Dragon Kin: Sapphire & Lotus

by Audrey Faye

Karis watched her go, eyebrows high. “I wonder what’s gotten into her?”

  Sapphire had no idea, but she could hear running feet. Kellan came flying in the door, eyes wide. “Fendellen is coming!”

  “Now?” Karis was on her feet, eyes almost as wide as the younger girl’s. “It’s the middle of the night.”

  “Afran says she bugled in his head and she’ll be here any minute.”

  The older woman sprang into action. She gripped Kellan’s shoulders tight enough to hold her still—mostly. “Go wake up Inga and get the kitchen going. Ask Afran to assemble an honor guard, quickly, and to send a message up to Elhen.” She spun to Sapphire, hands moving almost as fast as her words. “You, go tell Lily and Alonia to wake people as quickly and quietly as they can—they’ll deal better with a gentle wake-up at this hour of the night. Then go warn Irin that the nursery is about to get a little wild.”

  Sapphire was totally lost—this was more preparation than she’d ever seen for a visitor. “Who is Fendellen?”

  Karis stopped in mid-motion and stared at her. “That’s right—you weren’t here the last time she came.”

  Kellan gulped. “Fendellen will be queen after Elhen passes to ashes. She’s been out questing. No one has seen her for years.”

  Dragon royalty. Coming to visit, right now. Sapphire grabbed for her cloak, trying to remember all of Karis’s rapid instructions. Irin first—Lily woke up cranky, and Alonia was impossible to wake up at all. They weren’t going to get their eyes open until it was too late.

  She pushed out the rondo door and ran into Kellan’s back. Her best friend gasped and pointed to the sky.

  Sapphire strained her eyes, looking. She couldn’t hear or see anything.

  And then she saw the dark, dragon-shaped shadow blotting out some of the stars. Lotus trembled beside her, and Sapphire reached out a hand, trying to stay calm. It was all too easy to remember the dream horror of falling from the sky.

  This dragon wasn’t falling, though. Even as just a shadow, she had the most graceful flight Sapphire had ever seen, as highly controlled as Afran but with more agile speed.

  A lot more speed.

  She held her breath as the shadow hurtled straight down at the bare patch in front of the rondo and executed a landing that didn’t disturb a single mote of dust.

  Sapphire stared at the elegant, shadowy lines of the new arrival and could barely breathe.

  Karis stepped forward, hand over her heart. “Fendellen, I welcome you here on behalf of dragons and elves and humans all. We weren’t expecting your visit, so we’ll have a more appropriate welcome ready for you shortly.”

  “I would expect no less from Afran and his kin,” said a clearly amused voice that sounded almost human. “But it’s entirely unnecessary to get everyone out of bed at this hour.”

  “That will be for us to decide,” said a gruff voice from the left. “I see you still like to make a dramatic entrance.”

  Sapphire gaped. Irin was speaking to the queen-to-be like she was one of his hatchlings.

  “Irin.” Fendellen’s head maneuvered over to the big man and rubbed against his cheek. “How’s Kis?”

  “Cranky and stubborn and eating too much, same as always.”

  Fendellen’s laugh rumbled hard enough to shake the ground. “Same as another old man I know.”

  Sapphire snorted and then slapped a hand over her nose.

  A bright dragon eye looked her direction. “You must be the girl who found a dragon egg in a tree. That was well done.”

  How did Fendellen know who she was? Somehow Sapphire managed to find her voice. “I didn’t do so much. Mostly Lotus kept me warm, and then Karis and Afran helped get us down in the morning.”

  “It’s a wise woman or dragon who knows when she needs help.” Fendellen reached out her nose to Lotus, who had tried to hide herself behind a rain barrel. “You and your kin chose each other well, I think.”

  Lotus stayed mostly hidden, but the frenetic energy flowing down their bond quieted.

  Irin harrumphed, stomping his feet against the cold. “I assume there’s a good reason we’re all standing out here in the middle of the night instead of greeting you in the morning like reasonable people.”

  Fendellen snorted smoke again. “Cranky old men are welcome to go to bed whenever they need to. I’m here to speak with Sapphire and Lotus.”

  Sapphire could scarcely believe her ears. “Why?”

  “I see you in my dreams,” said Fendellen quietly. “I see the two of you falling.”

  Embarrassment flooded Sapphire’s cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not.” The queen-to-be’s voice was gentler now. “You are the first of the five who will save us, and that means your successes and your fears matter more than most. I’ve come to help.” Fendellen raised her head, and this time her voice carried the ring of royalty. “I don’t know why you must learn to fly high in the skies, young Sapphire and Lotus, but you must. It’s entirely possible the future of dragonkind depends on it.”

  Sapphire could feel her knees shaking so hard, they were knocking together. “We’ve tried. We’re not having much success.”

  “On the contrary. You’ve had good teachers and made excellent progress.” Fendellen nodded at Karis and Irin in turn, and at a shadow that could only be Afran in the dark. Then she lowered her head to Kellan and winked. “You’ve even had the help of a most steadfast friend.”

  “Oh.” A small, awed, yearning sound slid out of Kellan.

  Sapphire had one moment of fierce, beating hope that a dragon was finally going to bond with her best friend—and then she saw the sadness in Fendellen’s eyes.

  The queen-to-be kept looking at Kellan. “You want, and you wait, and I don’t know if you will ever have your heart’s desire, child. But know that if it were up to me, I would find you entirely deserving.”

  Kellan’s lips quivered, but she never looked away. “Thank you.”

  Fendellen snorted puffs out her nose. “I do, however, hear that you make an excellent meat pie. I would consider one of those a fine bribe in the morning if you’d like a ride out to the cliffs to watch the lesson.”

  Kellan’s eyes widened as big as plates. “Yes. No. Yes. I’ll be happy to make you meat pies. Dozens of them.” She pulled up her cloak and bolted for the kitchen as fast as her feet could carry her.

  Irin laughed. “Still eating like a hatchling, are you?”

  The queen-in-waiting merely blew elegant puffs of smoke into the night sky.

  Sapphire had so many questions. “What lesson?”

  Fendellen looked at her again, and even in the dark, her eyes looked amused. “I’m the best flier of any dragon alive, my dear girl. If I can’t get you into the high skies, no one can.”

  Sapphire could feel the skittering terror, and not all of it was hers. Lotus was panicking behind her rain barrel, hoping no one could see her.

  “We’ll go to the cliffs in the morning.” Fendellen took a step toward Irin. “In the meantime, do you think Kis can be persuaded to move over enough to let me have a place to sleep?”

  Sapphire knew that any dragon in the village would gladly give up their rondo for the night. Even Kis.

  The tall, elegant dragon reached her nose down one last time and touched Lotus, still quivering behind the rain barrel. “Come, youngling. We’ll go keep old Kis company while he snores, and I’ll tell you about all the milk curds Irin burned when I was a baby.”

  Irin snorted. “You’d better tell her why I burned them.”

  Fendellen’s laughter rang into the night—and stayed in Sapphire’s ears long after she’d tucked herself back into bed.

  Chapter 19

  “Good morning.”

  The words, whispered in Sapphire’s ear, nearly scared her to death—mostly because she hadn’t realized she’d fallen back asleep again. She dragged an eye open and peered at Kellan, who looked far too cheerful in the dim light of dawn.

  Memory flooded back. Kellan was cheerf
ul because she was going to ride another dragon this morning—and because she’d probably been up all night baking meat pies. “Did you get any sleep?”

  Kellan sat on the foot of the bed, a breakfast tray on her lap. “No. I was too excited. I brought you some breakfast.”

  Sapphire scowled at the bowl of oatmeal. That was definitely not meat pies. “I don’t think I’m hungry.”

  “Inga said this will stick to your ribs, even if your fool dragon flies upside down and dumps you into the water.”

  The old woman who ruled the kitchen with an iron fist was never afraid to say the truth as she saw it, and this morning, that was oddly comforting. “That’s probably a good reason to skip breakfast.”

  “No way. You know what Karis says about that, and she said she’d stop by to check on you in a bit.”

  Sapphire scowled and reached for the bowl on the tray. Karis would definitely make her eat it, and oatmeal went down way better while it was still warm. “I’m not an invalid.”

  “We know.” Kellan glanced down at her knees, her voice quiet. “We’re just feeling kind of strange because we’ve all tried to help you and Lotus fly, and the two of you have worked even harder, and now Fendellen’s flown all the way back from the south oceans to help you. It’s a big deal, but nobody wants to make you nervous by saying that. So we’re going to make sure you eat breakfast instead.”

  The spoonful of oatmeal stuck in Sapphire’s throat.

  “She’s an amazing flyer,” Kellan said softly. “If anyone can help, she can.”

  Too much of last night was streaming back into Sapphire’s brain. “She has the dreams too. The ones where Lotus and I fall out of the sky. That can’t be a good thing. Maybe we’ll never learn, and something terrible will happen because we don’t.”

  Kellan sat up straighter, eyes flashing. “Maybe the dreams are just the way she knew to come help you.”

  Maybe, but that wasn’t the fear congealing in Sapphire’s belly. “Maybe the Dragon Star picked the wrong elf.” And maybe the wrong dragon, too, even though it felt horribly disloyal even to think it.

  “At least you got picked.”

  Five quiet words—and they ripped Sapphire’s heart right out of her chest. Kellan had waited her whole life for a dragon to choose her as kin. Worked longer and harder and done all the training and gotten all the bumps and bruises and sometimes, when she thought no one was listening, she cried herself to sleep at night and then got up in the morning and started working hard all over again.

  Wishing and waiting for the same kind of bond that Sapphire had with Lotus.

  Sapphire closed her eyes and let the magic of that bond flow through her. The love and the acceptance and a kind of deep, burbling joy that only happened when Lotus dreamed—or when she was trying to chase down a rabbit.

  That kind of bond couldn’t possibly be a mistake, and even if it was, Sapphire wasn’t willing to let her dragon go. Which meant she didn’t get to give up on either of them. She clenched her fists and tried to find some of the courage she’d felt at the top of the apple tree. “Maybe Fendellen will fly upside down with you today.”

  Kellan’s cheeks turned a little white. “She’s just giving me a ride to the cliff so I can watch.”

  Sapphire grinned. “I’ll teach you the trick with your toes just in case.” She held out her bowl. “Here, have some oatmeal. I hear it sticks to your ribs.”

  Kellan snorted. “You’re not usually this mean.”

  Nothing about this day was usual. She was about to get a flying lesson—from a dragon who would one day be queen.

  “Good. Somebody sent you a sensible breakfast.” Karis took two steps in from the doorway and perched on the end of Kellan’s bed. “Perhaps add a little cheese to that, or a handful of nuts.”

  Kellan jumped up. “I’ll get both. And some more cider.” She paused halfway out the door. “Would you like something, Karis?”

  “No, youngling, but thank you for asking.”

  Sapphire watched the back of her best friend disappear and gulped. Karis only came to student rooms if someone was sick or something very serious had happened. “Is Fendellen waiting?”

  “Not yet. Irin says she and Lotus are both still sound asleep.”

  That was a minor miracle, given how jangly her dragon’s brain had been after Fendellen’s arrival. “That’s a good thing, that she’s sleeping.” Sapphire gulped again and looked at Karis. “So she keeps her strength up for today.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that.” The older woman winked. “Do you know that Lotus is at her very strongest as a flyer right now? Her wings are as big as they’re going to get, and her body’s still small. One day, she’ll have to work a lot harder at staying in the air, but right now, she’s got everything she needs to keep the two of you aloft easily.”

  Sapphire thought about how big some of the dragons were. Afran’s wings were much larger than Lotus’s, but they were much smaller compared to his body—and Afran was a serene, elegant flyer who didn’t ever look like he might fall out of the sky.

  “That’s why Fendellen’s such a terror in the skies.” Karis settled herself more comfortably, leaning her back against the wall and bending a foot up on her knee. “She’s still young, and she has the biggest wingspan I’ve ever seen on a young dragon.”

  Maybe a story would help her breakfast go down. “It sounds like you know her pretty well.”

  “I do. Not as well as Irin and Kis, though.” Karis chuckled. “She was the terror of the nursery before she became a terror in the skies. She made Kis roar more than all the other dragonets put together.”

  Sapphire had never heard Kis make a noise louder than a cranky rumble. “Was he fiercer back then?”

  “He was angrier.” Karis had a sad look in her eyes. “And I think he hurt less. The medicine Irin gives him now to keep the pain away makes him less irritable, but it also makes him sleepy. Back then, he was a bit of a menace, but the little ones loved him anyhow—dragon and elf and human all. They would gather round to listen to his stories, just like you do.”

  Sapphire blushed—she and Kellan often crept into the shadows of the nursery to hear Kis and Irin tell their tales, but she hadn’t realized the adults of the village knew that. “It’s a good time to visit. The stories help Lotus get to sleep.” Her dragon’s late-night antics were legendary. Kellan had learned to sleep through most of them, but Sapphire wasn’t so lucky.

  The price of being bonded with a small peach-pink terror.

  Karis smiled. “When I’m out on tour, one of the things I miss most is the nursery tales.” She reached out and ruffled Sapphire’s hair. “I hear more noise outside, so it’s time for me to be off and for you to get yourself ready for this morning’s adventure.”

  That was one way to describe it. “They’re probably placing bets on how long it will take for me to turn into an elf pancake.” It had been one of the village’s favorite amusements ever since their first flying lesson.

  The older woman’s lips twitched. “I think you’ll find that most people are smart enough not to bet against a future queen.”

  Whoever did was going to make a killing. “Fendellen’s not used to thinking about a rider.”

  “That’s where you’d be wrong.” Karis stood and smoothed the wrinkles in the blanket with her hand. “Dragon queens are born to rule, and that means they pay attention to anyone and anything that affects the dragons under their care. Fendellen has been readying for that responsibility since the day she hatched. She may not fly a rider herself, but she’ll be as aware of your strengths and weaknesses as she is of her own.”

  “She should be,” said a gruff voice from the door. “It took long enough to get that lesson through her thick skull.”

  Karis chuckled. “Spoken by a man who knows the exact thickness of his own.” She ducked past a scowling Irin and paused in the doorway, looking back at Sapphire. “If it helps, Afran believes this just might work.”

  Irin watched her go,
and then turned back, scowl still firmly in place. “I suppose everyone’s been coming to fill you full of good wishes and encouragement.”

  He said the words like they tasted bad. Sapphire held up her bowl. “They’ve been filling me up with oatmeal, mostly.”

  That seemed to meet with his approval.

  Which just made Sapphire crankier. “Did you come to deliver words of wisdom to the foolish elf before she falls off her dragon and plunges into the briny deep?” If she was going to end up the main character in a comic ballad, she might as well write a line or two for herself.

  He snorted. “Feeling feisty this morning, are you? Good.”

  She hadn’t been, but something about his gruff presence had shifted the energy in the small rondo. “Is someone feeding Lotus?” She could feel an awake presence on the other end of their bond.

  Irin nodded. “Alonia and Lily are busy stuffing her full of milk curds.”

  That was good. Lotus liked milk curds a lot better than Sapphire liked oatmeal. She looked up at the stern man who had taught her more about perseverance than everyone else in the village combined. He hadn’t come here to offer her words of encouragement—she knew that, but she wanted them anyhow. “Do you have any advice for me?”

  He looked at her for a long moment. “Trust your bond. Trust your dragon. Know that the two of you together can do absolutely anything you need to do.”

  She could see it in his eyes—the shadows of the man and dragon who had made such a promise to each other before they hurtled into battle and almost certain death.

  She’d always felt sorry for them both, so very sad for the old warrior and his cranky dragon with all his aches and pains. As she studied Irin, sitting there awkwardly on the edge of her bed, Sapphire realized the truth was something quite different. “You and Kis—you did that. You trusted your bond, and it made you something better. Together.”

  He almost cracked a smile. “That we did.”

  She finished her thought because it was changing the way she would see the two of them forever. “And you still do that. Every day.” She swallowed. “You’re something better together than either of you could be alone.”