Looking closer, Marin saw it was elaborately braided gold, studded with gemstones. In the center was a pendant that looked like a swirled snake. It had tear-shaped rubies for eyes. “It’s beautiful.”
“The dragon thought so too,” Surot said. “As it turned out, hehad no interest in eating humans—we apparently look less delicious than we think we do—but he was interested in starting his own hoard. She gifted him the necklace, and he, in exchange, gifted her his friendship. Ever since, we wear necklaces until the day we choose to gift them to our own dragon friend. We receive them back when our dragon dies, as remembrances.”
Nearly everyone in the tavern was singing now, but Dax was only looking at Marin as he strummed the guitar along with them. He was gazing at her as if she was all that existed in the world.I shouldn’t have said no, Marin thought as she stared back at him.
He’d practically promised that his kisses came with complications, though. Everything was complicated enough with her boat in the possession of a dragon…
A dragon who liked treasure…
She touched the heartsinger ruby in her pocket through the velvet of her borrowed clothes. It was looking increasingly unlikely that she was going to make it home with the ruby, regardless of whether she had the chance to look for the head librarian. In fact, it felt a bit as if the universe were conspiring to take her treasure from her.
If she had to give it up, then Iovar would win.
But if she didn’t give it up, she might not get her boat back, and then he’d also win. And either way, her parents would lose, and she couldn’t allow that to happen. They deserved so much more than a daughter who kept making colossal mistakes and hurting people she cared about.
“You’ve stopped eating,” Surot noted. “Is everything still to your liking?”
“Sorry, yes,” Marin said. “I’m just worrying about my boat.”And my family. And Dax. And everything.She speared a chunk of potato and put it in her mouth before she could say more. The headwoman didn’t deserve to have all of Marin’s worries dumped onto her like an upturned basket of fish.
Surot sighed. “I dislike saying it, but I fear you are right to worry. Keva is an unusual dragon. She alone on the island does not have ahoard yet. We have not figured out what it is she wants, only that it isn’t the standard gold or jewels, nor is it works of art. We’ve tried sculpture, pottery, even paper crafts, but she’s uninterested. Your ship is the first item we’ve seen her interested in. If she has decided to make it part of her hoard…” She spread her hands as if to say there was nothing that could be done.
The potato felt like a lump in her throat. Marin swallowed it, along with all the worries that cycloned up from her stomach. “I have to try.”
“Of course,” Surot said. “Please know that if you can find what pleases Keva, we would be in your debt and happy to assist you in any way we can.”
Marin watched Dax as he handed the guitar back to its owner. The crowd burst into applause, and Dax clapped for them and their singing. He then crossed the tavern to Marin and Surot. His eyes were fixed on Marin.
“That was wonderful,” Surot told him.
He tore his eyes away and summoned a smile. “Thank you.”
A silence passed.
Belatedly, Marin realized Surot was expecting her to fill it. “Surot was telling me about the dragon who hasSilver,” she offered. “She doesn’t have a hoard yet so we don’t know what we can give her to encourage her to surrender the boat. She’s apparently not interested in jewels or gold or works of art.”
“We’ve tried everything from paintings to pottery,” Surot said.
“Have you tried music?” Dax asked. He was addressing the headwoman, but Marin couldn’t help feeling that all his attention was still on her.
Surot smiled. “We have not.”
“It will work,” he said, his intense, sad eyes back on Marin. “You can trust me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Dax had borrowed the guitar to serenade the dragon. When Marin came outside to find him after breakfast, he was perched on a stone wall, humming to himself as he tuned the strings. His crystal horns were glittering in the morning light, and she tried not to notice how achingly beautiful he was.
“Ready?” she asked. “It’s going to be a climb.”
He flashed her a grin. “I don’t think even Grandmaster Vorac has sung to a dragon before.”
She stared at his lips, wishing… She didn’t even know what she was wishing for. Everything to be different, she supposed.
His grin faded, and his expression grew more somber. “Marin, last night, I didn’t mean to push you. I know you’ve been hurt…”
“It’s not that.” She did not want to be talking about this. The way the light had faded in his eyes and the way he was looking at her now… it hurt to see. She’d never wanted to be the cause of his sadness. “It’s only that we have two very different lives. I still care about you.”
“I would hate to lose our friendship simply because I wanted more.”
