As she leaned back, Shira’s eyes met hers, searching. Impulsively, Mariah leaned forward, took Shira’s face in her hands, and kissed her forehead. “Please, Shira,” she breathed.
The tears in her friend’s eyes reflected her own, but the other woman nodded to her just before her parents surrounded her in their own embrace.
Mariah squeezed Xae’s hand, giving him what she hoped was a reassuring nod before stepping back. “Go. Quickly.” It was all she could say before her throat constricted.
“Let them go,” Rothgar said from close behind her. “Escort them to the front gates, and let them depart in safety.”
“Yes, sir,” the lead guard replied. The soldiers opened the doors for Shira and the others. Mariah let her gaze fall to the floor, unable to watch as her companions left the throne room.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Reversal
When her friends were gone, Mariah took a deep breath and turned to face King Rothgar up close for the first time. He was no taller than her. In fact, the two stood eye to eye.
She was somewhat surprised that his face was not misshapen and evil. In fact, it was strong and mildly rugged, and she was sure that many would find him very handsome. But his eyes, a sparkling blue, gave away his ambition, his willingness to sacrifice everyone in his way to achieve it.
In his hands, he held the cuff that moments before had been sitting on the little table off to the side. He held it up, and Mariah resisted the urge to look at Arrynas again for reassurance. She had no idea what the Dragon was planning. What could he do if he was the king’s prisoner? How in Whitelea did the king keep a dragon prisoner?
Without a sound and without tearing her gaze from Rothgar’s, Mariah held up her wrist.
As the cuff snapped into place, she began to shake. Had she made a mistake? Had she just doomed the people of Whitelea to a reign of terror under this man?
“Dalinore, if you will.” The king seemed calm, but Mariah sensed a jittery energy about him, as if he were about to burst from giddiness. Taking Mariah’s shoulders, Rothgar turned her to face the Keeper. Breathing in her ear, he said, “In case you were wondering, Dalinore came to me willingly and has served me willingly from the beginning. The Keepers forsook her to their own detriment. Her Gods-given talent for infusing metal with magic has been essential to my success. Isn’t that lovely?”
Mariah stared at the woman, thinking about the enchanted shackles in the dungeon that had changed shape with her. The cuff on her wrist now. The chains holding the Dragon. Terror filled her. Why was a Keeper working for the king?
Dalinore did not meet her eyes, only nodded once at the king’s words. There was something peculiar about the woman’s sharp features, but Mariah couldn’t put a finger on it.
Before she could explore it further and distract herself from what was actually happening, Dalinore took Mariah’s cuffed wrist in a strong grip with both hands and closed her eyes, leaning her head back.
A shock went through the metal and into Mariah’s wrist. It traveled up through her arm and filled her body. The shaking worsened to the point that Mariah had trouble keeping her legs under her. As the surge of power moved through her, a wave of adoration for the king swarmed her mind, her heart; it swirled through her, clawing at her, trying to gain a foothold. It increased to an incessant buzz, and Mariah wanted to grab the sides of her head, but Dalinore held her firmly. Thinking about her friends and all the people who were depending on her—all the children—Mariah pushed against the power with all of her strength. It pushed back but, in the end, proved to be nothing against her need. After a brief struggle, it slithered away as quickly as it had come.
Dalinore released Mariah and stepped back with a stunned look on her angular face.
Mariah had no time to react. Arrynas’s words sang through her mind once more, resonating. Just remember what I told you when you were in his dungeon many months ago. Her brain struggled, reaching for the memory, but the king interrupted her thoughts before she could find it.
“That is not all, my hawk.” Revulsion filled Mariah at his words. “There is one more step to finalize the bonding.”
“My lord—” Dalinore protested, but Rothgar cut her off.
“Later,” he said impatiently. “We must finish this before she changes her mind.”
“But sir—”
“I said later!” the king snapped, grabbing Mariah by one arm and pulling her toward the center of the hall.
The Keeper stepped back, demurring, and she may as well have vanished altogether from the king’s sight for all the attention he paid her.
“Now, my hawk, I’m sure you’ve seen the chains that the animals wear. You will wear one, too, but I’ll tell you a secret. They are only for show. The common people, they cannot see that the real bonding happens here.” He stopped and, with his index finger, tapped Mariah’s forehead first and then her heart. She shuddered again. Yanking her forward another step, he stopped just at the edge of the Dragon’s reach. “Arrynas is responsible for that. After all,” he chuckled, “almost anything is possible when even gods bow down to you.”
This close, the Dragon seemed even more immense. Sweat began to pour down Mariah’s face from the heat that emanated from him. He was not looking at her but at the king, who paid him no mind. If he had, he might have been driven back by the hatred in Arrynas’s eyes. Smoke had begun to billow from his nostrils, and licks of a deep orange fire laced with pale blue began to flicker out of his mouth, curling around fangs the size of Mariah’s arms.
As if suddenly distracted, Rothgar rubbed a lock of Mariah’s brown hair between his fingers. “I was always told your hair was silver.” His face was puzzled. “A disguise perhaps?”
Unable to speak, Mariah nodded haltingly, and the king smiled, satisfied. He finally turned to Arrynas, one hand on Mariah’s upper arm. “Ah, good. I see you are ready.”
Remember, the Dragon whispered as the king shoved Mariah forward.
She stumbled, trying not to get too close, her fear of his fire very real.
Remember.
“Your hand,” the king said, as if repeating himself. “Hold out your hand.”
Remember.
That magnetic pull began again, and even though the king had let go of her, she found her feet moving closer and closer to Arrynas until she could have reached out and touched him. She knew his skin would feel like warm granite, but he towered over her, leaving her sweating in his shadow.
Fear stole her curiosity, and she wanted to drop to her knees and cower, but another image suddenly flickered in front of her, hidden between her body and that of the massive beast. It was Arrynas in his human form, vague and ghostlike again, but almost as familiar to her as a friend or a favorite uncle. The fear began to ebb, and she held out her hands. He took them in his, holding them firmly.
His other head, the head of the dragon, moved toward her as he spoke in her mind. Remember.
In great orange and blue waves, fire licked toward Mariah’s outstretched arms, enveloping them. The heat burned. It scorched her, sending waves of agony through her arms. She screamed and fell to her knees, but Arrynas’s human guise was still before her, on his own knees now. His hands were a cool balm in the midst of the flame. Remember, Mariah Griven. Remember what I said.
Gasping against the pain, Mariah reached again and finally found the words, gritting them out in her own mind. He. Cannot. Hold. Me.
Time slowed, and while Mariah’s voice screamed, her heart began to swell. The dragon fire still licked at her wrists, but it no longer consumed her. In fact, it filled her with triumph and a sense that things were about to change.
In front of her, in his misty form, Arrynas looked up, as if he had heard something or received a message. Your friends. They are safe.
At that moment, the flames died, and Arrynas’s human form disappeared.
* *
*
Mariah stopped screaming. She remained on her knees, gasping for breath. What had just happened?
Behind her, King Rothgar laughed. “It is done. Do you see, Dalinore? All of his bluster. Years and years of it. And this girl, this puny, insignificant thing that he promised would be my downfall, walks right into my castle and gives herself up. And now, she is mine.” He turned to the Dragon. “And you, what kind of a god are you? You cannot even protect your own. You will watch your hawk sit on my shoulder, serve me, as your people cower before me, and you will regret you ever came near this place. Who will be the god then?”
His words washed over Mariah as if they were unimportant, nothing more than a light breeze. She couldn’t stop staring at her arms. Her sleeves had been charred, burned away, and the front of her cloak and tunic were singed beyond repair, but her arms … the scarred, melted flesh she expected to see was not there. Her skin was smooth and unmarred. Even the old scars from Dalinore’s enchanted shackles were gone. And there was no pain at all, as if it had all been a dream.
“Come, my hawk, change.” He held out the gold chain, ready to snap it on the cuff still on her wrist. “We must go catch up with your friends, don’t you think?”
The implied threat was meant to invoke fear and desperation in Mariah, but she pushed herself to her feet and straightened her back. As she turned, the golden cuff fell away, its latch broken. It landed on the marble floor with a clang. The sound echoed through the solarium, accompanied only by shocked silence.
The king, who was still standing far from Arrynas, stared. She met his gaze levelly. “You could not hold me before, and you cannot hold me now. You will never hold me.”
The king’s mouth fell open, and Dalinore yelped.
The remains of Mariah’s cloak began to billow around her as Arrynas spread his wings, beating them hard until he had lifted off the ground far above her. As he did, the iron chains holding him snapped like twigs. “The Banished One has risen,” he said simply, his dragon voice resounding in the chamber like a great sledgehammer blow.
Back! The Dragon’s voice was a command in Mariah’s mind, and she skittered past the staring king and all the way to the double doors. Wait for me.
As Mariah stood watching, Arrynas bellowed out a plume of fire that sent the king and his keeper to their bellies. With a speed and grace belying his size, he snatched each one up, lifting them both off the ground. Their screams of protests were quickly drowned out as the Dragon crashed through the stained glass dome of the solarium and carried them away.
Chapter Thirty-Six
A Taste of Freedom
In a state of shock and wonder, Mariah waited alone in the solarium. The guards had been sent away, and no one came running. Shards of colored glass were scattered across the solarium floor, and pure sunlight flooded through the broken dome.
As its rays touched her face, Mariah found herself unable to process what had just happened. Rubbing her wrists once again, she marveled that she had been touched by the flames of Arrynas the Dragon, first of the Ceo San, and had not been harmed.
She barely had time to ponder the implications before his voice came to her again, his shadow looming above the Keep. Fly with me.
Without question, she transformed, circled upward through the remaining shards of the dome, and joined the Dragon in the blue afternoon sky. The king and his Keeper were gone, and the Dragon’s talons were empty.
Did you kill them?
He snapped his wings and smiled ruefully, if a dragon could do such a thing. I told you. I cannot. Your rising has changed things, but that remains immutable.
Mariah didn’t understand, but she flew on with him, the freedom of the sky too beautiful to deny. Circling above the city, she tucked in close to Arrynas’s body to keep from being blown away by the wind that his great leathery wings created. As they flew near the walls, arrows began to zip through the air from soldiers atop the walls, but they bounced off Arrynas’s hide as if they were playthings. She stayed sheltered on his far side, away from the threat, as he began to move back toward the center of Glenley.
The king will return in time, and I am afraid that he will not take losing his favorite slave lightly. And you. Your biggest challenges are yet to come. Will you face them? Will you help your people?
Surprising even her, her heart sang in response. It was the first time he had asked her what she would do instead of speaking her fate as if it were inevitable. She smiled inwardly. He hadn’t needed to ask. She had already made up her mind, but the question was liberating in a way she couldn’t describe. Yes. I will do everything I can. I have already started.
Then you must go to your parents. Soon. Tell them it is time to return.
Before she could question him, Mariah realized then that they were gliding in small circles above the peak of the Althamiran temple. The Keepers and many others from within were crowded atop the flat roof, staring at the Dragon and at her and murmuring to one another. Far below, the streets were crowded with onlookers.
I’m afraid I must leave you for now, Arrynas said. There is someone else who needs me. I must get to her before he returns.
The image from her dream flashed in Mariah’s mind. Arrynas and the woman with the coronet, standing close together, sheltering a baby in an empty castle tower. Without a doubt, Mariah knew who the woman was, although how old the vision was, she couldn’t say. Queen Melisanthe? She is alive?
Yes, and I must go to her.
Thank you, Mariah replied. It was the sincerest expression of gratitude she had ever given in her life.
No, Mariah Griven, thank you. I have not tasted freedom in many a long year, and I will not forget what you have granted me.
There was something else in his words, but before she could ask, he flew away, and she was forced to buffet herself against the force of his retreat. With no other choice, she descended to the top of temple and landed on the arm Keeper Damaris stretched out for her.
As she settled and watched the red dragon disappear back into Draydon Keep, she was finally able to make out the Keepers’ words.
“The First. He has come!”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
One More Task
Mariah allowed herself one day and one night. One day to make sure that her friends were safe and healthy and on their way to the safety of the Cellar. One night to rest with them and rebuild her strength, to remember Han in tales around the fire and honor his sacrifice. One night to wonder over the revelations in Glenley and to grieve for those who had been lost.
On the second morning after their escape from Varidian’s castle, Mariah bid her friends goodbye and flew toward Adis Ador. Ignoring her protests that he should stay with the others, Xae flew at her side. Short of tying him down, there was nothing she could have done to stop him.
Despite herself, it warmed her heart, and she was glad for his presence.
* * *
Crossing over the western tip of the Highlands and the Falmswell River into what had been Adis Ador, Mariah and Xae found the slave camp the following morning. Or what was left of it.
Only charred remains of its barricades and structures remained. Huts and tents had been burned to the ground. As the birds silently circled over the ruins, smoke curled up through the air, filling their nostrils with soot.
All sense of the victory she had felt over Rothgar fled from Mariah as she took in the blackness. What had happened here? There was no sign of survivors, Ceo San or otherwise. She tried to take comfort in the fact that she had seen no bodies either, but she worried that they were hidden among the ruins and ash.
Her heart leaden, Mariah called to Xae and flew from the camp, following the river north toward Falmermere and the westward entrance of the Cellar.
Epilogue
Voyage
Three weeks later …
A warm breeze tickled Mariah’s face and filled
her nose with the salty air as she stood on the bow of Zaro’s Wind. Locks of her short, silver hair flitted in and out of her vision. She gripped the wooden rail before her and smiled, leaning her head to the side to briefly touch Shira’s before glancing over her shoulder at the little group that stood together behind them, pointing out landmarks as they neared the shores of Tennedore.
Although their appearances were nothing alike, Berg, Rose, Jahl, Grelem, and Xae looked like a perfectly natural family, content and joyful in one another’s company.
Mellar, Nilovi, and Kaddan stood further back in their own little huddle, smiles on their faces as well.
A tall, portly man with a full white beard joined Rose’s group, and seeing him, Shira laughed. They had found him waiting for them when they returned to the Cellar. It was her grandfather, Pol Miranda. Shira’s whole family was safe once again, and the joy in her face was infectious.
As Mariah turned back to look out over the water, she realized that the trip across the Granite Sea with all of these people so close to her heart, along with other members of the Sovereign who had chosen to join them, had been a balm that she hadn’t known she needed.
Some, like herself, would be returning to Varidian before long, but others, like many of the refugees from the camp in Adis Ador, had left its shores for good, seeking the safety that Cillian and Eseth promised.
Before they had flown half the distance between the camp and the Cellar, Mariah and Xae had come across Mellar, his warriors, and the camp slaves they had set free. They were a rag-tag bunch of humans and animals leading a few prisoners.
Mariah was surprised to find Nilovi with them, but Mellar had explained that she had argued that she could help free the prisoners with fewer casualties. It had taken several days, but she and another wombie had burrowed under the camp, making tunnels large enough for the prisoners to crawl through. Then, they had dug directly into the floor of one of the slave houses. A number of the prisoners were already out and beyond the barricades before their efforts were discovered and the true battle began.
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