Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 8 of 46

The morning after the feast, the nest lay quiet. Five hatchlings slept in a heap, bellies round. The mother coiled around them, watching Violet from across the cave. In eight weeks she had eaten Violet's food, let the gold-horned one lean against her, even touched her snout to Violet's chest. But she had never let Violet touch her. Every time Violet stepped close, the great head lifted and the eyes went flat. Without that, no true bond could form. Her thirty days had shrunk to three. Theo leaned in the cave mouth, clean as always. He tapped a folded note against his glove. "Lord Kael reads my letters," he said softly. "He thinks the dragon is yours already. If you can't lay a hand on her, he'll send men to drag her out in chains." He smiled, and it did not reach his eyes. "I'd hate to watch that." Violet looked at the blue stone glowing in the treasure pile beside the eggs. The dragon guarded it above all. She could not buy trust with the stone; the dragon owned it. She needed something new. She remembered the glowing vine the hatchlings loved, the one with pale moon-shaped blossoms. The mother had never eaten it. But she had watched her young reach for it every day. Violet went out and cut a long strand of the moonflower vine. She carried it in slowly, both hands open. The mother's head rose. Her eyes went flat. Violet did not stop. She knelt an arm's length away and laid the vine across the mother's front claw, over the eggs, like a gift for the whole nest. The dragon did not strike. She lowered her nose and smelled the blossoms. Then she nudged the vine toward the sleeping hatchlings. Violet stayed still. Her hand rested near the huge scaled leg. She did not reach. She waited. The mother turned her head and pressed her jaw against Violet's open palm. Violet felt the warm scales, the pulse under them, the slow breath. She did not grab. She spread her fingers and let the weight settle. The dragon leaned into the touch. For a long moment neither moved. The bond closed like a latch. Violet felt it in her chest, a steady tug that had not been there before. Behind her, Theo went silent. His note stayed folded in his hand. "She's mine now," Violet said. "Bonded. Not chained." Theo's smile thinned. He tucked the note away and drew out a fresh sheet. "Then I'll tell Lord Kael the wild dragon is truly bonded," he said. "He'll want her at the fortress within three days. Her, the nest, the stone, all of it." He met her eyes. "He won't ask if she wants to come." Violet kept her hand on the dragon's jaw. She had the bond at last. Now Kael would come to claim it.