Dragon School: Dragon Piper

Dragon School, Volume 16

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: DRAGON PIPER

First edition. August 3, 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

Behind the Scenes:

For every reader who has ever done something they deeply regret.

Chapter One

Light painted my eyelids red and I let them flutter open, blinking at the brightness of the light. I felt hot – feverish, perhaps.

It’s just me. You’re lying propped up against me. That way I can keep an eye on you. You gave us a scare, spider.

Gave who a scare?  I couldn’t see anything from here. Just light and tree branches waving in beams of golden sunlight, their edges blurring in a golden haze.

“You are awake! I thought we’d lost you there for a moment.” Ephretti’s face swam into view and she smiled – actually smiled! – at me before turning to the side to cough into a handkerchief.

I tried to sit up, but she pushed my shoulder back down.

“None of that. You’ve been feverish for days. You need your rest.” She looked awful – pale and drawn.

“I’m not dead yet,” I said wryly, trying to sit again.

“Here, let me help you, at least.” Ephretti reached out to help me shuffle up to a sitting position. With embarrassment, I realized I probably couldn’t have done it without her. Why was she so keen to help me? This concerned, motherly Ephretti was a surprise.

Without her, you’d be dead. She has stayed by your side since you collapsed on the stones, refusing to let anyone else care for you except for a White who Lenora sent here from the Ruby Isles. She’s done all the planning and ordering and dressing people down from right here.

What was he talking about?

Ephretti finished fussing with my positioning. “I’ll get you some water.”

“The water I brought from Baojang?” She gave me a curious look and shook her head.

“Renn took that with him. Don’t ask me why it mattered so much to him. There’s a natural spring here with all the water we could need.”

I wasn’t hooked again on the Silla. Good. I could just imagine Renn desperately negotiating for my water. Doubtless, Jalla had dosed him, too.

She moved to go get the water, letting me see what was in front of us for the first time. I was surprised to see that we were still at the Healing Arches, on the hill above the rolling forest glen. I felt like I was holding my breath as my eyes widened to take in the scene below.

The dragons were still here. Hundreds of them, scales gleaming in the sun, were moving stones, or clearing trees, or clustered in groups together. My eyes widened at the sight and also at all the people – almost a thousand, if my guess was correct. They filled the watchtowers and worked with the dragons repairing the stone structure, building bridges over the gash in the earth and constructing crude buildings.

What in the skies and stars was this?

It started when Lenora sent the White.

I needed a lot more information than that.

After you called the dragons and they defeated our enemies in dragon-like fashion.

In other words, with a lot of gratuitous flaming and the arrogant belief that no one else could get the job done.

You passed out from your wound. No surprise there. Fortunately, Ephretti was there. She freed the prisoners and they cleared this place of our enemies. Unfortunately, she only has battlefield healing skills, so when Renn arrived the next morning looking for you, she sent Lenora back with him instead, making them promise to stop at the Ruby Isles and send one of the White Dragon Riders back to us. How she thought they would convince him, I don’t know, but they did.

Renn was quite the talker. It seemed I owed him a debt.

And after the Dragon Rider arrived, the people started to come, too. Apparently, the north is full of refugees. People who were just trying to survive and keep their families away from the war were hiding in every valley and forest and cave in this area. Fortunately, Ephretti sees everyone as a block in a wall – she just wants to know where to fit them in. She had no problem putting them to work building a stronghold here. Even the dragons, who she technically can’t speak to-

Let me guess. You helped there.

There was a feeling of chagrin mixed with pride through our connection. What makes you say that?

You love arrogant women.

I also like people who know who they are. Who have a cause and a purpose.

I felt a sinking feeling as I glanced at Ephretti. What if Leng felt the same way about her when he saw her again?

Your jealousy is both misplaced and unbecoming.

Well, that was harsh.

Not really. Think, Amel. What happened to Bellrued and Tyalmae?

They’d been killed by the Magikas. But I’d seen Tyalmae reunited with Ephretti!

Just Tyalmae. Not all of those killed or injured in the arches were healed. Only a few. And Bellrued was not one of them.

Ephretti coughed again into her handkerchief before sitting down beside me and offering me a cup of water. I swallowed hard, my eyes misting as I accepted it.

“Thank you, Ephretti.”

“It’s my pleasure. Drink it, your body desperately needs the healing.”

I obeyed, but my heart was sinking as I came to grips with the thought that I’d been nursed lovingly back to health by a rival who would likely die before the next moon.

Chapter Two

“How long has it been since that night?” I asked Ephretti.

She sipped her own water before answering. “Five days. Based on what Renn Woelran said to us, the armies of Baojang are only days from here by now. I sent Lenora with him to fulfill our bargain. She will work for Jalla, the Winged Prince, but she’ll be faithful to the Dominion.”

“You didn’t go?”

“My time is ... limited.” She coughed again, but her expression was firm. Ephretti wouldn’t die quietly. “I’d like to spend it in a meaningful way.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that. ‘Sorry that you’re dying’ didn’t seem like nearly enough. Should I even mention it?

“And you didn’t think undermining Jalla was meaningful?”

“I decided that helping you was more meaningful.”

It was hard not to keep my eyebrows from lifting. Ephretti didn’t like me – or so I thought.

You don’t know her as well as you think you do.

“I think that if we took your dragons west, we could retake Vanika. It would be a big win for the Dominion and good for all the people in the area. If we can take back their territory a bit at a time, we can start to rebuild. It’s something worth giving everything for.”

I glanced at her. She looked intense – like a woman dividing out the last few days of her life.

Which she is. I think her goal makes sense.

“If we bring fighting to a place currently at peace, aren’t we the ones who will hurt innocent people?”

“Would you want to live under the rule of the Dusk Covenant? Freedom sometimes can only be bought with blood. Better to die for truth and freedom than live under the weight of lies and evil.”

I wasn’t convinced, but there were more things to consider. “Why Vanika when Cabradis is closer? I’d rather head south, to be honest. Maybe even to Dragon School. We need to get moving towards the conflict, not away from it.”

“Vanika is-”

“Plotting for the future already?” A male voice spoke, and I twisted my head to see a man about the age of my father emerge from around Raolcan.

I hadn’t noticed before, but someone had set up a pavilion over my dragon friend and I. There were more like it set up behind. I couldn’t see them well and straining to look exhausted me.

The man was dressed in Dragon Rider leathers with a white scarf tied around his head, holding his braids back. White scarves with writing all over them were tied around his waist and at his left knee and a wide satchel hung from a strap across his body. He carried a wooden bowl that steamed even in the warm air.

“You need to eat,” he said to me, smiling in a way that made his whole face fill with tiny lines. His eyes were warm and gentle.

“What’s written on your scarves?”  I asked weakly, noticing for the first time in a long time that he had writing on his leathers, too, just like Ephretti and every dragon rider I’d ever met.

He leaned in close and laughed. “No distracting me, eat this soup! Here, Ephretti, you can feed her.”

“I-” Ephretti began to protest but he raised an eyebrow and she frowned reluctantly and offered me a spoonful. I ate obediently as the mysterious man sat down beside me.

“I’m Dax Cloudspinner, Dragon Rider of the White. You’ve been through a lot.” Dax had a parental feeling about him. “No, no, Ephretti, gently. She’s not a barn you’re shoveling hay into, she’s a human.”

Ephretti rolled her eyes. “I know, Dax.”

“Well, you didn’t know when you almost drowned her last night, giving her water, or when you patched her up so badly that I barely saved her life from infection. I thought you said it was important that she doesn’t die.”

“I’d rather not die,” I said, spluttering, as Ephretti took my open mouth as a sign to jam more soup in.

“You’re not going to die, but you shouldn’t go running off to Vanika with Ephretti, either.”

“I don’t have much time,” Ephretti said with a grim look on her face.

“We don’t know that either,” Dax said.

Didn’t we? I thought it was obvious. Her dragon was dead. She was coughing. The Ifrit was already out of the ground.

Whites. Typical.

There was a snort from over my shoulder.

“Despite grumpy dragons snorting at me,” Dax gave Raolcan a pointed look. “We really don’t know that, Ephretti. There have been very, very, few pairs of dragons that were bound to a human. I remember noting only one other pair in the records. There may have been more – the records get more inaccurate the further back you go – but there is nothing listed about the deaths of that group.”

How did Ephretti even get two dragons?

They’re twins. In Dragon culture, it means they have the right to do everything together. We wouldn’t ask them to split, even if one was appointed to the humans.

So, they both adopted her?

That’s a way to think about it.

I wondered what they’d thought about that when the pair had come to Dragon School.

They were surprised, but don’t you think it sounds just like Ephretti to grab two dragons while she could? I think we should help her do this ‘big thing’ before she dies. We owe her.

Ephretti coughed, a little louder than last time as if to emphasize her condition. “I have all the signs, Dax. And I don’t want to die coughing. I want to die doing something.”

Dax made a suppressing motion with his hand. “We don’t know. Maybe your connection with Tyallmae will counteract the effects of Bellrued’s death. Maybe not. We need to wait and see.”

“You can’t do anything else for her?” I asked, fending off another spoonful of soup. I did feel better after the few mouthfuls I’d eaten.

“We have studied this carefully. If things are progressing as normal, I can only help ease Ephretti’s pain. If this is different, then I will carefully record it for our records so that we know what to expect next time.”

“Don’t record this” Ephretti said horrified. “Promise me!”

“Calm down,” Dax said.

“Promise!”

“Fine, fine,” he soothed.

Ephretti looked upset as she stood, clutching the empty bowl. “I need to clean this.”

When she was gone I turned to Dax. My head was still too weak to hold it up easily and I had to lean into Raolcan to stay upright.

“Are you really going to stop recording her condition?”

“Of course not.” He already had a small book and stub of pencil pulled out of his satchel. “But she doesn’t need to know that.”

“And how long will it be until I can move again?”

“You should have recovered your strength by tomorrow if you eat your soup and rest. You need a lot of rest.”

I watched him scribbling furiously in his book.

“You never told me what the writing is.”

He looked up and smiled. “Oh. Well, the writing on the leathers is like all Dragon Rider writing – prophecies, portents, signs and well wishes inscribed on the leathers by those who blessed you on your raising day. The scarves are different. I’m always afraid of losing my books.” He tapped the notebook he was writing in. “I keep the most important healing formulas on the scarves, too. You know, just in case.”

He went back to writing and I let the seconds draw out into minutes as I gathered the courage to ask the final question.

“And my leg? Will it work again?”

“We’ll see.” His smile was not enough for me. I needed facts. “Just rest for now.”

Resting was a terrible burden when all I wanted to do was to test my leg, but Dax kept his eagle eye on me and eventually I had no option but to drift back to sleep.

Chapter Three

The next few days were some of the worst of my life. I didn’t like waiting. I hated all the fears that couldn’t be dispelled because I had no way of knowing if they were true. Visions of my friends came fast and furious but combined with my nausea and aches they were too short to discern what anyone was doing beyond marching, sneaking or fighting. Being waited on by Ephretti was both embarrassing and infantilizing.

“Hold still while I comb it out,” she said, jerking a comb roughly through my hair.

“I’m fine!” I protested, but Ephretti ignored me as usual.

“Dax says we can try your leg tomorrow and when it turns out to be healed, I don’t want anything delaying us from the journey to Vanika. A surprise attack would be best, I think.”

I still hadn’t agreed to her plans, but she took my agreement for granted.

“You still haven’t explained why it needs to be Vanika,” I said.

“First things first, Ephretti,” Dax said indulgently. It was his constant presence that kept me from trying out the leg. He slept only feet away from me, sitting up even in the night if I so much as stirred. He was like a prison warden, nurse, and mother all rolled into one, and Ephretti was his chosen apprentice.

See why I don’t like Whites? They live for you. It’s smothering and embarrassing.

“We’ve waited all we can, Dax. If she’s crippled, then we’ll need to deal with that. She’s the only one who can play the Pipe.”

I eased the Pipe out of the saddlebag Ephretti had placed beside me. I’d taken to examining it frequently. I didn’t want to touch the positioning of the arm – I suspected it was set to dragons right now and I didn’t want to forget where that was – but I did draw a sketch of the exact position in Talsan’s book. Dax lent me a pencil for the job.

It would be better if I knew how to play it, that was for sure. I turned it over gently in my hands, placing my fingers on the holes along the shaft of the Pipe.

“Don’t blow that Amel, it took us ages to bring the dragons you called out of their thrall last time,” Ephretti chided.

“I wasn’t planning on blowing it. I just wish I knew how to play a tune.”

“Here.” She snatched it from my hands and my heart did a flip for a second until I saw her bring it to her lips. The arm hadn’t been bumped. At least it was still set correctly. “It won’t work for anyone else, right?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Okay, watch. Ephretti raised it her lips, picking out a clumsy melody. I watched her carefully, trying to remember every note.”

“Don’t it play that like that,” Dax said without looking up. “It sounds awful.”

“If you can do better, go ahead,” Ephretti challenged. “We’re going to need her to play it, so we can conquer Vanika and set the people there free. You haven’t said yet whether you are coming with us, Dax.”

“Who says that the people of Vanika want to be ‘free?’” Dax looked up from his work. “Here, let me show you.”

He took the Pipe in his hands and blew a light, lilting tune. It made me think of butterflies skipping over clover and light bursting through clouds.

“My mother taught me that,” he said with a smile.

“Could you teach me?”

He laughed. “Only if you guarantee that you don’t call up a cloud of mosquitos. Have you thought that there might be a neutral setting on the pipe?”

I hadn’t thought of that. Perhaps, if I thought back to when it had been in the Kah’deem ...

“If you can find a way to make it neutral, I’ll help you learn to play – after I finish my work here.”

“And will you come with us to Vanika?” Ephretti had her fists on her hips. She was standing again – something that made me ache with jealousy, but when she tried to scowl she succumbed to a coughing fit.

Dax paused over his writing, hand quivering as it stayed poised over the paper as he spoke.

“I swore I’d never return there. I was stationed there before the fall of the city, you know. Or maybe you don’t. In the Dragon Rider cotes. I enjoyed my work. Had a friend there named Riv Breadcutter who I worked with. The day the city fell he wasn’t in the infirmary with me. When the fires began ... when the city finally fell ... there were so many who needed help. I spent days pulling survivors from the wreckage. Sometimes we were too late. People I knew. Children. Babies. I... I felt like something inside me was broken.” He set the pencil aside as if it had grown too heavy. He wiped a hand over his forehead. “I found Riv one night in the makeshift infirmary we’d set up. He had a knife. He was undoing all the work I’d done that day, taking all the lives we’d saved. I asked him why. Why would he do such a thing?” his voice shook, and he fished a handkerchief out of his pocket. Even Ephretti was frozen, a look of deep grief on her face.  “’I’m stuck,’ he said. ‘This isn’t what I wanted.’ He was holding this leather purse like it held his life. When ... when what had to be done was done I took the purse form his body. It had a spiral on it with a diagonal line through the spiral.”

“What was inside?” Ephretti stood on the balls of her feet, as if she could lunge forward and seize the rest of the story right out of him.

“Dust.”

Dust. Hmmm. Precious dust. Strange. And yet ... Ifrits were dust demons, weren’t they?

“Dust? Are you kidding me? Did he have anything else on him?” Ephretti asked.

“Just a waterskin. Nothing significant. When we finished our work – helped all the people we could - I left for the Ruby Isles and I promised myself I’d never return. I just can’t look at that place without remembering the things I saw. I thought everyone would leave, but ... well, people have rebuilt, or so they say. A shantytown of rubble and desperation.”

“Which is why you won’t go with us,” Ephretti said, disappointed.

Dax’s voice was quiet but clear when he replied. “Which is why I will.”

Dust and water. Water and dust. I felt like I should know the answer to that riddle, like the solution was right in front of my eyes, but though I thought of it all night while Dax quietly showed me how he played the Pipe and as I combed over the Ibrenicus prophecies, nothing came to mind. There were mentions of water and dust in the prophecies I read but applying it to this felt like a stretch. Still, one section I had read rang in my mind when I finally fell asleep.

In dust and deception, I am made,

Bound by water and blood.

Who may retrain the dust storm or calm the call of water?

Who may feed the maw of the earth?

Is it not you, dark one?

Is it not your dusk descending upon us?

It was not a pleasant sentiment.

Chapter Four

I thought I’d found a neutral setting for the Pipe – or at least, nothing with wings had arrived, so it must be the neutral setting. I’d remembered it – suddenly – when I woke that morning. After blowing it carefully a few times, I’d settled into trying to copy Dax’s tune. It was hard to be patient and hard to stay still. I wanted to fly south immediately, but I wasn’t even sure that I could stay on Raolcan’s back if both my legs were ruined.

I will never let you fall.

Or that he could fly properly with just one eye.

I can do more with one eye than anyone else can do with two.

Could he land when he couldn’t see his spot accurately?

Seriously, this is getting insulting. Everything in life costs something. Sometimes it’s time. Sometimes it’s a physical wound. Sometimes it’s a huge gaping emotional pit inside you that never fills again. Sometimes those things are taken from you against your will, but sometimes you trade a little bit of your life for something glorious – something so worth it that the pain, the scars, the permanent change are nothing in comparison. Like when I traded freedom for you.

I had no words good enough in return to that, so I went back to my efforts with the Pipe. My piping – or practice at piping – eventually made it impossible for Dax to sleep and I watched him furtively as he rose, straightened his things and strode off into the bushes. Now was my chance. I glanced around to make sure no one was watching before carefully easing my crutch over from where Ephretti had put it beside Raolcan. Was she as anxious for me to finally be mobile as I was?

I leaned myself against the crutch on one side and Raolcan on the other and pushed myself up onto all fours. My injury twinged painfully and felt – strange – tight maybe? It was as if the injury was pulling at everything around it, grabbing at me so I wouldn’t move and would sit here forever. But I gently pushed up, refusing to surrender, so I was kneeling and holding both Raolcan and the crutch. So far, so upright.

This was the moment of truth.

I shifted slowly, carefully, into place and then pushed upward on my injured leg, grimacing at the pain, but refusing to let it stop me. With an effort, I made it to my feet. I leaned there on my crutch, gasping and huffing. I was going to need two crutches. The leg was holding me, but it was already trembling with the effort.

I looked around and squeaked when I caught Dax looking at me with a blank expression.

“I told you to wait.”

“I had to know.” My voice was small, but I wouldn’t apologize. I had the right to know how bad it was.

“Here.” He handed me a makeshift crutch with a twinkle in his eye. “It’s not a shining dragon-head crutch with a hidden weapon, but it’s the best I could come up with on short notice.”

“Thank you.” His smile warmed me. He knew I’d try! I slipped the other crutch under my arm and carefully tried a few steps. I was mobile!

Painful? Yes.

Stiff and sore? Yes.

But I could move.

I could feel my eyes misting with relief, but I sniffed away tears. I didn’t want Dax to catch me with tears in my eyes. He studied me carefully as I made a loop around the campsite.

“You’re moving well,” he said eventually. “The swelling is down, and the wound is closed, but you’ll be sore for a week at least. You need to build your strength up again. And that means lots of rest.”

“Can we leave today, then? It will take at least two days to get there.” Ephretti emerged from behind the pavilion, braiding her hair as she walked. “I should start packing now if we’re going to go.”

“Wait.” I pushed as much authority in my words as I could. It must have worked. Dax’s eyebrows shot up and Ephretti frowned, but she stopped walking and looked at me.

“Cabradis is closer than Vanika to our west. Croft and Dragon School are closer to the south of here. Why are you so insistent that we go to Vanika?”

Ephretti looked affronted. “What difference does it make as long as we are helping the cause?”

“I’m needed in the south,” I said it calmly, but tension coursed through me. I was certain she was holding something back.

“Vanika is where it all began.”

“So, you want to retake Vanika for poetic reasons?”

She scoffed.

“Ephretti, if you don’t give us a truthful answer, I won’t be going with you.” I kept my voice calm and quiet.

I could tell by her pursed lips and drawn eyebrows that she was angry, but seconds ticked out in awkward silence before she finally spoke.

“I just have a suspicion. When I lived in Vanika, there were rumors that under the city, on the ground – or maybe I should say in the ground, there was a passageway into the heart of the earth. I thought that perhaps if we retook Vanika, we could save weeks of travel for us and for the armies coming from Baojang. The rumor said that the passageway could take you instantly to a place near to Dominion City. If we managed it – well...”

It hit me like an arrow.

And you would know what that feels like.

“You don’t want to miss the battle to the south. You want to get there before ... before you die.”

Dax cleared his throat. “We still don’t know for sure that she’s dying.”

Ephretti rolled her eyes but then she nodded. “I just thought it might be a way to get your dragons there that much sooner – maybe even these Baojang allies, too.”

It’s brilliant. The warrens. The perfect way to move an army into place quickly.

I shivered. I did not have fond memories of the warrens.

“Well?” Ephretti was rocking forward and back like she truly couldn’t wait for my answer.

“It’s a good plan,” I said eventually. “And we’d be fools not to try.”

We could get there in time to help Savette. Maybe.

“Interesting,” was all Dax said, as he scribbled a note in his little book.

But as Dax and Ephretti made preparations to go and I sat on the ground sipping water and resting, little shivers of horror passed over me. My belly rolled too much to eat the fruit Ephretti brought me, even when Dax insisted that I needed it. I just kept seeing little bursts of memories in my mind’s eye. The warrens were not a place to which I wanted to return.

Chapter Five

I think you’re getting the hang of it. It’s sounding less like a dying rabbit all the time.

Oh, ha ha. I adjusted myself carefully in my seat. Both of my legs hurt, and we hadn’t even taken off yet. Ephretti had checked my safety straps four times – as if I couldn’t do it myself – and now I was trying to ignore the fact that she was tying another rope around me. Mounting Raolcan had been worse. I could pull myself only about three-quarters of the way up with my arms and when Ephretti stuck a shoulder under me and pushed me up with both hands on my bottom I felt like I was about two years old. My face was still hot with the humiliation of it.

Next time I’ll help you. I think I could get you most of the way up without help.

I was a Dragon Rider, not a sack of wheat. Or at least, I used to be one...

“Hold still, we don’t want you falling off mid-flight. And you’d better stop playing with that pipe and get it ready to call the dragons to follow us. I’ve had a talk with the people here and set them up for while we’re gone, but we can’t leave these wild dragons here. They make everyone nervous and we will need them to retake Vanika.”

I managed to suppress the irritation building up inside and simply say, “As you say, Ephretti.”

She coughed, spitting black goo on the ground when she caught her breath and I felt my cheeks grow hot. I should be kinder to her. She was just trying her best. She just wanted her life to mean something while she still had a life to live. Besides, wouldn’t it be nice to shave days or even weeks off of our trip south? And it would save that – wouldn’t it?

Feeling better about using the warrens again?

The same terrified sickening sensation of being squeezed against Raolcan as we wriggled through a tunnel rushed over me and I shivered. No, I was not feeling better.

“Hold still! I need to get these ropes right or they’ll chafe you!”

Was Raolcan ready for dealing with warrens again?

Ready for action!

Really?

Fear is the one great sin. It will make you do terrible things and winnow you away until you’re nothing but a shadow.

Dax trotted up on the back of a sleek white dragon. Its skin gleamed in the light, just translucent enough to make me shiver at memories of Troglodytes but still opaque enough to be a White and not a Trog. This one had a frilly mane with long white tendrils floating in the breeze.

“What’s your dragon’s name, Dax?” I asked, noting that he was leading Tyalmae with him. Ephretti’s dragon seemed healthy and strong. Hmmm. That was interesting, wasn’t it? She was sick, but he seemed fine.

“Idlosias,” Dax said, a smile on his face as he patted the White’s neck. The dragon didn’t seem to notice.

Typical White.

What did that even mean?

“Are you just about finished, Ephretti?” Dax asked.

“Just one more knot,” Ephretti said, cinching it so that I grunted from the sudden jerk. “It would take a lot to knock you off of Raolcan now!”

The second she was done, Raolcan launched into the air.

See? No need for two eyes!

I gripped his saddle with both hands, trying to keep doubt from my thoughts. He needed my assurance that everything would be fine – just as I needed his. Ephretti and Dax leapt into the air behind us, Ephretti gesturing wildly. She made me feel anxious all the time. Could she not just rest for a moment?

I think she wants you to blow the pipe and call the dragons to follow us.

Oh. That made sense. I gently adjusted the arm on the Pipe, took a steadying breath and tried to play the simple song that Dax taught me as we circled up, up, up into the heavens. Below us, the Healing Arches and the new settlement became small – a tiny dot of life on a green landscape.

As I played, hundreds of tiny specks leapt into the air like a cloud of dust. I watched the multi-colored cloud as it coalesced and then began to follow us in a bubbling cloud of enthusiasm. The tune carried me into an almost trance like state so that – despite my terrible musical skills – all I could hear with the notes of the Pipe ringing in my ears.

STOP.

I froze, the pipe still on my lips. I swallowed and pulled it back to my lap. What had I done to draw the Troglodytes notice? The icy stab of their communication still rang through me.

To my right, an angry Ephretti signed rapidly. Something about ‘are you trying to get us killed’ if I understood correctly. I looked to the left and saw Dax shaking his head. We led a cloud of dragons, their eyes misted over as if they, too, were in a trance. What did that mean?

Raolcan? What did that mean?

He was silent and after a moment I realized why. Tyalmae and Idlosias looked just as vacant-eyed as they flew. My hands trembled slightly. What if I’d just kept playing?

This Pipe had too much power. It shouldn’t be able to take free will away from dragons. I shivered. I must be very, very careful with this thing. It was far too dangerous – possibly even immoral. I placed a hand on Raolcan’s neck as an apology. Sorry, old friend. This is no way to treat you.

What if the Trogs hadn’t noticed and stopped me in time? How had they noticed, for that matter? They said that they watched me – was it through the eyes of the dragons or by some other means? It made me nervous to feel like I was being watched all the time – but also a little less alone. At least I couldn’t completely mess things up if someone was watching and yelling in my mind when I made a mistake.

Fortunately, we were heading in the right direction before the trance set in. I was still nervous, though, and I didn’t stop being nervous until an hour later when Raolcan shook himself lightly.

I gripped the saddle, grateful for Ephretti’s extra caution with the ropes. My teeth chattered together as he jostled me and my injured leg flared with pain.

Now that was intense. Maybe just a note or two next time, hmmm? It’s ... powerful. More powerful when it’s an actual tune, it seems.

Was he okay?

Right as rain.

He seemed to be, but I didn’t stop worrying about him as we flew for the rest of the day, or when we set up camp on the hills just past Cabradis. I could see the sky city from here, but with black holes in the distant structure, all did not appear to be well. Some sort of encampment had been set up at the base of the city and riders from there rode in our direction.

“We’ll sleep for four hours and then set out again,” Ephretti declared as we landed. “The horses won’t get here before then. And this time be more careful. I don’t want to ride a dragon who can’t think for himself. You’re their guide, not their master.”

“It was a mistake,” I replied, bristling a little. Ephretti was just so ... certain of herself all the time and certain that whatever I was doing just wasn’t good enough. Oddly, it made me want to impress her, which was strange. Shouldn’t I just want to strangle her?

I sort of do sometimes. She keeps on looking at my missing eye like I won’t catch her doing it since I only have half my vision.

I gently caressed his neck as I gathered myself to dismount.

“Don’t unsaddle him,” Ephretti commanded. “We don’t have time for that. We’ll have to eat a cold supper and just sleep.

Oh, thanks for asking, Ephretti. Yes, I can sleep in a saddle since you asked so nicely.

“I’ll help you down,” she said.

“I can do it myself.” If Raolcan helped me.

“You’re going to reopen the wound if you aren’t careful,” Dax said from beside Idlosias. “Let her help you.”

But I waved Ephretti away, slapping her hand when she tried to help me. She sighed and went to pull a cold dinner out of her bag, but her eyes stayed on me.

I finished untying the ropes and shuffled to the edge of Raolcan’s back, carefully pulling my shot leg over the side of his back and gripping his neck tightly as I slid off to the ground. I slid faster than I’d expected and hit the ground too hard. A gasp escaped through my teeth and my head felt light. I’d have to be more careful next time.

Ephretti shook her head but no one said anything as I reached for my crutches and blanket.

The company that evening was as uninviting as the camp. Dax and Ephretti were silent as we ate our cold food, drank our cold water, and they set up cold tents. I lay against Raolcan, glad for something hot in a sea of cold, but I was still worried about him, and worried about the broken, occupied city not far from here, and worried – most of all – about conquering what was left of Vanika and entering the warrens again. I couldn’t stop thinking of it as I drifted off and my dreams were all nightmares of fear and darkness.

Chapter Six

I was so tired by the time we reached Vanika that I wasn’t thinking straight. Ephretti woke me just three hours after we fell asleep with mutters about misjudging how fast the horses were. I had to submit to her hoisting me up on Roalcan – there wasn’t time to object – but it still took too long to get airborne. We were in the air just minutes before Baojang cavalry charged over the hillside, screaming battle cries and waving weapons.

As their weapons almost grazed our feet, I pulled out the Pipe and was more moderate this time, managing to call the dragons with two notes rather than putting them in a full trance. But the flight through the night was long and cold. We were nearing the mountains and as autumn approached the cold came with it. I needed a cloak. Fur-lined would be best.

It was mid-afternoon now, and we were in the foothills of the mountains near Vanika on the shores of a tiny mountain lake. Dismounting had been better this time with Raolcan helping me, his neck arched completely around so he could support me with his snout as I maneuvered down.

We were watching Vanika. It’s one thing to talk about retaking a city and another thing to actually do it. Tension rolled over all of us with that realization. It was up to us to figure this out.

How must Savette feel in the middle of a siege against our own capital? Did she feel like worms were writhing in her belly, just like I did right now?

Our only hopes rested in the dragons. It was difficult to tell how they felt about this plan. They were following us – so that must be good, right? Every so often, a few flew away, but they always came back again.

They’re eating. The mountain sheep are tasty, and some horses are lost in the mountains.

Seriously, he needed to stop it with the horse jokes.

The dragons are happy enough. They are interested in the idea of using the warrens. Many of them have never seen the pathways.

He told them about that?

They deserve to know.

And how did they feel about the possibility of attacking a human city?

We don’t usually do that anymore. The Pipe is powerful, however.

I supposed we could assault the city front-on, but it didn’t look as easy as it had sounded back at the Healing Arches.

The city below us was a ruin - a heap of broken buildings and tangled sky city structure like wreckage on a beach. Shanty houses and makeshift structures were scattered between the rubble. But despite the dilapidated state of the city, dark figures roamed the portion we could see and patrols ringed the city. There were men on horses and archers stationed on the makeshift walls. From here, it was hard to see clothing or read insignia, but if I had to guess I would have said it was a combination of Dusk Covenant, Baojang and possibly even some of those Rock Eaters we’d seen before.

I see Rock Eater costumes on the sentries. Your analysis seems to be right. They are fearless in battle. They’d fight in the middle of a storm and not even notice the hail and lightning.

If we just flew straight in there, we might encounter Magikas.

I’ve counted six so far.

Or catapults.

Also possible.

What we needed was an inside look.

“When do we attack?” Ephretti asked.

I yawned. But I didn’t feel lazy. I felt tense and worried. We weren’t the right people for this job. What if people who weren’t Dusk Covenant got hurt in the attack? Maybe we should wait for Jalla and her armies.

Jalla will not have your concern for the innocent citizens in the city.

“Not tonight,” Dax said, quietly coaxing Idlosias to light a small fire for his tea. The tiny fire was reflected across the waves of the lake. We watched him. “What? He’s going to flame anyway, he might as well make tea. He can have some tea, too, if he wants. Idlosias? Tea?”

Idlosias snorted. No tea for him.

Dragons aren’t big on muddy water. We don’t mind a good beef broth, though.

“We need to know more before we attack, or we’ll lose dragons for no reason,” I said. “None of us are Reds. At the very least, we should have some sort of a plan we can follow. I’m worried that if we don’t, we’ll cause more damage than we should. Didn’t you say there was a fortress around here?”

“Gerdath,” Ephretti said. “The Dominar fled to it after the fall of Vanika. After he was driven from the fortress, it was abandoned. I was there for a time in the aftermath. It’s nothing but ruins now. Any supplies it once had have been taken.”

“So, we need to send someone to sneak in and find out the information we need,” Dax said, noting something in his little book. “And it can’t be a dragon. They won’t blend in.”

Har har.

I watched the city as he spoke, wishing I could see it better. Tiny figures traveled to and from the city despite the occupation – some allowed to enter, others turned away.

“I can sneak in as a merchant,” Ephretti said with a cough.

“Because no one will notice you coughing up black tar,” I said dryly as I watched the heap of rubble below us. How were people still living there? How were they eating and trading? How would we find this entrance to the warrens under the tumbledown buildings and wreckage?

“Well you can’t go,” Ephretti objected. “You still can barely walk. I’ve noticed that you won’t step more than a few feet away from your dragon. Not even to-”

“Enough,” Dax said gently. “She’s healing well. We’ve made it this far. Let’s think up a plan rather than fight, hmmm?”

“What we need,” I said, still looking at the city despite my hot cheeks. I really would get better, I just needed time! “What we need, is a resident of that place to answer all our questions.”

“Ha! Wouldn’t that be nice!” Ephretti laughed.

“We should rest up for the afternoon and let the dragons hunt, and then in the evening we sneak down to a hidden spot along the road and grab someone coming out of the city.”

“And how would we get them to talk?” Dax asked, gravely.

I shrugged. “If it’s just a citizen and not a soldier, maybe she’ll want to talk.”

“And if it’s a soldier?”

“We have a lot of dragons here and they can do more than light fires for tea,” I said.

Some of us are very chatty.

Dax nodded but Ephretti was looking stubborn.

“And if they lie?” she asked. “If we find someone who betrays us?”

“Well, I hope you won’t pick someone like that,” I said mildly.

“Me?”

“It is you who is going to choose someone and grab them, isn’t it Ephretti? I just assumed you’d want to...” I left the question hanging there, knowing she wouldn’t be able to refuse.

“Yes, it will be me. You can’t do it and Dax won’t want to.”

“Good,” I said, laying down beside Dax’s fire. “Then wake me up when it gets dark.”

I felt the rush of air as Raolcan soared away to go and eat.

I won’t be long. I’ll have a half of an eye on you at all times.

It wasn’t horses he was hunting, was it? That had to be a joke. I was too tired to worry more than that as I drifted off to sleep.

My mind filled with a vision of Hubric flying north, rain lashing at him. What was that city he was looking at? It seemed so familiar.

It wasn’t until I woke up that I realized I’d been looking at Cabradis.

Chapter Seven

Rise and shine, spider.

I yawned. Dusk blanketed the forest and in the glimmer of the rising moon reflected over the lake, Ephretti was taking off her extra scarves and cinching her hair back.

“Wish me luck,” she whispered before ghosting into the trees. Tyalmae would fly her close to the road so she wouldn’t have to walk the whole way, but she’d have to sneak after that.

“Don’t forget to choose your target well,” Dax said. “Pick someone who won’t be missed, preferably a common person, preferably someone who won’t be inclined to report the incident.”

“And how will I know all of that?” Ephretti sounded cranky.

“If you don’t think you’re able to do the job-”

“No, no, I’m fine. Stop delaying me.”

She was gone before he could answer, leaping onto Tyalmae in a way I envied. Why couldn’t I walk so easily? What in the skies and stars had planned to make me a cripple but still give me so many responsibilities?

I thought you were done with all the self-pity.

I coughed and adjusted my thoughts. He was right. We had a purpose and a goal and as long as our problems weren’t keeping us from doing them we had no right to complain.

I’m not the one complaining.

Fine. I had no reason to complain.

“Want a cup of tea? I won’t be able to sleep until she’s done,” Dax said.

“Should we be lighting fires out here? Won’t people notice?”

“There are refugees everywhere,” he said, gesturing to the horizon. I followed his hand, squinting as I realized I could see tiny glows across the landscape. “They can’t investigate everything.”

It still seemed like a needless risk.

If they send anyone to check it out, I’ll eat them. Mmm. Tasty swords and chain mail and maybe even a horse or two...

“Tea sounds lovely,” I said, but when Dax was done preparing it, we were both too tense to enjoy it. The minutes seemed to take too long.

It could take her all night to find the right person. Not many people travel at night. Especially not during a war. She’ll need to find someone undesirable.

“Do you know anything about where a tunnel to the underground might be in Vanika?” I asked Dax, trying to make the most of my time waiting.

“I’d guess it would be under the base of the city. The bases are made of skysteel – woven, not solid. If I was going to hide something, that’s where I’d put it. Anything else would be open to anyone to see.”

“But how would someone even access that?”

He shrugged. “There were ways to get into the base of the cities. Hidden doors. I don’t know if they are big enough for a dragon. It’s more something a Magika engineer would know than a White Dragon Rider.”

A Magika Engineer. Hmmm. “If Ephretti is right that it’s a pathway to the south – a shortcut there – and if Magika Engineers built it, is it crazy to think our enemies might already be using it?”

“I’d say it would be crazy if they weren’t – if these warrens really are accessible and really work the way you think they do.”

I had a mental image of a stream of Ifrits disappearing down a dark tunnel into the warrens, flooding the channels underground with their spectral bodies. I shivered.

We both sat in silence after that, stewing on our own personal mix of fears. When Ephretti landed beside us with a rough skid, I was almost relieved to have a distraction.

Tyalmae hit the ground too hard, skidding through the trees until he hit one. It swayed precariously before a loud crack ripped through the air and the tree fell over. Tyalmae shook himself and Dax leapt to his feet, running across the scar on the earth to help.

I pulled myself painfully up on my crutches.

Don’t worry, she’s fine. She just got more than she bargained for. So did Tyalmae.

It was long moments before Ephretti and Dax emerged with a struggling figure. A green scarf was tied around his eyes and another around his mouth while his hands were trussed together, but that didn’t stop him from bucking and lashing out in every direction. Dax leaned easily out of the way, but Ephretti took a knock to the gut and another to the ear.

“Would you stop already?” she asked, frustrated, as she shoved the captive to the ground beside me.

I sat back down. I couldn’t help with the physical part anyway, and maybe seeing me sitting so calmly here would help him calm down when they took the blindfold away.

“I’m surprised you managed to get him on your own,” Dax said. “This one has a lot of fight to him.”

“I lured him to Tyalmae and we worked together. Dragon jaws are strong.”

Tyalmae is still cursing because the boy punched him on the inside of his mouth. It hurts.

“Let’s see what you found,” Dax said.

He pulled off the blindfold and we were met with a burning glare that managed to take us all in. If Raolcan was a human, he’d look like this.

Ha! I think I like that.

He was about my age, I realized. Wiry, but muscular. Average height. Green eyes with a mischievous twinkle in them. A mouth shaped like a gash in a pie. He looked like more trouble than we’d bargained for.

I like him already. He has an entertaining mind.

As soon as Dax pulled the gag off the boy started talking. He opened his eyes so they were wide and innocent looking.

“I’m not in some kind of trouble, am I?”

Chapter Eight

“Listen to me-” Ephretti began, but he rode right over her.

He scowled, “I’m not sure I need to listen to kidnappers. If you think you’ll get a good ransom price for me, you can think again. I make my own way in the world. There’s no one paying my way.” His expression changed slightly – just a flicker – as if he’d had a realization. “Not that no one will notice me gone. Sergeant Rickers in the Dusk Covenant Defense will notice. He runs patrols every day. In fact, I think I heard he was headed to the mountains tomorrow morning.”

“We’re not afraid of a single patrol,” Ephretti said defiantly. “You’re going to answer our questions!”

He looked up at the sky dramatically. “It’s almost morning already...”

She rolled her eyes. “We’ll start with a simple one. Are you Dusk Covenant?”

“You said you’re not worried about patrols?” His eyes narrowed as he scanned the trees. “That means there’s more than three of you. So why show me a sick woman, an old man, and a cripple? Where are the real Dragon Riders hiding?”

“We are real Dragon Riders!” Ephretti stormed, but Dax laid a hand on her arm. Dealing with irritating people was clearly not her strength.

“All we want is some information from a man who lives in the city. We can’t get it on our own,” Dax said reasonably. He sat down in front of the boy, the flickering fire illuminating both their faces.

“So, I’m really supposed to believe that all you want is to chat about where the best place for a drink is in Vanika?” the boy asked with a twist to his mouth. “You kidnapped me and trussed me up because you’re just a really curious bunch and you just want to write down a few new facts for a book you’re writing? I don’t buy it.”

“Let’s start with your name,” Dax said.

“Tor.”

“Your real name.”

“That’s my real name. Or at least, that’s what everyone calls me.”

“Fine,” Dax said. “Tor, can you tell us about the city? How well it is defended and by who?”

“Sergeant Rickers-”

Dax threw a hand up. “Let’s start with something true. Are there Magikas in the city.”

The boy tilted his head. “Before I go answering questions, let’s talk about a price.”

“The price is your freedom. Answer the questions well and we’ll free you. Answer them poorly and you can get to know us a little better.”

“I was thinking gold,” Tor said.

Dax sighed. “We’ll try this again. What-”

“Gold or nothing.”

“You little rat!” Ephretti said, bursting back into the conversation like a maddened bull. She shook a finger under Tor’s nose so he had to pull his head back to keep it from hitting him. He looked more entertained than threatened. “Don’t you realize what we could do to you? These dragons aren’t for show! They could light you on fire and watch you burn just for the fun of it.”

I doubt that would be very fun. Make sure you never agree to an entertaining afternoon with Ephretti.

“Unless there’s gold, I guess I’ll live with the sunburn.” He was examining his nails by the firelight, as if they were vastly more interesting than Ephretti, but I had a feeling that he noticed everything. The corner of his mouth had ticked slightly when Dax reached into a pocket for his pencil and only relaxed when Dax began to write. He was looking for weapons and opportunities.

This was clearly going nowhere. I’d known boys like Tor before. There was a man who ran a ferry in the neighboring town and sometimes his son would manage it while he was gone. He’d always ask for more than the agreed upon price and if anyone said no or that they’d tell his father, they’d find the ferry suddenly “jammed” for an hour halfway across the river. There was no point in trying to haggle with those people. You gave them what they wanted and moved on or you paid the price.

“This kind of gold?” I asked quietly, pulling one of Jalla’s coins from my pocket.

His eyes narrowed as they met mine. “Who are you?”

“I’m the one paying you to talk.”

He laughed. “That doesn’t look like a Dominion coin.”

“It’s from Baojang.”

His eyes glittered, and he smiled secretively. “I also have some water to sell if you need it. Direct from Baojang.”

Ephretti looked puzzled but I laughed. “So, you’ve dealt with Baojang Princes before, have you?”

“Not really, though there was one visiting Vanika before the city fell. Rakturan, I think his name was. Supposed to marry someone special.”

I smiled. “You’ve lived in Vanika a long time then.”

“Maybe.” He smiled confidently. “Any chance we can get these ropes off? They chafe.”

“Maybe.” I smiled back. I was pretty sure I knew what type of person Tor was. “You’re the type of man who knows a little of everything. Like maybe how to get to things that no one else knows about.”

“Things?” He tilted his head to the side, considering.

“There’s a door leading underground. In the ruined base of the city.”

Even by firelight, I could see the blood drain from his face, his features taking on a haunted look.

“I don’t know anything about that.”

“Or about dust demons using it as a passageway?” I asked.

He paled further.

“Or about who is really in charge in the ruined city and what the weaknesses in the defenses are?”

His features went hard. He didn’t like the idea of us taking his city back, but that didn’t mean he was Dusk Covenant. If he survived the fall of Vanika, he could be very scarred from that.

He is. He never wants to see that again.

“But I bet a clever man like you knows that an army is headed this way and they’re going to take Vanika back by force. Maybe a clever man thinks he could survive this second conflict. But what about his friends. Do you have friends, Tor?”

He licked his lips. “A few. Are you saying you could protect them?”

His face was tight while he spoke. Now, he was bargaining for something he needed.

I smiled. “If you guide us correctly and tell us what we need to know, I’m sure it can be arranged.”

He sagged with relief, nodding. “I think we have an agreement.”

Nice work with the friends. How did you know he had people he cared about?

I wasn’t sure. Maybe it was that twinkle in his eye, or maybe I just wanted as many civilians out of that city as possible before we attacked. Thinking about starting a battle had me nervous as a cat in a dog city.

Mmmm cats.

Now, that was going way too far!

Chapter Nine

It was hours before Tor was done talking. Surprisingly, he actually did know a lot about the inner workings of the city since it had been occupied.

“So,” Dax said, summarizing. “There are still about a thousand citizens in Vanika trying to survive and pull a life back from the wreckage, and an occupying force of a few hundred. They’re led by a contingent of about a dozen Magikas and about fifty Rock Eaters. They have a guard established, a central stone tower built from the wreckage to house them, and an established curfew. If we want to do the most damage to the occupying force and the least damage to the citizenry, a night attack is probably best, but they are scattered, so we can’t just hit a few major targets and be done with that. On top of that, the enemy is housed along with civilians, so our dragons will have to be careful with their fire. They can’t just set every building with enemy soldiers ablaze.”

“Yes,” Tor said, sipping the tea Dax had made for him. “Do you have anything to eat? I mean the tea is nice – I’m not complaining – but a man could use some real food, you know?”

Ephretti rolled her eyes – she still wasn’t happy with Tor, but she fished some dried meat and berries out of a leather pouch for him. She kept her eyes on him, watching his hands no matter where she went in the camp. Perhaps she was still bitter that Dax and I had insisted on untying him.

“And you think you know where this entrance into the ground is.”

“If it’s where the ghost giants go, then yes.” He was still nervous talking about Ifrits. He wouldn’t meet our eyes when he did that.

“You don’t like them,” Dax said.

“We were curious about them at first.” He chewed his meat, pausing and staring at the fire. “A group of us – boys like me, you know?”

Dax nodded. “People who live on the streets. Urchins.”

Tor frowned. “I’m not an urchin. I’m twenty.”

“You aren’t twenty.”

“Fine. I’m seventeen.”

Dax snorted. “Are you thieves?”

Tor shrugged. “If you want to call us that. I’ve never stolen a person, though.” He gave Ephretti a significant look and she scowled.

“There was a group of you,” Dax prompted.

“Yeah, we were curious, so we tried to set a trap for one of them.” How would he even do that? It’s not like you could trap fire and dust. “We set up this big net we found from the ruined dragon cotes and tried to herd the demon to a dead end in the rubble and drop the net over it. It went ... bad.” He cleared his throat. “Jimin and Relv ... well, I don’t have many friends left and they were some of the last ones before ... before ...”

“Before you thought it was a good idea to trap a dust demon?” I offered. He was a fool.

But we’re all fools from time to time.

“Yeah.”

We sat in silence, letting the details he didn’t share fill our minds. Watching your friends die like that – fleeing through the night listening to their screams echo in your ears -

“Okay,” Dax said eventually when the silence became too much. “So, you can take us to the door and you can grab your friends and get them out of the city when we attack.”

Tor nodded.

“Then we all need to get some sleep. Tomorrow night we’ll be busy.”

“And what will we do with him?” Ephretti asked, her eyes narrowed at Tor and her arms crossed over her chest.

“I have an extra blanket he can use,” Dax said mildly.

“That’s not what I meant,” she muttered, but Dax was already fishing out the blanket from his saddlebags. Tor smirked at Ephretti while Dax’s back was turned.

I took a sip of tea, trying to disguise my grin. It was fun to watch someone get Ephretti all wound up. At least, it was until a coughing fit left her gasping for air and spitting up black goo. What was it – a week maybe since her dragon died? That gave her only a week more. We needed to hurry.

I went to sleep resolving to help Ephretti get what she wanted before she died. I owed her that much.

Plus, it’s what we want, too.

Even with the warrens involved?

Yes.

And who would work the central pillars to transport us?

I will.

In that case, I’d just have to trust him and stop worrying.

That’s my spider.

Yeah. Right. As if sleep would come so early. But I must have been tired because I didn’t even realize I’d fallen asleep until Raolcan nudged me with a toe.

You might want to wake up.

I sat up painfully, my leg still hurt all the time, but it was worse when I was going to sleep or first trying to move when I woke. Everything felt stiff and uncertain.

Forcing the pain from my mind, I scrambled for my crutches. It was still dark. I couldn’t have slept for more than an hour at most. A haze on the horizon suggested dawn was not far off, but everything else was silent except for a few quiet grunts and a curse.

“Skies and stars! Just fly, would you! We’re going to get caught! Do you need a magic word? What is it? Up! Fly! Giddyup! Go, dragon, go!”

I pulled myself up on my crutches and looked at Raolcan’s dry expression. He looked like he was trying to suppress a laugh. Further up on his back, Tor sat without a saddle, slapping Raolcan with his hands and digging in his heels.

“That’s a great way to get flamed,” I said thickly, rubbing my eyes.

Tor froze, looking guilty. “What are you going to do about it?”

“Nothing,” I said. “I generally don’t interfere with his fun.”

“Fun?”

Raolcan moved with smooth suddenness, his neck reaching around and his body moving so quickly that he knocked Tor loose and snatched him up with his mouth in a single fluid motion. Tor wriggled in his jaws until Raolcan neatly set him down in front of me, placing a heavy forefoot on Tor’s back and shoulders to keep him pinned in a sitting position.

“He generally finds putting people in their place pretty fun.”

I could really get to like this kid. I told you he was entertaining.

You shouldn’t play with your food.

We don’t eat humans. Not anymore.

“You’re all crazy,” Tor said, bent over by Raolcan’s foot.

I sighed. “The thing about dragons that you should never forget, Tor, is that they are their own masters. It doesn’t matter who rides them or what they choose to do, they belong to themselves. Kicking them and using ‘magic’ words isn’t going to get you anywhere.”

He grinned. “Then how do I get to ride one?”

“You should ask. Respectfully.”

Tor twisted to look up at Raolcan. “How about we make a deal, dragon?”

“Can’t this wait until morning?” I asked. “I’m really very tired.”

Me, too.

“I can’t exactly sleep like this,” Tor said, patting one of the toes wrapped around his shoulder.

I’m not letting go. He’ll just get into trouble. Like a curious puppy.

“Then shift into a position you can sleep in,” I said grumpily. I hobbled back to Raolcan’s side and sank painfully back to the ground. It was too cold and hard on my aching legs. Fortunately, Raolcan was always warm as a cookstove. “Raolcan doesn’t trust you on your own tonight.”

“Are you suggesting that I should sleep under a dragon’s foot?!”

“You’re going to stay under that foot until after we get some sleep. Whether you sleep, is entirely up to you.”

Nice. We need to work on your zingers, though. You always sound too nice when you’re delivering them.

Chapter Ten

As I slept, I dreamt of Leng. Wherever he was now, he didn’t seem to be helping refugees anymore. Had Savette assigned him to something new, or had he gone off on his own? It would be just like him to see an opportunity and take it.

He was dressed in rough city clothes – not his usual Dragon Rider leathers – and he slipped through a dark alley like he was hiding from something. He rounded a corner and I caught a glimpse of city buildings rising up all around him. The night was anything but peaceful, with children wailing in the night and harsh words coming from open doors. The glowing entrance to an inn peeked through a gap between the buildings and Leng shrank back into the shadows as a man was thrown roughly out the door to sprawl across the sky steel street. Sky steel! He was in a skycity somewhere. Leng pushed on, keeping to the shadows, and entered a poorly lit door.

“You’re late,” a voice said from the shadows.

“Two knaves and a dragon kept me at bay.”

“What color of dragon?” The way the question as asked seemed significant – like it meant something beyond just dragons.

“Gold,” Leng answered and there was a sigh of relief from the other man, like the answer was a key to a lock.

“We’ve been expecting you. Come inside.”

I woke to a yell and sat bolt upright, the dream of Leng still fogging my mind. At least he’d been safe, even if I couldn’t puzzle out where he was or what he was doing.

Raolcan slept, snores coming up from his belly and smoke gusting through his nostrils with each rumbling snore. His foot was empty. Tor must have wriggled out of his grip while he slept. Around us, the other dragons slept, too, massive bodies heaving up and down with each breath. I scrambled up on my crutches, scanning the camp. Who yelled? Had Tor betrayed us somehow?

There was dew on the grass despite the bright light – so probably morning still. Ephretti and Dax’s tents sparkled with dew droplets. They must still be in them or the dew would have shaken off when they were disturbed.

I scanned the horizon. No trail of people. No horses. No unfamiliar dragons that I could see. Our wild dragons roamed the hills and mountains, but in ones and twos not in clusters like an opposing force would be.

My breath was quick as my mind flittered from one possible scenario to another. What did I know? That Tor was missing and there had been a scream. It must be him screaming. He either fell off a cliff or was set upon by an enemy. Either way, I was in no condition to help. I’d need to wake Raolcan.

I was just moving to do that, when a pair of silhouettes entered the small hillside clearing, their backs to the sun so their faces were wreathed in shadow. I could tell that the skinny figure in front, with his arm pinned awkwardly behind him, was Tor. The golden halo of the sun lit him from behind. He limped forward but with the over-exaggerated movement of someone feigning more injury than was actually there. That was just like him. A trickster through and through.

It was the other figure that made me take a quavering step forward. There was something familiar about that confident stride. Was it ...?

The second the light finally hit his face, I rushed forward, clenching my jaw against the pain in my legs from my hurry. My crutches sped across the uneven ground as I almost launched myself into his hug.

“Hubric!”

“You’re not dead! Skies and stars, Amel!” His tone was full of wonder, though one arm still pinned Tor in place. “I think I found something that might belong to you. He was sneaking out of here like a thief. He’s lucky he didn’t spook the wild dragons. I have no idea why so many of them are here, but the hills are crawling with them! I haven’t seen a goat or horse alive in miles.”

I really hoped he was joking about the horses.

“Hubric ... I ... I’m sorry. About Haskell.” My mouth felt dry as I spoke. I was saying the wrong thing. There was something I was supposed to say, something to make things better, right? Some words of wisdom? But they were lost to me in the moment.

He ran a hand over his face, letting Tor’s arm fall.

“Stay, boy,” he growled, before turning to me. “You know?”

“I have a curse now – or a gift if you can believe the givers. I see little snatches of my friends lives.”

“And you saw ...?”

“Yes.”

Light glimmered off a single tear on his cheek but he sniffed and gave a jerky nod before saying. “This is not Baojang.”

Why the sudden turn of conversation? “No, it’s Vanika.”

“You were sent to Baojang to bring reinforcements.”

I laughed in relief. “They’re on their way. We came here to find a faster way to bring them to Savette.”

“A faster way? The fastest way is to march them straight to her or leave in ships.”

“Or go through the warrens? Through a door under Vanika?”

His old face paled. “Never again.”

“That’s what I said, but Raolcan says that’s silly. Either way, that’s why we’re here. Jalla’s army is right behind us.”

“Whose army?”

“Did I mention I’m a slave now?”

His big eyes and stunned expression were enough to almost make it worth it. Almost.

“Nonsense. You’re my apprentice. I don’t allow my apprentices to become slaves.”

“You’ll have to take that up with Jalla.”

“Hrmph. I suppose I will, then.” He had an affectionate humor in his eyes as he watched me.

“She’s not very easy to talk to.”

“Neither am I.”

I laughed. Having Hubric back filled me with relief. It was like a part of myself had returned to me. His growls felt like home.

“Do you have a fire lit, Amel?”

I nodded.

“Good. You can brew caf and tell me all about it. And you, boy, are going to stay where I can see you. I know your type.”

“I’m just a simple city boy,” Tor said with an innocent smile. “Remember? I told you I was with these people and that I’d just needed a moment to myself. It’s not my fault that you didn’t believe me.”

I rolled my eyes. Ephretti wasn’t the only one who’d had enough of Tor.

“And why did you need a moment to yourself?” Hubric asked skeptically.

“I needed to ... meditate, I guess ... compose myself. You know, get ready for the battle in a few hours.”

“Battle?” Hubric looked at me.

“Tonight we’re going to take Vanika back.”

He laughed, sobering when he realized I was serious.

“Well, you’ve gone and turned into a full Purple while you were gone, haven’t you? Fully arrogant and certain you know what’s best. We’ll have to get you raised to Dragon Rider as soon as we can before your head is too swollen for a new scarf. Sit down and tell me all about it.”

Chapter Eleven

By the time Ephretti joined us, yawning, Hubric was on his third mug of caf – he’d brought his own grinds – and was grinning hugely. She leapt when she saw him, like she’d seen a ghost.

“Hubric Duneshifter! You scared me half to death!”

“I see you’ve managed to mangle my apprentice,” he barked. Her face went white until he said, “Not that she doesn’t do most of this to herself.”

But she had an ease about her after that, like she was safe again. Hubric had taken the group authority away from her as easily as reaching for another mug of caf.

Dax was also pleased. He asked Hubric about friends of his in Dominion City and White Dragon Riders who led their color, offering him food from his own packs. I was surprised by that. Whites and Purples didn’t usually mix.

Times have been hard for Dax. He’s – soft – now. Vulnerable after everything. The prejudice has evaporated and the old walls just aren’t there.

Hubric also seemed indifferent to the color rivalry, gladly accepting the food and quizzing Dax on my health in a way that made me blush and shift uncomfortably. I resorted to reading my book of Ibrenicus Prophecies to drown out their conversation, but after just reading a short piece I felt stuck. My eyes scanned over it time and again, but I couldn’t seem to get past that little paragraph, though it meant nothing to me:

Twice dead, she rises.

Her rising a sign of salvation.

Favor from the heavens.

Relief from the fires of hell

How could you be twice dead?  The little verse haunted me as the afternoon wore on, but no matter how often I read and re-read it, no clarity came to me.

“You need to copy your own book soon,” Hubric said when he caught me reading it yet again. “Talsan’s is good, but having a copy in your own writing is important.”

“When do I go back and round up my friends?” Tor asked, interrupting us. He’d spent the day leaning against a fallen log with an arm draped over his face and a flask of something in the other hand. I didn’t want to know what was in it. Despite Raolcan’s strange fondness for the boy, I found his irresponsibility grating.

He’s doing his best. It’s not easy for a stray to find his way in this world – particularly not during a war. His family was already poor and in trouble before the fall of the city and the last of them was lost to him that day. He lives how he can – scavenging and thieving. He doesn’t know if he can trust us and he certainly doesn’t feel part of this group. I think if he were given a chance he would be a different person.

I wasn’t so sure. People usually were who they were.

“You’ll need an escort,” Hubric said. Someone who can help you find your friends and spirit them out of the city.”

“Someone to babysit me and make sure I show you that tunnel entrance, you mean,” Tor said with a wry twist to his grin.

Hubric laughed. “Well, you did say you wanted to ride a dragon and by that gleam in your eye, it might be all the incentive you need to get back here.”

“Really?” Tor asked, warily. “You’ll let me fly with you when I come back?”

“If you don’t bring the guards with you, sure. But Kyrowat is temperamental, so you’d better treat him with respect or he’ll flame the bottom of your breeches.”

I snickered at the mental image of Kyrowat doing just that. Where was he?

Hiding. He’s embarrassed and afraid to face me.

What did he have to be embarrassed about?

He wasn’t fast enough to save Haskell. He’s getting old.

I felt my heart sink at his words. None of us were fast enough in this war. None of us could prevent pain and evil and terror. All we could do was fight as hard as we could for the people we loved and be there to hold them and help them when we failed.

That’s not just how war works. It’s how all of life works. Accepting your limitations is important.

But so was rising above them. I gritted my teeth at yet another flare of pain from my wound. My old injury was giving me more trouble now that my good leg was injured, as if it was bearing more of the load.

Raolcan should go talk to Kyrowat face to face. Maybe if he saw that eye he’d stop hiding.

I hadn’t thought of that.

Vulnerability helped hurt people come closer. It helped show them they weren’t alone.

It’s not vulnerability, it’s a badge of honor.

Whatever it was, it might help.

Raolcan quietly snuck away through the tall trees and I watched as Tor and Ephretti loaded up on Tyalmae’s back.

“No, he’s not going to fly,” I heard Ephretti saying. “He’s going to sneak us down to the treeline so we can join the road and you can enter the city like a normal person. You’ll have to come back and ride Kyrowat with Hubric if you want to fly.”

“That dusty old corpse probably doesn’t fly as fast as you,” Tor said.

Hubric grunted from beside me.

“Don’t let him hear you say that or he’ll test your belly’s fortitude. Have you ever barrel-rolled over a city? It’s not fun the first time.”

Their voices were already fading out.

“I hope this path through the warrens really works,” Hubric said quietly. “Savette is in real trouble. Her forces are strong, but the Ifrits Starie has raised are numerous. Our people need help.”

As if her name had triggered it, I saw through Savette’s eyes for a moment. On a hill far away, a beacon of dark light descended on the hilltop. In its center a red-headed woman stood on the back of a golden dragon, darkness swirling around her and in the tangles of darkness, Ifrits clustered. They spread out around her like cattle on a hillside. I gasped and fell back into reality.

“Are they fighting every day?” I asked, tightly.

“Small skirmishes. Testing one another. The real live-or-die fight comes soon.”

“We need to be there.”

“Yes.”

I shook out my leg and stood, hobbling to the area where Vanika could easily be seen through the trees. It looked daunting, but tonight we would do our best to take it back for the Dominion.

“Are you ready for this?” Hubric asked. He’d followed me, sipping his caf as he followed.

“I think so.”

“Battles that you choose – sometimes they aren’t what you expect.”

I licked my lips, thinking hard. I didn’t’ know what else we could do to prepare that we hadn’t already done.

“And you really can call up dragons with a pipe?” Hubric pressed.

I pulled it from my message pouch to show him. “Yes.”

“Then I’d better make things formal. I’ve been ... thinking a lot lately. I don’t want to leave anything undone.”

I turned to him with wide eyes. “Please don’t talk like you’re dying! I just got you back!”

His gaze was misty as it drifted over the yellowing leaves of the trees. There was a tingle in the air of seasons changing. And that feeling of change made me nervous.

“War is uncertain. Amel. So is life. Sometimes, it’s full and blossoming. Sometimes, it’s a bare struggle. We never know what new, surprising gift is about to be given and what unexpected shattering is about to befall us. Nothing is ever certain. So, we strive, clinging to what we hold dear and being true to our word – because in the end truth is all we have.”

“Yes,” I agreed, my heart heavy.

“I have a gift for you. By my honor and the truth – which is all I have – I declare you complete in your training – a full Dragon Rider in all but name and you have my blessing to pursue that name with the Purple Council.”

“Thank you,” I said, my eyes misty. Having him declare me ready ... the honor was so real it felt like I could touch it. But I was thankful for more than that. I was thankful for the strange but powerful way that he had trained me. Not with words – though there had been words – but with his example and his way of being a Dragon Rider. I couldn’t even think of doing it any other way.

Chapter Twelve

It was tense moments as dusk fell and we waited for Tor and Ephretti. I sat on Raolcan, glad to have time to adjust my straps after he helped me mount him. I was going to have to get used to this new way of doing such a simple thing.

“Remember the plan,” Hubric said again. Kyrowat was grumpy under him, letting off puffs of smoke in irritable impatience.

He’s doing better. He told me losing an eye would be good for me. That maybe I’d be less cynical if I only saw half as much.

“Amel flies up high,” Hubric continued, not distracted like I was by Raolcan’s interjection. “And uses the Pipe to call and direct the dragons.” Although actually, it would be Raolcan directing them. But that was a secret for Purples only. “She’ll lead the center charge while we stagger out to lead the edge of the attack in a long line. One pass where we hit the walls and towers, and then we circle back and try again. There will be Magikas. There will be archers. This is a city with a serious line of defense, not a ramshackle encampment or a few scattered Ifrits.” Ha! Like fighting Ifrits was ever easy! “We give it our best shot and hit the hardest we can right from the beginning. We don’t want any casualties in the citizenry. We’re only attacking the defenses and the Dusk Covenant.”

My stomach was bunched in knots. This wasn’t what I’d trained for. None of us was Red. This just wasn’t what we did.

Dragons have fought men before. They make easy targets.

That wasn’t very comforting. What about the people like Tor who were just caught up in it? What if someone innocent died because of my plan to do this?

A lot more will die if you don’t.

There were Magikas down there,

The Magikas are more of a challenge since they throw fire back, but it’s all the more satisfying to singe one.

And the Ifrits? Did he have something glib to say about them?

Well, their a little insubstantial, aren’t they?

Oh, ha ha. There was a crashing sound of someone walking through the low bushes and then Tyalmae poked his green head out through the trees. Like most Greens, he had a very triangular head with very little mane, almost like a horse. Ephretti looked like her patience was exhausted and she practically threw Tor at Hubric.

“Take him.”

Hubric chuckled and turned to Tor. “Climb up into the stirrups. That’s it. Now, these straps are cinched tightly around your hips and those around your shoulders. These ones are for thighs. Don’t look at me like that, I’m not strapping them for you. You do your own work around here, boy.” Then in a quieter voice. “Are you friends safe then?”

“Yes,” Tor said. “Let’s go, old man.”

“You don’t want me to  double check your straps?”

“I’m younger than you. I don’t need my food fed to me on a spoon. I can take care of myself!”

“Uh huh.”

I didn’t catch anything else Hubric said, but I saw the wicked gleam in Kyrowat’s eye and saw Raolcan shaking with laughter as they launched into the sky. Kyrowat barrel-rolled almost before he had enough height for the maneuver, brushing the tops of the trees with his wing tips and loosening Tor from his saddle. He was dangling by one strap and yelling when we streaked past. I wasn’t worried. Hubric wouldn’t actually kill him while he knocked sense into him ... would he?

Doubtful. He finds the boy as entertaining as I do. Wants to make a Dragon Rider out of him, which would be a good idea. He has the guts for it. And he could use a dragon to keep him in the right place.

And where was the ‘right place’?

In the sky of course!

And with that, I was loosened out of my nerves and we were streaking away from the mountain lake and toward the city as I fumbled in my bag and pulled out the Pipe. Hubric – always cleverer than I was – had  offered me a gift while we waited – a narrow leather strap to loop it around my belt.

If you lose your seat or get knocked around, you don’t want to lose a thing like that.

I blew the first note with shaking fingers, watching as the dragons on the hills leapt into the air. Was it right to call them this way?

Just stick to a few notes. That calls us like a horn to battle, but we can still resist. It’s then you play a song that it’s irresistible.

Their silhouettes surrounded us. I could feel the wind from their wings as they joined us in the sky. At first, there were only a few, flapping beside us, soaring through the cool evening air. Then there were a dozen, thirty, a hundred. By the time we approached the city walls, they had all joined us. It was strange to think so many had been hiding in the hills waiting, as we chose our time to carry out this plan. What made them so patient?

Good leadership. I’ve always been an excellent leader.

Was there anything he wasn’t a master of?

I’m not very good at table manners, if you must know. But I think we should revise the rules for those, anyway. Points should be awarded for clear enjoyment of food and overall enthusiasm.

And how would he award points in the coming battle?

Everyone who survives gets a point. Make sure you get a point, Amel. That’s an order.

He was silent after that, clearly focused on directing the dragons. More than one fight broke out between them and a single clash of his mighty jaws or half-snarl towards them was enough to stop the fight immediately.

My grip on the saddle was moist, but I kept the Pipe in one nervous hand, just in case. On our final approach toward the city, I kept my back straight and my gaze level. The walls – made of timber, chunks of rock and crumpled sky steel – were formidable despite our dragons. There were so many places for the tiny figures below to hide.

Magikas and archers scrambled for places on the makeshift walls and towers, letting off arrows a little too soon, so they fell before they reached us. They followed up immediately with a raft of fireballs, as if to announce their intentions. They knew they were under attack and they were ready to fight.

Raolcan’s emotions through our connection were almost giddy as he swooped toward the choppy wall, his dragon cohort at his back. He flamed dramatically, setting the part of the wall aflame in our first pass. Behind him, dragon after dragon set their flames loose on the towers and walls.

I hadn’t seen rain since I’d returned to the Dominion – even longer than that perhaps, and the timbers were dry. They went up like a fire made of aged split wood. This close to the first frost, there were usually rains and mud. I hadn’t really thought about that until now. I hadn’t factored in wall-burnability to the plan. But with them so easily set aflame, it was almost too easy!

I was already beginning to celebrate when I heard a cry from Hubric. I spun in my saddle to follow his pointing finger.

Flames leapt from the burning walls, licking up the towers as men leapt from their heights to the ground below. I gasped as the first one dashed on the rocks. Even from a low tower, the height was too high to survive.

My grip tightened on Raolcan’s saddle, and I watched, helplessly, as the flames kicked up in the wind like waves crashing into the shore. They swirled into the make-shift shanty-like structures behind them, consuming a dozen in a single breath and rushing further.

Wait! No! It wasn’t supposed to go this way!

My breath was growing faster as my gaze flickered from one scene of horror to the next. The dragons hadn’t stopped – they were still flaming towers and walls further into the city. I fumbled for the pipe, my fingers too thick to grab it the first time. I brought it to my lips the second time but paused, uncertain about what to do. I knew how to gather them up, but how did I make them stop?

They had to stop!

There was a tall building – two storys high – the base of it on fire. Like a vision from the Troglodytes, it flashed into my vision and then out again just long enough to see a mother passing her children to the building beside it. I gasped as Kyrowat skidded to a landing within the inferno, Hubric and Tor rushing into the building the children were being passed to. It was already smoldering. They’d been passed from one danger to another.

I never expected this. This wasn’t the plan!

I spun to the side to see Ephretti, frustration on her face, signaling sharply to me to stop this.

Dax was nowhere to be seen. He must be in the flames like Hubric. It would just make sense that his soft heart would leap to help.

I put the pipe to my lips and blew the first note I could think of, but nothing happened. I blew and blew as gnats filled the sky.

Panicked, my fingers fumbled with the lever. I must have accidentally bumped it. It wasn’t set to dragons anymore.

Raolcan! Help!

Trying... too much for me...

They must not be listening to him. They needed help. I adjusted the wing with trembling hands and blew again, seeing the dragons on the edges of the city swirl toward me. That must be right. For good measure, I kept blowing, and blowing and-

Stop! Stop!

I stopped.

It’s too much! They aren’t thinking now!

A cluster of Magikas on the far end of the city fired in unison, their fireballs surrounding a white dragon whose expression was in a daze. He crumpled, falling from the sky like burning ash over a campfire. He fell to the ground, breaking the buildings beneath him and setting them on fire as the magenta, sticky Magika fire spread from him to the area around his fall.

I’d gone too far in the other direction!

Dragons were falling as quick as I could spot them. Dozens of them. Each fall lit a new blaze.

Help! I screamed to Raolcan. Help!

Trying.

Help!

THINK.

The message of the Troglodytes pounded in my brain like a nail into wood. I shuddered. Think about what? But the message wasn’t for me. Around us, I saw dragons shaking themselves out of their stupor and turning on their adversaries.

But that was wrong. Right now, Magikas were not our problem, and nor were archers, or even Ifrits. The fire was stealing innocent lives. The fire that I set, that I ordered. I hadn’t known – hadn’t realized – what I was doing, but every choking, screaming, dying soul below us was my fault.

Shuddering with horror. I laid my hands on Raolcan’s scales, forcing my thoughts from incoherent panic to a plan. We needed water. The lake!

I didn’t even need to clearly think of what I was planning before the entire mass of dragons was wheeling from the city and back toward the mountain. We dove toward the lake at full speed, the cool night air washing over us, so peaceful and different from the fires in the city below.  Raolcan opened his mouth as wide as it would go. On either side of me, I saw dragons doing the same, taking huge, gulping mouthfuls of water and spinning in the air to turn back on the city.

Would a hundred mouthfuls help? Two hundred? Three hundred? Would that even dent the infernos raging beneath us?

Between the pounding of my terrified heart and the desperate speed of my beloved dragon, I felt completely turned around as we shot toward the city. Something was on the horizon where the road led to Vanika – a dark moving mass. I prayed it wasn’t Ifrits, but there was no time to plan for them or even worry.

We swept over the creeping line of fire, each dragon spitting water down on the licking flames and arcing back into the air to fill their mouths again. Steam rose up into the air and in the hellish orange light the city flickered and melted light into dark and shadow into brilliance.

I had a horrible feeling that the city was me. It was shadow that thought it was light. It was smoke that thought it was clarity. I was trying hard not to imagine the fates of those already lost, trying desperately not to think of how few would be saved by the Dragon Riders in the city. If I stopped for a moment and thought of those children with Hubic racing toward them...

I was in a steady rhythm of dive, scoop, ascend, swoop, spit, ascend. Over and over and over until my mind grew numb with it.

Chapter Thirteen

We can leave them to this pattern now.

It felt like we’d been doing it for hours.

At most, it’s been twenty minutes.

We flew toward the city again, my mind spinning with a brew of guilt mixed with terrible despair.

Your despair helps no one. Shake out of it!

It was all my fault. My plan. My execution.

Your responsibility now to save who you can.

I couldn’t shake off the horror of what I’d done so easily.

You have to.

We landed in a swirl of flame. I was high enough on his back to be shielded from the worst of it, but here on the ground of the ruined city things were so much worse than in the air. People ran, screaming, from the fire, children, and belongings in their arms. Magikas on horses sped through the streets, not caring who they trampled in a flurry of flame and choking smoke. Soldiers barrelled through in knots of five or more, ignoring cries for help.

Tor ran out of a building nearby, a pair of grimy children in his arms. He rushed to me and shoved them at me.

“Hubric is setting them down outside the city. Dax has a fire. Look for it.”

He was gone, rushing back to the building before I had time to question him. I barely managed to grip the too-silent little ones before Raolcan leapt into the air. He sped over the city toward a mark only he could see. The tiny bundles in my arms were so fragile, so small. I clung to them, tears flowing down my face. I’d destroyed their world.

So that’s what that fire is!

Where were their parents? Who would look after them when all this was done?

Keep your mind on what you can do. Big chasms can only be crossed one step at a time. Take the step right in front of you first. The next one after that and the next after that. Eventually, you’ll find you’ve crossed the chasm without realizing it.

The children were coughing by the time we set down at the campfire, their huge eyes glassy with tears. I gathered them in a hug, cooing gentle words until Ephretti came running out to take them from my arms. Behind her, Dax worked over a burnt man, speaking quietly. Someone had found the time to throw up a canvas over him like a makeshift tent. I squinted at it.

“Once a White, always a White,” Ephretti said as she took the children. She waited until I met her eyes. “Your plan is a terrible failure.”

Like I needed to be reminded. My arms felt empty with the children gone. Just like my mind was empty of everything but fear and shame.

I watched her bring them to a group of people huddled under another canvas and settle them in with a few other children under a single blanket – Ephretti’s own blanket, I realized.

We leapt again into the air. My heart was breaking, my eyes stinging. I barely noticed when we flew over a group of archers fleeing the city on horseback. Their arrows swooshed around me, deflecting off of Raolcan’s belly armor. But I felt heavy and dead inside. So what if one of them hit me? I’d been hit before. I could be hit again. All this was my fault.

Beating yourself up and being the sorriest of sorries isn’t going to fix this, Amel. It might make you feel better to punish yourself, but it won’t help right now. Focus! Shake yourself out of this! You’re no help to anyone when you’re focused on yourself!

I focused.

The dragons were still circling, battling the expanding line of flames. They were keeping it from engulfing the entire city, but the flames continued to march slowly forward. At least half the city was aflame now and the dragons were forced to weave in and out of the billowing black towers of smoke. Despite the darkness around us, the countryside looked orange in the light of the fires.

That dark mass down the road continued to creep toward us, and if it were Ifrits, we were dead already. Between the fires and the clumps of Magikas and warriors still fighting, we didn’t have enough people and dragons. I glanced at the newly built tower in the center of the city – still untouched, it bristled with archers and Magikas ready to fight. But, along the walls and further out, every able-bodied person who could flee, was fleeing. Tiny figures and their long shadows ran from the city in every direction like ants from a kicked anthill.

I gritted my teeth as we descended again into the blazing hell below, dodging dragons with water-filled mouths and whizzing magenta fireballs from the Magikas still too loyal to turn coat and flee. We met Kyrowat flying up as we swooped down. He was heavy in the air with eight people clinging to him like barnacles. Shockingly, Tor was holding four people, one of his straps on each of them, calling out sharp instructions.

“Hold on to your strap! Eyes on the dragon, not the sky or the ground! It’s not far, just be brave! I’ve got you!”

Hubric’s teeth were gritted, ash and soot streaked across his face and through his wild white braids. He held the people around him expertly, not even pretending to steer his old dragon. Kyrowat flew like rescuing panicked people was his daily profession. He was as competent and steady as Raolcan, but as I looked into the burning city I knew it wouldn’t be enough.

The wind was picking up and as it did, the flames burst forward like a dam opening. A gust of hot air shoved us back, spinning Raolcan off course. I hung on tight, watching as the central tower spun closer and closer.

Chapter Fourteen

We smacked against the tower, tumbling away as arrows and fireballs arched through the air around us. The gust of fire pushed the line of the blaze forward, gobbling up a new line of tumble-down shanties. I gasped, clinging to Raolcan’s neck as he righted himself. Heat flashed against my skin and I hissed at the pain and intensity.

The fires were almost to the tower, but the Magikas seemed more intent than ever on fighting us instead of the flames. I felt tight and edgy as I watched them. If the fires made me feel like my skin was curling in on itself, what must it feel like in that tower?

Fools.

I tried to focus instead of being distracted by them. Raolcan was fighting them flame for flame, fire for fire. A magenta ball of fire came so close that my face felt suddenly hot, the smell of burning hair filled the air.

Oops. It’s okay. You’ll look fine without eyebrows.

Somewhere in that panicked darkness, innocents were fleeing the conflict. How would I get them all out? There weren’t enough Dragon Riders and the wild dragons wouldn’t allow people on their backs. There had to be some way...

What if the dragons cleared a path for them out of the city and toward Dax’s encampment?

It might work. A lot of the problems down there come from confusion. They don’t know how the fires are moving, but we can see them from the air.

He spun, and I heard arrows clatter behind us. Why were we so close to the tower?

I’m keeping them occupied while the others work. The fools don’t know they’ve been beaten.

So, if the dragons cleared a safe lane out of the city and kept it clear and wet, that would be a start. Then, if we could just get people to touch down and tell the people which way to go...

Kyrowat thinks it will work. I’m changing the orders for the dragons.

I felt tense as we circled the tower again drawing the fire of the Magikas to us. Fireballs landed uselessly behind us in the flaming parts of the city instead of arching towards the areas untouched by flames. Raolcan was keeping their fire away from the tinder-pile city one swoop at a time.

Little steps. One after another.

A pair of black dragons landed in the smoky city, and as if by magic, began to clear a path, pulling rubble out from a road and widening it. Behind them, the dragons bearing water began to drop their mouthfuls on the cleared path. Kyrowat dropped down nearby and moments later tiny figures pushed their way through the rubble to the path, rushing down it almost as quickly as the Blacks could clear the path.

Tyalmae flew past, Ephretti signing like she thought I could even keep up with what she was saying.

Hubric told her to fly to the other side of the line and start herding people to the clear path.

We just had to hold on. We just had to get as many people clear as we could.

Something changed.

My brow wrinkled as I tried to think of what it was.

They’ve stopped firing at us. They’re leaving the tower.

A gust of steam puffed up from the base of the tower and my eyes widened as I realized the Magikas could throw orbs of water as easily as they’d thrown balls of fire. Where had that been during the fire? Why hadn’t they helped the people?

Selfish. They care only for themselves. Wrap your scarf around your mouth and come on.

We dove down past the flames to the thick fog of smoke. I poured water from my waterskin over the scarf covering my mouth. Raolcan set down in a crossroads between heaps of stone rubble from when this had been a skycity and makeshift vendor booths made of wood planking and salvaged rock. People huddled in the rock openings.

“Hurry!” I called to them through the scarf. “There’s a clear way out of the city that way!”

“It’s safer to stay here,” someone shouted from an alcove. “We’re under attack and we need to be where the Magikas can defend us.”

“The whole city is on fire. You need-”

A dark figure leapt off the top of a heap of rubble, crashing into me. Raolcan reared up, but my attacker grabbed my shoulders.

“Die, Lightbringer!”

I tried to dodge his grasping hands, but I was tied in the saddle and he was too quick for me. Raolcan writhed beneath me, but there was nothing he could do to the man attacking me that wouldn’t hurt me, too. The man’s rugged face was inches from mine when his hands grabbed my neck. He held on tight as I wriggled, trying to escape his grasp. His grip was too tight! Every movement only made it worse.

“The Dusk Covenant will never surrender. We are fuelled by the dust of the earth, the blood of the fallen, and the power of the One. The brothers of Ko’Torenth have prophesied our victory.”

Ko’Torenth? The thought fell from my mind before I even had it fully in place.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t think.

It hurt so much.

My neck felt weak and fragile as his fingers dug deep into flesh and muscle, cutting off my breath, pinning me in place, forcing me to plunge toward death... darkness flashed across my vision.

I saw Savette for a moment, battling in a rain-slicked field, her troops forced forward through the storm and knee-deep mud to fight against raging foes. She reached out both her hands, shouting as her light hit the darkness of Starie Atrelan. Starie’s eyes were wild, the mark on her arm emanating black light as her dark, cloying mists wrapped around the dragons fighting for Savette, pulling them down from the sky and into the muck. Savette’s light severed the bands of darkness at the last moment and the scene went dark.

But now, everything was dark.

Dark. Painful. Desperate.

“This isn’t over, Lightbringer. The One will avenge us.” I could barely hear him through the hissing in my ears.

So, this was death. Being shaken and squeezed to pulp in the hands of a madman spouting vitriol.

Not yet. Not yet, spider. Hold on.

But life was slipping from me and as my hands went limp and then my body, I was glad my last thoughts would be of Raolcan.

Chapter Fifteen

A flash of pain seared through my throat as the air finally escaped. I gasped, sucking in air and choking violently on the smoke that came in with it.

“Take off! We need to get her to fresh air. Now!”

My vision crackled with black and white spots, swirling so badly that I shut my eyes against the nauseating whir. I felt Raolcan lift into the air, felt a cool breeze on my face. Through my aching throat, the air felt fresher. I sucked in painful breath after painful breath. Strong hands held me.

“There you go. Breathe. You’re okay.”

“Tor?” I cracked an eyelid to try to get a look at him.

See? I told you he wasn’t a bad guy. Hubric and Kyrowat landed nearby to help with the city and when he saw you he leapt into the fight.

“Don’t tell anyone, but I have a soft spot for cranky girls who ride dragons.”

“Cranky-?” my voice cut off into a fit of coughing. It felt like my throat was being shredded.

“Yeah, you probably shouldn’t talk. Even blowing that whistle is going to hurt for a while. I think I’d better ride with you for now – unless you want to go to the infirmary.”

I shook my head, not trusting my voice. Each breath was like a gift, clean, pure and full of gratitude. I leaned into that feeling, focused on one breath after another. I’d have to let Raolcan take charge while I recovered.

I’m glad you’re okay, spider. You had me worried.

Affection poured through our bond, but we were already descending.

“I wonder who those guys are,” Tor muttered, watching the black mass as it approached the city, but a moment later we’d landed and as I slumped forward in the saddle, he leapt off and started shouting to the people surrounding us.

The mass of people on the road grows closer as the hours pass.

How long had we battled this fire?

It’s past midnight. A strange time for an army to march.

Army?

“Come on, dragon!” Tor yelled, vaulting back onto Raolcan. “Let’s fly!”

Raolcan hissed.

“Get over yourself,” Tor muttered as Raolcan launched suddenly, knocking Tor backward so he had to cling to my saddle.

Maybe I don’t like him after all. How are your lungs?

They felt like they were on fire and I was barely keeping my seat – but I was alive. Sweat ran down my forehead, stinging my eyes and making trails through the soot. I glanced at Tor and found he looked the same way.

We were all marked by this night.

Raolcan gained height and as he did, I saw a burst of magenta light a little way northeast of the city. I was too tired to even think of what question I should be asking.

You want to know why the Magikas are flinging fireballs outside the city. Our dragons are not there. They’re busy fighting the fires and rescuing people.

Yes.

It’s hard to tell, but I think they just washed up on the shore of that massive army.

Those were morning problems. Right now, we still had night problems.

Isn’t that the truth.

I looked down over the city, my head aching and my mind reeling. The line of the fire had crept over three-quarters of the city, but it seemed to be holding there. Our weariness was proof that it could be fought. Proof we could still snatch souls from the gaping maw of the fire.

If we don’t stop it completely, then we’ll need a miracle. The fire will spread beyond the city to the forest surrounding it and if that happens, all the people we’ve saved will die anyway.

What a cheerful outlook. I felt too tired to even know what to do. The Pipe wouldn’t help now. We had no miracles to stop fires. It suddenly occurred to me that we hadn’t seen any Ifrits yet. Where were they hiding?

I don’t want to know. Don’t wish them on us now.

We needed a miracle.

The wind picked up, and fire kicked up with it, surging across the city so suddenly that my breath caught in my throat. Out of a spurt of flame, Kyrowat shot into the air, loaded with people clinging to him. Tyalmae was right behind him with Ephretti.

Ephretti was signing – of course.

She thinks they’ve cleared all the people they can. Anyone left will be taken by the fire.

But that wasn’t acceptable. It was my responsibility to stop this. There had to be something, anything to stop this fire! I turned my head upward, looking at the swirling clouds above. The light came from the heavens and bathed the earth. It streamed from between clouds and filled up dark places. It crept across the ground and revealed hidden things.

You sound delusional.

But I wasn’t. Wherever that light came from, somehow, Savette could tap it, and bring that strength to bear. It had even come through me once. But this time, I didn’t have a prophecy on the tip of my tongue and I didn’t have light to read the book by – except for by the light of the raging fires.

“We need to do something. We can’t just circle here,” Tor said from behind me. “Wait! Ephretti must have seen something!”

I followed his line of vision to see her diving down into the flames. What was she doing? That was too close! She wasn’t just on the edge, like we’d been. She was deep in the heart of the burning shanty-city, flames licking around her and Tyalmae. She disappeared from sight and I gasped. She was going to die down there.

Chapter Sixteen

“Come on, dragon! Go after her!” Tor said, kicking his heels into Raolcan.

Raolcan circled the area around where she disappeared, the heat – even from so high up – searing the soles of our feet and legs as he tried to find her in the flames.

Please light, please. We just needed a miracle. Something to break the raging fires. Something to help!

“Well? What are you waiting for? Get in there!” Tor’s feet were flapping like he thought he could do the flying as he tried to spur Raolcan into the flames. Fool. Raolcan knew what he was doing. “I know what it’s like to live down there, okay? I know what it’s like to forage for food and never feel safe. Whoever she’s saving needs that help.” He sounded desperate. “Come on, dragon, please!”

“She can’t have survived that,” I said through my raw throat. It was like Ephretti was dead all over again – first when her dragon was slain, and now again in the flames. Wait. What was that prophecy I’d read yesterday afternoon? The one that stuck in my head, so I couldn’t move on.

Twice dead, she rises.

I didn’t see her rising.

I can’t hear her mind, Raolcan said. His mental voice sounded sad and mine was, too.

What was the rest of that prophecy? It was only the first line that kept ringing in my mind. Twice dead, she rises. Twice dead, she rises.

I said it aloud.

“What does that mean?” Tor asked.

“It’s one of the Ibrenicus prophecies.” I couldn’t stop the tears that filled my eyes. Ephretti hadn’t deserved one death, never mind two. She was just so keen on doing what was good and right. She just cared so much. Enough to fly into the flames for what seemed to be no reason. We needed to go down there and look.

It’s too hot. You and Tor will die if I go in there.

“The what?” Tor asked.

“Prophecies for our time and the times to come. I read them to help guide me.” My eyes were fixed on where we last saw her.

“I generally find common sense is best,” he said with a sniff, but his shaking voice told me he was trying to disguise emotion just as I was.

“Look! What’s that?” I pointed. There was a puff of steam from the center of the flames. We stared at it, frozen in place, unable to look away.

“There’s a pool there,” Tor said. In the middle of the square. It used to be a fancy fountain in the old times, but now it just holds dirty water.”

“So, it’s just water evaporating in the flames?” I didn’t want to get my hopes up. It was just steam.

The wind grabbed the steam, brushing it away like a curtain. I drew in a breath and held it, watching the shreds of mist tear away, staring at crimson glow. Was that? It couldn’t be...

Lancing up through the flames shot a green dragon, streaked with soot and the rainbow burnish of flame on scale. On his back, his rider huddled over a small bundle of rags, both of them blackened and seared.

Twice dead, she rises.

The rest of the prophecy came back to me as I watched her soar into the air, Tyalmae’s wings extending outward in victory. It barely seemed real.

Twice dead, she rises.

Her rising a sign of salvation.

Favor from the heavens.

Relief from the fires of hell.

The first drop of rain hit my nose, like a splashing tear.

And then a second.

And then whatever great dragon surrounded the earth and held it in place opened his mouth and water flooded over us.

Her rising. The sign of salvation.

Or, it’s just raining.

This was the miracle we needed!

It won’t save the city. It’s too late for that.

But it would save the countryside and the people we’d helped escape and maybe even the ones still fleeing the burning hell below.

I still couldn’t believe it was real. I was afraid to breathe.

“Amel?” Tor asked. “That’s your name, right?”

I ignored Tor. Ephretti must have landed in that pool of water and scooped up some poor soul huddling there to escape the flames. She wouldn’t have even realized that she was the sign...

“Look, it’s not like I expected you to have the good sense to come out of the rain, but I did think you might want to look at this.” His voice had taken on an urgent tone.

I opened my eyes. Across the burning city, a golden dragon flew toward us and the fierce woman on his back was staring directly at me.

Jalla.

Chapter Seventeen

Oh great. My master was back. We’d better head toward the infirmary. Any meeting with Jalla was going to be hot enough without adding a flaming city in the mix.

She’s not going to like that. She’ll think you’re making her follow you.

She could think whatever she wanted. Where was she a few hours ago when we could have used her army?

Marching across the landscape, I’d guess.

Why was Raolcan always so easy on Jalla? She didn’t deserve it!

No one deserves mercy or kindness. But it’s a gift that the merciful give, regardless.

My cheeks felt hot.

That wasn’t a rebuke. It was just a reminder.

“Who’s the woman on the golden dragon?” Tor asked.

“Jalla the Winged Prince of Baojang.”

“Pretty, isn’t she?”

I scowled. Pretty? Of all the adjectives I thought fit Jalla, that was not one of them.

“If you’re attracted to snakes.”

“I might be. I’ve never met a snake before who was also a beautiful woman.”

We landed on the hillside not far from the makeshift infirmary. As if our landing was a catalyst, Kyrowat leapt into the air and landed roughly beside us.

“That dragon came from the approaching army,” Hubric said as Kyrowat shifted under him. “I figured you could use some backup.” He nodded to Tor. “Good work back there.”

Tor dismounted but I stayed on Raolcan’s back. I preferred it here – especially now that walking was even more difficult.

I’m happy to be your legs, Hopebringer.

I felt a pang of guilt. I hadn’t brought much hope here.

It wasn’t hope that you brought when you sent dragons to spit on a fire? Not hope when you helped make a way for fleeing innocents? I’m not sure what you think hope is.

I just thought I wouldn’t make mistakes like this. I didn’t think I’d ever be the one to destroy something or to hurt people. I was starting to think now that I didn’t know who I was. Maybe I just knew what I’d done – and it wasn’t all good.

I know who you are. You’re Amel Leafbrought, Raolcan’s human. Your aching heart of compassion is what defines you. Your desperate attempts to save the innocent in both small ways and huge designs, are what makes you Amel. I won’t let you forget that. You are what you’ve done – sure. But you’re more than that, too.

Tears pricked my eyes and I let my hands spread out across Raolcan’s back, basking in the love of someone who still accepted me when I had nothing to offer but failure, brokenness, and exhaustion. What would I do without this dragon?

What would I do without this human?

Conquer the world?

Lose my heart.

Ahummal landed in front of us, spoiling the moment.

He smells like feet. How can he travel so far and still smell like feet?

Chapter Eighteen

Jalla didn’t wait for his feet to skid to a stop before she leapt of Ahummal’s back and strode toward me, her long curly hair whipping in wet ropes behind her and the rain lashing at her from every direction. Her loose desert clothing was soaked, but she seemed completely unaffected by the storm.

“Ruined!” she yelled over the pounding rain. “I get here, and you’ve burnt the place to the ground! Well? What do you have to say for yourself, slave?”

“I-”

“Don’t even begin with me! I sent you to find me more dragons and I find you attacking cities and burning them to the ever-loving ground!”

“So,” Hubric said laconically. “This is Jalla the Winged Prince. She’s smaller than I expected.”

Raolcan snorted a laugh, but Jalla’s eyes narrowed as she turned to Hubric. “Silence, old man.”

“I can’t be silent if you insist on speaking to my apprentice that way, Winged Prince.”

“Your apprentice? She’s my slave!”

I coughed, suddenly realizing that no matter what labels people put on me there was only one that mattered. “Actually, I’m Raolcan’s human and everything else just seems a little inconsequential at the moment.”

“And where,” Jalla asked. “Is my Pipe?”

I ignored her, turning to Hubric. “The survivors?”

Hubric smiled. “Dax has the infirmary under control, but the rain will be a problem for the survivors. They lost everything in those fires. And even with the rain it will be days before they stop smoldering.”

“And days before we can access the door to the warrens – if it’s still intact,” I agreed.

Tor coughed. “Well, since it is at the base of the stone tower and since the tower is still standing, I think it will be fine.” He stepped back as all eyes turned to him and threw his hands up defensively. “Not that I know anything about that.”

“Explain,” Jalla demanded.

I sat up straight in my saddle, steeling myself to stand up to Jalla. “There are underground pathways from here that can lead your armies south to the cities below in mere days instead of weeks. There is a door leading to them beneath this fallen city. We took the city in battle – and fire, it seems – and now we have survivors to care for and a path to find to the main battle south of here.”

“Good work,” she said, as if none of her former criticisms had ever been voiced. “We’ll have our men fight the fires in the morning and drive a path to this door. A small occupational force can be left to deal with the survivors of this city.”

“No need,” Ephretti called as Tyalmae landed behind us. Raolcan spun so I could see her. I barely supressed a gasp. Ephretti’s face and clothing were smeared with rain and soot, but behind the soot was a glow to her face that overshadowed exhaustion and pain. Was that the same glow that Rakturan and Savette had?

Twice dead, she rises.

“Dax Cloudspinner, Dragon Rider of the White and Ephretti Oakboon, Dragon Rider of the Green have claimed the fallen city of Vanika as our charge and responsibility and by the formal vows of the Dominion we assume the responsibility of the Dominion for them and will exercise the authority of the Dominar on his behalf and in his absence and of any relevant Castelan to shelter and aid, protect and guide them as expressed in the founding letters of the Dominion.”

They could do that?

It’s an old provision, but still valid ... in the Dominion. The question is, will Jalla accept that? She’s the one with the army here.

Jalla frowned, tilted her head to one side as she thought but eventually she nodded. “I have better things to do than try to keep up a char heap. Be about it.”

Ephretti was gone before anyone else could speak a word. She hadn’t asked about Lenora. She hadn’t acknowledged us at all. She moved with an other-worldy certainty and authority. What happened to Ephretti in that fire?

Purification. She’s still Ephretti – but she’s something more now.

She was reborn.

Twice dead, she rises.

Her rising a sign of salvation.

Favor from the heavens.

Relief from the fires of hell.

I could only hope that the prophecy wasn’t just literal. Could Ephretti’s rising be a sign of something more? A sign of a greater turn in this battle?

“I have business to attend to,” Jalla said, still ignoring the rain as it washed over her face. “I’ll send Renn to you in the morning and we’ll find this path. And you’ll return what you stole from me.”

I ignored the dig. I hadn’t stolen anything. There was a cough from behind Jalla and I looked to Ahummal and saw Renn sitting on his back, hunched against the rain and wind.

Jalla crossed her arms over her chest. “You didn’t tell me he was a Castelan, Amel. That’s practically a war leader in your Dominion. As soon as he told me, I realized what an opportunity that was. After all, if I’m going to rule this land, I’ll need a proper partner. I ordered him to wed me two days ago.”

My mouth dropped open. Jalla had married Renn?

She smirked. “Don’t look so horrified. We won’t step through the arches until after the war is over.”

That’s how Baojang war leaders wed. They step through sacred arches together.

“I don’t plan to be a widow before I’m a wife. But really, Amel, you should have said something. I’m only forgiving you for that slip up because I’ve conquered this city and brought glory to Baojang. At least you can be relied upon for victories, even if you aren’t the brightest among my slaves.” She sighed dramatically. “Sleep. We need you to be sharper tomorrow when you take me to the heart of the earth. You won’t just be able to burn a city down to save your reputation if you mess that up.”

She turned on her heel and strode off.

“A lovely woman. Charming personality,” Hubric said dryly.

“I still think she’s pretty.” Tor’s voice surprised me. He was still here?

I watched silently as the pouring rains reduced the city’s fire to a crimson smolder. At least the firestorm had lessened. But tomorrow we would march down into the ashes below and open a door into the belly of the earth. I bit my lip as I thought about all the ways that could go wrong.

“Down into the depths for a second time, into the passage of death,” Hubric said, as if reading my mind. “We’ll rise again – a second time – when it spits us out on the other side. It makes me think of a prophecy:

Twice dead, she rises.

Her rising a sign of salvation.

Favor from the heavens.

Relief from the fires of hell.”

I laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“I thought that prophecy was about Ephretti.”

He smiled, shaking the rain out of his hair, only to have it soaked again a moment later.

“I suspect it will be about both.”

Read more of Amel’s story in Dragon School: Dust of Death.

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

Dragon School: Dust of Death

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. Many of the beloved characters from Dragon School will pop in and out of the story, so you won’t miss them too badly. Stay tuned for Dragon School: Chameleon!