Breath of Dragons (A Pandoran Novel) (35 page)

Vera rubbed her hands together, as if warming them with friction. "Mercedes was able to uncover the last spell Ven Orelius had placed on the portal."

"How?" I asked. "Some kind of magical trace?"

She nodded. "Magic always leaves a trace, and luckily we'd arrived so soon that the shadow of it was still there. From there, she repeated the spell and we all went through."

I raised a brow. "And that wasn't a violation of protocol? Not that I'm complaining…"

Vera shrugged. "She improvised, based on the evidence. And I wouldn't be surprised if she rewrites the protocol considering we no longer have any
venita
." The thought of this seemed to amuse her. "Mercedes has always…what is that phrase you use on Earth? Walked to the beat of her own drum?"

I smiled, nodding.

"Well," she continued, "as long as you walk to this same beat, things will go well for you." She made a face like she'd had personal experience with this, and the end result had not been in her favor.

"I thought portals could only link to other portals," I said.

She nodded.

"Then where did Ven Orelius take us? That wasn’t one of the seven, was it?"

Vera rubbed her nose. "It's definitely not one of the seven, and the only other pseudo-portal I know of is the secret one in Thieves, though I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Mercedes seals that one."

"So you're saying that either there is another portal we don't know about, or Eris managed to, ah, somehow hijack the portal into delivering us where he wanted."

Vera considered this. "I would think it more probable that there is another portal we don't know about."

"Agreed," I said. "I am just speaking possibilities. So there may be an eighth portal that we are unaware of. Ven Orelius sends us there, and because it is a portal, Mercedes was able to re-open the connection and send us on to Pendel."

Vera's nod was slight.

"So then why in the world did we land in the middle of an ocean?" I asked.

Vera shrugged. "Pendel has established wards around their portal, so it's possible that Mercedes' magic backfired somehow, dumping us here."

"As close to Pendel as possible without actually touching shore," I said. "Your portal system is more complicated than it should be."

Vera made a face like she agreed. "It's made with magic, princess, and as you have seen, magic can be
very
unpredictable."

I watched her a moment and then said, "Vera, I really hope you understand how grateful I am. For everything you've done. We wouldn't be here without your help. And I know you've come even farther than you said you would, and—" Suddenly I felt the need to address everything between us, especially the elephant in the room, named Alex. "I also wanted to talk to you about…" I floundered, searching for the right words. How did I say this without sounding ridiculously juvenile? Hi, I'm sorry I stole your boyfriend. See? Juvenile.

"Please, don't get sentimental with me, princess." Vera unfolded her arms and leaned back on her hands, stretching her long legs before her. "I don't do well with feelings." Her face was pinched in a scowl.

"I know, but please hear me out just this once. I…" And then I plowed right on ahead. "I know that I showed up in this world abruptly. Believe me: I wish things had been different and that my father had brought me here when I was much younger so that I wouldn't feel so…so
lost
all the time. And maybe if that had happened, I never would have known Alex. Not as I know him now, because if I'd been here as I should have been, I never would have been allowed to know him like I do." I hesitated. "What I mean to say is that I realize my showing up has been highly inconvenient for, well, everyone, and if there was"—
here it goes
—"
something
between the two of you, I didn't mean…and I'm sorry, I just…"

"Oh, shut up already." She rolled her eyes.

Well, she'd warned me. Actually, I was a little surprised she'd let me go on as long as she had.

She sat there, glaring at the fire while rocking her feet back and forth like she was trying to give herself something to do other than face my words. The silence stretched so long that I thought, perhaps, she was going to ignore everything I'd said. But then she suddenly said, "I hated you. I hated the very sound of your name and I prayed the spirits would kill you in your sleep."

Not
exactly
the kind of response I'd had in mind, but at least she was talking to me about it…?

She laced her fingers together. "The day I arrived at the Academia was a very difficult day for me. My English was embarrassing and I knew no one. Most students at the Academia come from privilege and aren't used to extending manners to foreigners." Her eyes narrowed. "Denn was assigned to my care."

I cringed. And then I suddenly realized why Denn had been allowed to attend. His father might not have been privileged, but his uncle, Sir Randik, absolutely was. "He didn't try…" I couldn't even finish my thought.

She shook her head. "No, no. He was still an idiot, but it was controlled idiocy then because he still had a few years to graduate. He was on his very best behavior—for Denn. Which means he said a lot of terrible things. Of course, I didn't understand them at the time because I didn't know the Saqai equivalent. I didn't know what he was saying to me until Alexander overheard him.

"Alexander walked right up to him and grabbed him by the collar and yelled in his face, though I can't remember exactly what was said. Later, I asked Alexander to tell me what it meant, but he wouldn't. No, actually it was Thaddeus who took the liberty of explaining it to me later that afternoon. The next time I found Denn alone, I gave him two black eyes for it."

My spirits rose at the mental image of Denn as an oversized blueberry.

"Alexander always made me feel…" Vera paused for the right words. "At home there. Of course like any besotted idiot, I thought, or hoped that maybe he…." She chewed on her bottom lip. "But I quickly realized he didn't. He was friendly—yes—but not any friendlier than he was with, say, Thaddeus. Or Brant. Or Phin. The others would always tease him about this girl or that girl because all the girls were in love with Alexander, but he would never do anything about it. I wondered why he wouldn't even entertain the idea. I wondered why he would conveniently disappear every time the boys would keep drinking and the girls would come around.

"And then I overheard a conversation he had with Prince Stefan," she said. "He didn't know I was standing there, but I heard the name Daria. Naturally, I was curious. Alexander never talked about girls. I wanted you to be a sister. But no. No one would ever speak of a sister the way he spoke of you." She squinted at the fire, sat up and folded her fingers around one knee. "I could hear his love for you in every single word. That was the first moment I hated you."

The first? I wondered what the second was.

"I was jealous," she admitted flatly and without expression. "A man like Alexander, so highly respected and admired and feared throughout the kingdom, would choose to love
you
as deeply as he did, and you didn't have any idea. I thought you had to be the biggest idiot in the history of the worlds."

I inhaled slowly. "You have no idea how many times I've said those exact same words to myself."

She studied me, her expression neutral. "I
have
gotten over it, princess. Yes, I hated that you had everything: all the wealth and power in the world, and a father and brother who loved you, and the whole heart of one of the last respectable men in this realm. But I didn't hate you for Alexander's choosing you. I hated that you had everything, and you had no idea it was in your hands."

I took a very slow and deep breath as a breeze slipped into the cave and through my hair. She was right in more ways than even she realized. "Why are you helping me?" I asked.

She hesitated like she wasn't quite sure if she even knew the answer to that. "Because…I do not think so anymore. You may not understand a lot of things, but you are loyal. Fiercely so, and you fight for what is good and honest and true. That makes it so irritatingly impossible to keep hating you."

I sighed. "Even when everything I fight for puts everyone around me in danger?"

"There will always be danger, princess. Anything worth fighting for will be met with adversity."

I tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. "I just wish the stakes weren't so high."

She didn't have a comment for this.

"Vera…why did you leave Gesh in the first place? Does it have to do with Hawk?"

She blinked and looked up at me, and I knew I'd overstepped my boundary.

"I'm sorry," I backpedaled, searching her eyes. "It's none of my business. It's just that Gesh is so beautiful and your mother is there—"

"My mother?" Vera pulled back even farther, completely nonplussed.

Now I was confused, too. "I thought that…isn't Mercedes your—"

"Mercedes is not my mother." Vera's expression bore a combination of surprise, pain, and disgust.

"Oh," I said quietly. "I just assumed she was." Then who was her real family?

Vera stood and jerked down her leathers like she was angry with them for hanging there. "My mother is dead," she said without looking at me. "She and my father were both killed in service to Mercedes. I was thirteen."

I touched my fingers to my lips. I wanted to say something to her, but words escaped me.

"Mercedes took me under her care to honor my parents. And when I refused to marry her nephew, Sal Amorentis," she spat his name, "she sent me to the Academia, hoping to instill manners and a sense of humility." She said those last words in a slightly different tone, as if feeling the need to repeat them in the way they'd been originally spoken to her. And then she started tugging on her top.

There was no way her leathers could be dry already.

Vera looked extremely uncomfortable, and I could tell she hadn't intended to reveal so much about herself. She paused, removed her top and held it before her, touched a few places over it, and then she repeated this with her pants and boots. Energy pulsed from her fingertips with each touch, and then she stiffly tugged her leathers back on.

"Well, it didn't work," I said with a slight smile, trying to reel her back.

She was brushing her hair back when I said this, but stopped to look at me. Her rigidity suddenly lost its edge.

"Her sending you to the Academia," I continued. "You still have no sense of humility."

Vera blinked and then she chuckled. And then I found myself chuckling, too, and soon the two of us were giggling uncontrollably like a pair of little girls, our laughter irrationally spurred on further by the trying events we'd experienced as of late. But it felt so good to laugh despite it all.

At last, the frivolity ended. "I'll take first watch," Vera said.

"Vera," I said at her back.

She paused.

"Thank you for that," I said. "I don’t have many friends here, and even though you may not consider me one, I consider you one of mine."

She didn't say another word, but I was okay with that.

Chapter 17

Pendel

T
he tide never came into our cave, thank the spirits, nor did any more of those skeletons from Hell. Alex continued to sleep heavily. As the night progressed, the color returned to his coppery skin and his breathing grew calm and easy. I checked on him more often than was probably necessary, but I couldn't seem to relax. I couldn't bear to let him out of my sight; I had been
that
close to losing him forever.

At some point in the night, I covered his lower half with the dry
venita
cloak, careful to keep my eyes fastened on his perfectly chiseled upper body. This was about the same time I dressed, too, though my leathers were still damp and stiff. I didn't know how to do that little trick Vera had done, but by that point I just wanted something to protect my bare skin from the cold night breeze, even if that protection was slightly wet.

I remembered the map we'd packed and pulled it out to look over the island of Pendel. Up until this point, we hadn't had much use for it, but now that we were here—an island none of us had ever been to—I thought it might be a good idea to familiarize myself with the terrain. The city of Karth, our intended destination, had been claimed by a black star at the foot of the Way of Kings, a rather jagged looking mountain range that resembled razor-sharp teeth more than mountains. I brought the map to Vera, and, after much deliberation and examination of the stars, we deduced we'd landed on the southern shores, precisely forty-five miles away from Karth. Not nearly as close as I'd hoped. From here, forty-five miles meant two full days of walking.

However, according to the map, there was a small town called Nyhavn along the way, situated about fifteen miles north of our current location. The town was nestled along a delta and looked to be the island's only inland sea port. It would be a good place to stop and get provisions to remediate our nutritional losses. Our late night swim had ruined what little food Alex and I had packed, and though I was reluctant to stop in Nyhavn on the chance we were spotted and recognized, I also knew we wouldn't make it two full days without more food and water. In addition to that, maybe we could get a few horses. That would definitely help the issue of time, plus I didn't like the idea of crossing so much open terrain on foot. Particularly after our fight with the dead.

When I mentioned as much to Vera, she agreed, though we both suspected convincing Alex might be the tricky part. He'd want to circumnavigate any and all civilization, considering the appalling frequency of our betrayals, but for aforementioned reasons, I thought it worth the risk.

The night softened into dawn and Alex slept on. I considered waking him, but then ultimately decided to let him rest. I even dozed off myself in the early morning, because daylight gives one a sense of safety that night steals away. It was almost midday when I remembered to write Tran. Alex was still sleeping soundly and Vera said she was going to sit on the beach for a while. Thus left to myself, I opened Tran's bindingbook and was pleasantly surprised to find that Fleck had already written. The note had been dated a few days prior.