Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 44 of 46

The bell rang before dawn. Not the test ring Violet had made. A true one. The runestone flared in the flower field, and the wild dragon lifted its head. It stirred where it lay by the crystal hoard, wings twitching, tail sweeping the grass. Odette had warned this day would come. The dragon would grow restless and want the sky. Now it clawed at the ground and huffed smoke. It wanted to fly, and nothing Violet held could keep it grounded much longer. Theo came down the slope fast, boots sliding in the wet grass. He had lied to Kael's soldiers once to save her, and stayed at her side since. He did not lean in with his easy news voice now. "Kael's rider crossed the rim," he said. "He's on the ridge already. He wants to watch it fly." Violet looked at the pacing dragon. Her problem and her chance stood in the same beast. The dragon wanted the sky. Kael wanted proof. "Then it flies," she said. "But it flies with me on its back, not loose." Theo grabbed her arm. "It's never carried you. It's too big, Violet." "That's why it has to be now." She pulled a dark bloom from her pack, the stormy-petaled flower Nick had brought. She held it flat on her palm and walked into the field. The dragon swung its huge head toward her. It knew the scent. Its breathing slowed. Violet pressed the flower to its jaw and climbed the ridge of its shoulder. The dragon did not throw her. It gathered its legs and leapt. The valley dropped away. Wind tore at Violet's black and silver hair. The dragon climbed higher than her pink one ever had, higher than the ridge, until the flowers below became a green smear. She felt its wingbeats shake the air like drums. No rider had ever sat this beast. She had. On the ridge, Kael's rider stared up. Violet saw his mount cower and press flat to the rock. The man did not cheer. He wheeled his dragon and fled south toward the fortress. He had come to see a tamed mount fly for his lord. He had seen how vast the wild one truly was, and it had frightened him. Violet brought the dragon down slow. It landed by the hoard and folded its wings, calm now, its restless itch spent. Theo ran to her, pale. "He didn't wait," Theo said. "He's already riding to tell Kael what he saw." Violet slid down the dragon's shoulder. Her legs shook, but she stood. "Good," she said. "Let him." Then the cold set in. Kael had wanted a mount he could count on. His man would report a beast larger than any in the lord's stables, one that answered only to her. Kael would not feel proud. He would feel afraid. And a frightened lord would want the wild dragon chained or killed.