Page 56 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

That seemed to mollify the girl, and she went back to eating strawberries covered with whipped cream.

"There are no dragons on Earth," Toven said. "There never were. I have been to every corner of the world and looked, because humans everywhere have tales of dragons, but I have never found any evidence. The best explanation for the legends is dinosaur skeletons."

"They found teeth," Orion said. "The Chinese were digging up dinosaur bones and calling them dragon bones two thousand years ago. A scholar by the name of Chang Qu wrote about it. The same holds true for other cultures with dragon myths."

"That makes sense," Kian said.

"There are other hypotheses," Orion said. "Some say it's snakes, which humans are instinctively afraid of, and that fear grew wings. There's a theory that two groups of people carried two different dragon stories out of Africa fifteen thousand years ago, which is why dragons in the East are wise and bring rain, while dragons in the West eat maidens."

"Fifteen thousand years," Mia said. "How do they know what kind of stories people had that long ago? There were no written records."

"I guess from cave paintings," Orion said, leaning back. "What's interesting is that they are all over the place. China, India, Babylon, Greece, Scandinavia. Even the Aztecs had a feathered serpent. So did the Maya. The Inca had one, too."

"The feathered serpent," Amanda said, looking at Toven with a crooked smile. "Those gods might have been you. They mistook your flyer for a flying serpent."

"I have been called many things in my long life," Toven said, but did not elaborate.

Annani thought about Syssi's earlier comment on coincidences. Syssi's strange vision, Annani's worry about Ani, and then discussions about re-creating Anumati for a Perfect Match adventure.

A floating crown. A queen on a tour of the colonies, some of which were infested with dragons, according to Negal. The fog-covered island had no explanation, though. Not yet.

"Every mythology on Earth stems from something real," Annani said. "Humans made deities of aliens calling themselves gods. They did not invent us. They described us in the only terms they could, given what they knew. If a story has been told on every continent for fifteen thousand years, I assume it was rooted in something real."

"So, you think there were dragons on Earth?" Kian asked.

"Perhaps there were, a long time ago, and they went extinct. Since their skeletons were similar to those of dinosaurs, they were grouped with them." She looked at Syssi. "Not that it really matters. A vision does not show you reality. It gives you a story that you need to decipher. The question is not whether dragons are real. The question is why the Fates showed them to you."

Syssi was quiet for a moment.

"Negal talked about dragons on Anumati's colonies. He said it the way you'd say a place had wolves. Aru told us that when El wants to be rid of someone inconvenient, he sends them to one of those." She glanced at Annani. "I thought of that when I saw them. And then tonight, when you started talking about building Anumati in Perfect Match, it felt like there was a connection."

There it was.

Annani felt Khiann's eyes on her from the right and Kian's from the end of the table. They both knew what she was thinking, but neither could say anything in front of the others.

A crown. An island in the cold. Dragons over it. A queen sent away from her capital, on a tour that had run too long, to colonies where El sent the people he wished to be rid of.

"So the crown is Anumati," Amanda said. "And the island is one of the colonies. And the dragons are the dragons." She leaned back. "That's not vague, Syssi. That's a travel brochure."

"It's still nothing," Syssi said. "It doesn't tell us anything. A crown could be any crown. And an island is not necessarily a colony. I don't know whose island, where it is, when it's happening, or why I'm being shown it."

"Then it goes in the file," Kian said. "To be revisited when there's more information." He looked at Syssi. "Just next time, don't wait more than a week to tell me. I want to know right away, even if you think it's nothing."

She nodded.

"Good."

"Did you feel anything, Syssi?" Annani asked. "When you dreamt that. Fear? Grief?"

Syssi frowned. "No, which was also strange. Usually, visions come with feelings, but this time there was none. It was like watching something through glass or on a screen."

Annani let out a breath. "Then perhaps it is not yet ours to feel. We will wait and see. Thank you for sharing this with us."

As Okidu served dessert and Allegra argued with Kian over a bigger piece, Annani let the conversations drift around her and thought about her grandmother.

The circle of people who knew about Aru and Aria's connection had to remain as small as it was now, because they had all given him their word that the secret would be contained. She would tell the others her fears later, when Toven and Mia were not around.

Tomorrow, after the birthday party, she would go to Aru and ask him whether Aria had heard anything at all, in the temple or out of it.