Fire Weaver (Fall of the Fey #1)

Chapter 5

The caves were all the same; cold and brown with animal skins hanging on the walls and floor to give it a sense of homeyness. Castra, who was a surprisingly short woman with light brown wings, had told Carmel, as she cleaned out the many scrapes that Zereth had incurred, that the caves the Draco lived in before looked completely different. There had been carvings on the walls and colourful tapestries. The floors were covered in animal skins so that feet were protected from the natural cold of the stone. Their original home had tons of rooms on a cliff face with countless openings to fly out of and all the tunnels were interconnected for the young and old who have trouble flying.

Rather than wait with Carmel, Lekinya had taken Tharoe to show him around the mountain because he was uncomfortable not knowing the layout of his surroundings. Because of the close quarters, everyone crossed paths over and over, so their scents mingled and he couldn't track a specific person, which set him on edge. That's how he explained it anyway. Carmel suspected, because of his heightened sense of smell and hearing, that Tharoe knew the old man had been following them, but they hadn't yet had time to themselves for her to ask him if that were the case.

Carmel had offered to stay with Zereth until he woke up and that's when she had spoken to Castra about their home. She had wanted to ask about the man who could raise the dead, but figured that she would have to wait until Tharoe and Lekinya came back to speak about it. The people had responded the way Lekinya had thought they would when they were told of Terron's passing. They were relieved and thankful, but they were also worried. They didn't know what to do without a leader.

Carmel was pulled out of her thoughts as Zereth started to wake up. He shifted and grunted in pain before blinking his eyes. She grinned at him. 'Looks like you'll live to fight another day.'

'Ha!' he said and winced while grabbing his side.

'Castra said you should shift to speed up your healing,' Carmel told him.

'I'm fine.'

'Sure, that's why you look like you're about to cry every time you move,' she responded sardonically. He turned his head towards her and raised his eyebrow as he had never heard her be so cutting. She blew out her breath in irritation. 'Look, I know you don't want to shift, but it really would be better for you.'

'I can't,' he turned his head away from her, but she could still see the shame he tried to hide. Carmel could see that he was tormented by his loss of wings even if he didn't want to talk about it. It was written on his face in every glance at the sky and every shift in his back muscles when he went to move the wings that were no longer there.

'Why not? Because you can't fly?' Carmel stood up so his face was covered in her shadow. 'You know what? you have a choice to make; you can either be Brothos, dragon who got his wings taken away from him and was cast out; or you can be Zereth, a flightless dragon who has friends and a clan full of winged dragons to look after.'

She left him to his misery.

***

Fleet, in human form, had watched from the shadows as Brothos was taken to Castra. He listened to the people around him speculate over what had happened, but he already had a clear idea. He waited until the Fey-beast had walked out of the infirmary before he snuck inside to see Brothos and confirm his suspicions.

Brothos looked up, a frown of annoyance playing on his features, but it slackened to surprise when he saw Fleet. Fleet wondered idly what the Fey-beast had said to stir up the usually level-headed male. Granted, Brothos could be a completely different person now because of what his brother, Terron, had done to him. Fleet didn't know if he could have survived without changing drastically because he couldn't imagine living knowing that he couldn't taste the sky again.