Chapter 32 #3
Zenevieve’s voice is tight with worry. “Alpha, what if they return with green flames in their eyes?”
“Then we will deal with it.” I squeeze her hand reassuringly, though I have no idea how we could do anything in the face of such a disaster.
As the eastern sky lightens, we’re able to take a better look around. There’s not an undead in sight. The gate has nearly been worn through. I doubt it would have held for much longer.
As the sun rises over the horizon, the gate creaks open, and soldiers carrying beaten-up swords and civilians brandishing garden implements and axes peer carefully outside. Then the gate is fully open, and people are lowering their weapons and smiling, blinking in the light of the new day.
A battle-worn soldier with blood pouring down the side of her face salutes me. The soldiers behind her do the same. Beyond them, the injured are being tended in the streets, and the dead are being laid out, but there are not so many dead as I feared. Fires are being put out with buckets of water.
A woman seizes my hand with both of hers and holds it tightly.
She’s dressed in scorched civilian clothes, and her hair is thick with ash.
“Thank you, dragonmaster. Your dragon was our protector all through the dark night. We knew we should keep fighting as long as we saw her above us. We all cheered for her during the Dragon Games. She’s our angel of the northern gate. ”
I look at her in surprise, and then the faces of those around her. These people of New Maledin saw Nilak fighting above them and took courage from her, just as the people of Old Maledin would have done.
I think it must be all the smoke and ash in the air, but my chest is suddenly very tight. “Nilak is proud to have served you, as am I and my mate Zenevieve.”
“Is that her name? Nilak?” the woman asks. “She will always be an angel to those of us who live by the northern gate.”
“But what is an angel?” I ask, perplexed.
She looks uncertain. “I hope it doesn’t offend you, dragonmaster, but they are divine protectors that the Brethren taught us about.”
I shake my head. “I am not offended. Neither the Brethren nor the Maledinni own divine protection. My dragon is honored by your esteem.”
Beside me, tears are streaming down Zenevieve’s face as she looks around at the survivors: scorched, bloodied, exhausted, but alive. “You have all been so brave. It must have been terrifying for you.”
The woman lets go of my hand and uses a clean corner of her apron to dry Zenevieve’s tears.
“Poor child, you look exhausted. Please don’t fret over us. Are you husband and wife, you and the dragonmaster? I mean, are you mates? What a handsome pair you make.”
I leave the woman and Zenevieve and turn to Nilak, to ask her how she feels about her new moniker, Angel of the Northern Gate.
I’m surprised by what I see. Aurissa and Auriana have alighted beside Nilak, and their riders are nowhere in sight.
The two Alpha females are standing in such a way that they appear to be protecting my battle-weary dragon.
Blood is oozing from the cuts on Nilak’s legs, her wings hang low, and her scales are cool from all the dragonfire she’s spent.
She fought bravely, my beautiful dragon.
I approach the two females and hesitantly raise my hand to touch Aurissa. She watches me with ferocious black eyes but doesn’t move as I smooth my hand over her scales. I walk over to Auriana and slowly reach up to stroke her neck.
“Well, well,” I say quietly, a pleased smile curving my lips.
Both dragons are allowing me to touch them.
“Were you both impressed by the king’s flare protecting the city together this night?
Did you miss us after the games, and do you wish to know what it’s like to be part of a real flare?
You are very welcome here, my beauties.”
A harsh voice snaps across me. “Step away from my dragons.”
I let my hand linger on Auriana’s scales, caressing her possessively.
Then I turn to face Kane and fold my arms. He and Rhan have landed Auryn and the scarlet Ragdyn not far from Auryn’s sisters, and Kane is glaring down at me.
“My dragons. They’re protecting my Alpha dragon, and they’re allowing me to touch them.
I don’t expect you to understand what that means, so I’ll tell you.
I’m their dragonmaster now. Give them orders if you dare. ”
Auryn opens his jaws and roars at the two female Alphas, a deafening command to rejoin his side.
Aurissa and Auriana angle their heads away as if they haven’t heard their former Alpha, and don’t even see him.
I can’t help the smile that spreads over my face. I do love it when I win.
“This isn’t over,” Kane snarls. “I will have compensation for this in blood, gold, or dragons.”
“A dragon cannot be bought and sold with gold, and you will never take a dragon from my flare.”
“Then it will be your blood, you white-haired bastard.”
“I invite you to try.”
Kane fumes silently, and then bursts out, “My dragon tells me that Nilak is to lay a clutch of eggs. The eastern flare will have the hatchlings.”
My folded arms drop to my sides and my fists clench as I take a threatening step toward him. “Over my dead body.”
“We will see,” Kane says darkly. “Robein. Corin. I never want to see your faces again. You’re his problem now.” Finally Kane looks at his mate. “Ravenna. Ravenna?”
Just like the yellow sisters, Ravenna turns her face away, pretending not to hear her Alpha.
“Ravenna.”
Finally, she graces Kane with a glance. “Do you wish to say something, Kane?”
“Are we going home?”
“I have my own home,” she says with a shrug. “I will go there when I please.”
“Eastern Maledin is where you make your home, and eastern Maledin is mine.”
“Yours? King Zabriel has something to say about that,” I call to him.
Finally, Kane gives up waiting for Ravenna’s reply. “Rhan and I will wait for you just beyond the city, and we will watch for your wyvern.”
Auryn and Ragdyn take to the skies, carrying their riders toward the east.
Ravenna watches them go and then turns to me. “Kane will be waiting some time. I wish to look after the people here, and I will not leave until I know that my sister witch is safe. If anyone needs me, I’ll be healing the injured.”
Ravenna walks back into the city through the gate, her wyvern pacing comfortably beside her.
That reminds me that I have not tended Nilak’s wounds.
I go down on my knees by her front legs and begin to clean and dress her wounds, conscious of the three massive dragons peering down at me.
How pleasing to have two more female Alphas.
I’ve always preferred the female Alphas in my flare to the male ones.
They’re proud and regal, and there’s far less squabbling, posturing, and roaring.
A little to my left, Corin and Robein are clearing their throats and tentatively calling, “Dragonmaster?”
“What do you want?”
The two men glance at each other and then turn to me. “Dragonmaster, um, we wish to learn from you.”
“And why should I bother teaching you?”
“So we may be worthy of our dragons.”
I press my lips together in annoyance. Curse them for saying the one thing that can convince me to let them stay.