Page 153 of House of Embers
“Just trying to keep you laughing,” he said with a smirk. “Here to boost morale.”
“Do you think this is going to work?” she asked as she stared off at all the riders who were now bonding with their dragons again.
“Yes,” Fordham said with all the confidence of a king and a general.
She nodded. “All right. I have portals to open.”
Just as she turned, Darby rushed up to them.
“I did it!” she cried.
Kerrigan frowned. “Did what?”
“I bonded my dragon.”
“What?” Kerrigan asked as if she didn’t understand the words coming out of her friend’s mouth.
“The crux bond. It worked.”
“I worked that out,” Kerrigan said. “But what dragon?”
“Oh, I meant to tell you,” Darby said sheepishly. “Amita chose me while you were gone. But we hadn’t bonded yet because we weren’t sure how to tell you or how Tieran would take it.”
A second later, Tieran was cutting across the valley for his sister. The small white dragon pulled up her to full height and snarled at him. Whatever was being said between them was not kind.
“Amita is still a hatchling,” Kerrigan said.
“Not anymore. She aged into maturity.” Darby shrugged. “I was waiting up for you all to return from the battlefield on her name day, and she chose me.”
“Wow,” Kerrigan said, glancing from the Tieran and Amita fight to Darby’s excited face. Her fear was that Darby would get hurt in this war, but was it even right to prevent her from going when everyone else was risking themselves? “Congratulations!”
Darby’s face lit up. “You’re okay with it?”
“The dragons choose,” Kerrigan said. “I’m not going to take it up with Amita.”
Darby laughed. “Yeah. Okay, well, I wanted to talk about what’s coming next. I know I’m supposed to be held back for healing, but I was hoping you’d send me through to Hadrian when you open that portal. So that he and I can help the humans and half-Fae.”
“And to see Clover?”
“Well, yeah.”
Obviously, Darby was partly motivated by being close to the people she loved, but she wasn’t wrong either.
“Yes, of course. As long as you trust Amond to handle the healing without you.”
“He’s sober,” Darby said with a grin. “I mean really sober. He’s going to do magnificent things, and he trained me the best he could. I wish Audria had more time with him. She’d be an even better healer too.”
“Audria wants the skies though,” Kerrigan said. “You two are different.”
“True,” Darby agreed. “So when do we leave?”
“Now,” Kerrigan admitted. “Call Amita, and we’ll go.”
“You are not letting her on the battlefield,”Tieran said into Kerrigan’s head.
“I don’t control the dragons, Tieran. She is of age. She can fight just like the rest of us. It’s her choice.”
“I only accepted her because otherwise she would have stayed behind with our mother.”
