“Fascinating, very fascinating…” she mumbles.
“Mum!”
She jolts, and the dragon’s jowls snap shut. Her eyes turn toward mine—one black, one gold. “Oh, hello, Isola.”
“Don’t ‘oh, hello’ me and smile like we’re about to sit down for dinner.” I gesture at the dragon carcass. The only reason my knees aren’t completely jelly and I’m not frozen in shock is because of the gaping hole in its chest. My father might be a man of few words, but he certainly can speak loudly through hisinventions. “What’re you doing?”
“Researching.” She pats her satchel.
“Oh, dragon-burned hells, Mum, taking dragon parts is one of the most illegal things in Vinguard.” I know it’s useless to tell her. She’s lived here all her life as well, went through the Tribunal, worked in the Earthtender’s guild, and lives under Creed rule. Mum knows every law, and I sometimes feel like she treats them as a checklist of what to break next.
“How am I supposed to know if I can’t look?” She shrugs and turns back to the corpse. “It’s rare for me to get to one this fresh. Usually the red capes are swirling by now.”
“And they absolutely will be, any second.” I grab her elbow, Lucan flashing across my mind. He’s close, too. “We need to go.”
“All right.” She sighs as if I’m the one being utterly unreasonable. “One more thing.”
“Not one-more-thing.Now.” I tug her arm, all my careful plans for the night unraveling. My hope waning before my eyes. Even if I knew I couldn’t be saved, I was hoping that maybe I could dosomething, in however short my life ends up being, to actually help Vinguard. Rather than lying as a beacon of false hope and then dying to a Mercy dagger.
“I need to check under the scales.” She pulls back the scales in the opposite direction, like petting the fur on a cat the wrong way. “No sign of scourge dust… You know what this means? The dragon isn’t making the scourge, so they are truly creatures of—”
“Explain it all to me back at your apartment.” I tug hard enough this time that she takes a step away from the dragon. “We need to go because I actually have—”
The light of Mercy lanterns reflects off the wet streets, outlining the inky pool of dragon blood encircling Mum’s boots. Even if we did run, they’d find us. Dragon blood stains worse than ink. Mum’s boots would leave a trail and will be a damning crimson forever.
“Halt!”
I freeze.
“By the order of the Creed, you are—” A familiar silhouette walks forward, backlit by Mercy lanterns. Tiny lightning bolts dance around the silver pauldrons that cap his shoulders, highlighting hair a familiar shade of red. I remember the night Father etched sigils into the underside of that plate. “Oh, for Valor’s sake. Isola?”
“Hi Marius,” I greet Saipha’s father with a weak smile.Good job, Saipha. Your father managed to find Mum, all right.
His eyes drop to Mum’s boots. Our proximity. He sighs as heavily as I imagine my own father would, then says, “The law’s the law. Arrest them.”
6
Mum and I sit on opposite sides of a bleak holding room in one of the smaller towers that dot Vinguard. It’s not part of the wall and, instead, is manned by Mercy Knights that didn’t pass the tests to walk the ramparts, lending mid-city aid when a dragon lands—like this evening. It’s also a place to hold prisoners until they can be judged by the Creed, enforcing the laws of Vinguard—also like this evening.
I shift. The shackles biting into my wrists are uncomfortable, but it’s the stool that’s currently the bane of my existence. The stone floor might be softer.
The only other thing that’s a larger pain in my ass is right across from me…As soon as the thought crosses my mind, I look into the corner of the room, scolding myself. Mum’s life hasn’t been easy. And she means well, I know she does.
I sigh heavily. At least no one has discovered the jar of scourge dust in my pocket. Marius “spared Valor Reborn the indignity of a search.” That’s one thing going right since the wall.
“I’m sorry,” Mum mumbles.
“It’s fine.” It’s not. “I know why you did it.”
“It’s so hard, Isola, being so close to a breakthrough, yet also knowing you’re running out of time.” She tilts her head and rests it against the wall behind her, staring at the ceiling. “I hope you never feel this way.”
“I know what it feels like to be running out of time,” I murmur.
Fate was cruel in making the dragon attack me when I was twelve. Young enough to change my life forever. Old enough to remember what life was like before my eyes turned gold and the Creed declared me Valor Reborn—the legendary Dragon Slayer returned, destined to kill the Elder Dragon and restore thebalance of the world.
It’s very poetic on paper. Stories often are, like they’re trying to make up for how messy and ugly and complicated the real world is.
“What do you mean?” Mum’s attention is solely on me. She heard how heavy the words were.
