The Dragon Thief

Chapter 7: Aftermath

But in her breast, another fire,

Not born of greed, nor dark desire.

She hears the cries no court will heed,

Of dragons torn, of mothers’ need.

Skylar

I try to force my mind to focus on getting back into the castle unseen, but it’s nearly impossible. That golden dragon spoke to me. Is that normal? Can they talk to whomever they want to talk to? And the other two. I never knew if my efforts were worthy, but now I do. It makes the risks that I’ve been taking so worth it.

When I make my way back down the path, I can still see fires burning inside the fortress and the air is filled with smoke.

I quickly make my way inside, careful not to cross paths with anyone. I stuff my cloak into a hidden wall space. I’ll have to come back for it later.

Then I make my way out into the courtyard and into chaos. The sounds of my people's suffering are echoing off the inner walls of the fortress.

I stop at the first person I see, holding onto their burned flesh and rocking themselves as they cry. I glance around quickly and see what looks like hundreds of people in the same position.

“Princess, it hurts,” the soldier says.

“I know. Here,” I say, ripping my scarf and wrapping the burned flesh to try and keep it from getting dirt in it.

“Has the doctor been around yet?”

“No, not yet. There are others much worse than me.”

I rest my hand gently on his unburned shoulder. “Hold on. Help is coming,” I tell him.

I begin moving through the crowd, slowly helping individuals as I can. When my scarf is gone, I begin ripping the skirt of my dress.

“Princess!” I look up to see our doctor looking overworked and very stressed out.

“What can I do?” I ask.

“Cold compresses. Do we have any cold compresses?”

“We can make some. I can send some warriors out to get snow,” I say.

“If you can find any who aren’t injured,” he says, rubbing his forehead.

I reach out and clasp his arm. “You’re doing a great job. One at a time, doctor. One at a time.”

He nods and turns to go to the next person.

I look around trying to find anyone who isn’t seriously injured or not so injured that they can’t go get snow.

“Skylar!”

I spin around. “Kenneth!” He’s got soot on his face and scorch marks on his uniform.

“Are you alright?” I ask him.

“Yes. You?” he asks, looking me over.

“Yes. We need snow. Have you seen my father?” I ask him.

“He’s up in the ramparts. It’s … it’s not good, Skylar.”

“What do you mean?” I ask as icy fear slithers down my spine.

“Your father is okay," he reassures me quickly. "He’s burned, but he’ll survive. We lost a lot of good warriors. The silvers were protecting the queen."

Part of me wants to scream that of course they were! Just like our soldiers would protect me and my father, their soldiers protect their queens. I wonder if Kenneth knows that my father and his soldiers killed a queen to get her egg. He’s so proud of having gotten a queen egg, but he had to kill one to get one. Where is the honor in that?

For me, we’re lucky the entire castle wasn’t leveled to the ground and every person here wasn’t burned alive. I can guarantee if this was a human on human attack, the attacking party wouldn’t have left any survivors.

What does that say about the humanity of the dragons?

The dragons who talk to me.

And what was that when the queen breathed in my scent? I swear it felt like my soul was leaving my body, like she was opening me up to see the most raw and vulnerable parts of me, then she put me back together when she breathed out her hot breath.

The little red, Syphy, did the same, but not to the same extent. I felt dizzy, yes, but not the same as I did with Ylys. Yttyc didn’t even smell me. I wonder if that’s because he’s a male, or maybe he just went along with what his queen and a red said about me.

‘The human lives.’ Ylys said it like a verdict, like it had been a question up to that point if I would be allowed to live or die. Was I terrified? Absolutely. But it hadn’t occurred to me that they would kill the person bringing their egg back to them.

And what of the riders? Not one of them spoke to me. They let the dragons speak to me. Do they defer to the dragons in matters of life and death?

I have a lot of questions and no answers.

“Skylar! Did you hear me? I said your father is okay,” Kenneth says, shaking me to get my attention.

“Yes. Yes, I’m sorry. This is all a lot,” I say, using the excuse that’s available to me.

“Of course,” he says, pulling me into a hug. The metal of his uniform is still hot from the dragon’s fire. “Let me find some soldiers who can go collect some snow. Do you have anything they can put it in?” he asks.

“I’ll go get a cart. I’ll meet you back here?” I ask.

“Yes,” he says, already looking around.

I race inside, grabbing one of the food carts that we use to pull large amounts of food into the castle. I grab a liner, lining the bottom so the snow won’t fall out when they bring it back in. Then I pull the cart back out to the courtyard.

“Princess! What are you doing?” a warrior asks, rushing up to me.

“We need snow. Prince Kenneth was getting warriors to go collect it.”

“We’re here, Princess,” they say. There are only five of them. It will have to be enough.

“Collect as much as you can. Everyone with a burn will want some snow to cool the heat,” I tell them.

“Yes, Princess,” the warriors say, taking the cart and rushing outside of the fortress walls to get some snow.

I return to helping those who are injured and lying on the ground. When the warriors come back, the snow is used up quickly, and I send them back out again. And again. And again.

The sun has started to rise when the castle courtyard finally falls quiet and all the injured have been seen and either sent to the infirmary or treated and sent to bed. I’m exhausted.

“Skylar.”

I turn to see my father. His arm is bandaged and he’s got burns on the left side of his face from his sideburns, down to his neck, and probably farther down under his clothing that I can’t see.

“Dad!” I say, racing to him.

I’m afraid to touch him, not sure where he’s injured. He reaches out with the unbandaged arm and pulls me into a hug.

“I saw you helping others throughout the night. Thank you.”

“They’re my people too, Dad,” I say to him.

He merely nods. “Go shower and get some sleep. After everyone is healed, we’ll finally be able to celebrate our success. We paid a heavy price tonight, but it’s worth it to have a queen egg.”

I feel sick knowing that there is no queen egg. It’s gone, and my father doesn’t yet know it.

“You get some sleep, too,” I tell him.

“I will. I need to make sure everyone is taken care of, then I will.”

“Have you seen Kenneth?” I ask him .

“He’s inside, checking on his soldiers. You’ll see him on your way.”

“I’m glad you’re okay, Dad.”

“You too, Skylar.”

I head inside and after checking in with Kenneth, I make my way back to the place where I left my cloak. Tucking it under my arm, I head back to my room, stuff the cloak in the back of my closet, shower quickly, then fall into a sleep filled with talking dragons.