Dragon School: Dire Quest

Dragon School, Volume 13

Sarah K. L. Wilson

Published by Sarah K. L. Wilson, 2018.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

DRAGON SCHOOL: DIRE QUEST

First edition. June 13, 2018.

Copyright © 2018 Sarah K. L. Wilson.

Written by Sarah K. L. Wilson.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Behind the Scenes:

For those who feel like there's no wisdom for them.

Chapter One

When I was a child I loved to wave dandelions in the air and watch the seeds fly. If the day was windy, they would be carried away, swirling through the air, soaring far beyond my sight.

We flew – hundreds of dragons and riders – just like those dandelion seeds. We had no clear goal – no certainty of where we were flying to. We tumbled away from the terror of the Ifrits below, abandoning everything in a desperate scramble to get away. Sound, sight and every sense except the pounding of our hearts, blurring together in fear-driven mental chaos.

One knot of dragons flying in formation would tumble into another and either a fight would break out, or occasionally, the two groups would join. Our own formation had picked up about a dozen survivors as we headed toward the rising sun. Jenanta was one of them, but the others were unknown to me – they were acquaintances of Leng or Hubric from some time in the past. At this point, I didn’t think we cared who joined us, as long as they were willing to fight with us and not against us.

Twice, the Ifrits had caught up with us, snatching dragons from the sky and breaking them on the rocks below. Raolcan panted with the effort of flying at top speed for so long. My own hands and legs were numb from trying to hold on. Even thoughts were hard to keep straight. They skittered across my mind like a droplet of water on a hot pan, one quick fear replaced by a tight worry and then a flash of observation.

When the sun was at its zenith, a haze appeared in the distance – like a mirage or a huge body of water.

The Eastern Ocean.

Raolcan was panting so much that his tongue was hanging out of his mouth. Kyrowat and Ahlskibi had fallen back to let him lead.

They’re older than me. Get tired faster.

We kept Rasipaer in the center of the group, instinctively protecting the Chosen One and the Dominar. We needed to land soon. Somewhere with water.

Not the ocean.

No, somewhere with drinkable water. A river maybe.

No rivers near here.

Or a lake.

No lakes.

A creek?

Maybe.

It wasn’t more than an hour before we were banking towards the gray ocean beyond.

Not the ocean. The creek running into the ocean.

After a moment I picked it out – a gray ribbon in the long grass below. We circled it, finally landing on the south side. Raolcan landed practically in the creek, not even waiting to see if anyone else followed before sinking his head up to his eyes in the water.

Skies and Stars, I’ve never been so thirsty.

If every person I’d ever known had slurped soup at the same time they wouldn’t have been able to duplicate the sound he was making.

Well, excuse me for getting thirsty after flying my wings off to get us here.

He’d feel less cranky when his belly was full of water.

Ahlskibi landed beside us, sides heaving from exertion as he drank. We were all still here, all still alive, all still fighting to stay that way. I hobbled upstream to refill my waterskin. An exhausted Shonan stumbled beside me on the same errand.

“Savette?” I asked. I was too tired for full sentences.

“Fine. Resting.” He must feel the same way.

We filled our skins in silence. Shonan wiped sweat from his forehead before plunging his face in the water. He looked so pleased with himself afterward that I tried it, too.

“Ho!” I spun to see about two dozen Red Dragon Riders land downstream from our group, spinning to rush back to Raolcan and slipping on the muddy bank. I fell into the water with a frustrated sound.

“Here.” Shonan offered me a hand and helped to pull me up, waterlogged, from the creek. We scrambled along the shore as quickly as we could. Too late to fight back if that was their intent. Too late to flee.

“I am Leng Shardson of the Purple,” Leng was saying in challenge. “If you mean trouble, fly on.”

Bold. And more energetic than Shonan or I were. We stumbled between the high tufts of grass, finally reaching our dragons.

“Thank you,” I said as he nodded and hurried past. I scrambled back up onto Raolcan’s back, strapping in with the efficiency of muscle memory and not much else.

“No trouble. I’m Grangor Hummingreed of the Red and I lead the Slateshard Division. We came to the Dawn’s Gate to pledge allegiance to Haz’drazen and were on our way back to our posting when we were set upon by creatures ... terrible monsters of the earth ... and flew here as we fled. We’ve seen hundreds of dragons in the sky though none stopped when we tried to hail them. Have you any idea what has happened?”

I breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t been fighting with Starie. He was just caught up in the Ifrit attack. Before I’d even finished my sigh, it cut off. How many others would be caught up in the hell Starie had unleashed in her anger? We needed allies. We needed to fight. We couldn’t just flee forever.

My thoughts exactly.

“Starie Atrelan unleashed them on us all when she was denied by the Dragon Queen,” Leng said loudly. I finally caught sight of him down the riverbank, standing on Ahlskibi’s back, his arms crossed confidently over his chest. This was his element. He was born to ride dragons and speak fearlessly in the face of danger. “The Queen has chosen a different candidate to mark with the dragons’ approval.”

The Red nodded gravely. “My men and I all stand with Haz’drazen. In these fragmented times, she is a voice of wisdom. Whoever she has chosen has our loyalty. Do you know who that is?”

Savette threw back the hood of her cloak revealing her bright eyes and marked face.

“Savette Leedris – Haz’drazen’s choice – flies with us,” Leng said simply. “And we’ll tear apart anyone who threatens her.”

Chapter Two

Grangor leapt off his dragon and I braced myself for Raolcan’s attack. Instead, Grangor made a complicated double armed salute, while behind him, the other Reds followed suit.

“We stand with you, Purple. What orders?”

Orders?

That’s how Reds operate. Either they give the orders, or you do, but everyone is in a chain of command. His loyalty is touching.

Really? I didn’t think I’d ever heard Raolcan compliment another color of dragon before. He sneezed, letting the sulfurous vapors wash over me instead of setting them on fire as they emerged. That was definitely on purpose.

Everyone needs to sneeze sometimes. Dust gets in your lungs.

“We’re almost at the ocean, but we can’t stay here.” Savette’s voice was clear as a ringing bell and I startled at her words. Was she speaking up after so long? “The Ifrits will follow us and while the water provides some protection, we can’t avoid them forever. Nor can we stand and fight in this place. There is nowhere to make a proper stand against them. We are compelled to go north and find a place where we can fight.”

“A solid plan,” Grangor said.

“But not all of us.”

As she spoke, other dragons were landing around us in pairs and singles – refugees in the flight from the Ifrits looking for any port in a turbulent storm. Did she plan to send some away? She turned to me and Hubric, taking us both in her gaze.

“For too long we have fled, barely a step ahead of the chasing enemy. But, like a stag run down by dogs, we are weakened by our flight. The time has come to turn and bring the battle to them. But to do that, we must splinter into many prongs.”

I didn’t like the sound of that.  A sinking feeling filled me. She was going to send her friends away, wasn’t she? Just like when she’d wanted to go to Leedris City on her own.

“And so, I accept the loyalty of Grangor Hummingreed and his Reds.” Her smile was as wide as his as they nodded to each other. “And I must ask the rest of you to help me in this.”

Hubric’s face was as flushed as I knew mine must be. “If you’re suggesting that we leave you right now, while Ifrits are chasing us-”

She held up a hand to silence him. “I saw things in that volcano. Things I can’t fully explain. Things I can’t put into words - but I came away understanding one thing for certain. If we remain on the defensive the world is lost. If we press our attack back to them, we still have a chance. But too many things need to be done. There are not enough of us even if we split up. And each of us has our own role to play in this.”

I felt queasy at the words ‘split up’ so I clung tighter to Raolcan’s saddle.

Don’t worry, I’d never let her split us up. We’re in this together, spider.

“We each must complete a piece of the puzzle.” Savette’s bearing was suddenly so authoritative that my heart sank. No one would be able to deny her request. “Hubric, you know the Lightbringers. You know how they think and who they are. I desperately need you. Head north to Dominion City and seek them out in secret. Rally as many as you can and prepare them for our cause.”

He nodded. “Amel, we’ll-”

“I need Amel for something else.”

If my face was flushed before it must be pure white now. I was going to have to go somewhere without my mentor? How many times had he saved us? How many times had I needed him? By the frown on his face, he was as upset as I was. I met his eyes, trying to show my own concern.

“Leng, I need you to fly north. Bring my messages to High Castelans Woelran, Estabis, Tevish, Moran, Lamond, Dantriet, Obadis and Abarynth.” She slipped message cylinders from her belt. When had she found time to write those? She must have written them while they flew. She was one step ahead of us all. “We desperately need their strength and support. Do not fail me in this.”

Leng saluted as another group of ten dragons arrived.

“All those who stay with me will be required to swear fealty. Choose today who you will serve,” Savette said to the new dragons, but no one budged. Whether they had come as a last resort or because they truly believed in Savette, they were hers now. “Shonan, Rasipaer is anxious to return to his bonded rider, but I can’t grant him that luxury yet. I did not have time to negotiate with Queen Haz before Starie ripped open the earth and spilled her creatures of evil across the surface of it. Rasipaer will lead you to one of the hidden gates – don’t glare at me, Rasipaer. I saw many things in the volcano. Gates are the least of them – and you will negotiate on my behalf – and yours – for the Dominion. You understand?”

We all gasped at her words. Sending the true Dominar off on a dangerous quest without any form of protection except a dragon that wasn’t his? It was unthinkable! Shonan gave her a long, hard stare, but eventually, he spoke.

“Shrewd.”

She turned to me. “Amel. By now my husband has either succeeded or failed in his mission. Finding him and reporting our situation is the most dangerous thing we need to be done – but it is also vital. We no longer have the resources in the Dominion to turn this disaster around. We need help. Find him in Baojang by whatever means necessary and tell him all that has passed since he left us. We desperately need his help.”

I nodded, speechless. I couldn’t have imagined a more nerve-wracking job if I’d been asked to. I was supposed to travel to a foreign country where I didn’t speak the language and find Rakturan – who I’d never felt very safe with – and get him to somehow bring his twisted people to save us? The word “impossible” came to mind.

Set a prince to catch a prince. I like how her mind works.

Instead, I said, “And what will you do with your new army?”

Savette stood up on Rasipaer’s back, looked around at the gathered crowd, almost as if she was counting them before saying, “We fly to the healing arches north of here. There, we will confront any Ifrits fool enough to follow us and destroy them utterly. And that is only the beginning.”

Chapter Three

Leng was the first to reach me, though Hubric wasn’t far behind. He pulled me into a strong hug and kissed my cheek.

“Don’t forget my promise. If you ever need to get in touch with me, send a message to the dragon cotes of Dominion City addressed to Hofner Cardsplitter. He holds my messages for me. Stay safe and don’t forget – when this is all over we’ll have that home on the river with horses and cliffs for dragons.”

I smiled, kissed him and said, “Don’t you forget that I love you.”

“Same.” His grin was crooked as he rushed away, looking back three times before leaning in to say something to Shonan.

Hubric cleared his throat. “About done watching him?”

I felt my cheeks heat. “I don’t like the idea of us splitting up.”

“I hate it.” His eyes were red-rimmed. “We can fly north together as far as Hezba, but after that, we’ll have to split up.”

I nodded, but my heart was sinking. There were so few of us and so much to do. It made sense that we should split up, but I just wanted to keep an eye on everyone – to know they were safe and well.

“He’ll be fine,” Hubric said gruffly as Leng and Ahlskibi launched into the air. “He has a lot of luck, that one. Stumbles on opportunities like they’re roots on a path.”

I’d never thought of Leng like that.

Shonan saluted us as Rasipaer leapt into the air. No goodbyes from him. Maybe he’d grown used to the practicalities of these things.

“He can’t deny who he is and negotiate with the Queen at the same time. She’ll know,” Hubric said. “He’ll have to embrace it.”

He was watching Savette with admiration, like he was pleased with her plan. Had he talked her into “treason” with the rest of us? Or had she just realized, like I had, that we didn’t stand a chance without him?

“And after that?”

He shrugged. “Let’s hope we’re all still alive to make further plans.”

A wave of cold washed over me and I swallowed. This might be the last time we were all together. Oh, skies and stars, I hoped it wasn’t the case!

“Time to mount up,” Hubric said, leaving me, but there was still one more person to talk to.

I hobbled over to Savette. She was already mounting Grangor’s dragon. If anyone could fight to keep her safe it would be an experienced Red Dragon Rider, right? Right? Then why was I still worried?

“Tell Rakturan to hurry,” Savette said when she saw me. “He won’t have had long to rally his people – he’s probably only arriving there now, but it will take you time to make the same journey. Protect him and help him like you’ve helped me, Amel. You always find a way out of trouble.”

Was she putting on a brave face before all these new followers, or was she really so confident in me? If I was honest with myself, it was usually Raolcan who pulled me out of the fires I fell into.

True.

And I didn’t like the idea of her flying off unprotected.

Because Grangor Hummingreed and the Slateshard Division are less able to protect her than one teen girl and her friendly neighborhood dragon? Yep. You’ve definitely been hanging out with Purples for too long.

“I don’t know how to say-” I began, but she cut me off.

“I’ll be fine and so will you. Now hurry up. Grangor’s patrol sees Ifrits on their way.” She pointed up to where a Red dragon circled above us on watch. I began to leave but turned when she called my name. “Amel? Take care of yourself.”

“You, too.”

We shared a smile and then she turned back to Grangor who was speaking to her and I hobbled back to Raolcan. My crutch felt heavier than usual as I cinched it into place in the saddle, my leg felt heavier as I arranged myself in the saddle and it was hard to see the straps through vision blurred with emotion. I wasn’t ready to go on my own.

You’re not on your own. You have me.

To a country I’d never been to.

Did I tell you that I went there once?

Wait. I had always thought there were no dragons in Baojang.

None there by their own will ... except for that time I snuck in.

Now that was a story I needed to hear. How did a dragon sneak? They seemed a little large for that.

Maybe later. Let’s fly.

He launched into the air, close on the heels of Kyrowat who was already speeding up through the clouds. We were still gaining height when beneath us, the Reds burst into the sky like a puff of flame from a fire. That flare might be last I ever saw of Savette. I hoped not, but I had never been to Baojang or the Dark Continent. I already found acid swirling in my belly at the thought.

They put saffron in the honey. It’s an acquired taste, but you get used to it.

Somehow, I didn’t think saffron was the worst of my worries.

The best part of leaving people you love is coming back to them.

Chapter Four

The others slowly grew to tiny pinpricks until it was just Hubric and Haskell on Kyrowat and me on Raolcan soaring over the gray water of the Eastern Ocean. I was already feeling nervous. When Rakturan had set sail for Baojang he’d had a ship and he’d known where he was going. I had none of those things. We couldn’t just fly over the ocean – Raolcan had been clear about that – which meant we’d need a ship I couldn’t afford to hire, or we would need to take a very long journey far to the north – through the war-torn Dominion – and eventually swing east from there to Baojang. Neither solution sounded promising. When we landed just before dark on a sandy stretch of white beach, I was still chewing my lip with worry.

You shouldn’t be worried. Whatever path we take, we’ll make it work. Worry steals joy out of the moment and doesn’t buy you future safety.

I hastily unsaddled him so he could go and hunt. With the Ifrits far behind, we were safe enough here. Hubric was already lighting a fire of driftwood and Haskell was quietly gathering food. She smiled at me when I stumbled over. The battered kettle I’d found in the farmhouse was already filled with water and ready to brew tea.

“There’s a safehouse to the north, just south of Hezba,” Hubric said without small talk. “We can resupply there and get you ready for a very long journey.”

“I don’t have any coin,” I said, nervously.

“There will be coin there.”

“I was thinking maybe a ship...”

“No.” His bright eyes glittered in the multi-colored flames of the driftwood fire. “The ocean will be full of the enemy by now. Rakturan was safe enough – a prince of Baojang on a Baojang ship. A ship of the Dominion would not be so safe.”

“But if I fly north the whole way and then head east, I’ll fly right through the war. Besides, it will take ages to get there. By then, I might be too late.”

“Better late than never,” he grunted, but he poked at the fire with an expression on his face that I knew was deep thought. What was he concocting? “Go get our blankets. We don’t have a tent in the packs anymore, but a beach fire should be fine.”

When I returned, we drank tea and ate dried food in silence. Haskell began to set her blanket up the way she liked. The dragons returned, bellies full, and spread themselves out on either side of us, promptly shutting their eyes. They needed the rest.

You try flying that hard. It takes it out of a dragon!

“There’s a woman I knew in Baojang,” Hubric said suddenly. “Jasmeer of the Fragrant Islands. She’s a saffron honey dealer in the city of Abalang. I think she could help you, Amel.”

“Where is Abalang?”

“On the southern coast of Baojang.”

I was silent, staring at the fire. It would be nice to have a friend, but the southern coast of Baojang was a very long way off.

Hubric chuckled. “You should see your face. So, you doubt you’ll get that far, do you?”

I nodded.

“Can I offer you a solution?”

“Please.” Why was he being so secretive? Why didn’t he just come out and tell me his solution?

“If I’d been there when Rakturan sailed off like a fool, I would have told him this, too. There’s an old path across the Eastern Ocean from a time when our nations were better friends – or maybe they were one nation, who knows? But there is a path. It’s part of Dragon Rider lore, though it’s more obscure and not everyone knows it. I can draw you the map and leave you the clues I was given so long ago.”

“What kind of a path goes over water?”

He scratched the side of his face while behind him, Haskell broke out in snores. I felt so jumpy at the thought of setting off on my own that I didn’t mind the snores. Haskell wasn’t worried about where she was going. It made me feel like I could calm down a bit, too.

“It would only work for a dragon,” he said eventually. “The path takes you from island to reef to other places that only a dragon could perch on and sleep. They would be hazards to a ship and useless to anyone else, but if you follow the path exactly, a dragon could fly across the Eastern Ocean. Rather quickly, in fact.”

I’d never heard of anything like that – but then again, there were many things I didn’t know.

“And will it be fast enough?”

He shrugged. “It’s safer and faster than a ship or the northern route. Fast enough? Who can say? We don’t know how things have fared for Rakturan. He may have only arrived there a few days ago, even with strong winds in his favor.”

“How are you certain it’s really there? No one talks about it.”

“What choice is there, Amel?” And with that, he turned and settled himself in his blankets.

I stayed awake hours longer than everyone else, jittery at the thought of taking a journey across the ocean on a path that even Hubric had never before tried to take. But, like he said, what other choice did I have?

When I woke the next morning, I felt like I’d never gone to sleep. A night spent tossing and worrying is no night at all.

Personally, I like the idea of a hidden path. It sounds like an adventure. You can look at life as a place full of obstacles or a place full of opportunities. Most of the time – if you’re watching for it – you can turn an obstacle into an opportunity.

I barely registered the scenery as our flight north took us over land instead of water again. When, the next evening, we settled down at the safehouse, I was quiet, not wanting to talk after a day of fighting voices in my head – first of worry, then of gnawing doubt and burning anxiety. I was not seeing this as an opportunity – unless it was an opportunity to fail miserably. My belly swirled uncomfortably as Hubric drew the map in careful pencil and wrote down the notations.

“If the winds favor you and if the clues are true, it will be a fast journey,” he said.

“And if they don’t?”

But there was no answer to that question. I carefully chose out supplies from the storeroom of the hidden fortress Hubric had led us to. Food and drink that would keep, a pot, blankets, clothing and other essentials.

“Freshwater is the most dire need,” Hubric warned. “You will not find it on the path.”

We gathered barrels and skins of it until Raolcan was mentally groaning. “How far do I need to carry all that?”

But when night fell again I didn’t sleep in the soft bed Haskell kindly turned down for me. Instead, I crept out to where Raolcan slept and laid my worried cheek on his hot shoulder.

Sleep, Amel. Stop letting worry drive you. It’s a cruel master. I will keep us safe.

Chapter Five

Hubric held the map too tightly for me to take it, even though he was clearly offering it to me.

He doesn’t want to let you go.

“Keep an eye on things around you. Notice everything. Keep careful watch over your water as you cross the ocean and remember that the culture of Baojang is different than what you are used to. Watch and remain as silent as you can.”

“Hubric,” Haskell said gently.

“Mmm?” He looked over to where she was seated on Kyrowat’s back, waiting for him.

“You said it would take her all day to find the first waypoint. Perhaps it would be best if she had an early start.” Haskell’s tone was kind. They were a strange pair – her young and him old, her kind and him gruff.

He nodded and finally let go of the map, turning away.

“Hubric!” My voice sounded panicked.

He looked back, a brave smile on his face. “You’ll be fine.”

“What if I can’t find him?”

“You will.”

“What if I can’t find the waypoints?”

“You will.” He mounted Kyrowat in a single movement.

I licked my lips. I wasn’t ready, I had so much more to learn.

He looked me deep in the eyes. “Amel, you’re a faithful, loyal apprentice. You will find a way to do this for Savette and for all of us. I know you will. Be strong and remember to read your prophecies and play cards as often as you can.”

I let my fingers travel over the deck of cards he’d given me with the map. It figured that he would have spares with him.

“I will.”

“We’ll miss you.”

Haskell cleared her throat and Hubric nodded, saluting me and calling a goodbye as Kyrowat launched into the air. I stifled the sob growing in my throat and looked out over the rolling fields below the cliff we’d said goodbye on. He was heading inland toward the capital. We were heading northeast, past the city and off to the first waypoint. What if we didn’t find it? What if we were lost along the way? I’d grown used to companions.

You still have me. I’m starting to feel like you don’t appreciate how lucky you are...

I should have stayed with Savette and made that stand against the Ifrits.

She would have been irritated at your choice not to take her message. And did I mention that you still have me?

I should have gone with Hubric.

Seriously, you need to buck up. We’ll be fine. And just for the record ... you still have me. What more could a girl want?

With a deep breath and a final sniff, I checked Raolcan’s straps, mounted and strapped in. By tonight we needed to reach a small island marked on the map. Raolcan swore up and down that this first landmark would be easy to find.

It’s an island. Believe it or not, they stand out against the sea.

He leapt into the air and I clutched at his saddle feeling abandoned and a bit sorry for myself.

Well, you can be sorry for yourself this whole journey or you can embrace it and love the adventure ... like me. At least you aren’t the one carrying all the water.

We flew so far east of Hezba that all I saw were the distant silhouettes of buildings in the haze of the sun. I turned over the map and read the notation again and again. I couldn’t afford to get this wrong. The notation read,

There is a small island just east of the Dragon Head Islands. Reefs surround this island, making it a terrible choice for sailors, but a safe and secluded resting place for dragons. If you stay on course, it will appear when the Lesser Dragon Head is in sight.

It sounded simple enough.

Honestly, I could find that in my sleep.

I let myself relax into the flight, even enjoying the salty smell of the breeze over the ocean and the puffy clouds that formed pictures in the sky. It wasn’t until well past midday that I began to worry about when we’d be able to take a break.

Not for a long time. This is as hard on the rider as the dragon. Don’t drink too much or it will really be bad for you.

I tried not to think about that. It would only make things worse.

I’m more worried about who is following us.

Following us? I spun in my seat, looking behind us, but there was no sign of a dragon anywhere that I watched.

My eyes are better than yours. He is behind us, but when we stop to rest he will have time to catch up.

How long until we could stop?

Still many hours.

Ngh. I was already well past uncomfortable.

At least the winds are strong. I’m letting them push me. We’re making great time.

Now I had two things to worry about – a mysterious person following us, and whether my bladder would make it to this mysterious island.

Chapter Six

I would have been more worried about whoever was tailing us if I wasn’t practically hopping up and down by the time we found the hidden island. Raolcan skidded across the loose gravel in his hurry to land and I was even faster to find a lonely bush and take care of things.

About done?

“Yes. You okay?”

I think I’d like you to unload my burdens, though we should probably keep a sharp eye out. Whoever is following us is going to find us. There’s no hiding on this flat rock.

I hurried to unload his burdens and stow them to the side, but with so many and my slower speed, it took longer than I’d like.

He’s circling. I think he hopes to land somewhere else, but there is nowhere but this little spit of rock.

Raolcan wasn’t exaggerating. The island was about the size of four Raolcans. There were a couple of scraggly bushes and some shards of rock, and that was it. There weren’t even bits of driftwood to make a fire with.

He’ll come down eventually. Wake me when he does.

Wake him?

I’m the one who flew all day. You take first watch.

Fair enough. Raolcan hunkered down low on the ground and closed his eyes. I leaned against him and let myself relax into his warmth. If I was going to keep watch, I might as well do it in comfort. I barely noticed when my eyes began to flutter closed.

Someone cleared his throat and I sat up, wishing I could leap to my feet. I tried to look calm and cool instead as a Dragon Rider in black leathers wearing a mass of gold scarves and slender chains stood over me. He was tall for a dragon rider – I’d noticed that most were short and wiry – and his arms were crossed over his chest.

“You sure seemed to be in a hurry to reach this rock, Purple.”

I settled on something safe. “I have messages to deliver.”

He wouldn’t know I was an apprentice – not in these black leathers.

“There’s no one out here to deliver them to except whales and ships. Do you have a message for a ship?” His tone was playful, but his brown eyes watched me carefully. He was maybe thirty, his face unshaven and his leathers battered.

“Are you here to negotiate with them?” I countered. It was probably better that no one knew my business. And he’d been following me, after all. “Why are you following me?”

He barked a laugh, but then his eyes grew serious. Anything else in his expression was hard to pick out, despite the bright lace of stars in the sky above us.

“There was a Purple in my wave in Dragon School. We were friends. He mentioned something about a hidden path to the lands of Baojang. I was looking for the start of that path for weeks and then a Purple flies by headed in the strangest direction. It occurred to me ... could she know where this path is? Could she be flying a message to Baojang? So, I follow, curious. And where does she land but a black rock on a dark sea – like she’s lost, but not lost. And I think perhaps this not-lost one can guide me down the path. Hmmm?”

He had a strange way of talking. I cocked my head as he spoke trying to follow it.

The people from the northwest of the Dominion speak that way. He’s likely from there. See how his hair is tightly curled? That’s a trait you see in the northwest.

Was Raolcan angry that I fell asleep?

I want to go back to sleep. You decide what to do with this golden rider.

Should I let him come with us? I didn’t know him. He might not be trustworthy.

I’m pretty sure he’ll follow you like a lost puppy either way.

“What happened to your friend?” I asked. “Why can’t he show you this ‘path’ if it exists?”

“Died. In sacking of Casaban.”

I felt my belly sink. They’d been rounding up Purples there to give to the Dusk Covenant. It’s possible that his friend died on the mountain where I fought the Magikas and saved Leng from them. We’d lost all the others. I bit my lip at the memory. What if it was me who had lost Leng that way and was seeking help? But then again, anyone could tell a story.

“Why do you want to go to Baojang?”

“Why do you?”

He had me there. I wasn’t ready to share my secrets any more than he was ready to share his.

He laughed at my silence. “I’m Renn Woelran of the Gold.”

Woelran. I’d heard that name before ... in Dragon School.

The arrogant one all the girls liked. Jael, wasn’t it? He died in training.

I swallowed. What would Renn think, if he knew that?

I wouldn’t bring it up if I were you.

“I’m Amel Leafbrought, Purple – obviously.” Probably best to stick with my name. “There’s not much room on this island, so I guess we’d better be friends.”

“Does that mean that you are going to show me the way to Baojang?” he pressed.

“Ask me in the morning.”

He laughed again – he did that a lot – and walked over to the side of his frilled gold dragon. It reminded me a little too much of Starie’s dragon.

“What’s your dragon’s name?” I asked as I settled back down, leaning on Raolcan.

“Ahummal. He doesn’t like Purples.”

He can go eat feet.

I fell asleep with that sweet sentiment ringing in my ears.

Chapter Seven

I woke before Renn did, though Ahummal was wide awake and glaring at us with baleful eyes. He shifted further away when he saw me watching and ended up with his tail falling in the water. His hiss almost sent me into giggles.

Don’t encourage him.

Raolcan yawned beside me, clearly showing off his gleaming teeth. Oh. It was going to be one of those, ‘which dragon is deadlier’ contests again. I should hobble out of the crossfire while I still could. I took my own advice, helping myself and Raolcan to some water and dried meat. There was nowhere to resupply here, but I took time to examine the tack and make a few adjustments. I needed to make a decision about Renn and I also needed to look at the map. It had us headed due east – which made no sense at all. We ultimately needed to go north.

If you don’t trust the map then there’s no point in trying to follow this path.

I didn’t like blindly trusting things. I frowned over the map. The picture on the map was a ring and then a tangled symbol – Hubric’s fault or the original sign? And the notation said:

Fly like an arrow to the rising sun. Waver not from dawn to midday. Let the sun be your guide.

At least if we found it on time we would be there by midday.

Go easy on the water, Raolcan reminded me. Remember last time?

“Is that a map?”

I spun to see Renn behind me, adjusting his chains and scarves with a confident grin. In the light of dawn, I saw tiny crinkling lines on his cheeks from all that smiling. His tightly-curled hair – in a very un-Dragon-Rider manner, was shorn very short and his eyes twinkled in the light.

“Sort of,” I admitted, but then my eyes narrowed. “But it’s in code, so don’t even think of trying to take it.”

He threw his hands up, and innocent expression on his face. “No need to take a map from my guide. You are going to guide me, am I right?”

He was charming. I’d give him that. I was willing to bet he got his way most of the time with that grin.

He does. He figures you’re already weak in the knees over it.

Well, then he was adding things up all wrong. I crossed my arms over my chest. If he thought he could win me over with a smile, I’d ignore all his smiles

“I think you should head back to the Dominion. This is a big gamble for me, and you don’t even have water with you,” I said.

He smirked. “Looks like you have more than enough water for both of us.”

“I was told that the key to success in this journey is having enough water. If I bring you, too, my water supply will be cut in half. Why don’t you go back to the mainland and get some water and then you can follow?”

“And you’re going to wait here for me?” His knowing smile made my spine straighten.

“I don’t have time to wait.”

His grin showed white teeth. “Then I guess I don’t either.”

“I’m not your guide!”

“And yet, you’ll be guiding me...”

I huffed and began to load our supplies back on Raolcan.

Ouch! Don’t take your temper out on me!

I finished loading him – more gently, this time.

Barely.

“I could take half that water for you,” Renn offered. As if I’d give him half our water just like that!

If we’re going the same way, I could use a lighter load.

Raolcan would be singing a different tune if we ran out half-way to our destination.

Calm down. We’ll be fine.

“Raolcan can carry it just fine, thank you,” I said stiffly.

He smirked and sauntered off. I mounted Raolcan and started to cinch my straps up. The sun was low on the horizon. Time to start heading straight for it.

You’re going to have to find some way to coexist with Renn. I don’t think he’s going anywhere soon. I generally find that the most irritable people can be the most helpful in the long run.

So he was going to be best friends with Ahummal?

You should hear his thoughts! He can go eat feet.

That insult was starting to grow on me. I turned it over in my mind as Raolcan leapt into the air, shooting toward the blaze of the rising sun. Would he cook the feet first or just gnaw on them? Were we talking deer feet or chicken feet or did it matter?

I barely even flinched at the whoop of delight from behind us as we dove toward the dawn.

Chapter Eight

By noon, I was getting worried. We were being buffeted by winds and staying on a correct course was a challenge. Worse, there was nothing in any direction but gray sea, rippling with white foaming waves. By now, we should be at the next waypoint. My mouth felt dry, but I was afraid to take a sip of water. I looked anxiously from side to side, squinting at the water below until my eyes ached. There was nothing. We’d come all this way and there was nothing!

We’ll circle and look for it.

We began in a small circle, spiraling outward. Renn looked confused when our path took us past him, but I didn’t signal to him. I didn’t want him following us in the first place. I didn’t know if I could trust him. He could be Dusk Covenant, or worse.

There’s something worse?

Ifrits.

He doesn’t look like an Ifrit to me. He’s smaller, for starters. There’s no fire in his mouth. So far, he hasn’t tried to kill us.

Oh, ha ha. But he’d succeeded in distracting me for a moment, long enough to calm my breath and the shaking of my hands, though I was still feeling the sting of sweat as it broke out on my forehead and back.

We circled and circled and I gnawed at my lip. How long had we been doing this? An hour? Two?

What did the notation say?

It said to let the sun be my guide. Fat lot of good that was doing. I sighed as Renn and Ahummal fell into line behind us as our loop expanded.

At this time of day, the sun is nearly above us.

I looked up at the sun, squinting my eyes and letting my hand rise to shade my eyes for a little protection. The sun blared down, blindingly and I squinted further, trying to look-but-not-look at the yellow sun high above. Something just beneath it flickered – like the edge of a rainbow. I closed my eyes and tried again. Was that a faint ring of rainbow in the sky?

You really shouldn’t be looking at the sun. You’ll see all kinds of ghosts in the air that way.

No, it was definitely a ring of faint rainbow. What in the world could that be? Could Raolcan fly towards that?

Fly toward your mirage? Sure. Why not. Let’s all be delusional together.

What would make a rainbow like that? There was no rain. No ice in the air, which sometimes also produced rainbows – or so I heard. So, it had to be something unusual, right? Like a magical sign in the sky. Raolcan arched upward. He needed to aim just a little lower.

It’s not like I can see your imaginary loop.

There! That was a better trajectory. I shaded my eyes and took one last look around me. There was nothing but gray flashing sea rolling in white-tipped caps and that annoying Renn following on our tail like a bad smell.

Ha! I like that analogy. Wait. Wait a second. Am I seeing a ring?

If he wasn’t then he needed his eyes checked. I could see it plain as day. Raolcan leapt through it like a fish through a hoop – or what I imagined that would be like.

We might as well be crazy together.

Renn was right on our tail as Raolcan tucked his wings and arched through the circle. I shut my eyes, afraid to hope ...

You can open them now.

There was still sky and sea around us like before. Worse, my mind was tricking me, leading me to believe that the sea and sky were bluer. Just a trick of the eyes after staring so hard at the sun. Disappointment filled me. We’d have to go back. We’d have to take the trip back up the coast through the waging war like I’d thought originally, only now we were three days behind where we would have been. At least, Renn would stop following me.

Look at the sun.

Again?

No, really look at it.

It hurt my eyes. I bit back a curse.

It’s lower in the sky. We’re not where we started.

But we weren’t anywhere else, either. There was no island or coastline here.

I think I see something in the distance.

That’s just Renn. He was still following us like a dark rumor.

That one’s funny, too. But no, I mean something on the sea. Let’s go investigate.

Why not. After all, I could use a break before we turned back. Raolcan leaned slightly eastward, his neck curving toward his goal. I leaned into his swoop, glad to be doing something other than flying in circles. It had been making me dizzy.

It’s not quite an island, but there’s room to set down on it. Let’s go look!

It was long minutes before I could see what he was aiming at – a small blip on the horizon. And at least another hour before we reached what appeared to be a tangle of trees, their roots interwoven, and yellow fruit hanging heavy on their branches. They floated and bobbed on the water like the world’s strangest raft.

Raolcan set down gently between the thick trunks, his wings held out like he was checking to see if it could bear his weight.

Seems to hold. I’ve never been on one of these before.

One of what? Ahummal set down on the other side of the tangle, plucking the yellow fruit off the nearest tree and flaring his frill.

“A Brambaraft,” Renn said excitedly. “I’ve read about these. How far did you take us through that magical ring?”

My cheeks heated. I didn’t want to admit that I had no idea where we were or what this was.

It’s common to the Eastern Sea near the coast of Baojang. A floating raft made of trees that drink seawater to survive. Sometimes there are fish underneath – they chew at the roots. Sometimes birds in the branches. It’s like an oasis in the sea.

How lucky were we to have found one?

They are common in these parts – as common as ponds or streams inland. We should see many more on our trip to Baojang. But we are close now.

How close?

Brambarafts can’t survive the highest seas. They stay close to reefs or the shore. I suspect there is a reef nearby.

“Fine, be silent. Even with that cranky attitude, you’re still the best guide I’ve ever had,” Renn said with a smile, grabbing one of the yellow fruit and biting in before giving me a pulpy grin. If he wasn’t so irritating, I’d say he was growing on me. I turned to the tree to grab my own fruit.

Watch for adders. They sometimes lurk in the trees.

I shivered and drew my hand back.

“Gotcha!” Renn said suddenly, holding up a red snake he’d speared on the tip of his knife. He flung it into the sea. “No fire tonight, unfortunately, but I’m excellent at stringing hammocks. Want me to tie one up for you?”

I rolled my eyes. How was I going to be rid of this guy?

Do you really want to be rid of him? You were complaining about doing this on your own. Now you have a friend.

But he could be an enemy.

You could try asking him some questions to see whether he is or not. I generally prefer to know who my enemies are. It’s better not to put people in that category unless you really have to.

“Can you teach me?” I asked Renn. He was already pulling out a rope.

“Sure. Come on over here and I’ll show you how to start.”

I hobbled over to where he was working between our dragons. He’d already tied the first knot.

“You can pay me in water,” he said as he spooled the rope out.

“Pay you?”

“I teach you a skill, you give us some water. Seems fair.”

“What about guiding you here?”

He tapped the side of his nose. “Doesn’t count if you didn’t do it on purpose.”

Figured. Of course, he’d want something from me. But I did need to find out why he was here, and I wasn’t going to find that out by being difficult. Besides, Raolcan was right, it wasn’t right to think of an enemy before I’d really investigated whether he was.

“Of course, we’d be happy to share our water.” I really hoped we were close to Baojang.

We worked side by side as he showed me the knots and weaving to make a solid hammock. How could I work the conversation around to asking him why he was so desperate to get to Baojang? As if he had read my mind, he looked up at me with another one of his nearly-constant grins.

“You want to know why I’m following you.” It wasn’t a question. “You want to know if you can trust me, so you’re asking me to show you how to make a hammock.”

Whatever else he was, he wasn’t stupid. I wasn’t sure what to say, though. Subtlety and craftiness were Hubric’s expertise, and I’d thought I’d have longer to watch him before I had to learn them, too.

He didn’t make me wait too long in suspense. “There are ... people ... in Baojang. Friends. I’m going to find them.”

“What kind of friends?” I asked.

“The secret kind.”

I sighed. “Why bother opening up to me if you aren’t going to even answer my questions?”

He laughed. “No, that’s what they’re called. ‘The Secret – or ‘Ya’kar’ in the language of Baojang.’”

I’d never heard of them. Were we talking about yet another hidden group? Like the Dusk Covenant or the Lightbringers? How would I know whether they were good or bad?

“Why are you looking for your friends?”

“Because I plan to end this war.”

Chapter Nine

This was great! He wanted the same things I did! Maybe we could help each other and do this together!

Whoa! There are many ways to stop wars. One way is to win. You don’t know he’s on your side just because he wants the war to end. Maybe he wants to defeat the Dominion to win it.

Well, couldn’t Raolcan just read his mind to figure out what side he was on?

He’s very guarded. It’s hard to get a strong read on him.

Uh oh. I wasn’t guarded because I had nothing to hide. What was Renn hiding?

It could be innocent enough. Some people are just more closed than others. You aren’t closed at all, which is part of your charm, of course.

I smiled.

“So, you trust me, then?” Renn asked.

“How are you going to stop the war?” I wasn’t ready to promise to trust him. Not with Raolcan’s warnings in my mind.

“I’m a Gold. We negotiate. It’s what we do. So, when my friend died in Casaban-”

“The Purple rider?”

We’d moved on to the next hammock. For the first time, his grin slipped as he nodded.

“I know it’s weird to have a Purple for a friend. Purples like to be on their own. I know you didn’t want me along, but Golds are people-people. We like to be around others. We don’t usually fly alone.”

“But you’re flying alone,” I prompted.

He tried another grin, but it fell flat. He looked at me seriously and then looked away, studying his hands.

“I don’t know if I should trust you, either. That’s the problem. Neither of us knows. Neither of us can afford to just say openly what we’re doing ... can we?”

I nodded, sadly.

“What should we do?” He looked sad, too. I could probably like him. If I knew him and what he was up to, I bet he’d grow on me. He was a bit too happy, and he certainly didn’t listen to others, but he grew on you.

“Why don’t I get you some water?”

I unsaddled Raolcan, setting his saddle and our various burdens in the branches of the interwoven trees.

That’s better.

We should probably settle in for the night. The next clue was as vague as the last one had been and there was no way to know how far we would have to fly before we reached the next destination. We should get some rest. Maybe by the end of the journey, I could figure out whether to trust Renn Woelran. As if thinking his name was enough to call him over, Renn materialized. Together, in companionable silence, we gave water to our dragons and placed our bedrolls on the hammocks. We were returning the waterskins we’d emptied for the dragons when I reached for one we could share.

“I know I could use a good drink of water,” I said, as I reached for the waterskin. “I hope it lasts the whole journey.”

“Stop!” Renn’s eyes were wide and his face white.

I hadn’t stopped fast enough. Searing pain filled my forearm and I looked down to see a red tail sticking out of my leather sleeve. Renn darted forward, cut the leather of my sleeve with his belt knife and peeled the leather back.

Light shone out of the sleeve as the sign of the Lightbringers was revealed. In the center of it, a red adder was latched on to my skin. Renn grabbed his head, spearing it with his knife and then carefully removing it. My arm was already red and puffy. I bit my lip and struggled to focus. Now was not the time to pass out. Was there a remedy to red adder bites?

Renn’s wide-eyed look suggested there wasn’t. He stumbled backward, took one more look at me and then dove into the sea. I sat down heavily. My face felt hot and wet. My arm felt as heavy as an anchor.

Hold on. Help comes.

Help? For what? My thoughts were muzzy. It was hard to hold on to them. Slippery like fish. Or was that lizards? Snakes? Why did I hate the idea of snakes? Renn was above me, his face blurry in my vision. He was chewing something. A broad, purple face hovered over him. Raolcan? Why was he underwater?

You’re delusional. It’s not a good idea to let snakes bite you.

Renn spat something into his hand and then his hand was around my jaw.

Open up.

I wasn’t hungry. I just needed to sleep.

Open.

I really didn’t need to.

NOW!

I opened my mouth at the shock of his mental yell and Renn shoved something soft and mushy in my mouth. I gagged at the taste of fish and rot mixed together.

Swallow.

Not a chance.

NOW!

I wanted to cry and slap him all at once. I hated these mind yells. Didn’t he realize I had a headache?

Please.

I swallowed, very reluctantly. Renn was holding my mouth shut. I couldn’t spit it out. Maybe swallowing was all I could do to get rid of the taste. No. It didn’t help. My mouth felt furry.

Hold on. Wait for the antidote to take effect. Clever Renn! This isn’t his first time in these parts.

My vision slowly began to clear. After long moments, Renn released my jaw.

“Are you back with us?”

I gagged, swallowed, reached for the waterskin. He handed it to me and I took a long drink.

“Yes,” I rasped. My mouth felt swollen. “What was that?”

“A red adder. They are deadly. You have to watch more carefully.”

It wasn’t worth it to stay here.

I don’t think there are any more.

That didn’t sound like a definite ‘no.’

“The taste...”

“That’s the antidote. Bramba root mash. Tastes like death but stops the poison.”

“Erg.” I spat a few more times, but at least it was only the root. Renn watched me in a guarded manner, like I was the red adder, not the thing he killed.

“That mark,” he began, before pausing. “The one that glows.”

I looked at him blearily. My mind still wasn’t tracking right.

He cleared his throat. “Tell me that’s not a Lighbringer mark.”

“And if it is?” My words sounded weak, even to me.

He held my gaze before he spat violently and stalked off. For a man who had just saved my life after smiling for two days straight, he sure was in a mood. He must not like the Lightbringers.

With a rapier intellect like that, I’m surprised they let you leave the Dominion.

Was there no mercy for someone who had just been snake-bit?

I’m merciful. That won’t stop me from having fun at your expense.

I stumbled to my hammock and fell into it. Good thing it was hidden by Bramba trees from where Renn was. Hopefully, Raolcan would wake me up if Renn decided to kill me in the night for being a Lightbringer.

I’m right beside you, spider. I’ll flame any creatures that try to harm you – even Gold Dragon Riders with big grins.

Chapter Ten

I couldn’t sleep all night. The moon was too bright and the stars - a spray of milk across the midnight sky – looked wrong, like they were slightly out of place. I tossed and turned, feverish, sweating and plagued with fearful dreams. When the last one ended with Renn choking me, I woke with a gasp.

The only sound in the pale dawn with the lapping of waves against the Brambaraft. With a sigh, I fished Talsan’s little book out of my pocket and began to read. I doubted the Ibrenicus prophecies had anything to say to me now that I was so far from Savette – after all, they were written about the Chosen One, not me – but it was strange how comforting they could be.

In dark lands, the light flickers under a cover. An ember against the night. A last gleam in a charcoal death.

Yes, very comforting indeed.

“Are those the Ibrenicus Prophecies?” Renn was standing right beside my hammock.

I gasped and fell from the hammock, landing roughly on the roots below. By the time I’d picked myself up again he was gone. With a tsk of irritation, I fished the map out of my pocket. There were only two notations left. I read the next one.

Between bow and hook chart your course to the mouth of the bowl.

Again, it was about as clear as mud.

It wouldn’t be if you’d looked at the stars last night, Raolcan said.

I felt my cheeks heating. I hadn’t even read the notation last night. I’d been too busy thinking about how miserable my snakebite was and how I couldn’t trust Renn – even if he had saved my life.

You should probably thank him for that. Does the line on the map go north?

It did.

So would the course between the hook and the bow constellations.

What would I do without Raolcan?

The whole world wakes up asking that very question.

I rolled my eyes and searched through my packs for my other leather jacket. This one was wrecked until I could repair the torn sleeve. I changed quickly, took care of necessities, and loaded Raolcan. I didn’t see Renn again until I was mounting up. He hovered nearby, silent. What did he want?

Water. He thirsts.

Well, why didn’t he just ask for it?

He’s torn inside.

Hopefully, he wasn’t planning to kill me now that he’d just saved me.

I honestly don’t know. Still, a grateful attitude never hurts.

I loosened the nearest waterskin from where it was tied and threw it to Renn. “Thank you for saving me from the red adder.”

He left without acknowledging my thanks. Oh well. The sooner we got to Baojang, the sooner I’d be rid of him. Raolcan launched into the air and I held on tight, grateful to still have my best friend with me. Why did everyone else have to be so complicated?

Not everyone can be as amazing as I am. It’s a gift.

We flew north without looking back, angling slightly east. I was looking for a bowl – or anything really except for sea and sky. Renn was behind us. I’d checked a few times just to be sure. After all, if he hated Lightbringers so much, then maybe he wouldn’t want to follow one.

It was a long day with no break from the strong winds that kicked up or the glaring sun. By midday, we were both exhausted, but there was nowhere to land. But late in the afternoon, I saw a line on the horizon. Land.

As the sun began to sink in the sky, we reached a peninsula that ended in a dish-shaped formation of black stone. We’d found the bowl. Raolcan set down wearily on the land by the bowl and I was grateful to Hubric for insisting on all the water. Even here - finding land at last - there was no fresh water in sight.  I slipped off his back, but before I could offer him water, Ahummal skidded to a stop beside me.

“We need to talk,” Renn said, ominously. He leapt off of Ahummal, grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the middle of the bowl.

Raolcan spun, flaming so close to him that it singed the hair on his other arm.

“Easy! Get your dragon under control! I’m not going to hurt you. Didn’t you bind him in place when you landed?”

“I thought you knew a Purple,” I said.

Renn stopped and spun to look at me. His face was haunted.

“Talsan didn’t ever bind his dragon either. He claimed he didn’t need binding.”

“Talsan Woodcarver?”

“Did you know him?” Renn asked.

How did I tell him that his friend hadn’t died in Casaban after all? That instead, he’d been captured there and then died while protecting me? I bit my lip. There needed to be lessons on how to have these hard conversations.

“He was a Lightbringer just like you,” Renn said. “And he died, just like you’re about to.”

Chapter Eleven

“What do you mean? If you’re planning to kill me, then you won’t be far behind.”

He made an exasperated sound and threw my arm away like it hurt to touch me. “Why do you have to be so difficult? Why couldn’t you just have been smiling and trusting and easy to work with from the start?”

Why couldn’t he be honest and open? “I’m not a High Castelan with a sky silk dress and doting parents.”

“Well, neither am I! I just want you to understand!” He was frowning. Why did he have to yell like that? Yelling just made me jumpy.

“I just want to know if I can trust you.”

“You’re just so difficult!”

He was just so dramatic. He needed to calm down. Leng would have been cool as a sea breeze if this were him.

Unless he’s kissing you and then he seems to lose his capacity to stay calm and logical.

I couldn’t afford to think about Leng right now. Wherever he was, he had his own troubles to worry about and I had my own to deal with here.

“Calm down,” I said gently. Clearly, I would need to be the one to sort this out. “Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me why you’re here.”

“Is that Lightbringer symbol real?” He crossed his arms, but it was uncertainty that filled his eyes. He was just as worried – just as skittish – as I was. “You’re really a Lightbringer? What does Ibrenicus say about the Chosen One?”

“The Chosen One brings truth to the Heart of the Dominion,” I quoted.

He seemed to relax a little but he continued to press me. “What does it say about the ‘Bride of the Morning.’”

I quoted the whole prophecy this time. I was getting as bad as Hubric. “Offered then denied, Bride of Morning, Dark’s only hope of peace.” I swallowed. There was no point dancing around this anymore. If one of us didn’t try trusting the other, then we were both going to go insane. “I know it by heart because I read it in the book Talsan Woodcarver wrote with his own hand.” I slipped the book of Ibrenicus Prophecies out of my pocket to show him. “And because it’s about the man I’m traveling to Baojang to see – Prince Rakturan, dark’s only hope of peace.”

He took the book from my hand for a moment, studying it before returning it. “It is Talsan’s.”

He ran a hand through his hair before rolling up his sleeve to show me the ink there – the sign of the Lightbringers. He pulled his own leather-bound book from his pocket and handed it to me. On the front page, it said, ‘Ibrenicus Prophecies, copied by the hand of Renn Woelran.’

“So, our cards are on the table,” he said, with a ghost of his former grins.

“You still haven’t told me why you’re going to Baojang,” I said.

“Can we make a fire first?” he asked. “It’s a long story.”

By the time the fire was lit, our tents pitched, the dragons settled and unloaded, and the tea brewed, he seemed ready to talk.

“It was Talsan, Calanda and me. Calanda is a Red. We were all Lightbringers and friends. We’d heard rumors of the trouble in the north and Talsan had heard a rumor that the Ya’kar were open to negotiation. We were already thinking of a way to broker peace somehow – or at least communicate with them – when Casaban was attacked and the city sacked. I lost Talsan in the fighting. Calanda died before my eyes, leading a charge with the remaining Red dragons against the ships. There just weren’t enough of them, and the other side had Magikas. Our Magikas turned on us. It was a bloody, desperate day.” His face was tight with pain. “I fled with some other survivors. But war is upon us all now, and I’ve been talking to the others in my Color and to any Lightbringers I could find, but all I have is a name and a city.  No one else thought that was enough to go on, but if we don’t at least try ...”

“And so, you were looking for a way to negotiate.”

He nodded.

“Following me feels like the most haphazard way possible to do that.”

He shrugged, but his old grin was back. “Well, it sure beats flying the long way around. I’m not quite sure where we are, but we’ve clearly reached land somewhere near or in Baojang. That Brambaraft was a clear sign that we’d reached the right continent.”

“Can you show me your Lightbringer sign?” I asked. Maybe this was why Hubric was so keen on getting me marked. How else could you confirm that someone was a part of the secret society? I already missed Hubric. He always knew what to do at these times. He’d probably even know where we were in Baojang just by looking at the stars.

If you ask me, I’d say we’re a little east of Abalang.

Really? So close to our destination? There was still one more notation. It had said, ‘look for the lights’ which could really mean anything.

Hubric sent you down this path for a reason.

We still seemed to have a lot of water. Why did Hubric harp on that so much?

Maybe the reason is yet to be seen. Let’s trust him. After all, he has never sent us down a bad path.

Renn finished rolling up his sleeve to reveal the sign of the Lightbringers – a rising sun over a hill. Well, he’d proven who he was, hadn’t he? So why was I so suspicious, still?

You don’t trust easily.

Why did I long for the certainty of Leng, Savette, Hubric or Shonan? They all felt so far away as if distance had made them less real. If only Leng really could roll us all up like messages and keep us in his belt.

“Look,” Renn said excitedly. “I see lights to the west. There must be a city there. We can look in the morning.”

The last notation. We were almost at our destination, so why was I so nervous? Why did the nearness of it eat at me as much as the distance between myself and those I loved?

Because you’re not an idiot. You’re capable of guessing what might meet us in that strange city. But we’re the only allies Savette has to trust with this. Be hopeful and courageous. Courage isn’t fearlessness  - it’s hope in the face of fear.

As usual, I fell asleep with his thoughts in my mind.

Chapter Twelve

I was growing glad for the water by the middle of the next day. The city was still only a silhouette on the horizon, growing larger and then smaller and then larger again in the wavering way that things far off do under the heat of the sun. From the bowl to the city, the landscape was sculpted rocks in towers or on stepped plains, in dips or heaped in piles, but all the same uniform reddish brown without a river, creek or lake to break it up. Trees – if they ever had existed here – had given up years ago and grass huddled in dried tufts, only the most stubborn surviving.

We stopped three times for breaks, the dragons needing more water than usual. I even wet the scarf Leng had given me, twisting it around my head to bring me some relief from the relentless sun. It still smelled faintly of him, and I clung to that smell like a precious memory – one tiny reminder of home.

You will return before long.

But would I? Home felt far away. I wouldn’t even speak the language in the city we were aiming for.

I’ll help.

Worry mingled with anticipation as the city slowly grew in the distance. After seeing so many skycities, it felt strange to see one sprawled across the ground almost as if it had been left there accidentally.

“Abalang,” Renn said at our last stop. We still had almost half the water we’d left with, even sharing it with him and Ahummal. We’d stopped one final time for water as the city approached. Raolcan assured me we’d be there within the hour. “Keep an eye out for Sentries. They won’t hurt you before questioning you - unless you give them a reason to – but they won’t like the dragons. They think the skies belong to them.”

“Will they think we’re enemies, flying in there like this? I’d hoped to sneak in.”

“You won’t be able to arrive undetected, but people of many nations come and go. Some from the Dominion will be on dragons. I doubt the guards will think it’s strange.”

“Even with a war going on?” I was getting more nervous.

“As in, do I think that they’ll see two lone riders as an invasion force? I doubt it.”

I wasn’t so sure as we launched into the sky again. I’d be suspicious of an enemy in the sky above my city. Which reminded me - why did the sentries think the skies were theirs?

Because there aren’t many dragons in Baojang. If there were more of us, we would show them how wrong they are.

Well, what could they do from the land to prove that? Shoot arrows? Wave flags?

What makes you think the Sentries are on the land?

Because they weren’t dragons. Or were they?

Oh no, they aren’t. Try not to freak out when you see one.

Wait. What? The city was so close now that I could pick out individual buildings. They rose in slender, carved spires and rounded domes. Around the city, a sleek, white wall rose high, narrow slits carved into it from high above. There were no resting points for dragons, though open towers were placed evenly along the length of the wall. Hovering above the wall, were hazy figures.

Sentries.

I locked my gaze on one, frustrated that my eyes were no match for Raolcan’s. It wasn’t sitting on the wall, it was above it, but it wasn’t flying in loops like dragons did when they stood guard. A dragon would never hover in one place like that.

We can’t. We don’t fly that way. We need forward motion to provide lift. We have wings.

And these things didn’t? I strained my eyes. I knew I was missing the sights of the city below. I had a vague awareness of tents surrounding the city – of thousands of people coming in and out through the yawning gates – or lines of shining men in conical helmets on parade – but somehow, they seemed unimportant compared to measuring up one of these sentries.

Four more rose up from the city to join the one I was staring at, and together, they moved toward us in formation. It was different from a dragon formation. Where we would dive or swoop in graceful arcs, they moved in jerky up and down motions like bees. And it wasn’t just those four. Hundreds more rose up from the city, as if our presence in the sky had stirred up a nest of them.

I swallowed. I already didn’t like this.  A few more moments, and my eyes finally focused on the lead Sentry. I swallowed down bile. Nothing should look like this. A man sat astride a single, horrifyingly huge eye. Billowing behind him and on either side – like the frill of a gold dragon – were hundreds of scintillating hair-thin tentacles, barbed hooks on the end. Lightning flashed in tiny bursts from their ends, like the edges of a storm. And a buzzing almost-sound just outside my hearing set my teeth on edge.

What could four of these things do to a dragon? I had a horrifying idea of them wrapping their tentacles around Raolcan, the lightning in them freezing him into immobility,

That’s pretty much what they do. Their mouths are hidden on the backside under all the tentacles. They have an acid in them that dissolves their prey.

I didn’t need to know that.

Slowly.

I really, really didn’t need to know that.

Time to find out what kind of a bribe they want for entry.

Bribe?

We should have made sure you studied those books on culture better ...

Chapter Thirteen

They met us in the open sky before we reached the city. Their riders wore metal breastplates over their leathers with flares over the shoulders. Their helmets were conical with a single spike at the spire and cloth wrapped around the base. A colorful cord hung down at the back, dotted in elaborate knots. Doubtless, the color and knots meant something.

Rank and allegiance.

Their leader – or at least the one at the front with the largest array of knots in his cord – raised a hand, drawing up in front of us. Raolcan reared back, doing his best to keep us balanced in one position, his wings swirling in a way that made me think of treading water.

The leader barked out a series of sharp words as Ahummal drew level with Raolcan.

He is introducing himself as a Sentry of Abalang. He is asking if the Crescent Prince – the ruler of this city – has our allegiance. He demands water in return for entry to the city.

Well, that was fine, but how would I speak? I didn’t know the language. I’d just assumed there would be a translator somewhere.

Without hesitation, Renn replied to him in similar sharp words.

Renn introduced you both. He is negotiating better housing for Ahummal and myself. He’d like us housed at the inn. The Sentry insists we remain outside the city. He has agreed to give all our water in exchange for entry to the city.

Generous of him to give away what wasn’t his to give.

What else would we do?

I was just feeling grumpy about not being able to communicate. Plus, I didn’t want to be separated from Raolcan. At least we finally knew why Hubric insisted on so much water.

Renn waved to me. “We need to give them all the water for passage into the city. Where are you headed?”

“I need to find a saffron honey dealer named Jasmeer.”

“You like saffron honey? I never found a taste for it.” He turned back to the sentries and they spoke again.

He has succeeded in convincing them to let us in – dragons, too. There’s an inn next to the saffron honey dealer’s shop. We’ve been ordered to stay there. We don’t have free access to the whole city, only the business and beggars’ districts.

They were certainly very strict here.

The soldiers outside the city are only moving through on their way to the war against the Dominion. There are thousands here. See the ships waiting for them in the harbor?

I hadn’t paid much attention to the harbor with all the excitement of the buzzing sentries, but he was right. Saffron sail after saffron sail dotted the harbor and with all the smaller craft bringing supplies out to them and returning empty, they were clearly preparing for a voyage.

This is only one city of this land. Imagine the sheer magnitude of the forces they send against us, and in the meantime, the Dominion rots from the inside. Is our true enemy the one within or the one without, or both of them?

I needed to find Rakturan soon. Hopefully, he had a plan to hold this army back. Renn helped me loosen the ties on our water supply and hand it all to the Sentries. I didn’t like them so close. The very thought of one of those hair-like tentacles touching me made me break out in gooseflesh. Erg. Were they intelligent creatures? Like dragons or humans?

Like horses. Not stupid but not on the same level as humans and definitely not anywhere near the same level as dragons.

Renn signaled for us to follow as the lead sentry peeled off from the others and led us to the sprawling city. Even from the air, the streets looked like a maze. If I was on the ground trying to find my way through it, I had no confidence that I’d succeed. One blind alley led to another. Groups of streets spiraled in on each other, completely closed off from the rest of the world. But none of that mess stopped the body-to-body press of traffic as horses, mules, people and even the occasional elephant jostled for position on the crowded streets. Wisely, there was a well at every crossroads, with hawkers selling water from them as quickly as they could fill clay pots and waterskins. Hawkers set up under colorful awnings lined the streets.

We passed over a more desolate area – just as overpopulated but dirty and worn by comparison.

Beggars sector.

And flew over an area where the buildings were larger – warehouses? Stores? Each segment of the city was separated from the next by high walls, guards at every entrance.

They limit who may go where that way.

The Sentry spoke one last time to Renn, handed him something that looked like a coin and then buzzed away – a bee out to sting a few more passersby. Renn signed to follow as Ahummal spiraled down neatly and landed on a flat roof below. There was just enough room for Raolcan to join him.

I coughed at the dust as we landed. It was thick here on the roof and even thicker in the air below. What would the streets be like with this clogging every nose?

“This is Jasmeer’s Saffron Honey warehouse and her shop is in the front,” Renn said. “The Sentry tells me that she is well known for her quality of wares and we made a smart decision choosing to deal with her. Hopefully, your contact is here.”

“Renn?” I was feeling nervous now that we were here. “I don’t speak the language. How do you?”

He grinned. “Golds are trained in languages. It helps with negotiation.”

He turned to go, but I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Look, I’m sorry about not trusting you. Can we be friends? I think we want the same things.”

“See? I told you that you needed me!” His smile showed all his teeth. “Of course, we’ll work together. I need the things you know and you need my ability to speak the language. It’s a bonus that I’m also great company and by far the better looking of the two of us.”

Good thing he didn’t include me in that or I would have had to set him straight.

No one could out-arrogant Raolcan. I followed Renn to a narrow staircase at the side of the building. It was going to be difficult to negotiate the steps with my crutch. I slowly eased myself onto the first step, grateful when he held out a hand to me.

“You never told me how you were injured.”

Make sure to keep thinking about what’s going on so I can keep an eye on you from up here.

“It was a childhood accident.” There was something strange about the ground below. Unlike the other streets and alleys, this one was desolate. A broken basket tumbled by in the wind, but only dust followed it.

“It’s a bold move to choose to ride dragons with a bad leg. See, this is what I want for the world – opportunities for everyone. No one being left behind because they aren’t quite like anyone else.”

“It is?”

We stepped off the narrow stairs into the alley and I followed him around to the front, hobbling on my crutch to keep up.

“It’s why I chose Gold. I want to negotiate a better future for everyone. Rich, poor, skycitizen or farmer, soldier or dragon rider, girl or boy – I want to see all of us do better. You’re a great sign of what could be, you know that?”

“Most people don’t see it that way.” I liked his enthusiasm, but I was distracted. The warehouse across the street had curtains drawn against the entrance and the one further down had all the shutters barred despite the bright sunshine. Was this area abandoned? Everywhere else in the city people were fighting for elbow-room. Why would this place be different?

There was a large sign above the door of our building and the colorful shutters were wide open, though I couldn’t see anything within. On the wooden door, someone had painted a symbol so hurriedly that the paint had dripped down the door. It looked like the spiral sign of the Dusk Covenant, but where that symbol had a single diagonal line, the line going through this one was an arrow. Drag marks showed in the dust of the street, leading under the door.

“Right building!” Renn said cheerfully. “The sign says, ‘Jasmeer of the Fragrant Islands. Dealer in Saffron Honey.’”

“Renn ...” I began nervously, but he pulled the door open in one movement, flinging it back to let sunlight flood the warehouse beyond.

I gasped.

Chapter Fourteen

There had been a lot of people who worked for Jasmeer. Or at least, I assumed all these people who had been strung up in her warehouse used to work for her. Maybe they’d been killed for some other reason. I didn’t even know which one was Jasmeer. All I knew was that my only chance of making contact with someone who could help me get to Rakturan was gone. I felt an icy thrill of terror mixed with the stomach-churning horror of watching the dead treated with such disgrace.

“They left them as a warning,” Renn said. His grin was gone and his face pale. “The sign says, ‘Light followers take warning.’”

“Does it say anything else?” My voice was strangled. I was trying to keep it steady, but my eyes were tearing up. It really wasn’t right to treat people like this. They weren’t things to be left as warnings. These people had names. They’d had smiles and favorite foods and funny habits. They’d been filled with hopes and ambitions and someone took that and didn’t even have the decency to hide their evil.

I swallowed down acid. No, no, no. This wasn’t right. Why was the world like this? Why couldn’t it be different here than at home? In a strange land with strange people and creatures you’d think that maybe they could find a wisdom we didn’t have – a wisdom that made this kind of thing unthinkable, but no. They were as willing to toss people aside - like ashes from a fire – as we were. I didn’t even know them and I wanted to cry.

“It doesn’t need to say anything else,” a voice said from the shadows. The accent was so thick that I had to concentrate to understand his words. “Anyone who enters is already dead.”

Under attack!

I pressed the button on my crutch. We were under attack. Who knew how many enemies lurked in the shadows? The quarterstaff top of my crutch didn’t pop out. I tried the button again. Nothing.

Seawater. Or sea spray, more likely. It’s jammed. It needs oil.

“Renn Woelran?” the voice asked as the man stepped from the shadows. His long hair was streaked with gray and his clothing – high collared with shoulder flares, like the sentries – reminded me of Rakturan. A dozen other men and women stepped from the shadows with him. They held crossbows high, their bolts pointed at us.

“Javeen Tiksa?”

Did Renn know this man? The man nodded, but the crossbows stayed up. “But we weren’t expecting another Dragon Rider. She has no place in our negotiations.”

Wait. He was speaking our language! This was a good sign, right?

“Are these the friends you came to find, Renn?”

Renn tugged at an earlobe while the other man grinned. After a moment, he spat something on the ground and chuckled.

“Has Renn been talking about us? ‘The Secret’ is what you call us. The mirror of your Dusk Covenant.”

I paled and turned to Renn. Above us, sounds of a battle penetrated the building’s walls.

“I thought you said the Ya’kar were the mirror to our Lightbringers?”

His brow furrowed worriedly and he swallowed, but the other man broke out into laughter. “Hardly! Ha! He’s quite the talker is Renn Woelran.”

He was quite the talker and now I was the one feeling the blood rush from my face, sink through my body and make my feet feel heavy. I hadn’t trusted Renn at first, but he’s made me believe him. I’d been such a fool. No wonder he advised us not to sneak in. He knew what was waiting for us all along.

He looked like a fish standing there with his eyes wide and his mouth opening and closing. Why was he so speechless when he planned this? After all, I was the one taken by surprise. I clenched my jaw. Think, Amel, think! Find some way out of this! Renn’s expression firmed.

“Girl, you’re coming with us.” The man spat again, like he used spitting as punctuation. “The Kashran will take you and your dragon into custody for us.”

Kashran?

I think it’s the school for the Sentries and their riders. I’m barely keeping them off my back. Decide what you’re going to do quickly.

There wasn’t much choice ... or was there?

“I want to see Prince Rakturan.”

There was silence, as if someone had dropped a blanket over everything. The only sound I heard was a creak of leather as someone adjusted his positioning.

“Is that an official appeal?” He said it like a great deal of importance hung on my answer. What did I say? I didn’t know what that meant here. I should have read those books!

Say something! Make a choice!

A bead of sweat broke out on Renn’s brow, dripping down his nose and off the tip of it. His gaze held mine, but if he was trying to silently communicate with me it wasn’t working.

“Yes,” I said. An official appeal sounded like a legal thing. Legal rules protected people ... didn’t they?

“Very well. Take her and the dragon to the Kashran. I will register her appeal with the Crescent Prince. Gahmed, Rutrand. Go.”

Should I try to run? A crossbow string creaked under tension. Probably better not to. One of the men carefully lowered his crossbow and grabbed my arm and a second grabbed the other.

“I need the crutch to walk,” I said, but they kept pulling me until I fell, and their leader barked something in their own language. Their responses sounded like curses, but I was hauled to my feet and allowed to lean on my crutch as they marched me up to the roof.

Raolcan glared at them as they approached, but he was surrounded by twenty Sentries, their tentacles all waving within inches of him as they ringed him in, tiny flashes of white and blue lightning zinging from them to him. Their riders kept their faces covered with wide scarves so that their expressions were impossible to read as they sat the strange creatures. Was Raolcan hurt?

Just irritated.

And Ahummal?

Can go eat feet. He’s gone off to enjoy some saffron honey.

Just our luck.

They were a lot more welcoming the last time I was in this country.

We should have known that Renn was a traitor. And now we were trapped here in Baojang. As Gahmed prodded me back into Raolcan’s saddle and the Sentries clearly indicated that they’d be staying in the protective ring while we flew to the Kashran, the severity of our situation began to dawn on me. No one knew we were here. Our contact was hanging from the rafters in the warehouse below. Our precise location was known to no one outside Baojang and our only friend in the city was a traitor. I wished I’d never seen him or his golden friend.

That makes two of us.

Our only hope was Rakturan. But was this official appeal enough to get us to him?

And do you trust him once we get there? I remember you having reservations about the dashing prince.

What other hope did we have?

Chapter Fifteen

The similarities between the Kashran and Dragon School were shocking. The Kashran was built like a man-made cylindrical cliff. It rose to five stories high of arched doorways leading into the central building. Arch upon arch stood open and ready to receive the Sentries entering them, looking so much like dragon cotes that I almost felt we were coming home.

Not even close.

As we approached I saw young men and women – my age, and yet so foreign in their loose-fitting silks compared to my form-fitted leather – tending to their strange tentacled creatures. One of them had something that looked like a soft brush in her hand. She ran it over the tentacles, static electricity flying visibly in every direction and causing her long hair to stand out around her head like a dandelion. A young man carried a bowl of wriggling worms as long as my forearm toward a second arch.

They eat those. And for the record, I’m now officially choosing to go on a diet. I can afford to lose weight. I can’t afford the memory of slurping one of those things down.

I shuddered at the thought. Our guards led us to the rear of the Kashran where Sentry-mounted guards watched over about a dozen arches filled with flashes of light and muted booms of thunder.

Wild Sentries awaiting training. They plan to hold me here.

At least it seemed safe enough.

If you can stand the smell.

I smelled nothing, except maybe a vinegary acid smell, but it was faint.

Skies and Stars! If I only had your weakened senses now! Anything to drown out the stink of these horrible creatures.

Hopefully, I could endure my own captivity with less drama. At least here at the school, the security seemed minimal.

The instructors will be Sentry Riders just like yours were Dragon Riders. The trainees are merely inexperienced versions of the same. Far from being undefended, this school is nothing but defenders. You’ll be living in a building filled with nothing but guards. And you don’t’ speak their language. Escape is unlikely.

I was given a cot at the back of Raolcan’s alcove – which was ideal given the circumstances. We got to stay together, at least. There was a human-size door at the back that stayed shut and while I could hear voices through it easily, there was no way for me to know what they were saying. I could have leapt from the arch - four stories high – if I wanted a quick death. I could have tried to scramble to a nearby arch, but each of our neighboring arches held a wild Sentry.

Trust me. Their sting is not pleasant. It might not kill you – hard to say with humans – but it will certainly incapacitate you and then where will that leave us?

Raolcan could have flown out, but he’d be seen immediately by the Sentries on guard here, and they’d already proven they could stop him if there were enough of them.

There are enough for that.

If only I had Savette here with her truth-power. Or Shonan with his own abilities. Or Leng or Hubric or someone smarter than I was.

I don’t think intelligence will get us out of this, or I’d already have a solution.

Then I’d have to wait to find some luck. Waiting, at least, was both informative and entertaining. Raolcan and I sat side by side on the lip of the arch and watched the activity of the Kashran like spectators at a town fair. I dangled my legs over the edge. I was getting more used to heights as time wore on.

I never understood your concerns about them in the first place.

They rang gongs here instead of bells. But they resulted in the same thing. Students ran at the sound of gongs, ascending and descending the spiraling staircases they had here instead of ladders. Sentries were mounted – in somewhat less dramatic ways than dragons were – and flown around. Sometimes they flew in formation. Sometimes the students were lined up somewhere and lectured in harsh tones by lecturers. I almost wished I was one of them. Dragon School had been hard – and yet, it was easier than life since then had been. The steady rhythms and sure knowledge that someone else was in charge of things made for a very safe life.

Food was brought to us – and despite the new spices in the meat, it was tasty. I shared some with Raolcan. He kicked his bowl of worms over the edge of the arch as soon as it was set down. You could almost think it was a mistake, except that he flamed it on the way down. If he kept that up they’d likely stop giving him anything to eat at all.

That’s not something to eat. The only thing it feeds is nightmares.

And so, one day slipped into another as we sat in confinement and silence, watching the steady thrum of the Kashran. No one came to speak to us except the students who brought our food, and they didn’t speak Dominion. Raolcan could still read their thoughts, but he said there was nothing interesting there.

Nothing but the basics. Training has increased in preparation for the war. Their instructors scold them for not learning their lessons. The Sentries are difficult to tame and master. Tonight’s student is nursing electric burns down his left leg from standing too close to one.

Nothing that could help us. I’d been using oil left over from my meals to try to oil my quarterstaff, but so far it was still jammed into my crutch.

More days passed. I passed the time playing cards with Raolcan – a difficult thing to manage, but he hid the cards behind his back and slipped them one at a time to me wedged under a talon – and reading the Ibrenicus Prophecies. There was nothing in them about me, and yet I was certain there must be some key to our release, if only I could find it. But where the prophecies had been so obvious in the past, they were now as opaque as the stone walls around us.

I put down the book on the ninth day and sighed. I’d better braid my hair. It was growing longer now. You could barely tell it had ever been singed. I wasn’t going to find anything more in the book today. I should be copying one of my own, but I liked Talsan’s. I even liked his little note in the back.

“If you find this book it means I’m dead. I probably died bravely. Even if I didn’t, I hope you’ll take my advice: Things are rarely what they seem. Don’t give up hope.”

It was such an optimistic sentiment for someone who was certain he’d already be dead if anyone was reading it. I wished I was still that optimistic. I felt lethargic after so many days with nothing to do.

A clinking sound from the door sent me to my feet in a hurry. I tucked the book away and settled my crutch in time to see an official looking man with a narrow mustache and the wide shoulder flares of the guards. He had multiple cords hanging from his helmet with dozens of knots in each of them. He must be important. None of the guards had more than two.

He smiled before he spoke, and I shivered. That was not the smile of a kind man.

“You appealed your case. You have asked to see Prince Rakturan, the Dark Prince. This is true?”

“Yes,” I managed, despite the weakness in my knees and the dryness of my mouth.

“Then you shall share his fate.”

Chapter Sixteen

At least they were letting Raolcan fly on his own. Not that it was much comfort when we were surrounded on every side and above and below by about thirty Sentries. The riders on them were almost as drone-like as the Sentries, keeping their hands on the reigns at all times and their eyes on their target. The man who had given the order rode on the lead Sentry, but he didn’t bother to look back or acknowledge us in any way.

I spread my palms across Raolcan’s skin, as if I could absorb comfort through the pores. After a while, I bent over and pressed my cheek to his neck as well. Wherever they were taking us couldn’t be good, and no one knew where we were. I just held my friend, afraid it would be the last time.

His mental silence was the worst part of it all. Silence from Raolcan was never a good thing. It meant he had no clever plan to get us out of it, no advice to keep me sane, no hope to keep my spirits up. And my spirits were spiralling downward like a wounded dragon.

I’m a little out of my element.

It must burn him to admit it.

It might take some work for me to develop a plan.

That was like hopeless despair coming from anyone else.

I wonder if these worm-eaters have a gooey middle when you squish them.

That was a bit more like it.

We flew north from the Kashran, away from the city and over a small range of hills. I grew tired as the sun raged over me, almost drifting off to sleep. A feeling of stunned surprise through my link to Raolcan forced me upright again.

I swallowed. We were high in the air – high enough that I couldn’t hear the sounds of the conflict below us or see the grisly details. Did that make it better or worse? Black smoke rolled out of a line of angry red across the ground as a mass of moving black ants – no, people so far beneath us that they looked like ants – charged into another mass. Scattered across the ground tiny figures lay alone or piled in horrible berms across the landscape. I watched as a volley of tiny arrows filled the air beneath us, flattening a line of soldiers. A charge of horses and riders - like a spear through mud – plunged through one group, leaving the remains scattered like autumn leaves. Were there rivers here? I thought I saw one in the lowest part of the field, red with the blood of the fallen.

I’d never seen a war before, even from so far away. I’d seen skirmishes, but not battles like these. Not battles involving thousands of men and women. The city we left behind and the Kashran had felt so normal and unaffected, but here, just a few hours of flying away, a thousand stories were ending. They were the stories of fathers beloved to their children, of hopeful young farmers who loved to watch things grow, of someone who thought a uniform might make a man of him and someone else who had chosen to die for something he thought was worth dying for. I bet that if someone had told me those stories I’d be fascinated by every one of them.

Stories shouldn’t end all at once like someone had taken a huge set of shears and cut them off. Stories should begin like that – bursting from one point like stars rolling across the galaxy – but they shouldn’t end like that.

Crying over the deaths of the enemy?

But they didn’t feel like my enemy when they were so far below that I couldn’t hear their cries.

They would kill you if you were down there.

What were they fighting about? That was the question.

It seems it’s a civil war. One side fights for the Crescent Prince – the leader of those who have us captive. I think they are winning.

And what did that mean for us?

I’m not sure. We’re not stopping here.

We didn’t stop until long after my tears dried up. Raolcan saw our destination first.

I wish I’d thought of something sooner.

There was nothing to think of. If we’d tried to escape sooner, he would have died a slow death at the end of a Sentry’s tentacles.

That might actually be a better option...

What could he see? And then, slowly, I began to make out the details. There was a huge tear in the ground, like a dragon the size of a country had run his claw across the ground. Alongside the rent in the earth, someone had carved a symbol the size of a city -  an arrow within the center of a spiral, strange letters inscribed along both the spiral and the arrow. And at the center of the spiral was a tower with a broken top.

I shivered, but what worried me more was the dust-cloud creatures slowly seeping out of one end of the tear – Ifrits. Hundreds of them. They pooled around the spiral – as if they couldn’t enter it – and filled the empty plains surrounding the tower. Whoever owned this tower had an Ifrit army. Even if they hadn’t already been winning that massive battle, they’d be winning now.

My fingers clenched and unclenched, worrying at the edge of the saddle. I had the horrifying sensation that I was watching the minutes of my life bleed away, hour by hour, minute by minute and that there was only a handful of them left. Because since we arrived on the Dark Continent, everything that happened to us had slowly mired us deeper and deeper into a pit from which there was no escape. I wracked my brain for a prophecy, but nothing came to me. There were no wise words now from Raolcan. It was as if wisdom had been silenced and hope had shut her mouth.

Why? Why now of all times, when I needed them most?

We descended, aiming for the base of the tower and as we grew closer a thrum filled the air, as if there were voices chanting.

It’s the Ifrits. They can’t really speak, but they can make a wordless chant.

My joints felt too stiff to move, as if they were trying to make me stronger from the inside out.

This is what the Dusk Covenant wants to do to the Dominion. This is why we are here.

True. But now that we were here, what were we going to do? I wasn’t Savette. I didn’t have the power to destroy a thousand Ifrits and take on an army. I couldn’t even free us. What was I going to do?

There must be some weakness we can find ...

The buzz of the Sentries electricity joined with the thrum of the Ifrits as we landed. The leader of the Sentries turned to me with a wicked glint in his eyes.

“Welcome to Za’cazar, the Edge of the World. We’re going to see how long it takes for you to slip right off the edge.”

Chapter Seventeen

This was the part where you fought for your life. I knew that, but before I could even grab my crutch strong arms had my hands pinned behind my back. I felt Raolcan buck beneath me and felt the flash-back from a gout of fire and then he fell limp.

I was dragged from my saddle with rough haste, my bad leg bumping and smashing against Raolcan, the guards and then the ground. It was too fast for me to scream, too fast for me to react. Helpless, I was pulled across the rocks, twisting as much as I could to try to catch a glimpse of Raolcan’s face. Why was he so still? Ow! There were riderless sentries all around him, wrapping themselves across his tail, back and neck. Tiny little zaps of electricity shot out from their slender nearly-translucent tentacles as they wrapped hair-like around him.

Raolcan! Raolcan!

Amel ... His mental voice faded away.

No, no, no, no! But they were still clustered around him. He probably wasn’t dead. Didn’t he say it took a long time for them to kill a victim?

We should have fought this before. Why did I ever trust their justice systems or appeals? The Katran had lulled me. It had just felt too much like home.

A crowd of people was gathered along the lip of that gaping crack – the Edge of the World – and the grip on my arms tightened as hands reached out to touch me as I was dragged by.

“Don’t touch the prisoner. She won’t be bringing anyone good luck. Not with what Prince Lakshentan is going to do to her.”

What was he going to do to me?

There was a platform up ahead. It rose high into the air and was broad enough to fit a hundred people. They were proving it right now as they filled the space, leaning onto the railings to get enough room to breathe. A tall pole towered in the center of the platform with an arm reaching out from it and over the edge of the cliff. From the end of the arm, a rope hung, a wide, wicker basket hanging from the end of it.

The guards shoved their way through the crowd and the smell of sweat and dust met my nose as I was pushed into the opening behind me. The guards had no qualms about smacking, kicking or outright beating anyone in their path, but with the press of bodies, it was impossible for those in their path to move out of the way in time. The way that guard in the lead was setting into the crowd looked like he was cutting grass with a long knife.

I couldn’t walk on my own. They’d left my crutch with Roalcan. I leaned heavily against the guards, feeling the silence in my mind like a knife in the heart. He was gone. If not dead – don’t let him be dead! – then still not able to help. I was used to relying on him as the other half of our team.

Was that a hangman’s gallows up ahead? Did they hang Rakturan? They seemed to really like hangings around here. I tried not to dwell on the thought as they pushed me up the stairs to the platform and shoved me to my knees on the ground. How long did Raolcan have before those Sentries killed him?

I looked up when a pair of black boots with silver toes stepped in front of me. A man in majestic attire with a pointed beard and attractive laugh lines around his mouth was sneering down at me.

“This enemy appealed to Prince Rakturan,” he said loud enough for the crowd to hear. “And you all know what high regard we hold him in.”

There was laughter from the crowd. That was never a good thing. Crowds were vicious horrifying creatures with minds of their own. A single person might be a good sort who would help you out if you needed it and never think of taking advantage of you. A crowd – even one made up of that sort of people – was a creature that survived off of fear and blood. Slip just a little bit and it would spring on you and tear you to shreds.

“So, we’ve agreed to honor her request. The Prince can decide what to do with her as she joins him in his fate. She and her traitorous friend.”

I was knocked to the side as another prisoner was thrown into me. I pulled myself back to my knees and gaped in surprise. Renn Woelran had been thrown beside me, his cheeks and lower lip smashed and swollen. I didn’t want anyone else to have to suffer with me – not even a traitor like Woelran – but one maybe he’d have an idea to get us out of this fate.

“The Crescent Prince has spoken.”

Chapter Eighteen

We were dragged forward and this time the crowd parted as the wicker cage was lowered into their midst from the rope on the end of the boom. It settled down in front of us, dust puffing up as it hit the ground and stirring in the sunbeams in front of me so that they sparkled like streams of gold. The guards opened the side of the basket and forced Renn in before giving me a rough shove inside. I landed hard, scraping my palms on the rough branches that were woven into the basket as I broke my fall.

The interior was dimmer than the world outside, though the gaps in the weaving had been cleverly shaped so we could easily be seen within it and also see out in every direction, including below us.

My belly lurched uncertainly as the rope was cranked upward and the basket lifted up from the ground. I flinched. The bottom of the basket sagged under our weight, like it had never been designed to hold people. The crowd cheered as the boom swung out over the pit below and slowly began to winch over the side. We dangled above the black shadow of the end in the world.

The Crescent Prince’s voice rang out from the platform to resounding cheers all around him. “They will be lowered slowly, inch by inch until either they are taken by the Ifirits and forced to pay for their treason and espionage or until the rope breaks and they plunge to their deaths. Such a death is mercy. Be glad that I am a kind and merciful prince.”

The cheers increased, and I pulled my knee up under my chin, arranging my other leg as best as I could and settling myself in the basket. Renn crouched on the other side of me and across from us a hooded figure sat cross-legged. The basket could have fit two more people sitting like that, but the woven roof was too close to stand. There was no sign of food or water. If we survived the Ifrits and the rope didn’t break, we’d die of dehydration before too long.

“Let’s see who we have here,” Renn said, flipping the hood off the head of the other man.

I didn’t gasp because I wasn’t surprised. It was clearly Rakturan, his face beaten and his clothes and hair matted with dried blood and dirt. He wore his blindfold, but no light shone through. If he still had access to his power he would never have been captured this way.

“Rak?” I asked gently.

“Is Savette with you?” his voice was a whisper between thick, cracked lips. How long had he been in this basket?

“No. She sent me with a message. She’s still in the Dominion.”

“Light’s mercy.”

He slumped back against the basket, limp.

“There’s a war.”

It was clearly painful for him to talk, but he struggled through. “Started when I arrived. Word of my coming ignited everything. Like lightning through a dry forest. We battle the Crescent Prince. Failure will mean the everyone’s destruction.”

“It’s the Ifrits, isn’t it? They’re pulling them up from this place to subdue the whole earth under their rule.”

“Even the ones in the Dominion came from here.”

“So, if they are stopped here, then they can’t get more to fight over there?”

He nodded weakly.

“But I saw Starie call them up.”

“Already there, latent in the ground. They travel along magic streams beneath the ground – like veins of ore in the earth. But this place spawns them.”

Then this place really was the key.

“Why did they bring us here?”

He shook his head. Either he didn’t know or was too weak to say.

“Your light?”

“Gone. Gone with my last shred of hope.”

What did that mean? Why had he lost his hope?

“Baojang is shattered. My family. Our allies. Even those hidden. Gone. The last of us fight, but we have already lost. They will shred this world to ribbons and with it the last person alive who I love.”

“Savette.”

“Her life is my only hope now.” His breathing slowed as if he had fallen asleep.

She wouldn’t be alive if it hadn’t been for the dark night when Shonan and I had given her back her light. I bit my lip. Above me, the rope creaked as I pulled the tiny leather-bound book from my pocket, flipping through it as I searched for some phrase or verse that might have meaning for us now.

“You’re awfully dedicated to that book,” Renn said quietly.

“Go eat feet.” It wasn’t a very kind answer, but I didn’t have Raolcan to say it for me. I didn’t even have his voice in my mind. There was no one here but me and a dying man and a traitor. There was no Hubric with wisdom, no Savette with power, no Shonan to show us the glory of Kings. There was only this little book and me, but I’d be embarrassed if my friends ever knew that I’d died without trying. I couldn’t let them down. Not now. Not when this place was the key to everything. There had to be something in the book.

“Looking for answers?”

“What’s it to you, traitor?” Nothing. I flipped through and nothing caught my eye. Nothing seemed to be about this. Maybe if I started from the beginning again.

“It’s not actually true, you know. It’s just a book of things that might have been true at one time – sort of – at least for the people who lived through that. It kind of speaks about their experience and what they were feeling and thinking. You can’t think it’s true for here and now. It doesn’t have any answers for you.”

“Well, of course, you wouldn’t think so.” I could feel anger bubbling up. I didn’t have time for it, but there it was, like a snake sleeping in a basket until someone shakes the basket. “You’re Dusk Covenant - or Ya’kar - or whatever they call it here.”

“It was just a ruse, Amel. A way to get to them so I could try to negotiate for peace – for an end to this. They’re aligning the matrices here at Za’cazar – we’d heard rumors of it. It makes all the magic throughout the world more powerful and unpredictable and then the Ifrits began to pop up and we knew it had to be coming from whoever was aligning the matrices – the Crescent Prince, just like this Prince Rakturan said. I thought that perhaps I could come and negotiate with them. I could get in close with the Ya’kar and talk to their leaders. I didn’t expect you to get caught up in it. I didn’t know there would be an ambush there. I thought you’d just go on your way and I’d go on mine when we got to the city. When you got caught up in it ... it was too late to stop them from getting you, but I still had to try to negotiate. Peace is just too important. You have to believe me.”

“Why should I?” I wasn’t looking at him. I was intent on the Ibrenicus Prophecies.

“Would they have put me in this basket with you if it wasn’t true? They don’t want to negotiate. They just want to eliminate anyone who doesn’t agree with them.”

I looked up at him, letting my gaze wander back and forth from him to Rakturan and back. I hadn’t really trusted either of them, but here we all were ready to die for the same thing. If you couldn’t trust people willing to die for the same things as you, then who could you trust?

I swallowed and nodded as I made a decision. I didn’t have a clear prophecy to rely on. I didn’t have a dragon to get me out of this or friends with plans. I didn’t even have a plan of my own, but I was the only one that all of them had.

Raolcan needed me before the Sentries finished him off. Rakturan and Renn here in the basket needed me before we died in one grisly way or another. Savette needed me to find her the allies she needed. And if I didn’t find a way to step up and do something about this Ifrit-manufacturing-hole-in-the-ground, then there was no one else who could. I gritted my teeth. Time for a last-ditch gamble.

I cleared my throat and handed Renn the book. “I don’t care if you don’t believe a word of it. You’re going to start at the beginning and read it aloud until either I tell you to stop or we get out of this basket. Don’t pause and don’t stop. I have a world to save here.”

It was a bold speech. I didn’t dare to question whether I could back it up.

Chapter Nineteen

The basket swayed beneath us as I shifted to shake Rakturan.

“Wake up, Rak.”

Nothing.

“I think he’s passed out. If you’re going to do something, you’d better do it now.” Renn was peering through the wall of the basket.

“Do you see anything out there?”

“Just people chanting for our deaths and dust demons pouring out of the ground. I think that if the matrices could be somehow thrown back out of line it could stop them – collapse whatever vortex is letting the Prince pull them up from the heart of the earth, but I don’t know how that would work. Pity we don’t have a Magika with us.”

If we did, they likely wouldn’t be on our side. In my experience, Magikas – like most people with more resources than the rest – liked power more than they liked doing what was right.

“You seem to know a lot about how the magic works, Renn.”

“I’m interested in that kind of stuff. You know, philosophy, Lightbringer prophecies, Magic – anything supernatural really.”

“But you don’t really believe in any of it.”

“Not really. It’s good to believe things – good for society, but I’m just not easily led. I think for myself.”

“Then why join the Lightbringers – if that’s even true.”

“Oh, I joined. That’s all true.” He was staring out the wall of the basket. “I’m just not a fanatic like you or Talsan. It’s not worth believing a book or dying over. I thought it would be good for society – help level things out and bring opportunities to people who are at the bottom of the heap, you know? I still do.”

“Okay, Free Thinker. Start reading.” I wiped my palms on my pants. They were sweaty already and shaking a little as I took Rakturan’s hand in mine. I didn’t’ know if I needed to do this part, but it’s what I did with Shonan.

What had he told me to do last time? He told me to focus on the truth of who Savette was and to remain open, that he’d do the rest. Great. What was the rest?

I focused on Rakturan as the familiar words were read by Renn’s unfamiliar tongue. He stumbled over one and then another, but I was growing so used to the text that the words came to mind as if I was the one reading them. He hadn’t started at the beginning. He’d just opened it at random and begun to read.

“In this, victory will begin to grow like the first sprout of a mighty oak

And our hopes, bright as the dawn will rise over the horizon of our hearts.

And the people will be free of terror and the nations of uproar,

when the Chosen One brings truth to the heart of the Dominion,

when the dominion of darkness comes to an end.”

Great. It was so clearly about Savette and so clearly not about Rak. I really needed something that could be true for us here and now. I needed that healing power to restore what he’d lost. Maybe Savette was the hope for our people, but wasn’t Rak the hope for his?

“And behold the light dawns in the East,

For the calming of the wild sea.”

When we’d flown over that battle it had looked like waves breaking on the rocks. I wanted to see that calmed here in the east. I wanted to see Rakturan’s light return and dawn on this place. I thought of him – leaving everything out of pure devotion to Savette, willing to give his own life. I’d always found the why behind it confusing, but what if it was always just what it had seemed like? A man suddenly converted to a new way of seeing things, utterly devoted to the one he believed was bringing it all to fullness?

I concentrated on that thought of him, holding him bright and steady in my mind. My hands clasped around his were slick with sweat and the basket rocked unnervingly beneath us, lowering with a sudden jerk before pausing again. The light was turning golden as sunset approached.

“For the light shines where it wills and heals what it wills.

Truth is not determined by man nor made true by faith.

Like a rock, it stands unmoved through the ages.”

And that was it, wasn’t it? The truth was what mattered. It was just as real now as it was when Shonan and Savette were there. It didn’t matter that I had no power in me. It didn’t matter that I was just a single Dragon Rider in a foreign land. The power of the Truth could still shine here. I focused on that, like a pinprick of light in the dark, pouring all my own hopes and deep longings into it and trying to channel them into Rakturan.

I ignored the jerking of the basket, the orange of the fading sun against my closed eyelids, the way that Renn’s words eventually faltered as the light began to fade and focused only on the truth of the prophecies and what they meant for the world.

It was never meant to end here.

It was never meant to end with Rakturan dying of dehydration in a basket while dust demons poured out over the world.

I thought about those matrices lined up just right. If they could be aligned, they could be unaligned. I heard a scream from above, but I ignored it. I had to focus. I had to try to lean deep into the truth and let it put everything right again.

I didn’t really know what I was doing. It was like feeling in the dark, but the desperation inside me met with the faith that had slowly grown up in my core and as they met they twined around each other and the words of the prophecy came to my mind.

“For in the day of darkness the Chosen One will find hope in our hearts, and from hope truth, and from truth, light that opens doors.”

“Whatever you’re trying to do isn’t working,” Renn said, but his voice felt far away. “We’re just getting lower, Amel. And we’re not the only ones. There are others being lowered in baskets, too.”

Come on doors, open to me! Open! I wasn’t the Chosen One, but maybe – just for this – I could be a Chosen One.

I didn’t know how long this was taking, but Renn was cursing in the background and the air – hot before – had grown cold, my sweaty palms and brow turned clammy. Every so often there was another jerk as the basket lowered.

“Behold, behold in the dark of the night,

Surrounded and harried to flight,

Up from the ground through the earth’s veins

Light of light and he who reigns

Dawn of hope through mercy of the past

Arriving to shine over us at last.”

Wasn’t there something here from the past that could come up and help us? Come on!

Maybe it was because I wasn’t Savette that nothing was coming. Maybe because I wasn’t Shonan. Maybe normal girls didn’t get to touch the infinite. Maybe they just had to be content to live on the scraps of leftovers from other people – but even a scrap of the power of Truth would be enough now.

Please, just a scrap! Please!

“Just give up,” Renn was whispering. “It doesn’t work. It’s just silly words that never applied to us anyway.”

I think I was reciting them out loud now.

“Surrounded on every side, not overcome,

Light battles the depths, commands armies come,

Her battle not with mortal man, but earth and fire

Ancient ally returns in battle dire.”

I sounded feverish, but I wouldn’t give up, I wouldn’t. I couldn’t let myself die just sitting there and not even trying. Wasn’t there a little magic left for people like me? Just a scrap of Truth for people who came with open hands and desperation?

I kept on quoting, my voice growing weak as my dry mouth and aching heart grew heavier and heavier.

“Ancient ally returns in battle dire

For the love of the one with empty hands and a full heart.

For Truth is never far off. It is in your core and on your tongue.

It blows where it wills and flares when it must.”

And then something flared in me.

Chapter Twenty

Light.

So much light that I could hardly see. I could feel a presence – an ally of some kind from below. I let my heart lean toward it. I sensed a greeting and a promise rolled into one. Also, a reminder.

Oh yes. Rakuran. With a smile, I turned to him and focused on his eyes. They flared to life, a small light in the midst of the glorious one that filled my vision. Renn huddled against the side of the basket, his arms wrapped around his face as if to block the light. Curses rolled from his tongue, but I had no time to think about that. It was hard to concentrate with so much roaring through my mind – like trying to listen to a voice when standing beside a waterfall. I let the roar fill me.

Our basket rocked and swayed – this time upward – until it settled on something that felt solid. I stepped forward, extending a hand and letting the light of Truth open the wall. After all, we were never meant to be hanging over a chasm in a basket.

It all felt so ... certain ... even though I’d never known it was coming. I felt – not calm, but just so assured that what was right was finally happening.

“Come on, Renn,” I said, offering him a hand.

Rakturan was already on his feet, stepping out of the basket, his eyes bright with restored hope and the bright light Savette had given him back at last. It was as if all the exhaustion and hopelessness had dropped away and he could hold his head high again.

Renn shrunk back. “Your eyes!”

I reached up to feel them, but they felt the same. It wasn’t hard to remember how I’d felt when it had happened to Savette, though – I’d probably looked just like he did.

“You’ll get used to it,” I said but I didn’t have time to wait for him. I left the basket and stepped out onto the platform.

Around me, screaming people fled in all directions. Ifrits - rushing in swirling clouds – were already passing them as they fled mindlessly away from the tear in the ground that birthed them. I smiled as I saw the source of their terror.

All along the lip of the chasm, slow-moving creatures, like dragons without wings - but with transparent skin and lit from within by an eerie aqua-white glow – pulled themselves up over the lip of the chasm. Most of them bore the ropes of baskets in their mouths. I turned to see the creature who had rescued us. He watched with patient eyes.

I bowed and felt a strong sense of kinship.

Now, Raolcan.

I found him almost immediately, stiff across the ground, the Sentries clinging to him like barnacles. I flicked my hands up and they flew off like dry leaves in the wind. I watched them tumble across the ground quickly, yet so slowly I could see every wave of every tentacle.

Renn was behind me saying something. It was hard to focus on what it was. The thoughts and realization still roared through me – understanding of the Truth of the core of everything, mental communication from the glowing dragon-creatures, the spirits of the freed people crawling out of baskets, and the fleeing enemies in the dark beyond. Maybe this was why Savette was so distant. Maybe she felt like this all the time.

I’d hardly even noticed that I was walking just fine – and with no crutch. It was only a distant thing that barely registered.

Rakturan was shouting orders from somewhere, but I ignored him, leaning down over my fallen dragon.

His eyes were closed, but I still smiled, certain of what was coming next. I laid my hands gently on his head and remembered his wholeness and his bright beautiful core. My eyes flared and his opened a fraction of a second later.

I see you’ve managed to get some bright eyes. About time. Everyone else had them. I didn’t want to mention it, but you were starting to look a bit shabby. Incidentally, can you think about rescuing me before twenty creatures digest me to death next time?

He was beautiful. He was whole. He was Raolcan.

I was worried for a moment there.

I took a step back, letting the panorama sink in. The glowing dragons had formed a ring around Rakturan.

They’re Trogs – troglodytes from the very core of the earth. He shivered, awe filling his tone. Remember how I mentioned them before? I’ve never seen one above the ground. I’m not sure whether I should be hopeful or scandalized that they’re here.

It was starting to become easier to think.

Incidentally, I’m relieved that you’re safe – even with the eyes. I didn’t get a chance to say...

To say what?

... that I love you.

And I loved him, too. I threw an arm around his neck just as my leg suddenly crumpled under me.

Ummm, Amel?

“Hmmm?”

I think maybe you should get your crutch. It’s still in my saddle.

But I could walk now.

Your eyes are fading.

He was right. My thoughts were growing simpler ... clearer ... and it was getting more difficult to see in the dark, though the Trogs and Rakturan were still glowing from their place on the cliffs. I felt a flash of disappointment. Why did I always lose these amazing gifts almost as soon as I got them?

On the contrary. Power is meant to be spent for good.

I smiled and hugged him tighter. In a moment I’d need to finally listen to whatever Renn was going on about behind me. In a moment I’d need to see what Rakturan said we were doing next. But for now? For now, I was just going to enjoy the fact that for a few moments I had been a Chosen One and because of that my best friend was still here to hug.

Read more of Amel’s Story in Dragon School: Ancient Allies

Behind the Scenes:

USA Today bestselling author, Sarah K. L. Wilson, hails from the rocky Canadian Shield in Northern Ontario where she lives with her husband and two small boys. Her interests include the outdoors, history, and philosophy. Her books are always about fantastical adventures in other worlds.

Sarah would like to thank Harold Trammel, Eugenia Kollia, and Sarah Brown for their incredible work in beta reading and proofreading this book. Without their big hearts and passion for stories, this book would not be the same.

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Visit Sarah’s website for a complete list of available titles.

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Dragon School Reading Order:

Dragon School: First Flight

Dragon School: Initiate

Dragon School: The Dark Prince

Dragon School: The Ruby Isles

Dragon School: Sworn

Dragon School: Dusk Covenant

Dragon School: First Message

Dragon School: Warring Promises

Dragon School: Prince of Dragons

Dragon School: Dark Night

Dragon School: Bright Hopes

Dragon School: Mark of Loyalty

Dragon School: Dire Quest

Find them all on their Amazon series page.

Why Novellas?

I love watching television series. I don’t really like movies, because they’re simply too short of a story arc for me. I prefer long, drawn out stories in smaller, bite-sized episodes. Dragon School is my book version of the television dramas that I love. I’m writing the type of series I want to read – long and rich but with short episodes I can read in a single evening. I hope that you’ll enjoy this format as much as I do. I am planning approximately twenty episodes for the first season. The first season will be a complete, self-contained story. There is a second season planned for 2019 that will continue in the same world and timeline with a new main character and dragon. Stay tuned!

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Behind the Scenes: