Dragon School: Dust of Death

Dragon School, Volume 17

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: DUST OF DEATH

First edition. August 31, 2018.

Copyright © 2018 Sarah K. L. Wilson.

Written by Sarah K. L. Wilson.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Behind the Scenes:

For my readers who have difficult problems in their lives. May they find answers.

Chapter One

“I DON’T THINK I’M DYING after all,” Ephretti said quietly as we stood, side by side watching the smouldering city below us. The rain had not stopped. It still lashed around us in a torrential downpour, as if the heavens themselves were furious that the fires of Vanika had ever been lit.

My fault. Still my fault.

It was hard to even tell it was morning, the sky was so dark. Behind us, Hubric cursed steadily as his little fire caught and then went out again.

“I can do it myself,” he growled to Kyrowat, but I knew he just wanted the dragon to rest. Kyrowat had smoked and moaned all night. Dragons had protection from the fires, but not from exhaustion and carrying so many people in energetic sprints had been too much for the old dragon.

He’ll be fine. He’s a huge whiner.

But Hubric didn’t usually fuss over him and he was fussing this morning. I huddled a little closer to Raolcan. The Autumn rain was cold and my leathers were poor protection against the storm. I had no reason to complain, though. The refugees from the fire had left with only the clothing on their backs. Our tents and blankets had only gone far enough to protect the most vulnerable.

“I’m glad you aren’t dying, Ephretti.” I meant it. The world would be a poorer place without her stubborn determination. And this place needed her passion and her willingness to risk everything to help the people here.

“Tell the Winged Prince to leave me Lenora. I need help here. Dax and I have our hands full.”

I stole a glance at her – soaked as she was, she was still glowing faintly. Whatever had happened in the depths of the inferno had changed her.

“The fires are almost out,” I said.

“They’ll burn under the ashes for days or weeks,” Ephretti said, shaking her head. “You must continue through the heart of the earth, just as we planned. But Dax and I have other work. There are people here who desperately need us and a city to rebuild.”

She looked certain and hopeful. I felt my bottom lip begin to quiver.

“I’m so sorry about what happened. I didn’t realize when we attacked that this was even possible.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry, too. We were all at fault, Amel. It was not you who brought us here – not really. That was me. It wasn’t you who made the plan of attack. That was Hubric. It wasn’t even you who lit the fires. That was the dragons.”

“I ordered them. I blew the Pipe.”

“Yes. And when you leave this place to fight other battles, don’t forget this. Don’t forget what one terrible error can do. Don’t forget how many people have suffered – have died – because of us.” She ran her hands through her dark hair, combing it back out of her face. Little rivulets of water ran down her cheeks like the heavens were washing away her guilt ... and mine.

“I won’t.” My voice was small and trembling. I barely heard it above the pounding of the rain.

“But Dax and I will work now to restore this place and these people. Don’t forget us here when the war is over, Amel. You owe these people a debt.”

I nodded. “I won’t forget, Ephretti.”

“And don’t forget that I’m proud of you.” She felt embarrassed by the admission. I knew that because she immediately frowned. “Can you mount that dragon of yours without constant assistance?”

“Yes,” I mumbled.

“Hmmm? Speak up!”

I felt my face heat – the only warm part of me right now. “Yes.”

“Then we both have work to be done. The dark night is not over yet. Dawn has not yet come.”

“Dawn has not yet come,” Hubric intoned from behind me. It must be a Lightbringer thing. “Are you going to jaw all day, Ephretti, or go get some real work done?”

Ephretti ignored Hubric, surprising me with a hug. “Goodbye, Amel. I won’t be able to say it later. There’s too much to do. Stay alive. Watch out for that leg. Try not to do anything stupid.”

“I’ll try.” I surprised myself by getting teary as she left us. Through the downpour, she disappeared in moments. I was going to miss all her orders and the way she had of organizing everything.

I jumped when Raolcan lit Hubric’s fire with a burst of orange flame. Hubric muttered thanks and set his caf pot roughly on the ring of stones he’d made.

“She’s a good woman, Ephretti. She and Dax will do what’s needed here,” Hubric said after long minutes had passed. I turned to look at the fire he was still nursing in the rain. He never would have managed to light it without Raolcan. “Come and drink some caf and warm up. We have things to talk about.”

I sat beside him on a sodden log and accepted the caf. At least it could warm my wrinkled fingers.

That’s why I lit it. You two fools would have dissolved before asking for help.

“We have to go back down into those warrens,” Hubric said. “And we have to bring an army with us, Amel.”

“Raolcan thinks he can work those portals – if they’re undamaged. Remember how some were burned out last time?”

“That’s not the thing I’m most worried about.”

We sat in silence for a few moments before I said the word ringing in both our heads. “Ifrits.”

“They’ve been going down into those tunnels, but none came up to fight in the city last night.”

I followed his thought. “Which means that they have either gone to their destination-”

“-or they are still under there, waiting for us,” Hubric finished.

I drank my caf and thought about hundreds of Ifrits under the ground with glowing mouths and eyes. I swallowed down the bile that rose at the thought of them. But what else could we do? I’d burned down a city for the chance to use the warrens. I didn’t have the right to back out now.

No, you don’t. The course is set.

“The man who tried to kill me – the one in the city – he said our destruction was prophesied by Ko’Torenth.”

“False prophecies,” Hubric said waving a hand.

“And there were Rock Eaters here when we attacked, although I didn’t see any after in the chaos.”

“They may have fled.” But now he had a thoughtful look on his face.

“And before we recruited Rakturan and Jalla to our side, Baojang led the war against the Dominion.”

“Don’t think they are fully your allies now – not really. In the end, they want what we have.” Hubric was a sharp man. One conversation with Jalla and he’d seen that.

“So, what makes three other nations attack us at once? Why band together to destroy us?”

“Maybe they just saw an opportunity. The Dusk Covenant had struck and our Dominar was in jeopardy. Maybe it was just good timing.” He sipped his caf, watching me, like he was expecting something.

“Or maybe they pushed the Dusk Covenant. They’ve lain dormant in our land for generations. Why strike now? What if these nations pushed them, secretly, in the quiet of peaceful times.”

“It’s possible. But why would they do that?” He wasn’t doubting me, but he was pushing me.

“What do we have that they want?”

We sat there in the rain, thinking about it in shared silence. That was the question, wasn’t it? What did they want? The Dominion, maybe. We had wealth and resources. Perhaps it was our sky cities that tempted them. After all, they seemed to have turned all the Magikas against us – but why not just steal the Magikas away if that was what they wanted?

I felt like I should know this answer, like it was obvious somehow, but I just wasn’t seeing it. I pursed my lips and thought about it, but whatever insight I might have found was interrupted.

Chapter Two

LENORA’S FACE HAD A panicked look when she landed. Lypukrm skidded to a wet, mud-flinging stop in front of us and she didn’t even dismount before calling through the rain.

“The Winged Prince wants you, Amel!”

She looked so entirely different from the haughty noblewoman I’d met only a handful of months ago that it still surprised me. We’d been through a lot in the road-worn Dragon School we’d ended up in. No matter how difficult they crafted the courses in the original school, they couldn’t have worked us this hard.

“Lenora,” I said. “Would you like caf?”

Her eyes went big. “Aren’t you coming to see Jalla? She wants you right away.”

“When I’m ready. Have a drink with us.”

She shook her head. “When I get back-”

“You aren’t going back,” Hubric said with a grunt. There was a twinkle in his eye and we shared a smile. We were still on the same page.

“Ephretti says she needs you back now,” I said. Lenora’s eyes became sad. She glanced toward the camp Ephretti and Dax had set up for the refugees as if everything in her were drawing her that way. “You have your things with you in your saddlebags, don’t you?”

“But, Jalla-”

“Will still have an army and a future husband to wait on her with or without you.” Hubric was making interruptions a habit.

“What did Jalla do with the Rock Eaters that fled the city?” I asked.

Lenora looked surprised. “She killed them to a man. Even those who surrendered.”

“And the Magikas?”

“She told us not to go after them. They fled toward Cabradis.”

“And the other soldiers? Archers? Men on horse.”

“Some are prisoners. Some are dead.”

Interesting. So, she didn’t want to fight the Magikas, for whatever reason, and she didn’t want any of the Rock Eaters to live. What if my theory was right and there was some kind of conspiracy between our neighbors? What if Jalla knew more about it than I ever imagined?

“I didn’t get a chance to tell you after the Healing Arches,” I began, but I had to stop and clear my throat. “How glad I am that you survived.” A bit of the old Lenora came back with those words. She sat up a little straighter and held her head a little higher. “Do you want to go back to Ephretti?”

“Yes,” she said fiercely.

“Then I’ll miss you.” We were both smiling, now. “And you’d better be about it. I can see Renn on his way. Jalla was too impatient to wait for you to return with me.”

Lenora glanced over her shoulder, the edgy look back in her eyes for a moment, before calling out, “Thank you!” and leaning low over Lypukrm. His muscles bunched and then he leapt into the air, power and grace uniting in a single motion.

We’re beautiful when we fly. We were made for it. People are always the most beautiful when they’re doing what they were designed for.

And the most miserable when they weren’t. And Renn seemed surprisingly miserable for someone about to seal the biggest negotiation he could manage in a lifetime. He was almost green in the face when he landed at our camp.

We should just call this tiny fire “the Dragon Cotes” and be done with it, there’s so much traffic here.

“Where did Lenora go?” he asked. His good looks were marred by dark circles under his eyes. Sleeplessness didn’t suit him.

“She’s off to bring equality to all people,” I teased.

He didn’t even notice. “As long as she gets back to Jalla soon. The Winged Prince does not like delays. She wants to know where you are and why it’s taking so long. Dawn is more than an hour past.”

“If she’s the Winged Prince, what will you be called when you marry?”

I almost laughed at his pale face and wide eyes – but I felt too sorry for him. He was bound to a force of nature. It was kind of like strapping yourself to the back of an Ifrit and holding on for the ride. What would that do to a person?

“I’ll be whatever she decides. What are we waiting for?”

“We’re waiting for the talent,” I said calmly, sipping my caf.

Hubric chuckled into his coffee. For someone who seemed to derive all his pleasure from watching people, he was having the time of his life here. I wouldn’t have known he was on edge if I didn’t know him so well, but he was twisting and turning one of his scarves when he thought no one was looking. He was as worried about the warrens as I was.

“I’m here,” Tor said, stepping out from behind us. “Have you modified that saddle to fit me, too, old man?”

“Hardly,” Hubric’s tone was gruff, which I’d come to know disguised true affection for someone. “I can hardly carry a sack of potatoes behind me all the way south. You’ll show us the entrance and then you’ll go help Dax and Ephretti until after this war is over.”

“And then?” Tor froze as he waited for the answer. Interesting. This meant something to him.

Last night he had a taste of the life he really wants – dragon riding. Hubric was right. He’s a natural. A perfect fit for a dragon, but boy would it be a job taking him on. I wouldn’t want it.

Maybe his dragon wouldn’t pick. Maybe he would.

I doubt it. He feels sort of Purple to me. Sort of.

Even more interesting.

Hubric had let the answer hang in the air for so long that Renn cursed.

“Just answer him, will you? Jalla is waiting and if I’m late...”

I didn’t even want to know what Jalla would do to him. Well, maybe I did. After all, I wouldn’t be stuck with her if it hadn’t been for him.

And you wouldn’t have the Pipe.

And I wouldn’t have burned a city down.

Or saved us all at the Healing Arches.

Hubric’s roar of an answer surprised me so much that I almost dropped my mug.

“And then we’ll throw you off a cliff and see if you can fly! What did you think we’d do, boy?”

“Promise?” Tor’s eyes were alight. He was crazy. That was the only word for that – crazy.

Or maybe dragon-y.

Chapter Three

THE ARMY OR BAOJANG was surprisingly well organized considering how disorganized everything else about them seemed. Their traditions and laws were still opaque to me and their various leaders seemed to come and go in such a haphazard manner that it surprised me to see their tents laid out in careful rows with group fires spaced equidistantly along the lines. A large pavilion at the center of the camp was dominated by Jalla and her war leaders. It was positioned at the top of a hill, which made it easy to see from even outside the camp – and it also made it possible for her to see everything that happened in her camp.

We landed outside the camp on the city side of it.

“I’ll wait here with the boy,” Hubric said, nodding at Tor. He watched Renn suspiciously.

You aren’t the only one who doesn’t trust that foot eater. Oh, great, he’s leaving that moldy old rug of a dragon with us.

Why did Raolcan hate Ahummal so much? He hadn’t seemed that bad of a dragon.

You aren’t the only one who feels betrayed by events in Baojang.

Interesting.

My progress was slow as I worked with both crutches and my slowly healing leg. It could move and bend and bear my weight, but I was tired from the night before and both legs were stiff from being pushed too far during last night’s flights.

“Can you hurry?” Renn asked impatiently. “You’ve already taken too long!”

Rakturan stepped out from the shadow of one of the tents. “Why don’t you go soothe your lady love, Renn, and I’ll escort Amel.”

Renn’s expression looked like it didn’t know if it should be offended or grateful. After a moment he just turned on his heel and rushed away.

“You think you have a faster way to get this army to Savette?” Rakturan said without preamble.

“We hope so. Have you decided if you are for us or against us, Dark Prince?” If he didn’t have time for niceties, neither did I.

His eyes glowed behind his blindfold as he said, “I told you before, and I grow tired of telling you – I am for Savette. I will give my life’s blood for her.”

“And your people?” I was slowing as the ache in my leg increased, bringing tears to my eyes. I should have ridden Raolcan in here instead of worrying about crushing the tents along the way.

The soldiers along the way stared at us and I didn’t know if it was Rakturan’s glowing eyes or the foreign Dragon Rider who had their curiosity piqued.

“I brought them here, didn’t I? To fight and die in a war not their own? What more do you want, Amel?”

“I want what you wanted when you asked me to stay in Baojang with you.”

He sighed, but he wouldn’t meet my eye and I knew he felt the shame of knowing it was his request that enslaved me to Jalla – or so he thought. I still was certain I could wiggle out of it somehow. After all, if she could declare me a slave just like that, I could declare myself not a slave just like that, too – just not when her army was nearby. Or any of her relatives. Or anyone else who might kill me for thinking that.

“Listen,” he put a hand on my arm and I stopped. It didn’t take much to make me want to take a break. I felt lightheaded. I needed sleep and rest. I wasn’t going to get either. “Have you stopped to consider why Baojang chose to attack the Dominion?”

“As a matter of fact-”

“Because that reason hasn’t gone away, and since you arrived in Baojang, your presence has only fuelled our war leaders desire to see the Dominion under the feet of Baojang.”

It had?

“But Jalla has big plans.”

Big plans, hmmm? What did that mean? “Is that why she ordered the Rock Eaters killed?”

Rakturan looked around furtively before saying, “Jalla doesn’t like to share.” He paused, but we were almost to the pavilion now and he had to be quick. “If I can save your Dominion, I will – for Savette. But there’s no guarantee that I can, and better a vassal of Baojang than a slave of the Rock Eaters or a puppet of Ko’Torenth. At least we have honor.”

What did that mean?

You still have a lot to learn about our neighbors. He’s right about one thing – the other options are definitely worse than Baojang.

Worse? Worse than slavery and bickering war leaders and those awful Sentries? Worse than deserts and heat and holes in the ground with people hung over the side in baskets?

Yep. Worse than that.

My stomach flipped at the thought.

“And now I want a similar promise from you, Amel.” Rakturan’s eyes flared, like his emotions were triggering greater light.

“What promise?”

“I want you to treat my people like they are your own. You’re about to lead them down an unsafe path under the ground. I want to know you are looking out for them, that in your eyes they aren’t just a tool to help Savette.”

“I thought you wanted to help Savette.”

“I thought you wanted to save lives.” He was quicker than I was.

“Okay, I promise. We’re still driving for the same goal, aren’t we Rakturan? Can you promise me that?” I thought that perhaps Rakturan was a good man, an honorable man, but why did he always leave me guessing? Why couldn’t he just be who he was instead of always showing this opaque exterior?

“I will die trying to rid this world of Ifrits and give my wife what she needs. Is that what you need to hear?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Then the covenant is made between us. Together, we will destroy the Ifrits and help Savette. So let it be soaked in our spirit. So let it be accomplished.” He offered me a waterskin. “In Baojang we seal an oath with a sip of water.”

“I bet you do,” I muttered, but I wouldn’t be sipping Silla-laced water ever again. Instead, I grabbed his hand. “In the Dominion, we seal it with a handclasp. Since we’re in the Dominion, let’s do it that way.”

He hesitated before nodding.

“As you say.”

There. I might not understand the Dark Prince, but this was probably the clearest words I’d ever get from him. I needed to just be grateful for what I had.

I think that in the end, you will have been glad to know Rakturan.

Was Raolcan a prophet now?

No, but I’m good at judging people.

I almost believed him ... but then I remembered that he liked Jalla.

Chapter Four

“YOU’RE LATE,” JALLA said as soon as I was in earshot. “Come and tell my war leaders what they can expect from this underground shortcut.”

“I don’t know, exactly,” I said. There were sounds of disbelief around me.

Jalla raised an eyebrow, peering down her nose at me like I was an insect crawling on her clothing. “That’s unlikely.”

I sighed, but the war leaders were all watching me like a ring of rodents and I had promised Rakturan to take care of them.

“The warrens extend underground,” I said, letting my gaze sweep the gathering. I kept my head held high, refusing to look down and lower my gaze like the servants pouring wine and water throughout the pavilion. “They were built by the Elders of the dragons.”

Don’t get too specific. This is not their business.

“If you are knowledgeable about how to use the hub points, you can shorten travel time between points by use of the power of the ancients.”

There was a murmuring and one war leader spoke up. “Like how you used the Kah’deem in the service of the Winged Prince to establish her power over Baojang?”

Jalla smiled indulgently and it took all my fortitude not to roll my eyes.

“It’s similar, yes.” I couldn’t keep the tightness out of my voice despite all my effort. They all saw my victories as Jalla’s!

“Then why are these warrens not used all the time?” the same war leader asked. He was young for the role, not much older than Jalla and his armor was finely tooled speaking of status. I didn’t like how soft his hands and face looked – as if he had never seen hardship.

“They are very dangerous, and their entrances are a secret to all but a few.”

“Dangerous?”

“The warrens are dark.” How did I convey just how bowel-churning my last passage through them had been? “And narrow. There are vast chasms bridged only by small rock bridges. Any fall would plunge you to the depths.”

“So, it is like climbing in the mountains at night. Soldiers can do this with good leadership,” the man said with a shrug. He motioned to one of the servants to refill his cup. “Your slave is overly timorous, Jalla. No true war leader shies away from danger or trembles at the hardship of losing a few men. I hope she has not learned this from you.”

Jalla’s face flared red and her eyes took on a fiery spark. “I fear no caves of stone, Habrida. Nor does anyone who serves me. She must be concerned only for your lily-white hands.”

I hid a smile as Jalla’s insult hit home and the man flinched.

“Mostly, I am concerned about the Ifrits reported to have entered the tunnels,” I said. “In my last journey through the warrens, I was relentlessly pursued by them. They filled any space we found with violence and terror.”

“A rumor,” Habrida said, waving a hand. “The Ifrits were an evil brought to us by the Crescent Prince. They are no longer a problem. The Rock Eaters only spread such rumors to keep us from our prize.”

I gritted my teeth but Jalla smiled at Habrida. “The Serpent Prince’s words tell me that he has chosen to enter the warrens first. He and his soldiers will hold the honor of Baojang at the front of the line.”

Habrida arched a single brow like he found all of this amusing. “We would never take that honor from your most excellent person, Winged Prince. Can I assume that you and your guides will ride before us – the glory and majesty of Baojang? We would never ask for more than the second honor.”

Jalla’s smile fell. Whatever scheme she’d been planning had hit a bump in the road. “As you say, Serpent Prince.”

I didn’t know why anyone would want to have someone named the “Serpent Prince” at their back.

What about the Dragon Prince?

That was the name of the only one I ever wanted to have watch out for me.

“The Serpent Prince will designate the placements of the other war divisions,” Jalla announced. “Strike camp. When the men are ready to march, my slave will lead the way.”

She swept away from the table like a queen in a castle. Which, I supposed, she was. She was the closest thing Baojang had to queens.

I was worried by Habrida’s words, though. What did he mean by their “prize?”

There are deep waters running here. Motivations are tangled and diverse, but there is one thread running through every heart – greed. They are all slick with greed and want.

I swallowed. Of all things to bring with you into the warrens, greed might be the most dangerous. It had bent Iskaris into a traitor in these very dark corridors. What would it do to these war leaders and their men?

“Amel? A word?” Jalla said, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me from the tent.

“My injuries-”

“Are not preventing you from causing me problems.”

“What is it this time?” I asked.

She leaned in, so her lips were inches from mine. “You have only two jobs in the warrens. The first is to lead us through without trouble.” If only she knew how hard that was! “And the second is to see that the Serpent Prince does not survive the journey.”

Chapter Five

THE DRAGONS CLEARED the way to the central tower under Raolcan’s direction while the Baojang camp packed up. As much as I hated entering the warrens again, I was glad to take the army away from Vanika. I didn’t like the way the Baojang war leaders were watching the city or the glances they sent toward the camp Ephretti and Dax had set up on the mountainside. The sooner we took them away from here, the better.

We’re almost through to the tower, but the path is still ember-strewn and hot. For anyone less than a dragon, it will be impossible to cross.

But it would cool. And if it didn’t, we would dump water on it to cool it faster. I sat on a large portion of wreckage from Vanika’s original destruction, just outside the new city walls and massaged my healing leg. The wound was closed now, leaving only a red scar, but the muscles were still tender, and I just didn’t have the confidence in it that I used to.

It just needs time. Be patient with it.

I was trying to keep my mind busy so I wouldn’t fall asleep. The sounds of the army assembling behind me combined with the moment of rest were lulling me into a sleepy state. I was reading the Ibrenicus Prophecies off an on between watching, but the page I was reading today made no sense to me.

Tide of the north rushing, rushing,

Longing for sea to meet sky and conquer,

Longing to take to wing,

But by blood they grasp,

And the innocent fall with the guilty.

But one shall rise,

To stand in the place of the other,

to bear the debt of nations,

to give up the breath of life to dispel the dust of death.

I watched as Raolcan and Kyrowat slowly cleared a path with the wild dragons helping them. I hadn’t taken out the pipe yet. I didn’t want to remind Jalla about it. She was distracted right now, but eventually, she would ask me for it and I didn’t want to give it to her – not now that I knew what it did. It was too powerful. No human should own such a thing.

I couldn’t agree more. I don’t like being piped into a trance.

After this war, it would need to be destroyed.

After?

Well, we still needed it right now.

You should think about whether that is really true. Real strength will give up an advantage for the good of others.

I let the moments tick by, thinking. I supposed that I could destroy the pipe. Smash it? Something told me it was unlikely to break easily. Despite the general delicate look, it had sat in that Kah’deem for generations, and it hadn’t broken or even cracked in all my rough adventures. Set it on fire? It was metal. The worst that was likely to happen was soot covering it. Should I throw it into an ocean or hide it in the forest or drop it off a cliff? The thing was – in any scenario like that it would be found eventually, wouldn’t it? It would be found and manipulated and used against the dragons and I just didn’t think that was right.

I watched in the distance as Baojang loaded their horses and Sentries. The Sentries buzzed in their unnaturally straight line as their riders mounted. I could probably force them all to do my bidding, too, if I found the right setting. And that was just plain wrong. I needed time to think about it.

“Are they almost done?” Tor and Hubric were waiting with me – Tor less patiently than my mentor.

Surprisingly, the base of the tower is mostly intact. It was built on a part of the original base of the skycity – of course, most of the ruins are, but this part is bent and twisted, but mostly still intact. Hmmm. Look at this, Kyrowat! The door still opens and... Amel?

Yes! I was still listening.

It’s a door into a carefully dressed stone cavern. There are ancient carvings of troglodytes ringing the entrance. This is it. And it was shockingly easy to find. I don’t like that at all.

It would have been harder when it was tucked into the base of the city.

If we go down there, there will be nothing to prevent anyone from following us. People shouldn’t be able to just wander inside. We’ll need to block it up behind us.

“They found the entrance,” I said, grimly. I didn’t like the idea of being blocked up inside the underground caves. Only a fool would stop up their only chance of escape.

“Once we go down, you’ll need to get Ephretti to block up the entrance after us,” Hubric told Tor. “Let nothing back up after it has gone down. Who knows what ancient evils lie in the dark?”

Tor frowned. “You’ll be down there.”

Hubric snorted. “I appreciate the confidence, boy, but even I have limitations.”

“Will they all fit down there?” Tor asked, watching the hundreds of Baojang soldiers form up.

I wondered the same thing. The warrens were huge – but were they big enough to move hundreds of people, animals, and Sentries, never mind the wild dragons?

They were built for dragons.

And yet that made me more nervous than I could justify. Somehow the idea of bringing all those dragons and people down into the warrens filled me with dread.

“Lazing around, slave?” Jalla asked as she approached us. Renn hovered at her elbow, his expression a mix of smugness and anticipation.

Hubric cleared his throat and gave her a pointed look.

“We’re waiting for the path to be clear,” I said stiffly. When Baojang was through the warrens and helping Savette I would find a way to make her eat that word.

“It looks clear enough to me. I’m here for the Pipe. I’ll call the dragons to follow us into the warrens.” My face must have betrayed me, but she smirked. “You can’t keep secrets from me, Amel. Did you think I didn’t know? That Lenora didn’t tell me what happened at the arches? For that matter, why do you think I came to Vanika and not Cabradis, which was closer. I know more than you think I do.”

My brow crinkled as a wave of cold washed over me. How did she know about Vanika? How had they arrived here? She was insinuating that she had some way to track me – to watch me – when she wasn’t there. That couldn’t be true ... could it?

We’ll have to find out.

Behind Jalla, Rakturan and Enkenay landed on the scorched earth.

“Your War Princes are ready to move, War Leader,” Rakturan called.

My eyes narrowed. We’d made promises to each other about keeping his people and mine safe and helping Savette, but we’d never said anything about information. And I knew the Troglodytes had chosen him as much as they’d chosen me. Perhaps he had watched me in visions and told the Winged Prince.

It’s a good theory.

I would have to be careful what I told Rakturan.

Chapter Six

MY FIRST STEP BACK into the warrens was the most terrifying. My will told me to press forward but my mind and heart were a gibbering terrified mess in the background wailing as my crutches led the way into the darkness. Jalla had insisted we wait to mount the dragons until we were inside.

“Otherwise the soldiers won’t believe it is safe to walk into the tunnel,” was her excuse. As if the warrens were ever ‘safe’ for anyone.

I leaned a shoulder against Raolcan as I walked. I would have liked to place a hand on him, but I was still using both crutches even though I thought I might be able to get away with just one again. Dax’s was carved wood and nice, but it didn’t move as easily or fit nearly as well as the one Hubric had given me and I was growing weary of having both hands full.

As soon as I leaned against him, a vision washed through me. Leng was shifting in a dark space that smelled of dust. He moved and I could feel wool against his skin. Was he behind a tapestry? Voices filtered in from behind the curtain.

“... only a month and Ko’Torenth will be ready to send troops to support us. Are you really telling me this rebellion can’t be held back for a few more weeks?”

That voice! I would recognize it anywhere. Iskaris!”

My mouth went dry as Leng shifted his weight. What was he doing in such a dangerous place? He shouldn’t be there! He must be at the very heart of Dominion City!

“Did you hear something?”

Iskaris’ question set my heart pounding, but before I could see what happened next, I was back in the real world, stepping into the cool darkness of the cave.

“There, see? She walked through a stone door without dying.” Hubric’s tone was dry as he spoke to Jalla. “Can the rest of us get a move on? I’ve already lit my lantern and I don’t want to lose the light. Do you know how hard it was to find fuel oil in this city after a fire? And now that you’ve put the dragons at the very back it will be hard for them to light anything for us along the way. Only those disgusting Sentries are behind them.”

I hated his reminder of the dark, but he was right. We were lined up in the rubble of the tower – me in the warren, Hubric, Rakturan, Jalla, Renn and their dragons next, and the Baojang army after them. The Serpent Prince had relegated the dragons to the tail end of the procession and the Sentries were to follow them at the very end. I thought he was treating them like herd dogs and the dragons like sheep – which showed a lot of ignorance about each species.

We could shred those lampreys like torn noodles if we needed to.

Ugh.

“First, hand me the Pipe, Amel.” At my reluctance, Jalla raised an eyebrow looking at the army at her back.

I gave her the Pipe, but the moment it left my hands I was rocked by a second vision. Savette studied a paper in her hand.

“And there was nothing else?” she asked the man in front of her. “Only a satchel of dust and this note?”

“I swear it.”

“Hmmm.” She opened the note as she spoke. “A strange thing for an assassin to sneak into the heart of our camp with nothing more than a knife, a bag of dust and a note.”

“What does it say?” a voice asked from beside her. I turned to see a woman dressed in fine wools – a Castelan. Was she one of Savette’s allies?

Savette glanced down and I read the words on the paper.

“We will take the strength of the Dominion from under your seat. Your lives are forfeit for hoarding it throughout this age. The wealth shall be redistributed. The privilege removed. The strength given to the weak. Take warning.”

There was the sign of a tower under the writing.

What did it mean? It sounded like something Renn might say but carried by an assassin ... that was different. What sort of an assassin brought a bag of dust with them.

“The man was from Ko’Torenth,” the messenger told Savette. “We found coins and dried fire vines in his clothing.”

“But why would they send this vague message?” The Castelan asked. Her wrinkled face twisted in thought as she spoke.

That bag of dust was just like the one Dax had found on his dead friend – a strange thing to bring with you to kill. Was it a symbol? Some sort of token or talisman?

I returned to the real world just as Jalla threw the Pipe at me. “This thing is junk!”

It bounced off Raolcan’s flank and Tor caught it, offering it respectfully to me.

“Thank you,” I said. Turning back to Jalla as Hubric began to whisper to Tor about remembering his part of the bargain and returning to Ephretti until Hubric came back for him. I held the Pipe up and caught Jalla’s eye. “Do you want the dragons to follow us into the warrens and fight with us on the other side?”

It was lucky for her that so few people could see me from here - only her and my friends and a handful of Baojang princes. If I had been on a hill where everyone could listen, this would have been the perfect speech.

“The dragons are not our slaves, Jalla. They are free to come as they wish and go as they must. But let’s see if they would like to come with us.”

I adjusted the arm and blew a three-note tune. I couldn’t even see from here if it worked.

They come, Raolcan said to me. I have instructed them to follow at the back of the line in the place they were assigned – between the army and the Sentries.

How did they feel about the Sentries?

No one knows if they taste good or not. It’s hard to live with an unanswered question like that looming over us...

Jalla’s face was so cold that I didn’t know whether it was rage or jealousy making it look like death had come early to her.

Both. Be careful, Amel. Petty people can do very cruel things.

But I had already turned around and begun to mount Raolcan. What did I care if the Winged Prince hated me? She had already taken me as a “slave” and taken all my victories for her own. What more could her anger take?

The warrens, now. They were a different matter. They had almost taken my life last time. I would not let them finish the job this time.

Chapter Seven

AT LEAST I DIDN’T NEED to walk on crutches the whole way through the warrens. I kept reminding myself of that as the cool damp of the first tunnel penetrated through to my bones and filled me with remembered dread. Raolcan and I led the group at the very front, a lantern from Hubric attached to the saddle on a long pole he’d hewn from a sapling before we left. He followed me, a similar pole holding his own lantern. Jalla rode behind him with Renn and I could hear her chastising him - a background noise as we wound through the tunnel, moving ever downward into the belly of the earth.

“If we incorporate the citizens of the Dominion into your rule they will finally be equal – subject to the same rules and strictures instead of the tyranny of merit.”

“What, exactly, do you mean by that, Castelan?”

“Well, citizens of the Dominion have to work and fight all their lives for respect and position, but in Baojang it is granted by a higher authority, equally to all.”

“You think you are my equal?”

“Well, we are getting married...”

“You will never be my equal, Castelan. You should feel great honor that I have chosen you for a consort. And you should be thinking about how your lands and blood can purchase for us greater dominance and influence.”

“Ummm...”

“And if you can’t think of that, then perhaps I can find someone more useful.”

I tuned them out, focusing on the way ahead. I could almost smell the stink of Ifrits ahead.

It’s all in your mind. Ifrits smell of nothing but dust.

Dust. Bags of dust.

Wait. How, exactly, did Magikas bring up Ifrits from the ground? When I had been shot and lying on the ground to bleed to death the Magika had screamed at Lenora.

He said that without the aid to his magic brought by the Healing Arches he would need blood instead.

Bags of dust and knives ... could it really be so simple? Could these assassins – like the one found by Savette – be there to unleash an Ifrit? Did they just need the blood to finish the effort?

It couldn’t be just any kind of dust, could it? Or why bring it with them?

Well, there wouldn’t be much dust in a city – or at least not all in one place.

So, they kill an innocent person and use their lifeblood in some sort of dark magic to raise up an Ifrit? How chilling.

How utterly unstoppable. A man could bring a bag of dust anywhere. He could open it up and kill someone anywhere. I looked behind me nervously. There were hundreds of people behind me with bags.

Soldiers. With their equipment on their backs. Not assassins.

But how did he know? Now that I knew, I couldn’t help but suspect everyone.

Even me?

Okay, not everyone.

The air felt too thin with so many people jammed into the narrow tunnel. I hadn’t wondered if we would run out of air. But I should have, shouldn’t I? They had probably already blocked up the entrance...

Actually, even though we’ve been walking for two hours, there are still dragons entering the tunnel behind us. We’re taking a massive horde with us through here.

And did he really think he could work the portal if we got to it? He hadn’t been able to before.

No guarantees, but I wasn’t completely idle at the Dawn Gate.

What?

Well, there were a lot of dragons there. I asked around. Some of them were curiously well-informed.

How did I not know this?

I can’t possibly tell you everything.

I felt so stunned that I rode in mental silence for a few minutes before the chagrin of it hit me. Raolcan was always one step ahead of me.

A dragon has to try.

And what about the dust and the knives? Was he ahead on that, too?

No. We both thought of that at the same time. So, I guess there is only one last puzzle for you. What do the Rock Eaters, Baojang, and Ko’Torenth have in common?

They are neighbors of the Dominion.

And?

They are allied against us.

And?

They want something from us.

You are very close. Keep thinking.

Why didn’t he just tell me if he’d already figured this one out?

Because I think you need to get there by yourself. There are implications to it that will make a huge difference to you.

Well, now I really wanted to know.

I think I see the first marker ahead.

A hub?

Yes. And I see the glow of the sigil. If we are lucky, it’s undamaged.

Would that be lucky or unlucky? After all, if it was undamaged then the Ifrits may have been using it all this time to plunge deep into the heart of the Dominion.

But now we know they can come from anywhere with the right ingredients.

What were they? Products of magic or true living entities?

Enemies. That is all we need to know. We will rip and tear them to pieces.

We stepped out onto the bridge that led to the center hub. I could sense it immediately. Something was not right.

Chapter Eight

“WHAT IS THAT?” THE murmur came from the ground beside us. How had the Serpent Prince snuck up here?

“You shouldn’t be at the front,” I whispered.

“What is that monstrous thing?”

Above the carved dragon figure in the center of the hub, an Ifrit floated, detached from the ground. It was as if it slept, its usual gashes of fire and brimstone that served as eyes and mouth were shut. Was it alone? I glanced furtively from side to side, my breath coming quicker.

Even if we wanted to turn around there are hundreds behind us. We cannot run.

I settled for venting at the Serpent Prince. “Weren’t you at the Kah’deem?”

“I was not. I did not see Jalla’s victory.”

Hubric pressed forward so that Kyrowat’s head was almost touching me as he pushed into Raolcan’s back.

His voice was hushed. “Whatever it’s doing, we’ll have to fight it. If you sweep wide to the right, I’ll take the left and we can try to pinch it between us.”

Solid enough plan.

I didn’t like that it was sleeping. Somehow, an Ifrit in motion felt better than one lying in wait. What did it know that we didn’t?

“Take me with you!” the Serpent Prince said, his eyes alight.

I ignored him, hunching low in the saddle as I prepared for Raolcan’s leap. As he leapt, I felt myself slipping to the left. I gripped the saddle hard, hoping my straps would hold. My bad leg was caught on something! Fear rose as I tugged at it. But no – we hadn’t stopped, we were still rising!

And then I felt the pressure moving higher and I looked down to see the Serpent Prince holding my leg as we flew through the black of night.

“You’re insane!”

Grab him and get him up quickly! He’s thrown us off balance.

“What does it matter?” he asked. “It’s the useless one, isn’t it?”

“It’s still useful to me!”

I reached down, trying to push back nerves as I pulled him up. I wished I could just push him off and let him fall. His comment disgusted me.

This felt too much like last time. It was almost as if I could still hear the pounding of hundreds of Ifrits on the door, feel them rushing behind us, see again Iskaris stealing the mask and pulling the Dominar out of the circle of safety and now another enemy sought to take what wasn’t his.

“Jalla isn’t the only one who should have a dragon rider to serve her,” he said with a grunt, pulling himself up into the saddle behind me. “And I think she owes me your service. After all, most of the soldiers here are mine. How do you steer this beast?”

“I’m not available for the taking,” I said tightly.

He whispered his response in my ear, and the act was too close – too intimate. It made me shiver with revulsion. Perhaps this was why they called him ‘Serpent Prince.’

“I know who wins Jalla’s battles. I think you could win some for me. I’ll even offer you something she can’t. I’ll marry you – with all the status that brings – and just like Renn manages her dragon, you can manage mine. Obviously, with that leg, you won’t be bearing my children, but the arrangements I make for that will not impinge upon your standing. Now that is a better offer than you’ll receive from anyone.”

“No,” I said, my voice a ghost as the horror of his proposal washed over me. Would Jalla really give me to him? With this army, how could I stop them? I swallowed as I watched the Ifrit growing closer, worry knotting deep in my belly.  I could see my life playing out just as he said – forced to fly him here and there as he whispered directions I couldn’t stop in my ear. I felt sick.

“Then how about this, instead?” His tone remained low – pitched only for my ears as we soared toward the sleeping monster. “How about if you kill Jalla for me down here in these caverns? It’s so dark that no one will know. You’ll be free of her, and I promise that once you return us to the surface you’ll be free of me.”

“I won’t be killing anyone,” I said tightly. I didn’t like how close he was sitting or how he chuckled in my ear.

“I can guarantee you one thing. You will give me Jalla or she will give me you. There is no third option.”

Or you could kill him like Jalla asked you to.

But I didn’t think I could do that. I remembered when I wanted to kill Iskaris. What had Hubric said? He’d said that the consequences went a lot further than I thought. And what about when I thought I could conquer a city? Just thinking of it now brought thoughts that stabbed through my brain like jagged glass shards. The mind-numbing shame of what I had done hurt too much to dwell on. Thinking about it again was like picking up red-hot metal with your bare hands. My mind shied away from even allowing it.

My fault. Still my fault.

No, I wouldn’t be killing anyone.

We circled the Ifrit, my fear of the dust creature lessened by my horror of the human creature on my back. One loop and no reaction. Hubric shook his head with a frown.

Strange. What was it doing here, still as a statue?

Raolcan slowly circled lower around the glowing dragon statue at the center of the hub. The huge glyph at its feet glowed a bright purple over the dusty stone floor and the runes along its base flickered with light. I tensed, anticipating his landing, but had to grab for support when he spun suddenly, neck arching around and wings shooting upward so quickly that the Serpent Prince fell from his seat. Raolcan snatched him in his jaws, shook him twice and spat him into the circle.

No one talks to my human like that.

I didn’t know if I should laugh or choke on my laughter. There would be a price to pay for that. And I wasn’t even a little bit sorry.

Chapter Nine

“SO, WHY IS THERE AN Ifrit hanging over us looking like he might dive down and shred us to pieces at any moment?” Jalla asked as Ahummal landed beside us.

I hadn’t been able to tear my eyes away from the motionless statue since we landed. It gave me the creeps. I had the horrible suspicion that if I turned my back for even a second it would come to life and gobble me up.

“If we had answers, Winged Prince, we’d be sure to offer them,” Habrida, the Serpent Prince, said with a smirk. Even a good shaking by a dragon couldn’t wipe the confidence out of him – though I noticed he wouldn’t look at Raolcan or me.

Good. If he so much as looks my way, I’ll shake him again.

But you couldn’t treat people like that. Especially not powerful leaders of armies.

I’m pretty sure that I just did...

“I’d like an answer, Amel,” Jalla said. I glanced at her for a moment. “If you don’t know what the Ifrit is doing there, or why it is motionless, then can I suggest you at least find a way to carry out my orders?”

She shot a significant look at Habrida. It was true. When he grabbed my leg it had been the opportunity to kick him into the darkness and let him fall to his death. But if she didn’t realize I wasn’t the kind of woman who would do that, then she didn’t know me at all.

I settled on something safer to say aloud. “We’re figuring out how to transport your army, Winged Prince.”

Raolcan was focused on the center statue, studying it carefully, just as I’d said.

It’s intact and working. Well, mostly working. It looks like it can only take us two places – the other runes are damaged.

And where were those places?

Somewhere near Dominion City and somewhere close to Leedris City. I can’t tell specifically.

Perhaps the Leedris City entrance let to the caves we’d sheltered in before we entered the warrens the first time.

Possibly, but I don’t think so.

“What’s taking so long?” Jalla asked.

“It’s not like gutting fish,” Hubric said lazily. He must have landed behind us. “If you’re lucky enough to find someone able to tune the hub, it still takes time.”

Hmm... it’s tuned right now for Leedris City. And the runes are ... stiff would be a way to put it, although it feels more complex than that. I’m a little worried that if I try to change it I might break it.

“The Hub is tuned to Leedris City,” I said.

Jalla motioned to Renn who pulled a map from his saddlebags to show her in the lantern light.

“Remember when I told you it would be better to go to Leedris first?” he said, excitedly. “Better to establish a stronghold there, so we don’t have enemies on every side. And it will be harder for the Dominion to ask for it back if we take it and occupy it before a decisive conflict to the south.”

He was sharing strategies to defeat his own country with her? My eyes went large and I felt hot at his words. This was outrageous! It was hard to think clearly when all I wanted to do was shout at him.

“Leedris will be just right,” Jalla said, as if it were as easy as ordering more wine from her servants.

But I didn’t want to go to Leedris. That was days away from where we could help Savette! If we went to all this trouble I wanted to go to Dominion City.

I’m really not sure that tampering with the hub is a good idea right now. If it’s working, why risk it? You’ve seen how easy it is for them to stop working entirely.

How many times would this one work?

There’s no way to know.

And how many times would it take to get all these people through?

Many.

Like how many?

Many. Many. Many.

Well, that was helpful.

Don’t blame me! It’s not me who brought an army down here.

I clenched my jaw. No. It was me who brought the army down here. Me, who was relying on him to use this hub over and over. Me, who knew that if we went to Leedris City there would be another battle like the one I started at Vanika, another chance to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocents. I could still smell the smoke on me from when Vanika burned.

If I agreed to let Raolcan open that portal for Jalla’s people, then I was agreeing to do that all over again. I might as well start bathing in the blood.

Don’t be over-dramatic.

Well, what would he call it then? To my shame, there were people gone from this earth who should still be here – because of me. And to my shame, I would do it again.

“What’s taking so long?” Jalla asked. Her arms were crossed and her foot tapped on the stone. “The army is almost across the bridges.”

I looked where she was pointing, eager for the distraction. The line of lanterns moved slowly towards us, hundreds of feet crossing the narrow stone bridge to the center hub. The snorts of horses and distant babble of low voices met us. One of the lights fell over the side, slowly plunging into the darkness and falling, falling, falling, until I lost sight of it.

In reaction, the crowd pushed the other direction. I thought I heard someone yell and then a second lantern dropped. If they weren’t careful, they would lose all their lights.

The lights are attached to men.

A wave of nausea washed over me and I closed my eyes, clamping my jaw shut as I spread my palms across Raolcan’s scales looking for support. Horror rocked me and burrowed into my mind tentacle-like. How long would they fall before they died? How many minutes of knowing it was too late. What if that had been someone I knew? Lenora? Or Ephretti.

Stop. You’re spiralling out of control.

But they were here because I led them here.

Enough. It’s time to decide. Shall I open the portal?

“Did you see that?” I asked with a shaky voice.

“The way is narrow. And this rock island is small,” Jalla said, her voice hard and unyielding. “If you don’t like lives wasted, then pick up the pace. Once they crowd onto this hub we need to start moving them or many more will fall.”

Do I open it?

No.

Really? Do you know what it would take to back all of this up?

I mean ...

The fight in Vanika was for this. The lives lost were for this. You can’t back out now. You have to finish what you started.

I didn’t want to do it. I swallowed, and my throat ached so much it was hard to even swallow my own saliva. I cleared my throat roughly, biting back an anxious whimper.

Yes, okay, yes.

There was no turning back now.

Chapter Ten

ONCE THIS STARTS, I won’t be able to stop while people are going through the portal.

I thought they just stood in the circle and you activated it and it transported them.

That’s one way to do it. The dragon I spoke to at the Dawn’s Gate says it’s possible to trigger the gate to stay open as long as I hold the flow of magic in place.

And how are you supposed to do that? It didn’t sound like a real thing.

With a mental trick.

It sounded too easy. He’d just ‘happened’ on a dragon who knew the legends of these portals when he, a dragon prince, hadn’t known them. And then it just ‘happened’ to be a mental trick that made it work perfectly for our situation?

My, are you cynical these days. Where did sweet little Amel go?

She burned up in the fire.

There was a pause, like he was processing what I’d thought before a burst of chagrin came through our link.

I asked my brother. He was always more studious than I was.

He’d talked to his brother about this?! He hadn’t mentioned it.

Just because you’re getting cynical it doesn’t mean that I need to get all gooey to balance you out. You were busy planning your bright future with Leng while we were at the Dawn’s Gate. I wasn’t just sitting there idly.

So, he had to focus, and he had to stay focused while the portal was open.

And practically motionless. Do you want to stay on my back or get down before I start?

He shuffled slightly, positioning himself so he could access the glowing runes while looking down the bridge before us. The torches were growing closer. I kept my eyes unfocused when I glanced up, trying to judge distance without noting specifics. I didn’t want to know if someone else fell in their hurry to arrive at the bridge.

Pretending it isn’t happening doesn’t make it stop.

But feeling the pain of it didn’t make it stop either. Who were these crazy people who would push forward to battle so intently that they lost their footing and then not even show compassion for those who fell?

These people are your enemies who are temporarily your allies. Note how they think differently than you do. Note how their values and ways of expressing themselves are different. You may need to understand that someday. But don’t ever forget that they are human just like you. No matter how different, no matter how foreign - they are human.

I let my eyes focus. I’d stay up here on Raolcan’s back – solidarity with my dragon. Whatever befell him would befall me. The first marching feet reached the hub at the same moment that Raolcan’s mind began to feel distant from me. The glowing circle grew brighter.

“Finally!” Jalla said from the sidelines. “Are we ready?”

I cleared my throat, nervous suddenly. What if it went wrong?

“We’re ready.”

“Test it out, Dragon Rider,” Jalla said to Hubric, but he just raised an eyebrow.

“I’m on Ifrit watch, Baojang,” he said, calling her by the nation she led like she was a real monarch. I supposed she was, whether it felt that way to me or not.

Kyrowat shifted to stand shoulder to shoulder with Raolcan and I smiled gratefully at Hubric. At least if we were pinned here we could have him at our back.

“Fine.” Jalla looked around herself with a frown, clearly trying to think quickly.

With Hubric and me stuck at the hub that only left Ahummal for her to ride, but if she was the first to go through the portal she’d have to leave her army behind her – uncertain about whether they could follow her. She glanced at the Serpent Prince, her mouth forming a worried moue. He smirked, clearly realizing, as I did, that if she sent him through first he would be in command of the forces on that side until she joined him.

She cleared her throat. “The Serpent Prince will have the honor of leading us through the portal.”

I felt a vibration.

I looked up, slowly.

Bright, fiery eyes were looking down at me.

Chapter Eleven

I’VE ALREADY STARTED. I can’t stop.

The Ifrit stirred.

“Hubric!” I whispered. Just a whisper in a cavern full of people talking at full volume. But the Ifrit shifted slightly – like I suddenly had his full attention.

Everything seemed to happen very slowly – too slowly.

The Serpent Prince yelled a command in his language, pushing past Jalla and rushing into the circle. As soon as he reached the midway point he startled, freezing in place for a moment – his eyes wild – before he disappeared. He didn’t fade slowly or seem to walk through a door or anything else, he was just gone.

I didn’t have time to gasp before Jalla drew her sword, raised it in the air and yelled, pointing at the glowing glyph on the floor. The army rushed forward from the bridge onto the central hub, charging for the glyph at full speed. The man leading the charge didn’t even pause as he hit the same point as Habrida had and vanished midstride, just like his leader. I barely saw the faces of the men and women who followed him before they vanished into the portal, too.

And then everything was moving too quickly. I held my breath as I watched, unwilling to be distracted by the need to breathe.

The army continued its headlong charge into the portal. Kyrowat launched into the air beside me while Jalla screamed at Renn to follow him. Renn argued back, his face flushed in his intensity. It would take a lot to force Renn to fly into the face of danger.

He finally launched into the air, cursing so loudly that I could hear him over the pandemonium of the jostling army. I couldn’t understand the shouted orders or loud calls, but I caught their meaning well enough. The army was both charging into the unknown, and fleeing this dank underground hell, in the same action. Occasionally, one of them would stumble or be pushed to the side, careening into Raolcan and bouncing off his side as he focused on his task. I held my seat and my nerve carefully, refusing to let fear rise up inside me even as I was jostled and pressed.

The Ifrit shot into the air so suddenly that my heart pounded in my ears. I kept my lips pressed firmly together, my hands on Raolcan’s neck. If a dragon could keep him at bay until the other dragons could get down the passage and burst into the hub cavern, then Kyrowat would have to be that dragon. If a dragon was not enough, there was nothing that I could do.

The Ifrit spun, sailing through the air like a spark-filled cloud of death. He elongated and then snapped back to his usual size, flying low over the bridge of soldiers so that his belly brushed against their lantern poles. More than one lantern fell from terrified hands and the charge I had thought was at full speed, suddenly sped up to an even faster pace.

A soldier fell into Jalla, making her stumble backward. She shoved him back with a roar and an order in her language before rounding on me.

“I’m coming up. Make space.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but she was already scrambling up Raolcan’s motionless side and settling into the saddle.

“We wouldn’t have this problem if our soldiers were riding those dragons. Instead, we have fleeing soldiers trying to get through this portal and the dragons that could help are behind them, clogging up the rear.”

I could barely hear her over the shouting. The Ifrit charged down again, this time knocking soldiers off the bridge and grabbing them by the fistful to fling into the dark. My breath caught in my throat. This is what I first feared when we returned to this terrible place. And there was no way to go more quickly. No way to save those who had fallen. No way to prevent more from falling, too.

“Your soldiers,” I gasped.

“They are men and women of Baojang, not withered flowers like the people of the Dominion. We accept risk for the prospect of glory. We are made of courage and honed by risk.” She sounded proud.

Kyrowat swooped toward the Ifrit – flaming as he passed – Ahummal hot on his heels. My eyes widened as I watched Renn lean low over his mount as they unleashed their own flame. Who would have thought he had it in him?

“Look at my future husband,” Jalla continued. “He fights bravely – like one of us. But he shouldn’t be alone. Our people should be mounted on dragons by the hundred instead of leading them as a vanguard. It has always been our destiny to fill the skies.”

“Well, you do have the Sentries. But let’s just get as many of your soldiers as we can through the portal,” I said tightly.

Jalla nodded. “And then we will conquer the Dominion and every man and woman who survived here today will be a war leader with their own fertile lands to rule.”

I clenched my jaw, not sure what to do with the mixed emotions I felt now that she was mentally dividing up my home. Every person who fell on that bridge was a human person, dying a horrible death they didn’t deserve. And every one that survived was a potential Jalla – a careless slave master who would take everything from my people. I did not like either prospect.

Raolcan shifted slightly under me. Was the strain becoming too much for him? How long could he hold on?

I glanced up to where Kyrowat and Ahummal were distracting the Ifrit, one tempting it in one direction and the other swooping in to distract it somewhere else just before it caught the first dragon.

How long could they keep that up? They only needed to remain steady until the dragons arrived. I reached for the Pipe. Holding it tight in my hand and ready to start piping when the first dragon emerged.

“You’ll have to give that back eventually,” Jalla said and there was a strange tone in her voice when she said it.

“It doesn’t work for you.” My voice was tight with stress as I followed the battle, feeling helpless as I sat in one place while others fought and dodged and ran.

“For now. It seems bound up with you. With your life.”

Was she suggesting she would kill me if that’s what it took to get the Pipe? I glanced over at her, surprised to see the calculating look in her eye. Why was I surprised? Jalla had been this way from the moment I met her. The thing is – her bark was always worse than her bite. When she made me her slave that mostly involved playing cards and passing the time with her. It also involved loyalty demands and chores – but I thought that maybe from her perspective she’d gone easy on me. What would it mean to go easy on me when it came to acquiring this artifact back?

Her eyes were hungry as she watched it.

“I’m not going to die anytime soon,” I said, but my eyes were moving tensely from the Ifrit to the fleeing soldiers. He ignored Kyrowat trying to draw his attention and made a second sweep across the rock bridge. My whole face tensed as my eyes fought to close, but I couldn’t close them – I had to watch. It was wrong to pretend that people weren’t dying. Behind me, Jalla stiffened. So, she did care. No matter what she said, she cared that her people were dying.

How much longer would it be until the first dragon emerged?

The army wasn’t coming through the tunnels anymore. There! At the very rear! Rakturan and Enkenay brought up the rear for Baojang, launching immediately into the air as soon as they entered the larger cavern. Enkenay rushed toward the Ifrit with a roar as the last of the Baojang soldiers’ feet pounded toward the glyph.

But where were the dragons? I expected them to emerge by now.

The platform suddenly felt darker, as if a shadow had passed over it. Raolcan swayed underneath me and then slumped suddenly against the statue.

The glyph was dark. The portal was closed.

Chapter Twelve

“GET IT BACK!” JALLA shouted. She kicked her heels into Raolcan. “Back, I said.”

I spun around, my teeth clenched in anger. She kicked Raolcan! Kicked him when he was clearly hurting! With all my strength, I shoved her off his back, not concerned when her eyes went large and she toppled down to the stone. She shot me a look of death before scrambling in the dust on the stone floor and leaping back to her feet and drawing her sword.

“Baojang! To me! We’ll form defensive lines!” Jalla called. She yelled a second time in her own language, clearly repeating her orders.

There was no other choice for Baojang, but I had other things on my mind. I blew my Pipe, calling to the dragons in the caverns. If they could only hurry, there were more than enough of them to deal with one Ifrit. Even the addition of Enkenay was helping Kyrowat and Ahummal in their desperate battle to keep the Ifrit occupied.

I’d thought that too soon. The Ifrit reached out and batted Ahummal. He fell backward, tumbling and crashing before landing limply on the platform. The Baojang soldiers around where he fell, scrambled to clear the area for him before he landed, half tripping over each other in their haste.

That hurt.

Raolcan! He was back with us from wherever he’d been!

No time. Concentrate on calling the wild dragons while I direct them.

I blew my Pipe in the three-note melody that had worked so well last time as Raolcan found his feet, sliding them in the dust a little as he shook himself. Was he really okay?

I’ll live. I just need to get my bearings. It’s a lot of work to do so many things at once.

Where were the dragons? Could they not hear my Pipe? I raised it to my lips.

Not again! Not yet. It’s too strong for those of us nearby. They’re held up at a narrow point. It has slowed them.

I held the Pipe tightly, trying not to pay attention as the moments ticked by and Jalla finished chivvying the Baojang soldiers into line. I tried not to worry as she pulled a limp Renn out from under Ahummal. He didn’t seem to be bloody or battered, but he was pale as a ghost.

I focused on breathing evenly as Kyrowat flew low overhead, favoring his left side. Hubric rode slumped slightly over his neck. Were they struck by the Ifrit while I was distracted?

Yes.

Kyrowat landed awkwardly behind me, shaking slightly as if from shock. Only Rakturan and Enkenay still dominated the air, but the Ifrit had them on the run. They flew toward the island, barely ahead of his snatching hands. At the last second, it looked as if the creature would grab Rakturan from the saddle, but Enkenay rolled into a summersault, corkscrewing out of the flip in an unexpected direction and the Ifrit’s fist came away empty.

He surged forward, and I clenched every muscle, willing my eyes to stay open as he charged towards us. All I saw was his inferno mouth as he opened it in a wide shriek. There was nowhere for me to run, nothing I could do, no way to fight. Which also meant that there was no point running and screaming in the face of this charge.

Hot air blasted over us and the high-pitched squeal of his shriek stabbed through my ears. My fists balled, but I refused to give in to the fear rolling through my belly and making my bowels feel like water inside me.

Jalla shouted and her line of defenders seemed to stand straighter as the Ifrit dove. Another shout and their weapons moved, stabbing, slashing into the Ifrit at the same moment that he plunged through their ranks, snatching them up by the handful and bowling over anyone in his path.

It was like a living tornado had spun through our soldiers. On every side bodies scattered like fallen tree limbs. Broken, torn and bleeding, they dropped to the dust below. I stared in shock at the tattered few who still remained. Jalla was among them, her face hard, her sword held high, preparing for another charge. Raolcan had his forehead pressed against the center statue.

Trying to fix it.

I blew the Pipe again. Where were the dragons? All my attention was concentrated on the opening at the far end of the stone bridge. Was that movement I saw? He’d be back at any moment. We needed help and we needed it now!

Yes, it was movement! There was a dragon head coming through from the warrens. I felt hope swell up inside me and drew in a breath of relief. I was just about to cheer when I heard Jalla make a sound like I’d never heard before. The surprise and horror of it drained every sliver of excitement from me.

I turned to look just in time to see a dozen figures rising up from the dust of the earth, spinning, like a dust devil kicking up. Black light poured from them and little slivers of fire seemed to peek out as they were built dust layer by dust layer from the ground up.

In every place where the blood of Jalla’s soldiers had been spilled in the dust, an Ifrit was rising.

And suddenly I realized why one Ifrit had been left behind. He’d been there to trigger the ultimate trap.

Chapter Thirteen

YELLS IN BAOJANG FILLED the air and I felt helpless on Raolcan’s back. He was frozen here again, his mind busy at the controls of the hub, but even if he wasn’t busy, I would be useless in this conflict.

Ifrits filled the platform, as the tiny figures of humans tried to dodge and weave around them. Jalla slashed at one with her sword, flying through a series of intricate swordplay poses that would have impressed me and reduced an enemy to tiny shreds – if that enemy wasn’t a demon made from dust.

I blew the Pipe, worry filling me as Kyrowat skidded in front of me, trying to protect Ahummal and Renn. The dragons were coming - I could already see them flying into the main hub area, one by one – but by the time they made it here we would be dead, and they would be trapped here with the Ifrits.

I’m trying...

Soldiers of Baojang flew through the air as the Ifrits tossed them out of their way. Screams and the scuffling of feet filling the air. Somehow Jalla was still on her feet, her eyes blazing as she slashed and danced around the Ifrits.

A fiery mouth crashed toward me. Kyrowat leapt in a single jump, darting between me and the Ifrit. The Ifrit swiped at him, sending him careening away into the dark. Hubric!

I screamed.

As if my scream had triggered it, the glyph sprang to life, flooding the platform with purple light for only a second before disappearing again. But with it went Jalla, Ahummal and Renn, a dozen injured soldiers, and half the Ifrits.

I gasped.

Almost had it there.

The last Ifrits turned on me, racing forward. I blew into the Pipe, but I knew this was the end. My final moments. At least I hadn’t died a coward. At least I hadn’t died alone.

The closest one was inches away, his scream shredding my hearing, his open mouth burning me with the intensity of the fire within. I braced for the violence, my eyes closing involuntarily. I took a breath.

There was a shriek and a scuffle and then I opened my eyes again.

A dragon passed inches from my face, scales flashing as he passed. I sucked in a breath at the nearness of him. It was easy to forget how massive a dragon was. Easy to forget until they almost knock you over.

Which dragon was this? Those scales were red!

As soon as he passed, I gasped as the scene in front of me unfolded. Dragons tore into Ifrits on every side, flaming and snapping and roaring. Showers of dust flew through the air as one Ifrit after another burst into dust. Hundreds of dragons of every color, size, and texture swirled through the air, dominating the battle.

I remembered Jalla’s words, ‘Our people should be mounted on dragons by the hundreds. It has always been our destiny.’ This is what she wanted. And now I could see why. The sheer power and dominance of the dragons... wait! This was what the other nations wanted. They wanted our dragons. They wanted this power.

The words of the Ibrenicus Prophecies filled my mind:

Tide of the north rushing, rushing,

Longing for sea to meet sky and conquer,

Longing to take to wing,

But by blood they grasp,

And the innocent fall with the guilty.

But one shall rise,

To stand in the place of the other,

to bear the debt of nations,

to give up the breath of life to dispel the dust of death.

But the dragons weren’t ours. They belonged to themselves. It didn’t matter that the nations of the north wanted them. They weren’t ours to give.

I knew you’d get there on your own eventually.

Purple light flared as the glyph sprang back to life, but now it wasn’t illuminating Ifrits. There wasn’t a single one left. The dragons on the platform glanced at us before diving toward the glyph.

I managed to lock it open this time. They can go through without me concentrating on it or staying in place.

I scanned the darkness looking for the one purple dragon I’d lost track of.

“Why are you staring into space?”

He was behind me. I spun in the saddle.

“Hubric!”

“We don’t die so easily, do we, Kyro?” He was battered and dirty – and so was Kyrowat, but they were still whole. “Where’s Jalla?”

“Through the portal.”

“I don’t trust her out of my sight.”

“Hubric?” I asked. I needed someone else to know.

“Yes?”

“I know why the nations are fighting us. I know why they planned together to destroy the Dominion – to feed the rebellion of the Dusk Covenant and turn the hearts of the Magikas and attack us on every side.”

“They want the dragons,” Hubric said, smirking when my eyes went wide. “Tell me something we don’t know. It’s why the dragons give us some of their own – why we have our own side of the bargain to keep. We are part of their buffer against humanity – part of what keeps the world from a dragon - human war. The nations can’t steal the dragons. But they could extinguish them from the earth. The pact between Haz and Haz’drazen was made to prevent that. The story gets twisted into something about how the Dominion Sky People were established to rule this land, but it was really a pact between two desperate groups to save each other. And that’s still what it is. See these dragons flying free and strong? That’s why Raolcan and Kyrowat and all the others live their lives as slaves and it’s why you and I live our lives that way, too. Or haven’t you noticed that is what we are? We live to serve the people and the prophecies and the dragons.”

I stared at him, letting the words sink in.

We’re proud to serve.

And so was I.

“Enough introspection. The battle has only just begun.” Hubric grinned and Kyrowat ran to the glyph to join the stream of dragons darting one after another into the portal.

Ready?

I was still reeling with the knowledge of why we were fighting.

Reel later. We have work to do.

Chapter Fourteen

RAOLCAN WAS ALREADY leaping toward the bright glyph before I could answer and as soon as his feet hit the pattern, everything changed. We were still standing on a glyph on a pattern, but where we had left dragons darting into the portal, here they were rushing from the central hub and through a dark entrance on the other side of the bridge. I didn’t know exactly what I’d expected, but I think it had been light and the outside world, not more portals. I didn’t remember what had happened last time – I’d been unconscious – but I knew it wasn’t like this.

We’re below the base of Leedris City.

Raolcan flew after the stream of dragons, pausing for a moment beside Ahummal who was slumped beside the statue. Around the statue, bodies were piled. When Jalla and the Ifrits came through the portal, they must have surprised the Baojang soldiers here. Renn sat beside him, head in his hands.

“Renn?” I asked, “Are you hurt?”

“My head is ringing. I just need a rest.”

I shouldn’t leave him here, but I felt torn. I didn’t trust the army of Baojang near a Dominion city.

“Where is Jalla?”

“She went on ahead. I just need a rest ...” his voice faded but my guilty feeling was interrupted by Hubric.

“We’ll come back for him,” he called to me as he and Kyrowat raced forward.

I sighed, not sure what to do, but Raolcan was already dashing after Kyrowat. Maybe when the Sentries followed they would pick up Renn and Ahummal.

Do you really want Jalla loose in Leedris? Who knows what she’ll do next.

Who knew whether I could stop her if she tried to hack or slash her way through the city? We flew on, across the bridge and through the dark entrance. A pair of Baojang soldiers stood on either side of the opening with grim expressions, but they made no move to stop us.

“Jalla?” I asked, and they motioned into the door.

We flew through, directly on Kyrowat’s heels. No Ifrits so far.

The dragons that went through before us dispatched them.

I blinked at the light as we exited the cavern. It was late afternoon here. Had we been in the warrens so long?

It was bright compared to the caves. I grabbed the light from Raolcan’s saddle and extinguished it. No need to let anyone know where we were. And where was that, exactly?

We were in the base of a skycity, I realized. It was hollow and wide at the bottom, the woven human-thick threads of skysteel that supported the city surrounded us, woven into an impenetrable basket of strength – inaccessible by the outside world. Up above the structure supporting the sky city narrowed to a slender stem and through the center of the stem were a series of steel baskets on a thick cable. I watched as three dozen men and women in Baojang armor worked a huge pulley and crank system that was marching the baskets up the line – like a watermill of sorts, but for bringing people and supplies high up in the air to the sky city. Behind them, other soldiers waited for their turn.

Around the baskets, the dragons flew upward, outstripping the human warriors in their speed of ascent. The entire center of the skysteel structure was clogged with bodies moving upward like a spurting fountain to the city above. I shivered at the thought of what was to come.

Raolcan didn’t even hesitate.

Hang on. Lie as flat on my neck as you can.

I crunched forward, leaning out across Raolcan’s neck and clasping my arms around it. His launch was so powerful that I felt my belly tense as we shot through the air.

Don’t look up.

I thought I felt something scrape across my back. I shut my eyes tight and pressed my cheek against his scales.

Just reminding everyone who leads this expedition.

Isn’t that Jalla?

It’s Raolcan, Prince of Dragons.

He was as arrogant as a Baojang war leader.

Oh, I’m far worse than that. Prepare yourself!

For what?

For battle. I know you don’t like it.

Warm air burst across my face suddenly and I opened my eyes to chaos. We launched through a small room packed with soldiers helping others out of baskets and onto a platform to the side. This must be a sub-floor room of the city.

Someone – a dragon most certainly – had torn the entrance from the room into one above that was a lot larger. Teeth and claw marks bit into the crumpled scrap left at the edges.

I barely had time to take in the details of the tight room before we were pushing past other dragons and humans through what had been the floor. The humans were still using the stairs, but the dragons had burrowed upward like groundhogs in a farmer’s field, tearing holes through one floor up to the next and through that floor again. We burst up through it with at least a dozen other dragons and into a courtyard. We were finally at city level.

Pandemonium reigned.

Dragons swirled above us – some the free dragons who had come with us, others the Blacks stationed here to guard the city. Fire lanced from one group to the other, but in the chaos, the exact battle was hard to follow. Around us, Baojang soldiers marched in steady streams to the surrounding walls and towers. Burn marks and limp bodies told me we were late to arrive.

Habrida, the Serpent Prince, had arrived much too far ahead of us.

Raolcan gained height over the courtyard, giving me a chance to survey what was taking place below.

I’d say he has conquered half the city, but the battle is far from won. Even the skies are in contest. Look.

On one side of the city lines of Magikas were assembled on every wall and tower, taking aim at the wild dragons around us. Why did it seem like every Magika had chosen our enemies over us?

That’s an answer for another day.

That’s where we needed to be – directing and coaching them to do the least harm while still gaining victory.

This force seems much stronger than I’d expect, even defending a city the size of Leedris. There are armies spread out across the plain. And look! There are Ifrits in the sky city and all around the city!

I saw what he meant – clusters of the dust demons fought in the cramped city streets and out over the plains around the city there were lines of dust clouds that I had come to recognize as Ifrits on the move.

I bit my lip nervously. I didn’t want to think about the battle below, about the innocents hiding in their homes, about collapsing cities and digging people out of the rubble.

If we don’t do it, things will be just as bad – worse. The Dominion ruled by Ifrits and the Dusk Covenant won’t care about those children. The neighboring nations won’t care when they enslave or kill every dragon they can find. You must choose this path because the other one is so much worse.

But I didn’t want to choose any path if both were full of violence.

Amel, you can’t control everything. You can’t save everyone. If you try to opt out, all you do is strengthen the enemy. You must choose to do all the good that you can and limit as much evil as you are able to do. Be courageous.

I took a deep breath. Okay. Assess the situation. Figure out a plan that didn’t end with a burning or toppled city...

But where was Jalla? She had been only a little ahead of us and she didn’t have a dragon to ride with Ahummal injured.

No time to think of her.

But he was wrong. Because wherever Jalla was, that would be the main event. And if I wasn’t there to rein her in, there was no telling what she would do.

We need to focus on the wild dragons. With the Pipe, you are their leader.

But I wasn’t, really. Raolcan was. I tried to listen to him, scanning the sky for dragons to pick out where our dragons were and figure out what to tell them to do, but my eye was caught by a lone purple – riderless – but saddled. He flew toward us with a gait so familiar that I felt my forehead wrinkle as I watched.

Realization dawned on me and my eyes went large. Raolcan...?

Ahlskibi!

Chapter Fifteen

HE FLEW TOWARD US AND I sensed a shift in Raolcan’s flying, as he moved upward and into an observing arc, waiting for the other dragon. As we soared there, Hubric and Kyrowat joined us.

Ahlskibi is riderless.

Did he mean...?

Leng is not dead. Not yet. But he needs help within the Castel.

The dragons out here needed direction but now I wanted nothing more than to dive into the Castel and find Leng hiding behind a tapestry or doing whatever other thing was going to get him caught.

Blow your Pipe to get their attention and I will pass authority to Kyrowat to lead them while we storm the Castel. I didn’t expect... but no, just blow the Pipe and I’ll tell you on the way.

I signaled to Hubric, asking if he understood the plan and he signaled agreement and gave me a firm nod. That was as close to a blessing as he gave. I nodded back and blew my three-note tune on the Pipe. The swirling dragons below took on a more certain look before Kyrowat dove into their ranks to lead from the front.

My hands shook as I tucked the Pipe back into my belt. Where was Leng and what was happening in the Castel? Ahlskibi reached us, his expression agitated. He plunged past and then dove toward the Castel just off to the east side of the center of the city.

From above, it was easy to see that the Castel remained in the hands of the Dominion – or rather the Dusk Covenant who had seized our empire when Iskaris took power, but Baojang pressed against the edges of their defense. Likely, it would be the last part of the city to be conquered.

As we raced toward it I saw a swirl of Baojang soldiers rush around one side, attacking a slowly retreating group of soldiers in Dominion uniform. It bothered me to see them dressed as loyal soldiers, knowing their strings were pulled by the Dusk Covenant. The Serpent Prince was at their head, fighting with the same chilling precision with which he’d made his threat to me. I didn’t think I should want people to die, but would it be so bad if he just got sick of the Dominion after this and went home?

Almost there. I can’t land on the battlements.

That was an understatement. The battlements bristled with archers and Magikas. A pair of Ifrits were on the uppermost portion. Why were there battlements on a Castel in a sky city?

The Dominion has always feared dragon attack.

They were right to fear. But if we couldn’t land there, where would we land? I ducked as a fireball was lobbed toward us.

See that balcony?

I did. It was very close to the fireball-lobber.

I’m going to fly at it full speed and hope we can squeeze through the wide window.

It was big. But was it big enough? And what if we got stuck halfway through?

There are no defenders there besides a single pair of guards. It’s our best bet.

Why the urgency?

Ahlskibi says the Dominar is here.

Shonan? Was he in trouble?

The other Dominar.

Iskaris! A flare of heat rushed through me. Stopping Iskaris was worth the risk of diving through that balcony.

I’m glad you think so.

The window was getting closer. I hunched low over Raolcan’s back as fireballs and arrows from the battlements above us crashed and smoked around us. I could hear the yells and screams below, smell the sulfur in the air, and see the window growing closer.

Twice dead, she rises.

Her rising a sign of salvation.

Favor from the heavens.

Relief from the fires of hell.

Raolcan quoted the ancient prophecy as we dodged and spun, always getting closer to the gaping window.

Let’s show them a little favor from the heavens, shall we?

And then we were darting through the window head first and I was clutching his neck, pressing my cheek to it to make myself small so we could fit. We were here to stop Iskaris and if I had to die to do that, I would. I had seen the evil in his heart.

I gritted my teeth as it occurred to me that he might have captured Leng. Being at the mercy of Iskaris was one of the worst things I could imagine.

Chapter Sixteen

RAOLCAN’S SPEED SLOWED and he wriggled through the tightest part of the window before tumbling forward. I waited until we’d stopped moving before I looked up, still gasping to fill my lungs after that tight compression.

We were in the audience hall. And we were not alone.

I’d never seen so many Magikas in my life. My breath caught in my throat as I saw them, row upon row, their rune-bedecked robes fluttering in the wind of our passage. I could almost feel every hair of my body rise at the sight of them.

The ceiling of the room soared upward – three Raolcan’s high – and was bedecked with hanging chandeliers, the lanterns and candles hanging from them lit despite the daylight.

The walls of the chambers were hung with tapestry after tapestry that looked so foreign that I gasped. The symbol of the Dusk Covenant – a diagonal slash through a spiral – was everywhere and the scenes in the tapestries were of Ifrits, fire, and death. But a tapestry wasn’t made in a day – much less a dozen of them. How long had artisans labored over such a grizzly craft? And who had employed them? Wasn’t Leedris Savette’s family? How could this have been done in their Castel without their knowledge?

And what would make you assume that they are good?

They were loyal to the Dominar – to Shonan.

Or so it was thought. Sometimes, friends deceive.

At the end of the room, on a raised dais, the Dominar sat on a steel chair, his mask gleaming in the light of a hundred lanterns. He stood abruptly, but it wasn’t him who had my attention. I knew what treacherous scum he was. I knew we needed to rip that mask off his face and return it to our rightful ruler.

It was the figure beside him, hands and feet lashed to an “X” of wooden beams who caught my attention. Someone had thrown a hood over that person’s head. Strung across the wooden cross with a swath of cloth thrown over him like a curtain, his identity was impossible to discern.

Leng? I hoped not with all my heart but somehow my lungs just weren’t working right anymore and my faulty heart was stuttering in my chest. My hands gripped and twisted at the saddle under me while Raolcan shifted back and forth. Could he read the prisoner’s thoughts?

I’m not finding anything. He must be unconscious.

Behind us, Ahlskibi pushed through the narrow window, struggling to pull his bulk through. He was bigger than Raolcan and I heard him snarl as a stone knocked loose from the masonry and crashed to the ground.

“An audience,” the Dominar said, stilling the whispers of the crowd. “I like audiences. And this one, while few, makes up for it in sheer size.”

There was a tittering from some of the nobles at the front of the crowd. They must be starved for humor.

Or just plain starved. Iskaris is not a kind master.

Iskaris sounded as though he were smiling behind that mask, but I wasn’t fooled. Iskaris didn’t smile.

“You didn’t like having an audience on that platform in the warrens,” I said.

My voice sounded too high pitched. I could feel the tremble in my throat as I spoke. I had watched a city burn because I didn’t have the foresight to prevent it. I’d watched an evil man become a ruler for the same reason. I wasn’t willing to let him do whatever evil thing he was planning now. He needed to remember that he was nothing but a traitor. I needed to remind him.

“We’ve found a traitor among us,” he said, as if he could hear the chant of ‘traitor, traitor, traitor,’ in my thoughts.

“We certainly have,” I agreed. It was only when I heard the gasp that I realized what the Magikas were seeing – I, a fledgling Dragon Rider, was speaking like an equal to the Dominar. But he wasn’t my Dominar and I didn’t buy this idea that the mask was the man. The man only wore the mask, and this one wore it poorly. A mask like that could never be taken in treachery, it could only be received in self-sacrifice.

Ahlskibi moved to tuck in beside Roalcan where they could defend each other if attacked. The crowd shifted at his movement.

“And now we are deciding what to do with this traitor. And here I find a Dragon Rider, at the perfect time, has joined us. Your color is purple – the color of truth. Tell me, Dragon Rider and tell me true – what should be done to a traitor of the land, hmm?”

Was he asking what I should do to him? Or to whatever poor soul was under that sheet? I knew I should say something moderate – what if that was Leng? But it was hard not to answer him directly.

“Any traitor should see with his own eyes the destruction he has caused,” I said. “He should have to make a recompense for his crimes to every person he has hurt. He should hear from them what he has done.”

“An excellent verdict.”

There was a murmur of approval around me, but I felt like someone had lined my seat with pins and needles. There was a catch here. I could feel it coming. This was no ordinary person under the cloth and Iskaris was only baiting me, knowing that we both knew that he was the ultimate traitor here.

He motioned to the guards and my whole heart was screaming within me, Please don’t be Leng! Please don’t be Leng!

They ripped the cloth off the figure and flung it to the ground.

It wasn’t Leng fixed to that wooden X. It was Jalla.

Her head hung limply to the side until one of the guards slapped her awake.

Had someone nailed her hair to the beams? Her eyes flashed defiantly in the light, but the tiny trickle of sweat at her temple – or was it blood? – gave away how desperate her situation was. I tensed as I watched her, trying not to quake at the thought of how Iskaris would use my words against her.

How did she get here so quickly? That’s dragon-hard.

But I’d known that where there was trouble, there would be Jalla. And I knew something else – we needed her alive. No matter how troublesome and entitled and all-out frustrating Jalla was – the Serpent Prince would be worse. My lips tightened as I tried to assess the situation. What could I do to free her?

“This woman has betrayed our land into the hands of the armies of Baojang,” Iskaris said.

“Only a friend can betray,” I said, my voice squeaking at the end of my sentence. I needed better control of myself when I was nervous.

“And Baojang was a friend and an ally. And now she is not. Now, she is tethered to these sticks, like a feast-day goat. And we shall do to her exactly as you suggested, Amel Leafbrought, Dragon Rider of the Purple. We will lower her down from this window on these very sticks so she can watch the results of her treachery and learn with her own eyes what she has done.”

“You’ll doom us all,” I breathed. This was what he was doing? While his city was attacked? While his soldiers bled and died? He was playing games with Jalla instead of fighting for his life?

He paused, appearing to consider the question before the eyes behind the mask twinkled and his voice went velvet smooth.

“Or...”

“Or what?”

Every set of lungs in the room froze as we waited for his reply. Every person rose up on toes, head lifted high, eyes fixed on their master.

“I’m reminded of the words of the Ibrenicus Prophecies,” the Dominar said, tapping a finger to his masked chin as if he could twist the prophecies against me. “‘Healing comes from the one who pays a steep price.’ Would you like to heal this land, Dragon Rider? And again it says, ‘To stand in the place of the other, to bear the debt of nations, to give up the breath of life to dispel the dust of death.’ There is death in the air tonight. There is one who will pay a price. Will it be this one? Or will it be you in her place?”

Chapter Seventeen

I STARED AT THE WOODEN X. Iskaris was mad. Raving, insanely mad. But as I watched the Magikas and Castelans in the room watching him, their breath held and their eyes bright, waiting to see what he would do next, I realized that he wasn’t the only one who was crazy.

It’s infected them. There’s this thing that happens to people when all their hopes are crumbling – it turns them like bad meat. They don’t dare look at their crumbling hopes in case that makes it more real. They can’t force themselves to fix the problem, because underneath it all they know that they have already lost and no amount of climbing will get them out of the hole they have dug for themselves. So, they lean into it. They let themselves be distracted and they throw themselves into insane causes that are so far from their initial goal that it’s almost impossible to draw a line from one thing to the other.

And now they were waiting to torture and kill either Jalla or me on that wooden X.

Well, it won’t be you.

But it couldn’t be Jalla. If it was Jalla, then there was an army in Baojang led by the Serpent Prince, and while Jalla was irritating and arrogant, I had begun to realize that underneath it all she had a set of ethics that governed her. The Serpent Prince had shown me that he was pure danger.

Raolcan shifted under me.

I can fly out of here as easily as I flew in. We can just leave.

But what about Jalla?

We can save her. We’ll get some allies to help.

I locked gazes with Jalla and her firm gaze told me that she agreed with Raolcan. And yet ...

No, ‘and yet!’

Was that fear I felt in his mind?

It’s all-out panic. Don’t go crazy on me now, Amel!

Raolcan shifted, backing toward the window we’d flown in by. The Dominar made a small sign with his two first fingers and thumb of his only hand. Raolcan bucked under me.

I wasn’t fast enough! They have me pinned in place. Ahlskibi, too. There was a wild note to his thoughts. I shouldn’t have let you think about it! I should have just flown away.

No. I could see clearly now what was required of me. Iskaris, insane as he was, was right about the prophecy.

To stand in the place of the other, to bear the debt of nations, to give up the breath of life to dispel the dust of death.

But he was wrong about the outcome, wasn’t he? The part before was about how badly the north wanted the dragons and how this was the one way to stop that from happening. Besides, what was the dust of death if not the Ifrit scourge? And someone needed to win today – to push back the Ifrits. Below us, our army was doing just that. The dragons were shredding them to pieces beneath us. But it wouldn’t be enough if Baojang lost her leader. It wouldn’t be enough if Jalla died here.

I could almost see Iskaris’ arrogant expression behind that mask as I took my crutches out and slid down Raolcan’s back.

Please don’t do this.

The crowd around us breathed out softly, their expressions anticipatory and greedy. Blood was what they wanted, and blood they would receive.

This is madness. No one else knows we are here. Ahlskibi is stuck here, too.

Which meant that no one else could save Jalla. And no one else would know what I was doing as I deftly unfastened the pipe from my belt and offered it to Raolcan. If he took it in his mouth, they couldn’t take it from him. It was utterly essential that no one else had the power to control dragons against their will. It struck me, suddenly, that it always should have been his. After all, he was the Prince of Dragons. He had suffered those trials with me. It belonged to him as much as it did to me.

Thank you for that acknowledgment.

Of course.

He took the Pipe delicately in his huge mouth.

Now get back in your saddle, you foot-eating fool!

But I couldn’t do that. If the choice was Jalla or me, I knew who was essential to save the Dominion – to save the whole world from these Ifrits. And it wasn’t a crippled Dragon Rider from a mud hut on the plains.

Please don’t do this. If you care about saving the world, it’s you who should be here to save it.

And I appreciated that, but it was Jalla who was needed.

We’ll find another way. We always do.

Yes, we always found a way. And this was the way. I remembered what Ephretti said as we watched that smoldering city together. She’d said, ‘Remember what one mistake can do.’ I couldn’t afford any more mistakes.

I hobbled forward to stand before the dais. I didn’t look back. Now was not the time for tears and if I looked back at his big eyes so full of loyalty to me, I would crumble.

“I’ll take her place,” I said simply. Who knew? Maybe our army below would conquer this city before he was finished with me. There was still hope that someone – Rakturan perhaps – would arrive in time to save Jalla and keep this war from spiraling out of control.

You can’t see smiles behind a mask, but I was sure Iskaris was smiling as much as the people on every side of him. Raolcan was right, they were all infected with his insanity.

And now you are, too.

Chapter Eighteen

THE MOST SURPRISING part of the whole situation was Jalla. She didn’t say a word – which was strange for her. Was this the princess who never paused even for breath as she spewed out a steady stream of commands? Was this the woman who I’d seen fighting bravely between Ifrits and watching coldly as cities fell? She didn’t seem like the same woman as she silently let them unbind her and shove her to the side. I thought she might be trying to tell me something with her eyes, but if she was, I didn’t hear it.

She is surprised, and very little surprises Jalla. And she is afraid.

Didn’t she expect her slaves to die for her?

Not by choice. That is why she is afraid.

“Make sure she doesn’t leave the room,” the Dominar ordered. Wise. After all, by the rising noise outside, the battle must have moved into the lower floors of the Castel. All I had to do was stay calm and try not to die before the army reached this level and freed Jalla and Raolcan.

One day, you will learn I am wiser than you and you will finally listen to me. This is madness!

That was good. He was still talking like I had a future. He needed that hope. I swallowed back the hitch in my throat as the Dominar’s guards grabbed me roughly, shaking my second crutch away in their haste. They didn’t bother to unstrap the other one and it bounced along the stone floor as they hauled me to the wooden beams and shoved me roughly against them.

I could feel the blood draining from my face as my body processed what was happening quicker than my mind could. Already my belly was churning, and a sour taste was in the back of my throat. Please don’t throw up, Amel. It would be so undignified. A bubbling sound in my belly made me fear even worse consequences as they cinched leather straps tightly around my wrists and ankles and through a slit in the beams, tightening and tying them on the other side. I was firmly fixed in place.

Sweat stung my eyes and I blinked it away.

I unfocused my eyes so that no one would notice me watching Jalla, edge step by step, behind the watchers and slowly climb onto Roalcan. He wouldn’t mind that. He’d always had a soft spot for her.

Not today. Not when you choose to take her place.

He sounded raw in my mind. Like he couldn’t bear this, but he would bear up under it just fine. He was always a survivor.

Not without you. You know that.

If Savette could survive without her dragon, then Raolcan could survive without his rider. He would need to find Shonan and ask him to help – or perhaps his mother could help. Or even the Troglodytes. He carried their talisman now. They would have to listen.

You are gambling both our lives on this!

But if I hadn’t then we could have lost Jalla. And Raolcan should know as well as I did that we couldn’t win a battle in this room full of magic, and Iskaris would not have let us leave without one.

The guards – ten of them – gathered around the crossbeams and with one great heave, lifted the beams with me strapped to them up into the air. I gritted my teeth, holding tight to my mind to keep it from skittering away in fear.

I knew the trick of this. Concentrate on little details. Concentrate on the ceiling. Someone had taken a lot of care with the wooden beams, painting them white and carefully carving them in designs and swirls.

A little dust fell from the ceiling.

“Fasten the rope tightly,” Iskaris called from behind me. I felt someone working to tie ropes through loops at the top of the beams. What had this thing been for before they made it into this instrument of terror?

I think it held lanterns from the ceiling above the audience chamber. It should not be holding you!

A strip of the ceiling seemed to rip free, torn upward. Was I imagining things? The window was close ... so close now that I could smell the battle beyond the window.

“Heave her over!” Iskaris called. “Let all the city see their traitor!”

The ceiling above me peeled away suddenly, as if someone had ripped it up with a massive hand full of claws. Wood beams shredded into splinters raining down on me. Was I the only one seeing this? Was the I the only one watching as light poured in through the rent ceiling and a massive white hand ripped beams and white plaster to widen the gash? The guards carrying me were steps from the window.

No wonder I was seeing things.

No wonder I was going crazy.

The murmurs of the crowd still carried the same tone. I watched the ceiling like a person in a dream, not sure what I was seeing as the dust of the floor above us fell down, stinging my eyes and scattering over the crowd and then, through the glittering beams of dust, a huge white head plunged through the ceiling and burped a stinking cloud of sulfur onto the crowd below.

Someone screamed.

This was real after all.

Chapter Nineteen

THE GUARDS DROPPED my beam and I crashed to the floor, my head feeling like it had been cracked in two as I landed. The crossbeams hit the floor so firmly that I felt the reverberations running through my whole body. I gritted my teeth against the pain, but there was no way to defend myself spread-eagled as I was across the beams.

A hundred other throats screamed all around me as Enkenay shoved himself through the ruined floor and landed heavily over me. All I could see was the ghost-like white of his semi-transparent scales as his belly settled over me, one leg between each beam. But I could hear the sound of running feet and screaming enemies, and then the rippling sound of fire through the air.

Smoke and ash washed back over me and blinded my eyes, but my heart still thudded on like a drummer who hadn’t noticed that the song was over.

Rakturan – who must have been on Enkenay’s back – bellowed something in Baojang and Jalla replied and then the sounds of battle extinguished everything else. I could smell sulfur and burning clothing. I could hear shouting and cursing and steel on steel. I tried not to think of what else I was smelling.

Amel? Are you okay?

I was okay. Sore, shaken, my heart felt like it didn’t fit in my chest anymore. But I was okay. I shook slightly on the beams, twisting my head to try to see, but all I could see between Enkenay’s thick legs were the hummocks of fallen Magikas across the stone floor. Was Raolcan hurt?

No, but Enkenay hasn’t found the Magika who holds me fast. I’m stuck here until he does. Thank goodness for Jalla!

Jalla?

She is fighting for Ahlskibi and me.

Jalla?!

There was a crash from the other end of the room.

The army has arrived.

Whose army?

Who even knows anymore.

And Enkenay moved and I shut my eyes tight and gritted my teeth as his scales brushed my nose. I opened my eyes too soon as the tip of his tail smacked my face. Ouch.

I blinked in the glittering dust ray that shone over me now that he was gone. Dust shone like tiny rainbow gems drifting down to me.

In the torn remnants of the ceiling, a dark figure crouched, lit from behind. He was holding a rope. He descended, arms and legs flung out like a dragon’s wings. I could hear the sound of the rope playing out across the edge of the gash. Behind him, the ceiling of the room above – a golden network of crossbeams – looked like the sort of place I imagined angels would live in. Perhaps the man was an angel.

He was slowing as he grew nearer – that ceiling really was high! – and I tried, helplessly, to repress my feeling of vulnerability. I couldn’t move an inch, not to protect myself, or even cover my eyes as he fell from directly above me, his own face still wreathed in shadow.

His descent slowed abruptly and I just barely recognized his face before we were nose to nose, his breath gentle on my cheeks.

He kissed me – tender and treasuring, as if he were afraid I would crumble. I was far from crumbling. My heart soared, my breath quickened, my arms ached to hold him.

Leng scrambled to the side, moving into an easy crouch of readiness, quickly sliding the rope he’d glided down on from a network of larger ropes tangled around his waist and thighs. He drew a small knife, darting back as an enemy guard leapt from out of nowhere and lashed out at him.

Leng danced back and forth like a snake between the rocks, keeping the guard at bay and away from me before something hit the guard from behind and he slumped to the ground.

Leng didn’t hesitate. He spun back to me, smiling like he was trying to make me brave with his smile and then darting to slice the leather cords that held my right wrist. I wiped dust from my eyes as he scrambled over me to cut the cord from my left wrist and help me sit up. I ached from head to foot but I couldn’t take my eyes off of him as he worked to free my feet without harming me and help me gain control of my crutch.

He was alive! He was safe! Or at least, as safe as any of us ...

“It’s my turn to save you again, heart of hope.”

“What are you doing here?” I gasped. It was hard to tear my eyes from his familiar face but behind us, the sound of steel on steel continued and so did the shouting. I glanced to Raolcan still frozen where he stood. How would I help him?

“Helping Savette spy out the source of the Ifrits,” he replied.

“Dust,” we said both at once, but we were both looking at our dragons, worried about them.

He nodded. “And blood – or deep flows of magic. They seem to use both. But now that your army has scattered the Magikas, I won’t be able to hatch my plan.”

The battle had moved across the hall, the Boajang army fighting with the guards, but where had the Dominar gone? Where were the Magikas? Or Rakturan?

“Your plan?” I wanted to give him my full attention, but I was distracted as I slowly pulled myself to my feet. Leng hurried to help me up.

“I was going to burn down this tower with all of them assembled here.”

“But you were above them! You would have burned, too!”

His gaze held a guilty look.

“No wonder Ahlskibi was worried!”

I looked toward Raolcan and Ahlskibi at the same time that Raolcan shook himself.

Finally! And now, if you’re about done making puppy-eyes at each other, spider, I’d like to show some of those Magikas what helplessness feels like.

“I wasn’t trying to die. I planned to get out through the escape hatch. There’s one here in the audience chamber, just like there was in Vanika.”

And that’s where the Dominar and his Magikas went and where Rakturan followed.

The hatch opened suddenly and Jalla poked her head up through the trapdoor, noticing me first.

“Good. You’re still alive. Rakturan needs reinforcements. Take your dragon and follow him, slave.”

“I’m not your slave anymore, Jalla,” I said firmly, feeling more strongly about that word than ever as I saw shock flash across Leng’s face. “I gave my life for you – I didn’t die, but the offer means something – and here in the Dominion that would make you my slave – so we’re even now.”

That wasn’t true – that I knew of – but I was betting that Jalla didn’t know that either and it sounded like just the kind of nonsense they would use in her land. I held my breath, waiting to see if she would believe me.

Jalla stared at me for a shocked second before jumping out of the hatch and slamming it behind her. She strode forward so forcefully that Leng moved to intercept her, but I put a hand on his arm. I could deal with Jalla.

I expected a blow or a raging outburst. I didn’t expect a violent hug. Before I’d even shaken off the shock she drew a knife, slashed her palm and wiped it across my cheek. Yuck!

“We’re blood sisters now,” Jalla said urgently. “Marked by blood and honor. This is good, yes, even better than before,” she nodded as if to herself before looking me in the eyes. “Send help as soon as you can.”

She turned and ran back to the hatch so quickly that I was still wiping blood off my face and looking at it on my fingers and she was already gone.

I had a terrible feeling that being Jalla’s blood sister might be even more dangerous than being her slave.

You’re getting wiser.

Read the rest of Amel’s story in Dragon School: Troubled War

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!