Moonfall, #2
The Ballad of Falling Dragons
by Sarah A. Parker
Contents
Chapter 54
Overview
While the group shelters in a fortified treehouse, Roan begins crafting a prototype cage to guide a parchment lark to the gifted boy, requiring one to two cycles. Raeve conceals Sereme’s torture and her growing love for Kaan. Kaan outlines Cadok’s ruthless dragon-egg raids, reframing the mission’s stakes. Raeve then identifies the correct moonshard nest, setting their next move.
Summary
Raeve unpacks in the treehouse hideout, fighting nausea and an impulse to confide in Kaan as she recognizes she loves him. Kaan notices Raeve’s altered posture and injured leg, but Pyrok’s entrance spares her from explaining the torture she hides. Roan, absorbed at the table, etches runes in blood on copper, reminding Raeve of Essi and sharpening her grief.
Discussing their plan, Roan explains his prototype: a runed cage creating neutral airspace so a parchment lark can bypass the blocker shielding the gifted boy. He warns it will take one to two cycles and must account for the Moving Mists, delaying their timetable and intensifying Raeve’s urgency to complete Sereme’s task.
Líri settles on a branch outside as Raeve scans the bog. Kaan joins her, explaining that since Cadok seized power, Moltenmaw moons have multiplied and his militia grounds sires, then raids nests when dams hunt, leaving grieving mates. He shares an honor code of giving before taking, underscoring the moral cost of theft.
As mist shifts across Bhoggith, Raeve’s Other stirs, drawing her attention to a distant, solitary nest. When Pyrok asks if a nearer mound holds the shard, Raeve says no and points out the far nest instead, declaring it the correct moonshard site and focusing the group’s next objective.
Who Appears
- RaevePOV; hides Sereme’s torture and blood bind, wrestles newfound love for Kaan, and identifies the correct moonshard nest.
- KaanProtective partner; notices Raeve’s injuries and explains Cadok’s brutal nest-raids and an honor code about taking eggs.
- RoanRune-crafter; begins a prototype lark-cage to locate the gifted boy, estimating one to two cycles, factoring Moving Mists.
- PyrokProvides levity and questions the shard’s location; helps frame Raeve’s identification of the correct nest.
- LíriDragon bonded to Raeve; keeps watch from a branch outside the runed window, sensing Raeve within.
- CadokOff-page antagonist; his militia grounds sires and raids nests, heightening moral stakes around the moonshard theft.