Gift or Curse?

Chapter Seven

Kite waited in the forest beneath the Sky Palace, thinking about her plan. She and Cinder would watch for Queen Amaranth setting out on her daily hunting excursion. When they caught sight of her, they would follow, and watch, then play it by ear in order to find a way to contact her in a way that would seem to be spontaneous. Then, they would find out where she stood on the idea of animus magic and, if all went well, introduce Cinder to her with an explanation of what had happened.

For about half an hour, Kite watched the Sky Palace, moving around occasionally to keep from appearing too suspicious. She saw several dragons fly in and out, but they were all either too orange, or too small, or they were male instead of female. Kite knew Cinder was watching from another vantage point, waiting for the queen to appear.

Around midday, Kite's stomach started to growl. She tore her gaze away from the temporarily empty skies to glance around. She saw nothing around her, unless she wanted to eat a clump of saplings.

She glanced up at the sky again, then somewhat reluctantly left her post in search of something to eat. She resolved to spend no more than five minutes hunting before taking up her watch again. She felt guilty enough leaving even for a moment, with such a huge event hovering above the SkyWing tribe.

To her relief, Kite soon heard nearby mooing. She hurried through the sparse trees towards the sound, and saw a small herd of five or six cows.

Kite leaped at a straggler at the same moment a red shape plunged at the herd from above. The cows scattered in all directions. One stampeded right towards Kite, who instinctively grabbed it and killed it.

Kite looked up at the newcomer, who had a slightly disappointed expression at having missed her prey. When Kite recognized the pink-red scales, she hurriedly dropped into a bow.

"Queen Amaranth!" she gasped. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I didn't realize you were hunting those cows." she gestured to the one she had killed. "Here. Take this one. I'm sorry for interrupting your hunt."

The SkyWing queen waved away the offer. "That's all right. Keep the cow. You did kill it, after all. Besides, the rest of the herd won't have gone far."

She turned to leave, but before she got far, Kite mustered her nerve. "Your Majesty, may I ask you something?"

Amaranth looked back at her, a faintly curious expression on her face. "Of course."

Don't wimp out, Kite told herself. "If you were to learn that animus dragons still existed in the tribe, would you move to wipe out the bloodline, like the queens of the past did, or would you give them a chance?"

Queen Amaranth thought for a while, her gaze wandering around the clearing as she considered the question.

"I think," she said after a moment, "that I would give them a chance. I know SkyWing law takes a 'better safe than sorry' approach to... Such matters, but by that logic a queen would be justified in killing her heirs because they might one day challenge her. So no, I don't think I would be able to kill them for something they might do."

Kite's nervousness was simultaneously assuaged and redoubled. Now that she knew Queen Amaranth wouldn't want to kill Cinder for being an animus, she had to find a way to break the news to her queen about the magic amulet and the dragons who had been hunting her and Cinder for the past week.

The queen must have noticed something odd in her expression, because she spoke to Kite again. "Animus magic doesn't still exist, does it? This is a hypothetical scenario?"

Kite steeled herself again. "No. It's real. But it's not so much that animus SkyWings still exist as it is that they exist again..." she thought about all that had happened over the past several days. "It's kind of a long story, and I'm not sure how well it can really be summarized without leaving out important things."

"Well," Amaranth said, "why not start at the beginning? I'm in no hurry."

Kite took a deep breath. "Six days ago, I was out hunting when I found a dying dragon in a cave....."

Queen Amaranth was an attentive listener. Despite her obvious surprise, she kept her composure. She only interrupted when Kite got to the part where she faced the dragons who had kidnapped Cinder.

"There have been dragons running a secret operation of this scale inside the Sky Kingdom, and I knew nothing about it?" She seemed angry with herself.

"I think they've existed for a long time," Cinder supplied. She had appeared about halfway through Kite's tale, and quick introductions had been made. "They've probably had a lot of experience in keeping hidden."

Amaranth glanced between the two of them. "Did you recognize any of them?"

Kite bit her lip. "One of them was Goose, the palace librarian. I don't know who the rest of them were."

"Were?" Amaranth asked, noticing the use of the past tense. "What happened?"

Kite winced. "Remember Sturgeon, the SeaWing I mentioned? I swear, I didn't know at first but... he's an animus. An insane animus. And he– he killed them."

Amaranth looked alarmed. "Where is he now?"

"I don't know," Cinder admitted. "He reappeared a few days later, and said he didn't care about the Sky Kingdom, that he was just curious about how things would go with the necklace. He implied that he was going back to the cave he had been in when Kite found him, but he may have been lying."

Amaranth nodded soberly. "And what about the necklace? I assume you got it back to the descendants of the animus line?"

Kite glanced at Cinder, who nodded. "We did. After escaping from the dragons who took me, we hid in the forests for a while. After a few days, I took the necklace to lay a false trail, in case there were any more of them after us. When I got back and gave the necklace back to Kite, a dragon jumped us and took the necklace." She shook her head in thought. "I'm not sure why I did what I did next. Maybe it was just instinct. But I yelled 'stop him', and the branch I had been sitting on pulled itself off the tree and pinned him to the ground. A minute later was when Sturgeon showed up again."

"So you are the SkyWing animus," Amaranth said, her voice carrying a hint of awe.

Kite bit her tongue. Hearing that fact stated aloud made it feel real, suddenly. Like it could no longer be denied.

"Have you enchanted anything else?" Amaranth asked.

"I told the branch to let him go after we had half an hour's head start," Cinder admitted. "But that's it."

"There have been animus dragons in history who used their magic without losing their souls," Amaranth said. "So there is a way of controlling the risk. Perhaps they knew just how much magic was safe, or maybe they knew of a way to beat the curse. We can find out from them."

The SkyWing queen looked between Cinder and Kite. "If you wish, the two of you can come back to the palace with me. We can search for the rest of the dragons affiliated with those who kidnapped you, and send emissaries to the other tribes to find out more about controlling animus powers. You can stay as long as you wish."

Cinder hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

Queen Amaranth turned to Kite. "What about you?"

Kite thought about the insanity of the past week, the running and hiding that they had gone through, the secrecy, the paranoia. All of that was over now. They would be safe at last.

"I would be honored, Your Majesty," she began, "but there's something I have to do first."