The Dragon Heir

Page 74

Nicodemus Snowbeard died the day after the siege at Trinity ended, at an age variously estimated to be 600 to 1000 years old. They buried him at Dragon's Ghyll (which had reverted to its original name), before the cave and under the Dragon's Tooth, where he would be close to the Lady he had loved and betrayed.
With the end of the D'Orsay line, Leander Hastings and Linda Downey moved into Dragon's Ghyll Castle. No one seemed interested in contesting their claim.
Jason never went back to Britain. They buried him in the churchyard at St. Catherine's, his mother's amulet in his hands. They raised a stone, and on it was engraved Draca Heorte, Dragonheart. Mercedes and Leesha planted rosemary, for remembrance, and vines climbed over his stone, and flowers bloomed summer and winter over his grave.
Trinity suffered through a siege of confusion and investigations, invasions by government agents, and talk of terrorist plots. But it is difficult to get at the truth when a whole range of possibilities is off the table and those few who know something aren't talking.
Ellen was a terrible patient but fully recovered, except she had a new set of scars like a soldier's tattoos. Jack and Ellen and even Leesha Middleton threw themselves into the rebuilding of the town, an effort led by Jack's mother, Becka, who knew how to get things done and would make sure they were done right. Leesha's aunt Millisandra was a major donor.
When summer finally came, Madison Moss went home to claim her inheritance.
She could sit on her front porch and hear Booker Creek and look down the long slopes to the river, glinting in the slanted sunlight. And in those hills she saw the reflection of other hills, slashed by ghylls, set with jeweled meres and standing stones.
She could paint if she liked and sleep in the sun if she liked, something for which dragons are well suited. But what she liked most was tromping along Booker Creek with Seph McCauley, who seemed as at home there as anywhere.
People in the county said Madison Moss was different— somehow changed by her time up by the lake. She looked you in the eye more, and her eyes were different, too, almost mesmerizing. And sometimes her skin seemed to glitter and spark when the sunlight struck it just so. Everyone knew you didn't mess with Madison Moss. You never could tell what that girl would end up to be.
Brice Roper's murderer was never identified. The Roper mine eventually played out and closed, and Bryson Roper, Sr., went off someplace where there were other fortunes to be made.
Seph didn't know the ways of dragons, but he knew the ways of magic, and so he and Madison sorted some things out together and left others alone. And if sometimes they drifted on to other, more interesting topics, they could scarcely be blamed.
They'd lie in the hammock that swayed over Booker Creek and stare up at the canopy of leaves and dream dreams that they hoped would come true.
Among the Weir, legends about the Dragon Heir that appeared in Trinity spread, becoming more and more elaborate, fanned by certain storytelling factions among the various guilds. No one knew where the Lady had gone or when she might reappear. Wizards pressed their hands anxiously against their breasts and tossed and turned in their beds and wondered what it would be like to be Anaweir. And behaved; temporarily, at least.
Around the world, the magical guilds celebrated—all the while knowing that fear of dragons can't last forever.