he said absently, already focused elsewhere. “I’ll meet you in your rooms.”

I ascended slowly, careful to test the stairs in case they’d rotted beneath the once-shiny paint. The upper hallway stretched out on either side of me when I reached the top, and I turned right. With the doors closed and the lanterns unlit, the space was all shadows, with only faint light coming in the small window at one end of the house. My heart, my breath, and the near-silent scuff of my boots accompanied me into the silence.

“Hello?” I called, knowing no one would answer. I pushed open the door to Aunt Vic’s rooms at the end of the hall. They’d once belonged to both her and Uncle Ches, but since the twins’ deaths she’d preferred to be alone most of the time, lost in her dreams and her memories, tended to by Della. Uncle Ches was gone much of the time, and kept a bedroom just down the hall when he came home.

She could have left it an hour ago for all the elements had touched it. The windows here were intact, and the dust hadn’t taken over. The blankets had been carelessly tossed over the bed, the pillows scattered over the mattress and the floor. Balls of bright red wool filled a basket next to the chair, and a child’s sweater rested half-finished on the table.

I took a slow walk around the room, but found nothing to indicate where they’d gone. All I could tell was that they’d left in a hurry, and that didn’t bode well. I only hoped they’d fled, and not been taken to the city.

I’d been to Ardare. If the magic hunters had arrested them, there wasn’t much I’d be able to do now.

I made my way through the rest of the rooms, and found no further clues. At the end of the hallway I came to the narrow doorway that led to the back staircase, and slipped through. Going down would lead to the kitchen, while going up would lead to my rooms in what had once been the servant’s quarters, back when this was a larger and wealthier household. I went up, feeling like a stranger in my own home.

Cloud-filtered sunlight flooded the space. Half of the roof up here was gone. I picked my way through the shingles and wood beams scattered across the floor and made my way to the window in the bedroom. Florizel stood in the garden below, nosing at the roses.

The door opened behind me, and Aren’s footsteps crossed the floor. “Nothing?” he asked.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and pushed aside the disappointment that made me want to crawl under the mildewed blankets on my old bed. “No. Did you find anything?”

“Nothing. A few places are relatively clean where plants haven’t taken over, especially the kitchen, but there are a lot of broken windows in other areas. It’s a mess. Do you suppose your aunt had something to do with this?”

“It would make sense, but I hate to think what it would have taken to make her do this.” In my own experience, my magic came to my aid when I was in great danger. If Vic hadn’t even been aware of hers, what trauma might have wakened it?

I looked around the bedroom one more time, then headed back toward the stairs, past my empty bookshelves and my armchair, which now lay on its back with one leg snapped off.

It wasn’t only the destruction and emptiness that made the house wrong. I suspected that even if I’d come home to find my family alive and well, the house intact, and a hot meal on the stove, I’d still have felt out of place here. I’d grown up in this house, but it didn’t fit anymore. I’d outgrown it, as I had my old life.

I was about to say as much to Aren when Florizel’s scream ripped through the air.

We took off down the stairs, Aren slightly ahead of me. I passed him as we entered the garden, and ran ahead.

A man with blond hair and ragged clothing had Florizel backed under a tree. He was speaking to her, but I couldn’t make out the words.

“Hey!” I yelled, and ran toward him.

He turned toward me and I stumbled over my feet. Shock registered on his face. “Rowan?”

“Ashe!” Instead of attacking, I leaped into my brother’s arms. He caught me and held me tight. He was strong and well.

May the Goddess bless you forever, Nox.

I didn’t hold back my tears of joy and relief.

“My God,” he said. For the longest time, he wouldn’t let go. I had no problem with that. “I thought I’d never see you again.” When he pulled back, his eyes shone with tears, too. “You smell smoky.”

“Well, yes,” I laughed. “There are a few things I should tell you about.”

A snort echoed off the house behind me. Ashe dropped me to the ground and pushed me behind him. “Rowan, run.”

I turned back to see Ruby’s head and neck arched over the wall. Smoke trailed upward from her nostrils, and her teeth were bared in a silent snarl.

“It’s fine, both of you!” I yelled. Ashe turned to me, eyes wide.

“You brought a dragon.” Not a question, but a bemused statement of fact.

“Well, yes. A lot has happened since I saw you last, Ashe.”

Aren stepped out of the shadows at the back of the house, but came no closer. Florizel trotted toward him, and he reached out to pat her twitching hide. His expression was completely unreadable, stern and hard.

Ashe took a shaky breath. “Will the dragon hurt me?”

“I don’t think so.” I looked to Ruby, who snorted and pulled back to rest her chin on top of the wall, watching with great interest.

“Good,” Ashe said, still looking wary. “Is that him? The one who took you?”

“Yes, but it’s not—”

He strode forward, gaining speed as he approached. Aren didn’t move.

“Ashe, wait!”

His momentum gave weight to his fist as he slugged Aren in the face.

“Ashe!” I cried.

Aren stepped back from the force of the blow, but didn’t move to strike back. He rubbed his jaw and glared at Ashe.

“I promised my father I’d deliver that if I ever met you,” Ashe explained. He stepped back, but still looked ready for a fight.

“Decent of you to follow through on a promise,” Aren replied evenly.

Ashe crossed his arms. “Some of it was just from me.”

“Should I expect more of that,” Aren asked, sounding a little exasperated, “or are we even now?”

Ashe tucked his hands in his pockets. “Not quite.”

Ruby grinned. “This is interesting!”

I took a deep breath. “Aren, are you okay?”

“Yes. I saw what he intended to do and thought it would be easier to just let him get it over with.” He opened his mouth and moved his jaw from side to side. “Didn’t expect it to be that hard, though.”

“Come on, Rowan,” Ashe said, and started down the path toward the back of the garden. “The others will want to see you.”

“The others?” My heart leaped, and I dashed after him. Aren followed at a distance. “Who’s here? And what happened? Are you completely better? Did mother and father get out of town? I heard the hunters came.”

“You’ll have answers over supper,” he said. “As soon as we get back in the house and prepare something.” He pulled open the door to the garden shed and leaned in. “It’s all right,” he said. “You can come out. No danger, but we have some interesting visitors. And I’ve got a surprise for you.”

I stepped back, suddenly nervous. I ran my fingers through my hair, straightened my clothes, corrected my posture.

My mother stepped out of the shed and froze, one hand in the middle of tucking her silvering blonde hair behind her ear. She looked me over from head to foot, taking everything in.

My stomach clenched as I remembered our last months, the arguments while I’d lived under my parents’ roof. “Mother, I—”

She pulled me into a hug fiercer than I remembered her ever giving me before. “My girl. You came home.”

I relaxed and squeezed her tight.

She wiped her eyes and turned to Aren. “You did it. You got her out.”

“We did,” he said.

Matthew was next out of the shed, silvery gray hair an absolute mess and his moustache grown far too long, but his mouth open wide in a disbelieving grin.

“By every god in every land,” he said, a little too loudly. “The lost lamb has returned!” He gathered me up into a hug that lifted my feet off the ground, and laughed until tears rolled down his cheeks.

A lump filled my throat, and I couldn’t respond. It was too much, too fast. But I smiled as my heart swelled at the sight of my family. Every one of them was a feast for my eyes and my heart, both of which were nearly bursting.