Page 111 of Dragon Blood
Bayn swallowed, looking from Kai to Astred. “Bad. It’s really bad.” His throat worked as he settled his gaze on Astred. “The Crimson Claw is sailing back here to… uhm… to collect whoever is left.” His dark gaze swept the horizon.
“My mother. I have to see if she’s alive. Bayn, can you carry Kai?” At his nod, Astred resumed her dragon form and took off.
“What the fuck happened, Kai?” Bayn helped him to his feet.
“Dragon Star. I think she—it happened right above us.” Kai rubbed a weary hand over his face.
Bayn shook his head, incredulous as he looked around what was left, approaching the crumpled hull of the overturned plane. Jori Mountainside’s plane.
“I was on my way back when I saw the light. It stretched over this whole area from just a few miles out there,” He gestured westward, arcing skyward to the east, “I’ve never seen anything like it. It all went white… and then nothing.” He bent, brushing sand away from something laying a few feet away from where Kai and Astred had huddled against the blast. Picking up the object, he shook off the remainder of the sand, light catching along its face.
He turned, holding it up for Kai to see.
A seal.
The missing seal.
“You’d better hold on to this,” Bayn held it out to Kai.
Kai threw up his hands, backing away, which brought a sharp pain arching through his shoulders. “I don’t fucking want it. You keep it.”
“Give it to Astred. And come here so I can do something about those burns. You look like you’ve been fucking barbequed.”
“You’re not wrong.” Kai reluctantly accepted the disc so that Bayn could draw his mist magic to soothe the burns.
“Like that time you sun baked yourself a little too long by the waterfall.”
“Yup, just like.” Kai grit his teeth against the sensation of searing cold on his burnt flesh. It took some time before the pain eased enough that Kai could stand the remaining dull ache. “Come on, we should go. I don’t want Astred facing all that alone. Especially if…”
If the queen didn’t make it.
Bayn nodded. “Come on.” He slid an arm around Kai’s waist, prompting Kai to do likewise. “Don’t let go this time.”
“Don’t worry, I learned my lesson the last time. Having my particles rip apart and snap back together is extremely unpleasant.”
“Good.” Bayn’s magic rose around them, spiraling their masses into the ether, dragging Kai through the sky with him after Astred.
Every island they flew over was as barren as the one they’d left, the island at the very bottom of the archipelago.
The main island was nothing but charred rubble.
Odson, Jori, and his men—massive dragons each—clawed at the rubble to reach the sealed vaults below. Figures clustered around, streaming out of underground caverns, dazed as they looked at their destroyed homes.
Some of Kai’s worries eased. If Odson was here, it was likely that Kolina was safe.
Astred landed as close to the destroyed citadel as she could without impeding the work of the larger dragons, who could work faster. An old woman carrying a canvas bundle approached Astred, offering her clothing from the sack, and a few words of prayer to the Dragon Mother.
Thanking her, Astred pulled the cotton fabric on, her gaze sweeping the survivors.
“Princess?” Astred turned back to the old woman. “I saw it all in a dream. You can ask Marli Fleetwing. She’ll tell you I told her so. I saw all of this. But I dreamed that we built anew. Stronger.”
Astred touched the old woman’s shoulder. “We will. Have you seen her? Marli?”
“Aye, she’s helping over at the children’s vault, digging away rubble with the others.
Kai slid an arm around Astred’s shoulders.
She didn’t turn to him. She wouldn’t. Not yet. Not until it was all done and her mother was found. Alive, or not.
