Chapter 28 #2
"I mean it," I continue. "You walked away. You chose the gold over me."
His tail lashes once behind him. No.
The certainty in the word catches me off guard. "You absolutely did."
I believed I did.
The correction hangs between us.
I stare up at him. "That doesn’t make much sense."
At the time I thought I was choosing gold. I thought I was finally being sensible. Every instinct I possessed told me that obtaining gold was the most important thing in existence. His silver eyes narrow. Then I spent the entire journey thinking about you.
A laugh escapes me before I can stop it. "That sounds miserable."
It was profoundly irritating. But it helped me figure things out.
Despite everything, I smile.
The dragon continues. I kept expecting you to appear behind me. I slowed down several times to allow you to catch up. I constructed a bridge across a river because I thought you might need it. I stopped before nightfall because humans can't travel safely in darkness.
"You built a bridge for me?"
Obviously not. The answer comes far too quickly. Then he pauses. At least, that is what I told myself at the time.
My smile grows.
Vyrathion notices and looks annoyed. You find my suffering amusing.
I pat his snout. "Just a little."
When I reached the village, I discovered that it contained very little gold. There were traces of it. Decorations. Trinkets. Evidence that a larger treasure existed elsewhere.
I frown. "So there actually was gold."
There was. His eyes brighten. An old tribesman told me where it was hidden. A true treasure. Enough gold to restore me completely. Enough to make me whole again.
I study him for a moment. The evening light glitters across the scales of his face, and behind him the last tribesmen are still disappearing into the jungle. Everything feels strangely peaceful after the chaos of the battle. "And it was nearby?"
Very nearby. There was no deception in him. He spoke the truth. The answer comes without hesitation. Mere thousands of paces. I could have reached it before nightfall.
A lump forms in my throat. The dragon who spent years chasing gold had finally stood within reach of it.
I think about the arguments we'd had, the endless discussions about hoards and treasure and what it meant to be a dragon.
Back then I never truly believed he'd walk away from the chance. "Then why are you here?"
For several moments he doesn't answer. His gaze drifts past me toward the darkening jungle, and I get the distinct impression that he's replaying the memory.
The tribesman told me something else. His tail moves slowly through the grass.
He said several tribes were marching toward a place they called the Impossible Mountain.
They were going there to capture five women.
"And you knew those were the girls. My girls."
I knew they were the females you intended to rescue. The reply is calm, but the emotions flowing through our connection aren't calm at all. Even now I can feel echoes of the fury that must have gripped him when he heard it.
I lower my hand from his scales and fold my arms across my chest. "So you chose us."
The great dragon's eyes narrow. I believed I was making a temporary delay.
Gold would remain where it was. Treasure does not usually walk away.
Females surrounded by hostile tribes are less dependable in that regard.
The dragon looks pleased with himself for perhaps half a second.
I told myself I would rescue you, then return for the treasure. The plan seemed perfectly sensible.
"Yet you never did."
A curious expression crosses his face. At least I think it's an expression. Dragon faces aren't always easy to read. As it turns out, there’s no need for it.
For a while neither of us speaks. The silence feels comfortable now, filled with things that no longer need saying. Somewhere behind me I can hear Beth and the others talking quietly. The Plood wander through the clearing collecting their wounded with the same eerie calm they've always possessed.
Eventually Vyrathion lets out a slow breath. The truth is that I should have understood much sooner.
His gaze settles on me again. During the journey to the village, I thought constantly about gold. I planned for it. I imagined it. I carried that absurd little cup and spent entirely too much time touching the gold leaf on it.
A smile pulls at my lips. "That sounds familiar."
It should. You mocked me for it.
"I did."
And yet every time I stopped walking, I found myself wondering where you were.
The warmth flowing through our connection deepens.
I wondered whether you had crossed the rivers safely. I wondered whether you had found shelter before nightfall. I wondered whether something in the jungle had attempted to eat you. When I reached the village, I found myself thinking about you more often than I thought about the treasure.
I don't answer, because the admission feels too important to interrupt.
Vyrathion curls up more. At first I assumed that was because you were useful. Then I assumed it was because I had become accustomed to your presence. That explanation also seemed reasonable.
The warmth in the connection grows stronger still. Eventually I was forced to admit that neither explanation survived serious examination.
For the first time since he landed, the mighty dragon looks almost embarrassed. The sight is so unexpected that it nearly breaks me.
Morgan, I spent years believing that gold would complete me. Then I finally held enough gold to become whole again, and the first thing I did was use it to save you.
My eyes start to sting. The statement is delivered so matter-of-factly that I doubt he fully appreciates what he's saying. But I do. “Those tribesmen damn near killed you.”
Only nearly. It seemed less than ideal, and yet somehow right. Where did you find that gold, by the way? Did you always have it? Or was it the females?
I point to the hillside. “That’s the side of a crater.
It’s the crater of a meteorite that hit eons ago.
It was shattered when it hit, and it had a high content of gold.
Those rocks are strewn around the ground of the crater.
Little fragments of rock, most of them with seams of gold in them.
The girls collected them before they realized they were useless. ”
Smart girls, Vyrathion says into my mind. They realized the truth before I did. My love, do we have to stay here?
The love in him washes over me and makes me dizzy. “No, my love. We can leave. As soon as the girls are safe.”
I will command the Plood to keep them safe on their way to the Borok village, the dragon says into my mind. Assuming that’s where they want to go.
“It is,” I tell him. “The Plood know the way.”
For a moment neither of us moves. The clearing still smells of blood and churned earth, and beyond it the jungle settles back into its evening rhythm as if hundreds of warriors hadn't fled from a dragon only minutes ago.
Then Vyrathion lowers one massive foreleg and stretches a wing away from his body.
My love, he says, and warmth floods through the connection between us. Come here.
I stare at him. The dragon who once treated every expression of affection as a tactical mistake is inviting me onto his back as naturally as if he'd been doing it all his life.
I cross the distance between us and place a hand against the golden scales of his shoulder.
They're warm beneath my palm, warmer than I expected, and alive with a strength that seems to run all the way through him.
He remains perfectly still while I climb, helping me without making a show of helping me.
The old Vyrathion would have claimed I was inconveniencing him.
This one simply waits until I'm settled between the ridges at the base of his neck.
The moment I wrap my arms around him, a deep sense of contentment rolls through our bond. Home. The realization hits me so suddenly that my eyes sting again.
His wings unfold with a whisper of scales and membrane. They stretch wider than any creature has a right to be, catching the last golden light of the setting sun. Then he crouches, gathers himself, and launches skyward.
The ground falls away beneath us. Wind rushes through my hair as the crater, the battlefield, the fleeing tribes and the endless jungle shrink below. Vyrathion climbs higher, powerful and effortless, carrying me into a sky painted orange and crimson.
For the first time since arriving on Xren, I stop wondering where I belong.
I'm already there.