Page 9 of The Last Valkyrie

My lips parted, fear running through me. “How am I just learning about this now?”

“It wasn’t pertinent until now. It’s not something anyone was hiding from you, Ravinica. You simply didn’t care enough to look through the pertinent tomes.”

It was true. My studies had been focused on mymother’sside, when it was my absent father’s side that stemmed from Solzena and all those ancient royal names.

Corym put a hand on my knee, trying to soothe me, but utterly failing for once. “The Whisperer isn’t lying in that. Sigmund Calladan and his family are well-known to my people as well. I am sorry for not telling you this earlier. It wasn’t on my mind at the time.”

I gave him a small, sad smile. He didn’t deserve any blame for this. No one did, I supposed. “We’ve all had a lot of other shit on our minds recently, love.” I swallowed hard, a lump in my throat made me wince as I returned my gaze to Kelvar. “So Vamys succeeded, then?”

Kelvar nodded gravely. His gray orbs drilled into me. “Vamys and his ilk managed to slay eleven of Azerot and Syndriel’s bloodlines, through the years.”

Corym chimed. “It’s where Elayina’s moniker for you, ‘the last dragonkin,’ must stem from. The last of Azerot and Syndriel’s lineage, descendant of their only living offspring.”

Kelvar said, “Everyone born from the line of Vamys has vowed to continue his oath of ending Azerot’s bloodline, to avenge King Dannon’s death. Namely, the dragonkin line. It’s why we’re in the predicament we’re in today, because they were so effective at finding and burning anyone with dragonblood in them.”

I clenched my teeth, staring down at the grass between our circle as wind swept over it. My jaw twitched, equal partsanger and sadness and confusion. “. . . Then that means Gothi Sigmund . . . has also made that vow?”

Kelvar nodded deeply. “Which is why Elayina’s idea of you showing your true power to the academy was such a foolish notion. Clearly she wasn’t thinking straight at the time, headed toward her death.”

“Don’t assume to knowAnvari’s mind, Whisperer,” Corym snapped.

For once Kelvar didn’t argue with the elf. Corym was highly defensive about my great-aunt. She was a revered legend in Alfheim.

Things started to make sense at a rapid pace. Horrible, awful sense, spoken to me over tree stumps and a windy sunset in the forest. Told to me as if everyone else had already known this legend and I was the last to figure it out.

It explainedso much.

Gothi Sigmund obviously doesn’t know my true heritage as a dragonkin descendant of Solzena. Kelvar didn’t mention any of that during our debriefing, and now I know why. The Whisperer was protecting me, protecting my secret.

Because if Sigmunddidknow . . .

My head snapped up. I found Kelvar staring at me under the hooded shadow of his brow. The ghastly expression on my face must have told him the pieces of the puzzle were falling together in my mind.

He said, “If you are the last dragonkin, Ravinica, then Sigmund Calladan is the last dragonslayer.”

Chapter 4

Ravinica

OKAY, SO SHIFTING INTOa dragon and showing my scaly wings in all their glory during the battle was out. Got it.

Kelvar whispering little-known comments of my heritage was one thing, but having Corym there to substantiate his claims—saying it was common knowledge in Alfheim that Sigmund was descended from Azerot, and wanted to kill dragons, made this information impossible to ignore.

I wished I had learned about it much sooner . . . or much later. It was all I could think about as our camp folded and we resumed marching toward the Selfsky Plains.

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