Treasure Ch. 06

"Adeon," Catherine said softly, huddling into the fur cape for warmth. He ignored her, pinching the bridge of his nose tightly with his fingers as he continued his slow, methodical circling at the mouth of the treasure cavern. "Adeon, please..."

She had awoken hours ago and had found Adeon pacing restlessly, his eyes wide. His ruined shirt still lay forgotten in a corner, and she could see his muscles coiling and tensing with each prowling step, moving slowly under his skin like a tiger's. The rigidity in his stance and the slack line of his mouth made it incredibly clear that he hadn't slept.

"What do you want from me, Catherine?" he finally murmured, his eyes flitting briefly towards her before resuming their listless stare at nothing in particular. Manic shadows the color of bruises framed his eyelids.

"I want you here," she insisted, extending one hand towards him. "Next to me. Come sit with me; we can take a bath and you can relax..." He let out a short bark of scathing laughter and she faltered, her brow contorting in worry.

"Relax," he repeated incredulously. "I cannot afford to relax. Not when at this very moment, legions of knights could be on their way to besiege my mountain. And if what you've told me about Roane is true..." He let the sentence hang in the air, and fury darkened his expression.

"You're not helping yourself by staying awake," she scolded. He snorted.

"I'd be helping myself even less lounging in a bath with you, I'm afraid." His lips twitched into a bitter smile. "Not that it isn't tempting." Catherine let out a weary little groan and pushed herself to her feet, and the cloak tumbled off her shoulders and onto the glittering floor. He turned away from her as she approached him, his hooded eyes skimming his surroundings without really seeing them.

"I don't like seeing you like this," she whispered, trailing her fingertips down his shoulder. He inhaled deeply at her touch, and she reached up to grasp one of his arms, gently halting him in place. She stood on her tiptoes and wound her arms around his neck, and he knelt towards her almost helplessly as she moved to brush her lips against his. "You look...scared," she said against his lips, her voice trembling a little. He lurched towards her and claimed her mouth with his, kissing her hard, frantically, and she gasped as his hands came up to crush her waist against him. "Please," she pleaded after he had severed their lips, quivering from his intensity. "Come with me. Just for a moment." His muscles loosened compliantly and she tugged him behind her, leading him down the passage.

When they reached the pool, he watched her with rigid uncertainty as she stood in front of him and fumbled with the fastenings of his trousers. Her lips pressed against his chest once she had undressed him, and then she grasped his wrists to lead him slowly into the spring. After he had eased himself into the pool, she stripped off her dress and sat on the ledge behind him, deliciously hot water swallowing up her ankles.

"Here," she whispered, and he maneuvered himself so his shoulders were in between her legs. His head lolled wearily to the side, resting against the skin of her thigh, and she knelt to cover his neck and shoulders with gentle strokes and feather-soft touches. A hiss of a breath escaped his lips, and she cradled the line of his jaw in her fingers, pressing a long, hard kiss to his forehead. "Please don't be scared," she begged.

"Oh, Catherine," he breathed, and the sensation of his lips moving against her thigh sent an unwelcome tremor up her spine. "I'm terrified." His voice cracked in a distinctively un-Adeon-like way as he spoke, and her heart shattered at the desperation in his voice. She swallowed hard and kneaded her palms against his shoulders, eliciting a faint moan from the depths of his lungs. She traced the valleys of his throat, the knife-like ridges of his collarbones, trying to channel any relaxation she could muster into him, and after several minutes he seemed to go limp in her hands. Her throat worked silently as she tried to summon the courage to speak, a thousand thoughts clouding her brain like a swarm of birds blotting out the sun.

"We're going to be alright," she assured him quietly. "But there's something...there's something that you might have to do." He was quiet, but he lifted one hand to skim the skin of her ankle with his slightly too-long nails. She wet her lips. "Adeon," she finally said. "I think you're going to have to let me go." Silence swallowed up the chamber, broken only by the steady drip of water that was coursing down his palm.

"I know," he whispered after several moments, and his voice echoed harshly off the walls. She rested her lips against the crown of his head, staring worriedly down at the rippling water.

"It's the only way I can think of," she continued, "where they wouldn't...chase you."

"I'd suggest that we leave," he muttered darkly, "but I know that you won't accept..."

"They know I'm alive now, Adeon," she sighed. "They'd hunt you down. They wouldn't stop." Her breath hitched a little in her throat. "This is my fault," she whispered.

"What's done is done." His voice was flat and lifeless. There was a dejected sort of resignation there, the acceptance of a man waiting for his fate in the gallows, and the gravity in his tone stung. He didn't look at her as he traced the length of her leg, his fingers nearly spanning the circumference of her calf. "It's going to be very difficult for me," he continued softly, "to keep myself from murdering those knights where they stand." She nodded jerkily, closing her eyes tight and trying to lose herself in the hypnotic silence of the cavern and the steady strokes of his fingers on her leg.

"I'm sorry for doing this to you," she said after a moment. "For putting you in this situation."

"I want you to be happy, Catherine," he said quietly, and his words sent a jolt of pain coursing through her chest. "If this is what it takes, then so be it." She let out a soft sound of objection, but he was clambering up and out of the pool, wrenching himself out of her arms. Her eyes lowered to the water as he moved to dress himself. An unfathomable sadness was welling up inside of her and squeezing at her lungs like ladder rungs, like some horrible living thing was clawing its way up her throat. Suddenly, she heard him crouch behind her, and she held her breath. The locket strung its way across her throat, and she watched silently as he fastened it at the nape of her neck, pressing his lips to the area between her shoulder blades once he had finished.

"Are you going to resume your pacing?" she asked wryly, and he let out a faint breath of a laugh.

"Perhaps," he said softly. She slung her legs over the edge of the pool and turned to face him, and he pressed her wadded-up dress into her arms. His face disappeared from view as she tugged it over her head, and when it reappeared, he was watching her intently with that lazy, half-lidded gaze of his. She was relieved to see the familiar expression, although a glimmer of insecurity made his eyes just a little too bright. "Would you care to join me?"

"I suppose."

By the time they arrived back in the treasure room, Adeon's posture was oddly slouched, and his movements seemed sluggish and a few inches off-kilter. Catherine watched him warily, ready to intervene in some way if he began careening towards a wall. Stalking towards a haphazard pile of jeweled statues, he braced one hand on the surface of a golden idol and leaned against it, rubbing his eyes with the other. Catherine lowered herself onto the ground next to him, chewing nervously on her lip.

"You're tired," she protested, and he gave her a half-hearted glower from between his fingers. The glare was magnified by the impressive circles beneath his eyes. Even though he had only been awake for a little over twenty-four hours, she could tell that anxiety was eating away at some vital part of him, weakening him, making him sloppy and high-strung. His hands were clenched, but his spine curved lazily at his shoulders. His brilliantly green eyes burned, but the lids drooped wearily. All at once, he seemed as if he was only seconds away from either succumbing to a violent rage or falling asleep.

"Exhausted," he fired back irritably. She reached up and tugged insistently at the leg of his trousers, and he gritted his teeth. "I can't," he said, but she pulled a little harder, frowning up at him. With a groan, he sank down next to her, and she moved her arms quickly as his head fell heavily into her lap. "You're going to be the death of me," he objected weakly, and his eyes closed almost involuntarily as she lowered her hands to stroke his hair.

"You need to sleep," she urged.

"How can I sleep," he breathed hoarsely, and a hint of madness accelerated his voice and slurred his words together, "when at any minute, a horde of brutes with swords is going to come and take you--"

"Shh-shh-shh," Catherine said, trying to swallow the panic that was vibrating deep in her belly. At least one of them needed to exude some sort of stability, and at the moment, he didn't seem entirely capable. "It could be days. Weeks, even," she whispered gently. She hesitated and bit her lip, looking down at him helplessly. "Maybe if I just left now, I could spare you all of--" But she was cut off as he clutched at her wrist with one of his hands and gave her a wide-eyed look.

"You can't go," he implored, and a little shudder ran up the length of his body, as if the thought caused him physical pain. "What if I never see you again?"

"Alright, alright," she said quickly, trying to ignore the wideness of his eyes, the slackness of his jaw, the feverish pink splotches on his cheeks. His eyelids fluttered shut as she ran her fingers down his neck and shoulders, and within minutes, his breath was coming in a slow, steady rush. She let out a sigh, slumping back against a pile of gold and listening to the coins avalanche around her shoulders with the sound of hundreds of little bells.

This wasn't going to be easy.

He took in a shuddering breath as he slept, and she studied his features closely, still smoothing his hair in long strokes. His silver lashes skimmed the pale curve of his cheek, and thin tendons in his neck stretched and slackened with every breath he took. He looked lovely and peaceful and not at all dangerous; not at all like he could transform into a carnivorous beast at any moment; certainly not like the unstable person that had been babbling hopelessly to her only seconds earlier.

They lay like that for a long, long time. Adeon's sleep was restless. Every couple of hours or so he would awaken with a start and feel around for her, making sure that she hadn't vanished out from under him, and Catherine would try her hardest to sooth him back to sleep. He reminded her of a child with a fever; weary and only barely lucid, falling into long lapses of unconsciousness broken by short periods of frantic terror. The entire time, she kept her eyes trained warily on the cavern entrance.

After several hours, the glow from the hallway began to fade as the world was slowly cast into the swift darkness of winter evenings. Catherine's eyes were beginning to betray her, and she found herself jerking awake after a few short periods of blackness. She squinted at the entrance determinedly, but her eyelids were becoming heavy in a way that she couldn't ignore.

"Adeon," she finally murmured, her fingers rising to reluctantly shake his shoulder. He merely let out a soft little snore and wound his arms around one of her legs. She frowned. "Adeon," she repeated, and a tired little slur made his name into something foreign on her tongue. "I think I'm going to fall asleep..." He stirred a little at that, and his eyes opened for a fraction of a second.

"Mmmmm," he said, and then his eyes rolled back into his head and his eyelids fluttered shut.

"Come on," she begged, rattling his shoulder again, but he only clung to her a little tighter and let his mouth fall open. Her head lolled back against the pile of coins in defeat, and she gazed hopelessly forward, praying that he would awaken before she...

--

An ear-splitting noise suddenly erupted into existence several feet away, and Catherine's eyes snapped open. Adeon's head was mysteriously absent from her lap, and, judging from the newly-blackened walls at the entrance of the treasure room, she had a vague idea of where he might have gone. The cavern was thick with the acrid smell of various burned things. Unsteadily, she rose to her feet and pressed her back against the wall of coins, nearly holding her breath as she struggled to listen to the chaos that was happening in the next room.

"How dare you," Adeon's voice breathed in a deadly hiss. "You've violated an accord that has stood for decades..."

"That agreement has been nullified by order of the eastern alliance!" a familiar voice--a man's voice--shouted, and Catherine's brow furrowed in confusion. A dull thud sounded from the next cavern, and when the voice spoke again, it seemed winded. "If anything," he gasped, "you should be thanking me. It isn't you I'm here for."

"'Eastern alliance'?" Adeon's voice repeated, and he seemed to spit the words out like they were something unpleasant on his tongue. "An alliance against what?" Another thud rattled the walls of the cave, and Catherine hurried to the doorway, the gold-spattered floor jingling faintly against her slippers.

"Dragons," the man's voice groaned wearily. Catherine rounded the last corner breathlessly, and she quickly clamped a hand over her mouth to smother a scream.

Adeon, who had transformed back into dozens of feet of scaly green dragon, was prowling fluidly near the entrance of the cave, his eyes wide with fury. The ridges of his back scraped against the ceiling, and the cave seemed to shrink around his massiveness. Those slitted pupils had nearly vanished in the green of his irises, giving his eyes a terrifyingly blank look. His lips were drawn back to expose a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth, and, as she watched, he raised one set of wickedly-curved talons and brought them crashing down towards a humanoid figure beneath him. The figure ducked and rolled clumsily to the side, a motion that was doubtlessly made much more difficult by the layers of thick, silver armor that encased his limbs. A helmet obscured his face, but on the surface of his right shoulder plate, Catherine could see an intricate swirl of raised gold lines that tangled and coiled to form the shape of...

...a hawk.

"Richard!" Catherine screamed suddenly, and both Adeon and the knight stopped what they were doing to stare at her. "Richard," she said again, and a strange little giggle punctured the syllables of his name as she spoke it--half from glee and half from the sheer inevitability of it all. Of course it would be him.

"Oh, Catherine," he sighed, his voice muffled by his helmet, and she could see his shoulders sag in relief. "Oh, Gods above. You're alright."

A low, dangerous rumble vibrated in Adeon's throat. Richard's sword rang as he pulled it swiftly from his scabbard, and she watched in horror as he brandished it at Adeon.

"Don't you touch her," he warned angrily, and Adeon's head whipped towards him, his mouth opening slightly in a hiss.

"Stop it, both of you!" she demanded, and while Richard seemed to twitch in confusion, Adeon's head drooped reluctantly. She stormed forward to place herself between the both of them, and behind the helmet, she saw Richard's eyes widen with incredulity. "Are there others?" she asked him breathlessly, and he simply stared at her. Adeon glared down at him impatiently, but, to Catherine's relief, he did not speak.

"We...we're going to storm the mountain tomorrow at dawn," he stuttered after several minutes. "We wanted to wait, but when we saw another dragon..."

"Richard!" she shouted helplessly. "Are there more men, or not?" His head tilted heavenwards in exasperation, but after a moment, he spoke.

"I came alone," he grunted. "There are two of my men stationed further down the trail, waiting for my command. I'm only here to bring you back." Catherine stared at him dubiously, but then a sudden, unpleasant realization wormed its way into her skull.

"Wait," she said. "The king doesn't know you're here, does he?" Richard seemed to grimace behind his helmet, and Adeon craned his long neck to gaze warily at him from over her shoulder.

"His majesty is...a determined sort of man," he said slowly. "When I heard one of the scouts babbling about a woman, I asked him to suspend the attack while we found you, but..." He heaved a sigh, sheathing his sword after a moment's hesitation. "Well, I'm afraid he wouldn't listen."

"I see," Catherine murmured. Richard turned his eyes back to Adeon, and he seemed to straighten slightly.

"I'm here to barter with you," he said, authority strengthening his tone. "All of the alliance's men will attack at dawn--something I'd wager you're unaware of, since you're still here. There will be thousands of them, and if you had any sense, you would leave immediately."

"That's a useful bit of information," Adeon sneered, his eyes flashing. "But what exactly is it that you're offering?"

"A head start," Richard said grimly, "in return for the girl." Catherine swallowed hard, and Adeon seemed to shrink back in dismay.

"And how do you know," he said softly, "that I won't simply kill you and abscond with her? Or ambush your sleeping men?" Catherine turned to gape at him in horror, and even in his reptilian form, she could see the tightness of his jaw, the tension in his limbs, the tremor in his movements that all alluded to something like agony.

"This is a gesture of good faith," Richard replied evenly. "I hoped you might honor it." Adeon was silent for what felt like an eternity, and although his eyes darted around the cavern uncertainly, Catherine was very aware of the way his muscles had coiled, preparing to pounce. Richard seemed to notice as well, as his hands had lowered slightly to hover at the hilt of his sword.

"There are so few humans who still understand the value of integrity," he said after several minutes, his voice little more than a quiet rasp. "I suppose I appreciate that." Richard inclined his head and waited patiently, clasping his hands in front of him. That long, green tail twitched weakly beside Catherine, and she stared solemnly at the floor, pretending that she couldn't hear the pain in his voice. "Take her," he finally whispered, and her eyes widened in disbelief. "Take her and go."

"Thank you, dragon," Richard sighed as Adeon began to slink fluidly towards the treasure cavern. "I'm glad that even in these hard times, we can come to some sort of--"

"Go," Adeon said suddenly, his tail twitching as he paused in the hallway. "Before I do something stupid." And, judging from the strain in his voice, he was trying very, very hard not to do anything stupid. Richard's gauntleted hand encircled her wrist, and she stumbled behind him as he tugged her behind him towards the cavern exit.

"Hurry," Richard whispered loudly as they emerged into the night, and a stiff, frigid breeze bit through the fabric of her dress and burrowed into her bones. "Dragons aren't the most stable creatures." Catherine fixed him with an indignant look that he couldn't quite see, and when she looked over her shoulder at the cave, she saw that Adeon had vanished entirely into the treasure chamber.

Richard's men met them with victorious shouts and claps on the back once they had reached the base of the mountain trail, but Catherine stayed silent, her fingers quivering despite the layers of skins they draped over her for warmth. On the road home, she craned her neck to gaze mournfully at the mountainside, and for a fraction of a second, she could have sworn that she saw a vast black shape dive out from a cliff face and vanish into the dark sky.