Seraphina(113)

Except maybe I had, from a dragon’s viewpoint. I clamped my mouth shut to prevent giggling. Eskar did not look like she would forgive giggling.

I said, “I wish to speak to my uncle before you take him away. Thank you for helping him.”

She stood aside but showed no inclination to leave until Orma said: “Eskar, go. Come back later.” She nodded curtly, drawing her cloak around her, and left.

I looked askance at him. “What were you two—”

“Stimulating cortical nerve responses,” said my uncle, smiling eerily. The monks evidently had him on something for the pain. He seemed loose in the middle and soft around the edges. His right arm was wrapped and splinted; his jawline was mottled with white, what passes for bruising when you’ve got silver blood. I could not see where he’d been burned. His head lolled against the pillows. “She is rather majestic in her rightful shape. I’d forgotten. It’s been years. She was Linn’s agemate, you know. Used to come over to my mother’s nest to gut aurochs.”


“Do we trust her?” I said, hating to bring it up when he seemed so unconcerned. “She was responsible for Zeyd and Basind. Are you sure—”

“Not for Basind.”

I frowned but did not pursue it. I tried to lighten my own mood by teasing him: “So you’re off the hook, you devious old deviant.”

His brows drew together, and I wondered whether I’d joked a bit too far. It turned out something else bothered him: “I don’t know when I’ll see you again.”

I patted his arm, trying to smile. “At least you’ll know me when you do see me.”

“It could be a very long time, Seraphina. You could be middle-aged and married and have six children by then.”

He was really out of it if he was talking this kind of nonsense. “I may be middle-aged, but no one would marry me, and surely I can’t have children. A mule can’t. Half-breeds are the end of the line.”

He gazed beatifically into space. “I wonder if that’s really true.”

“I’m not wondering. I’ve come to say goodbye and wish you good journey, not speculate about my reproductive capabilities.”

“You talk like a dragon,” he said dreamily. He was getting drowsier.

I wiped my eyes. “I’m going to miss you so much!”

He rolled his head toward me. “I saved the little boy. He leaped from Imlann’s neck to mine, and then I fell into the river, and he danced. He danced right on my belly, and I could feel it.”

“He was dancing on you. Of course you could feel it.”

“No, not that way. The other way. I wasn’t in my saarantras, but I was … happy, for all that my legs were broken and the river icy. I was happy. And then Eskar landed, and I was grateful. And the sun shone, and I felt sad for my father. And for you.”

“Why for me?”

“Because the Censors had finally fooled me, and I was going to be excised, and you would weep.”

I was weeping now. “You’ll be safe with Eskar.”

“I know.” He took my hand, squeezed it. “I can’t bear that you’ll be alone.”

“Not alone. There are others of my kind. I’m going to find them.”

“Who will kiss you? Who will rock you to sleep?” His voice was slow, drowsy.

“You never did,” I said, trying to tease him. “You were more father to me than my father, but you never did that.”

“Someone should. Someone should love you. I will bite him if he will not.”

“Hush. You’re talking nonsense now.”

“Not nonsense. This is important!” He struggled to sit up straighter and failed. “Your mother once told me something, and I need to tell you … because you need … to understand it …”

His eyes fluttered shut, and he was quiet so long I thought he had fallen asleep, but then he said, in a voice so soft I could barely hear: “Love is not a disease.”

I leaned my forehead on his shoulder, all the words I’d never spoken to him rushing my throat at once, forming a terrible lump there. Hesitantly he stroked my hair.

“I’m not completely certain she was right,” he murmured. “But I cannot let them cut you out of me, nor her either. I will cling to my sickness … if it is a sickness … I will hold it close to me like the … the sun, and the …”

He faded away again, this time for good. I sat with my arms around him until Eskar returned. I smoothed his hair off his forehead and kissed him lightly. Eskar stared. “Take good care of him, or I’ll … I’ll bite you!” I told her. She looked unconcerned.

The sky outside was blue, cold, and very far away; the sun was too bright to look at, let alone hold close to me. “But I will try, uncle,” I murmured, “though it burns me. I will keep it close.”

I hurried homeward through the slushy streets. I had a prince to find.





When I reached the palace, there was a great crush of carriages at the gates. The city magistrates, the bishop, the Chapter, the guild leaders, the Queen’s Guard—every important person in the city had arrived at once. Indoors, I was carried toward the great hall by a crowd of people, more than would comfortably fit inside, it turned out. Half of us were diverted back out to Stone Court.