Laira glanced at Maev. The golden-haired warrior was still straining against her bonds. Her dragon tattoos coiled across her arms as her muscles bulged, and veins rose upon her neck, but she couldn't free herself. Her own hope of escape long gone, Laira looked back toward the ceremony.

"Show us, son," Auberon said softly to the young man. "Show us your curse, so we may see the evil before driving it away."

Eeras nodded, closed his eyes, and shifted.

Silvery blue scales flowed across him. Azure wings rose from his back. He stood in the valley as a dragon, his horns long and white, his eyes gleaming like pale crystals. Then, with a shudder, the dragon returned to human form. Eeras, a man again, hugged himself and trembled.

He spoke again, tears hanging off his nose. "I . . . I used to fly as a dragon at night, in secret, in shame. I blew my fire in the darkness. And once . . . oh by the gods . . . once I flew too low. I blew too much fire. Our village burned." Sobs racked his body. "My sister was hurt. She ran from me. She called me a monster. And I am one." His voice tore in agony. "I am a monster."

The druids chanted louder. Auberon reached out and stroked the man's hair. "We will cure you. We will drive the curse away from your blood. With the drink of the gods, we will heal you, and you will be purified." He kissed Eeras's forehead. "You will be forgiven."

Eeras shook as he wept. "Thank you, Auberon. Thank you."

The old druid held out the pewter goblet to Eeras. "Drink, my child, and be cured. Drink and the tillvine will drive the dragon magic away."

Laira squinted. From the distance of the boulder she was tied to, it was hard to see into the goblet, but she glimpsed a green potion thick with crumpled leaves. Was this the same plant that the priests had balled up and attached to their arrows? The same plant that had knocked the dragon magic out of Laira and Maev, that now bound them to the boulder?

"Tillvine," she whispered. "It undoes dragon magic."

She remembered that feeling: the tillvine strands wrapping around her, digging through her, tugging her magic free. She had crashed onto the forest floor as a human, her dragon form yanked away, at only the touch of this plant. But to actually drink tillvine juice?

"Drink," Auberon repeated. "Drink and the dragon magic will forever leave you, my son."

Hands shaking, Eeras accepted the goblet.

"Wait!" Laira shouted. "Eeras, stop! Don't drink!"

The man looked up. He stared at her, and a tear streamed down his cheek.

"I will never hurt anyone again," he whispered. He raised the goblet to his lips and drank deeply.

"No!" Laira screamed, tugging at the bonds. "Damn you, Auberon!"

Eeras's neck bobbed as he drank, emptying the goblet. When he lowered the cup, he stood still, pale, silent.