The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

MIRA

“What condition would that be?”, he looks amused.

“Honesty!”, I say firmly, “I want you to be honest with me at all times! If I ask you a question – you tell me the truth! Always! Whatever I ask!”

“I don’t need your help that desperately, little mage”, he chuckles.

“Then, lord Derwood,” I stress out how officially I address him, “I am going to my lessons now. Lady Cecilia says it’s a very important day today!”

I turn on my heels and walk to the door, I grab the handle secretly cursing myself for not just simply agreeing to help him. I want to find Bella’s murderer badly! But I feel like I blew my chance right now…

“Wait!”, Derrien’s annoyed voice stops me, “I have a counter-condition. If I have no right to answer your question or simply don’t want to, then I don’t. Take it or leave it.”Property © NôvelDrama.Org.

Well, this is not bad. At least in this way, I would be able to trust the words that come out of his mouth…

“Alright, but you will take a magic vow!”, I say quickly.

“I am afraid, little mage, you will have to trust me as it is. Human magic wouldn’t work on me. And gerdian magic would allow me to break the vow anyway,” he chuckles.

“Deal?”, he offers me his hand.

“Deal!”, I take it, but I feel that I am making the deal with the chaos itself!

“Great!”, he walks to his desk briefly.

“First question!”, I stop him and he turns to look at me, “Did you just tell me the truth about the magical vow not working on you?”

He looks at me for a while and smirks, “I choose not to answer this question!”

THAT. GERDIAN. SON. OF. A. HARPY!

“Ok, now tell me everything you can about this speck of magic”, he gives me the bottle with the tiny leftover of the spell that killed Bella.

“I need to examine it first!”, I say, “I have some equipment in my room…”

“Equipment?”, he raises his brow.

“Yes”, I nod, “We prefer to know everything about our magic. Every little detail helps hence we spend years testing it and doing research, It helps us to get the best results.”

“So do we”, he crosses his hands on his chest, “But I haven’t found anything significant here…”

“Well, now it’s my turn,” I smile at him and dark flames surround us, bringing us into my rooms. It’s funny how I already got used to this kind of transportation. As if it is completely normal, I go to my wardrobe room and get one of my leather suitcases and then walk to my desk.

I get my equipment out of the suitcase -flasks, test tubes, magnifier, restrainer, beakers, herbs, potions, dropper, and all other materials – everything Dereck found and packed for me in the Academy.

I create a fireball to add more light to the room and take the spec with special forceps, taking a look at it with a magnifier that is attached to my head now like glasses. Changing to magical vision, I finally can take a good look at what has killed Bella. It’s just a tiny fragment, the flaw of the spell used, so, unfortunately, it is too small to hold a part of the aura of the killer. However, it can give me some other information. And I smile victoriously when I find it!

“What is it?” Derrien asks and I look up at him before I switch off my magic sight. What I see startles me once again. The dark magic around him is strong. It’s part of him and easily goes in and out. And again, like the last time, a lot of it gathered behind him in the shape of huge wings… I wonder why…

“Switch it off!”, he commands me immediately after realizing that I am examining him.

“Yes, sorry”, I go back to my normal vision and smile apologetically, “It’s just I had no prior experience with the dark magic and it is still fascinating for me…”

“It’s rude to look at someone like that,” Derwood snorts, “Almost the same as to look at a naked person without their permission.”

“Well, then we are even,” I roll my eyes, “You’ve seen way too many of my body parts and haven’t asked permission once!”

“Don’t remind me, little mage, or I may want to repeat it,” he chuckles, coming closer to me and standing behind my chair, “And now tell me – what did you find?”

“How do you even know I found anything?”

“I know”, he puts his hands on my shoulders and his fingers brush slowly over the fabric of my dress, sending shivers down my spine. Gods, why do I react this way to his touch?!

“Alright, I did find something”, I confess, but he doesn’t take his hands away.

“Speak”, he says still massaging my shoulders softly. What is this?

“Y-yes”, I mumble, “W-well… It’s too small to hold any part of the killer’s aura…”

“I know that, my assistant checked it personally for me,” Derrien says indifferently.

“But there is a little trace on it”, I say, “The killer has been in close contact with a herb called Sideria.”

“Sideria?”, he stops massaging me suddenly, “Never heard of it.”

“That’s not surprising”, I smile, “Sideria is very rare. It doesn’t grow anywhere except our Akyrian Kingdom. And even here there is only one place that it grows – the Silver Mountain chain. And even there, there is so little of it that the King prohibited to gather it because it is almost extinct. You cannot buy it even on the black market!”

“You sound so sure about the black market…”, Derrien chuckles again.

“Erm, I’ve heard about it from a friend,” I lie. I am a frequent visitor to the black market. If anything, Derreck and I were there far too often, getting ingredients for our battle experiments. Academy was giving us so little truly useful stuff and you can’t buy any of it until you are a licensed magician. Which we are both still not. And now I’ll probably never be…

“Of course you did”, the lord smiles, “You are full of surprises, Mira!”

“Erm, thanks”, I say even though he was clearly mocking me right now.

“So, how does one get that precious herb?”, he walks away from me with a tense face.

“Illegally”, I shrug my shoulders, “Probably just by going to the mountains themselves and stealing it. Although with all the protection used, this shouldn’t be easy. It is very heavily guarded.”

“Alright, Mira, only one last question”, he says looking into my eyes, “What is this Sideria herb used for?”

“Well”, I sign, “That’s probably the worst part. It is used to influence people’s minds.”

“In what way?”, he looks surprised.

“In any. You can make someone believe in whatever you say, or make them do what you want… There were even stories that it has even been used to make people fall in love… or at least believe that they are in love…”

“Hmm, what a useful herb at the Selection, don’t you think?”, Derrien smirks and I shiver at the thought.

“But will it work at the gerdians?”, I ask him.

“Who knows… But it most definitely works on humans if what you say is true…”

“So, you are suspecting a gerdian?”, I jump off my seat.

“Not really”

“But it would make sense! Use it on a girl and she is yours!”, I say.

“Mira, if we want a girl she will be ours anyway. No use to complicate things. But maybe some of the girls decided that she can influence a gerdian? That is far more likely… And one of you would be more likely to kill that girl because she was a competition.”

“It was a bit too early on the date to call anyone a competition. Lords haven’t paid much attention to any of us back then.”

“That’s not exactly true, she was favoured and so were you…”, he sits on the sofa and throws his back, looking at the ceiling.

“That’s overly exaggerated”, I roll my eyes and start taking away my equipment, “Something like that is not enough to take a human life!”

For a second, he looks at me in surprise.

Of course… They kill whenever they want to kill. He wouldn’t understand.

“Mira, I am going to take you for a trip tonight”, he says after minutes of silence.

“A trip?”, I gasp, “Where?”

“That Silver Mountains Chain,” he smirks, “You are going to be my guide.”

“No one is allowed to go there!”

“That’s why you will keep it a secret, little mage,” he stands up and walks to me, leaning to breathe into my ear, “And if you dare to tell anyone I will have to punish you harshly…”