“I love you people,” he called when he spotted the basket waiting for him, the craft tied down with a rope around a tree. “If I don’t get court-martialed, I’ll put you all in for awards.” His enthusiasm grew even more heartfelt when Duck and Apex grabbed him and Sardelle, hoisting them into the basket. It was a tight fit, but he didn’t care, not even when his legs collapsed and he ended up propped up against Tolemek.
“What award can I, as an expatriate civilian, expect?” Tolemek asked.
“I’ll fly south to Terra Falls and pick you up the best mango turnover you’ve ever had.”
“A fair reward. Cut that rope, Duck,” Tolemek said. “As much as I’d like to observe the eruption of the long theorized but never seen Boiling Pools Volcano, I don’t believe this is a safe observation station.”
“Definitely not,” Ridge mumbled and sank down beside Sardelle, wrapping an arm around her.
Jaxi? Can you hear me? Will she be all right?
I believe so. Humans are much frailer than swords, you know. But they’re resilient too.
“I hope so,” he murmured and rested his head against hers. If the rest of the team thought it was strange that he was muttering to himself, they didn’t said anything.
Epilogue
W
hen she woke up, a headache pulsing behind her eyes, Sardelle’s first thought was to worry about Ridge, her second to worry about herself, and her last to wonder how going to pick up her first student had turned into such an…
event
.
Daylight had come, but it was far darker than it should have been, the sky a hazy dusty gray. It was ash, she realized, not dust. Sardelle could taste it in the cold, thick air. She should have been cold, too, but someone had wrapped her up in parkas before laying her on the frosty ground. The fur lining of Ridge’s coat was snugged up protectively over her face—she could smell his masculine scent on it, though it was faint compared to the sulfur and ash in the air. She pulled the warm fur down so she could see her surroundings.
“Where are we?” she croaked, turning her head to look for people.
She was in the shadow of a cliff, surrounded by snow-clad evergreens. The crumpled black-and-gray balloon lay stretched across the snow nearby, but the basket stood empty. There should have been two hot air balloons, except she had destroyed theirs in a vain attempt to avoid that rocket. That rocket that had been arrowing straight toward them. Had she succeeded in disabling it? Had they lost anyone? Her stomach clenched when she didn’t see anyone else around. Who had survived? Who hadn’t? Why had they left her alone here?
Relax, genius. They’re up in the cave, getting the fliers ready. I’m moderately certain Ridge is planning to come back for you. That’s a nice coat, after all.
Jaxi.
A wave of relief washed over Sardelle.
We made it? Everyone?
Yes, everyone made it. The Cofah were distracted by the volcano that erupted underneath their airships. That was even better than the storm you were hoping for. We escaped in the other hot air balloon.
Jaxi shared an image of Ridge, holding Sardelle while he had one hand latched onto a rope dangling from a basket.
Your soul snozzle gets an award from me for making sure I came along on that ride.
I think he’d settle for you staying out of his head outside of emergencies.
You want him to miss out on my insightful commentary? That sounds more like a punishment than a reward.
Sardelle pushed herself into a sitting position.
Does anyone have any injuries? I should help instead of sleeping.
You were unconscious, not sleeping. You pushed yourself too hard.
You did too.
Yes. We should probably recruit and train more sorcerers to send along on your boyfriend’s crazy missions.
That
was
one of the goals here.
One they had failed at, at least for now. Sardelle hoped they could find Tolemek’s sister, wherever she was. At least they hadn’t failed at acquiring the dragon blood. She could still feel its power buzzing against her skin. The bags had been moved from the basket up into the cave. Everything had—except for her. Ridge must want to leave as soon as possible.
A good idea. We’re not that far from Cofahre’s newest volcano. Breathing that ash doesn’t affect me, but I’d hate to be buried by a lava flow.
Me too.
Sardelle climbed to her feet. The new position did nothing to improve her headache. She felt like a raw student again, foolishly pushing herself too hard to study for exams, then excel at exams, only to wake the morning after with a hangover greater than one would ever receive from alcoholic indulgence.
A rock clattered down from the cliff. Ridge was climbing down. He was filthy—smothered in ash and engine grease—but Sardelle welcomed him with a fierce hug when he reached the ground.
Ridge seemed surprised but quickly wrapped his arms around her. “Does this mean I’m forgiven?”
“Forgiven? For what?”
His expression grew sheepish beneath the grime. “I was up in the cave, realizing how often I snapped orders at you. Magic this. Magic that. Oh, and magic up all of the balloons, will you. I’m used to everyone who’s along on my missions being under my command. I didn’t mean to, ah… make you pass out.”
Sardelle leaned against his chest, touched that he felt guilty, but chagrined too. There was no call for guilt from him. “I made
myself
pass out. And believe it or not, I’ve taken orders from military commanders before. Granted they were usually grumpy old generals, not cute and charming, if dirty, pilots…” She wiped at a smudge on his face, only to realize her thumb was just as ashy as his cheek. They all needed to find a warm pool somewhere to bathe in, preferably a tepidly warm one, not a scalding and bubbling one that stank of sulfur. “And you take me for granted a lot less than they did. You’re quite tactful when you order me to magic this or magic that. You even said please once.”
“Oh. Good.” He was truly relieved when he hugged her again, adding a kiss this time.
Sardelle decided to find it sweet and romantic even though their lips were coated in a layer of ash. Ridge drew back, the wryness in his eyes suggesting he had noticed the same thing, or maybe she had inadvertently shared the emotion with him. He didn’t release the hug, though, and she wondered if he had been worried whether she would wake up or not.
“Is it time to go home?” she asked.
“Home, as in my house in Iskandia?”
“Yes… I dread dealing with those women who were stalking me back in the capital, but I do long for a soak in your bathtub.”
“That means you’ve decided you’ll return with me? That you want to?”
“I always wanted to, Ridge. It was just…” Sardelle gazed toward the dusty sky. “I didn’t—don’t—want to wreck your career.”
“I know, but I’ve told you that that doesn’t matter.”
“And I, being more empathic than a rock, knew that was a half truth.”
He opened his mouth, a protest on his lips, but she raised a single eyebrow, and he stopped. The sheepish expression returned. “Maybe so, but I want you
and
my career. I don’t want to give up on either of you. That’s why we all just nearly died to get those vials, and why we’re not going home until—”
“Sir,” came Apex’s call from above, “Captain Kaika and I are ready to go. Do you want us to wait for you to finish canoodling or have you told us everything that you need to?”
“I’m not canoodling,” Ridge called up. “I’m… negotiating a consolidation.”
“If you’re opting for the military definition of that word, to strengthen by rearranging the position of ground combat troops after a successful attack, I don’t think your girlfriend counts as a troop unit.”
“It’s tedious when your young officers have a better vocabulary than you do,” Ridge murmured and released Sardelle. He faced the cliff. “We’re coming up, but you can take off whenever you’re ready. You’ve got my report for the king, right?”
“The scroll filled with chicken scratches? Yes, I have it.”
“You read it?”
“No, but I’ve seen your reports before. Your maintenance requests and shopping lists too. I trust my assessment is accurate.” Apex disappeared back into the cave.
“So glad to see he’s feeling better,” Ridge muttered, not entirely sarcastically. He picked up the coats and started up the cliff.
Sardelle smiled and headed up the cliff, too, glad it wasn’t quite vertical. Her body ached almost as much as her head, but knowing she could rest in the flier made one more climb doable. Ridge waited for her and made sure she wasn’t having trouble.
“We’re not all going back to the king?” she asked when the ramifications of the men’s conversation sank in. Apex and Kaika were leaving first. Meaning everyone else was going somewhere different?
“Not yet.”
“Afraid to face him until he has a chance to cool his blood?”
“Not exactly. I’m sending most of the dragon blood back with Apex and Kaika. I think that and the fact that we turned the Cofah secret lab into a volcano should appease him.” The way Ridge’s mouth twisted suggested he wasn’t certain about that, at least not insofar as his indiscretions went. “But in the event that I’m to be punished or relieved of my command again, there’s one more thing I want to do before returning home, something that should further appease the king. Eliminate the source of the dragon blood—or otherwise ensure the Cofah can’t get any more of it.” At some point, Tolemek and Ahn must have explained the painting and the foliage in the crate to him.
“So we’re going to the tropics to look for purple flowers?” Sardelle knew from experience that soldiers, even higher-ranking officers, weren’t supposed to run off, assigning themselves their own missions, without permission from commanding officers, but she didn’t point that out.
“Actually we’re going to Mavar Island to look for my dad,” Ridge said. “He’s supposed to be there this winter. If anyone can identify some tropical location by its flora, it’ll be him. He’s spent decades exploring all around the equator. Even if he doesn’t know, I’m sure he can still point us in the right direction.”
“Really, Ridge,” she said as she climbed onto the cave ledge. “If you wanted to take me home to meet your parents, all you had to do was say so.”
“Does that mean you agree to come? If not—” his expression grew bleak, “—we can drop you off somewhere.”
“Of course I’m coming. My potential student is apparently in the same place as the source of that dragon blood.”
His face lightened. “Ah.”
“And I agree to your offer of consolidation, military or otherwise.” Knowing they would be separated in the flier, Sardelle took his hands and kissed him once more.
“Come now, sir,” Apex said from the cockpit of the closest flier. “That’s
definitely
canoodling.”
“Jealous, Lieutenant?” Kaika asked from the rear seat. She appeared to be ready to go, several bags of the dragon blood strapped in around her. Sardelle hoped they wouldn’t have to dodge any of those unmanned attack fliers on the way out. It would be a shame to lose their samples at this point. With luck, the volcano would be distracting everyone within a couple hundred miles.
“Of course not,” Apex said.
“Because if you were, I was going to offer to hold your hand on the way back.”
Apex blinked a few times, but seemed too flustered to come up with a response.
Duck strolled up and handed Sardelle a skewered piece of meat on a stick. Rabbit? It was hard to tell under the layer of char.
“Thank you.” She decided to add the restaurants in the capital to the list of things she was longing for.
“Knew you needed to fill your empty belly.” Duck saluted Ridge. “We’re ready to go, too, sir.”
Duck climbed into the cockpit of his flier.
Tolemek and Ahn walked out of the depths of the cave, holding hands. There might have been some canoodling going on back there too.
“
If
the flier can get off the ground with all that unauthorized cargo on board.” Ahn gave Tolemek a significant look.
“I’ve never studied volcanology,” Tolemek said, “but I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to acquire fresh samples.”
“Including
twenty
vials of ash?”
“Twenty-six. I assure you the combined weight is less than that of a sniper rifle.”
The glowers they gave each other weren’t particularly fierce.
“Looks like it’s time to fly, then,” Ridge said.
Apex and Kaika were already rolling toward the cave ledge. She gave a long look over her shoulder at the empty seat in Duck’s flier.
“My lady.” Ridge offered Sardelle his hand to give her a boost into the flier. “Your conveyance awaits.”
She accepted the offer. “And my nap, I hope. Though that doesn’t seem fair. You must need one as much as I do, if not more.”
“Who says I won’t take one?”
“Is that allowed when you’re the one
flying
the craft?”
“You’ll know if you wake up in the arctic instead of the tropics.”
THE END
Afterword
T
hank you for following along with the
Dragon Blood
series. The next novel may actually have a dragon in it!
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