Page 108 of Iron Hearts and Dragon Magic

“No!” Naia protested. “They might trap you with that death grass.”

“They didn’t have it everywhere in the castle.” River rolled his eyes.

Leah sighed. “If he’s killed, they might cancel the gathering. I was thinking of going there—through the hollow. Show up, tell the other kingdoms what happened in Frostlake. I know they won’t openly defy Ironhold, but it might open their eyes.”

Fel hated that idea. “Too dangerous, Leah.”

She turned to him. “I need to do something for my kingdom.”

“No doubt.” Of course Fel understood her urgency. “But showing up in Ironhold is reckless. If you want to talk to other kingdoms so badly, try something with communication mirrors, something safer.”

Naia sighed. “We will have to take risks. It’s not like not doing anything will keep us safe.” She looked at River while saying that.

“That’s debatable,” the fae replied. “If you hide well you can be safe.” Naia was glaring at him, and he added, “But I know that you feel responsible for your kingdom, and you’re not going to want to hide like a coward. I understand that.”

“Also,” Leah said. “If this… Cynon wins and comes to this world, will there be any place safe enough to hide?”

* * *

River felta cold prickle down his neck as they kept discussing what to do. One thing was to have an idea of what they were up against. Another thing was knowing what to do, or even knowing exactly what their enemy wanted and what his next steps would be. Good strategists usually observed the enemy, but what was there to observe in a mysterious voice?

Another strange thing was to hear a dragon’s voice inside his head. A real dragon, something he had never imagined possible before, even though he’d been in a dragon’s lair and seen the huge doors. And yet this was Isofel, Naia’s brother. One thing that made River relieved was that Fel hadn’t told anyone in Fernick about Naia, so at least it was one less worry—as if they didn’t have way too many already.

They kept debating ideas, ideas that made him feel all sick inside. Perhaps Cassius had to be killed, and he didn’t want to let Naia do it, and wouldn’t ask a full grown dragon to do it, so he had no option but to volunteer. If they didn’t use the death grass everywhere in the iron citadel, River could do it easily. Almost too easily. His father’s glassy eyes stared back at him in his mind—a strange memory that River didn’t want to revisit. If he could, he wouldn’t return to the Ancient City, and that thought made no sense, since he’d been trying his hardest to save his people. And now they had to find a way to fight a mysterious enemy.

Naia was set on going to the gathering in Ironhold, to the point that he gave up trying to dissuade her. Instead, he had another idea.

“I’ll come with you.”

Her dark eyes were filled with worry. “What if they have—”

“Death grass?” River interrupted her. “They won’t have it all over. I can pretend to be Isofel. I think…” He tried to recall the last time he’d seen Naia’s brother. “We’re about the same height. The glamour shouldn’t be too hard, and it means I’ll be with you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Show me.”

River glamoured his horns, made his eyes bright green, almost yellow, that unnatural, strange color, then made his skin brown, and his hair darker, that beautiful black tone like Naia’s hair, but straight.

“What do you think?” he asked.

Naia frowned, while Leah burst out laughing. “You look nothing like Fel.”

That was unfair. “Bright green eyes, black hair.” He pointed to his head and was going to say no horns, when he realized he still had his dark nails. He was almost glamouring them to look human, when he realized his mistake. “I’ll wear gloves.”

Naia was staring at him. “I never thought I’d say that, but you look too… pretty? And you look like you, like River. They’ll recognize you.”

River glamoured his nose to look bigger. “What about now?”

“My face is longer,” Fel said. “And I don’t have a big nose. At least not in human form.”

River tried to glamour his face to look thinner and longer. “You two know him well,” he told Naia and Leah. “The other kings don’t.”

Naia raised an eyebrow. “The people in Ironhold knowyou, though.”

River undid all his glamour, annoyed that they weren’t awed by his incredible display of magic. “I won’t look like myself, but I’m sure they won’t look too closely at me if my eyes, skin, and hair are the right colors and if I’m pretending to be Prince Isofel.”

“We’ll think about it,” Naia said, sounding unconvinced.

To be fair, he wasn’t certain if going to the Iron Citadel was a good idea, but then, wasnot goinga solution? What was the solution? What were they supposed to do?

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