Page 164 of House of Ashes

“I cut this from his saddle while the pretender slept in my eyrie. No Dragonesse could possibly have need of such a thing—let alone any draga of good breeding.”

Tyria’s brow raised a fraction. “That is inconclusive, Chantrelle.”

“That’s far from the only evidence. Elinor.” Chantrelle nodded to her niece, folding her hands behind her back.

I stared daggers at Elinor as she stepped to the middle of the Circle. She wiped her palms against her white leathers…but that was the only sign of her nervousness as she prepared to give her testimony.

Rhylan met my eyes from across the stones, half his face blocked by Elinor’s legs, but I saw the crimson spark in one eye. The all-devouring coal that threatened to burst into flames.

It vanished as the Illiae applied pressure to his back, forcing his head down.

“They do not have the mind-speech,” Elinor announced. “I observed this myself. He allowed her to fall in the attack on Zerhaln. There is no connection between them, no bond.”

“He’s far from the first dragon to have a rider fall!” Doric snarled. “Elinor, what are you doing?”

She gave him a pleading look, but her jaw was set. “I know what I saw. And…and there’s one more.” She waved to the footbridge, and even from my position on the ground, chin forced to the stones, I saw the tiny draga slip into the Circle.

Mykah. She looked around with wide eyes, her shoulders hunched as she crept to Elinor’s side. The sight of Rhylan in the cage of Illiae’s claws nearly stopped her in her tracks; when she saw Asura and Cyran astride my back, she did stop.

Elinor smiled at her reassuringly. “Come forth, Mykah.”

The draga hesitantly obeyed.

“Now tell us…” Elinor leaned forward, bringing herself eye to eye with the younger draga. “You saw them in Zerhaln, yes?”

Mykah nodded, and Elinor’s smile slipped a little. “You must say yes or no with your own voice. This is a Judgment against lawbreakers.”

“Yes,” Mykah whispered, the sound barely audible.

“And you were the one who saved Serafina from the fall.”

“Yes.”

Elinor’s shoulders had relaxed as Mykah’s whisper grew a little louder. “Good. Now, did you notice that they did not seem to have a connection? That they spoke sensitive conversations aloud, when the mind-speech would have sufficed?”

Mykah’s doe eyes drifted back to me, her brows wrinkled. The next second felt like an eternity, the little draga’s mouth open to say the words that would damn us.

Doric had been right…she was a spy.

“No.”

My heart skipped a beat. I fought my aching neck muscles to raise my head, staring at the girl.

Elinor’s smile wobbled. “Let me rephrase that: did you overhear conversations that would not otherwise be spoken aloud between a bonded pair?”

Some of the uncertainty had left Mykah’s gaze. She set her lips, eyes hardening, raising her pointed chin in the air. “No. They seemed perfectly bonded to me, my lady. You fell off Doric once, and I don’t see anyone Judging you.”

One of Elinor’s eyes twitched, her claws flexing.

Oh, that stubborn little wyvern-rider.

Despite Doric’s claims that Mykah was a spy, even he seemed taken aback by Elinor’s line of questioning. “This is ludicrous,” he told his mate, his eyes glacially cold. “Did you talk her into giving false testimony, Elinor?”

Elinor straightened up, giving him a filthy look. “You can go, Mykah. There’s no need for you any longer.”

I didn’t think I imagined the flash of hurt in her eyes at those words, but she crept only as far as the footbridge, her eyes bouncing between Rhylan and Elinor.

I silently thanked her, regretting even the few seconds I’d spent believing she was a spy. I hoped she could get out of this without reprisal for her defense of us.

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