‘What is it?’I asked her.
‘I can smell them,’she said nervously.
“What did she say?” Hanson asked.
“She can scent the other dragons.”
“Of course she can. I wasn’t lying, Brennan. Come. Will Akhane come with us?”
I looked at Akhane.‘Do you want to come?’
She weaved on her feet, shaking her head.‘I would like to meet them. But they aren’t my herd. I can’t reach them unless they choose to communicate with me. And they smell… different, Bren.’
I frowned.‘Different, how?’
‘I don’t know. Only, I’m nervous.’
I looked at her seriously.‘Do you sense danger?’
‘No, not like that. I cannot explain it. I will follow you. But I may not be able to help.’
‘That’s fine. If you sense danger, you call me and I’ll come straight back and we’ll fly, with or without him.’
The tree line was thin, and Hanson started walking straight for it, his eyes bright, looking over his shoulder and beckoning me. “They’re here. Not far. I had her land here so they wouldn’t be disturbed. But they’re all here. Come!”
I thought he’d exaggerated. Assumed he was trying to impress me—or that he was impressed by dragons, and so his idea ofmanywas exaggerated.
But on the other side of the tree line, the land sloped away and opened again, dropping into a deep bowl in the earth, a small valley that was nearly empty of trees.
And within it, like a massive launch hollow, only shallower, there had to be fifty dragons.
Reds, blues, greens, golds, and grays. They were all there.
My mouth dropped open.
When Akhane reached us, she raised her head and bugled.
Every dragon in the bowl turned to face her, and several took to flight, covering the short hill in a few flaps, dropping to run the final paces, and rushing towards Akhane so quickly that Hanson and I were forced to dart back or risk being sliced open by a stray tail.
Akhane danced and raised her head, swinging her snout back and forth, lashing her tail and fluttering her wings. But where any dragon extended its neck and offered its snout, she met noses with it, and the two shared breath.
I watched on, stunned, as dragon after dragon stepped forward to meet her… then apparently lost interest and turned away.
I frowned as Akhane ended up standing alone on the hillside watching the dragons file back down to the bowl.
‘Akhane, what—’
‘I don’t know, Bren. They were welcoming, but didn’t reach for me in their minds—didn’t open to me. Their bodies… they are males, all of them. They hoped… but I’m mated already.’
Oh.
My brows rose.
“What is it?” Hanson asked quickly. “Is there a problem?”
“No, no. It’s only, they don’t want Akhane because she’s already mated,” I said. “Did you know they’re all males?”
“Yes, yes, I was aware. Can she talk to them?”
