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“In the way that any food chain does. If a dragon were to land next to a herd of stags, the stags would of course run.” She shrugged. “And the wolves are careful where they roam, as they can affect the ecosystems fairly easily.”
I considered that. “Can you use telepathy to speak to the non-Enchanted creatures?”
She shook her head. “No. The telepathy is to communicate to each other, Enchanted to Enchanted, while in our shifted forms. The distance of the telepathy is much greater when done in shifted form to another shifted form. Esta has been able to communicate to the other Enchanted stuck in their shifted forms far easier than she can with the rest of us.”
My eyes kept darting to the lakes on the map. Of course, it couldn’t just be one. “When our queen turned our lake back, she stood in the water and had to pour her magic into the lake. I suspect that your people would not take kindly to me trying the same?”
She shook her head. “Likely not. In my opinion, if the water is already black, what could you truly do to it?” She paused. “But we will get you samples. Tonight the queen will take me from lake to lake to gather them myself. Tomorrow you will have some samples to begin trying your Enchantment on.” She paused. “But only in a room I set up for you or your chambers, please. I fear if some of our Enchanted saw you using your magic freely, the fears and emotions it would draw out would only increase the tensions in this castle.”
She handed over the book to John. “I need to finish a few letters of correspondence. You are welcome to stay in the library with me and look at this to learn more of our culture. And you may ask me any questions after.”
I gave her a nod. “Thank you, Amory. This is a great start. Thank you for all you were willing to share today.”
She gave me a tight smile. “Imagine the state that Dra Skor now finds itself in, in which our greatest hope lies in the hands of our sworn enemies.”
CHAPTER8
“Keir.”
I rolled over, not wanting to grace the day yet. It was way too early. Though dreams and reality were seemingly less disjointed lately with winged creatures roaming about.
“Keir.”
I opened an eye to find that it was still dark out, and Miles was at the foot of my bed, nudging my foot.
“Lucky I didn’t kick you,” I offered lazily. Because of how late Krew and I had practiced these past few years, sleep was a sought-after commodity in my life that I was in no mood to relinquish before I absolutely had to.
“We have company on the balcony,” he offered at a whisper, not bothering with a sound barrier.
“In what form?” I asked, immediately more awake.
“A dragon and a few friends? One of which I think is a huge horse with wings. But maybe I am just asleep right now.” He paused. “Are you seeing this?”
I sighed as I sat up and looked to the balcony. “I am.” A gray horse with black wings and huge hooves along with the dragon queen and Amory were all squeezed onto my balcony.
I ran a hand down my face and strode for the doors. I supposed I should reach for a shirt, but I was honestly too curious to take the time to find one. I wasn’t a vain man, but I was comfortable enough with what I looked like to not feel embarrassment.
I opened one door and heard Amory apparently bickering with the other two, but all that I could hear was of course her voice.
“I am tired and don’t trust putting them anywhere else for the night,” Amory argued. “No, Esta, you cannot go wake him up.”
Silence.
“Okay fine, but—oh look, we did wake him. See? Now we can be sure he found them right away.”
“Hi,” I offered all three, leaning up against the doorframe since there wasn’t really much room on the balcony. I smiled at the gray horse, “I don’t believe we have met.”
“This is Malachi, one of the queen’s most trusted advisors. He went with us tonight on our water sample adventure.” Amory pointed at the ground. “Which was successful, so here we are.”
When Amory had told us there were winged versions of horses as one of their forms, I had foolishly pictured something beautiful and graceful. Perhaps even something more feminine than what I was seeing before me. Nothing about Malachi seemed dainty. He was powerful and huge, his black mane and wings only adding to thedon’t mess with mefeel he had going on. I imagined his human form to be a brick of a man like that of Dex.
“And you didn’t want them just sitting around until morning because our work here is to be kept on a need-to-know basis?” I asked gently.
“Precisely.” Amory smiled tightly.
Did you not pack clothes, Prince of Wylan?the dragon said to me.
I cocked my head and looked in her direction. “If you choose to wake me in the dead of the night, then you shouldn’t concern yourself with what I am wearing or not wearing. In fact, you should likely prepare yourself for a lack of them.”
