a final room, which seemed to be a wind tunnel of some sort. Where all the warm air came from (beyond the wooden slats in the walls, of course) I had no idea, but I was almost completely dry and toasty warm by the time we were through. That brought us back to the shower room, so we’d completed some kind of loop.
I had to admire the system: dragon people (at some point, I was going to have to ask for the proper term for them as a whole, if some were drakón and some were amón) had clearly mastered the art of getting clean.
There, we reclaimed our clothes from the shelves where we’d left them and threw the towel wraps in a bin. Then Svyer led me to a final area that was familiar enough: a room full of counters and mirrors, ready to assist females in getting presentable.
Svyer let me borrow her brush (where she’d produced it from, I didn’t know) and began braiding her hair while I worked through the knots in mine. I didn’t know what kind of bristles those were, but they worked miracles in my long, damp, tangled hair.
“I’m going to make sure Ben gets you a full kit,” Svyer said with a frown as she looked at my brushing efforts out of the corner of her eye while she continued her braid. Then she sighed. “Scratch that. I should just get the kit and charge him for it. Ben’s nice and all that, but he’s….”
“Male?” I finished with a grin.
“Exactly,” she said with an answering grin, and we both laughed.
That felt…good. That there was something so universal as our shared femininity.
Just then, I brushed the hair past my ear, the touch of the bristles reminding me of Ben’s gentle touch there earlier. When I pulled my hair back and looked at my ear in the mirror.…
Svyer looked down in alarm at my quiet gasp. “What?”
I touched my ear. Then I put the brush down on the counter and uncovered the other one too. “The blood. It’s…gone.”
I bit my lip in worry. I hadn’t thought about that when I’d gone to take a shower, and Kor hadn’t warned me either. Obviously, I still understood Svyer, so the magic hadn’t faded just yet, but would washing it off make it fade more quickly? Was Ben going to have to bleed for me that much sooner?
“Oh, right,” Svyer whispered, casting a glance around the room. Either we’d taken longer than usual through each step or the others had skipped more steps, because the room was now full of women in the last stage of their night ablutions.
Ben had to put his blood on your ears to make you able to understand us, didn’t he? she asked silently.
I stared back at her. “You didn’t notice?” I said in a whisper.
What, the blood? No, of course not. It had faded by then.
When my blank expression didn’t go away, she grimaced and elaborated. The blood…it was used up in the ritual. It was never there for long to begin with.
My eyes widened with understanding. Different rules, I kept reminding myself. But when would I learn what those rules were?
“So.…” I whispered, face flushing. “I was worried about my ears being stained gold for nothing?”
Svyer laughed. I guess so. Wouldn’t that have caused a stir.
Having gold-blood-stained ears while being accompanied by the golden dragon Heir.… Yes, I could see why that would cause a stir, alright. My flush increased.
I handed Svyer the brush when I was done, and to my surprise, she offered to braid my hair too.
My eyes stung for a moment as I thought of Rachel. As annoying as my older sister was sometimes, one way she redeemed herself was by doing my hair, since I didn’t care enough to learn how to do it myself. Sometimes Rachel even applied a bit of makeup on the rare mornings she didn’t sleep in as late as possible.
Those weekday preparations were hectic but also our greatest bonding time as sisters, the time when we got a chance to talk, complain, and laugh. To feel like we weren’t so different after all. To everyone else, I was the smart one, she was the pretty one. Yet she herself never emphasized that difference between us while she was helping me. Making me feel pretty, as much as that was possible, was Rachel’s way of showing she cared.
That reminder gave me a pang, but I blinked away the tears before Svyer could see them, and I accepted her offer.
Svyer did a beautiful job, twisting my brown hair around my head in an elaborate crown.
“You have such pretty hair,” she complimented as she worked. “So long and thick, and such a nice shade.”
I stared up at her in the mirror. “You like my hair?”
“Of course,” she said with a chuckle. “Do you have any idea how limiting it is to have green hair? I don’t dress this way entirely by choice. If I had hair as neutral and complimentary as yours.…”
She sighed. “Imagine the possibilities.”
“Is it possible to dye it?” I whispered.
She shook her head sadly. Nothing holds. We’re cursed forever with the color from the moment we are changed.
Now I understood her longing. How…limiting indeed. I’d always felt so-so about my hair color, but I’d also known I could change it whenever I bothered to. Now I felt an unfamiliar surge of gratitude for it being…just the way it was. Bland, maybe, but also full of potential.
Then something she said struck me. “Changed?” I asked.
She nodded. We’re not born like this. We start out like everyone else. It’s only when we’re taken to our Tree when we’re twelve summers that…we become drakón.
“Tree?”
She looked down at me in surprise, which soon shifted to that troubled look again. Maybe it’s best if I leave that explanation to Ben.
She said nothing else, and I didn’t pry. My head was so bursting with new information already that I decided it was best to leave the matter be for now.
“Done!” she declared at last in satisfaction, stepping back to admire her handiwork.
“Beautiful,” I complimented her, turning my head this way and that.
She winked. “Too bad Ben is probably going to turn in the first chance he gets.”
I just laughed, so certain she couldn’t be serious that I didn’t even feel the need to blush. “He won’t look twice at me while I’m standing next to you.”
I honestly believed that, and because it was her, I could say it with goodwill.
She snorted in amusement as she started leading me away from the vanity room. “Unlikely.”
“Why? You seem to know him pretty well.”
She laughed. “Yes, rather too well. I’m the closest thing he’ll ever have to a sister: I’m his cousin. On his mother’s side, of course.”
Of…course? I thought curiously. Why would that just be assumed?
To be honest, that line of inquiry was only a mental distraction from the surge of relief I felt. Which was ridiculous, really. I had no idea where it came from.
A few moments later, she was pushing open the bathroom door and leading us into the hall of guest rooms again.
“Wait, that’s it?” I asked.
She looked at me questioningly. “Was there something else you needed?”
I thought about that for a moment as we walked. “I suppose…just brushing my teeth. Feels odd to go to bed without it, I guess. Do you do that here?”
“Brushing…teeth?” she asked in amusement. “Like hair? Why would you do that?”
Figures they would have perfect teeth, too, I thought.
“Because we unfortunate full humans get holes in our teeth if we don’t.”
“Ah, I see,” she said, turning sympathetic. “That’s not just a human problem, though. Amón do too if they don’t rinse their mouths and see a healer often enough. But even if a hole grows, that’s something a healer can fix easily.”
“Oh,” I said, blinking. “Um…good, I guess.”
“Still, as a healer, I approve of you trying to do your part,” she said with a wink. “I’ll put the mouthwash tablets in your kit.”
“Thanks,” I said with a laugh.
“A toothpicker, too,” she said to herself, eyes going distant. “You really are going to need everything, aren’t you? I’d better get to the market before all the shops close.…”
“I don’t want to be a bother,” I said. “Especially since hopefully I won’t need any of it after tomorrow.”
She absently waved away my protest. “Don’t worry about it. Ben can always trade in anything you haven’t used at the next hold. Now…which door is yours, so I know where to bring your things?”
“Uh.…” I had a moment of panic as I scanned all the doors. Which looked the same to me, apart from the glowing gems. Were those the only markers we were expected to go by?
Then I spotted it: the bright, white gem glowing a few dozen feet away, and at its doorstep was Kor’s promised food and a small pile of clothing—with a pair of slippers. I led her there hesitantly and pointed.
“I think…this one. I don’t see any other gems like it, anyway.”
When she didn’t answer, I looked up at her—and was startled to see her wide eyes staring at the gem.
“No,” she said faintly. “You wouldn’t.”
“What is it?” I asked, heart sinking.
She shook herself. “I’m…not sure,” she said, biting her lip as she looked away.
Strange. She’d dodged some of my questions and said she wouldn’t answer others, but for the first time, I got the impression that she’d outright lied.
Obviously, there was something very significant about how that gem had reacted to me. Kor had tricked me into touching it while he could watch, and now Svyer, the kindest soul I’d met here, had been shocked speechless and then refused to tell me why.
It’s best you go in now, before anyone sees you, she said, looking back at me with sincere concern. People will guess anyway, but…you don’t want to outright confirm for everyone that this is your door.
“You said I wasn’t in danger,” I reminded her in a whisper.
She glanced at the doorgem and then back at me, eyes anxious. I wasn’t thinking.… Well, this makes things a bit more complicated.
She’d said they were complicated before. Now they were even more so?
You’ll be fine, she insisted. Ben will take care of you. You’ll see. He knows far better than I do how to handle this.
She bent down and picked up the clothing and tray and stacked them in my arms by turns.
“Well, at least that’s one thing I don’t have to take care of tonight,” she said with a wan smile. “Go on, get some rest. You’re safe tonight, at least, and you’re in good hands. Remember that.”
She walked away, then paused for a moment. “Oh, Sarah?”
I had to clear my throat to answer. “Yes?”
“Don’t let Ben drag you away until I’ve given you a proper healing, you understand?” she said sternly.
I laughed tightly and nodded. “Understood.”
“Good,” she said, and turned and resumed walking.
My heart unclenched in my chest a bit as I watched her go. Other than that one lie, she had been sincere. Which meant, as far as she was aware, I was safe—for tonight.
Hopefully that would be enough.
I shifted the clothes and tray to one arm so I could push open my door. Once again, I felt that mild tingle as I touched the doorplate, and the mechanism unlocked, letting the door swing open.
I went inside and set my burdens down on the desk, thinking hard.
Getting home was going to be more complicated—and dangerous—than I thought. There was more going on here than having to wait a night before Ben could give me a lift. Monsters prowled outside this underground settlement, and even vaguer threats lurked in the shadows within.
No matter what I did, there would be risk. If I went with Ben, if I trusted Ben, then I had to brave both the external and internal threats, perhaps even increased by Ben’s company; both Kor and Svyer had hinted by now that he wasn’t the safest person to be hanging around.
If I stayed, I faced those internal threats alone, except maybe with Svyer. She seemed the type who would help me no matter what I decided. Yet Svyer admitted she didn’t have the same capabilities as Ben did. Staying, or waiting for some safer escort (if I could even expect one) might decrease my odds of returning home, maybe even trap me here forever.
Might. Maybe. If. There were so many unknowns! So many questions these drakón hadn’t answered yet. But with the way my day had gone, I felt like I had to make at least some kind of decision on what to do, before I let myself just be swept away again, doing whatever I was expected to do. I couldn’t let myself procrastinate making yet another life-altering decision—and this one far more significant than deciding whether to leave home.
I longed to choose the safe choice yet again, to tell Ben I appreciated his offer, but I’d taken enough of his time. That was the practical choice on so many levels, none the least of which separating the two of us before I got the wrong idea in my head about him.
And yet…I pictured it, telling him goodbye, and.…
I yanked my thoughts back to practical considerations, ignoring the pang in my chest.
Going with Ben had the greatest risk…but also the greatest chance of getting home. That was what mattered most, didn’t it? Besides, for once in my life, it would be taking a risk. A leap.
It’s what I want to do, I realized.
That’s what decided me.
I was going to go with Ben…because I knew that was the risk I’d forever regret not taking.
awake. I had a bewildering second in which I had no memory of where I was or why I was there, and then it all came rushing back.
I collapsed back into the bed and groaned. I’d had a terrible night’s sleep. At first, it had just been the tossing and turning, trying to relax after Svyer’s vague warnings and small bit of comfort. Then I was too hot and threw off the furs. Then I got too cold. Then I got a headache just from the sheer sleeplessness. When I’d finally drifted off to sleep.…
Knocking.
At least it was a comfy bed.…
A knock came again, still soft but persistent.
“Just a second,” I mumbled loudly and sat up. I waited until the blood stopped rushing before pushing off the covers and getting up. I stumbled through the dark room until I got to the door.
Just as I was about to push it open, Svyer’s anxiousness and Kor’s bit of “advice” came back to me with a chilling effect that jolted me wide awake.
Trust those instincts of yours, Sarah.
I did not know what dangers existed for me in this world, but wasn’t it common sense to not answer the door without knowing who was behind it?
“Who is it?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
“Sarah?” a male voice asked tentatively. “It’s me, Ben.”
It sounded like him, but how could I be sure? There were humans who could turn into dragons, for goodness’s sake. What else, or who else, could they turn into?
Gah, Kor was going to make me paranoid!
Or…was that what he meant? He didn’t say suspect everything. He’d said trust your instincts. What were my instincts telling me right now, underneath all that paranoia?
I took a calming breath, and then I just…felt for the right answer.
I began to…have a new sense—not a touch or a taste or a smell or anything like I’d ever experienced before. But I felt someone on the other side of the door.
And I knew that someone was Ben.
Just like that, the last of the fear left.
I pushed open the door just wide enough for my face, but now that was just from vanity. My braid was a mess, and my new clothes were rumpled and probably put on wrong to begin with.
Sure enough, I saw Ben standing there, looking adorably self-conscious and holding a tray of food. If my anxiety hadn’t been dispelled already, that would have clinched it.
“Hey, sorry, I was dead asleep,” I said with a yawn for emphasis. “What’s up?”
“Sorry,” he said with a wince. “I should have talked to you last night but.… Anyway, um…I brought you breakfast?”
He said that like it was a question as he held out the tray. Like it was a peace offering between us.
“Thanks,” I said as I pushed the door open far enough to take it. I tried not to show any self-consciousness about my frumpy appearance. “But…why?”
Most especially, Why you?
Even though Kor had clarified that an Heir was treated a lot differently than a prince, it still made little sense for him to be fetching me food.
Then again…when I thought of either Yvera or Kor doing it for him.…
Yeah, if it were going to be any one of those three, it would be him.
“Because we’re going to be leaving soon,” Ben said. “I know it’s early, sorry, but I figured you’d forgive me, seeing as we’re going to go look at the place where you emerged into our world. And start figuring out a way to send you home.”
Hope surged in my chest as my fog-filled mind remembered what was on the agenda for today. “Really? Oh, thank you so much!”
Now his cheeks were growing red under that short golden beard. I couldn’t understand how I had thought he was so much older than me before. “I’d promised you yesterday that I would help.”
“I know, but thank you, thank you,” I said. “I’ll get ready to go and be out in just a sec, don’t worry!”
“There’s no need to rush,” he said hastily as I began letting the door swing closed. At his words, I put my hip against it to hold it back. “You can take the time you need. Kor won’t reach a functioning level for another half deken at least.”
I stopped in place. “Uh…how long is a deken?”
“Um.…”
“Never mind, we can go over time-telling later,” I said. “I’ll get ready and be out soon.”
“That works,” he said in relief. “See you soon.”
I let the door swing shut, and as I set the tray on the desk, I realized I was smiling goofily for no good reason—more so than just the thought of going home warranted, at any rate. I smacked my cheeks to get the silly expression to come off and was only marginally successful as I began gathering up my own clothes to head to the bathroom.
When I opened the door and stuck my head into the hallway, Ben was nowhere in sight, which was a relief and a disappointment. Mostly relief, seeing as I was still a mess. Then I darted down the hall as fast as my aching body and pounding head would let me, feeling intensely glad that I’d figured out the bathroom situation last night while he had still been busy, and that I’d had Svyer to help me. Svyer, his cousin. Thank goodness.
For her help. Obviously.
I felt grimy after my sweaty night, but I decided to skip the shower and simply take care of business, change, and straighten up a bit. But as I was moving from the toilet area to the shower room—figuring the area by the cubbies was as good a place to change as any—my pounding headache reached a crescendo that made me stumble on the wet floor.
The world spun, and I…didn’t…feel…so.…
Staggering, I slipped on a wet patch, and my head hit the stone with a crack that sent a white-hot flash of pain through my already pounding skull.
Then—nothing.