Page 29 of Kingdom of Spirits
Fara began to argue again, but lightning cracked, and she screamed instead of finishing her sentence.
“Stop digging your fingers into my sides,” Tahlia said, turning so Fara might hear over the storm.
“It can’t hurt you. You’re wearing leathers!”
“Your fingers are worse than arrows. Stop it!”
Fara detached her vicious grip, then wrapped her entire arms around Tahlia’s middle. A breath gusted from Tahlia.
“I need to breathe to get us there alive, Fara.”
“I’m going to kill Marius. I’m going to strangle him until he is dead and then kick him after.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Tahlia said, the wind biting her cheeks and eyes. She was soaked through and shivering.
“He deserves it for dragging us into this mess.”
“No, it’s ridiculous that you think you can kill him.”
“Shut it, Tahl. Seriously!” Fara groaned as another round of thunder started up.
The storm eventually relented, and the sun pierced the blanket of cloud cover, but there was no sign of Marius or Ragewing. Tahlia had completely lost them in the dark and driving rain.
“What are we going to do? Can Vodolija scent Ragewing at all?”
“I think she still has an idea of where they are because she feels sure of herself and isn’t trying to land.” Being bonded to a dragon was amazing…and mysterious. Tahlia wasn’t certain how she knew what Vodolija was thinking, but somehow she had a sense of it.
They flew on, the sun drying them out nicely as the wind finished the job. Only stopping twice for Vodolija to drink from the river and for a bite to eat, they covered a lot of ground.
As they rose into the air, letting Vodolija’s better vision spot and trail Ragewing and Marius, Fara made a growling sort of grumble near Tahlia’s ear.
“Other than the fact that I’m completely disobeying a direct order, what is bothering you?” Tahlia asked.
“If I had to guess, we are almost to the Kingdom of Spirits,” Fara answered.
A chill rolled through Tahlia. No one dared to enter the lost kingdom. Old tales of vicious spirits and dangerous ghosts had given the land its name.
“I read about a rare plant that only grows in this area. It has blood-colored leaves and was used ages ago to help Fae bond with dragons.”
Tahlia wanted to listen to her, but there was too much at risk to have a chat about plants.
“Would we even be able to cross the border of this ghostly place?” Tahlia asked.
There was one story Tahlia had heard at a tavern that involved some magical barrier between the Kingdom of Spirits and the rest of the Realm of Lights. Technically, the lost kingdom remained part of the Seelie Fae kingdom and under King Lysanael and Queen Revna’s rule. It existed within the Veil. But no one went in and came back to tell new tales.
“I hope not. It would be madness to try. Why would Marius even want to enter? Surely Ragewing won’t allow it. Dragons are many things, but stupid isn’t one of them.”
Vodolija growled, her body rumbling under Tahlia.
The Kingdom of Spirits. What could be in that area that involved the order?
That evening,moonlit mist billowed around Vodolija’s wings, the thick gray blocking everything except a strange distant light on the ground below. It shimmered like a ghostly gold version of those phosphorescent larvae that glowed in the creek during summers at home. It was definitely creepy, but shivers of excitement ran down Tahlia’s back. She hadn’t joined the order for easy days in the sun. She’d risked all to experience this type of adventure.
“I hope you can tell where they are,” Tahlia said to Vodolija, leaning over a bit as Fara hissed prayers that might have been less prayish and more curseish to every Old One and god she could think of. “Because I have no clue.”
Fara sighed. “Please just lie to me and say everything will be fine.”
Vodolija tossed her head and flew onward, showing confidence. Not that dragons ever deigned to show humility or ever admitted when they were wrong.