“I’ll take your sister to a safe place, then meet you here at dusk in ten days. Drink only the stream water. Don’t eat Zens’ food.” The dragon’s instructions blazed through Roberto’s mind. “Don’t let Zens test you mentally, or he’ll discover you’re no longer under his influence. Being a dragon rider is your true destiny, Roberto of Naobia.”
“And if I don’t like this new life with you?”
“I’ll return you to Death Valley.”
“What if Zens suspects?”
Erob rubbed his eye ridge on Roberto’s hand, and Roberto couldn’t help scratching it. “You could come now.”
Amato’s angry face flashed before Roberto and he shook his head. “No, we must protect my sister.”
“Here, take one of my scales. Eat a little each day. It’ll give your eyes, skin, and fingernails a gray sheen, like you’re numlocked, but you’ll need to act sluggish.”
Roberto stopped his memories. Ezaara reeled. So much information. So much hurt.
“Zens nearly caught me, but I pretended I had a belly gripe, blocking his probing mind with memories of nausea so he’d think I was too sick to eat,” Roberto said. “On the tenth day, when I went to meet Erob, tharuk troops were combing the hills, so I had to sneak to the foot of the Terramites. Erob sensed me before I saw him. Under the cover of night, we escaped. He returned me to my home so I could uncover my father’s treachery and bring him to justice.”
“What happened to your father?”
“He was banished at his trial, but escaped on his dragon, Matotoi, who he’d turned with swayweed after he returned. My mother wouldn’t tell him where Adelina was, so my father threw her off Matotoi’s back onto some rocks. She never walked again.” He stopped speaking, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. “She died a few moons later.”
Ezaara gasped. “That’s awful. Horrible.”
“For a moment, my father was wracked with anguish that he’d hurt her. Matotoi felt his self-hatred, so he dived to the bottom of Crystal Lake, killing himself and Amato.” Roberto gestured inland, his voice hollow, lifeless. “It’s a short flight away, over those hills. Adelina and I used to swim there, but we haven’t been back. The villagers searched for their bodies, but they were never found.”
Her life in Lush Valley had been paradise compared to his. No wonder he’d been so distrusting when she’d first met him. His father had murdered his mother. Sure, it had taken moons for her to die, but he’d killed her. And tortured Roberto and sold him out.
If Amato wasn’t dead, she’d finish him off herself.
“Ezaara.” Roberto’s voice pierced her thoughts. “I can’t return to Dragons’ Hold. I’ve been a traitor already, controlled by Zens, and I could fall again.”
“You’ve turned your back on Zens once, proving you’re true. If he ever catches you, you can do it again. You can resist him.” Ezaara wanted to grab him and shake some sense into him. She hadn’t come all this way, risking her life and giving up Zaarusha, only to have him give up.
Handel’s vision flashed across Ezaara’s mind: Roberto’s face twisted into a cruel mask, lunging at her. She pushed the image aside. She wouldn’t let that prophecy come true.
“Tonio’s right.” Roberto ran a hand through his hair. “Just say, they let me back as a dragon master again—if Zens gets hold of me and the information in my head, he’ll learn enough to destroy the realm and its leaders.”
“But you love the realm. You’ll weaken the leadership if you’re not part of it. No one has your mental talents. No one knows Zens’ weaknesses better than you.” She took his hand.
He pulled it away. “I can’t go back. They think I was romantically involved with you. As a master, I’d be banished anyway.”
“We didn’t do anything! I was treating your wounds.”
“But you weren’t supposed to get off Zaarusha.”
“I don’t care if they know. I saved someone’s life. Two lives.”
“And endangered your own.”
“So what?” Ezaara ripped a crust off the loaf and tossed it to some gulls that were wheeling and shrieking in the wind. They landed, squabbling over crumbs.
“Anyway, they think I poisoned Jaevin.” Roberto uncrossed his long legs, scattering the birds.
“We know you didn’t. There’s a traitor at large at Dragons’ Hold. If we don’t find them, they may strike again. They may have already.”
“No, they’re better off without me, and so are you.”
Ezaara threw her hands up. “Roberto, can’t you see? I love you. I want you by my side.”
“I’m not fit for you. You could do so much better. Besides my past with Zens, I’m a broken man. Even Erob tells me I don’t trust enough.”
“True,” Erob interjected.
Roberto raised an eyebrow and gave a sardonic smile. “See?”
Ezaara took his hand again, rubbing the back of it with her thumb. “In time, you’ll come to trust me, despite what’s happened in your past. We can do this. Together.”
He sighed. “I’m really not a fit companion for a Queen’s Rider.”
“Well, then, that’s fine, because I’m no longer Queen’s Rider. I gave up Zaarusha to come and find you.”
His eyebrows flew up. His jaw dropped. “You gave up the queen for me?”
Ezaara nodded.
A tear ran from Roberto’s eye. His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “You did that? For me?”
She stroked her finger along the track of his tear. “Yes, for you, Roberto of Naobia. You’re worth it. But don’t make me return alone.”
§
Roberto was filled with a thousand swirling colors. Ezaara had chased away his darkness. She’d glimpsed the horror of his past and loved him anyway. We can do this together, she’d said. And he believed her.
“How can you want me, when you’ve seen what I’ve done?” His scarred cheek twitched where Pa had whipped him.
Her smile was like
