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Hekon gave me a stare that could have melted glass. Which was only slightly less terrifying than the glare Dekka was giving me. “Very impressive. Now what prompted youthistime?”
Every dragon within earshot (and some within line of sight) decided now would be an excellent time to beanywhereelse.
“Sudden inspiration?” I offered.
“I am sick of this happening, Dekka. Contain your roost-daughter’sinspiration.” Hekon stalked away in a swirl of red fabric and bells and jungle-bird hair.
Dekka stepped to the side and gave the four of usthatlook.
We slunk back to the roost.
“What were you doing?”Dekka asked me, ignoring my three consorts while we dripped on the floor of the roost. Mahon sat at the table.
“Seeing if I could achieve water-form.” I offered.
“While how youarriveat a conclusion often seems inscrutable to me, you never do anything impulsively, what possessed you to even try?”
I sighed. “My parents are having a family reunion. I’ve been invited. The only way in or out of Lemuria for me is through the outflow tunnels, and only if I was a water dragon. I decided to see if I had a water form too.”
“Even though I have not granted you permission to go topside, or out the outflow.”
“I decided to verify I could go water form before I asked. I wasn’t going to ask if we had to shut down the machine.”
Dekka stared at me.
“CanI go?” I asked.
Her brows knit closer and I heard theI don’t know, CAN youon the tip of her tongue, but Dekka was too sly to succumb to such basic jokes. She’d bide her time until the most unexpected opportunity came by and then she’d be there with a sharp, pointy stick in one hand and a measure of salt in the other.
Dekka’s brow twitched as puddles formed on her floor. Then I amended, “All of us?”
“I have met your father, Helena. I am wary that he won’t let you return here, and we have limited capacity to deal with him if this is a trap.”
“It’s a family reunion, Dekka,” I said. “There will probably be forty people there.”
“Forty?” Akoni gasped.
“I have a big family.” Dekka had wanted a big family too, but the Soul Wyrm didn’t get to have much of a family at all. Her own children, for reasons I wasn’t informed of, had opted to leave her roost and mate into their father’s roost. She didn’t have to tell me that was a wound in her soul.
She gestured towards the stairs. “I will consider the request. But I have to consult with Mayriel and Hekon first. And I donotlike having to consult with Mayriel.”
Crap. “I’m sorry I keep putting you in front of Mayriel.”
“The only reason I am considering it is because I know Petrarchyan will prevent Mayriel from taking it out of my hide. Because Petrarchyan, for whatever reason, greatly favors you. But be wary of the peacock Wyrm, Helena. He will try to lure you away.”
“Petrarchyan names names. He won’t take me away from the reality I’ve named for myself.”
“I didn’t say he’d take you away. I said he’dlureyou away. I suspect you give him great power.”
“How doIgive Petrarchyan power?”
“Because chaos destroys and dismantles, order exerts itself and rebuilds. Mayriel is the end of that process. Petrarchyan is the beginning. He names the variables, she writes the equations.”
For an instant, Petrarchyan and I had seen each other at his Wyrm-forging.
Keon’s hand slid across my hip. “Are you saying there’s acoupbrewing?”
Dekka raised a brow at Keon. “I am saying,Mooring, that with a forge-breaker Chaos dragon in our midst, whatever happens next will shatter our order, andIwill have very, very limited power, influence, and time to shape the new order that will form from the ashes.”
