“That’s cool,” I said simply. “We should talk more about this after we get the tine.”
“We agree,” Solra said.
When we were airborne, I glanced down at Ignimitra. What would she sound like if she could talk?
THE FLIGHT WAS ONE of the easiest ones so far, despite its length. Ignimitra still had energy when we arrived at the village. From the air, Dry Town looked only a little bigger than my village. One the ground, I realized that it was actually smaller—most of the land was used for farming and rearing animals.
The village lay in the shadow of the Firesabre Mountains, watered by a river that flowed through its heart. Living here must have been a simple, quiet existence. Well-laden trees shaded small wooden houses, and even the grass seemed greener.
But how quiet could their life be if they lived so close to those horrendous creatures?
Team Sigma set up camp on the outskirts of the village, in a dry spot at the foot of the mountains. Even in the bright mid-afternoon sun, the Firesabre Mountains looked eerie.
They were different from the mountains that protected the Academy. These were gray and sickly, without a lick of vegetation. Just arid rock, cold and unforgiving, with jagged peaks. I’d never seen mountains stick up like sharpened blades before. They looked like sticks for impaling.
Had the dragons changed the topography with their fire breath?
“It feels like we’re about to invade their home,” I said, setting up the tent that would be my home for the next two days. It had been woven specially for our mission by a craftsman in the Artisan District. It was supposed to be fire-retardant. I didn’t want to find out if his claim was true.
Overhead, dragons flying into the area cast shadows on us. The other cadets were choosing their spots too.
“We are,” Irikai said, setting up his own tent. “We don’t have a choice.”
His words stung, but they were true.
“We’ll be fine,” Solra said. “We have a plan.”
Now that we were standing in the shadow of the mountains, our plan felt flimsy. Could unintelligent dragons have a habitat so fierce and naturally well-protected? What if they weren’t as dumb as we thought?
Even Titan was smaller than them, and he was the biggest on our team. The Firesabres outclassed Ignimitra nearly four times. My fingers were shaking as I tied the ropes of the tent. My knees were jelly, and the appetite I had worked up on the journey suddenly vanished.
I looked up to the mountains, sadness twisting a knot around my insides.
WE HAD FOUND BOOKS supporting the notion that Firesabres were nocturnal. The plan was to strike early in the morning when they fell into their first, deep cycle of sleep. Getting a tine was supposed to take little effort.
That night, screeches from the mountains kept me awake. I ended up crawling out of my tent and finding Ignimitra. Had some cadets ventured into the mountains during the night? Or were the dragons hunting something else? My mind was so alive with all the possibilities that I wasn’t sure when I fell asleep.
The sun rose on a bleak day, but I was happy for the sunlight. It meant we had a chance. The dragon calls had stopped. The Firesabres were asleep. Or satiated.
After freshening up in the river and getting food for ourselves and the dragons in town—we bought live cattle to feed them with, which Ignimitra loved—we set off for the mountains.
We flew a classic formation, with Zelkor in front, flanked by Titan and Ignimitra on either side. Solra seemed committed to her ruse—she was maneuvering Zelkor without verbal commands.
The ascent was steep, nearly completely vertical. Our pace was so slow that I couldn’t rely on my body weight to keep me flush against Ignimitra. I tightened my grip on her, pulling the buckle that held me in place taut.
When we finally made it, I felt her shudder beneath me.
Firesabre Mountains had a strong aura; dark and suffocating. Inside the crater, as impossible as it seemed, was more terrifying than the outside. Jagged rocks jutted out of the mountains, forming caves and crevices. There were no trees, no plants, no animals. Only dirt and rocks. Irikai’s father came to mind. I couldn’t imagine entering this place without a dragon. Had their mission been successful? Their chances seemed dismal.
Ash and death were high on the air, the remnants of the hunt we heard last night. I almost lost my lunch at the thought that their hunt might have been for humans.
“It’s alright, girl.” I leaned down to rub the side of her neck that she liked. It helped only a little bit. She was scared. That could be a disaster.
“I believe you can get through this, angel,” I said as soothingly as I could. “You have what it takes.”
She relaxed enough for me to relax too. She could probably feel my apprehension.
With hand signals, Solra directed our formation through the mountains.
We zigzagged through the rock formations, on high alert for any sign of a dragon.
It was a ghost town.
I expected this place to be crawling with dragons.
We made a wide arc through the mountain range, encountering other cadet teams.
But still, no dragons.
Team Sigma took rest on a plateau, just shy of where we had started a few hours earlier. We didn’t dismount, just in case.
“Do you think they knew we were coming?” Solra asked.
Irikai scoffed, “Not possible. We heard them last night.”
“Probably they aren’t as many as we think,” I offered.
It was the only plausible explanation. Dragons had an impressive sense of smell. By now, their habitat was overrun with foreign odors. That should’ve drawn them out.
“We should look for hiding spots,” Irikai said. “If you were a dragon where would you—"
He was cut off by a deafening shriek.
Behind Titan, a dragon had just emerged from a cave. A Firesabre. The depictions in the book didn’t do it justice.
The dragon was huge, so big it dwarfed even Titan, with black scales, thick, powerful legs and a wingspan longer than its body. It had orange tines from its head to tail in rows of six, ending in thick barbs. Even at this distance, I could see rows of long, dagger-like teeth in its open mouth.
This dragon was my worst nightmare come to life.
KRIYAAAAAH!
It barreled towards Titan and Irikai, it’s tines glowing bright. Seconds later, a plume of fire barreled out of its mouth, singing everything in its path.
Ignimitra and I were the first in the air, flying backwards. Solra and Zelkor were slower. Irikai screamed, and Titan leapt into the air, narrowly avoiding the dragon’s fire breath.
KRIYAAAAAH!
“Sigma formation two!” Solra screamed, and we fell into place.
We formed something like a queue in the air, Ignimitra at the front. Titan and Zelkor were each two dragon’s length behind.
“This is it, angel,” I said to her, stroking her neck. Her nervousness had melded into my own, and I couldn’t tell where hers ended and mine started. “Go!”
Ignimitra dove quickly, barreling towards the dragon. As we neared, I got a sliver of hope. The dragon’s long wings flapped at an awkward angle, almost as if it couldn’t manage them. We were nimbler by far.
At the last second, Ignimitra pulled up, raking her claws along the dragon’s side. The creature let out an enraged cry. It took to the air, chasing us.
Zelkor and Titan fell in behind it.
It was all going according to plan.
Here goes nothing.
Chapter 14
My heart was in my ears as Ignimitra led the Firesabre on a chase. Her heartbeat thrummed against my legs, her wings beating at a deafening pace.
It was gaining on us.
I tightened the straps of the harness, my signal to Ignimitra that I was ready for whatever evasive maneuvers she had to take. She responded by banking sharply..
Behind us, the dragon’s tines were glowing.
It had glowed just li
ke that before...
“It’s powering up for another fire attack!” I screamed to Ignimitra.
Titan and Zelkor were too far behind to come to our aid. We needed a solution, fast.
In the distance, there were dozens of rock formations jutting up from a valley nestled between a gap in the peaks.
“Remember the race through the forest?” I shouted.
Ignimitra screeched a response.
“This is just like that.”
I flattened myself against her, and she fell into a dive.
The wind rushing past us felt like razors against my skin, slicing into my scalp and bringing tears to my eyes. I fought through it, despite how bad I wanted to close my eyes. Ignimitra needed me to guide her.
The Firesabre followed with an awkward descent.
This wasn’t a part of the plan, but there was no time to signal the Team. I hoped they could understand what we were attempting.
It was darker in this part of the mountains. Panic bubbled in my throat. If we encountered another Firesabre here, our epitaph was written. Silently, I hoped for the best.
The rocks came at us fast, but Ignimitra was faster. She banked, and dodged, and twirled beautifully, evading every single one of them. A smile crossed my face then, she was amazing. There was no way the dragon could follow us.
I was wrong.
The Firesabre didn’t even bother trying to evade the rocks. It barrelled through them, using its wings like a wrecking ball. The creature was so enraged that whatever pain those injuries would cause paled in comparison to destroying us.
It reared its head.
“Dive!” I screamed.
She listened, and the blast of fire narrowly missed us. It was rancid, a stomach churning mixture of ash and rotting meat.
“This isn’t working,” I said, coughing. “We need to slow it down somehow. Let’s go back up.”
We soared in a tight spiral out of the rocky valley.
When we emerged, Solra and Irikai were hovering where we had broken off earlier. She signaled us to bring the dragon in close to them.
I signaled our affirmation.
“You saw that?”
Ignimitra screeched.
We slowed our pace, the Firesabre roaring as it closed in on us. The sound reverberated in my chest. My fingers were trembling as I held on to the harness, electricity coursing up my spine. If this didn’t work, we would be this dragon’s dinner.
Ignimitra picked up the pace at the last moment, lengthening the distance between us. The Firesabre barreled after us.
Just then, Solra and Irikai emerged between us from behind a rock face, brandishing their swords. The Firesabre saw them too late, already in the middle of pursuing us. They flew in close, gouging the dragon’s side with their swords.
KRIYAAAAAAH!
The Firesabre let out a pained cry. It faltered, losing altitude. Our swords were lethal at a certain depth, but I was too far away to tell just how much damage they had done.
The mammoth creature plummeted from the skies.
Taking a tine from a dead dragon was easy. A distinctive spasm dried my throat at the thought. Were we any better than the soldier who had killed Janshaik’s dragon now?
The thought was short-lived.
KRIYAAAAAAAH! KRIYAAAAAAAAAH!
Its cries were desperate.
The Firesabre found strength just before it hit the rocky earth below us. My jaw was slack. Purple liquid gushed from the wounds, a mess of dislodged scales and pale grey flesh. My relief that it was alive was quickly overshadowed. Now it was angrier than before.
Not good.
There had to be another way to overpower this dragon, for it would keep fighting until it was physically incapable of it. And I knew now that killing it didn’t sit well with me.
In the distance, I believed I found my answer.
I caught Solra’s attention and signaled her my plans. She seemed to agree, giving me the go ahead. Then, I whispered it to Ignimitra. In my heart, I felt her agreement.
This was our last chance.
There was venom in the Firesabre’s eyes. Blood had been spilled. It would only get worse from here. We had to wrap this up quickly.
I felt Ignimitra’ scales shift to secure my grip on her, encircling my feet and hands.
“Let’s do this,” I shouted, just as the feral dragon lurched towards us.
Ignimitra beat her wings faster than I had ever seen, and together we sped towards our goal.
IGNIMITRA FLEW LIKE the wind.
She poured every inch of her strength into the flight. She was at home in the air. It was hard to believe that she had fallen out of the sky on her first flight. Now, she was sure of herself. She believed in her power, in our power.
The Firesabre was working hard to keep up with us. From this angle, it looked like a hurricane, flying in a flurry of wings and teeth, boiling over like a cauldron.
Ignimitra only needed to hold it off a little while.
KRIYAAH!
Glowing tines. It was going in for another fire strike.
“Bank left on my signal,” I shouted.
Ignimitra’s body tensed.
The dragon’s mouth opened.
“Now!”
The plume of orange and red streamed past us, narrowly missing Ignimitra’s wingtip. Thankfully we had a few minutes until the next attack. We need to get this done before that.
Behind the Firesabre, Titan and Zelkor glided in the distance.
I hope this works.
My plan had to work. Else, all our dreams would end here. Solra would never get to help her mother. Irikai would never be able to escape his father’s clutches.
And I would never learn the truth about my parents.
Our futures depended on this moment.
The o-shaped rock formation between a crevice in the mountains was closer now, and what I had hoped was right. Coils of energy tightened in my fingers.
This could work!
It was big enough for Ignimitra to fly through, but too small for the Firesabre. The dragon would be too caught up in attacking us to realize. This rock was a darker color than the other rocks it had thrashed through, hopefully this meant it was more sturdy.
I only needed the dragon to be stuck for a few moments.
My lungs were full of gravel as Ignimitra ducked through the circle.
The Firesabre dragon barreled after us, unaware. It got stuck at the shoulders.
KRIYAAAAAAAAAH!
The dragon screamed. Whether it was a scream of rage or exhaustion I couldn’t tell. The rocks were painted with its blood.
Ignimitra and I doubled back quickly, flying over the rock formation. We hovered over the dragon just as Titan and Zelkor arrived to use their body weight to help still the dragon’s thrashing body. They each held one of the dragon’s massive wings as we neared for the moment of truth.
Ignimitra loosed my hands, and I drew my sword.
From all the glowing, I guessed that this dragon’s tines heated up at will. If it realized what we were doing, it could burn my entire hand off.
Ignimitra brought me as close as she could.
With one swoop I sliced one of the tines off, grabbing it before it fell.
This Firesabre had many broken tines. Some had begun to grow back, while others seemed to have been dug out entirely, leaving nothing but impacted scales.
KRIYAAAAH!
The dragon began to thrash violently, flinging Zelkor and Titan off of it.
The rock face was crumbling under the pressure.
Quickly, I stowed the tine in my bag.
“Retreat!” I heard Solra scream.
We did.
“WE DID IT!”
We were back at camp. Tired, and dusty, but happy.
Zelkor and Ignimitra were soaking in the shallow part of the river, while Titan lay by the banks falling into the throes of sleep. The sun was sinking in the sky, marking the second sundown of our challenge. We’d make it back to th
e Academy by noon.
Disbelief washed over me as we sat around the small campfire roasting meat. Despite all my reservations, it had all fallen into place. We had done the impossible, as a team.
“I can’t believe we actually did it,” I said, watching the fire char the veal.
My anxiety had melted into something like pride. The weight of the mission’s impossibility was gone. The three of us had outsmarted a dragon bigger and more powerful than our own. My cheeks hurt from all the smiling.
“We should’ve made you team leader,” Solra quipped. “That last maneuver got us the tine.”
I smiled. “It was easier to do on a wounded dragon.”
Irikai had been chewing on a mouthful of meat.
“I wonder how many of the other teams already got a tine,” he said, wiping the bubble of oil on the corner of his lip.
“Hopefully, we’re the only ones,” Solra said. “There were less dragons there than I expected.”
“It makes me wonder if my father ever got that egg,” Irikai said slowly. “There seems to be so few of them.”
“Maybe they’re going extinct because we’re hunting them,” I said, half-joking.
Nobody laughed.
“I hope the one we wounded doesn’t die,” Solra said, looking at the earth beneath her feet. “It was the only way to slow it down, really.”
“Did you see the fight it put up?” I chuckled weakly. “I don’t think that one’s going out any time soon.”
The thought of the dragon’s missing tines came back to mind. Would it make it back to its cave before the other cadets discovered it?
“Yeah,” Irikai offered, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We didn’t go deep enough to kill it.”
The pallor of the idea hung over us like a curtain.
I couldn’t bring myself to say it, but I knew what everyone was thinking. We might not have killed it, but what would stop another cadet team from doing that?
Dragon Academy Page 16
