Page 55 of Dragon Valley
All bets were off for sleep as I, now wide awake, made my way over to them.
“He took a hell of a beating,” I said in a low whisper as I sat down near them. “But he’ll recover with proper rest.”
“Thank you,” she said, her green eyes glittering with tears that tugged fiercely at my heartstrings. “I won’t forget that you did this. I mean it.”
“I’m out here to save lives,” I told her with a casual sweep of my hand. “Much like you, it seems like.”
“In a way,” she said, returning her gaze down to him. “Doesn’t seem we’ve been very successful at it. We stopped one raid and helped rebuild one village. But it seems too many have been lost already.”
“Don’t blame yourself for that,” I snapped. “There’s so many more of them and so few of us. There’s not much we can do.”
She didn’t reply and leaned back against Dusa’s side, her eyes never leaving him. So I asked the question that seemed to burn me alive. “Who is he?”
“He’s Caden Fraise, first lieutenant of the rebel army,” she breathed.
“Ah, you mentioned it before leaving. The rebel army is recouping in Dragon Valley?”
“Yes,” she said, lifting her eyes to mine in a way that almost seemed defiant.
“Good thing you ran into us then,” I smiled. “The main royal army has been scouring the countryside looking for them. To be honest, they’ve probably been doing half the village-burning just trying to find them, although no one would admit it.”
Her eyes widened as if she just remembered something. “The people who held Caden. I’m still not sure who they were but they had a weapon against dragons. Dus, show him your claw.”
The dragon uncurled the massive talons of one hand and stretched it out toward me. I sucked in a breath before leaning in to take a closer look. One swipe of that hand could send my head rolling from my shoulders.
Sure enough, one claw had been broken off at a jagged edge like it shattered. It didn’t reach her actual finger but just barely.
“It seems to freeze and shatter anything it touches,” Nadiyah explained. “It looks like really dense smoke but it’s heavy. It never rises up but drops low to the ground and evaporates very quickly. It’s acts like water, almost.”
“Fuck,” I cursed. “So they’re using it already. They’re calling it dragon ice.”
Her lip curled with distaste. “That’s… a stupid name.”
“I agree,” I said, trying hold in my laughter.
“What is it, though?”
“It’s a substance called nitrogen, which is present in the air we breathe,” I explained. “To bring it to a liquid state like that, it has to be frozen at extremely cold temperatures. What I don’t understand is how they’re able to do that.”
Nadiyah blinked. “How do you know so much?”
“Books,” I admitted. “Same way I knew about dragons. The royal library has thousands of books on every subject imaginable. I made it a goal of mine to read every book in the place.” I laughed. “To this day, I’ve only covered a fraction.”
“Is that how you know how to heal people too?”
“Yes,” I answered. “Although most of that comes from hands-on practice. I asked my family’s healer to train me when I was ten. He refused for years but finally said yes when I dumped a bag of gold on his desk.”
“I take it your family didn’t approve?” she lifted an eyebrow.
“Are you kidding?” I laughed as I raised my hands and wiggled my fingers. “I was never meant to touch anything dirty or beneath my position with these hands. Touching the sick, injured and poor was so far from what my parents wanted for me. I’m still their son but an utter disappointment.”
“Your family sounds insufferable,” she remarked.
I grinned. Nadiyah did not sugar-coat her words and I like that.
“They absolutely are. It’s alright, though. My older brother is their heir and golden child, so they’re not terribly concerned with what I do. And anyway, my connections to the crown is what allows me to help those who really need it.”
“Whyare you helping these people?” she asked, her eyes burning with the desire to know. “How did you turn out differently than all the other insufferable royals?”
