Page 122 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
Emerald light burns beyond my eyelids. Something strong yet pliable wraps around my back, bringing my fall to an abrupt stop. I groan as my head snaps back with such force that my stomach churns.
But I’m all right. I’m safe.
Dazed within my vine hammock, I open my eyes and blink at the gaping hole in Umbra Castle’s wall that I left behind.
My father stares at me through the opening, threads of Earth shimmering in his grasp.
“Therya’fey!”Velda’s voice calls out a mere second before a dragon’s roar splits the night.
My father disappears from view, and the vines beneath me dissolve, gently depositing me on my feet. Screeches pierce the air from the direction of the castle—cries of pain, fear, and goblin rage.
In the next moment, the already damaged wall explodes outward, littering the ground with more crushed stone. Malice emerges into the night in all his draconic glory, black scales glistening. Eyes glowing red.
My chest tightens as I mumble a hasty, “I give my gift to the Flora Vale.”
No ceremony. No pomp.
There is no longer time for such things.
Time seems to slow as my hands pulse with my innate Jewel power, giving life to a golden globe of light like a miniature sun. As Malice screams his dragon fury and flies straight toward me. As he pulls in threads of Fire, collecting them in his maw, his throat.
But it is too late.
It is already done.
The light shoots away from me and crashes into the earth several paces away, sinking in like water into parched soil. For amoment, all goes dark and still. Even Malice draws to a pause. The goblins gather in the dust of the ruined great hall and stare.
In the stillness, Velda flutters close and hovers at my shoulder, watching with me as we witness a miracle—
The Flora Vale being reborn.
Night seems to turn to day as light spills outward from the earth, bringing with it an explosion of color. The grass turns green. Flowers return. Breathless, I stare in wonder as the golden glow of my gift ripples outward, fanning across the grounds. Making straight for the castle.
The goblins still within flinch backward, chattering nervously as Umbra Castle is consumed by my gift’s gleam.
Naei, it is Umbra Castle no longer.
It is once again Castle Illume.
Years of filth fall away in an instant, turning black stone back to alabaster marble. Revealing beautiful floral carvings etched into every surface.
Upward my glow climbs, trailing across every tower, burning away every hint of shadow and darkness. Gnarled, dead vines explode into lush ivy once more—ivy that unfurls like the petals of a flower to reveal a bell tower hiding beneath and a brilliant bell wreathed in more light, shining like a celestial body all its own.
Dong.
The bell tolls bright and sweet, shivering the air with its cry.
Malice flinches away and lets loose with another roar, as if the sound brings him pain.
“You stupid girl!”he shouts into my mind, making me wince and fall back.“You’ve wasted it! You worthless, idiotic—”
“Velda,” I gasp, trying to block him out. But weakness clings to me like a damp cloak. I am not sure how much more I can weave. Perhaps I have given too much of myself to the land.
But I don’t regret a single moment of it.Thisis what I was born to do.
My gift was never meant for Friedemar. Nor Malice. Nor Bene. Nor even me.
It was meant for the Vale. For mypeople.
