A dragon laugh rang in my mind. That’s what life is, Amel. It’s slowly growing. If you can grow into the true reality, you’ll be full and strong and big of heart. If you refuse to follow that path, you’ll curl in on yourself – stunted and spindly.
Well, I didn’t want to be stunted.
“Are you done thinking? I’m waiting for an answer,” Ephretti said.
I looked up sharply and caught a look of hurt in her eyes. Did it really hurt her just to look at me? Would I be hurt like that if Leng chose her instead? I would want her to put up with me if our roles were reversed, wouldn’t I? I held back a sigh.
“With a whole army to fight, four dragons and three riders would last about two minutes. This is going to require a more sophisticated plan. We need to wait and watch to see if there is some sort of opportunity to exploit a weakness.”
“The weakness is obvious.” She twitched impatiently. “We don’t need to watch to figure that out. It’s the Healing Arches. They focus the strength of the magic flows beneath the earth. If we destroy those, we destroy their ability to conjure up Ifrits.”
“Are you saying that we should destroy one of our Dominions greatest assets? I’ve seen what these arches can do. They’re miraculous!”
Ephretti snorted. “Right now they are killing people, not helping them. So, yes, it’s a good idea to destroy them. Better to save real people right now than refuse to act for the sake of potential people being saved later.”
That didn’t sound right. You couldn’t make decisions just based on what you needed now. You needed to think about what might come down the line later.
In this case, she might have a point. There are other arches. And how else could you stop the manufacture of Ifrits here? Only by defeating all those Magikas, and there are hundreds of people down there and only four dragons here.
“How would you destroy a massive rock structure at the heart of an enemy camp?” I asked, leaning on the impracticality so I wouldn’t have to talk about the ethics of it.
“Easy. Attach ropes to the rocks and have the dragons pull them down.”
“While under magical fire? And Ifrit attack?”
Ephretti looked affronted, her shoulders drawing even farther back. “I didn’t say it would be easy.”
“It would be suicide,” Lenora said quietly.
Ephretti’s mouth drew a firm line. “In wars, people die. And not just other people.”
Lenora nodded briskly. “I’m not saying I won’t do it. I’m just wondering how to be sure it actually works before we die doing it.”
“Well,” Ephretti said, “Amel wouldn’t be here if she didn’t have some sort of trick up her sleeve. Would you, Amel?”
“What?”
“Some sort of secret weapon or power or something, right? Otherwise, how would a crippled trainee be trusted to be off on her own and still have survived this far?”
Ouch. My tone was dry when I responded. “I have a great dragon. He’s a prince, you know.”
“It’s unfair to talk to Amel that way,” Lenora said quietly. “She’s already proved that she isn’t stopped by her injury.”
Ephretti colored, mumbling “sorry” before stalking away.
Lenora watched her go. “She gets like that. Hot-headed. She’ll calm down. I know she seems ... terrible right now, but trust me, if anyone can do the impossible, it’s Ephretti. She just ... she just ...”
“I know.”
She met my eyes and nodded. “Okay, let’s watch the camp like you suggested while she cools off. Maybe there will be another way.”
We watched the camp all afternoon but at dusk, when we returned to find Ephretti had set up a hidden camp and cared for the dragons, we had to admit to her that there was no other way.
“Then we’ll do it before first light,” Ephretti said, firmly. “We’ll take them by surprise.”
I avoided Ephretti and Lenora as I prepared for sleep. They were both committed to this attack, but despite the fact that I couldn’t find an alternate option, and despite the fact that I’d promised to take out this outpost before I returned to Jalla, I was not as certain. I sipped my Silla-laced water as I watched the moon rise and gently turned the Pipe over and over in my hands. I’d seen it shred Ifrits to pieces before, but that wouldn’t do anything to attacking Magikas. This whole plan didn’t sit right with me. There had to be another way.
Chapter Fourteen
We were all jittery the next morning and it was coming out the worst in the dragons. Lypukrm snapped at Bellrued when Lenora was saddling him, causing the other dragon to stumble backward into Raolcan who flamed his side so badly that Ephretti’s saddle was scorched.
“Get your mount under control,” she snapped at me. Her own pair of dragons was causing her problems enough.
I am under control. That was a very controlled flame. I mean, if I’d been sloppy she wouldn’t have a saddle at all ... or that fancy tent she likes to sleep in.
I was too nervous to find his jokes funny. My mouth was dry as cotton no matter how much Baojang water I drank – I was certain that I felt a pull back to that place – and my hands shook slightly when I saddled Raolcan.
Get it nice and tight. We’re affixing ropes to the saddles – thank goodness Ephretti had enough – and if it’s not tight I won’t be able to pull.
I had no confidence in our plan. But I was the only one. I had a terrible feeling about this – and not just because the last time we’d been to Healing Arches Raolcan had nearly died.
Because you’re a perpetual pessimist.
It hadn’t helped that I dreamt all night of Leng – and I wasn’t sure if it was dreams or visions. He’d been helping refugees flee the two sky cities, moving along the edges of their military power to organize chains of civilians to help move people and possessions to safer places.
Those are visions. I saw them, too. Don’t worry, it’s good work and he suits it well. He has a big heart and an iron spine.
What I had seen still haunted me, even if it was only dreams and visions. Children should not suffer. The weak and helpless shouldn’t be the ones who went without food or stumbled weakly with no one to catch them.
That’s why he is there. It’s why we are doing this ridiculous job for Ephretti – to stop that kind of thing.
No child should cry tears of pain from hunger. No parent should have such haunted eyes.
The Trogs shouldn’t have done this to you. You’re too soft hearted to have to know about pain you can’t fix.
Was that rebellion against his leaders?
A dragon is allowed to have his own opinions – even if he’s bound not to act on them.
I braided my hair sadly and prepared for battle. My heart was so heavy from last night’s visions that I couldn’t think of much else. Maybe that was for the best. I wasn’t sure this was even going to succeed.
Just keep your pipe close and get ready to blow it when we’re working. Your job is simple. Hold on tight. Tie the rope to the stone arch using the knot Ephretti taught you. Hold on again and blow that sky-loving pipe when things get rough.
And what? A thousand butterflies will save us?
Who knows. We do our part and trust that the rest will be taken care of.
I wasn’t the trusting type.
Tell me about it. But I plan to change that, eventually.
I finished the braid and double checked my straps.
“Ready?” Ephretti asked from her perch on Bellrued.
“Ready,” Lenora said. Her head was held high and her gaze was level. That girl had grit if anyone did.
“Don’t pause,” Ephretti said. “Don’t falter. We do our job and we get this done.”
I nodded. I didn’t believe any of it, but I’d done just as many strange one-in-a- million things before. Why would this be any different?
“Let’s fly!” Ephretti said, kicking Bellrued up, Tyalmae right at his heels. Lenora launched with a smile and Raolcan bunched his muscles and then threw himself i
nto the air right behind her. I held on just like I’d promised, but my focus was skittering from sadness over refugees to concern over Leng and nervousness at this mission. Somewhere south of us, Hubric was headed north. Would he get this far in his journey here? Would he find rubble in this place? Or would we fail?
Get out of your head and focus like the Greens.
True to their type, they streaked across the sky like emerald arrows. We raced over the treetops, banking upward to crest the hill, and then elegantly rolling into a dive toward the encampment below. In the dusk before dawn, I could see the last embers of fires inside the perimeter and torches on the guardhouses. They would see us, that was certain, but would they be able to respond in time?
The camp below us slept, only a few figures milling between the tents in early morning chores. A yell broke out from the guard tower as Ephretti streaked past and by the time we reached it a single Magika launched a fireball at us. Raolcan rolled, showing his belly to the ball of flame. It missed us by a dragon-width and we sped on.
A bell was ringing somewhere – unrelentingly – and yells followed us through the camp, but we were too fast. Below me, the encampment rolled out like a map, Raolcan’s belly nearly skimming the tops of tents, swooping up as we reached the Healing Arches and their stone platform. No one within the camp was as quick as that first Magika. Only shouts and cries followed us, not arrows or flames.
Raolcan reached his feet out and grabbed an arch, like a bird with a branch, steadying himself on the wobbling stone. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as I feared. I leaned down, stretching to wrap the rope around the stone. A clattering sound distracted me.
Arrows. Hurry.
We were taking too long. Someone ambitious had found a bow.
I wrapped the rope around the arch, fumbling to tie the knots Ephretti had shown me – dragon knots, she called them. Made for holding wild dragons down. Raolcan had found that funny.
Focus. There’s nothing funny about what’s coming...
I finished the knot, still dangling from the saddle, fighting to pull myself back to an upright position. Raolcan twisted to the side and I fell back into the right place. I was supposed to grab the Pipe from the saddlebags now. I fumbled for the flap.
Now we pull!
He leapt from the arch, flapping violently. I held on to the saddle with white knuckles. Screams and shouts from beyond me told me we had their attention now.
We hit the end of the rope and it felt like smacking against a wall. My neck jerked backward and my grip on the saddle completely dislodged.
I felt a sharp pain in my leg, and a blow to my head and then everything went black.
Chapter Fifteen
Visions and dreams tumbled one into another. I rode for a while with Hubric as he snaked his way north, hiding from bands of Dusk Covenant raiders. I wasn’t sure if I dreamed of Shonan or actually was in his head as he flew north, surrounded by colorful dragons. My dreams had a strange flavor to them – like I had eaten bad food before falling asleep or drunk something that had turned. I felt hot and feverish as I fell from dream to vision back to dream again.
Savette was receiving vows from someone and then laying out a siege plan with maps in front of her. She looked up and even through the bandages I could see she was looking at me. Her expression as unreadable. I fell from the vision into a dream where a pair of Sentries had me pinned down as they digested me alive.
I don’t know if I screamed only in the dream or with my own voice, but I tumbled from that into Leng’s head. He was talking to someone quietly, but in my feverish haze, I didn’t see who it was.
“This time it will be different. I won’t let him just wear the mask and slip into being someone I don’t know.”
The voice that replied was unfamiliar. “But how could you stop that from happening? The Dominar is the mask. It has always been so. People won’t put up with anything different than that.”
“I’ll find a way to make it work. For someone so important to me ... well, I won’t lose him. We’ll just have to be friends in secret I guess. What people don’t know won’t hurt them. Maybe he could change things. Change what people expect.”
“Perhaps.”
“I can be patient. I can be in the background. I’ve never had a problem with that.”
“Sure.”
I was so desperate to reach out to him and comfort him – to tell him that it really would be like that, and that he would be okay. Somehow, we would make sure he could see his brother when all this was over.
I fell into a dream again and surfaced back into Rakturan’s eyes. Jalla’s face filled his vision, her expression firm.
“We must march them quicker if what you say is true. The Dominion will be of no use to us if it is destroyed before we get there. I am concerned that Amel has not yet returned to me. Send Renn to find her.”
“I could go,” Rakturan offered.
“I need you here. The Gold Rider is nothing but trouble here. He keeps trying to lock our war leaders into promises for the future. I don’t want our culture changed and I don’t need him to tell me what is right.”
“Then why keep him in your service at all?”
She stared off in the distance before rounding back on Rakturan. “Are you still here? I want him gone by dark.”
I was troubled by what I’d seen. Too many friends faced too many challenges. What could I possibly do to save them all? I felt my body thrashing and sweating, but try as might, I could not open my eyes.
Eventually, I slipped into a deeper sleep and when I woke this time, I was able to open my eyes. The lashes were crusted together, making it hard to see. I blinked rapidly to clear them, but my arms felt heavy – too heavy to move.
I was lying on a stone floor, my cheek pressed to the surface of the rock. It felt cool against my hot skin. Torpor filled me, making any movement feel impossible. Even my thoughts felt too heavy for my mind. It was a long time of lying like that before I realized I was looking at people’s feet and ankles as they walked by me or stood in front of me. I was in a very busy place, wasn’t I? So many people seemed to be coming and going. The edges of their robes were interesting. Where had I seen embroidered patterns like that before? Oh yes. Magikas. They must all be Magikas.
There was sound in the background – too much sound. It hurt my pounding head and spiked through my skull. I couldn’t think of it now.
I took long, deep breaths, focusing on the light between the feet. Something was happening there, at the lip of the stone floor. I felt like I should care about it, but I was just so tired. Which was strange, because hadn’t I just woken up?
I should probably try to sit. Get my bearings. I pulled my hand towards me. It was so slow. So very slow. Just a few inches and I felt too tired to budge it. No, Amel. Focus. Can’t give up on the little things – like moving. Not the time to be lazy.
I pulled my hand to where I could see it. It felt sticky. I blinked, realizing it was red with blood.
Chapter Sixteen
Now was not the time to panic. My head was whirling and my hand fell limp to the ground again. I tried to take even breaths as I brought it back under control and pushed upward. Pain seized me, freezing me in place and I cried out as fire filled my good leg. I fell back to the stone, my fingers curling as if I could cling to the strength of the stones.
“Who was that?” someone asked.
“Just the cripple. She’s not going anywhere.”
There was a scuffling sound of footsteps as if someone was walking away. I wasn’t tied or restrained. Whatever my injury was, they were certain it would keep me in place. I felt along my back with one hand, clenching my teeth to fight off searing pain as I bent to feel along my leg. There. The shaft of an arrow stuck out of my leather pants. I pulled gently at it, stopping when the pain flared instantly, filling me with nausea and clouding my head with spinning agony. No. I wouldn’t be pulling that arrow out myself.
I was captured. That was clear. What about Raolcan
? Raolcan? I could feel him in my mind but his thoughts were muzzy and unclear. He must be injured, too. I needed to focus. I needed to pay attention to what I could see. I concentrated on the areas between feet and legs. I was on a stone floor. That meant the Healing Arches. As one figure in front of me shifted his weight, I could see one of the arches. The top was gone, the pillars ending in jagged relief like broken teeth. We’d succeeded in that, at least.
But if we had succeeded, why were they all still here in the Arches?
“ ... wouldn’t have to do this if your friends hadn’t broken the Arches. Calling up an Ifrit takes power. Either the power of the Arches or the power of blood. Just be glad your worthless life was for something.”
I wouldn’t want to meet whoever was talking. I looked from gap to gap, trying to see. Someone was forced to his knees on the stone ground. He was shaking. Or maybe I was. Or maybe everything was.
I couldn’t see his face, but I heard his cry, cut off suddenly. He fell forward and in the gaps between the legs I saw his face in the bright sun. Tomas! I hadn’t seen him since the Ruby Isles when he’d been a servant there. His eyes – once so bright – were glassy in death.
Horror filled me, washing up in my mind and spreading through my limbs. Darkness slowly stole my vision as my heart pounded like a hammer. The world went black.
I couldn’t tell how much time had passed when I woke. I felt cold. My legs were still frozen in place. I shifted, trying to clear my head.
You’re awake!
Raolcan! He was alive! Could he help me?
They have bound me. And they have bound Lenora and Ephretti’s dragons.
He’d have to break those bonds, whatever they were.
They are bonds of magic. The Magikas have magical whips and ties – like what you saw used at Dragon School. We are bound - not just with our word but with ropes of air and magic.
I hated Magikas. They always made everything worse. Why didn’t he just flame them all?
Dragon School: Pipe of Wings Page 5
