“You’ve met him?”
“We went to his wedding… What was it, five years ago now? He spent more time talking about what his troops were doing than anything else, even with Enessa Eusicybr right there. His own mother yelled at him in front of everyone for ignoring his fiancée. The ceremony didn’t go on for too long, but the party afterward lasted a week.”
“My family was invited, but they decided not to make the trip,” said Esofi. “I’d hoped they’d send me with the ambassador so I could meet your family, but my mother didn’t want Ionnes thinking we cared about what he was doing.”
“Oh, but that would have been fun,” said Adale. “There was so much to do, even for children. I think the entire country shut down to celebrate.” Adale suddenly looked introspective. “I just had an idea. What if Emperor Ionnes is the dragons’ emperor?”
Esofi burst out laughing. “Adale, really!”
“No, I mean it! Everyone knows he wants to take over the world. If he found a way to control the dragons—”
“If he found a way to control the dragons, they would be attacking Masim, not Ieflaria,” said Esofi. “Besides, the dragons have been pretending to be animals for centuries now. He’s barely thirty.”
“All right, yes, but what if it’s a family tradition, passed down through the generations in secret?”
“No, Adale,” said Esofi, gently but firmly. “Emperor Ionnes is not the emperor that the dragon was referring to. His family could not have kept that kind of power secret for so long.”
Adale made a disappointed sound. “It can never be the easy answer, can it?”
“I’m afraid not,” said Esofi with a wry smile.
Adale suddenly realized that she had actually been enjoying herself. “Where are the twins?”
“Oh, they didn’t tell you? They’ve gone home,” said Esofi.
Adale missed her mouth with her drink. “They…what?”
“Oh, not forever. They promised they would be back in less than a week. They said they had to retrieve something.”
“From Valenleht?”
“I think so. Or…no! They said they were going to visit their mother’s estate. But they wouldn’t say why.” Esofi smiled. “It’s a surprise.”
Examining her feelings, Adale realized that she was oddly unbothered by this. Let the twins have their schemes. She was doing important work.
“Is it safe for them to be running around with almost no training?” asked Adale.
“I think so,” said Esofi. “I hope so. They’re both very talented. As long as they don’t lose their tempers, they’re easily the best in the class.”
THE LITTLE LIBRARY kept by the Temple of Talcia was not as organized as the Royal Library. There was evidence that someone, at some point, had attempted to group the books by subject. But it seemed the collection had been neglected for a very long time, and so Adale was left with no choice but to examine each book individually.
She was not so disciplined that she could simply begin with the first book on the highest shelf and work her way across. At first, Adale selected the books with interesting spines and bright colors, with dyed leather covers and gilt edges. Unfortunately, most of those texts were too modern to be of any great use, and had nothing at all to do with dragons.
Never one for moderation, Adale decided instead to look for the oldest, rattiest, crumbliest pile of parchment and dust that she could find. She found a likely looking tome after a few minutes, sliding it off the shelf carefully. A thin stream of dust fell to the floor in its wake.
Adale brought the book to the table and opened the cover, which made a terrible cracking sound and immediately detached itself from the book’s spine. She looked around hastily but was alone. Perhaps the priestesses would believe that it had been broken before Adale got to it. Perhaps they would not notice at all.
As she turned to the first page, Adale’s heart sank when she realized she could not read the title—it was in some ancient dialect that she had never seen before. But the illustration just below it was promising. It was a drawing of a dragon, silhouetted against the moon.
Adale chewed her lower lip, thinking. Perhaps one of the court historians could make sense of it, or one of the priests at the library. But for some reason, the thought was unappealing. They were probably all doing whatever it was they did for her parents that kept Ieflaria running. She shouldn’t bother them with her silly whims…
It’s not silly. It could be the key to defeating the dragons.
Or it could be nothing but useless nonsense.
The sound of footsteps ascending the stairs outside made Adale turn a few more pages rapidly, hoping they were enough to hide the detached cover. As the door opened, she arranged her face into what she hoped was an innocently neutral expression.
But it was not a blue-robed priestess that stood in the doorway. Instead, it was Esofi, her skirts threatening to catch on the doorframe.
“Princess?” asked Adale. “What are you doing up here?”
Esofi glanced around the little library. “I could ask you the same thing. Are you still searching for information?”
“Yes,” Adale said. “Are you surprised?”
Esofi gave a very small smile. “A little, though perhaps that is unfair of me—I do apologize.”
“How is the training coming along?” Adale asked. “Or have you grown tired of it already?”
“I needed to rest my mind,” admitted Esofi. “But our newly blessed students have excellent instructors and so I do not think my absence will be any terrible loss. And I was curious—I have never been in this area of the temple before.”
She had to have seen the doors, the ones with the carvings that matched the markings inked onto her back. But Esofi said nothing about them, and so Adale did not raise the subject.
“Well,” said Adale, “I think this book looks promising, but I can’t read it—the dialect is too old. I was just wondering if it was worth troubling the court historians over.”
Esofi came over to look at the open page. She squinted at the words for a long moment and then shook her head in defeat, her curls bouncing with the movement.
“I could not begin to read that,” she said.
“Some of it looks a little familiar, here and there,” said Adale. “See…I think that word is egg. The…egg…something, is hatched, maybe?…and is…I don’t know that word…the dragon—ahh, that word is dragon, maybe that will help…”
“Would it help if I took dictation for you?” asked Esofi.
“Maybe,” said Adale. “I think it’s easier to understand if I stop thinking and just say the sounds as they appear.” She began to flip through the pages again. “But that will take an age. Stop me if you see anything that might have to do with the emperor.”
To Adale’s surprise, Esofi took a seat and settled in to help. But even with the princess’s help, it was several hours before they happened upon anything particularly interesting.
Despite her expectations, Adale had fallen into a sort of rhythm with the old dialect. It was strange in her mouth, but she was able to determine the meaning of most of the words. With her eyes half focused and mouth relaxed, she found she could make her way through entire pages—far more than she’d ever believed possible when she’d first opened the book.
“…in that time, Mother granted the blessings of the Moon to her children alone. The foremost of her blessing was the…glittering…darkness that can be shaped to all things. But Mother saw her…husband’s children, and she was…compelled. She began to share her blessing with the…hatchlings of Man, and the Men grew to love her and call her Mother just as we always had…” Adale looked at Esofi. Esofi stared back at her, clearly thinking the same thoughts.
“Was this book written by a dragon?” asked Esofi.
Adale looked down at the book before her and imagined a dragon dipping the end of his silver claw into an enormous inkwell, trying to fit words onto tiny pages.