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As the powder soaks up the poison, it forms a crust and drops to the ground. A few minutes later, Stesha steps back.
“That’s the worst of it. The poison didn’t penetrate his hide and I can treat these burns back at the dragongrounds.”
I stare in horror at my wounded dragon. No one has ever hurt my dragon in battle before. Scourge has always seemed invulnerable, and it’s shaken me to my core to see him injured by an arrow.
Stesha clasps my shoulder. “He’ll be all right, Zabriel.”
“What the fuck is this poison?” I snarl, my chest feeling like it’s being crushed in a vise.
Stesha shakes his head, worry creasing his brow. He doesn’t need to tell me that a better-aimed shot could have killed Scourge. “Magical barriers. Poison that can injure dragons. The Brethren have never been capable of this.”
I recall the robed archer. Decorated robes, not plain robes like the men we’ve been fighting. “Those weren’t Brethren. They’re something new. Fighters I’ve never seen before.”
I turn toward the sound, though I can’t see the barrier from this distance. Just who and what lies beyond it? Five hundred years have passed. It could be anyone. Anything. It’s even more urgent that we find a way to bring it down.
I move around to Scourge’s head. “Can you fly?”
Scourge growls and aggressively thrusts his crest toward the sky, offended by the suggestion that he might have been grounded by one arrow.
A few minutes later we take to the skies, Scourge leading the way, a little slower than usual, but his wingbeats are strong.
When we reach the castle dragongrounds a few hours later, a dozen Temple Mothers are waiting for us. Together with Stesha, they treat his wound while I comfort my dragon as much as he’ll allow me. Scourge holds his head up proudly and never flinches, but I can feel him leaning some of his bulk against my chest.
Sometime later, his wound is cleaned and sealed with a marseng leaf bandage so that it doesn’t become infected. The Temple Mothers depart, and Stesha steps back from Scourge.
His expression is livid, as it always is when a dragon is injured.
“Poison,” he spits, like it’s a curse.
Esmeral has been huddled against her Alpha’s side, but now she comes around toward his head, trilling and clicking her concern. Scourge presses his crest against her flank, showing her that he’s fine and nibbling at her wing edges. Fussing over her so that she won’t fuss over him. Scourge will not be fussed over under any circumstances.
Stesha and I stand back, watching them in silence.
“At least we killed every last one of them tonight. Your father couldn’t have done any of this,” Stesha says at last.
I glance around in surprise. “Done what?”
The dragonmaster is watching the dragons of the flare as they move in a tight circle around us, protecting and paying respects to their injured Alpha. “Retaken Maledin. Freed our dragons. Freed us. We fought as a unit tonight. Your father… It might make you angry to hear it, but I loathed fighting alongside him.”
I glower at the wound in Scourge’s side. “I just want to put right everything my father did to destroy our home.”
“You will.”
Despite the worry over Scourge and my post-battle comedown, I can’t help but feel lighter all of a sudden. Stesha’s opinion matters to me, and it always has. It doesn’t surprise me that he hated riding into battle with my imperious father, who wouldn’t listen to anyone’s advice.
“They’re changing tactics, but we’ll change with them,” Stesha says. “We won’t lose to a bunch of cultists who have joined forces with black mages and poisoners.”
I nod sharply. “Of course we won’t lose.”
A rider crosses the stone bridge toward the dragongrounds. Esmeral breaks away from Scourge and dashes hopefully forward, but her crest falls sadly when she realizes it’s not Isavelle.
I feel a stab of pain witnessing the little dragon’s distress. Isavelle would never knowingly be cruel to another creature, but Esmeral is suffering without her rider. My dragon’s Omega means almost as much to me as my own Omega.
“What are we going to do about that poor little dragon?” I say with a sigh.
Stesha gives me a sharp look. “You are going to pull your Omega in line and remind her of her duties to Maledin. If word gets out that the future queen has refused to ride, it will damage the faith the people have in dragons to protect and defend them. Especially the humans. They’ll think of her as one of their own. If she doesn’t trust dragons, neither will they.”
Stesha’s lecture slams into me and fries my already raw nerve endings. “You think I don’t know that? These are the thoughts that haunt me in the dark hours when I can’t sleep. A king of Maledin has never had to rule over so many humans before.”
