Sorceress of Illaria

Chapter 4

Etta

The few members of her council's spirits were lifted at the sight of the dragon. It represented hope. Celeste set Oura down on the bed and let everybody stare at her. She stood near Etta, eyes darting to each person in the room.

"Everybody thought the dragons were gone forever," Yancey said. "We were told they must have died from the Darkness."

"Where do you think Max got his dragon?" Madame Lyndsey asked.

"No idea," I said. "I'm guessing it wasn't from an egg, though. I don't know how long it takes dragons to grow, but Oura is so small. I would guess it will be a while before she'd be big enough for somebody to ride her."

"It's too bad we don't have a few more," Charles said. "If we had a couple of dragons, we wouldn't need an army."

We wouldn't need an army. My head snapped to Charles. "We need more dragons."

"Etta, you can't just go looking for dragons," Celeste said.

"Why not?" It began to strike me as odd that nobody had done it before. "We know the dragons have returned. There must be more. If we can convince a few to help us, we could end this. We wouldn't need an army. We wouldn't need to cause more death of innocent people. No recruiting."

Charles lifted his open hand, fingers extended toward Oura. He held it in front of her, unmoving. She stretched her neck out and sniffed at his hand, then rubbed her nose against his fingers.

"She likes you," Celeste said. "She says you smell like home."

"She says?" I looked at Celeste.

"You didn't hear her?" she said. "She was pretty clear."

I shook my head. "No, I didn't hear her." Thinking of my white raven, I looked at Oura. "Oura, can you speak with Celeste?"

The dragon blinked at me. Celeste gasped. "You can't hear her?"

We all shook our heads.

Celeste lowered her face toward the dragon. "You can talk to me?" After a moment, Celeste straightened, leaning against the headboard. "Well, I never expected a dragon would choose me. I guess dragons can choose a human to bond with. Then they can speak to that human."

"That's amazing, Celeste," I said.

Celeste nodded then turned back to Oura before looking at me again. "She says she wants to help us find more dragons."

"Does she know what she needs? Or will you still need to go to Gallia?" I asked.

Celeste shook her head. "I can stay. She says that dragons are reborn after they die. So she's already been an adult dragon and has memories of that life."

A chill ran through me. "So she can really find more dragons?"

Oura crawled across the bed and climbed onto my good leg. She curled up on my thigh and went back to sleep.

Celeste laughed. "She says you need to stop talking and heal more."

"Dragons have incredible healing abilities," Madame Lyndsey said. "If she says you should rest, we should listen. We can keep you safe here until we figure out a plan. Nobody knows where we are."

"Except Ashton and Saffron," I said. "What if they were captured?"

"Try not to worry now. Sleep. We'll come up with a plan for finding them and the dragons later."