Page 109 of Triumph at Pemberley

“What do you mean?”

“Our Gates are warded, so only dragons and dragon-blooded mortals can go through. He could send a fleet of ships through an unwarded Gate. His armies could appear out of nowhere. No one would be safe.”

Elizabeth pressed her hands to her suddenly churning stomach. Napoleon would turn her amazing, miraculous Gate into a horrific weapon of war, one so powerful no country could stand against him. “I would never open a Gate for him. Never!”

Rana Akshaya snarled, “You would have no choice. He can control your mind.”

“Could you put a binding on me so I cannot open Gates for anyone else?”

“Anything I can do, a mad dragon can undo.” So even the great Rana Akshaya’s power was limited. It was clearly a bitter admission for her.

Elizabeth felt her shoulders sag. “So all of this was for nothing.”

“No,” Rana Akshaya said decisively. “There are other ways. That first time, when you nearly brought your husband back from France. You did not know where he was, much less have an image of it.”

Could it work? “But I knew just what he looked like and felt like, much more so than for most people.” Even then it had collapsed, and everyone told her never to do it again. Including Rana Akshaya, who had changed her mind remarkably since. Of course, she had not known about Gates then.

“Then we must either change that or discover another way. I will retire and consider the question.” Rana Akshaya, apparently done with the conversation, strode out of the chamber.

Elizabeth wrinkled her nose after the venerable old dragon. She doubted whether this new plan could work, but she had no time to consider it. Cerridwen, still curled up on the ground exuding an aura of despair, needed her.

There was one silver lining, though. Even if she could not stop Napoleon, she had a future as a Gate-Opener. Her skill would make her welcome at any Nest without a Gate, and her family with her. They would not be in exile without a purpose.

It was something.

Chapter 42

Darcy found Elizabeth sitting on the bed, her arms wrapped around her knees. He brushed her lips with a kiss. “Chandrika says you wanted to see me.” He had been glad of an interruption from the painful task of readying Pemberley for his absence.

“Yes.” She handed him a greenish oval. “Have you ever seen one of these?” She seemed almost vibrating with excitement of the sort he had not seen in her for months. Only this morning she had seemed as weighed down by their imminent departure as he was.

He took it and examined it. It was heavier than he expected, with a smooth skin that gave a little to the touch, like an overripe pear. Sniffing it revealed a sweet, unfamiliar fruity aroma. “Cannot say I have. What is it?”

“A mango. A fruit from India.” She gave him a tremulous smile. “Straight from India. Today.”

Odd, that she seemed so excited about it amidst all the other disasters. “Interesting.” He tried to sound enthusiastic, and failed.

With a breathy laugh, she said, “You have no idea how interesting, but at last I can tell you about my mysterious training. Because I finally succeeded at it today.”

At last! He hated having secrets between them. “I would very much like to hear about it.” He set the mango down on a small table and sat on the bed beside Elizabeth.

She reached past him for a cloth-wrapped item. “First, let me show you something. But do not touch it. There is a fae spell on it, and it burns anyone else who tries to handle it.” She lifted the cloth to reveal a small stone and silver sculpture.

He could feel the power in it from where he sat. “What is it?”

“It is the Artifact Iorweth the Bold used to open Gates. The great disaster when he attempted to open his last Gate, occurred after the Wicked King stole this from him. Frederica found it in Wales and brought it to me.”

A sense of foreboding trickled up Darcy’s spine. This could not be simply because Elizabeth and Iorweth the Bold shared the dubious honor of being companions to dragon seers. “Why would Frederica travel all the way across the country in wartime to bring you a centuries-old Artifact?”

She gazed into the Artifact, clearly bracing herself. “Do you remember when you were in France and you suddenly thought you could see me in the Pemberley library? All the dragons were terribly worked up about it because I was unknowingly using a Forbidden Talent.” Then she looked up at him steadily. “My Forbidden Talent is for opening Gates. That is what I almost did that day in the library, just by wanting you to be there so much. Had I but known then what I do now, I might have actually pulled you through and saved both of us a great deal of pain.”

He barely heard her last words. “Is this Talent not forbidden for a reason?”

“It is, because Iorweth died using it, taking a great many people and dragons with him. What none of us knew is that it may have been because he no longer had this Artifact.” Her hand stroked down the side of it.

“May have been?”

“All we know is the Artifact was stolen from him sometime before his death. He could not have used it for his final attempt. Which means it may be safe to open Gates now.”