Chapter 10 Liz #2
“Wait here,” I say. “I’ll be back in a moment.” I can’t help a smug glance in Jean’s direction when I pivot to wing my way toward Axel. It’s satisfying to see her mouth dangling open, anyway.
When I reach the dragons, I smile. “Three hundred and change,” I say. “Follow me.”
That’s not nearly enough, Axel says. You have three days to prove to Hyperion we can find brights for ten thousand blessed. Your first day, we barely found fifty.
“We found sixty-one,” I say. “Norm, Karen, and twenty-nine other brights. Plus, the semi-brights are brights, too.” I scowl. “And we have a plan for a second rendezvous today. I told you it would take time at first to do it properly.”
Each rendezvous increases the risk. He’s starting to sound like his brother.
“I’m aware,” I say. “But surely it’s no riskier than simply attacking. Can you focus for a moment?”
He begins walking, but I step in front of him.
“I think I should ride on you.”
He freezes. You have wings.
“I know,” I say. “But I’m the poster girl for this campaign, and for a lot of these people, their life’s wish has been to ride a dragon. None of them have wings, and I can’t promise that they’ll ever get them, so I don’t want to sell them on how cool it would be to be just like me.”
He blinks.
“Fine.” I turn. “I’ll just ride one of the others.”
A tall, thin strike blessed with a stunning head and an almost blue tinge to her silver scales ducks toward me.
No, Elizabeth Chadwick’s mine. He tosses his head in the direction the humans are waiting. Let’s go. You slept so long, we’re already losing the day.
It’s hardly an hour past sunrise here, since Iceland’s six hours ahead of Utah, but I don’t bother arguing. If I’m a little rough when I tuck my wings and drop onto his back from ten feet above, well, he deserves it. I hope he has a sore back for hours.
His head whips around, but his eyes don’t look angry.
They’re flashing with what looks like amusement to me.
I miss having the bond to confirm my suspicions—green was happy.
Grey was satisfied, if not quite pleasant, and black.
. .well. Not all the colors were great. He can keep his dark moods to himself and good riddance.
Even jogging to minimize the risk of running into anyone, the dragons, who are all following us, eat up the ground with their long strides. When Axel slides to a stop in front of the gathered humans, I try to look at them like he must see them.
The main thing I see, other than surprise and joy when we arrive, is the humans’ hope.
The women have done their hair—some with curls, and others with intricate braids.
They’re wearing stylized clothing, from warrior-wear that appears to be modeled after mine, to ball gowns for a few.
The men are less obvious, but only by a little.
They have fresh haircuts, shiny new boots, and they’re carrying packed bags.
If you can hear me, raise both arms. Axel’s volume is set rather rudely to blast, but I have to hand it to him. After realizing only the brights could hear him yesterday, I still didn’t think of this.
I should have.
More than a hundred humans raise both hands—not as high a percentage as yesterday, but still really, really high.
I didn’t prepare the humans here today as well as I did yesterday—we didn’t hike up together.
Before Axel can say more, I step in. “If you heard that command, please move to the far left.” I force a smile.
“I also want to thank everyone for coming today. Our time is short, but I want to make sure everyone understands why we’re here, and what we’re asking of you. ”
“We want to bond a dragon,” one man in the back shouts.
He’s not one of the ones who raised his hands. That makes me sad—almost two hundred of them are already not eligible.
“A few months ago, my entire world imploded,” I say.
“A dragon bonded me against my will. I was angry, and I had been trained to fight.” I slide off Axel’s back and walk closer to them.
“I did what I knew how to do, and I fought the dragon who bonded me at every turn. I was surprised and disgusted, honestly, with every single human that had been bonded who wasn’t fighting. ”
Some of them laugh, but a lot of them look distinctly uncomfortable.
“Our government knew what I also knew—the dragons were our enemies.”
Everyone’s dead silent, including most notably, Axel.
“But in spite of my irritating and often stupid attacks, my dragon, my bonded, never hurt me. He never fought back. He never made my life worse. He bore all of my temper tantrums with grace.” I glance back at Axel.
He looks. . .curious.
“I didn’t relent, though. And an old friend of mine joined me. I convinced my bonded dragon not to kill the rebel in our midst, and we pretended to be shifting our allegiance to the dragons.” I snorted. “Secretly, I still wanted them dead or gone—both were fine as long as they never came back.”
Now the humans look actively alarmed.
I launch into the sky and begin to fly in a slow path along the humans who have gathered.
“But with a little more time, as my bonded dragon learned about my past, I came to see him differently. Instead of being the enemy, he protected me. He was angry at the way the humans in my past had behaved, and he told me the dragons hadn’t come to conquer.
They had lived on Earth before, for thousands of years.
They were back to collect something they’d left, something they needed, because without it, they were unable to procreate.
They had no future, and when they came, they had no idea what exactly they were even searching for.
They’d been told only that they’d know it when they found it. ”
I land now, all their eyes still on me.
“And since their arrival, the blessed have done everything they could to recover this object they call the heart, but the humans have attacked them at every turn. Naturally, they fought back, and they’re well equipped to do that.”
A few people laugh.
“But I started helping them, and we’ve had a breakthrough of sorts.
We located a volcano in Iceland that held clues to what we needed.
In the process, something changed. The earth dragons, who had no wings and were at the bottom of the dragon hierarchy, got a massive upgrade.
Part of that upgrade resulted in them being unable to eat.
In fact, none of the dragons can eat now, not without growing violently ill.
And without food, you can imagine what happens next. ”
“They’ll die?” Jean looks vested now. “Really?”
“Every last one of them,” I say, “unless they bond a human. Something about that bond allows them to metabolize our food sources here.” I smile. “My little brother’s favorite dragon’s a green earth dragon named Gordon. Do you know what his favorite food on earth is?”
No one answers.
“I thought all dragons would eat cows, or goats, or humans,” I say. “I probably got that idea from movies, which always have them flying down herds and devouring them, but Gordon loves tunneling in the earth, and he finds grubs delicious.” It makes me laugh.
I’m not the only one.
“Once he had one stuck on his cheek.” I shiver. “When I pointed it out, he offered it to me.” I shake my head. “I said no thanks, and he popped it in his mouth himself.”
They’re listening now.
“The first time the dragons bonded humans, they did it all wrong. They can force a bond—it’s called being ensnared.
They can fly into any human settlement, search for brights, and then bond them against their will.
But they don’t want to make a mistake like that again, even with their very lives on the line. ”
Some of them do, a water dragon I don’t know says.
“That’s true,” I admit. “A great many of the blessed want to take action now, before they grow too weak to find enough humans and force them to bond. They want to just take the humans they need, but I envision something better. I want dragon-human pairs that will be strong. Humans brave enough to teach and guide the dragons who have come back to Earth—teach them about our ways and our life. I’m looking for warriors who will help us and them, but I know that it’s complicated. ”
No one flinches.
“Based on our earlier test, less than half of you will be able to bond with a dragon, but I’m asking for all of you to help us in another way.
Not only do we need you to keep our secret, but I’m asking you to help us find others who will do the same.
Because if I can’t find enough humans in the next day and a half. . .”
My brother will take our people to war. Not everyone can hear Axel, but there are enough that it gets the message through to them.
This isn’t a game. It’s really freaking real.