Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 23 of 46

Violet had one day before moonrise. The cellar held her whole flight safe, but Kael's patrol would walk through the fortress tonight. If the dragons stirred, the men would hear. She stood in the flowered arch and stared at the walls draped in purple blossoms. She could not move the flight. There was no daylight cover on the open cliffs. She had to make the patrol pass without a sound. Rowena leaned on her glowing staff at the cellar mouth. The old woman had shown Violet this trap, and now she watched to see how Violet would escape it. "Soldiers check the far stores first," Rowena said. "They never come below unless something calls them down." She tapped the stone. "So give them nothing." Violet knelt among the hatchlings. Six young dragons crowded the pink dragon's side. They were the danger. A hungry hatchling would cry, and one cry would end everything. She needed them full and sleeping when the men arrived. She spent the afternoon feeding them the last of Jasper's dried meat, strip by strip, until their bellies swelled and their eyes drooped. But the mother dragon paced. She sensed men coming and would not settle. Violet pressed a hand to the great warm snout. "Not tonight," she whispered. "Stay down for me." The dragon huffed but folded her wings. As the sun sank, something stepped through the blossoms behind Rowena. A unicorn, pale blue, its mane bright with every color. It nosed at the vines and cropped the purple flowers. Violet's chest tightened. If it wandered near the arch when the patrol came, it would draw eyes straight to the cellar. "It grazes here at dusk," Rowena said. "The men know it. They'll follow it if it runs." Violet understood. She stripped a handful of blossoms and coaxed the unicorn a hundred paces up the ridge, well clear of the arch. She tied its lead loose so it could bolt. Then she climbed back and pulled the flowering vines low across the cellar door until the stone vanished. Moonrise came. Torches bobbed through the broken gate. Violet crouched inside, one hand on the mother dragon, one on the nearest hatchling. Boots scraped the upper stores. Voices grumbled about empty shelves. Then a soldier shouted, and the whole patrol crashed off through the brush after the unicorn's bright mane. The torches faded down the ridge. Silence returned. Violet breathed out and felt the mother dragon's heart slow under her palm. Rowena stepped from the shadows, staff dim. "You bought one moon," she said. "They'll be back at the next full one, and they'll wonder why the beast keeps fleeing this spot." She met Violet's eyes. "This place is yours for a month. No longer." The flight was safe tonight. But the cellar was no true home now. Violet had thirty days to find one before Kael's men returned and learned the pattern.