The Moonflower Dance

by Lea Doué

  “Free your red dragon girl, and you free yourself.” Neylan muttered the words that held the answer to lifting the curse as she gingerly unrolled her tenth scroll. The original “freeing” part hadn’t been so simple in practice, apparently, but Baz had figured out early on that Vanda was his red dragon girl. Although no one had expected Keir to be left behind, Gram thought that finding his red dragon girl would be the answer.

  But, apparently, it hadn’t been enough.

  Keir stretched and yawned. After finishing a few notes in the ledger, he pulled over another thick book and flipped through the pages, glancing frequently in her direction as she pored over an old scroll.

  “Anything interesting?” he asked.

  “Just a record of razor-tail attacks on a sheep farm in Valosa,” she said and sat up straighter. “Damage done. Repairs. I’ve never seen such detailed accounts from the lost city.”

  “I ran across another one a few months ago. I can’t imagine where Baz’s father found them.”

  She’d seen the name of the lost city in her studies as a child, but there was little information about Valosa. A small, rocky island kingdom located in the northern sea separating Mazereon and Gritton, Valosa had been destroyed before the Dragon Wars by feuding sorcerers. Its people had fled, and the ruling family disappeared from history books.

  Keir was openly staring at her.

  She pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and looked at her tunic. “Did I spill my tea?”

  “What? No.” He glanced away guiltily. “It’s just… you’re wearing my favorite color.”

  He’d mentioned that earlier. Did the caretakers know it was his favorite too? That would explain the yellow geraniums. “Euna packed my clothes.”

  He nodded and bent over his book. “I suppose it doesn’t matter,” he muttered.

  She rolled up her scroll and jotted down its contents in the ledger. “What doesn’t matter?”

  “What color you wear.”

  “Why would it?”

  He shrugged.

  “I mean, Zared’s designs are beautiful, but you’re not expecting me to wear red all the time, are you?”

  “Zared?”

  “The dressmaker Mel hired.”

  “Oh. Him.” He frowned and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter. Besides, your snapdragon is red.” He pointed to her wrist cuff. “That’s probably enough.”

  “Enough for what?”

  “To fulfill the ‘red’ part of the ‘red dragon girl’ requirement.”

  “Oh.” They hadn’t actually discussed how she fit the definition of his red dragon girl. “But how did you know the snapdragon was mine?”

  “It’s sixth in line after the lily.” He waved a hand towards her as if pointing her out to herself. “Plus, you’re a descendant of the soldier-king.”

  Common knowledge, as was the fact that the soldier-king had been cursed into the form of a small white dragon for a short time. So she was, indeed, a dragon girl in that sense. Except for one thing. “So are all my sisters.”

  “Yes, but you have a pet dragon.”

  True. Although he obviously hadn’t listened when she’d told him Wist wasn’t a pet.

  “Even your nickname is dragon girl.”

  She clenched her jaw. That nickname might have followed her, but it wasn’t her friends who called her that back home. She snatched another scroll and unrolled it, accidentally tearing a fingernail-length slit in one corner.

  “I know you don’t like the name, but it’s true.”

  “So, I’m a dragon girl. Are we sure I’m your dragon girl? The curse is still in full force. If I’m the one, how is that possible?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, with a growl in his voice. He flipped his book upside down to mark his place. “You were supposed to arrive months ago.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” She let go of the scroll and it snapped back into a curled tube. “You know my parents wouldn’t give me their blessing to travel until I turned eighteen. I’m not one to run away like Mel did.”

  “Have you never wondered if there’s a time limit?” He leaned back and crossed his arms. “What if I don’t break the curse within a certain window of time, and it becomes permanent?”

  She frowned. “Wouldn’t Gram have told us if that were the case?”

  “Gram doesn’t know everything.”

  “She knows more than we do.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Well, I’m here now. And you still have the festivities to fall back on if you think I’m not the one.”

  “I never said—”

  “Why did you agree to their plan, anyway, if you thought you had it all figured out?” Her stomach churned at the thought that he might harbor doubts about his feelings. Or hers. Or that he might be right about the time limit. All the more reason to search for answers in the scrolls.

  “No one asked me.”

  “But surely—”

  “Oh, Baz talked to me, quite persuasively, but he never asked my opinion.”

  She waited for him to continue, but he sat scowling at the floor.

  “What is your opinion?” she finally asked.

  With a sigh, he stood and paced in front of the window. “I only went along with their plan because I knew it would bring you to Mazereon.” He leaned a hip against the windowsill and looked out over the meadow.

  “I came to Mazereon for you, not some fancy parties!” She spoke louder than she’d intended, and Wist woke up. He flew to her shoulder and patted her cheek consolingly.

  Keir looked at her, his eyes piercing. “Can you tell me with certainty, Neylan, that you’re the one to break my curse?”

  He was doubting her. She’d come all this way for him, and he’d never even said I love you. Wasn’t that supposed to be the biggest part of it all?

  “I don’t know what to say right now. I think I need some fresh air.” She pushed away from the table and rushed out the door.

  Chapter Eight

  Once Neylan exited the tower, Wist flew off to explore the meadow, a multicolored expanse dotted with fragrant wildflowers. Someone had built a wattle fence around the entire area, which she hadn’t noticed from her window, and two horses grazed near the rock dragon stable.

  She stepped onto a narrow dirt path that circled the tower and began walking, her stomach in a knot as she pushed aside Keir’s doubts about her feelings. She’d left her home for him. For him.

  She glanced up at the tower and then did a double take. In the dark, the tower had appeared to be carved from one large piece of obsidian, which was absurd considering the nature of the rock. She laid a hand flat on its surface—cold and smooth but marred with minute cracks all over, pieced together from obsidian tiles of all shapes and sizes. Hundreds of thousands of them, held together by pitch-black grout.

  Step by step, she walked backwards until the cracks between the tiles seemed to disappear and the tower once again appeared as a solid piece of work. Such excellent craftsmanship. She stepped back onto the path and continued walking.

  It was a shame the tower had been built to hold sorcerers, back when they’d been more widespread and troublesome. Her own ancestor, the soldier-king, had provided the means to contain them. After his curse had been broken and he’d become a man again, his hair had retained some spelled properties, as well as the white coloring of his dragon hide. More specifically, his hair neutralized any nearby sorcery, the main reason he was able to subdue and defeat so many sorcerers in his time.

  At some point, he’d ordered amulets made with locks of his hair inside and distributed them, one to each kingdom, so they could build holding cells. Prisons. The amulets had been buried and towers or fortresses built over the top, but few people knew their true purpose anymore, or what lay underneath. All but two of them still remained. Neylan had pestered Yarrow to find out if he knew more. The only thing he could tell her was that the two amulets were not destroyed but lost, and that
any sorcerer would pay a king’s ransom to get their hands on one.

  Did the tower have the same neutralizing effect on Keir’s curse? Was he able to find some relief inside its walls? But… no. If the tower stopped his transformation, he couldn’t have helped rescue Gram while in his dragon form. Although he’d only touched the tower from the outside—he hadn’t gone in.

  She slowed and stared at a bunch of wildflowers in her hand with no memory of picking them. Wist lay on her head chewing a stick.

  Keir sat by the front door on an obsidian bench built out from the base. A satchel slouched at his feet. He spoke while looking at the ground. “I’m sorry. I haven’t been myself lately. I get so angry at nothing and everything.”

  She lay the wildflowers on the bench and sat close beside him. “I understand.”

  Wist flew off with the stick, and Keir startled, as if he hadn’t noticed him. “He’ll eat anything, won’t he?”

  “Apparently, although that’s his first stick, as far as I know. Unless he’s planning to build a nest.”

  “Do aconites build nests?”

  “Yes.” She tucked into the ribbon a loose strand of hair freed by Wist’s toes. “Up in trees, and they decorate them with flowers and plants, as many poisonous ones as they can find. It attracts their own females while deterring tree hopper dragons, birds, and any other creatures that might want a quick snack.”

  Wist returned and landed on her knee with the stick. He’d chewed the end until it looked bristly, like a rough wooden toothbrush, and began rubbing it along his purple hide, starting at his head and working his way down.

  Keir watched him as intently as Neylan did. “Is that normal?”

  “I’m not sure. Other dragons sometimes fashion and use tools. I haven’t much experience working closely with aconites, though. I’ve been teaching him how to tie knots, and he’s learning quickly. Untying them is a bit harder.”

  Wist moved on to grooming his belly. After a while, Neylan found Keir watching her rather than Wist. When he didn’t look away, she stared into his dark eyes for a moment and then lowered her own, her face heating.

  Once her cheeks cooled, she risked another look at him.

  He sat as still as stone while Wist, perched on his shoulder, scrubbed at the crescent-shaped scars on his collarbone with the stick.

  She gasped and grabbed the little dragon.

  Keir stared at them blankly. He’d put up with more from Wist than anyone besides Euna, but his skin already caused him pain without the dragon adding to it. His eyes narrowed.

  She flung Wist’s stick into the grass and angled her body away.

  Wist didn’t seem to notice the tension in the air. Instead, he relaxed in her palm, gripping her fingers lightly, and blinked at Keir.

  “I don’t know what got into him. Did he hurt you?”

  Keir shook his head and blinked rapidly.

  “I guess he thought you weren’t taking good care of your scales.” Her face burned, and she wanted to kick herself for saying that out loud. “I mean—”

  “I’m still surprised he gets close to me at all because of the curse. He acts like I’m… normal.”

  “Well he would, wouldn’t he? Aconites are one of the few types of dragons that tolerate sorcery.” She ran her finger along Wist’s back, and he crooned his approval. “Who’s to say what’s normal, anyway?”

  He swallowed hard and held out a hand to Wist. She gently tipped the dragon into his large palm. Wist chirped at him and then curled up into a ball, tucking his head under his wing for a nap.

  Keir cupped his other hand over Wist protectively. “Has he ever seen the ocean?”

  “I doubt it. Eltekon is leagues away from any shore.”

  “Would you like to walk to the beach?” He nodded to the satchel on the ground. “We should break for lunch, either way.”

  “That would be lovely.” She shouldered the bag.

  He led her through the meadow in the direction of the ocean, and as they waded through the grass, they conversed as if there had been no interruption to their morning.

  After he’d asked many questions about her sisters, she finally said, “What about you? You’ve never explained how the son of a merchant broke away from the family profession to become a healer.”

  Without missing a beat, he said, “By defying his father’s wishes and apprenticing himself to a healer. I left home as soon as possible to gain a position. That’s when I met Baz, the young heir of Mazereon at the time. We shared an interest in gardening.”

  She wanted to ask if he’d seen his family, his father, since leaving home, but she let him steer the conversation elsewhere. When she asked about the medicinal qualities of the local sea plants, he became so animated in his explanations that he risked waking Wist.

  Keeping the Burnt River to their left, they finally came within sight of the water. After a pause to appreciate the view, they moved on until they reached a cliff next to a green slope that melted into a sandy beach. In the distance, the Burnt River poured into the ocean, but the wind and the waves below drowned the sound.

  Neylan watched the wind play with the great steaming clouds for a long while, twisting and gatering them up before sending them on their way. When she finally pulled her gaze away, Keir had moved down to the beach. She removed her boots so she could enjoy the velvety sand underneath her feet and joined him.

  He smiled at her and opened his hands.

  Wist stretched his wings, and his nose twitched as he stared around wide eyed. With a quick glance at Keir and Neylan, he flew off towards the water. After circling the waves from above, he skimmed them as if playing chase, his tail flicking in and out of the surf.

  She put the satchel on the ground and sat beside it. Keir remained standing but continued to watch Wist as he landed on the shore and wallowed in the wet sand. Once the dragon had thoroughly covered himself, he shook off and took to the air again, stopping frequently to inspect a shell or a piece of seaweed, which he tasted once and immediately spit out. He found a dead jellyfish more to his liking and gulped down several generous mouthfuls.

  “I’d say he approves.” Neylan buried her toes in the sand and opened the satchel.

  Keir sat beside her.

  Alert to the presence of more food, Wist zipped over and watched as she pulled out a sandwich spread with butter and layered with bacon, avocado, and tomato. Her mouth watered, but she set the food aside and gulped from the waterskin, thirsty from the sun and exercise.

  Wist, taking advantage of her distraction, tiptoed up to the sandwich and tugged on a piece of bacon bigger than himself. Neylan pinched off a bite and laid it nearby with a slice of avocado, and he pounced on them.

  The wind shifted, and a moaning sound echoed from far down the beach near the closest cliffs, reminding her of her childhood game of blowing into jars to make music, only on a much larger scale.

  “What is that?” she asked.

  “An old lava tunnel. When the wind catches the entrance just right, it sings. The locals used to say it was a sea serpent with a toothache.”

  She chuckled. “Can it be seen from the beach?”

  “That one can. I’ll take you there next time. There are others, but they can only be seen offshore from a boat.”

  Next time. For one brief moment, she had an image of her and Keir walking on the shore, hand-in-hand with a dark-haired child between them. She blinked, and the image was gone, but the warm glow that filled her chest remained.

  They chatted as they ate, and by the time they were finished, Neylan’s eyelids were growing heavy. She closed her eyes and laid back with her hands under her head.

  Keir shifted, and a shadow fell over her face, blocking the sun. Within moments, she fell asleep and dreamed of dancing with Zared among the waves, her red rose dress floating around her like a creature of the sea.

  Keir nudged her awake sometime later. The shadows had lengthened.

  She blinked and then bolted upright, her hair sprinkling sand on h
er arms. “We need to get back to the tower before… sundown.” Before he transformed.

  She glanced around for Wist.

  Keir pointed to her right. “He’s not waiting around for us.”

  She put on her boots and squinted against the setting sun. Wist sat on a massive crab heading in the opposite direction. She laughed and stood, whistling to get his attention. He looked over his shoulder at her.

  “Are you coming or not?”

  He hopped off the crab, stretched each leg one at a time, and then flew over and draped himself along the back of her neck under her hair.

  She and Keir climbed the grassy slope, the sun stretching their shadows far ahead of them. She walked as quickly as she could, and Keir seemed as eager as she to return.

  Once the tower came into view, she voiced her thoughts about its neutralizing power over sorcery. “Did you ever try staying indoors at night here?”

  “No. None of the rooms are big enough, and I didn’t want to risk getting stuck.” He frowned as if he didn’t want to think about such things. “But when I was helping free Gram last year, I had to land on top of the tower. I thought my skin might come right off my bones. Your theory might explain why I felt that way.”

  She nodded, certain he would keep his human form if he stayed inside after sunset. It made sense that if the soldier-king’s amulet could neutralize sorcery, it could neutralize a curse.

  “Why don’t you give it a try tonight?” She glanced sideways at him to see how he reacted to the challenge. If she was right, he would have a break from the transformation.

  Although he didn’t say no, his jaw tightened, and they finished their journey with no more words between them.

  With the last rays of the sun gilding the meadow, Keir shouldered open the tower door. He waved to Ysmay and Oswald at the stables and then ushered Neylan inside.

  She stepped into the darkness and turned, waiting for him to follow.

  His fist clenched around the door handle, and his neck muscles stood out as he wrestled with the decision.

  Abruptly, he moved inside and closed the door behind him, too fast for Neylan to move out of his way. She stepped back to see his face, but too little light filtered into the entry hall from the kitchen window.