Forged by Magic (Falling for Fables, #1)(44)
I was surprised he bothered to ask. “It was before Isveig invaded, back when Fafnir wasn’t part of his empire. Mother and Father had gone to the market. While they were there…” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Draugr attacked. Three elves who had bonded with dragons and filled themselves up with their power. They burned down the entire market. Hundreds died.”
“I heard about that. It was an awful thing that happened. You couldn’t have been more than…”
“Six years old. The king took me in after that, gave me a place in his castle. I remember his face so much better than theirs, as hard as I try to picture them.”
“I understand far better than you know.”
I frowned and looked up at his distant eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I lost my family when I was only fifteen.”
“You and Lilia…”
“We had three other siblings, and our parents, of course. Plus, cousins and aunts and uncles. Grandparents, too. They’re all gone. Only Lilia and I got away.”
“I’m sorry. You mentioned Isveig and his mercenaries before. What happened?”
The muscles around his eyes tightened. “Isveig sent murks to our city when he heard the Kingdom of Edda was planning for war. We wanted to stop him from conquering any more lands. But he attacked us before we had a chance to do a damn thing.”
I’d heard about their plans. The Elven Resistance had risen up when the world learned what Isveig had done to my kingdom. But stories of the elves had dissipated as quickly as they’d appeared when Isveig had invaded their lands, too, in retaliation.
Rivelin sighed. “And then, three years later, I tried to get my revenge. I sneaked across the border and started killing every ice giant I could find, even those not involved. I let my rage get the better of me until I was nothing but a shell of who I’d once been.”
I looked up at him, surprised. “By yourself?”
“I’ve been by myself for a very long time. If Lilia had known, she would have tried to stop me. Not that I would have listened. I would have kept going until it claimed my life, if I hadn’t wandered into the wrong village at the wrong time, where a Draugr was hiding out—a human barely holding on to consciousness. She burned herself and the whole place down. I barely got out alive.”
I shook my head. “If what you say is true, how are you so cavalier about these dragons? You’ve seen first-hand what they can do, same as me.”
“Because the dragons are harmless, Daella,” he said, suddenly reaching out to cup my cheek. I shuddered as the steam danced between us, at the feel of his strong hand against my skin. “They just want to live in peace, and they don’t want anyone to use their power. No one truly can, anyway. They run too hot. You’ll get burned just by being too near them.”
“People did it before,” I argued. “They bonded with them.”
“Using Fildur sand. No one has any of that here on the Isles.”
“Are you certain? Have you tried to bond with them without the sand?”
His hand dropped away. “I did try, but only when I first brought them here. They…chose me, I think. Infused me with some kind of protection against their heat. I was able to carry them without getting burned, but I’m unable to touch them now. They’ve gotten too big. I can go inside their cave, but I have to keep my distance.”
I thought back to everything I knew about dragons and Draugr, which wasn’t much. Most of what I knew had come from the emperor himself. Decades ago, orcs had lived in harmony with dragons, though they’d always kept their distance, choosing to live amongst the rural mountains away from civilization. They never took their fires to our people, to our lands. Until one day when elves and humans started bonding with them. That was what Isveig had told me.
“Have you ever seen someone bond with a dragon?” I asked Rivelin, uncomfortably aware that he still stood so close I could see tiny beads of water on his forehead. Not sweat, I realized. More steam, just from being so near to me. My heart pattered almost painfully.
“No,” he murmured.
“Then how can we be certain someone here won’t find a way to do it?”
He raised a brow. “We? Have you decided you’re on our side, then?”
“I…I don’t know.” I twisted away. The luscious night breeze rushed in with the waves, bringing with it dark clouds, cooling my neck and cheeks. Suddenly, I felt far too hot.
Rivelin loosed a frustrated sigh. “How can you still want to tell your emperor about us after everything I’ve told you? I thought you were fucking different, Daella.”
He moved away, and the sound of his footsteps faded as he left me there on the beach with nothing but my ruined heart to keep me company.
“Wait,” I called out, fisting my hands.
He paused at the edge of the trees.
“I don’t want to tell the emperor, but I don’t know how to keep it from him when I go back. And I am going back because I have to, or I’ll die,” I found myself saying. “He’ll find a way to get it out of me, Rivelin. I’m strong, but he knows how to break me down. And even if I manage to hold out, he’ll be curious about where I disappeared to for so long and why I don’t want to tell him much. He’ll send others here.” I sucked in a sharp breath and continued. “There’s only one way forward. You have to win the damn Games and let me leave before you ask the island to protect this place. Then no matter what he does or what he makes me tell him, he can never reach you.”