| |
NOT long after their rides began in the dark of night, the prince came to Zorag on an evening darker than the rest, and said, “I must flee.”
Zorag looked on his prince and felt the wrenching in his heart. Must he lose another rider?
“My father has banished me from the kingdom,” Prince Wendell said.
“Your father,” Zorag said. “Why would he do such a thing?” He said the words with all the hatred he felt inside.
Prince Wendell touched Zorag’s cheek. “He is a good man,” he said. “He has had a hard life, and he does not quite know what to do with all of that. Power can turn a man cruel.”
Yes. Zorag knew all about what power could do in a man. He saw it before the good King Brendon, after all. He had seen it in many a man, had even begun to notice it in Blindell, as the dragons of Morad began to pay more and more attention to the young dragon and his need for revenge.
“And why has your father banished you?” Zorag said.
Prince Wendell shook his head. “It matters not,” he said. “It matters only that I must leave at once.”
“Stay with us,” Zorag said.
“It is too dangerous,” Prince Wendell said. “Your people will not like a human living among you.”
Zorag said nothing, though the dragons carried a secret, too.
“I must go,” Prince Wendell said.
“Then I shall take you,” Zorag said.
Prince Wendell shook his head. “No,” he said. “It is too dangerous for you.”
“Then why is it you have come?” Zorag said.
“To say goodbye,” Prince Wendell said.
“I must see you to safety,” Zorag said, for he did not want to say goodbye to this human he loved.
“No,” Prince Wendell said. “I cannot let you risk it.”
“I cannot let you risk a journey on foot,” Zorag said. “You will never travel fast enough.”
Prince Wendell did not argue. He merely dipped his head. “Very well,” he said. He climbed on his dragon’s back.
Zorag took to the sky, on this last night that he would carry a rider on his back, for this time he would surely never love a human being as he had loved Prince Wendell.
And when he had landed with Prince Wendell in a grassland between Lincastle and Eastermoor, he returned to Morad to grieve in solitude.