Page 141 of The Sunbird's Last Lament

“I can’t, Vetta. I can’t even think.”

“You’ve done your part here in Talwaith. Spring is restored, and you have a year before you’re needed again. Come home with me, stand by my side as I take the throne, and grieve in comfort and privacy.”

“Tomorrow, maybe,” Valenna said. “Right now, I need to be alone. I need to think.”

“Alright. Try to sleep, if you can.” Olivette stood.

“I’m so glad that you’re here, that you’re taking the throne,” Valenna said, catching her sister’s hand before she could go. “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you the welcome you deserve.”

Olivette nodded grimly. “And I’m sorry you’re facing this terrible loss.”

She squeezed Valenna’s hand and left. Outside, screams echoed from a still-intact carriage house, which had been converted into a temporary field hospital. Valenna glanced through the lean-to opening and glimpsed the Dread Seven aft-razer stumble out of the hospital, bury her face in Ryland Everette’s shoulder, and sob, “It should have been me. It was supposed to be me!”

Somehow, seeing the girl weeping filled Valenna with shame. It did nothing to diminish her pain, but she realized that she could not lie here forever. Eventually, she must clean her cheeks, remove her blood-stiffened clothes, and face her new reality. Not yet, but soon.

The day collapsed into night. Miraculously, Valenna fell into a restless sleep, plagued by wonderful dreams that Evander was alive, sleeping beside her where he belonged. She awoke over and over, alone and shivering in the dark. The sun rose to find her bathed in sweat, dry eyes staring absently at the roof.

A commotion rose in the camp outside. Valenna’s heart hammered in her chest, and she scrambled up, certain Ashkendor was retaliating. But they weren’t cries of terror, but shouts of victory. Bewildered, Valenna crept toward the entrance, but before she reached it, Samara stumbled into the lean-to, her cheeks pink. Olivette followed.

“Valenna,” Samara stammered. “I’m so sorry. I don’t want to bother you, but …”

“Look at you, poor child,” Olivette said. “Let me wash your face.”

“What’s happening?” Valenna demanded. “What’s going on out in the camp?”

“The dragons …” Samara said. “There are dragons … everywhere.”

Valenna blinked at her. “I don’t understand.”

“Talwaith is verdant again,” Olivette said matter-of-factly. “So the dragons are coming home to roost.”

With her hair tangled in her face and her eyes still smudged with dark powder, Valenna pushed past Samara and Olivette and blundered out of the lean-to.Her feet touched cool grass; trees shaded her from the sun. She hadn’t realized how drastic Scathmore Barren’s transformation was. As she passed through the manor house, she could hardly believe the battle wasn’t decades past. Ivy climbed over the ruins, covering the sooty walls like a woman caught bathing; discarded shotfires and cutlasses lay tangled in wisteria.

Men and women trudged in the dappled light, carrying stretchers. Bloodied soldiers moaned or lay still under grimy sheets. Ryland Everette crouched outside the field hospital, sobbing quietly into his hands, then he suddenly stood, braced his palms against the wall, and let out a scream of rage. Startled, Valenna looked away and hurried toward the distant whisper of waves on the beach.

Overhead, the air filled with bellows, squeaks, chitters, and grumbles. Dragons soared over the trees, landing in branches and on the sandy shore in a storm of rustling wings. They glistened in the sunlight, every size and color, from lithe little fighter dragons to giant, fleshy newt dragons, to hulking dreadnoughts.

They ignored the humans watching them from the forest’s edge and spread their wings, warming them, or stalked off in search of grass.

Evander would have loved to see this. His face would have lit up; he would have smiled. Oh, how Valenna wished she could have shared this triumph with him. Without him, it was a hollow victory.

Valenna lifted her chin. Enough grieving. She wasn’t one to lie about and wait for things to happen. What was the point of sending him away with Raska if she was going to behave as though he really was dead?

Because Evander wasn’t dead. She refused to believe it. She would never accept it. His mother would revive him, and Valenna, now the owner of all the dragons, was going to get him back. Whatever it required of her, whatever the sacrifice.

“The dragons have come home to roost,” Olivette said as she stood beside Valenna. “Talwaith is restored. And we have an army.”

“And we have a queen to lead it,” Valenna said.

“But we have no dragon master,” Samara mused. “Who will care for them? Who will train them?”

Valenna gazed at the jewel-bright dragons flocking over the sea, then she squared her shoulders and turned toward Samara and Olivette.

“There is only one man who can be our dragon master,” she said. “We just need to bring him home.”