Rise of the Dragon Moon by Gabrielle K. Byrne

Author:Gabrielle K. Byrne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Imprint

Stay away from the pass.

—Spar

CHAPTER TWELVE

The statues of the dead grew against the horizon until it seemed as if the sled approached a crowd of people, backs turned, staring toward some shared dream.

Toli pulled to a stop at the outer edge of the Necropolis. The nearest statues were of those who had died most recently. They got older the farther out they stretched, those in each row becoming more worn and less recognizable. In the distance, the ancestors were rubbed to lumps, crumbling, their wind-scoured edges suggesting form and nothing more.

Ruby hissed.

Wix hadn’t said a word. His face was still, but thoughts flickered behind his hazel eyes like a storm. He got out of the sled and busied himself setting up the raised stonetree base and platform where they would build their small cooking fire.

As Petal made soup, Toli walked among the statues. Ruby had gone back to sleep across her shoulders, her stomach gurgling against Toli’s neck.

The statues, raised on blocks of ice, looked down on her as she passed. Many she recognized. There was Roxanne the hunter. She had fallen while running after a bison and hit her head on the ice. Lazar stood next to her—an old carver who had died in his bed several winters ago.

Halfway along the next row she paused, goose bumps rising over her arms. Mykala. The little girl was only six when she died of a cough that had wrapped her up and sealed her in.

Somewhere nearby, there would be a statue of the queen’s consort. Toli swallowed and moved away. She spoke to the permanent statue of her father in the Hunters’ Shrine in Gall all the time, but that was different. The Necropolis was made just for Nya, and each statue would wear and fade. Just the thought of him standing out here, among all the rest, made his life seem smaller somehow. Her throat tightened.

She would leave this remembrance of him to the Daughter Moon. She didn’t want to see it. Her heart couldn’t take any more loss.

Toli moved out several rows. Five years back now.

She hadn’t realized she was looking for Wix’s mother until she came to Roma’s statue. Roma had only been a little bit taller than Toli was now, but Toli remembered her as being taller. She wore her hair loose like Petal did, with every strand etched in loving memory. She held a bundle in her arms. A baby girl. They’d left the world that way—together.

It was, in every way, a masterpiece, as if Belgar Walerian, Wix’s father, had poured all of his life force into it. And he had.

She’d seen it.

Roma’s wide, kind face was so much like her, Toli instantly recalled the warmth of her laughter as she gave out handfuls of ice-worm fritters to the children—and the way her hands were always warm, no matter how cold the wind.

Toli startled as Wix appeared at her side.

He brushed away the snow that had gathered, sticking to his mother’s hair and the shadows of her face.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.