Eona: The Last Dragoneye

want to do it. I told her I was no good at this kind of thing.”

“Dela?” Shock stilled my hand. She was my friend. “Why would she do that?”

“She says you are shutting her out, my lady.”

I waded to the steps and stumbled up them, catching my shin on a stone edge. Sharp pain spiked through me, opening my fury into full flame.

Vida stood up in the water. “Lady Dela is worried about you,” she called after me. “You have to spend a lot of time with Lord Ido, and she knows what he is like. She was at court with him for years.”

I turned around. “I’m doing it all for His Majesty,” I yelled. “No other reason. Tell her that!”

I grabbed a drying cloth and ran, dripping, to the dressing room, snapping the door shut behind me. The cooler air in the connecting space shivered across my body. I jammed my hand against my mouth, trying to press back the sob in my throat. Even Dela did not trust me.

I had never felt so alone.

With frantic speed, I pulled on the fresh clothes, tying the tunic as I ran through the foyer, my wet hair unbound and hanging like a loose woman’s. I grabbed my sandals from the shelf and pushed my way through the door flags. The old at-tendant was still waiting outside the entrance, with a man. I recognized the stringy frame: Caido. What was he doing here? They both turned at my abrupt appearance.

The old woman gasped. “My lady, do you need assistance? Did I forget combs?”

“No.” I dropped my sandals and forced my feet into them, then gathered my hair back into my fist.

Caido turned his face away from my immodesty. “My lady,” he said. “I am here to deliver a message from Lord Ido. He asks that you join him on the beach for training.”

“That is the last thing I want to do.” I pushed past him and the attendant and quickened my walk into a half- jog, although there was no place to go.

Caido’s longer legs caught me up in a few strides. “Please, my lady. Lord Ido said to tell you that you are both strong enough to start working with your dragon now.”

I stopped, all my pain and anger gone, obliterated by one thought: my dragon. Her glory was always with me. I was not alone. I was never alone.

“Take me to Ido,” I said.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

LORD IDO WAS crouched a length beyond the tide line, sifting sand through his fingers under the gaze of his two guards. As I approached, he released the handful in a glistening slip and stood to watch my awkward progress across the soft beach. Each step squeaked and, along with the persistent flies and my sore spirit, I was finding it difficult to maintain any dignity.

I stopped in front of him. “Lord Ido.”

“Lady Eona,” he answered, bowing.

Gathering knots of villagers watched us from beyond the seawall. Most of the able-bodied men were out on the fishing boats, but it was wise to never underestimate the power of a mob, even if it was made of the elderly, women, and children. “Is it a good idea to be so conspicuous, Lord Ido? There is a great deal of ill feeling toward you in this village.”

He shrugged. “His Majesty has agreed to us working on the beach.”

I glanced at the two men behind him. Their startled eyes were fixed on my unbound hair.

“Wait over there,” I said, waving them to the end of the seawall where Caido still stood. “And keep watch on the villagers. Do not let them approach.”

They bowed and left, their retreat marked by the strange squeaking.

“I like your hair like that,” Ido said.

I opened my fist and smoothed out the leather string that the old attendant had beseechingly pressed into my hand, for my modesty. With deliberate show, I gathered my hair at the back and tied the thong around it.

He smiled. “I like it like that, too.”

Crossing my arms, I said, “You told Caido I was strong enough to work with my dragon now.”

“No. I said we were strong enough to work with your dragon.” He took a few steps toward the seawall. “Come. I’ll show you how to catch lightning.”

Catch lightning? Intrigued, I followed. He stopped midway between wall and water and sat on the sand near a small overturned boat, a tilt of his head inviting me to join him. Driven by a sense of unease, I scanned the beach and cliffs around us. Along the seawall, a lumpy expanse of draped fishing net had flipped back at one end, exposing the unmistakable outline of tuaga: long, sharpened bamboo stakes bound crosswise to form portable defense walls. It was the first sign of any fortification I had seen. What else did the villagers have hidden? I lifted my shoulders, trying to throw off my misgivings. They were resistance, and obedient to Kygo. Yet I could not forget the Elder’s hostility toward Ido. The Dragoneye was hated here; he was a collaborator and had orchestrated the slaying of their Dragoneye protectors. I hoped Kygo’s command was strong enough to hold back a mob’s desire for revenge.

I settled opposite Ido, feeling the sand’s heat seep through my tunic and trousers. The Dragoneye picked up another silky handful and watched it trickle through his fingers, the curve of his eyelashes dark against the pale strain under his eyes. The symmetry of his face was not gut-wrenchingly harmonious like Kygo’s, but every line was strong and bold and brutally confident. Very male. Vida’s description was perfect.

“You have surprised me, Eona,” he said softly. “I was not expecting such”—he looked up at me with a wry smile— “inventiveness in your power manipulation. Or such strength.”

I shifted uncomfortably. “You forced me to go that way.”

“I forced you to find more strength. You chose that particular way yourself.”

I did not look away from his challenge. “Yes.”

His smile broadened. “Good. Don’t ever be ashamed of the course your power takes.”

“You say that, even after I used those pathways?”

“You did what you had to do, Eona. Just as I did,” he said.

“This time, however, I lost, and now Dillon and the black folio are coming. Although we are not ready for them.”

I refused the bait. “Is he near?”

“No. It will take him a while to reach us.”

“How will he follow us over water?”

Ido shrugged. “The black folio will find a way. If there is no boat, the boy will track us along the coast.” He squinted up at the thick, dark clouds. “Our power is diminishing, I am sure of it. “ My shift of alarm brought his eyes back to me. “Do not panic — it is diminishing slowly, not draining away,” he added. “Still, we need to find a way to contain the ten dragons so you can use all the power that you have before Dillon arrives. Then we can both hold him off and get the black folio. It is ironic that once we have the book, you will have no problem with the other dragons — the black folio seems to repel them.”

“Very ironic,” I said dryly. “You really think Dillon will be that strong?”

Ido nodded. “By the time we meet him again, he will be completely taken over by the black folio. I can already feel its presence through the Rat Dragon.”

I shivered, remembering the acid reach of its words. “What is it? What makes it so powerful?”

“Someone wove pure Gan Hua into its pages to protect the secret of the String of Pearls and the way to take all of the dragon power,” he said. “Only a very strong Dragoneye can read the folio without their mind being burned into madness.” He looked at me from under hooded lids. “And only two ascendant Dragoneyes could ever have the combined strength to take all of the dragon power and wield it.”

I leaned forward. “You’ve read the whole folio.”

He bent to meet me. “Then I must be mad or very strong.”

“Most would say you are mad.”