I laughed in disbelief. “How can you even be sure?”
“Because when aKarathbeds a female, they all like to brag about it. You hear the same story so many times, it becomes a well-known fact,” Ethrisha informed me, taking a long sip of her brew. I saw her hand move beneath the table, going to Brune’s thigh. He shifted in his seat, while the temptress herself suppressed a smile. “And who doesn’t love to gossip about an unclaimedKarath?”
When I looked back to the head table, I saw that Alaryk and Rivenna were gone. I gazed around, searching for a silver-haired male, but found none.
Ethrisha leaned into Brune. “Let’s go.”
Some things, I realized, as I watched a red-faced Brune and a grinning Ethrisha rise from the table and disappear beyond the landing field, were the exact same among the Dakkari and Karag. After all, I’d lost my virginity at a gathering much like this one, with a Dakkari boy who’d worked at the docks. Years ago, he’d whisked me away from the party after a night of brew and dancing. And to this day, the scent of the briny sea reminded me of that clumsy night.
Syris sighed. Her eyes flicked back over to Moak, saw him kissing a pretty Karag girl. She looked down at her lap. “I’m going back—I’m tired.”
“I’ll stay a little while,” I told her, not ready to return to my quiet room quite yet. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
She nodded. And left. And even though I was surrounded by dozens and dozens of people, I found Iwasquite alone after all.
I was humming to myself, an old tune my mother would sing late into the night as she finished up her sewing. I would hear it on occasion, seeping into the walls of my bedroom, a muffled song that helped lull me to sleep.
I’d been in Grymia for nearly a week, and I was sleeping horribly. At first I’d thought it was because the bed was too high, so I’d dragged the mattress to the stone floor. But I still tossed and turned.
I realized, belatedly, that it was the quiet more than anything else. The hatchery sounded like a tomb. Empty and echoing. Even Kyr slept soundly in the nesting area and only roused when dawn light broke.
Syris had told me that once more hatchlings were born, I might not be able to sleep at all for all the noise. And truthfully, I welcomed it. I could feel the silence crawl over me at night like a nightmarish creature. And in those early-morning hours when I couldn’t sleep, I roamed the grounds of Grymia, walking by torchlight, encountering not a single soul. But the looming darkness of the forest or the jagged peaks of the mountain ranges scared me less than my sleeping quarters.
And so, long after the feast had ended and the landing field had gone quiet, the embers of the bonfires glowing as they slowly died, I walked. My cheeks felt flushed and warm from the wine, my legs a little heavy. I’d thought maybe it would help me sleep, and so I hadn’t protested whenever my goblet had been filled up…and I’d drunk every last drop.
The outpost was quiet, but the cool wind across my flesh helped distract me. As I passed stone houses along the road, some were dark, but in others I could still make out muffled laughter and the weaving of two or three or four voices, which made longing fill my breast until it was hard to breathe.
Overhead, I heard the unmistakable sound of Elthika wings slicing through air. I looked up sharply, thinking it odd a dragon would be out this time of night when they were usually tucked away in the mountain.
In the darkness, I saw the mightiness of a fully grown Elthika, shooting off the mountain cliff, circling over Grymia. It was too dark to make out its color, but something in the way it took flight made me still on the path, cocking my head as I studied it.
Its movements were sluggish but jerky. It began to veer left, toward the line of the thick forest before it righted itself sharply. It circled again but then seemed to…fall.
I gasped, then frowned, the haziness of the wine dissipating. The Elthika resumed flight, but only for a moment. It let out a call, low and rumbling, a mournful thing that tugged at my rib cage like a metal thread imbedded into the bones.
Then itwasfalling, and I was running.
Chapter 9
AMAIA
Deep in the forest, I finally found the Elthika. I heard it before I saw it, over the pounding of my heartbeat from my near sprint over fallen tree trunks and thick, spiky brambles.
The labored breathing sounded like the rush of a waterfall, the hum in the air seeming to vibrate the very ground I stood on. I pushed into the clearing without thinking about the consequences of encountering a fully grown Elthika.
And I got the shock of my life when I recognized it.
Samryn.
TheKarath’s own bonded Elthika.
His bloodred scales appeared dulled in the darkness, but I would recognize the glow of his eyes anywhere.
“It’s all right,” I found myself whispering, as if he could understand the universal tongue. “I won’t hurt you.”
I remembered a conversation I’d had with Tarkosh a few days prior. All Elthika could be testy with strangers, especially if they were bonded already.
Especially if they were Vyrins—Elthika from ancient bloodlines.
