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He felt almost smug, certain that he had undermined the old man’s logic.
“Of course not. I would have loved her while I could.”
Sevrrn gave a reluctant nod and leaned back in his chair. “I suppose it is easy for you to say that. Your days are numbered. You are old and feeble and soon you will die.”
Sevrrn felt himself tense slightly, bracing for Madja’s smack. She would often smack his forearm when he made such blunt remarks, chastising him as one might an animal. He had always found it to be her most a
Perhaps he would go visit her. He would tell her all of the ‘tactless’ things he pla
For leaving me.
Sevrrn’s attention was drawn back to the old man. Using his cane for leverage, he pushed himself up into a hunched, but standing, position. Sevrrn could hear the man’s weathered bones protesting as he hobbled across the room to stop at a wooden cupboard. He opened the drawer and moved a few objects aside before extracting a bulky object wrapped in burlap.
Even obscured as it was, the object seemed to hum with the barest trace of power, one that seemed to call to Sevrrn. How had he not noticed it before?
He watched, eyes narrowed in scrutiny as the man made his way back to the table. He set the object down and then managed to lower himself back into his chair.
“Ordinarily, I would not show this to a stranger,” the old man said, his reluctance evident in his voice. “However, you don’t strike me as the type of man who would have much need for money.”
His age-spotted hand unwrapped the twine bindings and then carefully pulled back the burlap folds, revealing a red scale. On its own, it appeared as nothing more than a flat, red rock. Perhaps a piece of jasper with a unique, golden iridescence. But Sevrrn could see it for what it was, could easily picture it notched alongside thousands like it, all coming together to form the magnificent red coat of his sister Valdyra. If he concentrated, he could even glean the last remnants of her scent.
“Traders aren’t touching our ports right now, but once they return, I’m selling it,” the old man said. “It’s worth two thousand silvers, enough to get my daughter a good husband once I’m gone.”
Sevrrn reached across the table and picked the scale up. He turned it over in his hands, frowning as he felt a twinge of nostalgia.
“So it is true,” he mused. “They harvested her body.”
Nearly a decade ago, his sister had been killed. Unlike the rest of them, she had not been bound by aether. She had somehow found a way to fly freely among the human realms, doing as she pleased and wreaking havoc where she went. But she was as careless as she was powerful, and that carelessness had led her to her demise.
The old man nodded his head. “I’ve heard that the queen of Allona has a gown made of shaved scales. There, they wear earrings and bracelets made from Valdyra’s bones. Merchants peddle all sorts of potions at exorbitant prices, using her blood as an adulterant. Because of her death, they’re now one of the richest and most powerful nations in the world. I suppose it pays to invest all of your money into ca
Sevrrn placed the scale down onto the table, sliding back to the old man. “Why are you telling me all of this?”
“Valdyra was fabled to be the most powerful dragon, rivaling even the Kaletani gods in power. She was an immortal, born at the dawn of time. And now, she is nothing but jewelry and a novelty ingredient in love potions. Be it in twenty years, or in twenty thousand, we are all immortal, until the day we die.”
Madja woke with the worst sore throat of her life. Letting out a scratchy groan, she turned to bury her head into the pillow. The fabric was unusually rough and free of any embellishments. She took a deep breath, recognizing the scents of cotton and ocean air.
She knew she wasn’t in her pallet of silks, but was unable to recall where she was or how she got there. Her head, she realized, was throbbing with a massive headache and even remembering her own name seemed like too much of a chore.
She tried going back to sleep, but after a few minutes her curiosity got the best of her and she lifted her head from the pillow. She blinked several times, and then rubbed the crust from her eyes. Slowly, the room around her went from a senseless blur to a very familiar environment. The bedcovers were made of stitched paisley squares. A blue vase sat on a table made of driftwood, which rested by an open window. A cool breeze wafted in, and Madja could smell the sea, tinged with the vague odor of fish.
She was at the i
Sevrrn.
Where was he and how had she ended up here of all places?
The optimist inside of her perked up. Had she dreamed the past couple weeks? Was this the night after the festival? Were they going to head back to the lair now? If so, she hadn’t yet asked Sevrrn that ridiculous question.
But her hope was swiftly dampened as the memories of the past two weeks came back to her. They were too real, to visceral to have been imagined. Not to mention, they all led up to her being sick. Very, very sick.
Madja massaged her temple as she remembered vomiting on Sevrrn, remembered him washing her in the lake, and remembered him trying to feed her. The rest was too disjointed for her to make sense of, but somehow, she had ended up here.
A terrible thought occurred to her then. Had Sevrrn left her?
She sat up with a start, her head and stomach protesting violently. She clutched one hand to her abdomen, the other flying up to her mouth as bile rose up in her throat. When she looked around and realized that there was nowhere to vomit, Madja reluctantly choked it down.
There were footsteps outside the door. A moment later, a familiar woman walked in. Madja recognized her as the i
“You’re awake! I’m so glad!” There was a roll of clean towels tucked under her arm, a tray of food in one hand, and a cup and saucer in the other. “How are you feeling?”
Warily, Madja removed her hand from her mouth. “A little queasy.”
Irina sat the tray down on the table, her face brightening. “That’s wonderful! A friend of my cousin, she had the same sickness earlier this month. She lost her child before the sickness had run its course.”
Throat tightening, Madja averted her gaze. A few seconds later, the side of the bed dipped as Irina sat down beside her. Glancing back at her, Madja could see worry in Irina’s blue gaze.
“You did know…didn’t you?”
Madja tried to wet her lips, but her tongue was too dry to do much more than scratch at them. Slowly, she nodded her head.
“I suspected as much.”
Suspected. It was such a flimsy word, a word that had been swimming in her mind for over a month, loitering with its equally noncommittal friends: perhaps, maybe, and possibly. They were the words she used to shelter herself from facing the hard truth.
From the begi