“Sorry. You get that from me.”
“Of course. The Goddess of Magic can’t sing.” I wiped my eyes, aware I’d just killed myself from razarras poisoning unless Tya intervened. “So what now?”
Tya hugged me and kissed my forehead again. “Let’s go ahead with your plan. You wanted to do something about the metal and smoke here?”
“Yes.”
“I like that idea. Let’s do that together. Then how would you feel about letting your mother help you fight a dragon? Just us?”
I had to admit, I liked that idea rather a lot too.
* * *
Aeyan’arric played in the snow.
Tya and I stood on a mountainside in the Yoran mountains and watched the dragon below us cavort and roll in the snow like a cat with a feather, grinning and joyous. Except a cat playing doesn’t make mountains shake or leave giant grooves in granite rock faces. A cat doesn’t start an avalanche and then chase after it like it was a mouse.
She was so beautiful. The sun refracted off her scales, making a thousand rainbows, sparkling against the snow and ice—cold and perfect, winter manifested.
I tightened my grip around Khoreval and wished, just for a moment, that we didn’t have to do this.
Taking the spear had been an afterthought, despite all that planning. From the moment I held Khoreval, I felt its extraordinary magic, indeed strong enough to kill a dragon. Still, Khoreval seemed like a toothpick against Aeyan’arric’s size and majesty. I felt like an idiot for ever thinking I could fight a dragon without a goddess at my side.
The goddess in question must have been thinking along the same lines, at least about Aeyan’arric’s beauty, because she sighed next to me. “This breaks my heart. I knew her when she was a little girl.”
“You—” I looked over at her. “Wait, Aeyan’arric used to be human?”
“All the dragons used to be … well … yes, let’s go with human. Aeyan was the daughter of a good friend. As a child, her smiles were like the sun peeking out behind the clouds.”
“What changed her into a dragon?”
“A monster. Her uncle.”
“Her uncle—?”
“Relos Var. Her uncle is Relos Var. And he murdered his own brother, Aeyan’s father, because … honestly, I don’t know. Even after all these years, I still don’t know.” Tya’s expression set into something unfriendly, and she didn’t seem inclined to answer any further questions. “Hide up behind that ledge. I’ll lead her beneath you. Jump down and don’t miss.”
“That’s the plan? Jump on her and hope for the best?”
Tya laughed. “What were you going to do?”
I frowned and looked down at my bag. I’d planned to give Aeyan’arric a new scale decoration that would sap her strength, but that was before I realized Senera had personalized the sigil she’d marked on my back. So it probably wouldn’t work on Aeyan’arric, especially if it meant “steal energy from voras daughters of goddesses of magic.”
“You don’t happen to know what this means, do you?” I asked Tya, showing her the sigil.
She shook her head, looking rueful. “Strange as this may sound coming from the Goddess of Magic, I don’t.”
“I’d planned to throw this at the dragon to weaken her, but now I don’t think it will work.”
“So not too far removed from drop down from above and hope for the best, is it?”
I cleared my throat. “No.”
“Move quickly. If it doesn’t work, run. You can’t fight her with endurance or strength. Aim the spear at the space between her eyes.”
I nodded and moved up to the ledge.
Tya vanished.
She reappeared a moment later down in the valley, where Aeyan’arric sported. The dragon reacted immediately, spreading her wings and rearing back, serpent-like. She dispensed with polite conversation and quick banter.
Aeyan’arric attacked, breathing winter incarnate down at the spot where Tya stood. But Tya had already gone, so fast her veils left a blurred rainbow behind her.
I knew the timing would be tricky. I’d have to jump before Aeyan’arric reached me, and if I jumped early, I’d plummet to my death. If I jumped too late, the same result seemed likely.
By then, Aeyan’arric had almost reached my position. I jumped.
I landed halfway off the dragon’s neck and nearly lost both my own life and the spear as I scrambled to hold on to her scales and claw my way up. Aeyan’arric noticed me and swung her neck to the side, but she couldn’t bite me. She pulled up from her flight, reaching up with both fore-claws to snatch me from her neck.
Tya attacked as soon as Aeyan’arric looked away, filling the sky around us with fire. I felt my skin crack and blister before I raised the proper protection spells. I cursed myself for not thinking to do that beforehand.
Then I stabbed Khoreval downward, into Aeyan’arric’s neck.
The dragon screamed. Extraordinary, immense power channeled up from the wound into my body. This wasn’t a pleasant sensation. The dragon’s tenyé felt twisted and wrong, somehow rotten, as if the normal magical energies informing all creation had broken and realigned into chaos and disharmony. I screamed too, pushed the spear deeper into her neck, and screamed again when acidic icy blood sprayed over me.
Then we were falling.
Hitting the snow felt like salvation, not painful at all but a cool compress against painful burns. Aeyan’arric lashed backward against me, missing me only because I made such a small target. But Tya hadn’t left. After her fireball had faded, the Goddess of Magic returned in an instant, unleashing violet energy that began disintegrating the dragon’s claws and wings.
I reminded myself that I had more important things to do than pay attention to the pain, pulled the spear from the dragon’s neck, and slammed it down again, this time between her eyes.
Aeyan’arric collapsed.
I did too, covered in gore, dragon blood, and human blood, with injuries I didn’t dare to contemplate.
But we’d done it.
We’d slain a dragon.
Tya floated down next to me. She made a noise that reminded me so much of Dorna after I’d come home from playing in the mud that I almost choked. She laid me down on the snow next to Aeyan’arric’s head and healed my wounds.
“Wait here. I need to go find out if this worked.”
Shock roused me from my stupor. “What? What do you mean, ‘if this worked’?” I pointed to the dead body.
Tya shook her head. “That happens every time.”
I blinked at her.
“We’ve killed dragons before, Janel. They recover. They heal. Just like we do. You can’t kill any of the Eight. We just won’t stay dead. And you can’t kill a dragon. They just won’t stay dead either.” She touched the spear impaling the dragon’s head. “Rest here. I’ll confirm the results with Thaena. She’ll know if this worked.”
I nodded even as I sighed and leaned back. I almost told her I’d be happy to check with Thaena myself, but I wanted to stay awake. I felt and heard the tenyé swirl and shift. When I looked up, Tya had disappeared.
I watched the swirling clouds overhead. Storm clouds were dissipating, as if they had only ever gathered because their dragon queen demanded it. Now they could bring snow and rain and life to other fields.