“I’m hardly alone,” Almandine said, setting her head on a foreclaw and looking up at Ariadne. “And the only reason I am as small as I am is because my shell kept me that way.It is not so different from when you transitioned from vampire youth to adult.I know what to do,I just need to practice.”
Scrunching her face, Ariadne did her best to put herself back in that era. She had been quite young when she went through the change—far younger than most vampires. It took a mere two nights for her to complete the transition, locked away alone in a windowless room. When she had been let out, she took from Nikolai’s vein for the first time and was considered a full-fledged adult. Still, she had been alive and walking around for almost sixty years when it happened.
Listening to her thoughts, Almandine hummed deep in her chest. “Your time in the sunlight is akin to my time in my shell.”
This was not something Ariadne could wrap her head around. The concept of it simply did not make sense. Breaking free of the shell was like birth in her mind. As such, Almandine was but a newborn in comparison to the other dragons—a newborn that needed to know how to defend herself, given an attack.
“Then why is Razer avoiding you?” Ariadne glowered at the sky, where she was certain the blue dragon was avoiding them. Probably with a little flock of other hatchlings around him.
Almandine huffed. “I’m still learning the intricacies of life outside my shell.Just as you had to learn the subtle differences between the world you once knew and the Society you entered the moment you transitioned.He has a lot of other things to think about than teaching me how to catch a wind under my wings.”
When Ariadne had no response to that, Almandine continued, “Besides.I’m annoyingly small and need more help than I wishto admit.He should not need to feel like a father figure to me right now.I fear he would worry too much about me if he did.”
As much as she hated to agree, Ariadne could see no fault in the logic. Everything she learned about the dragons’ development, however, went against all she once believed it to be. She shifted back to lean against Almandine’s shoulder. “Does that mean Razer hatched fully cognizant?”
“I would assume so.” Almandine swiveled her dark eyes up to her. “He would have been in that shell for at least several hundred years.I couldn’t say who taughthimhow to fight,though.”
That ruined the image she once created of a floppy, childish Razer following Azriel around like a puppy. She shared the pictures she conjured with Almandine, drawing another laugh from the dragon. Even her lips peeled back to expose her long, sharp teeth.
“We’re all a little…juvenile when we first hatch,” Almandine admitted. “It’s hard to avoid when we know nothing beyond our shell and the minds of our siblings and friends.”
Ariadne ran a finger over one of the dragon’s white spikes at the crown of her head. “That is a fair point.Still.He should not be ignoring you entirely.”
Closing her eyes, Almandine shot back a feeling of understanding, then bitter amusement. “It’s almost as though you don’t know him at all.Nothing but snark from him.”
Well, Ariadne certainly knew that to be true, but she had never expected it would be directed at her bondheart.
Chapter 18
Travel to Algorath was far faster than Emillie anticipated. With Lhuka’s bondheart, Venja, carrying her, Luce, and the dhemon and Jakhov’s dragon, Dhanin, carrying him, Phulan, and Revelie, they made it deep into the desert in a single night. She and Revelie offered to curl up together beneath the shade of Dhanin’s outstretched indigo wing to be protected by the sun, but instead they crested a large dune and came face-to-face with one of the most magnificent sights Emillie had ever seen in her life.
Huge crimson walls stretched out before them with two massive slabs of jasper rising from the red sands on either side of the gates to the mage city. Phulan, who led their party, turned to them and walked backwards, holding her arms out in a grand gesture.
“Welcome to Algorath!” she called, pure joy alighting her features.
“Gods,” Revelie breathed as she and Emillie came to a halt at the top of the dune. “That is…incredible.”
Phulan turned again. “It’s good to be home.”
They marched across the final stretch of desert, leaving the dragons to take off in the opposite direction. No reason to hide them anymore, what with the way Ariadne and Razer effectively destroyed Melia’s walls during the battle. At least that was what she came to understand when Phulan explained their dragons’ destination prior to leaving the dhemon keep.
Now they made their way to the front gates of Algorath. Mages stood at the tops of the giant slabs of crimson jasper, patrolling in the same way as Emillie had always seen soldiers across Valenul. They paused and watched their approach with faces hidden behind dark shemaghs.
“State your name and business.” The mage’s deep voice carried down to them with ease, and Emillie had the vague feeling that they were using magic to magnify their words.
Phulan, however, did not seem perplexed by their casual use of spells, only the command itself. She stopped, hands on her hips, and craned her head back to glare up at the mages who dared to bar their entrance. “Phulan of the Chax District, coming home with a couple of friends.”
Above them, the mages exchanged a few words that Emillie could not catch before the mage leaned over the wall and said, “And with whom do you travel, Phulan of the Chax District?”
She groaned but gestured to the group at large. Without pointing out individuals, she tallied off their names. “Lhuka, Jakhov, Revelie, Lucet, and Emillie.”
Another exchange of whispers above them, then the mage asked, “Lady Emillie Nightingale of Waer Province?”
A pit opened in Emillie’s stomach, and her heart lurched into her throat. In an instant, Luce was by her side in her lycan form. Fur brushed against her shoulder as the massive wolf peeledback her lips to expose unnervingly long fangs. On the far side of Luce, Revelie’s face paled a shade, and Jakhov took a step closer to her, his hand reaching over his shoulder to grip the sword on his back. His sharp face drew taut with cold challenge directed at the mages above them.
Before Emillie could say anything, Phulan replied, “If Mair Solt would like to speak with me about any of my guests, he can find me at my home. Assuming, of course, I am permitted to return to my house?”
This had been far from what Emillie anticipated. When she was told that Phulan would be allowed home, she did not expect to be analyzed by guards who should not even know her name. Her sister truly had done a number on Algorath if she left such a lasting impression. The Desmo Killer, indeed. Ariadne had better never hear that little turn of phrase. She would end up in one of two ways: a mess of apologies…or a dangerously inflated ego.
