Anders’s tongue seemed to fill his mouth, but he made himself speak. “Are you Drifa?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied, coming around the table beside her to walk closer to the twins. “But who are you?”
“I’m... we’re...” Anders could hardly make himself speak. “I’m Anders,” he said, “and this is—”
“Rayna,” his sister breathed.
“It can’t be you,” Drifa whispered. “It can’t—you’re both so big. Sparks and scales, has it really been so long?”
“It’s been ten years,” said Rayna quietly.
Drifa’s lips trembled, and she pressed them together very hard, as though she was trying not to cry. “I’ve missed so much,” she said quietly. “It’s so, so good to see you both.”
“Is our father here?” Rayna asked.
Drifa shook her head in a small, tight movement, but she took a long breath through her nose, and her voice was even when she replied, “No. Felix is gone.”
“But you’re not,” Anders said quietly.
“Not yet,” she corrected him gently.
“We can’t get to you,” he said. “We tried, and Cloudhaven led us to a wall covered in words. We’re trying to translate them—a friend of ours, she knows how—but we haven’t really gotten anywhere. If you can tell us what to do, we can come find you.”
“No,” Drifa said, gentle but firm. “No, please don’t try. Please stay away. It’s not safe.”
Anders and Rayna exchanged a quick glance. Rayna’s eyebrow flicked, and Anders inclined his head just a fraction. It was all they needed to say.As if we’re staying away, and,I know, but there’s no need to tell her that right now.
“I didn’t know it had been so long,” Drifa was saying. “Tell me about yourselves, my darlings. I want to know as much as I can.”
And so they did, falling over themselves to share all the details of their lives, telling her about all the places they had found to live and to sleep, about the places where they had gotten their food, all the ways they had kept themselves safe and entertained themselves on the streets. They told her about the last great battle too, and she pressed one hand over her mouth in horror.
“I left you with a woman I knew,” Drifa said eventually, slowly shaking her head. “She was a human, so I hoped you’d be safe until I could come back. I neededto hide for a little—I was close to being found. But then I... couldn’t. I couldn’t come back. I wish I could have. I would have stood trial for something I didn’t do, I would have taken the punishment, if I’d known it would have prevented so much death. My friend must have died in the battle, if you were found as orphans. I’m so sorry, my loves. I never meant for you to be alone.”
“We had each other,” Anders said, and Rayna reached out to try to squeeze his hand, though hers went right through it again.
“You were two years old,” Drifa whispered. “I’m surprised you even remembered your own names. Your father helped choose them, you know.”
“We knew our names,” Rayna said. “And we knew we were twins. We stuck together.”
The twins told Drifa about Kess the cat, about the friendly shopkeepers who had slipped them food. And they told her about the day they had found themselves down by the port, and had ended up on the dais, making their transformation, Rayna into a dragon and Anders into a wolf.
The story grew more somber as it went on, though. They told her about Rayna’s time at Drekhelm and Anders’s at Ulfar, about his journey to find her, about the smaller battle with their classmates, their time at theFinskól, and the much larger battle for Holbard.
They told her how they had come to Cloudhaven now.
They told her they didn’t know what to do next.
She listened to every word, drinking them up as if she were parched and their story was water. No detail was too small for her. Every triumph was to be celebrated. Every setback was met with sorrow. Anders had never had a more fascinated audience in his life.
“I think—” she began as they finished, then abruptly faded out of sight.
The twins had only time to gasp, and then she returned, translucent for a moment, then apparently solid once more.
“This is taking too much of my essence,” she said. “I can’t do it for much longer. Listen closely, my darlings. I’ll answer as many of your questions as I can. To bring your friends inside Cloudhaven, all you need are yourselves and your augmenters. You’re descended from me, and I am descended from... well, many generations of dragonsmiths, including one of the founders of Cloudhaven itself. Bring your friends to the entrance, one at a time. Place one hand on your augmenter and one on your friend, and introduce them to Cloudhaven. They’ll be able to come inside after that.”
“I don’t suppose you know how to bring about peacebetween wolves, dragons, and humans?” Rayna asked with a sigh.
“I’m afraid I’m no expert on peace,” Drifa said sadly. “Felix and I wanted it very badly, though. That was one of the reasons we made a workshop here at Cloudhaven—so we could work toward peace in secret. You said you had my map? Most of the artifacts it leads to were items we made, or ancient items we restored, each of them one we hoped might help us find a way to create peace between the elementals of Vallen. Some of the artifacts were tools, some were weapons, but we never found a way to use them. And, of course, very few elementals agreed with what we were trying to do.
