Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 5 of 46

Three days passed, and Violet learned the mother dragon was starving. She flew north each morning and watched from the ledge. The dragon never left her nest. She would not risk the eggs to hunt. Her ribs showed through her scales now. Her eyes had gone dull and mean. A starving beast would never trust a stranger. Worse, a starving mother might turn on the very hatchling she guarded. Violet had nine days left, and the dragon was fading fast. "She won't leave the eggs," Violet said. "So the food has to come to her." Theo leaned against the black dragon's flank, arms crossed. Lord Kael's spy had a smooth answer for everything, and Violet had learned to watch his easy smile. "You want to walk fresh meat into a cave with a desperate dragon," he said softly. "That's a fine way to become the meat." "Then I'll do it slow." Violet flew to a valley farm below the crystal hills and traded her silver ring for a black-and-white sheep. It bleated and stamped, woolly and round. She roped it behind her saddle and climbed back toward the glowing cavern. At the cave mouth she stopped. The crystals threw red and blue light across the stone. Deep inside, the mother lifted her head. Her nostrils flared at the smell of the sheep. She hissed and coiled tighter around the nest, sure this was a trick to reach her young. Violet did not step closer. She untied the sheep and set it on the ground between them. Then she backed away, hands open, until her shoulders touched cold rock. "It's yours," she said. "I'm not coming near them." The sheep wandered forward, bleating. The mother watched Violet, not the meal. A long moment held. Then hunger won. The dragon struck fast, and the sheep was gone in two snaps. She ate with her body still curled around the eggs, never leaving them once. A small white shape squeezed out from under her tail. The gold-horned hatchling stumbled into the open, drawn by the noise. It blinked at Violet with wide amber eyes and squeaked. The mother's head swung down at once, sharp and ready. Violet stayed frozen against the wall. "I won't touch him," she said. The hatchling wobbled two steps closer to her. Then the mother's tail curled around the little one and dragged him back to the nest. But she did not hiss. She had watched Violet hold still while her young came near, and she had let it happen. The dragon lowered her head onto the eggs and closed her eyes. Fed. Calmer. Her ribs still showed, but the wild panic had left her. Violet slid out to the ledge, heart pounding. "She took food from me," she said. "Tomorrow she'll take more." One meal would not tame a mother. But the dragon had let the hatchling near her, and that was a door. Now Violet had to keep it open before the eggs finished hatching.