Page 60 of Triumph at Pemberley

Finally she could turn her attention back to Jenny.

Elizabeth burst into the ballroom where Cerridwen was waiting, her heart pounding. “Well? He has been gone four nights now! He said it would be two or three!”

Her dragon cocked her head, puzzled. “Your mate? I do not know where he is, but nothing has harmed Coquelicot, so he must be well, too. Sometimes things take longer than we think.”

She was in no mood to be placated. Did Cerridwen not understand that England was under attack? Her William, unlike Coquelicot, had no dragonscale armor to protect him from bullets! “Why did you call me here, then, if it was not for bad news?”

Cerridwen sent calmness through their bond. “I did not mean to frighten you. It is simply that Rana Akshaya wants to examine Ysmeina’s Cuff. The Eldest at the Dark Peak does as well, but Rana Akshaya insists it must be today.”

Of course she did. Rana Akshaya wanted everything to happen immediately. “Perhaps tomorrow. Jenny is teething, and I said I would spend the day with her. We were apart too long.” The baby might not have understood her words, but she still intended to keep her promise.

“Perhaps I could take the cuff to her, and you could stay here,” Cerridwen said.

The invisible cuff tightened around Elizabeth’s wrist. Good heavens, how did it know she was thinking of removing it? She barely even spoke the same language as Ysmeina had back in the eleventh century! “I do not think it will allow that. It seems to want to stay with me.”

Cerridwen snorted. “Then I will fly you there and back. We need not be gone even an hour.”

“Tomorrow,” she said firmly. Jenny’s needs came first. “Perhaps you and I can experiment with it now, and you can report that back to her.”

Her dragon must have sensed that she would not budge on this. “Oh, very well,” she said grumpily. “We already know it protected Ysmeina from the Wicked King.”

“But how? Did it stop him from hurting her, or did she use it to imprison him so he could not hurt her?”

After a moment’s thought, Cerridwen said, “Try placing it on me, if it will permit it, and we will see what happens.”

The cuff loosened again, so apparently this was not too much. Did it have some defense against being stolen away from her? “Are you certain? What if it interferes with your powers?”

Cerridwen snorted smoke. “I trust you.”

Elizabeth flexed her hand and slid the cuff off. It popped back into view as soon as it left her wrist, her arm uncomfortably bare without it. She reached for Cerridwen’s foreleg and placed it around her scales. “Well?”

The dragon cocked her head. “What a strange feeling.”

“What happens if you try to use your Talent?”

Cerridwen wiggled her wings. “I cannot! Oh, I do not like this. Take it off, take it off!”

Elizabeth hurried to obey. As soon as it was in her hand, she could not stop herself from slipping it on her wrist. How could it have such a mind of its own? “Now you should try using your Talent on me.”

She waited as Cerridwen seemed to study her, the dragon’s eyes half-disappearing behind their inner eyelids. Nothing happened. “Is it working?” she asked.

“I already tried to make you take a step to the left. It should be easy enough.” Cerridwen sounded puzzled.

“So it works both ways. And I could use it to trap Napoleon!” Though that would mean getting far closer to the emperor than she wished.

Doubt flowed down their bond. “Perhaps. The Cuff does not stop my sendings, so it cannot prevent all dragon magic. Mad dragons are immensely powerful, far more than me. He might be able to break through it.”

Elizabeth could not afford to be more frightened of facing Napoleon. “It might make some difference, at least,” she said stoutly. But the Cuff had not protected her from being trapped by the Wicked King’s wards.

That meant it was unlikely to help with their other problem, the prophecy about one of them killing the Wicked King. Not that the Dark Peak dragons seemed to believe in it. “Why does the Nest seem to have so little interest in the prophecy? They should be excited by the idea.”

“They were, once. It has been so long that they have lost faith in it. Just like they do not fully believe I am a Seer.” Cerridwen’s aura was resentful. “I do not always like Rana Akshaya, but I will say this for her. She has never once doubted my visions. She did not worry when you disappeared into the tower, solely because you were still alive in my foresight.”

“She ought to believe in you!” Elizabeth said stoutly.

Cerridwen preened. “I am glad she does. And now that Napoleon is on our shores, she is eager to resume your work on Gates.”

All the pleasure of her discoveries faded away. Elizabeth slowly shook her head. “I had a great deal of time to think while I was trapped in that horrid tower. The training is going nowhere and is dangerous. All I can do is to open a Gate to a known place briefly, and that is not enough.”