Chapter 25
“Your thoughts are loud, Mariah.”
The wind whipped past her ears as Mariah pressed herself closer to Callamus’s indigo scales. Matheo huddled behind her, bracketed by the dragon’s massive, beating wings.
Signe, meanwhile, had her arms spread into the sky, eyes closed in pure joy. The priestess had been a helpful companion while in Kreah, helping to settle both the members of Mariah’s court and the refugees, but Mariah could tell that she was ready to return home.
Mariah turned her gaze out to the horizon. She swallowed, and for the first time since her loss at Khento, opened her mind to answer. “Maybe there’s a lot to think about.”
Something like understanding and acknowledgment rumbled from Callamus.
She blinked, a little shocked it had worked.
With her magic silent, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to speak to the dragons the way she had before, and that uncertainty was why she was so hesitant to try.
Perhaps there was something intrinsic in her, something that called out to the great beasts even when her power was locked away from her.
Something woven into the very fabric of her being.
At least, that’s what her father had said to her, no more than a few hours ago.
Mariah finally let a sad smile play across her lips.
They’d shed no tears as she’d said goodbye to her father and brother. Not even Ellan, though she could tell he was fighting them back by the haze lining his eyes.
Stay safe, she’d told them.
Don’t worry about us, her father had said. Do what you must. Find yourself again, and when you’re ready, you’ll set this world to rights. Just as your mother always knew you would.
She’d successfully fought back her tears then, but now…
Now she had to quickly bury her face in her forearm, wiping the moisture away.
She would see her father and brother again. One day, when this was all over, they would all settle in Verith, safe and happy and together.
She would see that future through. For her mother—and all the other women who’d come before her.
For all the women who would come after.
Mariah’s fingers slipped into the bag she’d tied around one of Callamus’s spines.
Just enough to graze the soft binding of the gray leather book within.
She’d finally found the nerve to touch it again, enough to slip it into her belongings.
But not enough to open it, even though some instinct whispered to her that she should.
Even as she fell into desperate daydreams of a future that was balanced on the edge of fate’s blade, a part of herself reached for the piece that was still missing.
A figure of haunted ice and burning shadows. A soul who was the answer to all the universes whispered promises and threadbare assurances.
If she was one day to be a true queen, then she had no intentions of doing it alone.
She stared out across the landscape below. It was still desert, but there was a creeping chill in the air, more trees beginning to spot the earth.
“Callamus?”
A curious sigh. “Yes, Mariah?”
Resolve filled all her shattered, broken pieces. “Can you fly us over Onita? North of Xara’s Road, and south of the Everheim Mountains?”
She left her true request out, but she knew he understood, regardless.
Fly us to Khento.
Mariah felt the way he tensed beneath her. Signe noticed, too, and slowly lowered herself back to his scales. Her head cocked curiously, violet eyes scrunched against the wind, black hair whipping furiously around her face.
Matheo just groaned and leaned against a spine, skin a little green.
“I…I do not think that is a good idea.” Callamus’s words were slow and hesitant.
“I know,” Mariah said. “But we must.”
“Kol will feel our presence. He may decide you’ve outlived any usefulness to him—and he’s waited millennia to take revenge on me.”
Mariah fell silent, stare still fixed on the horizon. As if she could feel that silent bond stretching across the continent, that sliver of slumbering magic tying her to the man she loved.
“If it were Rulene,” she finally said, her thoughts hardly more than a whisper, “would you let that stop you?”
Callamus was quiet for a long moment. His steady wingbeats cleaved through the sky, carving through clouds and mist. Finally, he turned his massive head back, locking his gentle galaxy eyes on her.
“We will go to the Onitan side of the border, near Antoris. It is a two-day ride north of Khento. And we will wait there for three days. No more.”
It wasn’t close enough—not nearly close enough. But a feeling drifted through her. She didn’t know what it was; perhaps resolve or heartache or longing.
Or faith, maybe? Faith that even though this was the closest Callamus would take her, it would be close enough.
Faith that Andrian would feel this pull, too. That even with their silent bond, he would find her.
That he would always find her.
“Okay,” she said to Callamus.
With a low growl of acknowledgment, he tipped his wings, banking across the sky and into Onita.
“So, what are we doing here, again?”
“Waiting,” Mariah responded. She heard Matheo’s frustrated grumble, followed by a soft clatter as he tossed his bow and quiver full of arrows on the grass.
“Waiting for what, exactly?”
“Is that even a question you have to ask, Armature?” Signe sauntered across the clearing, silver robes rustling around her legs. She halted a few paces away, placing a hand on her hips. “Do you know where we are?”
Matheo glanced around, scanning the horizon. The Everheim Mountains loomed to the north, and the forest where they’d taken refuge extended in all other directions.
“Northern Onita, but…” Matheo whirled to Mariah with wide eyes. “Seriously? You can’t actually be planning another rescue attempt—”
“I’m not.” Mariah faced him fully, squaring her shoulders. “I told you. We’re waiting.”
Matheo’s brow twisted inquisitively.
Signe chuckled. “Don’t try to understand the tie shared between a queen and her Rhoi, young one,” she said. “I’m afraid not even the gods can understand such things.”
Mariah and Callamus both whipped their attention to the priestess.
“And what do you know of such things?” Callamus said, human once more.
Signe shrugged and smiled. “Only as much as you do, Reynir.” Callamus grumbled a response and turned away, pulling a tent from their pile of supplies, but Mariah didn’t miss the small smile tugging at his lips.
Signe faced Mariah, her expression sobering.
“I think it’s good, what you’ve asked for.
” Her fingers toyed with a small velvet satchel at her waist. “I will scry the bones again tonight, but something in the stars is calling. I can feel it—a shrill scream through the trees.” She closed her eyes, breathing in deeply, before opening them again and turning on her heel with a bright smile and a nod.
Matheo huffed. “She’s so odd.”
Amusement burst through Mariah. “Yeah, but having a witch around is kind of fun, right?”
Matheo only gave Mariah a bewildered expression before he turned, following Callamus to the pile of supplies. He gathered two packs and spread them out a few feet apart and got to work pitching his and Mariah’s tents.
Even still, he cast furtive, curious glances at the priestess, as if he were trying to solve a puzzle and didn’t have all the pieces.
Mariah swallowed her quiet amusement and turned back to the woods, fingers toying with the spread wings on the pommel of her dagger. The twin swords on her back were a welcomed weight, her new maroon cloak wrapped around her body.
A familiar trill sounded overhead. Golden wings beat the air as Cielle perched on a nearby branch, watching Mariah with that shrewd stare.
Mariah’s hand left her dagger and the eagle took flight. Mariah lifted her arm, her cloak swirling. Cielle’s talons wrapped delicately around her skin as she alighted on Mariah’s forearm, muscles firing to support the bird's weight.
Mariah brushed her free hand down Cielle’s refractive golden feathers, marveling at the way they caught and bent the light, even at rest. The bird trilled again, a soothing rumble from deep in her chest.
Mariah met Cielle’s piercing golden eyes. So much intelligence behind that stare—knowledge about the world that Mariah would never hope to understand.
“Find him,” she whispered to Cielle. “Please. Find him and bring him to me.”
The eagle dipped her head, nuzzling it against Mariah’s open palm, before spreading her wings. Mariah lifted her arm higher as Cielle took a great flap and jumped into the air, feathers melding into the sky above.
Mariah sat in the grass, folded her arms over her knees, and waited.