His voice in my head startled me.‘What does it mean?’Every rider was given a unique name by the dragons. Some were odd—and some hilarious. But every dragon rider was named for what the dragons saw within them, though some of the meaning was often lost in translation since we were named in the dragon’s telepathic language that Kgosi said our tongues couldn’t even begin to mimic.
‘If unwanted, a little flame can be blown out with ease,’Kgosi rumbled in my head.‘But it possesses a seed of great power. Given the right fuel, it will grow into a raging inferno, consuming everything in its path.’
I blinked.‘That is a very grand name for a very small woman.’
‘I named you the Eagle, and look at you,’Kgosi said with a huff.‘Your kind jump to obey you, yet I could blow you off your feet with a fart.’
I spluttered and coughed as I attempted to swallow a guffaw that didn’t like going down.
Bren frowned. “Are you okay, Sir?” she said uncertainly.
“I’m fine. Just… inhaled a bit of dust,” I croaked, then hurriedly bid them both farewell and turned for the door, growling at Kgosi to stop laughing and get out of my way.
I called runners to take messengers to the Quartermaster, the supply officers, and for a survey of the female servants in the kitchens to find someone of a size with her as I stormed through the stables then out to the cobbled paths that linked all the buildings in the Dragon Keep. When that was done, I glared at my dragon, who lumbered behind me feeling very smug and self-satisfied in the bond.
‘What are you grinning about?’I sent to him in the seconds before I’d reach the main building and have to turn my mind to this shitshow that was unfolding around us.
‘I’m pleased. It’s been a good day thus far,’Kgosi sent in return.
Good? He called thisgood?
‘Yes, good, Donavyn. Do you have no faith?’
I huffed as I reached the door to the stronghold. Within moments of opening it, I’d be surrounded by subordinates and expected to have—or find—every answer that was needed.
A female Flameborne? A femaleFuryknight?
“It’s impossible,” I muttered to myself.
‘Nothing is impossible with God,’Kgosi pointed out.
‘If you hadn’t noticed, I am not God,’I retorted dryly.
‘I’m more aware than most,’Kgosi purred.
I sighed, my mind turning back to that frail, messy sight of her in the stable. Kgosi rumbled and shook his head.‘She’s here for a purpose, even if we don’t yet know what it is.’
“I know, I know,” I sighed, patting his snout to calm him. “I’m not denying her place here. She’s Chosen. She’ll get her chance. Only… this is a challenge Idid not needright now. The team to infiltrate Draeventhall only left hours ago! It’ll be weeks, even months before we know how serious the threat is from that quarter. We should be spending that time preparing for attack, but instead, we’ll be assimilating afemale?”
‘A great purpose is not designed for yourcomfort, Donavyn. It’s to grow your strength.’
I gave him a skeptical look. “You believe afemaleFlameborne will make us stronger?”
‘Perhaps not in the ways you would expect, but yes. I do.’
It was always an experience to stare into my dragon’s eyes. His gaze was deeper than the night sky. And almost as unknowable. And yet, he’d never lied, and never steered me wrong. If Kgosi truly believed she would become an asset, then I did too. Somehow.
I took a deep breath and reached up to scratch behind his eye-ridge. He closed that eye and leaned into the caress, almost shoving me off my feet in the process, but I laughed.
“I’ll stand for her,” I said wearily. “But I’m laying the blame firmly at your feet. I’ll tell everyoneKgosi ordered it, so I have no choice,”I joked.
‘There’s the coward I know and love,’he rumbled back.
I huffed and gave him one final scratch, then patted his head as high as I could reach before turning to open the door. As I stepped into the cool, dim depths of the human-sized stone building where all our battle plans were made, my heels rang on the stone floor, echoing with Kgosi’s words in my head:Purpose is not designed for your comfort, Donavyn. It’s to grow your strength.
What if I didn’twantto get stronger?
But I shook the dark thought off for the excuse that it was. Of course I wanted to strengthen. Of course I wanted to grow. And I wanted it for every man—and woman—under my authority as well.
