Thankfully, our journey to visit Gold was not nearly as strenuous as my first trip had been. Though I struggled to remember where it was, her cave had a secondary entrance, and though it was obstructed by vines and debris, it was much preferable to scrambling across a bare cliff face. Once we drew close enough, Selene ordered the rest of the knights to stay back while she escorted Helian and I to the cave’s entrance.

  “Do you want to come in, Selene? I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

  The dame shook her head. “My life is complex enough as it is without adding a dragon to it. No thanks.”

  I made my way slowly through the tunnel towards the dragon’s den, with Helian draped over my shoulders. The path was longer than I remembered to the point that I feared I had lost my way. But as I walked, the air grew warmer.

  The sight was as terrifying to behold as it was the first time; perhaps even more, now that I had a better understanding of what a dragon’s existence truly meant.

  Gold lay curled up in the center of her den like a cat, sleeping quietly. Each rise and fall of her lungs saturated the surroundings with damp heat.

  I supposed it was best to let a sleeping dragon lie, so I gently placed Helian up against the cave wall and sat down beside her to rest.

  ------

  Gold shifted her body and stretched, yawning with her mouth open wide, like a cat. Her eyes opened and fixated on Helian.

  “A fast return, wandering XXXXXX. Though given your companion’s state, I understand.”

  I nodded. “She’s not doing well. She fell asleep two weeks ago and hasn’t woken up, with one small exception. We think someone did it to her on purpose.”

  The dragon’s eyes narrowed, and she breathed deep through her nostrils, searching for trace scents. The air rushing through the tunnel sounded like howling wind.

  “Yes, outside interference. Human, I think. Many hands grasp, tangling XXXXXXX.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Can we do anything about it?”

  She closed her eyes in contemplation. “Interfere I may, but XXXXXXX untangle I cannot. Perhaps you.”

  Not the good news I was hoping for, but better than nothing. “I’ll do anything. What do I need to do?”

  “The XXXXXXX tying soul/essence to body/vessel are frayed/tangled. Now it drifts across when/where/whom, nothing holding it. XXXXX it tight, bring it back, bind it here.”

  The bursts of indecipherable noise I expected from conversations with the dragon were beginning to become clearer, but I still wasn’t certain what they meant. Draconic was a very different sort of language from human tongues, I supposed. “How do I do that? Do I just… need to hold her more tightly than I have been?”

  Gold shook her head. “Not hold, promise/pact/demand, to anchor and keep close the soul/essence to yours. The word/story/offering is the XXXXXXXX from which XXXXXXX are woven.”

  “I need to make a promise to Helian? I’ve already made plenty of those.”

  “The promise/pact/demand must bind the reader/editor/treasure to the vessel/instrument/author, not the opposite. Woven of radiance/essence, it must be. A foundation of the XXXXX we regulate together. Else the visitor strays.”

  The torrent of information made it feel as if my head could burst, and as the ideas took root in my head, a terrible picture formed. But there was no time for that. I had to help Helian.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to do that. I’m not sure I can.”

  “It is simple. A lesson I learned long ago. If you wish for one to stay, you must beg them to stay.”

  I had failed to do something important all this time.

  I had always feared that Helian would leave, even after she told me she wanted to stay. I promised I’d stay by her side no matter what, and she promised she would stay.

  But I never asked her to stay. I never told her how desperate I would be if she left. I never expressed just how important she was to me.

  “Helian. Please don’t go. Please, return to me. I’ll do anything for you to come back.”