The glow that had been born of Montfre’s staff was now appearing to shine from Ymmen’s scales, giving the dragon an incandescent, starry look.
“A simple protection spell, but I’ve given it everything that I have…” Montfre slumped backwards on his steed, his own forehead beaded with sweat as he groaned. I knew just how much using magic appeared to unmake him. Like the Stone Crown on me, it seemed that a mage’s magic also came with a heavy price…
“Thank you,” I murmured, looking up at the glowing star-dragon that was Ymmen.
Most of the other dragons had scattered, swooping high around Ymmen, as he appeared to still be challenging only one dragon alone: the wiry red. I watched the other angered dragons give the two space as they tested and probed each other’s reactions. Better, I thought, and hoped that I was reading the overhead situation right. But what did I actually know about how dragons fought?
The two exchanged screeches and roars, with Ymmen about a third larger than the red. I knew that my dragon was the stronger of the two – but there were plenty of ways that a smaller opponent could beat a larger one. Smaller fighters, I knew well, could be quicker and crueler…
And then, with a booming roar, the two dragons flared apart, sweeping away from each other before slowly lowering to the ground in front of our group. Behind me, as the dragon roars subsided, I could now hear the murmurs and gasps of our small army. Nervously, I spared them a look to see that the Daza warriors had spread out in a wide semicircle, holding their long spears, and the Red Hounds and guards were holding their crossbows in their small and tight groups, which looked about as effective as blades of grass against the assembled dragon-horde. Nearer to me, there was Abioye with his sword drawn on the back of his steed, with eyes sharp and squinting at the red dragon, with Tamin looking nervous a little way behind him, and Naroba standing on the ground with my mother’s staff planted, as if she was prepared to fight to the last breath.
Turning back to the two challenging dragons, I saw that Ymmen was standing on all fours between us and the red, and his scales were still glowing with the mage’s strange light.
“Ymmen?” I whispered, knowing that he would hear my words as well as my thoughts.
“She is angry. And she sees that I am strong. And she wishes to speak with you,” Ymmen said, not moving a muscle as he blocked the red’s approach.
I felt a quiver of fear and agitation run through me as I swallowed nervously. “Let her,” I said.
“You have to.” Ymmen’s voice in my mind came back tight and full of frustration, and I knew that he meant that I had to use the Stone Crown in order to be able to talk to her.
I took a deep breath, knowing how much it hurt Ymmen for me to use the Stone Crown’s powers, but – without any other option that I could see – I lifted up my hand and spoke aloud, as I closed my eyes and tried to access the High Queen’s strange artifact.
“I am Narissea of the Souda people! Children of the Western Wind!” I called out, at the same time as I tried to reach forward to the memory of the red dragon in my mind’s eye. I was trying to imitate what came so naturally and instinctively between me and Ymmen, and I was surprised when I could now feel another, different sort of dragon-heat on the edge of my mind. It was working!
The red dragon was a mature female, and with my attention focused on her, a host of information flooded into me, just as if I were reading the weather and animal signs of the Plains. Her status made her something the dragons thought of as a – Den Mother? – a matriarch for her group, just as we Daza had Imanus.
And the heat of the red dragon’s heart was fierce and dynamic. Somehow it burned hotter and faster than Ymmen’s heart did – but it was in no way the less impressive for it.
I could feel her heat, and the shape of her heart, and I knew suddenly that if I continued to push towards her mind with the power of the Stone Crown then I could probably know her name, too—
“Wait,” Ymmen suddenly breathed into my mind, and in that instinctual way that we had of speaking without words, I knew that it would be a mistake to steal a dragon’s name that had not been freely given. I allowed myself to pull back, although the curiosity was almost unstoppable…
“A child of the Western Wind should know better!” The words of the new dragon voice flooded into my mind. Once again, they were tinged with fire and soot-smoke, but they were somehow hotter and higher than Ymmen’s steady blaze of thought.
Ymmen growled and scratched at the ground between them at the red’s apparent contempt for me.
“I did not know that I have done any wrong—” I started to say, summoning the authority and courage that I had seen my mother use.
“Then you are a fool as well as dangerous!” The red dragon spat the words, and in turn I saw her spit a gobbet of fire to the ground.
Ymmen started to growl much deeper – a rattling, dangerous sound that promised violence. Not that the red dragon seemed to care. She was too incensed to stop her tirade now, I soon found out.
“You bound us. We could no longer speak! Even to each other!” the red dragon hissed, and her tail slapped onto the dirt behind her.
What? Oh no! I thought of what Ymmen had just told me a few moments ago. Had I really done that? When I had begged for the pain and the noise to stop in my head, I had seemingly unwittingly commanded my friend Ymmen to seal his voice – had I done it for these distant dragons, too?
“Yes. I can see your shame, human – and I am glad!” the red dragon said fiercely. This time Ymmen started to paw at the ground, his large talons easily ripping great furrows in the soft land that were deep enough to fall into.
“The abomination upon your head should never have been brought to light! It is an insult to all dragon-kind!” the red dragon said.
“But—” I opened and closed my mouth, once again feeling all the shame of what I had done to Ymmen, and the shame of how I had been treating my friends for the last two days. They had been right, hadn’t they? Something had changed in me ever since putting on the Stone Crown. Which was now something that I can’t even take off! I thought in alarm. I had been forced to put on the Stone Crown – and to use it – when I had first discovered it in the middle of that battle! If I hadn’t done that then Inyene would now be the one able to command all of dragon-kind!
“I will not hear excuses!” the red dragon growled, now starting to pace back and forward in front of Ymmen. I could plainly feel and see her agitation, but some reason my own fear was lessening, somewhat as I saw her do that. When a creature of the Plains finally decides to fight, they fight. Silently, I remembered the words of my mother. They do not shout and moan.
“The Crown is an abomination,” the red dragon moaned. “It is not welcome here on the Plains, and while I and those I call my dragon brothers and dragon sisters fly these skies, we will not tolerate it here!” she said.
“But, Lady Red.” I tried to at least be polite, although I was starting to feel my temper rise at this uncompromising reptile. “We are Daza. I am Daza. You have no right to tell us if we can live here, in the land which has been our home for longer than memory…”
“Longer than you humans can remember!” the red dragon shot back tartly. “Never forget that dragons have seen this world in its infancy, little woman—” she said, and I think that it was at that point that my anger finally broke as I listened to this tirade.