Chapter 10
Azar
There are many things Liz doesn’t share with her siblings because they’re hatchlings. They’re young. I understand—it was the same for me. Euphrasia couldn’t tell me everything until I was no longer small, vulnerable, and weak.
She protected me when no one else did.
The risk to her was great, and I’ve always been tremendously grateful. But she never told me she was my mother’s best friend. She never told me about Hyperion’s egg being burned or the circumstances surrounding the prophecy about me. It makes me wonder what else she’s concealed.
And why she really did it.
I’m not small now and haven’t been for quite some time.
I’m the recovery leader, and I came to earth armed with almost no knowledge whatsoever of the task set before me.
Further, when she arrived with Hyperion, I was struggling.
Father was threatening to come to earth himself, even then, and she didn’t tell me about the vanir, that my mother was one, or that my mother had trapped the vanir before we left.
She didn’t tell me that all the blessed—the aesir—needed to be bonded to a human in order to survive, or that there were no earth blessed when they trapped the vanir and left earth. She must know where they came from, or at least have a hunch. She’s still told me nothing about any of that.
As soon as Liz goes to sleep, I’m going to interrogate my old nanny.
She owes me some answers, and it’s time I get them.
If I can’t leave Liz now we’re entwined, then Euphrasia can come to me.
Right now, though, Liz is in the middle of a press conference where she’s announcing to all the humans of earth that there are more of us, and probably even more incoming, and she explains that we require their help.
We need more humans to bond.
She explains the bond and how it works. She tells them that while the blessed have the upper hand in terms of theoretically being able to force us, that we have vowed to try and do better. We’re also going to listen to our bonded and try to form healthy relationships.
I’m not sure all the blessed are as committed to that as she is, but they’re at least listening.
Then she tells them about the vanir. She explains they’ve always been here, but they were trapped.
She tells them that the blessed trapped them thousands of years ago to keep humanity safe, but that the lock to their prison was the very thing we needed to survive.
It was a difficult puzzle to unlock, and in the process of saving the blessed, we released the vanir. She apologizes.
Like it’s all her fault.
And then she says we’re working on a way to try and protect the humans this has put at risk. And she ties it all back together with a very nice bow by telling them that in order for us to help, we’ll need the blessed to find bonded humans.
She’s smart.
She’s very well spoken, even if she can’t see it. Sure, her words are less carefully crafted than those of the Australian Prime Minister, but it makes her sound more believable, I think. I can tell the blessed who are close are also listening, and they’re interested.
The earth blessed who haven’t yet gotten wings are the most keen to hear what she has to say, but all the blessed look curious. I wonder whether Liz knows the power she has over others, because I don’t think most of it even comes from her connection to me.
She’s got a pull all her own.
Maybe it’s the heart that she somehow jammed into her delicate chest, but I don’t think that’s it either. I think the heart chose her, Jore chose her, because of her own inner strength. It’s always been there. It’s probably why I bonded her in the first place, I imagine, if I could remember it.
She’s arguing with some woman about wiping off her own makeup, whatever that is, when Gordon races toward the set, barely stopping before crashing into one of the tiny cameras. We have a problem.
What?
He glances at Liz. Is she still busy?
Why? I don’t like that he’s evading my question.
Some of the blessed are suffering. He grimaces.
Sammy’s on his back, and doesn’t look torn like Gordon does. “Euphrasia’s sister just puked.”
Liz hears him, and her head snaps toward us. “Let’s go, right now.”
I shake my head. We can’t help, not anymore. If she’s already thrown up, it’s too late. We need to arrange to collect the humans who are willing to be bonded as soon as possible to prevent this from happening to more blessed.
“I want to go now.” She shoves something white and fluffy at the woman and launches into the air.
Gordon and I scramble to follow, and I realize she’s become faster. Much faster. I think you’re moving better. I should’ve realized it when she stayed in front of those vanir for so long earlier.
She glances back, scowling. “Shut up.”
He’s right, Gordon says. You’re much faster than before.
“I’ve had the wings longer,” she says. “Or. . .” She turns back again. Could it be that we’ve entwined again?
Or that you somehow jammed the heart inside your body? I’m still upset about that. How could she have allowed something that dangerous to happen? Sure. All of the things you mentioned, probably.
She’s quiet the rest of the flight over, but she slows down a little.
As we arrive, I send a quiet warning. Maybe think before you act today. The blessed need to see what happens when they don’t bond humans, so they can be appreciative for the ones who volunteer.
She frowns, but I can’t tell whether it’s because she’s listening or that she wants to save Eupraxia in spite of my warning.
I half-expect the blessed to already be dead when we reach Euphrasia’s cove. But no, her sister Eupraxia’s still breathing, lying just where the water meets the rocky coastline. I have no idea what Liz plans to do. All the humans who returned from Finland have already bonded other blessed.
“I’m sorry,” Liz says. “I heard.” She lands beside Eupraxia. “How are you feeling?”
The sky-blue water blessed closes her eyes in response.
She was bonded to your father, Euphrasia says. You don’t remember that yet, I assume, but she was. They got along well. Your mother and father came to us as a pair and said they wanted to bond aesir who were close so they could be together and still serve.
I don’t like Euphrasia sharing that. It feels. . .manipulative. Like she’s doling out the information at times that benefit her to make Liz do things that she wants.
“It’s fine,” Liz says. “Even if she’s manipulating me, she’s trying to help her sister. That’s something I understand. We’ve all lost too much already.” She crouches by Eupraxia and places both her hands on the blue scales. Next to the large water blessed, Liz looks impossibly small.
What could she possibly do?
Eupraxia begins to spasm.
Come, I say. This is it, the end. She’s large enough she could do you harm, and this isn’t your fault.
But Liz shakes her head, and she cries out, loudly.
“No! Jore, why did you bless my swords? Why did you give us the heart? Why rename me, and bring me back, and give me all these people to help and protect if you won’t help me actually do it!
?” She screams then, loudly, painfully, like the sound’s being ripped from her throat.
And then she starts to glow.
Not yellow light. Not blue. No, she glows a variety of colors, susurrating, like a dizzy rainbow. And then the light explodes out of her, shooting into Eupraxia. I blink, and then Euphrasia’s sister’s just gone.
“Where’d she go?” Sammy asks.
I glare.
Gordon grimaces. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come, I guess.
If she had died in front of the little hatchling, that would have been bad, too. Gordon needs to think more.
I’m still here. A small human walks out of the edge of the water, clad only in a simple sky-blue dress. “I’m. . .Eupraxia.”
“You’re—you’re human now?” Sammy asks. His eyes widen, and he says a word I’m sure Liz won’t like.
“Samuel Chadwick,” Liz says. “What did you just say?”
He slides off Gordon’s back and jogs toward her. “Do it to me next. I want to be a dragon.”
Liz’s mouth drops, and then she laughs. “Sammy, what are you even saying? It’s not a party trick.”
What should I do? Euphrasia asks.
“She can clearly still communicate as a blessed,” Liz says. “Maybe have your bonded bring her some food.”
Euphrasia’s bonded is the smallest, quietest human I’ve ever met.
She also has silvery-blue hair, like even her hair wants to hide.
She’s tucked away inside the small shelter Euphrasia had Gordon and Rufus build for her on the edge of the coast. She darts out, holding something in her hand, and extends it to Eupraxia. “Here.”
The blessed-turned-human eats whatever’s in the bowl, and then turns to face all of us. She shrugs. “I feel fine.”
Moments pass, and she still looks fine.
“She appears to be alright,” Liz says, “much as the earth dragons were fine before Freya forced me into that lousy deal.” She swallows.
She’s talking about how they were before she got them the wings and larger sizes, rendering them beholden to the same curse as the other blessed, an inability to eat and procreate.
“The heart did this for her,” Liz says. “I wonder who else we could do the same thing for.”
“Can she change back?” Sammy asks. “Or is she stuck?”
Liz shrugs.
“Let’s see.” Sammy steps closer to Eupraxia. “Gordon can tell you how to do it, but can you turn back into a dragon?”
Gordon’s a blockhead, I say, shifting into my human form. “And he can no longer shift. I’ll do a better job explaining.”
Euphrasia’s eyes widen. You can—again?
I nod. “For a while now, and it’s. . .surprisingly interesting.”
“You liked being human before,” Sammy says. “You kept sleeping in the same room as Liz and following her around like Fluff Dog wanting a treat.”
I’m not sure I love hearing that, but I’m not shocked to hear that I liked sleeping in the same room.
I can’t help my grin. “Yes, well, the important part here is that Eupraxia, you need to close your eyes, filter out everything else, and focus on the little spot inside your belly that feels different. It’s almost like a loop to me, and I pull and pull, and then I feel it.
It’s a feeling like I’m inverting, and then.
. .I do. I flip inside out, and I’m a blessed again. ”
Eupraxia looks a little lost.
“Nice work explaining,” Sammy says.
His words are positive, and his face is as sweet as ever, but it feels like he’s mocking me.
That’s not how it worked for me, Gordon says. Perhaps it was your dual affinities, but for me, I would try to collapse my head and my feet, like I was diving into a very deep pool. As soon as I let go, I’d resurface, in a new form.
Not even two seconds later, a rushing sound fills the clearing, like a tidal wave’s coming toward us, and then Eupraxia straightens in her normal, water blessed form.
She stretches, winding her neck one direction and then another, and then she sighs.
I feel much better. Thank you so much, Elizabeth Chadwick. You saved my life.
Liz has been abnormally quiet, for her, and when I turn to see why, she’s half-asleep, curled up against a rock. It looks like demanding favors from Jore takes a toll. I’ll take her home.
Even a ride back to our new shelter doesn’t wake her. And this time, because we’re entwined, I should be able to see part of her dream.
But I’m getting nothing, nothing at all.