Govam stood from a chair in the corner, lowering the book in his hand. He took one look at me and stood. “Dolion has moved on the kingdom.”
I quickly explained what I was feeling and what it probably meant.
Govam nodded, laying the book on a small chest. “He’s taken some time to plan his next move. You’re an extreme liability for him, and he’s in damage-control mode. His first move is to determine whether you are with the golden prince, working on breaking the curse. Since you are not, he will want to cripple your kingdom forever. He would’ve done so already if not for the gold and the shifters he’s been kidnapping. Neither of those conditions will stop him now. He obviously can’t risk taking more shifters for fear someone from the council will ask to inspect his dungeons, and some of Wyvern’s gold has proven inaccessible to him. It’s magically protected, and none of his attempts to access it have worked. With this new pressure, he’ll give up. He’s out of time. He can’t let the council discover what he’s done to your kingdom. It’ll make them question his other dealings, and those have been less than savory.”
My blood pumped hot and cold, fear and anger churning together.
“So basically, we need to hurry our asses,” I surmised.
“If you want to save your kingdom, yes. Hopefully your golden dragon can stand in Dolion’s way long enough to give you a chance.” He gave me a long look, then added, “He is the most ruthless, stubborn dragon I’ve ever seen, and given my past position, that’s saying something. He is your greatest hope of stalling long enough to reach them in time. Your only hope.”
I pointed at him. “Don’t think I didn’t notice the you and your instead of we and our.”
“That curse is your fight. It will be our fight once it is broken.”
“Fine.” I turned. “Get ready to leave. We’ll waste no time.”
I jogged back down the stairs with Hannon in my wake, needing to find the others. Hadriel and Leala stood out back, watching Tamara and Lucille spar. He noticed me immediately, turning my way.
“What’s happened?” he asked.
I quickly explained what I was feeling from Nyfain, along with what Govam had told me.
Hadriel swore but then seemed to gather himself. “It’s fine. This is fine. Let’s not go to pieces. We expected this.”
“We’re just not incredibly ready for it,” Leala said.
“Leala, my darling, you are not fucking helping.”
She smiled sweetly at him. “Suck a toe.”
“We’re headed back to the castle. I probably will if we can’t sort this out. And I hate feet.”
I glanced at Hannon. “I’ll round up the others and find Micah. You get our things ready.”
He nodded and jogged into the tavern.
“There’s a meeting the next village over,” Tamara said, dropping their wooden practice swords to the side. “Micah will be there. It won’t take us long to fly.”
Hadriel stared at me for a moment. “I cannot believe I am asking this, but…can you take me in your mouth?”
“Bad idea.” Tamara shook her head. “She’d accidentally clench and bite you in half.”
“Well then…would one of you…”
Tamara shook her head again. “Same goes for us. None of us have that kind of control.”
“The master carried Finley a bunch of times,” he said.
“The prince is in a league of his own, Hadriel, you know that,” she replied.
“You can round up the others,” I told him, “while we go get Micah.”
“Balls,” Hadriel said.
“I’ll keep them from picking on you,” Leala told him, her face screwing up in determination.
“As if that’s fucking possible,” he grumbled.
I followed Tamara and Lucille, jogging quickly out of the village and into the woods. When we reached a clearing, we quickly stripped. Lucille shifted first and took to the sky, her wheat-colored scales shining in the late-morning sun. Tamara shifted next, and the two of them hovered in the sky, waiting for me.
My dragon took over, the shift making me feel, for a moment, like my bones were being broken and my skin peeled off. The others had told me it would get easier the more I did it. The white-hot pain from the two tears that had opened down my back—lines of goldish-red scales taking the place of skin—had already faded.
My dragon rose a little haphazardly, accidentally slipping forward and slicing the side of Tamara with a claw on one of our wings.
Shit, sorry! I tried to call before I remembered I didn’t have access to our mouth, and even if I had, we couldn’t speak.
They know we’re learning. It’s fine. We’ll blame the teacher.
I didn’t bother responding as we flew after them, inexperienced and still fairly shit at flying, but requiring very little effort to keep up.
The next village was super close, and we’d started jogging into it before my mind caught up to the fact that we had no clothes, something I pointed out with a red face.
“We’re shifters—get used to it,” Lucille said as she slowed near the periphery of the village. “Besides, you’re super hot. You have nothing to worry about.”
“Except maybe my enormous lady beard,” I murmured, taking the lead and running along the paths until I found my way into the village center. Once there, we asked around until we found the location of the little meeting house where the elders were apparently chatting about who was going to do what. I barged in, zero regard for decorum, and interrupted a woman with more wrinkles than face.
“Sorry for the interruption,” I said, not at all sorry. I looked around the circle of people. Micah stepped forward from the side, as did Vemar and a few others from the dungeon. Some of them had left our group to spread word to other villages, so presumably they had messages to convey.
Hopefully it wasn’t bad news.
“Guys, it’s time,” I said quickly, making a circle in the air with my finger. “Something’s happening and I have to go. You are welcome to come or stay, but I’m leaving.”
“Now, wait a minute, young lady,” said a man with a brown-spotted, balding head and wispy white hair. “We understand your haste, but we have much to organize—”
“I’m sorry, truly,” I said, still not selling it. “But I’m fairly certain the demon king has stormed my kingdom and intends to devastate it. We have precious little time. I need to get back and help. Now. I cannot wait for you to continue organizing. I’ll be taking my people and leaving.”
“I’m with you.” Vemar stepped forward. “I have a host ready to leave at a moment’s notice. We’re gonna fry that fucker alive. The wolves should be waiting in the town near the docks by now, and the faeries will be joining them soon. We were never meant to stay in the villages longer than this. We should have enough of a force to band with your kingdom. And if we don’t…fuck it, we all gotta die sometime. This fight will be worth it.” He winked and smiled at me. “I’m ready for a little vengeance.”
“Let me…talk to her.” Micah put his arms out as though to shepherd me. “Let me just talk to her for a moment, please. I’m sure we can reach an understanding.”