I don't know how long we sat there, holding each other. It was no small amount of time, to say the least. The first to stir was the dragon. I sniffed, wiping my face on my cloak, and looked up into those giant golden eyes. He raised his head a little over us, peering down with an expression I couldn't place.
Then again, I had no reference for the expressions of dragons. He could be feeling anything right now and I wouldn't know it.
'Little ones,' he began, but just like in our dreams his words rang in our heads. 'You have found me.'
Schula snorted a laugh, wiping her own face on the back of her sleeve. "How are you doing that? Talking in my head."
'It is the way of all dragons. My mouth will not form the words of men and fae, and your mouth will not form my tongue.' The dragon set his head back down on the sand, seemingly tired. 'And, it is easier for me to speak this way. I use no energy.'
He shifted his weight a little, and the light clinging of the white chains all over him made my heart ache.
"Dragon, what can we call you?" I asked.
He set his golden eyes on me, and blinked slowly. 'Call me what you will, little one. The names I once used have faded with time, and even I do not wish to be that being any longer.'
I met Schula's eyes. She had a worried look, and proceeded to sit in the sand by the massive black head, and lean against it, stroking the warm scales.
"Why are you here?" Schula asked. "And how do we free you?"
The eyes closed slowly, then opened. 'I was imprisoned in the bones of my kin. The only chains strong enough to hold me.'
My gaze fell on the chains again. To my horror, I realized what he was saying. Bones. These chains were made of dragon bone. My mouth fell open as I stared at them.
'As for why I am here, it is of no consequence now. I once fought for my territory. I was vengeful, and wrathful. The humans did no harm here, yet they were where I was protecting my mate and younglings. They are no longer here.' The dragon sighed, stirring up dust and sand around us with his warm breath. 'For centuries I was enraged. I fought my bindings and cursed the humans. When I finally accepted the fate of my kin and myself, I slept. A dragon can slumber for... a very long time.'
"How long were you asleep?" I asked softly.
'I do not know. Only that I have slept,' he answered.
I sat down on the other side of his head from Schula and leaned my cheek against his warm scales.
"Dragon, I don't know your tale and you don't know ours, but I know you can see we belong to each other. Will you come with us to the Wyldes?" Schula asked. "A beautiful land of magic? We have dire business there yet, and you would make our hearts whole to come with us."
The dragon snorted out a soft laugh. 'Yes, I would come with you, little ones. The problem will be to free me from my chains.'
But Schula shook her head. "Do you know what a triquetram is? It may have been called by another name when you were aware of it."
The dragon thought for a moment. He was quiet and contemplative, closing his eyes and opening them again slowly. 'I know of the bond of three, but I have never heard of it existing with a dragon'
"Yet, you cannot argue that it has happened." I placed a soft kiss on the scales under his eye.
In my head he was laughing. A merry sound that brought me joy to feel tickling my thoughts.
'Indeed I cannot.'
"You will be stronger with us than you were alone. I know you have slept for a long time, but you must wake up now and help us to free your chains," Schula said.
The dragon sighed. 'Alright, little ones. Perhaps it is time for me to live once again.'
From my seat on the sand, I felt the great shifting weight of him. My eyes widened as I scurried back from his form to give him room to move.
The dragon was... big. Somewhere in my mind I knew he was, I had registered the size of his head, the massive wings that he wrapped around us. But I wasn't ready to see the great hulking shape that slowly stretched and rose to it's full height. He was bigger than my cabin. Long and slick like a winding river. He towered over us, and when he reached his full standing capacity, I could see that he was at the limit of what his bindings would allow. He could either sit, or stand. Nothing more.
'I am not at my full strength. But I will try,' he said.
"And so will we," Schula added.
The dragon leaned down, closing his eyes and gathering his strength. Schula reached over and took one of my hands. We had known from the beginning that we were stronger with each other's touch. Once our fingers were entwined, we placed our free palms on the great serpent's scales, making the connection whole.
I shivered with strength. This was unlike anything I had felt before. An eb and flow between us all. A circle. A cycle. A breath of life that we all shared together.
And our dragon didn't seem prepared for it either. He snorted, sending warm air over us, then he looked down with widened eyes.
'In all my time, I have not felt this before. So this is the bond of three...'
"It is," Schula said with a grin. "Now, let's try to break those bonds."
The dragon nodded, and began to stand up straight. He pulled against his chains, muscles thicker than my body strained with effort. And then we joined them. The strength of Schula's ice crept up the largest chain that wound around his torso, followed closely by a purple flame.
The dragon grunted, and a crack could be heard echoing off the cavernous walls.
"Keep... going!" I urged.
We all pushed harder. Harder and harder as the dragon strained and we poured ourselves over the chains, trying to weaken them. The link that had cracked shattered, and fragments of bone fell down to the sands. With the link gone, The dragon moved suddenly, having been straining against it. Schula and I fell over into the sand, breaking our connection.
"Did we do it?" Schula asked excitedly.
'It feels much looser than before.'
"Let's see if we can pull it off from there. Dragon, can you please sit back down?" I asked.
He obliged, resting his weight into the sand once more. Schula and I climbed onto his back, pulling at the chain that had broken apart.
"It looks like we can unwind it from here, but it might take a moment to get it all," Schula said.
'Time means little to me now, little one. I have lived here a long time, I can wait for you now.'
Schula and I worked meticulously. The winding chain was so elaborate over the dragon that we had to be careful not to cause a knot elsewhere every time we freed a bit of it. My body ached, and I was tired before we were done. Then again, we had gone two days straight with little food or sleep in our rush to meet our dragon. I smiled to myself, wondering what it would be like to take a nap next to a warm body of scales. Hopefully we could test that out soon.
For a long time we wound, unwound, untied the chains. It was hard work, they were heavy. But finally, with one last heave, Schula and I tossed a length of chain over the dragon's head, and he was free.
"Stand, dragon!" Schula beamed. "I think we're done."
The great dragon stood slowly, shaking out his stiff joints. He shook his head, then raised it to the ceiling.
'Thank you, little ones. I am finally free.'
"Let's get out of this cave," I said. "You probably need food."
"He's not the only one," Schula added. I laughed, and the dragon made a joyous sort of humming purr.
"But, we had to squeeze through the crack at the top," Schula said. "How are we going to get a whole dragon out?"
'That is no problem, little one. Leave the way you had come, and I will show you how I got in here.'
I was saddened at the thought of leaving him, even for a moment. But we did as he asked. I helped Schula up first, and she pulled herself through. Then she reached down and helped me to climb up as well. Once we were standing in the fresh sea air, we climbed off the rocky surface of the cave and waited on the beach.
"What do you think he's going to do?" I asked.
Schula shrugged, and then we heard the yelling.
"Wren! Schula!" I turned my head to see the commotion at the tree line. It was the party we had left behind. Teyber and his scouts, Kalor, Fandor, Nassir, Liana. When they saw us emerge from the rock, they began to run toward us. They must have stopped where our tracks ended on the soil.
"Where is your third?" Nassir called, a wide smile on his face. "Where did you find them?"
And in that moment, his question was answered. A great shifting happened in the waves lapping the rocks. The rushing up of water, and then a great black form sloshed out of the waves, walking over the rocks where we had just been.
"Oh, it must have been an underwater tunnel," Schula said.
But shouts from the tree line were panicked. The scouts readied their spears and bows. My heart pounded as I realized what this must look like.
"Stop!" I cried, raising my hands. "This is our third! Our triquetram."
My friends looked bewildered. The scouts who did not know us as well were uneasy and couldn't bring themselves to completely relent their weapons. Teyber looked the most shocked, followed very closely by my father. Fandor looked the most accepting of the situation as the dragon landed on the sand beside us.
Schula and I immediately went to our dragon and hugged ourselves to each front leg.
'What would you have me do now, little ones?'
I looked up at the dragon and noted the weariness in his gaze. Of course he was suspicious, he had an outright war with humans. He killed them, they killed dragons. But he was tired, and ready to be open to a new life. I couldn't let them hurt him now.
"We want to camp out at the base of Eidelhein!" Schula announced.
"Yes!" I loved the sound of it. "We won't distress the citizens by bringing an unknown dragon there, but allow us to be nearby so we can make plans.
The first to come forward was Nassir. Of course it was Nassir, he was the only one here who could possibly understand the bond we were sharing.
"Hello, dragon. I am Nassir, friend to Schula and Wren." Nassir stood carefully in front of the dragon, hands at his sides and a relaxed expression.
The dragon looked down to us, and I nodded. "He's our beloved friend."
The dragon then leaned down and sniffed Nassir. It blew his hair and clothes a bit, but then he nodded and spoke.
'It is good to meet a friend of Schula and Wren.'
Nassir's brows shot up in surprise, but he didn't comment on the strange mind speaking. "I am pleased to know them, and to meet you, dragon."
The dragon began his content humming purr, then looked to the rest of the people standing on the beach.
One by one, Kalor, Fandor, Teyber, and Liana came forward as well. Once everyone's nerves were mostly settled, Kalor came up to me.
"Daughter," he said softly. "What would you do now?"
I was standing in the sand near the dragon and Schula who were talking to Fandor. I looked around at the scouts who were breaking out food rations to share. I sighed and turned back to my father.
"We have stayed here so long," I said. "I don't have as many answers as I would like, but I have to go back. I will ask Schula and Nassir what they think too, but at some point we have to go back."
"It is still dangerous to go back to the Wyldes for you, isn't it?" Kalor asked, sorrow in his expression.
I sighed and placed a hand on his arm. "I am not Lark. I know it will frighten you when I leave, but you knew someday I would have to."
"I know." His face had crinkled into a sad smile. "I had hoped that being here, meeting me would... But I had always known."
"I feel in my heart that I have found all the things I set out to find when I left the Wyldes. I know who I am, my triquetram is whole. I may not have all the answers yet, but I need to go back. I have to go back."
I grasped at the pendant under my clothes, the one that hung low. The patch of night sky against my skin.
"I have a home there, and I will fight tooth and nail to protect it. It's not well right now, but we aren't going to let DuVarick ruin it."
Kalor sighed. "I know, daughter."
"We aren't leaving right now, of course," I said. "And like I said, I still need to speak to Nassir and Schula."
"Of course."
"But I think our time here is drawing to a close. Your council's ears are closed to the threat we came to warn about. There isn't much more we could do here but idle around and try to decipher the witches' tomes. We could do that anywhere."
Kalor pulled me into a hug. "We will talk more tomorrow, once you can settle things with your friends. Don't worry about plans now. For now, we should go back and you should revel in the love of your completed triquetram."
I let out a breathy laugh. "Yes, Kalor."
"Wherever you go, Wren," Kalor pulled back from the hug to look me in the eyes. "You have a home with me."
"And you with me," I said.
I looked to Schula and our dragon, heart full and finally at peace. A peace I didn't know I was chasing for months until it was here.
"Let's go back to Eidelhein," I said to my friends. "There is much to be discussed. The Wyldes, our journey. But tonight, we enjoy each other."
The scouts agreed and began packing up their gear. Schula, and Nassir agreed readily. The dragon was cautious but trusted us, and was willing to come back with an open mind.
Fandor seemed more curious than concerned about coming back with a dragon.
And Kalor. He silently took my hand and raised it to kiss my knuckles.
"Let me walk with you, daughter. I don't know how much longer I will have this chance."
I smiled. "Of course."
And we began a much slower pace back.