“No time, Laila!” she shouted, grabbing my hand and hauling me after her. “We need to get to the great repository.”
“The archive?” That had my feet slowing, some animal part of me taking over. It wanted to run, hide, find somewhere verysmall and very dark to hunker down in until all of this carnage was over.
“This way!”
My arm was half jerked out of its socket as she pulled me after her. Our feet slapped down on the stone ramp as we descended, just in time to hear the roar of our own dragons, rising to defend the city. Dreaded Drathnor had attacked while most of them were out on a hunt?—
Drathnor…?
It felt like my own consciousness was an apple bobbing up out of the water as it floated in a barrel, but whatever was contained within the egg shoved it back down again.
“Here!”
The woman nicked her finger, pressing it to a smooth pad of stone by the entrance and that had light flickering to life. Across the walls, markings were illuminating, the light zipping along the preset paths, spreading to the floor. The incisions I’d seen with my own eyes were far crisper, cleaner, than they were now and they started to glow as well, right before the two of them dropped to the floor.
“There should be six of us,” the woman said, setting her finger to the sharp petal and then pressing mine to the other. “Our blood might not be strong enough to awaken the archive.”
“For what?” I snapped, fighting the older woman’s hold. “For what, Mother?”
Her eyes met mine and it was then I saw the tears forming. A kind of helplessness existed there that killed off any remaining hope I might have.
“None survive the wrath of Drathnor,” she said, lips quivering. The terrible screams of dragons overhead jerked my eyes upward. Dragons were our guardians, our protectors, so why—? “She is the White Death. When she comes, nothing is left alive in her wake, so we must leave a record.”
“Of what?” My voice broke on that. “Of what, Mother? If we aren’t going to survive, then what…?”
Our blood seeped into the receptacle at the centre of thecarving, opening the gateway to the archive stones. A crystal egg appeared in its place, gleaming almost as bright as the dragon’s scales.
“Of our life here.” Mother clasped my hand around the stone, hers following suit and the crystal glowed brighter. “All that we know. We might not survive, but?—”
Abruptly my view shifted, and it was then I peered into the eyes of a young woman like one might a mirror’s reflection.
She didn’t look like me, didn’t have the same facial features or colouring, and yet I knew her. Fear, hopelessness filled her eyes as they began to shine.
“Find a way to bring down the white queen,” she ground out, blood smeared across her face as she tried to brush away her tears. “Bring down dreaded Drathnor!”
With a gasp I blinked, the calm of the auditorium almost eerie compared to the insanity of what I had just witnessed. My breath was the only sound, that and Auren’s. When we heard the pad of Viridian’s claws, we both whirled around, flame billowing out of her jaws in response, forcing the green dragon back.
I come with food, my queen. Food and firewood,he spluttered.
Food and firewood. Such prosaic things seemed impossible to comprehend right now, the two of us sinking down to the ground, but when we did, the crystal egg rolled free of her claws, spinning before coming to a stop.
You found a Tanis stone?Viridian moved forward.How did you come by this?
Chapter 28
Lance
“Everyone that was involved in this afternoon’s training session needs to report to the map room now!”
I blinked, looking at the general, knowing that sharp bark meant he’d given an order he expected to be obeyed. My body wasn’t moving, though, not after what I saw. My hands became fists. Yes, sir, that’s what I was supposed to say, followed by a salute, but instead this came out.
“Aren’t we going to go after them?” My voice broke on those words, something I hated, but as I stared out into the sky, tracing Auren’s path, I knew why.Viridian?My mind quested out, trying to link with my dragon’s, but for the first time since he was born, that connection failed. It wasn’t just that loss that had me turning back to the general. “Sir, aren’t we?—?”
“With what dragons, Lieutenant?” The general’s eyes glittered as he came to stand before me. “How are you going to find a single queen dragon, track her down to wherever she’s gone to hide? Oh no, you can’t, because your beast and countless others have lost their damn minds, tearing off after a viable breeding partner.”
When his arms crossed his chest, my back went straight. Part of it was muscle memory, born from hours of learning how to stand at attention, but the other part? It was a barely suppressed fury.
“They could be anywhere in Nevermere.” The general’s tone lowered, but the tension evident there didn’t. “Leaving the country completely unprotected. I’ll have to report to the king and the prime minister, but I’ll do so with a complete understanding of this…” For a minute I was sure he was going to curse, but instead his lips thinned. “Mess, before a solution can be devised.”
