“Master Saxon!” Alexandre calls out.
“Go. Quickly,” Treacher says. “Ersot and I will remain here at camp. I’ll talk to the riders. Explain what’s going on. Encourage them to cross the veil and free their dragons. You go. Now.”
Surath dashes far enough away to shift.
“Can you get on her back without help?” Treacher asks, but I’m already moving toward her, my aching muscles coming back to life. I don’t even glance toward the other riders to gauge their reactions to Surath shifting. Treacher can deal with that fall out.
Surath said she’d take me to Rosomon, and I don’t want to waste another second.
CHAPTER 44
Rosomon
“Are you sure that Nyxarious died?” I ask Zogar. “Should we go back to check?”
Moments ago, I saw a man impaled on a spike and a dragon crash into the side of a mountain, and the horrors reverberate in my mind as if I’ve woken from a nightmare.
Nyxarious is gone, my queen. Zogar’s tone is somber.
I want to ask if it was an accident but can’t form the words.
Her death was no accident,Zogar says with deep sadness in his voice.I failed her.
“Zogar.” I stroke his scales. “There’s nothing you could have done.”
He swoops to the side, and a thrill races through me. A soft smile pierces my sadness, and my gratitude for Zogar grows yet again.
Then his mood shifts abruptly.
Saxon is free.
My heart soars. “Where is he? Is he well? When can I see him?”
Surath is carrying him to the Draconveil Valley. We will meet them there.
Zogar’s mood is muddled, or perhaps I’m too filled with my own joy and anticipation to recognize his feelings. Saxon is alive! He is safe!
We circle the valley twice and then land to the side of it, near the woods that lead to that beautiful stream Surath and I found.
Surath says her human needs to bathe.
I smile. Surath’s priorities are different than mine. I don’t care how filthy Saxon is, I just need to be in his arms and to hold him in mine. Unless his injuries are too dire. Treacher said he’d been tortured.
Don’t tortureyourself, my queen. Your worries will have answers soon.
We land, and I dismount. The moment my feet touch the ground, I look skyward, scanning the ridge of mountains that Surath is likely to fly across.
Butterflies swarm in my belly. I can’t keep still, and I wear a path through the field of flowers and grasses, the scent of the trampled foliage adding to my expectancy.
Finally, I’m rewarded with teal-tinged silver flashing in the sun between two mountain peaks. Surath is still too far away for me to see Saxon now that I’m not atop Zogar.
“Surath says he’s weak.”
I turn toward Zogar, now in his human form and standing a few feet behind me. How long has he been there?
“But while he has injuries,” he continues, “Surath says you’ll find him otherwise well.”
“Thank you,” I say softly. “I’m beyond grateful he’s alive. That he’s free.” I turn back toward the mountains and Zogar steps up beside me, sliding his hand onto my shoulder.
