Amelia and Finn hurried over, squishing four-foot-tall pine trees under them. When both of them were only a few feet from her, Shasta stepped to the side. The two dragons took small steps forward until their feet were nearly where she had been standing. Then they dropped their heads down, pushing aside the brush until they were both nearly touching the ground with their noses.
Both dragons inhaled, and then a low hum Shasta felt as much as she heard filled the clearing. Moments later, the three remaining dragons joined in. Then one of them changed the tone, a note of dissonance standing out in sharp relief. Between the bushes, she could see a slight glow. A second dragon changed its tone, harmonizing with the dissonant vibration. The glow brightened.
Whichever dragons were still making the original tone switched. All of them were humming the same tone again. Light reflected off Finn’s and Amelia’s scales, turning them into shining things. The glow from the bones brightened again. Finn opened his jaw, and a sharp whistle cut through the humming. At once the dragons fell silent and the glow began to fade. For long moments Finn and Amelia were as still as statues, heads low, the only sound a light breeze fluttering through the trees.
When Finn lifted his head, Shasta could see large tears, as bright as diamonds, sliding down his cheek. He formed human words, but they were rich with the whistles and trills of the draconic tongue. “Thank you for finding our son.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” Shasta wasn’t sure what else to say. She didn’t have any words that could bring true comfort to parents viewing their child’s remains.
Finn trilled before returning to English. “None of us spoke of him. You had no way to know this was all that was left of him or that we were even looking.”
“I’m still sorry for the delay.” Shasta swallowed hard, pushing back her tears. “I don’t know what your traditions are, but if there’s anything I can do, you have only to ask.”
“Thank you.” Finn turned back to his mate and their child’s bones.
Shasta retreated, and even though they weren’t on the best of terms, stood by Cord. This felt like a time the dragons would want to be together, and no matter how kind the dragons had been to them, there was no getting around the differences between their species.
Branstan swung around to her. “This was a kind thing you both did.”
Cord shook his head. “I do not need thanks. I would have done far more than this to bring them closure. Besides, Shasta was the one who discovered the boy.”
Branstan studied the two of them for a long moment. “Shasta, you have the thanks of not only Finn and Amelia but all of us from the Dragon Lands.”
Shasta stood there silently because she didn’t have anything to say. Yes, she was glad she’d helped them, but she could have mentioned it to the dragons sooner. She could have… Well, she wasn’t really sure, but there had to be something.
“Shortly before you came to these lands, young Edgar vanished. He had been curled up with his parents when they went to sleep and was simply gone in the morning.” Branstan closed his eyes for a moment. “We thought he’d simply wandered off and searched everywhere. After two weeks, we had to halt the search, though his parents never stopped looking. I personally checked the perimeter of our territory and found no sign of an intruder.”
“I can have my mom or brother fly out. They’d be able to perform spells that should give all of us a better idea of what happened to…” Her training was to refer to the deceased as a body. While that might be best when working with the police, she suspected the dragons would see that as an insult. “Edgar before he died.”
Finn snaked his neck around, shimmering tears rolling down his cheeks. “There is no need. Edgar’s resonance showed injuries.” A heavy hiss accompanied the word. “He may have left on his own, but someone hurt him before he died.”
“I am sorry,” Shasta offered, knowing it wasn’t enough.
“Please.” Cord’s voice was soft. “Tell us what we can do to help.”
Amelia looked over her shoulder. “Bring us the cloth Silas is carrying.”
Cord nodded and headed over to Silas. Shasta followed him, waiting as he unstrapped a large roll of leaf-green cotton from the back of Silas’s saddle. He hefted the roll over his shoulder and carefully pivoted, avoiding knocking the end of the roll into Silas or Branstan.
Amelia tilted her head to a spot a little to the left of Edgar’s remains. “Unroll the blanket over there.”
The area Amelia indicated had ankle-high brush and a few hip-high pine trees. Shasta hurried ahead of Cord. When she reached the brushy area, she knelt down, resting one hand against a pine tree and another against one of the scrubby bushes. Lie down; let the blanket lie flat so we may honor this dragon. The trees and brush bent over, creating a level area. Shasta retreated, giving Cord room to work. He rolled out the cloth, tugging at the edges until there wasn’t even a single wrinkle to mar the surface. He stepped back, joining Shasta by the trees.
Amelia and Finn touched their noses together. They both inhaled and then began a low hum. The bones lifted off the ground, some of them working their way through the soil to join the rest. When the entire skeleton was levitating a foot off the ground, the dragons began humming at a higher frequency. The bones floated horizontally through the air until they were above the cloth. The tone of the hum lowered, and the bones slowly settled onto the cloth.
When all the bones were resting on the cloth, the dragons stopped humming. Amelia lowered her head over the cloth and gave a three-toned whistle. The top edge of the cloth lifted off the ground and then folded itself across the boy’s remains. The bottom corner did the same as the top, completely covering the skeleton. The two sides then folded in as well. Finn gazed down at the cloth before trilling. The ends of the cloth knit themselves together as if they had been woven as one.
Shasta stood, wishing she was in the back behind Silas and Glimmer. This should be a private moment for family and friends. Instead, she was standing there, doing her best to be reverent and respectful. As much as her heart ached for Amelia and Finn, from an investigative standpoint there were questions that should be asked. While this was neither the time nor place, she doubted they’d be willing to part with the information anytime soon. Under different circumstances, she’d be willing to let time pass, to let them have a chance to grieve. However, from the tone of Finn’s voice when he said injuries, she had more than an idle suspicion that Edgar might have been the first dragon to fall victim to their mysterious enemy.
Amelia whistled and trilled. The blanket lifted off the ground, floated until it was over Finn’s back, and lowered itself down. She whistled again, more intently this time. Straps on Finn’s harness rose up and inserted themselves into the weave of the fabric. In a matter of seconds, the blanket cradling their son’s bones was part of the harness. Short of using draconic magic, the only way anyone was going to be able to separate those bones from Finn was by cutting the harness off him.
Amelia backed up, giving Finn plenty of room to turn around. When they were both facing the rest of the dragons, Amelia spoke softly. “We are ready to take our son home.”
Shasta and Cord went to the dragons who would be carrying them home. He split off to Silas while she mounted Glimmer, carefully securing herself in the saddle. Meanwhile, Branstan shoved his nose inside the lean-to. She could hear him inhale deeply. He yanked his head out and sneezed but didn’t comment on what he’d scented.
Silas led the way out of the trees. Glimmer followed. Yet again Branstan took the rear position, though Shasta wasn’t entirely sure how Amelia and Finn managed to get around him. The trip out of the woods went quickly. Instead of anxiety or questions, there was simply determination to bring the boy home.
Before long they were in the open and taking to the air. Branstan resumed his guard position as they hurried back to town. A strong gust of wind sent Glimmer slipping through the air and broke through Shasta’s reflections. She hunkered down, clutching the st
rap as Glimmer wobbled. Under her she could feel Glimmer straining to even out her flight. Another blast of wind hit them, sending them away from the group. With powerful strokes of her wings, Glimmer fought to get back, but the wind was too strong.
Shasta resisted the urge to look at the rest of the group, instead keeping her eyes firmly on Glimmer’s shoulders and neck as they swayed and twisted in the air. When yet another gust of wind hit them, Glimmer stopped fighting and instead turned herself into the wind and opened her wings. They shot up into the air, arcing away from the group. With a twist, Glimmer altered her flight, turning so that they would circle around behind the dragons and be able to rejoin them. Tilting her head, Shasta caught a glimpse of the rest of the group. She couldn’t see Silas. Finn was in a steep dive with Amelia only a neck length behind him. Branstan roared, the sound vibrating through the air as he folded his wings and went into a dive of his own.
Shasta tightened her grip on the strap. She was still precariously short on magic, but she didn’t need it to know they were under attack again. After her time here and the previous incidents, she knew what it looked like when a dragon was struggling to fly. She reached out what little magic she had, feeling tingles of broken spells littering the area. Even at full strength, her magic wasn’t powerful enough to counter blood magic gained from dragon blood and death. Perhaps her mom or brother could’ve fought magic with magic, but she was limited in that area. But she could try for something purely elven. With a little luck, she could work around the magic rather than attempting to fight through it. “Air favor us, cushion us from all that intends harm.”
The moment the last word left her lips, Glimmer shot forward. Under her legs, she felt Glimmer’s breathing even out, and her wingbeats took on a more consistent rhythm. With that success, Shasta glanced toward the rest of the dragons. She still couldn’t see Silas, but based on previous experience, she doubted Finn’s dive was entirely under his control. The problem was elements didn’t always like to work long range, and they were finicky even when they did work.
Air protect all of us from harm. Earth, cushion any who land too hard. There was a soft brush of warm air across the back of her neck. In the distance Finn curved his body, slowly changing the angle of his dive. Beside him, Amelia pulled back, still watching over her mate but no longer plummeting toward the ground. Branstan pulled out of his dive, his head swinging from side to side. Shasta couldn’t see any signs of distress, so he was likely searching for their attacker.
All of a sudden, Finn dropped through the air. It wasn’t a dive—one moment he was simply at one altitude and the next he had fallen hundreds of feet. Amelia folded her wings and dove after him. Branstan roared, sending a jet of flame into the air.
Glimmer was only a short distance behind Branstan now, but Finn was too far away for her to help. Blurred movement caught her eye. Silas was streaking through the air, flying a path perpendicular to Finn. Cord was hunched down but still hanging on to the dragon. Silas flicked his tail, angling himself a bit more to the right, as if he was trying to predict Finn’s path and come out even with him. On the bright side, Silas seemed to be in control of his plummet, but that didn’t mean he and Cord were out of danger.
Putting on a burst of speed, Glimmer drew even with Branstan. From her spot on the dragon’s back, Shasta could see the two of them exchange a look. She wished she knew what it meant, but of all the things she’d learned about dragons, how to interpret looks they gave each other wasn’t one of them.
From where she was, it looked like Silas was pulling ahead of Finn, though still far above him. Finn, however, was getting dangerously close to the ground, only a few hundred feet separating him from an impact not even a dragon would be able to walk away from. As Shasta watched, a tiny form flung itself off Silas’s back, pulling arms and legs together to make the most aerodynamic shape possible.
“Cord!” Shasta screamed, lurching forward as if she could catch him and pull him safely back atop the dragon.
At her scream, Glimmer and Branstan picked up the tempo, fighting to get close enough to help any of the dragons ahead of them. Silas adjusted his flight, slowly turning so that he was following a course parallel to Cord’s. Shasta hoped there was a way Silas could save him. Amelia had broken off and was hovering far off to the left, unable to help her mate.
Shasta watched Cord fall faster and faster, unable to make her lungs draw breath. An elf couldn’t survive that fall any better than a dragon. She didn’t know what he was thinking, but from where she was, it looked like this would be the last time she’d ever see Cord alive.
Yet Cord was gaining on Finn. He got closer and closer until he was right above the troubled dragon. The two of them wobbled in the air, aligning themselves and then moving away from each other. As they drifted toward each other again, Cord dropped.
This time Shasta didn’t have the air to scream.
Somehow Cord landed on Finn’s neck, clear of the dragon’s wing joints and the blanket holding Edgar’s remains. The extra weight didn’t seem to affect Finn at all. It didn’t change his body angle or accelerate his fall. While they got closer to the ground, she sat useless on Glimmer’s back.
Seconds ticked by so slowly, but so fast at the same time. Finn appeared to slow. Then his body arched. Little by little, he turned the steep dive into a very fast glide. Only a little behind them, Silas mirrored their movement. As Branstan had done earlier in the day, he was playing rearguard for Finn and Cord.
Glimmer and Branstan had caught up with Amelia, and the three dragons were doing their best to catch the rest of the group. In the very distance, Shasta could see gray lumps that she knew were the town’s buildings. When she got ahold of Cord, she was going to kill him for scaring her like that. Whatever he’d been thinking, trying to leap from the back of one dragon to the back of another was one of the dumbest things she’d ever seen a male of any species attempt. Even her brother had never done something that dumb during his teenage years.
And to think, Cord did that right after confessing his love.
The rational part of her mind tried to remind her that elven magic worked best up close. It was far more likely Cord had been trying to get close enough to save Finn rather than attempting something stupid and reckless just because. Considering how badly he’d scared her, she was more than willing to remind him of all the training they’d had, including the part about risk assessment, before he had a chance to explain himself. Besides, he wasn’t allowed to die until she had a chance to tell him how angry he’d made her last night and how much she loved him. Stupid elf.
Ahead of them, Finn backwinged, slowing himself until he dropped out of the air on the outskirts of town. It wasn’t an elegant landing, but he moved forward without any visible injury. Cord leaped off as soon as the dragon slowed to a walk. Shasta narrowed her eyes. From this distance he looked fine, but seeing little more than a jeans-and-polo-shirt-clad figure didn’t lend itself to a particularly helpful assessment. Even if he was in perfect health, he’d taken unnecessary risks. Silas and then Amelia landed next to Finn. Branstan flared his wings, dropping behind Glimmer. Glimmer took them in for a very gentle landing, only a slight bump in the transition from flight to ground movement. Shasta unhooked her legs and vaulted down. She stomped across the grass, passing Amelia cozied up next to Finn on her way to Cord.
“What were you thinking? What could possibly have enticed you to leap off a dragon in midflight, plummet through the air like a skydiver without a parachute, and attempt to land on another dragon? You could’ve died. I know in elven years forty-two is barely into adulthood, but you were a police officer! You’ve got to know how foolish that was, you arrogant, idiotic male!” She sucked in a breath, wanting to use it to fuel her next round but trying to suppress the urge to simply scream incoherently at him.
Cord mildly lifted an eyebrow. “Are you done?”
Shasta’s mouth worked, but she couldn’t seem to get any sound out of it. Instead of saying no, she wheezed
.
“May I assume you felt the spells in the air?” He kept his voice pitched low and calm, as if he was talking to an irrational child, though she could see the shadows under his eyes.
Rather than saying anything of particular use, she nodded. He wasn’t supposed to be so calm about this; he was supposed to be upset that she was yelling at him. He was supposed to understand how crazy his actions had been and apologize for frightening her.
He rubbed a hand across his face. “I felt your request to the air, but it didn’t reach us, at least not with enough force to be useful, and I knew Silas and I were still fighting and that Finn was having more trouble. You were too far away to do more, and when I tried to get the air to aid Finn, it felt as though something was blocking me. The only way I knew to overcome the block and communicate with the air around him was to get closer.”
Shasta’s voice came back in a rush. “And jumping off Silas sounded like the best plan?”
“I tried moving Silas though the air more quickly and more steadily, but it wasn’t enough. The closer we came to Finn, the worse the interference became. I knew I could combat it directly around me, and I was reasonably confident I could aid Finn once I was with him. I had to try. I couldn’t sit there safely on Silas as Finn fell to his death. Plus—” Cord’s gaze dropped to his feet. He throat worked as if there were words he was trying to force out but couldn’t voice.
After all these years, she didn’t need to hear them. Shasta had a good guess as to what he was thinking. “And after last night, you didn’t care nearly so much what happened to you.”
He jerked his head up, his eyes wide. “How?”
“Because I know you.” As soft and gentle as she kept her voice, she was sure the dragons were overhearing every word, and there were things she would’ve rather said in private. Sometimes it only took a few words to change everything. She inhaled. She had to say it.
Chapter Eleven
Earth Born (The Earth Born Cycle Book 1) Page 15