by Effie Calvin
Esofi lowered her eyes again and nodded minutely. Adale set her hand on top of Esofi’s in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture, rather than oppressive. It might have only been wishful thinking, but she thought she felt Esofi relax just a little bit.
IVANEDI RETURNED AFTER midday but before sundown. This time, when Adale and Esofi went out to meet him, they brought Carinth with them.
In the meantime, Adale had sent a courier to Birsgen, explaining that their meeting with Ivanedi had been successful, and they would be on their way home the following day. She’d also added a strongly worded note at the end asking why no courier had come to warn them of Gaelle’s arrival.
There had been no other signs of Gaelle, and Adale hoped it would stay that way. She did not want Gaelle to have a chance to be alone with Esofi. There was no guessing what the woman would do or say if Adale wasn’t there to step in.
Adale could not begin to understand the dynamics of Esofi’s family. It seemed Gaelle had no interest in any of her children, and her children were not overly fond of one another, and Esofi’s father ignored all of it. Was that really just how Rhodian families were? Esofi seemed to think so, but Adale could not believe it. Surely the entire nation would fall apart if everyone hated one another?
Ivanedi was waiting for them in the same place where they’d met before, every bit as intimidating as Adale remembered. But when he spotted Carinth, Adale saw his eyes soften, and he lowered his head to sniff at Carinth.
Carinth was absurdly small beside Ivanedi, small enough to climb onto his nose and settle there if he wanted. But he did not do this. In fact, he seemed nervous and stayed securely in Esofi’s arms as Ivanedi inspected him.
“His name is Carinth,” explained Adale. “It was the only dragon name we knew.”
“But…where are his parents?”
“We are his parents,” said Esofi. “After I defeated the Emperor, Talcia came to me in a vision. When I awoke, I was holding an egg. We have cared for him since that day as best we can.”
“She spoke to you?” Ivanedi tilted his head to the side. “What did she say?”
“I told her I was sorry for killing so many dragons. I did not know that you were capable of thought. She didn’t seem angry with me. She seemed…sad. I know she wants the dragons to improve. I don’t know exactly why she gave me Carinth, but we were hoping he might be a bridge between our races, when he gets older.”
Ivanedi’s reptilian face was difficult to read, but Adale thought he seemed pensive.
“Our knowledge of dragon development is limited,” said Adale. “We’re doing our best with him, but we don’t really know what to expect.”
“I would never advise raising a dragon among Men, but if you say it was our mother’s will… Still, do you not believe he would be better among his own kind?”
“I’m not sure,” said Esofi. “I worry that he will grow up feeling like an outsider, not a Man but not really a dragon. I don’t want that for him. But I do not believe Talcia gave him to us simply for her own amusement. And…perhaps it is selfish to say, but I do not wish to give him up. It would be like losing my own son.”
“I would urge you to bring him with you, if you do visit the Silver Isles,” suggested Ivanedi. “He can be among his own kind and meet other hatchlings. And we will teach him our language.”
“Do you know how soon we might expect him to learn to fly?” asked Esofi. “The books we’ve found have told us he ought to have started trying at a year old, but he seems to be lagging behind…”
“All hatchlings develop at their own pace. I would not begin to worry until he has reached five years of age. It is the same with speech. He may begin tomorrow, or he may remain silent for a few years yet.”
That was simultaneously a relief and disappointing. Of course Adale was happy that there wasn’t anything wrong with Carinth. But four years seemed a terribly long time to wait for him to begin speaking.
“And how long do dragons live?” asked Esofi. “From what we have read, it seems your lives are considerably longer than ours.”
“The eldest among us have reached three hundred years old,” said Ivanedi. “I, myself, am one hundred and ninety. But this is rare, for we are more likely to be killed long before reaching old age. Life is harsh in the Silver Isles. Parents may expect only one or two of their hatchlings to survive to adolescence. After that, the greatest threat to a young adult dragon is other dragons. Fights over territory or food or hoarded treasure are the most common causes of death. Those adventurous ones who leave the Isles to live in the lands of Men are in even greater danger.”
“What is killing them as hatchlings?” asked Esofi.
“When they are at their smallest, even a wildcat can carry one off,” said Ivanedi. “It is not uncommon for hatchlings to have only a single parent as a caretaker. When the mother leaves to hunt, the hatchlings are vulnerable to everything else that dwells on the Isles. The greatest threat to a hatchling’s life, though, is a gryphon.”
“Really?” Adale did not know very much about gryphons, besides the fact that a few families depicted them on their coat of arms. Gryphons could be found in parts of northern Ieflaria and were known to be dangerous when provoked. But few ever saw them, because they tended to live deep in the wilderness or high up on mountain peaks and did not make a habit of attacking Men. “I’d think you’d be allies. You have the same mother, don’t you?”
“The matter is complex,” said Ivanedi. “Over the last few centuries, our race has managed to alienate not only your kind, but all of our cousins.”
Adale was beginning to understand why Talcia had taken the dragon’s magic away.
“So they attack your hatchings?” asked Esofi.
“It is unfortunate,” said Ivanedi. “We kill them where we find them, and they do the same to our young. I cannot say who first began the cycle of violence, but it seems it may never end.”
“Do you think you could beat a gryphon?” Adale asked Esofi. Interesting as the Silver Isles sounded, she didn’t want to go there if Carinth’s life would be in danger.
“I imagine so. They’re supposed to be much smaller than dragons. But I’ve never seen one myself.”
“They still have their magic,” cautioned Ivanedi. “Some of them can be quite formidable.”
Adale tried to imagine a gryphon balancing on his hindquarters while his scaly bird claws wielded Talcia’s magic. Surely it would tip over?
“There is something else I’d like to understand,” said Esofi. “I’ve been trying my best to piece it together, but your last Emperor…how many years did he reign? I understand that Ieflaria has withstood dragon attacks for all of recorded history, but they only began to escalate within the last few decades.”
“Zethe was granted the Emperor’s Song approximately one hundred years ago,” said Ivanedi. “But he did not begin by ordering attacks—if he had, he would not have remained in power for long. One of his first commands was to forbid us from speaking to Men. At the time, we wondered why he bothered. Very few of us had any inclination to speak with Men in any case.”
“It’s not just dragons,” said Esofi. “The unicorns, and all the other creatures that Talcia made—they do not speak to us, either.”
Ivanedi lowered his head in what Adale was beginning to understand was his version of a nod. “We all take after our mother.”
“How far does the Emperor’s influence reach?” asked Adale. “Was he able to control dragons all over the world, or is there a limit to his range?”
“The Song has an impressive reach, but it is not unlimited. Zethe was able to call dragons from as far as Ibaia and the northernmost parts of Aquuim. But you’ve nothing to fear. As I said yesterday, I doubt we will have another Emperor for generations.”
“I believe you,” said Esofi. “I’m merely curious. It’s such a strange blessing, I’ve never heard of anything like it.”
“Some say that it is not truly a blessing, and I might be inclined to agree
,” said Ivanedi. “Mother revoked our magic long ago; that is not a secret. But we retained our breath of fire, as well as the Emperor’s Song. Some point to this as evidence that we have not been completely abandoned. But I suspect those are skills intrinsic to our kind, no different than flight.”
“They certainly seem like a blessing to me,” said Esofi. “But if they were, I suppose we might see more races with those abilities. Still, I do not like to think she has abandoned you. If it is any consolation, we have just learned that Carinth has magic of his own.”
“What?” Ivanedi started. “Are you certain?”
“Yes. It was my mother who managed to draw it out of him, only just today.”
“Your mother?” Ivanedi interrupted.
Esofi nodded. “Yes, she was always good at—”
“Is she here?”
“Well…yes.” Esofi blinked up at him in confusion. Ivanedi was shifting, and Adale pulled Esofi back out of the way of a massive claw as his feet adjusted. “Is something the matter?”
“I must go,” said Ivanedi.
“Do you…do you know her?” Esofi frowned. “How could you possibly—”
“My invitation stands. Bring your hatchling to the Isles. You will be safe there. Now I must bid you farewell.” Ivanedi inclined his head slightly, then unfurled his wings. Within a moment, he was in the sky, shrinking in Adale’s vision until he was nothing more than a black speck on the horizon.
“What just happened?” asked Adale, dazed.
“I’m not certain.” Esofi set Carinth down on the ground. “Do you think I might have offended him?”
“It almost sounded like…”
“Like he knew her. But that’s impossible. My mother has never come to Ioshora before now.”
“Well, maybe Ivanedi has been to Rhodia,” suggested Adale. “Back when he was young and adventurous.”
“I don’t think so. My mother would never face a dragon and allow it to live. And if one was ever her ally, we’d have never heard the end of it.”
They began the walk back to their room together, just as they had yesterday. Carinth ran ahead of them, occasionally pausing to examine things that caught his interest. When he returned to them, he had a silver coin clutched in his claws.
“What’s that?” asked Adale. She took it from Carinth and turned it over in her palm. “Oh, it’s not Ieflarian. Is this Rhodian?” She showed it to Esofi.
“Yes,” said Esofi. “One of the mages must have dropped it.”
Carinth looked up at Adale expectantly, and Adale gave the coin back to him. “Don’t put it in your mouth,” she warned because Carinth had swallowed coins in the past. The first time it had happened, they’d panicked. Carinth had been much smaller then, and even though the healers said that he was showing no signs of choking or poisoning, Esofi had insisted they feed him something to make him throw it back up.
Unfortunately, the serum that the healers used to induce vomiting didn’t work on Carinth. Apparently dragons had stronger stomachs than Men. The healers had shrugged and said that if the serum did not make him sick, it was unlikely a single coin could harm him.
Adale had been prepared to accept that answer, especially since the healers assured her that small children swallowed coins every day. But Esofi had pried Carinth’s mouth open and forced her fingers down his throat until he spat the coin—and everything else he’d eaten that morning—out onto the healer’s table.
It had taken her at least a month to admit she may have overreacted.
“Do you want to go to the Silver Isles?” asked Adale in a low voice.
“What if she follows us?” Esofi whispered back.
“Well, then you could fight her, couldn’t you?”
Esofi made a strangled noise that was somewhere between a gasp and a laugh. “No!”
“I think you could win.”
“I’m not going to fight her!”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to leave you a widow. You should be thankful for that.”
“You killed the Emperor. How is it that she’s more powerful than he was?”
“The Emperor didn’t have any magic at all,” Esofi reminded her.
“He was the size of a house and breathed fire!”
“Maybe so, but that is nothing compared to what she is capable of. I would like to go to the Silver Isles, though. I am eager to forge a diplomatic relationship with the inhabitants, and I want Carinth to meet other dragons. I am also curious about what precisely caused Ivanedi to flee.”
“I am too,” said Adale. She paused. “Would the twins be coming with us?”
Esofi gazed up at her. “Are you angry at me?”
Yes. No. Not when Esofi looked at her like that.
“I’m worried,” said Adale. “I’m so worried. Not about the twins, just—I’ve never seen you like this before, all secrets and avoiding and… and I don’t want to pry and make things harder for you but…” Her nose began to sting. Was she about to cry? She breathed in sharply to calm herself, but when she blinked, she could feel a little pearl of a tear gathering in one eye. Irritated with herself, she swiped at it with the back of her hand. This was not what Esofi needed from her right now.
“There’s no secrets,” said Esofi. “Just things that aren’t worth the trouble to explain.”
“I don’t think that’s true.”
“Well, you’re not the one who has to explain them.”
Adale might have recoiled from that, but what would that have accomplished? More silence, more backing away. Instead she reached out and pulled Esofi to her chest, resting her chin on the top of Esofi’s head.
“We’re in public,” Esofi mumbled faintly into her shoulder.
“Oh no. Someone might think I love you,” said Adale. But then, so Esofi would be reassured, she added, “Nobody’s watching. It’s so cold, the only ones out here are the guards on duty and we lost their interest after Ivanedi left.”
Nevertheless, Adale loosened her grip a little so Esofi could pull herself to freedom if she really wanted to. But Esofi did not move. Instead, she remained there, breathing softly into Adale’s neck.
“Will you be angry if we brought your cousins back to Birsgen?” Esofi asked eventually.
Adale pulled back a little bit so that she could look Esofi in the face. “What?”
“I don’t think they’d be suited for the Isles, but I’d feel better if they were in Birsgen, at least until my mother returns home. I know you don’t care for them. And maybe they deserve your hatred. But Talcia blessed them, which means she has plans for them. I feel compelled to keep them alive.”
“If your mother is coming back to Birsgen with us, then they might actually be better off staying here,” Adale pointed out.
“I am not so certain of that.”
“What do you mean?”
Esofi said nothing, but her eyes drifted to a pair of Rhodian mages, who were crossing the grounds together.
“You think they’d—”
“I don’t know.”
That was concerning. Adale wasn’t fond of her cousins, but they were still the children of Duke Raldfur, and niece and nephew to the King and Queen. If the Rhodian mages were willing to turn on them at Gaelle’s command, Adale was not so certain of her own safety.
“Well,” said Adale. “I think I can tolerate them for a little while. Especially if the alternative is…”
Esofi glanced away.
“Let’s walk around a little,” coaxed Adale. “I think the surrounding forests should be safe enough. I feel like we’ve had no time to ourselves lately. I’ve missed you.”
“I have not gone anywhere,” said Esofi very quietly, but perhaps even she realized this was not completely true, because she nodded. “Just not too far, and not for too long.”
None of the guards tried to stop them from leaving the camp. Adale thought that Carinth might refuse to come along, given his low tolerance for cold weather, but he gave no indication
that he wanted to go back to the citadel and kept close to his mothers’ ankles.
They walked in silence for a time, around the eastern side of the outer wall. In the distance, Adale could see the town of Fenstell, and the grey ocean just beyond it. If it hadn’t been nearly winter, she might have suggested they go down to the water.
Carinth wandered through the long grass and climbed over rocks, occasionally unfurling his wings when the wind hit them the right way. Adale called to him, warning him not to wander too far, but he only flicked his tail at her. Adale had always thought of his color as a little impractical, but he blended in well with the grey stones.
She looked over at Esofi, but Esofi was still watching Carinth.
“Is Lexandrie going to be all right?” Adale asked. Lexandrie had spent years picking at every one of Esofi’s flaws, real or imagined, and so Adale would never feel any affection for her. But it was as Svana had said—she was concerned for anyone within arm’s reach of Gaelle. And it was the best way she could think of to turn the subject back to Esofi’s own experiences.
“I think so,” said Esofi. Then she glanced sidelong at Adale, openly suspicious. “It is different in Rhodia.”
“Yes, I’ve picked that up,” said Adale, thinking once again of Gaelle’s hands on Lexandrie’s throat, of Esofi striking Carinth across the nose. “But I’m not trying to criticize you, I just…I’m trying to understand.”
“What do you want me to say to you?” asked Esofi. “That Rhodians live in a way that Ieflarians would find shocking at best and unbearable at worst? That I left home in the dead of winter to escape it? That my younger sister has apparently decided that she’d rather risk a brutal death at the hands of the elves than sit at the same table as our parents?”
Adale struggled, not sure which point to address first. “I’m not—that’s not—I didn’t mean—”
“I don’t know what you want from me,” Esofi whispered, and now there were tears in her eyes too. She turned away, toward the cliffs and the sea.
“I want you to know that I love you,” said Adale. “No matter what. And I won’t let her hurt you.”
