My pulse raced. I was running, focused on the path ahead, but my mind was ablaze with power I’d never known. It was a thrill unlike any other. I didn’t realize that I was pushing things too far.
I wasn’t leaving without Felix. Even if I had to haul his dead body out of here over my shoulder, I wasn’t going anywhere without him.
But when I found him standing, spattered with gore, amidst the carnage and smoldering pools of dragon venom in the throne room, I realized I might be the one who needed to be carried.
My head swam and my arms started to feel heavy. Something wasn’t right; I was losing a lot of blood. It made my focus slip and I knew I wasn’t synced with Paligno anymore. At least, not like I was before. The horns were gone when I touched the side of my head. I couldn’t feel fangs in my mouth anymore, either.
I caught a glimpse of Felix as my knees began to weaken. He looked awful, but he was alive. Furious—but alive.
“You,” he snapped and pointed the business end of his sword at my face as soon as he saw me. “You said it would only be a few guards. You said we’d fight them together. But more importantly, you failed to mention that stupid pig has a hide four inches thick!”
I glanced hazily at the beast’s corpse lying before him. There were arrows sticking out of nearly every inch of it. It looked like a pincushion, and it wasn’t moving. But he still rammed his blade into the boar’s neck one more time. I got the impression that was just for spite.
“I was nearly trampled to death,” he yelled, although he seemed satisfied now that the animal most definitely was dead. “Killed by an overgrown pig!”
For all the noise he was making, it didn’t seem like he was hurt any worse than when I’d left him. The most serious wound I saw was a deep gash across one of his palms that was bleeding everywhere. That was a relief.
“H-how did you beat so many of them?” I stammered in disbelief.
“I’m bloody Felix Farrow, that’s how,” he fumed and thumped his breastplate.
“We need to hurry. Kiran is waiting for our—”
The castle shuddered dangerously.
There was another low, droning sound that echoed off the cavernous ceilings. It sounded like a muffled roar.
Felix and I looked at one another.
“Please tell me that was you,” he murmured.
I shook my head slowly. This wasn’t anything Paligno was doing. I would have been able to sense that. And as far as I could tell, my mending of the castle’s foundations was holding fast. No—this was something else.
I couldn’t sense them, but I knew that sound all too well. There were more dragonriders mobilizing, no doubt heading straight for us.
“You got it, right?” Felix was looking up, his eyes tracking the sounds of angry dragon coming from outside.
I pressed a hand against the round lump tucked away under my cloak. I had to keep the stone hidden. No one could see it—not even by accident. Just one glimpse would plant a seed that could grow into madness the same way it had in Hovrid’s mind. I was the only one who could look at it or touch it without risking those effects.
“Good. Give them the signal. It’s time to go.” Felix seized my arm and began dragging me behind him. Together, we ran out of the throne room through a side door and into the castle halls.
The entire royal castle was in shambles. The alarm was raised that someone had broken through the King of Maldobar’s private guard and murdered him. Soldiers were storming every hall, searching for us. Servants ran around in a frenzy, terrified of the armed men pouring inside. It took everything we had to stay one step ahead of them.
I knew the courtyard was bound to be a veritable hornet’s nest of people waiting to kill us, but our main concern was the dragonriders. Losing them wasn’t going to be easy.
In fact, I seriously doubted we could.
As we darted through servant’s passages and hallways, hiding and dodging soldiers at every turn, I sent out my signal to Mavrik. It was time to move. We’d be waiting at the top of the tallest tower for them.
At least, that was the plan. I had to trust Felix’s judgment now. Of the two of us, he was the only one who’d actually been here before. The perks of being a high noble.
There were just three little problems with our plan.
One: based on what I could sense mustering outside the castle, there were a lot more dragonriders waiting for us than I had anticipated.
Two: Hovrid had built himself a literal army of reanimated dragonriders using that foul blood magic that were all immune to my abilities. I couldn’t communicate with any of their mounts like I’d intended, so I had no way to slow them down.
And three—which was actually something I hadn’t even considered would be a problem—I was hurt, badly. And it was taking every ounce of my strength and concentration to keep myself moving.
It was worse than I’d initially thought. I couldn’t see the wound because of my clothing, but I definitely felt it. I was also getting extremely lightheaded from blood loss. I didn’t know how much time I had before my body gave out, but I had to hang on. None of this was going to matter if I died before we got to Luntharda.
Felix kicked in the door to the staircase leading up to the castle’s tallest tower. By now we were definitely being followed, thanks in part to my leaving a very obvious trail of blood behind. I gawked at the staircase. It made me nauseous just looking at it.
I wasn’t going to make it.
“Come on.” Felix didn’t give me the option to turn back. He started running up the steps.
I tried to keep up.
In my mind, I reached out to Mavrik. I told him I was hurt. I didn’t know if I was going to have the strength to catch the saddle when I jumped. He filled my mind with worried, urgent hues of orange and yellow. They were coming as fast as they could.
My body began to give out halfway up the stairs. My knees buckled under me and I hit the wall. Everything was spinning. I fell backward, back towards all the steps we’d already climbed.
Suddenly, Felix caught me by the front of my shirt. He yanked me forward and draped one of my arms over his shoulder so he could basically drag me up the rest of the way.
“Hovrid did this to you?” he gasped between panting breaths. He had to lean over and wheeze for a minute when finally we reached the top of the stairs. Before us, a small door led out onto the turret.
I didn’t answer. There were some things better left unsaid.
The wind was fierce so high up in the air. We looked down at the staggering drop and the castle grounds below. Dragons were circling, scouring the perimeter for us. They didn’t know where we were and so far, they hadn’t spotted us.
Not yet, anyway.
Felix squinted into the sunlight. “I don’t see them. I don’t understand, why can’t you just get their mounts to rebel? Wasn’t that the plan?”
“Hovrid did something to them, something I’d rather not go into right now. They can’t hear me. They won’t do anything I say.”
Then I heard Mavrik’s thundering cry. Not literally, of course. I heard him in my mind. He was close.
“We have to jump.” I pushed away from Felix and staggered to the edge of the turret.
He tried to stop me as I climbed over the edge. “Are you insane? They aren’t here. I don’t see them anywhere.”
There wasn’t time to explain. Mavrik was insisting. His thoughts overwhelmed my own, telling me to jump right now.
I grabbed Felix and dragged him over the edge of the turret with me. I flung us both out into the open air.
He cursed me all the way down.
At least, until we both smacked into our dragon saddles.
Felix hit Nova spot on, catching his saddle at just the right angle.
Mavrik, on the other hand, barely snagged me. I hit his back hard and rolled off, frantically trying to get a good hold of the saddle as I felt myself beginning to fall again.
Then s
omeone caught me. Someone strong.
I looked up to see Kiran sitting on Mavrik’s back, gripping my arm. With his help, I was able to get back up into the saddle.
I didn’t know how he’d gotten over to Mavrik’s saddle, or how the dragons had ever convinced him to do it in the first place—since they couldn’t talk to him the way they were able to talk to me. I wasn’t all too worried about it right then. The dragonriders gathering below had seen us now. They gave chase, taking off by the dozens. Soon there were so many I lost count.
This wasn’t good.
Prax, Beckah, and the rest of our friends were waiting for us at Solhelm. They were prepared for a fight, but not for one on this scale. We were vastly outnumbered, with only a few hours at most until we arrived. Worst of all, I had no way to warn them.
We were going to need help—and lots of it. So I closed my eyes. I gathered what I could of my scrambled, frantic thoughts, and sent out a desperate request that rippled across the kingdom.
I just hoped they’d be willing to assist.
I wasn’t doing so great, and that’s putting it lightly. I’d already lost a lot of blood. My body felt weak and sluggish, and I could barely keep my head up. I tried my best not to move any more than necessary; to conserve what was left of my strength.
Felix used the dragonrider’s code of hand signals to communicate to me. While we were in flight, it was the only way to talk because of the noise from the wind.
Are you sure about this? He signed.
No, of course I wasn’t sure. I was doing my best not to completely freak out. But in the limited time we had before we reached Felix’s estate at Solhelm, I’d come up with a frantic, last-minute, more reckless than usual, Plan B. Now I just had to pray it would work and that my request might be granted.
You know what this will mean, Felix continued to gesture. No turning back. No matter what happens, we can’t stop.
I didn’t reply. I knew he was right. This was our one and only shot. Our only advantage now was a decent head start. If we hesitated, if we stuck around even one minute too late, we might not make it to Luntharda at all.
I tried not to look back because every time I did, it seemed like the dragonriders chasing us were getting closer … probably because they were. Nova couldn’t keep pace with Mavrik, and even he wasn’t making spectacular time while weighed down with two passengers. Even so, we pushed hard and managed to keep our lead up until I spotted Solhelm on the horizon.
Then I heard a dragon’s roar that sounded like it was right behind us. I felt the heat from a blast of burning dragon venom.
They were close—really close.
I had about a second to loop an arm around Kiran so he didn’t fall off before Mavrik whipped into an evasive dive. We whirled toward the ground, Nova following right behind us.
I struggled to suppress my panic as I clung to Mavrik’s back. I trusted in his speed to save us. He shot through the air, weaving and rolling through erratic patterns to try to lose the dragonriders who were right on our tail.
I couldn’t see Nova and Felix anymore. Kiran was hanging on for dear life. Every time I got a clear look at what was around us, I saw more dragonriders than before coming straight for us. They seemed to come from every side.
Then, straight ahead, there it was—Felix’s family estate.
“You can do it,” I urged Mavrik with every ounce of my concentration. “We can make it.”
Suddenly, there they were. The dragonriders of Emerald Flight were rising up from where they’d been lying in wait behind Felix’s family home. Beckah and Icarus lead the surprise attack, headed straight for us.
Mavrik tucked into another whirling dive as the dragonriders of Emerald Flight clashed in combat with our pursuers. Immediately, the sky erupted into fiery chaos. Everywhere we turned, there were plumes of burning dragon venom. Dragons locked into aerial combat like eagles, clawing and snapping as they fell. It was a deadly game of chicken to see who would pull away first before they hit the ground.
I caught brief glimpses of my friends through the fray. Icarus was the only king drake, and the biggest dragon by far, so I found him easily. His size wasn’t exactly an advantage for him, though. Since he was obviously the leader, it made him and his rider primary targets.
Beckah was like an avenging angel, wielding her bow while standing up in the stirrups of her saddle. The golden wings painted on her black flashed like fire in the sunlight. At her back, her father rode tandem and fired his bow with that same deadly accuracy.
Injured or not, I wanted to join the fight, to stand with the people I loved till my last breath. I could taste the flavor of bloodlust on my tongue. Judging by the way he was gripping his bow, Kiran wanted the same thing.
We were still outnumbered by a lot. They couldn’t hold our enemy off for long. We were overwhelmed and flying for our lives.
Mavrik zipped through the sky— rolling, diving, climbing, and falling. My strength was nearly spent, and I was losing my grip on his saddle. Kiran had to put his arms around me to keep me from falling off. I was cold. My sight was growing dim and I couldn’t comprehend anything going on around me.
Then I heard a chorus of roars louder than all the rage of combat. The sound cleared my head for an instant. Over my shoulder, I saw them, flying in from the cliffs, the sea wind under their wings. All the wild dragons of Maldobar had heard my request.
The cavalry had arrived. The odds were evened now, and the battle raged on with fire and steel, scales and claws, over Solhelm. People in the town below were running for cover as stray bursts of dragon flame scorched the rooftops.
Felix appeared next to me, frantically signaling that this was our chance. It was time to go, he was right.
But that meant leaving our friends behind to their fate—to victory or death.
My insides churned at the idea of turning my back on them now. I was faltering. There had to be something more I could do.
Felix made his dragon veer dangerously close to us. Mavrik had to swerve to avoid colliding with her. It got my attention and I saw him signaling.
We don’t stop. We don’t turn back. If we mess this up, then everything they’ve done will be for nothing.
I clutched the round lump in my robes where the god stone was hidden “Go,” I told Mavrik, before I could think about it anymore. “Go now! And whatever I say, do not turn back!”
He aimed away from the battle and started for the north—for Luntharda.
I couldn’t let it go that easily, though. Not when half my heart was in the thick of that battle. I reached back with my mind, scouring the thoughts of every dragon on that battlefield that would still let me in—the mounts of my friends. I searched until I found Icarus.
He was fighting hard. I felt his intensity, his rage—and that he was hurt. One of his wings had been wounded. It was slowing him down, making him vulnerable, and Beckah was being pressured that much more because of it.
I saw her and her father through Icarus’s eyes, like peering through a looking glass. Sile was nearly out of arrows. Beckah had torn her helmet off. Her dark hair was wild about her face. Her expression revealed a level of intensity I’d never seen from her before. Over and over, she drew arrows from her quiver, firing them into the battle, hitting marks as effortlessly as she breathed.
I saw it coming only a fraction of a second before it happened.
One of Hovrid’s riders swooped in from behind. Icarus’s injury prevented him from rolling fast enough to evade the attack. The enemy dragon’s wings flared, its hind legs outstretched.
Beckah’s expression suddenly went blank. In an instant, those powerful, crushing claws ripped her from her saddle. Her father reached for her. Their fingers brushed.
Icarus and I cried out in unison.
But it was too late.
I commanded Mavrik to turn around. I screamed at him. I didn’t believe it. There had to be some chance I was wrong, that she was still ali
ve, and that I could still save her.
Mavrik knew otherwise. His thoughts were melded with mine. He’d seen everything I had—felt what I had felt. So he refused to turn around.
And little-by-little, the sounds of battle faded behind us.
PART THREE
FELIX
Something had happened. Something bad. I’d heard Jae make a lot of strange sounds and do a lot of bizarre things before, but never anything like that. Now he was just slumped over in his saddle, with our weird, little, gray elf sidekick struggling to keep him upright. I couldn’t see his face to tell if he was even conscious. It gave me a bad feeling. All I could think about was landing as soon as possible.
We couldn’t stop, though. Not until we reached the edge of Luntharda’s towering jungle on the northern border. By now, there were bound to be orders sent out by frantic messengers to every corner of the kingdom. We’d just given every soldier and dragonrider in Maldobar the perfect reason to grant Hovrid’s final wish to launch an all-out attack on Luntharda and the wipe gray elves off the map once and for all.
Forces would be mustering now to take up the pursuit, to capture or kill us at any cost. And according to Jae, we would be essentially be leading them to the one place in the jungle that his people had left to hide. So, a lot was riding on this.
On, Jae, rather. A lot was riding on him.
I just hoped he was still up to the task.
When we touched down in the wreckage of Barrowton, I sprang out of my saddle and ripped off my helmet. I sprinted to Mavrik’s side as the blue drake flattened himself against the ground. That’s when I got my first look at Jaevid.
His face was ashen, with eyes wide and fixed. His shirt and cloak were drenched with blood coming from the wound on his shoulder. I called his name, but he didn’t even look at me. Behind him, Kiran fumbled with the straps to get them out of the saddle. When the last buckle was undone, Jae keeled over sideways and started to fall.
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