I am Aydra Ravenspeak. I can help. Please. Tell me what is wrong.
Not me. My child, it told her.
“—speak to me!” she heard Draven say.
“Something is wrong with her child. It is the child I am feeling, not her.”
A cold sweat broke on Draven’s hand. “How… How do I help?”
Aydra inhaled a deep breath and felt for the Rhamocour again.The Venari King is here to help. Can you flame something so I can see you?
Purple flames ignited the a tree thirty yards ahead of them. And as the light reflected into the darkness, she saw the apple green slitted eyes from the drawing.
The Rhamocour’s long neck rose deliberately, and her horns grew until she was as tall as the tree she stood beside.
Draven stood from Aydra’s side and stepped closer to her, his hands up. He took the sword off his belt and laid it to the ground. The beast’s great talons gripped into the earth, and Aydra heard the deep purr emit from its throat.
A warmth wrapped her entire body, as though the pain of the great dragon had washed away upon seeing Draven. An ache replaced it that made her heart constrict.
The Rhamocour’s love for the Venari King poured through her.
—But another sting of whatever was wrong with the baby cut deep, and the Rhamocour cried out once more. Its great tail slashed the air, nearly hitting Draven. He crouched to the ground.
“Tell her I want to help,” he called back to Aydra.
Tell him how to help you, Aydra begged.
The egg was damaged by the Ulfram pack. I cannot get him out without crushing him. He will need to cut him from the egg.
“What?”
Aydra didn’t realize she’d said the word out loud. Her body froze at what the beast had just told her.Cut him from it?
The Rhamocour moved, exposing the damaged egg that was suddenly shaking.
Draven turned wide-eyed at her. “What’s she doing?”
“She says you have to cut her child from its egg.”
The remaining color left his face. “What?”
“Exactly what I said. But it’s the only way.”
Aydra made herself get to her feet, ignoring the pain, and she picked Draven’s sword up from the ground to take to him, using the weapon as a crutch. She fell to her knees as she reached the dragon’s head, and Draven took the sword from her.
His hands were shaking.
Aydra’s eyes widened at the dragon before her, who’s head was the size of five horses. The beast’s breaths were short, and Aydra reached a cautious hand out to feel of the great black scales along her face.
Where does he cut?
The Rhamocour explained it to her, and Aydra told Draven. Draven followed her instructions to the egg, and then he paused and met her gaze.
“If I do something wrong, and she eats me, make sure Balandria is crowned King,” he told her.
Her lips pursed at him. “Get the baby out, Draven.”
Draven’s jaw tightened as he stepped up to the moving egg, the top of it coming to his waist. The pain of the trapped child poured through Aydra once more, and she laid her head against the Rhamocour’s nose.
