Page 117 of Upon Buried Embers
Yes, they’re mine, my Little Whisperer gave them to me. There are two now, and if he touches them…
“Morana would be turning in her grave at this,” Kaldar says, and all nod in agreement.
“I’ll take Elf to The Glade with me.”
“Are you sure?” Asseya looks skeptical, but no one really saw what she did with that dragon.
She calmed it, soothed it somehow. Not just anyone can do that, even Dragonbonds can only go so far.
No. She managed to do something, and she will use that in The Glade while no one else is around.
“Yes, I’m sure,” I answer Asseya. “She can try and speak with the dragons there, somehow. Especially after what has just happened.”
“And you trust her?” Dorkin asks.
“No,” I say, but it isn’t in the way he thinks. “You know she wants her friend from the city, from her old… Master. So she will do her task for that reason alone.”
“We should get her friend anyway,” Adora chimes in. “We should get all of them.”
“Right now, protecting our people and dragons is what is important. That comes after.”
Asseya runs a hand over her braids. “She is gentle, Rohan.” I know. “She’s not made of the Dragorie. She has been hurt for a long, long time. She won’t survive this if you don’t succeed.”
She has to.
“And if she is a spy and lying to us all this time?” Rhett comments.
Is his pinky touching one of my roses?
“This could be all a ruse. The slave story, the collar on her throat. She needs to go.”
Adora frowns at Rhett. “She’s weak, skin and bones. She couldn’t hurt anyone if she tried.”
“But she needs to,” Kaldar says. “The Games will be here soon enough.”
And so will my bargain.
Rhett moves his hand over the roses and hisses when a thorn scratches him. He goes to grab them and I reach across the table, snagging his wrist, far too tightly with the wince on his face.
“Do not touch them.”
“The roses?”
“Yes, they’re mine. Leave them.”
He frowns, looking down at them. “They’re just flowers, they will die anyway.”
“And it will be on my terms.”
He holds his hands up. “Okay.”
I stare at him for a moment before looking at Dorkin. “Anything else?”
“Other than that,” he points down at the letter. “Nothing. We just need to focus on our objective.”
I nod. It’s all I’ve been focusing on since the last Games.
“We leave a few days into spring. I’ll go on ahead with Elf, see if I can find anything and then I will meet you all upon Crest Hill from there.”
