Chapter 25 #2
“I—I don’t know. Minutes.”
“Come then.” He begins dragging me toward the door.
“No! I can’t. I have to guide the water. I have to—” I thrust my hands into my hair. There isn’t time to explain all this. “Just go! Clear the camp. I’ll be fine.”
He stares at me, aghast. “You’ll drown, Serah.”
“I won’t. Go, please.”
“Do you know what you ask?” he says from between bared teeth.
Drawing the water within him, I force his mouth to mine.
“Yes,” I say, pulling back to look at him.
His jaw works. “Marry me.”
“I already said I would.”
“Next week.”
“Very well.”
I hold his gaze till, snarling, he whirls away from me and out of the tent.
A roar follows, one that has me clapping my hands over my ears. Dragon or not, he's made the message clear to all.
Run.
I plunk myself onto the sand. I have to try calming the water, slow it down. Then I realize that as soon as it arrives, I’ll be trapped in the tent, and I really will drown.
Soren would be furious with me.
I barrel outside, and despite the yelling, and the roaring, and all the servants streaming by, I’m briefly dazzled by the silhouettes crossing the starry sky.
Dragons. So many.
Where is Soren?
I jump back as the ground beneath my feet shivers and a great sinkhole opens ahead. Someone grabs my arm, yanking me back.
“My queen!”
It’s Fuller, with Yarl and Boyd right behind him.
“What are you doing here?” I demand. “Did you not hear the king?” Surely, they can see humans and dragons alike fleeing all around us.
My guards blink at me. “We stay with you, my queen.”
I swing a finger at the three of them. “If you truly serve me, then you’ll clear this camp of everyone. Now!”
Thank the Creator above, they go. I sit exactly where I am and reach for the roiling presence beneath me as the ground rumbles.
You are coming too fast, I say again.
I come for sun.
It is night now. If you will only slow down—
No, sun.
I grit my teeth. Of all the pigheaded…
Fine. Time for a different tactic. I shoot to my feet, flinging my shoes off.
Then you are going the wrong way. Come to me for sun. I give the water a tug, a pitiful one, but the most noticeable I can manage for a body this size. I imagine it’s a bit like trying to pull an elephant with a string. Still, the water focuses on me.
Sun?
Yes.
It surges my way.
I take off running, feet pelting the warm sand.
Come, I cry.
Sun!
For years, I’ve run on the beach with my sisters, and I employ every technique I can now to speed me along the shifting sand that tries to make me stumble.
“That way,” I shout at a group of servant girls running in the same direction I am. They start at the sight of me but change course.
I pass the outskirts of the camp, my calves and lungs burning. I keep going as sinkholes widen on either side of me.
Come, I tell the water. This way.
I fly across the trembling lakebed, my own legs starting to quake.
My side cramps, sending searing pain across my ribs, and when I can no longer breathe around the pain, I let myself drop into a panting heap.
I push myself to my knees, and gathering whatever tatters of energy I have left, apply these to my arms, twirling them over my head, asking the water for space here.
With a roar like a hundred dragons, the water breaks through.
It comes from all sides, a thunderous rush set on claiming the surface. I whirl my arms faster.
Please, I beg. Space here.
Sun?
I don’t answer.
For now, the water follows my motions, swirling higher and higher above me as more liquid pours into the lake. Soon, I’m left with a patch of dry sand below and a swiftly shrinking circle of sky above. Stars wink down at me, oblivious to my plight.
I’ve created a whirlpool in the most cantankerous water I’ve ever encountered and placed myself at the bottom of it.
Sun, the water demands.
Sand and spray lash my face and bare skin.
Soon, I say, my arms numbing. Soon—
A figure, white as moonlight, appears in the opening above. My mouth trembles into a smile.
I knew he’d come.
He dives, landing not as a dragon but as a man.
A completely unclothed one.
I nearly lose my focus on the water, but somehow I keep it and my eyes where I intend.
“Is everyone—” I begin, but he cuts me off.
“Everyone is safe but you,” he snarls, and it’s ridiculous, but a delirious giggle escapes me. Smirking and shaking his head, he crouches just in front of me. I let out a squeak.
“What are you doing?”
“Grab my wings,” he shouts over the din.
“What?” There are no wings.
But suddenly, there are great wings arcing out beneath me, and I feel both the power of the water’s churning and the power of the dragon emerging beneath me.
Sun, the water rumbles.
It will come, I say.
And as the water washes over my feet, Soren leaps, transforming as he does, pearly-white scales racing out beneath my hands. We burst from the whirlpool, he snaps his wings open, and we rise into the night sky. I grip him tight for three powerful flaps before leaning to look over his side.
A sparkling expanse of water stretches out beneath us. I let out a shout of pure joy.
“Soren! Look.”
He glances back at me, then down below. I feel his sides swell, and then he looses a trumpeting cry that thrums through my bones. Below, the crowd gathered around the new lake cheers in reply. I grin like a fool, flinging my arms open to the wind, and Soren’s tail lashes.
I can’t believe it. It’s done.
There’s water for all of Tirenth.
Twin bellows sound from the south. I drop down low over Soren’s back as I spot two dragons angling our way, but Soren only dips a wing and flaps toward them. I squint against the frigid wind. The dragons, who appear to be a deep, emerald green, look almost identical. Could they be Rally and Ty?
If they are…
Glancing toward the port, I see the telltale colors of a Vasnan flag snapping in the wind. It’s The Siren, Mother’s ship. My spirits lift even further.
Until my eyes are drawn to the blackened horizon, where an entire fleet of warships approaches.