Page 450 of Kingdoms of Night

They traveled for what felt like weeks, though Tanis lost track of how many times the sun rose and set. How many times her elven companions had set up camp and eased her down onto a small bed they’d made leaves for her.

She was impressed by how easy they were to travel with, and yet she ached every night as new muscles in her body protested. Tanis had offered to turn back into a dragon and fly ahead of them, but they all agreed on one thing and one thing alone.

They were still being followed.

The people who had attacked her home hadn’t wanted anyone to live. Their intent was painted with streaks of blood. The isle of Dracomaquia was to be wiped clean of dragons and all their ilk. If that meant they had to decimate this place, then they would.

She still cried every night for her fallen friends and family. Sometimes, she swore she could feel them passing. Still. And that made her fear that perhaps those mortal men had captured a few of her people. Maybe returning with those dragons strapped to their ships like some kind of trophy.

Rowan had taken to sleeping next to her, although she wasn’t so certain that he slept much. Every time she woke in the middle of the night, she would find him sitting up and staring into the flames. Sometimes he would move as though he didn’t notice his own body and stroke her back until she fell asleep again.

It was... nice.

Tanis had spent her entire life in caves with the memory crystals. Amethyst dragons rarely found mates for themselves because they were so busy, and so her people had always done their duty by producing eggs of the same color and then returning to their work. Her own mother hadn’t even raised her. Tanis had stayed with a sapphire dragon until she was old enough to be trained with the crystals.

Thoughts like these had never crossed her mind before. But, as the days shortened on their journey, she realized it was rather nice to be taken care of. And though she didn’t enjoy that he was worried about her, it was nice to have someone who thought of her at all.

She was unused to this kind of treatment.

Tanis was ashamed to admit that she soaked it up. Her heart had shattered into a tiny million pieces every time she felt another dragon die, and these two elves were so soft with her. They eased her from place to place. Whispered how they were worried about her and had she eaten yet today? Maybe they should get her to the camp and not travel today.

All of these things helped, surprisingly. She had thought they would need to heal her the dragon way. Which was to shove her back into work until she was so tired that she couldn’t remember the hurt and the heart break.

But there was no work now. There was nothing for her to do other than bring them toward the one place where there still might be some safety.

The Castle of Hope. Which, now, she supposed the name should be the Castle of the Lost.

There were no more dragons to grace the castle walls when people came to their isle to meet. No more kingdoms would reach out to them and ask for safety in wars on the other side of the world. This castle would fall into ruin like the rest of Dracomaquia.

She crested the hill near the castle and paused with her hands on her hips. It still looked like it used to. The spires grew out of the ground like the earth had spat out a building. All rough-hewn stone and jagged edges with windows in a haphazard pattern all around it. She thought the building was rather beautiful, but many would likely only see the ugliness of something that looked like the earth had cracked open to reveal some horrendous monolith.

“What’s this, then?” Rowan asked, breathing hard and pausing beside her. He looked it over before bending down to brace himself on his legs. “That was a long haul. You really had a fire in you today.”

“I knew we might make it to the castle.” But it wasn’t a safe place to stay, she knew that. The castle was too easy to spot for anyone that might follow them or visit the isle later on. If they were attacked a second time, this was the first place people would look. “It’s not where we’re staying forever, I suppose. But it will do for the night.”

“Where is this place, though? Or what is it?”

She didn’t have to answer him.

Aster strode up next to them, fixing the straps on her pack. “That is the first castle the dragons built centuries ago. This used to be the home for all dragons until they realized that they didn’t want to stay in their mortal forms any longer. Some of them stayed here, but eventually, they all moved to the part of Dracomaquia where we lived. This castle was left as a reminder of a more... civilized time.”

“Not civilized,” Tanis scolded. “Just a different time when there were more people and fewer dragons. We didn’t want to forget our past.”

They all wandered down the fields and through the front door of the castle. She wondered how stable the castle was after hearing the noises at their entrance. The middle was sturdy enough, though. The Great Hall still had its massive fireplace that she remembered playing near as a child. Though the tables had been removed a long time ago, she could almost see them as they were.

Ten long tables had once been piled high with food. Dragons and their keepers all lined the edges of the room, laughing in the warm torchlight after a hard day’s work. Wolfhounds had trailed around them, waiting for someone to drop a scrap of food. The faint sound of music danced in the air because someone always picked up an instrument. And of course, the Dragon Queen in all her draconic glory at the head of the Great Hall, watching them all with a fondness in her eyes.

Now, the room was gray and cold. It was filled with a still silence that only broke when the wind whistled through the broken windows. Cobwebs covered the walls and doorways. Leaves blew across the floor as no one had entered this place for many years.

Yet another thing to shatter her heart, she supposed. This place looked like how her home would appear in a very short amount of time. Without dragons to take care of their kingdom, the island would take it over.

Sighing, she walked through the silence and ignored the sound of her own footsteps. “We can stay here for the night. I had hoped...”

She’d hoped there would still be someone here. That after all this time, she had prayed there might be a single dragon who had remained to take care of the castle.

Those hopes were unfounded, and now she was reminded that she could very well be the last of her people. The last dragon alive.

Tanis walked up to the giant hearth and wiped her hand across the grimy mantle. There, hidden underneath years of dust and slime, was the motto of the last Dragon Queen.

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