Dragon School: Pipe of Wings

Dragon School, Volume 15

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: PIPE OF WINGS

First edition. July 17, 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

Behind the Scenes:

For my readers who struggle with daily pain.

Chapter One

I looked down at the instrument – a pipe? - in Jalla’s shaking hand and up at the empty spot where Ifrits had been descending on us like an avalanche only moments before.

I had blown a single note. I hadn’t even known what it would do and now the Ifrits were gone. The humans who had supported them were backing up slowly, conscious that they were now outnumbered.

I could still feel the Pipe in my hand as if I were the one holding it, still feel it on my lips as it had been only a moment before. But Jalla was the one holding it above her head, a triumphant look filling her face as her long curly hair swirled in the breeze. Around us, cheers broke out.

“Praise to Jalla,” Prince Gahteen yelled, pride in his eyes.  “War Leader of all Baojang, bearer of the Pipe of Wings and Champion of the Kah’deem!”

From around us cries rose up, “Praise to Jalla! Praise!”

Skies and stars! Rein in the dragons! It wasn’t Jalla who opened the Kah’deem and took the Artifact! That was Rakturan and me! I was the one who snatched it up and blew it. I was the one who suffered. Look at my hand!

I was worried this might be the case.

I thought that if I won, that I might also win my freedom. How could Jalla keep a person as a slave who had saved them all? I stumbled over to Raolcan. He was steadily watching the fleeing men of the Crescent Prince, like a cat watching a mouse scurry away. There were no Ifrits with them and some of the men at the back of the bowl had saddled up horses and were already chasing them as they fled.

The thing about slavery in Baojang is that anything good you do will be credited to your master – Jalla.

If I’d known that, I would have done things differently.

Would you? You were trying to save your friends – including Rakturan.

Where was Rakturan?

Look behind you?

I strained to look past the cheering, dancing crowd as they lifted Jalla up on their shoulders. Someone had set a pallet against the rock cliff and Rakturan was draped across it, still unconscious. He could wait a moment.

I hobbled to where the Crescent Prince lay beneath the Kah’deem. It wasn’t as impressive now that it had been opened. The magic was gone with the artifact and my eyes had no problem looking at the cage that once repelled my gaze.

He was breathing. I knelt down before him and checked him over. His head bled freely from a wound and he wasn’t conscious. A pair of men pushed past me, heaving him up in the air and carrying him away, but I couldn’t stop watching him as he was swallowed by the crowd. They were sweeping us all away now that victory was achieved – both victors and defeated.

You’re in shock. Go sit down somewhere.

What was Raolcan going to do if I sat down somewhere?

Enkenay and I want to make a sweep to be sure they’ve all left.

I didn’t even know what happened to the Ifrits.

You blew them away with that pipe – like a dream that disappears in the morning.

But how?

I’m not sure... There were wings – like a million dragonflies flew past. But they only took the Ifrits. I blinked, and it was over. I’m not sure what to think of it. This Pipe is not in dragon legend.

I wasn’t sure what to make of it, either. It was all as unreal as a dream. I stumbled to Rakturan’s cot and sat down on the edge of it.

We’ll be back soon.

I did feel shocked. My hand hurt. I looked down to see it was lacerated and bleeding. The thought of gripping anything with it made me wince. I salvaged a strip of cloth on the pallet for a bandage and wound it carefully around my palm.

It was morning, but I hadn’t slept all night. The battle was over, but I felt like victory had been snatched from my hands. Almost automatically, I found water, wet a cloth, and dabbed Rakturan’s forehead. Jalla had bandaged his hand, but his face was battered from his fall and dirty smears streaked his face. Cleaning was a good idea. Good for him and good for me.

My hand shook more than I’d expected it to as I cleaned his face.

You’re in shock. You need rest. See if there is any tea at the fire there. You need something to eat and drink.

I hobbled over to the fire and poured tea, sipping it slowly. I felt so tired that it was hard to think. I couldn’t even be upset when they finished carrying Jalla around and formed a long line, so they could take turns swearing loyalty to her. I sat down beside Rakturan, leaning my back against the rock wall and slowly sipping my tea.

In the camp, they were slaughtering an animal and building a fire. They would feast soon, despite the early hour.

No signs of hidden enemies. We are safe for tonight.

I watched someone open a crate of pigeons. They flew out in a burst, the light of the morning sun catching the edges of their feathers as they flew out in all directions. I smiled. Flying felt so good. They must be happy to be free.

By nightfall, all of Baojang will know what happened here. Those pigeons aren’t really free. They fly to serve a purpose ... just like us.

I needed Raolcan. I needed a safe place to close my eyes and ...

I set the mug down beside me. My eyelids were heavy. Just one moment to rest. I closed my eyes.

Sleep carried me away.

Chapter Two

I woke, rubbing my eyes blearily. Pain shot through my hand.

Awake?

I had fallen asleep on the rock beside the pallet Rakturan had been lying on - but now Rakturan was gone, the blankets rumpled and empty. Raolcan’s back was to me, the end of his tail flicking back and forth.

“I’m awake.” Where was Rakturan? Was he safe?

He woke a few hours ago and Jalla called him to her Council. She named him her Kadesh – Right Hand War Leader. That’s like a second in command.

And he was fine with that? After everything? He basically had what he earned stolen from him!

He doesn’t see it that way. He thinks like everyone here in Baojang does. They have a strange code of honor based on years of tradition and careful negotiation. It’s not even written anywhere, people just learn it from growing up in it. Even reading minds, it’s hard for me to grasp all the nuances.

I thought Purples didn’t like listening in on people’s minds unless it was “their” person.

There was a feeling of chagrin through our mental link. I stood up, awkwardly, my leg stiff and painful from lying on the rock. I eased up on my crutch, shifting my weight until it fit right and cinching the strap before hobbling out to join Raolcan in what he was doing.

The thing is...  he began awkwardly. I tousled my hair and tied my scarves again, limping to where his head was so that I could see him while we spoke. ...the thing is, I’ve grown a little too used to humans. I find myself dipping into their minds by accident.

You do? I was stunned. I followed his gaze jumping backward when I realized the area in front of him was completely filled with Sentries, their riders nowhere to be seen.

I’ve grown tame. He flamed, blasting the closest Sentry, which yelped, zooming away to the other side of the make-shift corral. Someone had set up a net around it. On the other side, Enkenay was grinning, his jaw pressed flat to the rock floor so he could watch the Sentries.

He called that tame?

Yes. It is a shame to all dragons everywhere that I accommodate humans so much. You won’t mention it to anyone, will you? That Enkenay knows is bad enough ...

I laughed. He’d just flamed a Sentry for no reason and he called himself tame? I rested a hand on his snout.

“Your secret is safe with me.”

“Secret?” I hadn’t heard Jalla sneak up. When I turned, she was standing behind me with her hands on her hips. I didn’t like that look. With her shoulders thrown back and her head held high, she looked like the Great Leader she was. I swallowed.

“Raolcan thinks the Sentries would taste good.”

Nice cover. It has the added benefit of being true. They smell like fish. I love a good salmon, roasted to perfection a second before eating it ... or raw. Really, I’m an easy dragon to get along with.

Jalla laughed. “Tell him to leave them alone. They are your allies now.”

“My allies?” My eyebrows rose.

“I heard what you told me at the Kah’deem.”

I thought hard. What had I said? I couldn’t remember.

“Don’t play coy now,” Jalla said. “When you grabbed that handle instead of me, you told me – loud and clear – that you would die to keep me safe, that you would sacrifice yourself for my fame and honor. I heard you, Amel. I honor your loyalty. You shall be my X’erac.”

“What is an X’erac?”

“My Wing. You will carry me everywhere I need to go and you will be ranked higher than all other flying things in my army – dragons, Sentries, anything else that flies.”

“Mosquitos?” I quipped.

“If we find a way to organize them, then yes.”

Didn’t she know a joke when she heard one? “I need to get back to my land. Savette needs me.”

“Don’t worry. We’re already headed there,” Jalla said. She was holding the Pipe of Wings in her hand, twiddling it back and forth as if she were nervous about something. “First, we will gather at A’beranza so that all the Princes may pay homage. Then we will move to the Dominion and fight back the Ifrits as your Dark Prince promised the Troglodytes. After that, we’ll conquer the Dominion for Baojang. Everyone wins!”

My mouth fell open. “You can’t!”

Her eyes narrowed. “Then you underestimate my capabilities. Don’t make me take back your new role, X’erac. There are other ways to live as my slave. I require someone to lick my boots clean. Would you like that role?”

I gritted my teeth and shook my head.

“And with that useless leg, you can’t march anywhere. As the X’erac you won't have to. I will fly everywhere on the back of your dragon. I’ve taken a liking to him. Oh, and you’ll be happy to hear that the Gold Dragon Rider has recovered and will be joining us on the journey. Though he won’t have your prestigious role as my personal mount’s driver.” She smiled widely. “Eat something. We leave in an hour!”

I watched her go, energy sizzling in her every movement. Around her people came with questions and left with orders. It was easy to see why she was accepted as their leader – if you assumed all the nonsense of getting any honor your slave won was acceptable, that is. What worried me was that she was a force to be reckoned with, she was widely regarded as my owner, and she meant to invade my land and subjugate it. Whenever I thought things couldn’t get more complicated, they did.

Welcome to life. It’s a wild ride but it’s better than the alternative.

Chapter Three

It wasn’t until the third day of travel that I managed to catch Rakturan alone. Every moment from dawn to dusk had been filled with Jalla – transporting her, carrying her things, helping to set up her tent and prepare her food and “polishing” Raolcan’s scales.

“I want him to shine,” she said. “He is the mount of a Prince of Baojang.”

“Aren’t you a Princess?”

She sniffed “I was a Princess, but that doesn’t sound tough enough for the War Leader of all Baojang. I have ordered my followers to address me as Jalla, the Winged Prince.”

My eyebrows rose before I could stop them.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Jalla said. “The Pipe of Wings is mine and it is the symbol of my authority. Best to use it, don’t you think?”

“Have you tried to use it again?”

She flushed and left in a hurry. She’d been trying to use it when no one was looking. I’d seen her doing it. I still wasn’t sure exactly how it worked, but I knew one thing – it didn’t work for Jalla.

Even at dusk, when Jalla was finally out of my hair for a few hours, she was meeting with her war leaders – and that included Rakturan. Which had made it hard to find a chance to see him. It was only now, as I gathered water at a tiny spring that poured from a rock in the desert that I finally caught him alone.

He was retying his blindfold. His eyes were brighter than ever. I probably should have asked him how he was – or awkwardly tried to find out if he had endured the same horrors I had in the Kah’deem’s trial – but I was worried about being interrupted. What if I lost my chance to talk to him?

“How are we going to get Jalla to support Savette instead of chasing her own agenda?” I asked, abruptly. I finished filling the first waterskin and grabbed a second. I wanted to be sure no one suspected I was having a conversation with Rakturan and our waterskins always needed refilling. Except for Jalla and her wine, people drank water here constantly. There was something about the desert that made the water taste so much better.

Rakturan frowned. “Jalla is the Winged Prince. All of Baojang kneels to her authority. It’s not for us to question her.”

I made a tsking sound behind my teeth. “That doesn’t sound like you, Rakturan.”

He grabbed my forearm, getting my attention. I wished I could see his eyes, but the lines on his face were pronounced with the tension behind them.

“I didn’t beat the Kah’deem and Jalla did. That means I serve her, Amel.”

“She didn’t beat it either,” I hissed. “I did.”

He swallowed. “I didn’t know that.”

“She claimed it because I am her slave.”

He looked away. He knew as well as I did that I was in this position because of him.

“Which means that it’s up to you as her second in command to find a way to convince her to support your wife, not invade and destroy the Dominion,” I said. I looked around worriedly. I didn’t see anyone listening, but that was the problem with eavesdroppers – you never saw them.

Rakturan’s voice was rough when he spoke. “She could support Savette and help her and still take the Dominion in the end. We are sworn to destroy the Ifrits and Savette is the Chosen One – an enemy to Ifrits. The goals are the same. Who owns a piece of land means very little compared to that goal.”

“That piece of land is my home!”

“So what? As Jalla’s personal Dragon Rider you have a position of power. You can live happily in your home under her rule. You’ll be fine and the Dominion might be better with a code of honor brought to them. I have to go.” He glanced around just as I had. “You should know Savette is still my heart and my life. But now I am also loyal to my cousin, Jalla, the Winged Prince. You should be, too. It is a matter of honor.”

But I was not loyal to Jalla. I was loyal to Shonan. I’d made promises to him and I meant them. Maybe Rakturan was just saying those things for the benefit of anyone who might be listening.

Or maybe he is from a different culture than yours. Maybe loyalty and honor look different to him than they do to you.

I ground my teeth.

You shouldn’t do that. It will give you jaw problems. You don’t want to be forced to eat gruel for the rest of your life, do you?

I didn’t care what I ate. I cared about the Dominion. Freeing the land of Ifrits wouldn’t be much of a relief if I was handing it over to Jalla.

I like Jalla. That doesn’t mean I think she should get everything she wants.

I began the long, dusty walk back to camp, juggling the waterskins and my crutch while trying to avoid pressure on my injured hand. Doing things with only one leg and one hand was harder than it looked.

There was a line of caravans snaking to Jalla’s pavilion. As we traveled, local dignitaries congregated anywhere we stopped to pay her their respects. She had already appointed authorities and tax-gatherers at every stop we’d made. I was surprised no one had tried to kill her yet. In my experience, people didn’t like having their money taken.

People like to think they are a part of something important. Maybe they live small lives and their dreams never come true, but if they can just get close to someone who is living her dream – who is everything they wish they could be – well, it makes them feel like they’ve achieved something by proximity. They forget these people are at their very best only people – with all the flaws and aches that come with that. And yes, they will pay for the privilege of that proximity. It’s worth it in their minds.

Were dragons ever so stupid?

Have I mentioned that Ahummal is driving me crazy? Just keeping him from flying off and flaming a caravan is taking all that Enkenay and I can manage. Have you checked on Renn lately?

I hadn’t. Supposedly, he had recovered fully and was in the caravan, but I’d been avoiding him. I’d been avoiding everyone. Jalla kept me busy enough that I didn’t even need to work at it.

As if thinking about him called him into being, Renn stepped out from behind a rock on the trail in front of me. He leaned against it, waiting as I slowly limped to his spot on the path.

“Can I help you with that water?” he asked, eyeing the four heavy waterskins slung over my shoulder.

“I’m fine, thanks,” I said tersely. “Just don’t touch anything that looks strange. I don’t want to be made a slave twice because of you.”

He chuckled. “Wow, you are bitter! I would have thought you’d be excited. You’ve been granted one of the highest political positions in all of Baojang, rubbing shoulder to shoulder with the Winged Prince!”

“Are you fully recovered, Renn? You looked pretty beat up back there.”

“Fit as a fiddle!” He straightened up, squaring his shoulders as proof.

My hand shot out and shoved him. If he was fine, he could take a little roughing up.

“Hey! What was that for?!”

“If it wasn’t for you, I could fly where I wanted! I wouldn’t be a slave right now.”

He laughed – again! As if that was okay.

I told you he’s only a pretty face...

“At least tell me she made you a slave, too,” I said. Maybe he was just better at handling difficulty than I was.

“No, she made me her cultural advisor. I’ve been meeting the greatest people. I love the way of life here! Did you know that they’re bringing it to the Dominion? Everyone will get to enjoy this kind of freedom.”

“Freedom?” What was he talking about?

“In Baojang no one is limited to the challenge of a meritocracy.”

“What does that mean?”

“They don’t have to constantly earn their places! It’s so freeing! Positions are granted by the favor of the Princes, so it has nothing to do with who works the hardest or has accumulated some sort of social stance based on unfair physical and mental attributes. You should appreciate that with your leg. Would a Dragon Rider with one leg be the highest Dragon Rider in the Dominion? I doubt it! But here you are – the X’erac! Everything is based on their honor system and honor is granted equally to all. It’s really wonderful. Jalla is letting me devise a way to bring the Dominion under the honor structures.”

I gasped. “You know her plans for the Dominion?”

“And I couldn’t agree with her more. She’s so fierce! I love it.”

My mouth was still hanging open when we reached the camp and parted ways, but the shock of his treason reverberated through me for the rest of the day.

And yet, by Dominion standards, your loyalty to Shonan over Iskaris is just as treasonous.

But unlike Renn, I was right.

Chapter Four

As we reached A’beranza, the pomp of the ever-growing caravan grew to proportions I had never dreamed possible. By night, feasting filled the caravan and soldiers were added by the hundred to the army that marched West. Eastern tribes sent pigeons saying they were following and hoping for the chance to pledge to Jalla when finally they reached A’beranza. The entire nation was swept with a sort of almost-fanatical devotion to their leader that took me by surprise.

Well, they have been waiting for her for hundreds of years, Raolcan reminded me when I pondered why a nation of warriors – capable and fierce - would be so willing to throw their authority under Jalla when she was nothing more than a common tribe sub-leader in their society. She is their Chosen One just as Savette is ours.

I briefly considered finding a second Kah’deem and opening that, but I doubted that would give me freedom. Jalla would just take anything I found inside and the price to open them was much too steep. Never again.

By day, I flew Jalla over the rocky scenery and played cards with her on mountaintops when she was bored. At least cards were easy on my healing hand. I was still favoring it as the deep wounds healed.

“You’re actually getting good, Amel, though you should win less often. It’s irritating to lose to you,” Jalla said on the last day of the journey when A’beranza was in sight.

“Not as irritating as it is to serve you,” I replied, taking the trick. I’d started to weave in the language of the cards to see if she noticed, but she said nothing, so it was possible that they didn’t play that way in Baojang.

“Renn Woelran seems to like serving me,” Jalla said with a smile. “I plan to appoint him war leader over one of the provinces of the Dominion when those lands belong to me.”

I dropped the cards, my hands suddenly awkward as rage burned through me. She was far too casual in how she spoke about taking my land and country for herself.

I never suspected that you loved the Dominion so much.

And if I was being honest with myself, I hadn’t suspected either. I knew I loved Raolcan and my friends, but it had taken this experience of being in a strange place among people so different from me to teach me what I loved about home. The Dominion was my home. Maybe I wasn’t important to the Dominion – I was just a Dragon Rider trainee, and only one among many – but it turned out that the Dominion was important to me.

“And Amel,” Jalla said with a tone of warning in her voice. “I gave you this esteemed role. I can just as quickly take it away.”

And that was the thing with Renn’s beloved system of Baojang. If my place was granted to me by someone else and not something that I could earn or win or work for, then it could be snatched away just as quickly. That would be fine if it was someone I trusted granting me this – Hubric or Raolcan, but with a leader like Jalla? Maybe I started with a disadvantage, but that didn’t mean I wanted what I’d fought for taken from me on a whim anymore than I wanted things just handed to me that I hadn’t had to build for myself. I just wasn’t wired that way.

I took a sip from the waterskin as I considered her words. I’d drained most of it over the course of the afternoon, though Jalla was sticking to wine as usual.

“I’ll remember that, Jalla,” I said, dealing the cards. Ironically, she had become my only friend here other than Raolcan and Enkenay. Renn made me sick and Rakturan’s betrayal stung every time I laid eyes on him. The hurt of it made me draw back from them. At least Jalla was barefaced about her Jalla-centered view of the world. At least she didn’t try to pretend she was something more than that. I didn’t feel the same hurt being near her. But with everyone else my hurt led to bitterness and bitterness to isolation until some days, despite traveling with over five thousand soldiers, retainers and servants, I felt like the only person on this dusty trail.

“Good, because I have a mission for you,” Jalla said, rearranging the cards in her hand. “When we arrive in A’beranza, I will have many official meetings, including the Great Ceremony of the Ancestors to install me as the head of Baojang. I will be busy. But, as soon as all the ceremonies are finished, we will march on the Dominion. And you know how quickly I can get people moving. It will be days, not weeks before we embark. I want you to fly on ahead and scout for me. You will find another Dragon Rider and return to me with him or her. I will need more than one of you to help deliver messages back and forth to my armies.”

“You expect me to spy on my own people? And then trick someone into following me here?”

“Trick, kidnap, convince – you decide how to do it. I can’t do everything for you.”

“I would never do that!”

“Not willingly,” Jalla said, handing me the waterskin. I drank again, grateful for the water in the heat of the afternoon. “Despite your willingness to die for me, you still have a strange obsession with your former home. But that water you’ve been drinking is Baojang water and it contains Silla. Don’t ask me what it is – a mineral maybe? Or a spice? It’s in all our water and it’s very addictive. Have you noticed how good it tastes? You’ll crave it when you leave, and because of that, I know you will return to me. And you’ll do what I ask because I know you – despite all these protests, your loyalty has already been confirmed.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said. “Rakturan lived in our lands for weeks without those effects.”

“He brought water from home with him. All of us do. And we can go for a while without it – just not forever. You will see.”

“He didn’t have it when we were traveling together.”

“You mean after his eyes were changed? I think that changed something in him. Maybe it took away the addiction. I don’t need you to trust me, Amel. It’s true whether you believe me or not. And because it is true, you will never leave me.”

Chapter Five

I stewed on Jalla’s threats as we approached A’beranza. I needed to get Rakturan or Renn alone to ask them if these things were really true. Raolcan didn’t know.

It seems unlikely – but this is a land of secrets.

But he’d traveled there before and didn’t show signs of addiction.

Drugs of any kind don’t work on dragons. We burn off toxins.

Which actually made a lot of sense. Only, that wouldn’t work for me. If she was right, then I really was stuck with her. That didn’t mean I needed to bring someone here against their will.

But you will need to find someone to bring here. Perhaps you can find a volunteer – someone willing to work with you to preserve the Dominion. Someone trustworthy ...

He sounded like he had someone in mind.

I can think of a great candidate. I’m just not sure if we can find her – and you won’t like it.

I didn’t know enough Dragon Riders to have opinions on most of them.

“You’d better fly faster,” Jalla counseled from behind me. “We need to enter the city at the same time as the caravan. You will fly me to the steps of the Cha’leef – the palace at the top of the hill – and then you will immediately depart on your journey. I have already ordered a division of Sentries to escort you to the city wall. You will speak to no one about your mission – especially not my other councilors or War Leaders. This mission must be kept a secret.”

She’d thought of everything! It would be impossible to get confirmation from Rakturan or Renn if I couldn’t speak to them! Unless Raolcan could read it in her thoughts...

I can only read what she is thinking. She’s certain you will obey, but she shows no hint as to whether the threat is real.

Maybe if I dug a little. “I have no funds. I’ll need coin for a journey like that. And if I’m going to return I’ll need to be recognized by the guards.”

“I’ll give orders to receive you if you return with another Dragon Rider. And yes, you will need funds.” I heard a clink and then she shoved a silk bag in front of me. I took it awkwardly. “Don’t open it now. The coins are gold and it would be a shame to lose any. Don’t fail me in this, Amel. But of course, you won’t. That has already been proven.”

She put far too much confidence in her own interpretations of my actions. With a frown, I tucked the gold away. I would need it. And I would need a plan. Maybe we could take Raolcan’s suggestion and find someone willing to return who would undermine Jalla’s plans for the Dominion.

“If it takes you more than a day or two, we will be following. Meet up with us on the road when you’ve accomplished your mission.”

“Do you really think you can muster an army and start marching in just a few days?” I asked. “That sounds unreasonable.”

“I am Jalla, the Winged Prince. The people of Baojng stand ready for my decree. I don’t plan on being reasonable.”

Clearly. I supposed that in Jalla-language she’d already told me she wasn’t reasonable by taking me as a slave and then taking my victory from me. That’s how this worked, right? I heard a whistling sound and turned to make sure it wasn’t some baggage flying loose. It was only Jalla – still trying to make the Pipe of Winds work for her. She scowled at me and shoved it guiltily into a saddlebag.

“I think it only had the power to work once and you wasted it on those dust devils.”

“You mean the ones that were going to kill us?” I let my tone be as dry as the landscape below us.

“Yes. You should have saved it for something massive – like the battle we are marching toward.”

“I’m sure I would have done that if I’d thought of it.” Sarcasm dripped from every word, but she ignored it – as usual.

“That’s why you should leave the thinking to me.”

We were circling the city now as Raolcan chose the best spot outside the Cha’leef. I let my gaze take in the city. As usual, I wouldn’t be able to explore it. When all this was over Raolcan and I were going to go on a tour and explore every city in the world.

Yes!

Even the ones in hostile places.

Those are the very best ones!

Until then, I could only enjoy looking. The city was laid out around the hill that the Cha’leef stood on. The peaks of the palace looked like they were dipped in gold that ran in drips like melting wax from the tip and down the white stone walls. The gold reflected the bright sun in painful sunbursts. Around the Cha’leef were long ramps that pierced through the wall ringing the base of the hill. The wall was also made of smooth white walls frosted with gold.

Roads spread out like streams in a delta from the ramps until they reached the city walls and between the roads homes, inns, taverns, warehouses, and mercantile buildings rose and fell in peaks and valleys, built from yellow and pink earth. It gave the impression of a particularly fertile field of lilies. If it wasn’t so hot and dusty here I could circle this city all day.

The gold hurts my eyes too much for that.

Our circle grew tighter until I could see the leaders of A’beranza clustered around the base of the Cha’leef, bedecked in colorful silks and bearing the curved ceremonial swords of their people. There were dancers and swordsmen already performing to the beat of skin drums and slender pipes.

Timing his landing perfectly, Raolcan dropped into an open space on the wide stone courtyard at the same moment that Rakturan and Prince Gahteen arrived with the dusty caravan they led through the inner wall and up the ramp. I could just make out Rakturan’s calm expression as Raolcan’s feet set down on the stone.

Good! There would be time to speak to him. I began to smile as Jalla dismounted, but when she cleared her throat I turned to her and the smile froze on my lips.

She hissed her last order with her dark, lash-rimmed eyes narrowed to a tiny slit. “On your honor, do not fail. Speak to no one. Go!”

Chapter Six

She smacked Raolcan’s flank dramatically and I gasped. Who did that to a dragon?

Jalla.

He almost sounded like he was laughing as he leapt into the air, swatting Sentries away with his wing tips as they clustered in too close. Jalla had been truthful when she said she’d given orders for a gnat-like cloud of the creatures to escort us away. Their riders squinted eyes told me they weren’t happy, even though scarves covered the lower parts of their faces making it impossible to see their expressions.

I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Rakturan as we flew away. There was something in his eyes – as if he knew exactly what was happening and was trying to tell me something, but it was too late. We were past the inner wall when I lost track of him. A gout of fire marked the beginning of the celebration for Jalla at the Cha’leef.

Eventually, I lost track of even the flames when we passed the outer wall and the final Sentries stopped – in that eerie way of theirs where they just slowed to a silent, hovering stop – in a perfect line along the wall. The road west was clear to see, the clouds of dust that traced it snaking away toward the mountains. I sighed as we soared up into the clouds above it. I didn’t know if I was relieved to be on our own again, or distressed at the thought of serving as Jalla’s agent in the Dominion.

We have six water skins in the saddlebags, if I counted right. Assuming they all have Silla in them, that’s quite a bit. Maybe, just to hedge our bets, we should try to keep as much Baojang water as we can for you.

I still didn’t know if I believed her about the Silla or not.

Which is exactly what she’s counting on.

I worried at the edge of the saddle all through the afternoon, picking at the stitching, until we landed in a small village at dusk.

See if they have anything to eat and stock up on food. You should be safe enough here. I saw an interesting sheep in those high hills just north of here.

By the time I had the things I needed and Raolcan had eaten, there was no daylight left. I didn’t stay in the little town. Bargaining had been hard enough with nothing but gold to pay with and no understanding of the language. We needed to leave Baojang as soon as we could.

I’d had to accept three scarves along with the food – the only way to make up the difference of a single gold coin. They were silk and I’d insisted on purple so that I could tie them around my neck and at my elbow and knee. The images printed on them – swirling birds, an intricate pattern of rings and knots, and something that looked like swirls of sand in the desert – were so like Baojang that they’d remind me not to get myself enslaved to anyone else.

You’re not supposed to add scarves to your collection until you’re a full Dragon Rider. Not unless a full Rider gives one to you.

If they didn’t want me taking on full Dragon Rider privileges they shouldn’t have shoved me into full Dragon Rider responsibilities.

Touché. We can fly through the night if you want. I could use some exercise.

And I didn’t feel like sleeping. We flew until dawn, my mind circling round and round and my temper growing hotter and hotter as I thought about the impossible situation I was trapped in. I hadn’t seen visions of my friends since the battle at the Kah’deem and worry for them infected all the rest of my emotions, leaving me an indecisive mess.

Seriously, you need to stop. You are exhausting me, Raolcan said as dawn lit the sky. Let’s rest on the top of this hill. You can sleep under my wing. I don’t mind the sun.

Sure. He should probably rest. I didn’t know how I would sleep, though. If only there was some sort of good news to counter all the bad news.

I can help with that.

What could he possibly know that I didn’t know?

I know that Jalla left that Pipe in my saddle bags.

I gasped, reaching into them as he settled us down on the hilltop. Just as Raolcan said, the Pipe was there.

See? Now, do what you promised and stop worrying so I can get some sleep.

I unloaded him in a trance. We had the Pipe. Us! I could spend the next few days trying to figure it out instead of Jalla. A grin spread over my face as I pictured her expression when she realized that I had it. Of course, owning an entire kingdom was significantly more important. And she owned me, too, but...

Sleep!

I crawled under his wing, rolled out my bedroll, curled around the Pipe, and promptly fell asleep. Was it my imagination, or had I heard wings flapping in my mind as I fell asleep?

Chapter Seven

We reached the ocean the next day while I was still chewing on dried meat for breakfast and rubbing my eyes. I hadn’t realized we were so close.

No point sticking to the land when we can fly. Just a hop and a flap and we’ll be at the Ruby Isles. I seem to remember having fond memories of that place...

It was probably all the molten honey I’d snuck him while we were there.

Ah yes! The honey! It tastes slightly salty there, like a hint of the sea was captured within it.

I ignored his honey reminisces as we soared out over the sea. Raolcan flew so close to the mirrored surface that his feet and the tip of his tail sometimes skimmed the waves. I enjoyed the slight spray that created – finally something cool instead of the land of heat and dust.

I turned the Pipe over and over in my hands, studying the writing – which I couldn’t read – and the strange arm along the side of it. I wasn’t musical. When I thought about it, it was amazing that I’d made a tune come at all. I played with the arm, moving it gently and checking to see if anything moved or clicked within the instrument when it was adjusted. It was hard to tell. The arm moved smoothly, but it was like the Kah’deem had been – it skittered from my view when I tried to focus on it. There was no flop or give to the arm or the pipe, no moving parts except for the arm. There were strange little figures that seemed to swirl between the words carved into the Pipe shaft – almost as if the artist had taken the time to work in depictions of small winged beetles crawling along the length of the Pipe.

If only I knew what it did. I had been far too tired when I blew it to grasp what was happening.

It wouldn’t have mattered. No one really knew.

There had been a wind, I thought.

Yes, a wind. And so much dust that it obscured everything.

But was the dust from the wind, or the Ifrits, or part of what the Pipe did?

No way to tell except to test.

I swallowed. I didn’t like the idea of blowing it again without knowing what it did. What if Raolcan turned to dust and blew away like the Ifrits did?

I assure you, I am no Ifrit.

Of course not, but the point was that we had no idea what it did. And what was the point of the bugs on the pipe shaft? There had been an insect on the Kah’deem that held the Pipe as well. Had there been any insects when I blew it before?

I have a faint memory of wings – but I’ll admit I was distracted by the thought of my friends dying.

I held up the pipe and thought of blowing it, sweat beading on my forehead and my mouth growing dry at the thought. I licked my lips. I was going to do it eventually, wasn’t I? So, it might as well be now. After all, if I didn’t know what it did, I couldn’t use it.

It might not work for you. It didn’t work for Jalla.

But it would work for me. I knew as surely as I knew it when I raised it to my lips the first time.  All I had to do was try ...

I raised the pipe to my lips, took a deep breath and blew a note, moving the arm slightly as I blew. It gave the sound a warbling inflection. The breeze around us swirled.

I tried again, playing a different note. This time, a spray of water kicked up, swirling around us and then dissipating as the breeze blew it away. So, maybe it didn’t work for me, either. Maybe Jalla was right and it would only work once. I brought out the water and took a sip before returning to my study of the Pipe. Maybe if I tried a different note.

I tried again, playing one note after another rapidly. Wind swirled around us, but not in the power it would take to destroy anything. My brows knit in confusion and then, out of nowhere, Raolcan began to buck and heave, flapping madly to gain height over the rising waves. Color filled the sky and blocked my vision, I swatted at the air before my eyes to clear a swath of it.

Hold on!

We rose quickly up through the air, Raolcan’s mighty flaps bringing us higher until we were finally clear of the cloud of flapping, muffling, suffocating wings.

Butterflies!

I could see them now that we were above them. A swarm of butterflies filled the tumultuous air beneath is in a cloud so large it could have covered a city. Where had they come from? They swirled in ripples of orange and yellow weaving in and out of each other’s paths.

They migrate over the ocean.

But all at once? In a massive cloud? How had they all arrived so fast?

I think you know what that Pipe of Wings does. It calls up winds and insects.

I didn’t remember butterflies being at the Kah’deem.

I think it just calls whatever is nearby, drawing them undeniably to itself.

That wasn’t much of a weapon.

Isn’t it? We barely clawed our way out of that cloud of them. I couldn’t see. We could have drowned under a cloud of gossamer color. Imagine what it could do with locusts.

Eat up clouds of dust?

Precisely.

Mosquitoes could get interesting. Or June bugs. I shivered.

Or wasps. We had a story when I was a hatchling called “The Lame Piper.” There was a man, lame in both legs, but possessing the most amazing of instruments. When he played the pipe, it made a sound that filled the world – a sound so magical that it was irresistible. But not irresistible to just anything, but only to dogs. They would come and he would ride them through the countryside.

Well, one day, there was a pack of wolves coming into the town and they were stealing sheep and rabbits and whatever else it was that mattered to the townspeople. So, they sent word for the Piper and when he came, he blew his pipe and all the wolves left the town. But the children of the town were spoiled and they mocked the lame piper because he rode on the backs of dogs, so he turned around and sent the wolves back. They tore the town to shreds and no a single person survived. The end.

The end? What a terrible story! Why would it end there?

It’s a warning.

Not to trust people who ride dogs?

Not to be an ungrateful little foot-eater.

I tucked the Pipe carefully back into the bag. Next time I used it, I’d better have a good reason to try it.

I second that.

Chapter Eight

Raolcan had been right about it being a short journey to the Ruby Isles.

I’m always right.

It was long past midnight when we found them - the familiar landscape of tall totems on rocky isles bringing back memories of my time there training. Tiny lights outlined the landscape as they had then – but there were patches missing as if huge chunks of the islands hadn’t bothered to light their watch fires or the small lights they usually hung between the platforms and ledges that formed the island cities.

Best to set down on one of the cliffs. We can see more in the morning.

He was right, of course, but worry filled me as we found a familiar cliffside – the very same one where we had regrouped after Savette was kidnapped – and settled into sleep. I unloaded Raolcan with care, not wanting to disturb the Pipe. Almost a full day since calling up the butterflies made me feel like I had overreacted to them, but I didn’t want to accidentally call up something greater.

Trust me. That was no overreaction. There is power in that little pipe.

I ate dried meat for dinner, slipping a few pieces to Raolcan who claimed to still be full from the sheep – was it crazy to hope there might be real food in the chalets below tomorrow morning? – and fell into a fitful sleep. Worry laced my last thoughts as I slipped into sleep – and right into Leng’s mind.

“Pasca will be their contact in Dominion City,” Hubric was saying to Leng. I felt a burst of joy at seeing him alive. After Haskell, I’d been worried he wouldn’t survive either. “He has been organizing the Lightbringers. There weren’t many true Lightbringers still alive, but people are flocking to join the cause. The Dusk Covenant hasn’t been making friends in the twin sky cities. I think you’ll find the help you need.”

“And do you really think any Lightbringers have survived in the north?” Leng asked. “With battles raging as far north as the Ruby Isles, there can’t be many survivors north of here.”

“We had some strongholds. All we can do is hope.” He looked worn, twisting and untwisting a scarf in his hands. It was purple with silver flowers stitched across it.

Leng reached out a hand and clapped him on the shoulder. “Maybe in the north—“

Hubric shook his head. “I don’t dare to hope for that. There’s been no word from the Dark Prince or Amel. If she survived the journey ... well, she cares about us. She was a loyal, faithful girl. She wouldn’t have left us guessing.”

Leng pulled his hand away like he’d been bitten. “There are other reasons she might not have returned. Perhaps she is needed there.”

“More than here?” Hubric’s tone was gentle, like he was trying not to break Leng.

I watched as my – Leng’s – hands moved to grip his knees. His knuckles were white – as if he was channeling all his worry into their grip.

“We don’t know, Hubric. And until we do ... Amel is strong and Raolcan will fight to the death for her.”

I woke with a start, turning in my bedroll. There wasn’t a comfortable place on this hard rock and there was no way I was going to go back to sleep. I sat up, my eyes blurry with unshed tears. They thought I was dead because I hadn’t returned. I should be leaving this morning to find them. I shouldn’t even be thinking of obeying Jalla.

They still need Jalla and her forces. A few Lightbringers in various cities aren’t enough to end the war. Not even if more people are joining daily.

He saw that?

I see all your visions now.

But if I listened to Jalla, it would be weeks or months until I saw them again. There had to be a way to keep her on our side and still fly south to find them. I twisted my own scarf back and forth, thinking of Rakturan and Jalla, of whether her clumsy lie about the water was true, and of if it even mattered compared to returning to help my friends.

Hubric was heading north. Perhaps, he may travel as far north as here.

Through all those cities ravaged by war? No. He’d stop to help people. By the time he made it this far north, Jalla would be here, too. I either needed to fly south and find him or to find an answer to my Jalla problem before then.

Perhaps there are Lightbringers in the Ruby Isles who could help you.

Now, that was the first sensible thought we’d had!

Well, it’s hardly the first. I was thinking that perhaps one of Leng’s friends from Vanika might be a good choice.

I hadn’t liked them at all. No, we’d fly into the city at dawn and find a Lightbringer and see if they could help us hoodwink Jalla and save the Dominion! I smiled at the idea of returning to Jalla with a whole group of like-minded Dragon Riders.

There was a snap of a branch and Raolcan snarled. I grabbed for my crutch, fumbling in the dark, when a foot stepped on my hand.

“Stop.” That voice was so familiar. Feminine but sharp. Something about it irritated me. “Bring the lantern!”

There was a flurry of footsteps and then a lantern was unshuttered and light spilled over me splayed over the ground and Raolcan crouched in an attack position.

“No need for flames, Raolcan,” the woman said in her clear, frustratingly confident voice. “You’re outnumbered anyway.”

Wings flapped suddenly as two dragons rose behind her. The sun was coming up and it was easy to see the green of their scales in the morning light. I looked back at my captor.

“Ephretti,” I said. “Just the woman I was looking for.”

Not quite. But she would have to do.

See? I told you she’d be a good fit.

Chapter Nine

I looked back and forth between Ephretti – arms crossed and a determined set on her face – and Lenora who was holding the lantern – complete surprise forming her mouth into a perfect “o.”

Ephretti moved her foot off of my hand and I grabbed my crutch, scrambling up so I could meet her eye to eye. Last time I’d seen her, she was the Dragon Rider and I was nothing more than an Initiate. I couldn’t let her get the first word in or she would push me around.

We spoke at the exact same moment. “You need to come with me.”

Ephretti frowned. “I hardly think I’ll be following you, Initiate.”

“I’m a Color now,” I said, pushing my shoulders back and standing as straight as I could with a crutch under one arm.

Ephretti waved a hand like it didn’t matter. “Whatever that means now. I know you haven’t been properly trained. I know that you haven’t passed the proper-”

“Ashana Willowspring gave me my first scarf.” I objected.

Ephretti sighed dramatically. “Amel, I won’t argue with you. Where is Leng? Is he with you?”

I felt my face heating, remembering the way she looked at Leng last time I saw her. She was looking at me expectantly like she was owed an explanation. I gritted my teeth. Why did that rub me the wrong way so badly? It wouldn’t hurt anything to tell her, but I found that I suddenly wanted to keep anything about him to myself. A sudden longing filled me. I needed to get back to Baojang and sort out Jalla’s situation so I could return and find Leng.

Are you sure that is why you are longing to return to Baojng? Maybe you should take a sip of water.

“I was sent here by the Winged Prince of Baojang to find a reliable Dragon Rider,” I said, rummaging in the baggage for the waterskins. “Baojang marches to help us overthrow the Dusk Covenant and the Ifrit invaders, but they require Dragon Riders to help them.”

“Baojang?” Lenora asked. “But they are the ones who attacked the southern cities. And they half-demolished the Ruby Isles!”

She flung a hand out toward where the dawn was creeping over the sleeping island. Outlined in the gild of morning, I could see what she meant. I gasped at the sight of broken Asha poles and ruined buildings. Where there were once chalets, bridges, and boardwalks there was now heaps of broken wood as if an Iftit had bit the island, his teeth tearing right through it.

“Which is why we don’t ally with them. We fight them. And we start by striking the heart of the enemy’s power,” Ephretti said, her eyes narrowing.

I couldn’t agree more. “We can’t just do that without a plan.”

“I have a plan,” Ephretti’s tone was full of frustration. “But I need help. Lenora and I can’t just do it alone.”

“Well, of course not. We need the southern and western armies, help from Haz’drazen and as many of the Lightbringers as we can find,” I said. Maybe she would see sense. “We need the armies of Baojang to swoop down so we can catch the enemy in a huge pincher maneuver and squeeze. But we have to make sure that we aren’t left so vulnerable that Baojang takes over the Dominion afterward.”

“No,” Ephretti said and I could have sworn her face was darker with her irritation at me. She took a step closer so that all I could see was her face right in front of me in the harsh light of the rising sun. “We need to go to the Healing Arches south of here and stop what they are doing. They’re pulling demons out of the ground there, Amel and they are overrunning our country. Demons! They’re made of dust.”

“One Ifrit outbreak is bad, but you’re talking about a small piece of the puzzle. I’m saying that we need to focus on the whole picture!”  I stepped closer, too, our gazes locked on one another. This was too important for distractions. Here she was – the perfect person for the job! – and she was talking about a tiny Ifrit outbreak where we needed to deal with the whole problem.

“Enough!” Lenora’s shout from beside us made us both jump. I scrambled back a step, barely catching myself as my crutch skittered on the slick rock of the cliff. “Can’t you hear each other? You’re saying the exact same thing!”

I took a deep breath. Maybe she was right. We both wanted to fight our enemies. We both wanted to see the Dominion free again. She’d said the Ifrits were just south of here. Fine. We could sweep up that problem and then move on to bigger things.

“If I go with you to deal with this Ifrit threat at the healing arches, will you go with me back to Baojang to serve the Winged Prince?” I asked.

“That’s ridiculous,” Ephretti said. “I won’t take orders from a trainee.”

“Not even for the Dominion? Baojang is coming, one way or another. They have asked for Dragon Riders. If we are there right now, we can influence their leader so that she doesn’t take over the Dominion for herself – which she is planning to do. If we aren’t there, then this war against the Dusk Covenant and the Ifrits might be won, but the Dominion will be destroyed forever.”

Ephretti swallowed, looking away. Was she taking me seriously?

“Baojang has many Princes. They’ve never had just one.”

“They do now.”

“Did someone obtain an Artifact?”

“Yes.” Good. She was thinking, finally!

“Did Baojang unite under this leader?”

“Yes!”

“And who was it?”

“Jalla of Bao’hauld.”

If Ephretti had looked upset before she looked like she might be chewing on dragon claws now. Her face went red, her mouth working like she was going to speak.

She’s met Jalla before. Perfect.

I felt his humor when eventually Ephretti managed to speak.

“Skies and stars! That woman!”

“Yes, that’s her,” I said.

Chapter Ten

I helped Lenora build a fire while Ephretti went to get their dragons.

“It’s so good to see you again,” Lenora said as soon as Ephretti was out of earshot. She gave me a quick hug. “She’s been wound up tighter than strings on a fiddle since we left Gerdath.”

“I was worried about you,” I said moving to gather loose wood from the bushes near the cliffside. “Especially once the invasion started.”

Lenora dragged small rocks into a ring for the fire. “We’ve been helping the Lightbringers across the north. Mostly it’s been assisting refugees reach safety or serving as scouts for groups of Reds. I think Ephretti is getting anxious to be more involved, though. She looks to the south a lot and talks about Leng.”

I bitter taste filled my mouth, but I kept my thoughts to myself, piling up loose brush in the circle Lenora had formed.

Jealous much?

“I almost thought that finding this Dusk Covenant stronghold was a good thing. I mean, if that’s where all the trouble is coming from, then maybe we could make a difference if we could just stamp it out, but now that’s caused new troubles,” Lenora said, deftly starting a small fire with a handful of twigs and her flint and knife.

“What new troubles?”

“Well, we can’t do it on our own and Ephretti combed the Ruby Isles looking for help. No one will come with us. To be honest, there aren’t many people left here who can fight. Most of them died when the fighting broke out here.” Lenora’s big eyes were sad. “The ones left are just trying to salvage what they can from the wreckage. Trying to save wives and little ones. Trying to find food and fresh water in this mess. That’s all scarce, by the way, so I hope you brought your own.”

I nodded. But no one would want my water – not when it was laced with Silla. I dragged a few larger branches over and offered my kettle. Lenora smiled and began to brew tea with water from her own waterskin and a handful of tea leaves.

“There are a few Dragon Riders here – mostly Blacks, but a White or two as well. They can’t fly further south because anything south of here is occupied by our enemies and north there is nothing but Baojang. They won’t leave. Not even for a day and certainly not on what they call a ‘suicide mission.’”

“And is it a suicide mission?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. It was funny, but the thought of fighting a handful of Ifrits didn’t seem like sure death anymore.

Dragon-level overconfidence at its best. Yep. You are right on track to be a full Dragon Rider before the year is out. Maybe after that, we’ll promote you to honorary dragon.

Lenora shrugged. “Maybe. But I wouldn’t want Ephretti trying to kill me, let me tell you! She’s only trying to train me and that’s tough enough!”

I laughed and she joined me.

“What’s so funny?” Ephretti asked, appearing from over the cliff side with Lypukrm, Bellrued, and Tyalmae. They settled in beside Raolcan, growling and snapping at each other. I watched them out of the corner of my eye.

They’re stressed. They haven’t been with other dragons for a long time and they tire of one another’s company.

“Nothing, master,” Lenora said.

My eyes grew wide now. Hubric hadn’t asked for that kind of formality from me in a long time. Lenora began to pour tea as Ephretti sat down by the fire.

“Do you need to go into the city, Amel?” she asked.

I looked down over the heaved rubble below, at the solitary dragon I saw circling the sky where hundreds had been only a few months ago and at the empty streets that had bustled with people. There were only two ships in the harbor – one without a mast. I swallowed, blinking back extra moisture in my eyes. To me, the Ruby Isles had been a magical place. If they were ever going to be magical again they would need people like me – and if I was being honest, Ephretti – to make it safe for them to thrive again. But I did need to find help. Maybe one of those Dragon Riders would leave for something other than a suicide mission – whatever Ephretti thought of them.

“I’d like to,” I said, meeting her eyes.

She sighed. “You don’t need to go there. I’ve decided I will help you with Jalla of Bao’hauld, Amel Leafbrought. But only if you first go with me to the Healing Arches south of here and help me purge the Ifrit threat.”

“Agreed.” After all, we could clear out a few Magikas, right? We’d done it before. She began to smile before I spoke again. “Can we get anyone else to help?”

Her smile vanished. “It’s up to us now. Trust me, no one else has the stomach for what’s coming next.”

Chapter Eleven

We set out as soon as we were done with breakfast. Ephretti rode Bellrued while Tyalmae carried their baggage.

“Is it strange to be her apprentice?” I whispered to Lenora while we loaded Raolcan.

“She’s very strict, but very good at her job. I’ve learned so much about being a Green! Ephretti says she’s sure I’ll qualify for a Color once we find enough Greens for the ceremony. And ... well, I don’t know if you know but she has other very important interests, too.”

“She’s a Lightbringer,” I said with a nod.

Lenora nodded. “She has me copying out a book although I’m only about a third of the way through.”

I pulled out Talsan’s Ibrenicus Prophecies and showed them to her. “This book?”

Lenora laughed. “I guess we’re on the same track.”

“Did you see them calling up Ifrits from the ground at the Healing Arches?” I asked. For some reason, it seemed strange. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why.

“No. She spoke to another Dragon Rider who had seen it. Ephretti is ... high spirited. She doesn’t turn down a challenge. I don’t think she could walk away from this, even if it was only her and me who were going.”

It was strange that she was willing to put so much trust in me – a Purple trainee was hardly a warrior.

“And you?” I asked. “How are you?”

Her face turned pale. “I’ve seen things ... War is not something that should ever happen, Amel. No matter how hard Ephretti works there are always things we didn’t do, places where we didn’t arrive on time. Things that slipped through. Every time something like that happens, it’s so hard to pick up and get going again. Maybe someday I’ll be tough like her. Right now, I’m just holding on and trying to survive this war. Our generation of Dragon Riders is going to be like no generation before us. We weren’t trained in the halls of Dragon School. We were forged in the fires of war.”

She looked off into the distance like she was seeing the future.

“I wonder what the school will be like when all this is over,” I said, mounting Raolcan and strapping my crutch in.

“Better, I hope.” She smiled and opened her mouth to say more, but at Ephretti’s whistle she gave a quick wave instead and ran to mount Lypukrm. Ephretti sure was strict.

She is tough. But I think she is hiding something. Why would no other Dragon Riders go with her to these Healing Arches? Surely, they aren’t so beat down that they are war-weary already. Why did she make such an effort to keep you from talking to anyone else in the Ruby Iles? She and Lenora were clearly watching for someone like you to fly in so they could pounce on you before you spoke to anyone else. If a small effort could make a big difference you’d think at least some would be willing to go. I see Reds in the distance, just a few, but she said there were only Blacks and Whites here. Reds are usually the first to wheel into battle.

Perhaps her dragons would explain what was happening.

They don’t know. They are just excited to be flying on a new adventure. The wind feels good beneath their wings and they are spoiling for adventure. Greens. It’s all about what they can feel and see in the moment. They’re very sensual creatures.

I wondered, briefly, what had happened to Olla and Orra in all of this. They had always struck me as being just like their dragons – in the moment and full of the joy of living.

We left the Ruby Isles without speaking to a single other person. There was no guard flying around the Isles as there had been before the war, and now that the sun was up there were small wisps of smoke coming up from the islands.

The conflict here ended two weeks ago and the Baojang invaders moved south. Fires still smolder in parts of the city. The conflict was brutal. These people are just holding on to what they have. Ephretti was right about most of it. These are survivors just trying to stay alive. But those Reds ... Reds would never say no to a fight. Even injured ones. What do they know that we don’t? Hmmmm...

Are you saying we should stay here instead of going with her?

No, just keep your eyes open.

Our flight took us over the ocean for the rest of the day and Raolcan and I were left to our thoughts. We were both on edge, both nervous about how to fulfill Jalla’s mission while still keeping her overall scheme from happening, both concerned for the survivors on the Ruby Isles and helpless to do anything for them, both trying to guess what surprise Ephretti might have for us.

We were halfway across the ocean bay when I heard Savette’s voice in my mind. If I hadn’t been strapped in, I would have fallen off of Raolcan’s back. As it was, I slipped, just grasping my straps again in time.

Amel, Savette said in my mind. I think you can hear me now. Sometimes. You must hurry. Bring our allies to Dominion City before all is lost.

Savette? There was no reply. Perhaps this communication only went one way. I bit my lip and thought about the map in my head. How soon could Jalla’s armies arrive? Could we get them there in time?

Perhaps. Keep focusing on what you are doing. We need Ephretti’s loyalty and help for our next step. For that, we need to deal with her situation here.

I was still worried about it when we made camp on the dark beach that night. The rolling breakers crashed so loud that our voices were lost to them, but even with that to cloak us, Ephretti insisted on whispers and no fires.

“We are in enemy territory here,” she whispered to me. “You’ve been lucky to be so far away. You haven’t seen what has happened to our land and our people. But now that you are here, it’s up to me to keep you alive and that means you play by my rules.”

I unloaded Raolcan and gathered my bedroll to curl up beside him. Lenora was already setting up a low tent beside Lypukrm. Ephretti surprised me by stepping out of the dark and pointing to my finger.

“Whose davari is that?”

Uh oh. Why didn’t I realize she would ask that? “Leng gave it to me.”

She sniffed and stalked off.

She doesn’t like obstacles. Her usual way of dealing with them is to smash right over them.

And I was an obstacle on her way to Leng. I made my bed uncertainly. How should I handle this? I couldn’t – wouldn’t – give her what she wanted, and it was obvious that she just wasn’t going to let it go. I needed her, too. With a sigh, I curled up against Raolcan, but sleep did not find me. I felt a keen longing for Baojang and the wide-open spaces that made thinking so easy. I couldn’t fall asleep until I’d had a sip of water from my waterskin and even then, it was with a sinking heart as I realized that Jalla probably hadn’t been lying after all. There was no other reason for me to long for a foreign country that had brought me nothing but grief, was there?

Chapter Twelve

“You didn’t say anything about an army,” I said as we crouched on the edge of the hills surrounding the Healing Arches. I wiped my hands on my pants. Nerves made them clammy. The battered one had new bandages, but it still ached with every task and the deeper cuts still left blood on the bandages.

Like the Healing Arches I’d been to with Savette, these ones formed a ring of huge stone arches. There were large stone steps leading up to the arches on every side so that they formed a circular stone platform. I had expected that. I’d even expected the Magikas sitting and standing on the stone steps, their pavilions arranged near to the arches. Magika apprentices ran through the camps with baskets or rolls of messages in their hands.  What I hadn’t expected was so many. There must have been hundreds of them. More Magikas than I’d expected to see anywhere - ever.

Just as Ephretti said, they had torn the earth in a long seam leading out from the Arches inland. Along the seam, Magikas stood with arms raised as a steady stream of Ifrits marched out from the rip in the ground and sped south like stones launched from a catapult at the landscape beyond.

I’d been to a potter’s shop in our village once and I’d been fascinated by how his family worked – one spinning pots on a wheel, while the next added the handles and a third set them into an oven. A little further down the shop, a daughter took hardened pots from the oven, setting them on a shelf to cool while another daughter painted color onto the fancier pots and dishes. This was just like that – but rather than a shop for clay pots, it was a shop for dust demons. And my mouth felt dry as I watched them steadily march from the ground to the lands beyond.

“It’s not exactly an army,” Ephretti said, but she didn’t sound as confident as usual. Her eyes, oddly enough, lingered on my finger until I tucked my hand out of sight. I didn’t like the way she was looking at my ring. She was too distracted when she needed to be focused.

“What would you call a few hundred Magikas?”

She shrugged.

“Or those soldiers posted as guards all around the perimeter?”

There were probably a hundred of them as well, posted in rough-hewn wooden towers that had clearly been made from trees in the surrounding forests. They kept watch around the Healing Arches and around the rift in the ground. These Magikas were no fools. They knew how badly their enemies would want to see this stopped.

This was a job far beyond three Dragon Riders. Even if we’d managed to bring every able-bodied dragon and rider from the Ruby Isles it wouldn’t have been enough.

The landscape around the arches was heavily forested and we were perched on a rocky hill nearby, watching to see what we could before making a plan. It occurred to me, that Ephretti was here more out of desperation than any sort of rational thought. After all, no sane person would think they could do anything about this place on their own.

Then she chose the right ones for the job. Neither of us has done anything sane in months.

And I was her only rival for the man she clearly loved. Did that factor in?

I don’t think she’d consciously risk you for that. She’s not evil, just jealous.

I frowned and studied the landscape below. I was used to being thrust into situations like this or being led there by someone else. I was not used to choosing them for myself.

Ephretti has a point. If we don’t do something about it, no one will.

I glanced at her. Her jaw jutted out mulishly and her arms were crossed over her chest as if she expected some sort of argument. Which was strange since she outranked me. Wait. She didn’t have a plan, did she? She was hoping I would. That’s why she was acting right now as if I were the one in charge. All this depended on me.

Nervously, I played with my ring where she couldn’t see it, studying the people below us. There were so many of them. If we moved from here, they would see us in a moment. There were no dragons, but that hardly mattered with so many Magikas and Ifrits below. The symbols of the Dusk Covenant were everywhere – which was no surprise. Hmmm. The beginnings of a plan were forming.

This morning I had been reading Talsan’s book while we rode here. A phrase came to mind.

In secret, their doom is sealed.

In secret, it is wrought.

Evil brings its own demise.

The dusk may still be fought.

It could be fought, but should we be the ones to fight it here and now when we were alone?

YES.

I tried to hide my startled reaction. Was everyone going to invade my mind now?

I’d hardly call our relationship an invasion, Raolcan said.

But, of course, I hadn’t meant him. I’d meant Savette and now the Troglodytes - again.

WE WATCH YOU, CALLER. WE DEMAND YOU DESTROY OUR ENEMIES.

Well, that sealed it. I owed the Troglodytes. They’d come to my call when I needed them. But we couldn’t fight this enemy head-on. We needed to be cunning.

I turned to Ephretti.

“Ready to attack?” she asked, but she looked uncertain.

“If we do this, we do it my way, Ephretti. Your way is just going to get us all killed.”

Chapter Thirteen

We crept back down the hill to where the dragons waited and arranged ourselves in a loose circle. Ephretti’s dragons yawned and snapped at each other like humans bickering.

They’re best friends, but even best friends grow tired of each other from time to time.

“So, what’s your big plan?” Ephretti asked me aggressively. How did she get along with other Lightbringers when she was always so aggressive?

This is not normal for her. She’s even wondering why she’d like this. You bring out the worst in her.

And there was no reason for that. I’d been nothing but reasonable.

Well, she is in love with a man who gave you a silver ring. That’s going to drive anyone crazy. And she can’t understand why he’d pick you instead of her.

That stung.

Why? It’s just the truth. If the truth stings its only because you’ve been fogging your own mind. If you let the truth pierce through that, you’ll be stronger for it.

I wasn’t Purple enough to want that. When did you get to stop always learning to be better and learning from your flaws? I hoped it would be soon. I was getting tired.

A dragon laugh rang in my mind. That’s what life is, Amel. It’s slowly growing. If you can grow into the true reality, you’ll be full and strong and big of heart. If you refuse to follow that path, you’ll curl in on yourself – stunted and spindly.

Well, I didn’t want to be stunted.

“Are you done thinking? I’m waiting for an answer,” Ephretti said.

I looked up sharply and caught a look of hurt in her eyes. Did it really hurt her just to look at me? Would I be hurt like that if Leng chose her instead? I would want her to put up with me if our roles were reversed, wouldn’t I? I held back a sigh.

“With a whole army to fight, four dragons and three riders would last about two minutes. This is going to require a more sophisticated plan. We need to wait and watch to see if there is some sort of opportunity to exploit a weakness.”

“The weakness is obvious.” She twitched impatiently. “We don’t need to watch to figure that out. It’s the Healing Arches. They focus the strength of the magic flows beneath the earth. If we destroy those, we destroy their ability to conjure up Ifrits.”

“Are you saying that we should destroy one of our Dominions greatest assets? I’ve seen what these arches can do. They’re miraculous!”

Ephretti snorted. “Right now they are killing people, not helping them. So, yes, it’s a good idea to destroy them. Better to save real people right now than refuse to act for the sake of potential people being saved later.”

That didn’t sound right. You couldn’t make decisions just based on what you needed now. You needed to think about what might come down the line later.

In this case, she might have a point. There are other arches. And how else could you stop the manufacture of Ifrits here? Only by defeating all those Magikas, and there are hundreds of people down there and only four dragons here.

“How would you destroy a massive rock structure at the heart of an enemy camp?” I asked, leaning on the impracticality so I wouldn’t have to talk about the ethics of it.

“Easy. Attach ropes to the rocks and have the dragons pull them down.”

“While under magical fire? And Ifrit attack?”

Ephretti looked affronted, her shoulders drawing even farther back. “I didn’t say it would be easy.”

“It would be suicide,” Lenora said quietly.

Ephretti’s mouth drew a firm line. “In wars, people die. And not just other people.”

Lenora nodded briskly. “I’m not saying I won’t do it. I’m just wondering how to be sure it actually works before we die doing it.”

“Well,” Ephretti said, “Amel wouldn’t be here if she didn’t have some sort of trick up her sleeve. Would you, Amel?”

“What?”

“Some sort of secret weapon or power or something, right? Otherwise, how would a crippled trainee be trusted to be off on her own and still have survived this far?”

Ouch. My tone was dry when I responded. “I have a great dragon. He’s a prince, you know.”

“It’s unfair to talk to Amel that way,” Lenora said quietly. “She’s already proved that she isn’t stopped by her injury.”

Ephretti colored, mumbling “sorry” before stalking away.

Lenora watched her go. “She gets like that. Hot-headed. She’ll calm down. I know she seems ... terrible right now, but trust me, if anyone can do the impossible, it’s Ephretti. She just ... she just ...”

“I know.”

She met my eyes and nodded. “Okay, let’s watch the camp like you suggested while she cools off. Maybe there will be another way.”

We watched the camp all afternoon but at dusk, when we returned to find Ephretti had set up a hidden camp and cared for the dragons, we had to admit to her that there was no other way.

“Then we’ll do it before first light,” Ephretti said, firmly. “We’ll take them by surprise.”

I avoided Ephretti and Lenora as I prepared for sleep. They were both committed to this attack, but despite the fact that I couldn’t find an alternate option, and despite the fact that I’d promised to take out this outpost before I returned to Jalla, I was not as certain. I sipped my Silla-laced water as I watched the moon rise and gently turned the Pipe over and over in my hands. I’d seen it shred Ifrits to pieces before, but that wouldn’t do anything to attacking Magikas. This whole plan didn’t sit right with me. There had to be another way.

Chapter Fourteen

We were all jittery the next morning and it was coming out the worst in the dragons. Lypukrm snapped at Bellrued when Lenora was saddling him, causing the other dragon to stumble backward into Raolcan who flamed his side so badly that Ephretti’s saddle was scorched.

“Get your mount under control,” she snapped at me. Her own pair of dragons was causing her problems enough.

I am under control. That was a very controlled flame. I mean, if I’d been sloppy she wouldn’t have a saddle at all ... or that fancy tent she likes to sleep in.

I was too nervous to find his jokes funny. My mouth was dry as cotton no matter how much Baojang water I drank – I was certain that I felt a pull back to that place – and my hands shook slightly when I saddled Raolcan.

Get it nice and tight. We’re affixing ropes to the saddles – thank goodness Ephretti had enough – and if it’s not tight I won’t be able to pull.

I had no confidence in our plan. But I was the only one. I had a terrible feeling about this – and not just because the last time we’d been to Healing Arches Raolcan had nearly died.

Because you’re a perpetual pessimist.

It hadn’t helped that I dreamt all night of Leng – and I wasn’t sure if it was dreams or visions. He’d been helping refugees flee the two sky cities, moving along the edges of their military power to organize chains of civilians to help move people and possessions to safer places.

Those are visions. I saw them, too. Don’t worry, it’s good work and he suits it well. He has a big heart and an iron spine.

What I had seen still haunted me, even if it was only dreams and visions. Children should not suffer. The weak and helpless shouldn’t be the ones who went without food or stumbled weakly with no one to catch them.

That’s why he is there. It’s why we are doing this ridiculous job for Ephretti – to stop that kind of thing.

No child should cry tears of pain from hunger. No parent should have such haunted eyes.

The Trogs shouldn’t have done this to you. You’re too soft hearted to have to know about pain you can’t fix.

Was that rebellion against his leaders?

A dragon is allowed to have his own opinions – even if he’s bound not to act on them.

I braided my hair sadly and prepared for battle. My heart was so heavy from last night’s visions that I couldn’t think of much else. Maybe that was for the best. I wasn’t sure this was even going to succeed.

Just keep your pipe close and get ready to blow it when we’re working. Your job is simple. Hold on tight. Tie the rope to the stone arch using the knot Ephretti taught you. Hold on again and blow that sky-loving pipe when things get rough.

And what? A thousand butterflies will save us?

Who knows. We do our part and trust that the rest will be taken care of.

I wasn’t the trusting type.

Tell me about it. But I plan to change that, eventually.

I finished the braid and double checked my straps.

“Ready?” Ephretti asked from her perch on Bellrued.

“Ready,” Lenora said. Her head was held high and her gaze was level. That girl had grit if anyone did.

“Don’t pause,” Ephretti said. “Don’t falter. We do our job and we get this done.”

I nodded. I didn’t believe any of it, but I’d done just as many strange one-in-a- million things before. Why would this be any different?

“Let’s fly!” Ephretti said, kicking Bellrued up, Tyalmae right at his heels. Lenora launched with a smile and Raolcan bunched his muscles and then threw himself into the air right behind her. I held on just like I’d promised, but my focus was skittering from sadness over refugees to concern over Leng and nervousness at this mission. Somewhere south of us, Hubric was headed north. Would he get this far in his journey here? Would he find rubble in this place? Or would we fail?

Get out of your head and focus like the Greens.

True to their type, they streaked across the sky like emerald arrows. We raced over the treetops, banking upward to crest the hill, and then elegantly rolling into a dive toward the encampment below. In the dusk before dawn, I could see the last embers of fires inside the perimeter and torches on the guardhouses. They would see us, that was certain, but would they be able to respond in time?

The camp below us slept, only a few figures milling between the tents in early morning chores. A yell broke out from the guard tower as Ephretti streaked past and by the time we reached it a single Magika launched a fireball at us. Raolcan rolled, showing his belly to the ball of flame. It missed us by a dragon-width and we sped on.

A bell was ringing somewhere – unrelentingly – and yells followed us through the camp, but we were too fast. Below me, the encampment rolled out like a map, Raolcan’s belly nearly skimming the tops of tents, swooping up as we reached the Healing Arches and their stone platform. No one within the camp was as quick as that first Magika. Only shouts and cries followed us, not arrows or flames.

Raolcan reached his feet out and grabbed an arch, like a bird with a branch, steadying himself on the wobbling stone. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as I feared. I leaned down, stretching to wrap the rope around the stone. A clattering sound distracted me.

Arrows. Hurry.

We were taking too long. Someone ambitious had found a bow.

I wrapped the rope around the arch, fumbling to tie the knots Ephretti had shown me – dragon knots, she called them. Made for holding wild dragons down. Raolcan had found that funny.

Focus. There’s nothing funny about what’s coming...

I finished the knot, still dangling from the saddle, fighting to pull myself back to an upright position. Raolcan twisted to the side and I fell back into the right place. I was supposed to grab the Pipe from the saddlebags now. I fumbled for the flap.

Now we pull!

He leapt from the arch, flapping violently. I held on to the saddle with white knuckles. Screams and shouts from beyond me told me we had their attention now.

We hit the end of the rope and it felt like smacking against a wall. My neck jerked backward and my grip on the saddle completely dislodged.

I felt a sharp pain in my leg, and a blow to my head and then everything went black.

Chapter Fifteen

Visions and dreams tumbled one into another. I rode for a while with Hubric as he snaked his way north, hiding from bands of Dusk Covenant raiders. I wasn’t sure if I dreamed of Shonan or actually was in his head as he flew north, surrounded by colorful dragons. My dreams had a strange flavor to them – like I had eaten bad food before falling asleep or drunk something that had turned. I felt hot and feverish as I fell from dream to vision back to dream again.

Savette was receiving vows from someone and then laying out a siege plan with maps in front of her. She looked up and even through the bandages I could see she was looking at me. Her expression as unreadable. I fell from the vision into a dream where a pair of Sentries had me pinned down as they digested me alive.

I don’t know if I screamed only in the dream or with my own voice, but I tumbled from that into Leng’s head. He was talking to someone quietly, but in my feverish haze, I didn’t see who it was.

“This time it will be different. I won’t let him just wear the mask and slip into being someone I don’t know.”

The voice that replied was unfamiliar. “But how could you stop that from happening? The Dominar is the mask. It has always been so. People won’t put up with anything different than that.”

“I’ll find a way to make it work. For someone so important to me ... well, I won’t lose him. We’ll just have to be friends in secret I guess. What people don’t know won’t hurt them. Maybe he could change things. Change what people expect.”

“Perhaps.”

“I can be patient. I can be in the background. I’ve never had a problem with that.”

“Sure.”

I was so desperate to reach out to him and comfort him – to tell him that it really would be like that, and that he would be okay. Somehow, we would make sure he could see his brother when all this was over.

I fell into a dream again and surfaced back into Rakturan’s eyes. Jalla’s face filled his vision, her expression firm.

“We must march them quicker if what you say is true. The Dominion will be of no use to us if it is destroyed before we get there. I am concerned that Amel has not yet returned to me. Send Renn to find her.”

“I could go,” Rakturan offered.

“I need you here. The Gold Rider is nothing but trouble here. He keeps trying to lock our war leaders into promises for the future. I don’t want our culture changed and I don’t need him to tell me what is right.”

“Then why keep him in your service at all?”

She stared off in the distance before rounding back on Rakturan. “Are you still here? I want him gone by dark.”

I was troubled by what I’d seen. Too many friends faced too many challenges. What could I possibly do to save them all? I felt my body thrashing and sweating, but try as might, I could not open my eyes.

Eventually, I slipped into a deeper sleep and when I woke this time, I was able to open my eyes. The lashes were crusted together, making it hard to see. I blinked rapidly to clear them, but my arms felt heavy – too heavy to move.

I was lying on a stone floor, my cheek pressed to the surface of the rock. It felt cool against my hot skin. Torpor filled me, making any movement feel impossible. Even my thoughts felt too heavy for my mind. It was a long time of lying like that before I realized I was looking at people’s feet and ankles as they walked by me or stood in front of me. I was in a very busy place, wasn’t I? So many people seemed to be coming and going. The edges of their robes were interesting. Where had I seen embroidered patterns like that before? Oh yes. Magikas. They must all be Magikas.

There was sound in the background – too much sound. It hurt my pounding head and spiked through my skull. I couldn’t think of it now.

I took long, deep breaths, focusing on the light between the feet. Something was happening there, at the lip of the stone floor. I felt like I should care about it, but I was just so tired. Which was strange, because hadn’t I just woken up?

I should probably try to sit. Get my bearings. I pulled my hand towards me. It was so slow. So very slow. Just a few inches and I felt too tired to budge it. No, Amel. Focus. Can’t give up on the little things – like moving. Not the time to be lazy.

I pulled my hand to where I could see it. It felt sticky. I blinked, realizing it was red with blood.

Chapter Sixteen

Now was not the time to panic. My head was whirling and my hand fell limp to the ground again. I tried to take even breaths as I brought it back under control and pushed upward. Pain seized me, freezing me in place and I cried out as fire filled my good leg. I fell back to the stone, my fingers curling as if I could cling to the strength of the stones.

“Who was that?” someone asked.

“Just the cripple. She’s not going anywhere.”

There was a scuffling sound of footsteps as if someone was walking away. I wasn’t tied or restrained. Whatever my injury was, they were certain it would keep me in place. I felt along my back with one hand, clenching my teeth to fight off searing pain as I bent to feel along my leg. There. The shaft of an arrow stuck out of my leather pants. I pulled gently at it, stopping when the pain flared instantly, filling me with nausea and clouding my head with spinning agony. No. I wouldn’t be pulling that arrow out myself.

I was captured. That was clear. What about Raolcan? Raolcan? I could feel him in my mind but his thoughts were muzzy and unclear. He must be injured, too.  I needed to focus. I needed to pay attention to what I could see. I concentrated on the areas between feet and legs. I was on a stone floor. That meant the Healing Arches. As one figure in front of me shifted his weight, I could see one of the arches. The top was gone, the pillars ending in jagged relief like broken teeth. We’d succeeded in that, at least.

But if we had succeeded, why were they all still here in the Arches?

“ ... wouldn’t have to do this if your friends hadn’t broken the Arches. Calling up an Ifrit takes power. Either the power of the Arches or the power of blood. Just be glad your worthless life was for something.”

I wouldn’t want to meet whoever was talking. I looked from gap to gap, trying to see. Someone was forced to his knees on the stone ground. He was shaking. Or maybe I was. Or maybe everything was.

I couldn’t see his face, but I heard his cry, cut off suddenly. He fell forward and in the gaps between the legs I saw his face in the bright sun. Tomas! I hadn’t seen him since the Ruby Isles when he’d been a servant there. His eyes – once so bright – were glassy in death.

Horror filled me, washing up in my mind and spreading through my limbs. Darkness slowly stole my vision as my heart pounded like a hammer. The world went black.

I couldn’t tell how much time had passed when I woke. I felt cold. My legs were still frozen in place. I shifted, trying to clear my head.

You’re awake!

Raolcan! He was alive! Could he help me?

They have bound me. And they have bound Lenora and Ephretti’s dragons.

He’d have to break those bonds, whatever they were.

They are bonds of magic. The Magikas have magical whips and ties – like what you saw used at Dragon School. We are bound - not just with our word but with ropes of air and magic.

I hated Magikas. They always made everything worse. Why didn’t he just flame them all?

They muzzled us, too. They know what they are doing.

At least he was alive and well. There was silence.

He was well, wasn’t he? I felt a stab of panic. Are you hurt?

Still silence. He was hurt. He didn’t want me to worry. But now anxiety filled me like a belly of worms, writhing and eating me from the inside out.

See, that’s why I didn’t eat those disgusting worms in Baojang. I never would have got the feel of them out of my belly. Imagine one of them wriggling back up your throat...

Ha! He still had his sense of humor – whatever else they had taken from him. He sounded almost as if he was rambling as his next thoughts spilled out. I recognized them. I’d read them only yesterday in Talsan’s book.

He loses half the sun to save the world.

His crown he lays aside to choose one star, from a sky of stars.

One part, one place, one role: to be a mountain and an anchor in the storm.

Hope for the hopebringer, light for the lightbringer, wings for the lame.

It would be ridiculous to think that was about us ... wouldn’t it? Who were we in the grand scheme of things? Just one dragon prince and a crippled rider.

Don’t stop hoping, hopebringer.

If only I didn’t feel so cold. I summoned all my energy and rolled onto the side of my bad leg. I could see a little better now. The heaps of cloth that I saw in the gaps between the legs were strewn across the stone. There were too many of them. I swallowed at the dark pools surrounding them. How many prisoners had they killed like they killed poor Tomas?

By the placement of the sun, it was late afternoon. I’d been out for most of the day.

Try two days. I was worried about you.

Two days?! No wonder I was so shaky. My mouth was parched, thirst burning in my throat. There had been blood. Wouldn’t a normal person die lying in their own blood for two days?

I think the arrow stopped up the wound. Sort of.

Where were Ephretti and Lenora? I strained my eyes, searching for them. There! They were in a line of captives, tied to a rope and shuffling slowly forward, spurred on by lightning-tipped whips. I scanned the line of people, watching as the Magikas loosened the cords holding the man in the front of the line and shoved him forward. His hood fell back and white hair – some loose and some in braids – spilled out. I gasped as I saw his face. Grandis Dantriet. After all this time he was beginning to feel like memory’s ghost to me.

He was shoved roughly to a place in front of two Magikas. One of them held a blue sphere of light between his hands and the other a wicked knife.

“Blood to dust and dust to life,” the Magika with the knife said. I gasped as he moved, fast as an adder and the Grandis slumped to the ground.

Fast as thought, I counted down the line of captives to where Ephretti and Lenora shuffled with tears in their eyes. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven.

What could I do in eleven minutes?

Chapter Seventeen

If only I had power like Savette or Rakturan for a moment like this! I called, mentally to the Troglodytes, like I had in the basket with Rakturan, pouring hope into my thoughts as the seconds blurred into minutes. My eyes were screwed up shut. What had I done last time? How had I drawn their attention?

Perhaps they are not close enough this time.

When another scream was cut off too quickly, I opened my eyes again. Well, if no one was coming to save us, I needed a practical solution. Maybe I could find a way to loose Raolcan. Where was he? I twisted and turned, looking for him.

Behind you.

It was hard to twist that way without feeling the pain in my leg. I pulled my arms under me and crawled in a tight circle, dragging my legs behind me. I could see the area better now. I had been left at the edge of the action, since I was clearly no threat to anyone. The legs I had been looking between belonged to Magikas, distracted by their task calling up Ifrits. They were too busy to notice one of their victims slowly turning in a circle.

Eventually, I turned enough to see the dragons. My breath caught in my throat, my heart speeding up so quickly that my vision flashed black for a moment. Bellrued was slumped against Tyalmae, his head sideways on the ground and eyes shut. Tyalmae was hunched inward over a broken wing. Both dragons were coated in soot and blood. They were Ephretti’s pair, still together at least. I couldn’t see Lypukrm – Lenora’s dragon. I continued the turn, my neck craning to look for Raolcan. I knew what kind of dragon he was. If Ephretti’s dragons had been in the fight, he would have fought longer and harder.

When he finally came into view, I faltered, slumping to the ground for a moment, too horrified to acknowledge what I was seeing. Raolcan was just as covered in soot and blood. A black, sticky substance clung to him. He was bound tightly to the ground by whatever magic held him, at an awkward angle, his head tilted so I could only see the right side of his face – the side with a dark, gaping hole where he once had an eye.

Sobs wracked me, leaving me coughing and choking on them and taking the last of my strength with them.

I know. It’s quite the blow.

Please tell me it’s only one!

Just the right eye. I’m going to be devastating when I see the lady dragons again. Do you know how rakish a dragon looks with an eye-patch?

What were we going to do? What did we have left? The Pipe! I hadn’t been able to grab it from the saddlebag before I’d been hit. It would still be in Raolcan’s baggage. But he wasn’t saddled now and I couldn’t see the bags.

Behind me on the steps. They tossed the equipment there. By the way, if anyone mentions going to ‘Healing Arches’ again, it’s going to be a firm ‘no’ from this dragon. Have you noticed that they seem to always do the opposite of healing?

I inched forward, bit by bit, inch by inch. I felt a burst of warmth as my movements sent a fresh spurt of blood from my thigh. My elbows ached at the feeling of the rock digging into them, and my head was so heavy, too heavy, my legs a useless weight as I pulled myself across the ground. My good leg felt like it was in a furnace.

It’s probably infection. You were left there a long time. Our enemies aren’t too worried about you running away.

With good reason. Even crawling was taking everything out of me. When I reached Raolcan’s head, I paused for a moment to stroke his cheek before moving on. I couldn’t see or feel his bonds, but hopefully, he could feel my love through our connection. My heart broke at seeing him restrained to the ground, hurting, broken, and still trying to keep up good spirits. This must have been what he meant when he quoted the prophecy, “He loses half the sun to save the world.”

You’re a cheerful one this evening.

My mind was racing. If that prophecy had really been about Raolcan – and who was to say it wasn’t? – wouldn’t that mean that we could survive this? That there was still a way to save our friends and save our world from being broken apart from Ifrits. Maybe these Magikas could be convinced that what they were doing was destroying the world they lived in.

They’re murdering people in cold blood and you want to reason with them?

Maybe if they realized there wouldn’t be anything left for them to enjoy when all of this is done they would stop.

You should have heard Grandis Dantriet trying to convince them last night. His words will stay with me forever. They were as beautiful as they were powerful. But that’s the thing about evil. People who do it think they’re doing something good. They excuse killing because we’re the wrong sort of people and killing us doesn’t matter. They think that the demons they unleash on this world can be controlled. To them, there is no risk in what they do. They can’t even conceive of a world where their immediate desires are not the controlling factor.

How could he be so philosophical when he had his eye taken from him?

I’ve always known my life had a purpose. I’d always thought I knew what it was going to be. Right now, in this moment, I’m certain. And nothing our enemies ever do can take that from me.

I wished I felt so certain. I was at his tail now, watching the end of it twitch back and forth as I slowly slipped along the ground, a trail of thick red blood in my wake. I was bleeding too much, the wound reopened from all my movement. Another cry from behind me reminded me that it wouldn’t matter soon. Either I found that pipe and managed to make it do something or we would all die here, prophecies or no prophecies.

Lean into hope. Lean into the light. Our story isn’t over yet.

The stairs were the most difficult part. I eased my upper body down to the next level but pulling my lower body over it led to a painful tumble.

The arrow shaft snapped in half and I bit my tongue to hold off a scream. I didn’t dare let anyone know I was here. I couldn’t afford to be stopped. I was slick with sweat, trembling as I held back waves of pain. No surrender, Amel. No surrender.

My trembling hand felt for our saddle bags, slipping open the edge of the nearest one and reaching inside. The waterskin! This was the right one. I pulled out a mostly-empty skin of water, leaning against the saddlebags as I caught my breath. I took a long drink, my searing throat easing and a burst of renewed energy filling me. I used it to reach in again. There!

My hand gripped around the pipe, pulling it free. It caught the last ray of light as the sun sank beneath the horizon and night fell.

Chapter Eighteen

Did I need to see what I was doing? Maybe.

I pulled myself back over the lip of the step, clenching my teeth as the nub of the arrow knocked on the edge. I bit back a moan of pain and twisted to look through the bodies in front of me.

The Magikas all had their arms raised, dark light pulsing from their hands and combining in the air to feed the glowing ball in the hands of the Magika at the front. Between their bodies, I saw the line of captives. There was only one person still in line before Ephretti. They loosened her bonds and tugged her forward.

I put the pipe to my lips, trying to play it, but from this angle I couldn’t get a full breath. I rolled onto my back, gasping at the agony in my leg. Inhaled slowly – was there something wrong with my ribs, too? – and raised the pipe to my lips, blowing a single note through the reed. I couldn’t tell if anything happened, but I kept blowing, adjusting the lever as I blew.

There was a scuffling sound and then a face loomed over me.

“What’s she doing?” a voice called.

“Playing a flute.” The man above me frowned, adjusting his robes. He was Shonan’s age, but with a wicked twist to his mouth and a gauntness to his long pale face that made me want to shrink into the ground.

“Ha! Tell her to play something that sounds good or she’s next. I could use a distraction. My arms are getting tired.”

The gaunt man grabbed one of my arms and dragged me roughly to the dried patch of blood where I had been before. The moon, spilling through the arches as it rose, lit everything in stark relief so that the blood stood out like a living thing.

“Stay put this time. We’ll get to you eventually,” he said, his face uncannily bright in the light of the moon. “And if you plan on blowing that thing again, at least play a tune.”

I sucked in a deep breath, trying to push back the pain and fear. If men like that were the future of this world, death was a better option. But I wasn’t willing to give in yet. Too bad I didn’t know how to play a flute. I only had one more shot at this before they took away the Pipe.

We’d done so many things already, destroyed obstacle after obstacle. Couldn’t we find a way out of this one, too?

An irritating buzzing filled my ears and I swatted at a sting on my face and then another.

Black Flies. They’re everywhere. Clearly, your pipe still works, but I’m not sure that irritating pests will be enough to stop them.

“Which one of you called up these flies?”

I felt a shiver of terror as I twisted my head to see the Magika with the knife walking down the line of captives. Lenora shook at his gaze, flinching as he stepped beside her.

“Was it you?”

“No,” she gasped.

“How about your master?”

“If I had the power to call on nature for help, do you really think I’d choose black flies?” Ephretti’s voice dripped with disdain. Couldn’t she hold back her attitude even for a moment?

“I think you’d do anything you could in your last attempts to save your pathetic life,” the Magika scowled as his gaze ran up and down the line of captives. “Bring one of her dragons here.”

Two Magikas broke off from the group, angling towards Tyalmae. They pulled magic whips from their belts, cracking them as they released the bonds and whipped the wounded dragon forward. I flinched as I watched him shuffling along, favoring one foot. Was Raolcan in danger? I glanced back at him, pinned to the ground, unable to see what was happening.

But I hear everything. I don’t know what I’ve done, but I can’t shut it off.

Shut what off?

Their voices. I hear them all.

I shivered.

“If a human life is enough sacrifice to produce a dust demon, I wonder what a dragon life would give us,” the lead Magika asked aloud. “They say that knowledge leads to power. Let’s see if we can add to our accumulating strength.”

His hand shot out and Tyalmae reared back with a horrifying cry. I clenched my eyes tight, gripping the Pipe with all my strength. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. I could see Raolcan on the backs of my eyelids as clearly as if I was looking at him. If they could kill Tyalmae they could kill him. Would kill him.

Ephretti was screaming in the background. Interlaced through her screams were the high-pitched shrieks of Bellrued. His cries bit down into my brain, shaking thoughts from it and leaving me breathless, only fear still remaining.

Trembling, I gently adjusted the arm of the pipe, hoping beyond hope that it would change the outcome. Black flies would not be enough to stop this horror. Please, please, please be enough!

“The other one!” Bellrued’s cried continued, piercing the air as they whipped him across the stone floor.

I put the reed in my mouth and blew, letting all my desperation fill the tiny instrument. This silly artifact was such a small thing to put all your hopes in. It was too small to hold our futures ... but there was nothing else and I was out of time.

The Troglodyte visions told me my friends were far away, engaged in their own battles. Even Jalla and her army were still days away from here. We were outnumbered, overpowered and the Troglodytes were ignoring me. If Raolcan’s prophecy was really about him – if it really had a chance to come true – I needed it to come through for me right now. I needed Truth. That magic Savette used that brought everything in line with what really was. If this little Pipe could only help with that ... if it could make this reality line up with what this world, this story, was meant to be ...

I blew as hard as I could, not caring about the tune. I moved my fingers on the tiny holes, trying every one. I adjusted the wing-like arm back and forth, hoping beyond hope for something greater than flies and butterflies, something greater than anything I could imagine, because that was what it was going to take this time.

Chapter Nineteen

I heard Lenora’s crying as she was dragged forward, but I couldn’t look. Why her and not Ephretti? Were they still trying to get some information out of her master?

I’d seen things I’d never wanted to see over the last months – things I wished I could forget. I wasn’t going to watch this one. I wasn’t going to burn it into my brain with the other horrors. I didn’t dare look.

I lay on my back, staring up at the full moon in the velvet blue-black sky. I was very cold now, and movement was hard, as if my life was slowly seeping out of my wounded leg and with it every drop of warmth and energy. Tears fell – icy cold – from my eyes, running down the sides of my face and filling my ears.

At first, I thought it was the tears that made such a strange sound. It sounded as if I was surrounded by wrens, their wings beating so hard and fast that they filled my mind. And then the sound grew louder. And louder.

Desperate for hope, I grabbed the Pipe again and blew and blew and blew. I couldn’t hear the sound of the Pipe, but I could feel vibrations in my hands as the wings beat so strong and so loud that they filled my mind.

Help, I cried in my mind. Help us! But who would come and how could they help? Even birds could only do so much. We were just a few small people in a huge war full of desperate fighters and hopeless mothers crying for help. Who would save us all and would it even be fair for them to save us when so many people needed their help? Who were we to even ask?

A dragon flew across the moon and I gasped. Someone was here! And then another and another and another until I realized that I couldn’t hear anything else because the flapping of their wings was so loud.

I gathered the strength to roll onto my belly and look. Lenora tumbled backward through the air as if she had been tossed to the side– alive and whole – falling into Ephretti. In front of her, a huge Red dragon grabbed the Magika leader in his powerful jaws. I couldn’t even hear the snap as he bit down and then tossed the broken man aside.

My breath whooshed out of me at the sight.

Magikas scattered, throwing fireballs and weapons at the surge of dragons. Someone kicked me in the face as he ran and I reeled back, moaning in pain and spitting blood. I blinked hard trying to push the pain back far enough to process the chaos around me.

Ephretti grabbed a whip from the ground, adjusting it somehow and waving it toward Raolcan who roared to life like a river when a beaver dam is removed. He surged up, tearing at the fleeing soldiers around him and blasting flame into their ranks. Beyond the great Red and out over the moonlit vista, dragons in massive school-like clouds shredded Ifrits to pieces, bursting them into dust.

It was as if the Pipe had called every dragon in a hundred miles just like it had called up those butterflies.

It did – though not quite that far. Most of these dragons stayed here in the north after they came to my summons along the coast so long ago. Others were in the warrens moving into place to support our new treaty with the Dominion.

Dragons fought and won everywhere that I looked – a cloud so great that it felt as if an entire city’s population had come down on this one place. My head swam, and I rolled on my back, trying to clear it. I couldn’t feel my leg anymore.

I’m here.

He stood beside me, crouched down as if he were protecting my fallen body.

It will take Ephretti a while to get untied and organize the remaining captives.

And, of course, she would. If anyone could whip frightened people into a formidable force it would be Ephretti. But her dragons were dead.

What did it mean that the dragons had come for me?

Nothing winged can resist that Pipe. I feel it pulling at me, even now. You are like the Lame Piper from the story, playing a song too beautiful to resist.

I didn’t like that. I didn’t want him to be a captive to anything - not to Dragon School, not to me, not to the Pipe.

We all serve something, Amel. And you know I’ve been clinging to that prophecy. But have you realized that if it is about me, then it is about you, too?

“He loses half the sun to save the world.”

That’s my eye, obviously. And worth it, by the way.

“His crown he lays aside to choose one star, from a sky of stars.”

That’s you. My guiding star.

He had that backward. He had always been a guide to me, not the other way around.

Everyone needs a purpose. You guide me by being my purpose. Keep listening.

“One part, one place, one role: to be a mountain and an anchor in the storm.”

See? What’s better than holding on to you when you’re always so set on flying right into danger?

“Hope for the hopebringer, light for the lightbringer, wings for the lame.”

That’s me – but that’s also you. You’re not just a Lightbringer, Amel. You’re a hopebringer, too. As we fly south with this army of dragons, you’re going to bring hope.

He was nice enough not to mention the ‘lame’ part. The thing I loved best about Raolcan was that he was always so full of hope and faith in me. Who would still have a faith like that after losing an eye? While he watched his person slowly dying on a cold rock floor? Only Raolcan.

I could feel that I was slipping. I could feel that the wound was worse than we thought. My strength was ebbing away. I couldn’t lift my head anymore.

I saw a vision of Leng and Hubric. They were together! And then it was gone again. Even the gift of the Troglodytes was fading.

I’d blown the pipe. I’d saved my friends, but it was too late for me.

That was fine. I’d lived a good life. I’d played my part. I was never meant for more than a supporting role.

No.

Wait. That wasn’t Raolcan. A vision of Savette swam – gossamer and unreal – before my eyes. But just like before, she was looking right at me, speaking as if I was there with her and not the shocked people staring at her from around a map.

You’ve misread the prophecies if you think that. Your time has not yet come. We need you, Hopebringer.

I felt her stretch, saw her raise her arms. Light filled my mind and then I realized it was real. It filled the Healing Arches around me, shook me like a Magika in the jaws of a Red Dragon and spat me out. Could the visions of the Troglodytes link us beyond just seeing what each other was doing?

You are healed.

Could it be true? I lifted my head, surprised to see Tyallmae lifting his, too. I could move again. I had enough strength. He surged forward, barreling almost into a stunned Ephretti and with that, hope burst into my heart with the power of floodwaters. She’d healed him! Even though she was nowhere near here, somehow her power had surged through these arches anyway. Just like the last time when she’d brought Raolcan back from the dead!

I lifted my head and sat up, my breath catching in my throat and fear – fear that I might be wrong, that it might not be true – filling me. The bandage had fallen off my hand, but the skin was flawless, whole and beautiful. I ran my hands down my leg. It was fine, the arrow lay broken on the ground beside me.

Trembling, wide-eyed, I looked to Raolcan. I couldn’t see his face from here. He was gazing out beyond the arches. Wait until he saw me!

I scrambled to my feet, pitched forward, and crashed to the earth. My lip split on the stone and I spat blood as heavy realization filled me.

The arrow wound was gone.

Healed with the power of the arches.

And something else felt different.

You’re healed of the effects of Silla. You are free of Jalla’s hook.

But my leg ... my bad leg. It was exactly the same as it had been all along.  And the other one hadn’t taken my weight, either.

Bitterness filled me. Was it some kind of joke? Because I certainly wasn’t healed. Lying here on the ground, my mouth full of blood and dirt and now BOTH legs ruined. I was certainly not healed.

Give it time. Who knows what Truth has come through your healing?

It wasn’t supposed to work that way! It was supposed to give me what it gave everyone else – instant and complete healing! I rolled onto my back, staring up at the sky and laughed until tears rolled from my eyes.

As if this was healed! If I’d been given my choice I would have drunk Silla for the rest of my life and lived in those ridiculous deserts with those insane people and their multipuses - just not this. Not both my legs. It was the cruelest joke I could imagine. The cruelest thing anyone had ever done.

And you have the Pipe now. You are the Piper of all Winged things.

Me. The most immobile person in the Dominion was now the commander of the most mobile and glorious creatures? I bit my lip, tasting blood, and I wasn’t sure if I was despairing or laughing, or furious.

Roll over! This time it was Raolcan in my head. Savette was gone, like a puff of smoke.

I rolled over.

Look.

As far as I could see across the wooded valley rank upon rank of dragon stood, wings tucked to their sides, heads bowed low to the ground. The fighting was over. They had won, and they waited for me now.

They honor you. Our Piper.

I owed it to them to keep on hoping and to find a way to end this war. I looked up at Raolcan.

He looked back at me with a single, burning eye.

I’ll be your wings, Hopebringer.

At least he didn’t call me ‘Lame Piper.’ I didn’t like that name.

I think I’ll call you Dragon Piper when we’re being formal, and spider all the rest of the time.

Continue the journey in Dragon School: Dragon Piper

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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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

Dragon School: Ancient Allies

Dragon School: Pipe of Wings

Dragon School: Dragon Piper

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

Behind the Scenes: