Page 46 of Phoenix's Fire

"That's a serpent, Meri. Tiesha's sign was the Serpent. My sister has the sign die that matches." And I lifted my own sign die. "It is how they mark things here. A signature of sorts, and this one is mine, proving I'm a Dragon."

"What's yours?" she asked.

"The Phoenix." I dropped the chain. "Please believe me, Meri. I'm not trying to scare you more, but they aren't righteous. They are horrible, and evil, and cruel. That's why we call them Moles. They live underground and destroy things from the bottom up - just like the animals do."

"But what if that's just the Dragons lying to us?" she countered.

"They're not. I've seen it with my own eyes."

"You saw the hunters take a woman?"

"Trying," I admitted, thinking of the woman in the street and the Mole assuring her he was going to save her. "She got free, but they raid Lorsa, Meri."

"They're hunters," she insisted, "not monsters!"

My eyes jumped up, hitting hers. "Are you sure about that?"

"But these are Dragons!" she whimpered. "We've been warned - "

"And yet none of them hurt you," I reminded her. "They may have scared you, but they were helping. They got you here, where you can be safe. They brought you to me!" I paused, licking my lips, because this was the part she'd hate the most. "What did Gideon do? Did he help like that?"

"But he was my husband and that's his right."

"To abuse you?" I countered. "Meri, he wasn't a good man. He was not kind or loving! He hurt you, and then he kept hurting you even when youcried!"

"But that's a woman's place," she replied, quoting our lessons.

I nodded. "It is down there. It isn't up here. In Lorsa, women are allowed to be free. So tell me, who do you think is really the evil one? The Dragons, who give us a chance to make our own decisions, or the Righteous men, who don't care how much they hurt us - or if they kill us in the process?"

She pressed her lips together and thought about it. Her eyes jumped as if she was watching her own memories and her brow creased with the intensity of it.

"Callah said you were safe," she finally muttered.

"And I am," I promised. "So are you. But Meri? Why did you get kicked out, if things weren't horrible down there?"

"Because I didn't want to die," she admitted. "Callah said we were going to grow plants, but that's not what you do, Ayla. You live with the Dragons!"

"And Callah knew that," I said, hoping she'd figured it out. "It was part of my message to her."

"So you've tamed them?" she tried next. "Is that why the Wyvern didn't eat me? I mean, he listened to you. You even made him cook for us, and it was a birdyoukilled, not… You know, what they're supposed to eat." She meant humans, even if she wouldn't say it. "Does that mean you figured out how to tame him?"

"I didn't tame him," I explained. "The truth is more that he taught me how to be wild. This is a good thing, Meri. You'll see. It's so much better to be wild than owned."

Fourteen

Ayla

As we talked, I had to be careful of my words. Meri kept asking me if I was sure about the women in quarantine. Unfortunately, I wasn't. I knewmymother had been a Dragon, but I wasn't sure if all women in there were from Lorsa. Meri insisted that maybe it was proof the Righteous hadn't lied.

She was trying to hold on to the security of what she knew. I understood that. Meri couldn't imagine anything except what she'd been taught in our sermons growing up. From what she'd eaten to where the hunters found the meat, it had all been twisted into some kind of sick and depraved story to make the Moles look like the good guys.

They weren't.

I also didn't want to upset her too much. Clearly, this was what the men had done with me when I'd first arrived - and it was hard! All I wanted to do was reassure her that everything was okay, but it really wasn't. I wanted to protect her in the only way I could, but that was no longer an option. So I tried to be gentle. I did my best to explain without highlighting the horrors. Mostly, I just begged her to trust me.

Eventually, Jeera and Brielle returned. I was pretty sure they'd dawdled to give me time to talk to Meri, and I'd needed it all. The half hour Jeera had said they'd be gone had become an hour and half. Not that I minded, because Meri had just as many questions for me as I had for her.

While they were out, Jeera and Brielle had made an appointment for us to see Naomi the next day, as promised. Over the lunch they'd brought back, we made plans to meet up for it. I'd only been to the clinic one time – and it had been my first day in Lorsa. I wasn't completely sure I could find my way back, so Jeera offered to pick me up.

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