Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 14 of 46

The mother dragon leveled out over open sky. Violet held her neck and looked down. The hatchlings trailed behind, wings beating hard already. They had launched safe. But now she faced a new problem. These northern peaks were strange to her. She had no map of them, no path in her head. One wrong turn and the little ones would tire over bare rock with nowhere to land. Theo rode behind her, gripping a spine. "You know where we're going?" he shouted. "No," Violet said. "That's the trouble." The peaks ran on and on, gray and sharp. Kael's fortress lay somewhere south. But flying straight there meant crossing his men. Flying blind north might strand the brood in the cold. Violet needed a place to land, rest, and think. She watched the gold-horned hatchling. It flew lowest, wings dipping. It would fall first. She scanned the slopes below for green, for water, for any sign of shelter. Then she saw it. Down in a fold between two peaks sat a cluster of broken roofs. Stone walls, half fallen. An old village, empty. Vines had climbed the cracked houses. A stone path wound between them, choked with weeds. No smoke. No people. "There," she called, and pointed. "We land there." The mother dragon banked and dropped. The hatchlings followed, gliding down between the ruined walls. The gold-horned one landed hard and tumbled, then shook itself and stood. Violet slid off and knelt beside it. It was breathing fast, but safe. She walked the broken streets. Weeds grew waist-high. Pink berry bushes had spread wild against a fallen doorway, heavy with pale fruit. The hatchlings pushed their noses into the branches and pulled the berries free. They ate greedily. Food, without her having to hunt. A sound came from behind a leaning wall. Violet drew her knife. She stepped around the stone. A black-and-white sheep stood in the weeds, chewing. Its woolly coat was thick and matted. It lifted its head and looked at her, calm, not afraid. Left behind when the village emptied, or born wild since. Alive and fat. Violet lowered the knife. Here was meat for the mother dragon and berries for the young. A walled place, hidden in the fold of the peaks, where torches from below could not reach. "We rest here," she told Theo. "The little ones eat. I learn these mountains before we fly again." Theo looked around the ruins. "And when Kael's men climb this high?" Violet caught the sheep by its coat and led it toward the dragon. "Then we'll be gone. But not lost. I'll know the way by then." That night she sat among the broken walls. She traced the peaks she had crossed, fixing each ridge in her memory. The brood slept full and warm. For the first time since the peak, Violet knew where she stood.