Page 30 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Chapter Twenty-Six

The Mind

Kerrigan woke in a dark room, lying on the ground with her hands before her in magic-dampening shackles. She guessed they weren’t going to take any chances on the communication issue.

She wasn’t gagged, so she could scream. Little that would do her.

She could practically feel the oppressive weight of the mountain around her.

The House of Shadows had another name for the Holy Mountain—Nineveh.

The twin peak to their Ravinia Mountain.

And while Ravinia had been mined for all its tendrille years before, Nineveh hummed with it.

Tendrille was powerful enough in this quantity that she didn’t need magic to feel its presence.

She might not have even needed the shackles to dampen the magic.

Tendrille was immune to magic. Putting shackles on her in a room that was immune to the stuff was probably overkill, but who was she to judge?

With a wince, Kerrigan lifted herself to her elbows and looked around the room.

It was large enough for several dragons to comfortably fit with two large exits covered by tendrille-enforced doors.

The room itself was bare, save for some food and water on a platter on a small wooden table and a chamber pot across the room.

Not even a book to read or a chair to sit in. Great.

Her head ached from the attendant who had tried to bash her brains in. She came slowly to her feet, wishing she’d had Audria with her. Audria might have been a shit healer, but she was better than no healer.

Now that Kerrigan was standing, she saw there was one other thing in the room. She headed toward the table and grabbed the sole piece of paper.

The Threefold Test

Body. Mind. Soul.

Mind was circled to highlight what part of the test Tieran was on.

No magic can penetrate.

No mind-speak may pierce.

No loved ones are safe.

The champion has a choice—you or the other.

Bound till sunrise.

Till death.

Kerrigan cursed. Well, that was ominous.

Tieran had to choose between her and another person he loved before the sun rose again. If not, then they all died. She couldn’t speak to his mind or reach out to him in any way. Hence the giant tendrille chamber and shackles.

A smile came to her lips as she sank back onto the hard ground and reached for the thread she’d left open as soon as she and Gelryn had begun planning.

He had told her not to bother with the first test. Her interference would only hinder Tieran’s focus, and they both agreed he was a better fighter than Dalrig.

But the mind test was something else. It was a way to break the dragon by forcing an impossible choice.

There were ways around that—at least for her.

Kerrigan tugged on the thread. Her Doma powers didn’t work the same way as the rest of the Fae’s powers did, and this ceremony had been put into place with the dragons and Fae as the contingents.

They couldn’t counter the gods. If they could, they might not have been sent to Alandria in the first place thousands of years ago.

So when she had come back out of the spirit plane, she had left a part of herself open to it, a tether to the plane that she could use as a little loophole for the test—something a Fae couldn’t possibly do.

Only a dragon had access to the plane, but even a dragon would be hindered by the tendrille.

The metal was a product of the gods. She could, if she chose, utilize its powers for herself.

Or so Gelryn believed.

For now, she needed to see if her trusty loophole worked.

She tugged, and the spirit plane materialized. A slow, dangerous smile came to her face. So much for magic dampening.

She dug back into her magic, which was unrestricted on the plane.

She couldn’t conjure the elements here, but it worked the same.

Every creature had a magical signature that felt different from any of the others.

She had long ago found that Tieran’s had the scent of baking cinnamon and hearth fire. He felt like winter warmth.

Her magic cast from the plane, and it only took a minute for Tieran to appear when she called him.

He blinked at her in a panicked surprise. “Kerrigan?”

“No time to explain. Gelryn figured out a back door for me to talk to you.”

“This is cheating.”

“Is it cheating when the loophole exists? Or is it dumb not to utilize it?”

“It is cheating.”

“Gods, Gelryn told me to do this. So take it up with him. I’m not sure where I’m at. Somewhere in the mountain surrounded by tendrille. Now that I’m on the plane, you can locate me like we used to have to do during training.”

Tieran huffed dramatically. “If they found out…”

“They won’t. Who is the other person they have restrained?”

He was silent a beat. “My sister.”

“I love how forthcoming we are with each other,” she said sarcastically. “First your mother and now a sister. I didn’t even know you had a sister.”

“She is kin of Thiery. We have different fathers.”

“Just so you know, I don’t have any other siblings.”

Tieran’s golden eye narrowed. “This is not a joking matter.”

“Look, use the connection between us and find me. Then we can locate your sister—whose name is?”

“Amita.”

“Beautiful.”

Tieran shot her another irritated look. His wings fluttered out and his neck twisted. He was anxious. Not just upset with her but flustered and scared.

“Hey. We’ll get through this together, okay? Like we always have.”

“I did not want to kill Dalrig. He was an honorable dragon.”

“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “I know what that’s like.”

“And now you are in danger because of me, as is Amita, and she is just a hatchling. We have not even made a family bond.”

“You’re in danger because of me all the time. It’s only fitting that it’s now my turn. But look, we can get to Amita together. Just find me first. I’ll stay on the plane so we can navigate this. Okay?”

Tieran straightened as if her presence brought him back to himself. “Understood.”

He flashed and then was gone from the plane, but their connection remained strong here. She settled onto the ground and let her mind reach out while her spirit stayed tethered. They could do this together. She believed in them.

The silence was almost a comfort as she sat on the plane, in control once more of her secure place.

Tieran was drawing nearer. He was still miles away from her current location, but she could feel him now.

It wouldn’t be that long. She had no sense of time passing.

They would have to have enough to locate Amita too.

It was supposed to be an either-or, but would Thiery let her hatchling perish?

It was possible, since she’d sent Tieran to the tournament against his will.

Dragons were without mercy was what Kerrigan kept hearing.

Only that wasn’t her experience. Not with Tieran.

Not with Gelryn. Not with Tavry, rest his soul.

Or so many others. They weren’t a monolith, and she had to think that Thiery wasn’t all she pretended she was either.

Kerrigan was so deep in her mind that it felt like she blinked and Tieran charged through the door.

“How long?”

“Hours,” he said.

Hours. It had felt like seconds. Gods, the spirit plane was a devious mistress.

“I do need help with these,” she said, holding her chained hands out.

Tieran brought a claw forward and snapped them in half. “Ready?”

She rose to her feet. “Amita?”

“I have an idea,” he told her. His head tilted. “Are you well?”

“Yeah,” she said, shaking away the feeling of lost time.

She cumbersomely climbed onto his back and secured herself behind his long neck.

She rested for a moment, that slow chill creeping through her.

The plane was dangerous. She had known that, but she had been using it for her own means for so long, she had ceased seeing it as such.

Today was a sharp reminder of what could happen.

She put the horrid sensation behind her and straightened in her seat. “Where are we headed?”

“I had much time to think,” he began as they left the confines of her chamber.

“The tests are supposed to be able to be completed. If Dalrig was a test of my body and this is a test of my mind, then there must be a clue to how I can succeed. The chamber I found you in was my hatchling home for many years.”

“It was somewhere you were familiar with.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “It was how I continued forward once you disappeared. I had the vague sense of direction for where you were, and then I suddenly knew where they had put you. It was where I first met Risa.”

Kerrigan was silent a moment. Gelryn had suggested that all this was an elaborate test of his fortitude without his mate, that it all came down to Risa. It always came back to Risa. And while she knew that dragons were not merciful, it felt especially cruel to make him choose.

“And so I have an idea of where they would take Amita,” he told her.

They’d come out of the mountain. Kerrigan took in a deep breath of fresh air. She hadn’t realized how oppressive the Holy Mountain felt with all its tendrille compared to her home of Draco Mountain or even Ravinia in the House of Shadows.

They circled the mountain, heading west toward the coast. They had to be an hour away from the coastline, but still Everic Ocean shimmered in cobalt on the horizon.

They were nearly in Herasi territory. Zina and her dragon, Vox, were close enough that Kerrigan could almost feel her energy. Not that they had time for a visit.

It was more than an hour by the time Tieran lowered altitude and headed toward the coastline of Bain Bay. Kerrigan had never been to the famed pebbled shores. She thought Tieran would land, but he continued past a small village and out into the bay itself.

The sun was dangerously low on the horizon—they would have to trek the hour back to the Holy Mountain in the dark. She didn’t like this. If he was wrong, then they had no other option.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked Tieran.