Her eyes sparkled. “Save Rhyan. Heal akadim.”
“You knew about the cure?” I asked.
Ramia nodded. “Yes. But cure useless for years, lost. Without you—without someone to bear this—” she pointed at my heart, “no cure. This always had to happen.” She gestured around us.
“Because the shard was broken. Because part of it is inside of me,” I said.
Ramia nodded. “No cure without light.” She eyed my chest. “And no cure without shard.” She eyed Auriel. “Now pieces come together. But you face Queen first.” She shifted forward again, her hand on the water dragon’s head. “Vra. Volara a Khemet,” she said. And we started to turn again, this time moving west. I mentally pictured a map of Lumeria. Khemet, home of the Moon Court was west.
The dragon roared, and blue fire spurted from its mouth.
I stilled, but Ramia laughed. “Happy fire,” she said. “He in good mood now.”
“He better be,” I muttered, seeing the pyramids of the Great Library. They were like tiny points in the distance. We were flying fast, faster than a seraphim and gryphon combined. We’d be passing Scholar’s Harbor in no time.
“I fix you when we arrive. Make presentable,” Ramia said, nonchalantly. “My mother won’t like if you look a mess.”
“Your mother?” I asked, shaking my head.
Auriel’s eyebrows scrunched together.
“Why would your mother—” I looked back at the half Afeyan librarian I’d known most of my life. My stomach tightened. “Ramia? Who is your mother?”
She laughed, tossing her head back, the wind blowing through it now. “In Khemet, I not Ramia.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief the way they had a thousand times since I’d known her. Since I’d worked with her. “Not just Ramia.” Then she smirked, rolling her eyes as she shook her head in derision. “I Princess Ramia,” she said. “My mother, Her Majesty, Queen Ma’Nia, High Lady of the Moon Court.”
THE SECOND SCROLL: THE MOUTH OF THE AKADIM
Chapter
Seventeen
LYRIANA
“Princess?” I yelled. “You’re a princess?” I shook my head. “But I thought you were?—?”
“What? I can’t be both princess and librarian?” Ramia winked. “How boring.”
I shook my head. “No, I mean—I’m just trying to wrap my mind around the fact that all of this time I’ve known you as a librarian—and a jewelry dealer?—”
“Rare artifacts procurer,” Ramia corrected.
“Okay, fine, if that’s what you want to call it,” I huffed. “My point is that all this time, your mother was the Moon Queen.”
“And?” Ramia asked.
“And I didn’t know!”
“Lyriana,” Auriel laughed. “We’re riding on ajalamnavimto Queen Ma’Nia’s court to call in a thousand-year bargain, and this is your main concern?”
“Not the main one,” I said. “Just the latest. Add it to the list.”
“So now I’m keeping two lists. Things that are currently concerning Lyriana. And things that Lyriana has done to offend me.”
I twisted my neck to glare at him. “Seriously?”
“And now,” he announced, “I’m addingthatto the list.” I shoved my shoulder back into him.
“And that!” he said.
