Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 28 of 46

Violet returned to the hollow with Kael's bargain won and a harder problem waiting. Her flight had grown too big. Nine hatchlings, the mother dragon, and the pink dragon filled the narrow refuge. Every wingbeat echoed off the walls. She still needed to find the last wild dragon no rider had bonded. But she could not hunt for it while dragging a whole roost behind her. Move them, and Kael's men would hear. Leave them alone, and they had no shelter she trusted. A voice spoke from the crack in the rock. "You're loud for someone hiding dragons." A tall elf slipped through the narrow gap, ducking her green hair under the stone. One eye was green, the other violet. She looked at the flight without fear, counting them like coins. "I've watched you drag these little ones from cave to cave for weeks. You keep choosing hiding places that trap you." Violet stepped between the stranger and the hatchlings. "Who are you?" "Odette Dusk. I know where things stay hidden." She crouched and let the gold-horned hatchling sniff her fingers. "There's a hollow deeper in the peaks. Wide enough for a grown dragon to stretch. A stone shelf that seals from inside. No rider has found it in a hundred years." She met Violet's eyes. "Your mother dragon could guard your whole brood there. Then you'd be free to travel light." Violet's chest tightened. It was the answer she needed. But trust cost her every time. "Why help me?" Odette unhooked something from her belt and held it out. A rose gold bracelet, blue gems set between small roses. "The last wild dragon guards a nest of these. It buries treasure it steals from riders. Find the treasure, you find the dragon." She pressed the bracelet into Violet's hand. "I want it left in peace after you bond it. Swear that, and I'll take your flight to the deep hollow tonight." Violet closed her fist around the cold gems. She looked at the mother dragon, at the hatchlings crowded and restless. She could not search and protect them both. She had to split the two. "I swear it," Violet said. They moved before moonrise. Odette led them along a deer track, then through a seam in the rock Violet had never seen. The deep hollow opened wide and dry. The mother dragon coiled at its center, wings spread over the hatchlings. The pink dragon settled at the mouth. Violet slid the stone shelf across the entrance. Inside, the flight went quiet at last. She climbed out with the pink dragon, the bracelet in her coat, and no roost slowing her down. For the first time, her hands were free to hunt. But she carried a stranger's oath now, and a stranger's map to a dragon that hoarded stolen gems. Somewhere north, the last wild one guarded its treasure, and Violet meant to find it.