For now.
"We'll manage." I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I'll just hold you tight all night."
"That sounds perfect." She sighed. "With Commander Ravel's suspicions on top of the suicide bomber and the attack on Podana swirling in my head, I would probably have a hard time falling asleep otherwise." She fell silent for a moment. "I haven't shared with you what Saphir had told me during our meeting yet, which eclipses all of that."
I shook my head. "Exploding assassins, dragons with their own agendas, and compromised riders who might be traitors are not easy to outdo."
"Perhaps." Kailin reached for my hand and clasped it. "But I still think that what I'm about to tell you is more monumental in comparison." She took a deep breath. "I'm not sure that I'm allowed to tell you any of this, but I'm tired of all the secrets, and I almost died today without telling you. I don't want to wait any longer."
My gut twisted at her words. "Did you see how many men Ravel employed in your security detail?"
She nodded.
"Do you really think that anyone would have been able to get close enough to kill you?"
"I don't know," she whispered. "Sometimes things happen despite our best efforts to prevent them."
She was right, of course, but I had to say something to ease her mind. "Elu or fate or whatever providence that's shaping destinies hasn't bestowed all these gifts on you only to allow your life to end before you've had a chance to use them."
That got a small smile out of her. "You've kind of provided the perfect opening for my monumental revelation. Saphir toldme about a prophecy that was supposedly written by Elu himself and speaks of seven people with unique abilities who will save our world. I'm supposed to be one of them, so perhaps you are right about someone above watching over me."
I believed in prophecies as much as I believed in magic, meaning not at all, not unless proof smacked me over the head, but I was curious.
"I can't wait to hear it," I said. "Am I part of it?"
"You are." She squeezed my hand. "Each of the seven brings something unique to the group. One who tracks, one who connects, one who senses, one who detects, one with an impenetrable mind, one who moves faster than thought, and a mysterious seventh whose ability wasn't foretold."
That was so vague that I could pick seven people at random and assign them those roles. Well, perhaps not the one who moved faster than thought. That one was slightly less subjective, and I had a feeling I knew who he was.
"Saphir believes that our quintet represents five of the seven," Kailin said. "That we were brought together by fate, not chance. That's why we were all found gifted despite the impossible odds of that happening."
"Let me guess," I said. "Ravel is the sixth? Or is it your brother?"
"Saphir thinks it's Ravel. He's the one who tracks, although I haven't seen or heard anything about him being an exceptional tracker." She studied my face. "You look skeptical."
"I'm a rational guy, and I don't believe in prophecies, but I have to admit that there have been too many strange coincidences that are difficult to brush off, so I'm inclined to suspend disbelief." I'd said it to placate Kailin, but the more I thought of it, the more sense it made. "I understand now why Saphir wasn't upset about my deception and allowed me to continue after realizing who I was. If I'm meant to be one ofthese seven, then my being here serves a greater purpose than what I envisioned as my mission in service to Eluria. Does the prophecy specify how we are supposed to save the world?"
She shook her head. "It probably has something to do with the portals."
"Portals? Like the divine portals in the Elucian Creation Myth?"
The story claimed that Aurorys had no human beings until the Two-Faced God Elu had opened a divine portal and called forth people from another world, giving a chosen group of them the ability to communicate with dragons.
Her eyes widened. "I didn't make the connection with that myth, but you are right. According to Saphir, dragons knew how to open portals to other worlds, and they used them frequently to hunt. They always came back to Aurorys, though, to mate and lay eggs. This was their home world. During the Second Extinction war, when it seemed like everything was lost and the Sitorians won, the shamans fled through the portals, each with as many eggs as they could carry. The dragons who stayed behind to fight closed the portals so the Sitorians couldn't follow the shamans and destroy the eggs, but when they were all killed, there was none left to reopen the portals. Saphir was the only one whose portal remained open, but it was so well-hidden that the Shedun never found it. When he felt it was safe to return, he brought back the eggs he had rescued. The dragons who hatched from those eggs don't know how to open portals because there was no one left to teach them, so all the other shamans and the eggs they saved are still on those other worlds. Saphir probably thinks that the prophesied seven will find a way to open the portals and track the shamans and eggs to bring them back home to Aurorys."
So, that was what he'd meant when he'd told me that the eggs were hidden where no one could get to them. I'd thought theshamans had hidden them at the bottom of the ocean or in some other inaccessible location. My imagination wasn't wild enough to think of portals.
Kailin tilted her head. "You don't seem as shocked as I thought you would be."
I leaned in to kiss her temple. "Saphir implied that the eggs were hidden somewhere inaccessible to him. Now I understand what he meant."
Kailin reached behind us for one of the quilted pillows and brought it to her chest. "Just when I think I understand what's happening, another layer gets revealed. Merging my consciousness with animals to produce prophetic dreams, talking mind-to-mind with dragons, cryptic prophecies, and portals to other worlds. What's next?"
"With you?" I chuckled. "Who knows? It all seems to be related to you somehow. I'm surprised that there was no specific prophecy about you."
"Maybe there was." She shrugged. "Perhaps Saphir hasn't found it yet. He told me that the temple ruins contain many secrets that he is eager to explore."
"I'm surprised that he told you so much in one go. Your prophetic dream must have convinced him that you were the herald of the seven." I slid my arms under her and lifted her into my lap. "Is there more?"
