28. The Plan
SOUNDTRACK: Seconds from Forever by SHUNé
~ GRACE ~
After most of a day in ever deepening tension, the air growing oppressive, the storm finally broke. Thunder rolled among the distant mountains, but here, under the large tree with the dragons curled around us and their wings extended, we were warm and dry.
As if he heard the voice of God himself, Voski had told Kham to land just minutes before the rain began.
There was no time or way to make a fire.
The rains, when they started, were torrential almost immediately.
But by that time, Voski had already found a tree large enough that its root-structure had turned the earth around it into a downward slope.
With just a few branches torn loose by Kham, the dragons could duck their heads and lie down under its expansive, upper branches.
And Voski and I were cradled in the curl of each of our dragon’s forelegs.
The two dragons curled into each other, their tails and neck extending over and around each other’s bodies. They’d each extended one wing to offer a shelter from the rain that made it through the trees.
At first, I’d been worried Koa would be chilled by the rain she sheltered me from, but when I voiced the concern, both dragons huffed, and Voski grinned.
“Don’t worry about them—they both have the inner fire to keep them warm. As well as each other,” he said with a suggestive glance at Kham—that faltered immediately, as if he’d horrified himself.
Koa whistled and Kham huffed again, but Voski suddenly made a show of digging into his satchel.
My stomach growled, but I didn’t expect food—we’d been low on rations and hunting for the past two days.
But a moment later, a small paper parcel arced through the air between us.
“Heads up!”
I looked up and only got my hands up in time for the little parcel to bounce off my palms and into my lap, but when I picked it up and unraveled the twine around it, I found a piece of hard cheese, and a strange seedcake within it.
“I thought—”
“Always keep emergency rations, Grace. Even on patrol. You never know when a storm might blow in like this and strand you. Or if you’re on the battlefield, you can’t be sure what the next day brings.
Never eat the last of what you have until you have no choice.
We’ve been hunting, and successfully. So, I held onto this, just in case. ”
Grateful for his thoughtfulness and preparedness, I tucked into both. And even though the cheese was too strong, and the seedcake far too dry, it tasted delicious, because I was famished.
When I’d eaten the last of it, I looked up to find Voski staring at me. He looked back down at his own food quickly, but I caught the stare.
“What? Was I rude? I thought—”
“You’re fine, Grace. Stop worrying,” he said flatly, then filled his mouth with the last of his seedcake.
I was about to protest—his expression had been dark. But he spoke again before I could.
“Unless the rain sticks, we’ll reach Vosgaarde tomorrow.”
My jaw dropped. “Truly?!”
He nodded without meeting my eyes, picking seeds off his leathers and eating them.
I would have clapped, but I caught myself and shoved my hands into my armpits instead. “That’s… that’s very good news!”
“Yes. It is.” His tone was utterly emotionless.
I frowned. “Are you not happy to arrive home?” He’d said their lives were hard, but for the first time it occurred to me that in all my gushing about freedom and not going back, I hadn’t actually asked him what freedom they had.
“Are they cruel in Vosgaarde?” I asked nervously. I could endure a great deal if it meant I could fly with Koa and have a purpose that ran deeper than dinner parties and providing an heir.
To my relief he shook his head, but he still didn’t meet my eyes. “It’s a difficult life—very taxing. Especially when you’re learning. But it’s a life of honor and led by good men. At least…” he trailed off.
I waited, because his jaw rolled and his eyes darted to me as if he considered whether to finish the thought.
I prayed he would. “What is it?” I breathed.
His jaw flexed and he looked down again. I thought he’d shut me out again as he had every time before, but then he began to speak.
“When we get closer to the Keep, Kham will start reaching for the other dragons of the herd. They don’t know Koa, and she hasn’t submitted to Kgosi—he’s our herd Primarch—so she won’t be able to reach them.”
“Donavyn’s dragon?” I asked to make sure I remembered correctly.
Voski nodded. “If Donavyn and Kgosi are there, then things are probably good. Or at least, under control. But if they aren’t…”
A thread of fear coiled in my chest. “You really don’t know where they are, or why?”
He shook his head, though his jaw tightened as if he were determined to find out.
“We don’t know what we’re flying into, Grace.
So, unless Kham can reach someone we know we can trust, we’ll land a few miles from the Keep and hide you and Koa.
I know a place. It’s only minutes’ flight from the Academy, but it’s a place I’ve been finding privacy for years.
No one else has ever discovered it that I’m aware of.
In any case, it won’t matter. You’ll have shelter there.
It’s close enough to the Keep that Kham can keep in touch with Koa, and when the time is right, we’ll come back for you.
But I have to ask you not to be reckless.
If we leave you, we do so for your safety. No other reason.”
Then he looked at me, and I faced the chill that I imagined he’d felt when I urged him to trust me.
Was he telling the truth? Or was this some scheme? He had seemed warmer these last couple of days. Less angry. But it could be an act. A plot to lower my defenses.
The longer I went without answering him, the tighter his jaw became.
“Grace, you have to let me bring you into the Keep at the right time. I don’t know what’s happening there. And I can’t afford to protect you and myself while I find out.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
“I do,” I insisted. “I just… I don’t want to get this close and then be thwarted.”
His eyes glittered. “Now who doesn’t trust?”
I cleared my throat and nodded. “I acknowledge that.”
He blinked, apparently surprised that I didn’t resist. “Well, right. So, we have to work together on this. The Keep is full of men. Strong men, and their dragons. They will not recognize you for what you are. It’s critical that I reach someone in power and firstly make sure that the Keep is a safe place for any woman to be right now.
And if it is, then I will tell Donavyn—or whomever is in charge—what’s happened with you and Koa.
She’ll need to meet and submit to Kgosi.
Once she does and is seen as a part of the herd, you become Flameborne.
If you and Koa are willing to face the tests. ”
“I am.”
He nodded as if he hadn’t questioned that. “I know you want to. And you will. I’m sure they’ll acknowledge you. But this is a difficult, uncomfortable life, Grace. I wasn’t exaggerating when I spoke of that earlier.”
“It cannot be more difficult than what I lived before.”
He huffed and scratched the back of his neck. “I know you’ve been working with horses, but forgive me, Grace, as a noblewoman you have no idea how difficult manual labor can be, and—”
“I didn’t mean the physical part. That will be a challenge. But I won’t give up,” I said fiercely.
He stopped talking and stared at me, his eyes dark and unreadable.
“I won’t!” I insisted.
“I believe you.”
“Then why are you staring at me like that?”
“I was considering the safest way to get you into the heart of the Keep so that you can fight for what you want.”
I took a deep breath, heavy with relief that he wasn’t going to fight me on that.
“I’ll do anything to succeed here,” I said quickly.
“Anything. Whatever is needed. Tell me. I’ll do it.
Even if it’s hard. Even if it hurts. How do I make myself the best Flameborne? What do I need to beat the others?”
Voski’s brows rose. “There is no limit on who can become Flameborne, except that you achieve the tests. You don’t have to beat others.
You’re competing with failure. Though, there are certain tests that require some competition, it’s not what you’d think.
If you’re good enough, you’ll get through it. ”
“So, tell me how! Then, if I have to wait to enter the Keep, I can practice while I’m waiting.”
His lower jaw went slack, then he cleared his throat and looked away. I was about to ask what had unsettled him, when he answered the question.
“Keep being fearless,” he said quietly, brushing crumbs off his leathers.
“But also humble. Take instruction. Attempt to adopt advice as quickly as you can. Don’t fight for your pride, only for what you know is right, or for your dragon.
” He paused and his brow crinkled. Then he met my gaze.
“Essentially, exactly what you’ve been doing.
Just keep doing that. Be willing to be corrected, and eager to learn. ”
“I am eager!”
“I know,” he said without any of that bitter twist I’d become used to.
My heart rose into my throat. “You think I can do it?”
He gave a shaky little chuckle. “I am the first to be surprised, Grace, that I have to say, yes. I really do.”
Then he met my eyes once more and suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.