Embers at Galdrilene (66 page)

Sadira watched Oksana pace back and forth across the polished onyx floor. Alden stood silent against the wall, his red eyes tracking her every step. Even after several weeks Oksana’s unreasonable grief and anger over her sister’s death still radiated from her. Not even the two clutches of eggs laid by Ranit and Dusa could calm her emotions.

Sadira found it amusing. The anger she would be able to understand better if it was focused on the right thing. She too was angry over a sister. Angry because the rotten piece of dragon-dung had escaped.

But Oksana’s anger was directed by her grief. Sadira shook her head and hid her smile as the blonde glared at Alden with red-rimmed, blue eyes. She wasn’t afraid of Oksana, however, there was no point in provoking a fight with the woman. They didn’t need their numbers cut down anymore than they already were and if it came to a fight, she would kill the blonde with no hesitation. Granted they already had two more riders, but they were new and inexperienced.

Sadira turned her eyes on Alden. He shifted as if uncomfortable under her gaze. As well he should be. She broke the silence, controlling her voice. Calm and quiet would instill more fear than an emotional outburst. Oksana hadn’t learned that yet. “You are brave to come out of hiding Alden. After your…mishandling of the Silver Rider. You cost the Shadow Riders a lot with your assumptions.”

Alden’s skull-like features remained expressionless. “I had no way of knowing they would come in force. The Guardians stopped making rescue attempts long before the end of the War of Fire. There was no foreseeing the outcome.”

“No foreseeing!” Oksana’s shriek echoed across the massive cavern. She stepped up close to him, her voice filled with rage. “Your mistake cost Paylana her life. How dare you act as if none of this is your fault.” Her voice rose with each word. “You didn’t listen to me when I said we should leave her in the desert. You didn’t listen later when I said we should kill her and be done with it. Now Paylana is dead. And you are to blame.”

Sadira laid a hand on the woman’s arm. “Easy Oksana, don’t kill him yet.”

Alden sneered as his red eyes settled on her. “Kill me? With what, your shadows?”

She threw back her head and laughed until tears ran down her face. It sounded maniacal. She didn’t care. He truly thought no one had seen Dreth die? Bern was still alive, if broken and bent. But she’d seen the other turned to ash.

Alden’s sneer turned to a glower. Sadira wiped the tears and took a deep breath to calm the laughter. “You do think we are naïve and stupid don’t you? You may have hid from the battle with the Guardians, but the rest of us were there.” She leaned close to him. “I saw Dreth burn. I watched the silver dragon turn him to a pile of ash. My shadows may not hurt you, but a single command from me and Ranit will end you.”

Fear crawled across the stretched parchment face. “You wouldn’t. You need me.”

Oksana snorted. “What do we need you for? We have had to learn our magic for ourselves. You can’t read the book and thanks to you, we only have one of those now. You are inept, unsuitable to lead, and a coward. Paylana died weeks ago and only now do you crawl out from under your rock and show yourself again.”

A faint smile crossed his face. “And who will lead you? Sadira? Kovan?”

Sadira saw through his attempt to divide them. Would Oksana? He’d deliberately left her out of the possibilities because he knew it would grate on her pride. Sadira smiled back at him. “We don’t need a leader. We are not sheep, we don’t need a dog to herd us. Because of you, we are down two Shadow Riders and countless Kojen. No, Alden, I don’t think we need you.”

A triumphant smile spread across Oksana’s face. Sadira smiled inwardly. Without realizing it the blonde was already letting her take the lead. Kovan would oppose her and she would have to resort to working with him. But Oksana and the rest would do what she and Kovan said. She turned an indulgent look on Oksana. “It was your sister, your grievance. It is your revenge. Deal with him how you see fit.”

Oksana looked up at the black dragons arranged on their shelves. “Dusa, come to me.” The massive black lifted herself from the ledge and landed next to her rider. “Kill him.”

Dusa drew in a lungful of air. “No!” Alden’s eyes widened. “You can’t do this!”

Oksana cocked her head at him. “You are right. I can’t. Not this way. It would be too quick. Dusa, start with his feet and work your way up. See how loud he can scream.”

Anevay stirred awake. She rubbed her eyes and looked around, confused for a moment. She’d fallen asleep in the records room again. It seemed in the past few weeks she spent more time in there researching than anywhere else. She sat up and arched her back, trying to relieve the ache from sleeping in the chair. The orb on the wall still glowed strong, but the candle on the desk she used for more light while reading burned low. It must be the middle of the night.

A slight energy rippled through her mind. Quiet and unobtrusive, she felt the feather-light touch. Is that what woke her? She rubber her temples and sighed. A ringlet of her long, black hair fell across her face. She pushed it away in irritation. Real sleep in a bed is what she needed. Yawning, she looked at the scroll on the desk in front of her. She had to find the answer.

Anevay had researched tirelessly since the battle with the Shadow Dragons several weeks before. Spent endless hours reading the detailed accounts of the War of Fire. That war had ended badly and only a mistake kept it from ending worse. The Shadow Riders came close to winning the War of Fire. Now, five hundred years later, it seemed history would be doomed to repeat itself.

The Shadow Dragons were already reproducing again. Two black eggs hatched in the last three months. The Silver Riders felt each one. Only one clutch of twenty-one eggs had been laid in Galdrilene. Nydara fired them only a week ago. The eggs had yet to send out a call although the shells had hardened in the last few days. Until they sang to their intended rider they would remain unhatched for however many years it took.

She sighed, her eyes drifting over the age worn parchment. Somewhere, in the history of the War of Fire, there was a key to winning this new war. Something that seemed small and insignificant to others. A clue that would lead her to the weave she needed to make. A weave to eradicate the Shadow Dragons forever.

Anevay rubbed her eyes again. If only it wasn’t so easy for the Shadow Dragons to reproduce. What did it say about the world that Shadow Riders were so easy to find now? How were there so many people willing to give up half their souls for power?

Energy flowed softly through her mind again, a quiet hum. She propped her elbow on the desktop and massaged her forehead with her hand, her eyes still on the scroll. She shoved aside her exhaustion and focused on the task at hand. Her talent beyond healing was the ability to create new magic weaves. It rested on her to find the needle in the haystack. The one that would save Galdrilene and the Guardian dragons. The one that would save the world.

The hum of energy wove through her mind again; soft, sweet, insistent. Anevay sighed in frustration. She couldn’t afford to be distracted right now. Maybe a break would help. A brief walk in the fresh air. She stood, pulled her cloak around her shoulders and left the room. A short hallway brought her out in the Great Hall.

Only two orbs burned at either end of the massive hall, leaving the passage between the two sets of tall, heavy doors cloaked in darkness. The doors leading to the city were closed, but those on the other end stood open. The light of the full moon spilled across the broad, inner terrace.

Anevay rubbed her hands together, shivering slightly in the cool air of late spring. Beyond the terrace, in the caldera, the lake reflected the bright face of the moon. Again, the humming energy filled her mind. Crooning softly. She strode past the doors and out onto the terrace. She turned her face into the wind and let the it wash over her.

The need to get back to work tugged at her. But for some reason she walked across the caldera instead of back through the doors. The rim of the horseshoe-shaped caldera was dark at this hour. The low rumble of dragons sleeping in their lairs drifted on the breeze. She walked to a door set in the side of the rim’s wall. Maybe she would check on the eggs.

The croon in her mind intensified. Elation rippled through her. Elation? What was she so happy about? Her hand froze on the latch of the door. Her lungs refused to work. The energy in her mind–the hum–it was happy. Her breath left her in a rush and tears welled in her eyes. It wasn’t energy she felt. It wasn’t just a random sound in her mind from too little sleep. She heard the Dragon Song. One of the eggs sung to her.

Anevay pulled her hand away from the door. She couldn’t go in there right now. The pull of the egg would be irresistible. She wouldn’t be able to stop herself from hatching it and there was a protocol for this. Still, she stood in front of the door, unable to walk away.

“Anevay?” Maleena’s soft voice called out of the dark behind her.

She turned. Maleena stood a few paces away swathed in a heavy cloak. Her long, chestnut hair blew around her in the wind. “What are you doing out here in the dark?”

The other woman smiled and walked closer. “I could ask the same of you. I would expect to find you sleeping in the records room not standing in the dark staring at a door.” Maleena glanced at the door. “One of the eggs is singing, I felt it. It woke me. Nydara senses it too.”

Anevay returned her smile. “I know. I was sleeping in the records room. The Dragon Song woke me.”

Maleena’s eyes, dark purple in the light of moon, widened. “You?” Excitement filled her voice. “One of the eggs calls to you? Oh, Anevay, how wonderful!”

“I made it all the way to the door before I realized what it was. I know I can’t go in yet, but at the same time, I can’t bring myself to leave.”

Maleena smiled. “You don’t have to leave. You just have to go in by the other door.”

“Don’t I have to wait for Emallya?”

“Emallya will already be awake, she will sense it too. So will Taela. Soon, the hold with be awake with the news. You only need to wait long enough for food to be made available for the draclet, and for Emallya and Bardeck to be ready.”

A lump filled Anevay’s throat. She wouldn’t have to wait until the next day. “Thank you, Maleena.” The tiny woman smiled at her again then hurried toward the Great Hall.

High above, on the ledge jutting out from their layer, Maleena’s silver Nydara and Mckale’s green Tellnox stretched their wings and yawned as they woke from their sleep. Anevay dragged herself away from the small door. When it was time she wouldn’t go in through it anyway. She might as well wait inside where it was warmer.

The Dragon Hold slowly came alive as word spread of the impending Hatching. Anevay sat at a table in the kitchen cavern. A junior cook moved about the dark kitchen, stirring coals up in the ovens. Anevay yawned. If the ovens were already warming dawn would only be a couple of hours away. How long had she slept at her desk in the records room? It couldn’t have been long. An hour? Maybe a little more.

Marda came bustling through the kitchen, ordering instructions at a group of men looking like she had dragged them out of bed only moments before. Knowing Marda, she probably had. Whether dragon or human, Marda never let anyone go hungry.

Anevay took a deep breath, a sudden flutter in her stomach. She was called. In a short time, she would hatch an egg. The hum in her mind crooned happily. For some reason when Anevay had contemplated her future she had never considered being called. It hadn’t bothered her, she was a happy being a mage. But she wouldn’t trade the sound of the Dragon Song in her mind for anything.

She folded her hands on the table and laid her head on them, closing her eyes. The croon, quiet and soothing, filled her mind.

A touch on her shoulder woke her and she blinked up through bleary eyes. Taela stood with a smile on her face that reached her dark blue, slanted eyes. “It’s time if you are ready, Anevay.”

Anevay stood. “Already?”

Taela laughed. “You’ve been asleep for a little over an hour. Emallya, Bardeck, the dragons and the other riders are awake. Food has been placed for your draclet. All we wait for now is you.”

Excitement growing within her, Anevay flashed Taela a smile, glad the other woman was there. She remained close friends with Kellinar. When Taela became Kellinar’s bondmate, Anevay felt an immediate connection to the woman. Taela became the sister Anevay never had.