Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 29 of 46

Violet flew north until dusk, the pink dragon steady beneath her. She landed on a ridge and pulled the bracelet from her coat. Rose gold, blue gems, small roses between each stone. Odette had called it a map. But Violet turned it over and over and saw only jewelry. No lines. No marks. No direction. She had a stranger's oath and no idea where to point her wings. She knew one person who read the mountains better than she did. She flew low through the passes until she found the cave draped in soft moss, its stone mouth glowing warm. Jasper waved her inside before she cleared the entrance, the way he always did, hurrying her past his antlers and the patchy fur on his arms. He had shown her a hidden passage once and sheltered her whole flight. She trusted his eyes. "You look lost," Jasper said. He set a bowl of berries down and sat. Violet dropped the bracelet on the stone between them. "An elf gave me this. She said it's a map to the last wild dragon's treasure. I can't read it." Jasper leaned close. His brown eyes narrowed at the gems. He touched each blue stone, then stopped. "These aren't just for looks. See how they sit deep, deep, shallow?" He traced them with a thick finger. "That's the peaks. My grandfather carved trail-tokens the same way. High stone, high stone, low pass." Violet's chest tightened. "You can read it." "Part of it." He tilted the bracelet toward the firelight. The roses caught shadow. "The flowers point. Petals open toward where you walk. Follow the open petals through three high peaks and one low pass." He looked up. "There's only one place that pattern fits. A valley north of here. Nobody goes. The old folk said a dragon buried stolen things there." Violet held the bracelet to the light herself. Now she saw it. The petals leaned the same way, like small arrows in gold. Three deep gems, then a shallow one. The dragon's treasure valley. The wild one's hoard. "How far?" she asked. "Two days by wing. Less if the pink one's strong." Jasper pushed the berries toward her. "Eat. You'll want daylight over those peaks." Violet closed her fist around the bracelet. The cold gems no longer felt useless. She had a direction at last. North, through three high peaks, to a valley where a dragon guarded its stolen gold. She stood and thanked Jasper. Outside, the pink dragon lifted its head. Violet climbed on and pointed north. But she remembered Odette's price. Leave the dragon in peace after the bond. She meant to find it. She had not decided if she meant to keep that promise. The valley was two days off, and every wingbeat carried her toward a choice she had sworn to make and did not yet believe.