Uncorking the bottle, Ezaara tipped clear liquid onto the queen’s tongue.
“And now?”
“Now, we wait.” Ezaara focused on Zaarusha’s life thread. Lars paced. She was dimly aware that the noises behind them were quieting. Soon, Zaarusha’s life thread glowed golden.
“What’s happening?” Lars asked. “Is it enough?”
The gold was fading. “No, I don’t think it is.”
Lars ferreted through the jars and bottles. “Is that all we’ve got?”
“Adelina found it. Tell her to fetch all the antidote she can find.” She passed Lars the tiny empty bottle.
He glanced at the collection of vessels on the ground around Ezaara’s knees. “How will she know which one we’re looking for?”
“It has a distinctive smell.”
Lars sniffed it, wrinkling his nose. “Indeed. We’ll be back soon.”
Ezaara stayed, hands pressed against Zaarusha’s side. “Zaarusha.” No answer. The thread looked the same as it had a few moments ago. Her queen was still unconscious.
“I love you.” Roberto’s words blazed through her. Piercing pines grew ever closer in the moonlight. The rush of air and wind. Bucking writhing dragons. Him, holding on despite his leg searing. “Ezaara, I—”
“Roberto!”
Ripping her hands from Zaarusha, Ezaara rushed to the edge and gazed down. There was a burst of flame below. A roar. Then nothing but blackness.
§
Adelina watched helplessly as Erob latched onto Ajeuria and the dragons plunged through the sky. Roars ripped through the night, tearing at her heart, making her chest tight. Shards, her brother. With a surge of energy, she drove her knife upward, slashing Simeon’s wrist.
He dropped his sword.
She leaped through the air, flinging out her foot and driving it into his chest. He stumbled backward. She leaped and kicked again. Simeon went down.
Adelina jumped on him, twisting his arm up his back, and pinned him to the ground.
Moments later, blue guards arrived, taking Simeon off her hands.
“I’ve been attacked!” Fleur pointed at Gret and Ezaara. “They attacked a master. Seize them!”
The guards ignored Fleur’s outraged cries as they held her arms fast.
“You may think you’re clever, Ezaara,” Fleur’s voice glittered with malice as she addressed the Queen’s Rider. “But there’s not enough antidote in the whole of Dragons’ Realm to save your queen.”
Adelina shuddered as the guards bound Fleur and swept her off on one of their dragons.
She helped Gret up. “Are you hurt badly?”
Gret smiled through gritted teeth. “Been better. With our master healer poisoning the council, I’m not sure who’s going to heal me.”
“Come on, Gret. There are others on duty in the infirmary.” A blue guard helped Gret onto his dragon.
With shaking knees, Adelina stumbled past Ezaara and Lars, crouched by Zaarusha’s dull-scaled head, toward the edge of the plateau.
Lars waved a bottle. “Adelina, we urgently need to get more antidote for the queen.”
Who to save? Her brother? Or her queen? Her queen who’d helped banish her brother. No one had believed him innocent except herself and Erob. Now he was plunging to the valley, risking his life for his queen again.
It seemed like hours since she’d discovered Fleur’s stash of hidden remedies—and poisons. Numbly, she nodded and climbed upon Singlar. She’d see Roberto from the air soon enough—if there was anything left to see.
Lars climbed on behind her and patted her shoulder. “He’ll be all right. He’s an experienced rider.”
But Erob was falling, not flying.
Singlar leaped into the sky. Adelina scanned the basin below, searching through the patches of moonlight and shadows for—there, a burst of flame, a roar, then nothing.
Gods, no! He’d been beaten, turned traitor, imprinted and saved, only to be banished, then return—and now this? It was too much. Tears tracked down Adelina’s face, bitterly cold in the night wind. She clung to Lars’ back, burying her face in his jerkin.
His voice rumbled through his back. “Roberto will be all right.”
But his words were hollow. How could Lars know? Hope caught, half-formed in her throat. “Has Singlar melded with Erob?”
“He’s trying.” Lars pressed a bottle into her hand. “We need more of this stuff. You’ll know it by the scent.”
He was deliberately keeping her busy. Adelina uncorked the bottle and sniffed. Ew, gross. “Lars, I don’t know if there’s any more. Fleur said—”
“Hurry,” Lars said, leaping down as Singlar landed outside the infirmary. “Zaarusha is dying.”
Inside the infirmary, Kierion and a young girl were bandaging Gret’s leg. No one else was around.
“Thank the Egg, you’re here, Kierion,” Lars said to him. “We need the antidote to a poison that’s killing Zaarusha. Help us find it.”
Kierion sprang to his feet. “What am I looking for?”
Adelina shoved the empty bottle under his nose. “Anything that smells like this.”
“Phew! At least it’s distinctive.”
“You search out here. Lars and I will look in Fleur’s secret stash.” Adelina rushed Lars into Fleur’s alcove. “I found that bottle in here.”
They frantically rummaged through the shelves, opening bottles and jars and smelling the contents.
“Not this one.” Lars set the bottle aside and snatched up another.
It seemed to take forever. The whole time, Adelina fought the dark panic rising inside her. Still no word of Roberto. “We’ve looked everywhere,” she finally said. “There isn’t any more.”
Lars flung his hands out. “We’ll turn the whole infirmary upside down until we find it. Then search the whole of Dragons’ Hold. We have to save our queen.” He strode out of the alcove.
Adelina hurried after him.
“Whoa, Kierion,” Lars called. “You’ve torn the place apart.”
Drawers were yanked open, mattresses and sheets had been ripped off beds, and Kierion was sprawled on the floor with his head and arms inside a mattress, ferreting around. He emerged, triumphant, hair full of straw, with bottles in his hands. “Look what I found!”
“We’ve no time to waste.” Lars slashed the pallet open with his knife, and yanked back the straw, revealing
