Adelina faked a laugh, grinning at the girls. “That was a great joke. Tell me another.”
Thankfully, Mara and Leah caught on quickly, and giggled.
“What’s big as a dragon but weighs nothing?” Mara asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
“I don’t know!” Although she was seething, Adelina forced mirth into her voice. “I give up. What’s as big as a dragon but weighs nothing?”
“His shadow.”
Adelina and Leah laughed again. “That was bad,” said Adelina, turning to Leah. “Do you have a better one?”
Behind them, chairs scraped as Sofia and her gossips got up to leave.
“They’ve gone,” breathed Mara. “I’m sorry you had to hear that.”
“You mean it’s not the first time they’ve said those things about my brother?”
Mara broke crumbs off her bread roll, not meeting Adelina’s eyes.
“No, it’s not,” said Leah. “But I’d ignore them.”
Adelina glanced behind her. Although the rest of the mess cavern was still busy, the few tables nearby had emptied out. No one could hear them, but still, she whispered. “No, don’t ignore them. Listen in, then let me know what they’re saying.”
“But Alban …” Leah murmured.
“Is he hurting people?”
“Not sure, but there was a rumor that Sofia asked him to punch a girl.”
“When did that happen?”
The girls shrugged. “It might just be a rumor,” Mara said. “Is it true Ezaara knifed Sofia?”
Adelina sighed. “Yes, but it was an accident. Fleur’s dragon, Ajeuria, was on swayweed and sent Ezaara a vision of her being blasted by a dragon. It was so real that Ezaara thought her skin was on fire. She stumbled and her knife went into Sofia’s leg.”
“How could a dragon meld with Ezaara without her touching it?”
“She has special gifts. She can meld with any dragon, but not many know that, so keep it quiet. That’s one way we know she’s Queen’s Rider. Besides, my brother doesn’t lie.”
Leah still looked uncertain.
“What is it?”
“Did he really work for Master Zens?”
“Only because he was drugged with numlock and forced to, but Erob saved him.” Adelina shivered, remembering Roberto’s screams through her bedroom walls when he’d returned to Naobia.
§
Marlies stifled a yawn, and placed her hand on Erob’s forehead so she could mind-meld with him. His scales were a healthy hue, but a little cool. “How are you feeling?”
He opened an eye, his lid sliding over his slitted pupil. “A bit better. Still weak.”
“Sleep, then.”
“Thanks. I was until you woke me.” His lid closed again.
She checked Erob’s wound again. There was a slight mark along his scales, but otherwise not a blemish. Piaua juice was incredible. What they’d do without it, she had no idea.
After rescuing Erob and helping heal him, Hans had collapsed in bed. Marlies had been tending the blue dragon and the patients in the infirmary on her own—even though she’d also hardly slept. She wasn’t as hardy as she’d been when she left Lush Valley a few short moons ago. Death Valley had dealt her a raw card. But at least she was alive, with her family. More than she could guarantee for Roberto.
Strange, she’d expected Ezaara to pop in by now. She was probably sleeping too.
Marlies threw some blankets over his back, and then more on each of his limbs. If she could help him conserve heat, he’d use his energy for healing. Behind him, Maazini snuffled in his sleep. She threw some blankets on him too.
Liesar landed on the ledge and came inside the overhang where the dragons were dozing. “You’ve been up all night and half the day. You need rest.”
“Soon.” A knock sounded at the door. “Come in,” Marlies called, going back inside the infirmary and pulling the door shut. Although there were two exhausted dragons on the ledge, Erob was out of danger and it was freezing. She’d wake Hans so he could rug up and take the next shift, watching him.
A young blonde girl entered the infirmary, the one whose finger Ezaara had amputated. She was older than a littling but not a fully-fledged teen yet, shy wee thing. What was her name again? Lara or Lexi—no, Leah, that was it. “Good evening, Leah. How’s your hand?”
“F-fine, M-master Healer Marlies,” Leah replied.
From memory, the girl had been orphaned. Perhaps she needed someone to talk to. “I’m just making a cup of tea. Would you like one?” Marlies tipped water from a waterskin into two cups and passed Leah one.
“Thank you.” Leah clutched her cup, knuckles white.
Leah was either really nervous or freezing. Either way, tea would help. “Come with me.” Marlies walked to the ledge and opened the door to a chill wind. She mind-melded with Liesar. “Be gentle, she’s just young.”
“I’m nothing but gentle,” Liesar replied.
“Especially when you fight tharuks.” Marlies held out her cup.
Liesar sent hot gusts of air over Marlies’ cup until the water was steaming.
Leah’s eyes nearly fell out of her head. “Liesar warms your tea? Doesn’t her breath burn your hands?”
“She has great aim—and because we mind-meld, she’d know if she hurt me. She feels what I feel.”
“That’s handy. Does she help you heal people?”
“She helps heal other dragons.”
“And I sterilize your surgical knives, don’t forget to tell her that. And I fetch injured dragons’ riders.” Liesar ruffled her neck scales.
“I wish I was a healer.” Leah’s eyes shot wide open and she gasped. “Oh, sorry, I meant to ask you nicely. I mean I—”
Marlies laid her free hand on Leah’s arm. “You want to be a healer?”
“Yes. Ezaara and Adelina helped me so much when they healed me from limplock. I would’ve died without them. That’s why I want to help others.”
The Egg knew she could do with help. With hardly any healing supplies and no decent assistants except Ezaara, Adelina and Tomaaz—who all now had other responsibilities—she’d been run off her feet whenever there was a tharuk skirmish. Lars had assigned a couple of people, but they’d been more hindrance then help, so Marlies had suggested they work with the master craftsman. Marlies nodded. “Very well. Here’s your first lesson. You’ll often need to heat water for herbal infusions, like feverweed tea or koromiko for belly gripes. Hold your cup by the handle only. Don’t put your hand around the base.”
Leah held her cup out, as instructed.
“Now, the trick is to stand absolutely still so Liesar can aim. That will prevent you from being burned.”
The silver dragon rumbled her approval as she heated the water. “Not a twitch. She’ll be steady in emergencies.”
Hans came to the doorway, tugging on his riders’ jerkin. “Oh, tea? Could you make me one too?”
Marlies nodded at Leah. “That’s your second assignment.”
While Leah went inside to fetch another cup, Marlies said quietly to Hans, “I thought Ezaara would have come to see Erob by now.”
Hans arched his eyebrows over his emerald eyes. “Hasn’t she been in yet?”
“No,” Marlies replied. “She must be sleeping.”
Someone else knocked on the door. Adelina appeared on the ledge with Leah. “Do you know where Ezaara is?” she asked, frowning. “I thought she’d be here.”
“She’s not in her cavern?” Marlies asked.
“No, and no one’s seen her for hours.”
§
“Do you want to sit with us at lunch?” Gret asked after their combat session in the training cavern.
Lovina shook her head. “I’ll be along a little later.” Gret and Adelina always respected her need for space, never questioning her when she escaped the busy tumult of Dragons’ Hold for a little peace.
Lovina wandered through the tunnels aimlessly. She longed to see Tomaaz again, but he’d been so pale an
d tired when he’d returned from rescuing Erob, she’d insisted he get some sleep. Hours later, he was still sleeping. When he’d gone back to Death Valley, she’d been sure he’d become another of Zens’ victims, thrown on the flesh heap to rot. She hadn’t dared hope he’d survive. Hope hadn’t helped her family. Hadn’t helped her hold onto anyone she’d loved.
There. She’d admitted it. She did care for him—loved him. He nurtured something precious inside her.
Lovina suddenly realized that her feet had automatically brought her to the infirmary and Tomaaz’s family quarters. Oh well, since she was here, she may as well visit Maazini. Opening the door, she entered the infirmary. She’d stayed here for her first two weeks after arriving at Dragons’ Hold—she’d been so ill and broken. Two patients lay in beds sleeping, so Lovina gave Marlies a small wave.
“Tomaaz is still sleeping,” Marlies said quietly.
Lovina nodded and made her way through the rows of beds, and opened the door to the ledge outside. She tugged her jerkin shut, put on her gloves and pulled up her collar against the cold.
Erob’s sleeping form greeted her. Beyond him, Maazini was also asleep. Lovina sighed. She couldn’t wake them; they, too, needed sleep. This particular ledge was large enough for several dragons, providing necessary space to bring the wounded in from battle. A deep overhang provided shelter for the sleeping dragons and many more, if need be. She walked out from the protection of the overhang, her boots crunching on snow, and stood near the lip of the ledge.
When she’d first come here, two moons ago, she’d seen a verdant basin below, nestled among a ring of icy peaks. Dragons of every imaginable color had wheeled in the sky, looking like a scene off one of Bill’s bolts of cloth. An orchard of laden fruit trees had edged a patchwork of fields, hemmed in by a vast forest to the north. It had taken her breath away.
Now, shrouded in snow, with the lake glinting silver in the wan winter sun, the evergreens dusted with fine powder and the fierce peaks of Dragon’s Teeth standing like guardians, protecting her from her old life outside, Dragons’ Hold had a special type of pristine magic to it. A beauty that still made her breath catch.
Was that because she’d spent so many years in the arid waste of Death Valley—and then more in the grip of numlock, with a gray fog over her eyes and mind, preventing her from seeing the world’s beauty? She’d traveled the length of Dragons’ Realm, a slave to Bill—a merchant and tharuk spy—and yet she’d barely noticed any of it.
Out of the thousands of inhabitants she’d encountered, Tomaaz had been the only one to see her, to wake her from her living nightmare and fight for her to be free. She automatically flexed the arm Bill had broken. It was healthy again, not quite as strong as her other, but it would recover. Although she’d never be rid of the whip scars on her back, they would fade. She would not let Bill damage her for life.
Nearby, Singlar, Lars’ purple dragon, sprang from a ledge. Her fingers itched to paint the dragon’s majestic wings, limned in light as it flew over a waterfall that tumbled down an icy slope.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Lovina spun back to the arch. Erob and Maazini were both still asleep. The voice had sounded odd, like she’d heard it in her head, not with her ears. Had one of the dragons mind-melded with her? She shrugged it off. She’d probably imagined it.
“I’m over here. The other way.”
She spun again. On the other side of the ledge, beyond Erob and Maazini’s sleeping forms, under the overhang where the mountainside blocked the snow and sunlight, deep in shadows, was a green dragon. The dragon stretched its limbs and paced past the others toward her. As it stepped into the sunlight, its scales glinted like emeralds. Lovina had seen dragons before, but not like this, full of majesty, glory—and deep sadness.
The creature bowed its head gracefully before her. “Lovina …”
The voice was in her head. She hadn’t been mistaken. The dragon’s tones were like sweet music that welled inside her. Sunlight played across its hide, turning the green into wondrous shades: moss, fresh mint, new spring grass, evergreens, emeralds and baby ferns in woodlands. If only she had her paintbrush and a palette of colors.
The dragon gazed at her with deep blue eyes.
A rush of wonder engulfed Lovina. Warmth spread through her. A sense of belonging.
“Will you be my rider?”
“Me?” Even as she asked, Lovina was drawn forward. She placed her hand on the dragon’s head. Its skin was warm and supple. “I’m not up to this. I’m untrained. Only a slave.”
“Then we are well suited. I, too, have been enslaved by Zens.”
She barely dared breathe. “You, too?”
“But now I am free. And so are you. Come, fly with me.”
The music inside her grew until she was swept up, leaping onto the dragon. Its haunches tensed and with a flip of its wings, they were airborne, high above the basin, spiraling up toward the peaks. Something loosened inside Lovina. It had started with Tomaaz, and, now, it loosened further. Carefree and unfettered, she laughed.
The dragon chuckled in her mind. “Lovina, for years I was miserable serving a master who had chained me with swayweed, making me hate the ones I loved. I was powerless, but now we can make a new life.”
“So that was the source of the sorrow I sensed in you,” Lovina replied. “For eight years, I was numlocked, beaten and abused. My home was burned and my family killed.”
“I am now your family. Dragons’ Hold will be your home.”
The music swelled inside Lovina, bursting into brilliant harmony. She’d never felt like this before. Never had such a sense of belonging.
“I was called Ajeuria, but now I will be known as Ajeurina, in your honor.”
It was an honor. “Ajeurina,” she liked the way it sounded. Like a new start. So, this was Erob and Maazini’s sister—all three were Zaarusha’s offspring. Fleur, the former master healer and traitor, had been her last rider. “Why don’t you show me my new home?” Lovina asked.
“That would be my pleasure.” A deep wave of Ajeurina’s satisfaction flowed through Lovina, driving away the cold and making her tingle with warmth. Ajeurina dipped her wings and they shot over the basin toward the distant peak of Fire Crag.
Stuck
By the time Ezaara made her way to the mouth of the crevasse to sneak back out of Death Valley, it was broad daylight. Shards, how long had she been holed up watching Roberto? It was one thing to slip into Death Valley wearing an invisibility cloak at night. It was another to walk out among troops of tharuks in broad daylight. Should she chance it?
No, she’d be handing Zens her head on a platter. Roberto’s hand signals had said to flee, not to find Zens and join him in the dungeons.
The stomp of tharuk troops echoed from the main tunnel down the crevasse Ezaara was hiding in. She huffed her breath out, crept further into the crevasse and wrapped her cloak around her. She couldn’t go too far in. Roberto was obviously afraid Zens would sense her. Hastily, she chewed some freshweed. She’d have to wait this out like a brooding dragon, but at least she could disguise her scent. Then she submerged her mind, the way Roberto had taught her, and waited.
§
“Roberto, I know you can hear me.”
Roberto groaned, but not too loudly. He couldn’t show any weakness or Zens would exploit it. But he was weak. Weak from 000’s latest torture and from Zens’ relentless mental battering. Even when Zens wasn’t in the cavern, he bombarded Roberto with insidious thoughts.
“I will beat you. I’ll break your mind and body. You have no hope. Soon, I’ll be your master.”
Even though it was cold, sweat rolled off Roberto’s face as he gritted his teeth and held an image in his mind that Zens couldn’t use against him: the wall of this cavern. He blinked with his good eye. The other eye was swollen shut and his face was stiff with crusted blood. He tried to stretch his cramped shoulder, but the metal shackles only bit harder.
So, he did what he’d
been doing for days, he stared at the wall, noticing every bump, pit and crevice in the flickering torchlight. Deep underground, it was hard to figure out how long he’d been here, but something different had happened recently …
As his good eye roamed over the wall, he spotted a tiny chink, and suddenly, he knew what it was. Someone had been here.
He clamped down on that thought. Quashed his feelings. He mustn’t give Ezaara away. If Zens slipped into his mind unwittingly, he’d know she’d been here. He submerged his thoughts, going deep inside himself, so Zens couldn’t detect him.
What had Zens said about the new creatures? Nothing more than he already knew: a threat to Dragons’ Realm and dragons. But what Zens didn’t know was that Roberto had discovered the location of his new lovelies.
If he could get out of these chains, he’d come back with reinforcements to destroy them.
Surprises
“What is it? Do you know?” Lofty asked Kierion as they walked toward the main cavern.
Kierion shrugged. Lars had said there was an important announcement this afternoon. He had a fair idea what it might be. He leaned toward Tomaaz’s best friend, who’d arrived a few weeks ago while Tomaaz was still in Death Valley. With his love of adventure, Lofty had become one of Kierion’s stalwart supporters, and had helped him drag the sledge full of arrows up the mountainside. Not that that particular prank was anything to brag about anymore. “Well, I may be wrong, but—”
“But what?” Lofty’s keen eyes flitted down to Kierion.
Shards, the man was tall—no wonder his nickname was Lofty. “Battle’s coming. There are many young dragons of imprintable age …” He let the words hang, so Lofty could draw his own conclusion.
“Imprinting with dragons?” Lofty grinned. “Do you think we stand a chance?”
Kierion shrugged. He’d been telling everyone that if they did kitchen duty, extra training and cross-drilled, sharing their fighting skills, they’d have more chance of becoming dragon riders. It made sense—but he hadn’t exactly asked Lars’ intentions. He huffed his cheeks out. “Dunno,” he said truthfully. “Could be anything. It might not be imprinting.”
Riders of Fire Complete Series Box Set books 1-6: YA Epic Fantasy Dragon Rider Adventures Page 69
