Ezeru

“Aknu…” I took my friend’s hand. It was cold. Nuru was sitting on his other side, holding his other hand.

“My king,” he said. “My brother. I am not like you. Not high dragon, not great man. But we have blood of King Orvenu. I hope I served you well.”

“No…I mean, you did and you will…”

“Don’t pretend. I am not afraid. I die helping you, King Ezeru. Rock dragons are so happy to have king. You could choose to be with high dragons. You are a strong dragon that high dragon women want to mate with, and even beautiful queen. But you love us and protect us. Rock dragons are…honored. I die with my king and my love. Nuru will have my child and my child have better life.”

“I promise that they will.” I swallowed. “I am one of you, and I always will be. I will always fight for our people. It is my honor to use the gifts Izeria gave me to stop rock dragons from being tricked and turned into slaves.”

“Don’t be sad. Take care…of my Nuru.”

“Aknu…goodbye,” Nuru said, with more quiet acceptance than I think any human woman would have. “I love you.”

“I love you, Nuru.” He shut his eyes and his hand slowly went limp in mine. His face was very peaceful.

I started crying, although I managed to keep it silent. I kept holding his hand.

I led them here to fight for me, and Seron…

The sight of Seron’s face as he refused to heal Aknu was seared into my brain, but I knew what was really behind it. That was not Seron.

“I will kill Izeria,” I rasped, mostly to myself. “I swear to it, here and now.”

Nuru looked at me and blinked. Then she nodded solemnly. “You can do it.”

I laughed drily. “I’ll avenge him.”

I don’t think she knew the word ‘avenge’, but she seemed to understand my emotion. Then she looked back at Aknu. “My beautiful love…I see you again in baby’s face.” She kissed his forehead.

I finally broke away from my fallen friend, feeling sick—but not just from his death. I was thinking of my own beloved girl, and her child, and my own dread over having a rock dragon for a child. To Nuru, Aknu was beautiful and so was her baby. The rock dragons did think of the high dragons as being even more beautiful, but to them it seemed the stuff of gods, and they still loved their own children just the same. I just couldn’t seem to shake the sense that I had given Himika tainted, animal blood.

Aknu, I thought, was a little like me. He had a little high dragon blood, just enough to set him apart from the others—just enough that he understood he wasn’t their equal. Aknu and I couldn’t communicate on the same level. He wouldn’t understand half the things that troubled me.

“But you were my brother,” I whispered. “My friend.”

We buried him in the rock, and the rock dragons sang for him as I shaped a marker for the spot. Then we had to move on. The rock dragons were subdued, but they understood the urgency. They didn’t mourn for long. They had the preservation instincts of any herd.

I, too, had to keep moving. I had to remember what I was fighting for, and who was waiting for me.

We reached the mouth of the caverns safely, and now all we had to do was rush home. But as we came back out into the world of open sky and sun, before we could reach the northern outpost where the human army was waiting, there was a rumble behind us.

The mist dragons were in pursuit. Seron was leading them. They must have known another way around my rock wall.

I had seen the look in Seron’s eyes. Determined. I wondered if Izeria had ordered this.

I had a feeling something else was driving him. And here, Seron was definitely a match for me, particularly because he was willing to kill us, and we really didn’t want to kill him.

I twisted my neck back to look at Oszin, who was still clinging to my back.

“We shouldn’t engage him here,” Oszin said. “Let the army try and capture him!”

Behind us, on the far edge of the valley, Seron let out a battle shout that echoed across the rocky hills.

“Run!” I told my dragons.