That night, Damara tried to sleep outside, wanting to avoid laying amongst all the other refugees. But the frigid wind sliced through her clothes and she retreated to the caves.
Where did spring go? she wondered bitterly.
Lynx is right. She moaned, sitting down on the hard, stone floor. I’m useless. I’m doing nothing to keep the Strong Pack from being reborn. All I can do is wait and pray.
The grunts and snores of sleeping refugees echoed off the cavern walls. Damara pulled her hood tight around her ears, trying to block it out.
I’m just another sheep of the flock. Just a daft, voiceless ewe standing by for the slaughter…
“Damara?”
She jumped at the sound of Tyrone’s voice. In the dim light of the surrounding glow wyverns, she could just barely make out his shape standing before her. At first she thought he was humming a tune, until she realized it was Ivory, perched on his shoulder.
Tyrone, you’re alright! she rejoiced silently, getting up to face him. Have you seen Tide? Did he find the clutch? Damara wanted to ask him a dozen question, but the moths still had her voice.
“Are you well?” Tyrone asked.
Now closer to him, she could see his eyes searching her face. She nodded, biting her lip.
Tyrone creased his brow. “What’s wrong?” he asked, unconvinced.
Damara looked at him helplessly, gesturing to show she couldn’t speak. She even tried imitating a moth with her hands.
He surprised her with a knowing grin. “Ah,” he gave a partial laugh. “Got your cords dusted, eh?”
What?
“The children call them muffle moths,” he explained. “Your voice should be back in a couple of days. But you might want to keep a scarf over your mouth next time you’re sitting around the fire.”
I wasn’t sitting around a fire. Damara exhaled irritably, recalling Lynx’s mocking grin.
Tyrone scratched his rough chin, lightheartedness short lived.
“I haven’t seen Tide since he left,” he said. “There hasn’t been any sign of Chasm either. But winter is making it hard for Kara and I to feed the refugees, so I have a favor to ask of you.”
A favor? Damara gazed up at him. I can finally do something to help?
Tyrone lifted the wyvern from his shoulder and held it out to her. “Can you take care of Ivory for me? I’m too busy to give her the proper attention she needs.
Oh. Damara looked down at the half-crippled animal, lifting it out of his hands. Is that all?
“She’ll eat just about anything if she gets hungry enough,” he told her, “but bugs are her preferred food. And don’t worry if she falls asleep on your shoulder. She clings on well enough.”
“Thank you, Friend,” Ivory whispered in the voice of a young woman and Tyrone started. “I hope to see you again.”
Damara saw how Tyrone’s eyes gazed intently into the dark. She wondered whose voice it was. A lover? Someone killed by the Strong Pack?
After a moment, Tyrone took a deep breath.
“Thank you, Damara,” he said, glancing at his wyvern one last time before turning to walk away.
Damara slumped back down to the ground with Ivory held loosely in her hands. Misery fell back over her, like a damp blanket weighing on her shoulders.
Is that all I’m good for? Looking after his pet wyvern?
So useless…
. . .
“Damara!”
Damara awoke to the sound of Faren’s cheery voice. The child’s face lingered over her, red crinkled hair tickling Damara’s neck. She brushed the locks away, careful of Ivory as she sat up with the wyvern in her lap and opened her mouth to speak.
Still no voice. Better get used to this for the day…
Damara stood up. Lifting Ivory to her shoulder, she felt the lame wyvern fasten onto her cloak. With a thrilled jump to her feet, Faren skipped over to a ruddy-haired boy and tugged him closer.
“This is Ramsey!” she declared, swinging the boy’s arm.
So you’re the brother who fills Faren’s head with fluff. Damara frowned slightly.
Ramsey shook his sister off, gaping up at Damara in reverence. “You’re the one who rides the grey dragon,” he awed.
I don’t ride him anymore. Never again.
“His name is Chasm!” Faren said, as pleasantly as though telling him the name of a pony.
“Is it true what they say?” Ramsey asked, ignoring his sister. “Are you a witch?”
They still call me that? Damara crossed her arms.
“Damara’s not a witch!” Faren giggled, clearly entertained by the thought. Rather secretively, she stood on tiptoe and whispered something in her brother’s ear.
“How do you know that?” he scoffed, brushing her away.
Faren splayed out her arms. “I just know.”
“Then where are her wings, you dunce?” he sneered.
The little girl creased her brow, just as Damara would. “She hides them so no one will know,” she answered very seriously. “But she’s pretty, and nice, and she never gets hurt when she jumps from trees. So she must be an angel.”
She can’t possibly believe that, Damara muddled.
“So she must be an angel,” Ivory imitated Faren perfectly.
“Whoa.” Ramsey gawked at the wyvern.
Damara shifted her weight impatiently, lifting her eyes to the stalactites of the cave in boredom. The children didn’t even seem to notice her lack of speech.
“Faren, Ramsey,” the children’s mother called, not far away. She and her husband were holding empty baskets. “It’s time for us to go pick berries now.”
Faren grabbed Damara’s hand, insisting that she go with them. Damara saw the adults exchange discomforted looks, but she had no voice to protest to Faren with. And so, she reluctantly followed after the family.
We’re just picking berries, right? Damara thought. What’s the harm in me being there for that?
Outside the caves, the fields were soppy with rain. Faren ran ahead, laughing. Ramsey hung closer to Damara, stomping puddles as they came across them. She ground her teeth irritably when water splashed her, unable to tell him to stop.
Eventually, their mother called the boy over. Damara tried to smile at her gratefully, but the woman merely glanced over at her, resting an arm around her son.
She really doesn’t like me. Damara stopped walking, letting the family go on ahead without her. But then Faren noticed and came running to pull her onward.
The sound of crashing water met her ears and the family stopped as they came upon a creek. White foaming water raced and split around rocks, frenzied like a herd of wild horses. Damara eyed it cautiously.
One wrong step and I’ll be soaked, she assessed. Beside her, Faren stared at the creek in awe. Damara squeezed her hand reassuringly. Don’t worry. I’ll get you across.
She was just about to help her to the first stepping stone when Faren’s father came and picked his daughter up. The child squealed in delight as she was placed on his shoulders and Damara watched the man carry her across the creek.
I could have helped her! He doesn’t trust me.
Disgruntled, she picked her own way over the creek with Ramsey not far behind. The current spurted in front of her, spattering her dress, and she looked ahead to the rock she needed to reach. She shifted her weight, just about to cross when Ramsey took a leap in front of her, landing in the exact place she’d chosen.
Damara gasped, redirecting her step so as not to crash into the boy. Her foot plunged into the bubbling water and she jumped to another rock as she tried to regain her balance.
Ramsey was looking at her with a lively expression on his face. Damara glowered at him.
Watch where you’re going!
Safely on the other side, the family found berry bushes nearby. Damara stood back as the family filled their baskets. She could see how fondly the parents smiled at Faren.
No one ever looks at me like that, Damara brooded, slumping against a
boulder. I’m just the witch everyone wants gone.
She snapped off a nearby bushel of berries, holding it up to Ivory’s mouth to see if she’d eat it. The wyvern jerked her head back as though insulted.
Fine, then what am I supposed to feed you? Irritably, Damara looked around for options. She noticed the wyvern stare intensely at a spider that scurried over a rock. Her hand smacked down on it and she curled her lip back, lifting her palm sticky with guts and legs.
Ivory nearly bit Damara’s fingers in eagerness when she fed the gangly arachnid to her. The marble white wyvern looked increasingly pleased, closing her deep red eyes as she swallowed the spider glob.
The clouds overhead were thick and grey, reflecting Damara’s mood. As rain began pelting her cloak, Ivory tried to tuck her head under one wing. Damara hung the wyvern around the back of her neck and pulled her hood up, sheltering them both.
Drops of water pattered the rocks and dirt, speckling the earth. Damara noticed Faren’s family gather their things to cross over the creek. Already, its water appeared to have swollen since they first went over it.
I should follow them back.
Damara watched the father carry Faren safely across and reach out to give his wife a helping hand. Damara waited for Ramsey to get all the way over before she herself capered carefully across. It was pouring by the time she reached the other side, and she had to squint her eyes past the rain to see the family up ahead.
Faren’s parents called their children under the shelter of a large tree. Damara silently joined them, ignoring the adults’ gaze. Faren climbed up the tree a ways, seating herself down on a thick branch. Ramsey stood below her, looking up at his sister with a mischievous look in his eye.
“I could pull you down,” he teased, reaching up for Faren’s ankle.
“Rammy, don’t!” she protested, hands gripping the branch tighter.
Damara stiffened as she watched the boy. She glanced at the parents but they were distracted, searching under layers of soggy leaf litter for dry kindling.
“Don’t fall off,” Ramsey taunted and tickled Faren’s feet.
“Stop it!” the girl shrieked, somewhere between a laugh and a scream. She flinched away from him, nearly falling backwards off the tree.
Damara clenched up, wishing she could tell the boy to stop.
The rain was getting heavier. Water gathered on the leaves of trees, forming even bigger drops that splashed their faces. Distracted, Faren gazed up in wonder.
“Careful, Fairy, or the wood elves might get you,” Ramsey warned playfully. Suddenly, he clasped his hands around the girl’s ankles.
Alarmed, Faren cried out and started to lose her balance, scratching at the bark of the tree in a struggle to stay on. At once, Damara shoved the boy away and steadied Faren with her hands. Ramsey toppled over in the leaf litter, yelping like a frightened pup. His mother rushed over to him, checking him all over as concerned as if an animal had just bitten him.
“Hey!”
Damara looked up at the children’s father as he advanced on her. Intimidated, she took her hands off Faren, who now balanced fine on her own.
“You get out of here,” the father demanded. “And stay away from my children!”
Damara stepped back, gazing around at the family. Faren stared at her with wide, hazel green eyes. Damara opened her mouth to defend herself, forgetting the silence that would result.
It’s not what you think! She begged her voice to work, mouthing the words. All I wanted was to protect Faren! Please, believe me!
“Leave.” Faren’s father stepped closer. “Now.”
It’s no use. Damara sealed her quavering lips, a biting sensation prickling her eyes and nose. She turned away as tears blurred her vision and left, met head-on by the rain.
I just stopped that whelp from hurting Faren! She cried, embittered as the storm pummeled her endlessly. How can they hate me so much?!
I need to prove myself. Show them I’m not the witch they think I am.
Thunder rumbled overhead. Damara recalled the concern on Faren’s precious face.
Faren trusts me. She knows me.
She doesn’t deserve the life of a refugee. All this hiding in fear…
Damara noticed Ivory perk her head up. From a pile of boulders, a couple of glow wyverns raced through the rain. There was the tunnel entrance and she entered, picking a place in the cave where no one would bother her.
Alone on the cold stone ground, she sat, tears streaming from her closed eyes.
. . .
That night, Damara dreamt of a hundred glow wyverns flying in circles, aimless and confused. But then they tightened in formation, so close to each other that they fused together. In fact, now they didn’t look like wyverns at all. Instead, standing in their place was a tree. It was magnificent and, like the bat wyverns, it glowed. From its branches, a warm yellow illuminated Damara’s dream, inviting, promising, assuring.
Damara approached it, stepping into its boundless glory.
At her feet lay something. She couldn’t tell what it was. All she knew was that she wanted it.
But as she bent to pick it up, the tree before her broke apart into a hundred wyverns again. They shrieked and swarmed about her. She tried to yell but they funneled into her open mouth, scraping her insides with jagged wings and overgrown talons.
. . .
Damara awoke with a start. Judging by the bat wyverns still flitting around the cave, it was still night out. She checked on Ivory lying beside her. The creature almost looked dead as she slept, her wings splayed uselessly outward. But Damara could see her chest rising and falling and knew that she was fine.
What a strange dream, she thought. It took her a moment to remember exactly what it had been about and she lay still, watching the glow wyverns up above.
Oh, that’s right. The wyverns came together to form a tree…a glowing tree.
Why does that seem familiar? Is it because I just dreamt it or did I actually see…
“That’s it!” she exclaimed to herself, waking Ivory as she sat bolt upright. It didn’t even occur to her that her voice was back.
The tree! I saw it in the mountains once, when Chasm first took me there. That must be the tree Iris was referring to! It was glowing yellow, just like in my dream. Of course the Golden Dragon would claim it as her own.
Damara stood up, placing Ivory on her shoulder, her mind racing.
This could be my chance to redeem myself…If I bring back the clutch then everyone will see that I’m not who they think I am.
Where’s Lynx? He’s already suggested that we go search on our own.
I can’t tell anyone else. Not Tyrone…definitely not Tyrone. He’d only try to stop us.
With eager yet quiet steps, Damara set out to find Lynx.
If Lynx and I could just find that tree, she thought, exiting through the rocky passageway, we’d be back within the day.
It was no longer raining outside, but a cold breeze swept over the fields and buffeted her face. With hurried strides, she ventured in the direction of the great chimney shaft entrance, hoping she’d find Lynx there on guard duty.
In the soft moonlight, she saw him at the edge of the large hole in the ground. The dragon turned as she approached, eyeing her skeptically. Judging by his lack of remarks, Damara assumed his voice was still gone.
She opened her mouth, about to speak when another dragon alighted next to them, startling her. It was Rosefinch.
“Oh, hello Damara,” the female said, neatly folding her wings against her sides. “What are you doing out here? I thought humans couldn’t see very well in the dark.”
Damara bit her lip. If I tell her my plans, no doubt she’ll tell Tyrone.
“Uh, yeah,” she answered, mind racing for an excuse. “I was just about to ask Lynx for help finding something I lost. His fire should make it easier for me to see.”
Rosefinch smiled. “Well, I was just about to take over guard duty anyway. I hope you
find it.”
“Thanks,” Damara replied hastily. With a jerk of her head, she motioned for Lynx to come follow her. Thankfully, he complied, strutting alongside her as they walked a ways over the field, out of Rosefinch’s sight and earshot where they halted behind some boulders.
“I know where the clutch is,” she told Lynx facing him. “In the mountains, at the base of a glowing tree that I’ve seen before. If we go now, we can find it before Tyrone even knows we’re gone.”
Lynx smirked.
“Well?” Damara asked impatiently. “Isn’t this what you wanted? Let’s go!”
With a grin, Lynx opened his wings and she clambered up to straddle the base of his neck.
“Just fly to the mountain range and then I’ll tell you where the peak is,” she ordered, ignoring the grimy feel of his hide.
Abruptly, he took off, clearly raring to begin. Jerked by the sudden movement, Damara grasped onto him with a deep breath.
No more waiting and praying.
Chapter 27