Page 5

Pale sunlight fell through the oculus set into the high ceiling of the feasting hall.

Charcoal, deep red, and yellow ocher artwork showed age-old battles between dragons and sea folk.

Wings unfurling. Jagged lightning. A long-dead Sea Queen brandished her coral spear, launching spelled ocean water through crashing waves.

One of Amona’s ancestors blasted dragonfire through the foam and burned a unit of sea warriors to ash.

Below, three large pits showed bubbling pools of earthblood. Similar to magma, though less hot and infused with magic, the golden substance gave dragons their energy. The pits belched a heat that slicked Vahly’s face in sweat.

Once, when she was a third of the size she was now, she had gone past one pit’s circle of high-backed chairs and stone table to look down and see what created those bursts of flame and that unrelenting temperature.

Amona’s own hand had snatched her back before she’d gone close enough to see more than a flash of earthblood.

Now, she stayed as far away from the openings as was polite.

The dragons didn’t always open the metal grates that covered the pits.

But when ceremonies required the entire clan to use dragonfire, the dragons grew tired and their magic withered inside the ovens of their chests.

They needed to be near the earthblood’s golden flow—its heat revived their dragonfire to full capacity.

In such times of need, young dragon warriors would turn the pulleys and drag the great slabs of black iron along metal tracks to expose the earthblood.

The mood in the room would normally have been relentlessly celebratory, considering the ritual they had just completed. But the dragons’ toasts to Xabier lacked enthusiasm. The scene of the heaving ocean, so near their home, had brought the knowledge that time was short to the forefront.

The clan’s tension was a thousand pinpricks in Vahly’s skin.

Servants brought out hundreds of glazed venison haunches—dressed in pickled onions—and laid them out on the circle-shaped, stone tables surrounding the pits.

Every dragon took their seat, wings adjusting around slender chair backs that supported the spine.

For a moment, the sound of flapping wings filled the room.

Vahly sighed at the relief of a breeze on her flushed cheeks. Then, resigning herself to at least one cup of cider and a small bite alongside Amona, with Maur on her mother’s right, Vahly sat and tried to think of winter.

As they ate, Maur talked with Amona about the bear the Lapis believed was killing and leaving deer in the northern regions, past the Red Meadow, near Jade territory.

“We should send a hunter out. If left, that bear could offset the balance of the herd on which we depend for food.”

“I agree. I’ll see to it,” Amona said.

Vahly glanced at Xabier’s table. The newly matured dragon didn’t seem overly bothered by the events of the day like everyone else.

He downed a haunch of venison before Vahly could finish her cider.

She smiled. He was a good dragon—simple and slow to anger—even if his appetite demanded a frighteningly high count of kills.

At a nearby table, Helena the healer held up a serving of venison. Vahly had shot one of the simplebeasts with her bow during her hunting yesterday. Most dragons thought one kill was nothing, but Helena grinned at Vahly in praise. “Very good meat. I think I have a portion of your kill!”

A few dragons laughed, thinking a hunting human was not much better than a soldier mouse. Would that change when Amona made the bond public? Or would the Lapis only become more hostile toward the failed Earth Queen?

“Thank you, Helena.” Vahly managed a grateful smile. Then Vahly turned to those who had laughed and gave them a smirk. “I’d love to see you bring down prey without fire, wing, or claw. If I’m this deadly as a human, imagine how fantastically horrifying I’d be as a dragon!”

Most of her peers snickered at her bravado, but a few glared, smoke streaming from their nostrils in warning.

Just shut up, Vahly, she told herself. Another jab isn't worth losing your eyebrows.

At the high stone table, directly under the oculus, Lord Maur looked past Amona’s outstretched forearm to eye Vahly.

He had smoothed his brown-black hair away from his face, no doubt to show off his aristocratic nose.

The noble’s hunting grounds extended from the northern end of the Lapis palace, up into the northeastern mountains bordering Jade territory.

When dragons weren’t fawning over Amona, they were at his heels even when said heels had been up to no good throughout the clan. Partly because idiots considered him handsome, but mostly because of his standing within the clan.

Nix had told Vahly to be wary. She’d said he gained much of his hunting grounds by using bribes to maneuver wealthy enemies’ heirs toward the front lines of the war against the sea folk.

Amona tore a neat length of meat with a flick of three claws as Maur addressed Vahly.

“The earthblood has reddened your face terribly, Earth Queen.” Maur scooted his platter toward a servant for a second helping.

The young dragon piled another deer steak near Maur’s seasoned mushrooms. “Do you find that since you matured,” Maur said, “the heat here is too much for your quickly aging human flesh?” He said flesh like most would say dung .

She wanted to tell him where he could shove his platter, but she didn’t want to ruin Xabier's special day with further bickering. Plus, Amona would probably announce the bond soon and Vahly wanted everything to go as smoothly as possible. “The heat is no trouble at all, my lord.”

Thirsty, Vahly motioned to a servant for another drink. Some hated working for her, but she had won most of them over with humor that told them in not so many words that she did not see herself as above them at all.

The servant nodded his purple-blue head and brought over a bronze pitcher of dropcider. After setting Vahly’s goblet in place, he lifted the pitcher high, then poured the amber liquid into the goblet. The distance and splash aerated the cider and made it even more delicious.

Amona leaned close, adjusting a velvet bag on the leather shoulder belt that most dragons wore tucked around their left wing joints. Smoke spiraled from her nostrils, a sure sign she was excited. “I’m going to announce your bonding unless you have an argument.”

Vahly’s heart beat stronger, and she tried to feel completely pleased about the prospect.

Why wasn’t she? “I have no argument,” she said as the dragon in charge of the dessert trays walked by.

“I just hope this doesn’t end with me as dessert.

I would probably be delicious in that vanilla bean pudding. ”

Amona stood and unfurled her wings with a loud snap. They stretched behind Vahly and Maur like a curtain. Her eyes took in the room, her gaze a sword point looking for a target.

Every dragon went silent, tucking their wings in tightly in submission to their Matriarch.

Vahly held her breath.

“Lapis,” Amona said. “First, I offer a toast to Xabier.”

Everyone lifted a goblet.

“May you become the warrior your father was,” she said.

The room cheered as one until Amona set her goblet on the table, indicating she had more to say.

“We have a new bonding, Lapis.” Amona’s eyes glowed. The dragons regarded her curiously. “I know this is highly unusual.”

Maur’s head jerked. He stared at Vahly, understanding dawning over his features. “One of a kind, I’d say.” His lip curled.

Amona silenced him with a glance.

He swallowed, dropping his eyes, but the moment Amona looked away, he glared at Vahly.

Vahly stared right back.

“Though this is unique,” Amona continued, “it makes simple, good sense. Because the newly bonded clan member is of a different species, the bonding took far more time. Normally, we bond as younglings. Nevertheless—our Vahly, Touched and destined to rule this earth, heard my Call.”

Shouts went up, along with a few blasts of dragonfire, but muttering and whispering behind clawed hands darkened the glad shouts.

Though she’d guessed most of the Lapis would not love this development, there had been a small, secret part of her that had hoped to see the entire hall welcome her.

Vahly’s stomach turned, and she was glad she hadn’t eaten any of the venison.

She could guess what some dragons were whispering.

That she didn’t belong at the matriarch’s side like an advisor.

But Amona would never back down on the formality of Vahly’s place as her daughter.

They’d had the discussion too many times to count.

The room settled into more eating and even more drinking, then Maur’s voice rang out. “Do you believe this change denotes an alteration in Vahly’s condition?”

Condition. Like she had a disease. Stones and Blackwater, Maur was the absolute worst. She’d say he acted like this because he had low self-esteem and lacked properly sized reproductive organs, but she’d seen him naked, and he was definitely not lacking.

Aside from his attitude, his words perked Vahly’s spirit.

“I do,” Amona said proudly.

Hope sizzled inside Vahly. She rubbed her hands together, feeling energized.

“Maybe if we did our own ritual similar to the Dragonfire ceremony, my magic would rise. We could stand in a circle—as a clan—and…” She bit her lip.

Vahly couldn’t fly. And being in the sky was definitely a key component of the Dragonfire ritual.

Maur’s eyebrow lifted. “And what? Perhaps we could all jump so you would be off the ground with us for a breath?”

The hall broke into laughter, and Vahly felt as if her legs had been cut out from under her. An answer sprang to mind, her focus on defending the integrity of her idea. “I could ride on your back!”