Page 8 of Stealing the Dragon's Heart (Dragon Lords 3)

Onnika bit into her skewered meat and ripped off a juicy chunk. As she chewed, she pointed the tip of her skewer at Caryn. “Or it was our only chance to escape. It’s not like we had a lot of options. And if we’d been the only two to survive, Iwouldsay it was a miracle. As it is, I’m wondering if the only one to have perished on that planet was Baker the Faker because hedidn’tfollow you.”

Caryn sighed, shaking her head. “It was my fault Tag and his crew learned of my supposed power in the first place. It’s my fault they took us to begin with.”

“And if I hadn’t wanted to purchase that ship,” Onnika countered, “we wouldn’t have been swindled out of all our money and been forced to steal to survive, thus getting us arrested and sentenced to the same prison as them.”

“Don’t you think I should have known stealing would put us on thewrong path, and that befriending Ajay was a terrible idea, let alone confiding in him? Clearly your theory about me is incorrect, yet I keep letting you convince me otherwise.”

“Your direction has saved us countless times. Like on that planet that time with those things that wanted to eat us.”

Caryn shuddered at the memory. Then she shrugged, probably not linking their survival that day with the fact that she’d steered them in the exact direction of a small, nearly concealed cave that had only been wide enough for the two of them to crawl through, narrowly saving them from those very same carnivorous creatures.

Onnika sat back, tired of debating this yet again. “The only thing I know is I have no idea where to go from here. Maybe there isn’t a right path. Maybe there’s just a path that doesn’t get us killed. Maybe that’s all we’ve ever had.”

Running her hand through her wavy russet hair, Caryn gazed down at what was left of her meal. “The only thing I know is that I want to go home.”

Onnika’s spine straightened. “Home? As in Evlon?” They had no other home to which she could be referring, but Caryn had never broached the subject before. They hadn’t been home in what Onnika estimated to be roughly four hundred years, give or take. They’d been very young when they’d been exiled for their own safety. Too young to understand how to possibly return.

And though Onnika had searched for Evlon many times, she’d never been able to find its location. The Faieara had always been reclusive people, isolating themselves from the rest of the universe, keeping not only their location but their magic a secret…even from many of their own allies. It was an undeniable law of the universe: people coveted power; Faieara had power.

With freedom so easily snatched away, survival meant keeping their secrets. Tag and his crew were only the most recent ones to remind them of that.

Caryn nodded. “I miss home. Don’t you?”

“You think it’s time?” Finally?Does this mean there’s a way?She didn’t dare ask.

Lips pursed, Caryn sighed. “Ever since we docked, I just keep picturing it, how beautiful it used to be…” She trailed off, eying Onnika’s slowly widening grin. “You think this is my magic talking, don’t you?”

Planting her forearm on the table, Onnika leaned forward. “Let me put it to you this way: While scouting for a mark, I overheard some fan-boys speculating about the schematics sent exclusively to racers at the starting line. They theorized that these schematics represent the largest collection of maps in the known universe. If we’re going to rediscover the location of Evlon, getting our hands on those maps is likely the best chance we’re ever going to get.”

---