“She’s with Darick,” Nolan said. “She’s still unconscious. But she’s breathing.”
“And the baby?”
“Kyla, we don’t know anything yet. Breanna looked . . . normal. A little sweaty? I’m sure the baby’s fine.”
I let myself relax into the ground. “What . . . happened?”
He let out a strangled laugh. “I should be asking you that.”
With slow, tentative movements, I pushed myself up onto my elbows, searching for any sign of pain. There was none, but that heat inside me shifted with my movements. Like it was part of me. “What did you see?” I finally asked.
He hesitated. “The fire was getting worse. The quellers had surrounded the building and were trying to put it out, but it kept blazing hotter. As soon as they extinguished one area, the flames spread again. They couldn’t keep up with it.”
I nodded. That happened, sometimes, with bad fires. Even the quellers had their limits.
“And then all the flames . . . imploded. If that makes sense. And . . .” His eyes flinched with sudden pain.
“And what?” I asked gently.
“Enough of the barn had collapsed that I saw it happen,” he whispered. “I saw you. The fire consumed you . . . I thought I’d lost you. And then . . . you consumed the fire.”
I looked around. We were in what remained of the frame of the old barn. The building was partially collapsed and blackened, but not a live spark remained anywhere. I lay on a bed of ashes.
“The children?” I asked, my voice still hoarse. “And their mama?”
“They’re fine,” he said. “And the others, who were trapped in a different part of the barn. You saved twelve lives.”
I sank back down into the ashes and closed my eyes. “I thought I was going to die,” I murmured. “The labyrinth . . . showed me what to do. How to be a phoenix. To pull the fire into my own body to save the others.” My eyes opened and searched out Nolan’s. “But I thought it would kill me.”
“It usually does,” said a deep voice.
I sat up and whirled around. My uncle stood there with his arms crossed and a thoughtful look on his face.
I regarded him with curiosity, expecting anger to flash within me at the sight of him. But it didn’t. I supposed after what had happened in the barn, my place in the troupe didn’t seem quite as important as it had earlier.
Nolan took a step back, his face turning a shade paler. I pushed myself to my feet, standing between Nolan and the thane.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Do you know the story of the dragons?” asked my uncle.
I shifted, and ash crunched beneath my sandals. “The great beasts, or the ancient warriors?”
“The warriors,” he said. “The beasts are pure legend.”
“I thought the council said that the warriors were legend as well.”
“The warriors have been naught but a story for a long time,” he said.
“Powerful mages,” I murmured. “Fire itself coursed through their veins.”
“Mages with pure intentions, motivated by sacrificial care for others, who allowed themselves to be consumed by fire,” he said. “Many mages tried to become dragons. Those who were tainted by greed or ambition were incinerated. A thousand years ago, the council decided we would no longer teach that magic.”
I rubbed the back of my neck and tried to wrap my mind around what he was saying. But one thing I knew. “I’m nothing if not ambitious, Uncle.”
He reached out and clasped my shoulder. “But you did not invite the fire inside you with ambitious intent. You did it to save the others, though you believed it would cost you your life. And the fire has deemed you worthy.”
A shiver ran down my spine.
“You feel different, yes?”
That new heat surged in my chest. “Aye,” I said. “Something has changed.”
He nodded solemnly. “The fire has taken up residence inside you. It has become part of you, forever. No edict or council can change that. No matter how much we might wish it.” He leaned more heavily against his staff. “You will appear before the council tomorrow so that we can all decide how we are to move on from here.”
“Aye, Uncle,” I said. My voice rang out strong and confident.
He turned and walked away, clicking his tongue. Before he strode out of earshot, I heard him mutter, “Most extraordinary, indeed.”
“Kyla!”
I whirled around to see Papa running toward me. My chin quivered.
“Papa!” I darted forward and threw myself into his arms.
He held me close and brushed his lips against the top of my head. “Is it true? Did you run into that barn?”
Now the trembling overtook my whole body. “Breanna was in there,” I whispered.
He stiffened, and when I drew back, his face was ashen.
“She’s alive,” I said. “Nolan said she’s with Darick.”
Papa pulled me tight against his chest again. “They said . . . they said you put out the fire.”
I laughed, but it came out almost like a sob. “I did.”
“They said . . .” He trailed off. “Nay, it is too strange.”
This time, when I drew back, I looked him in the eyes. “It was strange, Papa. Uncle says I became a dragon-warrior. Like in the stories of the ancient days.”
His eyes widened, almost imperceptibly. “Did you, now?” Even through his shock, I could detect a twinkle of pride. “Did you, now?”
I opened my hand, and a little ball of fire danced out of it. I looked down at it and then closed my hand. The flame vanished. It was effortless. Unlike all those hours practicing down by the old mill, I didn’t have to strain to focus on the particles of fire. It just rolled out of me like . . . like it’s part of me.
Because if the thane was right, it was part of me.
I looked up at Papa, and an awed smile spread across his face. “The first dragon in a thousand years, and it’s my daughter,” he said. “Now, isn’t that something?”
Warmth spread in my chest, and it had nothing to do with the fire in my veins. “Let’s go to Breanna.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
We found Breanna lying on a blanket stretched across the green grass. Darick knelt at her side, and two earth wizards—healers—were spreading ointment over her face, neck, and hands.
In the distance, I could still see the scorched-out barn. I dropped to my knees next to my sister. “Is she okay?” I asked Darick.
His face was as pale as sheep wool, but he managed a nod.
Breanna let out a little groan. “I can speak for myself.” Her voice was faint, but I’d never felt so relieved to hear it.
“She’s going to be just fine,” said one of the healers, an older woman whose gray hair fell in a braid to her waist. “We’re just putting this on her because of all that heat. Should alleviate any burns. Her lungs will take a few weeks to heal, but no reason she won’t make a full recovery.”
“The baby?” I asked.
The healer’s expression was guarded. “It’s too soon to tell. But nothing suggests she’s miscarrying.”
I could have broken down and wept right there.
Breanna opened her eyes and took me in. “You’re covered in soot,” she said. “Were . . . you in there too?”
I almost laughed, but I just said, “Aye.”
“They said . . . something odd put out the fire,” Breanna murmured, almost too quietly to hear.
Someday I’d tell her the whole story, but not yet. And not in front of anyone else. “Aye,” I said. “It was curious.”
“Go to sleep, Miss Breanna,” cooed the younger of the healers. “You and the baby need a lot of rest.”
“Mmm,” she responded, her eyelids fluttering closed.
Darick squeezed Breanna’s fingers more tightly, and I reached out and grabbed her other hand. He gave me a quizzical look, but I just shrugged and mouthed, “Not yet.”
She needed to rest, not to ma
rvel at what had happened.
We knelt in silence until Breanna’s breaths rose and fell in a gentle, even rhythm.
The thane sat at the center of the long, rectangular council table. Blue fire blazed from a small cauldron in front of him, and the torches behind him flamed red. The other twelve council members also sat at the table, six on each side of the thane. And all of them were looking at Nolan and me.
But it felt nothing like before, when they had stared me down in judgment. Today, it felt . . . like they were afraid of me. Or maybe like they respected me.
Some of them, anyway.
A phoenixfly fluttered past me—behind me. But somehow, I knew, even though I couldn’t see it. The fire in me could sense the phoenixfly’s fire. I gripped Nolan’s fingers tightly as I returned the thane’s gaze. They had called me here to figure out what in the blazes they were going to do with me. But I was going to use this opportunity to plead Nolan’s case again.
Especially because I had an inkling that all this dragon business gave me more negotiating power than I’d had a couple of days ago.
But I waited in silence. I’d let the thane speak first.
He studied me for another full minute before he said, “This is quite an extraordinary situation.”
I tilted my chin up ever so slightly. The one small act of defiance I could allow myself. “So I hear.”
He quirked his lips and then heaved a sigh. For the first time, I noticed the white hairs sprinkled throughout his red hair. Saw the tight lines of worry on his face. His responsibility weighed on him. Had aged him.
I hadn’t seen it before.
Niall Hannigan, two seats down from the thane, leaned forward, his hands pressed together. “So, you fancy yourself a dragon, now?” Mirth tugged on the corners of his lips.
Condescending beetle.
About half the council chuckled to themselves. I waited for the anger, hot and searing, to flare up in me . . . but it didn’t. The obnoxious, puffed-up men who were mocking me just seemed . . . small. They thought themselves kings of the world, but they didn’t know how wide and mysterious the world was.
“I am a dragon,” I said, squeezing Nolan’s hand again.
“And I’m a flaming unicorn,” crowed Niall.
Now that did provoke a flash of irritation in me.
“Did you learn nothing from our ruling?” Niall demanded. “Girls can’t be mages, much less dragons. And there hasn’t been a dragon in a millennium. If they ever existed at all. You wouldn’t have the first idea how to do that magic, heifer.”
This time the anger surged in my chest. I’d always loathed that man.
The thane held up his hand, but Niall kept going.
“You’re trying to usurp authority over the men of—”
The blue fire in front of the thane pulsed into a tower of flame, reaching almost to the top of the tent. Effortless.
Niall sputtered and looked from me to Nolan. He raised a trembling finger and pointed at Nolan. “I see through your cheap parlor trick. Was it really Kyla who extinguished the torches when you were on trial? Or have you been doing it all for her?”
“Niall,” the thane’s voice boomed deep. “You shame yourself and this council.”
Niall’s face flushed, and he opened and closed his mouth before falling silent.
Cormac Flynn stood, and in that moment, he looked just like Liam. He’d always been kind to me, his vote at the previous meeting notwithstanding. I relaxed.
“But . . . we need proof, don’t we?” Cormac asked, his voice hesitant. “No offense, Miss Kyla. I’ve never known you to tell a lie. It’s just . . . there’s no question something strange happened down at the market. Each story is wilder than the last. But the return of dragon magic? It hasn’t been seen in generations. How do we know that this . . . phenomenon you’ve observed is really dragon-warrior magic?”
I swallowed. Another phoenixfly floated above my head. It had come down through the hole where smoke vented from the tent, I supposed. Odd. Phoenixflies didn’t usually come inside.
“I don’t,” I said. “All I know of the ancient dragons is what our great thane told me after I awoke from the fire—and what my mama told me in bedtime stories when I was small. But I have no better explanation.” Even now, my blood felt hot, like fire and blood intermingled in my veins in a mystical dance. We always said that the Fintan had fire in our blood . . . but it was an expression. A figure of speech. It wasn’t like this.
Then I let the fire rise up and out of me, until it was dancing on my skin.
Nolan gasped and dropped my hand. I looked down at my arm, and the sight took my breath away.
Fire stretched out across my body in a thin layer, pulsing like a living thing. Well done, said a voice in my mind. I tilted my head. I knew that voice.
It was the voice that had spoken to me from inside the labyrinth. Now it was inside me.
Illuminate, said the voice.
The fire rose off me in a perfect halo around my body.
Call it back, said the voice.
It barely took a conscious thought, and the fire contracted, tingled on my skin for a moment, and vanished. I felt a warming sensation as it eased back into my veins.
I held Niall’s astonished gaze and then nodded at Cormac. “Does that settle the matter?” I asked quietly.
By the looks on their faces, I knew I’d proved it. Beyond any doubt.
Though the thane still seemed perturbed, a smile spread across his face. Perhaps he enjoyed Niall’s humiliation as much as I did.
“As I said,” intoned the thane, “this is quite an extraordinary situation.”
Niall slammed his fist on the table. “She’s a girl. She can’t learn magecraft.”
Cormac called, “I’d say she already knows magecraft better than you do.”
Niall shot to his feet. “How dare—”
Nolan and I rolled our eyes at each other as those at the table devolved into a heated squabble.
“Order!” called the thane over the commotion. “I demand order!”
The raucous voices calmed.
“Now,” said the thane, adjusting the collar of his robe. “Kyla is a dragon. That much is clear. So we must discuss, in a calm, civilized manner, how we will proceed.”
Niall said, “I—”
The thane cut him off. “I believe you’ve already contributed your opinion to the council.”
Niall’s face turned an even brighter shade of red, if such a thing were possible.
“Don’t see as we have much of a choice,” piped up Desmond, who sat beside the thane. “It’s not like she just knows a few tricks. Two days ago, she told us we had no choice but to train her, but she was wrong then. She didn’t know so much that she could force our hands. But now? There’s a power inside her that most of us barely plumb in our whole lives. But she’s very young. She still has a lot to learn.” He turned to look at me, running a hand through his beard. Then he nodded, as if offering a begrudging respect. “And I reckon she has a lot to teach us.”
The council members nodded, except for Niall and Old Rory.
That might be as good as it gets. I stepped forward. “On one condition,” I said.
This time even the thane scoffed at me. “You think you have a right to dictate your terms to us?”
A phoenixfly alighted on my shoulder, and its brilliant purple flame changed to a vibrant red.
“I don’t know about the right to dictate anything,” I said, “but I know I do have the right to leave the Fintan behind and make my own way in the world.”
The thane’s jaw tightened.
“And if you try to stop me”—my voice intensified—“maybe you’d succeed. If all of you worked together. But I think the damage would make that barn fire look like a cooking pit.”
The thane drummed his fingers on the table. “Proceed.”
I took a deep breath. “The council is right that I still have a lot to learn. I need to be sure that I can control this magecr
aft, that I know how best to use it for the good of the clan. I need to practice, and I need to learn the history of the dragon-warriors. All of the ancient stories. Everything we know. So these are my conditions: I am given the freedom to pursue mage training, learn everything I need to know, and pursue the use of this gift, just as any man would have.”
The thane nodded. “That seems reasonable, under these unusual circumstances.”
“And Nolan,” I continued. “Nolan is to be trained as a mage and welcomed back into the community. His family, too, if they want.”
This time, the thane shook his head. “We’ve discussed this, Kyla. You know that is in violation of our strictest laws.”
“I don’t care,” I said through gritted teeth. “You can agree, or you can say goodbye to me and to the magic inside me.”
The thane leaned back in his seat and studied me, as if trying to gauge how serious I was. “Alright, then,” he said. “The boy can train, as can any of his brothers who show evidence of the elemental fire. And his sister may join the clan as well. But not his papa.”
My head snapped up.
The thane’s eyes burned. “The boy and his siblings had no choice in the circumstances of their birth, and we are nothing if not forgiving and merciful.”
I suppressed a snort.
“But his papa chose to leave us—to reject the community that raised him, to go off with a woman from outside the clan. He has made his choice.”
Swallowing, I glanced at Nolan. He nodded. And even though part of me wanted to stand my ground and demand that the council agree to each and every demand, I sensed a rigid core in the thane’s words.
And Nolan’s papa did leave.
“That will be fine,” I said.
The thane nodded solemnly. “I’m glad to hear it. Any other demands?”
Let all the girls be mages? The answer rose up in me unbidden, but I sequestered it, locking it away in a tiny corner of my heart. Someday soon, I’d unleash that desire and fight for thoroughgoing change. Today, I would choose which wars to wage.
A phoenixfly landed on my shoulder, and its heat mixed and melded with mine. “That’s it,” I said.
“You may go,” said the thane with a curt nod of his head.
Fire Dancer Page 20
