Page 74 of Lady Dragon
“Aptly named, it seems.”
Was the girl trying to be humorous?
Raka’s lip curled in response, hinting at teeth.There were a few humans, however, women, who wanted the war to end as much as we did. Not their queen among them, not yet—this was before human queens had any real power. These women were strong in other ways. Hidden ways. They met with us, in secret. With their tools, knowledge, and sacrifice, and our fire, blood, and bone, here we created the Heartstones.She cast her gaze about the cave, alighting once more on the tangled remains of human ingenuity.Two of them, one for Nakor, and one for me. And then we made two Songstones, so no matter where we were, we could always speak.
She tossed her head to the lava-tongued mouth of the cave.First we both went to the human realm in secret, unknown to either dragon or human, to treat with our enemy in a way we had yet been unable—in their language, in their physical form. The king wouldnot even see us, thinking we were a trick of these other women—these witches, he called them. He tried to bring them forth to have them executed, but they had already died. See, they put their very lives into the Heartstones, not only their knowledge.
Raka bared her teeth fully this time.But the human queen, she would see us. She told us she could help sway her husband—or help us get close enough to kill him, if he couldn’t be swayed. But the war was still blazing, and so Nakor sent me back to High Nest to lead in her stead, in her name if not my own, promising me she would always speak to me through the Songstone. But I heard her voice less and less over time, and I grew despondent. And then, when I at last heard that she’d killed King Wyleth despite sustaining grave injuries, I despaired instead of rejoiced. With her final breaths, Nakor declared that human queens would rule Andrath henceforth and keep peace with the dragons… and then she died of her wounds. The news came by messenger. Nothing came through the Songstone. She gave me no farewell, and yet every dragon called her the most honorable among us for ending the war.
Raka couldn’t help her snarl, and the girl backed away a few paces, though she still listened raptly. The words kept coming—Raka’s path back to herself, burning clear.But I was bonded to Nakor, and my bond had not broken with her death, as it should have. So I flew to Andrath to find her. She was still there, in human form through the power of her Heartstone, and told me she loved the queen. I wanted to kill her, and yet the bond wouldn’t let me—a bond she no longer felt for me, but rather for this human. The connection between us had broken—but only forherand not for me. It should have been impossible. It should have beenmoreimpossible for her to form it anew with a lowly human. I tried to kill her queen, but Nakor transformed to defend her. If only my bond had brokenwhen hers had faded. The shame was unbearable. I couldn’t return to High Nest and speak the truth. I would dishonor her and myself—all dragonkind—beyond measure.
“So the Treaty wasn’t born of some similarity between dragons and women,” the girl murmured. “But of love between them.”
An abomination, yes.Raka searched the cave, seeing it both with eyes fresh and with memory ancient.So I returned here, to where these witches had poured their lives into these stones with the heat of our fire. And here, I added a piece of my own life to the stone. But I needed a fire stronger than my own. So I made this pool my nest, and the Heartstone the egg for my curse.
She glanced at where her skull rested—all that remained of her body after she’d submerged it in lava, while she’d channeled the heat that was consuming her upon the stone, until her last breath.
“Curse?” the girl gasped. “So the Heartstone was truly cursed?”
Raka flicked her wings in indifference.I knew another dragon would eventually find my Heartstone. Nakor or her new successor would no doubt come looking for it, so yet another dragon could degrade themselves, injure their pride and risk their very being, to enter the human realm and maintain peace, since Nakor had abdicated her duty—her very life as a dragon—to selfishly keep her stone to remain in secret at her queen’s side. And if such a future dragon ever fell so far as to bond with a human, my spirit would rise up and awaken. I would split the stone, overtake their beloved human from my half, and transform them with my wrath… and then turn their love to ash.
The girl’s silver eyes were shifting rapidly, as if trying tosee what Raka had already explained to her. “Turn them intoyou. But if human lives are held within the stone, why don’t we becomethem, when we take human form? Like you slowly overtook Samansa as a dragon, with your life added to the stone?”
Because their lives were given selflessly, to create a link to humanity.Raka’s gaze traced the line from her skull along the fire-scarred ground to the more faded spot.Mine, I gave with a different purpose. With a will for vengeance. My wrath survived inside the stone, as if within an egg. A future hatchling ready to rise and return to me. Only the shells of those human lives remained, dormant and inert. My wrath consumed some of them in order to keep burning, locked as it was in the stone with them—culling them like a queen would her clutch. Protecting the future queen I would become. Still, so much time passed that I worried all the human life would eventually be consumed and render the Heartstone useless, spent, before my curse could be born. But thenyoucame along.Her eyes shot to Kirek, and Raka started to salivate—to remember why she’d needed the girl here.And you’re not truly a girl, are you? But a dragon. You bonded a human. Youloveda human.
“Iloveher,” the dragon girl corrected with a growl.
Loved, Raka insisted coldly.She is nearly gone. The two halves of the stone were connected, just like the Songstones were, communicating across the gap between them. Balancing each other—the human versus the dragon. But I have sealed the gap. The connection is blocked, now that I’ve found myself. This is fully my half of the stone now, and you have what remains of the human half. I’ve struggled to keep you like this—fought with tooth and claw to keep the human out ofme. Now you are trapped. And like this, you will die.
Raka drew herself up to her full height, sending Kirek intoa ready crouch.That’s why you’re here, so I can ensure that you remove the humanity from me once and for all. I only neededherbody, to make it my own. And now I need to killyou.
Raka expected the dragon girl to run, but she didn’t. Kirek only drew her sword, which looked as small as a toy from the red dragon’s perspective. A single, thin tooth against her many teeth and claws. Raka took a slow step toward her, her talons scraping over stone.
With your death, Raka said in a dragon’s low whisper,there will be no one to wield the lives in that stone to threaten mine. The connection will be lost, like my bond once was to Nakor. And I will truly live again. Although, it is tempting to let you stay like this, trapped in this human body forever, to mourn her.
“You are still her,” the dragon girl insisted, brandishing her sword before her.
In a way. But she’ll be indifferent. Where you would feel her loss so keenly, she wouldn’t mourn you. She’ll forever be a dragon. You would only be able to love her from afar. And in the end, you would only be lovingme.
“Which is everything Nakor did to you, and everything you might have wished upon Nakor. But I amnotNakor,” Kirek snarled.
Then it’s best to kill you now, where at least Samansa can still watch. Still feel the pain that you won’t be able to, at least for a time, until I consume her mind and spirit, like I have her body.
Raka lunged. She’d relayed her intentions such that she wasn’t surprised when Kirek dodged the first swipe of her claws. But she wouldn’t evade the dragon’s jaws.
But Raka didn’t bite down. Instead, she shrieked, staggering to the side, Kirek falling out of range of her gnashing teeth.Raka scrabbled at the stone ground in desperation, trying to stay upright. Something was rising up within her, smashing her down…
And then she transformed in a blaze of red light. Not only from dragon to human, but from Raka to…herself. Samansa. She was Samansa, not Raka. Tears flooded her eyes and poured down her cheeks in sheer relief.
And fear. She looked at Kirek wildly. Kirek, thedragon girl. For a moment, Samansa couldn’t make sense of her.
They were both human. At the same time. The princess had overtaken Raka, for once. Suppressed her.
“I’m… holding her… in the stone,” Samansa gasped, twisting her kerchief aside and clutching her chest. She wasn’tliterallyholding Raka back with her hand, but she figured it couldn’t hurt. “I can’t let her kill you.” Bright red light flared angrily between her fingers.
Wanting to escape.
Kirek stood with her sword now slack at her side. Her leathers were scraped and battered, but holding together, and her daggers remained in place. Her dark hair parted in somehow still silk-smooth sheets around her perfect face, scratched and filthy as it was. She was stunning—and she hadn’t been forced to transform into a dragon in return. Which meant Raka still had the connection blocked. The balance broken.
