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Fel recalled Tzaria and Risomu fighting bravely against the enemy dragons, even if they’d been outnumbered. “I think they were trying to protect me.”
Relia sneered. “They are so great at protecting.”
Ekateni sighed. “I’ll talk to him once he’s rested, and once he’s not in this cage.”
The woman frowned and said something in Fernian to him.
Ekateni nodded, then led Fel outside. “Come. We’ll fly, but please go slowly and carefully.” They walked outside and he turned into a dragon in the blink of an eye. His scales were light blue and shiny. “Follow me.”
No guards were following them, not even Relia. They were soon up in the air, moving towards the edge of the mountain. Of course they had to fly slowly here, as they passed over the city. If everyone flew at the same time, it could get confusing, not to mention possibly windy.
“What did she say?” Fel asked.
“She hates Tzaria and Risomu.” Ekateni’s voice sounded clear in his head. “Had it depended on her, they would have been executed.”
“For what?”
There were a few odd seconds of silence, then he said, “Making mistakes.”
“They saved me today.”
“Maybe. Or maybe they were working with the Boundless to gain your trust.”
That didn’t seem likely. “They killed those dragons.”
“It doesn’t really work like that.”
“You mean dead dragons don’t remain dead?” Horrendous images of the battle around the Royal Fort came to his mind.
“Dragons can swap forms,” his uncle said. “If you hurt one of them, their other form will still be intact, and if they swap fast, they’ll survive.”
“I see.” It explained how those three dragons had disappeared. Fel had thought they had plunged into the waters, but perhaps it was just that they had taken their human forms and had been concealed by the blood around them. That image still disturbed him, but then, he wasn’t sure if leaving these enemies alive was a great strategy either. “But their dragon form would be hurt, wouldn’t it? Why would they do that just to gain my trust?”
“It’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
“You think it’s because of my father?”
“Most likely.”
Ekateni flew towards a steep stone wall, edging the mountain around the valley. Fel didn’t quite understand where he was going, as he had expected to land in the city. For a second, he wondered if he should trust this dragon, but he felt a sense of ease. When he had met the Boundless, he could sense their aggression, but there was none of that here.
When they approached the edge of the chasm, Fel realized there was an opening large enough for him to fly through, if he tucked his wings through the passage. The opening was rough and unfinished, and likely a natural rock formation, but after that there was a huge open door, through which Fel followed his uncle, and then he was in a large chamber with a floor made of polished wood and painted walls, with what looked like huge mattresses on the corners. There was another huge door, in wood, but it was closed, and a small one, which he figured led to human-sized living quarters.
“I hope you can feel at home,” Ekateni said. “You can take the seat by the far wall, for a comfortable place to rest.”
“Those aredragon sofas?” Fel was surprised.
Ekateni chuckled. “Feels unnecessary, I know. Perhaps an extravagance. Wait ‘till you see the beds.”
“I thought you would rather sleep in human form.”
“No. Most of us spend as long as dragons as we can. The human form can perform better magic, and it’s better for communication, but a dragon lives longer, some thousand years or even more. By sleeping in dragon form, we get to age more slowly.”
“A thousand years? That’s… An empire can rise and fall. So much can happen in a thousand years.”
“Indeed. But remember we’re also human, so most of us aren’t livingthatlong. Still, it means we remember things that would otherwise have been forgotten.”
“Like the Second Dragon Mage.”
