Aurous tilts her head again, her small smile gentle.“My mother has been teaching me for many years,” she says.
“But you’re…” the Sunnish princess shakes her head and lets out a trembling laugh.“This is…” she looks at me with wide eyes as awe-filled as my own.“What have you gotten me into?”
The dragon laughs that gorgeous, warming laugh of hers.“Come,” she says.“We have a long way to go, and now that I’m finally free, I’m eager to leave this place where I was born.”
She doesn’t seem to mind the rough shells beneath her feet, crossing toward the curving path like she’s used it many times before, confident and calm.
“The other eggs.”Sheelan’s not done with her questions or the awkward way she asks, Aurous pausing to look back at her with a curious expression.My kinspark’s distress has the dragon stopping and turning toward her while I struggle to regain my autonomy.It’s gone, lost to the stunning creature I’ve come here to find, and I must shake loose of this hold she has on me if I’m to regain control of myself.
Aurous looks around at the ground, a graceful gesture encompassing them all.“My sisters,” she says.“What of them?”
Sheelan’s horror grows visibly.“I’m so sorry,” she says.“All of your siblings died?”
Her empathy seems to surprise the dragon, Aurous thinking it through as I breathe deeply and clench my fists.Whatever’s come over me, I’m shedding it like a lizard’s skin, though I know that I’ll never be fully free of it.Because I don’t want to be.But I can’t just follow this creature blindly.I have to be independent, and though the kinspark fights me, I realize it’s the magic that bound me to her mother—that allowed us to communicate over great distance—that’s the real problem.
“When my mother knew she was failing, she began to spawn,” Aurous says, looking out over the cave.There’s an innocence to her that the voice in my head never had.“As it is often with the ancient of our kind, it took her many layings to produce one egg that was viable.”
Sheelan hugs herself.“They all died.”
“So I might live,” Aurous nods.“As is the way of things.”
“Aren’t you sad?”Sheelan must be thinking of her own loss, of her father’s recent death, her brother’s betrayal, because the princess’s cheeks are wet in the soft light that Aurous radiates.
The dragon ponders this for another long moment, enough time for me to separate myself far enough from her, to gain sufficient freedom, that I know it’s not through will of my own alone, but because Aurous chooses to let me go.That should be frightening, but it’s not.For someone who has hated being a pawn, I’m suddenly longing for her again.
“I… am not.”Aurous says with a faint hitch in her voice.She frowns, concern softening her eyes further as she turns to me, anxious and sad despite her words.“Should I be?”
“No,” I tell her, Sheelan shaking her head, her face even more horrified, though from regret, I think, more so than judgment of the dragon we’ve come to find.“You survived because your mother made you to survive.If not you, then one of them.”I gesture as she had done, to take in the cave.“Never question your right to exist instead of another.”
“I’m sorry,” Sheelan says, hugging Aurous abruptly, the dragon embracing her kindly back, her soft smile returning as the Sunnish woman clings to her.“I didn’t mean… I’m just sorry, Aurous.That’s all.”
“Thank you,” the golden woman says, kissing Sheelan lightly on the forehead when they part.She meets my gaze, squeezing my hand again.“Better?”
I nod, myself again, and yet linked more tightly to her than even Atlas or Zenthris or Sheelan.And yet to all of them just as bound.“I need to be able to act as myself.”
“I understand,” she says.“I’m new to this, you see.Your patience is a gift, Remi.”She sighs.“My mother’s teaching is vast, and her vault of knowledge immense.I know what she knew.But she hid here for a century, long before Neem’s death, nurturing her brood, nurturing me, so there are things that I know, but that I do not yetknow, if that’s clear?”She scrunches her nose in the most adorable way.“Nothing will teach me like experience, I fear.”
“Wait, you’re a century old?”Sheelan’s questions prove she’s not as entwined with Aurous as I am.Or perhaps my upbringing—raised not to push the boundaries of those who command me—make it easier for me to accept this is the way things will be.
No, I don’t believe that.I’ve been so far from that princess of Heald for far too long.Whatever binds me to Aurous, I believe now that I’m the lynchpin, so it makes sense that I’m the most under her influence.
“I am,” Aurous tells Sheelan.“Not very old at all, for a hatchling.”She turns and looks up the path.“I will answer every question you have of me, but we really need to go.”
“Of course,” Sheelan says, hurrying after her.I take up position last in line, though there’s nothing to guard against, that protectiveness I’ve been feeling unrelenting in its tension.I doubt Aurous will need me to fight for her, but I could be wrong.
“My mother gave me what was left of her power as she left me,” Aurous tells Sheelan when prompted.“And I have my own, of course.”Of course, because sheisa dragon.I can’t lose sight of that, even in the vast love I already feel for her.The casual assurance almost makes me laugh, a helpless feeling of near-hysteria, and yet delicious joy bubbles inside me.
“Youwerea dragon,” Sheelan says, puffing a bit as our new companion sets a fast pace.
Aurous instantly slows as she realizes the Sunnish woman is straining to keep up.“I chose this form instead,” she says.“It seemed wise, considering we have far to travel, and my hatchling one would draw too much attention.”
“Smart,” I say.
“Very,” Sheelan agrees.“Does that mean you can turn back into a dragon whenever you want?”
I don’t remind her that Aurous can’t stop being a dragon, the semantics somehow important to me even if we all know what Sheelan means.But it’s a silly thing to say, and I let it go as the dragon answers.
“When the time comes,” Aurous says, finally grim, at least as far into that as she can manage while still radiating that wonderful sense of calm and care, “I will take my dragon form for good.But not until I need to.”She flashes us a smile over her shoulder as we near the top.“I think I’ll be having far too much fun in this body to do so before I have to.”
