Eight weeks had passed since they left Toli behind in the caverns of Dragon Mountain. It wasn’t that everything had changed, Petal thought as she moved her dragon piece five squares east. It was just that, with Toli gone, nothing was the same. Given how often her sister had been out hunting or training even when she was here, Petal was a little surprised by how much she missed her.
Wix frowned, studying her move on the board. He toyed with his own carved dragon piece. As long as he didn’t remember that she’d moved more ice in from the west, her plan would work and she would trounce him again.
The fires in the Great Hall burned bright and merry. Petal brushed fritter crumbs off her soft blue dress. It was her favorite because it was pretty and practical. She could wear it whether she was working with Rasca in the storerooms or practicing knife work with Wix.
Wix looked up and brushed an unruly curl out of his eyes. “Tell me again about Pendar’s face.”
Petal lifted an eyebrow. “You’re not trying to distract me, are you? You know that won’t work.”
His chin dropped into his hand. “’Course not. Why would I do that?”
“Because I’m winning again. Anyway, you were there.”
He placed a settlement wall. “Yes, Petal. I know I was there. I just like the way you tell the story.”
Her dragon soared seven squares north, toppling two more of his hard-won settlement markers. “Oh, all right,” she sighed, grinning at the dismay on his face. “But it’s the last time. For real this time.”
Wix shifted, stretching toward the rafters. “If you say so.”
Rasca dropped a bowl of eggs next to the game board. She nudged him with her knuckles. “Gotta keep your eye on the dragon, boyo, or she’ll knock you back every time.”
“Thanks,” Wix muttered as the old woman shuffled away chuckling.
Petal’s voice was warm and quiet. “When Bola landed with us in her talons, everyone came running.”
“Tell about Luca.”
Petal rolled her eyes. “Luca crouched so low to the ice, I thought she had fallen through.”
Wix let out a bark of laughter.
“Pendar came forward and asked Mother where Toli was.”
Wix’s grin widened.
“She told him that Toli was to be an emissary to the dragons. She said her firstborn daughter would travel to the South to aid them if she could, and to learn more about the people of the Dragon Sea. Then Pendar said, ‘Who?’ And Mother explained there was a whole other Queendom in the South.”
“And…” Wix giggled.
“And then Pendar opened his mouth.”
“Like a—”
“Like a fish gasping.”
“And—”
Petal sighed. “And he kind of choked a bit.”
“And—”
“And then he passed out.”
Wix let out a howl of laughter. “Tell the next part! Tell the next part!”
“And then Rasca nudged him with her foot—more of a kick, really—and asked Bola if she liked deerberry sauce.”
Wix was just winding himself up for another round of howls when Pendar burst through the doors, his cheeks red, breathing hard. “They’re coming,” he said.
Petal and Wix hurried out to join the rest of the Queendom. People had clustered around the Southern Gate, some even spilling outside. Many more filled the narrow streets stretching in both directions. They stood shoulder to shoulder as they waited, gazing up. Everyone was out, even the children, gathered in the streets, necks strained to watch the sky.
Petal’s heart skipped a beat when she thought of her sister passing by on a dragon’s back—so high up and vulnerable. She wondered if Toli was happy with the choice she’d made, or if she was scared about leaving to go so far away with no one but dragons for company.
Wix glanced at Petal and cleared his throat, his voice a soft rasp. “Remember last week when the Dragon-Mother sent that red dragon … What was his name?”
“Rannu.”
“Rannu, right. Remember what he told your mother?”
Petal nodded. “I guess so.”
Wix tapped her foot with his. “He said they would be passing by today, and that Toli was well. He said Ruby would be riding with her. And he said they would all do their best to keep them both safe. And, yes, to answer your question, it does.”
Petal scowled at him. “What question? Does what?”
Wix smirked. “Yes, it does make me feel better to hear it too—a little.”
Petal rolled her eyes, but some of the tightness in her chest loosened. “Do you really think they’ll fly right over the Queendom this year? They’ve never done that before.”
Wix pressed his lips together. “Well, it’s way out of their way, so it’s either they’re doing it as a gesture—for Toli, or for their Queen, or your sister made them mad and they’re planning to eat us all.”
Petal couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up. Wix grinned and gave a stiff nod as they both lifted their faces back toward the broad expanse of sky. Soon Nya’s rise would drive away the Father’s thick green light for the rest of the year. They would say goodbye to the wending streaks of color in the sky until next year too. But this time, the lights weren’t the only thing they’d miss.
Petal looked up at the queen, atop the Southern Wall, standing next to her own statue as she scanned the distance. “Do you think we’ll be able to see Toli—or Ruby?” she whispered, shifting her weight for the eighth or ninth time in as many seconds.
Wix frowned. “I hope so. Didn’t your mother say they would pass over from the north, after they checked the forest bluff for prey?”
Petal nodded.
“I mean, I don’t really get that, to be honest. There’s no prey up there. Not at this time of year.”
Petal rubbed her nose. “It’s like you said. They’re going way out of their way. I—I think they just said that about looking for prey because they needed a reason, you know? I mean, they needed a better reason than doing something nice for us—and for Toli.” She paused, shooting him a teasing look. “Or maybe we are the prey.”
Wix snorted, and off to his left, someone’s breath caught.
“There they are,” Rasca called from just behind them. Pendar’s belly laugh echoed from somewhere in the crowd.
Skimming the ridge, the dragons soared over the Queendom. They had never been so close. Before this, they’d always flown high, circling the mountain before they left. They could almost have been brightly colored birds in the distance.
Not this time.
“Look,” Petal breathed as a huge turquoise dragon passed.
More came, and more again. People spoke in hushed voices all around Petal and Wix. They had never seen so many—hadn’t realized their full might. The dragons passed low over the ice, moving off into the distant sky like a tribute to the aurora itself.
“Told you they’d fly close.” Wix laughed under his breath.
Petal grinned back at him. “Don’t be smug. Maybe that’s why the Dragon-Mother brought them all this way. Not to be nice, but so we wouldn’t forget our place. Look! Is that—”
“There she is,” the queen cried.
The Dragon-Mother soared over them, the pale glow of her scales so low that the rush of her wings blew Petal’s hair forward across her face. Iridescent feathers brushed the tops of the statues on the Southern Wall as she passed, but few people noticed. Most of them were staring up at the small figure that lay prone against the ice-white dragon’s back. Some even glimpsed the flash of Ruby’s red scales where she curled across Toli’s neck. As they watched, Princess Anatolia turned her head to look back at them—and lifted her hand to wave goodbye.