These Alien Dragons

Chapter 15 (T.T.)

Ashes led us south of the River of Beaks before following the western shores of the continent to reach the Undercurrents.

As she led us, she told us some facts about why some areas on Eukarya were named that why.

She claimed that the Rachis Jungle was named after a FeatherWing named Rachis that had discovered it; although I couldn't tell if she was lying about it or not. Her tone was straightforward and factual.

She also claimed that she knew who our family's assassin was.

"Can you tell me who it is?" I exclaimed. After all these Turns, this cold case was finally going to be solved.

"No", she only replied. "But the only thing I can tell you is that the killer was under your snout the entire time."

"The killer was under your snout the entire time."

Who could that refer to?

Mother?

No, she couldn't be. If she wanted to kill her children, she would do it already and I wouldn't exist.

Flood?

It could be a possibility, since she was the one usually given the task of checking the eggs during each guard transition.

That could explain how she managed to drug Turtle and Requiem and get away with it. She could've used something from the Healers, and they wouldn't know what was taken from them unless they checked their supplies.

But what would be her motive? Motive was everything when trying to solve a mystery.

Spite? Ensuring that she would be the one to ascend to the throne instead of me or any of the others?

I knew Flood throughout my dragonethood and even now as an adult, and yet there was a possibility that I didn't truly know the dragon that was my sister.

So she's a possible killer. Who else would be?

I thought about the different members of my family and Depths and thought out it for a long while as we continued our way down the coasts, the waves crashing on the shores.

Whirlpool couldn't be the killer. If the autopsy of the hatchlings found indentations of rings in the shells and the tiny corpses, he would be arrested and executed by now.

Rush? If Whirlpool was the killer, he could be his accomplice.

Splash? I chucked that thought into the wind. She's not able to kill.

Flow? Maybe, since she did have a way with words and actions.

Droplet? Probably not, since she's like Splash, unable to kill.

But there was one I could rule alongside Flood as a possible killer.

Surge.

He had always acted like he deserved everything, and I remembered that Mother always seemed afraid of him whenever he spoke to her.

There was that time I read starting to read Skies of Fire Turns ago, and I was reading book two after a long session of Instruction outside the giant, amorphous, blobby reef that acted as our "palace" when I saw flashes of light come out of the corner of my eye.

Bookmarking where I was with a flat stone, I closed the book, turned my head to one side of the reef, and watched.

Surge was telling Mother something in an angry tone, but I couldn't remember what it was. But what I do clearly remember was the look on her face – sheer terror.

Her wings, the same shade of deep blue as her scales, were quivering, and her grey eyes were wide. The pearls around her horns, neck, and wings shuddered with the movement of her body.