Page 40 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Chapter Thirty-Four

The Bonding

Hundreds of Fae stood on the field in front of Ravinia Mountain to be assessed by the dragons ready to bond.

After much back-and-forth, the dragons had agreed with Fordham about giving the bulk of their kind to the House of Shadows.

Not only had their house been deprived for a thousand years but there were likely more strong magical users there than in other houses who had entered the tournament all these years.

The dragons who weren’t quite ready to bond would be offered as an option to their allies once this first round had been completed.

“Are you sure this is how it has to be done?” Kerrigan asked as she stood between Gelryn and Tieran.

“There is no use for the tournament any longer,” Gelryn explained.

“That was a trick created to keep our kind safe. I would test each potential champion for their strength because the strongest riders were less likely to perish. Then they would endure the test to winnow it down further. By the time the competitors reached the end, the dragons had an easy choice.”

“There is no easy choice here,” Tieran said.

“No winnowing down either,” Kerrigan muttered.

“Even I do not have the strength to do a full test of every potential rider. The dragons will know,” Gelryn said.

“It was why I had to pick you after all,” Tieran reminded her. “You were the strongest, and I could sense that.”

Kerrigan flushed. “Fordham was stronger.”

“Not stronger than a Doma,” Tieran said. “And I didn’t know then that you were, but still I knew.”

Kerrigan nodded. “You’re right of course. I trust you. Lowan said much the same when I checked on him making the bonding potion. I’m just anxious.”

Fordham was already below with the recruits, which included Wynter, René, Aurelie, and Viviana of all people.

Dozan stood at Wynter’s side even though he had no magic and couldn’t bond a dragon, though Kerrigan knew he would very much like to.

Amond, Darby, and Audria were already at the bonding-potion pool with Lowan in case anything went wrong.

Darby had been studying healing magic with Amond, but Kerrigan knew she was restless.

Telling her about her dreamwalk with Clover had only made Darby more anxious instead of settling her—another problem for their war effort.

Everyone was in their places. There were only the dragons’ decisions now.

“It is time,” Tieran said.

Kerrigan climbed onto his back, and they dove off the edge of the aerie toward the base of the mountain. He corkscrewed before pulling up sharp and landing at Fordham’s feet. Netta was already present, and the two dragons butted heads in greeting.

Gelryn landed next—the first unbonded dragon to take the field. The entire valley seemed to straighten at the mighty dragon’s presence. He was the real prize after all. Kerrigan didn’t know who was the most powerful among them. Was it Wynter? Would she get the general?

She had no idea how it all worked. Only the dragons truly knew. Gelryn had even said that if no one was worthy, he would remove himself from choosing. Any of the dragons could.

“All assembled,” Tieran said across the potentials, “the dragons will come through at any moment. Brace yourselves.”

That was all the warning they got as wings beat on the wind.

Kerrigan’s eyes lifted to the skies to see dragons moving toward them.

She slid off Tieran’s back and headed toward Fordham.

They wouldn’t remain for the choosing. It was customary to do so without an audience, as had been done in the caves when their own dragons chose them.

Fordham threaded their fingers together and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Nor I.”

“Can you have one more?” a voice called as a figure walked out of the entrance to the mountain.

Kerrigan turned around and gasped. Kivrin Argon was walking toward them.

“Dad?”

He smiled and held his arms out. She ran into them, colliding and almost bowling them both off their feet. He made an oof noise and then wrapped her up tight. They held each other for a moment—one she couldn’t believe she could have after everything that had happened in their past.

“You’re walking,” she said, pulling back to look at him.

“Still a little unsteady,” he admitted, “but Amond gave me the go-ahead to try to bond.”

“Oh gods,” she said, a hand to her mouth.

He laughed. “What? You think I’m too old to bond a dragon? If it wasn’t for Lorian, I would have had one years ago.”

“No, of course. I just can’t believe I didn’t think of it.”

“You can’t have all the good ideas,” Fordham said as he held his hand out to her father.

Kivrin shook. “Think I can join your army if a dragon selects me?”

“It’d be an honor,” Fordham said.

“Well, take care of my daughter then. I have a dragon to claim.”

Then Kivrin wandered into the midst of the potential riders, his head held high, his steps even. For the first time in many years, he was so much more than just the playboy prince of the House of Cruse. He was a leader in his own right.

Fordham drew her back into the mountain. “Let’s leave them to it. We’ll know what happened by nightfall.”

Kerrigan shot one more look at the group of riders and the incoming dragons and then left them to it.

***

Riders filtered in throughout the day. Their names were registered with their dragons, and they were sent to new quarters that Fordham had instructed Adelaide to clean out for the trainees.

The bond would strengthen if they were in danger or went to war, but until then, it took a year for the bond to not be fragile, and they needed training.

Kerrigan had sat in a meeting with Lowan, going over the few books he’d had on his person about dragon training.

Kerrigan added in the firsthand experience she had from her training and created a program—not that they had a year to train the recruits.

Luckily almost everyone who had arrived so far was already a soldier who had seen combat.

“One of us will have to train them,” Kerrigan said.

Only she, Fordham, and Audria had done dragon training before. It was how it had always been done. The previous winner would train the next batch.

“We don’t have time for that,” Fordham argued.

“The easiest solution is to let the dragons and their riders handle training,” Lowan said.

“Ordrax and Dyta are a formidable pair. Whoever bonds them will also have to be formidable. Ordrax has already gone through training, and Dyta was his second at the Holy Mountain. We should put them and their riders in charge once they return.”

“That would be me,” Wynter said as she strode into the war room they’d taken up outside the aerie.

Fordham jumped up. “You bonded?”

She nodded with a smirk. “Dyta. She agrees that she and Ordrax should take over. Ordrax should be here any moment. He just finished.”

“Who bonded him?” Kerrigan asked, adding names the list.

Wynter bit her lip. “Give him a minute, and you’ll find out.”

Kerrigan and Fordham exchanged a look. That couldn’t be good.

“Hello.”

Fordham’s jaw dropped. Kerrigan’s hand stilled over the list of names. Even Lowan looked surprised, and he didn’t normally notice anything other than his books.

“Viviana?” Fordham asked. “You bonded Ordrax?”

“I didn’t even know you were interested in a dragon.”

Viviana lifted her chin. Out of her fancy dresses and heavy makeup and jewelry, she was almost unrecognizable. “I have the requisite magic. I want to do my name proud.”

“And in pants,” Kerrigan noted.

Viviana bristled. “I will wear them for Ordrax, but I will be proper otherwise.”

Unlike you was the implied addition.

“So you’re putting me and Viviana in charge of the training?” Wynter asked with a laugh. “That should be fun.”

“What training?” Viviana asked.

Kerrigan blew out a breath. “This has been a long day.”

Then she added Viviana’s name next to Ordrax’s. She sure hoped Ordrax could keep her in line. Bless him.

Wynter read over her shoulder. “How many more are we expecting?”

“The dragons decide,” Lowan told her.

“Hopefully ten more,” Fordham said, glancing at the list.

Lowan’s eyes turned to the long list. “This is more than has ever been bound in one day.”

“In recorded history,” Kerrigan corrected.

“And we will need someone to train the other riders and dragons,” Fordham told Wynter.

“We need to get the rest of these dragons to our allies. It is the easiest way to guarantee their support. In the meantime, someone is going to have to train them. Dyta and Ordrax would be the best bet now that they’re bonded, which would mean you’d have to work with Viviana. ”

Wynter shrugged. “Fine with me. Where else are you taking dragons?”

Kerrigan pointed out the details on her map.

“We can make contact with Alura at Venatrix. Fallon and Hadrian are in Galanthea. Zina is in Herasi. Sonali in Bryonica, Noda in Concha, and Gerrond has provided us a contact in Sayair.” She moved her hands in opposite directions, one in the far north and one in the far south.

“We have allies in Erewa, but I cannot reach them, and possibly allies in Elsiande.”

Wynter wrinkled her nose. “Elsiande is where Bastian is from. You can’t trust them.”

It was a point of contention. There were people in Elsiande that Kerrigan could trust. Ellerby had been her House of Dragons sponsor long ago, and she had saved his son, Ever. They were on their side, but she didn’t know if she should risk reaching out to them, if it would even help.

“There’re other more pressing concerns,” Kerrigan said, setting aside that discussion.

“Like how we’re going to move dozens of dragons across Alandria without the Society popping up to fight us?” Viviana pointed out.

“We have an idea about that,” Fordham said, waving away that concern.

“And we have another problem,” Kerrigan said.

She felt his warning down the bond. She hadn’t mentioned the metal crown to anyone else but Fordham.

Even thinking about it felt dangerous. There was no guarantee they could find this old artifact or that she could even use it.

She didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but it felt worth it to research it as well.

“What’s that?” Wynter asked.

“We have to decide who is going to which ally,” Fordham said. “Who would be best to deal with Alura Van Horn?”

“I believe that would be me.”

Kerrigan glanced up at the new voice, and a smile came to her face. “Dad!”

“In the flesh,” Kivrin said.

“You bonded?”

Kivrin’s grin turned fiendish. “Gelryn.”

The room went silent at the proclamation.

“Gods,” Viviana whispered.

“And Gelryn agrees that we should go to Venatrix as your ambassador with dragons. Alura and…Anya,” he said, speaking of his first love, “would listen to me.”

Fordham nodded. “Congratulations,” he said as he shook Kivrin’s hand. “Then that’s where we’ll send you.”

Kerrigan was proud of her dad. It was so visceral that she ran over and hugged him again.

He had wanted this for so long. He’d been demoralized at losing the tournament and had been adrift for years since.

He’d gone to Domara because of it. She was born because of his dissatisfaction with his life.

And now things were looking up again. He had a dragon. He was going back after Anya.

For the first time in a long time, he had hope.

And it was contagious.