Chapter 50
CHAPTER FIFTY
FOX
F ox’s ears popped as the air shuddered around him. In the darkness he could have sworn he felt the press of stone and debris hitting him, throwing him back. But no. His eyes opened, and he watched as the crowd screamed and cowered, some covering their ears but more watching the sky. Their faces filled with terror.
With a sense of knowing, his eyes rose. The sun was a couple hours from rising, but the stars still lit up the sky, and a gray line stretched along the horizon where the sun bided its time. Even if it had been pitch black, the silvery glow from the dragon’s scales would have shone against the sky. Its wings stretched wide—blocking out the stars beyond.
Though this was his second time seeing a dragon, the sight of this one stretched across the sky above Suvi stole the breath from his lungs. And the chorus of screams coursing through the city only heightened his awareness.
There’d be no more denying it. The dragons were back and now all of Suvi would know it.
The ground quaked beneath their feet and people scattered as the dragon touched down on the street, creating a barrier between the civilians and the soldiers. Despite its clear wish to protect them, the majority of the townspeople that had been so brave in the face of the king’s men dispersed into the alleys, disappearing in the shadows like rats.
But not everyone did. Flor gazed up at the celestial beast with eyes wide and mouth hanging open while a few of the other rebels he recognized stood in similar awe.
It was Sofia who moved first, eyes bright as she stepped forward and stretched her hand out to brush her fingers across the dragon’s scales. Its hum sent a shudder through the air, the feathers along its neck and spine vibrating.
“She came for you,” Sofia said, soft voice somehow carrying amid the chaos.
“Who?” Fox said. She turned, looking at him with tears shining in her eyes even as her smile stretched wide.
“The dragon answered your prayer.”
“How do you know?” he said, coming to stand beside her. He examined the dragon’s silver scales as if they held the secret. She was running her hand along its flank like one might pet a donkey, but he was too afraid to get closer.
“Listen.”
Fox didn’t bother asking her to clarify, he was too busy staring at the dragon’s head which was turned to face him. It—she—had eyes so blue he might have believed they’d melt into water at any moment. And suddenly, he did hear.
Eha wanted to come. She could not. So I answered.
Eha?
She is in the dark. But I am not.
Fox shook his head, trying to understand where the thoughts were coming from. There was a pounding in his skull, as if he’d swum too far underwater, and he had to step back and remind himself to breathe.
“Javi, grab some crates. We’re climbing on,” Sofia was barking orders and it took Fox a moment to realize what she was planning.
“Are you insane?”
“Yes,” she said, not quite meeting his eyes.
“You can’t ride a dragon.”
“Yes, I can. We all can.” Her tone brooked no argument.
Fox turned back to the dragon, her eyes sparkling with sharp intelligence. She’d come for him. She’d answered his prayer, not to bring destruction to Suvi, but to save him—to save the resistance. He didn’t think, reaching forward to run his hand along the scales of the dragon’s side, like a moth to the flame. They were hot to the touch, but not painful—hard, yet soft.
“You can take them?”
“I can hold most. Some. Probably.”
He wasn’t sure, but he thought the dragon might have been stuttering over her words. Or maybe even she wasn’t confident in what she could do.
“You better protect them ,” he thought, hoping his tone was conveyed.
“Your tone is plenty clear, Pale Scales. I don’t need threats. I will protect them. I will protect her.”
He stepped back, his head swimming, but he shook it off. He didn’t know if he should trust a dragon, but then again, if he couldn’t trust a god—who could he trust?
The others who had remained in the street were growing braver, slowly stepping back toward the dragon when they realized she didn’t plan on eating them.
Fox helped Flor move a few crates to the side of the dragon to use as steps, her back higher than a donkey’s would be. Another rebel was already lining people up. Some were from the prison, but there were others, too. Civilians who hadn’t run and were now looking up at the dragon with awe.
“Not everyone will fit,” Ian said beside him before Fox could admit even the dragon didn’t think so. “It can hold a dozen at best and there are more than two times that many left.”
“I know.” Sofia bit her lip, doing the calculations herself. “We can take trips.”
“That won’t work,” Ian said, shaking his head.
“Then we prioritize the most injured and the children,” Sofia said, voice strained.
Flor stepped closer, keeping her voice low. “We can’t send children into the rainforest unprotected and the injured need to be looked after.”
“I can take the children and the civilians,” Ian said. “I can hide them in the city until we can find another way out. But Sofia, Micael, and those from the cenote, you need to get out now while you can.”
“Vato—if you get caught—” Sofia started.
“I’ve always been one step away from getting caught,” he said, and Fox was reminded once more how little he knew about his oldest friend—his only friend. “The king will punish the Dragonborn for tonight, but he can’t execute everyone or even most of the people that fought back tonight. He’ll be looking for you most of all. As long as you make it out, you can help us from the outside.”
Fox watched the exchange with a sinking feeling in his stomach.
“Ian’s right,” Fox said, stepping forward, resolute. “The soldiers won’t know who actually fought against them tonight and they can’t kill the entire work force of Suvi. Ian and I will keep the others safe until they’re able to escape.”
Sofia’s face went gray, the only color left the slight tinge of pink along her cheeks. “You’re staying.” It wasn’t a question.
Fox hadn’t made the decision until that moment. Or perhaps he had never made the decision at all because it had already been made for him. He couldn’t leave his mother behind. He couldn’t leave behind everything he’d built until this moment. He had a real chance of making a change—he had power here.
“I…I have to,” he said, hating himself as something broke in her eyes.
“After everything, you’d choose them? You’d choose him?”
He didn’t need to ask who him was. The chief commander. Was he choosing him?
“No,” he said, shaking his head and stepping forward even as she tried to pull away. He grasped her hands in his own and forced her to look at him. “I’ll serve you better from here. I have the chief commander’s ear. I have his trust. I need to understand why they are so interested in the dragons—why that dragon was working with them. I can’t do that from afar.”
She snarled, her teeth bared even as he leaned closer.
“Don’t look at me like that, please.”
“How can I trust you won’t betray us? Me? What happens when the chief commander hands you everything you’ve ever wanted on a golden tray? Will you truly betray him?”
Fox pressed his forehead to hers, the cool sweat of their skin mingling. “I don’t want to betray anyone. I want the deaths to end. But you can trust that I won’t betray you. I can’t?—”
His voice broke and he almost sneered at himself.
She shook her head. “How do I?—”
Before she could finish, he pulled her closer and his lips surged forward to meet hers. The kiss was rough and hard and he bit at her lips even as they opened for him, her tongue meeting his in a duel. His hand wrapped around the small of her back, pulling her flush against him, every muscle rigid with need at the feel of her. His body throbbed with heat and something cracked open within him. He wound his fingers into her curls and groaned. Her answering whimper had his head going light. She clung to him, pressing into the skin along his neck, teasing the hairs that had fallen from his bun. Why had it taken him so long to kiss her? He regretted every moment before he’d spent not knowing the taste of her lips.
Too soon, with the blood singing through his veins, she pulled away.
“Fuck,” he said, pressing his forehead against hers. He almost grabbed her again, his body thrumming with want. Instead, he rested his large hand across her chest and pushed her away, even as his fingers twitched to tangle in her tunic. “Go.”
She blinked up at him, eyes wide, pupils blown. Fox looked over her shoulder and saw the rest of the rebels were already sitting along the dragon’s spine, clinging to her feathers for dear life. He ignored the look of utter horror on some of their faces, eyes finding Ian where he stood helping the last person onto the dragon. Twelve rebels were sitting along its spine, a single space left for Sofia.
She was the only one left.
It was Ian who moved first, grabbing her gently by the shoulders and leading her back to the dragon. She moved as if in a daze, but turned back before she stepped onto the crate.
She looked at him beseechingly. “Find my parents and protect them. If they’re still alive. The chief commander will go after them, even if they have nothing to do with me.”
Fox could only nod. “Of course.”
And then she turned, confidently pulling herself up onto the dragon’s back between Flor and a man he vaguely recognized as her friend Javi. He was glaring daggers at Fox as if he hoped he’d die where he was standing.
Only when the dragon’s wings lifted, its legs pushing up off the ground, did Sofia finally look back, eyes finding Fox’s. With a stifled movement, he lifted a hand in a pathetic attempt at a wave.
She only touched her hand to her lips before she disappeared into the sky.