His transition of ice slipped, and then his hand in hers hardened, only it wasn’t ice—it was stone. Henda cried out. Cora looked him over. It wasn’t as though he had changed; she could sense a shell protecting him as the ice did, and he moved as easily as he had before. But instead of shimmering ice, he was matte grey stone. He grinned at her and squeezed her hand, and she realised that she still held him. She closed her eyes and concentrated on what he was, and then her own transition changed to stone.
‘Oh my,’ Henda exclaimed. ‘What did you do to him?’
‘What did he do to me?’ Cora asked.
‘You changed that yourself,’ he said with a grin.
‘Yes,’ she said, releasing her hold on him and standing up. She moved around the room, stretching and bending her limbs. She felt just the same as she did when she transitioned to ice, just as protected. ‘Hit me,’ she said, turning back to him.
He picked up one of the arrows, and she nodded. But as he lifted it up, Henda stepped between them.
‘I can withstand an arrow when I transition; this should be no different.’
She moved slowly and, with surprising force, Artell stabbed at her shoulder with the arrow, snapping the shaft and bending the fine point. Cora let it go and then transitioned again instantly.
As Artell dropped the arrow, she let it slip again and then rubbed at her shoulder.
‘Did it hurt?’ he asked, rushing forward, his own stone transition slipping.
She shook her head but continued to rub. ‘You used some force. I felt it push against me, but it didn’t break the skin.’
‘I am sorry,’ he said, the excitement of his new skill disappearing as quickly as the transition itself did.
‘My mother talked of feeling a sword push against her,’ she said, watching him. ‘It didn’t break the skin, but she said it was still unsettling.’
‘I can imagine,’ he murmured, looking at the ground.
‘How did you do that?’ she asked.
He looked up as she transitioned and then back again in an instant. ‘Where did the stone come from?’
‘I thought ice would be impractical, and that if you were going to protect yourself it would be better to be hard like stone. And then I was.’
She smiled.
‘Will you look now?’ he asked, stepping closer.
‘What if I find something you don’t want me to see? Will you let me look for myself, or hide what you think I don’t need to know?’
‘What will he take from you?’ Artell asked instead, stepping closer again, but although he was too close, she held her ground.
‘Let me look first and see if I can trust you with this, or whether you would take it for yourself.’
Artell nodded once. She lifted her hand to his chest and placed it across the leather tunic. She could sense the mark beneath the fabric, and she wondered for a moment if she could only do this for those with the mark, if it was a way to see between the marks. She might have to test it on another.
She realised then just how close they were. She leaned against Artell’s body, his arm around her lower back holding her up and against him. ‘I want you to see,’ he whispered.
‘I might see more than your heart,’ she said.
‘I will take the risk.’
She closed her eyes to concentrate on the quickening thud, but the warm hand on her back and the hard body she was pressed against pulled at her senses. She blew out a long breath and refocused on the mark. She felt Serassa almost as strongly as when she spoke to her, and she wondered if the dragon had pulled Cora back into a larger group.
Then the hurt of his mother’s death was dull and hot and took her breath away. It wasn’t sharp, not still tormenting him as Teven’s mother did him. But she hadn’t died in the same way, in the same sacrifice that only made his life harder. The pain of the clan was there, as it was with the chief, only it was sharper, burning into her hand and her chest. She tried not to wince and move away. His hand still rested on her back, but it didn’t hold her locked against him. She could run if she wanted. But then there was a little joy, like hope in the sea of burning pain.
Babies came and went from her vision. They may have offered hope before he learnt of their ends. Some had bright and long lives. She wondered why he didn’t just look at the first few years and stop. Maybe it all came at once and he had no control.
In the darkness of his shadows, she thought she saw Merik, but it wasn’t him; it was Edgris. Not because he was dark, but because he stood beside it.
And then it was as though she stood in his small cavern. It was a calm, secure world. The pain and panic she had felt were gone; only contentment remained. Then that little spark of joy again, and she saw the dragon curled by the hearth and the woman leaning against it.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to see who it was. Another Oldra, another one with the gift of dragons. But as she drew closer, the long, wavy, dark blond hair hid the woman’s face. Cora pressed her hand harder against his chest, and his arm closed around her tighter. Then the woman looked up, and Cora saw herself.
She opened her eyes, confused as to how she had found her way into his heart when he was sure it was not what he wanted. Then he closed both arms around her, his lips pressed against hers, and she was lost. The overwhelming contentment she had felt in his heart surrounded her and held her tight. The joy and happiness of knowing him and being with him took her breath away, and yet it filled her with all the nourishment she needed. She didn’t want to let him go. She wanted to hold him close for as long as she could.
Her arms had twisted around his neck, and she pulled herself close as his arms pulled even tighter around her. It was as though she couldn’t get close enough to him. Couldn’t close the gap she could feel between them.
Then someone was coughing, and Cora reluctantly released her tight grip on the man before her to look around at Henda, her face almost as red as the robes she wore, and the chief, who looked somewhat confused.
Chapter 25
Cora stood by the fire in the little cavern Artell called home, his hand still tight in hers. She wondered at her reluctance to release him. It wasn’t so long ago she felt he was too close to her, untrustworthy, and now she knew in her heart that she could trust no one like she could him.
They had been ushered from the cavern by the stammering Ancient and the wary chief. ‘Talk out what you must,’ he said, ‘but...’ He hadn’t finished as Artell had dragged her from the cavern, through the cool darkening woods and into the cliff face.
‘Will he visit?’
‘Who?’ Artell asked, his face creasing.
‘Your father,’ she said.
He smiled. ‘How did you guess?’
‘You have his features. And the way he speaks to you—even though you are Ancient, he is still your father.’
‘No one knows how to enter except Henda, and that is only because of her gifts.’
‘Will I learn?’
He nodded slowly and then stepped closer again, dropping her hand. He cupped her face and drew it closer. ‘You will stay,’ he whispered.
It took more will than she thought she had to pull away from him. ‘I cannot stay,’ she said.
‘Your father was right. We are connected. There is no one else for either of us.’
‘I understand that,’ she said, putting her hand to her heart. The burning sensation she felt in her parents wasn’t there, and she wasn’t sure if it would ever come or they were yet to trigger it. As much as she wanted to stay, as much as she was sure she needed Artell more than she needed the air around her, she had an obligation to the Penna. And Merik was dangerous.
‘You are to be Chief,’ Artell said, his arms slipping down to his sides.
‘My father might not be right about everything,’ Cora said. ‘There is more to consider than the two of us.’
‘My people, your people, Teven.’
‘Merik,’ she said.
He sighed. ‘What does he want?’
<
br /> Cora sucked in a deep breath, but she knew she could tell him. ‘I can talk to the Ancients.’
He laughed then, and she stared him down. ‘You are talking to one.’
‘Dead ones,’ she said, watching his face change. ‘Ancients far away.’
‘Your mother?’
‘And Arminel. Silphi, and with effort I am sure I could meet with Wyndha.’
‘You talked with Silphi?’
She nodded.
‘How?’
‘I dreamt of Henda as a girl, and Silphi and I talked as she ran around.’
Artell’s mouth worked, but no words came out. He shook his head as he paced back and forth across the cavern. ‘You could learn so much,’ he finally said.
Cora watched him, unsure what she could say. She too had thought of what she could learn, how the Ancients could help her help the people. But she worried more for what it might mean in the hands of someone else. ‘Can he take this from me?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Maybe I should go, before he has the chance...’
Artell grabbed her then, a desperation she had seen before glinting in his green-brown eyes. ‘You could use this to stop him.’
‘How?’
‘I don’t know,’ he snapped, releasing her. He stalked again across the cavern.
‘This is hardly helpful,’ she said, and he slowed his pace. ‘I don’t even understand what he is. He could not see the past, yet he could slip into the dreams of others. He could not see the future, only glimpses, and they made no sense.’
‘What did he show you?’
She remembered the fear as his life slipped away beneath her hands, blood and desperation the same as in the vision. She wondered then if Merik knew who the man was beneath her hold. She had thought it was Teven, but her glance of the future had been Artell.
He was standing before her, his arms wrapped around her shoulders, and he rested his cheek on the top of her head.
The panic she felt dissipated in his arms. Despite her uncertainty, she smiled. She understood her father so much better now.
‘I told you there was no room,’ he said quickly. Cora looked up at him, sensing Serassa by the opening of the cavern.
‘She is not the dragon I saw in your heart,’ Cora murmured. She turned then to look at the dark face and bright eyes in the shadows. ‘Is there another?’
In the silence from the two of them, she stepped back and looked at Artell again. ‘What is it?’
‘I can’t find them,’ he whispered, the pain evident. She understood the loss. ‘There is only one.’
Cora sighed. Her little clan of two had become three, but what did that mean for Artell? ‘Did you do this?’ she asked Serassa.
You did this. In choosing him, he has become one of us.
‘One of you?’ Artell asked. ‘Who are you?’
‘It was just the two of us,’ Cora murmured, feeling his disappointment. ‘I became separated from my people, and my dragons. Serassa chose me, but in doing so she separated herself from the other dragons.’
‘You talk with all dragons,’ he said.
‘But I am connected at all times with only those dragons of my clan.’
He took her shoulders and pulled her close again. ‘You mean you no longer have a clan?’
‘I do. It is just a lot smaller.’
‘Who else is in it?’ he asked, and she could hear the uncertainty. ‘Teven?’
‘You,’ she said. ‘It appears we are a clan of three.’
‘I have a clan,’ Artell said hurriedly. ‘You could join us.’
‘It isn’t up to me. Serassa has chosen, and in connecting with me, you have been chosen too.’
‘Then you are Chief and I am Ancient.’ He pulled her closer and kissed her, taking her breath away. ‘We should start producing children so as to have a clan to support.’
She laughed as she pushed him away. ‘That is not how it works.’
‘How will it work?’
‘I don’t know.’
Although she was starting to feel even more overwhelmed, Artell smiled. ‘What?’ she asked him.
‘You could ask Silphi,’ he said. ‘Merik left to start his own clan, but she said it wasn’t right, that he wasn’t gifted to do such a thing.’
‘And yet he is gifted enough that he worries you.’
‘I was too young when he left. Henda remembers more.’
‘She would be easier to ask,’ Cora said, turning for the doorway.
He gripped her arm and stopped her. The dragon continued to watch from the shadows. ‘You know,’ she said, ‘that space there looks comfortable enough for a dragon.’
‘You are Chief of this cavern already, I see,’ he said with a laugh.
Thank you, Oldra, Serassa hummed, but the dragon was gone when she looked back towards the door.
Cora looked at the space by the fire and remembered the vision of herself. ‘You saw me coming.’
‘In a way,’ he said, and she turned back to him. ‘I didn’t fully understand what you were—what we were.’
She nodded. ‘I didn’t really believe my father. I knew they had a connection. But I didn’t fully understand it. I thought they had simply loved each other all along. But it was more than that.’ She put her hand to the mark, remembering the sharp burning that had overwhelmed her mother when they had kissed. Cora, on the other hand, had felt something very different, but she knew it meant the same. ‘Just before I left, she told me he was disappointed when she first arrived, and I didn’t know that. They needed a warrior and expected a strong man, like Darring, to be called by the snow. When he found my mother, she was something else.’
Cora had sensed her mother’s life and past so many times, she might have confused it with her own. But she had not seen her father’s. She wondered if she could, if she truly wanted to see everyone’s past. She had seen the girl’s life, before she died.
‘Would you like to try?’ Artell asked, and she realised he was holding her hand.
She nodded. They sat on the mat by the fire, cross legged and facing each other. He held her hands, and she focused for a moment on the heat of the flames before thinking of her father. She knew what he looked like as a younger man, she had seen him in her mother’s memories so many times. There was a moment after Gerry had healed him when she had brushed the hair from his face and she focused on that image of him.
‘So far from the cavern,’ Pira murmured, trudging through the snow, his transition keeping him warm. ‘What was she thinking?’ Then he stopped. Ahead of him, shivering in the snow, was the girl he had seen at the house. Her long hair was damp about her face, and she looked terrified. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and stop the violent shivering. Instead he made some quip about her clothing, and she turned her amber eyes on him, and the world around him ceased to exist.
He slipped the coat from around his shoulders and pulled her close. They had to move quickly, or he wouldn’t get her there alive. Cora watched every moment of their journey back to the cavern. In trying to maintain his calm, he came across as distant and difficult. He was sure she would cry, and he didn’t want to be the cause of that.
‘You were not what we expected,’ he murmured, looking over the clothes she wore, the tight leggings and fitted tunic as she stood by the fire at his hearth.
‘I look like a man,’ she had said.
She looked anything but.
Cora opened her eyes to a grinning Artell, but she felt hot and uncomfortable in the memories of her father. ‘He loved her from the beginning, and he knew exactly what she was when she arrived.’
‘It appears so. Although didn’t you say they needed a warrior?’
‘She’s one of the best,’ Cora said.
‘What is that?’ Artell asked, squeezing her hand. ‘Jealousy?’
‘My mother is the best at everything. When she first arrived, they didn’t know what skills she had, but it didn’t take long before she learnt to transition and showed
skill as a strong healer, a great seer...’
‘Says the girl who can talk to all Ancients.’
Cora laughed then, and he surprised her by springing forward and kissing her. She pulled away well before she wanted to.
‘I have to go back,’ she said.
‘No, you stay with me and Serassa. I’ve seen it.’ He leaned in for another kiss.
‘I’m not sure I want that.’
He sat back then.
‘I thought you didn’t want this,’ she said.
He raised his eyebrows. ‘I wasn’t sure I could...’
Cora waited, unsure if she wanted to hear what he had thought of her.
‘I didn’t know that I could care for you as intensely as your parents felt. But it is not what I thought. It is somehow calming to be connected, like it takes the fear away.’
‘I find it calming too,’ Cora said, reaching out for his hand. ‘You don’t fear the possible pain to come?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘No, I don’t.’
‘Then what do we do next?’
‘Merik,’ he said. ‘We know he wants your gifts, all of them, we need to determine how he thinks he will get them.’
Chapter 26
It was only as the shadows were closing in around the small cavern that Cora blinked back the tiredness. She wasn’t sure what she wanted, yet when she looked at Artell by the fire, she knew there were some things she was very sure of—and yet she wasn’t.
Would she be able to stay here with him, isolated from the others and not at the same time? She felt both complete and as though there was a gap in her heart.
‘I need to talk to my mother,’ she whispered.
Artell turned, concern etching his features.
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she said. ‘At least not yet. And you still need to tell me what Merik is.’
He shook his head.
‘You thought I was a way to stop him, but what are we stopping? That he has taken part of your clan and moved away, keeping them isolated and scared? Or is there more to this?’
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