Page 134 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
Far away, the tolling bell falls still.
Together, we emerge from the ground just as the last of the chasm snaps shut.
Relieved sobs greet me. My aunties. They lie in the grass, panting for breath, the last of their strength completely gone for now.
I have the vague sense they are the ones responsible for the ballista bolt. A stroke of poetic justice.
I try to thank them for their aid, but only a broken gasp shudders from my chest when Aurelia tenderly settles me next to them.
“Father! Velda!” she calls from where she now kneels over me, tears shimmering on her cheeks. She looks so lovely, even when she cries. I wish to tell her that, but I can no longer find the words.
A sudden pain pierces my heart—a pain beyond any I’ve ever known. It seeps through me like fanged barbs, burrowing deep, bringing with it a dark oiliness that feels so much likehim.
Malice.
“I think you’re right,” Velda whispers from far away. “I think pieces of Malice remain inside his heart. That must be why…”
I flicker out of consciousness for a moment.
“… beyond my ability…” Rowan murmurs next. “He needs the Waters…”
Aurelia’s face swims back into my fading vision. Warmth glides against my cheek.
Her touch. Her kiss.
“Hold on,Na’theryn,” she pleads. “Stay with me.”
Tir’anor, I try to remind her. I have made a vow ofAlwaysto my future wife.
I do not intend to break it now.
“Please,” she prays aloud, “please give me the strength to go a little further.”
And suddenly, I am airborne again. The night blurs past. The ground falls away.
Again, I am wrapped in my queen’s embrace.
Naei, I protest. She has already endured so much in my name. It is now my turn to carry her. She needs to rest. I should be spiriting her away to safety.
“I am yourTherya’kai,”she reminds me as we fly across Drakara as fast as the wind can carry us.“And I finally realize what that means.”
I struggle to cling to consciousness, to hang on her every word as she whispers to me,“My burdens are your burdens. Your pain is my pain. When I can go no further, I know you will carry me. And when you can go no further, know this: I will carry you. To the ends of the earth if I must. Never again do you need to suffer alone.”
Another ragged breath rattles from my lungs. I cough, choking on blood.
Aurelia’s grip on me tightens. I feel the swirl of her pain and fear though she tries to hide them from me.
“Stay with me, Bene. I only just got you back.Please,”she begs again.“I do not want to do this without you.”
You never will, is all I have time to promise before unconsciousness finally claims me.
Before I sink down into a darkness from which I fear I might never wake.
Chapter 44
Benevolence
Icontinue to fall through the earth, deep into the darkest of places. Far beyond where any light can touch. Far beyond the reach of my fairy godmothers. Far beyond even my queen.
