by Audrey Faye
Lily shook her head. “I don’t know. I feel someone else.”
“Dragon.” Irin didn’t sound at all in doubt. “Kis knows that much.”
That didn’t make any sense. There were no other dragons in the water.
Oceana sent out a pulse of questioning friendship.
Elhen gasped.
Kis roared.
Irin shot up his dragon’s back into riding position, his hand vainly searching for his sword.
Lily dove for her dragon as dozens of large bodies closed ranks in front of them. Fierce Fendellen. Loyal Lotus. Afran guarding the skies above them.
::It is not any dragon of this time.:: Elhen sounded deeply shaken. ::He is a warrior. One who does not recognize me as his queen.::
Lily had a single moment of sheer, blinding panic, and then the other presence, whatever it was, was gone. But she had caught one last horrifying piece of truth, even as her arms had finally wrapped around Oceana.
Fierce, terrible hatred.
Chapter 20
Lily held her bowl of mostly uneaten stew in her lap. She sat on the shore, her legs still in the water, her dragon’s tail wrapped around her waist.
The intruder they could no longer feel still sent shivers through Lily’s soul. She had refused to leave Oceana’s side, but on the orders of the two dragons currently standing sentinel, all the other elves were staying clear of the waters of the bay. Lily was pretty sure Irin would flout that order in a heartbeat if the hate-filled dragon returned, but for now, Irin walked the sand, on guard and clearly not having any problem eating his stew.
He crouched down at her side and gave a pointed glance at her bowl. “Eat, missy.”
She took a small mouthful, knowing better than to argue. She wanted so very much to think only of good things on this day, but much of that had gone up in the smoke of a single blast of hate. “What if that other dragon comes back?”
Irin shrugged. “Then we let Kis and Elhen talk to him. The rest of us will stand ready.”
Lily knew what the weapons master meant by those words. “I don’t think you can swing a sword at a dragon who lived long ago.”
“Maybe not.” Irin cupped his hands in the water and looked at Oceana. “But he can’t blow fire at us, either. And with your dragon’s help, we can talk to him.”
Elhen and Kis could, maybe. “I’m not sure he’ll talk to an elf.” The hate had been bone deep. It still made her skin shiver to think of it, and it had only been a quick flash and gone.
“He’s one dragon,” Irin said quietly. “If Kis is right, and it’s a dragon of his line, then he’s likely a fierce and stubborn warrior who is slow to change his mind, but he’s still only one dragon.”
Lily suddenly felt small and weak and hopelessly insignificant. Even convincing Kis to eat when he was cranky was a monumental task.
“Eat.” Irin clapped a hand to her shoulder, nearly pushing her over. “I’m off to make sure Kis does the same, because if that dragon returns, the old man will be the first one trying to stand in front of us.”
Lily didn’t miss the weapons master’s choice of words. “Trying?”
Irin’s eyes flashed with something she would never want to mess with. “He might be bigger than me, but he’s not tougher. I go where he goes. Always have.” He gave her a stern look. “But this is a battle for warriors. Keep your dragon back.”
Lily knew darn well he meant for both of them to stay back. She also knew that wasn’t going to be how it worked. “Oceana’s not weak.” Her elf might be, but that wasn’t something Lily could think about right now. “She’s the reason we can speak through the water.” That half of the Dragon Star’s choice no longer seemed like a mistake. “She was chosen for a reason.”
Irin raised an eyebrow. “She wasn’t chosen alone.”
Lily could feel her legs quivering, and it wasn’t from the cool water. This day had been full of dragons and elves splashing and playing all around her, but underneath the fun, it had been deadly serious. Something the man in front of her had known days ago—and his dragon, too.
Kis had called them to battle.
Another head descended and eyed her bowl of stew. ::I do hope the small one has eaten more than you have.::
Lily offered Elhen a wan grin. “She ate the first two bowls.”
::Good. I need her help.:: The queen turned her gaze to Oceana, who was perched on Lily’s shoulder. ::You have given us a way to speak with those of our kind who are not here, and for that, we honor you. I wish for you to help me speak again to the one we felt across the water.::
Lily shuddered at the memory of the mysterious dragon’s dark violence. “Why?” She’d be just fine never feeling that awfulness again.
She heard her dragon’s pithy response saying exactly the same thing. Oceana didn’t want to have anything to do with that kind of hate.
::Because I am queen,:: Elhen said quietly. ::His hate is mine to deal with.::
Kis stepped up beside her. ::And mine. We ask only that you carry our words, small blue-green friend.::
Lily could feel her dragon’s hesitance. Play was one thing. This was something entirely different.
And it was maybe the reason that a small dragon who could talk through water had a cranky elf for kin. Because for all that Lily was short-tempered and strange, she knew what it was to be an orphan in your own clan—and she knew what it was to come to a new place and truly belong.
Belonging was everything.
And belonging had a price.
Lily lay down on her belly in the water and got nose-to-nose with her dragon. “The queen walked four days to come here to swim with you. So did Kis.” Lily nodded her head at the dragons in the bay behind them. No longer playing. Standing guard. “They all hate water at least as much as you hate fire, and yet they spent the whole day letting you splash them and jump on their heads.”
Oceana’s eyes were big and tremulous.
Lily took in a breath, feeling the weight of the silence and of the words she had yet to speak. “They did that for you and for me, so we can feel like we belong. But everyone who belongs also has work to do. Whatever work they can, with whatever skills they have.” The most basic rule of life in the kin village had never had deeper meaning. “We play, and we do things to help. Both matter. Both are part of how we belong.”
Her dragon sighed, a small, sad sound that punctured Lily’s chest. Then Oceana swam over, rested her chin on Lily’s knee, and swished her tail in the water.
She would help.
-o0o-
It was not a battle cry—but it was a call nonetheless. One that Lovissa recognized. A queen.
She moved forward into the water, drawn by the impossible.
::I bid you welcome.::
Through the buzzing terror, Lovissa somehow managed to follow the words to the speaker. A white dragon, almost ghostly, stood at the water’s edge, looking straight out as if she could see Lovissa and Baraken from her shore that looked nothing like this one.
Somehow, Lovissa managed to find the strength to speak. ::I cannot see you clearly. I can feel you well and see the shape of you dimly. But you are queen, as I am.::
::Yes. I am called Elhen.::
A queen whose name she knew. Lovissa forgot all thoughts of cold and fear. ::I speak to a queen who will come.:: It was not a question. Even as she spoke, her sense of certainty hardened. ::I am Lovissa. Do you know this name?::
Astonishment—and great joy. ::You are the grandmother of my grandmother, five times five.::
Lovissa could feel burbling merriment rising up her throat. ::I do not permit anyone to call me old, true though it may be.::
::As am I.:: The blurred white shape moved her head from side to side. ::You sent us the stars. To tell us where you are.::
Lovissa’s legs trembled. This was no dream, no vision. The water felt far too real.
::Do not fear.:: The voice of the queen on the other side of the water gentled. ::I mean you no harm.::
&nbs
p; Lovissa snorted, the words chasing some of her fear away. ::I speak to the ashes of queens past, and I have always believed they are quite capable of harm if I choose foolishly. Surely a ghost queen of the time to come could do the same.::
She felt surprise through the water. Awe, almost. ::You can speak to the queens who have come before?::
Lovissa felt the raw yearning from across the water—and felt the response rising from deep inside her, from the place that had always known she would be queen. She opened, sharing the memory of each who rose from the ashes, starting with Temar. Felt the mind on the other side of the water open in return.
Two old and tired queens, honoring those who had come before.
When the parade of queens of memory ended, there was silence. Stillness. And then a shaken, indrawn breath. ::We have forgotten much. There are no ashes here.::
The loss of such a thing nearly knocked Lovissa flat. Only Baraken’s strong shoulder held her up. These dragons who would come were so very lost. She was not certain the survival of dragonkind was worth such a cost. ::You have no ashes. You befriend elves.::
::We do.:: The other voice took on an edge.
Lovissa held her head higher. This much she needed to do for herself, and for the warrior standing bravely at her side. ::I have lost many of my finest warriors to elf arrows and elf treachery. You may not share our hatred, but you will not disrespect it.::
A long pause. ::We do not know enough of the wars of your time. Many things are different, then to now. But I also see what has not changed.::
Lovissa could see no such things. She wanted, so very much, to back away from the water and push such horrors out of her knowing. ::I do not see what you see.::
::Then I will share my eyes.:: Elhen’s voice pressed forward, inexorable. ::I see two queens, each seeking what is best for those they rule. Two queens of age and wisdom who know well what it means to embrace what will serve and resist what will harm.::
The spiraling horror in Lovissa’s chest somehow started to wind down. ::I also see two such queens.::
A small nod. ::And I see two warriors, brave and true, who led us to the water.::
Baraken snorted, but it wasn’t fear emanating from him now. It was vast curiosity.
Lovissa watched as the yellow-gold dragon of her dreams stepped up to stand beside his queen. Even dripping wet and favoring a wing with old, scarred injuries that would have killed any dragon of her knowing, he was magnificent. His head dipped down nearly to the water. A bow of honor. Lovissa wasn’t sure if it was meant for her or the immense black dragon at her side.
::I am called Kis.:: The rumble deepened, and a short, broad elf stepped up to his side. ::And this is Irin. We are kin.::
Lovissa could feel Baraken’s war cry struggling to break free. She stood firm beside him, not sure whether to aid the loosening of the cry or its containment.
::Speak.:: The ghost-white queen spoke softly, but with a sternness Lovissa admired. ::Words can do no harm, and they may help us to learn.::
The ideas carried in words could lose the spring campaigns before they had even begun. Lovissa wondered what it would be like to live in a time when words were shared without fear. She struggled to find ones she could share in return. ::We thought perhaps it was only your young and foolish who took elves for kin.::
The elf at Kis’s side tipped back his head and let a loud sound ring up into the sky. ::Well, that might have described us once upon a time, old man.::
Lovissa frowned, not sure whether she had offended.
The yellow dragon snorted and looked Lovissa squarely in the eyes. ::Some of our wisest and fiercest dragons also choose kin. We do not see it as a weakness. I am alive because this elf kept me so.::
Lovissa had seen his wing. It had perhaps not been a kindness, but she would not speak such thoughts into the water. She pointed her mind to the ghost queen instead. ::You have no elf.::
::I do not. But the queen before me did.::
Lovissa could not stop her indrawn hiss. ::She was weak, then.::
::No.:: A single word, quiet, but unbending. ::She was the most revered queen of our time.::
It was well done to speak thusly of one who had come before. Lovissa searched for words to honor such wisdom. The vision of the other bay wavered, grew dim.
::I am so sorry, small blue-green one.:: The ghost queen spoke crisply to someone Lovissa couldn’t see. ::The dragon who permits us to see and hear and feel you grows weary. We must take a break.::
The second chosen of the Dragon Star. Lovissa’s heart softened for the small one doing such large work. ::Will she recover?::
::I expect so.:: The queen spoke with the dry humor of one who was not overly concerned. ::I have seen her eat. We will fill her belly and return to you when we can. Before the sun falls out of the sky.::
That was half a day or more yet. Even Baraken could not stand in the cold, evil water that long. ::We must also eat. We will return.:: She did not say when. No dragon of her time would ever make such intentions known.
Especially when there were elves watching.
The white queen’s head dipped. ::Until then, may the skies greet you kindly.::
Lovissa closed her eyes as the vision faded. The familiar words of departure spoken in her time had survived. Perhaps other things worth saving had also. But she wasn’t yet sure she believed it, and the warrior beside her shook like one who had just lost all sense of what he might be fighting for.
Which meant that words had done more damage than all the spring campaigns of her lifetime.
Chapter 21
Lily’s head hurt, but she knew this was a conversation that deeply mattered. She sat with as much patience as she could muster, her dragon on her lap, Alonia and Kellen tempting Oceana with the choicest nibbles from everyone’s plates.
Attention and food her dragon was lapping up eagerly.
Lily, on the other hand, wanted to hide in a dark room and never see anyone ever again. Exhaustion of the fiercest kind had settled into her bones. She shook her head and tried to focus.
Elhen nodded at Kis. ::Are you certain that is where we should begin?.::
The old yellow dragon rumbled, sticking his head in a large bowl of stew. ::They are as stubborn as we are and entrenched in a fierce war. A dragon can only be moved so far in a single conversation, and the small one tires. We must be quick.::
The queen’s concerned glance eased as she took in Oceana’s eager, lapping tongue. ::I believe the small one is the least of our worries.::
Kis licked the edges of his own bowl. ::Battles or not, their intense hatred of the elves must stop. They must begin that journey.::
Elhen dipped her head. ::I do not disagree. But as we found with the small one, it is perhaps easier if the first step we ask is one not quite so difficult.::
Irin snorted. ::You can’t coddle battle-hardened dragons. They won’t have it.::
::Indeed.:: The queen gave Kis a look that suggested history Lily didn’t know. Difficult, honored history. ::I believe this is your conversation to have, old man. Lovissa is perhaps open to the idea that the elves must one day be seen as other than enemies. The warrior at her side has no such cracks in his hatred.::
Kis looked at his empty bowl for a long moment. ::I go where my queen tells me to go, but I don’t know that this is my battle to fight.::
Irin’s eyes narrowed. “Your gut talking to you again, old man?”
The old yellow dragon said nothing. He just looked at his kin.
Irin nodded once and rubbed a golden nose. “If he says it isn’t his to do, I believe him. That gut of his kept us alive more times than I can count.”
Elhen’s head tipped. ::If not him, then who?::
It was a good question—and Lily was astonished to discover that somewhere under her blanket of weariness, she knew the answer. It flowed from deep inside her, rising like the tides. She knew exactly who could convince Baraken and Lovissa to listen and maybe even to start to believe. She stroked h
er dragon’s head spines. “Stay right here. I need to go talk to a dragon.”
Heads turned toward her, some curious, some puzzled, but she didn’t stop to explain, because she finally knew why she was still here and awake and hungry, and maybe even why she had a mark on her forehead. Oceana could help the dragons see and hear each other, but too many on both sides were scared and cranky and seeing things they didn’t want to be true. Lily felt her lips twitching as she marched through the shallows. There was finally a use for her short temper and the fact that her skin still itched every time a dragon blew fire and the number of times she’d sat by Kis and tried to convince him to eat his breakfast.
She knew, better than anyone, how to deal with inflexible and cranky.
Kellen used kindness and gentle coaxing. Lily never had. That wasn’t who she was. She was an elf who said exactly what she thought, even when it wasn’t appreciated. And this was about to be her finest moment. She stomped over to where Afran stood, bone dry except for the wet sand sticking to his claws. “You’re the one. You need to talk to them.”
She’d never seen him look startled, but he looked that way now. ::Kis and Elhen know all that I would say.::
Probably because he’d been whispering it into their minds, but that didn’t matter. “It’s not what they say that will matter. It’s who is saying it.”
The huge dragon brought his head down and gazed straight into her eyes. ::I’m listening.::
She was about to insult him worse than Kellen ever had. “They need to hear it from someone who hasn’t faced their worst fear yet.”
Beside Afran, Karis jerked like someone had just shot her with an arrow.
Lily frowned. There was suddenly a tension in the air she didn’t understand at all.
Afran blew out air, very softly. ::Explain.::
She swallowed, feeling every bit of the four days of dusty trails on her throat. “Those dragons across the water—they’re really brave and they know how to fight, and they’re smart. But they’re scared because their future is different than what they thought it would be.” Her chest squeezed. “They’re standing on the shore, just like you. Their most scary thing hasn’t happened yet, but they can see it, just like you can see the water. They haven’t gotten in yet, just like you, and that means you understand them in a way that nobody else does.”