by Audrey Faye
He nodded very slowly—and it wasn’t sadness she saw in his eyes. “Every day that Kis opens his eyes and I feel the bond is a victory.” He reached for her hand. “Remember that, missy. There are worse things than falling out of the sky.”
He swung her out of bed with a strength that belied his age. “And nothing better than soaring up into one. Go. Fendellen awaits you.”
Chapter 20
The cliffs were so high, they were making Sapphire dizzy just looking down. Blue-green ocean waters spread out far below and all the way to the hazy horizon. She wished Kellan had stayed nearby, but her friend had hopped off, fed Fendellen half a dozen meat pies, and then gone off with Karis and Afran and several dozen others to a far-off perch of rocks.
An audience, but one wanting very much to stay out of the way.
“It’s just the three of us.” Fendellen’s breath still smelled vaguely of meat pies. “Let those on the rocks give you fortitude and hope because what you do this morning is for them as much as it is for you. And then forget they are there. It’s just the three of us and a beautiful open sky calling our names.”
Sapphire closed her eyes and tried not to whimper. Death felt imminent, and everyone, from her best friend to her new flying instructor, was far too cheerful. Lotus quivered at her side and ducked her head behind Sapphire’s back.
Sapphire gulped. Lotus hadn’t even been able to look over the cliff’s edge.
If the queen-to-be could sense their fear, she gave no sign of it. Fendellen gestured at the group on the far-off rocks. “They’ve taught you well, each from what they know. You’ve learned efficient competence from Karis, elegant precision from Afran, stubborn diligence from Irin, and joy from your young friend so recently on my back.”
Those sounded exactly right, and yet somehow they hadn’t been enough.
“I am here to teach you something that only one who will be queen can know.” The ice-blue dragon stretched out her wings in the cool morning sun. “There is much that rides on the two of you. You are marked by the Dragon Star, and the very existence of dragonkind might well rest on your shoulders.”
Sapphire tried to choke back the rising tears. She didn’t feel remotely capable of being that important.
“The reasons you need to do this are vast and important, and so much depends on your bravery and your choices.” Fendellen’s nose dropped right in front of Sapphire’s face, so close she could feel the dragon’s hot breath on her cheeks. “I’m here to tell you that if you think about all that, you’ll never get off this cliff.”
Sapphire stared.
Fendellen puffed amused smoke. “I’m not Irin, youngling. He’ll have made sure that your very important reasons for not quitting are part of the fabric of who you are—and if you ever want to give up, I’ll be right behind him in line to remind you why you can’t. But until that moment comes, you need to be a girl and her dragon. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Sapphire’s insides felt all topsy-turvy. “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?”
“Yes.” Blue eyes twinkled. “But you believe you’re a girl and her dragon who can’t fly. That’s the part we need to change.”
The urge to stomp her feet and kick the cliff to smithereens was huge. “I’ve. Tried.” Sapphire got the words out through gritted teeth.
“Yes, you have. But you’re trying to do it with an act of your will. You hope that if you can wrap your fears up tightly enough, you might be able to do this.”
It was either that or let them eat her whole.
::No.:: Fendellen shook her head, her mind voice exceedingly gentle. ::Your battle is not with the fear, young kin. You need to make space for something else to rise up inside you instead.::
Sapphire felt at least as cranky as Kis on a very bad day. “Like what?”
::Watch. Listen. Feel.:: The queen-to-be flapped her wings once and sailed off the edge of the cliff.
Sapphire shivered as the sensation of flight touched her mind. Somehow, Fendellen was keeping a channel open.
::I am,:: came the wry reply. ::It’s not all that easy without a kin bond, so I’d appreciate it if you paid close attention. What do you feel?::
The sensation of lightness, of lifting. “You like this.” Sapphire spoke out loud and trusted that the ice-blue dragon would hear her somehow. “It’s a bit like when Lotus does her barrel rolls.”
::Yes. She’s a dragon. We’re born for this. This is where we find our greatest joy.:: Fendellen swooped down, riding a current, and then blazed a trail high into the sky.
Sapphire followed with her eyes, but it was the feelings that exploded in her mind that had her awestruck. Wild, blazing happiness. A dragon laying down her burdens and the weight of who she would one day need to be and rising, weightless, into the early morning sky.
::You see more than I thought you might.::
It was impossible to miss. “You get to be free up there.”
No more thoughts came down the mind bond. Only wordless invitation.
Sapphire looked at the peach-pink creature beside her, small dragon body hunched over in fear. For some reason, Fendellen had not chosen to share this with Lotus.
::Indeed.:: A shadow spiraled above them, coming closer. ::That is for you to do, young Sapphire. She will find it far easier to believe coming from you than from me.::
That didn’t seem possible. “You will be her queen.”
::Yes.:: Fendellen wasn’t far above their heads now. ::But you’re the one she loves, and the one she fears she will fail.::
Sapphire reached out to scratch the head of the dragon she loved more than anything or anyone, and knew every word of the queen-in-waiting’s message to be true. Which meant her job wasn’t to hide her fear at all. It was to beam her love and trust into every scale of a scared dragon’s soul.
The darkness that had been stalking Sapphire for weeks fled. It wouldn’t serve them now. It was time to be the light. She reached for Lotus and cupped a peach-pink head in her hands and let excitement shine in her eyes. “Let’s go have some fun.”
Their bond lurched, confused, and Lotus chirruped in the whirring way of a tiny hatchling.
They weren’t tiny anymore. Sapphire grinned. “Cliffs are just big boulders. We’ve totally got this.”
Green dragon eyes looked at her suspiciously.
Fendellen was right—this was all about trust, and she totally hadn’t been doing her job. “I bet a barrel roll out over the water feels really cool.” And if she fell off, at least they would know where to look for her body.
But she wasn’t going to fall off. They were done with that. Babies fell over learning to walk all the time, but they got up again and kept trying and one day, they didn’t fall on every third step anymore. It was time to believe they weren’t babies. She had a good spot to tuck her feet, an apple in her pocket, and a dragon who knew how to do exuberant joy better than anyone.
It was time to do it high up in the sky.
Sapphire swung a leg over Lotus’s back and tucked her feet under wings that were beginning to unfurl. And then she looked up at Fendellen, hovering in a tight circle over their heads, and laughed. “Race you to the edge of the sky.”
The ice-blue dragon blasted an amused trumpet, flapped her mighty wings, and streaked off.
The body under Sapphire’s legs snapped into action, and Lotus hurled herself off the cliff, entirely intent on chasing the streak in the distance. Sapphire squealed as a tunnel of air nearly knocked her off, and tucked her body down tight against her dragon’s neck.
Water sped by underneath them, a blue-green blur dusted with specks of white. The air grabbing at Sapphire’s leggings was cool and damp, and somewhere off in the distance, she could hear the cheering of the crowd on the rocks. Watching them fly.
Watching them fly.
The speck ahead of them trumpeted again. With approval this time. With pride, and with loud, royal challenge. Fendellen flipped over and executed a very nifty barrel roll.
Wild glee gusted through the kin bond, and Sapphire had no idea which end it started from.
Lotus stretched her wings higher, harder, faster, everything in her intent on catching that growing dragon-shaped speck. Sapphire put more weight into her feet and let herself be as light as a cloud, as sticky as a stinkberry burr. She kept one hand wrapped fiercely around Lotus’s neck spines, but with the other one, she reached into her pocket, pulled out the apple, and took the biggest bite she could manage.
Love. Trust. In the two who flew as one.
Lotus found some other gear and shot forward into the light.
They totally had this.
Chapter 21
Sapphire had no idea how long it took them to catch Fendellen, or how long the bigger dragon danced alongside Lotus’s maiden flight in the morning sky.
She only knew that they drank deeply of freedom, of lightness, of a joy that grew them into a shape that could never go back to what they’d been before, and when there was not a drop of energy left in either of them, they landed on a sunny spot on the cliffs. Lotus fell over where she landed, panting and looking like the happiest dragon in this world or any other one.
Sapphire kept her act together long enough to offer her exhausted dragon some of the water they’d left on the cliff, and even a few milk curds. And then she dropped to the rock, leaned her back against Lotus’s warm belly, and let herself breathe in the wonder of what they’d done.
She felt, more than heard, Fendellen settling on the rock beside them. The queen-to-be had taken one last solo circle in the morning sky.
Sapphire tried to hold up an arm and discovered they weren’t working any longer. “I have some milk curds if you want them.”
The dragon’s rumble sounded oddly like Irin’s chuckle. “I think you’ll have need of those when your young dragon wakes up.”
A remnant bubble of wild joy found its way loose and rose up long enough to keep Sapphire’s eyes open. “We did it.”
“You did.” Fendellen nodded, eyes regal and proud. “There is something inside Lotus that needs to fly to be whole, just as you needed a dragon to be whole. Today, you have given her that gift. Only her kin could have done that. Today, you’ve fully honored all of who you are.”
Sapphire swallowed. That was high praise for what had basically been a game of tag in the sky. “Thank you.”
“Your path ahead will not always be easy,” the elegant dragon said quietly. “So remember this day, young Sapphire. One day the dragons will need you, and this joy is part of what will carry you through.”
They were one of the five who would save dragonkind. Sapphire knew she couldn’t hide that away any longer, any more than she could hide her fear. A lesson she had just been taught by someone who must understand it very well. She tilted her head and looked up into wise eyes that were still so very young. “Your path must not be very easy either.”
Fendellen bobbed her head. “There will be hard days for me too.” She leaned down to Lotus, who was sound asleep on the sunny rock where she’d landed, and nuzzled the small dragon’s cheek. “Just remember that two together are stronger, always.”
Sapphire picked up a flicker of loneliness, and she realized it was coming from the ice-blue dragon. The one who had chosen no kin. “I have three friends who aren’t bonded yet.” She wanted to be fair to all of them, but her heart cried out to add the next words. “Kellan has waited so long.”
Fendellen looked sad for a moment. “She isn’t meant to be mine, although I wish it were so. Her heart is as big as any I’ve ever met.”
Queens sometimes saw things—maybe queens-in-waiting did too. “Do you know if she will have a dragon?”
Another flicker of sadness, and the ice-blue dragon turned her gaze out over the waters. “I don’t know.”
Sapphire didn’t ask anything else, but she had the oddest sensation that the answer hadn’t been the truth.
Fendellen turned back, and the sadness was gone from her eyes. “What I do know is that when you flew off the cliff, it was Kellan who pushed hardest. You’ll want to thank her for that.”
Sapphire squinted her eyes, her tired body and even more tired brain not understanding. “What do you mean?”
Fendellen puffed smoke in a way that spoke of amusement. “I borrowed Lovissa’s trick. The mind bond, the one that let you feel the pleasure of my flight—Afran and Kis helped hold that, and they pulled in their kin and a few others. The ones who love you best.”
She hadn’t jumped alone. Somehow she had known that, but it settled something deep in her heart to have it confirmed. “I bet Karis was pushing too. And Irin just grumped and tossed me an apple.”
“No.” Fendellen shook her head slowly. “Karis believed you would fly without anyone needing to push. Irin…” She paused, and the sadness in her eyes was a deep, fathomless pool. “He was working very hard to keep Kis on the ground.”
Tears flooded Sapphire’s eyes. “Kis was here? On the cliffs?”
The ice-blue dragon nodded slowly. “Yes. He loves Lotus. There was no one prouder when she flew.”
Sapphire thought of all the nights her small dragon had curled up next to the cranky old warrior and gone to sleep. “She loves him right back.”
“He knows that.” Fendellen’s eyes turned toward the far rocks. “And with the mind bond wide open, I was able to send them back your joy. Mostly to Kis. He needed it most.”
There was something in the queen-to-be’s voice that caught at Sapphire’s heart. “You were a hatchling. In the nursery with Kis.”
“Yes.” A long pause as a dragon remembered. “I love him too. Very much. Because he tried to give his life to save those I will one day rule—and because he cuddled a cheeky dragonet close and sang her grumpy lullabies even when she tried to set him on fire.”
Sapphire breathed in. One day, she might have to do something big to save dragonkind—but she would be flying in the footsteps of greatness and learning from the very best.
That was something she could hold onto with both hands—or none at all.
“I must go now.” Fendellen turned away from the cliff’s edge. “Practice often, you two.”
So that one day they would be ready.
The ice-blue dragon whiffed softly and then lifted up into the morning sky. ::Yes. And so that in the meantime, you will know joy.::
She turned her gaze on a sleeping Lotus. ::I will see you in the skies.::
Thank You
We appreciate you reading!
As you might have guessed, there are more Dragon Kin books on the way. The next one features a certain elf with a sharp tongue and a love of water—unless it’s for cooking! To hear about the next release, head to audreyfayewrites.com and sign up for the New Releases email list. You can also find Audrey on Facebook. And if you’ve been kind enough to write Sapphire & Lotus a review, please read this note :).
If you’re a reader who likes to graze widely, you might enjoy some of Audrey’s other books while you wait. There’s everything from spacefaring singers to assassins and mermaids.
Shae & Audrey