Chapter 35
DESPITE OUR MANY ADVENTURES TOGETHER, I’d never ridden on Dave’s back before.
Though he balked at a saddle, he at least acknowledged that having some kind of rope attached would be beneficial to keep me and my saddlebags from falling off mid-flight.
Using the straps from Bluebell’s bridle, we fashioned a leather handle that wrapped around the bases of Dave’s wings, where the bones emerged from his shoulders, then stretched across the middle, where I could sit astride his spine and hold on.
It also allowed me to secure my belongings.
Once that was managed, we took off.
The sky lit up with pinks and yellows as dawn broke, the colors so beautiful from the back of a dragon, where the light reflected off Dave’s scales in a vibrant shimmer.
There were moments as we climbed to just below the clouds, my stomach swooping with the beat of Dave’s wings, when I felt I could reach out and touch the sun as it broke over the horizon.
But the joy was short-lived, as I craned my neck to watch the landscape roll by below us, my hands trembling with the sight.
“Hopefully, we’ll catch Aven where they spent the night last night.
Before they head out again.” I had to yell or my words would be lost in the wind.
I didn’t realize how fast Dave could move in the air.
I kept a grip on the leather strap with white knuckles, and the rough texture of Dave’s scales snagged my trousers as I clenched my thighs tightly over his back.
“And you’re fine with me being seen?” he asked, looking over his shoulder to where I perched.
We flew low to try to spot Mouse or Aven on the route back to the castle. There was no doubt Dave would be noticed, and there was no way the emergence of the Golden Dragon wouldn’t cause a ruckus. But it had to be done. I had to find Aven.
“Yes. As long as you’re okay with it.”
“I am. It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to tell a few jokes to humans. Maybe play a few pranks.”
“Well, try not to become a quest again. We don’t need that hindrance.”
He grumbled in acknowledgment and annoyance, a small wisp of smoke puffing from his nostrils.
I leaned over his neck, searching the countryside for any hint of Mouse’s white hair or Aven’s campsite.
Fear settled like a stone in my gut the longer I rode and didn’t spy any hint to Aven’s whereabouts.
Aven couldn’t have traveled far, could they?
It was almost evening when they’d left, and they would have needed to stop… unless they rode all night. Ugh.
“There’s a town,” Dave said, his tail swishing behind him. “Do you want me to fly over it?”
I took a breath. “Yes. Do it.”
Dave dipped lower, and even with his legs tucked close to his body, the tips of his claws scraped the tops of the structures. A commotion followed, dozens of the townsfolk pouring out of the buildings behind us, all pointing at the sky.
We made a swoop down the main street, then turned around and did another pass. With one hand wrapped around the leather strap, I bent close to peer at the awed folks, hoping to spot the one person I needed. Who I missed even though it had been less than half a day.
We continued over the town, and at the end of the street was an inn with a stable right next door, and in front of that inn, with their arms crossed, and their expression incredulous as they stared at the sky, stood Aven.
I yanked on the leather, signaling Dave to stop.
He did, using his great wingspan to slow, then hover, stirring the dust of the street, until he landed lightly on the other side of the stable, right in a bed of flowers. How lucky.
I slid off, patted Dave on the side in thanks, stooped down for the quickest of moments, and then ran toward the inn before Aven could disappear.
Whispers of “Ellinore the Brave” and disbelief at the return of the Golden Dragon followed me, but I ignored them. I slid to a stop in front of Aven.
Dark circles adorned the skin beneath their eyes, and their normally polished boots were dusty. They looked more run down than they had during the entirety of the quest thus far.
A crowd gathered around us, and though I would rather not have this conversation with a dozen pairs of eyes staring at me and a dozen sets of ears listening, that wouldn’t stop me.
“Aven,” I breathed.
The crowd gasped, obviously not realizing until right then that royalty was in their midst.
“What are you doing?” they said, voice harsh and low, arms tightening around their body. “Everyone will see.” Their brow furrowed. “You won’t be able to deny… anything.”
Even though they were angry with me, they were still looking out for me. But I didn’t intend to lie any longer.
“I don’t care. I need to talk to you.”
“Well, I don’t really want to talk to you, so…” They shrugged. “Maybe go?”
“I’m sorry,” I blurted. “I’m sorry for everything, and I will spend my life apologizing if that’s what you want me to do, just so you will talk to me again. But that’s not why I’m here. Mostly.”
Aven’s eyebrows shot up. “Then why are you here?”
“I need your help.”
They sighed, their frown deepening, which I didn’t realize was possible. “I’m not in the mood to lend any more assistance, Ellinore the Brave.”
Whispers surrounded us as Aven turned away. But I hadn’t slept much, and my emotions were running wild, and I’d left my injured brother, and I could not let them leave. I reached out and grabbed their shoulder, spinning them back around, to the astonishment of the crowd.
“What are you doing?” they yelled, throwing out their arms. “Do you want to make things worse?”
“I’m not here as Ellinore the Brave!” I shouted. “I’m here as just Ellinore.”
Aven’s expression pinched.
“No titles,” I continued. “No pretenses. No prize. No posturing.” I fell to my knees and offered the scraggly bouquet of flowers I’d picked from Dave’s landing site.
A mixture of orange butterfly weed, bluebonnets, and one bright-pink rose.
Clumps of dirt still clung to the roots, and the wild rose’s thorns dug into my palm, but I held them out in my trembling grip and hoped.
“I would rather not do this in front of a crowd, but since I don’t have that option, here goes.
I’m so sorry I lied to you. But you of all people know the pressure a reputation can put on a person.
And I was so young when the Ursa happened, and it was overwhelming to have the power to change my family’s life for the better.
I never meant to hurt you. Aven, I adore you and I admire you and I still think you’re the best person I’ve ever met.
And I’m throwing myself on your mercy. If you can’t forgive me, I’ll find a way to understand.
But right now, in this moment, I’m not here for me; I’m here for Zig. I need you.”
Aven’s cheeks blushed deeper than the pink petals of the rose.
After a tense moment, when their eyes shone and their lips twitched as if they were suppressing a besotted smile, they rushed forward and grabbed my elbows, hauling me to my feet.
“Ancients, Ellinore,” they said, their voice low and fond, gripping my arms, “do you have no shame?”
“Absolutely none when it comes to you.”
“This doesn’t solve everything.”
“I don’t expect it to. I don’t want it to. But I’m serious about it all.” My voice shook and pitched high as I tried to hold back another round of tears. “Zig needs your help. I need your help.”
They studied me, as if looking for any hint I might be insincere. Then their stare dropped to the flowers, and a timid grin curled the corners of their lips. “Okay. You have it.”
The crowd clapped. I winced, having forgotten they were there. I wiped my hand over my cheeks, catching the stray tears that had fallen.
“Come on. We need to find a better place to talk.” Aven took my hand and tugged me away from the crowd, toward the stables. Thankfully, no one followed us. Though there would be rumors about what we’d done in the darkened stables alone, that was the least of my worries right then.
The door creaked when Aven opened it. The heavy, cloying smell of hay and animal musk permeated the space, and I rubbed my nose to ward off a sneeze.
Aven guided me to Mouse’s stall, and we stepped inside.
Aven cleared their throat. “I couldn’t sleep last night,” they said. “I debated with myself so many times to go back. I got to this town and decided I’d sleep on it. But I didn’t sleep. At all.”
And that explained the dark circles and rumpled clothing.
“I’m not one for public declarations,” they said, running a hand through their hair, the tousled strands falling everywhere. “But I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left the way I did. I was so angry and confused, but that doesn’t excuse that I abandoned the group, the quest, you. I apologize for that.”
“You were planning to come back?”
They grimaced. “I don’t know. I hadn’t decided.
And I’m still… I don’t know how to trust you, Ellinore.
I’m furious and… heartbroken. I needed time to process, and I still don’t know what I’ll do or say after the quest. But I also know I shouldn’t blame you for my own insecurities.
You may have been the standard I was measuring myself against, but you’re not the one who made me feel pointless. ”
“You’re not pointless! Don’t call yourself that.”
The corner of their mouth lifted into a smile. “I want to help. I will help.”
My throat was clogged with tears. “Thank you.” I dropped the flowers to the stall floor. “I wonder what the bard tales will say about that display? Ellinore the Fraud and her pathetic ploy to win back Aven the Scorned.”
“Not the best title, but Rylan could make it work.”
“Oh my ancients.” I laughed in my hands, covering my face in embarrassment. “Well, I wouldn’t put it past Rylan. He completed one impossible task, what’s another?”
“What do you mean?”
“That’s why I’m here. He activated the magical scrap of clues with Hydra snot.”
Aven’s mouth fell open. “Are you serious?”
I nodded. “Yes. It revealed a set of hints that I don’t know how to decipher.”
Aven’s expression turned concerned. “You’ve lost three days.”
My stomach clenched with the reminder. “Yes. I’m hoping you’ll know what these phrases mean. You read the firsthand account; they might sound familiar.”
I took the scrap from a pouch inside my tunic and handed it to them. The script glittered as they held it in a beam of light.
“ ‘Begin at the Edge of the World,’ ” they read. “ ‘Follow the gaze of the giant at sunset through the eye of a needle.’ ” They shook their head slowly. “I’m sorry, Ellinore. It doesn’t ring any bells. I think it might be nonsense.”
“Are you certain?”
They examined the words in the light, shaking their head as they did so, until they paused. A slight hitch in their breath and a scrunch of their brow alerted me that they’d thought of something.
“What?”
“I think… well… there was an old family castle called Brinkmount in the far northwest that sat at the base of the mountains that bordered the sea.” They licked their lips in thought. “It was abandoned almost a hundred years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because it was crumbling into the waves.”
“Okay. What does that have to do with—”
“Before it did, all the contents of the library were saved and brought inland to the family castle. I found the account of Rylan’s great-grandfather in the castle archive. It could be that the parchment originated from Brinkmount.”
I crossed my arms. “I still don’t understand.”
“If my memory is correct—and I remind you that this all happened decades before even my uncle was born—that castle was sometimes called the Edge of the World.”