by Resa Nelson
It wasn’t the kind of sharpness she’d expect from a weapon. This sharpness reminded her of a lizard catching its claws against her skin in a fight.
Looking inside the bag, Astrid froze. Gathering her thoughts and her senses, she withdrew a leather shoe to which the claws of a lizard had been attached.
It was the kind of shoe that would leave the footprint of the monster that had killed Sigurthor in the Northland mountains near Guell and then stolen Starlight away.
CHAPTER 65
Even from a short distance, Astrid saw Vinchi’s face pale at the sight of the lizard-claw shoe she held up from his weapons bag.
She withdrew Falling Star while she stepped forward, holding the lizard-claw shoe in the other hand. “You’re the monster that murdered Sigurthor.”
“No!” In an act of surrender, Vinchi held his open palms toward her. “He was already dead when I found him. He’d asked me to meet him, he wasn’t there, and I went looking for him. I simply picked up the sword and ran his dead body through with it.”
Astrid paused at the edge of the stone circle. “Why?”
Vinchi hesitated. “Because he brokered the marriage between Gershon and Margreet. Sigurthor was supposed to find a wife for me. He took Gershon’s money after he took mine. He knew of Margreet and he told Gershon where to find her. He told Gershon instead of me. Margreet met and married Gershon because he paid more to Sigurthor than I did. And if she’d married me, she’d still be alive.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Astrid shook the lizard-claw shoe at him. “And what is this?”
“I had them made special. The lizard claws give more grip in the mountains. They’re my climbing shoes.”
“Why did you lie? When I showed the tracks to you.”
“My own shoes needed mending one night, and I wore the only other pair I own—the ones with the lizard claws. You’re not the only one who spent time outside alone.”
“But why lie?”
Vinchi swallowed hard, still keeping his palms open to Astrid. “I knew who you were the moment I saw you. I knew if you had gone looking for Starlight, you probably found Sigurthor. And I’ll have no one accuse me of a murder I never committed.”
His reasoning made sense, but he’d lied to her. That meant he couldn’t be trusted, and Astrid still had a long journey ahead. She said, “Get your things, take your horse, and go.”
Again, Vinchi drew his breath in sharply as if preparing to argue, but he paused and nodded his consent instead. He unbuckled the sheath from his belt and handed Starlight to her. “You can make better use of this sword than I have.”
Surprised, Astrid accepted the sheathed sword. Wrapping her hand around it brought back memories of DiStephan’s embrace, and the sunlight seemed to brighten for a moment. But thinking of DiStephan heightened her disappointment in Vinchi. “You have proven yourself to be a man of low character.” She handed the lizard shoe back to him. “Go now. Before I’m tempted to use this sword to convince you.”
“I want to stay. I need to say goodbye to her.”
Astrid pulled Starlight from its sheath and pointed it at him. “I’m the one who protects her now.”
Vinchi jerked as if she’d slapped him. His sad expression grew deeper. “If you should ever need me,” he said, “I’m going back to the Southlands. I’m done with travel and merchanting.” Casting a final long look at Margreet’s body, Vinchi mounted his horse and disappeared into the forest.
Astrid had kept the flint she’d found in his weapons bag. She arranged kindling all around Margreet’s body, lit it on fire, and stepped outside the stone circle.
Astrid walked to the northernmost point. “I don’t know the gods you worship. I barely know my own. I don’t remember what you said, but I call on them for help.”
She continued to the eastern point. “I call out to the Keepers of Limru, those whose spirits you set free. Margreet helped you. Will you help her?”
Astrid kept walking around the outer edge of the stone circle until she paused at the southernmost point. She didn’t know what else to say, so she said two of the three words she’d learned of Margreet’s language. Holding Starlight high above her head, Astrid said the words for “dragon” and “sword.”
Finally, she walked to the western point of the circle and sat, watching Margreet’s body catch fire and studying the smoke rising from it. Sometime later, she thought the smoke briefly took the shape of Margreet, but Astrid couldn’t tell if she witnessed the woman’s spirit or if the smoke had changed because of a shift in the wind. For hours, she thought about Margreet and Lenore and the new burning desire that kindled the fire in Astrid’s heart.
A memory stirred in Astrid’s soul. She opened the pouch that hung from her belt, removed the gift that Margreet had given to her, and pinned it to her shirt.
Whether it would lead to danger or not, Astrid wanted everyone to see that she wore the tree-shaped pin in remembrance of the last Keeper of Limru.
CHAPTER 66
The next morning, Astrid wakened slowly to a strange sensation brushing her nose. She opened her eyes to the harsh light of day, which blinded her for several moments. Her vision adjusted, and she found herself staring into familiar eyes.
“Smoke,” Astrid said to the young lizard gazing at her.
She found herself sprawled on the ground by the outer edge of the stone circle, where she must have fallen asleep. While Smoke kept a steady watch on her, Fire and Slag chased each other a few feet away.
“I see you still appear to be coming apart at the seams.”
Her eyes still adjusting to the light, Astrid sat up and twisted to see Taddeo walking inside the stone circle.
She automatically tugged her sleeves down to cover as much skin as possible, an old habit from childhood when her scars covered her body and she wanted no one to see them. They’d begun moving the day Margreet had died, and now Astrid seemed to have no control of them.
“I understood you would not travel the winter route. I understood you would stay in Guell and return to your anvil.”
Astrid jumped in surprise when Smoke vaulted into her lap and began investigating her clothing in case it might hide secret stashes of food. “A merchant stole Starlight, and I had to get it back.”
“You can always make another sword.”
“Not like that one,” Astrid said, suddenly happy to see the young lizards again. Happy they’d survived the winter. Happy they were alive. “I made Starlight for DiStephan. It’s all I have left of him.”
The brittle, burned bone fragments of the Keepers of Limru crunched underneath Taddeo’s feet with every careful step he took. “But you said you only protect the people who pay you. You said the foreigners can protect themselves.” He knelt and laid a gentle hand on the most recent bones burned inside the stone circle. “You said they were people who would think nothing of invading Guell were it not protected by Dragon’s Head Point and the lizards that come to lay their eggs there. You said they were people who would raid your village and steal your goods.”
Awash with sudden anxiety, Astrid lunged. Smoke protested with a clucking sound and tumbled unharmed from her lap. She rushed to the edge of the stone circle but hesitated to enter the sacred space. “Please,” she said. “Let her be.”
Smiling, Taddeo stood. “You did this?” He spread his arms to include the entire stone circle and the Temple beyond it.
“Some of it. I helped.” Astrid pointed at the bones by Taddeo’s feet. “She built the circle and put the dead at rest.”
“How is that possible?”
“She was a Keeper of the Temple.”
Taddeo’s jaw slackened in genuine surprise. “The Keepers were murdered.”
“One survived.”
Taddeo nodded, absorbing the information. “A foreigner.”
“Yes,” Astrid said. “A foreigner.”
“But you wanted nothing to do with foreigners.”
“I was wrong,” Astrid said. “I first met her
as a foreigner, but she became my friend.”
“I see. So you have changed your mind about foreigners. Perhaps not all of them are so bad.”
“Yes,” Astrid said. “I’ve changed my mind.”
Taddeo sighed heavily, walked across the circle’s interior, and stepped across the stones enclosing it to join Astrid’s side. “I did not give you much choice when Norah claimed your arm. She was dying, and it was the only way to save her life. I believe the time has come to allow her to return the favor.”
“I’m not dying.”
Taddeo placed the same gentle hand on Astrid’s shoulder as he’d just placed on Margreet’s bones. “No. But your pain is palpable.”
Astrid felt a sudden lightness of hope. “Can you stop it?”
“No. But you can feel better.”
Astrid followed Taddeo into the Temple of Limru. “That’s the Dragon’s Well,” she said, remembering it. But months ago, it had been dry. Now it brimmed with clear water. Astrid pointed at the water. “Where did that come from?”
Instead of answering, Taddeo gave her a slight smile.
“Scalding,” Norah said. She rose from the center of the well, her hair and clothes dry although water dripped from her. She smiled and held a hand out to Astrid.
“When you were children,” Taddeo said, “she could have devoured you whole. It was your family that placed the two of you inside that cage, and they manipulated you both. They knew a young dragon like Norah would never have the heart to kill you, even if it meant she starved. When she chewed you, it was to drink as little of your blood as she needed to survive. That is why your skin is scarred. Because she chose to let you live while keeping herself alive at the same time.”
Norah floated in the air above the well, still holding one hand out to Astrid.
Taddeo’s words confirmed something Astrid had always suspected. How else could she have survived being caged with a dragon for so many years?
Then she remembered a dream she’d had many months ago. A dream of Norah allowing Astrid to consume one of her fingers.
Stepping forward, Astrid reached out to Norah, who floated down to her level. Intuitively, Astrid cupped her hands together: the flesh-and-blood hand and the invisible one. Norah’s fingers turned to water, falling into Astrid’s hands.
Astrid drank, and the water tasted sweet. It cooled her mouth and throat while it sank into her body.
“Who do you choose to be now?” Taddeo asked.
“What?” His question startled her. “I know who I am. I made that decision months ago.”
Taddeo smiled. “That is not a decision you can make just once and be done with. It is a decision you make with every thought and action from day to day. You are not who you were when you gave your arm to Norah. You are not who you were when you set a dragon free and trapped your brother inside Dragon’s Head Point.” Taddeo paused. “You are not who you were even when you found the sword I removed from your home.”
Stunned, Astrid said, “You’re the one who took Starlight?”
Taddeo simply smiled. “I needed to convince you to travel the winter route. It is part of the dragonslayer’s duty.”
“But Vinchi found Starlight by Sigurthor—are you the one who killed Sigurthor?”
“No one killed him. Sometimes people simply die.”
“But you took Starlight!” Astrid clenched her jaw as her blood raced. “I would be in Guell now if it wasn’t for you! And Margreet would be alive!”
Taddeo’s eyes blazed. “All of it unnecessary if you’d accepted your duty to travel the winter route like a true dragonslayer.” He then pointed at Astrid’s phantom arm. “Decide who you are now, before it’s too late.”
Astrid cried out, feeling as if she’d been set on fire from within. Every muscle throbbed with searing heat. Her blood seemed to boil while coursing through her veins. The moment she breathed, she thought she saw flames erupt from her mouth.
“Decide!” Taddeo cried. “Blacksmith or dragonslayer!”
Astrid silently made her choice.
Dragonslayer.
As suddenly as the pain had claimed her, it released Astrid. Once again, she sensed the cool sensation of water sliding down her throat and into her belly.
At the same time, she felt whole and solid.
Taddeo latched onto both of her hands and held them up. “What you see before you is what everyone will see from now until you die whether they drink dragon’s blood or not, whether they are shapeshifters or not.”
Astrid’s skin had smoothed, and she sensed the scars locked into the pattern of a dragonslayer’s sword down her spine and sternum, where they belonged.
And her arm was whole again, no longer a phantom that only some could see.
“And now,” Taddeo said, still smiling, “there is something I would like you to do for me.”
CHAPTER 67
Because Astrid still suspected Taddeo of killing Sigurthor, she refused his offer to travel quickly. Instead, she traveled by horse, and he met up with her every evening until they reached a seaport and boarded a ship together. They left Norah, Wendill, Smoke, Fire, and Slag behind in Limru.
Astrid didn’t need to ask why. Norah had found a home at Limru, and at the time Astrid met the dragon Wendill, she sensed he had taken it upon himself to stay within arm’s reach of Norah. Astrid still didn’t know if Smoke, Fire, and Slag were lizards or young dragons. Perhaps Norah would take care of them.
Or perhaps she’d eat them for supper.
Either way, Astrid had more pressing matters at hand.
After a few days gliding through a calm sea, Astrid and Taddeo approached their destination shortly after sunrise. The tower gleamed golden in the early spring light, its color shimmering across the dark blue sea as if the sun were falling toward them, spreading its brilliant light everywhere.
When they landed at Tower Island, the guardsmen at the gate opened it the moment they recognized Astrid, bowing as she walked past them, Taddeo at her side. They marched into the courtyard, filled with dozens of Scaldings alongside villagers churning butter, mending wheels, and baking bread in outdoor ovens. Astrid called loudly enough so her voice would carry throughout the courtyard. “Who rules Tower Island?”
The chatter of voices reverberating through the courtyard died down slowly, until only the geese and chickens dared to break the silence with their honks and clucks. The birds searched every corner of the courtyard for a misplaced bit of bread. Cows mooed mournfully from the farmland behind the courtyard, as if they somehow realized they were being excluded.
A man who looked like an older version of her brother Drageen stepped forward. Staring at her in disbelief, he whispered, “Astrid.” His eyes widened like those of an animal realizing it’s being hunted. “You’ve returned.”
“Drageen tried to kill me,” Astrid announced loudly. “He is now in the rocks of Dragon’s Head.”
The man who she suspected was her uncle cleared his throat. “Yes. News of his fate carried here.” He looked at her blankly.
Astrid found it easy to distinguish the villagers from her relatives. The Scaldings stood tall, thin, and blond, and they’d all adopted Drageen’s face, even the women. But each villager had a unique and individual appearance, looking nothing like a Scalding. The villagers watched in idle curiosity, while the Scaldings’ faces strained with fear.
“Who rules?” Astrid said again, her voice louder and harsher.
Her uncle cleared his throat again. “We all do. Or no one, actually. No outsiders have bothered us, so there is no need to change what has been in place for so long.”
“That changes today,” Astrid said.
The Scaldings grew quiet. Then their faces and bodies shifted until they all looked like Astrid.
She shivered, finding the sight chilling.
“Tower Island was built by dragons and it belongs to them—not you,” Astrid continued. “They will allow you to work the farmland and keep your homes, but the tower now belongs t
o them. None of you will ever enter the tower again.”
The growing crowd of Scaldings surrounding her began talking all at once, and Astrid raised her voice again. “Silence! There is no room for protest. I defeated Drageen. That means I am the Scalding in charge of Tower Island. I have struck a bargain with the dragons, and you are fortunate to still be breathing because of it!”
Taddeo leaned toward her. “They know not what they do. They are too weak to hold their own shape when faced by someone far stronger. Not one of them knows how to speak the truth. They are like people who are so terrified when faced by a dragon that they turn into deer.”
I am Astrid, she told herself. And they are not.
She withdrew Starlight and held it high in the air. “If anyone believes I will not hesitate to use this, step forward and let your head be the first to roll.”
Trembling, her uncle took a step back. Like the other Scaldings, he still looked like her. “How can you do this to your own kind?”
Astrid lowered Starlight’s blade until its point leveled with his face. “We may share the same blood, but you are not my own kind. You are the ones who stood by doing nothing and would have let me die.”
Her uncle opened his mouth to protest, and Astrid took a pivoting step forward, just as Vinchi had taught her when she trained with Margreet. “Say one word and it will be your last.”
In unison, the dozens of Scaldings grouped in front of her paled, each staying silent.
Keeping her weapon in hand, Astrid turned toward Taddeo. “The tower,” she said, “is yours.”
Taddeo bowed to her.
“And now,” Astrid continued, “there is something I wish to ask of you.”
CHAPTER 68
Taddeo stood atop Tower Island, hands cupped around his mouth and calling out across the sea. Astrid stood by his side.
For the next few days, dragons rose up from the depths of the sea, crawling onto the island and into the tower, a catacomb of chambers rising high above the water. Astrid remembered many of them from the time she’d spent in their underground cave. Here, they acted more at ease and lighter in spirit while they each found a home inside the tower.