"What was a possibility?" Tressa asked.
"When a dragon gives birth to a dragon, it is done so via egg. But when a human is pregnant with a dragon it is not so simple."
"How does it happen?" Tressa asked through gritted teeth.
"The dragon cannot fit through the birth canal. It must be taken through a cut in the stomach."
"I have heard of this. Adam performed that procedure on a couple of the women in Hutton's Bridge. They lived. Why did my mother die?" Tressa asked, not certain she truly wanted to know the answer.
"Your mother came to me when labor began. She was feeling ill, which is not uncommon. I laid her down on my bed so I could examine her. It was when I lifted her dressing gown that I saw what I had thought I would never see. Scratches on her abdomen, just above her navel, but below her breasts. Long rows of scratches. Except these did not come from the outside. They were pink bulges, tinged with red. Dried blood crusted the edges." Granna's eyes dripped with sympathy. "It was you, trying to get free of the womb."
Tressa gasped. Of all the stories Granna had told her, this was one she'd never heard before. One she wasn't sure she wanted to hear now. But she kept silent.
"I would have called for the physic, but I knew he would discover the truth. So I cut into your mother myself. I did it to free you."
"And my mother?" Tears gathered at the corners of Tressa’s eyes.
"I pulled you out of her. She asked to hold you, so I rested you on her chest. You appeared fully human, except your eyes were red. Slitted like the dragon. Your hands were claws." Granna paused, taking a deep breath.
Trouble rumbled in Tressa's stomach. "What about my mother?"
"She saw your eyes and your hands. She screamed." Granna's hands covered her face, but Tressa could still see her tears streaming, breaking through the barrier. “I was able to soothe the dragon in you. I helped that side of you stay hidden until you instinctively learned to control it yourself.”
"Did the sight of me send her into shock? Did that kill her?" Tressa held her breath, waiting for the answer.
"No," Granna said, slumping over, hands on her knees and tears falling onto her lap. "I killed her to protect your secret."
Tressa jumped out of her chair and headed for the door, her heart pounding.
"Wait, don't go," Granna pleaded. “There’s more. You must let me finish. Please.”
Tressa's hand rested on the doorknob. She could leave. Fi would take her out of the Ruins of Ebon if she asked. Tressa had no fear they would trap her here as they had in Risos.
"If you still hate me when I'm done, then you may leave and I won't try to stop you," Granna said. "I won't hurt you. No one here will lay a hand on you. You have nothing to lose by staying and hearing me out."
Tressa’s heart told her to stay. Her head screamed at her to run. Ultimately, her head gave in to her heart.
"Due to the rough pregnancy and birth your mother had a poor chance of survival. We had no magic-trained healers in our town. The villagers believed magic had gone with the fog. They quickly learned to fear what they did not understand. Tressa, if I hadn't helped your mother to die, the others would have seen how you were born. They would have killed you out of fear. And your mother would have died in the end. She was beyond saving. And you! I had to keep you from getting pregnant or you could die too! I did all of this to save you."
Granna may have ruled Hutton’s Bridge with an iron fist, but she had a bigger heart than anyone Tressa had ever met. Her eyebrows furrowed. But there were lies she’d told. The broken promises. And now this.
Tressa spun around. Who was the woman in front of her? Years had seemingly been erased since her death. Yet she had the same caring blue eyes. The same arms that had held Tressa when she was forced to give up Bastian. The same hand Tressa had held when Granna took her final breaths in her cottage back home.
"Why not just let me die?" Tressa asked. "Why save me?"
Granna's eyes drifted to her hands, folded in her lap. "Weakness. You were the dragon child I wanted for so long. You proved my connection to Mestifito was real."
"That's it?" Tressa spat back. "Because I was proof you had dragon blood in you?"
"I had to protect you. I had foreseen great changes in the Dragonlands many years before, but I didn't know who it belonged to. That dark night when you were born, I finally knew. It was you."
"The visions again," Tressa said. "Before you died you said you'd seen me leave Hutton's Bridge. You said you'd seen yourself there. That your visions told you so. But they were wrong because you died before I left. In fact, your death changed everything. Udor called off the yearly trek into the fog. He said we didn't have to leave. but a virus that was spreading into the village caused your death. We had no choice. We had to leave to look for a cure."