"It was Veynathei," I managed. "I saw her scales. The shifting colors. Silver and gold and turquoise. It was her, Alar. The dragon in my dream is Veynathei. She's bigger than most dragonias, so I thought she was a male in the previous nightmare, but it was very clear in this one that it was her. There's no doubt anymore."
His expression didn't change, but I felt his body go rigid beneath my hands. "How did it happen?"
"A training exercise," I said, forcing the words out despite the rawness in my throat. "She was flying through a mountain pass and a wind caught her at the wrong angle. You lost your grip and fell. And she couldn't—" My voice broke. "She couldn't reach you in time."
The silence that followed was worse than the scream that had preceded it.
"It's just a dream, Kailin," Alar said, sounding calm, measured, and completely unconvincing. "You said yourself that the previous dreams showed different scenarios. Different ways that I?—"
"This one was not like the others. Morgateth's energy made everything sharper. I could see details I hadn't seen before. Your face. The specific pass you were flying through. The exact moment when—" I stopped. I couldn't say it again.
Deep in the back of my mind, a vast presence stirred.
Morgateth.
He had been sleeping, but my distress must have woken him up.
"What's wrong?"
"I had a dream. I'm okay. You can go back to sleep."
"Are you sure?"he asked.
"Yes. I'm fine. Alar is here with me."
I didn't want to burden Morgateth with my nightmare and have him relive the same kind of devastating loss he had experienced three times already when his own riders died.
"You don't feel fine to me, but I will respect your wishes. Goodnight."His presence faded from my mind.
Alar had to go home.
I had known it since the first nightmare, and the certainty of it increased with those that followed.
He was going to die if he stayed.
"Kailin." Alar's hands were on my face again, his thumbs wiping away my tears. "Talk to me. Where did you go just now?"
"Morgateth," I whispered. "He felt my distress and wanted to know if I was in trouble. I told him it was just a dream and that he should go back to sleep."
Something flickered in Alar's eyes. "Did he just agree because you asked?"
"Yes. He wasn't happy about it, but he said that he respects my wishes."
I wished it was as easy with Alar, and that he abided by my wishes as well. He needed to go home, but I couldn't say it right now. Not while I was naked and raw and still trembling fromthe violence of the vision. If I said it now, it would come out as begging, as hysteria, as a frightened woman clutching at her lover and demanding he run away.
I needed to gather my strength and present my case in a way that Alar would respect. Clearly, rationally, with evidence and reasoning rather than tears.
But that would have to wait for daylight. For now, all I could do was hold on to him and breathe and remind myself that he was here, that his heart was beating, and that the terrible future I'd witnessed wouldn't come to pass because a Catonian royal in crimson and gold robes would intervene and prevent it from coming true.
13
IDRILIA
"Authority is not a privilege but a duty that cannot be delegated."
—Queen Sarael of Tarina
Three days after the mountain, the Silver Princess grew a new root.
