The Dragon Queen Selection Chapter 162

LIRA

The Dragon's Keep rose from the mountains like a scar.

Ancient stone walls, black with age, climbed toward the grey sky. I had never been there, but I had heard stories of the place. How scary it was. How the unbounded dragons in there flew wild and free. 

I had seen it before. In paintings. In tapestries. In the stories my father used to tell me, when I was small enough to sit on his knee and believe that dragons were creatures of wonder, not weapons. I used to marvel at the thought of them. Used to adore the royal family for having the special privilege of having dragons. I thought it made them unique. 

Now I saw everything for what it really was. I saw the dragon keep for what it really was.

A prison.

A graveyard.

A place where girls like me came to prove their worth, or maybe die trying.

My carriage had been the slowest.

The horses were tired. The driver was old; I wondered if it was intentional. The road had been treacherous: narrow switchbacks cut into the mountain, cliffs dropping away into nothing, and the wind screaming through the passes like a wounded animal.

By the time I arrived, the other girls were already gone.

Calista's carriage stood empty. Elora's too.

I was the last.

*Of course*, I thought. *I'm always the last.*

*The last to arrive. The last to be chosen. The last to matter.*

'Lira.' Luna stirred beneath my cloak, her mind brushing against mine. 'This place feels strange and old.'

*It's the dragons*, I thought. *When they're not in their homes, this is their abode. Besides, I heard a few dragons died here too.*

'It smells like death.'

I didn't answer. Because she was right.

\---

The dragon keeper was waiting at the edge of the forest.

He was old, older than any man I had ever seen. His skin was cracked like dried earth, his eyes were pale and watery, his hands were gnarled with age. But when he looked at me, I felt something cold slither down my spine.

I wonder if he could tell, if he knew I wasn't really who he thought I was. He looked old enough to have been around during the last Selection with Queen Seraphina. How old was he really? 

"Your hand," he said.

His voice was raspy. I could barely hear him without taking several steps closer to him. 

I held out my hand.

He pulled a knife from his belt, clean, sharp, the blade glinting in the pale light. He didn't ask permission. Didn't warn me. Just took my palm and sliced it open.

The pain was sharp.

Brief.

Blood welled from the cut, dark red against my pale skin.

"The scent of your blood will draw them to you," the keeper said. "Or repel them. We shall see."

"What about the others?" I asked. "Calista? Elora?"

"They have already entered." He gestured toward the forest. "You are the last."

*Of course I am.*

He studied me for a moment.

"You're not carrying any weapons, are you? Hidden in that cloak of yours? The dragons can sense steel. It makes them wary. It would be best to leave any weapons you have behind now."

"No weapons," I said.

The keeper nodded.

"Then go. Be careful of the forest too, it not only houses dragons but also wild animals. So good luck, Lady Lira. You will need it."

He stepped back.

The forest loomed before me.

I walked into the darkness.

\----------------------------------------------

The trees closed around me like dungeon bars.

The light faded, not completely, but enough. What remained was grey and dim, filtering through the canopy in pale shafts that illuminated nothing and everything.

The ground was soft. Damp. Leaves carpeted the forest floor, centuries worth, decomposing into something dark and rich. The air smelled of moss and rot and blood. 

I had heard unbonded dragons were wilder. The longer a dragon stayed unbonded, the harder it was to tame. And dragons sometimes were hesitant to bond again after having a previous bond. Half of the dragons in the dragon's keep had been bonded before, but that was ages ago, from long-gone people in the Valemont family. 

I walked quietly and consciously. I had no powers and weapons, so encountering a wild animal would be fatal. I had to keep quiet and stay long enough just for Calista to bond with a dragon so I could leave the godforsaken forest. I silently hoped Elora was faring better than me.

'Lira.' Luna's voice was urgent. 'Let me out. I cannot see.'

I stopped.

Looked around.

No one.

Nothing but trees and shadows and the distant cry of birds.

"Go," I whispered.

Luna scrambled out from beneath my cloak and perched on my shoulder, her golden eyes wide, her small body tense. She looked around, at the trees, the shadows, the pale light, and made a soft sound of distress.

'This place feels wrong', she said.

"It's just a forest."

*It is not just a forest. It is* ***their*** *forest. The wild ones. What if they try to hurt us?'

"They wouldn't. You're a hatchling, remember? No dragon will ever harm you."

'You are right,' She pressed her head against my cheek. 'You are lucky you are with me. They won't harm you either because you are bonded to me.'

We walked.

\---

The forest grew denser.

The trees pressed closer, their branches intertwining above us, their roots twisting beneath our feet. Vines hung from the canopy like ropes, thick and green and coiled with thorns. The silence was absolute.

Just the sound of my breathing and the soft rustle of Luna's scales against my cloak.

*Where are the dragons?* Luna asked.

"I don't know. We've been walking for a while; they must be avoiding us. My blood is unremarkable after all."

'Where are the other girls?'

"I don't know that either."

We kept walking.

\------------------------------------------------------

Something was wrong.

I could feel it, a prickling at the back of my neck, a tightening in my chest. The forest had changed. The shadows had grown deeper. The silence had become... *expectant*.

Like something was waiting.

'Lira.' Luna's voice was barely a whisper. 'Something is hunting us.'

"What?"

*Something human. I can smell them, the steel on them.*

My blood went cold.

"Where?"

'Behind. To the left.'

I didn't turn.

Didn't run.

Just kept walking, my heart pounding, my hand reaching for a weapon I didn't have.

*Luna*, I thought. *Get back in the cloak.*

'But..'

*NOW.*

She scrambled beneath the fabric, pressing against my chest.

Then, for what seemed to be ages, the forest was deathly silent. I looked around but found no one. I continued walking, conscious and still on alert. I was beginning to get frustrated, but I knew that Luna's instincts were never wrong. I was about to give up when I heard a twig snap and footsteps rushing towards me.

I threw myself sideways and rolled across the forest floor, leaves and dirt flying, and the dagger buried itself in the tree where my head had been.

I scrambled to my feet.

My palm was still bleeding.

My heart was roaring in my chest.

And Calista stepped out of the shadows.