23. Kaiya
”What — h — how are there dragons here?!” I stammered. ”There are none in the Empire — I”ve checked. Everyone assumes they went extinct after The Fall.”
Jaiel chuckled as the silver dragon let out a loud snore. ”No. They”re still around, but from what Liam says, there are only a few dragon nests in the entire world. This just so happens to be one of them. His family is descended from the great dragon riders of the Mage Era.”
”Forsaken hells!” I spun to face him. ”These people are the dragon riders? And you were trying to keep me from this place?!”
”Whoa, whoa,” he said, holding his hand up, eyes wide. ”I clearly said they were descendants of the dragon riders. No one rides anymore — and before you ask, no, I don”t know exactly why.”
”Fine.” I groaned, then turned back to the sparkling silver creature. ”But gods — dragons!”
”I still remember the first time I saw one,” Jaiel said, voice warm. ”Nothing can quite beat that moment. You wouldn”t want to see more, would you?”
It would be an excellent distraction …
Excitement bubbled up inside me as I nodded, though my hands shook at my sides.
Dragons were real …
Jaiel smiled, then led the way past the sunbathing dragon, through a warren of red stone tunnels, pointing out caves along the way.
I followed along, grateful to avoid confronting whatever had happened between us back there.
Something had changed, though.
The signs were there — from the way Jaiel periodically looked over his shoulder to check on me, to the way he rested his hand against my arm while he pointed out little details of the caves.
It all left me feeling … exposed — as though my insides had suddenly turned into a swarm of flutterwings. And I didn”t like it.
Perhaps if I pretended nothing had happened, the awkwardness would eventually go away?
Hopefully.
”It may be quiet now,” Jaiel said, gripping my forearm with a strong, warm hand. The other traced an engraving on the cavern wall to our right. ”But this next area was once the dragon nursery. And this.” He gestured toward a massive doorway leading to a large room. ”Was where the queen nested.”
Gently tugging my arm free, I stepped inside.
A massive mound of gray stones the size of a house sat front and center, and two dragon statues stood guard in front of it. To their sides were dozens of smaller mounds of gray stone, spread out seemingly randomly.
It was a strange and beautiful tribute, if a bit somber.
”Where is the queen?” I asked, stepping forward and running my fingers along a marbled gray fragment.
A distant roar interrupted Jaiel”s reply and drew my attention back the way we”d come. My heart gave an excited thump, wiping away all thoughts of the still room.
Jaiel threw a grin over his shoulder and gestured for me to follow as he took off at a run back through the door we”d entered and down a wide hallway.
Finally, we broke out into another cavernous room — not quite as big as the queen”s chambers, but still very large.
To my left was a wide doorway that led out to blue skies and an enormous, circular platform. And at the center of the sunlit platform was the most beautiful creature I”d ever seen.
The little dragon from earlier, sparkling silver while it napped in the sun, was stunning.
But this? This dragon was majestic. Dark as midnight, and tall as a lamppost. Its scales seemed to absorb every drop of light that touched them.
It stood completely still, head turned away from me, and for a moment, I wondered if it was just another statue.
Then it lifted a foot and slammed it into the ground, sending a rumble through my shoes.
I instinctively stepped back and into Jaiel, who caught me before I could fall to the ground. Cheeks warm, I righted myself and brushed away his hands. I needed to be careful. Between crying in front of him earlier, and now this — he was going to think I needed his damn protection.
”Mirrim!” A sharp voice snapped.
Eli — no, Liam.
My heart lurched and my throat tightened as a wave of conflicting emotions hit me. ”Keep him still!” he grunted. ”I need to finish mending this crack.”
He sounded older — but closer to how I remembered him.
No.I forced the thoughts down. I”d been through this already. Eli was gone and the asshole Liam had taken his place. I didn”t care about Liam. I just wanted to see the damn dragon.
The dragon stomped again, letting out a very displeased sounding huff as it shook its head.
Concern twisted my brows. What were they doing to it?
”I”m confused,” I whispered to Jaiel. ”Why can”t Liam use his magic to ask the dragon to be calm like he did to the creatures in Gleyma?”
Jaiel shook his head. ”Well, dragons aren”t like the vrytra. They can”t communicate with dragon riders anymore. It”s part of why humans can no longer ride them. Liam said something about there being a ”wall” between the dragons and mages, but honestly, I don”t even know what that means.”
Confusion knit my brows. A ”wall” between mages and dragons? What kind of magic could do something like that?
A small head of dark black hair popped out to the left of the dragon, and the girl who”d briefly peeked into my room earlier followed.
Mirrim.
She wore a smaller version of the dress Liam”s grandma wore, but had the same smile as Eli — cheek dimples and all. A wide black braid draped over her left shoulder, and she had her head cocked to the side, as if she were studying us too.
Grinning, she waved us over with one hand while continuing to stroke the tree-trunk sized leg of the dragon.
”I”m surprised it”s safe for her to do that,” I said. ”That dragon could send her flying with a single kick.”
Jaiel chuckled. ”They may not be able to communicate anymore, but they aren”t wild animals, Princess. Dragons are extremely intelligent — maybe even more so than humans and Fae. They, like us, don”t hurt those they care about.”
As if summoned, the dragon turned its head toward us, and I was faced with two very large, swirling golden eyes.
Holy hells. My heart skipped a beat and my breath caught.
”Jaiel,” Liam bit out. ”Take Kaiya somewhere else while I work. This is more important than your need to impress the lady.”
What in the seven hells? As though Jaiel would ever try to impress me. He was just trying to make me feel better after everything that had happened.
I ground my teeth. Gods. What happened to that cheerful man I”d met two years ago? Was the Eli I knew a complete lie?
Mirrim laughed and rolled her eyes. ”Please ignore my grumpy brother. He”s cranky because he has to go meet with the council, and he knows it”s not going to go well again. He has to tell them about the —”
”Mirrim, focus,” Liam interrupted, voice sharp.
The young woman put her hand on her hip, then shook her head and motioned for me to come closer.
I nodded, moving slowly, making sure not to startle the dragon. Jaiel said the creature wouldn”t hurt people they cared about, but I wasn”t one of their caretakers, so I had no idea if that rule extended to me.
”Stryek is the oldest dragon still living, as far as we know. He can be a bit irritable sometimes, but inside he”s just a big softy,” she said with a grin.
I looked from her to the giant beast with claws as long as my arm, and crossed my arms against my chest. She could say he was friendly as much as she wanted, but I”d play it safe, thank you very much.
”How old is he?”
”Twenty-three years old,” Liam said, voice honey smooth as he stepped from behind the dragon to his sister”s side before leaning forward to work on the dragon”s next leg. He didn”t even spare Jaiel or I a glance. ”The same age as me.”
My brows drew together. ”I thought dragons lived for hundreds of years, like the Fae?”
Liam ignored us, but Mirrim answered. ”According to Gram, long before the Mad Queen ended the mage Era, our village held dozens of dragons that were each over a thousand years old. Can you imagine what it was like when they and their younglings roamed this place?” She gestured out at the empty skies, and I could almost see it.
”Magical.”
Her hand fell to her side, and she turned to one of the massive piles of jagged gray stone dotting the area around us. ”But during the Twisting — or The Fall, as you mainlanders say, an evil walked our streets, turning most riders and dragons to stone.” Mirrim motioned to more mounds of gray stone peppering the platform and my stomach knotted. ”Most shattered right away, and even those that didn”t break couldn”t be brought back,” she continued, her voice soft.
”But a few escaped the massacre.” Her lips curled into a smile. ”And Stryek here is the descendant of one of those survivors. Though he and all his kin suffer from a lingering version of that same dark magic.”
I thought back to the dozens of broken mounds of gray stone we”d seen on our trek here — the mountain of gray stone in the queen”s chambers, and the small mounds in the nursery. I dug my fingers into my palms to fight back the unexpected tears prickling at my eyes.
What kind of monster could kill them all like that?
I”d always thought seeing a dragon — let alone touching one would be a magical, beautiful moment — but this was heartbreaking.
A breeze rustled by, and Stryek let out a huff as he shifted to get more comfortable. Liam tilted his head as he tenderly worked on the dragon”s leg.
My heart twisted. In that moment he looked a bit more like the kind Eli I”d first met …
”How?” I asked, voice tight. ”Was it a relic?”
”No, we don”t think so. Many mages have searched for the cause,” Liam bit out as he dipped his hand into a tub of sticky white paste before rubbing it on Stryek”s leg. ”But after eight hundred years, we still know next to nothing.”
Mirrim nodded. ”Most dragons start turning to stone by the time they”re ten years old. It solidifies their bodies until they aren”t able to fly or eat.” Mirrim ran her hand down Stryek”s foreleg. ”Stryek, here, is the first to make it past twenty-two. We thought he might have escaped the curse, but as you can see.” She pointed at several marbled gray scales that seemed to have hardened and combined into a single stone plate. ”He”s starting to turn now.”
”Which is why you should leave,” Liam snapped.
And the gods forsaken asshole Liam was back.
”You”re distracting us, and with everyone else out repairing the wall, it”s just Mirrim and I doing the mending. If we can”t finish patching the cracks in his skin in time, he won”t be able to hunt, which will accelerate the progression of the stone.”
I winced and muttered, ”Sorry,” just as Stryek shook out his wings, then dipped his head toward me. He leaned closer until his snout was mere inches away, and my heart flipped.
Holy hells — my skin buzzed as I slowly reached a hand toward him, extending my korra at the same time.
If a dragon wanted attention, who was I to deny him?
Warmth and a feeling of rightness shot through me as the dragon nuzzled my palm, his scales rough and cool.
I couldn”t stop the smile from splitting my face.
Gods — what would this be like if we could talk like the actual dragons and riders of legends?
I forced my attention to his korra and froze. Something was off …
The ribbons of vibrant blue mind essence and rich yellow body essence danced happily as normal … but the red essence of his spirit was completely still. What in the seven hells?!? I concentrated harder and gasped. There were pulsing bonds stretching out in every direction from the spirit essence — thousands of them — each as thin as a thread!
Holy hells!
Bonds between korras showed connections between living things, so some were normal. But thousands?! And Stryek”s many bonds stretched out far beyond my sensing range, like a glowing web of which I could only see a piece.
I”d only ever seen that many bonds between creatures that belonged to hives, flocks, and other tight-knit groups. But those bonds were usually thick and glowing.
These, though — these bonds were thin as a thread, and there seemed to be some sort of jagged affliction coating them.
And that wrongness was leaking into Stryek”s korra right before my eyes.
Forsaken hells …
Moving on instinct, I reached into my pocket and withdrew my ring. If it could suppress my magic, perhaps it could do the same with this?
Biting my cheek, I pressed it against his cool snout, and immediately a loud buzzing flooded my mind, along with that familiar muting of korra and bonds.
”What — where —”
The crisp, deep voice boomed loudly in my mind, competing with the obnoxious buzzing. I looked up in the physical realm to see those golden eyes staring directly at me, wide with something resembling shock.
They swirled rapidly as I watched, and the dragon”s breath sped up, his sides heaving in front of us.
”What”s happening?” shouted Liam, voice seeming to come from far away.
”Are — are you able to hear me, bond-weaver?”