Chapter 75

The unnamed narrator climbs a red-stone cliff in Gondragh, conserving sound and scent to avoid detection by the Great Silver Sabersythe, Ahra. Parched and exhausted, the narrator threads through a treacherous burrow as nearby volcanoes boom, steadying themselves by humming to Bulder amid the tremors.

In the domed nesting cavern, lit by a ribbon of magma, the narrator discovers Ahra’s nest ruined: three smashed eggs, scattered silver scales, and the stench of decay. Realizing a boulder crushed the clutch, the narrator is overwhelmed by grief and guilt, recalling the death of their own dragon, Inkah, and the exile from Arithia. They gently cover the hatchlings’ faces with shell fragments, then sit in the nest awaiting death.

Ahra returns, emaciated and ragged, and pins the narrator. Instead of killing them, she coils around her broken eggs. The narrator, furious at the desecration of mourning, rips off their cloak and charges, leaping onto Ahra’s back to provoke a fatal response. Ahra resists, studies them, then surges down the burrow and launches into the smog-choked sky, dragging the narrator into a brutal ascent toward the blazing sun.

As they climb, something talon-sharp rakes through the narrator’s heart; an argent essence pours in, revealing Ahra’s vast grief and unbending purpose. Diving through a volcano’s crater and rising together, the pair accept each other. The narrator chooses to ride; Ahra chooses not to be alone. They emerge “as one,” bonded rider and Sabersythe.