An image of Brajon skulking around the cave came to her mind, and Silver nodded. “Right. He needs to come back and meet us here.”
“Hugggrrr.” Hiyyan’s low grumblings were tinged with frustration.
Silver carefully lowered herself partway into the cave opening. Her swollen foot thrummed inside her boot, so she took it off to relieve the pressure. She tiptoed to the remains of the white cave beast. In the light of the larger opening, the pile of bones seemed less threatening than before. Still, Silver moved slowly, her heart racing as though expecting it to come back to life and attack her. But as she scooped camouin off the bones, the creature didn’t move.
“There’s much less here than I thought there would be,” Silver said, tucking the small amount in her bag. She glanced at Hiyyan’s wings and did some mental calculations.
It had to be enough. There was no going back now.
She returned to the entrance and sat. Hiyyan settled in next to her, ears perked. Every few seconds, he turned them, as though he were scanning the whole desert for sounds. Silver knew that if she focused on Hiyyan, she could probably hear what he was hearing, too, but she had other things to focus on.
She pulled the yarn from her bag. An image of a desert fox danced in her mind. She tried to turn the animal’s coloration into a pattern her fingers could follow. She began with the brown wool, weaving the thin yarn around and between her hook and fingers, just as Nebekker had taught her. It took a few tries of weaving, then unraveling, then trying again, but eventually she figured out how to adapt the scale pattern with her own image of a desert fox.
Once that was figured out, her fingers flew so fast they were a blur. She added the orange wool, then the white. Back to the orange, then to the brown. She fashioned the ears separately, then attached them to the top of the mask, using her dagger to cut the ends of the yarn. When she was finished, she started on Hiyyan’s disguise.
Silver worked the wool and let her mind drift into a scene. She and her Aquinder, being showered with medals and gold and adoration. Walking the halls of the Calidian palace, Sagittaria Wonder relegated to the corners. Silver smirked at the idea.
“We’ll be wearing sea-crystal silk, too,” she said to Hiyyan absently.
And still, she worked the wool until it was a large piece of fabric. The sun was high in the sky, indicating midday.
“Let’s give this a try,” Silver said. She draped the wool over Hiyyan’s back. “Hold still,” she said. But when she attempted to tuck his wings under, the water dragon balked.
“Mrrph.” Hiyyan shook his head and scuttled out of the cave entrance, dragging bits of wool in the sand.
“Hiyyan! There isn’t enough camouin to cover your wings.”
“Mrrrawww!”
“Come here!”
The Aquinder shook his head, then ducked his neck down and backed right out of the fabric disguise. Silver scrambled out, limped to the wool, and gathered it in her arms. It was heavy, but Hiyyan was big and strong. It probably felt like nothing to him.
“Sagittaria Wonder knows I’m here, but she doesn’t know all the reasons why. If people know what kind of dragon you are, there’s going to be trouble.” Silver sent Hiyyan an image of the crowds in Calidia. “They’ll go wild, and then how will we get to the Winners’ Audience and ask for your mother back?”
Hiyyan flopped on his belly and looked away from her.
Silver dropped the wool on the ground and went to her water dragon, sitting beside him and putting her arms around his neck.
“It’s not just Kirja. If we don’t race, they’ll try to kidnap you, too. Those are the rules.”
Hiyyan’s skin went cold. Silver got his message loud and clear: Those aren’t the rules in my world.
“We’re not in your world,” she said.
Silver thought back to what Nebekker had said about never racing Kirja. A bond wasn’t the same as claiming. Silver understood that, but she had seen other things, too. Like the green-and-white dragon she’d passed during her cart ride. It was contained by several lengths of chain, wrapped around its body and head, with three men keeping it from running off. At first, she’d thought its face was angry, but perhaps it was sad … or desperate.
Hiyyan absorbed the image, then turned his head to her, searching her face with his big, dark eyes.
“On the other hand,” Silver said, “there were those adorable Abruqs in the pools. They seemed happy enough to be where they were.”
Hiyyan nudged her and showed his teeth.
“No, I don’t want to trade you for an Abruq. Knock that off.”
“Mrruggrr.” Hiyyan stuck his chin in the air.
Silver’s voice softened. “I don’t want to lose you at all, Hiyyan. Ever. We’ll show up and cross that finish line, and that’s it. One Aquinder safe. We can be together without fear in any world. We’ll be free. Your wings will never be bound again. Then all we’ll have to do is get your mother back.”
Hiyyan sighed, blowing a ball of sand into the air. He tucked his muzzle into Silver’s palm.
“Let’s practice. Without the disguise. You can get your first taste of the sea.”
Hiyyan’s eyes flashed, and his grin was as big as the desert.
THIRTY-THREE
Silver poked her head out of the cave entrance and looked around. A desert beetle marched in front of her, but all else was quiet. Were there still guards among the trees, scouring the orchard for any sign of her? Was the boy going to come back?
There should be a way to access the sea without going through Calidia, she thought. The city was a semicircle, with the sea making a border along the edges. That meant the city tucked around the water, like there was an inlet. But the shoreline must continue past the city in at least one direction.
Hiyyan stood and shook the sand out of his wings impatiently.
“We can’t fly,” Silver said. “Someone might see us.”
The water dragon let out a whoosh of air that sounded almost like a sigh.
“But we don’t have time for anything else.”
Hiyyan flapped his wings so hard with joy that he lifted off the ground and churned dirt all over Silver. She spit gravel out of her mouth.
“Thanks for that.” She laughed.
Hiyyan landed and bent his leg for her to climb up. Silver’s heart beat so fast and hard she thought her chest would burst.
It was finally happening. She was going to fly.
She dug her fingers into Hiyyan’s ever-growing mane and hoisted herself up, swinging her still-painful foot over his back and landing square in the middle, her face pressed against his lizardlike skin.
Hiyyan straightened his legs and rose, unfurling his wings to their massive span. He began to run.
Silver wasn’t ready. Her hands clutched at his mane again, but she couldn’t hold on. She toppled off the water dragon and landed with a crunching thud.
“Hey!” she said.
Hiyyan looked at Silver sheepishly.
“Let’s try again,” she said. “This time, give me a warning before sprinting off.”
Hiyyan crouched. Silver raised herself up. Once she was centered on her water dragon’s back, he craned his head at her, a silent question in his eyes.
“Okay. I’m ready.” Silver lowered her body so that only her head was up. She held onto his mane for dear life.
Hiyyan’s wings stretched again, the beautiful violets, blues, and pinks that, Silver had read, were reserved for the male Aquinder on full display. He took a few steps toward the road, sending waves of warmth back to Silver, to check in on her.