Page 84 of House of Ashes

No, the First Claim would take place in the Circle.

The island Koressis was built upon was part of a small chain; at the end of the archipelago was a small, almost perfectly circular island.

It had been paved with pale rock that gleamed like moonstone, an open atrium under the sun. It was ‘small’ in the sense that it was a mere afterthought compared to the glory of the royal eyrie itself; a hundred dragons could easily fit on its stones with room to spare.

It was there that the Houses would meet, face to face. Where claims would be staked and Courts would be formed.

Where enemies would bare their swords, and we would respond in kind.

I forced myself to take a deep breath, willing the iron banded around my chest to break. I could face the Houses and declare my intent and my rights.

But…the Circle. The island itself was hardly a blot compared to the grandiosity of Koressis’s tower, but it was as integral to tradition as the royal eyrie itself.

When challenges were made by Houses, or dragonbloods forced to face Judgment, it was done in the Circle under Larivor’s eye, with the Drakkon and Dragonesse acting as arbiters of the Law.

I gritted my teeth, nauseated at the sight of that minuscule pearl of an island.

Four years ago, my father had stood there on those opaline stones, and he had declared my mother a murderer. He had sentenced me to exile.

Right there, on that very ground, he had washed his hands of his eldest daughter.

“Sera.” Rhylan’s hand landed heavily on my shoulder, making me jump. I could see Nasir so clearly, my mother pleading her innocence…and my father’s implacability. “It’s time.”

I looked up at him, taking some small comfort from the way his eyes flamed when he looked at me. I’d completely lost track of time, gazing at the lake and eyrie where everything had gone so wrong.

“I’m ready.”

But before we left, I pulled up the little perfume bottle on its chain, from its hiding place in my bodice. I uncorked it, breathing the scent of home in deep.

As long as I remembered Varyamar, I could do this.

I corked the bottle, tucking it back down between my breasts, keeping it safe and close.

White stone footbridges were laced like spiderwebs atop Koressis Lake, spanning from the shores to the eyrie’s island, and down to the Circle at the tip of the archipelago.

Already, from my vantage point on the hill, the bright colors of other dragonbloods moving along the bridges were as visible as beacons: the Great Houses, all of them descended from ancient Ascendants, the largest powers in Akalla.

Kirana, in a simple ebony dress, dripping with gold bangles and rings braided into her hair, adjusted one of my many braids and pushed in several more pins, each glittering as silver as the streaks in my black hair.

“Lovely,” she murmured. By now, I knew that she needed to do something with her hands when she was nervous; she fussed with the brooches, and finally brought out the black veil Jenra had sewn.

It draped over my head, as ephemeral as dusk; like a Bloodless bridal veil in reverse. Chips of quartz glittered at its edges, matching the sheer sparkle of my dress.

Together, Rhylan and I represented the canon of our Ascendants: obsidian and silver, both Houses combined to show our unity. Aela’s sword was heavy at my waist, but thanks to the thin elegance of the blade, it didn’t detract from Jenra’s hard work.

And Rhylan…he was a dark shadow towering over me, a shield between me and the other Houses, in perfectly fitting dark trousers and sleeves rolled up to expose his muscled forearms.

All of the dragons in attendance of the First Claim would come in clothes. Like many of the Laws laid down around an Interregnum and the Claims to be made, arriving in scales and skin would be tantamount to declaring that violence was imminent. Even centuries past, in the era of the last Interregnum, when Dragonesse Riona and her Drakkon Davmar had washed Akalla red with blood and seized the throne, they had followed these rules of conduct.

We would do no different. I supposed that in the worst case, Rhylan would shift regardless, Jenra’s efforts be damned. The clothes were nothing more than a declaration that we came in peace to extend the hand of alliance.

I took another breath, forcing calm into my mind, and took Rhylan’s arm. Kirana was a silent, nervous shadow on his left.

We descended from the pavilion to the footbridge, the last ones in the procession. It gave me time to put myself at peace, to take in the smell of sea salt and the honeysuckle that covered Koressis’s island, to look over the competition and our future allies…or enemies.

All of the Houses had followed the same rules of conduct we abided by, and had come dressed to show off their wealth. As we crossed the last few feet to the edge of the Circle, I took in the Houses who had arrived before us.

The House of Undying Light was one of the smallest delegations, besides our own. From the footbridge, I could see my aunt and uncle, Pyrae and Tashan, both clothed in white silk and ivory feathers in honor of their Ascendant, Emei. Pale gold scales glimmered on Pyrae’s cheeks and shoulders; their son, Cyran, had the same coloration. He was younger than myself by a few years, his arms crossed, looking bored as he stared across the Circle.