Page 79 of To Touch A Silent Fury

An ancient sapphire dragon, now dead. There was no doubt that another dragon was the perpetrator of her wounds.

“Did you speak to Chae?” Foxlin asked, his mind clearly similarly occupied.

It was unseasonably warm for Gossamir in late Ergreen, which meant it was mild at best, but that felt like a blessing. I wore only a loose cream shirt, unlaced at its top, with my sword belted to me with thick brown leather which matched my heavy long boots.

From a walkway knocked halfway up the fence, we could see everything happening below. After Vellintris, I’d given my troops the order to evacuate by the end of Ergreen. Already half the camp had left, and those who stayed only did so because their jobs required them to. The harsh forest we’d bent into ahome was left behind without a backwards glance, and for most, five years of their lives were packed into a single bag.

I only wished my own relief matched theirs, but my stomach clenched knowing what, or who, had enabled us to leave. I set my jaw with a grim determination. “I did. It wasn’t her.”

In our first season here, years ago now, Chaethor had kept me company. But within days, the locals had set up archers to shoot at her when she left to stretch her wings.Better a dead dragon than one controlled by a cacof, one tribesman had said. I had only laughed at his naivety. If anything,shecontrolledme. Still, it proved their morality. Nature was nothing to their hatred of us.

Chae had wanted to stay, of course. It pained us to be away from each other for this long. But there was nothing for it, and I had sent her away. She was an adult dragon, but only barely, and her wings weren’t tough enough yet to withstand a barrage of arrows.

I saw her whenever I travelled back to Droundhaven, and she often flew up to the Flourine Mountains, up at the very border of the Soundlands. From there, if we both called to each other with pure focus, I could hear the edges of her. We could speak, if only barely, and I knew the strain weighed on us both.

When we found Vellintris dead, I reached out for Chae in my mind. She had been waiting in the Flourine Mountains, hoping for a word from me.

If it wasn’t her, for she had stubbornly refuted the accusation with more than the necessary anger, then that only left a few options. The first, that Vellintris had injured herself somehow, and dug her own claws into her belly. The second, that Skirmtold had left his usual pattern around Skinreach. In my entire life, over six spans of it, I’d never heard of a sighting further north than Droundhaven.

“So, it’s dear old dad, then?”

I gritted my teeth as Foxlin casually voiced the third option. Kallamont. “That,” I replied. “Or Amune is real after all.”

Foxlin laughed at my reference to the dragon spirit. “I suppose we will find out soon enough. Edrin knows I cannot wait to be back.”

“You’ll have to wait a couple more weeks.”

“What?”

“Chaethor can’t hold three men,” I replied.

He groaned. “I’ll send for Ravi.”

I shrugged as he referenced his wyvern. “Be my guest, but I’ve already sent our few birds out with messages of our departure. They won’t be back for days. By the time your letter gets to the Vidarium, you could be walking through Manniston.”

“You’re sure Chaethor can’t take me, too?” He asked. “The girl weighs nothing.”

I frowned. “Trust me, you’ll probably be glad to miss whatever conversation will follow our arrival.”

He shook his head. “You distinctly underestimate my desire for a scented bath.”

“And you distinctly underestimate my father’s rage.”

“The speed of Vorska’s bond could not have been predicted.”

I stared out at the barracks through the dull light. “Still.”

“She hasn’t left her room,” Foxlin said, after a pause. “It’s been three days.”

I stared down at the door housing our new guest. “You said it yourself, you knew where you hit her. It’s a wonder she’s alive, let alone walking here.”

He hummed. “In the forest, just before I tried to shoot that wolf. You told me to stop.”

I looked at him, answering his unspoken question. “Seemed a shame to kill the beast. Didn’t want to annoy the Soundlanders any more than we already have.”

He narrowed his eyes. “It wasn’t about her? Only, when she walked in, I could have sworn—”

“It had nothing to do with the girl,” I interrupted, tapping my hand on the wooden fence before me. “It took me by surprise is all.”