ZALAS
"Get up."
"Go away."
"No. You need to get out of this room."
"I'm not in the mood Elika."
There was a sigh. "You're never in the mood."
I looked out the window, staring at my reflection. There was still no word, no glimpse, nothing. She was gone.
A hand touched my shoulder and I shrugged it off. "Leave me."
"But-"
"I said, LEAVE ME." I roared, my hands clenching into fists, steam curling from my nostrils.
There was a moment of silence and then soft footsteps and the shutting of a door. I felt myself relax slightly but the anger was still there, twisting inside of me. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.
She was only trying to help Brother.
I don't want her help.
You know that isn't true.
I pondered for a moment on the disaster that was my life. My Mother wasn't speaking to me for a start. Word had reached her as to how I had handled Circe on the day of the sacrifice and she was not impressed in the slightest. I could practically hear her fuming from here. The fact that Circe was still missing did not help in the slightest.
We did what had to be done, if the girl was not your Uncle's flesh this would not be an issue.
Yes but she is, so it is an issue Unabonan, the fact that he is dead means that Circe is his only living heir, she is the last piece of him that my Mother has left to hold onto and I could be the person that has taken that from her.
I am surprised that we haven't left to look for her yet, I thought that would be the first thing on your mind.
How can I go and look for her after what I have done? I thought bitterly.
What we have done, He corrected gently. I share the blame too Brother, it was as much I as you. We betrayed their trust.
'Their'. Anthemin was out there too somewhere. I hoped he was with Circe, I hoped that they were together. It would make it slightly easier to know that they had each other, but after we had severed their link temporarily ... well we had put right that wrong after they had both fled, but there was no way to tell whether or not it had worked.
We went too far, I thought angrily. The first Dragon bonded pair in centuries and we went and fucked it up. We should never have done that, there were other ways of subduing them.
We have made mistakes but it is no use regretting them now Zalas. If you really want to fix what has happened, you need to act. Your sister is out there too remember, and the Dragon egg. These are all important things that need our attention. When you are ready, let me know.
I felt his presence leave my mind and I scowled. He was right of course. The Dragon egg had gone missing from my ship and the fact the one accused of it was dead, accompanied by Aranel's timely exit lead me to believe that my sister had more of a hand in this than I had initially realised. Of course this revelation only served to amplify my guilt, for if Obsidian had indeed been innocent ... well.
He is dead. There is nothing that can be done.
But is he?
Those three words had been plaguing my thoughts since that gruesome night at the end of the Elven festival. The chill that I had felt not a fortnight later, the niggling paranoia that something was not right had led me to repeat the scene of his death over and over in my mind until it found its way into my dreams each night.
I had watched him burn. Both of them had burned until there was nothing left. He had been sacrificed for the crimes that his Father committed something that he had willingly given himself up for. It ticked all the boxes but still ... I felt like I was missing something. But how could I? I, the Dragon Prince, should know everything there was to know about my kind and what they could do. I had read all of the ancient scripts that my Father possessed, eager for knowledge about what I was.
I ran a hand through my hair breathed in deeply. A slight smile fell upon my lips as I heard Elika shuffle slightly outside my door.
"You can come back in if you wish." I spoke quietly but knew she would hear me.
The door opened silently and her heart shaped face peeped around the edge of it, her nose wrinkled with distaste.
"I am only trying to help you know." She said stonily.
"I know," I sighed. "Forgive me."
She wandered over to me and intertwined our hands. Her skin had more colour to it than mine, a pretty light flush, in comparison to my translucent white.
I pulled my hand away from hers and studied her face. "What do you think I should do?"
She harrumphed. "I love how you ask as though you would actually listen."
I grinned a rare grin. "Seriously though,"
Her expression turned thoughtful. "You know what I would do and you also know that it is what you need to do. You have to go after her Zalas. There is no other option."
"And what of my sister, what should I do about her?"
Elika shrugged her slim shoulders. "You can look for both of them at the same time can't you? It isn't like you know where either of them are anyway."
I paused for a moment and we stared at each other in silence.
"Did you feel it?" I asked suddenly.
"Feel what?"
"The disturbance, last week, did you feel it?"
She shook her head. "I didn't feel anything. Why, did you?"
"I thought I did," I muttered. "But now I don't know."
"You are more sensitive to those sorts of things though remember Zalas, I'm not as gifted as you."
I mulled her words over. "This is true."
She was getting impatient now. "So what are you going to do?"
"I think that you are right." I said slowly. "I need to go, but on one condition."
"What's that?" She asked, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
"You have to come with me."
She grinned. "Did you miss me that much?"
I glared at her . "It's not like that."
"Sure it isn't," She said, her voice teasing. "You know I always knew you wanted me, but I didn't realise you wanted me that badly."
I scowled. "I changed my mind," I said standing up from my position on the window ledge. I towered over her; she was a tiny sprite of about five foot two with long white hair that fell to her hips. "I don't want you to come after all. You can stay here where it is boring."
Her grin didn't waver. "Lighten up sunshine, of course I'm coming with you, I missed you too you know."
I stared at her. "Good. Be ready by sundown, we leave tonight."
*
Where are we even going to start?
The internal thought was for my mind only, as I stared hopelessly out into the night sky.
The sun had set some time ago and we had left the Air Kingdom far behind as Unabonan's great wings ate up the distance between us. Elika was position right up behind his head, stretched out on his broad neck, one hand fondling the soft skin behind his ears. I could feel through our link that he was enjoying her presence.
In the moonlight I could not help but notice the way that her hair glowed and instantly I thought of Circe, my small moment of distraction disappearing. I leaned back against the edges of the saddle and sighed.
Unabonan did not normally wear a saddle this large; in fact he almost never wore one at all. The large circle that was positioned and strapped to his back was only essential for this mission because it was us alone; no ship sailed below us this time to carry our supplies. The other downside was that if we found ourselves in a fight, Unabonan would be serious hindered by it. However, the speed and freedom that we gained by not having to travel with a ship was so immense that it outweighed the downsides.
I looked over the edge and down at the black water below. I don't know what I expected to see, a flash of white perhaps, or a golden tail shining in the moonlight. My thoughts turned morbid as I pictured a lifeless white corpse floating below, tugged back and forth by the waves...
I must have lost myself in thought because suddenly Elika was tapping me on the shoulder and I jerked around to face her, my eyes startled. She threw a blanket at me and I caught it.
"I'm not tired."
She shrugged. "Suit yourself." She took another blanket and made her way over to the front of the saddle in order to stay out of the wind. Sitting down, she was almost completely covered by the rim and she quickly curled up into a ball, disappearing under the quilt.
I stared at her for a while longer.
*
I was standing on the cliff top; the air was still, the silence penetrated only by the sound of desperate sobbing. I looked to the left and to the right, I was alone. The sobbing persisted, seeming to come out of the fog in front of me. I took a step forward and with a wave of my arm the fog disappeared leaving a hunched figure exposed, crouched in the middle of a sacrificial circle.
My blood turned cold and my step faltered and then I found myself moving forward without my command, my white had reaching out to touch what was left of her golden hair. Her frail shoulders trembled and her sobs quietened until an eerie silence fell over the mountain.
"Circe?"
I wanted her to turn around but something in my mind was screaming no and my hand fell away as she rose to her feet, her hands in front of her, as though she was holding something but I couldn't see what it was.
"Circe, look at me." I pleaded. I reached out to touch her but as she slowly turned, my hand withdrew and my eyes widened in despair.
Her face was burnt, but it was her scalp, the side of her head and her hands that had suffered the most damage. Her blue eyes shone, unscathed but filled with suffering. Her red, blistered hands held a bundle of ashes and she clutched at them as though cradling her last hope for survival.
"Why?" She whispered, holding out her hands towards me. As she did the ash slowly began to run through her fingers and onto the ground where a slight wind picked it up again and whirled it around her, ash getting caught in her hair.
"Why did you betray me," It was a statement, not a question and I stumbled backwards, my gut wrenching as she let out an ear splitting cry of pain.
"You're killing me!" She screamed. Ash whirled up around her, obscuring her form but her cries were still so loud in my ears. "You're killing me Zalas!! Zalas! Save me!"
"Circe!" I ran into the middle of the ash storm, covering my eyes and feeling around for her but I couldn't see anything and a putrid taste was filling my mouth. I fell to my knees, choking and gasping for breath. A blistered hand reached out from no where and I felt her slender fingers find a hold on my throat as she slowly pulled me down into the darkness with her...
I woke up still feeling like I was choking and sitting straight up in the saddle my hands went instantly to my throat where I could still feel her fingers digging into my skin. Gasping for breath I felt my heart beat slowly return to normal and realising it was just a dream I leant back again but found no relief in the return to reality.
It had been too similar, the dream, for me to be able to fully separate it from what had happened on that fucking mountain. Those screams had been real in my ears, her burnt skin against mine, the sight of her so utterly destroyed. My head found my hands and for the first time in my life I found myself fighting back traitorous tears.
My dream might as well have been reality, for if she was not found soon, it would indeed been as though she had been killed by my own hands.
*
Daylight found me when sleep had not. The sun blasted into view scaring the few clouds away and leaving the morning sky clear.
Unabonan would need to rest tonight but right now there was no rush. I left the bundle that was Elika alone and instead my brother and I began formulating a plan. There was no mention about the incident last night, Unabonan could feel that there was nothing to talk about and I was grateful also that Elika had not woken. Moments of weakness were rare for me and I did not want to make it a common thing.
I was glad that I had something else to focus on, and our plan was relatively simple. We would go after Anthemin first. Unabonan still felt a slight pull towards him and believed that he would be the easiest to locate. Dragons were born hunters and their intuition was unparalleled.
Unabonan felt that Anthemin was still close to the last place we had seen him in the Earth Kingdom which made me hopeful that Circe had perhaps not gone too far. We would head back to the Elven Kingdom which would also give us a good chance to get reacquainted with the new King or Queen, an act that would score points with my Mother.
It would also allow for a better look into the disappearance of Aranel. If Unabonan could revisit the last place my sister was, he might be able to catch the trail of Nelonimi and figure out their intentions. Her disappearance was just of as much concern to him as my sisters, although Aranel and Nelonimi were not a bonded pair, both females were very strong willed and had similar desires. Unabonan was the future King of the Dragons and a Dragon King was nothing if he did not have the respect of his subjects. Any betrayal of Nelonimi's was a challenge against our Father, and that was a serious crime indeed.
I made my way back down to the saddle and found Elika awake and sharpening her knives. Elika, while not highly gifted in the art of magicks was extremely talented in other areas of battle. Her weapons of choice were much like herself, small, stealthy, easily concealed and fantastic at the element of surprise.
She smiled at me as I sat down beside her, reaching over to examine one of her smaller stiletto blades. She had a set custom made when she was young and the craftsmanship was exquisite.
"Do we have a plan?" She asked.
"We do," I said softly. "Indeed we do."
*
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Hey Guys,
So here is Chapter 3! I know you are all impatient for the appearance of Obsidian and Circe but you will just have to be patient for a little while longer, it is coming, I promise. It would mean a lot to me if you could all Vote and share around this story! I would love for APK: Resurrection to start climbing up the Adventure list and it can only get there with YOUR help!
Love you all heaps,
Daisy xox