Sir Danny hillith of kattegatt's Arc

Chapter 7 of 10

The cave entrance stood like a dark mouth against the northern cliffs. Danny had ridden hard from Kattegatt after leaving the dragon mistress's tower, following the directions the marked stranger had given him. The old symbols were carved deep into the stone—dragon shapes that looked nothing like the careful courtly emblems he'd grown up seeing. These were older. Rougher. More honest. Massive stones flanked the entrance, each taller than a man on horseback. Fire burned along their edges despite the morning damp, revealing dragons engraved into the gray surface. Danny dismounted and approached on foot. His sword hung at his hip—the blade he'd sharpened every dawn for three years, thinking of her. The mark across his ribs pulsed as he stepped between the stones. Inside, the cave opened into a chamber lit by blue flame that swirled in an archway of carved stone. A portal. The flames gave no heat, only light that made his shadow dance against the walls. Danny drew his sword without thinking. The blade caught the blue light and something changed—flames erupted along the steel, gold and red twisting together. The handle warmed in his grip. An ice-blue crystal set into the pommel blazed bright enough to hurt his eyes. He'd carried this sword for years and never seen it do this. The word carved into the crystal's base read clear now: dracarys. The portal's flames shifted, showing an image within—the dragon mistress in her tower, standing at a window, waiting. The dragon's voice filled his head without words, a choice made clear: step through to her now, or stay and meet the bond that claimed him. Danny lowered the sword. The flames along the blade died. He couldn't walk through that portal to her—not while the dragon waited deeper in the cave, not while the bond burned unfinished across his ribs. He'd spent three years planning the perfect moment to reach her, and now a shortcut stood before him wreathed in blue fire. But the bond didn't care about shortcuts or plans. It cared about what he chose when stillness was asked of him. Danny sheathed the sword and turned away from the portal. He walked deeper into the cave, toward the darkness where the dragon's presence pulled at the mark on his skin. The portal's light faded behind him. For the first time in three years, he'd chosen to be patient instead of planning his next move.