PROLOGUE
Vynos, Kalambra
Andra pulled on the iron shackles, testing them, but it was no use. Her strength was gone, and the manacles were fitted so tightly she had no hope of slipping her hands from them unless she meant to cut them off.
“Well this is quite a quandary, is it not my little Andra?”
Andra turned her head towards the sound of Ylla’s voice and saw her; beautiful and perfect as always, her black hair somehow gleaming and her pale skin luminous even in the dimness of the cell.
“Where’s Mailani?” she yelled. “What have you done with my dragon?”
She averted her gaze as blinding white light filled the dungeon, radiating from where Ylla stood. The goddess caught her chin in an iron grip and forced Andra to look at her, her blazing eyes burning into Andra’s own. “Your dragon?” she raged, her voice as cold and hard as steel. “Your dragon, you ungrateful wretch? You are both mine! I chose you! Above all my priestesses! Above all those loyal to me! I chose you to raise above the rest!”
Andra drew her head back as far as she could manage and spat in the goddess’ face. “You chose me because I was a warrior. All you gave me was the dragon and now she is gone. I owe you nothing!”
The force of Ylla hit her hard, knocking her off her feet and throwing her head against the rough stone wall, but she barely felt it because her blood was boiling inside her, her every nerve on fire. She tried not to cringe as Ylla bent down to her, but couldn’t help herself, her body betraying her in its reflexive need to escape from further pain. Ylla laughed and planted her smiling lips against Andra, kissing her gently but purposefully, making her ownership absolutely clear. “Tomorrow you die, my dearest Andra.”
Andra smiled against the pain, darting her head forward to return the kiss with no hint of gentleness. “I’ll be back,” she said.
Ylla cupped her face, her smooth white palm soft against Andra’s cheek. “Oh child,” she said. “Do you really think you can kill a god?”
“Yes,” Andra told her softly. “I do.”
I.
Melbourne, Australia
She was missing something. It had been missing all her life, but rather than get used to the constant ache of emptiness that she couldn’t explain, she yearned for the missing piece more with every passing year. Now in her eighteen year, it felt as though it would tear her apart from the inside out, and still she had no idea how to fill it.
She’d been to a counsellor once who had told her that it was most likely because she had been brought up in foster homes and had never really had a family of her own, and she had tried to believe it because it made sense. But she didn’t really believe it, and she had stopped seeing the counsellor because she knew deep down that she would never be able to help. Besides, since the age of thirteen she had lived with a family that had truly become her family, and still the sense that she was missing something essential remained.
She smiled at Josh and walked towards him and wished for what could have been the hundredth time that he could fill the emptiness inside her. She had thought at first that he could be. When he had smiled at her for the very first time and her heart had skipped a beat and her stomach had fluttered, she thought that here, at last, was what she had been looking for. But still the emptiness remained. Still she yearned for something that she missed even though she had never had it.
He held up some sheets of paper that she was still too far away to read, grinning broadly. “Around the world flights for Mr Joshua White and Ms Elliot Knowles,” he declared, proudly.
She grinned back at him. “This is happening,” she said.
He nodded, lifted her, and spun her around in a circle. “This is happening.” He put her back on her feet and kissed her soundly on the mouth. “While everyone else is heading up to the Gold Coast for Schoolies, we will be on our way to LA.”
She grabbed the tickets and stared at them, hardly able to believe that it was real. She’d been excited when Josh had first suggested it. Really, genuinely excited – something that she couldn’t remember ever having felt before. But she hadn’t really thought that it would happen. She had a casual job and had saved almost everything she had earned, but to travel for a year would be a stretch. Her foster parents had helped her on that one. They had been more supportive than she could have hoped and together they had sat down and worked out what she would need, then they had told her they would cover the shortfall and more. Still, it hadn’t seemed real, but now she was holding the tickets in her hand and in two short months they would be on their way.
She made a face. “Ugh,” she said, sticking out her tongue. “Do they have to say Elliot?”
He laughed. “Yes, idiot. They have to match your passport.”
She slapped him on the arm, though without any real force. “Don’t call me an idiot.”
“Then don’t be one,” he said, and stepped back, grinning, as she went to slap him again. “Is everything organised for your party?”
She shrugged. “I guess. The room’s booked, the food is ordered and people are invite – what else needs to be organised?”
He matched her shrug with one of his own. “Nothing? So you don’t need me to do anything?”
She smiled. “I need you to show up.”
He grabbed her and pulled her in close. “I reckon I can handle that.”
The day of Elly's eighteenth birthday was clear and bright and she woke feeling excited about her party. Not the same level of excitement that she felt about her upcoming trip, but excitement nonetheless. It was odd, since she had held the tickets in her hand she had felt different somehow. The emptiness was still there, strong as ever, but it felt somehow less overwhelming, as though she was now on her way to seeking something, instead of just longing for it.
She showered and dressed, and contemplated being eighteen. She was officially an adult now, but she felt no different. Truthfully she had never really felt like a kid. Her childhood had ended early, around the time when she first learned that there were people in the world who took pleasure in hurting others. Sometimes she even felt as though she had always known that; as though she had been born into the world with too much experience and everything that happened to her since was no more than what she expected.
She shook herself, determined to rid herself of those morbid thoughts that she was so easily able to wallow in. She would enjoy today. She would have breakfast with her parents and later they would go and decorate the function room for her party and then she would talk to her friends and laugh and dance and drink legally for the first time.
Her parents were waiting for her at the kitchen table, her favourite breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and hash browns already made. Her eyes went to the wrapped present that sat in front of her plate. “We agreed the money you were giving me for my trip would be my present,” she said.
Pete shrugged. “It isn’t much,” he said. “Just something to go with the trip.”
Beck grabbed the present and stood up, kissing her on the cheek. “Happy birthday, sweetie,” she said. “Open it.”
Jack opened the present carefully, as she always did, sliding her finger under the sticky tape and trying not to damage the paper. She removed the wrapping to find a small pile of books, all with ‘Lonely Planet’ on their spines. “Some countries you might not know much about,” Pete said. “In case you decide to visit them.”
She smiled, seeing names of countries she had not even thought of visiting. “It’s perfect,” she said. “Thank you so much.” She hugged them both, and then added, quietly, “For everything.”
She sat and began looking through the books in earnest, stopping when she came to the one on Nepal. She stared at it, unable to put her finger on exactly what she was feeling, but suddenly sure that of all the little books, this was the one that she needed.
“Excited about the party?” Pete asked, and she tore her eyes away, reluctantly.
“Yes,” she said, but the party was the furthest thing from her mind.
Josh arrived just after Elly finished breakfast, hours before they had planned. “I wanted to give you your present now,” he said.
“We agreed you couldn’t afford to get me a present,” she told him.
“I know,” he said, grinning. “But I lied.”
She smiled, not at all surprised. “Fine.”
He grinned and pulled out a small box from behind his back. “Happy birthday,” he said, and kissed her.
“Thank you.” She unwrapped the gift to find a hinged box of the kind that only ever contained jewellery. A necklace, she guessed, from the size of it. She opened it to find that she was right. Arranged inside the box was a dragon pendant with tiny rubies for eyes, on a white gold chain.
“It would have been better if they were emeralds,” he said, “So it would match that painting you did. But they only had this."
She stared at it. “It’s beautiful,” she said. “Can you put it on me?”
He took the box from her and she held her hair while he fastened the chain around her neck. “You like it then?”
“I love it!” she said, and kissed him. “Come with me,” she said, taking his hand and dragging him towards the kitchen. “I want to show you something.”
He followed her and she waited somewhat impatiently while he greeted her parents. She took the book from the table and held it up. “Wherever else we go,” she said, “We have to go to Nepal.”
He grinned at her, unaccustomed to seeing her so enthusiastic. “Okay,” he told her. “We’ll go to Nepal.”
She smiled broadly, and somehow managed to hold it when a voice that was somehow so familiar even though she was certain she had never heard it before, spoke clearly in her head, “Yes. Come find me, Andra.”
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