He Traded Our Daughter For Her Son

My half-sister knelt in front of me with her frost-sick son in her arms, begging me to let my daughter give up her only heart scale. My mate Kellan drove her out of the Obsidian Tower in front of everyone. He gripped his sword and swore, "Anyone who lays a hand on Lucia dies by my hand." The next day, Lucia disappeared. Two weeks later, we found her in the Rotmarsh. Her chest had been cut open, and black mud had soaked her beautiful silver wings until their original color was impossible to make out. Kellan held me as he pursued her killer, stayed with me through three years of nightmares, and then talked me into carrying another child. I thought he was waiting for Lucia to come home too. Then, five months into the pregnancy, I found a siphon mark carved under the new birth nest. The mark didn't link me to the baby I was carrying. It linked her to my sister's son, Noah. Every time my child kicked, Noah's life reading climbed a little higher. I followed the mark to a command echo Kellan had left behind and heard him promise my sister in a tender voice, "Once the hatchling is born, I'll put Seraphina into a long sleep. The child stays in the healing tower. However much bloodfire Noah needs, that's how much we take out of her." And buried at the very bottom of the mark was the first donation record, from three years ago. Donor: Lucia. Authorized by: the father she trusted most. Tomorrow I'll return my dead child to the Ancestral Fire and burn through the mate oath. Kellan likes making other people pay the price for Noah, doesn't he? This time, I'm going to make him watch himself lose everything. The night before Homefire Day, under the birth nest of my unborn child, I found another child's name. Noah Vale. The son of my half-sister, Willa. The words were hidden inside a ring of fine silver veining. The moment my fingers touched it, the veins lit up like something alive and crawled up the bedpost onto my wrist. The baby inside me kicked hard, and a pale thread of fire surfaced at the other end of the nest. At the end of that thread, under Noah's name, a line of numbers had appeared. Bloodfire stable. Seventy percent. I stared at the words, and the cold crept into my palms. A dragon birth nest records three names and no more: the hatchling's mother, its father, and the nest healer. It should never be linked to someone with no connection to the child, and it should never turn my hatchling's heartfire into that person's life reading. I raked a fingernail across my palm and pressed a drop of silver dragon blood into the boards. The hidden siphon mark came fully into view. While I slept, it drew the purest bloodfire out of the child inside me and fed it into another marked body. The mark had been running for four months. No wonder I'd been getting more exhausted by the week, and no wonder the baby's kicks were weaker every day. Kellan's footsteps sounded outside the door. I threw a blanket over the boards and sat back down by the window. Kellan pushed the door open with the night wind still on his black cloak. He was the lord of the Obsidian Legion, and he was my mate. Three years ago, after our daughter Lucia died, he had knelt with me in front of the Ancestral Fire all night and sworn he would find the killer, and sworn he would wait with me until Lucia came back to us. Now he leaned down, kissed my forehead, and rested his palm lightly on the curve of my belly. "Have you felt unwell today?" "A little tired." "Hold on a while longer." His voice was as gentle as it had been every night before. "Once she's born safe, you won't have to worry about a thing. I'll take care of you both." I looked into his eyes and asked, "What if this one has dawnfire, the way Lucia did?" Kellan's fingers paused for an instant. "Even better." He smiled at once. "It means she'll be as strong as her sister." When he lied, he always rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand. I used to take it for comfort. Only now did I understand that he was checking I was still under his control. I didn't call him on it. Once he went into the bathroom, I used the last shared access our mate oath still gave me to open the command echo stored in his cloak. Willa's voice came out of the black scale. "Noah went cold again today. The healer says the fire we're pulling isn't enough. He won't last until the hatchling breaks the shell." Kellan answered, "I'll raise the draw on the nest." "Will Seraphina notice?" "She won't. She thinks the exhaustion is just the pregnancy. Once the baby is born, I'll give her the long-sleep draught. She'll never wake up, so she'll never stop us again." Willa laughed softly. "And the baby?" "She stays in the healing tower. As long as Noah needs her, she's the steadiest ember we have." The echo cut off there. I stood where I was and listened to the water running in the bathroom, and to my own heart slamming against my ribs, one beat after another. Three years ago, Willa had knelt in front of me too, begging me to let Lucia give up her heart scale to save Noah from the frost sickness. Kellan dragged her out of the hall in front of everyone and said that anyone who laid a hand on Lucia would die by his hand. The next day, Lucia disappeared. Two weeks later, we found her in the Rotmarsh. The heart scale had been cut out of her chest, and her small silver wings were so soaked with black mud that you couldn't tell what color they had been. Kellan held me and wept, and he put the whole Legion on the hunt for the killer. Later, a desperate mercenary confessed and was executed by fire. I thought that was the end of it. But at the very bottom of the nest's siphon mark, there was an old string of numbers from three years back. I dripped blood onto it, and a buried record rose slowly to the surface. First donation: Lucia Austin. Beneficiary: Noah Vale. So Lucia hadn't died at a stranger's hands. The one who actually put her on the healing table slept beside me every night.The next morning, Kellan fastened my cloak himself. "We're going to the Legion healing room today for a resonance calibration," he said. "Once we confirm the hatchling's scales are coming in normally, we can wait for her without worrying." I nodded. He probably thought I was still who I used to be, the kind of woman who would endure anything as long as he said it was for the child. The healing room sat at the deepest point of the Obsidian Tower. Silver needles, a fire basin, and straps for pinning down dragon wings were already laid out. This was clearly no spur-of-the-moment checkup. Horne, the Legion physician, avoided my eyes. "My lady, the needles will draw a little bloodfire from the baby. It will hurt, but it won't harm her." "Why no numbing herb?" Kellan took my hand. "Numbing distorts the bloodfire. Hold on a little longer, Sera." When the needle went into my belly, I finally understood where all those unexplained cramps of the last few months had come from. The shaft quickly glowed red-hot, as though it were carving a path of fire through my body. I bit down on my lip and didn't beg Kellan to stop. I only pressed my ring secretly against the bloodfire welling up beside it. Set into the face of that ring was a sealing chamber of the silver dragon line, deep enough to hold one full resonance. "Seventy-five percent." Horne stared at the instrument, relief easing his voice. "Steadier than last time." Kellan pressed him at once. "Can you get it to ninety?" "If we increase the night draw, the hatchling may not survive long enough to break the shell." "I asked whether Noah could survive." Horne said nothing. Only then did Kellan seem to remember I was awake. He bent and wiped the sweat from my temple. "Don't be frightened. He's only describing the worst case. Our baby is strong." After the needle came out, I didn't have the strength to sit up. But Kellan followed Horne into the outer room and kept asking about the resonance numbers. Through the half-clear curtain, I could see the other healing bed. Noah was lying on it. The frost lines on his face were fading a little at a time. Willa stood at the bedside holding Kellan's hand, her tears falling on his knuckles. "I knew you wouldn't abandon us." Noah opened his eyes and called out weakly, "Father." Kellan didn't correct him. He only leaned over and stroked the boy's hair. Willa saw that I was awake and pulled her hand back in a hurry. "Sera, Noah has always thought of the lord as a hero. His illness confuses him, and he says things he doesn't mean. Don't be angry at a child." I braced myself on the bed rail and stood up. "I'm not angry." She blinked, as if the argument she'd been waiting for hadn't come. Kellan came over to steady me. "Let me get you home." "No need." I looked at Horne. "I want today's records." Horne went white. Kellan answered for him. "Legion healing records don't leave this building. You wouldn't understand the numbers anyway. Reading them would only make you worry." I gave a small smile. "Fine." After I left the Obsidian Tower, I didn't go home. I went to the human clinic on the west side of the city. Maren had been Lucia's nest healer. After Lucia died, she questioned the autopsy record, and Kellan threw her out of the Legion for it. She let the fire out of my ring into a glass jar. The instant the blue-white flame left the setting, it pulled hard toward the north. North was exactly where Noah's healing room stood. Maren's expression grew graver by the second. "This isn't a resonance check. It's a siphon calibration. Somebody is testing how much fire they can take from the hatchling each time, enough to keep the one on the other end alive without the mother noticing right away." "How long does she have?" She didn't answer right away. She just set the jar back on the table. "Seraphina, they didn't start draining your baby today. Her heartfire is half as strong as it should be at five months. If this keeps up, she'll die before she ever reaches the shell." I looked down at my belly. The baby was terribly still. On my way out of the clinic, I sent Kellan a message. "Tomorrow is Lucia's Homefire Day. I want her death review reopened." He replied almost at once. "Of course. If it gives you peace, I'll agree to anything." But when I reached the Dragon Court registry, the clerk handed me nothing but a revocation order. Kellan's Legion seal was stamped in the applicant's box.Kellan had done more than cancel the review. He had classified every one of Lucia's old treatment files as a wartime secret. The clerk wouldn't look at me. "The lord says reopening old cases would undermine Legion morale. Without his release order, nobody can open them." "I'm Lucia's mother." "You're also a co-lord of the Obsidian Legion." The clerk dropped his voice. "At least you still are today." I understood the warning. As long as the mate oath stood, I still held half the Legion's authority. Kellan used our bond to control me, and he had forgotten it also let me see the things he thought he could hide forever. Outside the city, the trial bell rang. The Homefire Day flight trials had begun. Lucia had loved flying more than anything. At six, before her wings had even finished growing in, she had dared to leap off the top of the bell tower into my arms. Three years ago, Kellan and I agreed that the flight trials would be cancelled on this day every year, and that every bell in the city would go silent for her for a moment. Today the trial grounds were packed. Kellan stood on the highest oath platform and settled a silver-trimmed hatchling cloak over Noah's shoulders himself. It was Lucia's cloak. My own stitches were still in the left wing seam where I had mended it for her. "Noah is not a pureblood dragon, but he has shown courage in the face of frost sickness." Kellan announced it to the whole crowd. "From today, he stands as a candidate heir to the Obsidian crest." The crowd went quiet first, then broke into applause. Willa stood below the platform with red-rimmed eyes. She waited for the applause to die before she turned to me and raised her voice just enough to carry. "Sera, Lucia has already gone back to the Ancestral Fire. The family has to go on. By wearing her cloak, Noah is preserving her honor." "Wearing Lucia's clothes won't turn him into Lucia." Willa's lips trembled. "I never wanted to replace her. I only want Noah to live. The baby you're carrying has such strong bloodfire. Sharing a little of it with her cousin is what family does, isn't it?" People nearby murmured to each other, taking it for an ordinary act of relatives helping one another. Kellan frowned and came down off the platform. "Willa isn't herself today. Don't hold it against her. We'll talk about the draw at home." He said it so easily, as if my child were already a Legion resource he had the right to hand out. I didn't argue in front of them. I walked up onto the oath platform and laid my hand on the witness fire. "If Noah is to become a candidate for the crest, then grant him formal authorization, my lord." Kellan thought I'd accepted it. He pressed the Legion seal into the flame, allowing Noah to enter the trials and allowing the healing room to draw on family bloodfire whenever it judged that necessary. The witness fire forgets no order. I completed the witness rite with every eye on me, and copied that authorization seal whole into my palm. When the trials ended, I went to Lucia's memorial wall. A heart scale case was hidden behind it. By dragon custom, a hatchling who cannot return to the Ancestral Fire leaves one heart scale behind until her mother is ready to send her on. I hadn't opened it in three years. Today I lifted the lid, and inside there was only a piece of obsidian ground into the shape of a heart scale. The bottom of the case was stamped with a Legion vault number. Kellan had stolen the last thing Lucia left behind as well. I used my co-lord's access to enter the vault. The guard didn't dare stop me, but he told me the heart scale had been transferred to the north tower healing wing three years ago, and that there had been a withdrawal record every month since. Lucia was dead, and Kellan was still using her. I took every withdrawal number and put the fake obsidian back in the case. Kellan came home very late that night. He brought a bouquet of white fire roses, as if nothing at all had happened. "I went looking for you at the memorial wall after the trials. Sera, I know this hurts, but Noah has done nothing wrong." "Neither did Lucia." He was quiet for a moment, then said it anyway. "The living have to keep going." I nodded. "You're right." So I would no longer stand beside him and guard an oath that had died a long time ago.Maren checked three times before she told me the result. "The baby's heartfire has stopped." She said it slowly, as though any one of the words might cut me open. "It didn't stop today. The siphon mark has been keeping up that faint movement so you would think she was still alive. Three days at most, and even that will be gone." I sat on the examination bed with both hands around my belly and said nothing for a long time. Three months ago, the first time I felt her move, Kellan pressed his ear to my belly and laughed like a boy. He said Lucia couldn't bear to leave us, so she had come back in a different body. By then he had already carved the siphon mark under the nest. Maren asked, "Do you want Kellan told?" "No." He didn't deserve to touch my child again. With the last of my co-lord's access, I copied the vault orders, the heart scale withdrawal records, and Horne's calibration data, and gave them to Maren to carry to the Sky Archive. The Archive is guarded by all the races together, and Kellan could not destroy anything there on his own. After dark I went to the Ancestral Fire temple alone. A silver dragon hatchling leaves no whole body behind. Maren placed that small, extinguished heartfire into a silver casket. I held the casket against my chest as if I were holding a sleeping child. "I'm sorry." My voice fell into the empty temple. "Mommy found out too late." As the Ancestral Fire rose, the siphon mark from the nest surfaced in my palm. The far end tugged wildly at the mark, trying to send the last of my child's fire to Noah. I closed my hand around the mark and pushed it into the Ancestral Fire. The silver veins snapped one by one, and the burn climbed from my palm all the way into my chest. Far off, from the direction of the Obsidian Tower, a dull bell rang, which meant the healing room's donation channel had gone dark. I watched the silver casket dissolve in the flames. "Go find your sister." The last small silver light rose out of the casket, paused for a heartbeat at my fingertips, then flew into the depths of the Ancestral Fire. That was when I finally cried. Not because I regretted cutting the channel, but because I never once got to hold this child. When the flames sank down, I brought out the mate oath. A dragon's mate oath is not just a piece of paper. It binds territory, bloodfire, and guardianship together in one knot. Dissolving it takes both sides. If only one side wants out, she has to leave a permanent burn on her own wing bone. I put my left wing into the Ancestral Fire. The smell of burning flesh spread through the temple, and the golden oath lines were torn from my chest inch by inch. They blackened in the fire and finally broke in two. From that moment on, Kellan could no longer draw on my bloodfire, could no longer set foot in the Silver Dragon lands, and could no longer sign a single order for me or my child as my mate. I sent a courier to the Obsidian Tower with the dissolution papers, the key to the empty birth nest, and the baby's ash box. There was one line inside the box. You have taken two of my children. There will not be a third. Maren brought up two windbeasts. I didn't go home, and I didn't wait around to see what look would cross Kellan's face. As we rode out through the south gate, the Homefire Day bells began to ring. Behind us, the alarms of the Obsidian Tower went off one after another. I found out later that Kellan didn't even open my ash box when it arrived. A messenger from the healing room reached him first: the stolen bloodfire inside Noah was draining away, the frost was crawling back over him, and he could die at any moment. Kellan dropped my ash box and ran for Noah. Whatever ridiculous hope I had left went out for good in that moment.