Asha’s temper flared. She didn’t have time for nonsense.
“The Old One can try all he likes to stop me, but I’m going to find Kozu. And when I do, I’m going to kill him.”
“You’re right about the first part,” he said. “But we’ll have to see about the second.”
A loudcrackbroke the silence. Like a branch breaking beneath the weight of a heavy footstep. But it must have been the fire, because there were no trees here. Trees didn’t grow in caves.
“The Old One bestows his second gift tonight. And just like his first, this one comes with a command.” Elorma rose. “You must keep it from harm.”
Something hissed in the darkness. The hair on Asha’s arms rose.
This isn’t real,she told herself.This is just a dream.
But it wasn’t a dream. And she wasn’t really in a cave, safe below the earth. She was in the Rift, sleeping and exposed.
And she knew before she opened her eyes, something was there with her.
Thirteen
Asha woke. It took a moment for her sight to adjust to the darkness. When it did, there was a single yellow eye, slit through the middle, staring down at her.
Asha’s heartbeat quickened with fear. Knowing better than to draw her slayers, Asha reached for her axe. She slid out of her sleeping pack and silently got to her feet.
A series of sharp clicks issued out of the darkness, giving Asha a sense of just how far away this dragon was. She took a slow step back, trying to remember the size of this clearing, and where the trees stopped. But the dark had already descended when she’d made her camp.
The eye disappeared, followed by movement in the trees. Branches snapped. Leaves hissed as a scaly hide brushed past `them. Asha’s hand tightened around the handle of her axe, provoking a growl from the dragon.
A heartbeat later, Asha ducked and rolled as a stream of fire lit up the clearing, catching on dried leaves and branches,revealing the biggest dragon she’d ever seen. So big, it could fill Jarek’s courtyard.
There was only one dragon that didn’t need the power of the old stories to breathe fire: Kozu, the First Dragon. The wellspring of stories.
It had been eight years since they stood face-to-face. Asha had been terrified and trembling then. Nothing more than a child.
Now she was grown and had hundreds of kills to her name.
The First Dragon circled her. In the light of the fires all around her, Asha saw the hideous scar running through his blind eye and down his cheek, hooking just below his jaw. A scar that mirrored her own.
She settled into her fighting stance, ready for this. More than ready. Tonight she would right her wrongs. Tonight, she would put an end to the old ways for good. She would bring back the head of the dragon that had burned her and left her for dead and drop it at her father’s feet.
Something whistled fast through the air. With a sickening thud, bright pain lit up Asha’s side. She flew sideways with the force of Kozu’s pronged tail, now embedded in her ribs.
The breath rushed out of her lungs as she hit the ground. Lying on her back, the world spun around her.
Always know where a dragon’s tail is.
It was the first rule of hunting.
Asha brought her axe up and swiftly down. Kozu screamed. The smell of hot, coppery dragon blood made her nostrils flare.
It hurt twice as much when Kozu pulled his tail out.
Blood poured out of her. Asha felt the wool tunic soak it up. She got to her feet to find the fires dying all around her.
Kozu hissed in the darkness, his tail no longer lashing. He was hurt and bleeding, just as she was.
Asha circled, waiting for him to misstep. Her whole right side was soaked. Her head swam. She was losing blood too fast. She needed to stanch it.
Another whoosh and Asha ducked as Kozu’s tail sailed over her head, rustling her hair. Drops of hot blood flecked her skin as it went.
