The Dragon’s Daughter and the Winter Mage by Jeffe Kennedy
~ 20 ~
“I’ve got her!” a voice shouted as a net settled around her, fouling her wings and bringing back that sharp panic of capture.
“Are you sure it’s her?” another voice called back anxiously.
“It’s her.” This voice more confident. Gen made her penguin self stop thrashing, recognizing those voices. Stella. Lena.
And Jak, leaning over the side of a small boat tossing in the rough water, drawing in the net. “I’ve got her,” he said again, pulling her into the boat and removing the net. “She’s not fighting me now. Gen, you’re safe. You’re back. Shift to human.”
The disoriented panic evaporated, replaced by white-hot fury. She shifted to human form, warm and dry, only briefly savoring the delicious ability to do so. Isyn had lied to her. He’d sacrificed himself, pushing her through the rift without him. “I have to go back.”
“You’re home. You’re safe,” Jak repeated as if she were a child or mind-addled.
“You don’t understand.” Her voice rose with hysteria. Isyn. Isyn was still back in the Winter Isles, and time was flying there. She had to get back to him. “I’ll explain later.”
She was fast, Jak was faster. Anticipating her, he seized her wrist in a fierce grip. “You will not shift. That’s an order.”
“You don’t order me,” she spat, fighting him. Isyn’s blade was in her cache—she’d taken it with her into penguin form—but she’d have to shift to get to it. Which would also break Jak’s hold. Claws would work, too, and she didn’t have to completely shift to make those.
“Don’t do it,” Jak warned. “You’re not in your right mind. Give it a minute.”
A minute. A minute was how long—a day? “I can’t,” she nearly shrieked.
“Rhy, help me!” Jak shouted.
A raven that had been circling above dive-bombed her, becoming Rhy holding her in an unbreakable bear hug. Unbreakable unless she became a bear herself. Anticipating her, Rhy nipped her ear. “Want to play I Eat You?” he taunted. “I’ll win.”
That penetrated her frantic thoughts. “Wrong. I always win. I have more forms.”
He laughed. “You won’t win anything if you capsize this dinghy and drown Jak.”
Oh. How thoughtless of her. Just then, the little boat bumped against the bigger sailboat with a startling grind. Zeph, in porpoise form, popped her head up and grinned around the rope in her mouth, cackling happily at her. Above, Stella and Lena leaned over the rail, cheering and clapping. Astar hung from the rope ladder, holding a hand out to her.
“Take it,” Jak ordered. “Or I’ll have Stella fly over and knock you out so we can haul you aboard like cargo.”
“I forgot what a tyrant you are,” she snarled.
Jak only raised a brow. “In just an hour? You’re definitely mind-addled.”
“I’m not. It’s been—” Realizing this would take explaining—and the faster she convinced them she was rational, the sooner she could go rescue Isyn—she stopped herself. She had to convince them to let her go back, and for Stella to return with her. If the rift remained. If it would take her to the Winter Isles again.
If nothing happened to Isyn before she could get back to him.
She took Astar’s hand, attempting to return his broad grin. He pulled her against him in a real bear hug, this one full of love and relief, sandwiching her between his body and the side of the ship. Kissing her forehead, he squeezed her tight. “You gave us a real scare, Gen. You truly did. Climb on up. I’ve got you.”
The words reminded her agonizingly of Isyn—and gave her renewed determination. Climbing the rope ladder swiftly, she found herself embraced by Lena and Stella, who were both laughing and crying at once. Funny, as many times as she’d dreamed of this reunion, she had to force herself to return their hugs and not immediately extricate herself. “Nilly,” she said, interrupting their gushing questions. “I need you to—”
“Gendra!” Zeph screeched, practically in Gen’s ear. Back in human form, she pulled Gen into a fierce hug, talking nonstop of her relief and how Gen had better never disappear like that again. Then Rhy and Jak were aboard, pulling her into hugs also, everyone talking at once.
“Everyone, quiet!” Gen yelled over them all, stunning them into silence. Zeph gave her a wide-eyed and astonished look that might’ve been approval. “Thank you for pulling me from the water,” Gen said more quietly, now that she had their attention. Calm and rational was the way to go. “But I have to go back.”
“You are not—” Jak began, dark eyes hard and face set, but Astar held up a hand.
“I know we’re on your ship, Captain Konyngrr,” he said mildly, “but we’re still anchored. I’m going to reassert my rank as crown prince and leader of this mission for the moment. What happened, Gen?”
“Yes, where did you go?” Zeph demanded. “We’ve been taking turns searching for you for an hour, and you were nowhere. And then suddenly Stella knows where you are.”
Gen glanced at Stella, who smiled gravely, gray eyes sparkling with sorcery. How much did she know? “I found Isyn,” Gen told them, counting on that news to shut them all up. “I fell through a rift and ended up in an alter-realm where Isyn has been trapped for fifty years.”
For a long moment, the only sound was the slap of waves, growls of wind, and the creak of lines as the ship strained against the anchors, yearning to move on, even with its sails tightly furled. Gen struggled against her own furled wings, feeling the rush of every minute lost.
“Sweetheart,” Stella said gently, reaching for her, “I think you should—”
“I’m fine, Nilly,” Gen snapped, yanking her hand away. Stella needed to save every drop of healing magic for Isyn. Her friend blinked at her consideringly, silver sparking brighter in her gaze as the sorceress looked through her. “Look all you like,” Gen told her. “Isyn has been trapped in an alter-realm called the Winter Isles. Fifty years have passed for him. He’s injured and he needs to be rescued. Ask Falada! She’ll know we need to go get him.”
Stella shook her head sadly. “Falada disappeared when you did. I rather thought she’d gone with you.”
Had she? Neither she nor Isyn had known, if so. “Regardless, I have to go after him right now because every minute that passes here is like hours there that could—” Her voice caught on an hysterical sob—so much for calm and rational explanation—though she had run out of breath to speak anyway.
Astar put a heavy hand on her shoulder. “Take a breath. In. Out. In. Out. Better. Now, tell us the story from the beginning.”
“But, Isyn—”
“From the beginning,” Astar commanded, summer-sky eyes hard and jaw firm, every inch the high king, even drenched with rain and seawater. “I’m not budging on this, so soonest begun, soonest done.”
They all smiled or chuckled a little at Astar’s familiar personal motto. With Astar’s hand grounding her, Gen took another breath and told them the story of what had happened. Leaving out the sex and falling-in-love part, though her three female friends eyed her keenly, clearly guessing there was more to it. They could drag the details out of her later. Unless they weren’t able to rescue Isyn, in which case she’d refuse to speak of him ever again. Their few days together would be sealed away with her sense memories of him, safe from anyone else’s prying questions. Only for her.
She stifled another sob at the thought. “So you see,” she finished, “I have to go back for him. Immediately.”
No one nodded, or even smiled. Instead they all regarded her somberly. Astar squeezed her shoulder. She hadn’t realized he’d kept his hand there for the whole recitation. Keeping her from fleeing overboard? Perhaps.
“Gendra.” He used her full name, drawing it out, sympathy in it. “He sent you back alone.”
“I know! That’s why I—”
“He sent you back alone,” Astar spoke over her, gently but firmly, “in order to save your life. He knew he couldn’t make it and that your chance of freedom lay with his pushing you through the rift without him.”
“He sacrificed himself for you,” Lena said, a reverent hush in her voice, her face full of sorrow. Beside her, Rhy turned his head to study her, some realization rippling through him.
Zeph was nodding. “Don’t let that sacrifice be in vain, Gen. Isyn knew what he was doing. And he succeeded. He sent you back. You’re safe with us now.”
Now everyone nodded, murmuring agreement. Gen stared at them, fighting the sting of betrayal, the eroding sense of losing ground. “He only did that because he’s convinced he’s dying,” she insisted, willing them to understand. “He thinks he’s too old for me and that even if we can get him back here and Nilly heals him that he’ll only weigh me down.”
Stella watched her knowingly, her empath senses no doubt showing her everything in Gen’s heart. Let her.
“Gen.” Astar finally removed his hand, scrubbing it through his wet hair. “You have to realize you’re not really making any sense.”
“She’s in love with him,” Stella told her twin. “It all makes sense when you know that.”
Five heads snapped around, everyone but Stella staring at Gen as if she’d grown scales and a second head, with googly eyes.
Zeph nodded to herself, as if confirming something, then shook her head. “Gen, I’ve told you over and over, you can’t keep imagining yourself in love with every—”
“This is different,” Gen interrupted. “This is the real thing.”
Zeph snapped her teeth, an echo of her impatient gríobhth beak-clacking in it. “Love at first sight is a myth. You don’t meet someone and an hour later—”
“Remember it’s been much longer than an hour for Gen,” Lena put in. “It sounds like at least a week in that alter-realm?”
“At least,” Gen agreed, taking the rope Lena tossed her with relief. “I don’t know how long I was an orca, and the time differential is confusing, I know. I’m sure you could do the calculations much better than I can.”
Astar had fisted his hands on his hips, head tipped back to study the swaying mast against the turbulent sky, expression grim. “You’re not going back for him.”
Her stomach sank to the bottom of the sea. “Astar, I have to—”
His eyes snapped to hers, the blue as sharp as Silversteel, a glint of his aunt Ursula’s determination in them. “You have to obey your high king, is what you have to do. And you are not going back through that rift, Gendra. No one is. We have this debate every time we lose someone in an alter-realm, and every time I have to weigh the potential cost of losing more people to rescue one or a few. The cost is too high. Jak, pull up anchor. We’re sailing on. Stella, you sit on Gen, and if she makes any move at all to shift, knock her out.”
Gen gaped at him, a thousand thoughts flying through her mind. “If it were one of us stuck on the other side, you’d choose differently.”
He inclined his head, neither confirming nor denying. “He isn’t one of us, so I won’t waste mental energy worrying about it.”
“He is one of us,” Gen insisted, curling her fingers into her palms. “He’s mine. If it were Zeph, you’d want any of us to do whatever it takes to save her.”
Astar met her gaze steadily, unflinching. “My decision stands. Do I need to have Nilly knock you out right now? Because I will, Gendra. I won’t risk you. And I won’t risk another hour like the one we just spent searching for you.”
They were all exhausted, Gen realized. Soaked, chilled, bedraggled. She could see it in all of them except Stella, who’d no doubt been kept in reserve in case Gen needed to be healed. They’d been through hell worrying about her, taking turns shifting to aquatic forms and running search patterns. And she’d been ungrateful. “I’m sorry,” she told them, catching and holding each of her friend’s gazes. “I am grateful beyond measure that you stayed here to search for me. I didn’t know if you would.”
Six different expressions of incredulity and puzzlement reflected back at her. “How could you think that, even for a moment?” Lena asked plaintively.
“I thought maybe days had gone by, and you would’ve given up,” she explained, feeling the weakness of her argument.
“And you think you don’t matter to us,” Zeph snapped, invisible gríobhth tail lashing in the misty air. “You think because you’re the only one in our group not paired up with their true love that you aren’t worthwhile.”
“I am not paired up with my true love,” Lena gritted out.
Rhy flashed her a dark look but said nothing.
“What I mean is,” Zeph said hotly, turning on Lena, “that Gen—”
“Zephyr,” Astar said, not loudly, but his tone was sufficient to shut her up instantly.
“You’re right, Zeph,” Gen told her cousin as she glared mutinously at Astar. “I’ve felt like the seventh horse in a team of six on this trip. I’ve been wallowing in feeling sorry for myself, and if I learned anything at all in my misadventure, it’s how very much each of you means to me. I’ve been searching for true love and overlooking the real, enduring love every one of you has given me. I’ve taken you all for granted, and I vow to change. But I’m asking you, each one of you, as your friend: please help me rescue Isyn.”
They all looked at Astar, even Jak, and though Astar looked pained, he shook his head, all resolute grizzly bear. “I’m sorry, Gen. I know you care for the man, but the risk is too great. I can’t allow it. The mission must take precedence over our personal feelings.”
Gen nearly retorted that he’d risked the mission due to his own personal feelings more than once, but some newfound maturity had her biting down on the unfair and callous words.
“Willy,” Stella said quietly, waiting for him to look at her. “Why are we sailing to the Isles of Remus?”
Astar huffed at her. “Not now, Nilly.”
“I’m perfectly serious,” she insisted gravely. “Shall I ask someone else? Jak, why are we sailing to the Isles of Remus?”
He cocked his head at her, expression changing with grudging realization. “To find King Isyn, who can help avert the catastrophe, as Queen Andromeda foresaw.”
A desperate, keen-edged hope leapt from Gen’s belly to lodge in the back of her throat, and she turned to Astar. Waited.
He was glowering at his twin. “Gen found him. Mission accomplished.”
“And she lost him again,” Stella returned equably. “It stands to reason that ‘finding’ Isyn so that he could assist with averting the future catastrophe involves more than we’ve achieved so far.”
Astar’s fists only tightened, his jaw dipping toward his chest in ursine obstinacy. He turned to Gen. “I know you have no reason to tell me the truth—and, indeed, very good ones to prevaricate—but perhaps you learned something from Isyn during your time there that provides the key to solving the problem?”
Wouldn’t that neatly solve Astar’s dilemma? A nice little shortcut, whereby Gen visits an alter-realm, obtains the vital clue from the mage of the Winter Isles, then leaves him there to die while they go on to save the world. A stirring, tragic love affair made extra bittersweet with the sublime self-sacrifice. Worthy of one of Jak’s Dasnarian ballads. In fact, Jak lifted one dark brow at her as if thinking the same thing.
She drew herself up with all the dignity she possessed, facing Astar fully. “First of all, I’d like to lodge a protest, Your Majesty—a respect I’ll accord you even though you are not yet the high king, and even when you are, we denizens of Annfwn don’t recognize the high throne of the Thirteen Kingdoms as the ultimate authority, something that you, as a partblood child of Annfwn yourself, know well.”
Behind Astar, Rhy pumped a fist in the air in political agreement, grinning at her with flashing eyes. Even Stella passed a hand over her lips to disguise a smile, and Zeph rolled her eyes at Astar’s back. Despite everything, it was good to be back.
“I would not lie to you, for any reason,” she continued. “Not because of the crown you don’t yet wear, but because you are my friend. I also wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize this mission, and I’m frankly insulted that you imply that I would.”
Astar set his teeth. “You have to understand that you’ve been very emotional, behaving unlike yourself since—”
She held up a hand to stop him. “I’m behaving exactly like myself. If that doesn’t match who you assumed I am, that’s not my problem.”
Now Lena and Zeph bumped hips, doing a shimmying dance of female solidarity that Stella joined from her side of the circle. Moranu, how she loved her friends. She wasn’t sure when they’d converted to her cause, but she was immensely grateful for it.
“Finally,” she said, before Astar could reply, “no, I don’t know the answer to staving off this catastrophe. If Isyn gave me the vital clue, I don’t know what it is. I can tell you, however, that he is a powerful mage, one able to control the weather, recognize and stabilize rifts, and trigger shapeshifting in an alter-realm that I wasn’t able to do on my own. We could use his skills.”
“I’ve said numerous times that my own weather magic isn’t enough,” Lena piped up. “If I had another mage to work with who understands manipulating atmospheric conditions that might make all the difference, I’m for rescuing Isyn.” She gave Gen a smile and a nod.
“Three is a magic number,” Stella observed, speaking directly to Astar. “A third magic worker could turn the tide for us. Another vote for rescuing Isyn.”
Astar growled low in his throat. “This is not a democracy.”
“Gen does have a point that you are not yet the high king and technically have no actual authority,” Stella pointed out placidly, impervious to her twin’s growing outrage.
“And many cultures around the world have implemented successful democracies,” Lena replied. “That system of government is superior to our monarchies in many ways, not least because it prevents one person from having absolute power.”
“Besides which,” Zeph put in, slipping her arm through Astar’s and turning the full power of her charm and beauty upon him, “Nix and Cavan were our hosts. Wim and Marjie became friends. Will we want to face them someday and say we were in a position to rescue Isyn but decided to leave him to die? Lesser insults have led a kingdom to rebel against the high throne, which is not how you’d want to begin your reign, I’m thinking.”
Astar tore his unhappy gaze from her, looking to Jak and Rhy. “Guys, what do you say?”
The girls all traded exasperated glances. As if the “more-rational menfolk” would weigh in differently.
Rhy, somehow managing a relaxed slouch against the mast despite the pitching of the little boat, shrugged nonchalantly. “Here or there, the mission is the same to me. I do recall Queen Andromeda tasking me to find Isyn, so I’m all for following the orders of the queen of Annfwn.” He added a mischievous smile and a wink for Gen. “If that also aids the pursuit of true love, then I’m the last to refuse.” Lena made a quiet snorting sound but for once restrained a cutting remark. “And,” Rhy continued, gaze lingering on the back of Lena’s head, “I love the sound of a democracy, which falls neatly within the Tala method of choosing rulers, by merit rather than the chance of birth. I vote for rescue.”
Without acknowledging Rhy, Astar pinned Jak with a desperate look. “Captain Konyngrr, this is your ship. It’s your right to overrule us all and make the call that we sail on. In fact, you already made that decision, and I support you in it.”
Jak considered him, tumbling a dagger between his fingers as another person might flip a coin to decide by chance. He slid a look to Stella, who smiled at him, all warmth and love. Sheathing the blade, he slipped a hand behind Stella’s neck and kissed her, hard and fast, then snugged her against his side. “I trust my lady’s vision. If my star says that’s where I need to go, then that’s how I’ll navigate. Besides, we all know Gen is the most sensible of all of us. I vote rescue also. And,” he added, giving Astar a cheeky grin, “as the local tyrant, I’ll make it a fiat. Off we go to the Winter Isles.” He tossed Gen a salute.
Astar fumed only a moment, then sagged and nodded, turning back to Gen. “All right then, what’s your plan?”
Um.Her “plan” had consisted of flinging herself back through the rift immediately and dragging Isyn back with her. Or taking Stella to heal him and then dragging him back. Time was ticking by. How long had it been for him since she’d left? A day, at least, maybe more. He’d be back on the island. In pain. His health worsening. She couldn’t think about that.
Looking around the circle of expectant faces, she realized she didn’t need to make the plan alone. Here were all these bright and courageous people. “Can you all help me figure one out?”
