“Unfortunately, we can’t move that quickly.” Ilina motioned downward, to the middle of the ship where the giant noorestone was housed. “The empress told the truth when she said she had the noorestone stuff removed. Without it, we won’t get very far very quickly. And we certainly won’t make it home before the eclipse.”

“I can push the noorestones,” I said. “Like I did with the Chance Encounter.”

“All of them?” Chenda lifted an eyebrow. “The giant noorestones?”

Hristo frowned. “I don’t like it. Not after what happened in the dragon park.”

“We don’t have a choice.” Already, the sun settled beneath the horizon, and the stars began to peek out. The sister moons rose in the east—two halves, one gold and one silver.

“So when we get to the Fallen Isles,” Ilina said, “where do we go?”

I lifted my hand for LaLa, and she flapped toward me with a happy squawk. “We go to the birthplace of the first dragon. The island of life and death and life again: Anahera.”

PART SIX

THE DARKEST DAY

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

DAMYAN ROSE NEXT.

Through my connection with dragons, I drowned in grief for hours, screaming and sobbing in my cabin until it was over. For all of us, it was a waking nightmare. Even when the quake passed, everyone dragged themselves through their work and cried, because we were too late for yet another island.

I pushed the giant noorestones harder, bringing us closer to our shattered and rising home.

Four times a day, I urged the stones to move the ships faster and faster. We had to time it perfectly, keeping all the ships clear of one another as we flew across the endless swells of the ocean. A collision at these speeds would mean death.

If I could have pushed the noorestones all day, I would have. But touching them, all of them together, was more awful than I’d anticipated. It felt like a slow poison to my dragon soul, sapping my strength.

The sixth morning, I could hardly pull myself out of bed. Every muscle in my body hurt, and the idea of connecting with the giant noorestones again made my stomach tie into a thousand knots. Plus, I’d been having nightmares. In them, we’d already reached the Fallen Isles, but no one realized because the islands were gone; the Great Abandonment had finished before our return.

They weren’t dragon dreams. They were real nightmares, made out of fear and anxiety and overwhelming grief. Still, they haunted me as I shook myself into wakefulness.

Aaru, who’d been sitting on the bed beside me, pressed the back of his hand to my forehead. “You have a fever.”

“It’s just the dragon soul.” My voice was scratchy, but that was because I wasn’t sleeping well enough. “I can look at the sun, and water steams off my skin after baths. I’m different from what I used to be.” I forced a smile, but it hurt. Everything hurt. Especially the knowledge that soon, I’d become a dragon for the rest of time, the new link between the gods and the people, and I’d never have another quiet moment with Aaru again.