“What? What did he say?” Declan asked.
“He didn’t. He stopped talking,” the young Speaker said, confused.
In fact, the dragon’s head had turned from the humans and was looking off to the west. Suddenly, Nira realized he was looking in the direction of her home—and the hidden cove.
The massive creature suddenly shuffled his feet and wings, then straightened his neck and roared so loudly, it shook leaves from the witchwood trees on the field’s edge.
“There’s another dragon,” Ashley said, frowning. “Really young. Oh! Oh wow!”
“What is it?” Stacia asked, having to yell because the roar had turned into a trumpeting sound.
Gargax went silent, head on point like a hunting canine. Suddenly, from the island’s western edge, a winged shape flew up into the sky, wheeled around, and flapped bronze wings in their direction.
Nira’s heart was in her throat as she watched Storm fly in and backwing to a landing with nimble grace. The young female looked tiny against the immense bulk of the massive black Gargax, but the bigger dragon gently sniffed and nuzzled the little one. Then his head whipped around to look at the humans, and his expression was deadly.
“This is his child… his missing daughter. He thought her dead but finds her hidden here,” Ashley said, her own voice rising in anxiety as the king dragon stamped about, turning his form away from Storm.
The young female dragon suddenly darted forward and placed herself between her giant father and the humans—or at least between him and Nira.
The young bronze pushed her face up toward her parent and bugled at him.
“She says she was attacked by another dragon during a storm. That she washed ashore and only lived because of”—Ashley turned and pinned Nira with her dark eyes—“you!”
“Nira?” Armond asked.
“What could I do, Papa? She was lying in my cove, barely alive. You were on a woodgathering trip. I couldn’t leave her to die. I did what I could. But she repaid me the other day. I was swimming and a siorc attacked. She killed it.”
“Siorc?” Ashley asked.
“Shark,” Declan said, not taking his eyes off Nira and her bronze protector.
Storm trumpeted again and stretched her wings out wide.
“She says the scales are not yet balanced,” the young Speaker translated. “You saved her life, and she yours, but you also saved her wings.”
With her wings outstretched, the scars covering both were very visible and very graphic.
Gargax leaned down and inspected his offspring’s wings, then turned his head and looked carefully at Nira with his full attention.
“You’re right,” Ashley said to the biggest dragon. She turned to the others. “He is amazed that his daughter took such horrific damage yet is fully healed. Your skill with needle and thread and the endurance it must have taken to stitch that many wounds is incredible,” the Speaker said to Nira. “Flight is everything to a dragon. Your gift to Storxyan is beyond any form of measurable value. Saving your life ten times is not likely to even the scales.”
“I didn’t do it so Storm would owe me. I did it because it was right,” Nira said. “Although her name isn’t Storm, is it? Storax?”
“Storx-yan,” Ashley said. “But she likes your name for her better.”
Her words were backed up by the gentle dragon nose that pressed against Nira’s torso.
Gargax rumbled, his head looking at his daughter, the tone so deep, it shook the ground. Storm rumbled back, her tone almost cute compared to her father’s.
“He wants to know what dragon attacked her. She doesn’t know, it was unfamiliar, but she would recognize it by sound or sight if she came across it.”
“What ever happened to Trygon?” Stacia asked.
“He disappeared into Winter’s realm,” Ashley said.
“Show her a memory of him, see if it rings a bell,” Stacia suggested.
Ashley looked at the little dragon and Storm suddenly shrieked in fury and fear.
“That’s a yes,” Declan said.
“You think?” Ashley said.
Gargax lifted his head and roared. It shook the very ground they stood on and forced everyone to cover their ears. Across the island, scores of gulls and other seabirds shot into the sky, screeching in alarm.
Ruffling his wings in agitation, the king of the dragons gradually settled himself.
“Was that wise, great one?” Ashley asked out loud, looking at the dragon. Nira couldn’t believe how brave the Speaker must be to talk so directly to the largest of dragons. Gargax snarled but didn’t look at the small human girl who questioned him, instead staring off to the north.
“Why did you ask that?” Stacia questioned.
“Because a roar like that from a dragon is both auditory and mental. If you think the sound of it carried, the telepathic version of it went three times as far,” Ashley said. “If Trygon is anywhere within two hundred miles, he’ll hear it. And he was named specifically.”
Declan and Stacia stared at the Speaker for a moment. “You think Trygon will hear it and know something is up with Storxyan?”
Ashley shrugged. “Possible. Why risk her safety?”
Gargax shifted his bulk as if to get comfortable, then spun about so he was again facing the humans.
“He suggests that there is a possibility that I may be right, maybe,” Ashley said, turning her face to hide a smirk from the dragon. Then she abruptly looked back at Gargax. “He wonders if Storxyan can hide out here for a time.”
“If I were Trygon, this is where I would start my hunt,” Stacia noted.
“I have an idea,” Declan said, his voice tentative. “Perhaps, if she agreed, Storxyan could accompany us to Earth for just a short bit, maybe a week or two. I would like to learn more about how dragons control their fire and magic. Then we would bring her right back, either here or wherever you tell us, Ashley.”
“He says it won’t work,” Ashley translated after looking to the king dragon. “Earth doesn’t have enough magic for her to fly or protect herself.”
“Well that’s both true and untrue. Much of Fairie’s over
