She bowed her head, her hands folded before her. “Not in a long time.”
“See?” Felix scrambled to his feet. Though he stood half a head taller than the woman, he felt like a little boy pleading with his nurse to let him go out and play in the mud after a shower. “See, you can’t know that Aethelbald will do anything. You can’t know where he is. But I am here, and I can do something! You know Faerie, don’t you? Isn’t it true that there is power in blood ties that . . . that sometimes can overcome foes much too great otherwise? Isn’t it true, Dame Imraldera?”
“Felix,” she said gently, taking his hand and stroking it as though trying to soothe a baby. “Felix, if you leave here now, the poison – ”
“Will it kill me?”
“Not immediately,” she admitted. “Perhaps not for many years. But someday, Felix, yes. If you do not stay and receive the full healing I can give you, the poison will pump through all your veins, will work its way into your heart. And you will die, young prince. Whether in a year, in ten years, or in fifty, the dragon poison will kill you.”
Felix shrugged, shaking his head angrily. “A year? I can save my father and be back here long before then! I will return immediately – I promise – and you can finish your treatments then.”
“But, Felix – ”
“You’ll always have some excuse, because you don’t want me to go.”
Felix pulled his hand from hers and stormed across the room. “You don’t want me to go because you think I’m too young, you think I’m useless, that I can’t do anything. But I can, I tell you. I can save my father!”
“Felix – ”
“What?” he snapped. “Don’t try to comfort me; I don’t want it.” Imraldera stood quietly in the center of the room, her hands still folded. “I cannot keep you here against your will,” she said. “If you desire to go, I will send you back across the Borders. Your attendants will protect you until you pass through, but once you’re on the other side you will be truly alone. And, Felix, I will not be able to make you return to me.”
Felix looked up. “But you will let me go?”
“I will.”
He leapt up, pounding the air with his fist, then grabbed the startled woman up in his arms and spun her around so that her tunic and flowing trousers swirled. “Thank you!” he cried. “Thank you! Thank you!” He set her down, both of them staggering from the momentum, and kissed her smartly on the cheek. “You will see,” he said. “I’ll save him, I truly will. And I’ll come back before the year is out, fit as anything, and you can do whatever you need to!”
Imraldera, tears in her eyes, backed away. “Oh, little Felix,” she murmured. “I hope that you will.”
But he did not hear what she said, for he was busy shouting to the thin air, “Attendants! Invisibles! Can you get me some real clothes? Something other than a nightshirt? And boots and things. And a sword! Don’t forget a sword! A sharp one!”
–––––––
In that moment, as the dragon girl stood with the key clutched in her hand, watching the trail of fire that marked the Bane of Corrilond’s departure, she was thankful that she no longer possessed a heart, for she knew it would beat through her chest. Glancing over her shoulders, certain that at any moment one of the shadowy figures would stop its aimless wandering to apprehend her, she slid the key into the lock. The metal on metal clanged so horribly, she thought she would die on the spot. She shook too much to turn the key.
A strong hand slid between the bars and covered hers. “Let me help,” Aethelbald said.
She removed her hand from under his and quickly pulled the sleeves of her robe lower. Had he noticed the scales?
He turned the key, and the lock clicked open. The door creaked as he pushed, and she started and turned this way and that, certain of attack.
“Don’t be afraid,” Aethelbald said, sliding from the cage to her side. “Most of them do not care enough, caught up as they are in their own burning. We need fear only one of them now, for most have spent their anger on me and already forgotten.” He reached for her hand, but she refused, so he gently took her elbow instead. “Come, Una. You must know the way out.”
She took two steps, but fear of the hundreds of shadows, her dragon kin, overwhelmed her. “They’ll kill us both,” she breathed. But she did not care what they did to her.
“They won’t, Una.” He leaned close to whisper in her ear. “Trust me.”