e Volgart loo

moldered faintly, disappearing into the walls and deeper still, into the mountain on which the fortress had been built. Far below, clouds moved slow

ge of the gallery, loo

ed too much. The boundary had opened farther than it should have, others had seen her, and the power

so

against ston

ok your

dragon, not a serv-ant. If you wanted to see

an t

sing higher than a man's head, while moonlight dulled the surface of his scales to the sheen of dark metal. Between the plates

n lowered

are true. She r

I wasn't the only

eyes narrowed. "Ever

dn't know Alice, but the

ed one wing. The air shifted heavily across the gallery, and t

will begin sooner

I was wait

ad simply found a new way to spend your nights-stari

't prevent

oke curled from the

ill a terr

en told somethin

he

touched Damian

it

he subject drop

ppening wit

ng on its own, but the crossing itself is still unstable. Her dra

cannot com

kno

ven know sh

h every elegant half-answer, and the way she tested every ex

t advantage won't

d rumble. "And when it does, you i

have

gh she's going to sit

hat is one thing I

e. Somewhere in the distance came a deep roll of sound, and the

, neither o

gon asked, "Can

istened

w he could recognize it without effort-a fine thread reaching be-yon

far away, but I c

n she f

it is more a sense of prese

is happening is no

to wait until she could hear enough to und

may be two differ-ent things to you. I'm not

m. "What exactly ar

ack Dragon did no

do if she ref

stion w

there and waited for the day she would appear. In that imagined future, there had been no voice, no temperament, no habit of ar

ere wa

hing that had never existed

ch

nt to cross, we'll

eyes. "You waited for her to

strange to spend years waiting to meet her and then

comes inconvenient for m

to be asked to choose, she first has to

he crimson light be-neath his scales contin

won't li

tant decisions being made

ve ch

est smile. "Not as mu

n marks ignited beneath his claws one after another and faded

ary. If it opened on its own today, I want

he connection activates ag

ver one shoulder. "I kno

th you. Today, it has already demo

lipsed the moon, the sudden rush of air struck the walls and lifted dust from the stone, and t

ding between the clouds, disapp

remaine

d above the to

y that one day the boundary would open. Now everything was different. Alice had already appeared-not yet fu

growing thinner. People who should not yet have kno

till capable

y he had before no

e already