Chapter 10: Unburned

The fire did not burn her.

It parted around her, and the heat on her skin was only warmth.

She felt it flow up through her feet, up her spine, and into her hair.

Her pulse lit.

The flames bowed their heads as she passed, and the hot air smelled of rain.

On the other side, the boy stared at her with his mouth open.

She knelt and lifted him in her arms, and he clung to her neck.

"Hold on," Maelis said. Her voice sounded strange and low, as if two people spoke it. "Don't look at the fire. Look at me."

She carried him back through the wall of flame.

The black dragon watched her go by.

He lowered his head to her, once.

At the great doors she set the boy down behind her and laid both palms flat on the timber.

Beyond the wood, the iron bolts were glowing red.

She felt their heat as if it were her own.

She pushed.

The bolts did not break.

They melted, running down the outside of the door.

The heavy wood swung open on its own weight.

Light and smoke poured out into the corridor, and Maelis walked through it with the boy in her arms.

The corridor was full.

Hundreds of the clan stood shoulder to shoulder, with buckets in their hands and faces gone slack with fear.

Torvald sat at the front in his chair, covered in soot, with his big hands wrapped bloody around the wheels.

He had been trying to roll through the flames himself.

He saw her.

His whole body went still.

Her hair hung loose around her shoulders, and it was no longer auburn.

It was gold, the deep gold of a candle flame, and it moved in a wind that was not there.

Faint light glowed under her skin along her collarbones, like embers under ash.

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