Stormcaster (Shattered Realms #3)(68)

“Then, I made a mistake,” Evan said, looking down at his hands.

“What do you mean?”

“After King Gerard declined my proposal, I went to Jenna’s room to find out what she knew. I thought—I hoped she would be able to tell me something that would reassure me.”

“Reassure you?”

“Something that would convince me that even if Montaigne sent her to the empress it would not end in disaster.”

“Was Jenna able to reassure you?”

Evan shook his head. “No. It turned out that she knows less than I do. So. Teza and I were—were talking about what to do when she took matters into her own hands. She smashed one of the lamps on the floor and set the room on fire.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Isn’t it obvious? She was trying to escape.”

“By setting fire to herself?” The healer snorted. “That makes sense. Did she blow a hole in the tower, too?”

“That happened after I left,” Evan said. “I have a theory, though.”

Sul’Han tilted his head back, his hands resting on his thighs. “I can’t wait to hear it.”

“Someone unchained the dragon in the hold of my ship,” Evan said, looking straight into the healer’s eyes. “Someone who left his wizard collar behind.”

Sul’Han’s eyes narrowed, and he shifted on his cushion. Message received. “Really?”

“Really. The dragon escaped, flew straight to the tower, and rescued Jenna.”

The healer’s wary interest dissolved into skepticism. “The dragon again. That’s your theory? That after spending weeks confined belowdecks, this Carthian dragon’s first instinct was to fly across town and smash a hole in a castle to rescue a girl he’d never met?” Sul’Han shook his head. “How long did it take you to come up with that?”

“I think Jenna is a shape-shifter, or at least someone with a special affinity for dragons.”

“Convince me,” the healer said, looking obstinate as a rock.

“When Jenna’s in danger, have you noticed that she develops scales?”

The healer, frowning, stared at him, then nodded. “I did see something like that,” he said. “When I was treating Jenna in Ardenscourt, and her wound was healing up, there was, at first, something that looked like scales. I didn’t know what to make of it.”

“Exactly. I couldn’t imagine how anyone would have survived that fire in the tower. But she did. I think that she is resistant to flame.”

“Something you hadn’t counted on,” the healer said.

“You’re wrong. Nobody is happier than I am that Jenna survived and escaped,” Evan said. Looking into the healer’s face, he thought, Well, maybe somebody is.

He pressed on, building his case. “Did you notice her eyes?”

“What about them?” From the healer’s expression, it seemed he didn’t like Evan noticing anything about Jenna.

“Beautiful, golden, almost reptilian, wouldn’t you say?”

“I suppose,” sul’Han said grudgingly. “Though I never really thought of them that way.”

“Something smashes a hole in the tower. Jenna and the sun dragon disappear. The next thing we know, Jenna is in the mountains, ordering an extra-large harness from the upland trader. A harness for a dragon, perhaps?”

The healer grunted, still uncommitted, but wavering, as if weighing the evidence.

“Finally, the dragon was with Jenna when I saw her on the coast. It was wearing a harness. After incinerating my ship, she mounted up, and they flew off together.”

“Jenna. Was riding on the dragon.”

Evan nodded. “Exactly. Legend has it that the ancient Nazari rulers fielded squadrons of dragon fighters. There are images of them in the ancient texts.”

The healer scrubbed his hands through his hair. “All right. Leaving the topic of dragons for the moment—let’s say you’d succeeded, and your deal had gone forward. What did you plan to do with Jenna after the trade was made?”

Evan looked down at his hands and considered what to say. “Being the target of someone like Celestine is a lonely business,” he said finally. “There’s nobody I can really trust, and no source of information that I can access without risking my life. I hoped that Jenna was ahead of me, that she knew more about this magic than I do. I hoped that we could share information and find a way to fight back.”

“Did you tell her that?”

Evan nodded. “Eventually. But not until we met again, on the coast near Chalk Cliffs. I couldn’t risk telling her while we were in Ardenscourt.”

“How did she respond?”

Evan laughed. “Not well. I’m the last person she wants for a partner. The way she sees it, I ruined her life.”

“I don’t think it’s a matter of perspective,” the healer said. “You did ruin her life.”

“Her life would have been ruined with or without my involvement. You may not believe me, but I was trying to help. I told her the truth—about the magemark, all of it. I tried to persuade Jenna that we are natural allies, that we share the same blood.”

“What do you mean, you share the same blood?” sul’Han said, leaping on that like a trout on a fly.