“No more wall!”
Rendicryss’s ear-piercing cry halted the rioting. All stopped to see the dragon that had so easily slaughtered Cornwall. She was majestic in the way she walked. Not barreling or lurching like a draignoch. So light-footed and delicate, Griffin never felt her coming. Never anticipated a crafted and calculated tail swipe that sent him hurling across the ring.
Rendicryss ran to finish him off. But her long fangs stopped short. Her head jerked.
Maggie.
She was speaking to Rendicryss.
Griffin should’ve run, but he couldn’t move.
The chain around Rendicryss’s neck loosened. She used a long claw to pluck it off. But there were still other bindings, and a shackle on every foot.
Malcolm emerged, his axe’s handle covered in blood. He lifted it. Griffin saw Sybil reach a hand into Maggie’s boot. Jori was blind to Sybil sneaking up on him, but a guard wasn’t. He grabbed Sybil around the waist, hoisting her up. Sybil let the dagger fall, into Esmera’s hands. As Jori turned to see what the commotion was, Esmera drove the dagger into the prince’s chest.
He staggered backward, falling over the railing, into the ring.
Rendicryss brought down her foot with a great thud, her claws ending whatever life was left in him.
The prince, the only heir to King Umbert’s line, was dead.
The world swam before Griffin’s eyes. Then all was dark. The last thing he heard was Maggie telling him to hold on. He couldn’t. He couldn’t feel anything anymore, except an intangible, inexplicable, impossible warmth and peace.
If he had to put a name to it, it felt like love.
Twenty-One
Maggie
I called for Rendicryss, but the guards didn’t need encouragement from a dragon to run. Esmera and Sybil helped me get down the stairs and into the lift without stumbling on the long cloak. The shackles cut into my wrists and elbows. The key to them had fallen with the prince into the ring.
Tears poured as the lift lowered. I didn’t know when they’d started, but they weren’t stopping anytime soon. Griffin was dying. Or he was already dead.
“We have not time for tears, Maggie. You are a healer, are you not?” Esmera insisted. “You must heal him.”
“But I am bound!” I wailed.
“Not for long.” Esmera turned to Sybil. “In his tunic’s pocket!”
I leaped out as soon as the lift neared the ground and ran to Griffin.
I felt Rendicryss’s cry run through me and understood her. Healer, I heard. That is what the moon made you.
Rendicryss was watching. She was giving me hope.
Sybil returned with the key. Her hands shaking, it took her two attempts before I felt the metal slide off. I lost track of the other things happening around me, but they were happening.
Later I would find out that the people stayed. Afraid of my dragon, they didn’t venture into the ring. They chanted Griffin’s name and my name, weaving them together. As if that would save him.
Griffin’s lips were blue, his green gaze fixed on me. His chest heaved with painful gasps, clinging to life. The wound crusted with ice from the Phantombronze. Its power was akin to mine. Like a frozen poison, its magic spread from the wound, freezing his insides.
“What do I do?”
Rendicryss slid her foot over Griffin’s fallen sword, cutting it. But she did not cry out. She had done it on purpose. Her blood pooled and tiny flames leaped from the place where it lay.
Fire. While Griffin was ice.
Could I use Rendicryss’s blood to heal him?
I gathered some in my palm and poured it into Griffin’s wound.
His body jerked and he let out a wail of pain. I worried I was making it worse, until the blue faded from Griffin’s lips. I picked up his hand, threading my fingers through his, feeling warmth return. His breathing eased. He squeezed.
I looked up at Esmera and Sybil. “It’s working!”
Rendicryss roared, shaking the whole of the arena. Spectators ran for cover, though I wasn’t sure why.
“Help her,” Griffin whispered.
I reluctantly let go of his hand, and ran around Rendicryss, into the gate where the three chains stretched taut. With a high grab, I drew down the moon’s power, whipping it at an angle, slicing through the Phantombronze.
“Remove the chains!” I called to Sybil, Esmera, and Malcolm, who did what they could to unravel them from her body.
A hard shake from the dragon finished the job. With a hair-raising shriek, Rendicryss’s wings spread to their full and greatest height.
The spectators quieted with wonder.
Perig came beside me, staring in awe at Rendicryss. He bowed to her. She lowered her head and he used his keys to quickly remove the shackles around her feet. The angry burns on her skin from the Phantombronze would leave permanent scars. As it fell, she flapped her wings three times and spirited into the air.
Malcolm took his sisters’ hands and led them up to the balcony. He stepped to the front and beckoned his sisters to stand with him.
Then he spoke.
“There is a whole world outside the wall of this city. This wall wasn’t just built to keep draignochs out, but to keep you in. Do you want to live in a cage, or do you want to be free?”
He called on every section of the arena. If there were any votes for remaining in cages, they were thoroughly drowned out.
The people joined in Malcolm’s chant of “Take it down. Take it down!”
Griffin sat up slowly. “Do it, Maggie.”
And so, I did.
I reached for the moon, catching a beam, and hurled it at the wall. It left a mark, a target for Rendicryss. She made for the wall.
Her tail hit like an axe on a tree trunk, carving away at the stone wall until the wall weakened and fell in a heap of boulders and dust. The sun broke through the gray clouds, rays touching her back as the moon would touch mine. She returned, and lowered her head, allowing me to climb upon it.
She took flight.
We were two pieces of the same universe. Sun and moon. And we would always be a part of the same sky.
As Griffin and I left the city on the hill, we weren’t sure which way to go. Malcolm and his sisters were returning to the North but agreed to stay on for a time to help guide those who remained in the city.
Malcolm asked if there was anything I needed from him. He was surprised when I asked for the draignochs to be freed so they could return to the forest. It was Rendicryss’s request. She vowed they would remain there until they were fully formed dragons with the knowledge to tell right from wrong.
Perig opened the cages in the Oughtnoch. The draignochs paraded in a long colorful line, following Rendicryss, who would lead them home, ensuring there was no damage done to people along the way. My dragon would find me when her job was done. Of that, I was sure.
Griffin and I slept under the stars, under the light of the full moon. I danced in her glory, taking with me long glistening strands. Arms extending, then drawn in, like my younger self in the forest, dancing for Rendicryss. This time, I was dancing for me.
Griffin sat, staring at me with a look in his eye that warmed my soul—a look of friendship, and maybe love.
Others came from the Walled City after us. People who wanted to see more than they had ever been permitted to—ever thought to wonder about before—and meet their new neighbors in the Hinterlands. They camped along the roads I had been so afraid to travel. Lit bonfires in celebration. They sang songs about the dragon, the moon child, and the champion.