“Do you think we’ll have to face Shadow Wing? I’m hoping that Trytian’s father can take him down. At least we have a connection with the daemons.”
“We may have a connection, but I will never trust them.” I shook my head. “It would be easier if we didn’t have to face him. Without the spirit seals, he’ll have a far harder time breaking through the portals. But with the rogue portals cropping up, and the entire system breaking down, I won’t rest easy until he’s dead.”
Delilah wrapped her arms around her knees as I unzipped my sleeping bag. I took off my bra, pulling an oversized flannel sleep shirt over my head before I slipped out of my skirt. Folding my clothes, I slipped them into the pack and closed it tightly to prevent creepy-crawlies from nesting in it. There were venomous spiders and snakes in the mountains and while we hadn’t seen any yet, I knew they were around. Secretly, I was grateful we wouldn’t be hiking our way up to the monastery. Even with the horses, it was all too easy to meet a nasty critter who would have no qualms about taking down a large enemy—or anybody it thought was an enemy.
I slid a rolled-up travel pillow under my head and yawned. “I’m glad you’re here. This isn’t an easy journey, and every step brings me closer to the Summer Solstice.”
“What are you afraid of?” Delilah pushed herself to her knees, getting ready to go back to her sleeping bag and Shade.
“I guess…I’m afraid of not being good enough. Of being found wanting.” But that wasn’t the only thing that I feared, and I knew it. “If I’m honest, I’m afraid of leaving you and Menolly. I’m afraid of the fact that—for the first time in our lives—we’ll be on different paths, living apart. It’s always been us against the world. Now, everything’s changing.”
Delilah leaned down to kiss my forehead. “I think we’re all afraid of that. But as you’ve told me so many times, we have to grow. We have to accept change. If we stay together and ignore our futures just because we’re afraid, then we’ll stagnate and eventually we’ll resent each other.”
I knew she was right—and truth was, I had told her that very thing so many times. “Thanks, Kitten. Thanks for being with me. For helping me meet my destiny. I love you.”
Delilah stroked my arm. “You’ll always be my big sister. You’ll always be the one who took over when Mother died. Never forget that, Camille.”
As she headed back to her own sleeping bag, I stared up at the stars. The moon, fading toward crescent, was a brilliant glimmer against the backdrop. “I hope I can do you justice,” I whispered to the Moon Mother. “I hope I make you proud.”
And the moon, being the moon, only answered with a pregnant silence.
Chapter 14
AS WE STOOD in the clearing, we could feel the sun on our backs as it glimmered through Thistlewyd Deep. We had chosen a space where, when Smoky and Shade shifted form, they wouldn’t go toppling into the pond or smash themselves up against the hillside.
Roz and Trillian moved the horses well out of the way, tying them securely to trees far enough away so that when two dragons appeared, they wouldn’t be too terribly panicked. Dragons ate horses, and horses knew that.
I worried my lip. We had eaten breakfast, gathered only what we thought we might need, and there was no more reason to stand here. Excuses: done.
“It’s time.” I motioned to Smoky and Shade, who were standing a good distance from us. “Go ahead. Make with the wings.”
Delilah let out a snort. “In Shade’s case, that’s bones.”
“Yeah, but it seems impolite to point that out.”
Within a slow blur that gathered speed, first Smoky shifted form, and then Shade. The dragons stood there, side by side. I thought that Shade looked like what Smoky did on the inside. He was older than Smoky, and a little bit bigger, but without flesh, he seemed almost like a pteranodon or a pterodactyl.
I motioned to Venus. “You and Bran come with me. Chase, you can ride with Delilah.”
Chase gave me an odd look and I suddenly realized how odd it might be for him. He had dated Delilah and now he was going to ride on her fiancé’s back. But he said nothing, just followed her over to Shade’s side.
Bran and Venus escorted me up to Smoky, who obligingly knelt for me to climb on his arm, then scramble up on his shoulder to his neck. Tendrils of his mane fluttered back, coiling around my waist to keep me in place. In some ways, riding on Shade would be easier, because there were more crevices where the bones met to grab hold of. But either way, riding a dragon was fun, if potentially dangerous. I had tied a sturdy leather thong to both ends of my staff, and now I looped it around one of the spines that rose along Smoky’s neck. They weren’t as sharp as bone, but some sort of rigid cartilage. I doubled the loop so that if Smoky had to tilt sideways, the staff wouldn’t go sailing off into the air.