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FOX

Fox didn’t sit down until late the next night. When he did, his feet collapsed underneath him as the sitting room chair caught him. He was alone—his mother finally sent to bed with enough drugs to kill a small rodent. She hadn’t stopped crying since Fox had delivered the news of his father’s death. He explained how his body had been found in the basement of the chief commander’s home that morning when the civil unrest had finally been quelled. He’d apparently been killed by an escaping Dragonborn.

That was after three hours of moving the few Dragonborn he could manage into safe houses alongside Ian. He’d discovered there were tunnels connecting some of the houses in the slums together where Dragonborn had been hiding weapons and supplies this entire time. He and Ian hadn’t had a moment to talk about what the last day meant for each other. Fox had only given himself the briefest of moments to wonder how long Ian had been a traitor to the crown. Had it been before or after his brother’s death?

He hadn’t found Sofia’s parents yet, but if they were that hard to locate, then the chief commander wouldn’t get to them immediately either. He’d focus on that tomorrow once he’d eaten or at least slept. He’d barely even let the healers do more than wrap his wounds and spew some advice he didn’t listen to.

Sitting in the chair next to the fire, he wondered if he should even bother going up to bed. The chair was so soft and the room so warm.

A knock on the manor’s door had him groaning with pain. He stood, not sure where he was getting the strength. He was alone in the house, the Dragonborn servants locked in the slums until further notice. There was no word from the king on what would happen to them, but until decisions were made, no one was allowed outside their homes and the king’s men were patrolling the streets in shifts.

Fox almost jumped when he opened the door and saw the chief commander standing at his threshold.

“Sir,” he said, standing up straighter and regretting the sleeping attire. The chief commander only waved his hand.

“No need for formalities, Son,” he said. “My condolences to you and your mother.”

“Thank you, sir,” he said, trying to keep his voice even.

The chief commander stood, gaze distant for a moment before looking back up at Fox. “That’s not why I’m here, though. I’d like you to come with me. No need to change.”

Fox’s stomach twisted, but he only nodded, turned, and grabbed his cloak from the wall. He stepped out into the night, wondering if he was being led to this death. He’d thought they’d killed everyone who had seen him arrested, but he could have missed someone, or perhaps Ian had betrayed him.

His mind spun with all the possibilities as they walked, but they weren’t moving toward the prison or even the chief commander’s home. They ventured around the back of the royal quarter, south of the palace.

When the chief commander finally stopped in front of a nondescript house, Fox felt no safer. But the chief commander was looking at him with warmth and pride, showing no indication that he knew what Fox had done last night.

“You must not tell anyone what you’re about to see. Not your mother. Not your friend Ian or anyone else. Even those who know about this are forbidden from talking about it outside this building, so don’t be tricked into breaking that silence.”

Fox was too tired to keep his face blank and his confusion must have shown, but the chief commander only waited.

“Yes, sir,” he said after a beat.

Chief Commander Harlow nodded and opened the door, leading Fox inside. It was dark, and he moved carefully as he quickly realized the door had opened up directly to a staircase descending into the earth. He could smell damp soil, yet the narrow stairwell wasn’t cool as one might expect. If anything, the deeper they moved, the hotter it became, the air thick and damp with every inhale.

Just when he wondered if they’d walk directly into the Dragonborn’s underworld, a light trickled through the crack of a door just ahead. The floor evened out and the chief commander opened the door without preamble.

The brightness blinded him for only a moment before his eyes adjusted and he saw the giant cavern—pit, whatever it was—laid out before him. The door opened to a narrow wooden platform that circled the entire cavern, the floor dropping steeply to a wide cavity in the center. Fox’s jaw dropped as he realized what he was looking at. A brilliant white dragon was curled in the heart of the pit, a long iron chain around its neck. Even curled up as it was, he could tell it was nearly twice as long as the one Sofia had flown out of Suvi on. He wanted to see it upright, with its wings outstretched. Would it stand as tall as his manor? As tall as the walls of Suvi?

Even as he looked, her head twitched and her eyes opened, silver pools searching out his own.

He could hear the chief commander speaking beside him, voice muffled as if spoken through water. He couldn’t understand him.

It was a female voice he heard instead, soft and cool in his mind, and so very clear. He knew exactly who was speaking as the dragon blinked slowly, not breaking eye contact.

“You’ve come for me.”