Web Of Bones: Book II of the Dragon Mage Series (17 page)

Rhune, who had been uncharacteristically quiet for far too long, was looking up at Melly and Solan with his
arms wrapped around her. The dragon looked up from his mate’s hair and raised a brow at the staring boy. “Ask your question.”

“
You are taking my sister away again?” Solan held her firmly when she would have moved from his arms.

“
Not far, and not long, little man. I will show you the way, and you can visit anytime you want, and your sister will be here often to see you as well.”

Rhune pursed his lips and studied the warrior.
“She said you were a great warrior, and that you would protect her.”

“
I am, and I will.”

He seemed to think about that
. “Can I see your dragon?”

Melly let out a breath she had been holding and giggled against her mate
’s leathers.

Her brother took umbrage at the sound and scowled her way.
“I want to see what a dragon knight looks like, and he changed too fast for me to see before.”

“
Hah!” Lux boomed. “What are we then, if not dragon knights?”

Rhune looked towards the three warriors that stood before the backdrop of Dracon against the balcony rails, and blinked.
Melly had to look and was not surprised to note that, though she had gotten used to them, Furee, Aarion, and Lux were certainly an impressive sight in all that armor, bristling with weapons. Rhune turned wide eyes to Melisande. “Do you get to keep them all?” he whispered, making her smile.

“
No, little man,” she said laughing while she heard Lux choking in the background. Her hands still around Solan, she looked up into her mate’s quicksilver eyes that molted and swirled. “I get to keep the best.”

Without thought to their audience, or the
“yuck” sounds from her youngest sibling, Solan pulled her high in his arms and kissed her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on while the wind danced between them. She did not even think about protesting. She was right where she belonged.

The world of visions was a dark place to be without her mother to guide her, but Asha walked on.
At least in this place that she had walked so many times before, she knew where every door led and every tapestry hung. Though she had never set foot here when it was not in a dreaming, or anywhere else for that matter. It still felt more like home that the grand halls of Isolation ever had. But then most of her time there had been in the tender mercy of the dungeons.

She took her last turn on bare feet, her dress a simple black velvet
that dragged the floor and would stave off the cold chill from the Sea. Outside the sun might be a press of heat across fiery sands, but in the cool of the shadowed castle, the winds from the Sea were enough to make her shiver. Perhaps it would be different when it was not a cold vision she walked, but she was always cold in the dungeon, no matter where her mind traveled. A strange problem for a dragon to have, especially one with her gifts, but then she had always been unique—something she no doubt had her father to thank for.

Before her was the great room, with its many tables, and the high platform where the lord presided, handling petty grievances and complaints from the tenants and workers who resided in his Prov
ince.

“
It is done, then?” The voice was a hard, cold thing from the shadows. Not that Asha could blame him; they had both known it was coming.

“
Yes. It has come to pass. Mother ...” Her voice cracked over the sentence but she raised her head and got it out. “Mother is dead, and
he
is on the run from the dragons.”

“
And you?” Lord Theron of Seatown stepped out of the shadows and entered the vision. His eyes were searching when he looked her over. “You are safe?”

“
For now.” She found a chair and sat, her strength waning. Her hands shook as she pushed her hair from her face. “They have taken me in and ... healed me.”

“
Healed you?” Theron moved closer and looked over her exhausted state. “Then they know?”

“
No.” She looked up, meeting his black eyes and shaking her head. “The healer, yes, but she is a mage healer and will keep my secret.”

“
A mage healer. They are full of surprises, these dragons.” He shook his head, remembering something, and then looked back down at her. “When can you make the journey?”

“
I will rest, and then I will wait for the vision to guide me.”

“
Be careful, Asha. Dragon visions did not save Laksee, or you, from torture and imprisonment.”

“
But then, Mother was a creature of the Light,” Asha said, meeting those black eyes that held cold power. “She believed in the good intentions of the dragons, and had only vision to protect her.” Her eyes lit with a fire of her own—a green mage fire. “I am not so naive, nor so good.” She smiled and it was as chilling as the wind that blew in from the Sea. “And our father made sure I had other gifts to call upon.”