Following the departure of Madan and Whelan, Ariadne wandered up the path to the training grounds above the dhemon keep as Azriel went to check in on the high fae and lycan. She had yet to meet those in charge of either group’s training, but had heard good things about the newest Sword Master for the dhemons. Soon she would need to meet the dhemon woman herself and learn from the one Thorin had appointed as the best swordsman in their little valley.
Up top, Ariadne caught sight of the shining white scales of whom she had been searching. Almandine had grown considerably since she had last seen the young dragon. Betweenher time in Laeton, Azriel’s healing, and the dragon’s own training away fromAuhla, Ariadne hadn’t even glimpsed her bondheart for nearly a week. They certainly hadn’t been face-to-face for over a fortnight.
Their near-constant connection, however, had Ariadne approaching the dragonling with confidence. Where she once would have hesitated in the face of a new dragon, she now hurried forward, excited to finally get the chance to trulyknowher bondheart. In return, Almandine all but flounced over to her, the excitement dripping from her every step—as if the feeling wasn’t being transmitted directly into Ariadne’s mind.
They collided, one small and one large, as though they had never seen one another before. Ariadne lifted her hands to hold the small dragon’s face, and Almandine pushed her long snout into her waiting palms. Dark eyes glittered down at her, the wisdom there far greater than any newly hatched being ever had the right to possess.
“Are you safe?” Ariadne asked, tilting her head to the side to look down at Almandine’s opalescent scales. “Hunting has been going well?”
Almandine rumbled deep in her chest. “Anthoria has taken good care of me.”
Good. Ariadne would be forced to have a strongly worded conversation with the dragon if anything had gone wrong. Though, based on what she knew from Azriel and Madan, she would have felt it had Almandine been injured at any point. Even at a great distance, they were connected at that level.
“Has it only been Oria with you?” Ariadne asked, sliding her hand down the dragon’s long neck before starting off. Where Almandine had been about the size of a horse when she first hatched, she now stood twice as tall. Her muscles rippled beneath the scales as she turned to walk alongside Ariadne.
The dragon shuffled her wings. “Brutis as well.At least a bit.”
That gave Ariadne pause, though her steps only faltered for a moment. She turned her attention to her bondheart. “But not Razer?”
That the great blue dragon had been uncommonly absent was not lost on Ariadne. Tonight was the first time in quite some time since she had even heard the dragon’s voice. It was strange for someone who had helped her feel less alone her first night in Laeton to now put so much distance between them.
“No.” Almandine eyed her. “He keeps saying how he doesn’t have time for me.”
It made no sense. Ariadne tried to reach through her vinculum with Almandine to find Razer, whom she knew to be close at hand. Nothing reached back out to her, as he once had. Of all the dragons, she would have expected him to take the most interest in Almandine.
“You won’t find him.” Sulfuric smoke curled from Almandine’s nostrils. “He hardly speaks to me.”
Hot frustration swept through Ariadne at that. How dare Razer act so cold-shouldered to a new hatchling? Almandine needed his help, and yet he cut himself off from her unless he wished to speak with Ariadne directly. It was, quite frankly, rude.
As if she expected anything different from the King of Sass.
“He has his reasons,” Almandine said, seemingly unbothered.
“It doesn’t make sense.”
At that, Almandine drew up short. “It makes perfect sense.”
For as little time as the dragon had been outside her shell, Ariadne frequently forgot just how old the hatchling was. Older, by far, than Razer in many ways. She, Emillie, and Madan had discussed the clutch from which Almandine was born, and her half-brother was certain the dragon had likely been in that egg for several thousand years. During that time, she’d spent countless hours, days, weeks communicating with the siblingsand friends in the surrounding eggs until she was left alone, waiting for her own bondheart to trigger her hatching.
“Tell me more,” Ariadne said, still unconvinced that Razer had any good reason to leave behind a hatchling who needed help adjusting to the world. After all, he’d taken it upon himself to help the other young dragons that hatched in the presence of the newcomers.
“He said he’s busy training the others for war.”
Now Ariadne reeled to a complete halt, her face screwed up in disbelief, and her horror caused her to speak aloud for the first time in several minutes. “Excuse me? Areyounot allowed to train with them?”
A laugh echoed through her mind, and Almandine’s sides heaved with the gentle rumble. “Think about it.You and Azriel are mates.Training me means putting you in danger.”
“Keeping you from training only puts me inmoredanger,does it not?” Ariadne looked over her shoulder as though she could physically hunt down the great brute and poke him in the eye for such thoughts to even cross his mind.
“I’m no child,Ari.” Almandine nudged her shoulder with her nose to draw her attention back to the present moment. “I know when we first spoke that it seemed that way,but it’d been quite some time since I’d had anyone to speak to.I can hold my own.”
Ariadne gestured at the dragon’s body. “You are physically the size of a child.You need all the help you can get, and poor Oria can only do so much.”
“I’m big enough to eat you.”
“In comparison to Razer!” Ariadne slammed her hands on her hips and looked the dragon up and down. “Why would he want you to be alone in this?”
Another laugh, and this time Almandine stepped into a particularly long patch of grass to curl up. She watched Ariadne expectantly, the feeling of contentment flooding through thevinculum. When it reached Ariadne, she sighed and crossed to the dragon, where she, too, sat in the grass.
