Chapter 38: Secrets

[Ona].

I try to reason with the Elf King but he isn't listening to reason, or much of anything as he rushes around his tent, grabbing and filling a pouch made of what looks like the same material as my cape, only thicker and more dense.

"The Technician might not be available," I warn as he rushes out of the tent with me close on his heels. "Your Majesty, It won't do us any good to rush in and not be welcome, especially in this castle, and the queen will likely notice that the two of us are roaming around somewhere we shouldn't be," I gasp trying my best to keep up with this much bigger drake who moves forward with the speed and grace of a whip of lightning. He almost seems to glow as he moves, as if trapped between his energy and physical forms.

"The Technician knows I'm coming," He argues over his shoulder as he marches forward. "The entire reason you were sent was because they knew what my reaction would be as soon as I learned that my niece and her mate are in the Dream State."

"But how did The Technician know..."

"That Carnelia and I are related?" he barks. "Maybe it knows, maybe it doesn't. But it did know I'd want to see what was done with the technology Luxandra stole from my people. Seven of my best scientist-priests have disappeared in the last decade. Seven!"

The flowers on his diadem glow with his emotions, flashing with his rage lighting our way with pinpricks of light as he tells me about how his best and brightest have disappeared under locked guard. "After the last one disappeared three years ago, we stopped letting our people leave Elfholm at all."

"Are you sure that it is Luxandra that has them?" I question. "Could it be anyone else?"

While he doesn't dismiss me entirely, the exasperated tone of his voice lets me know that he has considered that possibility. "The Luxandrians have been at us for decades to tell them the secrets behind our technologies, but they didn't have anything of value to trade. They tried to get us to use their soulfire energy as a "safe" alternative to our energy based on skystone, but as soon as we heard the screaming, we knew that source was evil," he pauses, looking at me intensely. "I do not understand how anyone living could have been okay with how that energy was created. We cannot have been the only ones who heard their tears."

"Carnelia could," I sigh. "I'm not sure, but I think Primus could as well--he just didn't know what it was. He just knew that he hated it and couldn't be around it for too long. It's one of the reasons he kept traditional gas heat in Ridgewood."

"Interesting," the Elf King muses without saying more, leaving me wondering why Primus' sensitivity would elicit any type of interest in the mind of this mysterious drake.

"Even if The Technician is expecting us," I try to explain to his quickly retreating form. "We should still pause and discuss how we are going to approach this situation." Bending in half my hands on my knees, the effort of speaking is causing me to heave, my breath so irregular I might pass out. "Can we at least consult my mate?" I beg. "He's waiting with the younglings and... Your Majesty, please wait!"

"No time!" he rushes back and grabs my hands almost too roughly. "And please call me Thalan," he grimaces. "I am not fond of the titles in this land. I am no more majestic than any other creature that walks or lives." He pauses when he notices my confusion. "What is it?

"Wouldn't that imply a more intimate relationship," I cough, trying to be direct but not too forward. Usually calling an Elf by his first name is as serious as announcing your intended engagement or membership in his harem.

"Don't worry about being too familiar," his laughter rings out like the tinkling of bells on the wind at my deepening befuddlement. --We are practically family. And as a part of my family, I will share a little secret with you." His grin widens as my eyes pop open at the sudden burst of energy pushing its way out of him and into me.

"What did you do?" I feel like every part of me is buzzing with light.

"I gave you a gift, but the transfer won't last long," he explains, his palm glowing where he touched me. "I know this is putting a strain on you, you'll need to nest sooner than you realize," he looks at my belly as if seeing something I cannot see and I shiver, wondering what he knows that neither my doctors nor myself have discovered. "But I need you to hurry so that I can see what that foolish oaf did to my family before the damage is irreversible."

I nod as he pulls me along. For a moment he seems to shift into his energy form, taking me along with him, but that can't be possible--I don't have an energy form. My mother was certain of it. If I did, I'd have developed one long before now. Yet as we come to a stop, alighting in the palace gardens, I know my feet hadn't touched the ground since he grabbed my hand and yet neither of us took wing.

It should have taken us 1000 times longer to reach this distance. It felt almost instantaneous.

"How did we...?

He smirks at my look of wonder while also holding his finger to his lips and waving his other hand in the air to indicate that our conversation can be heard.

Whatever he just did, he didn't want anyone else to know about it. That means it must have been something uniquely powerful. Considering it felt like he was able to pull me into his energy form, a skill that no other dragon type has, I can see why he'd want to keep it to himself.

"Now show me," he insists, indicating that I should lead him the way that we were led, to the hidden chambers of The Technician.

I may not know this palace as well as Primus, especially since most of it burned down before our mother left our father and took me with her as her next heir, I spent enough of my early childhood here to understand the layout well enough to find the servants passages to take us directly to the hidden hallway where the Technician's workshop lay.

Either luck or some other force helped us find our path completely unencumbered as we made our way. I was expecting at least a servant or two to be roaming the corridors between the walls, but we saw no other souls as we made our way. This was both unsettling and bizarre. I don't remember a time when the castle was ever quite this quiet.

Things are certainly different under the rule of the False Queen. My father was harsh and cruel but there was always the scurrying of feet and the whispers of secrets in the halls.

When we emerge and approach the laboratory, the door is propped open, a dim blue light glowing through the crack.

"Come in," the mechanical voice of The Technician buzzes boredly. "I can hear you breathing. And seal the door behind you."

Thalan leads the way with me a careful step behind him.

"Ah, the Elf King," The Technician inclines what I think must be its head. "I'll be honest, I was expecting you days ago. When you didn't come I sent for help," he nods my way and I grow hot with anger. How dare this creature dismiss me as if I held no more importance than a messenger.

Glaring over at the monstrosity, I notice that Primus and Carnelia's resting place has been covered by a cloth of glimmer fabric, protecting and concealing them from view.

"Show me," Thalan says briskly, his eyes glued to the fluid-filled coffin between us. "Show me what you did."

"I need your oath that you will not kill me when you see it," The Technician makes a sound that is more akin to a dying cat, something between a cry and the scraping of nails on metal. "Remember, that if you kill me, you will never get them free. If you kill me, you are killing them."

The Elf King holds out his hand to me once more. "Please," he frowns. "I need you to help me keep this oath."

"What kind of help can I possibly give?" I wonder.

"You can serve as a reminder by grounding me to the here and now," he explains. "I do not want to swear an oath I cannot keep. If I start to grow thin, or glow, squeeze me as tightly as you can. Do not hold back. Do not let go."

He is staring at me with eyes that shine like a thousand stars at night waiting for me to agree. Taking his hand firmly I nod my head. I will do anything to save my brother and sister. Even if it means keeping this king from killing this fool for doing things he had no right doing.

"I swear, the moon as my witness, that no harm will come to you after you show me what you have done," his eyes glow brightly and then dim as his words settle around us.

Seeming satisfied, The Technician places a hand on the sheet. "When you had visited before and I asked you for help, the version of events I showed you was not quite accurate," the creature speaks rapidly, stumbling over its confession. "It wasn't them, but a projection of what I wanted you to see.

As The Technician pulls back the sheet, I need to hold Thalan's hand as much as he needs to hold mine.

Primus and Carnelia are lying there side by side facing one another, their hands barely touching.

Their skin and eyes are the color of snow.

Their fangs and nails are bared.

And their faces are twisted in pain.