Eona - Alison Goodman [209]
I lifted my fist to my chest. For Ryko, and for Dela. With a nod, she turned and led Tozay down the steps.
“What do I have to do?” I asked Ido.
“Go up on the dais,” he said, nodding at the small raised stage. “It is the highest point, and once the Righi has ignited the Imperial Pearl, the Mirror Dragon will come for it.”
I looked at the red dragon. Her huge eyes watched me. Kinra’s plea whispered in my mind: Make it right. I followed Ido across the platform to the dais, holding the squirming bundle away from my body. Kygo walked beside me.
“You’ve got the Imperial Pearl?’ I asked.
He opened his palm. The surface of the gem swarmed with silvery leaps and flicks. “It’s hot,” he said.
I laid my fingers across the soft pale curve. It was now almost hot enough to burn.
We stood together for a moment, the Imperial Pearl between our hands. “You are a queen to me,” Kygo said softly. He pressed his lips against my forehead.
“Very touching,” Ido drawled. “Eona, get on the dais.”
I gave him a sour look and stepped up on to the small stage. Kygo stationed himself nearby, sword angled at Ido.
Beyond the circle of swaying dragons, the ragged remains of the two armies watched from a wary distance. The dark clouds above us had swamped the bright day, casting an early gloom over the plain. The air still swirled with the spicy scent of the dragons surrounding us, the heat as much from their earthly presence as from the hot wind that whipped my hair back.
I took a deep breath and unwrapped the black folio, dropping the torn remnants of the shirt. The white pearls snapped straight up, as if they were testing the air, then planed across my hand and along my arm, dragging the folio behind them. Two quick, rattling coils and the book was bound to my arm. The folio’s acid words rose into my mind, burning my pathways, whispering their ancient power. Ido stood hunched before the dais, his arms wrapped around his body. No doubt he remembered the pain of the Righi too.
“It is in my head,” I said. My mouth tasted like it was full of blood and ash.
“Chant it,” Ido said.
The words were waiting. Their bitter keen held the bound Hua of all twelve dragons, and the last cold echoes of Kinra. The chant quickened on my tongue and reached out to the beasts in the circle. It pulled the thrumming energy from their pearls and wove it into the blistering song that hissed from me with the fire of life and death.
The dragons answered the chant with a shrieking chorus of their own. Through the terrible sound, the Rat Dragon bellowed urgently, the blue iridescent pearl beneath his chin pulsing with azure-tipped flame. His call silenced the other beasts. They all turned to watch as he lowered his huge wedge head and gently placed his barrel-sized gem on the ground between his opal claws. The separation of dragon and pearl shuddered through the folio and my chant; an ache of loss and hope that brought a sting of tears to my eyes. With a soft cry, the Rat Dragon nudged the sphere with his flared muzzle, rolling the source of his power and wisdom a length from his opal claws.
I glanced across at Ido. He crouched in defeat as he watched his dragon give up the pearl that held their twelve-year bond.
Next to the Rat Dragon, the purple Ox Dragon threw back his horned head and howled his own song of pain and hope. The soft lavender scales under his chin and around his pearl shimmered with violet flames. He lowered his head and gently dropped the pearl onto the ground, tapping it forward with a careful amethyst claw until it lightly touched the Rat Dragon’s blue pearl. As soon as it rocked into place, the green Tiger Dragon lifted his head and sang his own loss. One by one, the male dragons called to their bound spirits in the folio and placed