Chapter 42
Forty-Two
Casimir
Something pulled my attention northward. The landscape of Kylma panned below me as I swung my head in that direction. Peering down my snout, I looked for some sign of what had prompted the prickling sensation down the ridges of my spine.
Stone crunched underfoot as my talons dug deeper into the roof of the Lookout, my perch high above the capital of the Ice Kingdom. My kingdom.
Below me, lights flickered in windows and endless flows of people moved through its streets. Dozens of dragons came and went all the time. Thousands of my people were living right there. Right now.
And none of it mattered to me
What I sought out was beyond the high walls of the inner city and beyond the smaller walls that had been constructed as Kylma grew ever larger. It was beyond the plains and rock-blasted landscapes that stretched as far as the eye could see.
Was that what called me in this direction? Was it Anna? Somewhere out there, in the wilds and alone, my mate was alone. Without me. Because I had let her go.
I looked far to the left and then back to the right, my dragon’s neck swinging sinuously around as I surveyed everything. Listening. Searching.
Waiting for a call that wasn’t coming.
Where are you, Anna? I need something. Anything.
But I was greeted with only silence.
“Caz.”
I growled, having heard Dirk enter the study below and knowing he would not be deterred from interrupting me.
“You need to come down from here.”
“No. I won’t stop looking for her.” My dragon echoed that agreement, shifting its wings to blast Dirk with a gust of air.
He bore it stoically, running one hand over his head to smooth his hair down. “Being a jerk isn’t going to magically stop the kingdom from needing to be run, brother. Things are going awry without you.”
“No, they aren’t. The people who are complaining are simply the ones who aren’t gaining more wealth and power while I’m up here. They don’t matter.”
The only thing that mattered was Anna.
“Maybe you’re right,” Dirk conceded. “But who do you think they’re going to take it out on if they don’t get their way? You can stay up here and not have to worry, because it won’t be you or I who suffer.”
His gaze turned slowly to look out across the city. The city of my people.
The insinuation was clear. And it was true. He was right. When the powerful didn’t get their way, the weak suffered. No way could I change that from up here.
“You’ve been up for two whole days,” Dirk said, pointing up at the swiftly dimming orb high above us, its magical light nearly gone. “Get some sleep. Eat some food. Then tomorrow, we will …”
There it was again.
My head snapped northward, driven by some unseen, unheard energy.
“Caz?”
I shifted, standing up. Could it be? I focused deep inside me, to my very center, where the link with Anna lived. It was still there, so I knew she was alive. But everything else was too weak with distance, preventing me from knowing where to go, where to …
Caz!
I nearly fell off the roof.
“Dirk!” I bellowed, shaking myself into motion. “Gather the ready squads and follow me.”
My brother didn’t hesitate. He stepped to the edge of the Lookout’s roof, wings sprouting from his back and shredding his shirt. “Where?”
I spread my own much larger wings and leapt into the sky. “North!”
Catching the air, I dove to pick up speed and then angled up, beating swiftly at the air.
Behind me, Dirk roared orders to the pair of overstrength squads I’d kept ready for just such an occasion.
Soon, over a dozen dragons were rising from the citadel grounds to follow as best they could.
The pace I set was blistering, and they swiftly fell behind.
Even Dirk struggled just to maintain sight of me.
I didn’t care. Anna had called to me at long last. I had sensed her, and I was not going to fail her. Not this time.
This time, I will show up.
That thought powered me ever faster. Terrain slipped by underneath as I worked north, Kylma swiftly disappearing behind me.
The more north we went, the stronger the call to Anna became. I was closing in on her. We weren’t far at all.
Then everything became muddy. I banked in a circle, wondering if she was somehow directly below me and I had gone past her. But the call, that unseen cord pulling me toward her, had vanished into thin air.
Confused, I rose higher into the sky above Hollow Earth, charting the landscape.
In my haste to get to Anna, I hadn’t been paying as close attention to where I was within the kingdom.
After getting my bearings, I noticed I had swung hard east at some point.
We were along the northeastern border of the kingdom.
And I knew exactly where Anna had to be, and thus, where I had to go.
Turning slightly more north, I took off again.