That simple?
Simple isn’t the same as easy. Okay, they are taking vows and doing a light purification ceremony. Starie is shooting poisonous looks at Savette. Yikes! I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of those! Savette is looking over at us – one last look for courage. Taoslil is spreading his wings ... and there. The doorways are opening up.
I strained my eyes, but through the various heads and wings I could only barely make out what might be dark caves opening in the sides of the two volcanoes on either side of the Dawn’s Gate.
And they’re off!
I strained to see, but all I saw was glimpses of movement. I hoped Savette was okay! Whatever challenges she was going to face, I knew she was up for them. She was the real Chosen One, after all. The one of prophecy. So much depended on her. She’d be fine ... right?
Are you asking me?
I was just worried.
Starie Atrelan is not the Chosen One and this test will prove that. It is she who should be worried.
I nodded, but as the golden sun rose to our left, I found a slick of sweat already forming on me that had nothing to do with the sun. Savette was alone and if there were enemies in there – of any kind – I wouldn’t be able to protect her.
And now we wait.
Chapter Sixteen
The sense of waiting that I thought had made me jumpy before grew worse with each passing hour. The dragons - led by Taoslil - came out from the gate and began to take the renewed vows of the dragons assembled with a kind of efficiency they hadn’t shown before.
They can feel trouble brewing - no matter how this ends - just as we can. They are hoping some will leave, but no one wants to leave. Even with a war behind us and orders to carry out – it’s a moment of history. A moment everyone will be talking about for the rest of their lives. How could you leave now when a few hours might be all you need to see that?
In my experience, “moments of history” were usually bloody, terrifying and risky. If I had the choice I’d leave now.
Ha! I don’t believe that for a second.
Starie’s supporters had set up a pavilion on the path to her cave entrance for Grandis Elfar. Every so often I saw her look our direction, but she was hemmed in there by hundreds of supporters, meeting together, waiting on her, cooking, tending dragons, and caring for tack.
Our tiny band of rebels was the only people waiting on Savette’s path, sweating and worrying under the burning eye of the sun. We hadn’t set up a pavilion – though perhaps we should have for shade. The side of the volcano didn’t have much in the way of tree cover and the air was dusty and smothering. Somehow, in the middle of everything that happened since we left Dragon School, the heat of summer had arrived with a vengeance. We wanted to be ready for when Savette returned. What if we had to flee Starie’s supporters when they saw that Savette was the one who was marked?
By nightfall, we were exhausted from waiting. Jenanta and Denu spoke quietly together and then approached Hubric. There were so few of us that even with their voices pitched low, we could hear every word.
“Leaving?” he asked them.
Denu startled, but Jenanta crossed her arms. “We didn’t mind backing your play, Hubric. You know we respect you, but our dragons have been noted and we have no obligation to stay.”
“And you don’t like the idea of that crowd turning on you when one of those girls walks out of there.”
Jenanta frowned, shifting from one foot to the other. “There’s a war to be fought. No point turning on our own with an enemy to tackle.”
Hubric sighed.
“Don’t take it personally, Hubric,” Denu said. “We want to remain your friends. We aren’t leaving out of cowardice. It’s just wise to use resources where they’re most needed.”
They waited long moments until Hubric nodded, grudgingly. He exchanged salutes with them as the two other Dragon Riders mounted up and flew out into the black night sky.
“We’d better post a watch,” Hubric said, but his voice was tired and older than usual.
“I’ll take first watch,” Shonan offered. “It’s wise to spend resources effectively, Hubric, but sometimes – some things – are worth risking everything for. There’s no shame in standing for truth when everyone else crumbles – even if that means they all think you’re a fool. Those of us who know the truth know better. And if we weren’t here, the Truth would know, and that is enough.”
“Mmmm,” Hubric said, noncommittally, but I noticed as we settled down against our dragons to sleep that Haskell slipped over to whisper to him in the dark and not long after she left, he was snoring like usual.
I couldn’t sleep. I was too worried about Savette. How hard was the trial she faced that she was at it all day? Could we trust the dragons with the Chosen One? Why hadn’t we thought about that before we let her go? What if they had taken her or abandoned her to some danger and she died in their charge? What if we’d risked the hope of the world just to satisfy their silly curiosity? Maybe we’d made a mistake ...
Skies and stars! Either go to sleep or walk around and distract yourself, but please, I am begging you, stop this nonsense. I can’t get a wink of sleep.
My cheeks flushed with embarrassment and I tried to cloud out my worries, thinking instead of a meadow near my childhood home and how much I’d like to take Raolcan there. As I started to drift off, Leng joined us there, sitting with me in the long grass by the river bank and talking to me about the horses he was going to breed there. I fell asleep dreaming of a future that would likely never be.
“Amel?” Leng was whispering beside me, shaking me awake. “It’s our watch.”
I blinked, reveling in the cool air after the heat of the evening before. We crept to the edge of the camp where we could sit on the hillside and watch the road to Savette’s cave, the Dawn’s Gate, and the fires of the other Dragon Riders at the same time.
“I dreamt of you and of raising horses,” I said sleepily as his hand found mine.
“No children?” he asked lightly.
“I can’t have children.” I slipped my hand out of his grasp. I’d told him that before – hadn’t I? – but it must not have stuck in his mind. Would that change things between us? “With my leg...”
He snatched my hand back. “There are always children who need a home. Not having your own doesn’t mean there can’t be children.”
We spent the last hours of the night talking about my dream – of what it would be like to have a home in the long grass by the river. Of raising horses – a passion of Leng’s. Of how he and Shonan helped their parents raise and train horses before Shonan was taken from them and his parents died of sickness. He’d like to make a home for children like that – children who had lost their homes. As he spoke, I found that more than anything, I wanted to do that with him. And there would need to be cliffs nearby for Ahlskibi and Raolcan. They wouldn’t like to be on flat ground for very long.
We were still talking when the first rays of light gilded the edges of the mountains and with them, the first shouts came from the other camp. I stood so quickly that my crutch shook under me, my eyes riveted on the path leading from the cave Starie had disappeared into. On the path, a dark silhouette stumbled and fell into the dirt.
Chapter Seventeen
Two figures raced down the path toward her, picked her up and raised her up on their shoulders. I couldn’t hear them from so far away, but in the camp shouts and cheers exploded through the ranks of people waiting. Behind Starie, the gold of dawn swelled, painting her shadow out long so that it reached all the way to the waiting camp.
Beside me, Leng froze, dropping my hand. When I saw what he was looking at, I gasped. Starie raised her arm above her head. A haze of dark purple-black light surrounded it. She had been marked. She had passed the test. What did that mean?
Not what you think it does, but it confirms some things I’ve suspected for a while.
Like what? Now I was worried – hadn’t he said that the one who d
idn’t pass would die? And Starie had passed so that meant...
Don’t get ahead of yourself. If they aren’t marked they die. Who knows if Savette is marked? Who knows if Starie even took the test or if she achieved that mark by some other means?
I shivered. The dragons were all awake, crowding behind Leng and me to get a good look. Hubric, Haskell, and Shonan joined us.
“Not good,” Hubric said. “But how could they fake that?”
“What if it’s not a fake?” Shonan asked.
“It’s not real. We know it can’t be, so all that remains is to discover how it was done. And it’s only two marks. The Ibrenicus prophecies said there would be three.”
“I don’t think anyone down there is worried about that,” I said.
Taoslil broke through the rippling Dawn Gate, a throng of free dragons with him. The cheering, jostling crowd carried Starie above their heads, marching her up to him to present their Chosen One and her symbol. I bit my lip. She looked the part with her long hair flying behind her like a flag and those dark signs swirling across her pale skin. Had I been wrong all along? Was I only seeing what I expected to see?
I had to see for myself.
Without speaking or looking at anyone, I set off toward the Gate. I heard someone call from behind me. Leng, perhaps, or Hubric. I didn’t know. I wasn’t paying attention. My mind was sorting through every interaction I’d ever had with Starie and Savette. Every conversation. Every event. I had been so sure. Had I been just finding evidence to support what I wanted to be true? Was everyone else right? Were we Lightbringers just crazy freaks who represented a real problem for the Dominion?
Or had something terrible happened to Savette in those caves and despite being the original Chosen One, had Starie been chosen in her place?
I pushed into the crowd, ignoring curses and shouts as I pressed through the crowd, desperate to see for myself.
Always the doubter. Always the one who has to see for herself.
What was the alternative? Let someone else think for me? Not even Raolcan could do that.
I don’t even bother trying anymore.
The translator – the Ilerioc, I remembered – was speaking, “Starie Atrelan has fulfilled our bargain. She has gone into the mountains and has come out marked. We acknowledge this. We shall wait until the other contender has returned to make our decision.”
The sudden roar around me made me jump. I glanced around me to see the faces twisted with anger and frustration. One man shook his fist at the Ilerioc, and a woman beside me let off a string of angry curses. Would any of these people have cared whether the dragons named Starie Atrelan the Chosen One two days ago? But now they looked as if their homes and livelihoods had been stolen. Why the change? What had possessed them? Their faces, so human and normal only yesterday, looked almost animal in the bright light and dark shadows of early morning.
Get out of there. Now.
I was pushing again, but this time in the other direction. I needed out. I didn’t want to be caught up in whatever this was.
“This goes against your promise to us!” Grandis Elfar exclaimed.
She stood a half step back from Starie. Angrily, she took half a step forward towards Taoslil. One of the black dragons behind him stepped forward, snapping at Grandis Elfar. Taoslil looked past them all, over my head and up to where I’d stood on the hillside not long ago.
He knows I’m here now.
Starie raised a hand, without hesitation, her face blank of all expression. From her palm, a dark bolt of non-light shot out and spread across the surface of the black dragon. He fell in a shower of dust.
“Enough.” Her voice cut through every shout, every snarl, like the hiss of death. I felt ice form in my bones, so searingly cold that tears sprung to my eyes. I couldn’t move, but this was no magic. Terror froze me in place. “We need no approval from you or anyone. We will speak to your Queen and she will make concessions.”
Around me, a cheer broke out again as Starie pulled off her blindfold and looked at a second dragon in Taoslil’s guard. He fell, instantly, just like his brother. Taoslil’s mouth pulled back, revealing a row of gleaming teeth.
Starie turned to the crowd. “No one can deny my mark of power.” She raised her arm up over her head, the dark mark that swirled across her arm revealed for all to see one more time – a dragon head amidst swirling waves and the spiraling sign of the Dusk Covenant. “I bear the mark of the Dusk. I bear the mark of the Covenant. I AM YOUR CHOSEN ONE.”
The cheering deafened me. I fought through the last ring of the crowd, gasping for breath the moment I was free of them. She had been marked, yes. The people believed her, yes. But around them swirled a spirit of evil, deception, and power. It was like when Savette’s power broke free – but the opposite. Where hers was bringing truth into reality, this was the manufacture of something out of nothing – of a lie painted on reality itself. I would have called that magic before, but now, having seen the opposite, it filled my belly with cold and dread. If no one ever believed us, we would still have to fight this. Something within me rose up against it like a mother bear against a threat to her cubs. If I died fighting this, I’d consider it worth the price.
I clenched my jaw, determination filling me, and looked up. From the mouth of her cave, Savette stumbled free, white light shining all around her.
Chapter Eighteen
I might have been the first to rush towards her, but with my bad leg holding me back, I was the last to reach her. Hubric set her on her feet while I was still rushing forward. Shonan and Leng each slipped a shoulder under her arms, helping her stand. She swayed like a reed in the wind, her long hair hanging heavy across her face like the weight of it was pulling her down. Her blindfold had slipped and her gaze – brighter than ever – pierced me when she looked up.
Her dress had ripped in the cavern, and her arms were exposed, revealing a swirling tattoo of light on each arm – a dragon emerging over a hill in a burst of light. They glowed as brightly as her eyes – or the symbol on my own arm, for that matter – and across her face, a winding tattoo was drawn over her brow and down the sides of her hairline and jaw. It was too bright and too intricate to follow, but it was very clear to me – Savette had been marked three times, just as the prophecies foretold.
My heart leapt with pride. Now everyone would have to recognize who Savette was! There couldn’t be any more lies from Starie – not anymore. But why hadn’t one of them died in the testing as they’d been warned?
Savette must have passed the test. And I have reason to believe that Starie was never tested at all. How hard would it be to hide in the cavern and manufacture that mark?
I couldn’t do it.
But Starie has powers you don’t have.
“Fraud!” I heard the yell ring across the shelf and I spun to see Starie, her finger pointed at Savette. “Deception and trickery! This girl waited until I was marked to duplicate the markings! See how she wavers, requiring support to stand? She is worn out from the magic of forging the marks upon her body.”
“It’s true!” Grandis Elfar yelled from beside Starie. “Those are not the true markings, but a clever fake. See how they glow with light instead of sucking the light into them like the True Chosen One’s marks do?”
There was silence as the crowd looked from Starie to Savette and back again. Taoslil’s head was cocked to the side like he was listening to things we couldn’t hear.
Dragon voices. We have our own opinions about this.
And what were they?
We are as divided as the humans.
And what was he hearing from Raolcan?
That I’ll twist his tail if he’s a fool about this.
“Tell me, mistress of falsehood,” Starie said, from her place before the Dawn’s Gate. “What you saw in the caverns.”
Savette pulled her head up straight, pushing her hair behind her back with effort. She was weak after her ordeal, and it was true that Starie seemed much stronger. Why was
that?
Because it’s Starie’s marks and not Savette’s that are forgeries. It’s why she’s so quick to shout about fakery.
“I saw visions of the future and the present. I witnessed the pain of our people and the lies that keep them tied down. I have suffered with the Truth this day and night - seeing things no one should see.”
Starie laughed, a merry, tinkling laugh that seemed at odds with her harsh demands. “This proves you were not tested by the dragons. Why would you have visions? What does that prove? I was asked three questions and when I answered them, I was given this mark on my arm. I only needed one mark. I didn’t need to overdo it to try to prove I’m something that I’m not.”
Her voice carried over the silent crowd, and Savette’s carried, too. Likely, she was using that trick she’d learned from Rakturan.
“I saw that you serve a Covenant of Lies,” Savette said. “And I watched as you and an army of Ifrits ripped the heart out of the world and held it aloft while all the earth was drained of life.”
“Did you stand in the heart of the volcano where the earth is still hot? Almost to the edge of the red soul of the mountain?” Starie challenged.
Savette pushed Leng and Shonan aside with such force that they stumbled. Each man fell far to the side, Leng catching a hold of Hubric as they both stumbled back. I opened my mouth to protest, but Savette began to glow red, heat from her body radiating as far as I stood. The others leapt backward, scrambling to get away from the intensity of her heat.
“Almost?” she asked. “There was no almost about it. I was washed by the fire of the mountain. I come back to you with a gift.”
“And what gift is that?” Starie asked, her eyes flashing in the sun.
“Truth.”
Grandis Elfar’s barking laughter jarred me. “Only children and fools speak of truth like it exists, child. Truth is what you make it when you let your power flow into changing the world. It does not exist outside our own designs. Worse, your statements prove you lie. No one goes into the heart of a fire and comes back unsinged. What say you, good people? Do you see as I do, that this girl is nothing but a copycat - desperate to grasp some of the fame of her classmate – the Chosen One? Will you allow this counterfeit Chosen One to make her claim?”
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