Lily of the Desert (Silver and Orchids Book 4) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE Bird's Eye View

  CHAPTER TWO Missing Dagger

  CHAPTER THREE In Need of an Alchemist

  CHAPTER FOUR Welcome to Elrija

  CHAPTER FIVE Four Mules and a Donkey

  CHAPTER SIX Dragon on a Mission

  CHAPTER SEVEN Something Foolish

  CHAPTER EIGHT Second Time's the Charm

  CHAPTER NINE Does it Hurt?

  CHAPTER TEN Best Kind of Distraction

  CHAPTER ELEVEN Arrive at Dusk

  CHAPTER TWELVE Serpents of Elrija

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN Not a Good Sign

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN Time to Leave

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN City of Lanterns

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN Surely Not

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Dragon Bridge

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Look at the Lovely Webs

  CHAPTER NINETEEN Just a Tiny Bite

  CHAPTER TWENTY What's Her Element?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Anything You Can Shoot, I Can Shoot Better

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Ribbons of Color

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Flower for a King

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Where's the Dragon When You Need Him?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Prince of Guilead

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX All the Time in the World

  Bonus Silver & Orchids Chapter

  Free Book

  About the Author

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE Bird's Eye View

  CHAPTER TWO Missing Dagger

  CHAPTER THREE In Need of an Alchemist

  CHAPTER FOUR Welcome to Elrija

  CHAPTER FIVE Four Mules and a Donkey

  CHAPTER SIX Dragon on a Mission

  CHAPTER SEVEN Something Foolish

  CHAPTER EIGHT Second Time's the Charm

  CHAPTER NINE Does it Hurt?

  CHAPTER TEN Best Kind of Distraction

  CHAPTER ELEVEN Arrive at Dusk

  CHAPTER TWELVE Serpents of Elrija

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN Not a Good Sign

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN Time to Leave

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN City of Lanterns

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN Surely Not

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Dragon Bridge

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Look at the Lovely Webs

  CHAPTER NINETEEN Just a Tiny Bite

  CHAPTER TWENTY What's Her Element?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Anything You Can Shoot, I Can Shoot Better

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Ribbons of Color

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Flower for a King

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Where's the Dragon When You Need Him?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Prince of Guilead

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX All the Time in the World

  Bonus Silver & Orchids Chapter

  Free Book

  About the Author

  Wildwood Larkwing

  Silver and Orchids, Book 4

  Copyright © 2017 by Shari L. Tapscott

  All rights reserved.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Editing by Z.A. Sunday & A Fading Street Publishing Services

  Cover Design by Shari L. Tapscott

  For Rahma

  Thank you for joining me on my written adventures!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Bird's Eye View

  There is something about harpies that I find incredibly disturbing. It’s not the ink-black feathers that cover their tall, lithe, human-esque bodies, nor their birdlike feet complete with razor-sharp talons.

  As I stare at the one in front of me, with her hauntingly beautiful face, obsidian eyes, tufts of feathers that protrude from her head in an owl-like fashion, and murderous sneer, I realize what it is.

  I edge backward, bow drawn, with my eyes trained on her talons.

  “Sebastian,” I call as calmly as you please—as if we’re sitting down for tea and not in an elaborate tree community high in the Eromooran forest. “How do you think she cares for all that hair? I mean, honestly, it looks better than mine.”

  “Lucia!” my scouting partner hollers at me from two platforms down, sounding about five minutes past impatient. Probably because he’s surrounded by two of the raven women himself.

  The harpy lunges at me, talons glinting in the dappled sunlight that streams down from breaks in the canopy above. Moments before I lose an eye, I drop to my belly and roll to the side—somehow managing to keep my nocked arrow in place. Panting, I run for the rickety rope ladder that dangles not far away, thanking my lucky stars that harpies cannot fly—they can glide and do fluttery hops that remind me of baby birds trying new wings, but they can’t just leap into the air and attack.

  The harpy screeches from behind me, but I have no idea what she says because I do not speak bird.

  “Just jump!” Sebastian yells as I secure my bow on my back.

  Not happening. Sure, the next platform is only five feet down, but if I miss…

  I glance at the shadowy, shrub-covered ground that’s far, far below us. I gulp, and my leg starts to shake. The sharp rope digs into my hands, but I don’t give in to my paranoia.

  Unfortunately, my feathered friend has no qualms about leaping to the next platform, so as soon as I reach the bottom, she’s already coming for me.

  With no time to grab my bow, I pull my dagger from its sheath. It’s a wicked weapon—dark, sleek, and deadly. But the harpy doesn’t think twice about leaping forward, talons extended. Trapped between her and the edge, I meet her attack, knowing it’s going to hurt.

  I brace myself for her talons even as I slice her leg with my blade. She screeches again and catches me on the arm, just below my shoulder. The pain is incredible, and I hiss out a curse.

  “Lucia!” Sebastian yells again as he climbs the ladder to reach my platform.

  Filled with indignant rage and pain, I scream a battle cry, plow right into her midsection, and push her off the ledge. Before I tumble with her, I stumble back—only to have her grasp my wrist and yank me down. Just as my life flashes before my eyes, I’m pulled back. I collide with Sebastian’s chest, and he wraps his arm around me to keep me from toppling over.

  I extend my arms, hands out, steadying myself. Below us, the harpy makes a dreadful racket, though I don’t know why she’s so upset. It’s not like she didn’t coast down safely.

  After I suck in several long, deep breaths, Sebastian unhands me. He lets me go, but it’s not a gentle move.

  “Are you insane?” he demands as he shoves a hand through his teak-colored hair. His green eyes flash with anger and residual worry, and if he hadn’t just saved me, I might wonder if he was going to shove me from the platform himself.

  Instead of answering him, I look down at my arm, which is inconveniently oozing blood. “Great,” I mutter. “Now we’re going to attract a whole murder of the beasts.”

  The nasty scavengers can smell carnage from a mile away.

  Sebastian growls low in his throat and rips a ragged strip of fabric from his undershirt. Gentle as an ogre, he ties the fabric around my arm, making sure to really tighten it with the last knot.

  “Um…Ow,” I whine.

  He flashes me a look and then steps ba
ck. “Other than that, are you all right?”

  I scan my body for more injuries. “I think so. What did you do with your lovebirds?”

  Sebastian wrinkles his nose. “I took care of them.”

  “You didn’t kill them, did you?”

  I don’t have the stomach for that sort of thing. Killing a harpy is like killing a mermaid—they’re just a little too human for my taste.

  “Sleeping charm.” He nods over the platform, and I look down. Sure enough, both the harpies are fast asleep, slumped next to each other.

  “I see you’ve learned a few things from Adeline. Good thing you’ve spent so much time together.”

  He pretends to ignore the comment, but the tips of his ears turn red.

  “You didn’t lose the bracelet, did you?” he asks, changing the subject.

  I slip my hand into the coin pouch at my side, checking to make sure it’s still there. My fingers close around the delicate chain, and I shake my head.

  Two days ago, the trio of harpies attacked Duke Rodge’s carriage between Eromoore and Teirn. They stole everything of value, but the duchess only lamented the loss of her mother’s pendant. Since we were conveniently passing through the province, we were hired to search the harpies out and bring it back.

  I knew it would be an unpleasant job, but I’ve been willing to do just about anything to get my mind off a certain captain who sailed into the literal sunset three days ago.

  Since the job paid well, and because he wasn’t willing to let me run about forest-filled Eromoore alone, Sebastian came with me.

  After I close the pouch, my hand absently runs over my dagger…my dagger with the tracking spell Avery will use to find us when he returns to Kalae.

  The dagger that’s missing.

  “What’s wrong?” Sebastian asks, noticing the look of horror on my face.

  “It’s gone!” Searching for it, I pat all over my body as if a new sheath might randomly appear, containing my precious blade. I look at my scouting partner, aghast. “Sebastian!”

  “We’ll find it,” he promises, and then he looks over the edge, probably suspecting, just as I am, that it went over with the harpy. He frowns at the ground. “That’s inconvenient.”

  “What?” Cautiously, I make my way to the edge and peer down. Then I snarl, “I hate birds.”

  Far below, with a wicked look on her face that needs no translation, the harpy waves my dagger in the air for me to see. Then she flaps her nearly useless wings and takes off into the trees.

  Livid, I turn to Sebastian. “We have to get it back.”

  Sebastian glances at the evening sky through the canopy above and rolls his neck in preparation for the inevitably long night ahead of us. “All right. Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Missing Dagger

  “The heat will make you wish you were dead, but it’s the spiders you have to watch for,” Gorin says to Adeline just as Sebastian and I come stumbling into the tavern.

  Not having seen us yet, the handsome, dark-haired Elrijan man continues, “The fist-sized tan ones—we call them sandskimmers—will make you ill, but it’s the crimson assassins you must keep an eye on. There’s no antivenom for their poison, but you won’t die right away—no. It will kill you slowly, until finally, your heart simply gives out.”

  “What do they look like?” Adeline hesitantly asks, perhaps because she’s morbidly curious, but more likely because we should know, considering we’re going into their territory and all.

  Before Gorin can answer, Adeline spots us. Or, more accurately, she spots Sebastian. The auburn-haired seamstress flies from her chair, nearly knocking it over in her haste to get to him.

  “What happened to you?” Her hands flutter over Sebastian, looking for a spot to land and finding none because we are covered head to toe in forest grime, pine sap, and a few stray feathery wisps of harpy down.

  “We found the harpies,” I answer for Sebastian as I pull out a chair and collapse into it.

  Flink, my wolfhound-sized lesser dragon quivers with excitement from underneath the table, and I pet the copper scales between his two tiny horns. After a few moments, he scratches an itch on his shoulder with his back foot and then lies down to continue his nap.

  Adeline’s about to press for details, but I don’t want to speak of it. The sheath at my side is still empty, and I am sick. We never found the wretched harpy. With the aid of the spreading twilight, she was able to slip into thin air.

  “Go on, Gorin. Tell us about your crimson assassins,” I urge, crossing my arms over my chest in a closed-off sort of way.

  Gorin eyes me, obviously wanting me to explain the sorry state of my appearance—but smart enough to avoid the subject. “They’re good-sized compared to the little things you have around here.” He presses the tips of his fingers to his thumb, making a circle with his hand. “About this big and hard to miss. Their bodies are blood red, with a black stripe running down their abdomen.”

  Adeline primly crosses her hands over her stomach, pretending she’s not two seconds from passing clean out from the thought alone. She’s about as squeamish as they come, but she’s adamant about traveling with us into the desert to find a lily that grows only in Elrija.

  According to Gorin, the legendary flowers, and the spring water they grow in, have astounding healing properties—to the point they’ll reverse the aging process entirely. Gorin must retrieve one of the nearly mythical flowers so he may marry the woman he loves. Her father is ill, dying of a strange aging disease. The flower will cure him.

  Since I owe Gorin a favor, we get to help him look for it.

  Sebastian pulls out Adeline’s chair, gallantly motioning for her to sit, and then he takes the empty seat at her side. When she turns her attention back to Gorin, Sebastian shoots her a wary glance. He hasn’t come right out and said it, but I know he’s not keen on the idea of her traveling with us. He’s probably worried she’ll be eaten. Honestly, I’m a little concerned about that too. From what Gorin has told us, his home kingdom isn’t going to be a picnic.

  “What about dragons? Or wyverns?” Unlike Adeline, I’m not squeamish, and I like to know what I’m in for. I lean forward, resting my arms on the table. “Oh—greater basilisks? I’ve heard they live in Elrija.”

  Gorin sweeps back his tousled black hair and flashes a friendly smile at the barmaid as she drops off our drinks before he answers. He takes a sip from his tankard and then taps the rim in thought. “We have dragons and a few species of wyverns, but they’re far more timid than the ones native to your provinces. Greater basilisks live in caves to the northwest—I don’t expect to head into their territory. After we pass the border, we go south to Stali for supplies, and then we’ll head directly north.”

  We have just under three months to find the flower and return it to Kysen Okoro, or more specifically, until the first day of summer. The sands are already running through the proverbial hourglass. We officially left late winter behind and entered spring a week ago.

  Coincidentally, Avery—the captain of the Greybrow Serpent, King Harold’s favorite sort-of pirate, and the man who ruthlessly stole my heart—sailed on the day that marked the change of seasons. I was going to sail with him, but life doesn’t always work out the way we think it will.

  The captain promised he’d find me as soon as he’s back on land, but I have no idea how he’ll accomplish that now. The ring he tossed me as the Greybrow Serpent sailed away rests on a chain at my neck, taunting me, making me homesick for a person instead of a place. Avery told me to keep it safe, said he has a question for me when he returns—and what girl wouldn’t jump to conclusions when the man she loves yells that as he’s sailing away?

  “And…snakes?” I finally ask, though I’m not looking forward to Gorin’s answer on this particular subject. I’m genuinely terrified of precisely two things: heights and all things that slither.

  And the two together? You might as well carve my gravestone.

  Gorin stares t
houghtfully into his tankard. “Yes, we have a variety of serpents—all of them nasty. But my main concern is water. Every time I felt I was close to the map, I’d run out of reserves and have to turn back. The wells in Struin Aria are tainted.”

  Struin Aria is a city where the only alchemist known to study the lily’s healing properties relocated hundreds of years ago, long before the city was mysteriously abandoned. According to rumor, he made the trek to the lily’s spring every year, and he was the only man alive to know its location. Supposedly, he carried a map, and that map is somewhere lost in the fortress castle at Struin Aria.

  Gorin’s already been there and looked for it numerous times, but he decided it was time to involve professionals. Oddly enough, those professionals are us.

  “Why didn’t you take an alchemist with you?” Adeline asks, looking slightly less pale than she was a moment ago.

  “An alchemist?” Gorin scrunches his brow, confused.

  Adeline shrugs demurely. “It’s nothing for them to clean the water. In fact, it’s one of the first concoctions they learn when they go to the college in the guild.”

  I peer at her. She’s always full of surprises. “How do you know that?”

  “My father’s the head of the mages’ guild in Mesilca.” She gives me a withering look when she sees my bafflement. “How do you not know that? Didn’t you ever wonder how I learned so many spells?”

  I purse my lips. Now that I think of it, she does seem to know an awful lot of magic for a professional dressmaker, but I thought that was just the way of it in Grenalda, the island territory where she’s from.

  Ignoring me, Adeline turns back to Gorin. “We can go to a local guild chapter and ask if they have any apprentices needing field work. If there are, the guild will send them with us, free of charge.”

  “Really?” I ask.

  Adeline nods. “They have to do a certain amount of time using their craft before the guild will certify them. When we return, we’ll simply sign a few papers, vouching that their time was well spent.”

  “We’ll have to find a guild first,” I remind them.

  We’re in Eromoore, making our way to the Elrijan border. To say the province is provincial is giving it a lot of credit. It’s the least inhabited area of all Kalae. Most of the land is forest. You can travel days without seeing a single soul.