AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tzaria was saying calming words to Kaneyo, who was oddly motionless, like River. At the same time, Risomu was taking his dragon form.
Fel sensed an opening on the floor right behind Kaneyo, protected by a metal pane, which he pulled. Perhaps he pulled it too much, as the floor beneath him cracked.
Tzaria took River in a circle, so that they would leave this room before the floor collapsed. Leah held Fel’s arm. His hands were working again, but he understood she wanted to be sure. The only reason Fel didn’t fall into a huge abyss below was because he was able to control the part of the ground beneath his feet, since it was iron. He wrapped Leah in his arms, aware that he needed her. If things got too dire, she’d be able to take them away. It was all dark, but this felt like an enormous chamber, more like a natural cavern.
Fel then heard it, like someone taking a breath, but the sound was more ragged. This was a dragon about to blast fire. A gigantic one. It could be another prisoner like Kaneyo, and then perhaps Cynon’s dragon form was no egg after all.
He felt the odd whoosh of darkness, then was standing at the bottom of the cave, while a blast of fire illuminated stalagmites on the ground. Part of the ceiling was broken and led to the chamber from where they had fallen.
As a dragon, Fel had been much more attuned to other dragons’ sensations, intentions, feelings, but he could still sense some of that. All he found was darkness, like a hollow pit of hatred. He hoped he wasn’t wrong in his assumption, hoped Tzaria wasn’t wrong in what she had told him. At once, he pulled all the dragon’s blood. It wasn’t enough. He needed fire. “Risomu!” he yelled. No, it wasn’t what was needed.
Fel tried to reach out to his sister, through thoughts, asking her to come here, asking her to find him.
“Fel!”
It was Naia, on the other side of the room, with their father. He was alive!
Fel would like to go there and hug them both. Instead, he shouted to her. “Blast the dragon! It has to be you.”
She raised her hands the way she always did before using her magic, which always gave away her intentions, but this time he was glad to see her doing that and burning the body of the dragon. Hopefully she was burning Cynon’s dragon form.
Hopefully this nightmare was about to be over.
A small circle appeared on the other side, near Naia. There were pieces of metal that had fallen from the room above that Fel could use as a weapon, but it was just Tzaria and River. Kaneyo’s fire seemed to have dampened the fae’s magic, but he embraced Naia, visibly relieved to see her there.
“We should go,” his father said, yelling so that he was mostly talking to Fel. “I’ll take them to Umbraar, then come back for you.”
“I’ll follow you,” Tzaria said. “And take him.”
“Oh, the humiliation,” River grumbled.
First Azir and Naia disappeared, then Tzaria traced a brilliant circle and was gone with River.
Fel was left alone with Leah, and she rested her head on his chest. “I still can’t believe you’re alive.” It was as if only now she was able to voice her fears, voice her worry.
“I missed you too,” Fel confessed. “I was so worried that you disappeared.”
“And yet you were still here, fighting. I…” She looked down.
He kissed the top of her head. “It’s over for now, that’s what matters.”
She looked up at him. “You think it’s over?”
The truth was that he didn’t know, and was wondering the same thing as her. “For now, it is. Let’s hopenowlasts a long time.”
* * *
River feltas if all his bones had been broken and if he moved, they would fall apart. Of course none of this was true. He’d just been blasted by dragon fire—and probably saved by some of Naia’s magic that still coursed through him. In his state of incompetence, he allowed Tzaria to carry him through the hollow. It felt strange to trust a dragon, especially considering she’d been among the ones who had isolated the Ancient City, who hadn’t listened to him. No, they had listened, but then something obviously happened. A trick of destiny.
He let Tzaria hold his hand and draw a circle on the ground. They moved differently than fae, even if the principle was pretty much the same. This was something that Naia would have to learn. For now, he was glad Cynon had been defeated—or at least seemed to be—and they had escaped.
The woman lingered in the darkness, in the space between everything, and stared at him. Great, what a time be have a conversation—when none of his magic seemed to work.
“You controlled that dragon.” Her voice was a whisper, as if afraid of saying it out loud.
River wasn’t sure where she was going with that. “Did I? You think I wanted to get blasted?”
The woman shook her head. “You lost control, sure, but you held him. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I’ll even try to convince Risomu he must have been confused.”
