Revelation of the Dragon Read online

  The smile that spread across Mariah’s face was beginning to feel more natural to her. If I’m not careful, I’m going to turn into Shira. The thought just made her smile more.

  “Bria, the cabin is wonderful!” she said, hooking her arm through her friend’s for warmth as they walked across the yard toward the cabin. “I still can’t believe you all managed to get the roof on and secure in under a week. Isn’t Zach usually busy checking the fences this time of year?”

  It had felt a little odd to be watching the children instead of helping Bria’s husband get the farm set for winter, but under the circumstances, she had been glad to have the chance to be out of Wellspring for a little while. Since her return from Varidian, it seemed she had spent more time in Wellspring than in her actual home in the mountain.

  The blonde woman chuckled. “Under normal circumstances, yes, it would have been difficult. I wouldn’t have been able to imagine it either. But I’ve been able to take on a few more customers since Simone started helping, even some from the countryside between here and Kathe Teigh. We’ve both taught each other new things, and she even watches Rissa for me when I’m sewing. So, with the extra coin, Zach was able to hire on some help to take care of the fences and help with the animals this week.

  “You know,” she continued. “I don’t think I would have ever wished to have a whole new family share the farm with us, but the Althamir have blessed us with the Tamsins.”

  In the first few months after Mariah and Xae had returned to Wellspring, with Simone and the girls in tow, it had been touch and go. While Xae had escaped, Simone’s husband had been murdered in front of the whole family before she and her daughters had been imprisoned and taken to the drudge camp by Rothgar’s men. Unlike what Xae had believed, they had never been taken to Draydon Keep. Perhaps only adult Ceo San, like Tibbot and Mariah, spent time in the dungeons first.

  Mariah knew how hard his father’s death and the separation from his family had been on Xae. She could only imagine what Simone had felt watching her husband being murdered and then her children being groomed as unwilling soldiers.

  The children were indeed special. Ceo San, who could transform at will into animals, were said to be the chosen of the gods. And now Simone was the only parent responsible for three of them.

  When they had first arrived in Cillian, Simone had talked about getting even further away from Varidian, maybe south to Kathe Teigh or even west into the wilds of Eseth. In the end, the welcome they had received in Wellspring, especially from Bria and Zach, had changed their minds. The fact that the two women were both seamstresses certainly didn’t hurt.

  Mariah knew that their welcome had been important to her when she had escaped Varidian so long ago, almost as important as that of Gwyn, who had been like an adopted grandmother to her after she had fled her home in Eaglespire.

  But she had barely spoken to Gwyn since her return to Cillian. She swallowed hard, bringing her focus back to Bria. “Well, you’ve done a marvelous job. The girls love it already.”

  As if sensing exactly what—or whom—she was thinking about, Bria said, “You really should get over to see Gwyn before you go back home.”

  “Maybe next time.” Mariah knew she was being immature. When she was in that dungeon, the thought of seeing her mentor again had been one of the things that had kept her sane, whole. But now, her throat tightened up whenever she thought about the letter Gwyn had given her, the one from her mother, the one she had kept from Mariah for seven years. Mariah hadn’t told Bria about the letter. Only Shira truly knew how deeply Gwyn’s secret had hurt her.

  “Mari,” Bria said, unhooking her arm and planting both fists on her hips. “You have been saying that nearly every day since you got back. Are you going to keep on saying it until one of you is in your grave?”

  Mariah’s eyes widened, and she stared at Bria’s sparkling blue ones. Her friend knew how to dance around a topic and had been happy to do it for a while now, but obviously things had changed. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that if you don’t get over there and work out whatever is going on between you two, before you know it, it will be too late, and all that you’ll be left with is regret.”

  Bria’s mother had died when she was just a teenager, during a time when they hadn’t been getting along well. She had told Mariah how she had always regretted the fact that she had been so caught up in her own desire to be right that she had missed the signs until it was too late.

  Was Gwyn ill? Mariah realized that she didn’t know how well the woman had recovered from the cougar attack she had suffered many months ago, right before Mariah had left with Xae on the quest to save his family. Wouldn’t Bria have told her if there had been complications? Her stomach began to tumble about nervously. “Bria, is there something you’re not telling me? What is going on with Gwyn?”

  “That is between you and Gwyn, but as a friend to you both, I expect you to deal with it. And soon.” Mariah felt suddenly as if she were one of Bria’s children, and shame crept in to redden her cheeks. Bria suddenly raised her voice and called out. “Everyone wash up and go inside now! It’s time for lunch.” And with that, she turned her back on Mariah and marched toward the house.

  * * *

  As she walked the outer streets of Wellspring, Mariah allowed the tips of her wings, gently covered by her cloak, to drag along the surface of the dirt road behind her shuffling feet. It took a supreme act of will to lift one foot in front of the other up the two small steps onto Gwyn’s porch. The door opened before she could knock, and Mariah was surprised to be greeted by the tall, gangly Wakely Clare.

  A warm smile spread over his face, giving some relief to his sharp, wrinkled features and dark blue eyes. “Miss Mariah! I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you!”

  She didn’t miss his quick peek at her wingtips. There was no fear in his face, only awe. “Hello, Wakely. It’s good to see you too. Is Gwyn here?”

  “Of course, of course.” He stepped back from the door, holding it wide, and Mariah stepped into the small cottage, the cozy warmth brushing the cold out of her cheeks. They walked through a narrow hallway until the main room opened up before them. Her mouth watered as a savory aroma filled her nostrils. As she came around the corner, she spotted twin rabbits roasting over the large, open fireplace at the end of the room. How she had missed Gwyn’s roasted rabbit! She could cook it herself and often did, but she never managed to make it taste as good.

  “Is she in bed?”

  Wakely cocked his head to one side and raised an eyebrow. “At this time of day? Gwyn? You and I must be thinking of a different woman.” He chuckled. “She’s already been out hunting and back. Now she’s in the backyard mending clothes. You really haven’t been around in a while if you think she’s slowed down any.”

  “I guess so,” Mariah muttered. Mending? In this chill? Yes, that was typical Gwyn. Unless she was keeping secrets from Wakely, she must not have been sick or in any kind of danger at all, as Bria had implied. “Is she okay?” she asked, just in case.

  A cloud passed over Wakely’s face. “I think you should ask her that yourself. Like I said, she’s in the back.” He turned away from her, limped over to the fireplace, and began turning the spit.

  After one last longing look at the browning meat, Mariah headed for the back of the house.

  When she pushed the back door open, the wind caught it and sent it slamming into the outer wall of the house. So much for the idea of getting a look at Gwyn before making her presence known.

  About ten yards away, at a little table, her adopted grandmother sat with her back toward Mariah in no more than shoes, a long skirt, and a tunic whose sleeves barely reached the middle of her forearms. There were swaths of fabric falling down on either side of her as she worked, but instead of turning to say anything in response to the sudden slam, the old woman kept working. However, Mariah didn’t mi
ss the way her back stiffened.

  She sighed as she moved to the wall, grabbed the door, and pushed it shut until it clicked into place. Underneath that old woman exterior, Gwyn was a hunting cat, another Ceo San, and her sense of smell rivaled even that of the best dog in Wellspring. There was no doubt in Mariah’s mind that Gwyn knew exactly who was standing behind her.

  Nevertheless, she took her time making her way to the little table. Mixed emotions roiled in her gut. Relief that Gwyn seemed to be okay, at least physically. Longing, the kind that grew from being away from someone she loved like a mother for so long. Anger. But most of all, hurt.

  She clenched and unclenched her fists and rolled her shoulders. She pulled in a deep, cold breath and pushed it out slowly, ignoring the warm vapor as it billowed up from her mouth and away behind her.

  Flipping her long gray braid over her shoulder but still not looking at Mariah, Gwyn barked, “Oh, just get it over with girl. If you had come home and screamed at me six months ago, told me that you hated me and never wanted to see me again, it would have been better than what you’ve done to me instead. Refusing to visit. Acting as if I don’t exist.”

  New sensations poured into the uneasy mix in her stomach, and Mariah folded her arms over her belly as guilt and shame piled on top of her anger and hurt.

  She straightened her back forcefully. No! I won’t let her do this to me. She is the one who lied to me, lied since the day we met.

  Gwyn’s hands had stopped moving on the fabric. “I know that you read the letter. Otherwise, you would’ve had no reason to shut me out.”

  Mariah started to protest, but she couldn’t deny that she had done just that. But before she could find the proper words to respond, the old woman spoke again, all of the strength leaking out of her voice.

  “Part of me wanted to wait until you got home, to give it to you when I could explain properly, but what if you never came home? Or what if I didn’t make it? You know, I wasn’t in that great a shape when you and that boy flew off to Varidian. But if I waited, you might never know. It was better you know the truth, at least part of it. … Even if it made you hate me.”

  “I don’t!” The words rushed out before she could stop them. Mariah came around the table but remained standing and finally met Gwyn’s golden eyes. When she did, all of her anger melted away, but she didn’t let it stop her. She had to say it. “For seven years … seven years, you let me believe that my mother had sent me to my doom, that she had sold me into slavery for a few gold coins. You let my hate feed upon itself until I couldn’t think of her without bile rising in my throat. How could you ever explain that?” The first thing that came to her mouth—shocking even her—was the worst possible scenario, that Gwyn was manipulative and selfish and had allowed Mariah to hate her own mother simply for her own gain. “Did you think I would love you more if I hated her?”

  Gwyn’s eyes widened in her wrinkled, bronzed face, and she pushed back from the table, allowing the trousers she had been mending to fall to the ground along with the attached needle and thread. She ignored them and came around, staring up at Mariah so hard that the younger woman looked away. But Gwyn wouldn’t let her escape. She grabbed Mariah by the shoulders. “Look at me, girl.”

  Swallowing against the lump that had formed in her throat, Mariah brought her head back around, her hands hanging limply at her sides but twitching to reach out and gather the older woman into a hug despite everything. She had missed her so much, it truly hurt.

  “Mari, you have to listen to me. I’m not saying it was right, but I had to wait. If I had told you the truth, you would have flown back. You would have tried to save them. And if you had done that … If you had done that, then you would have died too. Even before I knew you properly … even before I came to love you like a daughter … I couldn’t let that happen.”

  There was no doubt that Gwyn was right, at least about one thing. As it was, Mariah had almost flown back a number of times. Her father had been critically injured in an accident in the smithy right before her flight. Part of her had thought that if she had given herself to the soldiers, had turned herself in, then her family would have been safe, that her father would have gotten the treatment he needed. She knew better now. They probably would have been taken too and thrown into a dungeon right alongside her or, worse, killed.

  If she had read her mother’s letter back then, though, nothing short of death would have stopped her from flying back over the sea to save her family. “You don’t know that. If I was careful, we would have been fine. Like with Xae …” A million scenarios played through her mind, and in many of them, Gwyn was right, but in some, she and her parents escaped, maybe to Adis Ador or maybe on a boat to Eseth, but they got away.

  Gwyn reached up and cupped Mariah’s cheeks. “But I do. The dreams. The dreams that led me to you that day in Tennedore.” Her voice was almost a whisper, and although it faltered, she kept going resolutely forward. “After I found you, I dreamed of your death every single night for months—every detail, every moment, always the same. You were trapped, a golden cuff and a chain holding you.” The lump in Mariah’s throat grew to the size of an apple, and her breath caught, refusing to leave her chest. “On the other end of that chain, a man with … with a crown, relishing your obedience, your suffering, scraping you away to almost nothing, giving you a thousand tiny cuts with your father’s own knife until your soul finally escaped back to …” There was a long pause, and Gwyn looked away before she spoke again, her voice becoming something distant, something else. “And when you died, the Dragon wailed, and the world itself fell into ruin.” She sank down to her knees, her eyes glazed over.

  Mariah’s breath rushed out, and she sank down beside her, reaching out. “Gwyn—”

  The old woman put up a hand. “After every dream, he would come to me, tell me that I had to protect you, that I had to keep you away from Varidian until you were whole, no matter how long it took. Only then would you be ready. The dreams didn’t stop until you left me and moved to Firebend. Until you had learned to hate your mother and were bound and determined never to go home again.”

  “He? Who is he?” Mariah let Gwyn’s hand fold around her own. After all these months, the touch of the old woman’s skin on hers made her feel as if she had finally, really come home. The feeling clashed oddly with her worry over what she was being told.

  Gwyn shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve wondered and wondered. Perhaps one of the Althamir.”

  The news was unsettling, that Gwyn had dreamed about her before they had ever met, had dreamed about her death but had never shared it. Who had sent those dreams? A sick feeling bubbled in her stomach. “Did you see him? The man in your dreams? What did he look like?”

  Gwyn nodded. “It’s still clear to me, even now. Dreams aren’t usually like that, you know. He was young, so young, with red braided hair and green eyes. His eyes were the strangest. His pupils, they were slit, slit like—”

  “Like a cat’s,” Mariah spit out. “Dammit!”

  “Yes,” Gwyn replied, focus coming back into her eyes as she looked at her former charge. “You’ve seen him?”

  Frustration filling her, Mariah jumped up and stomped off toward the well. Turning the crank as hard as she could, she brought up the bucket from below and helped herself to a ladle full of cool water, giving herself time to think.

  Because she hadn’t spoken to Gwyn in all these months, whatever her mentor had heard about her journey to Varidian would have been secondhand through Xae or maybe Bria, but only Shira—and Tibbot, of course—knew about Old Cat Eyes. She hadn’t told the others.

  “Yes, I’ve seen him. You could say he helped me.” She blew out a breath as she watched Gwyn get to her feet. “In Varidian, when we set the girls free, I was captured.” She had told the others that much. What she hadn’t told them … “I was taken to Glenley, left in the king’s dungeon to rot while he was away o
n his latest campaign.” Gwyn gasped, and exhaustion filled Mariah. When she sank back onto the lip of the well, her wings bumped the framing. Shaking her head at her own disquiet, Mariah imagined her body as fully human. When she did, the wings disappeared, and she sat back. “He said things to help me, but he said other things, things that still don’t seem possible … I don’t like being manipulated.”

  Gwyn approached, folding a warm hand around hers. Her voice was quiet and serious. “Let me guess. He said that the Ceo San needed you, that you would break them free of their slavery.”

  Mariah nodded, again finding it hard to speak. Apparently, Old Cat Eyes loved to share. “He asks too much. I’m barely a Ceo San, let alone some kind of … hero.”

  “The gods see much, but they share little,” Gwyn said in a voice that Mariah thought was probably meant to be comforting. “Perhaps your role is small but essential. Surely, you can handle that? I wish I knew more, but I do know that we cannot continue to stand by and let our people suffer. I’ve a feeling everything is just beginning.”

  Mariah remained quiet for a long time, her thoughts a complicated jumble in her head. She was able to hold onto the denial that she was capable of helping for only so long. Gwyn’s explanation was comforting after all. Even a pebble thrown into a pond could make ripples that traveled all the way to the edge. Perhaps she was just a very important pebble, thrown at the right time and at the right place. It was an apt metaphor. She often felt as if she was being thrown into things she wasn’t expecting. Perhaps she had already done what was she was meant to do even.

  But no. There was more. There was something more that she already wanted to do, and Gwyn was right. After being so close, seeing firsthand Ceo San enslaved, cuffed, and bound, seeing children treated as chattel, she couldn’t just stay in the safety of Wellspring or Firebend forever, pretending that it didn’t exist. It would be time to leave again soon. She had probably stayed too long already. Winter might soon make traveling much more difficult.