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“This is a sun stone, made by the Beekeeper. It makes light and produces warmth. I don’t know what other powers it has, but it gives me energy,” Nava said. Her eyes opened wide as the words slipped from her lips. What the hell was happening to her? She glanced at Arkimedes, horrified but glad she’d said nothing that might give her away.
“Where did you get it?” the young dragon said from the back, just as Emir reached for the sun stone.
“In the forest.” Nava pressed her lips tight, willing herself not to speak another word.
“She doesn’t have to tell you anything else. The artifact is what we claimed. Now it’s your turn.” Arkimedes extended a hand to Emir for his artifact, and his misty aura wrapped around the vial as soon as it hit his palm.
“We discovered ours at a temple in the Gold Kingdom two years ago. The scriptures claimed it used to be a spell of auspices—or whatever. We don’t have an excellent translator in our crew.” Emir scratched his bald head and sneered at the wooden box. “I don’t like you two, but I feel I should warn you. All of my men who dared to open that vial are now gone.”
Auspices? What did that even mean? “Did it kill them?” Nava asked.
“It drove them mad, and that’s what killed them.”
Arkimedes glanced at her, probably reading every single one of her thoughts. “What else can you tell us about it?”
“We know nothing other than that Alera, the Goddess of Life, crafted this spell.”
The Goddess of Life…? That must be why the magic waves had called so strongly to Nava, why they reminded her of her winged insects. Was the goddess somehow related to the Beekeepers?
“So it’s a spell?” Arkimedes’s flat expression gave away how unimpressed he was with this discovery. “Do you have anything else, like a weapon?”
“What do you think happens when we are out there searching for these, Reaper?” Drake scoffed, but he didn’t move an inch from where he stood. His eyes were those of someone who’d spent too long out on the ocean. “Why don’t you open it, Dark One, and tell us? You’re a magic-wielder, no? You ought to know more than us.” Drake spat to the side.
Arkimedes’s lips peeled in a feral expression she rarely saw. Whoever these people were, her mate didn’t like them one bit.
A random spell they knew nothing about was useless and would likely cause more harm than good. What were they going to do with a potion that drove people insane? Force it down the emissary’s throat? He was already mad.
“This is all we have got, and this auspice protects whoever is strong enough to use it. I bet it won’t harm you as it did us,” the captain said. He seemed to be realizing the trade wasn’t going in their favor and was still holding on to her stone.
“We need a weapon, not this.” Arkimedes offered the vial back, but the dragon did not reach for it.
“You used to be a Crow, Reaper. You should know there isn’t a vast array of artifacts left undiscovered. One thing I can assure you of, we are the only traders currently docked in this city in possession of a god’s artifact. I urge you to reconsider.” The captain’s voice had grown deeper, and now his nose extended into the shape of a scaled snout. “I very much desire this.”
Arkimedes’s entire body stiffened, and for a second, Nava thought he might fight the dragon. But then he spun toward the tent’s door just as an explosion shook the ground.
Nava lost her footing, pushed back by an intense pressure that sent her flying against the wooden table.
“Nava!” Arkimedes shouted, running toward her. A cloud of dust and smoke blew the tent’s door open, right as the screams began outside.
30
ORION
Orion’s ears rang, and his vision blurred. Everything inside the tent rattled as the ground shook. He clutched the goddess artifact in his hand, while orange-tinted smoke poured in from the outside, smelling of sour tangerines. He would recognize the blinding spell anywhere. Now, it numbed his skin. Soon, his limbs would follow.
Disoriented, he knelt beside Nava, hoping she hadn’t hurt herself in her fall and was still mobile. She looked dazed and coughed into her elbow, shielding her face from the bite of the magic surrounding them.
“Try not to inhale too deeply.” He wheezed out the command and pulled his scarf over his nose with his free hand. But it was too late, even for him—he could feel his power dull beneath the effects of the spell.
The sound of ripping fabric drew his attention. The younger dragon was clawing at the wall of the tent, right before the three of them left through the back, shapeshifting into large, winged beasts.
The captain glanced at Orion, baring long teeth and still cradling the sun stone. He was escaping, taking the Beekeeper’s stone with him and leaving this useless vial as a trade-in.
“W-what’s happening?” Nava slurred. He would have gone after the shifter, but he couldn’t abandon her. The effect of the stunning spell was twofold: it numbed the magic-wielder’s power and their motor skills. Even the bees crawled aimlessly over the ground, unable to find Nava easily.
“It’s the blinding spell I mentioned before. Someone must have crafted it into a bomb of sorts. We have to go through the back.” He dragged her off the ground and past the mess of trinkets the dragons had left behind.
“It couldn’t be the dragons who did it—right? Was it the guards?” Nava asked once they were out in the alleyway. If anything, it was worse there than inside. People were crawling on the ground in a vain attempt to escape what they all knew was coming.
