“Aria’s going to take on Lazarus in two days, and I need your help. Everyone’s.”
I had never felt both stabbing fear and sudden relief in kind. My hands were shaking as I lowered the gun, my other hand on my aching chest.
“You had me at Aria, but use the front door next time, okay?”
Chapter 18: The Pre-eminence Council
Normally Myrtle was good on the uptake, but even she was shaking her head. “You’re going to have to run this by me one more time.”
Ashe was no longer wearing the Acadamae robes. He was wearing a loose-fitting dark blue outfit fit for sneaking around at night, with a gold chain across his cloak.
With his crackling voice, I penned him at fifteen at most. In fact, he would’ve been completely unremarkable, even adorably dorky, if it wasn’t for his stunning purple eyes. Pact Mage’s eyes tended to make them seem more serious and mature, even if they weren’t. He had also spent the entire conversation walking about and pacing. Clearly, sitting down and relaxing wasn’t for him.
“Aria’s going for Lazarus’s throat in two days, and I’ve been told to sit off on the sidelines too. I’m not going to, but that’s beside the point.” He tapped his chest.
“I’m a Pact Mage, dammit! It’s literally my job to be out there!” He was upset as Myrtle and I exchanged glances. Seems like my sister-in-law was new to every Pact Mage being massive weirdos.
“Anyways, I want to help, but in my own clever way.” Ashe was very animated, waving his arms about, pointing to his palms, and generally flailing about while he talked. “I want to make sure Aria wins, and once she does, I want to make the public accept her as soon as possible. Else she’s not going to be able to do all the things she wants, and we’re going to get bogged down in politics and all that.” I thought Ashe sounded pretty convincing, but Myrtle raised her hand.
“Not to give you a hard time, Pact Mage, but from what I gathered, Aria appears perfectly capable of doing both of those things herself. Wouldn’t we be putting ourselves in danger for little gain?” I desperately wanted Myrtle to be wrong and Ashe to be right, but his whole claim of needing to mop after Aria didn’t line up.
“Fine. For example, we are going to need new chronicles for Aria once she takes power. Since she isn’t in good standing with the church, it’s unlikely she would get a traditional chronicler.” Ashe tapped his chin, sending a cheeky grin Myrtle’s direction. “If only we had a writer who also has beef with the church and wouldn’t mind writing up a chronicle that spits in the face of church traditions…Hmm.” I could see that my sister-in-law was impressed. She paused to consider what he was offering.
“First, I’m glad that you’ve done some research into my plight. I worry how you found such information, but I’ll take what I can get. Second, do you have any other plans? Or was this the first one you could dream up on short notice?” I snickered as I watched the yappy Pact Mage’s violet eyes spark a tiny bit.
“I…Look!” He sounded playfully angry. “Just because I’m young or whatever does not mean I haven’t put in a lot of thought into this! Else I would have stuck my head down and accepted Sebastian’s suggestion of cooling my heels for the week. Hmph.” He crossed his arms in playful annoyance as Myrtle sighed, trying to placate him again.
“All right, all right. Why are all you Pact Mages so snippy.” That got a chuckle out of me and he ignored it.
“Moving on. Aria gave us a general rundown on both her and her family’s dragon form, and I’m inclined to say that the fight’s going to be a disaster. There’s no way for the two of them to take it out of the city, and both of them were built for soaking up damage. They might break most of Mithil before they’re done.” Myrtle and I winced at the news. No matter who won, everyone lost if capital was destroyed.
“We have a weapon that could solve that, but let’s say that it would require someone to be riding Aria. That’s where you come in, Charlotte!”
I felt my heart pounding as blood rushed to my face. This was real. I was going to get to ride Aria. I was joking before, but I was actually going to do it.
Wait. Why was he asking me?
“Point of order,” I began, feeling myself unwind after almost being taken aback. “Why are you asking me? Shouldn’t you ask Aria, especially since it’s going to be her city?”
Ashe nervously scratched his head.
“Well I have, but Aria has trust issues,” Ashe pointed out. I whispered a silent curse. I knew it. It was one of those things I suspected, with the whole ‘you’re my first friend’ thing, but this just confirmed it. Ashe and Myrtle both looked unsurprised.
“In her defence, if you can use the lance to kill a dragon you’re not riding, then you can most definitely use it to kill the dragon that you are riding,” Ashe continued as I retraced my previous swearing. Never mind.
“It is a very long lance after all,” Ashe concluded as I shook my head. Fortunately, Myrtle beat me to the punch.
“You decided to tell the dragon, whom I assume has been constantly threatened by the church, to trust her life to some random rider? And expected her to say yes?” Before Myrtle could finish her berating, Ashe was ready to strike back.
“We didn’t have a choice! Nobody wants to destroy most of Mithil, but Aria would rather keep you safe than make sure the rest of us live through this!” There was a spark of anger in his eyes that flickered as he pushed his finger against my chest. Rude.
The tension in the room was palpable and everyone was waiting for my response. My reflexive need to pull out my gun probably didn’t help. Ashe frowned, taken aback as he slowly lifted his finger from my chest. Mages still die by bullets.
“Look,” I groaned, putting the firearm away. “I didn’t ask to be the person stopping Aria from making reasonable decisions, but on the other hand, it doesn’t sound like this weapon is much good either.” The tension dissipated as Ashe looked away, somewhat apologetically.
“How about you tell me what this thing is,” I continued, “and I’ll talk to Aria about it?”
“All right.” Ashe shrugged, though much of his confidence seemed to have faded away. “Just stop trying to shoot me, okay?”
I nodded in agreement. I could swear Myrtle was shaking her head in the background.
* * * *
“It’s called Coronacht, and it’s a lance made of dragon horn. The idea is Aria flies forward while you aim, or if things don’t go that smoothly she can always drop you.” I felt all the color drain out of my face. Dropping me sounded like death. “Don’t worry, we can make sure you don’t splat on the ground once you land.” Ashe looked smug as if he had covered all the bases while I was still focused on the falling-off-a-dragon part.
“Dropping me? Are you nuts?” Now I knew why Ashe wasn’t completely confident about this thing. It was awful!
Ashe’s mischievous smile was back, which was only mildly assuring. “I said don’t worry about the fall! That’s where magic comes in.” Ashe’s reassurance didn’t make me feel any better.
“Wait, if this lance is so massive, wouldn’t there be problems with her actually using it?” Myrtle pointed out as I responded with a quick “Ya, that.”
I had a lot more pressing worries on my mind, but one problem at a time.
“We only need the rider to adjust the angle of the spear, and to take it out of its mount to drop it if necessary. Other than that, it’s a long, pointy stick mounted onto the dragon.” Ashe tried to make it sound safe but instead managed to make it sound boring. At least he was trying.
“We’d have to level the spear fairly close to where the wings are. A bad pivot means you’re going to drop her onto the ground with a punctured wing. Or worse.” Nope. I was worried again. It almost seemed like this thing was more likely to kill us than Lazarus.
Or it might end the fight right then and there. Regardless, it was worth talking to Aria, or at least getting her to reconsider.
