Page 123 of Golden Queen
"Whatever that means," I said.
"It's an honor that hasn't been given to anyone other than the Chief of the horse lords in thousands of years—since before the cataclysm."
"Well, that's preposterous, then."
He chuckled. "Why is that?"
"Because they obviously made a mistake."
"I don't think so," he said, gently tucking the necklace back into my shirt.
I scoffed, but his expression was serious as he looked down at me, his hand still held securely against my back.
Neither of us was ready to acknowledge that we shouldn’t be together like that, but he knew I needed him, and he had been there for me. Perhaps he had needed me in some way just as much.
There was nothing truly inappropriate about it as I lay against his solid, warm body. I didn't feel that heated, heavy wash of desire that usually came along with being so close to him. I just felt safe.
The part of me that had always burned for him was gone. It died in the dungeons of Albiyn castle...or even before that, during the scratch of my pen across that parchment binding me to his brother.
Twenty-Two
We left the refugees just after sunrise.
Aben and Britaxia would join us, leaving the rest of the dragon riders under Malach's command, to accompany the bands of refugees as far north as the Dyskala River on the edge of the mountains.
Other riders were already in the south, watching over the southern caravans and doing reconnaissance flights around the city.
They all had instructions to leave Windemere at the first sign of the wyvern legions and come north to meet King Behr's armies at the Twilight Gap. The other hosts of riders Io had called down from Darkwatch when we were still in the city, would receive similar orders to amass at the gap.
"How long will it take us to reach Orin?" I asked as I put my foot on the strap to climb onto Veles' back.
"A week," he said. "Ten days if we run into storms in the mountains."
I took my seat, reaching for the strap and sliding it over my legs.
At least a couple of those ten days we would be flying over the godsgrass plains where we could easily camp in open ground if we needed to. But then the temperature would begin to fall. It was already well into the autumn harvest, with winter just around the corner. Cold came much earlier to the mountains, though, and it would be bitterly cold once we reached the end of the plains. We would no longer fare so well camping in open country at night.
Io took his seat behind me.
“How do you sit so securely in the saddle when you never strap yourself in?”
“Instinct,” he replied, as though that explained it.
I frowned, but before I could demand more information, he laughed softly, anticipating me. “It’s a combination of magic and the bond we share. I know what Veles will do and how to respond to his movements. It’s the same for him. He keeps me in the saddle because he knows what I will do.”
“So, if you just decided to leap off…”
“He would catch me,” he finished.
I thought about that with something bordering on extreme jealousy at the idea of sharing a bond like that with a creature as terribly wondrous as Veles. “Will I ever feel so secure on my dragon?” I asked, scanning the fieldsfor her. She was nowhere to be seen. She spent most of her time flying, and I didn’t blame her. I might never touch the ground if I had the option to live in the sky.
“Most dragon knights strap themselves into a harness, as Raya does when she rides Styx. They are bonded, it’s true, but it’s not a mutual thing. Her dragon has a link to her that she doesn’t share with him since she’s mostly human.”
“Raya is human?” I asked, surprised. I had assumed she was fae.
“She’s a halfling elf,” he said, surprising me even more. “Without a drop of magic.”
I immediately sympathized with the girl being born without magic in a world of magic-wielders, but then I considered the kind of magic she might have been born with—shadow magic, and I changed my mind. She was currently somewhere south, looking for stragglers from Albiyn who couldn’t make the journey up the Godsway.
