Chapter 17 Dragon Mount Awaits
“I thought I’d never see you again,” he whispers, squeezing me far too tight. “I came here to save you and I failed. I left you in there to fend for yourself despite my best intentions.”
“There was nothing you could have done,” I assure him, just happy to know he’s alive and that Zaries hadn’t killed him.
“I’ll never leave your side again, do you hear me?” He leans back, pressing his forehead to mine. “Here and now, Anara of Obsidian Reach, I pledge my life to you.”
“Oberon!” I gasp, pushing his shoulders back. “You can’t swear that!”
“I can and I did. I will never fail you again, Anara. I swear it!”
“It will be a short life,” the mage whispers.
My eyes dart to him, not certain I heard what I heard. “Excuse me?”
Oberon’s body goes rigid as I confront the mage as if the first battle for my life will be here and now.
“Nothing, sweet child. I said only that you two would be here for a short time. Silas is eager to move at daybreak.”
I nod slowly, trying to piece together what I heard and what he just said. It didn’t match, but I’ve been hearing things lately. I breathe slowly through my nose and out of my mouth, trying to make my body relax. There’s so much happening that doesn’t make any sense, and the world feels like it’s spinning around me.
“Tell me who made it, Oberon? I need to know.”
“Well, you know Zaries and I made it.” Oberon chuckles wryly, rubbing his thumb over his split bottom lip with a wince. “and..Malachi…”
I sigh, pulling my long hair over my shoulder and laying back down. “There was a redheaded woman, with a green scale. Did she make it?”
“Sylvain? Yes, she did, as well as someone from her province, his name is Alric.”
“So, two from each province?” I ask, focusing on keeping my breath even.
“One that shouldn’t have been possible, but I’m so glad she did.”
I smile up at Oberon and scoff. “I don’t think anyone would have seen the scale on the minotaur and lived. That was the trick, I’m sure.”
“About that…” Oberon leans back and gestures to a table on my left.
I turn my head slowly and see the skull of the minotaur, cleaned by magic, and my small scale still on the necklace draped over its head between the horns.
“It’s so small,” I whisper in awe, reaching for the pearlescent scale. In the flickering firelight, it looks almost green, then purple, then blue. Inexplicably, I want to touch it, hold it, and keep it close to my heart always.
“You had it in your bare hand, Anara,” Oberon says, reverence clear in his voice. “It didn’t affect you. Not in any way. Which wasn’t what it did to Silas when he tried to take it from you.”
“What did the scale do to him?”
“It withered his left hand to the bone, just like the skull. The moment it left your hand, it seemed bent on turning everything around it to ash.”
“What?” I choke in surprise. That’s not a dragon power we know about, not one that anyone ever could have imagined.
“Silas's left hand is a desiccated husk, but yours?” Oberon lifts my hand, stroking the scarring from the lightning and the poison. “Your hand is unmarred. No one can touch their scale with bare skin until they've mastered its magic, Anara. Did you somehow master it while in the maze? Is that how you killed the minotaur?”
“No… I—”
“You should let her rest, boy,” the mage says as he looks over me with a mixture of awe and fear in his eyes. “There’s a busy day ahead of you and it’s unlikely the storms will let up for your passage up the mountain.”
Oberon looks like he’s going to object, but then he glances at me. He must see something, because he sighs. “I’ll just be over here, alright?” he promises. “I won't go anywhere without you.”
I nod slowly, my mind reeling from all the information gleaned in such a short period. My head pounds as if it can't contain such knowledge, the throb pulsating relentlessly against my skull.
You must prepare yourself, Anara. More secrets and lies await you on Dragon Mount, and you will be up there alone, no matter the boy’s promises.
I pinch my eyes shut and cover my ears, trying to drown him out.
There’s no escaping me, Anara. I am inside you, always. Acceptance is the only way from here. It is the only way you will live to kill any dragon.
There is only one dragon I want to kill, and as the voice prattles on, I see it in my mind's eye. Its wingspan was so large it turned day into night, the heat of its fire boiling the skin on my back. The unending screams, and then the still silence.
If you ever plan on facing that dragon, you will have to make it through training. Now sleep, or I will put you to sleep.
I scoff, internally daring my insanity to go ahead and try.
That’s a mistake.
Magic blooms in my chest and spreads through my extremities. It seems to whisper sleep but I know it’s the voice, and I know I no longer have a choice in the matter.
Then, there’s noth—