Chapter Thirty-Seven
A week later, all the Okon were healed, and I was headed back to Ahanu with my mate.
Raven had invited Sevarin to come with us, and the alchemist had surprised us by accepting.
The Okon were staying behind as guards in the King's new stronghold.
All of them had pledged themselves to the King's service.
Raven would be the first Dragon King with an army of Okon in addition to his Horns.
We were flying home, Sevarin riding in Vanoak's talon with a hefty purse full of silver in his satchel.
The Dragon knight had been trying to seduce the Volper since they'd met, but Sevarin wanted nothing to do with him, despite Vanoak fulfilling his requirements of being large and muscular in addition to being attractive.
Vanoak wasn't taking the rejection well.
He kept trying to sway Sevarin. And the alchemist kept rebuffing him, sometimes publicly.
It shocked me when Sevarin accepted Vanoak's offer of a ride to Ahanu, but I don't think it was a softening on Sevarin's part.
More that he simply didn't care who carried him.
Going by the way Vanoak kept dipping his dragon head to speak with the Volper, I was betting that he saw it differently.
Oh, how lovely my life was that I could concern myself with the relationships of others. I would return to Ahanu and help Raven find the rest of Bara's customers. Soon, all traces of Bara would be eliminated from Serai.
Feeling as joyous as those freed moths, I started to sing. It was a Lelurra song of survival, sung only around those we trust. Looking down the lines of dragons, I knew they were my people. Worthy of my trust. Even Sevarin had proved himself.
I dipped and spun beneath my mate to circle him before settling back at his side. Raven grinned at me, the pleasure looking wicked on his dragon face. But I could see the delight in his eyes and feel his love through our bond. So I sang louder.
“When my breath failed,
I thought the wind would leave.
I feared the sky would turn on me.
But when I stood alone,
the air filled me.
The wind was still there.”
The dragons added a drumbeat of wings to my song, and massive heads swung my way to listen. Even Sevarin stared up at me through the cage of Vanoak's claws, his expression rapt.
“It did not ask where I had gone.
It did not ask what I had lost.
It did not weigh my scars.
The wind held me,
as it always has.”
The notes lifted me along with the magic in my wings, and I closed my eyes to bask in the warmth of the sun and my mate's love.
My mother had warned me of singing too loudly of your gains.
There were those who would pull you down rather than find joy in your flight.
But these people flew beside me. My joy was their joy. They were safe to give my song to.
“I am not whole,
but I fly.
I am not pure,
but I shine.
I have fallen,
lain broken upon the ground.
But I rise now,
and the sky welcomes me home.”
Just as I sang of home, Ahanu came into view. It felt like a blessing from the Gods. The dragons roared, and then their king did something that shocked me.
He lifted his voice to join mine.
The Dragon King sang the chorus with me, his beast-voice deeper than a man could go, and it felt perfect.
We had both come through a trial that had left us changed.
But the sky still welcomed us. We still flew upon warm currents.
By the second line, the other dragons joined in until the air was full of resonant voices, and all of Ahanu learned the Dragon King had returned.
And he could sing.