The Dream Keeper's Dragon

19. I Don't Hate Him

Kirin's lips were a light shade of blue. Her eyes couldn't help falling on them every couple of seconds while he talked. She wasn't sure if the moonlight was playing tricks on her, but his shiver was getting more prominent, so probably not.

They were on the back to the inn, taking a different path than she had. This was wide open with trees to their right.

"Why did you come through the water?" she asked him as his hands wrapped around his shoulder.

"Have you ever seen a shadow walker portal?" he asked.

She nodded.

"So, you know that they can be tracked for a day at least. Water makes it a little harder for anyone like me to follow. Some of it gets through, you see, and ends up traveling behind me. So if someone were to jump in behind me, they'd be in the stream and that'd be like falling down a waterfall. The darkness also covers the residue so you can't really see it."

"Can you move people with you?" she knew the answer. What she really wanted to know was whether he could move her aunt and uncle if he were to find them. She knew shadow walkers could move people. Aurelie also witnessed the King's shadow walker transport him the night her parents were taken. His was a little fancier; with the Dranoir symbol being a physical badge rather than the white embroidery and her also had a white stripe around the collar. Objects could be carried too or he'd be quite naked and he was dressed in the royal guard's uniform, black with a silver dragon emblem on the right shoulder.

He didn't look at her when he answered, and she knew what the answer would be before he started to speak. Throughout the evening, he had been quite talented in guessing what she felt or what she thought. This time was no different.

"It depends on whom. Moving a shadow walker would be like lifting an elephant, a witch feels like lifting a boulder and a dragon-like lifting a mountain. It takes a lot of power, transporting a dragon could very easily kill a shadow walker," he said and started walking back to the inn, leaving Aurelie no time to gather her thoughts. "I'd have to steal a witch and a dragon."

"I saw a shadow walker the night . . ." she swallowed, feeling a jab in her chest, "the night the King came for us. I guess he must have been strong."

"That was my dear ol' dad."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he's been Emile's pet for years now. Really proud of it. They've been friends since they were very small children. Back then my Grandfather, Peter, had been the King Ura's advisor, so they were like brothers. I guess that's why he allows him to get away with everything without saying a word about it." He smiled darkly, looking ahead toward the inn.

Aurelie could see the lights in the distance, and hear a quiet murmur. It sounded like the inn she visited right on the outskirts of Berillian.

"A loyal father sounds better than a spineless one, so that's the story I choose to go with."

Having her eyes on him seemed to make it more difficult for him to speak, so she decided to force herself into doing something that felt even more difficult and look away.

"Sometimes, I think that he is just as power hungry as the King. The first time he pushed himself to transport Emile, he was unconscious for a week once. Emile brought him back home to my mother before they killed her too."

Aurelie looked up then, seeing the utter dread on his face. His features turned stone cold and for a moment she thought that he might remain that way for the rest of their journey but he turned to her and lightly shrugged, softening his features.

"We thought it was the end for him, and that he had allowed his power to kill him, but as all power does, his grew, steadily and uncontrollably. He didn't need to push himself like that. Having an extra pair of shadow walkers travel with them was just as good, but he had rather risked his own life than sharing Emile with anyone else." He bared his teeth in something between a smile and a growl.