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Leah felt as if she had swallowed a stone.
“Oh, no,” Jacine said. “Leah here is also beautiful and powerful, so I think they are a perfect match.” The girl winked at her.
Relia sighed. “You think I’m being mean. I’m not. This is the voice of experience. He’s his father’s son. There’s more.” She stared at Leah. “You’re just human. Dragons can mate in both forms. He’s stuck as a dragon for now. What do you think he’s going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Leah’s voice was dry. In a way, it was her mother’s warning all over again. And hadn’t it been true? King Azir had left her. If King Flavio hadn’t married her, who knew what could have happened?
Jacine shook her head. “Mom, aren’t you the one who always says that we can’t know the future, that we can’t let fear guide us?”
Relia frowned. “This saying is for war, not for love.”
The girl shrugged.“But it works. And love and fear are opposites, aren’t they?”
The woman took a deep breath and looked down. “This talk of love… It just reminds me of what I lost.”
“I’m so sorry,” Leah said, even if she didn’t know who the woman was referring to, especially when it wasn’t very clear who was related to whom. And her own sorrow was fresh, sorrow for her father and Kasim, but she didn’t mention it because she didn’t want to stir that pain.
“I know,” Relia said. “Perhaps I’m being unfair. Some of us, we have only one love, a love that lasts until we die, even if they go first.”
Jacine looked down and fiddled with the tip of her hair, then looked at Leah. “Her love was Isofel’s father, Ircantari.”
Now Leah was extremely confused. “Didn’t you say you were Isofel’s cousin, not sister?”
“Cousin, yes. My father, Ekateni, is Ircantari’s brother.”
Ugh. Had this woman really married and had children with her beloved’sbrother? That sounded dreadful.
Relia looked at Leah. “I see your surprise. And censure.”
“No, I—”
The woman put a hand in front of her. “I understand. I’ve lived through this many times. Many times I’ve questioned myself. The thing is, we never know what unites people. In my case, it was the shared grief; it was enough to bring us together. Not enough to keep us together, for sure, but at the time we didn’t know that we were just leaning on each other, trying to bear the weight of our own pains. And that feeling of hurting a little less, that feeling of having someone who understood my loss, that felt like love.”
Leah felt bad for her first impression. “I swear I didn’t mean to judge you. And I’m sorry it didn’t work.”
“Oh, no.” Relia laughed. “I’m glad it didn’t work. And I’m glad it worked—for some time. Or I wouldn’t have had Jacine and Siniari. I just wish… I hope we have calmer times, peaceful times, but I’m working for it. There’s no magic that can’t be defeated, and at the end of the day, that’s all Cynon is; a dragon with magic more powerful than us.”
“Is he alive? In this realm?” Perhaps he had nothing to do with the voice Leah had heard.
Relia took a deep breath. “Aliveis a strange definition once you choose to become immortal. I don’t think he’s in this world yet, but he’s found a way to touch us.”
“How does it work? Is it a voice people hear?” The water was starting to feel cold.
“Nothing that simple,” Relia said. “If it were, they could just tell it to go away, right?”
“How then, how does it work?”
“We have theories,” the woman said. “To be honest, I’m not even sure if he’s behind the Boundless. They’re just dragons trying to be powerful. When you’re the most powerful of all creatures, the temptation to exert your power, subdue others, it lurks in the back of your mind. I don’t think you need a powerful dragon to encourage it. Perhaps they want to be greater than us, greater than other dragons, and that’s where their hatred comes from. That’s why they attack us. It’s envy.”
Her words were making their conflict seem murkier than the water in their bath.
The woman continued, “But it doesn’t matter who the enemy is. What we need is strong magic, what we need is to be united, what we need is to have the will to fight. And that’s what I want us to accomplish.”
Leah smiled, hoping that indeed the dragons defeated their enemies, but the whole situation was making her anxious. More and more it didn’t seem likely that any dragons would be able to help Aluria. It had been a long, dangerous trip to get here, and it was only complicating things. At least Fel had found some of his family. Perhaps he would learn about himself and his magic, and maybe that could help them.
Still, there was no way that Leah could see a celebration for theiron dragonas anything other than a terrible idea.
* * *
