Page 61 of A Kingdom Restored

As if reading his thoughts, Reka spoke again, describing the location to his father according to his best guess based on Vazula’s location and Merletta’s various comments.

“I will not follow your journey with my farsight,” Reka told the other dragon. “Due to the risk that the elders would recognize the use of my magic, and follow its trajectory.”

“Very wise,” said Elddreki unemotionally. “I do not anticipate the need for further instructions.”

And without another word, he wheeled away, picking up speed as he raced out over the ocean, heading southeast.

“How is that dragons are so slow, but so abrupt?” Heath muttered.

“What was that?” Reka asked him placidly.

“Never mind,” shouted Heath. Reka had also begun to increase his speed, traveling northeast along the coastline. “So you’re coming with me to Wyvern Islands?”

“That is my intention,” Reka confirmed. “My welcome is very thin after my last visit. I must hope that they do not react with violence to this second breach of my exile.”

Heath felt a moment of guilt at the position he’d placed his friend in, but it was eclipsed by his terror for Merletta. His thoughts flew to her, and with them, his farsight. She remained in her cell, her expression a distressing blend of anger and despair.

The rocky cliffs raced away beneath them as they sped toward Wyvern Islands. They didn’t speak again, and Heath’s thoughts vacillated constantly between Merletta’s current state and the challenge ahead of him. It seemed unlikely Elddreki was being followed by the elders as closely as his son was, but Heath didn’t want to take any chances. What would be the good of saving Merletta from execution by the merpeople only to transport her straight into the dragons’ jaws? He had to distract the elders.

When Reka veered eastward over the water, Heath cut off his image of Merletta. He couldn’t erase their connection, however—not that he would ever want to—so he was still nervous about Reka’s speculation that the dragons would sense the use of the magic.

Reka made for the largest island, the one where Heath had pushed Merletta from the cliffs only a few short months before. The memory was vivid in his mind. He could feel again the falling, the bruising crush of the water, the feel of Merletta’s cool scales as her tail wrapped around him.

Heath banished the image, trying to gather his thoughts. Rekavidur didn’t make for the center of the island’s inner ring, instead alighting on a section of grass near the outside. Heath barely heard it as Reka responded to the dragon who protested his arrival, notifying his challenger that a power-wielder of the line of Dragonfriend wished to address the elders. Heath was sneaking the opportunity to check in on Merletta.

Nothing had changed yet in her situation. How long had it been since she’d told him she had an hour? Impossible to tell—time felt suspended, unreal. Heath tried vainly to see Elddreki’s flight, but he had no connection with the older dragon which would make his farsight latch on.

Looking around, he realized he and Rekavidur were alone. The other dragon must be carrying their message.

“Will the elders see me?” Heath asked.

“I doubt they will convene just on your request,” Reka told him. “But I imagine they will send a representative or two. And the others will certainly hear of your request. I would be amazed if they did not all watch from wherever they are in such unusual circumstances. Hopefully it will be enough.”

They were kept waiting long enough that Heath began to get nervous. Reka seemed unruffled, but Heath was gripped by the fear that the dragons had already seen what Elddreki was doing, and weren’t going to fall for the ploy. Again, he wished he could see Elddreki, but his attempts were met with blank nothingness. And all the while, Merletta still floated in her cell, while Percival was stretched motionless across his pallet, and King Matlock went about his day, evidently speaking of matters other than the condemned prisoner below his feet, given that Heath’s farsight wasn’t activated in that direction.

Heath remembered his grandmother’s prediction that he’d be torn in two if he tried to keep up with it all for much longer. That had been generous. Right now, his mind felt like it was being ripped into about half a dozen pieces. But he couldn’t let himself lose sight of the most urgent thing.

Merletta.

He continued to watch her, and he and Reka were idle for long enough that he saw when she left the cell, flanked by guards. Where was Elddreki? Was he going to make it in time?

Heath strained his vision, his body as tense as his mind.

“They approach.” The calm quiet warning from Reka brought Heath’s mind snapping back to Wyvern Islands.

Just as Rekavidur had predicted, two dark-scaled dragons had accompanied the messenger back, each so large, they made Reka look like a dragonling in comparison.

Heath waited in tense silence as the dragons exchanged long and formal greetings with one another. The occasional snatches he allowed his farsight showed that Merletta was before some kind of assembly, although Heath wasn’t willing to use his magic powerfully enough to follow what was being said.

He could hardly bear the slow pace of the dragons’ conversation, but a moment’s reflection reminded him it was for the best. After the frantic haste he’d felt a short time before, it was hard to remember that he actually wanted to draw it out now. The aim was to keep the elders distracted for as long as it took Elddreki to extract Merletta.

“Are we to understand by your return that you are now ready to reveal to your elders those matters which you have chosen in your youthful folly to conceal from your colony?” one of the elders was asking Reka, his voice so cold Heath actually shivered.

“That is not my purpose in returning to the colony,” acknowledged Reka calmly.

“Then you are here in contravention of our ruling,” growled the other elder. “If we are to remove you by force, your human companion may suffer harm.”

“I do not wish that,” said Reka gravely. “If you say I must leave immediately, so be it. But I respectfully request that you allow him to remain for long enough to speak. It is for his sake that I have come here, as he had no other way to reach you.”

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