Page 49 of First Light

She sat on a small bench under the apple trees and a horse wandered over, nudging her arm with his muzzle.

“Hello, horse.” She’d always wanted one as a child, but her mother had always had an odd reaction to them, fascinated by the creatures but always keeping her distance. “Hey, boy.” She glanced over. “Girl. Do you want an apple?”

Carys stood to pick an apple from the tree to feed the mare, only to turn when she felt a strange tug in her chest.

It was a warm sensation, not unlike the feeling of a campfire that had just caught. It crackled in her chest, turning her around as she looked to see what was causing it.

She couldn’t describe it. It was… living.

“What’s happening?” She looked at the horse, but the animal flared its nostrils and swiftly turned away. “Horse?”

She smelled a faint scent of smoke and tensed. Was a forest fire coming? Was the castle protected from a forest fire?

There was a burning in her chest and a churning sense of panic, but her feet felt rooted to the ground. She had the sneaking suspicion that she wouldn’t be able to run even if she wanted to.

Carys rolled her shoulders back, but the sensation only grew stronger, the burning more intense. There was a distant sound in the air like the call of a hawk over a canyon.

Carys felt the wind pick up, the smell of smoke grew stronger, and she walked from under the trees, drawn to the distant cry. She looked up, searching for the sun, but it wasn’t there. There were only the flat grey clouds that covered everything in this place, the dull morning light that cast the castle and the courtyard in watercolor shades.

Something was coming.

She felt a prickling awareness along her skin, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She felt an instinct, a perception she couldn’t explain. She couldn’t take her eyes from the sky.

The people milling around the courtyard started to murmur, and then a few shouts rose from the castle walls and the guards began to run.

People were frozen, looking up, but every animal that had been wandering through the courtyard from the horses to the chickens had scattered, fleeing to any awning or covered alcove they could find, huddling against the walls, utterly silent in the human melee.

Carys couldn’t understand what the guards were saying, nor did she care. Something pulled her attention back to the sky. Her eyes were drawn to a thin line in the distance, a dark spot on the horizon. Her blood knew what was coming before her mind fixed it.

More shouts from the guards, then a word that was unmistakable.

“Dràgon!”

The beat of distant wings pulled her like a string plunged into her heart. She walked to the center of the courtyard, her eyes lifted to the sky as the worried murmurs of the people around her turned to cries. A woman yelled and a child ran past her, screaming for his father.

The wind grew wilder, whipping around her body, but she couldn’t seem to move. Her gaze was fixed on the shape coming closer.

A deep voice whispered in her mind.

Nêrys.

Another hawk’s cry, but this one grew from a screech into a thundering roar as the massive creature spread its wings, shadowing the courtyard as it circled overhead.

Shouts from the walls and soldiers yelling as they poured into the keep.

The creature let loose a stream of fire that heated the courtyard even from the clouds.

“No,” she whispered. “You’re scaring them.”

“Hold!” The guard who had spoken to her earlier was shouting at the archers on the walls. “Hold until we receive orders!”

The voice whispered in her mind again, a deep growl, gentle as distant thunder.Nêrys ddraig.

Carys shook her head and whispered into the wind. “Not Nêrys. My name is Carys.”

With the force of a small hurricane, the dragon winged down in ever-smaller circles and landed in the middle of the courtyard, announcing its arrival with outstretched wings and a thunderous roar that shook the castle walls.

Carys stood motionless, looking up at the magnificent creature with pebbled green flesh that shone with an iridescent light. She could see the column of red fire glowing through the skin at the beast’s throat when he raised his head.

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