Dragon Tear (Agents of the Crown Book 5) Read online

  “That you’re not shard-proof?”

  “No, I knew that.” He smiled, but it didn’t last, not with the troll’s words on his mind. “That shaman seemed to know where we were from and said we’d fled our kingdom on the eve of war.”

  Zenia set the tweezers down and leaned back on the stool. “Do you think his people are about to invade Kor?”

  “They might already have done it. We’ve been gone a couple of weeks, and we have no way of knowing what’s going on back home…”

  Jev’s gut knotted with worry as he thought of Drayon and Teeks and the rest of his cousins’ children, as well as his father, aunts, cousins, and the staff of Dharrow Castle, men and women who had been fixtures there his entire life. He also worried for Targyon and Lornysh and all the friends he’d fought with during the war, men who’d returned to Korvann, believing they’d done their duty and could finally rest. What if trolls were storming the streets right now?

  “Maybe that troll spy they caught on the docks was one of many reporting back to his people,” Jev said. “I’m afraid the city might not have done enough to prepare after we ousted that scouting party. I’m afraid…”

  He stared bleakly at the white-painted wood ceiling. The shaman had called him a coward for abandoning his nation. Jev hadn’t known he was doing that, but… did it matter? What if he wasn’t there to lead all the able-bodied men on Dharrow land when he was needed? His father could lead, and as zyndar prime, that was his duty, but he hadn’t gone to war. He hadn’t fought with that generation of men and didn’t know them the way Jev did.

  “Maybe he was only trying to rattle you,” Zenia said.

  He didn’t know why the troll would have bothered. Those had seemed to be off-hand comments in response to Jev’s accusations.

  “Originally, I assumed the troll was some opportunistic thief,” Jev said, “but now I’m not sure. It sounded like he wanted the dragon tear—and maybe the dragon?—to help his people. To redeem himself or something.”

  “Do you want to go back to Kor?”

  “You mean turn back before we find the dragon?”

  Zenia hesitated. “Yes.”

  “I’m worried about what might be going on back there, but… to come all this way and then get nothing out of it would almost be a crime.” The problem was that Jev didn’t know if they would get anything out of it even if they freed the dragon. What if it sailed off never to be seen again, leaving Zenia with a dragon tear no longer linked to anything useful? Or anything at all?

  “We’re almost there, I think,” she said. “A couple more days on the river, and we’ll reach that last trading outpost. And then…”

  “We spend months walking through the jungle and trying to figure out which valley of orcs is the right one?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so. As we get closer…” She clasped her dragon tear and bent her head.

  The gem was already glowing, but it glowed brighter. Jev remembered that beam the shaman’s magical tool, whatever it had been, had fired at him, and he shuddered.

  “She’s giving me a sense of the direction to where the rest of her is located,” Zenia said.

  “The rest of her? The dragon part?”

  “Yes. I don’t know how many miles away she is, but she’s definitely that way.” Zenia pointed toward one of the walls. It wasn’t in the exact direction the river was taking them, but it wasn’t that far off. “The feeling is stronger now that we’re closer. More certain. We’re on the right path, Jev. Or the right river.”

  She looked intently at him, and he could tell how much this meant to her, how close she felt to the dragon tear—the dragon—after all they had been through in the last few months.

  “Good.” Jev clasped her hand. “We’ll keep going. I didn’t mean to doubt you. I’m just worried about my family.”

  “I’m sorry I talked you into coming along. I should have foreseen that the trolls might be more of a problem and that you might be needed back home.”

  Jev winced because that was precisely what he’d been thinking, that he was needed back there, and he feared Zenia had sensed his doubts through her dragon tear. “You didn’t talk me into anything. As I recall, you didn’t even ask if I was interested in helping. You were packing and shopping without a word to me, prepared to head off on your own.”

  “I believed you would come and that I wouldn’t have to ask.”

  “But you would have gone without me.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “And then you would have had nobody to blow up the boilers of your enemies for you.” Jev wriggled his eyebrows, though he wished he’d managed to blow up the troll too.

  “Or pay for passage up rivers in distant lands,” Zenia said. “I am sure my salary wouldn’t have covered this.” She nodded toward the ceiling to indicate the boat.

  “That’s right. When you travel with a zyndar, you travel in pure opulence.” Jev waved in the direction of the hammock-filled cabin where they usually spent their nights. His hand brushed against a rumpled blanket, reminding him that Hydal and Rhi, who had exited the cabin in a rush when Cutter and Zenia had carried him in, had been rumpled and untucked themselves. “Did those two have sex in this bed?” He curled a lip. Before, he’d been too dazed to think anything of the slightly used bed. “While I was risking my life to ensure our boat wouldn’t be molested again?”

  “I didn’t ask them. They rushed out quickly.” Zenia looked thoughtfully toward the door, perhaps wondering for the first time herself. “To be fair, you didn’t tell them you were going to risk your life. Or ask for help. As I recall, you didn’t even mention it to the captain. You only mentioned it to me because I walked in on you.”

  “That’s not true. I was on my way to inform you of the brave exploits I had planned. I knew I might need your dragon tear to pluck me up and bring me back to the boat. Which I did, and it did. It’s a good dragon tear. She’s good.” Jev smiled at Zenia’s gem.

  Maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed to beam brighter.

  A strange expression crossed Zenia’s face.

  Jev raised his eyebrows.

  “She’s emanating a sense of smugness at your words.”

  “That’s all right. She can be smug.” Jev rubbed his stubbled jaw, grimacing at all the cuts he felt. “The shaman had a magical artifact of his own. I wonder if it’s the reason your dragon tear struggled to see inside his boat. As I experienced firsthand, it can be used as a weapon.”

  He lowered his hand to his chest, to a burn mark about two-inches in diameter. That was the spot where the beam had struck him, right in the flesh over his heart. If he’d lain there, susceptible to it for a few more seconds, would it have burned straight through to the organ beneath? He shuddered.

  “That seems possible,” Zenia said. “Or maybe the shaman himself has the power to block outsiders from seeing his thoughts and what’s around him. I’m hoping that if we get to the dragon first and free her, she’ll be able to deal with him.”

  Jev nodded. “We’ll get there.”

  He decided to be supportive and optimistic and not worry that they could end up tramping around and getting lost in the jungle for weeks or months, even with the gem guiding them.

  13

  “We’ve reached the end of our journey,” one of the crewmen announced as the steamboat bumped gently against a short dock jutting into the river.

  A monkey squawked from the thatch rooftop of one of six one-story buildings along the bank. Zenia hadn’t expected the last trading post on the river to be huge, but she had expected a little more than this. Theirs was the only boat there, save for a couple of skiffs pulled up on a beach. The area around the tiny outpost had been thinned of trees but not fully cleared, and the lush green canopy stretched overhead, blocking out the sky over the buildings and the river.

  “It’s too shallow for us to go farther,” the crewman added, nodding to Jev.

  Aside from the captain, who chatted with Zenia whenever he g
ot a chance, Jev was the only one in their party that most of the crew bothered to speak with. Jev had paid for the passage, so maybe that wasn’t strange, though she found it funny that people even in other parts of the world seemed to grasp that he was from the nobility and assumed him their leader.

  “The first town we’ve seen in three days,” Rhi muttered from Zenia’s side, “and this is it?”

  The monkey sprang from the rooftop to a branch and joined two other monkeys. All three proceeded to jump up and down and hoot.

  “I think you’re insulting their home,” Zenia said. “And it’s a trading outpost, not a town.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  Jev, Borti, Horti, and Cutter strolled across the deck to join Zenia and Rhi near the gangplank the crewman was extending. Everyone had gathered their weapons and backpacks, but Horti carried something additional. His homemade rat cage. It now held four furry captives, all large and unique compared to the rats back home. Zenia could see why he’d chosen them, but…

  “Are you going to carry those through the jungle all the way to the orc valleys?” she asked. “I’m fairly certain we have to walk the rest of the way.” She glanced at the skiffs, but they looked to be privately owned rather than craft available for sale or rent. And each one could only carry a single person, so she couldn’t imagine them being of use to her party.

  Horti looked down at his prize and then to his brother.

  “How far to these valleys?” Borti asked.

  “We’re not sure exactly. Less than a hundred miles to some of the closest ones. More to the most distant valleys.” Zenia prayed to the founders that there were trails or roads they could follow. Surely the orcs came to this outpost to trade with the outside world now and then.

  “Maybe you could leave them with someone at the outpost,” Jev suggested. “I imagine someone would, for a few coins, take care of them, as long as you made it clear they would be paid even more when you returned and picked up your cargo in good condition.”

  “Good condition?” Rhi mouthed. She stared at the cage and shook her head in disbelief.

  Zenia was surprised Jev was treating the twins’ endeavor more seriously, though maybe she shouldn’t have been. He teased people, mostly his friends, now and then, but he was a good man. She hadn’t seen him mock others’ dreams, no matter how unlikely they were.

  “We’ll look around.” Borti clapped his brother on the shoulder, and Horti nodded and patted the cage. He appeared bright-eyed and hale, despite a bandage wrapped around his head and a tendency to touch his ribs when he walked. “How long do we have until the group leaves?” Borti added.

  “Take an hour if you need it,” Zenia said, though Borti had been looking at Jev when he asked the question. “We’re going to ask around for directions. It would be ideal if we could hire a guide.”

  She hoped someone up here had heard of the dragon and the tribe of orcs that kept her prisoner. Even if the locals had simply heard rumors, she would find that encouraging. The fact that nobody so far had heard anything bothered her. It made her question if she was truly on the right trail. The idea of wandering around out here for months disturbed her, though when she’d checked with her dragon tear, it had continued to believe they should be heading south. And south they had been going.

  The twins hopped off the boat and walked toward a troll and an orc wearing a bizarre collection of feathered, scaled, and furred clothing. They had numerous bags, scarves, and hats draped over their arms, along with ropes of necklaces strung with amethysts, citrine, and quartz. The locally available gems? When they approached the twins and waved their belongings, Zenia realized they were walking vendors trying to sell their wares.

  There was nothing threatening about that particular orc, but her dragon tear remained cold and dark against her chest. Zenia tucked it under her shirt, as if hiding it there could protect it from the beings it feared.

  “Greetings, Rhi,” Hydal called cheerfully, the last of their party to pack up and join them on the deck. “May I carry anything for you?” He waved at her pack.

  “I can handle it, but thank you.” Rhi smiled at him, a far softer smile than the sarcasm-edged one she usually sported.

  Given that they had both been cheerful since their evening in the captain’s cabin, and that Rhi had been smiling far more than usual, Zenia assumed a little more than dinner accompanied by elven wine had occurred that night. Even though it had always been her own choice to wait for sex, she couldn’t help but be a little envious. Especially since she’d been stuck dancing with the groping captain that night while Jev had been off risking his life.

  She looked back downriver, half-expecting that green troll boat to paddle into view. She’d checked several times since its boiler room had blown up, and the dragon tear hadn’t detected any sign of it. But she had a feeling they hadn’t seen the last of that shaman yet.

  I understand you have need of a guide, a feminine voice spoke into her mind.

  Zenia jumped and whirled all around. Who had spoken to her? She was positive she’d heard the words in her mind and not out loud, but her dragon tear never communicated with her that way.

  I am up here, the voice said as Jev touched her arm.

  “What’s wrong? You look like you spotted death approaching.”

  Zenia looked at the outpost and the high banks along the river, looking for… There.

  A unicorn.

  Before this, she had only seen one unicorn, the black-and-gold doctor that worked at one of the hospitals in the city. He’d never spoken to her, not even when she and Rhi had been guests at his hospital, the day she had met Jev—and been beaten up by his buddies.

  This unicorn was white with a silver-purple mane and tail. Its horn was a deep purple and gleamed even in the dim jungle lighting.

  The vendors, who were following Horti and Borti as they headed for a building, didn’t bat an eye at the unicorn. They were either accustomed to seeing it in the outpost or they didn’t see it. Unicorns were rumored to be some of the most magical and powerful creatures in the world, with gifts rivaling those of dragons, and Zenia had heard they could travel about invisibly if they wished. It was said that orcs, humans, trolls, ogres, and even elves and dwarves had attempted to convince unicorns to become allies to their peoples, but the elusive race never agreed, preferring neutrality and to spend time only with their own kind with rare exceptions. What could this one want?

  A sensation of wariness emanated from her dragon tear. It didn’t seem to be a warning to stay away—or run away—but Zenia had the impression her gem couldn’t read the unicorn’s thoughts the way it could with humans and other intelligent beings. Therefore, the gem wasn’t sure what to think of the creature.

  Your quest is noble, the unicorn spoke into Zenia’s mind. I am here to guide you, if you wish it.

  You know why we’re here? And where we need to go?

  Zenia gripped Jev’s arm. “You see her, right?”

  “I do.” He nodded toward the unicorn. “Is she conversing with you? I’ve heard they’re telepathic.”

  Zenia nodded and wondered if the unicorn could understand her thoughts. Or could it only share its words without hearing those of others?

  I can hear you when you direct your thoughts at me, the unicorn said, a hint of humor coming along with the silent words. If I am in the area. My name is Eysinor. You are Zenia Cham from the kingdom of Kor.

  Er, yes. Even though the unicorn—Eysinor—was a beautiful creature and had a pleasant mental voice, it unnerved Zenia that she knew her name and where she came from.

  I know much. And please consider me a person rather than a creature. Unicorns are intelligent.

  Sorry. Zenia flushed with embarrassment, distressed that she’d already offended the only one here offering to be their guide. But it was disconcerting that it—she—heard even the thoughts Zenia didn’t intend to share.

  “Is it a good conversation?” Jev looked back and forth from Zenia to the unicorn, proba
bly wondering at this long silence in which they were staring at each other.

  “It’s… educational.”

  By now, Rhi, Hydal, and Cutter were also staring back and forth from Zenia to the unicorn. Oddly, the crew didn’t seem to notice her. Or maybe they’d seen the unicorn often and thought nothing of her presence. They were toting out goods for trade and heading up the gangplank.

  “Her name is Eysinor,” Zenia said, “and she’s offering to guide us to our destination.”

  Jev raised his eyebrows. “She knows our destination?”

  “She knows about us and our quest.” Zenia looked into the unicorn’s dark brown eyes, not sure if that was necessary for communication, but assuming it might help. Do you know where she is?

  For some reason, Zenia made the question vague instead of simply saying ‘the dragon.’ She wasn’t sure why, other than it went against her instincts to trust a stranger immediately, unicorn or not.

  I can sense the dragon from many miles away.

  And how many miles away are we? Zenia smiled hopefully.

  She knew they were headed the right direction, but she didn’t think miles mattered much to dragons, for she hadn’t been able to get a sense of how many days’ travel—on foot—they were from the orcs. When she’d asked, the dragon tear had shown her the route from above, zooming past miles and miles of trees and tilting here and there to take advantage of air currents. The vision had been such a wild rocking blur that it had made Zenia seasick. Or maybe the term was airsick.

  Perhaps a hundred of your miles.

  That’s it? Excitement thrummed through Zenia’s veins for the first time in days.

  I could travel there in a day or two, but since you are two-legs, it will take longer.

  Yes, but not much longer, unless we have to cut our way through vines the whole way. Do we?

  No. Gather your team and your gear. I will meet you at the path leading out of the outpost to the south.

  “We have a guide,” Zenia said.

  “Are we paying her?” Jev asked.