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“Yes. We told him... we told him everything. The other topside drakes know too. Cyra wasn’t going to let it drop.”
She laced her fingertips together. “I see. And they know you’re a Chaos dragon?”
“I shifted for them. Hekon wanted a demonstration.”
“And I presume since we are sitting here talking about it, that went well.” Although she had a slight air of disapproval.
“It’s easier with Keon here.” Keon was not, however,here. In this roost. “You know Hekon and A’ka have made it official, right? Because they held hands and everyone just about fainted. So smutty. I think I was scandalized.”
Her lips moved in a smile that wasn’t really a smile. “I did not, as they have not made a formal announcement, but I am not surprised. Some welcome good news in an ocean of bad and confusing. I suggest you not be the source of rumors.”
“And steal their thunder? Hell no. But... there’s kind of something else I’m probably also not supposed to tell you. Roost-Mom.”
She sighed. “What have you done now?”
“Nothing. Well. Maybe a little. It was Cyra's and I’s combined efforts…”
Both brows went up. Slowly. “So youhavedone something.”
“Hekon doesn’t want us to say anything, but—”
“You wisely realized that keeping secrets from your roost-mother was a very bad idea?”
“I did survive adolescence withmyparents.”
“I often wonder how.”
“We convinced Hekon to try to let us figure out the Gate.” I said it quickly before I could get tripped up on myself.
I expected Dekka to give me the usualthe Gate is deadline. Or some otherdon’t you fucking dareequivalent. Instead, she said, “That could be very dangerous. As well as futile, little one.”
“I can’t just let it happen, Dekka. I have to know I dideverythingI could have to save topside, short of whatever might risk Lemuria.”
“And tinkering with the Gate when you have not learned to breathe independently in dragon form isnota risk to Lemuria?”
“I’m not heading out to North with my tool belt. All the topside drakes and Hekon are going to be going through the documentation looking for Chaos tidbits. So that’s what I’ll be doing.”
I waited for Dekka to tell me that was not, in fact, what I would be doing.
For a moment, it seemed like she’d say that before she shifted tracks. “How does Hekon intend to accomplish this? The AI is not trained to read the old dialect, or the Homeworld dialect.”
“The Homeworld dialect?” I asked.
“Humans and dragons lived alongside each other on Earth for several generations before the disaster. Two distinct dialects evolved. This is not insurmountable, but another stumbling point. And theveryold Dialects are also in those records, and I have never seen them before. They are older than anything we have by millennia.”
Hah. Dekka said that like I was supposed to be intimidated. I already knew this was a desperate, last-ditch effort. I had to wring the sponge dry and leave nothing on the mat. “A lot of the topside drakes are also versed in the old dialects. None of them want to give up either. They know what’s going to happen to topside.”
The topside drakes hadn’t signed up for the job because they’d enjoyed living in chaos. Many dragons wanted tovisit, but most didn’t want to live there, masquerading as a human, changing lives every few decades. Not even Kira wanted that gig. It was not a life most dragons wanted or could handle, and there was a reason the topside drakes tended to be a high percentage of human, and it wasn’t just the ability to take on a flawless human form. It was a life of cyclical heartbreak and loss.
Anyone who had been topside had done it as a calling. None of them were willing to give up.
Dekka, fingers still laced, made sure I was done babbling before she bothered to talk again. “Little one, I am worried about you. This isn’t healthy.”
“Trying to prevent the destruction of human civilization isn’t healthy?”
“You know that isn’t what I meant.”
“I have to know I tried.”
