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“Last I checked, dragons have assholes, so I’m not shocked they also have opinions.” If the price I had to pay for all this to end well was forever being#PagenaPandorato Lemuria, or “crazy old auntie Helena that we don’t talk about” to my family, then I would go to the mat.
#asmanytimesasnecessarykthx.
“But,” I put my hand over his, “whenthe time comes? Have you found documentation on the Gate?”
He shook his head, expression grim. “No. But one way or the other, Homeworld is going to find out about you, and we need a plan for when they do.”
Dekka cockedher head at us as we descended the stairs. Mahon hissed at her to hold still while he secured her Wyrm panoply. Some of the chains jangled and smacked at his wrists. He rolled his eyes at her fidgeting.
“Dragon form,” Dekka told the four of us.
“For us?” Akoni asked.
“When a new Wyrm is forged, the other Wyrms’ roosts attend in dragon form. Mayriel has already done the calculations for our air supply, and thanks to Helena’s battery,” Dekka sounded smug as she spoke, “it can be indulged without worry. Helena, not you.”
“I’ve gotten pretty good at flying. I can even give you your choice of forms,” I said.
“True, although you’re a better flyer in amphiptere,” Keon said.
We’d accidentally discovered I had a land dragon form while out in the fields. I’d been thinking about how I hadn’t been able to figure out how to do more than squeak and chirp, and how obnoxious it was, and how nice it’d have been to have a proper land form. When I’d shifted, I’d been so focused on how nice a land form would be, I’d unlocked land form.
It’d been a bit shocking (and a humbling demonstration ofdon’t name an evil in Lemuria), but considering Water dragons could also have a land form if they had a strong enough second Affinity, not exactly unprecedented. The downside to my land form was the same problem Water dragons had: the land form was far less magically potent and sharp, probably because it took more magic to hold it. I also found flying in that form to be as graceful as a tossed cornhole bag.
My discovery aside, Dekka concealing I was a Chaos dragon to half the Wyrm seat (and all of Lemuria) was getting politically hazardous. The Wyrms knew I’d been molting, but Dekka had played keep-away with what Affinity I had. When the truth came out (because it would), people would bepissed. The cover-up is always worse than the crime.
“Youwantto steal Mayriel’s moment of triumph?” Akoni asked while Auryn and Keon exchangedooflooks.
Dekka tilted her head farther so that Mahon could adjust a bit of panoply. “As tempting as it sounds, and while I am fairly sure Petrarchyan himself would be greatly amused at both his consort’s ire and that his installation as Wyrm would be remembered for eons, I neither want to invoke more of Mayriel’s ire or do Petrarchyan any favors. Human form.”
“I do wish you would reconsider,” Mahon told her. “Her arriving in human form turns our failure to mention her Affinity to active concealment.”
“Which is also something Hekon, Mayriel, and now Petrarchyan are participating in.” Dekka flexed one wing, then the other, to make certain her jewelry was secure.
“For now.”
Dekka trilled softly. “It will be fine.”
“We can only protect her for so long.”
“Today is not the day for us to stop protecting her.”
Mahon sighed. “Children, up to the garden. We will all fly over together.”
Auryn started to untie his bands as we headed back up to our floor for my consorts to remove their attire. Below us, Dekka and Mahon argued in draconic. Mahon didn’t normally stick his snout into Dekka’s Wyrm affairs, but he wasn’t happy about this.
“Mahon has a point,” Keon said as we stepped up into the rose garden on the top floor.
“I agree today would not be the correct time or place, but Dekka also cannot continue to conceal Helena.” Akoni flipped into land form and shook out his finlets, causing a metallic sound.
Auryn was next to shift, and he peered over the edge of the structure. From here, we could just see the Wyrm Seat, and crowds and some of the Wyrms had already arrived from the glittering rainbow. I walked up next to him. “So they say Petrarchyan is beingforgedinto a Wyrm. Is that the right word?”
Akoni said, “Yes, it isforging. Although I do not know exactly how it is forging. There has not been a new Wyrm since my father. I was still in the nursery pools in South with my mother.”
Keon shifted and stood on Akoni’s far side. “I was also not here. Was back on the farm, unmolted.”
Auryn’s candlelight lips tugged playfully at my dress. I tried to shake him off, but then Akoni shoved his snout under my hem and lifted it over my ass.
“What the hell!” I exclaimed.
