Page 42 of Mountain of Dragons and Sacrifice

Iglanced around the dining tables the next morning as I ate my porridge. “Where’s Evander?”

Daphne waved airily, a leaf drifting from her hand to land in her porridge. “Now that you know the truth, things can go back to normal. He’s probably frantically trying to clean his study before Dorrian gets here and yells at him for letting it get so messy in the last few weeks.”

I tried and failed to picture anyone daring to yell at a dragon. Then again, this was Evander. It wasn’t like he was going to roast Dorrian for speaking out of turn.

Phoebe halted next to us, a tray in her hands. “Nessa, why don’t you take a breakfast tray to him? He’ll be even more grouchy if he skips breakfast.”

Bringing a meal to a grouchy dragon didn’t sound like the ideal way to start the morning. But I found myself hopping to my feet and taking the tray anyway, my agreement slipping out before I could think better of it. “All right.”

“Just go up the stairs, and his study is the door on your right.” Phoebe gave me a little nudge toward the exit. “Don’t worry. He won’t bite.”

There wasn’t anything for it but to toddle from the main room and down the corridor that led to the waterfall cavern. Once there, I froze at the base of the grand staircase that led upward.

I had resolved never to set foot in the dragon’s lair. That was before I knew Evander was the dragon. Before I realized the elders had been misleading the whole village about the dragon and the reasons for the sacrifice.

You’d think, after all I’d learned, that I’d be ready to march up those stairs and smash that last misconception.

But I wasn’t. Those stairs still felt forbidden. Like I’d be trespassing somewhere sacred.

I drew in a deep breath. This was ridiculous. Evander was the dragon. He wasn’t going to hurt me. I trusted him enough to light the candle. Surely I trusted him enough to climb those stairs and enter his study.

Forcing my legs to move, I climbed one stair. Then another. Each step a victory that lightened the weight on my shoulders.

As I climbed, the stairs gently curved until the waterfall cavern was out of sight. At the top, a small round space held three doors. I balanced the tray on one hand, sucked in another fortifying breath, and knocked on the righthand door.

“Come in. Just spare me one of your lectures.” Evander’s voice came from within, followed by the sounds of something clunking.

He must be expecting Dorrian, but I pushed open the door anyway.

Inside, the room was crescent-shaped with windows along the broad, outer side, displaying an impressive view of the snow-capped mountains marching into the misty distance.

Sides of the room not filled with windows held a few shelves overflowing with scrolls, parchments, and a tumbled mass of items. More mess scattered over the imposing desk in the center of the room and tumbled onto the floor. Scrolls, rocks, parchments, items of clothing, something that almost looked like a carved sheep, and too many random items to name added to the general chaos of the room.

Evander stood before the shelves, an armload of scrolls and parchments in his arms. He tried to wiggle a scroll from the pile in his arms, only to have two more scrolls slide off and clunk to the floor. “I know, I know. It’s a mess. I’ll—” He glanced over his shoulder and froze. “Nessa.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude. Phoebe sent me with breakfast.” I held out the tray, searching the desk for a place to set it down. There didn’t appear to be a single bare patch where I could set the tray without balancing it precariously on the jumbled detritus.

“You’re not intruding.” Evander dropped his pile of scrolls, then hastily cleared a section of his desk by sweeping everything onto the floor. He nudged a few items under the desk, then shrugged, as if realizing it was a lost cause to attempt to hide the mess. His face was flushed a hint red, as if he were embarrassed at the state of his study.

I picked my way across the room and set the tray on the desk. “I never pictured dragons as being so messy.”

“Yes, well…” Evander rubbed at the back of his neck, a wry tilt to his mouth. “Dragons do have a tendency to hoard everything and struggle to throw anything away.”

“I see that.” I swept a glance over the study again. The space was nearly four times as large as my parents’ home but a far cry from my mama’s tidy cleanliness.

The tread of footsteps as someone sprang energetically up the stairs echoed inside a moment before Dorrian’s voice came from right outside the door. “Do I want to see the utter mess your study has devolved into while I was away?”

“No.” Evander hunched his shoulders, not looking at me or the door.

Dorrian stepped inside, then skidded to a halt. “Blistering breath, Evander! Did you do anything the entire three weeks I was away? Besides utterly trash the place?”

“I was a little preoccupied.” Evander shifted, making a small wave in my direction.

I pointed at myself. “Don’t blame me for this. I’m just as appalled as Dorrian.”

Dorrian was still gaping at the room. “I had a system. I left clear instructions. All you had to do was follow it. And yet here we are. Never fails. Every time. Did you at least haul the items for filing to the store room as I asked?”

“For the first week.” Evander rocked back on his heels, sending another look in my direction. “The dust in there made me sneeze, and I might have set a few parchments on fire.”

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