Page 14 of Of Blood and Banes
“He’s got three seconds until I break this window…”Daeja warns.
Sethan still won’t pay any mind to her, his grip firm on me. “We don’tgeta choice of if we lead through fear or respect. We don’t have time. You do whatever is necessary to get them to listen to you. You do what needs to be done for the good of the people. You have two days to decide, and if you don’t, we’ll kill all of you Arterians.”
My mouth drops open as I flinch. “You…will not. You wouldn’t kill your own daughter?”
Intended as a statement, it comes out more as a question. The truth is, I don’t know him. And based on the fact he deceived his own daughter about his death, maybe none of us do.
He pushes past me without a response. I turn to face him, my mouth still open as he slips out of the door, leaving me with the two guards.
“Do you think he’s bluffing?”
“If he isn’t…I need to somehow convince the entire squad to stay here. Permanently. And without their weapons.”
“It’s a good thing you’re lousy with a sword. Missing it won’t hurt as much.”
I slide my attention to the window where she’s watching me.“Very funny.”
Her shoulder shifts like she’s shrugging.“Count on me to keep you optimistic. Or realistic…one of the two.”
The thought of so many people relying on me is terrifying. Clenching my hands tighter around the brown book Sethan gave me to still the shakes, I ignore the stares of the two guards at my back. I failed to save my mother, my brother, and the little girl in Hornwood. How can I scale that responsibility up to an entire squad or more? An entirerealm?
Sethan’s voice echoes in my head, sending a chill down my spine. “And all of their blood will be on your hands.”
This isn’t something I wanted. Gods, I long for the easy days I spent by the river, where I was only responsible for one other person. My mother.
I leave Sethan’s office, Daeja still following along the town’s outskirts until I arrive back at the healer’s quadrant. When I slip inside, the room is empty and quiet. Everyone must still be in the community hall. Sitting on my bed, I take out the weathered book Sethan gave me. I flip open the cover and past the first stained and tattered page.
A curving, floral script fills the pages. My interest wanes as I read—I’ve seen it all before. The same information was written into my father’s journal: fire, earth, water, and air dragons. Hatchlings. The history of dragon riders and bonding. Everything is the same except the handwriting. I became so accustomed to my father’s handwriting that I can’t help but mentally note the differences.
As I flip to the back of the book, my heart stops. Loose pages are tucked between the last page and the back cover. The inner edges of the paper are ragged, as if they were torn from a different book. My eyes widen as I realizethishandwriting is familiar.
I scramble for my satchel tucked underneath the bed and retrieve my father’s journal. I compare my father’s entries with the loose pages from the book. Side by side. Letter by letter. I flip to the back of my father’s journal, where miniscule scraps of parchment had still been attached to the spine. As if…
As if pages were ripped out.
My hands shake as I take one of the loose pages from the book Sethan gave me and line it up with the ragged edges of my father’s journal.
It’s a perfect match.
I stare in shock. I never gave much thought as to what pages might have been pulled from my father’s journal. I just assumedhe made a mistake on previous entries and scrapped it. Or perhaps, deep down, I accepted I’d never find out why, anyway.
I begin to read the missing pages.
Before any creatures and elements sprawled the realm, there was the sun, and there was the moon.
The sun had come first, but it was lonely and desperate for companionship. The sun searched all the worlds, far and wide, and found the moon in a separate realm. Rather than compete for the power of the sun—the moon reflected it. The moon couldn’t shine without the sun. And yet, without the moon, the tides were unmanageable—destroying the lands. At once, the two became the very first dyad. Bonded and inseparable. Endless as a ring, with no beginning and no end.
The ancient carvings in the hatching grounds of Vitalis depict two dragons: one of the sun and one of the moon. The last documentation of a sun dragon in the era of dragon riders was Queen Elara’s. Her sun dragon, Vue, was said to be of otherworldly beauty. His scales gleamed like porcelain and reflected the sunlight into dazzling shimmers when he stepped outside. The only thing dark about him were his black eyes, deeper than any shadow. He could control the position of the sun, channel solar power into beams of blinding light, and manipulate dragonfire. It was even rumored by some that he could resurrect the dead.
Unfortunately, Queen Elara and her dragon died before a moon dragon hatched. Many theorized it was the sign of the Gods cursing mankind, and this is the last cycle of life in this realm. As far as what has been documented, the sun and moon dragons are reborn every one hundred and fifty yearsin honor of the Gods’ battle for blood. It’s said that the Gods bring dragons as gifts to this realm, in memory of their war for the heavens. The sun and moon dragon eggs appear in the deepest part of the hatching grounds, coinciding with that sesquicentennial’s celestial event.
Though, now that the sun dragon of this cycle has died, it’s a question of whether the moon dragon is still out there. And if it is, how its hatching may alter the balance of magic and life.
I remove the loose entries from the book Sethan gave me and tuck them into my father’s journal. Where they belong. After I’ve put the journal in my satchel and slid it back under the bed, I exit the healer’s quadrant.Daeja is a reincarnation, reborn every one hundred and fifty years?
“Daeja, does the name Vue sound familiar?”
“No. Why? Should it?”
