Page 53 of Redeeming the Dragon

I pressed those musings aside, for Braisley had continued speaking while my mind drifted.

“How do you know?” I asked. “How can you tell?”

She gestured towards my hand, which she still held. “Did you not see me test your magic, your blood, just now?”

Her tone implied,Are you blind?

Of course, I was not blind, but I’d not known what she was about.

She went on, “I studied your palm lines, too. Your future is yet wreathed in shadows, which tells me your fate is undetermined. It is up to you to forge your destiny, Lorna. But what your palm lines did reveal is the past. You have, indeed, come up against powerful forces of magic. That would explain the Warkin prince, cursed to shapeshift into his dragon, and the Scraggen’s spell over him. What you face is far more than most will ever face in their lifetime, and yet…”

She stopped. Held my gaze. Said very soberly, “If you are determined to find the Scraggen’s keep, you must truly love this man. Andthere is no force in Aerisia, or any other world, stronger than love. Are you resolved to find your Dragonkind prince, no matter the cost?”

I weighed her words as though they were a test. Indeed, I believed they were. At last, I nodded.

“Aye,” I replied. “I am firm in my resolve to rescue Prince Kidron, his dragon, and myself.”

“Very well. I have armed you with what information I can. What use you make of it, is up to you. From henceforth, I’ll send you to another who may be able to assist you. His travels have taken him to every corner of Aerisia. I doubt not that he has heard tales and seen sights of which even I am ignorant.

“Before you go…”

She waved her hand in an arc. Snowflakes swirled, icicles formed on her fingers and vanished, and then she opened her palm. Inside, lay a beautiful six-sided snowflake of glittering ice, comparable to the snowflake embedded in her brow.

“Take this,” she said, “as a gift. Keep it safe. It may help you.”

How would a snowflake of glittering ice help me? No way to predict, but one did not refuse a gift from a fairy, particularly the queen of the fairies.

I thanked Brailey and accepted the snowflake, which was as hard and smooth as a stone rolled and washed by the sea. After wrapping it in a cloth, I placed it in my pack.

“Are you ready to depart?” Brailey asked.

I assured her I was.

“Very well,” she said. “Sufficient mirror magic remains that I can use it to send you hence. Take care, my child. There are many mysteries in Aerisia, and you are charging straight into their teeth. Cling to your love. That is what will carry you through.”

With nothing more to be said, she raised both hands, moving them about in a sequence I couldn’t follow, but which I assumed evoked her magic. The bubble that had been shielding us from the cold of Cleyton, her mountain home, vanished. The frigid air struck me. I’d scarcely begun to shiver when the world blanked out once more in a dizzying swirl of darkness interspersed with flashes of sparkling light.

Once more, I was cast into the mirror’s magic. Where it would land me this time, I could not predict. I could only grit my teeth as my body hurtled through space and time, praying the fairy queen was correct and this new person could help me find Moonswept before all was lost.

Chapter 31

“You awaken.”

The voice was calm, masculine, and deep. The even tones drew me from slumber, causing me to blink my eyelids open.

“Where am I?” I groaned.

My head swam with dizziness and confusion. Above me, dark green trees swayed. Beneath me was hard earth, softened by a blanket. I found that I ached, as though I’d taken a tumble off a ravine.

“The Wastelands,” the speaker answered, and clarified no further.

The Wastelands was not a place I’d heard of. Why had Braisley sent me here? Memories were returning. Braisley had sent me to someone she claimed might be able to locate Moonswept, the Scraggen’s keep. Why would this person reside in the Wastelands?

I’d yet to see him. His voice had come from my left. I rolled my head in that direction, feeling some sort of pillow beneath my neck, cushioning the stiff vertebrae.

“Who—who are you?” I whispered.

I already knew.

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