Destruction's Ascent, page 31
part #3 of Dragon Ridden Chronicles Series
“So, if someone was to kill you or Tate we’d get earthquakes?” Dewdrop asked, sarcasm and disbelief in his voice.
Ryu’s lips tightened. “Not quite. They’re channeling the magic with that circle, turning it to their own use. I don’t know how they learned to do that, but it should be impossible.”
"They’re trying to wake something up," Tate said in a distant voice as she studied the circle. Whatever it was, the ancients must have not wanted it found.
After that, no one spoke for a long time as they watched their captors move about the chamber, preparing it for whatever came next. Ryu made his way to the middle of the cell and sat down, his eyes focused on the production in front of him.
Tate wasn't ready to settle, the energy in the air charging her emotions, as restlessness plagued her every moment. Pacing seemed to help with that.
"You might as well have a seat and conserve your energy," Ryu said in a tired voice, his eyes closed.
"How can you be so calm?" Tate asked.
"Oh, I'm anything but calm, but I learned a long time ago to take these moments where I could. Nothing is ever guaranteed. Soon, we'll have to fight or die. I'm just ensuring I have the energy to do that when the time comes," Ryu informed her without moving from his relaxed pose on the ground.
Tate paused in her restless movement and gave him a disgruntled look. She didn't bother asking why he wasn't looking for an escape when they both knew they were well and truly caught. Really, he had the right of it. Resting while they could was smart. Tate didn't even remember the last time she had slept. Her body was exhausted, her mind fatigued. Sleep was still an impossibility, but she could give her body what rest she could. It might mean the difference between life and death later.
With a frustrated sigh, she walked over and took a seat next to Ryu. His lips tilted up at the corners, having won his point.
"What if this doesn't work?" Tate asked in a low voice.
"It will. You have a good plan."
"What if it’s not in time?"
Ryu sighed, reached up with an arm and tugged Tate down until she was pressed against his side, her head on his chest. She stiffened at the movement and would have drawn back if his arm hadn't tightened. He made a soothing sound, one designed to set her at ease. Grudgingly she relaxed against him, her eyes on Grimsly and Olar.
"We've done all we can. The rest is up to your friends. Right now, the best we can do is stall for time and rest up for when we need to act," Ryu said in a low voice.
Tate drummed her fingers against his chest, still unable to relax. His other hand came up to cover them.
He brushed a soft touch against her collarbone where Ilith had settled like a mini-dragon sized necklace.
"Has she been speaking to you?" he asked.
"Some. She's not happy. This place unsettles her." Tate left out the fact that Ilith would be perfectly happy to turn it into molten rock.
"She took control when you found out that Dewdrop and the cub had been taken," he observed in a quiet voice.
Tate looked away, not wanting to see the concern in his eyes, or worse, the fact that he thought she was losing her grip on the dragon, going dragon mad as others had. She'd hoped he'd missed her slip, even as she knew that was futile. He was too observant for that.
"You need to be more careful," he cautioned. "If Thora finds out the extent of her power and influence over you, it would not go well for either of you."
Tate knew that. It was why she'd been working on talking to Ilith silently.
"It doesn't work for us like it does for the rest of you," Tate confided.
She sensed his mind turning that statement over, his natural curiosity waking up. "What do you mean?"
Tate hesitated. While Ryu was on her side for the moment, she wasn't sure why.
She'd been burned before, thinking people were her friends when they had hidden agendas. She didn't know if she could survive that with Ryu. Right now, they were uneasy friends with the promise of more if they let it. She had a feeling that he could slide into her heart with as much finesse as a blade, and the destructive power of one if things went bad.
His loyalty seemed wholly and totally given to the empire that held his leash. It was why she kept a wall between them, even when he looked at her in that way he had, that said she was special, that he saw something no one else did and wanted it for himself.
She was attracted to him, but she didn't trust him. Not with herself, and perhaps not with her secrets.
However, he already knew most of this secret. There didn't seem much point in keeping this little bit from him.
"I don't think Ilith and I have the same type of relationship as the rest of you," Tate said, choosing her words carefully. "I have the feeling if I blocked her out, ignored her, it would just make her more difficult to control."
She wasn't even sure it was possible at this point. Ilith was a fully-formed being, with her own thoughts and opinions. Blocking her would be akin to sticking someone into an isolated room where no sound reached, the sun never shone, and rain never fell. Tate knew what that felt like. She wouldn't do it to another living creature. Not even to save herself.
"There’s something you're not telling me," Ryu said, his eyes opening as he stared intently at her.
There were many things she wasn't telling him. To distract him from that fact, she went on the offensive. "You know, it would be easier to tell you things if I knew the person I was talking to."
His frown grew more pronounced, his eyebrows lowering as his eyes bore into hers. "You know me."
Tate shook her head. "No, I don't. I know the person you let me see—the devil-may-care rogue, the dangerous man with an agenda. That is part of you, but not the whole. You're asking me to trust you with things that could get me killed, and yet you haven't even given me the smallest piece of you in return, to show me you're worth the risk."
His gaze turned contemplative as he gave her words the consideration they were due.
She pressed her face back down on his chest before giving him an out. "Tell me a story. Get my mind off this nightmare."
His chest rose and fell under her ear, the sound of his heartbeat a reassuring thunder.
"I'll tell you the story of my making," he finally said.
Her hand pressed tight against his stomach before relaxing. She hadn't thought he would. To be truthful, he hadn't struck her as the type of man to be open. There were many things she was curious about when they pertained to him, and this was a welcome opportunity despite the dire circumstances. Or because of them, maybe.
He was quiet for a long moment, and she thought he'd changed his mind. She waited, knowing that pushing now might cause him to clam up. She could kiss having a glimpse into the history that made Ryu goodbye if that happened.
"According to Thora, there are two ways to find a dragon. The first and most common way is to petition to take the trial. In it, you advance to the rift and attempt to bargain with any dragon that might cross. It's not often successful and applicants sometimes die." Ryu's voice had a storyteller’s cadence. The best storytellers could tell a tale involving some mundane task and have it sound interesting. Tate had met a few on Jost's ship. There was nothing pirates liked better than to listen to a good yarn. From the way Ryu spoke, she could tell he had picked up some of those traits.
"The second is for it to come to you in fire and blood when your world is burning down around you. It is more dangerous. Unpredictable and uncontrollable and usually the relationship is much more volatile."
Tate tilted her head to look up at him, his face relaxed and peaceful despite the harsh subject matter.
"My family was small, just my dad, mother and a sister. My dad was half-Kairi and my mom would have been an Avertine had she ever reached them. She met my da first. They were happy together. Our lives were simple. We had a decent-sized piece of land that we worked, and we tried to be good neighbors." Ryu's eyes opened a little, a blue blaze against his eyelids.
"When they came for us, my da met them with his blade and tried to talk sense into them. As half-Kairi, he had received much of the same training as their elite and cut a swath through them when words and attempts at peace failed."
Tate rubbed her chin against his shoulder, silent acknowledgment of the grief he managed to keep from his voice.
"Ma was next. She didn't go quietly or peacefully. They set fire to the house with us still in it. That's when I heard it, a call that spoke to the deepest, darkest part of me. It promised me power and the means to avenge my parents. It consumed me until there was little left of the boy I once was. What remained laid waste to our village and much of the countryside." Ryu took a deep breath and let it out in a controlled exhale. "You heard Blaise call me the Ardent’s judgement. They also once called me the destroyer of the living. For many, many years, that’s all I was."
Tate patted his chest in wordless comfort. "Why were you not killed?"
It had been her understanding that people who lost themselves in the dragon, who gave over to the need for blood and death that came from the bond, were put down like rabid animals. It was sad, but sometimes you had to do what was necessary to protect the rest.
"It was a different time. The empire wasn't yet established and the Kairi and Silva were still under their own rule." The smile that graced his face was heartbreaking and mocking at the same time. "It's simple really. The man who would create the Empire we know now needed all the weapons he could get. Even a half-mad dragon with a craving for death would do."
Tate was silent for a long moment, her and Ilith in complete accord, grief for that long-ago boy wrapped around her heart.
Now she knew why he was so paranoid about Ilith speaking. With his history, he must be constantly on guard against the faintest hint of madness. What was more impressive wasn't that he'd kept her secret, rather it was the fact that he hadn't marched her right to the executioner himself.
Tate looked up at him, her breath catching at the vulnerable look on his face, something she had never associated with Ryuji, the man who seemed to enjoy driving her to distraction before irritating her even further.
She gave him a wordless squeeze.
"Is that why you work for the Empire?" she asked. "To atone for what happened?"
"Nothing could ever do that," Ryu said. "But there is purpose in what we do, the role we serve. Not everyone in the empire is easy or even good, but the vast majority are. The emperor is a good leader. He has my undying loyalty."
Tate noted he said leader instead of man and understood the distinction. The two qualities didn't always walk hand in hand. A person could be a good man, honorable with integrity, but still be a horrendous leader and vice versa.
Ryu fell silent after that, and Tate let him. She needed to think about what he'd revealed, and she wasn't quite ready to reveal her past, the bits of it she could remember. Not in this setting. Perhaps not ever. It wasn't fair, she knew, but life wasn't always fair. Sometimes it was sitting in a cell waiting for a young boy to die while knowing that you could be next.
Ryu stroked Tate's back, his mind on other things as he stared up at the ceiling. His touch was a soothing caress as it moved back and forth along her spine. It lulled her, calming her mind enough that she could drop into a restful state.
Not sleep, there was no chance of that happening. Not with the danger surrounding them, but it was a state close to it, where her mind and body could recuperate from the taxing conditions she'd subjected it to.
"Something is happening," Dewdrop said a short while later. Tate's eyes popped open, her senses immediately alert.
Ryu's body tensed too, and they leveraged themselves up, turning toward the furor of activity that had taken over the room.
"The boy is finally dead," one of the guardians called.
"Took long enough," one of the Order's men said. "Listening to him whimper was giving me a headache."
A growl rumbled from Tate's chest. What an inconvenience for the boy's pain to affect these men.
Now? Ilith asked.
"Not yet," Tate whispered.
Ryu's eyes sharpened on Tate.
I won't let them sacrifice another of my brethren, Ilith promised her. Nothing could be done for the boy, he was already too far gone. We will not allow another to suffer the same fate.
"I agree with you," Tate said. "But we have to be smart about it. Night's coming. We just need to buy him as much time as we can."
We could take them.
"They have weapons. You remember what Brown Eyes did to us, don't you? Theirs are even more powerful."
Ilith gave a silent harrumph. If her dragon could flounce in her mind, she would have.
"Remove his body from the altar. We've almost broken through. Just one more shove and the veil will tear," Grimsly said from his station to the side as he examined the space in front of him.
"He's coming for one of us," Jack said, his voice panicked.
Tate and Ryu shared a long look. She had a sick feeling in her stomach. She felt helpless, something she had sworn she would never be again.
"Dewdrop, what about your sonic scream?" she asked, her eyes locked on the people approaching.
He shook his head. "I've already tried. It doesn't affect whatever is restraining us."
She'd figured as much.
She fixed Dewdrop with an intent stare, trying to impress on him her orders. "Get Pax behind you and go to the back of your cell. If they open it, you hit them with everything you've got. You don't let them take either of you."
His nod was jerky, and he picked Pax up when the cub resisted. Pax looked back at Tate with wide, panicked eyes.
"It'll be alright, Pax. I won't let anyone hurt you," Dewdrop told the younger cub.
Tate's nose stung as she turned to Jack and Daisy on the other side of Dewdrop's cell. "You too, Jack. Get both of you to the back of the cell and you fight if necessary. Protect each other, whatever comes."
She tried to project cool confidence, even as worry crashed around her. Jack and Daisy weren't like Dewdrop. They didn't have natural defenses. They were too human and fragile compared to the men holding them captive.
"We need to make them pick us," she told Ryu.
They were stronger than the others. Of all of them, they had the best chance of surviving. And she wasn't sure she could stand by and watch as another child was hurt.
Ryu's face was hard and set as he nodded. "Agreed."
She didn't let him see that she had no intention of letting him be picked either. If she did, he might try to stop her. There were many things in this life she could handle. Watching them torture someone she cared about was not one of them.
Ryu, despite all her qualms, had managed to work himself into a tiny sliver of her heart. If she let him take root, grow there, it would one day take over the whole damn thing. It didn't matter, she wasn't willing to sacrifice even a sliver. Not when she already had so little.
Olar and several of the Order's men sauntered over to the row of cells. Somehow, she wasn't surprised to find Smith, the man from the market and his cronies with him. She'd known the Order was corrupt and willing to go to any lengths to solidify their power. This just proved it.
"When we get out of here and the extent of their involvement is revealed, will this be enough to topple them from power?" Tate asked.
"Most assuredly," Ryu said, a dark relish in his voice.
"Silver lining, then," she said with a cold sense of satisfaction. They didn't know it yet, but their days stirring up hatred were numbered. She'd make sure of it.
"Which one should it be, men?" Smith said with a sneer as he advanced on the cages.
Tate and Ryu held their position in the middle of their cell, holding the men's stares with blank looks of their own. It was a careful edge they walked. Appear too eager and the Order would know something was up, but they couldn't appear timid either. Their reputations preceded them. Neither one of them was known for shying from danger.
"Get the dragon," Smith ordered, his eyes on Tate and Ryu. "We'll need him to open the Rift."
Shit. Tate fought her instinctive urge to argue and forced herself to keep a slightly amused expression on her face, like what they were doing didn't kill her inside.
"And the girl," he added. "We haven't tried that combination yet."
Tate felt a hint of relief, one that quickly changed to a sick, sinking feeling as they bypassed her cage in favor of Daisy's and Jack's.
She rushed to the front of her cell, banging one fist against it and ignoring the spark of pain as the barrier nipped along her nerves.
"Tate," Dewdrop said, panic and the expectation that she could do something to prevent this in his voice.
Smith's men went in, three at a time, the first two grabbing Jack and throwing him to the ground even as he kicked and punched, trying to use his small size to shield his sister. The other man grabbed Daisy. She fought like a wild animal, almost getting loose before he hit her hard across the face. It stunned her, leaving her limp and pliant as he dragged her out.
"No. No!" Tate shouted banging against the cell. "Take me, not her. I'm already a dragon, I'm older and I'm probably more powerful. I'll make a much better sacrifice than her."
"I told you that you’d regret interfering last time. We normally only take the boys, but we made an exception for her. Thought it would be fitting punishment for your arrogance," Smith said, a dark smile on his face. He had no intention of letting Tate take Daisy's place.
A scream of rage escaped her, Ilith's fury turning it into a haunting sound, one that would stalk the nightmares of those who heard it.
He just laughed and took the toothpick out of his mouth. "Scream all you want. Ain't no one gonna hear you down here."
While he talked, the rest of his men went in to retrieve Jacob.
"Smith, we've got a problem," one of them called.
Smith's looked irritated as he ambled over to the one who'd called him. "What now?"
