“What if everyone relocates to Elementa, and the sacred flame can’t be moved? What happens then?”
“As long as it burns somewhere, they would be fine, but the priestess would have to remain.”
“So she’d be left alone on Draco?”
“She’d have her guardians and acolytes. She prefers to keep to herself most of the time anyway. I’d visit her. So would Rhianna.”
“Won’t Draco’s continued cooling endanger her?”
“She can survive when others can’t. She protects the Eternal Fyre, and it protects her. It’s kind of a symbiotic relationship.”
And Helena and Rhianna were related to the priestess. Amazing. “How did you discover you had fyre? Did you sense it? Do you have any special powers now?”
Helena shook her head. “Never had a clue. T’mar picked up on it. Dragons can sense fyre in others. The fact that I have it allowed us to become mates.” She laughed. “I don’t have any special powers. Since T’mar and I mated, my sense of smell has sharpened, but that’s the only change I’ve noticed.”
“How did you find out you were related to the priestess?”
“She told me. She’d had visions that descendants of her daughter lived, so she pushed King K’rah to request a concubine from Earth for his son K’ev. As you know, that was Rhianna. When the priestess met her, she realized Rhianna came from her fyreline. In another vision, she saw me and had King K’rah send for a consort for T’mar.”
He jerked his head as a memory bubbled up. It had been about six months ago that he’d encountered the priestess. She’d said—he’d laughed it off—no…it couldn’t be…
Helena frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“The priestess once told me I had fyre.”
* * * *
The donatta waited for him where she’d dropped him off. With awareness of Helena’s ancestry and the epiphany that he, too, could be part dragon, he studied her with a fresh eye. A massive triangular head topped her long neck that flowed into a scaly, thorny spine. Talons the length of his entire hand tipped the claws of her hands and feet. Puffs of fire shot from her nostrils as she impatiently snapped her powerful barbed tail to and fro.
It blew him away that humans could have dragon genes with no outward evidence of it. Wouldn’t he feel it somehow? The human tailbone and an infant’s palmar grasp reflex were remnants of their ape origins. If he had a Draconian ancestor, wouldn’t there be some leftover trait? Vestigial horns or super-sharp toenails? An inclination toward pyrophila? Anything!
More disturbing was the possibility he could be descended from the priestess.
The possibility packed a disheartening punch, as if he’d been robbed of a chance for happiness, which, of course, was ridiculous. He’d already decided to return to Earth, and he’d had no chance of 10,000-year-old dragon priestess even if he wasn’t related to her. He did not see her as a mother figure. He saw her as a desirable woman. No awkwardness or weirdness there.
“What are you gawking at? Do you wish to leave or not?” The guttural voice of the donatta pierced his reverie. She’d shifted into demiforma and stood there naked, scaled, and tailed, glaring at him. If yellow eyes were a crayon, the color would be called baleful.
“Do I have fyre?” He tipped back his head the better to see her. At six foot five, he was taller than almost everyone on Earth. However, the demiforma donatta had six inches on him.
Her snout seemed to curl. “Don’t make me laugh. You’re just a pathetic human.”
So, she couldn’t sense it. What had made the priestess think he had fyre? If he was part dragon, he wanted to know it. The only way to find out for sure would be to seek out the source. Ask the priestess.
As excuses went, it was pretty flimsy, but he’d use any pretext to see her one last time. From what Helena had said, it didn’t appear the priestess would go to Elementa anytime in the near future, and he would return to Earth soon.
“Take me to the temple, please,” he requested.
The donatta sneered. “You stupid human. There is nothing there for you. Do you not know you reek of lust for the priestess? No dragoness would lower herself to consort with a human male. Why do you think she never appears when you arrive? She is there—she does not wish to see you. Now you believe you are part dragon? You wish!” She laughed so hard, puffs of smoke shot from her nostrils.
“Nevertheless, you will take me to the temple.”
Chapter Two
Her ash-white gown and hair puddling around her, the priestess knelt on the marble floor, gazing into the flame dancing in her palm. Millions depended on her, and she would be tested. She could see it in the red-and-gold flickers.
Unworthy.
Her back to the door, O’ne sensed L’yla’s arrival. Of all the acolytes, only she would be bold enough to invade her solitude.
“Prince T’mar and the first thunder of Draconians depart for Elementa the day after tomorrow,” the acolyte said.
“I am aware.” Helena would be on the ship. Soon after, Rhianna would leave. Although the separation would be temporary, and they would be reunited, she ached with anticipatory loss. Any separation from her daughters was too long.
The flame flashed before contracting again. H’ry also would board that ship, stop in Elementa, and then proceed to Earth. She peered into the fire, which had cooled from yellow to red.
“The others ask when we will move.”
Knowledge conferred power. Although the others might have sent her to inquire, more likely the ambitious acolyte had taken the duty upon herself so she could become the herald of good news.
Unworthy.
The priestess
