“Your last great battle might have been fought after I... left, but though we wanted peace, Felix and I were a part of starting that war. It was his death and my disappearance that helped destroy the last of the trust between the wolves and the dragons. But your father and I always saw the good in both the wolves and the dragons, and others can too.”
“We do,” Anders said. “We have friends who are wolvesanddragonsandhumans.”
“Then you have even more friends than we did,” she said. “Speaking of friends, you should trust your uncle Hayn. He’s a very good man. That’s what your fatherwould want as well. When you wake up, you’ll find Felix’s communicator just over there.” She pointed at a towering stack of papers leaning against a small clockwork device. “It’s part of a set of four. Hayn has one, and the other three are there. If they don’t work at first, remember you can use your blood for more than proving your identity to an artifact. For an elemental as powerful as each of you, the essence in your blood can provide power to an artifact as well. Prick your finger, let the artifact have a drop of your blood, and I think you’ll find it will work for a little longer, though eventually you’ll want to take it to a dragonsmith for repairs.”
“There’s so much about the artifacts we don’t know,” said Anders desperately, and he knew a part of him really meant,So please don’t leave us. This is as good an excuse as any. Please stay and tell us about artifacts. Please stay and be our mother.
“I know,” said Drifa, a note of desperation in her voice. “Don’t forget about my map. It will tell you where every one of my artifacts is to be found. Perhaps you’ll know how to use them where I didn’t. Be careful, though—it’s not safe. There are those who will do anything to stop you.”
She lifted her hand toward them, but she seemed to know without trying that it would pass straight throughthem, and so she didn’t touch them.
As they watched, her hand faded out, then flickered back to life again.
“I love you,” she said quietly. “I love you both more than anything. I’ll try to come again if you need me.”
“I... I love you too,” Anders blurted out.
He had never said it to anyone except Rayna before.
“Welove you,” Rayna said.
And then the pair of them blinked awake, lying beside the fire.
For a long moment, Anders stared at the cracked ceiling, completely confused. Then he turned his head, and his eyes met Rayna’s. As one, they scrambled to their feet. Most of their friends had fallen asleep waiting, but Ellukka and Sakarias were still awake, watching them for signs of life.
“Did it work?” Ellukka asked.
But Anders and Rayna were already running as fast as they could toward their mother’s workshop.
When they stumbled through the door, they both pulled up short. Anders had known it would be empty—he had known she wouldn’t be there—but he still felt in that moment like his heart might crack.
He made himself walk across the workshop to the pile of papers and the strange clockwork device. When hepushed them carefully to one side, there were three small communicator mirrors, just as she had said there would be. He flipped one open and stared down at the mirror, which showed him nothing except his own reflection.
Rayna silently unpinned her brooch, handing it across to him so he could prick his finger.
Soon, they would be able to speak to Hayn.
Chapter Six
THE NEXT FEW DAYS RAN A LITTLE MOREsmoothly. Anders and Rayna introduced their friends to Cloudhaven exactly as Drifa had told them to do, and then they tested whether it had worked with the same method they’d used to discover the twins could get inside in the first place.
Anders and Rayna watched from the hallway, and most of the others stood in the entrance hall, waiting nervously as Mateo and Bryn, two of the strongest of their number, held onto Theo’s hands, as he was one of the lightest. If the floor crumbled beneath him when he stepped inside, as it had when they’d first arrived, they’d be ready to catch him and pull him up.
“Make sure you’re holding on tight please,” he said nervously, as he prepared to step backward onto the stone floor. “I don’t have wings when I’m a human.”
He reached back with one foot and rested it on a paving stone, waiting to see if it held. When it did, he slowly eased his weight onto it. Still it held.
“Here goes,” he murmured, and moved his second foot back, so he was standing still on the stone floor. Then he let go of Mateo and Bryn’s hands, and... nothing happened.
He was safely inside Cloudhaven.
Mikkel, Ellukka, and Sakarias danced in celebration, and Lisabet, Viktoria, and Isabina all watched with quieter satisfaction. Det nodded, as if he approved of Cloudhaven’s decision.
Anders and Rayna both hugged Theo, who held on a little tightly, as if he still wasn’t sure he was on firm ground. Bryn and Mateo just shook hands, then shook hands again, as if they were congratulating each other on their role.
“At last, proper beds,” said Ferdie, grinning broadly.
“A proper kitchen,” said Jai.
