The Ocean's Heart (The Dragons of Flareia Book 2)

Chapter 23 - Louin

The Dragon Palace, The Isle of Deus, Anemasi

26th Year of the Ocean

Last Day of the Fifth Moon

Louin lent against the battlements, the rough stone grating against his elbows even through the material of his jacket. He stared across the ocean at the Pearl Palace. How long had it been since he'd been back here? It had hardly been a month since he'd relocated to the Pearl Palace to be closer to Olivier when she arrived, yet it felt so much longer. He'd begun to feel as Deus did – the elaborate palace on the mainland had started to feel like a prison, especially with the weight of everything he couldn't tell the other Dragonheirs for the sake of his own country. Just being back at the Dragon Palace lifted that weight, and he felt as if he could fly off at any moment.

You are brooding.

He turned, having almost forgotten the Spirit Dragon was sitting not far from him on the battlements, towering high above his head. In the slowly fading afternoon light, she looked a pale orange.

"I'm not brooding," he rubbed the back of his neck. "I was actually just thinking how glad I was to be back here."

Deus cocked her head to the side. When you first became Dragonheir, you felt this was a prison.

"The Pearl Palace is a worse prison with gilded bars," he grumbled. "While it was nice to be back on the mainland, the Pearl Palace no longer serves me the same freedom as when I had been a stableboy."

You have grown much since then, Deus pointed out.

He had to stop himself from scoffing. Had he grown, or just become more immature, more unable to handle his own problems?

You have grown, Deus insisted. You are certainly not the same boy I saw in the crowd at the Choosing.

He shrugged. "Perhaps it helps when you have an age-old dragon in your head all the time," he said, but he smiled, and could have sworn her violet eyes twinkled.

There are things that worry you, she said. Things you refuse to tell me. I am not insisting that you do, but letting you know that I am willing to listen.

He shook his head a little too fast, even before she'd finished her sentence. "It's nothing you need to worry yourself with, I promise."

Her expression was unreadable – he knew she still had doubts, but he had no way to erase them when she was right. Instead, he turned back to the Pearl Palace, and noticed a small vessel leaving the dock at the cliffs beneath it – a dock used only to travel to the Isle. He narrowed his eyes at the same time Deus stretched out her wings, flapping them a few times before settling back down. His dragon peered down at the boat that would soon reach them.

It is not often they send messengers, she observed. Something must have happened.

"Ivenya?" Louin asked, tension rising in the pit of his stomach.

Deus cocked her head to the side. Reach out, Louin. Tell me what you feel on the mainland.

"I've never reached that far before,"

Even more reason to try now, when it could be in danger.

He sighed, but let his eyes close. He could feel Deus beside him, feel the strong Spirit in her body. At first, it was hard to feel anything beyond it and the tether to his own Spirit, but then he pushed further. He could feel the five Cantiers-in-Training in their classroom bent over their desks as Lady Wanda stood at the front of the room, teaching them. Beyond the palace, the other Cantiers were milling around their village on the island – the twenty Cantiers who still survived, or weren't sent on missions by Deus and Castia.