Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

M alachi and I stood before Esta in the war room, the morning meeting with the advisors freshly over.

"What is it?" she asked as she and Amory were about to leave for a patrol. Amory loved running around now that she could shift again, and Esta believed the more people who saw them both healed would help with morale, so they went on patrols often. Land and sky together.

I felt they also needed time for talking together. Just the two of them.

"We have an idea," I started.

A smirk played on Esta's lips. "One treaty will suffice."

"It's about Enoch," Malachi blurted out.

"And what about him?" the queen asked coolly at the mention of the dragon who was imprisoned for his involvement in an attack on a young land dragon, Kian.

Malachi held up his good hand. "He is the only person we have left alive in all the attacks that have been made. I know he previously has refused to speak. And is being a belligerent prisoner based on the reports coming from Obsidian. But he is also our only living lead."

"Go on," Esta said, sitting back in her throne chair in the war room.

I looked her in the eyes. "Let me agree to help him shift back into his human form in exchange for information." It was a plan Malachi and I had mulled over for a few days. There was a lot going on across the entire realm, but I couldn't help this nagging feeling that helping Dra Skor identify their threat was the issue which mattered most.

"And then he gets to go free ?" she asked.

Amory sent us a glare. "After the things he said to her?"

I grinned. "No. Not at all. Freedom is not on the agenda for him."

"No?" Esta asked.

"No," Malachi agreed. "Keir thinks if we take his cell with us, he wouldn't even have to get out of it for the process. We need him in the lake of The Drak to properly heal him, so it seems best to keep him caged for this adventure. No gallivanting around Dra Skor with a prisoner. Enoch was willing to die because he wanted out of his dragon form. We can now offer him the one thing he wants more than anything else. To shift back."

"Oh," Amory sighed. "That's actually smart."

I shrugged. "But there is no way to do so without everyone knowing. A cell with a dragon of that size getting moved to The Drak would be hard to sneak."

Esta thought for a moment. "Nyx, Zaccai, and I could do it. It would be heavy, but we could do it. If you are successful, he'd be considerably lighter for the return trip. We could also do so at dawn, when the predators are sleeping, and the rest aren't yet up."

"We do run the risk of whomever is doing all of this finding out. And making a move on Enoch's life. "

"His problem for aligning himself with them in the first place," Esta argued.

"There are dozens of others that I would rather change back first," I told her. "Whit being at the top of that list. Or Kian or Savanna. Nyx."

"Yes, but we can't move too quickly changing all Dra Skor's Enchanted back, or the traitor will only have more power by being able to shift."

I had been back three days and not rushed to heal more for this very reason. I had assumed the lottery organizing was the delay. That and waiting for the team I would train to help to arrive from Wylan. But the queen was right.

"You finished the lottery order yesterday, correct?" I asked.

She gave me a shrug. "Yes. The advisors, because of their leadership positions, are going to be first on the list. Particularly because half of them are either already healed or human. So I say we heal the rest and sit back and watch what sort of hell breaks loose." She paused. "After you change back Enoch."

"If people find out about this, they will not be pleased," Malachi explained.

Esta countered, "If people find out about this, they will know we will stop at nothing to smoke out our traitors."

"And changing back one such traitor before your own brother?" Amory said, turning toward Esta. "Will that worsen tensions with your father?"

Esta let out a sigh, the kind that sometimes accompanied smoke in her dragon form. "No worse than they already are." She took a moment to think on it. "But let's do this tonight. Before we announce it to the advisors. Let's not allow them to get wind of this until after it is already done."

I had to admit I preferred riding Esta. Instead of flying at all, when Esta, Nyx, and Whit left to fetch our prisoner, Amory left with Malachi and me on her back.

Malachi cursed as yet another branch came directly at our faces forcing us to duck. "Knock it off, Amory."

At that exact moment Amory jumped over a log, and we both almost fell off.

"Slow it down, Am," I said gently. "You'll break Malachi's other arm and then I will force you to nurse him back to health."

She veered to the left and a branch almost hit me in the face had I not stopped it with my magic.

She purred a laugh.

Malachi snorted. "If you wanted to get me holed up in bed, there are far more exciting ways, Amory. Promise."

She let out a low growl that somehow seemed to be half growl, half laugh.

"You could slow down," I added. "We are already going to beat them to The Drak without maintaining this speed."

But I've missed this, she admitted, oddly serious.

"The breeze in your fur?" I asked. "Or is it the messing with your passengers?"

Yes. To both. A pause. Are you sure you will be able to do this without Emric's help?

"No," I responded. "Nyx or Whit might have to fetch him for us."

What a waste of your powers. Enoch.

"I know," I agreed. "But if it gets us even one name, it's worth it."

By the time the prisoner arrived, I determined they were making such a ruckus that there was no way half of Dra Skor hadn't overheard. Apparently, Enoch had been a prick the entire trip here. Earning multiple groans and roars from the dragons hauling his sorry self.

The minute the cage set down in the lake in barely enough water to slosh over Enoch's feet, Nyx swiped a talon in the cage. He wounded Enoch, but not enough to do any long-term damage. Meanwhile Enoch immediately laid down, not wasting any time in the water. He hadn't been submerged in water since his trip to Obsidian and was clearly missing it.

I will never cooperate , Enoch was sending to all of us. I don't know what kind of torture you have in mind, but you might as well kill me. It won't work.

Enoch, as a prisoner, would not be privy to the information that was well known across Dra Skor, would have no way of expecting what would happen next. Esta shifted before him, back to her human form. It seemed he had been too focused on making someone mad enough to kill him that he hadn't even noticed Malachi or Amory, or that the lake was no longer black either, and her shift caught him completely off guard.

His gasp swept across The Drak. No.

Yeah. She can shift again, you prick, Nyx sneered.

Can all of you?

"I have to heal them one at a time," I offered. "So it is a slow process. The queen, Amory, and Malachi are all able to shift back and forth now. A lottery is being drawn up for the rest of the Enchanted."

You brought me here why? To gloat?

"Awfully good at demanding answers considering you are a prisoner ," Esta said, her voice full of barely concealed rage. I could only imagine the amount of things Enoch had said to provoke her on the way over, much like he had when he was trying to get her to fight him and make her look bad to the people of Keld .

Awfully good at pretending the entire kingdom isn't falling apart, aren't you? he bit back.

My magic flared just before she moved like she wanted to deck him, human form and all, but I stepped forward instead. "Queen Esta?"

"Yes?"

And you are sleeping with the enemy? This guy? Enoch snorted from the cage. Surprised Reyald hasn't taken the crown off you himself.

My power flared again, and I didn't know if it was picking up the lethal intent pouring off Enoch or what.

"Es?" I asked again gently.

She looked at me, fire in her eyes, her jaw tight, her fury clear as day on her face even though it was barely dawn.

"Please go get Emric for me."

I can go, Nyx volunteered.

"No. She can," I disagreed.

"Why?" Esta's anger faded to confusion as she gave me her full attention.

"Because you do not need to stand here and take this. Nor do you need to see it. The rest of us can handle this."

Enoch tried to make some other rude remark, but I sent thick chains of my Enchantment out without delay, wrapping around and freezing his ugly face, all but his very eyeballs.

The result was that he mumbled in our heads to us, but we couldn't understand a damn thing he was saying. It was gibberish. I hadn't been sure it would work. The shifter telepathy was odd, but I assumed if I stilled his head, whatever he used to speak to us would also be stuck. Our communication capacity was all in the brain, was it not?

Malachi let out a hearty laugh. "That. That is amazing."

Enoch tried to speak to all of us again, his eyes squinting, the result the same. He just gurgled .

That is fantastic, Nyx breathed. Where was this the whole way here?

Esta gave me a smirk. "Okay. I'll go get Emric."

"Take Whit or Nyx, please?"

I'm going, Whit declared. Not a chance she flies alone.

I will also go, Zaccai said with a low nod to me. Which was odd. It had almost seemed like a bow.

As soon as they left, I turned to the land dragon who looked mad as hell, his tail and body lashing out in place of the words he had been using to do the same.

"Here's the thing," I said calmly, crossing my arms and leaning up against the edge of the cage. "After the blatant disrespect you have shown Esta, there's not a chance in hell I let you loose."

He started murmuring again.

I ignored it. "You are going to stay in a cell for a long time, but I remember from the last time our paths were unfortunate enough to cross that you were so miserable from being stuck in one form for so long, you partnered up with the wrong sort. A wrong decision." I paused long enough to note that he was hanging on my every word. "So here's the thing. I am going to drop my Enchantment momentarily and allow you the opportunity to make a right one. You tell us the name of who you were working for, and I will shift you back. You don't go free, but you get to feel your human skin again."

I gave that a moment to sink in before dropping my magic.

Surprisingly, he didn't have anything more to say.

"All it takes is one name. One name of who bribed you to trap Kian and you get to feel your skin again. I'll have to pour my Enchantment around you to rid the poison but look at Malachi here. It worked."

Malachi stepped toward me as if punctuation to my point.

I could make up a name, Enoch stated. Any name.

"You could, yes, but this has to be the name of who you were working for. And we know the name is that of someone who knows the innerworkings at Halikaara. It would be quite unfortunate for you to be finally back in your human form after all these years, only to find death calling because you gave us false information."

Enoch went quiet. Considering. Finally, a few minutes later, he said with sheer defeat, Either way, I will die.

"Not if you give us the information we want," I countered. "You are free to spend the rest of your sentence in your human form if you give us this information. To be clear, this is a hell of deal we are offering you. You, a prisoner, getting a jump on the lottery. Not even all the queen's advisors are healed yet."

Enoch was so still you'd think my magic had turned him to stone. It's not that.

Nyx whipped his tail around in anger. This is pointless. Let's just kill him instead. One less mouth to feed.

I held up a hand to him and continued speaking to our prisoner. "What do you mean?"

My name for you. The name is not what you really want. You'll kill me anyway.

Malachi and I looked at each other while we waited for him to further explain.

The only name I can give you is not the real person pulling strings. Merely another puppet, someone else being blackmailed. Numerous are these strings which entangle Dra Skor.

"I'm listening," I told him. "How about you tell us the name and what happened. Without hurling insults everywhere. As long as it's the truth, you can be in your human form within a few hours."

Enoch let out a huge sigh and sloshed water around himself . I was engaged to be wed before the disease hit Dra Skor. Obviously, it is hard to work things out when stuck in two different forms. She eventually married someone else. A pause. And had a child with him. The person behind all this kidnapped that child. I do not even know who the true culprit is; I just knew that whoever it is had kidnapped my former fiancé's child. And though I knew that my life with her was over, I also couldn't allow her child, a child that could have been ours under other circumstances, to die. So I worked with her husband to help free the child.

So the culprit took someone's child to blackmail both Enoch and this other person?

Malachi ran a hand down his face. "Damn."

I cocked my head. "Doesn't excuse all the horrible things you've said in the process."

Nyx huffed his agreement.

They aren't going to accept you as king here, you know that, don't you?

Malachi provided smoothly, "You might not want to anger the one person in the entire realm who can turn you back, Enoch."

Ignoring the personal statements entirely, I asked, "You don't know who the puppet master is? The name? Your former fiancé's husband never said?" Enoch was nothing but a bitter man. I wasn't going to let him get to me. Or not yet anyway.

No. I only ever worked with the father of the child. As painful as that was, it provided me with all the rage I needed to provoke the queen.

"Give us the name," I demanded. "Give us the name and I will heal you while we check your story. You will finally get what you want, your human skin back."

It is, at least, one of the queen's advisors. Enoch paused for a moment before he looked directly into my eyes. Mikael.