Page 65

Brynla

We arrive at the Midlands a day later, the winds favoring us the whole way, anchoring on the other side of the wards.

We’re near the northwestern tip of the island, an area that Andor was familiar with but was too far to travel to by small boat from the Banished Land.

The region is known for its large sycledrage breeding ground, which are the kind of eggs Steiner thinks will work best for raising dragons.

Of all the dragons to attempt to raise, I wouldn’t pick the sycledrage, with its cunning and those huge claws, but I don’t really get a say with the Kolbecks.

Part of me thought it was best that we head back to Menheimr first and deal with our stolen egg, but apparently Torsten was adamant on getting his breeding program underway in the event that we weren’t successful, and since we already have a ship and a crew (albeit one that has nearly doubled in size), it was decided we’d still continue on to the Midlands.

At least the day at sea gave Andor a chance to heal Kirney’s arm and help Belfaust, who had sustained a stab wound to his thigh when they overtook the Black Guard. It turns out that the Black Guard had also been ingesting suen, making it a bloody battle.

It also gave everyone a chance to get to know one another, since we suddenly had five new crewmates.

There was Eydis, the girl with the pale green eyes and matching hair; Artemen, the old man; Syla, a former Daughter of Silence who had her tongue cut out and can only communicate in writing; Damiel, a rockdeer herder whose wife was chosen as a monthly sacrifice, just as my mother had been; and Tamber, a middle-aged woman with sky-blue hair in tiny braids, who was known to the government as a troublemaker, shipping supplies across the border to Freelanders.

I for one am just happy that the convent no longer has the egg.

Steiner has examined it, saying it looks like there are no visible puncture holes to indicate suen extraction, but because of the way the scales lie, it’s impossible to tell.

There’s always a chance that there are more eggs elsewhere.

Shit, I mean, considering the convent has an undiscovered species of the realm’s largest dragon chained up in its basement, who knows what else they’ve been hiding?

Still, there’s something about the whole mission that has left me feeling uneasy. It’s not just what the Harbringer said to me, that my parents had hidden the truth from me, that I was a false idol, that they had been watching me all this time and orchestrated the assassination of my aunt…

It’s the fact that the Kolbecks have control of an egg with immense power. Torsten Kolbeck is not a good man, neither is his brother, and I’m not quite sold on Vidar either. I’ve seen the way he looks at the egg, like he’s possessed by it.

But not in the same way I am. The egg calls to me, a soft murmuring sound that puts me at ease. It feels like it belongs to me, while Vidar acts as if he belongs to it.

Though Steiner’s interest in the egg and its suen is intellectual, I’m not convinced such a prize wouldn’t bring out the mad scientist in even the most rational of beings.

And then there’s Andor, who has staked all his hopes and credibility on its magic.

Something to keep an eye on, at any rate.

“Are you ready?” Andor asks me, hoisting a collection bag over his shoulder.

“I am,” I say, strapping on the last buckle of my boot.

I wait until Andor’s back is turned before I grab my pouch and fasten it around my waist, being extra careful with the contents.

Then we exit our cabin and head up the stairs to the deck.

We should already be on the Midlands by now, but we were feeling a little amorous this morning, which delayed our mission.

Actually we’ve been going at it like rabbits ever since we returned from Esland.

Something about an elevated heart rate and nearly escaping death really makes you want to jump a man.

I feel bad for everyone else on the ship who has to listen to us, but not bad enough to stop.

Hey, we wouldn’t have the egg if it weren’t for me—I deserve a little release.

“About time,” Toombs comments under his breath as he steadies the rowboat on the side of the ship as Andor and I climb inside. Lemi galumphs down the deck and leaps into the boat, making it rock violently.

“Better late than never,” Andor says. “Lower us down. If the goddesses are on our side we’ll be back before nightfall. If not…”

“Then I’m coming after you,” Vidar says, crossing his arms across his chest as he stands beside the pulley. “I still don’t know why I can’t come now and help.”

“Let’s leave this to the experts, eh?” Andor says, winking at him, which clearly irritates Vidar more.

While his oldest brother is more than physically capable of retrieving dragon eggs—after all, he was able to take down a section of the Black Guard—he hasn’t had any experience in it.

All his training has been in defense of their holdings as heir.

Though I’m starting to realize that Vidar might be a little bit jealous of Andor.

While Vidar is usually kept at home and coddled by Torsten, Andor is the one sent off on adventures.

I could see how that might be frustrating.

It could be why Vidar has had that intense gleam in his eyes over the last day.

I’ve been attributing it to some strange desire for the egg, but maybe it’s that he finally feels useful and alive.

I know I certainly do.

I glance over at Andor as the boat is lowered into the waves and he starts rowing, the muscles under his armor flexing.

He’s the reason I feel a fluttering sensation in my chest, the feeling like something inside me slowly but fully awakening, unfurling like a desert bloom.

He’s put me on a path that has changed my life for better or worse, but a path I feel destined to have taken all the same.

I still don’t know what my purpose is, I still don’t why the Harbringer said I was different, why I am different, but I know I’m one step closer to discovering it each day.

“What?” Andor asks with a quizzical frown as we slice through the water, its color turning from deep inky blue to azure as we get closer to the wards and the shore.

“Nothing,” I tell him, because of course I can’t tell him these things.

I feel them, so deeply, but the moment I know I should share them with him, they die on my tongue.

It’s almost as if the moment I say them he’ll find it laughable and silly, like he won’t actually see how serious I am about it.

I worry he’ll think I’m lying or just trying to be nice, when that’s not the case at all.

As long as I keep my feelings inside, they’ll stay real and true.

He studies my face for a moment and I fear he’s going to push me, because he knows I’m hiding something even if he doesn’t know what, but he just grins at me. “All that sex rattled your brain, did it?”

I laugh. “You could say that.”

His focus goes behind me. “We’re about to go through the wards.”

I twist around as the shimmery light gets close, rainbows refracted in the shield. There’s a familiar resistance as we push through, followed by a faint pop as we reach the other side.

I shake the feeling out of my ears and concentrate on our landing.

I suppose I should be more focused on what we’re about to do than on Andor.

After all, this mission is unlike any of the ones we’ve done before.

We’re not just stealing eggs, we’re stealing fertilized eggs from sycledrages, which means there will be a lot of aggressive mamas to defend ourselves from, and those dragons are aggressive.

Once we have the eggs, we have to keep them warm and close to our bodies and immediately head back to the ship, where Steiner will put them in an incubator.

At least this part of the Midlands isn’t as volcanic as the rest. We still have our black salve around the eyes to protect them, but so far there’s been no need for a mask. The air is tinged yellow and smells of sulfur but there is no real smoke.

We’re near the shore when Lemi shifts and appears on top of a volcanic rock, poised like a statue and scouting in all directions for dragons or danger, though they’re pretty much the same thing.

Once the boat scrapes along the rocky coral bottom, Andor jumps in, knee-deep in the water as he effortlessly pulls the vessel ashore with me in it.

He grabs my hand and helps me off the bow, and then we grab our packs and a few extra weapons.

Both of us are carrying a bow and arrows now, since I proved to be such a good shot with the Harbringer’s miniature bolt-thrower.

We also have our usual swords and the egg collection sack that has been insulated with goose feathers.

Lemi barks at us, his nose pointed inland.

“That way, I guess,” I say as we scramble up a rough embankment of scree and lava rock, Andor helping me up as my boots try to find purchase.

Once on top of the ridge we have a clear view of the land, nothing but undulating earth and rock all the way to the mountains in the distance, their sides blown off from explosions long ago.

“No active volcanoes,” Andor says. “That’s a win.”

“Doesn’t look like the type of terrain that gives way to fire tornadoes either,” I point out. “Another win.”

Lemi barks again, going into play pose and wagging his tail. “And I think he’s found a scent. Lead the way, boy. But don’t go too far.”

My hound immediately disappears and reappears about half a mile away. “How is that not going too far?” I yell after him.

Andor and I break into a jog, knowing we need to be quick about this mission. If Lemi finds any sort of eggs at all, we’re bringing them back, fertilized or not.