Page 43 of Dragon Fight

Did you… foresee everything that happened to us?I asked.

Some,she admitted.And not in the way you think. She cast a wary eye my way, her scales glittering bright gold in the sunlight.I don’t wake up each day and know how all events will unfold. I just get… glimpses.

Glimpses?

I saw you with each one of your men, she said.All five of them.

Five? I have four, which is more than…My voice trailed away as I followed her gaze to where Darkspire and Draven led us forward.

No. No, Glimmer—

Darkspire is mine, just as the rest of the wing belongs to me and the rude one belongs—

No,I said,no, no, no.

He was supposed to kill you, not bring you here, she reminded me.His mother is the queen and she will not tolerate any competitors in her territory. You will have to fight her to prove your dominance like any other queen would, force her to acknowledge that you are a force to be reckoned with.

I am not fighting the damn queen of Nevermere!

They had their chance. She could have accepted me, Zafira’s daughter, as the next queen dragon. She could have accepted you as the prince’s mate, but he was never going to be enough for you on his own. She could’ve stopped what is to come, Glimmer insisted.

And what is to come?I asked her, so incredulous at this point I was feeling slightly hysterical. Near-death experiences and plots to overthrow the existing regime would do that to a girl.

Change, she replied, coming to a stop. When I looked up, I saw we were at a massive basin-like construction, one that was very similar to the one we flew to the night of Zafira’s heat. But this one was completely intact. The area acted like an amphitheatre and dragons flapped down as they landed and took up position around the rounded sides. Above that? A gallery had been built, just as there’d been in the ruin we’d visited. There were painted sculptures set into the walls but I couldn’t see them clearly from where we stood, though I did catch flashes of colour. The view of them was then blocked as several massive dragons filed along the gallery, stopping to look down on the rest of dragonkind.

What kind of change?I hissed as I watched the dragons settle.

Dragonkind and humankind must find a way to live together in harmony, she said, as if we didn’t already.As equal partners in the continued success of Nevermere.

And if we don’t?I asked, not wanting to know the answer.

Then only one will survive going forward. Humans or dragons, not humans and dragons.

She was only months old. She was a tiny little creature amongst all of these massive ones, so it would be easy to brush aside what she was saying, pass it off as the musings of a child, except for one thing. There was a wisdom to her gaze, that had been there since the moment we touched that crystal egg and I realised that I was mourning something I had lost that day.

Because my dragon didn’t look to me as a surrogate mother anymore. She didn’t need my constant care. She was a complex, complete creature, just as she was. She stepped forward then, out into the empty space, so that every eye was upon her. Some of the dragons began to hum as she took position, right in the centre of the amphitheatre.

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Why have you brought strange humans among us, Hadrian?one of the dragons standing in the gallery asked. I could tell he was the one speaking as all the dragons turned to face him as he stepped forward. He was a massive deep blue beast.This one we have seen before, coming begging for his dragon’s egg like a wandering tinker.I snorted when the dragon nodded to Draven.But what of these? And a young queen returned to us? That is something of note. The humans jealously guard their breeding stock.

Breeding stock? Glimmer’s voice was so sharp I winced as the collective gaze of all of these massive, dangerous creatures became focussed on her. As if in acknowledgement of that, my wing’s dragons went to stand by Glimmer, Darkspire included.

One that has already chosen her mates by the looks of it, another voice said. This was a burnt-orange dragon also standing in the gallery.So there is no hope of any of our young males finding a female to bond to.

“But there is a chance of others coming, if she is who I think she is,” Draven said, his voice ringing out through the basin. Dragons stared down at him. He was a far better spokesman than me, and was able to meet their eyes without flinching. “Tanis foretold—”

You do not have the right to speak of Tanis, she who is first among us!

The rebuke was a sharp one, coming from a bright red dragon who shouldered forward on the gallery to stare down at Draven, smoke pouring from his muzzle. And when I looked around? Each dragon in the amphitheatre moved slowly, rising to their feet, wings stretching wide.

“Get back, Pippin,” Ged told me, pulling out his sword, the rest of the wing doing the same. “If anything starts, run, lass. Promise me that.”

I didn’t. I pulled the knives Brom had gifted me from their sheaths, which were worse than nothing in a potential fight like this, something that the red dragon noted.

Look at these pathetic creatures, Hadrian! Pulling out their inadequate little weapons with little provocation,the red dragon spat.Humans are stupid creatures ruled by their warlike impulses.He stared down at Glimmer for just a second.The little queen will have a home here, her mates as well, if they can cast off the shackles their ‘riders’ have bestowed upon them.

At that, all five adult male dragons clustered closer to us, spreading their wings wide, tails lashing, in an attitude of obvious protectiveness.

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