She put on the dragon-scale armor and then, one by one, removed the spiritbones from the embroidered pouch and laid them out on the floor. She was already wearing the Vektan Torque around her neck. She took up the second, the spiritbone that Vindrash had given the mad god Sund, and Sund had given to Aelon in the desperate hope of saving himself. She lifted the golden chain over her head. The dragon with its golden wings and emerald eyes came to rest on her breast. She picked up the third, her wedding gift from the Sea Queen, and slid the golden bracer bedecked with pearls onto her arm. She smiled as she pinned the brooch of Joabis onto the soft leather tunic she wore beneath the armor. Pressing her hand against the Vektan Torque, she moved within her own being, trying to sense the spirit within the bones as she did when she touched the spiritbone of the Dragon Kahg, feeling it stir and quiver, a part of the living dragon. She felt nothing from these spiritbones and she wondered with a pang of fear if they were empty, dead.
