“I am,” I said.
“Follow me, then,” she said after studying me, her eyes flickering across my face. “I’ll show you to your new home.”
Chapter 6
AMAIA
The entrance of the hatchery was protected by a fenced-in stone courtyard and illuminated with glowing orbs that sat atop alabaster pedestals. The orbs shone a warm amber, casting deep shadows across the double doors, set into the wide archway.
I couldn’t make out the sheer scale and size of the building but truthfully was too tired to care much about it at the present moment. Beyond the entrance, there was a small empty chamber, and Syris led me through another doorway directly forward.
There was a hushed quiet that seeped into these stone walls, the kind of quiet that made me hold my breath as I followed after Syris.
“This is where we usually keep the hatchling pens,” she announced, her quiet voice incredibly loud in the echoing chamber. I nearly jumped, a sharp exhale escaping me. “But it’s not mating season yet. The only eggs we have are rescues and a few late-nesting broods from some of our Elthika. Rythbacks, specifically. But their kind are more prone to late nestings anyway.”
My mind reeled with the stream of information. “It’s not mating season?” I asked, my voice bouncing through the empty chamber, as if to amplify my unspoken question.
If there were no Elthika eggs, then why open the position for the exchange?
“Oh, no,” Syris replied. “Riding season is here. After theilla’rosh, the Elthika will begin to nest.”
Theilla’rosh? It was apparent I had much to learn.
“Right,” I said softly, as if I had any idea what she was talking about. “So what am I meant to do here?”
“Don’t misunderstand,” Syris said, casting me a glance, biting the unscarred section of her mouth with worry. “There is still plenty to do with the eggs we have. Rythbacks are always more…needful than others. But you’ll learn.”
I gave her a small, tired smile. “I’ll take your word for it.”
We entered another chamber after Syris slid open the bolted latch on the door. When we stepped through, I felt the heat hit me like a wall, a strange earthy smell that reminded me ofpyrokis,making me suck in a sharp breath. Suddenly, longing for home cut through me. The memory of thepyrokipens in the early mornings as I made my rounds gave me?—
There they were.
Elthika eggs.
Each nestled into little alcoves along the stone walls. The alcoves themselves were oval in shape, similar in curvature to an individual egg, with a flat base. My heart picked up in excitement, my exhaustion and sore legs momentarily banished as I approached one.
The alcove base was flat because each egg was nestled into a bed of what looked like glowing embers. I could feel the heat radiate from them, but it didn’t look like fire. There were no flames, I noticed, perplexed.
“Starstone,” Syris explained, joining me. “Clusters of them fall in the Arsadia during winter. We break them up because they’re a constant heat source for incubation.”
“The Arsadia?” I asked, my eyes pinned to the stones. They looked like rubies, like fire gems, glistening in the darkness likeeach trapped a pool of lava. Like the gem around my own neck.
And the egg itself…it was larger than I expected. The size of a large water jug with overlapping scales that resembled apyroki’s.
“This is the Arsadia,” Syris explained. “This land. Elthikan territory.”
My expression must have been one of frustrated puzzlement because Syris gave me a smile filled with amused sympathy.
“I’m certain it will get easier with time. Especially after a good night’s rest. Whenever I have to travel to Grym, I just want to sleep for days on end.”
Before I could ask any more questions, she ushered me through the chamber of eggs. I counted a dozen or so. Most of them were similar in color—a pale beige with tones of copper—but a few I spied tucked into their separate alcoves were vastly different shades. One a deep bloodred, the color of theKarath’s dragon, Samryn. Another was black with shimmering scales tipped in silver. Another was a beautiful shade of light blue, almost iridescent likethissiefeathers from home.
Wonderment filled me, and while I was loath to leave the chamber, I realized that I would be patient. I would learn everything. Not for theDothikkar, but because I wanted to. Because I thought I might love these creatures as much as I didpyrokis.
Syris latched the chamber door behind us, going through another hallway that cut through the building. I saw door after door, some open, some closed.
She went to an open one and gestured inside. “Your chambers,” she explained.
