Broken Path, Starless Tail - 34. Chapter 34

“Of course not. I discovered it when I stripped almost all of his magic. Which is why he wants Parallax’s star.”

“You tortured you own brother and stripped his magic?” The feeling in the pit of Beckett’s stomach, the almost living entity he’d been feeling since his erupted, recoiled.

“Of course not. It was council business. He’s a criminal who lives in Eshya. It was for the safety of others.” Kastor delicately put his bowl down, wiping the side of his mouth with his thumb and licking it. “I didn’t torture him and removing his magic was safest for everyone. This is beside the point. I can help you get into Eshya, find the portal, and get through it.”

“Safely? Eshya is teeming with mage-killers.” Valrinda asked. “And can you get us through the portal together?” He pressed up against Beckett, his tail whipping through the air. Beckett jerked his up and stared up at him, then back at Kastor. Was that an option?

Kastor raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think a dragon going into the human world is what Parallax expected.”

“Let me worry about what he expected,” Valrinda growled.

“You can do that? You can go with me?” Beckett asked. He turned his back to Kastor, ignoring him completely. He’d never even considered that to be an option. Why hadn’t Valrinda said something before?

“From the Eshya portal? Maybe. It is rumored to be powerful enough. I don’t know if that’s true. The more magic in a being, the more power it takes to portal them. The mage-killers are notorious for consuming all beings with power they can absorb and use.”

“The more you talk about it, the less I’m feeling this plan. Killers? Like, individual murderers who would kill me if they catch me?” The butterflies in his stomach were turning into killer bees.

“I would never let them catch you. I would protect you with my dying breath.”

“Aww, how romantic.” Kastor’s acerbic interruption was not appreciated. “How about neither one of you die, I send you both through the portal like your dragon here wants, and then I get the credit for both getting you through the Eshya portal safely and helping return Parallax’s star.

“You do have it, right?” He dropped the last question with all the subtlety of an atomic bomb.

“Would we be willing to risk life and limb otherwise?” Dancing around giving a solid yes or no answer was old hat for Beckett. He liked to keep his teachers and parents guessing what he really meant when they gave him a bullshit hassle and then followed it up with a question like, “Were you listening?” or “Are you even close to being done on blah blah blah?”

The one time he’d answered with, “Wouldn’t you like to know?” had lead to a week’s worth of detention, but it’d been worth it to watch his freshman math teacher literally spit he was so mad.

After that, though, he got better at vague replies that sounded like answers that weren’t really answers.

Kastor’s lips were pursed so tight they turned white. “This would go better if we trusted each other.”

“Trust is earned,” Valrinda said. “You admitted to stripping nearly all of your own brother’s powers, even on behalf of the council, which is one step above being a mage-killer. Then offered to take us to Eshya. We would be stupid not to be suspicious.”

“Well, then let’s start our journey so I can go about earning that trust.”

On the map Kastor showed Beckett, Eshya was a large country to the east of them. They had to cross the desert. He summoned a mount, using his magic. Not only did Valrinda refuse to carry him, the journey was too far to support them both and not have to camp on the dangerous sands. In another jarring brush with fantasy tales, Kastor summoned a gryphon.

It’s damn talons looked almost as sharp as its beak, and those large eyes watched and calculated everything around it. His sleek brown, black, and white feathers ruffled as he puffed up and then shrieked upon take off. Watching him disembowel prey each night with the small, furry body held between taloned claws and waiting for a temple or throat strike.

Despite Valrinda being named his guide, those few days they traveled across the desert and into the forests that covered the eastern border into Eshya proved how much Beckett didn’t know about this land; Valrinda had spent more time keeping him safe alive and stumbling from one disaster to the next. Flying along in the air, they had time to talk. Very few topics were off limits, except for the star for him and his brother for Kastor.

That trust thing didn’t come cheap.

The one thing that Beckett wished Kastor could teach him most, and he couldn’t, was how to better control his magic. “That’s practice and time, and nothing I can do for you would help. Besides, I’m not mentor material.” Beckett snorted when Kastor said that, but nothing he’d said could convince the other mage differently.

The arrogant twat certainly made Beckett want to smack him a lot. But the first time Kastor opened a sink hole under a group of… things that he swore were coming to get them when they’d touched down for a lunch break, Beckett forgave him the cocky attitude and other bullshit.

Alive and annoyed was better than dead.