16. It’s a Deal

“Mother,” Ikyn warns. “Not yet. She’s not ready.”

Vaemrath growls, her purple scales glowing white, blindingly bright. I close my eyes. This light is much worse than when we entered the birthplace of magical beings. Past the harshness of the light, I feel warm; as if I were a child being coddled by my own mother.

“Mother,” Ikyn warns again. I can feel the heat from his body as he transforms next to me, quickly stepping away from me. His roar shakes the cavern, agitating the ground beneath me. I stumble blindly, trying to maintain my balance while keeping my eyes closed. Vaemrath’s light dims and the shaking stops. Opening my eyes, I see flames gathered in the mouth of Ikyn’s dragon. Vaemrath is snarling, hunched back against a wall. Wind surrounds her once again, and she returns to her human form. Ikyn pauses a moment before transforming back himself. “Your duty is to teach her the path of the spirits,” Ikyn directs to his mother. “Show her how to keep the peace here. I will not force Eira to change when this is all too much for her to even process.”

Vaemrath remains quiet. Her light fades to nothing, letting the soft glow emanate from the crystals alone. She looks at me and her eyes soften. Straightening her posture, she looks back to Ikyn. “Yes, yes, yes,” Vaemrath sighs. “Fine. **FINE**! So be it. One month, Ikyn.” She directs her attention to me. “One month, Princess. You have one month to accept your destiny or-“

“Or *nothing*,” Ikyn growls. Vaemrath turns her back to us, waving us away. Ikyn makes his way back to me, placing his hand on my shoulder and turning me around to follow him back towards where we entered. When we leave the cavern, back through the tunnel, and out to the bowl of an oasis, Ikyn releases a heavy breath. “I am sorry, Eira. I should have warned you-“

“Warned me what?” I ask rhetorically. “Warned me that to be the Dragon Queen I have to *become* a dragon? Or was it you should have warned me that I would be face to face with a woman I’ve only read about in books? How about, you should have warned me your *mother* would give me a ***time limit*** on when I have to decide to change?! What if I choose not to change? What if I don’t *want* to be the next Dragon Queen?! Hm? Have you thought about that? I mean, why me? Why did you have to choose *me* to be your queen?”

During my rant, Tansy flies around me. She speaks in her jingling language, only being replied to by Ikyn. I still continue, speaking over them, rambling my own thoughts. “What if I want to go back to Savea? What if I want to forget all of this exists? Okay, maybe not all of this. I love it here. I could stay with Tansy forever. But *this*? This is too much.

“Yes, My Queen,” Ikyn begins.

I hold up my finger to stop him. “No. I’m done, Ikyn. I am not your queen. I want to go home.”

Tansy stops jingling to Ikyn. She stops on his shoulder, looking back and forth at the both of us. Ikyn’s face is as stoic as ever. His eyes tell me he’s lost in thought. “You want to go home?” He repeats, making sure I meant what I said.

Nodding, I reply firmly, “Yes. I want to go home.”

“Let us make a deal then.” A sudden breeze flows around us. I didn’t know wind could travel into the mountain, but I am more interested in Ikyn’s deal. “Stay here - not with me in my castle, but *here*,” he gestures around us to the magical oasis, “for one week. Learn what would be your duties to keep this peace. If you enjoy it, then stay with me and be my queen. You can decide to go through with the change by the end of the month if you accept. If the task still seems ‘too much’ for you to handle, I will deliver you to Savea myself and you will never have to return.”

*Decisions, decisions. Stay here, by myself, with that horrid Vaemrath, and with beings that could potentially hurt me or themselves… Or go home?* “What if…” I pause, careful to speak my words precisely. “What if I do not agree to your deal?”

Ikyn narrows his eyes. “If you do not wish to be amicable, then I shall leave you with Vaemrath to forego the change against your will. You will never see your family again. You will never step foot into your kingdom. You will be stuck here in the volcano until your dying days.”

“That hardly seems fair. If you force me to change, then as a dragon I can fly out!”

To this, Ikyn laughs. A deep, menacing, heartless chuckle. “That depends on what element your spirit is connected to. The tunnels here are much too thin for a dragon to fly through. You do not have the bond of the Dragon King to open the only passage that could be your only escape. The only other entrance or exit would be to fly through the lava, which not even a dragon of fire can handle long enough to not be swallowed by the thickness of the heat. You *will* be trapped here until ***I*** *let you out*. Which by the time I give in, will be on my deathbed, thus ending your life.”

“You really have given me no choice, then…”

“Do we have a deal?” His smirk is annoying.

*I really don’t have a choice. Stay here against my will, or stay here by my will are genuinely my only options*. “Fine. We have a deal.”

“Fine,” he scoffs. Ikyn shrugs Tansy off his shoulder. He says something to her, before turning to me and narrowing his eyes. “Eira, would you have chosen me, if I did not choose you?”

I take a deep breath. Not knowing my own answer, I look away towards the ground. Hugging myself, I turn away from him. I feel the tears well in my eyes as I feel all the emotions of the day swarming at once. *I love him, yet I’m afraid of him. I loathe him, but I still care for him. A week ago I had no idea how the Festival of Dragons would change my life. If I had known…*

“I see,” he says. “Vaemrath knows you are staying. She knows not to speak of the change, only to show you the balance of the everlasting peace here. Anyone who dares break a vow here will be cursed by the Gods as They deem necessary. They do favor their own creations more often than not. That includes our deal.” Ikyn walks past me, towards the exit. I do not care to watch him leave. Instead, I turn back around, facing Tansy. She glides closer to me, reaching out to my forehead. Standing on the bridge of my nose, I can only assume Tansy is trying to console me. I let the tears fall silently.

I do not know how long I cry for. I cry until I’m curled in a ball on the ground, grabbing on to the blades of grass as if they could comfort me. I have heard footsteps and movements draw near, not getting too close to touch me, but enough to see my emotional mess, before leaving again. Eventually, when my tears run out and I am nothing but a snotty, hiccuping mess, Vaemrath appears. “Come, child,” she says kindly. Looking up, I see she is extending her hand to me. The hard stoned face of earlier is replaced with a much more gentle look of genuine care. “Eira, we must clean you up. Today is not the day to be worrying about what is to come, or what has happened. Come now. I will show you your bed.”

“My - *hiccup*- my bed?”

Pushing myself off the ground to my knees, I accept her hand. “Yes, my child,” she says, pulling me to her. She tucks my hand into the crook of her elbow, patting my knuckles as if she were my own mother. “It has been a long time, and I had forgotten, but I was more human once upon a time. I was only human, years ago. I forgot my humanity when the Dragon Lord - Ikyn’s father - died. My soul died with him, I must admit.” We walk in silence as she reminisces. Eventually, she continues. “Yes, I was once Majesty Iliyana Savea,” she laughs. When she’s not taken over by Vaemrath, she is very sweet. Her laugh is like honey. Very smooth. “You remind me very much of how I used to be. I think, though, Ikyn was much softer on you than the Dragon Lord was with me.”