Page 53 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Chapter Forty-Four

The White Dragon

Darby

Darby slept in the aerie as she waited for news, only leaving to do her work with Amond in the infirmary. Her healing magic had improved under his tutelage, more than it ever had with the strict Bryonican regimens. She felt like she was finally thriving as the healer she’d always wanted to be.

But her friends might all be dead, and she couldn’t concentrate on anything else right now.

Kerrigan was supposed to portal everyone home the night before. No one had arrived. No news on the wind. No wings on the air.

Hadrian was still in Galanthea, safe as far as Darby knew.

But Clover was in the heart of Kinkadia with her amulets and brand-new soldiers against the Society Guard and dragons.

Kerrigan, Fordham, Kivrin, Wynter, and Viviana with their dragons against the entire Society?

Darby couldn’t handle it. And she couldn’t heal any of them if they were beyond her reach.

She should have insisted—no, demanded —that they take her along.

“Still waiting, Little Bit?” Dozan asked, slinking in from the shadows.

She nodded. “No word.”

Dozan’s jaw flexed. “They’ll be back.”

“They were supposed to be here yesterday.”

“You have to remember who you’re working with. Nothing goes as planned for Red, but she always gets out. All right?”

“You were the one who said that she might get caught in the vault.”

“Yeah, well, she’s smarter than that, okay?”

“Fine. And Clover?”

“Clover’s smarter than that too,” he said with a wink. “I trained her myself.”

Darby looked him up and down. His auburn hair was disheveled, his eyes hollow, his fitted black suit rumpled. “You’re worried.”

“Yeah, but I’m trying to make you feel better.”

She didn’t feel any better. “When do we raise the alarm and go after them?”

“We?” Dozan shook his head. “Little Bit, you’re much too fragile for a fight.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I may be soft, but I’m a fighter. I grew up in the House of Dragons like the rest of them. I will fight if I have to.”

A slow smirk crossed his lips. “I look forward to that.” He glanced wistfully once more at the horizon. “Find me if you see wings.”

“Fine,” she said and watched him disappear again.

She sank back onto the pallet she’d created with a huff. She’d sit here all night if she had to. She couldn’t just do nothing .

“You are a fighter,” a voice slithered into her head.

Darby yelped and jumped to her feet again. “Who’s there?”

The aerie had emptied out when the others had left.

One of Dyta and Ordrax’s seconds had taken the rest of the dragons and riders away for training in the mountains.

The rest of the dragons had been given to other houses.

For the first time since they’d all returned from the Holy Mountain, it had been quiet up here.

There shouldn’t have been any dragons left behind.

A white shape stepped into the moonlight. “Hello, Little Bit.”

Darby breathed a sigh of relief. “Hello there. My name is Darby, actually. Dozan just calls me that.”

“I too am a little bit. It is fitting.”

“You’re Amita, right? Tieran’s sister.”

“Indeed.” Amita dropped to the ground before Darby, curling her long tail around Darby’s pallet. “You wait for word from my brother. For his bonded.”

“Yes. Among others.”

“I have been in a waiting place for many years. Many don’t know how long hatchlings wait before reaching maturity.”

“I was in the House of Dragons, so I had some acquaintance with hatchlings. Much smaller than you though.”

“I see. Then perhaps you understand. You humans would call today my name day.”

“Oh!” Darby said. “Happy name day! What year are you celebrating?”

“My first name day.” Darby tipped her head in confusion, but Amita continued, “My first coming out of hatchling.”

“You are an adult now?”

“Officially.”

“Quite an accomplishment. What are you going to do to celebrate?” Darby asked. “We could go flying? It would be good for me too.”

“Yes, Little Bit. I would like that.”

Amita rose to her full height. She was roughly the same size as Tieran. Small for a dragon. She was probably an excellent flier, nimble and swift. Darby may not have been as interested in being a dragon rider as Kerrigan, but she could never deny the magnificence of a dragon.

Amita’s white scales were smoother than Darby was used to, so her ascent was awkward, but she finally made it up the entire way, settling onto Amita’s back. The dragon rose to her full height again, and Darby leaned forward, clutching the dragon as she adjusted.

“And after our flight, Little Bit,” Amita said as she stepped up to the edge of the cliffside, “we shall be bound.”

Darby choked at the words, but Amita had already thrown herself off the mountain. Darby screamed at the sheer drop before the dragon’s wings shot out. They hit a current in the wind and leveled out, soaring out across the valley.

“Bound?” Darby gasped out, once her stomach was again where it was meant to be. “I’m not a dragon rider. I’m a healer.”

“I am of age, and I have chosen you. That is how it works.”

“Surely you want someone else. A fighter.”

“A dragon is given their choice, and I have made mine.” Amita was silent a moment as they drifted over the small village of Cavour that seemed to be held in time. “I do not want a fighter. There is another way. I sense that you too want to have a purpose other than for death.”

“Yes,” Darby said earnestly.

“Then we will work together, you and I, and we will be magnificent.”