Soul of Smoke (7 page)

“
Twp
,” Cadoc muttered under his breath.

“Scalebrain.”

Ashem, who had apparently seen Griffith return with the food, stormed around the corner. He saw Rhys and let out a long string of swear words. “Get back in bed, you idiot!”

Rhys stood to his full height and stared Ashem down. “I don’t think I will, Commander.”

Ashem’s lip curled, and he switched from swearing at Rhys in Welsh to swearing at him in Old Persian. Rhys exchanged a look with Cadoc.

At length, Ashem wound down. “Get into the kitchen and eat, then.”

“He does not lose with grace,” Cadoc muttered when Ashem had turned around.

“I can hear you, you warbling gigolo.”

Cadoc burst into guffaws and one corner of Rhys’s mouth turned up. They rounded the bend into the kitchen area, where everyone else was clearing up after breakfast.

Kai sat on a cushion at the low table, prodding her food unenthusiastically. Every other face in the room was so familiar that the sight of her was a shock, but Rhys found—oddly—that he’d been looking forward to seeing her. He straightened, ignoring the weakness in his muscles and the dull agony in his shoulder.

Kai looked up as they entered and gave Rhys a small smile before turning a brilliant grin on Cadoc.

Rhys suppressed a grimace. Of course she smiled at Cadoc. When it came to charming women, Rhys didn’t even try to compete with Cadoc. No sane man would. Once, Cadoc had nearly drowned himself pearl-diving in the Philippines “for a friend.” He’d found a pearl—golden and perfectly round—but Rhys hadn’t seen him with a woman for months after that. Obviously his “friend” hadn’t appreciated his efforts as much as Cadoc had hoped she would.

“Now that we’re all here.” Ashem glared at Rhys. “Griffith, why don’t you tell Rhys the news.”

Rhys sank down onto a cushion and gripped the table to hide his shaking hands. “What news?”

Griffith cleared his throat. “Ffion and I spotted Demba and several other members of Kavar’s vee. That’s why we’re all back early.”

“So I was right, and you’re all grounded,” Ashem declared. “We aren’t leaving these caves until Evan and Morwenna get back with reinforcements. A week, minimum.”

Rhys cursed under his breath. He’d wanted to spend a few weeks away from Eryri, but that was before Kavar had come across them in the middle of the wilderness. The longer they remained isolated in the cave, the greater the danger.

There was a groan all around. Cadoc, who had sat next to Rhys, leaned over and muttered, “Deryn took down a couple of deer before we came back. The meat should last. She’s terrifying. I thought she might kill
me
if I startled the herd.”

Rhys gave a short laugh and spotted a shallow bowl filled with late season berries on the counter. He glanced at Cadoc, raising a questioning eyebrow.

“Ffion got them.” Cadoc jerked his head toward Kai.

That made more sense. Dragons ate fruit and vegetables, but they didn’t need them as much as humans.

Kai frowned from Ashem to Cadoc. “Cadoc said he was going to take me home.”

Ashem shook his head. “No one is leaving.”

Kai’s face went pale. “I have to go home. People will think I’m dead. Juli...my parents. I have work and school. I can’t be here another week!”

“Drills,” Ashem announced, ignoring her. “We’re stuck here, but we won’t waste our time.”

Cadoc cast Rhys a baleful look. “Lucky, boyo.”

Rhys jerked his head at his injured shoulder. “I’ll trade you.”

Cadoc snorted. “I’m not
that
witless.”

“Wait.” Kai came around the table to stand directly in front of Ashem. “You have to take me home.” She spun on Cadoc. “You said you would fly me home!”

An awkward silence fell over the room. Rhys looked anywhere but at Kai. She was caught up in things far more dangerous than she knew.

“I’m the Commander of this vee. He has to do what I tell him,” Ashem snarled. “If you’re going to make noise about it, go somewhere I can’t hear you. Rhys, if you’re going to insist on being out of bed, you can watch us drill. Cadoc, take some of these into the main cavern for him.” Ashem kicked a cushion.

Obviously uncomfortable, Cadoc ducked his head and muttered, “Sorry,
brânwen
, I’m just a soldier.”

Cadoc offered a hand. Rhys took his wrist and hauled himself up, making his unsteady way into the main cavern. Cadoc gathered a few cushions from around the table and brought them to where Rhys leaned against the wall, tossing them to the ground. He glanced back. “I feel like a worm. I did tell Kai I’d fly her home.”

Rhys shrugged with his good shoulder. “If Ashem says we’re grounded, there’s nothing we can do.”

Cadoc gave him a look.

“No.” Rhys shook his head, ignoring the uncomfortable prickling of his pride. “Ashem is right. If Griff and Ffion saw Kavar’s vee, it isn’t safe. Not for you or her.”

Cadoc glanced at Kai again. “All right.” He gave Rhys a twisted smile. “Enjoy the show, my feeble friend.”

Rhys growled. Cadoc laughed as he went to join the others.

Kai sat back down at the table, once again staring at it with no expression on her face. Rhys watched her longer than he meant to. He felt sorry for her and her family. Everyone here had lives to get back to, after all, but at least most of the people he cared about knew he wasn’t dead.

Shaking his head, Rhys lowered himself onto the cushions. His body shook, and he gritted his teeth at the weakness.
Pathetic.

Ashem arranged the others in a row, then separated Cadoc and Deryn when their elbowing nearly devolved into a wrestling match. At his shout, all five of them, Ashem included, sprinted toward the sleeping room. When they reached the wide tunnel, they spun and sprinted back toward the cave mouth. They ran the length of the cavern a few dozen times, laughter fading into panting, grins into determined expressions. After they had gone back and forth fifty times, Ashem arranged them in a line in the center of the cavern and truly put them to work.

“I think this was supposed to be yours?”

Rhys looked up in surprise. Kai stood uncertainly a few feet away, a bowl in her hands. She held it out toward him. “They forgot to give it to you. Um. I think it got cold.”

“Thank you.” Rhys tried not to stare at her smattering of freckles, her lips. It wasn’t that she was an otherworldly beauty—there were plenty of those among dragons—but rather the openness of her expression. They’d kidnapped her, but she wasn’t afraid, or hiding, or closed off. She was offering him food.

Rhys looked at his hands, rubbing his thumb against the tips of his fingers. “I’m sorry that you can’t go home. Tact is not Ashem’s strength.”

“I already know he’s an ass.”

Rhys laughed and reached for the bowl. Distracted, he realized a second too late that their fingers were about to touch. He jerked back, and the bowl fell to the floor with a crash, food and stone shards scattering everywhere.

Kai recoiled, her cheeks turning bright pink. Her flush deepened as Ffion called over to see if she was all right.

“Well, that sucks,” Kai muttered, waving at Ffion without looking at her. Wetness sparkled along the rim of her eyes.

Perhaps she wasn’t as immune to her situation as he’d thought. Ancients, he was an idiot. He should have been watching her hands.

He faked a grimace and clutched his right shoulder in response to Ashem’s questioning look. “I—ah—reached forward too far. Hurt my shoulder. My fault.” In a quieter voice directed at Kai he said, “I’m sorry.”

Kai’s brows drew together. “Don’t worry about it.” She knelt and began to gather broken fragments.

With a groan, Rhys leaned forward to help, ignoring the complaint in his shoulder. Neither of them spoke, and Kai kept her hands far from his, making it obvious she knew Rhys’s movement had been no accident.

His stomach growled, and he swore. He truly was hungry, but he’d rather pull out his scales one by one than ask Kai to bring him more food.

His stomach growled again.

Kai stood, hands full of broken bowl, and walked to the kitchen.

He didn’t realize he was watching her until she disappeared around the corner. Experimentally rolling his sore shoulder, he turned back to watch the others.

They’d arranged themselves into pairs for sparring. Griffith and Cadoc faced off against each other on one side of the cavern, Ffion and Deryn on the other. Apparently Ashem was saving the real show—Ffion versus Griffith, for last.

“Here.” A bowl banged down next to him. Kai raised her hands and backed up, settling against the wall a solid five feet away.

Rhys stared at the bowl. It was full of food. “Why—?”

“I’m having a crappy day, but it’s not like I need to spread it around. Besides, you can’t even walk from that back room to the kitchen by yourself and I can hear your stomach from here.” She shrugged. “It’s cold.”

“That’s...not a problem.” Ignoring his protesting shoulder, he picked up the bowl. Venison stew. He smelled it. Bland venison stew. Ashem must have been in charge of cooking. But it could have been worse. It could have been Deryn.

Balancing the bowl on his palm, Rhys reached inside himself to the swirling maelstrom of power and pulled out the tiniest thread of magic, channeling the energy into the bowl. In seconds, the food was steaming. He picked up the old, dented spoon.

“Won’t they cut each other?” Kai asked suddenly.

Rhys looked back to the sparring. At some point, Ashem must have retrieved weapons from the hoard, because Deryn and Ffion each held a pair of long, thin daggers.

“They’re doing a form.” Rhys took a bite of stew. He’d been right: bland.

Kai gave him a sidelong look. “A form?”

Rhys swallowed. “The moves are choreographed. We know them by rote.”

Deryn blocked Ffion’s high, spinning kick, then used their combined momentum to throw an elbow into Ffion’s back. Ffion dropped, avoiding the blow, and swept her foot toward the backs of Deryn’s knees.

Normally, Rhys wouldn’t have bothered keeping up a conversation. But Kai was distressed. The best thing for her would be to keep her talking. “It’s a game. See who can go faster without making a mistake. A point every time you nick the other person.”

As if on cue, Deryn let out a hiss, a thin line of blood welling up on her left bicep. Ffion grinned, twirling her blades. “Too slow, princess.”

Deryn bared her teeth and whirled into motion. Ffion matched her speed without any apparent effort, and they became a blur moving back and forth across the cavern. Then Ffion let out a surprised “Ouch!” They stopped. Blood welled from a shallow slice across her collarbone. She touched it and smiled at Deryn. “Very good.”

Deryn made a simpering face and curtsied. Ffion laughed, and they lunged at each other again.

“They cut each other on purpose?” Kai’s voice was incredulous.

Rhys glanced at her, but she wasn’t looking at him. “We heal quickly.”

“Yeah, I noticed that Deryn’s leg isn’t broken anymore.” Kai turned thoughtful eyes on him. “Why aren’t you better?”

Rhys’s mouth twisted and his voice came out dry. “Azhdahā venom is potent.”

Across from Ffion and Deryn, Cadoc and Griffith had squared off and were fighting hand-to-hand. Cadoc was fast, but Griffith was twice his bulk and heartsworn. Cadoc didn’t stand a chance.

“Az-da-what?” Kai asked.

Rhys resisted the urge to reach beneath the collar of his shirt and fiddle with the bandage. “Azhdahā.” He jerked his chin at Ashem, who circled the others with a critical eye. “Persian dragons.”

Kai perked up. She scooted a little closer. “Persian dragons? There are different kinds of dragons?”

He raised an eyebrow. “There were dragons from at least seven clans flying over that meadow the night you found us.”

Kai scooted closer again. She was almost within normal speaking distance. “I noticed that there were different kinds of dragons. I’m not an idiot. But where are they from? Why do some of them have wings and some don’t? And there are others with feathers—”

Rhys set down his empty bowl. Humans—or this human, at least—were curious, fast-talking creatures, but at least she wasn’t staring into space with that lost look on her face anymore. “One question at a time, George.”

Kai scooted even closer, now only about two feet away. “How do dragons without wings fly?”

A breeze blew in through the cave mouth, and Rhys caught the distant smell of snow mingled with a sweet, spicy scent that could only be Kai. “I—” He swallowed.
Don’t get distracted.
She’s only a human.
“I don’t know how serpent-dragons fly. Each clan has secrets.”

“Serpent dragons are a clan?”

Rhys sighed, unsure how much he should say. “There are three serpent-dragon clans, two clans with feathered wings, and the rest of us are—”

“Bat-winged?” Kai supplied.

He raised an eyebrow. “Reptiles are older than bats. Perhaps bats are dragon-winged.”

Kai grinned. “Which clan are you?”

Ancients, she had a pretty smile. He chose the least complicated answer. “Clan Draig.”

“Clan Draig,” she repeated. “Does everyone in Clan Draig breathe fire?”

He shook his head. “Fire is my element.” He indicated Ffion and Deryn. Their arms were bare, their indicia gleaming from the backs of their wrists to their shoulders. Azure for Deryn, mirror-like silver for Ffion. “Ffion’s element is air. Deryn’s is water.” He indicated Griffith, whose indicium was green edged with bronze. “Griffith is half Bida, but his mother is an Elemental. He has an affinity for earth.”

Kai squinted at Griffith, who had Cadoc trapped beneath one arm. “Elemental and Bida?”

“Elemental is a common name for the members of Clan Draig, because of the nature of our magic. Though Ffion, Deryn, Griffith, and I have different Elements, we’re members of the same clan. Our magic works on the same principles. The Bida are a clan from the Sahara. Their magic is completely different.”

Kai considered this. “Griffith is Elemental and Bida. How does that work? Is his magic a combination of both?”

Rhys watched Cadoc twist out of Griffith’s grasp. “Yes. Though Griff takes more after his mother, magic-wise. He has a sister back home who’s better at Bida magic.”