"We need to find her, and get her back, before someone else does."
Despite his effort to keep it low, Rory felt as though his voice was echoing through his cousin's receiving chamber. He had swept into the Palace on horseback, full-speed and demanded an immediate private audience with Briannon. He needed to get Blayre back. Before she got hurt, or taken hostage - assuming those possibilities had not come to fruition already. He was glad of Ripley's unwavering presence beside him. Even if his friend had no more information than Briannon currently did of what was going on.
Rory's cousin paced the room with elegant calm. Hers was not a pacing of nervousness. No, when Briannon paced it was as regal as the Queen she had been born and raised to be.
He fiddled with his hands clasped tightly behind his back. They were clammy, and he knew that he must look disheveled and dirty from pounding down the main road into the city and through it, especially standing in a room with Briannon and Ripley who were both impeccably dressed. That didn't matter though, Blayre was out there, and he wanted assistance so he could get out and find her as soon as possible.
Briannon turned to Rory finally. "Conal reports that she has a dragon egg in her possession."
Ripley's attention jerked up to Rory at that. For a moment Rory wished he had shared that information with his friend ahead of time.
Anger bubbled up in Rory like a pot that has finally reached its boiling point. His voice came out a rumble, "Conal is correct."
Correct, he might be, but Rory wasn't about to let the Crown Mage get his filthy, slimy hands on Blayre. And he was sure that the dragon egg was not the only reason that Conal wanted to get the Seeker back to the capital. And Caval... he suspected that Conal wanted the young Sorcerer back too, and that thought sent a firestorm of jealousy up through Rory's core.
"It seems the stakes are high. And it does seem...quite...important to retrieve the wayward Seeker, if we are to have control of that egg. You will need help. And Conal is willing to assist in whatever way he can."
"No," Rory bit out. "Anyone but Conal. Allow me to choose my search party - it will have to be small, and well-thought out. Forgive me, cousin, but..." He paused and looked away from the piercing green gaze of his Queen that fell on him. The light that poured through the room through the picture window was a dazzling gold, the sun's rays coming through as beams of light as it made the nightly descent that would return the world to darkness.
"Forgive me your majesty," he amended, "But I do not trust the man. Keep your guard up when you are around him." There was pleading in his voice, a pleading that he rarely used. Normally he was about action. It was killing him that he had to grovel at his cousin's feet to accomplish this task. Ripley shifted uncomfortably beside him. A silent rod of support in this ocean of a room.
"What do you know?" Briannon demanded, her voice dark.
"What do I know?"
"Don't trifle with me. What do you know about Conal? What has he done?" Rory had never seen his cousin so lethal. She was staring at him, as if she could read his very expression, and did not much like what she saw in it.
Rory glanced around nervously. "He could have charms on the room..."
"Twelve hells with him! If he's done something, then he should fear me, not the other way around." Briannon snapped, her white-gold hair stirring with the jerking of her motions. Gone was the elegant calm. Snapped into place was a side of Briannon that Rory had rarely seen.
"He has been trying to acquire a dragon egg." Rory admitted. "Did he conceal that from you?"
Briannon's eyes flashed jade. "It would seem he has." She said coldly, taking a seat on one of the damask sofas in the room, much to Rory's relief. His cousin's pacing had become so intense that it was putting him on edge.
Rory explained what he knew, and as he did so, his cousin's expression grew more and more flinty. Her suitors often described her eyes as the green of precious emeralds, but today they were as beautifully dangerous as the lush green of a rainforest.
When he had finished, Briannon was quiet, deliberating. Rory watched as her hand traced the sweeping damask pattern of the sofa. He exchanged a nervous glance with Ripley.
"Go and find Blayre, and retrieve her and the dragon egg. I will allow you to select a group to bring with you. I would advise you not to leave right away though. I will use my contacts to see if we can identify the direction in which she has gone."
"Thank you, your majesty." Rory dipped his head, hands clasped behind his back.
"I do wish to select one individual to go with you, though," She interjected before he and Ripley could take their leave.
Rory controlled his expression, "Whom do you wish to send?"
"Duke Lonan will attend you," At Rory's look of protest, Briannon held up one long-fingered hand. "I know you don't like him," She said quietly, "But I am confident that he can protect you from any threat that Conal might pose to you."
"And what of you?" Rory demanded. "If you are sending him to protect me, then who will protect you?" And how exactly could Lonan protect him?
Ripley was looking incredibly uncomfortable.
"I will be fine. Lonan is the reason that I know with certainty, that Conal is not magically eavesdropping on our current conversation. You will agree to bring him along, or we will expose Ripley for hiding his identity as a mage from the Crown."
****
If the maritime wind from the shore had been a glorious feeling, the wind on the sea was even more remarkable. And it was windy out on the water, with the waves lapping lazily at the side of the vessel, and the humid saltwater air, lifting the strands of curling hair that framed Blayre's face. She peered over the side of the deck, her hands set firmly on the rail, as she watched Port Roubeles shrink in the distance, the rooftops of the port city, reduced to small vibrant jewels against the rocky coves, and with it the last glimpse of the mainland where she hailed from.
Someone touched her shoulder, and she flinched, only then realizing how much tension was in her frame.
"All will be well," Caval's voice was soothing as he stepped beside her, reaching down to stroke behind the ears of Azure, the dragonling. "Change is terrifying. I know that." He said soothingly, and she knew that even if he could not read her mind, the sorcerer was reading the way her shoulder muscles were stretched taught, the way her knuckles whitened as she gripped the rail, and the way her jaw clenched tight.
"I'm just wondering if running away - if it's the best thing to do. There are so many people I may never see again - who I never said goodbye to." Her tongue was thick in her throat. She thought she might choke on it. She thought of Ainslee, Rory, her father and brother and sister...
"Sometimes goodbye only makes leaving that much more difficult. It may not be forever, Blayre. Time will tell." He glanced down at the dragonling at their feet. "You are going to have a pretty big adventure in front of you."
Caval had gotten word to scholarly contacts in the Southern Isles that they were coming, and bringing with them some ancient artifact. He hadn't told them that the artifact was a live dragon. They had no way of knowing exactly how that would be received. But Caval was confident that as seekers of knowledge, they would both have information and resources to provide to a dragon keeper, in order to raise the creature properly. Those who value knowledge above all else, tend not to value power so much. He'd said.
Blayre hoped he was right.
She took a deep breath, rolling her shoulders. At least Caval and Fletcher were both with her. She was not beginning this adventure friendless and alone.
Azure chirped up at her, and she bent down to scoop up the dragonling, admiring the slight iridescence of her scales in the overcast light. "You're right," She said, stroking the creature's scales. "I am far from alone. This is an adventure, that I did not expect to take so soon, or so abruptly, but it is one that I have wanted nevertheless."
End of Book 1
Read more about Blayre's adventure in the exciting sequel, DRAGON MARKED
https://www.wattpad.com/story/173489753-dragon-marked