Page 48 of The Dragonrider and the Void
“Is he related to this hatchling?” Hardin asked.
“I don’t know,” Lark replied honestly. “But there’s a connection. The rimeshade corruption has touched them both.” She studied White Eye’s eyes, wondering how she’d never considered their unusual coloration before. “The question is whether that makes him more vulnerable to the Void Drinker, or more resistant.”
Cheyanne stepped forward, her tactical mind already adjusting to this new information. “We can’t delay our mission to find out. If anything, this confirms what you discovered in the Northern sanctuary. The binding ritual must be our priority.”
“Binding ritual?” Hardin glanced between them, his confusion evident.
“We’ll explain everything,” Venrick assured him. “But first, you need to know that your ward-walking abilities are crucial to our next steps.”
Hardin’s expression shifted to one of surprise. “How did you?—”
“The way you left camp,” Ezra interjected. “You slipped past wards that should have alerted us. Somehow, you can manipulate them without triggering their defenses.”
A hint of pride crossed Hardin’s exhausted features. “It’s something I’ve always been able to do. When I bonded with Quinthara, it became stronger.”
“And now we need that ability,” Lark said. “We’re infiltrating Vermillion Keep to find information about binding an entity called the Void Drinker. It’s the entity that created the rimeshade.”
Hardin looked down at the hatchling in his arms, then back at Lark. “Then I guess I returned just in time.”
As the group moved back to the command tent to iron out Hardin and Sasja’s rolls into their plan, Lark lingered behind with White Eye. The massive dragon’s attention remained fixed on the hatchling even as it disappeared into the tent with Hardin.
“You know something about this,” she whispered to him. “Something you can’t fully share with me.”
In response, White Eye lowered his head until one eye was level with hers. He sent her a surge of determination tinged with what might actually be hope; a fragile, cautious emotion for a creature so wise and powerful.
Lark placed her forehead against his scaled snout, closing her eyes. “Whatever connection you have to that hatchling, whatever effects the rimeshade might’ve imparted, we’ll face it together.”
The hours passed in careful planning, voices rising and falling within the command tent as maps were studied and strategies refined. By the time they emerged, the camp had settled into the quiet rhythms of night. Watch fires burned at regular intervals, their orange glow pushing back the forest’s shadows, while guards made their rounds between the tents.
Lark found herself walking toward the clearing where White Eye rested, needing the comfort of his presence after everything they’d learned. She wasn’t surprised when Venrick fell into step beside her, his hand finding hers in the darkness. The familiar warmth of his touch sent a flutter through her chest as she realized she’d been too busy to acknowledge the feeling that had been following her since Haven’s Edge.
They reached the end of the clearing where White Eye lay curled in the moonlight, his massive form rising and falling with each deep breath. The dragon opened one eye as they approached, then settled back into his rest, content with their presence.
“Finally,” Venrick murmured, guiding her to a fallen log at the clearing’s edge. “A moment of peace.”
Lark sank down beside him, suddenly aware of how exhausted she was. The weight of everything, the Void Drinker, the missing pages, the infiltration they were planning, it all pressed down on her. “I keep thinking about all the ways this mess could’ve been avoided,” she said. “And the truth is, all of it feels unprecedented. There are so many people trying to destroy all the good in this world. It feels impossible for us to handle.”
“It felt impossible when I was cursed and you didn’t know your past,” Venrick pointed out, his arm settling around her shoulders. “Yet we made it through Red Lodge alive and look at us now, we’re together.”
She leaned into him, drawing strength from his steady presence. Above them, stars emerged between the canopy’sgaps, their light soft and distant. For a while, they sat in comfortable silence, listening to the sounds of the forest at night.
“I’ve been thinking about how you reacted when you first saw me carrying Yarla to safety,” Venrick said, speaking carefully and thoughtfully. “I thought you might do something in anger, but you must know that she is a friend from when I was younger. Only a friend.”
Lark turned to study his profile in the starlight. “I am curious how you know each other. You said you grew up with her in Gambria, before you came to Lamar?”
“Yes, I was living with my mother at the time,” he said, his gaze fixed on the stars. “My father wasn’t ever in the picture as far as I can remember. My mother hoped to hide my human heritage by enrolling me into a program that trained elves to become Paragons, much like the academies we have for the Keeps. She thought if I succeeded, when I got older and they discovered I wasn’t a full elf, that my skills would be enough to keep me in the Kingdom. For a few years things were going as planned, and we thought it was going to work.” His voice hitched with the hint of pain at the memory. “Yarla was my sparring partner because none of the other elves in the youth program would train with me. I developed physically at a faster pace than they did, I was quicker to act on my emotions than they were.”
Lark felt him tense slightly against her. “What happened that separated you and sent you on your path to Lamar?”
“When I got older, I started looking more human. The abilities I was being trained in were elven and I wasn’t full elf. They saw me as a threat to their traditions.” His laugh was bitter. “A half-breed with elven magic but human unpredictability. The elders decided I was too dangerous to remain.”
“They exiled you?” The injustice of it sparked anger in Lark’s chest.
“They gave my mother a choice. She could send me away or lose her place in Gambrian society entirely.”
Lark interlocked her fingers with his, trying to let Venrick know she was there for him.
“She chose me. We left together, but I knew what it cost her. She never said it, but I could see the regret in her eyes sometimes.”
