Serenna’s gaze swept the square, where the city’s hum rose around them. Vesryn’s rangers, Kaedryn’s druids, Lykor’s wraith, Centarya’s magus, and the newcomers—Daeryn and his warriors—all gathered for the evening festivities, though distance still lingered between them.
She hadn’t been surprised to learn that Jassyn’s healing in the jungle had worked. But the hollow-eyed soldiers returning with him and the revelation of Rimeclaw had come as a shock.
Now, music drifted around the market—flutes, drums, and palms striking rhythm—threaded through with low conversation. A celebration for Vasharax’s hatching and the arrival of more children of earth and starlight.
Wraith and druid children warped between merchant carts and the sandstriders resting on folded limbs, chasing one another beneath the floating firelight.
It sounded like joy as laughter spilled across the stones. Maybe it was. But Serenna still sensed unease as she studied the tension coiling through Daeryn’s shoulders and the wary glances his second-in-command Bhreena cast toward the druids, as though they expected the city to turn its spears on them before dawn.
Trust would have to be built from both sides. But if this small force could break free from the king’s clutches, it gave Serenna hope that her brother might find a way out too.
Having finished devouring the heart, Vasharax licked her talons clean, then nosed at the sand where blood had pooled, chuffing for any last traces.
A whistle cut through the noise behind them. Serenna turned to see Koln weaving through the gathering, long hair swaying with his swagger, his eye patch flashing in the firelight.
“I’ve secured a cluster of those spinebenders you asked about,” he called to Fenn, raising a potted plant in one claw while balancing three heaping plates of food on the other arm.
Barely giving Fenn enough time to shift aside, the broad-shouldered wraith dropped onto a cushion beside him and set everything down with a thump.
Serenna blinked at the plant. The cactus bulged in lush, swollen segments—smooth and tapering to blunt points where beads of clear sap glimmered along each seam. Their shape left little to the imagination. Brazenly indecent and obscenely suggestive, the green stalks nearly compelled her to look away yet dared her to stare at the same time.
“Already de-spined too,” Fenn noted, nodding in approval at the absence of thorns.
“Are you two taking up decorative gardening?” Serenna asked sarcastically. “That thing looks like it should be behind a closed door, not paraded around in a glazed pot.”
Face splitting into a mischievous grin, Koln tipped his chin toward a druid lounging on the tailgate of a wagon, plucking a tune on a lute. “The merchant didn’t believe me when I said the spinebender does more than soothe sand chafing. Their name for it was dull—something like ‘sunsalve.’ Anyway,” he continued, adjusting his eye patch, “he stopped me before Icould demonstrate the morecreativeapplications Fenn and I discovered.”
Fenn snorted. “You’re already banned from the palace gardens. Drop your trousers in the market next and they’ll exile you before the moons rise.”
Koln elbowed him and raised one claw to tick off his talons. “Cures sand rash and cools sunburn—which the druidsdoadmit. But it also aids with…loneliness, if one’s only companionship happens to be self-provided with a calloused palm.”
Serenna groaned, pressing a hand to her face. “That’s indecently specific.”
A low noise rumbled from Vasharax’s throat as she prowled closer to inspect Koln’s latest scandal in plant form.
Fenn bumped Serenna’s shoulder. “Fortunately, some of us don’t have to go scavenging for desert sap to find smoother company.”
Serenna pursed her lips as Koln reached for the cactus, scraping a talon into a divot where a thorn had been. A droplet of clear liquid welled, catching the firelight before he smeared it between thumb and forefinger. “If you’ve got an eager partner, apply a little to wherever’s getting the attention. Or to your own favored equipment. Doesn’t matter. Warms on contact, makes you slicker than a greased eel, and—”
Serenna cleared her throat, sharp enough to cut him off. “And why, precisely, did you bring that phallic monstrosity over here?”
Fenn didn’t miss a beat. “Not ‘phallic monstrosity’—spinebender,” he corrected, rolling a lip ring between his fangs. “It’s medicinalandrecreational. Truly the most versatile plant in the desert.”
“Whatever,” Serenna huffed, catching movement out of the corner of her eye.
Vasharax lowered onto her haunches, tail flicking in a slow, deliberate sweep. Serenna lunged forward and snatched the dragon before she could pounce on the plant. Vasharax hissed an indignant croak, talons pricking skin deep enough to draw a wince before Serenna shifted into scales, plating her arms for protection.
Fenn was already cackling. “And we didn’t name it spinebender for nothing, she-elf. Koln had me braced against a palm tree seeing stars before he even lined up. Walked crooked the rest of the night.”
Serenna couldn’t decide whether to splutter or gape. “I thought what happened at the Oasisstayedat the Oasis!”
In her arms, Vasharax mimicked her outrage with a piercing shriek. A puff of smoke curled from her snout, sharp with the scent of bloody meat.
Fenn circled his tongue around the point of a fang. “Can’t say you weren’t invited.”
Koln barked a laugh and reached for one of the plates he’d brought. “Relax. This plant isn’t for us.” He nudged the pot with the toe of his boot. “Figured it’s about time someone helped Lykor unclench. We’re just providing the supplies.”
Serenna’s jaw went slack, her gaze sweeping the plaza until it caught on Lykor. Or rather Aesar, judging by the way Kal’s arm was slung around his shoulders. The pair drank nectared wine from copper mugs, shaking with laughter as Vesryn gestured wildly through a story.
