by Audrey Faye
Oceana blew a snort at the dust on her scales and looked decidedly displeased.
“I know it’s dusty. I don’t like it either, but the river you want to follow doesn’t go the right way.”
Oceana turned herself around three times on a prickly patch of dry grass and lay down in her makeshift nest.
Alonia groaned. “This is the worst wedding ever.”
They’d heard some of the wedding revelry as they’d passed by in the forest, and Kellen had seen more when she’d snuck in the back way to gather their belongings. She’d also come back with a half dozen really tasty pastries, but those were long gone.
Lily looked longingly at the water in her canteen. She wanted nothing more than to pour it over her head, but they wouldn’t reach more water for hours yet. She scratched under Oceana’s chin, trying to keep her crankiness at bay. She had a dragon, and that was worth eating all the dust in the world. “We can get to the spring tonight if we don’t dawdle.” It wasn’t a river, but it had a small pool of some of the cleanest water she’d ever met. More than enough to wash all the dust off weary travelers, even the dragon variety.
They just had to survive that long—and get Oceana to move her stubborn feet. Or to let someone else move her. “No more flying. You can walk or you can ride on my rucksack.”
“Don’t make her mad,” Sapphire said quietly. “If she breathes fire right now, we’re in really big trouble.”
Lily looked around at the dry grass and winced. There was a reason why the dragon kin village was basically on a hill of boulders. “If we don’t get her to move, we’re in really big trouble too. Ideas?”
“She already ate all the pastries.”
Her friends had gamely shared most of their food, so Oceana couldn’t possibly be hungry anymore.
Alonia sat down beside them and took a metal cup out of her rucksack. Lily didn’t bother rolling her eyes—Alonia already knew what she thought of carrying an extra cup along when every other normal person just drank out of their canteen.
Alonia poured a stream of water into her cup and Oceana’s head snapped up, swiveling toward the sound.
Lily frowned. “Are you thirsty?” They’d only left the river a little while ago, so that hadn’t even occurred to her. She held out her hand, curved to hold water, but Alonia shook her head and offered her cup in the direction of Oceana’s nose. “I don’t mind if you drink out of my cup, beautiful.”
Oceana uncurled herself and leaned her head over the cup, sniffing. Then she turned around and plunked her tail in the cup, chirring happily.
They all stared.
Lily raised an eyebrow at her dragon. “That’s a little weird.”
Alonia shrugged and set the cup on the ground, slowly and carefully. “She can be strange if she wants to.”
Alonia might be soft-hearted enough to tolerate dusty tails in her drinking water, but Lily wasn’t. “We can’t exactly walk down the road this way.” If they didn’t get to the spring by nightfall, they were going to have far bigger problems on their hands than a cranky dragon.
Sapphire sighed and flopped back in the grass. “I keep trying to call Lotus, but she can’t hear me.”
“Of course she can’t.” Kellen poured a little of the water in her canteen down Oceana’s tail and into the cup. “The village is too far away for them to hear us. We’re four smart elves and one small dragon. We can figure this out.”
Kellen always saw shining possibilities. Lily wished she was like that, but mostly what she saw was dust. She tried to figure out just how to walk down the road with a dragon who refused to be carried and wanted to stay wet. She reached into the pouch at her waist and pulled out the small square of rough fabric Kellen had used to wrap the pastries. “Maybe I can make this wet and tie it around your tail.”
Oceana made a sound somewhere between a hiss and a growl.
Stubborn dragon. Lily shook her head and tried to wedge the cloth into the cup beside Oceana’s tail.
This time, Lily felt the growl all the way inside her. Her eyes widened as realization landed. “She’s not just using the water to stay wet. She needs it to communicate with me.”
Her three friends all looked at her strangely.
Lily knew she was right. “She called to me from her swamp, but it only worked when both of us were touching water. Same thing when I went into the ruin. She put her tail in the water to talk to me there.”
Alonia started to giggle. “You mean we have to get back home with her tail and your fingers in a cup of water?”
Lily groaned. This was turning into one of those really bad minstrel ballads. “I’m going to have to carry her. That’s the only way.”
It was the only way, but by the time the sun was sliding down to the edge of the sky, Lily was beginning to regret she’d ever heard about dragons. They weren’t even halfway to the spring yet. They’d had to stop too many times while one of her friends made the long trip back down to the river to fill up their canteens.
Which hadn’t been at all helped by the number of times Oceana had spilled water out of the cup.
Lily tried not to be mad at her dragon. She’d lived in a swamp her whole life—she had no idea what it meant for water to be precious. Lily sat in the shade of the large boulder they’d picked as their camping spot for the night and smiled wanly at red-faced, sweaty Kellen, who had just run all the way to the spring and back to fetch fresh water. “Thank you.”
Kellen smiled quietly and stroked Oceana’s cheek. “No problem. I want her to feel welcome.”
Lily sighed. If Oceana had been smarter, she would have chosen Kellen as her kin, who never got frustrated and would have walked the whole way home on her knees without a word of complaint. Lily took the cold canteen Kellen offered and poured some in the dusty, dented cup. There were a lot of new dents. Oceana was fond of flicking her tail when she was annoyed, and she’d been annoyed pretty much all day.
Alonia squatted beside them and held out two handfuls of berries, one for Kellen and Lily, and one to the dragon who was eyeing her doubtfully. “They’re a little sour, but they’re all I could find.”
Alonia was the best of them at finding things that grew wild. And Lily wasn’t picky about what washed the dust off her throat at this point. She took a couple of the berries and popped them in her mouth, squishing their meager juices around before she swallowed. She didn’t mind the sour, but she came from a clan that was a lot more adventurous in their eating than most elves. She took two more berries and pushed Alonia’s palm at Kellen. “Here, you eat the rest. You three have been doing all the work running to get us water.”
Sapphire dropped a small bundle of twigs and sticks down by the boulder and chuckled. “You’ve been lugging a dragon all day, and I remember how heavy that is. How are your arms feeling?”
Like two river reeds that had been stomped on by giants, but complaining wasn’t going to fix that. “Maybe you can sit with Oceana while I set up our bedrolls.” Lily made a face at Kellen. “I’d offer to cook too, but I think this day has been bad enough already.”
Kellen laughed and wiped her sweaty face on her arm. “I’ll cook. Alonia found us some mushrooms and wild onions, so I’ll make a stew.”
Alonia had been busy before they’d left the forest, scrounging up enough for a decent dinner. Lily let herself yearn for the spring and its plentiful berry bushes one last time, and then she pushed to her feet. Oceana wrapped her tail around Lily’s leg and hissed at Sapphire.
Sapphire giggled and backed up, hands in the air. “How about I do the bedrolls, and you sit right there with Mistress Crankypants.”
Oceana hissed again, but she seemed less riled this time.
Lily leaned down and tapped her on the nose. “If you aren’t nicer to my friends, you won’t be getting any of my stew.”
Kellen looked at the small dragon doubtfully. “There won’t be any meat in it—do you think she’ll eat it?”
It was either that or subsist on dust, but Oceana hadn
’t exactly been swayed by reason so far. “I have no idea.” Elves liked mushroom stew a lot, however, which was more than enough reason to make it. “She’s not a baby dragon who needs to eat every time she breathes. Kis only eats once a day, so maybe she’s like him.”
Kellen raised a surprised eyebrow. “You think she’s that old?”
Lily frowned. They’d already had that discussion, but maybe Kellen had been running for water. “If what she showed me is really her memories, she hatched just after the flooding happened.”
Kellen’s eyes got soft and sad. “Poor little girl. I bet you didn’t have much company, did you?” She scratched under Oceana’s chin, and to everyone’s surprise, the dragon allowed it.
“It must have been so hard to have been alone for that long.” Sapphire finished arranging some of the smallest twigs into a little stack and reached into her pouch for the dry bits of fluff and bark she’d gathered in the forest. Starting a fire wasn’t something any of them did very often, but Irin always had a pocket full of something dry to burn, and anyone who’d ever spent more than a handful of breaths with him learned to do the same.
Sapphire reached back into her pouch for the two small rocks collected in a far-off location the dragon and kin involved refused to disclose, and tapped them together sharply. Lily exhaled gratefully as sparks immediately flew into the dry tinder. At least some part of this day was going to be easy.
Then she felt Oceana’s alarm.
Lily reached for her dragon just as every spike all over her body rose straight up and blue-green wings unfurled sharply.
Sapphire jumped to put her body between Oceana and the tiny flames, but that was exactly the wrong move. A hissing ball of fury charged between her legs and a violent blue-green tail knocked Sapphire, her fire-starting rocks, and the precious pile of tinder in every possible direction.
Lily had the air entirely knocked out of her as Sapphire landed in her lap, and they both watched in stupefaction as one blue-green dragon, who suddenly looked much bigger, hulked over the baby fire’s remnants and dared anyone to come closer.
Nobody moved a muscle. Four shocked faces glanced at each other without ever taking their eyes off Oceana.
A gasp, and Kellen pointed at the sky. “Look.”
Lily wasn’t about to do that. They were pretty sure Oceana couldn’t breathe fire, but now would be a really bad time to learn they were wrong. Then she felt the air moving around her, stirring up the fire remnants and the trail dust and blowing sticky hair off her face. She still didn’t look up, but she knew what the swirling wind meant.
Dragon, incoming.
It wasn’t until she heard the delicate set-down that she dared to take her eyes off her dragon, and only because Oceana was staring up in absolute awe.
Another blue dragon, this one much paler, and much bigger, poked her nose down at Oceana. “Well, aren’t you a tiny thing to be causing this much ruckus.”
Oceana’s hiss spluttered out almost as soon as it began.
Fendellen made a noise that sounded almost like a chuckle. “Feisty, too.”
The dragon who would be queen after Elhen. Lily stared at the huge presence who had just landed in their dusty campsite, and couldn’t find enough water in her mouth to swallow. But she also couldn’t leave her dragon facing royalty alone. “Her name is Oceana, and she’s my dragon.”
“I know she’s yours.” Fendellen’s voice was gentle, and a bit curious. “She’s not all the way convinced of that yet, but she will be.”
Something that had been tight all day loosened in Lily’s chest. “Is that why the bond feels funny?”
Fendellen’s huge head nodded gently. “I believe so. She has been alone a very long time. She doesn’t know how to connect with anyone properly, never mind her kin.”
That was awful—and it gave Lily purpose. One that made a lot more sense than dragging their feet over never-ending dusty trails. “How do I help her?”
The sound that was almost a chuckle again. “Apparently, you find her some water.”
Three hands promptly offered three canteens. The last of their water.
Fendellen shook her head. “She’s lived in water her whole life. She needs far more than what you have with you. I’ve sent for Afran and Karis. They’ll find a couple of unbonded dragons willing to carry riders and come collect you shortly.” She blew a puff at Sapphire. “Your troublemaker is on her way too.”
Rescue. Lily had never been quite so glad to hear of incoming fire-breathing monsters in her life. She winced. Her dragon had just thoroughly killed a few sparks in some tinder. She was going to throw absolute fits once she discovered flames could come out of Fendellen’s mouth. “I don’t think she likes fire very much.”
Fendellen’s tongue slid out and licked Oceana’s nose. “She picked the right kin then.”
The queen-to-be made it sound almost like it was meant.
Alonia gulped hard and knelt near Fendellen’s head. “We don’t have anything to feed you except raw mushrooms, but I have some sweet-smelling leaves in my pouch that are tasty to chew.” She tipped up her head. “How are you even here?”
Fendellen blew a puff in Sapphire’s direction. “This one was making an awful noise in her head, yelling for her dragon even though Lotus couldn’t possibly hear.”
Sapphire’s eyes were big like an owl’s. “But you heard me?”
“I did. It’s a connection all dragon queens have with all dragon kin. Ours is perhaps stronger because of the flying lessons.” Fendellen glanced over at Oceana. “Or perhaps because of how you and Lotus are connected to this one.”
Lily felt her insides crumble. “Oceana isn’t my dragon?”
“Of course she is.” Fendellen licked the smaller dragon’s nose again. “I must say, I didn’t expect another of the five to show up this soon.”
The rest of Lily’s insides turned to dust.
Fendellen’s tongue flicked over Oceana’s forehead. “She is marked by the Dragon Star.” Deep blue eyes turned to meet Lily’s stunned gaze. “As are you.”
Chapter 7
Everyone was waiting at the village outskirts. Everyone.
Expecting the new ones chosen of the Dragon Star. Which had obviously made a mistake. They couldn’t even walk for a day without disaster. Lily looked at the collection of dragons and kin and villagers and turned sideways so that Oceana, finally sleeping on the back of her rucksack, wouldn’t see them if she woke up. It had been a very long and weary trek, thanks to her dragon’s utter refusal to climb on board any of the dragons who had come to pick them up.
Which meant none of her friends had either. They’d arrived as they’d left—four very dusty, tired elves and Lotus lurking in the distance. It was a sign of Sapphire’s dragon’s growing maturity that she’d backed off after a hasty series of licks and hugs. Oceana’s hisses had been very clear. Fendellen was acceptable company. No one else with scales was.
The queen-to-be landed in a small whirlwind of air and dust. “Don’t fret. Irin will clear them out of the way, and then we’ll take Oceana straight to the nursery.”
Irin was tough, but there were a lot of dragons in the crowd.
Lily felt, rather than heard, the amusement in her head. ::Worry not, youngling. If some should remain after Irin’s efforts, they will have me to deal with.::
Afran. She could feel the relief rising inside her. Everyone listened to Afran.
::The Dragon Star has chosen. They wanted to witness your arrival. We shall give them another moment, and then the path will be cleared.::
Lily swallowed. Afran rarely mind spoke to anyone other than Karis. It somehow drove home the thought she had managed to avoid for the long, interminable day of dusty hiking.
The Dragon Star had clearly lost its mind.
“You can worry about that later too.” Fendellen moved her graceful bulk to block the view of their waiting audience. “Right now, we have a dragon to get to the nursery. I know your bond hasn’t settled yet, but c
an you wake her up?”
Their bond had so far seemed next to useless, and waking Oceana up seemed like the height of foolishness. “She’ll just try to fly away again.”
Fendellen rumbled, amused. “She can try.”
Even Lotus had struggled to keep up with Oceana when she’d tried to flee, but the queen-to-be had calmly chased her down and herded her back to Lily, over and over. “Thank you for helping us get her back here.” They’d been crazy to think four elves could do it alone.
“She will save us,” Fendellen said softly. “Anything I can do to ease your journey will be done.” She gazed deep into Lily’s eyes. “It will not be an easy one.”
The latent dread Lily had been walking with coalesced in her belly. “Because our bond is broken.”
Fendellen shook her head. “Not broken. Struggling to form. She doesn’t know how to open herself to another. The queen bond is weak as well.”
That was news, and not of the welcome kind. “How do we fix that?”
“We’ve already started.” Fendellen lowered her head until her nose was right next to Oceana’s dreaming sniffles. “We love her, and we do our very best to understand who she is and what she will need from us.”
That sounded so simple, but the last three days had been anything but. “I don’t know how. I’ll need your help.” It was a hard admission.
“Not mine.” Fendellen was already backing away. “My job is to help Afran herd the riffraff. Yours is to send gentle waking thoughts to your dragon and take her down to see Kis.”
Kis was great with babies, but Oceana wasn’t a baby. “What if she tries to fly away?” Kis was fierce, but he couldn’t take to the skies.
“There are many fliers here who can catch her now. We’ll have some keep guard until she settles.”
Lily could hear the distance in Fendellen’s voice. A traveler already on the road. “You’re leaving?” It seemed the height of arrogance to ask a dragon of Fendellen’s importance to stay, but ask she would. “Oceana knows you. She trusts you.”
Fendellen blew gently in Lily’s direction. “It is you she must learn to trust first. Let Irin help you with that. He knows much of dragons with wounds on the inside.”
