The heart waits where stone sings and scales remember.The voice echoed softly around me, almost seeming to touch my bones.Let wings be your guide.
Farris whined again, looking from the pool to me.
Images flickered across the surface. A cavern thick with moss, its walls ancient and slick, and gleaming with…dragon scales? They appeared embedded in the walls. A massive skeleton lay half-buried in earth and roots. And a broken altar stood in the shadows with something glimmering on top.
That skeleton was draconic. I’d seen enough of them to know.
The visions vanished, and the water darkened. My reflection began to shift and blur.
Prager looked out at me from the pool.
You think you will fuse the talismans? Never…
She vanished, rippling away, leaving only the scurrying crabs behind.
“Fuck you,” I hissed, smacking the surface of the pool. Now the crabs really scurried, hiding under rocks.
Farris howled, glancing from me to the pool.
“I saw something,” I whispered, placing my palm on a stone beside the pool. Warm from the sunshine or…?
The tide swelled, sending a wave up over the rocks to my right, water surging into the pool, making the feather spin. With magic, a feather swirling along with a whirlpool and coming to rest right above the place where a person sees visions is rarely a coincidence.
I snatched up the feather before it could be swept out to sea, and stood, brushing sand from my skirt, my mind racing. As I stared down at the feather, a tingling buzz skated up my arm, then vanished.
Stone sings.The altar was made of stone, and something about dragon bones…
Scales remember.The scales embedded in the cavern wall.
Let wings be your guide.
I looked at the feather in my hand. “This isn't debris. It's connected to the dragon and the altar somehow.”
“What do you think about this, Farris?” I whispered, holding up the feather.
His tail spiked outward, he looked out at the sea. His low whine rang out.
“Let’s go.” I left the pool and strode along the smoother section of the beach.
Farris took one last look at the sea before trotting to catch up.
“I need to tell Lore.” I made my way back up the slope, sand still clinging to my boots and the salt-washed wind teasing strands of hair loose from my braid.
I didn’t glance back until I reached the top. But when I did, the pool was gone. No shimmering water. Just smooth, wet sand speckled with driftwood and shells, as though nothing had ever been there.
My breath caught in my throat. The feather in my pocket told me I hadn’t imagined it.
Three talismans. Three courts. And now a feather. The vision showed dragon bones, a stone altar, scales embedded in the wall, and something glimmering. All connected. I had to figure out how.
By the time I reached the end of the pier, the ship had arrived, sails bound and moored tight to the dock. A gangplank stretched from the vessel’s side, and Dorion was already descending, his stride as cocky as ever.
Laphira followed Dorion, confidence in her stride and a clear expression on her face. So wonderful to see her this way, no longer controlled by her mother.
Servants trailed them, carrying trunks stamped with the Halendor seal.
Lore met Dorion halfway down the pier, their arms clapping together in greeting.
“About time,” Lore said with a grin he shared with me.
