Along the threads that connected me to them, I felt only an expanding darkness. Silence. Nothing.

My throat closed up and tears stung my eyes. They were so, so sick. Worse than the dragons in the ruins. That darkness in their minds was death, and they were only a breath away from it.

“What is Mira doing?” The voice belonged to Ilina’s father, Viktor. “It isn’t safe so close to the dragons.”

“Trust her,” Ilina said. “She can help them.”

I pressed my free hand against the maior’s left flank. She might have been a statue.

“I’ve done everything I can,” Viktor said. “But no medicine or magic will help them. They’re going to die.”

They were going to die.

The words turned over in my head, sickening. The high magistrate had not only given away seven dragons, but he was killing them, too. Murdering them. Hastening the Great Abandonment.

Had these poor dragons even felt Idris rise? What about the second? Or the island last night?

Did they know their world was falling apart?

I listed toward the dragons until the front of my body pressed against cool scales; the edge of a scale scraped over my scar. Crystal and LaLa readjusted themselves, clicking as they rubbed their noses on the bigger dragons’ sides, doing their best to offer comfort.

“Aren’t you worried about Crystal and LaLa?” Ilina’s father asked. “What if they catch the same illness as the others?”

“They won’t,” Ilina said. “It hasn’t spread to the smaller species yet, although . . .” She didn’t have to finish the sentence. It was worrying to see the mimikus and ignituses in here, just as sick as the larger species. How long before the smaller species were vulnerable, too? “They won’t catch it.” Ilina’s voice was hard. “Being with Mira protects them.”

Oh, how I hoped that was true.

I pressed my palms against the big dragon’s side and whispered a prayer. “Give them peace. Give them grace. Give them enough hope in their hearts.” Here, so far away from Darina and Damyan, the words didn’t bring a rush of warmth or comfort. They were just words, spoken to gods who couldn’t hear me.

Haltingly, I pulled back, giving LaLa and Crystal time to readjust themselves. Then I reached into the satchel at my hip and pulled out the two noorestones we’d been keeping in the raptuses’ basket.

The little dragons poked and nudged at the noorestones in my hand, whining faintly like they wanted to play.

“They’re not much,” I murmured, “but maybe they’ll help.”

LaLa looked up at me questioningly.

“These dragons need the noorestone fire more than we do.”

My tiny dragon trilled and turned her golden gaze to the larger dragons, and warm agreement flickered through me. She knew what I intended to do, and she agreed.

It was hard to say how long before the giant noorestones arrived. A decan, at least. Impossible to say if these dragons would live until then.

I moved Crystal to my free shoulder, then clipped her and LaLa’s leashes to my belt. With a deep breath, I let myself sink into the noorestones.