Page 18 of Court of Embers (Dragonesse #2)
When the flowers had all been placed, the cairn looked like it had been growing there for years. I sang Sunya’s hymn for the dead to myself, blocking it from my mate so he could live his memories without interruption…and because some of my prayer was meant for my father, too.
Rhylan eventually stood up. Goodbye for now, little sister. I’ll see you again one day.
When we turned to leave the pool, something rustled in the trees behind us.
I looked up, the sun blinding me for a moment, before I saw him: the pale green dragon coiled about the tree trunk, his frilled head and limbs blending with the branches and leaves.
Hot, jade eyes just on the other side of sanity watched us, and I knew who had made the marks around Loralei’s cairn.
“Jaien.”
The dragon stared for a moment longer, then twisted up the trunk, moving out of sight.
He will never come back to us , Rhylan said, his mind heavy with grief and resignation.
Tyria’s tried, but he’s gone. When Loralei died, he went deep into the primal rage.
What happened at the Convocation…that was the only time since her death that anyone has seen him in male form, or heard him speak.
And now that he’s said his piece, I don’t think we’ll hear words from him ever again.
Gods, the bonds were such fragile things.
Maybe life was better for Jaien this way—at the very least, more tolerable.
Though we’d only been bonded for days…if Rhylan died, breaking the connection and leaving me alone, I don’t know that I’d survive being alone.
My mind would seem an empty abyss after this.
Perhaps the primal rage was a boon of sorts, allowing the bond-broken dragon to numb his pain and that terrible emptiness, leaving only the instincts of an animal in their place.
We left Jaien to his own peace, his eternal vigil for the dead, moving down to the lakeshore.
They say this entire mountain is built entirely of cairns , Rhylan said absently, his claws sinking into the smooth, round pebbles around the shore.
It started in the valley below, and a thousand-thousand generations of the Jade Leaves are buried here.
Their ashes and memory stones raised the mountain from the valley, and the forest crept in and covered it, growing from their earthly remains.
I pondered that mythology, not entirely sure it was untrue, but I didn’t get a chance to speak. The roar of an incoming dragon blasted out over the lake.
A shadow raced over us, darkening the waves, and I shielded my eyes from the sun as I looked up at the emerald underside of a dragon.
Cai.
He’s heard what happened to Kirana , Rhylan thought, settling on his haunches as he watched Cai swoop around to land. I’d bet my left—
No betting body parts. I need them all. Especially those.
I was going to say hand, but I’m glad to see you’re so defensive of my breeding capabilities . Rhylan gave me a dragon grin, his mood somehow lighter now that he’d paid his respects to Loralei.
You know Myst would never let me hear the end of it if she thought no future descendants were forthcoming.
Sure, blame it on your Ascendant . Rhylan chuckled, the mental sound echoing strangely against the raspy sound of a dragon’s throat. We both know you couldn’t keep your hands off me.
We both fell silent as Cai beat his wings backwards above us, hovering for a moment before he crashed onto the shore.
But he didn’t have the posture of a peaceful dragon. His wings were mantled, lips drawn back to expose his fangs, frills spread wide and scales bristling.
Rhylan nudged my mind, a hint of hesitance in his thoughts. Stay behind me, Sera.
He won’t hurt us. He’s angry that we didn’t tell him, and he has a right to be. He loves her . I stroked Rhylan’s forearm, taking comfort from his scaly, sun-heated hide, and looked at Cai.
“You might as well shift into male form so we can speak. I’m not going to explain ourselves to a pissed-off dragon who looks like he’s spoiling for a fight.”
Cai hissed, the sound starting low in his belly and rumbling up through his throat, and Rhylan’s wings twitched, mantling upwards in imitation of his hostile stance.
But the Jade Leaves dragon cut himself off, eyes flaming, and began the shift back to his male form.
When he rose on two feet, fists clenched at his sides, I cut him off before he could begin. “What have you heard? I want to get it out of the way now, to prevent any misunderstandings.”
“I heard she was dead!” he snarled, taking a single step towards me before a muffled bark from Rhylan stopped him in his tracks.
“And then I heard she was barely clinging to life. Her herbalist wrote to me, told me she’d been torn to pieces by Yura’s dragons, and her wyvern killed, and that she didn’t know if she was dead or alive. What the fuck happened, Rhylan?”
“Calm down,” I ordered, and waited until he’d at least deigned to stand in one place, and his fists had loosened a little. “And listen. We sent Kirana on a mission to the Wildlands several weeks ago.”
“You let her go alone—” he seethed, and Rhylan’s talons contracted, the sound of claws digging into the stones a shrill squeal in my ears.
“Yes, because she wanted to do it, and because she’s a fully grown draga and I’m not her mother,” I snapped. “Good luck convincing her not to do something if she wants to. She went alone on Garnet. She told us later…that she was caught by Kalros and his dragons. The ones who were dead.”
Cai’s mouth had opened, but he shut it again, looking at me with eyes that were suddenly quite solemn.
I took a deep breath, hating to relay the rest of it, but I did. I told him Kirana’s account, and then ours, from Yura throwing us Garnet’s severed head to the race back to the eyrie, where Kirana narrowly avoided death.
“We came here to tell you, because we need your help.”
Cai’s fists had tightened again as the story was told. “I’d say so, because there’s something missing here.” His voice was low and dangerous, cinders glimmering behind his pale eyes. “You told me she lived, but you sure as fuck didn’t tell me how , and I don’t see how a draga could survive that.”
I licked my lips, instantly aware that it was a mistake that betrayed my nervousness, and Cai’s eyes narrowed.
“She lived because I gave her my Ascendant’s blood,” I said bluntly. “She’s Naga now.”
He was silent. Too silent, and far too still for my liking. Patches of scales rippled over his skin, moving at frantic speeds, and I knew it was taking every last drop of self-control to keep himself in male form.
Back away, Sera , Rhylan said, and he didn’t wait for me to listen; he picked me up with one forepaw and drew me back to his chest, curling defensively around me.
Cai took several deep breaths, exhaling as his brow furrowed tightly.
“Fine,” he whispered, eyes still squeezed shut. “Fine. All that matters is that she’s alive.”
“I don’t think she sees it that way,” I said quietly, all too aware of the fine line I was walking.
“I think she’s glad to be alive, in some ways…
but she’s too horrified at what she is now to really live.
She’s shut herself in her rooms, she won’t let us see her…
we need you to come with us, Cai. If anyone can convince her that she can keep living her life, it’s you. ”
“She didn’t want me,” he said harshly, his face starting to distort as the dragon tried to erupt.
“Wyvernshit. She told me to bring you a message while she was dying, lying there in her own blood. She told me that if she didn’t make it, I was to tell you that she wished she hadn’t run from you.”
There was another fraught minute of stillness, in which I wasn’t sure who would emerge victorious at the end of the silence, Cai or the dragon.
But he remained in male form, still breathing heavily.
“That makes it pretty clear, Cai. She’s still alive, she has a second chance, and now she fully intends to hide away for the rest of her life, thinking she’s a monster. Nothing we say impacts her. You’re the one she thought of when she believed she was dying. She needs you .”
His throat moved as he swallowed. “She could never be a monster.”
“Then you’ll come with us and tell her that?” I hoped his tenacity held when he realized Kirana would live on blood for the rest of her life.
Cai opened his eyes, the tension lessening in his limbs. “I’ll make her understand that. But for fuck’s sake, think about writing me a letter next time. Send it by pigeon for all I care, but don’t leave me in the dark to hear secondhand stories and fear the worst.”
I thought about telling him that the day after Kirana drank Myst’s blood, I’d nearly had my own head cut off and there hadn’t been much time to write a letter, but instead I nodded. “Gods forbid there is a next time.”
He nodded curtly, gave Rhylan one last, unreadable look, and when he shifted, he turned away from us, soaring into the air.
And with him, we would not only return Kirana to her life, but gain Tyria as well. I was sure of it.