Page 23

CHAPTER 23

T he tent was made of dragon hide. The scales gleamed in the firelight. Around Pan was the murmur of camp life, and beneath that was tension and fear. Children weren’t playing, they were staying close to their parents, and their parents were tired.

And all around the camp, armed guards moved as though they feared an attack was imminent.

Beard opened the tent flap and pushed Pan in.

There was a small fire over which a metal pot of water boiled. Pan paused for a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the dimmer interior.

The female he assumed to be the queen lay on a blanket as if expecting him.

He kneeled in front of her as Beard introduced him as a trespasser and dragon hunter. Both of which were wrong, but he wasn’t about to reveal that he spoke their language. He waited for them to address him in Tarikian.

“What is your name?” the queen demanded.

That depended on who he was talking to and what he wanted them to know. If he used any of the names that he’d gone by on Tariko, then they might work out who he was, which then meant that he had no access to magic. And admitting to being a god with no magic in the middle of a centaur camp was not the wise thing to do. However, he needed to know if Epona was around if only to avoid her in the future.

Though truthfully, she could be in any centaur camp.

She could be anywhere…or nowhere.

He could not have been the only god to have survived. That was a thought he didn’t want to dwell on. Couldn’t if he wanted to leave this camp with the dragon.

“You know me by many names, Your Majesty.” And hate me by all. And without magic, he couldn’t give her a glimpse of his power. Instead, he kneeled there, waiting for her answer.

She smiled as if she didn’t believe him. “ One of many names , yet you travel with humans and seek a dragon. Why?”

“Lord Feryn, the new ruler of Beita following the death of his uncle, sent me on this quest. The male dragon is desperate for his mate.”

“And the humans? They are part of this world?”

Pan nodded. “They are. They know this place and the customs.”

“And one is a witch,” she said, as though only seeking confirmation.

Pan nodded. “He is adept at locating things and was leading us to the dragon. Your guard assured us she is alive.”

Please let that be the truth.

He was starting to understand why people prayed to the gods for help. It was because they didn’t have magic and needed magical help. So things were rather dire when he, a god, had no magic and no one to pray to.

Although he did have Noah…

“She is,” the queen confirmed. “Though for how much longer, I am not sure. When she dies, she will make a very nice tent.” The queen indicated to her lovely dead dragon tent. She placed her hand on her belly. “My daughter will need a tent. We lost so much when the world crumbled.”

“We all did, Your Majesty. As did the humans of this world.”

She snorted. “The humans of this world forced us out centuries ago.”

“That is true. Your kind are fierce warriors who fought in many battles for much gold.” Her dark hair was filled with golden beads. He didn’t want to count her kills. “You did not deserve to be forced out.”

She considered him for several heartbeats. “You have always had free passage between the worlds.”

He inclined his head in agreement. “My kind has.”

“Epona is not answering our prayers. Is there no way home?”

Pan pressed his lips together. The fire crackled, and the pot bubbled. Beyond the hide walls, centaurs talked. Were the humans safe? He needed to return to Noah, but he needed the dragon’s safety more. “I have not seen any others of my kind. Nor spoken to them. But if they have suffered the same as me, then they are unable to answer prayers.”

“My patience wears thin. Speak plainly, god.”

Pan drew in a breath. “My connection to magic has been severed.”

The queen blinked several times as if digesting the unwelcome news that her goddess wouldn’t be helping her. “Explain.”

“I cannot use magic. Though I can sense it, which is how I found the witch.”

“And what magic can he do?”

There was a greedy glint in the queen’s eye. Noah was his, and he was not letting a fucking centaur queen take him. “There is very little magic in this world, Your Majesty. As I said before, he can find things that are close by.”

That might be a small lie, but it was the only magic he’d seen Noah do, and he wasn’t even sure Noah considered it magic. “I need to reunite the dragon with her mate, or he will burn what is left of Beita and the human city.”

“And why should I care?” She turned her attention to Beard and ordered him to bring the witch in her own language. “What is the witch’s name?”

“Noah.”

Beard left the tent, leaving them alone. She gave him a cold smile. “Now, give me one of yours.”

Pan sighed. There was no avoiding it, but he tried anyway. “Silas Wilde.”

She grunted. “Pan. Cernunnos. Amun.”

He inclined his head. “That is I. I wish I had better news about Epona.”

“Liar. We have tales of your feud.”

His lips curved. It wasn’t a feud that implied they sought each other out to create trouble. “It is true we are not close, but that is true of many siblings. I do not wish her ill, and I hope that she and the others of my kind are coping with this hideous loss. I do not like walking around with what feels like a gaping maw in my chest. The loss of magic is a wound that I cannot staunch. And I do not wish that on anyone.”

Except for the banished one. He hoped that, now he was mortal, someone seized the opportunity to kill him.

“That I believe. It means the gods are dead and of no use.”

That was a rather hasty and final judgement.

“Lord Feryn still has a use for me.” He lifted his hand to the ring.

“You are merely an emissary.”

She did not need a spear to be brutal, stabbing through his pride like it was already dead. He added it to his list of reasons why he did not like centaurs.

The tent flapped behind him, and Noah dropped to his knees next to him. He was both prickly with an annoyance and delightfully scented with magic from his prayers. It was unfortunate he could not kiss him in front of the queen. That would only fuel her desire to keep Noah.

“So you are the witch,” she said, looking at Noah as though expecting him to understand Tarikian and answer.

Noah glanced at Pan. “What did she say?”

Pan had planned on waiting for the queen to figure it out. Now, he needed to step in. “He does not speak Tarikian.”

Her eyes narrowed, and her tail flicked with annoyance. “How can he be a witch if he does not speak the language of magic?”

“He hasn’t learned. He is born of this world.” And if Noah had been born on Tariko, magic would have flowed through his veins. Would he have survived the collapse? Would he be without magic now?

“Yet he is helping ours.” She tossed her head in disbelief, which wasn’t a good sign.

“Perhaps because he is drawn to all things magic.”

She nodded, the golden beads in her hair gleaming in the firelight. There were at least six. “Tell him the dragon is alive but wounded and that we plan to use her for a tent. If you were to take her, you would owe me a dragon skin tent. How many dragons survived? Perhaps he can find the bodies of the dead so we may claim the skin.”

Pan frowned, remembering her claim that the dragon may not survive long. “How injured is the dragon?”

“From what we can tell, her wing and leg are broken.”

The dragon was fucked, and the queen knew it. She didn’t need to risk her warriors when they could wait. “The male will not be happy.”

“If the city’s dragon attacks our camp, we will have no choice but to retaliate, and all treaties will be broken.”

Well, that was more tangled than an arachine’s web.

She flicked her fingers at him. “Tell your witch.”

Pan turned to Noah, rapidly trying to work out what their next step should be. “This is a delicate negotiation. We do not want to start a war between the city and the centaurs and the dragons.” It wouldn’t be the first war he’d started both on accident and purpose, but those situations had been entirely different.

The queen ordered Beard, who was probably her consort, given the freedom with which he moved around her tent and the authority he held in camp, to make her tea.

Noah’s eyebrows lifted.

“Don’t say anything yet. Let me rush through the rest. The dragon is injured. Broken wing and leg, which means she can’t move on her own. They are waiting for her to die, to use her hide as a tent. It’s what they make their tents with. Dragons and centaurs do not get on. She wants you to find the bodies of dragons that didn’t survive the collapse. Then we can take our dragon. Which doesn’t help us as she’s dying, and then the male will attack the centaurs and start a war. And you’ve seen enough centaurs to realize that’s a bad idea.”

Noah licked his lower lip, which was a tease, as he’d taste like lightning and honey and all the best bits of magic. “I don’t know if I can find dragon corpses. Also eww. But how big does she want the tent? Because we can get her tents. Liam has a two-person tent in his backpack. It’s not fancy, and it is tiny, but there are some big tents out there. Hell, I’ll raid the camping store for them, and they can have all the tents and stoves and shit they want.”

“Slow down because while I speak English, the way you speak it is different from how I last spoke it. I understand the gist of what you are saying, but sometimes the meaning is fuzzy. You have a tent shop?”

“Yes. And the dragon needs a vet…an animal doctor. And we can figure out a way to move her. We have cranes and massive trucks.” Noah paused for a moment, his eyebrows drawing together. “And given that dragons can fly, they can’t be that heavy.”

“Is a crane not a bird?”

Noah exhaled. “Yes, but it’s also a machine for lifting big, heavy things. And a truck is a really, really, big car used for transporting things.”

Pan nodded, understanding how that might work. It was, without a doubt, better than starting a war out of sheer incompetence.

The queen sipped her tea. “Your witch understands?”

“The witch has informed me that his friend has a tent in his bag. It is a small tent intended for two humans. But he will show it to you because they come in many sizes. He said it is far superior to dragon skin.”

The queen and Beard laughed.

“That doesn’t seem good,” Noah murmured.

“I want to see this tent,” Beard said. “He will set it up so we may all enjoy a laugh. Nothing is better than dragon skin.”

“You may see for yourselves.” He turned to Noah and smiled as if everything was fine. “Your tent is better than dragon skin?”

Noah gave him a stiff smile. “How am I supposed to know? I’d never seen a dragon until today. Oh my god, did you just tell her that?”

Pan held his gaze, lips pressed together, not sure if he was Noah’s god, but that was a question for later. “If she doesn’t like the tent, you are going to be spending the rest of your life as her pet witch, looking for dead dragons.”

“It’s a base model tent, nothing flash. If I’d known we needed a fancy tent, I’d have borrowed my uncle’s.”

“You need to sell it to them.” He turned back to the queen. “Should you like our offer of tents, we will need to bring a healer to assist the dragon and some…” How did he translate cranes and trucks into Tarikian? “Oversized human wagons to transport her.”

“A healer without magic cannot fix broken legs.” The queen sneered.

There was something in her expression that gave Pan a moment of pause. The centaurs had injured and no healer. Yet humans had no magic, but they had healers. He glanced at Noah. “Can vets fix broken legs?”

“Bones take time to heal, but they can set them or even operate and put metal rods in. Why?”

Pan didn’t answer Noah. He addressed the queen. “Any healer we summon to tend the dragon will also tend your wounded.”

Beard and the queen had a short discussion about taking the offer of tents and a healer. Even though they both agreed nothing was as good as dragon hide for making tents, their people needed help now.

The queen set down her metal cup and stood, towering over him. “Very well. Let us see the tent.”

“Pray they like the tent,” Pan murmured. Though he was almost sure they wanted the healer more than the tent at this point.

Noah rolled his eyes. “You should do the same. If there is a war, they won’t let you go since you wear the city’s ring.”

Selkie shit. He owed a dragon and a vampire. He did not have time to be a hostage for the other side.

Pan stood and offered his hand to Noah. “By all the magic on this cursed world. I fucking hope the human tent is better than dragon hide.”

“Wow, that got me right in the feels.” Noah patted his chest.

“I have no idea what you mean.” Though it did not sound sincere.

Noah lowered his voice. “That your prayers need more practice.”

Beard wrapped a meaty hand around each of their arms. “Move. I need to see this tent.”

“I have received thousands of years of prayers. I do not need practice.” Pan whispered.

“Uh-huh.”

He was going to show Noah exactly how someone should worship a god with his tongue and then demand the same. He thought about all the ways he’d been worshipped over the years and debated how best to use that knowledge on Noah when the strong scent of centaur piss and a human yelling interrupted.