Before She Ignites (Fallen Isles Trilogy #1)(27)

“When you are ready,” he said, as though nothing embarrassing had just happened. As though he hadn’t just witnessed a minor meltdown because of a secret code.

His kindness made me want to try harder—to get this right—so I cleared my thoughts as best I could and began.

The letters came slowly. Haltingly. I counted out each letter as I tapped the floor.

::Anahera asks answers.

Bopha bleeds blackness.

Darina and Damyan dance duo.

Harta hates harm.

Idris is isolated.

Khulan can kill.::

My heart thundered as I finished the final letter. I didn’t really want to know, but still I asked, “How did I do?” He’d watched my face the whole time. I’d watched my hand.

His voice came warm. Kind. “Good, Mira.”

That was hard to believe, but I caught a sliver of his expression as he pulled away from the hole. He was smiling. At me. “Really?”

“Very good,” he whispered.

Just as I was registering those words—very good—again, and how strange they sounded when directed at me, the noorestones went dark.

Complete blackness flooded the cellblock, as ink-thick as the first night and the night before. I closed my eyes against it, my whole body tensing in anticipation.

Down the hall, the screaming man whimpered.

In the cell next to me, Aaru scrambled. For his blanket, maybe. Some way to cover his ears. That was a good idea. I wrapped my threadbare blanket around my head once more, over the thin layer of silk covering my hair.

Just as I tied the first knot in the blanket, the man began to scream into the darkness.





BEFORE





Sarai 15, 2204 FG


IT WAS TIME TO GET TO WORK.

Ilina already had horses waiting for us—stubborn mares who’d grown up around dragons and wouldn’t shy at the sight of a Drakontos maximus on the horizon. Some people thought it was cruel to keep horses here, but the sanctuary was huge and we needed faster modes of transportation than our feet for even simple excursions. There were plenty of times Ilina and her family had camped overnight on their way to dragons’ territories. (Mother had never allowed me to join them, of course.)

Crystal and LaLa took to the sky as we rode past the enormous collection of spindly, first-century ruins. The pair of dragons wove between the spires of pale stone, all broken arches and crumbling towers. Embedded noorestones glowed a faint blue, even after thousands of years. They should have darkened long ago, and while no one really knew why they still shone, the popular theory was that the ruins themselves formed some kind of conduit to the gods, which kept the crystals charged.

Quite unbecomingly, dragons liked to lick these noorestones.

The eight of us—three humans, three horses, and two dragons—moved west, uphill and toward the Skyfell Mountains. “We’re checking on Lex today,” Ilina said. “And we’ll come back the long way to check on Tower, too.”

Hristo was staring at the back of Ilina’s head as she led the way. “You sound worried.”

She glanced over her shoulder, and though she forced calm into her tone, I could hear the concern now, too. “It’s nothing really. Probably just the earthquake.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Astrid.” Ilina directed her mount around a creeping passionflower vine, heavy with pink and purple blooms. Butterflies danced through the sweet scent. “She wasn’t home last night when I made my rounds near Red Cliff.”

“You think she left her cave because of the quake?” I asked. “She knew it was coming?”

Ilina nodded. “Probably. As sensitive as the little dragons are to movement in the ground, the big dragons are even more. Astrid probably went somewhere more stable to wait it out. I’m sure she’s back now.”

“Maybe we should check,” Hristo said. “Once we’re finished visiting Lex and Tower.”

I nodded, wishing I’d thought of it first. Hristo always knew the right thing to say. It was an annoying habit that had earned him a string of several short-term romances, which often ended because of his obligation as my bodyguard. That, and the girls assumed that he and I were romantically involved.

We most certainly were not.

Ilina flashed a smile over her shoulder, and Crystal gave a throaty chirrup. “That’s a good idea, if we have time.”

We made the rest of the trek up to the territory of a Drakontos rex named Lex. When Ilina and I were younger, we’d composed a song about her, which heavily relied on the rhyme of rex and Lex. Though we’d tried to persuade Hristo to sing it with us, he insisted professional guards didn’t sing. We found out later that he was just self-conscious about his voice—not that we ever confronted him about it.

“There is a big dragon whose name is Lex,” I whisper-sang.

Ilina snorted a laugh. “Surprise, surprise, she’s a Drakontos rex.”

“Her hot breath of fire’s up with the best.”

“Surprise, surprise, she’s a Drakontos rex!”

Hristo groaned. “Not that again.”

Ilina and I grinned at each other, the unease of earlier momentarily forgotten. But then we reached a post with a horse carved into the wood. We dismounted, tethered the horses, and walked the rest of the way.