"If it were not for you, I would most likely be dead," Brett said.
The guard grunted. "If it had not been for my sword bursting into flames in your hands, you would be dead."
"I still wish to thank you and return your sword."
The guard eyed the sword, then met Brett's gaze. He shook his head. "The sword is yours."
"If you're afraid it's enchanted now—"
The man frowned. "I have another. Keep it." He eyed Brett's jeweled sword and daggers. "It has already aided you once. I must get ready." Then he bowed his head a little, turned, and stalked off.
Brett supposed it was not a bad idea to have another sword as back up. He went in search of Freya among the courtiers in the Great Hall, busily helping others to pack for battle.
When he didn't see her anywhere, he went to the cemetery. In her raven form, she was sitting on the headstone that was her mother's. He should have made the connection. Then again, how would he would have ever figured out she was one and the same as the raven and that the headstone had belonged to her mother.
"Freya—"
"Do not call me that," she squawked.
He realized then he still couldn’t know that she was the raven. "Raven, can you help me to get where we're going?"
She snorted.
"Okay, if you can't help me, I don't want you to go with me."
She stared at him for a moment, then began to prune her feathers as if he hadn't spoken to her.
He let out his breath in exasperation. "I'll return and—I'll do whatever I have to so that you won't have this affliction. I don't want you in the middle of a war."
She suddenly swung her head around. Before he realized someone was coming, she flew off.
"Talking to ravens again?" Zane strode into the cemetery dressed in pine green pants and a tunic that blended in with the foliage. "I had planned to go with the force that would arrive first, but the queen was concerned that you wouldn't stay with the supply train and will run away. Mainly, because you're afraid of having to best me in the next mage trial." He folded his arms across his chest. "I heard you couldn't extinguish the flames surrounding your sword." Then he smirked. "Play with fire…well, I'm sure you know the rest. The supply wagons are loaded. Did you need help in finding the way there?"
Then he noticed the sword in Brett's hand. He needed to pack it with his other things.
He had no intention of being embroiled in a fight with the mage apprentice, mostly because Brett assumed that if Zane used his magic to kill him, the queen would be satisfied. Brett wouldn't give Zane a reason for attempting to kill him.
Brett joined him and they walked to where ten supply wagons were being loaded with bags and crates of goods.
"That flying trick was different. Where did you learn to do that?" Zane asked.
Brett didn't have a clue.
"Only the early masters could do something like that. But neither your father nor your grandfather were one."
Maybe earlier on. Maybe a great grandfather?
"Must be a throwback of some sort," Zane said with a sneer.
If Brett had inherited the talent, he was grateful. Though he wondered why it had never manifested itself before. Maybe it couldn't when he was living among humans. Or maybe it had something to do with his grandfather's gifting him some abilities.
Zane glanced down at the sword Brett had belted at his waist and then at the sword in his grip and frowned. "Is that the guard's sword? So you did manage to put out the fire. Are you not returning the sword to him? You wear that dragon shifter's sword and the daggers already. Do not think to fight on her behalf just because she clothed you and gave you such treasures."
"The guard didn't want it back."
Zane laughed. "The guard is afraid you've enchanted the weapon and that at any moment, it will ignite into flames. I can see it, too. You try to call on the flames to surround the jeweled sword and the one the guard had begins to flame. So how did you do it?"
"You know, I don't want the position you are vying for," Brett said.
"You will never get it."
"If you're assured of that, why do you care if I leave here?"
"And let you fight alongside the dragon shifter against us? Not on your life. You won't best me in the mage trials, but even if by some miracle you did, the queen wouldn't allow you to become the royal mage. Not with your family's history of rebellion."
"So why not just kill me and get it over with?"
"Haven't you learned anything about us yet? The queen is using you for sport. And she wants to challenge me."
"But not too much or you might lose."
Zane rounded on him in anger. "You say this because the queen didn't allow you to conjure up your own beast. Can you?"
"She worried that I might summon something that would put you in your place."
"I don't believe you can. And she didn't either. She didn't want you to lose face among our people."
Brett didn't believe the queen was worried about him losing face. More likely that she believed he might conjure up something that would kill her favored mage apprentice.
Looking at the wagons, Zane shook his head. "I can't believe I have to travel in this way. Ride in the front wagon so that I can watch you."
Zane climbed onto the wagon behind Brett's. Brett joined a crusty old man who eyed him with suspicion. "You won't turn anything of mine into flames, will you?"
Brett smiled. He didn't think the man was serious. "It will take us two days to reach the rallying point. Can you handle the horses when I need a break?" the man asked.
"I traveled this way before. Remember?" Except that time Brett had been helping Ena to carry her treasure to the hawk fae kingdom at the time.
The man snorted. "I'm Landon, and I'll tell you now that most of us don't like mage ways. Especially when the mage don't really know what he's doing. Supply trains often get attacked. Just remember that when it happens. And remember which side to fight on."
Brett wouldn't fight for Prince Grotto. Not when the dragon fae put Ena and her shifter kind in jeopardy. He didn't want to see the dark fae or hawk fae killing the phantom fae either. Not when they were supposed to be his people. But he didn't know them. The only people who had showed him any kindness was the queen's advisor, Maracose, and Freya, who desperately needed his help. Well, the guard who hadn't wanted his sword returned. In truth, Brett really didn't want anyone to fight anyone. It was one thing when he had to fight beasts of prey or protect Ena and her staff from murdering thieves.
Ena and her people had shown him a real kindness and he would never harm any of them.
As the wagon bumped over the rutted road, he wondered though if Ena would even want to see him if she knew he was a phantom fae. That disheartened him. He desperately wanted to see her again and he planned to once he was a powerful mage, could convince Zane to undo the curse on Freya, and could fae travel.
They'd only journeyed half a day when they heard fighting, shouts, swords clashing and curses at the back of the wagon train. Fae dressed in leather armor fought with the soldiers protecting the wagons. Which fae they were that were attacking the phantom fae soldiers, he couldn't tell.
"Which fae are those?" Brett asked Landon.
"Don't care to know." Landon wouldn't even give them a backward glance.
Brett turned around as Landon drove his horses to continue on down the road. "Wait!" Brett said. "Aren't we going to help the others?" And then he knew that no matter what, if the phantom fae handling the supply wagons were attacked, and they were not the aggressors, he would protect them the best he could.
"Not my job. The queen's ruling was for those of us who could to keep going. To protect the supplies the best we can. The soldiers will fight the attackers. We have to keep moving forward."
"Sticking together provides a more unified force. United we stand, divided we fall. Haven't you ever heard that? No, guess you haven't. But you could learn from that." Brett turned to look back over his shoulder when h
e saw the wagon behind him pull to a stop as they were attacked. Zane was standing on the buckboard and cast a fireball at the fae attackers and the sky was suddenly darkened by dragons.
Omigod. Ena? Brett couldn't see her. What he saw was four of the dragon shifters who were courting her. They wouldn't want him to live any more than the queen of the phantom fae did. Not that he was courting Ena, but they didn't like it that she had taken him in and cared for him.
"If you want to fight them, be my guest. Just fly back there and do it. I'm not stopping for anything. You know you're one of us. Right?"
Reminding him where his loyalties belonged? "As if anyone has treated me like I belong." Unlike Ena and her people. Even though he was a fae killer, they had still taken him in, clothed and fed him, and worried about his welfare.
Landon snorted. "The queen wants you dead. Your family fought her and lost. No one wants to make friends with you and then get on her bad side."
"She has a good side?"
"Not where you're concerned."
Archers were shooting bolts at the dragons. The dragons retaliated, some breathing fire down on the abandoned wagons as the phantom fae vanished into the woods. The other dragons were shooting fire at the archers. The mage continued to use his fireballs against the dragons, but it didn't appear to faze them.
One of the dragons spied Landon driving off with his wagon. Brett knew the dragon shifter would blast them. "Stop the wagon and get off!" Brett yelled. "He'll kill us."
"He won't kill me." Landon dropped the reins and vanished.
Brett so wished he could do that, too. Not to flee in the face of danger, but so that he could use that to help him fight the fae who did have that ability. What good was he doing here anyway? He couldn't fight the mage, and he didn't believe fighting the phantom fae soldiers would earn him any Brownie points with the dragon shifters. He really felt like he was stuck between two enemies, and yet unless they tried to kill him, neither was his enemy. Even the mage apprentice had been doing what the queen ordered him to do or she would have terminated him, so he understood his dilemma. The situation with Freya was different. The mage had no business injuring her during the mage trials.
Brett grabbed for the reins slipping away at his feet and caught hold of them. He couldn't fae transport. He couldn't fight a dragon, using just a sword. He could free the horses so they'd be safe and leave the wagonload full of supplies to suffer its fate.
He glanced back at Zane, who was fighting a red dragon's fire with fire. All the other phantom fae had vanished, and the few on foot who had been attacking the dragons had disappeared, too. The dragons still poured fire onto the wagons. Before anyone flew after Brett, he drove the supply wagon away from the others, and around the bend in the road and stopped the horses. In a near panic, he hurried to free the horses.
Once he freed them and they ran off down the road, he jumped down from the wagon. He was about to dash for the cover of the woods, wishing again that he could fae transport when the dragon shifter Alton, who saw himself as Ena's only truly eligible dragon shifter fae suitor, turned away from burning up a wagon and flew after Brett. Hating to flee like a scared rabbit, Brett dove into the cover of the forest. The large-winged dragon couldn't spread its wings fully among the trees and it slowed his flight down, thank God.
But Alton was still making the attempt as much as he would love to eliminate Brett, he thought.
Then a raven flew at the dragon, flapping her wings in his face, right above his eyes, but not in front of his fire-breathing snout.
"Freya!" Brett couldn't believe she would attempt to save him, to give him time to find a safe place away from the dragon's wrath.
"Go!" she cawed, angry, probably more so because he wanted to fight a dragon to protect her when she was trying to give him time to hide from the dragon.
He wasn't a coward!
"To the left, up ahead, a small cave between the boulders and dipping into the ground," she cawed.
As if he wanted to leave her to attack the mighty dragon so he could save himself.
"Go!"
As much as he hated the notion that he couldn't protect her, he hated more that he could do nothing more than protect himself. He crashed through the prickly undergrowth to locate the cave, and then saw it. The cave was the size of a wolf's den, dark, except for the light emitted from the entryway. He scrambled to get inside, hoping nothing carnivorous was living in the small cave.
The raven's cawing stopped, and Brett prayed Freya was all right. The snapping of twigs as the noise grew closer warned Brett that the dragon was attempting to fly through the dense forest—a barrier to his progress.
Then something flew into the dark cave, startling Brett. Whatever it was landed on Brett's knee, then cawed at him. Freya.
"You are so stubborn," she said.
He couldn't believe she could fight a dragon and win the battle.
But then he recalled Maracose's words. If you believe in yourself…
He stroked her feathers with a gentle touch. "Thank you."
He wondered what had happened to Zane. He smelled burning, so he knew the dragons had burned up all the wagons in the supply train. He hoped they had let the horses go.
Then he heard an angry dragon roar as it flew into the forest and he recognized it at once. It was Ena!
Chapter 5
Ena had been busy fighting a phantom fae mage before she managed to destroy the wagon he was standing on. He barely escaped the fireball she sent his way and vanished. He'd tried fireballs on her, too, but a dragon's scales repelled fire. He must never have fought a dragon or he would have known better. They were tough enough to withstand ice, too. And hardy enough to repel regular arrows. Bolts were another story.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alton fly after a human on foot who looked suspiciously like Brett. Her heart did a flip as she soared in that direction, fearful it was Brett and her suitor intended to kill him because he was angered that she had protected the human.
She called out a shrill roar that told Alton in no uncertain terms that he'd better not harm the human. That wasn't their business here. Destroy the supply wagons. That was all. The people managing them and protecting them had vanished. All but the human, Brett, who couldn't do such a thing. She still thought of him as hers—her prisoner, her servant, hers to protect. If he was to be punished for some punishable offense, she would mete out the punishment, no one else.
Ena was beyond furious with Alton. If he had any notion that she'd choose him for her mate, he had to realize that if he killed Brett, she was through with him. Brett was a defenseless human. He was a good fighter against the fae who fought using similar kinds of combat. But no way could he survive an encounter with a dragon who was out for his blood.
Alton had disappeared into the forest, and she wondered if he'd shifted into his fae form. His wings spread too wide to easily navigate a piney woods this densely treed. Though if he had transformed into the fae, he'd be at the disadvantage because she was certain Brett would be armed with the sword and daggers she had given him.
Not that she wanted Brett to injure Alton, should the dragon be defenseless, but she thought it served him right that Brett would have the upper hand for a change.
She was still flying through the forest, searching for Brett, her wing span not as wide as Alton's. Since he'd already cleared a ragged path through the trees, snapping off branches in places, she was making good progress when she heard a raven cawing in an annoying manner and the sound of grunts and groans and curses coming from two men.
"Freya! I've got this!" Brett shouted, sounding winded.
He was with a female phantom fae? She hadn't seen anyone but the human making a hasty retreat into the woods.
"Don’t tell me you can talk to a crow," Alton said, sounding just as breathless, but condescending also.
A crow?
If Alton and Brett were talking, they couldn't be killing each other. Ena hoped.
When she reached t
hem, she found Alton had shifted into his fae form and Brett was fighting him, both using their bare fists. She couldn't believe it. How primitive. Were they nuts? She didn't think Alton had ever resorted to something like that, which was so far beneath a dragon shifter fae. Brett probably did this in his old high school all the time.
Alton had a split lip and dried blood on top of it. His right eye was swelling, red, and already turning colors. Even though Brett was huffing and puffing, his fists red from hitting Alton, he didn't have a mark on him anywhere that she could see.
She would have taken pity on Alton, except she knew he'd been out for blood when he'd taken off after Brett. And Brett had weapons, yet he did not use them on the unarmed dragon shifter.
In the shadows of the woods, Ena settled down on the pine needle covered forest floor to watch. She shifted into her fae form and noticed a raven eyeing her. Was it the same one that had been cawing? Had Brett befriended a bird? The human was remarkably well-adapted to changing situations and had been able to befriend her staff without even trying, despite his being a human who was a fae-killer.
The two men were faltering, stumbling, and staggering, barely able to stay on their feet. She folded her arms, annoyed with the both of them.
One more fist to the jaw, then Alton collapsed on his butt as if he couldn't take the punishing assault any further. Brett was trying to catch his breath, not gloating, just glowering. Then he offered his hand to Alton to help him up.
Alton hesitated to accept the truce, and she wanted to sock him. Be a man, she silently entreated.
To her relief, Alton took Brett's hand and the human pulled the fae to his feet.