Chapter 1
AMAIA
The heat felt searing along my exposed arm as I grappled for a leg. My seeking fingers found the curve of a tiny claw. A small muzzle next. I reached deeper, and the mother whined, her breathing labored, her scaled flank shimmering in the afternoon sunlight.
Worry knotted in my belly. My head turned a fraction to spy mymrikro—thepyrokimaster—watching me keenly from his place along the fence. A crowd was growing, which only added to the pinching anxiousness weaving around my ribs.
Finally, I found the leg. Now to find the other…
“You’ve really tucked yourself in there, little one,” I whispered, feeling a droplet of sweat curve along my brow. I spread my other hand across the motherpyroki’s side in a soothing gesture. Witha was her name. She belonged to one of the king’s guards, adarukkarwho’d come to live in Dothik, our capital city, from the wildlands. I’d quite taken to her, though she’d proved to be sassy and belligerent when pregnant. It only added to her charm, in my opinion. Butpyrokiusually birthed in pairs, and she only had the one.
And I didn’t want her to lose it.
“You can do this,” I said, though it was more to myself than to Witha, who had long taken to exhaustion after laboring for a couple hours in the late morning.
She gave a long, shuddering groan just as I located the second leg, twisted back as I’d thought and jammed up.
I blew out a sharp breath, guiding the leg forward. The first time I’d done this, I’d been scared to hurt the young. But now I pulled hard and sharply, knowing they could withstand it, knowing it would be necessary.
When I finally had both forelimbs in the correct position, I thumped along Witha’s belly and she gave a start, beginning to push, the powerful force of which proved more efficient than the strain of my muscles as I pulled. Bracing my shoulder against her backside, my booted feet slipping in the dirt, I thumped again and felt the strain of Witha’s muscles.
“Almost there!” I said with gritted teeth, feeling movement.
Then…
Release.
I stumbled back onto my ass as cheers rose through the crowd, the break in the tension pierced through like an arrow. The youngpyrokislid from Witha, landing in a heap on the ground, sticky and slick with mucus and blood.
For a moment, I grinned, relieved. But the relief was short-lived when I saw themrikrostraighten from the fence, beginning to approach with a frown. Thepyrokiwasn’t moving as its mother panted from exhaustion.
No, no, no,I thought, scrambling toward the young. I used the edge of my dirtied tunic to wipe the mucus from its passageways before thumping my fist just behind its ribs, over the lungs.
Dread rose as I heard the crunch of mymrikro’s boots.
“Amaia,” came mypyrokimaster’s steady voice, my name like a gentle warning.
“I have this,” I told him without looking up. I knew he trusted me, but I still didn’t want to disappoint him. I heard hisretreat as he attended to Witha, as murmurings rose through the crowd behind me.
My hand pressed against the youngpyroki’s still chest.
There’s too many people watching,came a warning thought.
I didn’t care—I would be quick. But I wouldn’t let thepyrokidie needlessly if it was within my ability to help.
The heartstone magic felt warm and alive inside me, a little ember being stoked to a raging burn. I closed my eyes so no one would see the color of my irises glow as I guided the heat through me, which sprinted through my blood and veins. I channeled it into thepyroki, imagining a door as I always did, envisioning crossing over the threshold of it, my body jerking at the impact.
Coldness made me shiver. A coldness like plunging into an icy lake, stealing my breath. But I felt life. All it needed was a littlespark.
I dragged in a deep breath, all sound and light behind my closed lids and distraction and fear falling away. I heard the throb of my heartbeat, and I sent my magic seeking, like a little warm river, washing through its body.
I heard my heartbeat…
And then I heard the youngpyroki’s.
Through the quiet, I heard the rasping guttural whine of its first sound, breath gasping, sucking in life, and the way Witha responded, hearing the bleating call of her young.
A wave of dizziness and lethargy sent me sprawling backward, but my shoulders sagged in relief. I fell down onto the earth, letting it support my weight, my eyelids lifting open to peer up at the clear cloudless sky, hearing the cheers and calls from the crowd as they celebrated the new life.
