“The one person who hated me the least was Samara, and her father is the apothecary. She might help us.”
To his relief, Valenna brightened. “Yes. Yes, Samara will help us.”
Chapter thirty
Evander
A lamplighter balanced on his rickety ladder, touching a brand to the lamps as Evander and Valenna walked along the main street. The air smelled of baking bread, cured meats, and dragon musk.
Beside him, Valenna watched the dragons wheeling overhead and their young riders whooping as the stars scattered behind them like sugar spilled on a cobalt tablecloth.
“Not a bad place to spend your dotage,” Valenna said.
It struck Evander that he wasn’t going to have a dotage; he was lucky if he felt the warmth of summer. But with Valenna on his arm, he was hopeful again. Perhaps they would find a remedy, and he’d be permitted a few happy years with her. Perhaps they wouldn’t, and at least he wouldn’t be alone at the end.
The light reflected off her dark waves, and she tipped up her face, glowing with joy.
A twinge of guilt stung him. It was such a fragile thing, happiness. If they couldn’t find a cure, this joy in her face would go out. Because of him.
But he had done his best to warn her off, and she wasn’t the type of woman to run from pain. He admired her for that. Among a thousand other large and small details.
The shops in Cobblepine stood shoulder to shoulder, leaning into one another and sending the whole row crooked. Dragonsthe size of housecats perched on the thatched roofs, their wings outstretched in the spreading moonlight.
No one lived in the village, the people preferring to make their homes in the caves carved into the mountainside.This area was designated for trade.
The apothecary shop stood between a physician’s office and an undertaker, like a gradient between illness and death. The door was closed, the windows already shuttered for the night, but warm orange light glowed from the upper story where Evander imagined Samara’s father was working late.
As they approached, he saw Samara sitting on the stoop with a little green dragon pup in her lap. Beside her sat a slender boy with black hair and pointed, handsome features. He wore a handmade leather jacket, too broad for his narrow shoulders, and he clamped a small rolled bacco joint between his full lips, the light at its end illuminating his face. In his palm lay a mushroom, writhing like a living animal afraid for its life. He was poking it.
Samara looked up as Evander and Valenna approached, and her brow knitted. “We’ve already been told not to sell you anything,” she said.
“I’ve never known you to do what you’re told,” Evander said.
Samara raked her eyes over Valenna. “She pregnant?”
Valenna spluttered, “No, and why would you even think it was alright to ask … you little …”
Samara shrugged and bent her attention to her dragon. “The paddocking was a show, wasn’t it? I was sure that hydra ate you for breakfast. I think a few of my friends will be disappointed it didn’t.”
“That’s a little harsh,” Valenna scolded.
Jerking her head toward the boy sitting beside her, Samara said, “I suppose you remember Lysander.”
Glancing up from tormenting the mushroom in his hand, Lysander glowered at Evander.
At first, Evander hadn’t recognized Lysander. When he did, he felt more annoyed than anything. Valenna, however, looked ill.
“You sent me home, if you recall,” Lysander said coldly. “After I supposedly misread the altimeter.”
“You did misread the altimeter …” Evander began, but Valenna cleared her throat loudly and cast him a look that clearly read,Be nice when you want people to do you favors.
Evander drew a deep breath. “I’m sorry you had to go home.” He was aware he didn’t sound sorry. “But you weren’t ready.”
“So you said,” Lysander murmured.
“You were a danger to yourself and the other trainees.”
Lysander stood, dropping the mushroom. It scooted away into a cluster of ash bins. “Ariadne Augmendene is my mother, and now the elders are questioning my birthright. Because of you. Because you’re impossible to please. Now, a hundred years of Augmendene governors will end with me.”
