The winged wonder tilted his horned head and somehow seemed befuddled.“We are not rare, she of the prophecy, but I am proud to have met ye, as well. When ye released my bonds, ye released the bonds of my clan and freed us from the Fae of the Fires.”He lowered his head as though bowing.“I am Corvit, Lord of the Red.”
She managed a proper curtsy without bobbling. “It’s an honor, Corvit.” She picked up the trident that was no longer hot and wrinkled her nose. “I meant it when I said you should be the overlord of the Fae of the Fires.”
“Ye will bring honor to the title.”He cast a glance all around and lifted his head, listening.“The wind has already carried word to the fiery ones.”Twin puffs of smoke rose from his nostrils.“They celebrate the death of Incendium and look forward to yer reign.”
“They may not look forward to it very much when I proclaim no more burning.” She slowly shook her head at the desolation. “It will take decades for the Seventh Realm’s Scotland to heal.”
“The Green Fae and the Water Sprites will have all restored within days. My clan and I will return to the mountains, to our caves, where we belong. We are long overdue for the great sleep.”
“The great sleep…that sounds like I won’t see you again.” Lexi hated that idea, but understood completely.
“Are we forbidden then, she of the prophecy, overlord to the Fae of the Fires?”Corvit asked, sounding dejected.
“No. Absolutely not. You are free to do whatever it is dragons do—just don’t destroy anything or hurt anyone. Please? Well…” Lexi started to add that she wouldn’t mind if the dragons fried Princess Faeniana and her bunch, but somehow, asking that of the dragons who had just won their freedom didn’t seem fair.
“Well? Who do ye wish ended?”
Lexi motioned at all the surrounding destruction. “I’m not really fond of Princess Faeniana and her courtiers right now, but surely, the Fifth Kingdom has some good people left in it. I’d hate for them to suffer any more than they already have by being under her rule.”
“Ye care for the enemy?”
“There are always good people, innocents, on both sides of any war, and they’re usually the ones who end up suffering the most. I care about those people.” She nodded at him, and the cloud of dragons that appeared on the horizon. “Just like you and your clan. Look how you have suffered.”
The dragon stared at her, then lowered his head once more and outspread his wings, bowing low.“The prophecy spoke the truth. Ye will bring a time of light to the Seventh Realm.”
“I just want everyone to live in peace and be happy.” She untied the bandana, wiped the sweat off her face, then shoved it into her back pocket. “Do you know which direction I should go to get to Sevenrest?”
“Allow my clan and I to escort ye, mighty one.”
A loud sneeze blew up a cloud of ash and dust before Lexi could reply. She turned, spotted Aylryd, and ran to hug him. “I was worried about you getting singed. Are you all right?”
The mighty tiger purred and nudged her with his head.
With her sweet beastie at her side, she turned back to Corvit. “An escort would be lovely, thank you. As long as you’re certain it won’t endanger any of you. I don’t know anything about Sevenrest’s defenses. You and your clan have been through enough.” She knew Sevenrest’s wards were powered by unicorn magic, or they had been. But it might not be wise to share that. Since the Seventh Realm mirrored the year 1811 in her world, she doubted they had any surface-to-air firepower, but she didn’t know that for sure. Magic altered the possibilities of everything. Then she remembered the white t-shirt she’d stuffed in her backpack at the last minute. It would make an awesome flag of surrender to ensure Sevenrest knew the dragons weren’t coming to attack. “If you wouldn’t mind, could you take me to the edge of Sevenrest’s borders? I don’t want you and yours hurt.”
“It would be our honor, mighty one.”He crouched low and extended his wing.“Climb aboard.”
Thrilled speechless at the prospect of riding a dragon, Lexi hurried to climb the ribs of Corvit’s leathery wing to reach the spot on his back where they joined his body. His large scales were warm and smooth, like finely crafted shields fitted together in a mosaic of armor. Without being invited, Aylryd leapt up and settled in front of her.
“Don’t dig in with your claws,” she told the tiger with a stern look. “Just because he’s a big, scaly dragon doesn’t mean he doesn’t have feelings.”
Corvit rumbled and shook beneath her, smoke spiraling out of his nostrils as he lifted his head and twisted his long, serpent-like neck around to look at her. If she didn’t know better, she would say he was smiling.“Yer wee protector canna harm me, mighty one. Rest easy and hold fast. We go.”
* * *
“The sentries sounded the alarm.A dragon horde,” Darkcord said, “headed straight for Sevenrest. They said it looks like every feckin’ dragon what has ever flown for the Fae of the Fires.”
Jeros wiped the sweat from his sooty brow and squinted up at the bank of storm clouds forming. Rain would be both a blessing and a curse. It would help abate the fires and keep them from breaching Sevenrest’s southern border, but rain could also trigger mudslides—or more aptly, rivers of wet silt and ash. “Double the archers. Have them take down those spewing the most carnage first.”
“That is what is strange, my king,” the commander said. “None of them are spewing flames, and the mighty red dragon known to carry the overlord has a rider waving a white flag.”
“I am not yer king yet, old friend. Not until the anointing.”
Darkcord thumped his forearm across his broad chest in a warrior’s salute. “Ye have always been my king. Even before ye became the last Seventhson to survive.”
Jeros accepted the commander’s fealty with a grateful nod, then got back to the matter at hand. “A white flag, ye say? From Overlord Incendium’s dragon? Ye are certain?”
“Aye.”
