Page 78 of Of Blood and Banes
I smile at him, sickly sweet. “Oh, don’t get confused. I’m not.”
I rip the chain from his shackles up, forcing him off the ground. Unlatching his chain connecting him to the wall, I grab my belongings and put them in my satchel. Leading him out of the room, we head toward the western part of Driftmond, back to the grassy clearing where the dragons lie in wait for us.
Out of extra precaution, Sethan instructs that the Driftmond guards will be delivering us breakfast out here in the open, rather than having us gather in the community hall. Once we’ve eaten our fill, we’ll move on from Driftmond to the next city of Kilamber. Archie exchanges freshly cooked chicken for Darian’s chains and leads him off to get food. Marge checks in on me, and based on Cole’s gaze across the crowds, my presence is enough to convince him I’m alright after last night’s events.
Daeja’s still lying on the frost-tipped grass, and I take a seat right on her massive wheelbarrow-sized paw after I’ve secured my satchel to the back of the saddle. She stretches her neck forward and sniffs the back of my head, stirring my hair into a gust of wind. Leaning back onto her foreleg, I look up at her and offer her a piece.“It’s your favorite.”
Her pupils flicker back and forth between rounds and slits, her nostrils flaring as she inhales deeply before shaking her head and wrinkling her nose.“I’m not hungry.”
“But…”I don’t finish my thought…you’re usually a bottomless pit?
“I don’t like it anymore.”
I lean up off her foreleg.“What? Since when?”
“Since A’nala got mad at me for raiding a chicken farm…”
“Daeja!”
“...and when I told her it wasn’t me, she saw a feather I missed stuck in the scales beneath my chin.”
I can’t help but laugh as I glance over at the red she-dragon. She’s lying in the grass with an assertive posture most military soldiers wouldn’t be able to emulate. A mirror image of her rider just twenty feet off speaking with some of his men. Those yellow eyes narrow. Her lips lift into a growl as Archie approaches her, with Darian towed behind him, and tosses her a casual wave. She snaps at the air as Archie passes her, and he stumbles a step before continuing on his path. Darian doesn’t miss a single step.
“I would have brought you food if I knew you were hungry then?—”
“It wasn’t so much that I was hungry. Just that it was fun. Besides…A’nala said dragons of my size should be eating something with more sustenance, so we can go longer without food. As we get older, our metabolism slows down. And being a dragon with a rider means we need to be able to go months without food if we’re in the skies traveling. We can request deer or elk from Sethan whenever we please, though.”
“Well…while I agree raiding a farm isn’t the best practice, I’ll always find a way to get you chicken if it’s your favorite. And if I need to speak to Sethan about it?—”
“No, no. Don’t. I don’t need you to step in on my behalf.”
“Then don’t let them dictate what you like and want.”
“After she let me try elk, there wasn’t much room left to dictate anything.”Her tongue flicks out across her lips like she’s still savoring it.
“I’m sorry I was never able to provide something like that for you.”I stare up at her massive head as she tilts her face down to look at me eye-to-eye.
“You gave me everything I needed. Don’t even try to feel guilty.”
Smiling, I reach up and brush my hand across the side of her jaw. Curious, I tap two fingers against the side of her muzzle.
She blinks out of view for a few seconds before flickering back into existence.We need to keep working on that. And we need to test what other abilities she might have.
I glance over to the saddle and the bags sewn into the back half of it to carry extra cargo. It’s freeing now that I can wander these lands without having to worry about hiding Daeja or my father’s journal. Taking a bite of chicken, I fixate on the spot where I know his journal is, trying to recall his notes on the sun dragons. If a sun dragon could control the position of the sun and channel solar power, what can Daeja do? As far as we know, she can turn invisible. At least, for a second or two.
Daeja shifts her folded wings, aware of me zoning out on the saddle.
“Is it uncomfortable? We haven’t removed it since we put it on.”
“The saddle?”She rests her head on the ground between her forelegs beside me.“I imagine it’s something like wearing boots on your feet. It takes some getting used to, but I don’t really notice it much now.”
Minutes later, Sethan rounds us up with the dragon riders.
When I sling myself up into the saddle, Cole appears and double-checks all my buckles. “I trust you’re feeling well enough to ride?”
“As well as I’ll ever be.”
As soon as he tightens a strap, he dips his head and pats Daeja. “Be safe.”
