Page 26 of The Storm of the Empire (Flyers Of The First Kingdom #3)

TWENTY-FIVE

HAZEL

T ears welled up in my eyes as I flew through the night.

Dawn broke as the city came into view, and I flew straight for Nyx’s quarters.

Luka filled my thoughts all the way home. Had I done the right thing in leaving him? Should I have taken him, even against his will? The drinking had made us both over-emotional, no doubt, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that he was just willing to turn a cheek to a cavern full of undead on our territory for the good of his information gathering.

He didn’t have a head for war if those were his methods. How far would he let this go before he decided it was too much? How many deaths would be on his hands? I had to act.

It was too much. The Dragon’s Bane passing through the hands of the priests, the eggs, and now the undead? I couldn’t ignore it, so I flew on with the strength of my convictions through the night.

Naked, I hammered on his door and waited while I heard him climbing from bed.

He snatched the door open, a scowl on his face, then froze, his expression softening. “Hazel, what’s wrong?”

I realized I was panting and probably looked half crazed. “Can I come in?”

He stepped aside, letting me pass, and Zaria came from their bed chamber, instantly untying her robe and offering it to me. I took it gratefully.

“What is going on?” Nyx asked, a measure of authority in his voice. “Was everything alright at home?”

I had intended to spill it all out right then and there, but I realized in that moment that it was a very long story he had no inkling of. As far as he knew, I’d visited home for a week or so.

I gulped for a breath collecting myself. “You’d better sit down. I have a lot to tell you.”

We all took a seat in their sitting area, and I gathered my thoughts.

“Everything is fine at home, my family are safe.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Zaria said, pressing her hand to her heart.

“But there are things going on that you need to hear about, and I need you to listen because Luka is in the middle of it all,” I rushed out in one long breath.

Nyx looked taken aback. “Luka? What do you have to do with Luka?”

I nodded, filing through events in my head to decide where to start. “When I arrived back home and found all was well, I visited the temple to settle my mind. I found Luka there.”

“In Storm?” Nyx clarified, then glanced at Zaria. “Did he tell you he left?”

She shook her head.

“Well he has, and he was dressed as a priest.”

Nyx’s brows rose. “The things he will do…”

“So I have discovered,” I said wryly.

“What was he doing in Storm?” At least he’d confirmed that part of Luka’s story.

“He said he had followed his nose, searching for bane, and wound up on a ship escorting some cargo with the priests, which brought him to Storm.” I hated being the one to break this to them. Zaria and Luka were best friends, and here I was, about to ruin it.

“What kind of cargo?” Zaria asked.

I took a breath, suddenly aware that the story was going to sound far-fetched to anyone, but having burst in at the crack of dawn and woken them from their bed, I ran the risk of them not believing me at all.

“Dragon eggs,” I breathed, feeling a weight lift off for having said it to someone who needed to know.

“What?” Nyx growled, getting to his feet. “Surely you can’t be suggesting the priests are moving dragon eggs. They care for them, but they don’t move them.”

“I know it sounds crazy—I doubted it myself—but it’s true,” I said, not knowing if I was defending Luka or reporting him for misdeeds anymore. I didn’t know who I could trust except Nyx, and I needed him to help me unravel it all.

“Where did these dragon eggs even come from?” he asked disbelievingly.

“Truthfully, I don’t know. We had to work on the assumption that they were taken from the nurseries here or in other kingdoms.” This was not the way I wanted to tell them this news, but what other choice did I have?

“To what end? Because Storm has so few dragons?”

“No, they could never be passed off as storm dragons, no matter what they were, so there’s something else going on.” My anxiety rose with every word. How could we get Alora’s egg back if this was such a massive conspiracy?

Nyx fell back into a chair, his day already becoming too much for him to handle. I felt terrible for making it so, but this was too important.

“As you know, we only have Alora with an egg currently, and I was very concerned about their safety. We heard that the priests were to be performing a six month check on the egg, so we paid them a visit to observe in secret.” I barely kept my voice from trembling.

Nyx leant forward, listening.

“We concealed ourselves so as not to blow Luka’s cover with the sun order if any of them happened to recognize him. But Nyx, they switched the egg. They took Alora’s and left another in its place.”

“Goddess have mercy,” Zaria murmured as Nyx raked his hand down his face in despair.

I hung my head as the next admission I was going to make hit me. “We did nothing to stop them, Nyx. I’m so sorry. I feel sick over it, but there was nothing we could do that wouldn’t alert the priests that we were on to them and put all the eggs in jeopardy. I wanted to save Alora’s egg, I really did, but Luka said?—”

Nyx took my hand at the same time as Zaria’s arm slipped around my shoulders. “It’s okay. You did the right thing. We need to know as much as possible to stop whatever this is.”

“Well, we followed the egg to the docks and got on a ship with them, but we couldn’t locate them before—” I barely held back tears. All the emotions I’d bottled up for a week were hitting me at once. The grief and anger rocked me to my core.

“Before what?” Nyx urged.

I looked into his eyes. “How much do you trust Luka?” I turned to Zaria. “I’m sorry, I know he’s like a brother to you, but I’m just so confused about everything, and the one thing that keeps nagging at my core is Luka in the middle of all of this.”

Zaria took the hand that wasn’t in Nyx’s. “Luka is the best of them. I know he can seem tricky, but that’s just his way of surviving.”

“I trust him,” Nyx added, holding my gaze. “Not just because Zaria does but because I feel it in him.”

I nodded, feeling slightly better, but I still had this nagging gut feeling Luka wasn’t being fully truthful. “Well, while I was sleeping, Luka says he took a walk on deck and saw the captain hand off two crates to mysterious males on a small vessel off the southern end of the Storm coast, where the sea meets the Wild Mountains. He called it a ghost drop.”

Nyx went rigid. “And these were the eggs?”

“I don’t know. Once they were aboard, we were never able to locate them before that drop and not since either. Luka thinks they were smuggled overboard, but like I said, I wasn’t there. We found a confusing cargo of supplies on the ship, all marked by the sun symbol of the priest’s order. There were even prisoners on board. Whatever these priests are into, it is far bigger than some Dragon’s bane and a few stolen eggs. Faolan said?—”

“Wait, Faolan?”

“Yes…you know him?”

“He’s a friend of Jaxus’,” Nyx said exchanging a look with Zaria. “How does Luka know him?”

“Luka met him on his voyage to storm. He was first mate on the ship.”

Nyx looked ashen and turned to Zaria. “We need to wake Jaxus and Kiera. They need to be here for this. Let me go.”

I grabbed him. “Please, let me get through this. It gets so much worse.”

“I’ll go get them.” Zaria changed and left in a hurry.

“What is worse?”

“There is more to the story, but we found what looks to be an army of the undead amassing on Damona Island” My words went off like a bomb.

Nyx’s expression worked through a wave of emotions. “Where? That’s an active port. We would have had reports.”

“No, not at the main port. There is what used to be a temple, long abandoned, on the coast to the West side of Damona Island.”

“That’s all cliff face. No ship can dock there.”

“Or so we thought.”

“How did you even get there?” Nyx sat back like he was trying to process all the information I’d given him.

We didn’t have time for anything more before Zaria returned with Jaxus and Kiera. They greeted me warmly, but everyone wanted to get more information, so the niceties were soon put aside.Nyx filled them in while Zaria made tea. And before Nyx finished, a cook brought in an assortment of breakfast foods they must have called for on their way here.

“Tell me how my old friend Faolan is doing,” Jaxus said with a small smile.

“How do you know Faolan?” I couldn’t believe the connection.

“He’s like a brother to me,” Jaxus said with a measure of pride that made me question my opinion of Faolan. He hadn’t exactly done anything that made me suspicious of him other than being on the boat and knowing Luka. But hearing that he was so important to Jaxus changed things slightly. It left even more questions, too.

I suddenly thought of something that didn’t fit. “Wait.” I turned to Jaxus. “I thought you came from a fringe village with no other dragons. Faolan is a dragon.” It wasn’t a question, more of an accusation.

Jaxus opened his mouth, then closed it and sighed, looking down at his hands.

Kiera smoothed her hand over his shoulder in a soothing gesture, and he nodded to her. She looked at me. “I will have to tell you that story because these three are bound by an oath and cannot.”

I frowned. “An oath?”

“Jaxus is from a place hidden away from the kingdoms.” She took his hand in hers. “It’s a land of only dragons hidden in the Wild Mountains called Kerani. Faolan is from there, too.”

I drew in a sharp breath and pressed my hand to my chest. “How can this be?”

“I know it seems unfathomable, but it is true, I’ve seen it myself.”

“So why can’t they talk about it?” I asked, taking in the stricken faces of Jaxus, Nyx and Zaria. They looked almost fearful of the information Kiera was sharing.

“After the attack on the flight in the Second Kingdom, Nyx and Zaria were making an escape and headed into the Wild Mountains to evade pursuit. Nyx was injured, and Zaria had no choice but to set them down within the mountain range itself.”

I gasped. “Nothing can survive in there!” I knew from having grown up adjacent to the mountains. The storms kept even our kind out. There was magic in the mountains that didn’t want fae there.

“That’s just part of the protection they use to conceal themselves from the reach of the King,” Kiera informed me. “They’ve been there since the unification of the kingdoms, hiding away from the new order they disagreed with. And they will keep it that way at any cost. Hence the oath they had to swear to be allowed to leave.”

“And you didn’t?”

“When Jaxus took me there, we were told we could never leave, so I was not made to swear any such oath. We escaped with Faolan, so he and I are not bound to silence. Although we keep the secret nevertheless.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

“So how is Faolan?” Jaxus asked, sounding like he was coming unstuck from his silence to a topic that was safer.

“Well, I think. He seemed to be valued on the ship and happy enough in his work. I didn’t get to know him all that well.”

“It’s good to know he is thriving out here. He always wanted to stretch his wings,” Jaxus said wistfully.

“Okay, can we pick up from the smuggling so I can understand how we got to the undead?” Nyx said, urging the story on.

I nodded, but Jaxus was wide eyed.

“Wait, no, you have to go back. Undead?!”

Realizing they all needed to know everything, I ran them through where I’d gotten to with Nyx.

“Where on the coast did you say this ghost drop took place?” Jaxus asked.

“I was below decks, but according to Luka, it was around where the sea meets the foothills of the Wild Mountains, which would be a challenging place for anyone to wait for a ship but ideal for smugglers since it’s barely inhabited land.”

“And after you left there, you sailed to Damona Island?” Nyx asked. “But the rest of the cargo was confusing?”

“Yes, we were searching for Alora’s egg and went through a good number of crates. It was like a supply drop for an outpost. Large scale basic supplies. Nothing I could fathom the priests needing in a big haul like that since they are self-sufficient. But then we docked on the west side of Damona Island, and that’s where it was all for. We unloaded there and spent the night.”

“I don’t understand how they brought a ship into that part of Damona Island,” Nyx said. “The West side is sheer cliff and treacherous sailing.”

“There is a small port built into the cliffs there, I couldn’t believe it myself, but I saw it with my own eyes. It’s nearly invisible from the sky too, so a dragon flying over wouldn’t see it unless they knew what they were looking for. They have this large pulley system to pull the ship docking into a massive cave to conceal it.”

“What in the Goddess’ name?” Nyx stared off in thought for a moment before he went on. “And all these basic supplies went there. What do you think they are doing there, setting up some kind of outpost themselves?”

“It think that’s exactly what they are doing, but Nyx, when Luka and I did some looking around, we found a cavern where they are keeping undead. Hundreds of them. More than I could count.”

“Fuck,” Jaxus said sharply. “Right under our nose. No wonder you’ve seen some of them in the First Kingdom.”

Zaria placed her hand over her mouth, and Kiera looked up to the Goddess for salvation.

“I told you they were coming from somewhere closer!” Nyx said, clearly vindicated.

“Considering the circumstances, we figured it was part of your madness,” Zaria said sheepishly.

“My judgement has always been mostly sound, even in my grief.”

“Mostly,” Kiera muttered.

I wasn’t sure what they were all talking about, so I went on, needing to get the rest of this off my chest. “I’ve wanted to come back and report what we know to you several times, but Luka kept convincing me that we needed to find out more. But that was too much. There are undead in the First Kingdom, and he wanted to keep going and do nothing! It made me doubt him. What if he is involved? He seems to know fae in all these dark places, and he came from fae we know are involved in growing Dragon’s Bane—no offense, Zaria. But he still insists on wearing his pendant like some mark of loyalty to them. What am I supposed to think?”

“It’s understandable to doubt in those circumstances,” Zaria spoke. “But I promise you, Luka is not a part of what our families were involved in. He was, out of necessity, but he worked his way out and has used all the insight he gained during that time to help us. He wears that pendant out of some misplaced homesickness. Not for the fae or what they stood for—he wears it for a life we had no choice in but was still ours. He drifts now and doesn’t feel as though he really belongs anywhere, and that pendant is the only link back to when he actually did. Whether he wanted to or not.”

I dropped my head into my hands. It was all too confusing.

“So where are they now?” Jaxus interjected. “Luka and Faolan, I mean. He didn’t come back with you?”

“He wouldn’t. His cover was more important to him than warning you.” I looked up at the expectant faces. “Back with the ship, I guess. We had a disagreement, and I left. I couldn’t allow this to go unreported, and he wanted to see the trip through to see what else he could learn.”

Zaria gasped. “You left him there with the undead?”

“They were not an immediate threat. The ship will be setting sail again as soon as new cargo is loaded.”

Zaria looked to Nyx, “We must go!”

“Hold on. We can’t just fly off on a whim without gathering some intelligence and making a plan,” he said firmly. “We need a full scale flight to make sure we can take them by surprise and dispatch the undead.”

“Oh, that’s easy for you to say now. How about all the times you went off looking for Kol on your own?” She closed her mouth quickly, but it was too late. The words had already come out.

Nyx stood and gathered her in his arms. “I know you’re worried about Luka, but he chose to stay, and not only that, he’s tough and smart. He will be fine while we figure out a plan of action. He knows how to protect himself.”

“If he’s with Faolan, they will be okay,” Jaxus added. Worry was evident on his face too, but he had confidence in his friends. Both of them. It was like a knife to my gut.

“Are you sure you trust him?” Had I acted too hastily, leaving Luka there in such dangerous circumstances? Was I wrong to doubt him even though all the signs were mounting up against him? I was left knowing that if something happened to Luka because I had abandoned him there, I would never forgive myself.

“I need to brief the King and get my counselors,” Nyx said, getting to his feet. He went to the dresser for some parchment and pens and returned, silently scratching out a list in his loose scrawl.

When he had finished, it covered the most basic points:

Dragon’s Bane

Priests

Dragon Eggs

Damona Island—West Side hidden port.

Undead

Faolan

Supplies

We all looked the list over, taking in the information.

“Did I miss anything?” Nyx asked.

I thought through the events. “The prisoners?”

Nyx nodded, adding that to the list. “What in the Goddess’ name are the priests handling prisoners for? Are you certain they weren’t being transported by the guard? They handle all imprisonment through the Twelve Kingdoms.”

“I know that, but Luka said they were collected from the temple in Runerth and were on the manifest with the rest of the priest’s cargo.”

“Who were they? Was there any information?”

“No, none. We barely saw them for a moment, but they looked in bad shape. Dirty and hungry looking, I guess. They were in shackles and led to a holding place on the ship we didn’t have access to. When they were taken off the boat on Damona Island, one of the dock hands was told to put them with the others, so there must be more being kept in that place. Do you think they are turning them into the undead?!” I shook my head, trying to stop it spinning out of control. “By the Goddess, this never seems to end!”

We spent several hours working on what little intelligence we had. It was the first time I’d ever been involved in such things in the palace, since my ryderless status had never allowed me to be a part of it all. But I had plenty of experience from training schools and being raised by one of the most decorated dragons in history.

There was tension in the room. Nyx did not feel like we had enough to sell the King on a raid, but he was determined to bring him a plan to convince him. But before we even got close, an alarm sounded for the healer’s wing.