Warmth built in his belly, the heat of a fire on the cold night or friendship returned. It was odd, but by no means unpleasant. It made him feel strong, as if he could bend an iron bar with his bare hands.
She gave him the satchel. “This contains more of the elixir. You must drink one bottle each morning for the next fortnight without fail. This is very important. A bond like this is temporary, but it must not be taken lightly.”
“I will.” He could feel the bond building in him, a sudden sadness over leaving the dragon behind.
“One last thing.” She brought out a silver locket, perhaps two inches wide. “Put this around your neck. We will mingle our blood inside it – not much, just a drop or two – and then you must go through the Gate immediately. Wear it until you are done with the elixir.”
Like the other Artifacts he had encountered, it was heavier than he expected. He slid it over his head and hefted the satchel of elixir to his left shoulder.
Coquelicot reached out a foreleg to open the locket on his chest. Despite her size, her touch was delicate. With one talon, she nicked her opposite foreleg until her crimson blood filled the locket. “Now you.”
She took his hand and made a tiny cut on his middle finger. Odd, he could barely feel it, as if her touch stopped the pain before it began. As his darker blood met hers in the locket, it hissed, and a few golden sparks flew. She snapped the locket shut. “Now go.”
Darcy nodded to Jack. “Until we meet again.” Without waiting for reply, he stepped into the Gate.
And into chaos. The temperature was suddenly warmer, the glowing lights brighter, and three dragons crowded the small chamber along with a pile of large crates.
He was in England, his own country! Where no one would arrest him, beat him, starve him. Where he was safe.
The smallest dragon, the currant-red one he had met before, came forward. “Ah, Darcy. From the Vosges? Pray step aside and allow us to move these through while they still have it open.” The dragon slung a crate through, followed quickly by two more from the others.
It was bizarre watching the crates simply disappear. Especially as the Gate had left him a little dizzy, or perhaps it was the elixir.
The room was empty in just a few minutes. “My apologies, Darcy,” said the dragon. Rowan, that was his name. “We are sending everything we can to help them protect their Nest, but they cannot afford the power to keep the Gate open for long.”
“Understood.” It would take far more than that to trouble him.
The dragon came a step closer and studied him. “You have the mark of another dragon.”
It made him self-conscious, as if he had been caught in an infidelity. “I could not pass through the Gate on my own, so one of the dragons was kind enough to formthe lesser bond with me.”
“Ah, clever! The Eldest is eager to speak to you. May I take you to her?”
He ached to go straight to Elizabeth, but he could not deny that he had important information to deliver. “Indeed. Is it possible to send word to Pemberley that I am back? I do not want my wife to worry any longer than necessary.”
Rowan’s eyes unfocused briefly. “It is done. Roderick will tell her.”
Roderick was at Pemberley again? Well, he supposed he was in for many surprises when he arrived.
Here he was, back in the chamber of the Eldest. It had only been four months, but it felt like years, as if it had been a different man who stood there then. A man who had never known hunger, the lack of a warm bed, or what it meant to be a prisoner. One who did not know what it meant to disguise himself, to run for his life, to be helpless, and the fear of losing the woman he loved.
What an innocent he had been! He, who had always had every advantage in life, yet had thought he knew everything.
The Eldest was unchanged, though. It was only Darcy who was different, as he returned the Artifact he had been given a lifetime ago. “It saved me, when all else seemed lost,” he said, in lieu of thanks.
“I am glad of it,” the Eldest said in her resonant voice. “I have learned something of your adventures from Companion Elizabeth, but I would appreciate hearing from you directly.”
“Will you read me, then? I would not wish to miss giving you any details.” And it would hurry the process along so he could go to Pemberley that much sooner. He could not wait to be in Elizabeth’s arms, in his own home.
“You have changed. You used to find that uncomfortable.”
“I have changed a great deal, and I spent the last fortnight in the French Nest.”
“Ah, yes. I would be eager to hear any details about that as well. They have communicated little beyond the bare bones of their situation, no doubt because their time is better spent otherwise.”
“I can share that, though I am under a binding about something that happened there.” He suddenly realized how suspicious that must sound. “It is something personal about me, unrelated to the danger the Nest finds itself in.”
The great dragon tilted her head. “How curious. Let us begin, then.” She held out her forelegs.
