Page 50 of Court of Embers (Dragonesse #2)

Tyria looked taken aback, and Maristela mildly alarmed. But Caru leaned forward, eyeing Mykah.

“I will give my blood to this one,” he announced. “A draga with high spirit.”

Mykah actually squealed, and came around to stand next to Caru. She stared at Maristela expectantly.

Maristela was clearly chewing the inside of her cheek, thinking hard and paler than usual.

“I won‘t force you into this,” I told her. “You’re just as valuable as a rider, but you cannot come near any of the infected. It will mean a permanent change. Don’t commit to it if you want to live a normal life.”

Surprisingly, Tyria was next. She extended a hand to Illiae. “There will be no normal life if we don’t end this. I will commit to becoming Naga. Will you offer?”

Illiae nodded silently, extending a claw to touch Tyria’s fingertips.

Maristela exhaled, and though her face was taut, she nodded. “I will do it, too. Rannas?”

Her mate’s Ascendant curled around her. “Of course, Mari. Of course.”

Ivoire met my eyes, and tossed her pale hair over her shoulder with a shrug. “Why not? Who will offer?”

“It cannot be mine,” Rannas said. His dark eyes gazed at Ivoire with no small amount of sadness. “You are already of my blood.”

Ivoire fell silent at that, staring at him, and I remembered the Horde’s disdain for Ascendants. What was it like for her, to look upon the one who had sired her bloodline, and yet have no knowledge of him at all?

But she rallied, despite Gaelin’s hopeful look. “Erebos?”

“Cousin Ivoire, I will offer.” He tapped her head with his claws. “And I will release you back to the Wildlands when this war is won.” Erebos looked down at Gaelin significantly.

Perhaps there was a home for her here, but she clearly didn’t want it. Gaelin would have to let go of his hopes to bring his long-lost cousin back to Diraek Eyrie.

I took a breath. “We could bring in more draga…but I think we can take Yura with six. We have little time, and we’ll need a night for the blood to change you.”

“So how do we do this?” Mykah asked eagerly. “Do we just drink now…?”

“You’re going to want to lay down. You might…see something while you’re changing. We’ll all split up and keep watch for your awakening.”

“See what , exactly?” Maristela asked, her voice thin.

I shook my head, recalling the strange shifting dreamworld the Daughters had occupied. “It’s…I think it’s best if you go in with no prior notions.”

She nodded, her face grim, but nobody backed out.

In the end, the draga committing to this task each took a room of her own, along with the Ascendant offering their blood, and someone to keep watch and usher her out of the transforming sleep.

I remained with Mykah, to guard her while she changed. Caru leaned over her bedside as I patted her hand.

“It will hurt at first,” I warned her, goblet and bloodletting blade in hand. “It will burn like nothing you’ve ever felt before.”

“I can handle it,” she whispered, her brows drawn together. “Let’s do this.”

Caru rumbled, a pleased sort of noise. “So spirited. I will welcome you as a child.”

He offered a leg that was more bark-like than scaled, and I had to give up on being careful, jabbing the knife in past his shield-like defenses. The blood that filled the goblet was thick, and richer than the reddest ruby.

He licked the wound shut as I handed the goblet to Mykah. “All of it,” I said firmly. “Even as it burns.”

She stared into the depths of the blood, still frowning, and finally grinned. “See you on the other side.”

Mykah raised it to her lips, taking a huge swallow. And choked.

I reached out, but she waved me off, doing her best to gulp down the entire goblet at once.

“Ahh,” she breathed, dropping it emptied in her lap and clutching at her chest. “Sera, I’m…I’m burning .”

Her eyes went wide with terror, but before I could reassure her, tell her to hold on through the pain, they rolled up in her skull and she collapsed.

She was on her way to see the Daughters. All I could do was set the goblet aside and straighten her out, making her slumped limbs more comfortable as she slept through the change.

In the rooms all around us, the same thing was happening. Kirana and Gaelin were watching Maristela, Rhylan and Roark over Ivoire, and Cai over his mother. None of us were willing to leave our charges through their long sleep.

As the night passed, my chin began to slip towards my chest, and my head would jerk back upright, startled into wakefulness. In the dark, Mykah was a featureless shape, occasionally emitting tiny noises in her sleep, but I wouldn’t look upon her until it was done.

Finally, I went just to the door, and found the maids already delivering strong cups of tea to the watchers. I took mine well-sugared and returned to my post.

And woke up slumped over on Mykah’s bed as dawn pierced the windows, my head pillowed on my arm. The tea, long since gone cold, had spilled all over my lap.

“I thought it best you rested,” Caru said unrepentantly. “I do not need sleep.”

I smiled, and finally raised my eyes to the still-sleeping figure who had just begun the first tiny motions of wakefulness.

She was beautiful, of course. Scales in that rich shade of mulberry consuming her skin, claws glimmering and sharp, her incisors showing through her slightly-open mouth.

And she finally opened her eyes, revealing them to be fiery and metallic, a deep shade of bronze.

They rolled down to stare at me.

“I saw Nakasha of the Scale,” she said conversationally, her voice hoarse. “She talked to me.”

I nodded.

“She charged me to bring down the mountain of gold and bury the madness beneath it.” She sat up slowly, looking down at her scaled hands. “Did I go insane, or…?”

“No,” I assured her. “I think we get the chance to speak to them, because they were Naga, too.”

“Great. Talking to the gods, just another day.” She inhaled shakily. “I’m…”

“You’re Naga. Come see.” I held out a hand, smiling.

Mykah came with me to the mirror, and her reaction was almost exactly what mine had been: leaning forward, touching her own face as if she disbelieved it, staring into eyes that were now mirrors of the dragonfire in her soul.

She turned to face me, and I braced myself.

“But when do I get wings ?” she asked plaintively.

“Oh, that.” I relaxed. “Kirana told me the way to do it was to just…find a steep drop, and let the wind take you. But you’re not doing that right now, so don’t even try. We’re going to check on everyone else.”

Mykah practically skipped out of the room ahead of me, and we found Tyria in the corridor first, looking rather smug as she inspected the emerald scales coating her body, her tail lazily thrashing.

Unlike us, she’d manifested her wings with no drop; they were folded, rising above her head, as brilliantly verdant as her scales.

“I do not regret a thing,” she said, patting Cai’s shoulder consolingly. “Except perhaps not having the option sooner.”

I aimed for Maristela’s room, suddenly nervous. She alone had seemed unsure of the transformation, and though I hadn’t wanted to pressure anyone into this, she now had a shield against Ustrael’s touch.

I knocked softly. “Kirana? Is all well?”

The door cracked open, and Kirana’s blazing gold eyes met mine. “She’s having trouble adjusting,” she said softly, her words for my ears alone. “Come in, but leave everyone else out.”

I slipped inside and Kirana closed the door behind me.

Maristela sat on the edge of the bed, her face buried in her hands. Scales like forget-me-nots covered her body, her blonde hair spilling over. Gaelin sat by her, holding her hand, looking distraught.

“I’m hideous,” she whispered through her hands. “I’m a monster. They’ll put me down.”

“You’re beautiful,” Gaelin assured her, but Maristela ignored him.

“Do you think I’m a hideous monster?” Kirana asked, in her no-nonsense voice. “Or Sera?”

“No, but—”

“But what?”

“It’s different…when it’s yourself.” Maristela raised her head, revealing eyes like blue metal, her pupils fine slits. She was an ethereal creature, horns already growing in graceful arcs from her forehead.

Kirana gave me a disturbed glance, but I sat on the bed on Maristela’s other side and took one of her hands.

“All right. I want you to close your eyes.”

She obeyed.

“Now focus on your being. Focus on the parts that are more dragon now, like your horns, and concentrate on those alone . Nothing else.”

She nodded, brow furrowing as she concentrated.

“Now will them gone. Just as Gaelin does when he shifts.”

It took several long minutes, but Maristela shifted. The horns melted into her, the scales receded to reveal a little more of her pale skin, and her tail vanished. When she opened her eyes, they still gleamed like newly-polished mirrors, but the most obviously draconic aspects were hidden.

“You can control the shift,” I told her. “We’re just a little more like dragons now.”

She went to the mirror, sighing with relief when she saw skin and the lack of horns.

“Are you willing to come out?” I asked quietly.

She touched her scaleless forehead, and finally nodded, taking Gaelin’s hand.

The six of us met in the hall, where Ivoire had emerged as snowy-white as her Ascendant, armed with sharp black horns and talons, and possessed of the same enchantment Tyria displayed.

I wondered if there was something to that. The older draga, who had every reason to abide by tradition and fear Naga, were the most pleased with the transformation. Perhaps it was from a lifetime of living under males’ thumbs, their lives arranged for them, and now they had their own freedom.

Mykah had managed to shift her wings out, and was stretching them out, blocking the corridor. Even Maristela relaxed a little, when she saw how the others had taken to this with aplomb.

“Did you all speak to the Daughters?” I asked, and every head nodded.

“I saw you there,” Ivoire said to Tyria. “Drowning in the sea.”

Cai bristled, and both Kirana and Tyria put calming hands on his shoulders.

“I saw you,” Tyria replied, “Consumed by darkness.”

“Did they ask you to destroy the Outsider?”

Everyone nodded, Maristela looking nervous again.

“All right, then. The Daughters have given us our task.” I pointed up to the library above us all. “Now we make plans to invade Talariel Eyrie.”