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We all glanced at Smoky and Shade to see how they’d take that statement. But both of them nodded in agreement.
Smoky spoke up. “My wife speaks correctly. My people are avaricious. Especially the white dragons. My father’s kin are among the worst of the lot, and they will stop at nothing to attain power and treasure. For now, when you return to the Dragon Reaches, keep silent. And you must hide this scroll.”
Venus paled. “Where, though? It must be protected.”
“Carter. Carter could protect it, couldn’t he?” Vanzir stopped short as soon as the words left his mouth. “Never mind. No, you do not want a demon having that much information in his grasp. Not even a half-demon. I’m amazed you spoke of this in front of me, considering my nature.”
“You are not out to destroy this world,” Venus said.
“There is a place,” I said, mulling over every word, trying to decide if what I was thinking was actually a good idea or not. “What about your barrow, Smoky? It’s sealed off from the rest of the world more tightly than just about any place we know of.”
Camille nodded. “Yes… of course! The barrow. There are spaces deep within the chasm there that we could hide the scroll in—no one would ever find it unless they first destroyed all of us, then decided to go mucking about in there.” She turned to Smoky. “Can we hide it there, my love?”
A strand of his hair reached up to tickle her and then he nodded, his eyes gentle. “You may hide it in my barrow. But we’d best do it soon because once my mother and her helpers arrive to take Venus and the others back with them, they’ll sense anything this old in the house. Shade, stay here. Menolly, you and Rozurial—bring the scroll. I will go with you to help you through the barriers. You can find a place to hide it that even I will not know about.”
“You’d best go quickly.” Shade cocked his head. “I sense a stirring on the wind. The dragons will be here soon.”
“Then we go now, and will return as soon as we finish.”
And with that, we scurried to gather our things, and to go hide the scroll.
Chapter 7
Traveling through the Ionyc Seas wasn’t always the most pleasant thing but it got the job done. And really, considering I was already dead and that it took one hell of a lot to knock me out of commission, the shifting waves of energy rolled over me like water on a duck’s back. I closed my eyes and leaned close to Smoky as he sheltered me in his arm.
Dragons smelled different than humans or Fae. Their pulses ran differently, too. The steady beat of his heart was similar, but it echoed a different rhythm, deeper, like the ancient pulsing of drums in the darkness. I’d noticed it before. As Smoky stepped off the Ionyc Seas, it felt as though we were exiting from a womb, breaking through a psychic amniotic fluid sac. We stepped through, with a sucking sound, and were once again on solid land, in the physical world.
We were standing in front of his barrow, which was out near Mount Rainier. When Camille had first stumbled on the hillock and met the dragon who now claimed her heart, Smoky had been embroiled in a dispute over the ownership of the mound with Titania, the Queen of Light and Morning. But at that point, she had not regained her powers, and had been a pale drunken shadow of her true self. She had been arguing with Smoky over who owned the barrow, while living in a cave inside it.
Now there was no issue. Titania ruled with Aeval and Morgaine in their sovereign nation of Talamh Lonrach Oll, giving up all pretenses to owning Smoky’s land.
Not far from the barrow, through the forest along a wooded trail, was a snug house where Smoky had offered refuge to Georgio Profeta, a man who believed he was Saint George. His childlike vision allowed him to see through the trappings and to know that Smoky was a dragon. For years he had sought to destroy the beast, dressed in his plastic chain mail, with a rubber sword. When his dementia grew too strong, Smoky hired a caretaker for him, and now Saint George and the dragon lived in a peaceful truce.
The barrow itself was a huge earthen mound that looked like a uniformly shaped—and good-sized—hill from the outside. To the outside world—and to us—it was lovely and pristine, a field that was incredibly beautiful. But beneath that glamour lay a charred and scorched area of the woodland. Smoky had done a number on it in his dragon shape, what with the let’s-breathe-fire habit he had.
A door led into the barrow on one side, but I knew that farther along the mound was the entrance to a cave. Camille and Morio had explored in there when they went searching for Tom Lane—or rather, Tam Lin. Yes, that Tam Lin, from the songs and stories. Tom, as he had been known to us, was Titania’s foggy-headed lover from eons past, before he had become one of the Keraastar Knights, and now—sadly—a victim of Telazhar and the sorcerers.
Roz jumped off the Ionyc Seas and blinked, steadying himself. The more we all traveled through the vast channels of energy, the more we adapted to the nuances and sluggish pull of the currents.
After a few minutes to situate ourselves, Smoky led us through his magical charms to enter the barrow. If we’d tried to breach the wards without him, we would have died in any number of horrible ways. Dragons were protective, and territorial, and they had exquisitely painful methods of preventing anybody from fucking with their stuff. Even so, as we crossed the threshold, a crackle of electricity sparked around us, and if we’d been unwelcome visitors, we would have been turned into crispy critters.
The outside might be rustic, but inside, Smoky’s barrow was a bizarre mix of stone and chasm and old world charm. The living room was laid out on tiled floor, and the walls were the stone of a deep cavern. The barrow on the outside was far smaller than the world into which we had stepped. Barrow mounds were magical; the entrances were portals into another dimension. So on the outside, the mound could be a small hillock, but once inside, the world grew larger.
As we entered the living area, the smell of cigar smoke and old leather surrounded us. Smoky was still allowed to smoke in his own barrow, provided Camille wasn’t coming out here for a while. Smoke bothered Delilah and Camille a lot—especially cigarette and cigar smoke. It had bothered me when I was still alive but no longer presented a problem. That didn’t mean I liked the smell, but it didn’t make me choke now.
The brown sofa and chair were old, luxurious—the leather buttery and supple. Heavy walnut tables buttressed the ends of the sofa, and a matching bookshelf spanned one cavern wall, filled with leather-bound books and scrolls. The tiled floor ended at what would have been the back wall, but the cavern opened up into a chasm at that point. A staircase led down into the pitch dark of the cavern below. Mists boiled from the bottom, and the sound of a stream echoed out from deep in the rocky ravine.
On either side of the living area, two doors led into what I knew were a bedchamber and bath, and Smoky’s kitchen. Eye catchers shimmered around the ceiling—Smoky had managed to snag them from Otherworld, or perhaps when Titania had lived in the caves connected to the barrow, she had enchanted them. Whatever the case, their illumination brought a soft, gentle glow to the cavern, and even though it was underground, even though it boasted dark depths that led to unknown haunts, there was a sense of comfort here, and safety. Smoky had definitely imprinted his presence on this place.
I was carrying the scroll. One of the reasons we’d left Venus at home was that, if he didn’t know where the scroll was hidden, he couldn’t leak the information in case he was caught. Because while we still weren’t sure of how important the Keraastar Knights were to the future, we didn’t dare chance losing the powers inherent in the parchment.
Smoky led us to the back edge of the living area. There, below, was the deep chasm into which he dove when he shifted into his dragon form in the barrow. I wasn’t sure how he got from there to the outside, but it was none of my business and I had never asked.
A narrow set of stairs led down on one side, steep and with no railing. They descended into the darkness, treacherous and foreboding. I wondered just how many feet had traversed the stones, how many people had attempted to venture into the gaping fracture that split the cavern.
Smoky stood up top. He paused for a moment. “I shouldn’t be witness to where the two of you hide the scroll. That way, the Wing Liege cannot command me to hand over information I do not have. While I doubt that my people would have any desire to administer the Keraastar Knights, it is best we take no chances. If you need me, call, and I will help you out, but unless it’s an emergency, probably best that I don’t know where you’re going.”
I glanced at Roz. It made sense. “I guess we’d better get a move on. I don’t want to miss saying good-bye to Luke and Amber before the dragons take them away.”
