Page 57 of Dragon Cursed
She set the key in the lock of the inner chest.Turned it.The lock gave.
Inside was a single envelope.
She recognized her grandmother's hand on the front.Poppy.
She lifted the envelope out with hands that had begun to shake.The paper was soft with age.She slid her finger under the wax seal and broke it.
The letter was short.
My darling girl.If you are reading this, perhaps the day has come.Perhaps you are the one the Lady foresaw.If so, then you have found the dragon.You have come back to this chest with him beside you, or alone, and you have used the key.
I can’t write about the things I don’t know.I can’t give you names I have never been told.I am the daughter of a daughter of a daughter, and we have all done our best with our piece.
But I can give you this much:
The third brick up from the floor on the left side of the hearth, where the bricks meet the hearthstone, is loose.I didn’t put it there.My grandmother showed it to me as her grandmother showed it to her.We have never opened what is behind it.We were not the ones the brick was meant for.We held it.We kept the chimney clean.We waited.
If you have found the dragon, then what is behind that brick is for you, my Poppy.Whatever it is, it has waited a long time.Be brave with it.
I love you.Whatever you are doing now, I love you.Tell the dragon I said be good to my Poppy.
— Caitlín
Poppy couldn’t speak.
She handed the letter to Alsander.He read it.His jaw tightened.
"Be good to you," he said softly."Your grandmother left me a message."
"Yes."
"She knew."
"She knew enough."Poppy's throat was tight.
"I will be good to her."
The words weren’t for Poppy.They were for Caitlín.He said it to the empty kitchen, to a woman five years dead, to a grandmother who had loved Poppy enough to leave a message for the dragon she would not live to meet."I swear it on my blood.I will be good to her."
The hearth made a small sound.
It wasn’t a crack of wood.It wasn’t a settle of coals.
It was a low, steadyhum.
Poppy looked at Alsander.
Alsander looked at the hearth.
She rose and crossed the kitchen on legs that were unsteady.She knelt at the hearth.She put her hand on the third brick up from the floor on the left side, where the bricks met the hearthstone — and she felt, almost at once, that the brick was loose.
Not loose the way a bad bit of mortar was loose.
Loose the way a thing was loose because it was meant to be lifted.
Her fingers found the seam.
She pulled.
