Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 45 of 46

The summons came by hawk two days after the wild dragon flew. Theo unrolled the slip and read Kael's mark. "He wants you at the fortress. Now." Violet knew what that meant. Kael's rider had reported a beast no chain could hold, one that answered only to her. A frightened lord would not wait. She saddled her pink dragon, tucked a moonpetal vine into her pack, and flew south toward the clifftop walls. Kael met her in his high hall, not the courtyard. He wore his gold chain and no smile. Once he had bargained with her as a lord who wanted fame. Now his hands were still on the table, and his eyes never left her. "My man says the wild one obeys only you," he said. "That it threw no rider but you. That it climbed higher than any dragon in my stables." "He saw the truth," Violet said. Kael leaned forward. "Then teach me to ride it. Or teach my captain. A dragon that size cannot belong to one girl." His voice stayed even, but she heard the fear under it. He did not want the beast. He wanted it away from her hands. Violet set the moonpetal vine on the table between them. The pale blossoms caught the window light. "This calms it. Nothing else does. Not chains, not spurs, not your captain." She let the words land. "It slept underground for years. It woke to me. It will let no other climb its shoulder. If you force a rider on it, it will kill him, and then it will burn your walls to find me." Kael stared at the vine. He was smart enough to know a bluff. This was not one. He had seen his own rider flee. "So I cannot ride it," he said slowly. "And I cannot kill it without losing my best tamer." "You lose me, and you lose every dragon I hold," Violet said. "Keep me, and the wild one flies your banner when you call. But it flies with me. Only me." The hall was quiet. Kael turned the vine in his fingers. His fear had wanted the dragon broken to his hand. She had shown him that hand would only bleed. At last he pushed the vine back across the table. "Then it stays yours," he said. "But you answer every summons I send. And you bring it here, to my walls, when I demand proof. Refuse once, and I hunt you both." "Agreed," Violet said. She flew home with the bargain sealed. Kael could not master the wild dragon. He had stopped trying. But she had traded that safety for a leash of her own. Now the beast was bound not just to her heart but to Kael's call. The last wild dragon was still hers to tame fully. And now Kael would drag it into the open sky whenever he pleased.