Fifty Seven
Alara
We head back to the Enclave, Rohan still dragging the king by his ankle, and the dragons walking behind.
The rain stopped a little while ago, leaving the smell of burnt ground in its wake as the sun starts to peek over the horizon.
Rohan keeps checking behind him every now and then, like he doesn’t trust Ivor’s words and I don’t blame him, but his brother…
“You made a deal?” I ask him gently.
Rohan nods. “I kill the king and I don’t retaliate on Lothmere. That’s what Alexandar wanted. He would provide an opportunity, and I would take it.”
He looks back at the king with a frown.
“Do you think the other eggs are okay?”
Rohan looks at the one in my arms. “We have to hope. I’ll try to find them later. And Sparks.”
I nod, looking down at the egg and running my fingers over the ridges.
“He’ll be okay, won’t he?”
He runs a hand over mine. “Yeah,” he whispers. “He made it this far.”
I nod, taking a breath. “It’s really over?”
“It will be when he is no longer with us.”
I look back at the king, who is still unconscious.
“What will you do with him?”
“He will die. Slowly.”
I thought as much.
Escor growls softly, and I look up, everyone coming into view.
“Rohan and Alara are back!” someone shouts.
“Look!”
“What’s he dragging?”
Gasps and murmurs erupt when they spot Halen.
Everyone turns to us, and I spot my sister off to the side, helping someone. She nods her head at me, relief filling her face before she continues her work.
Kaldar rises from next to Adora and Olaf, coming to Rohan and resting his head against his, a hand on his shoulder.
“Thank Morana,” Kaldar says, pulling Rohan into a hug. “You’re back?”
Rohan nods, before looking away, jaw clenched.
I look at him, confused by the way he’s acting, but as I look back at everyone, I can see why.
They look at him with a new found wariness that wasn’t there before—most of them, anyway.
Rohan looks back at the dragons. “Drogonah, watch him.”
Drogonah lifts his foot and places his claws over Halen, rumbling.
Rohan lets go of him, then after he places a gentle kiss on my forehead, he walks past Kaldar to his clan.
“Rohan you don’t—”
“I do,” he cuts Kaldar off.
I hug the egg tighter to me, an unsettling feeling washing over me as Escor comes to my side.
Rohan walks forward until he stands before his own clan, the other Dragorie and Dragonbonds watching him.
He looks at them all, back tense, and then without another moment to waste, he drops to his knees, hands on his thighs.
“Forgive me,” he says.
Everyone gasps, including me, and I move to go to him, but Kaldar holds me back.
“Kaldar!”
“Let him do this. He needs to do this.”
“He didn’t do anything wrong!” I protest.
“He feels like he did, and they need to show him that he hasn’t,” Kaldar murmurs gently.
My eyes swing back to Rohan, and Escor purrs, his effort to comfort me.
“I apologize,” Rohan begins. “For deceiving you about Drogonah.”
I look back at the dragon in question, his eye locked on Rohan.
“He isn’t a Tenebri dragon, he’s an Immoral.”
I take in a shaky breath at those words.
“But they’re extinct?” Someone asks.
“They are—were.” Rohan shakes his head. “Drogonah is the last of his kind.”
Adora rises, hopping on one leg. “Why didn’t you tell us?” she asks, hurt in her voice. “We… we wouldn’t have told, Rohan, you should have known that.”
Rohan’s shoulders slump. “It wasn’t my secret to tell.”
Drogonah rumbles, and they all look at him.
“It was for his safety, and mine,” he goes on. “I’m also…” he takes a deep breath. “I’m also Halen’s son.” Everyone gasps. “I didn’t know until a few years ago.”
Oh, Rohan…
“But Helga hated him,” Bellamy says. “Why would your mother lay with him?”
I want to go to Rohan at that question, but I hold the egg tighter.
“My mother did what she thought she had to do to protect us all,” Rohan says. “As she always had.”
The weight of those words, the meaning of them, is heavy, and it hits the clan all the same. Some faces crumple, hands going to their chest in shock and sadness.
“You can’t mean—”
“I don’t want to go into detail,” Rohan tells them. “My mother wouldn’t want that. Just know… she would have wanted things different if she had a choice.”
“That bastard,” someone says.
“May Morana slay him.”
“Hang him for what he has done to the old leader!”
“Halen will know what happens when he crosses the Dragorie, and he has, many times.” They all nod.
“But right now, I come to you all to tell you that I understand what I have done. Lied about Drogonah’s species, didn’t tell you who my father is, and I understand the harm I’ve caused with my… outburst earlier. In the enclave.”
He takes the axe from his back and places it on the ground before him.
“Being Halen’s blood made these Games worse for all of us, and I fear trying to stop them was the catalyst of how things happened this time around.
We’ve lost so many,” he says, looking over to the bodies at the side.
“For what I have done, what I’ve caused, for what I have hidden—I’m ready to accept my punishment.
I only ask, selfishly, that you let me kill him before you do so. ”
My stomach rolls.
He can’t mean…
The Dragorie watch on, clan Blackscale seeing their Dragonbond on his knees with wide eyes.
He would let them kill him for this.
I take a step forward, fear pushing me. “Rohan—”
“Dwagonbownd!”
I still as Rohan’s head snaps up. Melle comes rushing out from between the people, slipping a little in the wet mud before she stops before him, panting.
“Yor bwack?”
“I’m…” He looks over her shoulder to Nora. “I am.”
“I saw anover dwagon!” she exclaims, arms out wide. “It was dis big, and eyez never seen it befores.”
“I… see. There are many dragons here, Melle.”
She nods. “Theys are.” She pauses, and looks at him, her tiny brows pinched together. “Dwagonbond?”
“Yeah?”
“Why are you sads?”
My hand goes to my mouth as tears sting my eyes.
“I—” Rohan clears his throat, like he’s unable to get the words out.
“Mama, he’s sads?” Melle calls, and Nora walks out from the crowd and kneels down next to her.
“Well, our Dragonbond thinks he’s done something terrible, and he’s sad about it.”
“Oh no,” Melle says, frowning at Rohan.
“What do we do when someone is sad, Melle?” Nora asks.
“Oh!” Melle smiles. “We gives dem hug!”
Nora nods. “That’s right.”
“Dwagonbond hugs!” Melle says, and then she leans forward and wraps her tiny arms around Rohan’s neck.
He tenses for a moment, and then his head falls forward, wrapping her up in gentle arms.
Nora hesitates, but then she joins them. Adora comes next with Olaf, dropping down next to them. Dorkin, then Bellamy. Kaldar leaves my side to go to him, and Fiona joins in, more and more until the whole of clan Blackscale surrounds Rohan.
He thought he was just a leader to them, a protector.
He thought they weren’t his family…
But that little girl just proved to him how much he means to them. They all have.
“Alright, alright,” Sigrid says, making her way through. “Come on people, we have work to do.”
Everyone stands, gathering themselves, and then Melle looks up at Rohan. “All bwetter?”
Rohan nods, patting her head.
“Better, thank you.” His voice is gruff, and he coughs, picking up his axe. “Alright, let’s tend to the wounded.”
Rohan turns and walks back to me as everyone does their task, and I quickly wipe my face.
He gives me a soft smile before he goes to Drogonah, stroking his snout. I can tell he’s uncomfortable with the display that just happened, and I bite my lip to not smile.
He knows now. They will take care of him too.
“You are well?” Rohan asks Drogonah.
I can feel the eye roll before I see it.
“Nothing… changed?” he asks him.
My brows furrow at the question.
“What do you mean?” I ask, and he glances at me quickly before looking down at his forearms.
“When this last happened to me, just after my mother died, Drogonah lost an eye because of it.”
I blink up at Drogonah when he rumbles, rings of smoke coming from his nostrils.
“As an Immoral dragon, he can grant me some of his fire, but it had a cost the last time. I assumed the same this time but.” He shrugs. “I don’t think there is one. Or at least he hasn’t told me what.”
That’s how Drogonah is blind in one eye.
Drogonah puffs up his chest, claws still caging Halen.
I smile softly. “I think he’s happy there is no price for granting you that.”
Rohan nods. “Always so smug.”
I grin, holding the egg closer as I look at Drogonah.
“Another extinct dragon.”
Drogonah eyes me, and I move to stand in front of him, Rohan at my back now as I juggle the egg in one hand, and lift the other to join Rohan’s on his snout.
“Hello, Drogonah, I’m Alara, nice to meet you.”
He grumbles. A large huff coming from him that blows my hair back, but he bumps my head softly and then puts his nose in the air like it never happened.
I laugh, and Rohan rests his chin atop my head, releasing a long sigh.
“No more secrets,” I say.
“No more secrets,” he agrees.
An almighty roar rattles my teeth, and we turn, seeing Vali running toward us, furious and desperate.
Rohan turns instantly, putting me at his back while Drogonah bares his teeth, snapping at the red dragon who stops abruptly in front of us.
“Careful!” Sigrid says, watching with the other Dragonbonds.
“Calm, Vali,” Rohan demands, and the dragon roars in his face. But it’s not in anger, it’s fear.
Drogonah goes to lunge at him.
“Wait!” I shout, and shockingly, he stills.
I step around Rohan, who tries to stop me with an arm.
“Trust me,” I say, and he looks at me for a moment, before taking a breath and letting me pass, the heat of him now at my back.
I clutch the egg to my chest, and Vali’s eyes go to it, a desperate cry coming from him.
“It’s okay,” I say. “The egg is okay, Vali.”
I try to reassure the panic and fear pouring off of him and gently hold the egg out.
Vali lowers his head, a whining purr surrounding us as he nudges the egg gently, eyes closing for a moment in relief.
Carefully placing my hands at the bottom, Rohan’s hand coming under mine to help me support its weight, I lift it up to him.
Vali gently takes the egg into his mouth, and then turns, stomping away a little before he places the egg on the ground, curling himself around it, tail included, then resting his head next to it, getting as close as possible.
“He has his baby back,” I whisper, throat tight with emotion.
Rohan nods. “I wonder if the mother is in The Glade. If she’s even alive.”
I swallow. “Should we go there? What about the other eggs that the guards had? We need to find them, take them back.”
“We will,” Rohan assures me. “But first, let me see my dragons, and speak with the other Dragonbonds.”