garlic and rosemary — good blood cleaners — although the whole arm looked beyond help.
I signaled to the Beseecher to stop his calls to Shola. There was no need to bring Ryko to the attention of the death goddess. She would arrive soon enough.
“Has he roused again? Has he spoken?” I asked.
“Nothing intelligible,” Tozay said. He glanced at Dela. “I am sorry, but it is time you both left. My spies have Sethon heading this way. We will continue to care for Ryko and look for the Pearl Emperor, but you must go east and seek safety with Lady Dela’s tribe. We will rendezvous with you once we have found His Highness.”
Tozay was right. Although the thought of leaving Ryko was a hundredweight of stone in my spirit, we could delay no longer. The east was our best chance. It was also my dragon’s domain, her stronghold of power. Perhaps my presence in her energy heartland would strengthen our bond and help me control this wild magic. It might also help the Mirror Dragon hold off the ten bereft dragons if they returned.
Dela shot a hard look at the resistance leader. “Surely this discussion can wait until—”
“I am afraid it cannot, lady.” Tozay’s voice was gentle but unyielding. “This must be your good-bye, and it must be swift.”
She bowed her head, struggling against his blunt practicality. “My people will hide us beyond Sethon’s reach,” she finally said, “but the problem will be getting to them.”
Tozay nodded. “Solly and Vida will travel with you.”
Behind Dela, I saw Vida square her shoulders. At least one of us was ready for the challenge.
“They know how to contact the other resistance groups,” Tozay added, “and they can act the part of your servants. You’ll be just another merchant husband and wife on a pilgrimage to the mountains.”
Dela’s focus was back on Ryko. She lifted his inert fingers to her cheek, the swinging lamplight catching the shine of grief in her eyes.
“That may be,” I said looking away from the tender moment, “but our descriptions are on the lips of every news-walker, and tacked to every tree trunk.”
“So far you are still described as
I was still described as Lord Eon? I was sure Ido would have told Sethon I was a girl, either under duress or as a bargaining tool. It did not make sense for him to protect me. Perhaps the Mirror Dragon and I had truly changed Ido’s nature when we healed his stunted heart-point and forced compassion into his spirit. After all, that first union with my dragon had also mended my hip, and I was still healed. I pressed my hand against the waist pouch where I kept the family death plaques of my ancestors Kinra and Charra: a wordless prayer for the change to be permanent. Not only Lord Ido’s change, but my own wondrous healing. I could not bear to lose my freedom again.
“Sethon will not only be looking for you, Lady Dragoneye,” Master Tozay murmured, a touch to my sleeve drawing me a few steps away. “He will be seeking anyone close to you that he can use as a hostage. Give me the names of those who you think are in danger. We will do our best to find them.”
“Rilla, my maid, and her son Chart,” I said quickly. “They fled before the palace was taken.” I thought of Chart; his badly twisted body would always attract attention, if only to drive others away before his ill fortune tainted them. I felt a small leap in my spirit: never again would I be spat on as a cripple or driven away. “Rilla would seek somewhere isolated.”
Tozay nodded. “We will start in the mid-provinces.”
“And Dillon — Ido’s apprentice — but you are already searching for him. Be careful with Dillon; he is not in his right mind, and Sethon will be hunting him for the black folio, too.”
I remembered the madness in Dillon’s eyes when he had wrenched the black folio from me. He’d known the book was vital to Ido’s plans for power and thought he could use it to trade with his Dragoneye master for his life. Instead, he had brought Sethon and the entire army upon himself. Poor Dillon. He did not truly understand what was in the small book he carried. He knew it held the secret to the String of Pearls. But its pages held another secret, one that terrified even Lord Ido: the way for royal blood to bind any Dragoneye’s will and power.
“Is that all who may be at risk, my lady?” Tozay asked.
“Perhaps …” I paused, hesitant to add the next names. “I have not seen my family since I was very young. I hardly remember them. Perhaps Sethon would not—”
Tozay shook his head. “Sethon will try everything. So tell me, if they were found and held, could Sethon coerce you with their lives?”
Dread curdled my stomach. I nodded, and tried to dredge up more than the few dim images I had of my family. “I remember my mother’s name was Lillia, and my brother was called Peri, but I think it was a pet name. I can only remember my father as Papa.” I looked up at Tozay. “I know it is not much. But we lived by the coast — I remember fishing gear and a beach — and when my master first found me, I was laboring in the Enalo Salt Farm.”
Tozay grunted. “That’s west. I’ll send word.”
Beside us, the herbalist lifted Ryko’s dripping hand from the bowl and laid it back on the pallet. He leaned over and stroked Ryko’s cheek, then pressed his fingertips under the islander’s jaw.
“A sharp increase of heat,” he said into the silence. “The death fever. Ryko will join his ancestors very soon. It is time to wish him a safe journey.”
He bowed, then backed away.
My throat ached with sorrow. Across the pallet, Solly’s face was rigid with grief. He raised a fist to his chest in a warrior’s salute. Tozay sighed and began a soft prayer for the dying.
“Do something,” Dela said.
It was part plea, part accusation. I thought she was talking to the herbalist, but when I looked up she was staring at me.
“Do something,” she repeated.
“What can I do? There is nothing I can do.”
“You healed yourself. You healed Ido. Now heal Ryko.”
I glanced around the ring of tense faces, feeling the press of their hope. “But that was at the moment of union. I don’t know if I can do it again.”
“Try.” Dela’s hands clenched into fists. “Just try. Please. He’s going to die.”
She held my gaze, as though looking away would release me from her desperation.
Could I save Ryko? I had assumed that Ido and I were healed by the extra power of first union between dragon and Dragoneye. Perhaps that was not true. Perhaps the Mirror Dragon and I could always heal. But I could not yet direct my dragon’s power. If we joined and tried to heal Ryko, we could fail. Or we could be ripped apart by the sorrow of the ten bereft dragons.
“Eona!” Dela’s anguish snapped me out of my turmoil. “Do something. Please!”
Each of Ryko’s labored breaths held a rattling catch.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
Who was I to play with life and death like a god? I had no knowledge. No training. I was barely a Dragoneye.
Even so, I was Ryko’s only chance.
“He is dying because of you,” Dela said. “You owe him your life and your power.
Hard words, but they were true. Although I had lied to Ryko and betrayed his trust, he had still guarded my back. He had fought and suffered for the hope of my power. Yet what was the good of protecting such power if I did not have the courage to use it?
I gathered my skirt and kneeled beside the pallet, instinctively seeking more contact with the earth and the energy within it.
“I don’t know what will happen,” I said. “Everyone must stand back.”
The herbalist hurriedly joined the Beseecher in the far corner of the room. Tozay ushered his daughter and Solly away from the bed, then turned back for Dela, but she ignored his outstretched hand.
“I’m staying.” She saw the argument in my eyes and shook her head. “I will not leave him.”
“Then don’t touch him while I am calling my dragon.” The first time I had called the Mirror Dragon, the wild
