by Resa Nelson
"No!” Drageen cried, racing toward Astrid.
Astrid jumped off the high tower, plummeting toward the ocean below.
* * *
The fall took Astrid's breath away, as she stared at the ocean waves below, cool and clear and smoky blue.
Sea birds shrieked, startled, swooping away when Astrid fell past them.
Panic seized her, and Astrid tried reaching out to the golden tower wall, racing past her, as if she could somehow stop the fall or at least slow it down. But the tower was too far away, just out of arm's reach.
She tried breathing, but the ocean air pressed hard and fast against her mouth and nose like someone holding a hand over her face, smothering her.
Staring down at the oncoming ocean surface, Astrid squinted at the strong sunlight reflecting hard off the water.
The icy water enveloped her, stinging hard against her skin, knocking what little air was left from her lungs when she plunged into the ocean. Momentum forced her down, deeper, deeper, making Astrid's ears nearly burst from the sudden pressure.
Sunlight streamed through the water, as if following her, lighting her path. It shimmered in soft darting shafts around her.
Looking up, Astrid saw a long, pale creature twice her size glide above, swimming up toward the ocean surface. It looked like a waving tail made of strips of seaweed.
Even higher, Astrid saw a fish as big as a ship skimming just below the ocean surface, fins splayed out to its sides.
Just when it seemed she should be slowing down, she dropped faster, plunging into a school of hundreds of hand-size fish, circling around Astrid and swimming down with her. It was as if each fish wore a skin of polished metal, a tiny suit of tiny metal scales. Even this deep, the streaming sunlight shone golden off the fish, like flashing metal, freshly polished.
All Astrid could see were the shining golden fish. Seeing nothing beyond or above or below them, Astrid felt dizzy, lost in the motion of the hundreds of fish encircling her.
The gold faded to black as Astrid lost consciousness.
CHAPTER 24
Drageen raced to the tower's edge, reaching out, hoping to catch Astrid's clothes, something—anything—to hold her back.
It was too late. He could only watch while Astrid splashed into the ocean below.
"Alchemist!” He sank to the stone floor, and stared at the iron cage, now bent and empty. Even the carrion birds had finished with Mauri's bones, finally broken. A few birds fluttered about, pecking among the shards, looking for a final bit of marrow.
He saw the alchemist crouched under the banquet table.
Everything was falling apart. The alchemist's good advice and good portents guided him after his father's death. The alchemist predicted Astrid's blood would produce what Drageen needed to lead and protect his kindred and the kindred home, Tower Island.
The alchemist foresaw an early death for Astrid if she stayed on Tower Island. To prevent it from happening, the alchemist cast their father's bones, seeking a solution. Then the alchemist advised sending Astrid out into the world and using Mauri as her watchdog. The alchemist used Dragon's Sight to keep watchful eyes on Mauri to insure she did as she'd been told.
Drageen felt disappointed in Astrid. Her life in Guell had been easy. Why couldn't she understand the necessity of pain and sacrifice? It made one stronger. It made one better.
Astrid could never understand the pain he'd felt when the alchemist determined Astrid's blood ran rich with dragonslayer strength, while Drageen's had no trace of it.
He'd heard the rumors he was the product of his mother's infidelity. Even worse, he felt the truth every time he'd looked into their dragonslayer's eyes. That man was Astrid's father, not Drageen's.
Drageen would have given anything to have the strength of body and soul and spirit that every dragonslayer possessed. He would have given anything to be the man the Scaldings needed him to be.
Astrid understood nothing about Drageen, so he decided the time had come to act like the leader he desperately wanted to be.
The problem was he didn't know how.
He faced the alchemist. "Tell me what to do."
"First, we must retrieve her body," the alchemist said. "We might be able to harvest the bloodstones out of it now that she's dead."
Dead.
Drageen had never wanted Astrid to die.
He'd just wanted to scare the bloodstones out of her so he could use them. It's why he'd been so careful.
If his brigands had known Astrid’s true identity and what the bloodstones meant, they would have killed Drageen on the spot and kept Astrid for themselves and their own purposes. Drageen was determined to let no one destroy his people or their homeland.
Drageen studied Mauri's shattered bones, strewn across the tower floor. "Can we do anything with those?"
The alchemist walked over to the nearest fragment. She picked it up, turning it over in her hands. "It's fresh. There might be something we can harness. Something that could help us find Astrid's body."
Drageen stared into the empty cage.
Seeing Astrid had been difficult. He remembered that one defining moment all those years ago when she was tiny. He's been sitting alone at the end of a long and tiring day, wanting to speak to no one. A two-year-old Astrid had toddled up to him. First placing her hands on his lap, she had hauled herself up into it, uninvited. She'd sat there, nestled against his chest, listening to his heart beat.
In that moment, he'd fallen in love with her. Drageen knew he'd forever be in love with her, not in a romantic way, but in the same way and with the same passion that he loved all his clan’s people.
Astrid never understood the pain he endured by having to choose between her and the rest of the clan. He could protect either Astrid or the clan—not both. He needed Astrid in order to protect the clan.
As much as he loved her, Drageen had always believed it made more sense to sacrifice the life of one than to sacrifice the lives of many.
"She's dead," Drageen whispered. "My sister is dead."
CHAPTER 25
Astrid dreamed she stood with Mauri in the night forest, when the clouds parted above and the moonlight flooded them. Mauri's hands were still twisted.
Astrid squinted, confused. "Why did they shackle you, too?"
Mauri looked down at her hands, quiet as the moon.
It all began to make sense to Astrid. "Drageen knew if he kept you tied up, he could control me," Astrid said. "He knew I'd never leave you behind."
Mauri whimpered like a small child.
Astrid pieced everything together. "When I left you here in the woods, it wasn't the brigands who caught up with you. It was you who went running back to Drageen. It must have been easy to slip back into the brigands' camp."
Mauri covered her face with her twisted hands as a pink flush crept across her cheeks.
Astrid's breath was shallow, and she felt light-headed from the shock of Mauri's betrayal, of watching Mauri die, poisoned by the alchemist. Of watching the carrion birds destroy what remained of the woman who Astrid thought was her friend.
"Please don't," Mauri whispered. "Please don't hate me."
She cried long and hard, until her cries sounded like Norah's bird-like keens. Then Mauri changed.
She twisted into herself until she looked like little more than a large clump of clay thrown on a potter's wheel. She sank into herself, becoming small and dense, sinking into the tall grass.
Astrid backed away.
Large round eyes reflected the moonlight. A wedge-shaped head with long wispy whiskers and tiny ears emerged from the tall grass, followed by a sleek body with a long tail. It scratched at the forest floor.
It was a shore cat. What Mauri had called Dragon's Sight.
But instead of brown-and-cream spotted fur, its body was covered in long blonde hair.
"Mauri," Astrid murmured, horrified by what she'd become.
The shore cat mewled, and its large round eyes watered.
A
strid had heard stories all her life about people turning into animals. But every story she'd heard was about dragons scaring people out of their humanity and into their animal nature.
I was a fool to trust Mauri. If Mauri can betray me, then everyone else can, too. There's no point in trusting anyone, ever, for any reason. Mauri was right. Everyone does nothing but look out for himself.
Except for DiStephan.
Astrid looked up at the stars in the sky.
DiStephan had risked his life every day for the sake of Guell. All his life, he'd been cheerfully courageous and honorable and strong—
But where had he been when Guell was attacked? Why had he disappeared?
Worry nagged in the back of Astrid's mind. What if DiStephan was no better than Mauri?
It was an unbearable thought. Even through all her doubts, DiStephan seemed like the one true thing in Astrid's life. He felt like truth itself.
At the sound of rustling grass, she looked down. Mauri—the shore cat—had disappeared.
Astrid wanted to get out. Before something terrible happened. She took a step back—
And the shore cat screamed.
Astrid twisted in place, afraid to move. In the moonlight, she saw the shore cat behind her.
She had accidentally stepped on its tail.
Astrid backed away, freeing her feet from the shore cat.
Its large round eyes glared at Astrid with intense hatred. It bared long, sharp teeth, its jaw dropping down and hinging wide open like a snake's.
"Taddeo's the dragon," the shore cat hissed. "He's the Slaughter Demon!"
The shore cat sprang toward Astrid. It stood on its hind legs, stretching as high as Astrid's shoulders. Sharp talons emerged from its paws, dancing in the moonlit air while it balanced on its hind legs. Screaming as if it had been stabbed, it lunged toward Astrid, its talons nearing her shoulders...
Astrid woke up with a start.
She wasn't in the moonlit forest.
She found herself curled up in a smooth bowl carved into a rock as big as her cottage, water lapping near her toes. Instead of moonlight, diffused beams dappled all around her, dancing across her rock, around narrow stone columns rising from the water like trees, and between the clear crystal walls and twisting walkways. Those walkways intertwined like a catacomb and led into a multi-tiered canopy above.
Instead of a stone floor, she noticed a pool of seawater, dotted with several large rocks. The air weighed thick and humid, and a bitter, salty tang hung like fog. Light filtered down through the twisting passageways, high above, dappled, shimmering, and ever-changing.
A cave. This must be a cavern at the edge of the ocean.
Thin sheets of sand cascaded down a narrow groove eroded into a nearby stone wall. The streaming sand plunked into the seawater next to serpent-like tree trunks growing out of it, shedding bark like dead skin. Fresh green and dry brown leaves intertwined around the trunks.
All the while, light and shadows wove together like a tapestry surrounding Astrid.
"You were dreaming."
Astrid looked for Taddeo's voice, searching between the light and the shadows until she saw him on another rock, cradling Norah in his arms.
"Where are we?” Astrid rubbed her eyes, still adjusting to the dimness. "How did we get here?"
"My home," Taddeo said. "I brought you."
He'd always been strange. A foreigner. But Astrid never imagined he could come from a place as bizarre as this. Surely, he'd answered in jest.
That annoyed Astrid. But she could jest with him until he was ready to be honest with her.
"Mauri told me you're a dragon.” Astrid smiled, waiting for his response.
Taddeo smiled, as well. "That much is true. Mauri may have told many lies to you, but she also slipped a few truths between them. Makes it difficult to figure out what is true and what is a lie, does it not?"
After the initial shock, Astrid crossed her arms, angry with Taddeo's nonsense. "I'm tired of lies."
Taddeo cocked his head and laughed quietly, mindful of Norah, sleeping in his arms. "Did I not tell you my people are hunters? Did I not explain we have a different way of living, different customs?"
Astrid pressed her lips together, her anger growing with every moment. "You also said you found the Magenta's gem when you cut open a lizard's gullet. It's not a gemstone. It's a bloodstone. A bloodstone that came out of someone like me."
"Well," Taddeo said reluctantly, "you have me there."
"I want to know the truth."
Taddeo slipped Norah into a comfortable niche on their rock. Climbing down, he submerged into the water.
Astrid stood, careful to keep her balance on the slippery rock surface. She peered into the water below, searching for Taddeo.
He'd disappeared.
Two large, clawed, scaled feet emerged from the pool, planting themselves on the edge of the rock on which she stood.
A sleek black dragon hauled itself onto the rock. It curled around her, settling down comfortably. Its nostrils flared, leaving wet nose prints on her skin when it sniffed her.
Astrid's own nostrils flared.
Despite the humid, tangy atmosphere, she detected the scent that always made her think she smelled dragons.
The dragon snorted long and hard, as if laughing.
It couldn't be Taddeo. He must still be underwater or hiding or maybe the dragon bit him and—
The dragon shifted, growing smaller. Black scales faded to pale skin. In moments, Taddeo smiled, curled up on the rocky surface, oblivious to his nakedness.
Astrid noticed Taddeo's clothes, floating in the pool, ripped apart. He must have torn through them when he was underwater, when he changed into his dragon shape.
Astrid looked at the other rock, where Norah was curled up, still naked from when she'd first shown herself inside the iron cage on Tower Island.
"Norah," Astrid whispered, understanding. Turning back to Taddeo, she said, "Norah's a dragon, too."
Taddeo stood, facing Astrid. "Norah is my dead brother's child. She is my blood. My duty. Everything I have done, I did for her."
Astrid remembered what Drageen had told her about Norah. "Is she the one?” Without realizing what she was doing, Astrid traced the scars covering her skin.
Astrid could barely hear Taddeo as he spoke. "All we know is what we hear from the carrion birds and the shore cats."
The Dragon's Sight. So those legends were true, after all.
Taddeo's eyes watered. "They say your blood was so strong it nearly killed Norah when she bit you. When you were a child and she was a fledgling. The Scaldings had starved her, and you were all she had to eat."
Astrid felt cold and hard, like a rock island. It sounded like the truth. It felt familiar and right. Like something she thought she could remember even though it felt like a dream. "Why?"
Taddeo gazed at the scars crisscrossing Astrid's face. "They knew if you survived Norah's bite, you would become a producer of bloodstones. Most dragonslayers produce bloodstones."
Astrid backed away. "I'm a blacksmith, not a dragonslayer."
"You know little about dragons and dragonslayers."
His words rubbed her raw. Drageen had said as much to her, and she had no use for anyone who spoke the same words as her brother.
Norah's waking keen cracked through the air.
Astrid and Taddeo turned in her direction.
Taddeo paled. "No..."
Norah's legs had changed to pale pink coral, clinging to the rock surface. She looked like she was half-woman and half-rock.
"She is becoming one with the rock," Taddeo said faintly. "She is dying."
CHAPTER 26
Taddeo wrapped his fingers around Astrid's wrist, pulling her into the cold water, dragging her behind him as he swam toward Norah.
"Here!” Taddeo cried out when he hauled Astrid on top of the rock surface, next to Norah.
Norah flinched when she inhaled Astrid's scent. Gazing mournfully at Tadd
eo, Norah uttered, "Scalding."
"You need her," Taddeo said to Norah. His tone was firm. "She will help you now. You are weak. She can revive you."
Astrid tried to scramble away, but Taddeo still held a firm grip on her wrist.
"No!” Taddeo turned toward her fiercely. "Your people killed my brother. They killed his mate. The Scaldings tortured you, their own child!"
Astrid struggled, trying to wrestle free.
Taddeo's eyes narrowed. "Norah had nothing. She was born in captivity on Tower Island. Why do you think she is so wild and damaged? What do you think you would be right now if they had never let you go? If you had spent your entire life in that cage?"
Astrid paused, struck by Taddeo's words.
He was right.
Astrid had been protected by Temple, and loved by DiStephan. She'd found her passion in fire and iron. She'd had a good life.
All Norah had ever known was a cage made by the Scaldings. Now, at last, Norah had a place to go. And people—dragons, rather—that would protect her like Temple and love her like DiStephan.
Astrid remembered her last moments with DiStephan. She remembered how she'd felt when DiStephan had slaughtered the dragon hatchling. She remembered the revulsion she'd felt toward DiStephan when he'd acted like something less than a man.
DiStephan had been wild like Norah.
Astrid remembered being terrified of Norah all those years ago, but she remembered something else, too.
Norah had been little more than a fledgling dragon, locked inside that cage with Astrid. Even when Norah had sunk her teeth through Astrid's skin, even when the pain had shocked Astrid close to the point of fainting, there had always been a haunted look in Norah's dragon eyes.
It had been a look of fear and regret and sorrow.
When Astrid had looked into Norah's dragon eyes, she'd seen herself.
On that day with DiStephan, Astrid realized, there had been no fear in his eyes. No regret. No sorrow.
DiStephan had killed the hatchling dragon with the same look Astrid had seen in Drageen's eyes.
It wasn't DiStephan Astrid had feared that day.
She felt afraid because DiStephan's actions had reminded her of what Drageen had done to Astrid when she was tiny and helpless.