Page 77 of Lady Dragon
Kirek would die before she would allow her aunt to touch Samansa’s body. She was ready to die anyway. She would even tear the stone out of Samansa’s body herself if she had to. But surprisingly, it was Valraka who spoke, after sidling closer along the wall toward Kirek.
You would eat her, Queen Mother? She was one of us. Rakaandthe girl. Cannibalism is distasteful.
Mind your words, daughter, Pavak snapped.AndkillKirek.
But Valraka didn’t jump to obey. She hardly moved at all, other than to shift her sinuous weight farther over Samansa’s body, behind Kirek.
Guarding her?
Doyou, then, wish to become Raka, daughter?Pavak asked in a low, dangerous tone.
I wish to be myself, Valraka said simply.Not merely a name of the past. Raka is dead.
Kirek was trying to watch both her cousin and aunt at once, but Valraka’s words struck her. Valraka had said she didn’t want her mother near Samansa. Near Raka. Perhaps she hadn’t been lying. And yet, she’d brought her motherhere, when she knew Kirek and Samansa were on their way. What wind of her own had carried her, as she had lifted Pavak, if she wanted neither her mother nor herself to become Raka?
What did she need to see?
Kirek’s answers would have to wait, because Pavak gathered herself into a lunge, her muscles coiling. Facing her, Kirekturned her back on her cousin. Exposing herself to her. Putting her life in her claws.
ThenI’llkill her, Pavak growled,if I must do everything myself, daughter. I trust you not to challenge me in this, at least?
Valraka settled in over Samansa, making no motion to stop her mother from turning on her cousin. Grateful as Kirek was to have Valraka guarding the body—whatever her reasons—Pavak would crush Kirek like a cat would a mouse, injured or no.
Unless Kirek werealsoa cat. She glanced down at her chest.
She could cut out the stone.
She would no longer be able to turn into a human at will, if she did this, not unless she swallowed the stone once more. But she didn’t want to be human without Samansa, not even to use the stone to threaten Raka with transformation.
She didn’t need any stone to threaten Raka. She could do that all on her own.
As a dragon.
Samansa had stabbed herself. Kirek supposed she would join her in that, if not in death.
“Just like in one of your books, Samansa. How tragically romantic,” she added with a bitter laugh.
Pavak blinked at her instead of springing at her.Books? Romantic?She spoke the words as if she’d never heard them before.
“May you never understand the pain, Aunt,” Kirek said softly, bringing her hand to her chest as if that was where it hurt. But there was no source of pain that could be located. It was her entire being. “I wouldn’t even wish this upon you, and I owe you for my mother’s death.”
Do not call meAunt. I am your Queen Mother.
“And I challenge you for that title,” Kirek said, pulling aside her leathers and bringing the dagger she’d just unsheathed to her breast.
She jammed it underneath the blue stone, the sharp tip parting her flesh, and quickly worked the blade side to side, cutting, ignoring the tear of agony. At least it was the last thing her aunt likely expected her to do after making such a declaration.
And it was nothing to the agony of losing Samansa.
With a final, bloody flick of her wrist, the stone popped free. She and Pavak had a brief moment to stare at each other as it clattered on the ground between them, winking in the firelight, Kirek’s chest bleeding profusely down the front of her leathers. Girl and dragon.
Her aunt’s orange eyes widened in shock as she realized what her niece had done.
And then it was dragon facing dragon.
Pavak launched herself forward without hesitation, just as she had with Kirek’s mother, snaking forward in a sinuous strike of lethal commitment.
One which Kirek met with equal ferocity. They collided against each other—tails lashing against scales, wings beating, necks winding and darting, jaws snapping in a maelstrom of violence.
