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I wondered if you had to be touching the dragon for the telepathy to work.
The dragon was breathing heavily, raw hatred in her eyes. I wondered if she could breathe fire on us. She was enormous. So enormous she did not just eat up the extra space in the large room, she swallowed it whole. How had we not noticed her hiding on the balcony earlier? Or had she been somewhere else?
I pushed my magic down before speaking, hoping my voice did not sound as rattled as I felt. “Look, I know you do not trust me. Given the circumstances, I cannot blame you for that. And if this is our only audience with you, I’d like to speak plainly and say what we came here to say.”
She said nothing but seemed to give me a nod, which only confirmed my theory about having to be touching her for her to speak to us.
“Keir,” Emric warned. “Are you surethisis the best time?”
I gave him a look before turning back to the queen. “Wylan has recently found some information which was locked away while my father ruled. We have reason to believe that the disease was more so a poison than a disease.”
Had that been a smoke ring I just saw? I was fairly certain it was. Yes to the fire then.
“A poison?” Amory asked. She stepped around the dragon and moved so I could see her. “You think the disease was not a disease at all?”
“That is exactly what I think. I think it targeted your water sources, and locked out your magic, much like the iron gauntlets I once wore which blocked out mine.”
I was fairly certain my father had never known the truth of Dra Skor’s Enchantment. If he had, he would have never accepted a dragon queen. So how had he known just enough? Enough to poison them.
A blink later, I alone was once again in the grips of the dragon, only a few feet off the ground, but brought up to her eye level.
Why now? Why do you bring this information now, after nine years?
“We only recently found out,” I explained. Though to be fair, Jorah had suspected it and figured it out before the rest of us. I had been well acclimated to my father’s evil ways, but even I hadn’t thought he would have been capable of this. Even now I was a bit dumbfounded how he had pulled it off without knowing the extent of all Dra Skor was capable of.
The dragon moved in closer, her breath smelled hot and well... rancid.
Who? Who would have been that deranged, that evil, to poison the entire realm?
I spoke calmly, even as I pushed my magic away. “You and I both know there was only ever one man that deranged. My father. And if it is any consolation, I stood before him and watched all the life bleed from his eyes. He is gone.”
She squeezed harder.
“Queen Esta,” Amory again warned.
I should kill you. His blood also runs in yours, after all.
“True,” I offered. “And it might even make you feel better for a moment or two. However, I am not my father. I was the one who slapped the gauntlets on him to block outhisdark magic so my brother and I could kill him. Not only did I help remove him from the throne, but I also am working to correct his wrongs, numerous though they may be.”
That was definitely smoke filling the air around me and giving it a hazy look.
“I am truly sorry, Queen Estalena Mallick. My father was an awful man. You do not trust me, and I understand that. But you can trust that just as I helped kill my father, the person responsible for what has been done to your Enchantment, I will also help figure out a way to reverse the poison.” I paused, not wanting to give her an abundance of false hope but wanting to make our intentions clear. “If there is a way, I will find it.”
She again dropped me, but I landed on my feet, my magic not needed to break my fall this time.
More smoke came from her nostrils before she tipped back her enormous head and let out a roar which rattled not only our room, but it seemed the entire castle.
And then she whipped around, heading for the balcony.
Emric reached out as if wanting to touch her tail as she went, but Amory offered, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Perched on the edge of the balcony, she released her black wings. They looked almost as if made of a thin sort of leather as they arched upward before curving down.
With not so much as a glance back at us, she took to the darkening skies.
“So that happened,” I offered.
“And could it have gone any worse?” Emric deadpanned as he crossed his arms and leaned over to watch her fly off.
