33. Marius

Marius’s mind cleared abruptly.

Rider, we were under the suggestion of dark magic.

I know, well, at least I know it now.

Ophelia is dead. The curse is broken. I don’t feel its power around us at all now.

Thank the gods.

Ragewing wheeled around, and there was Tahlia sitting like a young one’s forgotten doll on the back of the Green-flanked Terror. Marius took a deep breath and tried not to panic that Tahlia was riding another dragon, an unbonded one.

He says he will carry her home. Lija is in too much pain to argue, but I feel as if she would approve. Anything to help her rider. The Terror calls Lady Tahlia the Weaver.

You are speaking to him?

Yes, but he speaks even less than most of us dragons. He has been betrayed in the past and is closed off to any bonds.

Because of Ophelia?

That, and I think another instance earlier on in his life. He will not share more than the vague idea of that history.

Well, he won’t need to carry her for long.

“We land at the lower pass!” he called out with his Mistgold voice.

The grassy dip in the mountains appeared shortly thereafter and everyone landed. Marius hurried to the Terror, hands outstretched toward the large green dragon and his head bowed in submission.

“Thank you for carrying my mate,” he said quietly.

The Terror regarded him cooly but lowered his wing and shoulder so Marius could climb up and retrieve Tahlia. She was completely out—eyelids shuttered and body limp. Her chest moved in slow and stuttering breaths as if pain tried to smother her. He swallowed and carried her quickly to the spot where everyone tended to wounds. Bottles of unguents, vials of potion, and tiny bags of healing herbs littered the clover-covered ground.

Limping, Fara walked to where Marius laid Tahlia on the green growth.

“What can we do for her? Let her sleep or try to wake her with herbs?” Marius asked Fara.

“She should sleep. Her body is most likely trying to heal from the internal damage the plague wrought on her organs. I can’t believe she jumped from one dragon to another. I can’t believe she fought Ophelia and won.”

Pride rose in Marius’s chest, the joy warring with the chill of fear in his heart. “She’s a wonder, my Lady of the Skies.”

Fara smiled, then winced, holding her left arm tenderly.

He nodded toward her arm. “Is it broken?”

“I think so.”

“Want me to help you splint it for the rest of the journey?”

“Please.”

Marius did so, using a few branches he broke from a nearby beech. He then went to Lija and oversaw Maiwenn and Atticus as they applied healing unguent to the Seabreak’s wing. Marius splinted the two broken places along the top of her wing.

“The lower break will have to heal as best it can. The bones are too shattered to be splinted,” he said, glancing at Atticus.

Atticus nodded in agreement, and Maiwenn opened her mouth as if to say something, but she remained quiet.

Marius knew what she had been about to say. Lija might never fly again.

Swallowing that worry down, he ordered Enora and her Heartsworn to carry Lija en talon as it was called when one dragon toted another with careful talons.

Once the other riders were ready, Titus helped Marius situate Tahlia on his lap on Ragewing’s back. As they lifted off, the units arranging themselves in the sky, Marius tucked a lock of black hair behind Tahlia’s ear.

“Soon, I’ll see those honey-gold eyes of yours again. I know it.”

She didn’t move a muscle and so he began to repeat the same phrase in his mind over and over like a chant, like one of the Druid’s spells, in hopes that it was the truth.

She is too alive to die. She is too alive to die. She is too alive to die.

Ragewing remained quiet as they flew, and the journey home was ages long.

If they had broken the curse, and the plague was gone, why was Tahlia still unconscious? Had her body suffered too much damage already? It was inaccurate to blame himself, but guilt whipped his soul regardless.

The riders soared up the crest of Dragon Tail Peak. Wind pushed at their backs, chilly but scented with the first of the summer flowers. Marius and Ragewing led all three units over the two sets of walls surrounding the order’s keep. They landed in the arena, and Remus was there to greet them.

Marius climbed down Ragewing’s shoulder, and Remus helped him get Tahlia down. Titus hurried to help as well.

“What’s the status here?” Marius asked Remus as he lifted Tahlia into his arms once more. “Speak freely around Sir Titus.”

Remus inclined his head in a shallow bow. “The Bloodworkers are meeting now. As per the order rules, the Bloodworkers took charge the moment the majority of the knights went rogue. They are deciding whether or not to send word to the king about potentially disbanding the entire order so they may start anew.”

“Exactly how do they propose to kick us out when we are bonded to dragons?”

“There are whispers that Bloodworker Cavalon has knowledge of a potion that would break those bonds and allow the dragons to choose new riders.”

Ragewing growled in Marius’s mind.

“How do they suppose they will talk the dragons into taking such a potion?”

Remus shrugged, then ran a hand down Ragewing’s leg, eyeing the dragon’s dirtied talons and a smear of char along his scales. Marius didn’t know which dragon had fired on them while they were controlled by Ophelia, but it didn’t matter. The fight had been madness. There was no blame to set anywhere besides on the shade of Ophelia.

Gaius, I’m sorry I wasn’t there, at your back, to prevent this tragedy.

The wind lifted the ends of his tangled hair and stirred Tahlia’s wavy locks too. He wanted to believe it was the spirit of the old commander, giving them his blessing.

“Sir Titus, send for the Healers that we can trust. As soon as you and Ptol are ready, fly to the king and queen. Tell them what has happened here, of Ophelia’s dark magic, the monster, and my curse. Inform them of what Remus has told us. Cavalon is no friend to the king.”

Titus nodded and hurried away.

Marius met Healer Albus at the side door to the riders’ wing in the keep.

“Tell me everything,” Albus said, waving Marius into the keep.

She is too alive to die. Wake up, Tahlia. Please, wake up.