Page 199 of The Priory of the Orange Tree

After the waters, a terrible hush had fallen. Every bird in the forest had lost its voice. That was when the scholars began to examine the damage wrought by the quake. Most of their number were unscathed, but two men had been tossed from the cliffs. The sea had not returned their bodies—but another body had washed up a day later.

The body of a dragon.

Tané had gone with Elder Vara at sunset to look upon the lifeless god. The steps were hard on his iron leg, and it had taken them a long time to reach the beach, but he had been resolved to go, and Tané had not left his side.

They had found a young Seiikinese dragon twisted across the sand, her jaw slack in death. Birds had already pecked the gleam from her scales, and mist clung to her bones. Tané had shuddered at the sight, and eventually, when she could bear it no more, she had turned away in grief.

She had never seen the carcass of a dragon. It was the most terrible thing she had ever beheld. They had thought at first that the little female had been butchered in Kawontay, and the remains abandoned to the sea—Tané had thought of Nayimathun and sickened—but the body had been whole, with all its scales and teeth and claws.

Gods could not drown. They were one with water. Finally, the elders had concluded that this dragon had been boiled.

Boiled alive by the sea itself.

Nothing was more unnatural. No omen could be more sinister.

Even if all the scholars had combined their strength, they would not have been able to move the dragon. She would be left to thaw out of existence. Eventually, all that remained would be iridescent bone.

The surgeon arrived while Tané was sweeping leaves with three other scholars, who worked in silence. Some shook with tears. The dead dragon had left everyone in a state of shock.

“Scholar Tané,” Elder Vara called.

She walked behind him like a shadow, into the corridors.

“The surgeon has come at last. I thought she might examine your side,” he said. “The learnèd Doctor Moyaka is a practitioner of Seiikinese and Mentish medicine.”

Tané stopped dead.

Moyaka. She knew that name.

Elder Vara turned to face her with a cockled brow. “Scholar Tané, you look distressed.”

“I don’t want to see this doctor. Please, learnèd Elder Vara. Doctor Moyaka has—” She felt sick. “He knows someone who threatened me. Who threatened my dragon.”

She could see Roos again, on the beach. His callous smile as he told her she must mutilate her dragon or lose everything. Moyaka had let that monster stay in his house.

“I know your last days in Seiiki were unhappy, Tané.” Elder Vara spoke gently. “I also know how hard it is to let go of the past. But on Feather Island, youmustlet go.”

Tané stared at his lined face. “What do you know?” she whispered.

“Everything.”

“Who else knows?”

“Only myself and the honored High Elder.”

His words made her feel as if she had been stripped naked. Deep down, she had hoped the Governor of Ginura would tell no one why she had been sent away from Seiiki.

“If you are certain you do not want to see learnèd Doctor Moyaka,” Elder Vara said, “say it once more, and I will take you to your room.”

She had no desire whatsoever to see Doctor Moyaka, but she also had no wish to embarrass Elder Vara by acting like a child.

“I will see him,” she said.

“Her,” Elder Vara corrected.

A stout Seiikinese woman awaited them in the healing room, where a water fountain burbled. Tané had never seen her before, but she was plainly a relative of the Doctor Moyaka she had met in Ginura.

“Good day, honorable scholar.” The woman bowed. “I understand you have an injury to your side.”

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