Chapter 54
Chapter Fifty-Four
Kallias
Tsunami screamed.
The sound split the dark like a blade, sharp enough to rattle the windowpanes. My pulse answered before thought could form.
I ran before I could even strap on my armor. Sword in hand, I hurtled across the stone floor. Cold air scraped my lungs as I charged for the manor doors.
Ronan’s body slammed into mine, his jacket hanging open, laces half-tied and flapping. We staggered, the scent of smoke and leather clinging to him.
“She’s calling them!”
Curse it, curse it, curse it. I seized his jacket and spun him from the door, fabric twisting in my fist.
“Buy me time!” My voice cracked down the corridor as I tore back through the manor. “Thresher!”
The shadow appeared at my side without a breath of warning, fingers flying over buckles and straps as he belted my armor into place. Metal cinched tight around my ribs. Steel kissed my shoulders with familiar weight.
The absence of Greaves struck hard. He had always fastened the final clasp with a calm nod, confidence steady as bedrock. No one else moved with that quiet certainty.
Gauntlets slid over my hands. I flexed, metal creaking. My spear waited against the wall. I snatched it and sprinted after Ronan, lungs burning.
Night still ruled the sky. Gyrak burst from the air and slammed into the mountain, stone exploding outward in a thunderous crash that shook grit from the cliffs. Half the path crumbled into the abyss.
“Don’t you dare!” I thrust an armored finger at him. “You’re taking me with you!”
“He’d sooner eat you than carry you!” Ronan snarled, buckling the stirrups around his calves with sharp, efficient tugs.
His dragon clung to the Andeluith, talons gouging stone. Eyes gleamed like molten coin in the dark, agreement clear in the tilt of that massive head.
I would not be left behind.
Beneath the sweep of a black belly, heat rolled over me in waves scented with oil and smoke. I ducked and ran toward the nearest plateau. Dragonless. Unclaimed. Only one beast tolerated my presence, and even that felt like a fragile truce.
By Elohios’ light, if Nienna was calling, I would answer.
Grass bent under my boots as I reached the open ground. The sky loomed wide and merciless above. I scanned the darkness, throat raw.
“Tsunami!”
The name ripped from me, carried thin on the wind.
It was a fool’s hope. A wild dragon would never bear someone who was not her rider. Instinct ran deeper than loyalty. Yet I had to try. Had to pull on whatever fragile thread bound us. Without Nienna, no other dragon would have me. That truth lodged under my ribs.
The sky shifted.
Tsunami dropped from the moonlit dark, her scales catching silver light as she fell. Air buckled around her wings. She struck the ground hard enough to tremble the plateau, claws carving trenches through soil and stone. Dirt sprayed against my shins.
Her neck shot forward, roar hot against my face, making her annoyance known. Fangs hovered a handspan from my skin. The heat of her breath smelled of char and metal.
I slapped my palm against her muzzle.
Teeth snapped, grazing my fingertips. She recoiled with a hiss, neck arching high, oil dripping in thick, glistening strands.
“Save it for Nienna.” My voice steadied despite the tremor in my legs.
I darted for her paw. Climbing onto that broad surface would be simple enough. The leg above rose like a tower, smooth scales offering little mercy to searching hands.
She swung back toward me, teeth bared, hiss low and dangerous.
I whirled and leveled my spear at her nose. “Take me to our girl.”
She smacked her lips, and that golden eye swirled, light shifting within it as if something deep inside considered my demand.
Silence stretched.
Her head snapped upward, jerking side to side like a hound hearing its master’s call.
It was now or never.
I heaved myself up her leg, boots scraping, gauntlets grinding against ridges and seams in the scales. Muscles screamed as I climbed. Steel fingers found narrow crevices. I hauled myself over her back and swung a leg across her spine.
She lurched.
My grip slipped. I flattened against her neck as she pivoted, leading with her head, spinning to face Vellos. The world reeled beneath us.
My spear clattered against her scales, the vibration running through my arms. Wingbeats thundered, each downstroke jolting my bones. My stomach flipped, dinner rising sharp in my throat as she leapt.
We launched skyward.
She banked hard, dodging another dragon in a rush of wind and shadow. I drove my heels into her sides and clamped my knees against her to keep my seat, desperate for purchase.
The wind tore at my hair, threatening to rip me from her back. My fingers wedged between overlapping scales. My knees locked tight. Beneath me, muscle bunched and flexed, each movement powerful enough to shatter stone. I rode that strength like a leaf clinging to a storm.
Gyrak and the others drifted ahead as dark shapes among the stars, wings carving silent arcs through the night. Tsunami trumpeted and shook herself, a violent ripple that threatened to hurl me free.
Teeth clenched, I pressed my forehead to her scales.
Elohios, don’t let me fall. Prayer slipped from me unbidden, breath torn thin by the rush of wind.
Gyrak coasted closer with a short grunt and a snap of his teeth, warning flashing in the sharp line of his jaw. Tsunami fell quiet, the sound swallowed by the sky.
We climbed over the Craggs. My muscles burned from the strain of holding on. Fingers numbed inside steel. Each breath grew thinner than the last.
Cold settled in. Not the shallow chill of night, but a brutal edge that sliced through armor and skin alike. It seeped into marrow, leaving doubt in its wake, a question of whether blood still moved.
Wings hammered a relentless rhythm as we crossed the far side of the Craggs. The flight stretched long enough for thought to creep in.
How would I get Nienna out?
Fire tempted me. I would let Vellos burn to cinders if it meant freeing her. Yet letting the Velli near the dragons would spell ruin. Without an army at my back, I would have to slip inside whatever cage held her.
First, I needed to know where she was.
Tsunami dipped, diving low until her belly skimmed the treetops. Pine needles brushed her scales. Resin and sap scented the air. My gut clenched. Such a pass could rouse the Velli from their nests.
Above us, Gyrak clicked, sharp and commanding.
Tsunami craned her head back, caught his signal, then surged upward again. The sudden ascent wrenched a curse from my throat as the ground dropped away.
Cold gnawed. My heart battered my ribs, frantic with questions it could not voice. Where was she? Was she hurt? Was she alone?
Yet amid the misery, a strange calm unfolded. It was peaceful. At this height, the world reduced itself to wind and starlight. No sound beyond the steady rush in my ears. No distractions. It was just me and my thoughts…
Thinking of all the ways I would butcher Tallon when I saw him.
We drifted through the night, dragons gliding on long, silent strokes.
Time stretched thin, and dawn crept closer.
The sunrise worried me more than any blade.
We needed the cover of darkness to hide.
Daylight would strip that away. And having passed over so many villages already…
How fast would word of our arrival spread to their palace?
Ignorance gnawed at me. It scraped along my conscience and hollowed out certainty breath by breath.
I didn’t know Vellos. I never fought beneath its dense canopy, where branches tangled like knotted hair.
They were similar enough to Radaan’s northern forests, but here in the dark, I navigated by faint silhouettes and guesswork.
I did not dare to lean over for a better vantage point. One wrong shift would send me tumbling.
It took everything I had just to stay on her back.
Without warning, Gyrak pulled up.
Tsunami shrieked and arched, nose spearing skyward. My stomach dropped as if the earth had fallen away.
“Even out!” I growled through clenched teeth, hanging on for dear life as she flipped vertically. The sky spun. Wind clawed at my armor, tore at my hair, burned in my lungs.
She hissed, thrashing in the air, whipping her head back to snap at me.
She decided my ride was over—while we climbed to the clouds.
Gyrak flew past us with a snarl, his tail smacking Tsunami in the face. She let out a garbled roar, the force rocking through her body and jolting up my spine.
With an irritated huff, she dove after him, circling over a body of water.
It flashed silver between breaks in the trees.
My stomach lurched with every tight turn.
How did the withering riders communicate on dragonback?
Shouted commands vanished in the wind. Hand signals seemed useless at this speed.
A lake was a permanent source of freshwater.
It was reliable and usually attracted people.
And that was the last thing we wanted—unless Nienna was here.
The dragons landed one by one, dropping from the sky like falcons, talons stretching toward earth before they softened their landings.
Wings beat heavy gusts across the clearing, flattening grass and sending ripples skittering over the lake.
Then Tsunami landed. She hit the ground hard, making no attempt at subtlety.
The impact jarred my teeth. Her wing slapped into a deciduous tree, breaking a branch with a sharp crack.
Bright green leaves rained down around us—void of autumn color.
Once four paws met the dirt, she whirled on me, snapping at my armor.
With a grunt, I unlocked my death grip on her and slid down her shoulder. My boots hit the ground, knees bending on instinct, and I rolled with the fall, dispersing the weight across my side. I didn’t need to break a leg in enemy territory.
Ronan offered a hand, his glare trained on Tsunami.
She hissed at us, ducking her head and sulking away, tail dragging a restless line through the soil.
Ignoring Ronan’s aid, I rose and moved to the treeline.
It was pointless to try to hide with six dragons in tow, but I fell into old habits.
Trees offered cover, even if only for my thoughts.
Dropping into a crouch, I tried to ground myself, stomach roiling from the flight. The earth felt steady beneath my boots. I braced a hand against the rough bark of the tree.
It was quiet. I should have expected as much from an area unaccustomed to dragons. No animal would want to be near a fleet that dropped from above. The eerie silence pressed against my ears. No birds called. No insects hummed.
The sky shifted to a bleak gray, heralding the rising sun and offering a bit more light to see.
Dawn bled slowly across the water, still and wide.
A forest bordered the other side, too. Another tactical loss.
There could be Velli on the far bank, taking back word of our landing, and we would never know.
The forest was thick, at least. If the dragons lay flat, the canopy would hide them well enough.
I glanced up at the tree above me, its leaves broader than my head, tipped with five points and veined deep green.
It was foreign to me, a species isolated to this side of the Craggs.
Even the scent of it was different. Sharper. Wetter.
“They lost her.” Ronan sank beside me, resting his back against the tree, boots stretched out in front of him. “We’re close, though.”
“We have no plan.” The admission soured my tongue. It was reckless. Frustrating. It went against every training and teaching carved into me since boyhood. One never went into battle uncertain of the odds without a strategy. To fail to plan was to plan to fail.
Ronan snorted and raised his goggles to his brow—something I wished I’d had on my flight.
“Then make one,” he grumbled.
My brow furrowed. Trust the boy to correct me, and have it land true.
“How’s the bond going? Did you make her mad?” He jerked his head toward the sea-colored dragon lying at the lake’s edge, taking long gulps of water. Her throat worked with each swallow. “Tell her to take it easy. Dragons can’t fly fast when they’re weighed down.”
I pursed my lips, squinting at the beast. Droplets clung to her snout. “You hear Gyrak in your head?”
“I told you she was bonded to you.”
His gloating tone grated.
“Then we’re not bonded. My mind is my own.”
He scoffed, scraping a heel through the dirt. “She sooner would’ve eaten you than let you ride if you weren’t.”
The gold, Matalino, approached the dragon in question, nostrils flaring as if he could scent me on her scales. Tsunami hissed into the water, blowing bubbles, and tucked her tail tighter around her body, wings mantling low.
“She tolerates me.” I let an edge of authority slip into my voice. Command steadied me. “Gather your riders, have them scout. Vellos is unknown to me. I’ve never ventured across the Craggs. If we want to rescue your sister, we’ll need a plan.”