A Dragon's Tale Ch. 33

"It's noticeable even when you're not looking if you've been around one enough." Rachel added. "I noticed that Sarah had something similar going on with her, though it seemed much, much smaller in magnitude."

"Wait, Sarah has a disguise gem?" Selene asked.

Rachel shook her head. "I don't think so, and the effect was pretty small. It might tweak her appearance slightly, but only slightly. It was a pretty subtle effect and probably wouldn't change her appearance much at all. She may not even know about it."

"Huh, interesting." Ethan mused.

"I wonder if it's coming from her demon." Selene added, then shook her head. "Wow, I'm casually talking about demons now. Does this place ever get less weird?"

"I'll let you know." Ethan chuckled. "I got all the crazy spread out over two or three months; you're getting it much faster."

The Brazilian woman laughed. "Fair."

* * *

Ethan soared through the sky as he searched below for the ruined temple that Selene had described. He was rather high up and didn't see anything that looked like it. He'd started near Sarah's inn and gradually flown in ever wider circles trying to find it. He might've spent a fair bit of time glancing towards the inn to see if Sarah went outside too, but no such luck. Alas, he was too far away for that now. As he thought about it, he decided he might not admit that particular fact when asked how the recon went.

*How long does Selene think that she was unconscious?* Ethan asked his wives.

There was a short wait, then Alana replied. *She isn't sure, but she thinks it wasn't more than a couple hours.*

He frowned. *I don't see anything that looks like what she described, and I can see for miles up here. I've done a few loops, covering maybe a hundred square miles.*

Another pause, the Rachel chimed in. *Does the phrase 'aerial camo' mean anything to you? Selene says it should.*

*Yeah, that would be smart of them.* He changed what he was looking for. Instead of looking for a clearing and a building, he started looking for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. A repeating pattern, a lack of trees, a change of the usual tree color, or anything else out of the ordinary.

It occurred to him that since he was so far out, the only logical thing to do was start searching at the beginning again. You know, over the inn. You know, just to make sure that he didn't miss anything. It only made sense to be thorough, right? Purely for the sake not missing the base of course. He knew he was rationalizing, but a part of him didn't care.

Alas, he didn't see what he was looking for when he arrived, so he started making wide circles looking for a ruined temple covered by aerial camo again.

An hour later he saw something.

His wings were just beginning to tire of his ever widening circles when he noticed a spot in the trees that just looked... odd. There was a strange rise-and-fall shape almost like a tent and the colors were a bit too regular. He got a bit closer, but didn't need to get too close. Dragons have excellent vision and he was over a thousand feet in the air as he passed over.

It looked to be some sort of aerial camo netting that had been draped over a large area. It was hard to see through, but he could just make out movement under the canopy with his dragon eyes. He even thought that he saw the glint of steel a few times. It looked like they'd opted to cover the ruined temple, as there was a high spot in the camo cover.

*I think I found them, but the camo cover makes it really hard to see much of what's going on.* He announced.

*Where master?*

He looked around. *Um, about five miles nearly due East of Sarah's inn.* He said, and then the girl crossed his mind again.

He couldn't help but smile.

*You're really smitten, aren't you master?* The Fey asked, probably because she felt his emotions over their bond.

*She's betrothed.* He replied simply. *It doesn't really matter what I feel; I'm not messing with an engaged woman.*

He let his shoulders slump slightly because of that, though he kept his wings rigid so he didn't drop like a stone.

He soared over a dry grain field and felt the warm air bearing him aloft in the rising thermal current. He slowly circled above the field for several minutes gaining altitude. He hadn't flapped his wings in well over an hour, not since he'd discovered that certain types of ground produced warm updrafts in the afternoon sun. He'd been using them to stay aloft, and it was a lot less work that flapping all the time.

*I'm heading back to the Argo.* He announced once he'd gained enough height.

*What does it looked like?" Beth asked, curious as ever.

*I'll explain when I get back so Selene can hear.*

*Master, you wouldn't need to wait if--*

*Tee.* Beth interrupted with amusement. *He's crushing on Sarah right now; maybe mention Selene later?*

*You girls know that I can hear you right?* He chuckled.

*I know...* Beth replied, and he could almost hear her mischievous smile and the cute way her cheeks dimpled when she did so.

He laughed.

A while later, he landed on the Argo. When he did, he rolled his wings around a bit to work out the kinks. Turns out that holding them in one position for a couple hours could make them a bit crampy. Plus, they were still sore from the beating he'd taken earlier.

"And?" Selene asked.

"I couldn't see much." He explained. "It looked like there were at least a dozen people moving around, but I wouldn't be surprised if the real number was double or triple that. I saw some metal too, so I'd guess that they have a fair bit of equipment moved already."

"Anything that looked like weapons?" Rachel asked sounding apprehensive.

"I couldn't see very well, but I'm sure there's some." He replied. "Given the presence of airships here, I'd guess they have an Anti-Air emplacement or two."

'That would make sense." Selene nodded. "The question is, what do we do about it?"

"For starters, I think I'm going to change my self-enchanting strategy." He mused as an idea occurred to him.

"Oh?" Alana asked.

"Yeah. Remember a while back when I mentioned Spider-Man from Earth, and how he could sense danger before it struck?"

"Yes." Beth replied. "Didn't you say that he had a 'Jedi-sense' or something like that?"

Selene and Ethan laughed before the latter spoke. "Spider sense. I realized while I was fighting Sarah that reacting faster wouldn't have helped. I think I'm at the point where improving my reflexes won't help much unless I can actually move faster. So unless I start improving my speed, more reflexes don't seem like they would help much."

Selene started humming the Spider-Man theme.

"Exactly." He grinned.

Everyone else stared, so he explained.

"Do you really think that'll work?" Rachel asked looking skeptical. "Predicting the future is up there with telepathy, telekinesis, and transfiguration as the most difficult of all magical arts. Most mages say it is the hardest of all magical arts."

"I'm not sure, but I'm definitely going to find out." He said with a wide grin. "Besides, you once said it got harder the further out you were trying to predict. I'm only thinking of looking a second or two, so it can't be that impossible, right?"

"Maybe?" Rachel looked skeptical. "But like I said, it's up there with telepathy, and transfiguration as the hardest magic to do."

"I'll find out soon enough." He shrugged. "Speaking of transfiguration, at some point we need to all sit down and talk about Lady Ekthros and her trying to turn men into dragons. I think we'll need to eventually do something about that too."

"Agreed." Rachel nodded. "She's a powerful arch mage, though funny enough she keeps that pretty quiet. I don't think all my father's advisors know. Anyway, she's incredibly devious and knows more about the happenings in the Ten Kingdoms than most people."

"Really?" Beth asked. "I didn't realize."

"She's my father's most trusted advisor, and is in charge of the intelligence gathering; I wouldn't be surprised if she knew more about what's going on in the Ten Kingdoms than he does, and he's incredibly well informed." The redhead turned to Ethan. "Take our visit to pick up Selene; I bet she knows about that, which is why I suggested keeping the Argo far away when we returned earlier."

Ethan frowned. "So we should be careful if we want to return there again."

"Absolutely." Rachel agreed. "She likely had people watching the place and thus might already know that we were there earlier today; she's that good. Plus, she's not only good at collecting information, she's also good at sharing it in such a way that she can get most people to believe anything she wants them to believe. She could sell water to a sea elf, and have him happy about the purchase."

"So basically, don't trust a word she says because she'll twist your head about. Got it." Ethan sighed, glad they weren't likely to run into her again. At least not for a while. However, he could see a reckoning coming eventually, and wasn't looking forward to meeting her again.

He pitied anyone who did.

* * *

Sarah took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

She couldn't believe what a runaway-horse-ride the day had been. First there had been meeting Ethan while he was disguised and the flutter that her heart had developed. Then the fight with him, her breakdown afterward, and how nice he had been. He'd come to comfort her after she'd attacked him, and even helped her to see that her problem -- her demon -- didn't need to define her. He'd been so nice, and he had seemed like he enjoyed talking with her because he'd lingered before leaving.

She couldn't stop from smiling.

He'd been so nice.

He was so different than what she'd been expecting from a prophet of Illuminar, but so much better than she'd ever imagined. She couldn't believe that he -- the prophet of Illuminar himself -- struggled in much the same way that she did. That was just...

Just...

There were no words.

She felt sorry for him that he had to struggle, but if Illuminar could do good with someone else who struggled with a problem the same way that she did, then maybe there was hope for her too. She was really glad that they'd met each other, and glad that they understood each other so well. It was a dream come true. Literally a dream come true. It hadn't played out anything like she'd imagined though.

It was better.

Her smile faltered as she remembered Rindrin.

She was determined to be the best wife that she could be to him. And given that he couldn't break their betrothal without her doing one of two things that she would never do, it didn't matter. She belonged to Rindrin, not the dragon. She would've been lying if she'd said that she wasn't sad about that, but she was glad that the prophet of Illuminar didn't think that she was a terrible person, even after she'd attacked him.

"What are you daydreaming about?" Her father asked from his fireside chair. "You get up to something special while I was in town earlier?"

"Something like that." She smiled back.

"Well don't keep it in, let's hear it." He replied, and he actually seemed to be in a better mood than normal.

"Well, earlier this morning--" She stopped as the door to the inn opened and a woman walked in.

She was tall, just over six feet and looked to be in her late forties, though she guessed that she looked very young for her actual age. She was wearing a simple but elegant dress that was suitable for a wealthy woman who was traveling. Her face had sharp, angular features and while she didn't look unpleasant, there was nary a laugh or smile line to be seen. Her auburn hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

"Hello." Sarah said brightly. "Welcome to the inn."

"Thank you." The woman nodded with a smile. "I'd like a room."

"Um, we only have a communal sleeping area. Sorry." She replied apologetically.

The woman frowned, but nodded and pulled out a coin purse.

"It's one silver for you and your husband." Sarah offered.

"Husband." The woman scoffed good-naturedly. "That's not likely; it's just me."

"Then ten coppers."

The woman pulled out two silver coins. "I'd like my own bed."

"You have to give them to my father."

The woman did so, and Sarah smiled slightly. A customer who paid extra would put him in an extra good mood.

"I might stay here for a few days. I'm planning to meet my lord nearby and this appears to be the closest inn." The woman said looking around, and then looked at Sarah herself. "Plus I'm hoping to meet someone else here too."

"You're welcome to stay as long as you like." She replied brightly. "My name is Sarah, what's yours?"

"Ekthros." The woman replied. "Lady Ekthros."

TO BE CONTINUED...

***For (hopefully) obvious reasons, this is one of my favorite chapters and I've been looking forward to publishing it for a long time. Also, thanks to a scheduling issue that I couldn't have foreseen, you all will have to 'suffer' through getting the next chapter a week earlier than usual. I'll submit on the last Wednesday in May, so it should drop on the 27th or 28th (after the review process); that's only three weeks. I might have to move future submissions to the last Wednesday of the month due to the same issue; I'll let you know next chapter.***

***I'd like to extend a very special thanks to two of my patrons who've been enormously helpful, one of whom didn't want to be credited by name. So "Anonymous" and Joseph: thank you so much. I really appreciate it. ***