by Audrey Faye
“Well, that wasn’t the most graceful climb, but it will do.” Sapphire thought she might have about a hundred holes poked in her, but it didn’t matter. Lotus wasn’t feeling nearly so scared anymore—just hungry and tired and frazzled, and those were a lot easier to fix.
She took a step closer to the corner, pausing as her dragon blew fire again.
“Careful.” Irin was still there, a firm presence in the shadows. “That was well done, but it might take her a while to calm down, and the babies don’t understand that we’re not fireproof like they are.”
“She won’t burn me.” Sapphire knew it as certainly as her own name. She crouched down on her knees and settled into the warm dirt and kept flowing her words at the frazzled creature in the corner. “That’s better. That was far too much noise to be making so early in the morning. You’ll need to learn some manners, little one. Big people get cranky if they don’t get enough sleep.”
The man beside her snorted, but he didn’t say a word.
Lotus gazed at him with baleful eyes and let out a fiery hiss.
“That’s just about enough out of you,” he said, but his voice didn’t carry any menace.
Sapphire put some curds on her fingertips and held them out, smiling as Lotus stretched out her whole body to try to reach them without moving her feet. “Come over here and get them, silly.”
Tiny dragon claws dragged forward in the dirt just far enough to reach the curds.
Sapphire sat very still, humming a small lullaby about moons and shadows and goddesses in the night.
The next time Lotus took a curd, she didn’t back up. Instead, she walked over to Sapphire’s lap like she’d always planned to go there and curled up just like a kitten. And then made a yowling noise that Sapphire hastily interpreted as a request for more curds. The whole bowl full. NOW.
Nobody moved as the tiny dragon mowed through her body weight of the soft white chunks. When the bowl was entirely empty, Irin took it from Sapphire’s grasp and then carefully reached out a finger toward the dragonet’s chin.
Lotus hissed—no fire this time, but her meaning was plenty clear.
“Well. This is a bit of a tangle.” Karis crouched down beside Irin. “I’ve never seen a hatchling who didn’t want to have anything to do with you.”
“Hatching trauma, perhaps,” said a deep voice from behind them who sounded like Sapphire’s least favorite teacher back in Moon Clan.
Irin snorted. “Are you all blind? These two are bonded. I’ll stake my last sharp sword on it.”
Karis raised an eyebrow. “You think?”
“You’ve got eyes, don’t you?” Irin waved a hand at Lotus, nestling into the crook in Sapphire’s arm. “You think some random elf girl walked out of the forest and got a baby dragon well on her way to sleep without knowing anything about anything?”
Sapphire wanted to protest—she wasn’t entirely useless. “I’ve had some practice with my little cousins.”
Irin snorted again. “Unless they’re dragons, I can promise you that isn’t why this particular ball of fire is falling asleep in your lap. I’ve been wrangling babies for nigh on twenty winters now, and that little girl is a spitfire. She trusts you because she’s chosen you as her kin.”
Something warm lit and spread in Sapphire’s chest as she ran a finger over Lotus’s eye ridges. Slowly, the baby dragon’s eyes began to close.
“Like I said.” The old swordsman’s voice was gruff, but she imagined she could hear kindness underneath. “She doesn’t know a darn thing about dragons, and one’s gone and bonded with her anyhow.”
“Elhen may have something to say about that.” The voice from the doorway was stern and unyielding. Everyone in the nursery turned as one. Even Sapphire managed to swivel her head around to see. The man was tall and slender and carried himself with the bearing of one who expected instant obedience at all times.
“Hello, Morigen.” Irin stepped forward, his body language showing respect, but not awe. “It’s not often we see you in these parts.”
“I’ve just returned from the southlands,” said the new arrival. “Ciara bade Ness to pass a message to the nursery, so I’ve come to do so.”
One of Irin’s helpers jumped to her feet, heading for the door. “I’ll get Ness some food and water.”
The man nodded his head at the girl. “That would be appreciated.” He looked over, straight into Sapphire’s eyes. “For the rest of you, the queen requires your presence. She wishes to meet the two new arrivals.”
Chapter 7
Sapphire was pretty sure she was supposed to be more scared than she was feeling, at least based on the awed glances she was getting from Kellan, who had taken up a position on her left side. Even Karis, on her other side, was walking like someone in a parade processional, the kind where there would be people on the sides of the path to wave to at any minute.
Sapphire had walked in plenty of processionals. As the youngest daughter of Moon Clan’s ruling family, she’d also met plenty of queens and other royalty. Mostly it was boring, with lots of speeches, fancy clothes, and the kind of manners that made her itch the whole time she had to use them.
She tried to keep her grumpy thoughts from growing too big. This was the adventure of her lifetime, and she didn’t want to ruin it inside her own head. For all she knew, someone from her clan could come get her at any minute, and there was so much she hadn’t seen yet. Lotus was calm for the moment, perched on her shoulder and quietly chirruping as they walked, and Sapphire wanted everyone to see how well they did together.
Maybe then they would let her stay.
Lotus, craning her head around, made a surprised sound, her eyes wide and curious. Kellan followed the green-eyed gaze and smiled. “Those are barracks for visiting dragons and their kin.” She talked right to Lotus, as if the dragonet could understand every word she said. “Some of us live here in the village year round, but most are out on tour. This is where they stay when they come to report in and catch up on their sleep.”
The barracks looked like several rondos had all been squished together. Now that it wasn’t raining so hard, Sapphire could make out the dragon-sized entrances, and the ones that were probably for guests of the two-legged variety. “What do they do out on tour?”
“Hrrmph.” Irin strode up beside them, grunting. “It’d be shorter to list what they don’t do. Some pairs are soldiers or peacekeepers, some mediate land disputes, some map out new routes or escort trade caravans or dig for treasure.”
Sapphire blinked at the last. “Dig where?”
“Into mountains, mostly. Looking for jewels, ore, precious metals.”
“Miner dragons.” Kellan had stars in her eyes. “I think that’s what Kyrn wants to be.”
“You know better than to set your eye on a dragon before you’ve bonded,” Irin said gruffly.
“Kyrn loves finding pretty things.” Kellan made a face behind the old warrior’s back.
“Aye, that he does.” The master of the nursery was still speaking with the voice of a soldier, but Sapphire could see something more like sympathy in his eyes. “But that doesn’t mean he’ll be yours, missy.”
“I know that.” Kellan’s eyes snapped dark fire. “Maybe no dragon will bond with me at all and I’ll have done all this work for nothing and I’ll have to leave and go be a wandering bard or something.”
The old soldier nodded like she’d said all that in a perfectly civil tone. “Could happen. Being a bard might suit you, should it come to that. Kis likes it well enough when you sing to him.”
“Kis is old and half deaf.”
Irin chuckled. “So are most of the men in taverns.”
Sapphire listened to the conversation between them with no small astonishment. If she’d spoken like that to any of the clan elders, she’d have found herself on floor-scrubbing duty for the rest of her natural life. Kellan clearly had a temper and wasn’t afraid to let it fly.
Maybe waiting for a dragon did that to you.
Maybe Irin did—and that was a start.
The landscape was changing around them. They’d moved off the flat paths of the village proper and were climbing a gentle incline. Some large boulders sat in the mosses, but no trees. It felt oddly exposed compared to the lush forests of Moon Clan territory.
“There are caves up here,” Kellan said quietly. “Some of the older dragons prefer them to the rondos.”
Irin snorted. “They prefer some peace and quiet away from noisy younglings, you mean.”
There were elves like that in Moon Clan—elders who had given of their gifts and now just wanted to sleep and watch the moon travel through the night sky. Sapphire had always felt vaguely sad for them.
“They come.” Karis stepped up beside her, pointing off in the distance. “Afran is in the lead.”
Sapphire squinted, her mind still distracted by thoughts of home. All she saw were a couple of dots on the horizon.
And then there were more dots, and bigger ones.
“A lot today.” Irin grunted and shot a glance at Kis, lumbering painfully up the hill beside them. “I knew there must be a reason you wanted to come, old man.”
Kellan had just plain stopped, staring up at the sky, mouth wide open. “I’ve never seen so many in all my life.”
Sapphire could feel the unease building in her own heart—and the excitement building in Lotus, who was squeezing far too tightly with her claws and craning her neck to see. “What’s going on?”
“Dragons and their kin,” Kellan whispered. “More than I’ve ever seen, coming to pay their respects to the queen. Some of them must have been flying for days to be here.”
Sapphire watched, dumbfounded, as the spots grew bigger and blacker, a great huge swarm of them. Her legs got the strange jelly feeling again, just like when she’d finally made it out of the tree. She could make out individual dragons now, Afran in the lead, by far the biggest in the swarm.
She reminded herself that he had kind eyes.
Which almost worked—until she met the fierce, curious gazes of some of the new dragons as they landed. Her heart plummeted into her boots.
They came in every color of the rainbow, and even some she hadn’t known existed. Brilliant glowing scales, huge wings fine enough to let the daylight pass through and mighty enough to hurtle through the air and screech to a stop less than an elf-length from the ground, and puffs of smoke and flame everywhere she looked.
And sliding off their backs, riders in every size and shape of imagining. Elf and human, young and old, people as thick as tree trunks and as ethereal as butterflies.
As one, the riders stepped to the heads of their dragons and bowed.
To her.
Kellan sucked in an awed breath.
Sapphire felt her leg wobbles turn into an earthquake.
“Have a care, missy.” Irin’s hand clamped on her shoulder, holding her up and holding her still all at the same time. “It’s great respect they’re showing you and the hatchling. I assume you’ve got some manners in that head of yours, and now’s the right time to be showing them.”
Manners. Royalty.
Sapphire almost let loose a hysterical giggle. To think she’d been thinking this would be boring—and they hadn’t even gotten to the queen yet.
She did, however, have enough of a mind left to know that Irin was wrong. The dragons couldn’t possibly be here to meet the youngest daughter of Moon Clan, which must mean that Lotus was very important.
Carefully, waiting for the baby dragon’s claws to find purchase, Sapphire raised her arm so everyone could see Lotus and cleared her throat. Projecting her voice just like Grandfather had taught her, she spoke to Afran’s kind eyes. “Her name is Lotus, and she’s very honored to meet all of you.”
Lotus sat up very straight and chirruped at the top of her lungs.
The skies rumbled as the assembled dragons replied.
Lotus’s eyes bulged as big as dinner plates, and then every dragon head turned as one, looking to a high ledge off to Sapphire’s left. Two dragons stood on the edge, surveying the gathered crowd.
“The guardians.” Kellan had found her voice again, but it was still hushed with awe. “The queen can see through their eyes.”
Sapphire blinked. “Why doesn’t she come out if all these dragons came to honor her?”
Irin snorted. “She’s old as these hills, missy. It’s worth more than my hide or yours to be trying to move her. The guardians act as her eyes and ears, and they’ll relay anything she says to those who don’t fit inside.”
Karis laughed. “Today, that will be pretty much everyone. Elhen likes her space, and Afran says they’ve all been told to stay outside.”
Sapphire swallowed. She had so much to learn about dragons. Like how they were managing to do all this talking that she couldn’t hear.
An awful thought landed. Maybe you didn’t get to bond with a dragon unless you could hear them.
“Come.” Irin’s hand was back on her shoulder. “The queen awaits.”
Legs still trembling, Sapphire tried to walk as she’d been taught—with dignity and grace and the knowledge that everyone was looking and would report the tiniest misstep.
Lotus bumped her head against Sapphire’s chest and then preened for the audience, chirruping quietly.
Irin chuckled. “Well, good thing one of you isn’t shy.”
Sapphire just watched Karis’s back in front of her and kept walking. So many fierce eyes. She took a deep breath and looked into the only ones that mattered.
The sweet green eyes of her dragon.
Sapphire straightened as they walked into the mouth of the cave. Dragon kin came in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and not all of them could possibly be fierce. She wanted to stay so very badly, and this might be her best chance. She knew just how much weight a royal opinion could carry.
They walked a little deeper into the shadows, moving slowly, and then the space opened up and something cast a lovely yellow glow, and Sapphire’s eyes could see again. She looked around for a fire, but she couldn’t see one. The cave was very warm, but if her cheeks were telling her right, the heat seemed to come mostly from the shimmery guardian dragons, one on each side of the cave. The queen herself was almost translucent, an eerie white shadow that picked up color from everything around her. A ghost dragon—and one who didn’t appear to have a head.
Karis stepped forward and cleared her throat. “Elhen, we have come as commanded.”
For a long moment, nothing in the cave moved. Then a low, rumbling voice spoke from under the queen’s tail. “It wasn’t a command, child—nothing more than a polite request.”
Karis looked amused. “In that case, we have come as requested.” She waited as a large head emerged from under the tail, and then motioned Sapphire up beside her. “This is Sapphire of Moon Clan, and the hatchling she rescued from up a tree in the breeding grove.”
A large, translucent eyebrow slid up the queen’s eye ridges. “And what fool brooder laid their egg in a tree, pray tell?”
“We don’t know.” Karis shrugged uncomfortably. “Afran believes it might not have started there.”
That was news to Sapphire.
“Well, the egg surely didn’t climb on its own.” Elhen directed a sharp stare at everyone in the cave. “The breeding grove is sacred. It always has been.” Her eyes settled on Sapphire’s shoulder. “Perhaps the young one knows how her egg came to be there.”
Lotus pushed her head back into Sapphire’s chest.
Sapphire shook her head mutely. Neither of them knew anything.
“Ah, well. Perhaps that is not the part of the story that matters.” Elhen gazed on the two of them, and Sapphire felt like she was being seen right down to her very soul. The queen finally nodded, very slowly, and when she spoke again, her words took on the feel of portent. �
�What matters is that you are one of the five.”
The hush in the cave was remarkable and total.
The queen’s blue-green eyes glistened with something that almost looked like tears. “It begins. In my lifetime, it begins.”
It was Irin who finally broke the silence. “Honored one, I have to ask—are you certain?”
“They are marked.” The rumble wavered, and then firmed again. “It was said that the queen would see their markings. There is a light on each of their foreheads. Can you not see it?”
Sapphire quivered under the burning gazes of everyone in the cave. She couldn’t see anything—not on Lotus, anyhow. And her own forehead felt the same way it always had.
“She won’t know the story,” Karis said quietly, stepping up to Sapphire’s shoulder. “Perhaps you would share it with us once again.”
Elhen nodded regally. “These are the words that have been told, passed down from queen to queen, beginning with Lovissa, the great warrior dragon. She is the grandmother of my grandmother, twenty-five generations past. This is the story that has been passed from Lovissa to me.”
Sapphire was quite certain that everyone else in the cave knew this story. As they should. Clan history was a clan’s greatest treasure, or so she had always been taught. She just didn’t have any idea how it could possibly apply to her. She listened to the words wrapping around her, the tale of battles won and lost and dragonkind at the very brink of disappearing from the world forever, brought down from the skies by terrible magics and storms of arrows that pierced wings and stopped dragon hearts forever.
Sapphire could feel the tears streaming down her cheeks. It was elves who had done this. That didn’t seem possible. Elves honored peace.
Lotus’s heart beat fast against her chest.
“It did not end the way the dragons of old feared,” Elhen intoned. “We do not know the full story of how they were saved, for that has been lost in the fires of time. But the wisdom of the queens has passed on this much. There will be five who come to save all dragonkind. And they will be marked by a light that shines just above their eyes.”