Page 28

CHAPTER 28

T he hike to the dragon was filled with talk about before the collapse. Beard led the walk and was happy to tell Pan all about Beita. Though he was closed lipped about the herd and their losses.

Noah was also tight of tongue. Whether it was because he was thinking or because he was annoyed, it was hard to tell as he spoke to no one, not even his friends and his gaze was fixed ahead on the trail as he walked next to a centaur who was equally silent. At the back of the line were Web and Liam, who passed the occasional whisper, but appeared to have no intention of trying to draw Noah into conversation.

The longer the silence dragged on, the more concerned Pan became. He should not be troubling himself with the whims of a single person, but right now, that person was all he had.

Noah needed to be his world, the one whose prayers he answered before they were spoken aloud. He laughed as Beard made a joke about the city’s minotaur population. The old one about minotaurs, satyrs and centaurs.

The joke stemmed from an incident that had been lost to history for the mortals. He remembered, and he doubted the elves had forgotten, either.

As a result, centaurs refused to deal with satyrs and elves, minotaurs didn’t deal with elves, and satyrs loathed centaurs. Given that most cities were made of many different peoples it often made things tricky. The city state of Calla, Beita’s nearest neighbor, was ruled by minotaurs, which must make the politics difficult because of course the centaurs hated that Beita traded with Calla.

The petty squabbles of mortals who didn’t have the life span to waste was exhausting. They had the ability to create wonderous things, if they laid down their spears and swords.

“Given the situation and the dire circumstances of all mythological beings, do you not think it would be wise to work together, instead of continuing ancient feuds?” Pan tried to keep the snap out of his voice.

“You believe we should unite against a common enemy?” Beard asked.

“Yes… No! Humans are not the enemy. Plenty lived on Tariko.” Which meant there may be Tarikian born humans in the human town. “We need to work together to create a home.”

“Now is the time to seize a home, while everyone is in disarray.” Beard tapped his spear on the ground.

Pan bit back on the sigh and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He couldn’t resist running his fingers through his hair and tugging on the end of his horn in frustration. Which only reminded him of the way Noah had held his horns last night. No one ever did that. They were too busy being grateful that he allowed them to touch him at all, but Noah had held on as if he had the power to control a god. In that moment he had, and that was not something Pan planned on admitting to anyone.

Beard had a point, even the humans didn’t know what was going on, but it didn’t feel right to launch an attack and carve out territory, creating further chaos and havoc and injury. He was sure that had Ares or Diana been having this conversation, they would have agreed to war. Epona would’ve ridden into battle with the centaurs and blessed their spears.

None of that was his scene.

And sure, there had been times where the other gods had teased him for his unwillingness to fight. While he longed for their counsel and company, fighting over ruins seemed pointless.

“You want to make fresh enemies in a world we know little about? You want to ask your fellow Tarikians to fight when they have lost their home and their loved ones? You want people to ignore their wounds and to attack those who may become friends?”

“That is my point. They may become friends. They may not. The longer we wait, the stronger they become.”

Pan shook his head. “I may only be acting lord of the city, but I will not ask traumatized people to find makeshift weapons to fight in a war that does not need to be fought.”

Beard spat on the ground. “You never had the heart for a fight.”

“Because there are other ways.” He stared ahead and considered his next words very carefully. Because he did not want to be the one starting a fight while discussing war. “You are allied with Beita…do not act rashly to change that.”

“You wield threats with nothing to back them up.”

“I worked with you in good faith, to secure the return of the dragon and your tents. I promised a healer to tend your wounded.” You were the ones who made threats. And if he’d had an iota of magic, he would have made them pay. As it was the small amount he gained last night, he’d quickly spent, with no idea if it had been enough to be successful.

The scent of charred wood and dragon shit filled his nose and lungs. It was almost enough to make him retch. Others did. They’d better not start vomiting or he may not be able to hold back, and he had little enough pride that he did not want to lose what was left. Or the breakfast he’d eaten what felt like half a day ago but was only a quarter-day.

“We are close now,” Beard announced, as if that wasn’t obvious. “I suggest you announce yourself, so she does not turn her fire on you.”

Hopefully, he’d finish this without making another deal with a dragon. He called out a greeting in Dragon announcing who he was and that the centaurs were allowing her to go free.

When she didn’t answer, he walked faster, afraid that she’d died overnight. He should have insisted on going to her last night, instead of waiting. What if she had given up?

Then she chirped a welcome.

Beard sped up, so Pan had no chance of reaching her first. The path hooked around and there she was, in the clearing. Her wing pierced by a tree and her front leg at an awkward angle. She couldn’t move to hunt or eat or drink.

This was a rather large and fetid pile of dragon shit. Literally and figuratively.

Pan turned around, sensing Noah but not seeing him. “Noah, call your people. The situation is rather more serious than we were led to believe.”

Noah must have heard him as he broke into the clearing at a run and skidded to a stop next to Pan with his eyes wide and a curse on his lips. “That’s not good.”

That was rather understating the problem. “Your people need to bring food and water for her.”

Noah nodded. “And a chainsaw.”

“A what-saw?”

“It’s a machine to cut through the tree. I’ll also update our location.”

Beard grinned. “I warned you. She was only good for a tent. She’ll never fly again.”

Pan glared at the centaur, and wondered how he would enjoy having a spear through his hand and one broken leg and then being abandoned to suffer in pain, consumed by hunger and thirst. If he’d had magic…

“Leaving her like that is cruel,” Noah muttered.

Pan grunted. “But killing her breaks the treaty with the city.” That treaty was the only reason the dragon was alive, and he couldn’t break it by feeding Beard to the dragon, no matter how tempting.

“She might die before we can save her.” Noah tapped on his phone, crafting a message to his aunt. No courier pigeons or magic required. Amazing. He wanted a phone. Perhaps it was a technological magic he’d be able to use.

Perhaps the other gods would also acquire one so they could discuss how best to fix this world before the humans and mythological beings fucked it up further. While he loved to place bets, he didn’t know who was going to make the biggest mess. And he didn’t want to be the only god fixing it.

Pan cast a closer eye over the dragon. While she was dehydrated, dragons didn’t eat every day, so the lack of food probably wasn’t hurting her. Nor was there any fresh blood around her. “Dragons are hardy.”

And no doubt the reason for all the burned grass was because she’d threatened the centaurs, who while not willing to kill her, were quite happy to hasten her demise.

Noah gave him a concerned look, as if he didn’t believe any living creature could survive having their wings impaled by a tree and then not eating for several days.

Pan turned to Beard and spoke in Tarikian. “Where is the nearest water source?”

“There is a river not far.” He jerked his head in the direction.

“Excellent. Then I suggest you find a very large bucket and start filling it so the dragon can have a drink.” He should’ve ordered that last night. And if the centaurs had been honest and told him she was impaled and unable to move, he might have thought of it. Instead, they’d led him to believe she couldn’t fly or walk.

“We have completed the end of our deal. Now we wait for our tents.”

Pan growled and stalked over to the much larger being. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

However, he had not made sure one of the requirements of the deal was that the dragon should be alive. This was why he shouldn’t be in charge of a city. He wasn’t good at negotiations. And truthfully, he’d been more concerned about getting him and Noah away from the camp.

“This is your city’s dragon. How do you think her mate will feel when he finds out that you were too lazy to fetch her water and left her to die?”

Beard lifted his chin and tapped his spear on the ground, but didn’t seem as confident. “You will not tell him. He will attack us and then there will be war.”

“I don’t need to say anything. The humans will. They are not bound by our treaties and rules.” He indicated to Noah’s friends and watched as Beard did the same calculations that he had done far too many times over the last couple of days.

Who was lying, who was telling the truth, and what might the cost be? Was it a chance he was willing to take or a risk that should be mitigated? There was no right answer. There was no clarity anymore, and he hated it with every fiber of his being.

He drew in a breath, wanting nothing more than to go back to how things had been. If he could go back, he swore he would visit the human world more frequently. Perhaps it was the gods ignoring this world that had contributed to the loss of magic.

But all the gods, with all their magic, lacked the power to recreate an entire world. That kind of magic belonged to the old ones and if they existed, they were sleeping or otherwise occupied, and he was not about to do anything that might attract their attention. They might consider ending this world to eliminate any additional problems.

Beard gave the water orders to three centaurs. They bowed and cantered away.

It was about fucking time someone started listening to him.

“The vet…doctor…is almost here. She’s got a local farmer with a tractor and…oh never mind.” Noah shook his head. “The farmer is going to help transport the dragon into town. His land backs onto this park. Forest.”

“Thank you…though how will she locate us?”

Noah waved his phone. “It has a map, and I sent our location. We should head downhill toward the farm, and get out from under the trees, so they can find us more easily.”

Pan glanced at Web and Liam. They would be the least useful with the dragon and if something happened, they’d talk. “Send them. Tell them to speak to Linda and Lord Feryn if we are not back in town by tomorrow.” He doubted the vampire would do anything, but Linda would. Though if the centaurs betrayed them, Pan did not expect to live.

Noah hesitated for a couple of heartbeats, as if he wanted to ask questions, but after studying Pan’s expression, he turned and walked away. Pan did not like this frost between them, but he did not know what he had done wrong, or what he should’ve done differently.

He’d worshipped Noah like a god and shown him how to touch magic—that it still existed had been a blessed relief. Most people would be grateful for the opportunity. Most people would’ve been thanking him for both the pleasure and the magic. He watched Web and Liam skirt the edge of the clearing, and head in the direction Noah pointed.

Web most definitely would’ve thanked him. But showing magic to Web was like trying to teach a mermaid to paint. Pointless and painful for everyone, though mostly him.

The dragon called to Pan, and he walked around until she saw him. “There are thin skins coming to help.”

‘Human’ in Dragon was ‘thin skin’.

“You will help, sun eyes?”

Pan gave her a sad smile. “I am wounded. No magic.”

Her nostrils flared as she sniffed him. “What happened?”

With the limited vocabulary of Dragon, he didn’t know where to start. “This is not our world. This one has no magic.”

Her tail twitched in anger at the loss or because she didn’t understand? “My mate?”

“He is in the city. He was searching for you when he found me.”

She wriggled as though she wanted to join him but only hissed in pain.

“Be still. You will be free soon.”

She looked at her front leg, which was broken from the strange angle it created. “I am too wounded.”

“The thin skins have a healer with a different kind of magic.” And if the vet didn’t help, they were going to be eaten, which was not a good outcome for anyone. He glanced in the direction that Web and Liam had gone.

Where were they?