Himika

“We’ve spotted him!” A scout rushed in during our breakfast.

“Ezeru?” I cried, shooting out of my chair, stumbling a little on the hem of my own dress. Forrest, rather reflexively, shot a hand backwards and steadied me.

Ezeru was gone a day past what he said.

Of course, this was no surprise. I knew he couldn’t hold to that promise. Anything might happen. But he’d come close, I thought. Only a day late. He must have good news.

“Did you see Oszin or Seron?” I asked.

“It looked like he might be carrying a human,” the scout said.

“No Seron, then…,” Aurek said.

We all left the table, rushing upstairs to look out from the top balcony. I was at the balcony staring north so often that I was carrying a spyglass with me at all times. “I think that is Oszin. Oh—thank gods! But I don’t see Seron…well, it doesn’t necessarily mean bad news. He was just there to get in and get out.”

“Yes,” Aurek said.

“I’d say it’s excellent news,” Forrest said. “If he’s back quickly and he even has Oszin, he didn’t run into trouble. We knew getting Seron back from the mist dragons might be tough.”

“Well, if they’re coming back, we need to get ready to welcome them,” Phoebe said. “We need to get together a feast! Hey, Mom!” she shouted downstairs.

“I hear you!” Phoebe’s mom shouted back.

“What about a parade?” Gilbert asked.

“Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Forrest said. “What if they have bad news?”

“If it isn’t too bad, we could have a small parade tomorrow,” Rin said. “Getting Oszin back is already a prize. He killed King Dvaro, so that warrants a hero’s welcome either way. Wouldn’t you say?” He looked at me. I was still watching through my spyglass. For some reason I still felt terribly anxious, but I tried to smile.

“Sure. That sounds like a great honor, and he deserves it.”

They all ended up heading downstairs and leaving us alone up there. Aurek put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s chilly,” he said, with the extra concern in his voice that I got from everyone as my pregnancy was starting to get so obvious.

“I’m dressed so warmly that I’m sweating,” I said. “It’s fine, I—I’m looking out at the mountains.”

“The visibility is good here, isn’t it?” Aurek asked.

“Mmhmm. There’s a wide road,” I said. “And all the trees have already lost a lot of their leaves, with swathes of open land as well. So I can see pretty far with the spyglass… That definitely looks like them.” I watched the black shape until it got close enough that I could see the man clinging to the dragon’s back. I needed to see for myself that Oszin was there. Then I lowered the spyglass for a moment, so I could see beyond Ezeru and the little black and gray rock dragons running with him.

Now I saw something else in the distance. I focused in on it. Something glittered, bluish—no, purplish even.

I know that color.

My breath released in small puffs in the northern air. “Aurek, I—I think Seron is behind them.”

“Behind them?”

“Far behind them. Like he’s—chasing them. There are other dragons with him. I think they could be mist dragons.” I clutched my belly. This seemed to confirm our very worst fears. “Could the mist actually make Seron want to fight with Ezeru and Oszin?”

Aurek gripped the balcony. “It could. If a mist dragon is very resourceful and good at blending several mists together, they might do almost anything. And we know…Izeria is a sorceress unparalleled. I don’t think anyone else could have made Ezeru so powerful.”

“Oh!” I said, terrified almost to the point of getting annoyed. “Well, I thought you might say something at least vaguely reassuring to a pregnant woman!”

He laughed. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“Ezeru has two mist dragons with him as well,” I observed. “But they’re clearly part of his group, not enemies. They’re running with the rock dragons. One limping.”

“They’d better be real defectors this time,” Aurek said.

I looked at Seron again, now close enough that I could see his face. He was in dragon form now, so it wasn’t quite the face I knew well anyway. I just couldn’t imagine him attacking us. But the way he was running after Ezeru—

If Aurek believed it, it had to be true.

We heard warning horns go off. The scouts must have confirmed the sight. Forrest ran back up to the balcony and looked out.

“I guess the feast is postponed, huh?” he said.

“It’s Seron,” Aurek said.

“We won’t kill him. The ice dragons can freeze him and maybe Ezeru can hold his feet down. If he’s hostile.”

I could tell Forrest was trying to be reassuring, but he kept looking outward anxiously. “You two, just hold tight,” he said.

“If I could only look into Seron’s eyes, and speak to him, and touch him…,” I said. “I just can’t imagine he wouldn’t remember me. I don’t believe it. No matter what you say.”

“I don’t believe it either,” Aurek said, in a softer voice. He suddenly put a hand on my shoulder. “Wait here, my gem. Keep watch and shout if anything changes. I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?”

“I want my sword.”

I lifted the spyglass back to my face, watching them slowly move closer.

Downstairs, I heard the commotion of everyone preparing for an attack. Forrest rode down the cobblestone path on his horse, and a moment later Rin popped out to the balcony and told me he was heading out but not to worry. He rode out too, and now the household was mostly women. Little Rina started crying. The restless feeling inside me built. I was left behind here, to watch in the distance, uselessly.

I’m the one who could save him. Maybe the only one. And if there is any other person who could save him, it would be Aurek. But here we both are…

Was I imagining it, or was Seron catching up to Ezeru and Oszin?

“Faster…faster…!” I clenched the railing. My hands were numb, while the babies were fluttering inside me like they knew something was wrong.

And then, Seron took flight.

I didn’t make a sound. I whirled back into the house, down the hall to our bedroom. Aurek held his sword in one hand and my sword Irhonda in the other. “I promised you I wouldn’t fight,” he said. “That I wouldn’t leave you.”

I took a shuddering breath. “I—I want to go to him, Aurek.”

He handed me the weapons. “That’s my queen.”