Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

D uncan caught her arm as she started walking out of the hall. "Carys?—"

Cadell turned on him, a throaty hiss vibrating through his body and shaking the air.

Duncan dropped his hand. "Carys, we should talk."

"Why?" She kept walking, feeling Lachlan's eyes on her back. She didn't like being the center of attention, and that entire episode had given her the shakes. Now she was walking through a crowd of whispering courtiers who stared at her with questions she didn't want to answer.

Added to that, she also had a nearly seven-foot-tall dragon at her back, glowering at everyone around her like he was seconds away from breathing fire on the lot.

"You know why!"

Carys stopped when she had passed the crowd of courtiers. This was Duncan. If there was anyone in this upside-down place that could relate to her, it was him. And she had questions.

She had a lot of questions .

Carys looked at Cadell, then Duncan. "It's fine. Duncan, follow us. Cadell needs fresh air."

She had no idea how she knew that, but she did. The effort of keeping his human form when he was emotionally wrought was taking a toll. His shoulders were broader, and the fire didn't calm in his chest. Even though he walked on two legs, he seemed far more animal than human to Carys.

She didn't know how the connection with Cadell had formed so immediately and completely; but she could feel his emotions almost as if they were an extension of her own.

Did he feel the same about her? How?

She trusted him. Completely. But she'd just found out her sister had been murdered and Cadell had been off duty at the time.

So she had questions for him too.

Carys, Duncan, and Cadell walked out of the castle and into the courtyard through the door where they had entered, the guards stepping back and clicking their heels as they spotted Cadell.

"You're like a knight," she murmured.

Cadell heard her. "Your knight. I answer only to you, Lady Carys."

"Please just call me Carys."

"I answer to you, but you do not command me, Lady Carys."

"I'm not a lady."

"You are to him." Duncan came to walk next to her. "The bond between a dragon and their nêr is like that."

"Nêr?"

"Nêrys is the female form of the address. Your uncle is a nêr ddraig, a dragon lord. You are a nêrys."

"But what does that mean ?" Carys kept her voice low as they crossed the courtyard, every eye on them, from the weird little man to the laundress hanging clothes in the grassy common to the blacksmith who paused at his forge to watch them and nod at Duncan. "No one will explain what any of this means."

"Patience." Duncan sounded exasperated.

Carys wanted to hit him. "And how is my uncle getting here so quickly?" She asked the question that had been brimming in her mind. "Do dragon lords ride dragons?"

Cadell stopped dead in his tracks and turned to her, his stern gaze rocketing between confusion, irritation, and something that hinted at embarrassment.

Duncan cleared his throat and tried to hide a smile.

"Does a nêrys ddraig ride a dragon?" Cadell's eyebrows drew together. "No, Lady Carys. A dragon is never ridden ."

Okay, so clearly that was a foot-in-mouth situation. "I… I'm sorry; I didn't mean to offend you."

Duncan cleared his throat again. "She asks because the popular tales and dramas in the Brightlands tell stories of humans riding dragons. There are plays, movies, books?—"

"Do I look like a horse?" Cadell stared at Duncan.

"No." Carys was quick to jump in. "Again, I am so sorry. But from the way people talk, it seems like dragons definitely do help some people move faster. So I was just wondering… how?"

Cadell, seemingly mollified, started walking again, his massive boots squelching in the mud of the courtyard. "When you fly with me, you will ride in a coracle of course."

As far as Carys knew, a coracle was a small round Welsh boat used in rivers and calm seas. "How?—"

"It's a little like an air carriage," Duncan tried to explain. "Round on the bottom, high sides, large center post with a grip the dragon can carry as it flies. They're designed to tip as they land so the dragon lord and whatever warriors are with him can run into battle."

"There are royal coracles as well," Cadell said. "For peacetime, which all dragons prefer." He looked down at Carys. "Unlike wolves, we do not seek war."

They left the castle gates with not a single guard stopping them. It looked to Carys like once she had a dragon at her side, no one was really worried about her security.

Had that been Seren's mistake ?

"Cadell, tell me about Seren's death." She glanced at Duncan. "Unless you think Duncan might have…"

Duncan put his hands on his hips. "Might have what?"

Cadell stared down his nose at Duncan. "Lachlan's Brightkin was not in the Shadowlands when your sister was killed. He is not a suspect."

Duncan narrowed his eyes at Carys. "You think I'm a murderer?"

"Not if Cadell doesn't," Carys said.

"Low, Carys. That is low."

"I don't trust anyone right now." She looked at Cadell. "Except for him, and I don't even know why."

"There." Cadell pointed himself toward a hill just outside the village where a stone tower dominated the skyline and sheep were grazing on the slope. "You can trust me. Because I am your bonded dragon, Carys of the Brightlands."

"How? Because I am Seren's Brightkin?"

"Yes." Cadell frowned. "And no. I cannot explain it any more than you can, but the moment the magic of this place touched you, I felt you. From hundreds of miles away. I felt the heat of Seren's death as if it were a spear piercing my heart." He turned to face Carys, and his golden eyes were filled with emotion. "Yesterday I felt a new root grow in the hollow Seren left. The moment I felt it, I knew that you were in our world."

"Yes." A root. That was exactly how it had felt to Carys too. Not a string or a chain but a living, growing vine that connected this magnificent creature to her own soul. "Does it always happen this way?"

Cadell smiled. "Yes. Dragons live very long lives. We can go centuries without a nêr calling to us, but once that connection is made, there is no doubt."

Duncan spoke up. "This is all very moving, but can we get back to why it would even cross your mind that I might have murdered Seren? After everything we planned, Cadell?—"

"I believe Seren was poisoned" —Cadell kept his eyes on Carys— "but this human was not in the realm when it happened, and he has no magic."

Duncan crossed his arms over his chest. "I contribute in other ways, dragon."

The dragon's glance was withering at best. "You can trust the cross human and me, my lady. Everyone else could be a danger to you."

The landscape before them opened up, and Cadell stretched his body out, a fiery shimmer glowing over his skin. The human form disappeared, revealing Cadell's true body, an iridescent dragon the size of a small jet with two muscled back legs and two wings folded back from his front legs.

"You're a wyvern." Carys smiled. "Not like on the flag."

The four-legged beasts are depicted in paintings, but all my kind take this form. There is some variation in other populations, but I am dragon.

She walked around his body and her hand reached out, but she paused. "Do you mind?"

My lady. He nodded his great serpentlike head, which bore a row of spikes that almost looked like a crown. I understand my form is new to you. You may examine me if you wish.

She ran her hand along his pebbled skin, olive green and shimmering under her fingers. The top layers were translucent, giving Cadell the appearance of striking iridescence and allowing the fire at his throat to glow.

His skin seemed to ripple as she touched, and Carys had the strangest sensation that she had done this before. "Did I dream about you?"

It is possible, Nêrys. Brightkin can dream of their Shadowkin .

"Do you mind?" She put both hands on his neck and rested her cheek against his skin. "You're so warm."

No human has touched me since Seren died. The voice in her mind ached with grief .

"I am so sorry, Cadell." The tears that came to her eyes were hot and fast. How could you cry for a sister you never knew? Seren's death felt fresh when she heard Cadell's voice .

She continued to walk around him, fighting back tears and giving this strange dragon the touch he seemed to crave. "Do all dragons live in Wales? Cymru?"

No, there are dragon populations spread across the world. Our kind need large territories to keep peace among ourselves.

Duncan cleared his throat. "In the Shadowlands of Western Europe, the dragons all live in Cymru, but there are other pockets that I've heard of. Eastern Europe. Persia. China, of course. A couple in the Americas, I think."

"How big is the Shadowlands?"

The Shadowlands are everywhere, my lady. Wherever your world exists, our world does too. We are the hidden and the magical in every place human imagination has lived.

"Big," Duncan said. "Very big. It's everywhere."

"Are they connected?" She turned to Duncan. "Like, could I take a boat to Shadowlands France?"

Duncan shrugged. "If you want to brave the leviathans."

"Sea monsters," she whispered. "Of course there are sea monsters."

"The sea holds more monsters than any on land." Duncan walked to a grey stone jutting from the grass and stretched out, his back to the rock. "You won't catch me on a boat in this place."

The monsters of the sea are frightening, but some are kind. Dragons have a good relationship with the selkies and the whales.

Selkies, dragons, kelpies, unicorns. It was a lot to take in, but as she ran her hand over Cadell's warm body, she felt safe in a way that she hadn't since she'd walked through the fae gate. "Are all dragons as beautiful as you?"

You flatter me, Nêrys. Dragons are built for survival and battle, not for beauty like a one-horned horse.

She smiled. "Do you not like the unicorns?"

Duncan chuckled. "It's an old rivalry but a friendly one. Unicorns can be ferocious in battle when they're roused."

The cross human is correct.

"They saved me from a kelpie, you know. "

Then I must offer them a boon for protecting you before I could.

Carys turned to Duncan. "Why didn't you tell me Seren was murdered?"

"I was trying to get you to go home," he said roughly, "not pique your interest with a mystery."

"Why?"

"Why should you have gone home?" He frowned. "You found Lachlan. You knew the truth. And because your sister was murdered ." He rolled his r 's hard over the word, clearly angry. "And not a damn one of them in this place would seek out the truth. They all made excuses for it, and I knew something was dirty."

"You don't seem too concerned about me staying now." She ran her hand over Cadell's warm skin, scratching along the ridge of his spines the way he liked. "You were baiting Robb in the throne room. Why the change of heart?"

"Well, you have a dragon now, don't you?" He stared at Cadell. "Which makes no sense at all, I might add. You shouldn't be able to speak to him. He shouldn't have been able to feel you." Duncan narrowed his eyes. "I don't like things I don't understand."

"Sounds like a personal problem to me," she muttered.

Cadell laughed softly in her head.

She patted the dragon, walking around him, wanting to know every curve of his body and every ripple of his beautiful skin. He had a large scar on his side, as if a sword had slashed through his hide. "You said you're built for battle, but you don't like war."

We like to be left alone. Our numbers are not great, and though we live a long natural life, that is shortened by human and fae wars.

"Do the humans and the fae battle here?"

The fae are the whisper of war.

Duncan added, "With few exceptions, the fae play humans against each other for amusement, Carys. You'll very soon find that most conflict in the Shadowlands has a fae component."

Seren's mate comes. Cadell turned his head toward the castle. He has feelings for you .

"Does he?" Carys's wonder turned to resignation when she realized Cadell was talking about Lachlan. "Or is it all for my sister?"

I am not a sentimental creature. I see what I see. Seren's mate has an emotional attachment to you. It is evident, but you cannot trust him.

Carys blinked. "Why not?"

Because you cannot trust anyone here.

Lachlan sat across from her, his back to the same rock where Duncan had been sitting before he stomped down the hill, muttering something about getting back to work now that Cadell was around.

The dragon was stretched along the top of the ridge, his tail wrapped around his body and his eyes closed. He wasn't sleeping. He was fully focused on her but trying to afford her and Lachlan a level of privacy.

"Cadell likes this place." Lachlan looked at the dragon. "It's good to see him."

"Was he always with Seren?"

"Not as a child." Lachlan cleared his throat. "Aisling told you that she was raised here. And Seren was too. The three of us and my cousin Harold from the Anglian court."

"You told me you grew up together."

Lachlan nodded. "We all played together as children. I have two siblings, you know."

Carys shook her head. "How would I know that? You only ever mentioned Duncan."

"Because I know him better than my brother and my sister." He pulled at the grass beside him. "Nora is in éire and Rory is in Cymru."

"Because of this pact thing."

He nodded. "So I had Duncan and Seren. Aisling and Harold. But when Cadell found Seren?—"

"What do you mean, when he found her? "

"Dragons know when a human is their nêr. It usually happens around… eleven or twelve, I think?"

Cadell spoke softly in her mind. Seren was the sixth nêr I served. You are the seventh.

"Seren was ten," Lachlan continued. "Cadell sensed her and flew here." He nodded at the round tower. "Right here in fact. All of us were playing and we heard thunder in the distance. Harold knew exactly what it was, and he ran screaming." Lachlan's eye twitched. "They see more dragons in Anglia; he was afraid."

"But not Seren?"

"No." Lachlan smiled. "She was a Cymric princess. Her father is a nêr ddraig. She'd been raised with dragons from birth. For Seren, dragons were her protectors. Her nannies even."

"So she wasn't afraid."

He shook his head. "She climbed to the top of the tower and stretched out her arms." His eyes drifted to the rocky ruin, lost in the memory. "She held out her arms like she was waiting for him. I'd never seen her more excited. She knew. As soon as he appeared, she knew he was for her."

"And he stayed here?"

"No, he took her." Lachlan looked at Cadell. "He wrapped his giant claw around Seren's little body and snatched her up like an eagle hunting a fish. Aisling was screaming and Harold had already run, but I tried to climb up and save her. I didn't know what was happening." He blinked and looked back at Carys. "My father explained when I ran home. I was crying. I thought the dragon would kill her." He shook his head. "I didn't understand why she had to leave."

"Where did she go?"

"Back to Cymru. To Caernarfon. Another Cymric lord's child was sent to fulfill the Queens' Pact."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that." He picked up a rock and tossed it down the hill. "Dragon takes your friend away. No worries, have another."

She saw the loss written over his face. "You missed her. "

"She wrote us letters. Aisling and I. She trained in Cymru with Cadell. All nêr ddraig have to be trained as warriors, not diplomats like her training with my mother had been. She'd been learning languages and fae lore and history, but after Cadell came, she had to learn how to fight and shoot. How to attack from a coracle in battle."

So her dead sister wasn't just a princess but a badass too. Carys felt proud and jealous all at once. "The guard in the courtyard this morning said she was a good fighter."

"She was incredible." Lachlan smiled. "And frighteningly good with a dagger in close combat." He smiled. "Kind of terrible with a sword though."

Why did that make her feel better? It wasn't as if she was good with a sword. Carys was good with a reference library, a web search, and a PowerPoint presentation. She could solve a mean jigsaw puzzle, but she couldn't lift a sword.

"But she came back. At some point she came back."

Lachlan stood and walked to her, holding out his hand for Carys to take. She gripped it and came to her feet, and she didn't pull away when Lachlan kept her hand firmly grasped in his own. They started to walk toward the tower.

"She came back when she was seventeen, I think? She came for a state visit with her father, and it was…" He put his hands up to his temples, miming an explosion.

"Tell me about your wife."

Lachlan looked over at Carys with sleepy eyes. "You're asking me to tell you about my late wife while we're in bed?"

Carys scooted closer to him, pulling the heavy blankets with her. "Sure. It's not like she's an ex-girlfriend. She was your wife . And she's still a part of your life; she was important."

His expression turned from a slight frown to a soft smile. "What a beautiful heart you have, Carys Morgan."

She nestled into his shoulder and played with the hair on his chest. " Well, you've done a very good job ensuring I am not insecure in this relationship."

"Seren was the girl next door. Our families had known each other for generations. I don't remember not having her in my life. She went away for school when we were eleven and was gone for years. Then when she came back…" He let out a low whistle.

"She had boobs."

He threw his head back and laughed. "She did. I did notice those; you're right."

Carys laughed with him. "So you fell in love when you were a teenager."

"Yes, and we married young." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Our parents were… not thrilled to be honest. They both had different plans for us, but in the end they gave in. They saw how much we meant to each other."

"Wow." She kissed his shoulder. "That's beautiful. But no kids?"

"No, it wasn't…" He frowned a little. "You know, we had busy lives. It just didn't happen. And then she was gone."

"You left a few things out of the story."

He leaned forward. "And how was I going to explain all this? Would you have believed me if I told you everything?"

"You never gave me the chance."

Lachlan looked at Cadell. "I don't want to only speak of Seren because I know you think that my feelings for you are based on my memory of her and it's not true. I went looking for you for the same reason you want to see your uncle. I missed her desperately, and I thought I'd be satisfied just seeing you alive, seeing some echo of the woman I loved still living in the Brightlands."

Her smile was bitter. "But all that changed when you saw me in a bookstore? You expect me to believe that?"

"It's true , Carys. I loved Seren, but you're a different person entirely. My feelings for you weren't what I expected." A smile stole across his gorgeous face. "I came looking for Seren's twin, but I fell in love with a completely different person. And you're wonderful. You're smart, loyal, brilliant…" He swallowed hard.

Carys drew her hand away. "But?"

Lachlan took a step back, holding her hands in both of his own. "But you were not trained in battle. You were not trained with a blade or a bow, and the danger here?—"

"Seren was trained in all those things and she was poisoned anyway."

Lachlan looked as if she'd slapped him.

"Her warrior training didn't help save her life." She looked at Cadell. "I have him now, and I have Duncan."

Carys couldn't read the expression on Lachlan's face, but she could tell he was struggling.

"Duncan?"

"Your brother has been honest with me," Carys said. "Well, mostly honest."

"Forget Duncan," Lachlan said. "I trust Cadell, but I'd still prefer you go home. Cadell and Duncan both say Seren was poisoned, and I believe them. I do. I know Cadell would never lie about that, but whoever killed Seren could be in the castle. They could see you as a threat."

"Why? You said yourself I'm nothing like her."

Lachlan shook his head. "We don't know why she was killed, so I have no idea if that makes a difference. Go home , Carys. Seeing your uncle's face isn't worth your life. Would your father and mother want you to put yourself in danger that way?"

Carys turned to Cadell and saw him with one eye open, watching her.

I see you, Nêrys.

She turned back to Lachlan. "I'm staying. And I may not have warrior training, but I have a brain." She pointed at Cadell. "And now I have a dragon."

"Carys— "

"I'll figure out the truth. So no, I'm not leaving. I'm not going back home until I figure out who killed my sister and why."

His face turned stormy, but he didn't say another word. Lachlan turned on his heel and left.

Carys watched him leave, and a cool resolve settled in her mind. "Cadell?"

Nêrys .

"I'm staying."

Of course you are, my lady. And I will stay with you.