Nice Night for a Flight
At some point, lunch was brought in while I worked on writing out my plans and all the moving parts involved in it.
My guardians had to pry the pen out of my hand so I could eat, and even then, it was only part of it, my brain too full of whirling ideas to slow down.
Time blurred as my hand started to ache.
People came in and out of the room when I needed them.
We would hash out details and add more things to the list that needed to be done.
“Cass, I’m told you haven’t taken a break all day. Come outside and sit with me awhile. The fresh air will do you good. Besides, I feel like there are things we need to talk about,” Vasin called out to me, effectively cutting off my train of thought.
“I don’t have time, Vasin. We need to get this figured out, or all could be lost.”
“Yes, but it doesn’t all have to be done by you. There are hundreds of people in that cavern, and it’s their home too. Let them help and take some of the pressure off you.”
I knew he was right, but my stubborn streak was showing, and I didn’t want to let anyone else help me.
“Don’t make me come get you.”
“You couldn’t fit through this door even if you wanted to,” I teased.
“All I have to do is make it bigger…”
“No, you wouldn’t, that could collapse the whole room!”
“Then it might be wiser to come out than for me to come in, wouldn’t you agree?”
I set down my pen and turned to look at the doorway to the room. “You’re sitting outside the door, aren’t you?”
“Your guardians needed to eat dinner, and you wanted space, so here I sit, keeping you from harm.”
I took a moment to look around the room and discovered Gavin sleeping in one of the chairs, along with Payson whittling something to pass the time.
Other than those two, I was alone in the room.
It had become oddly quiet without the others talking or working on tasks I’d given them as I went along.
I vaguely remember Abbott asking if I wanted food and telling me they were going to eat.
Letting out a heavy sigh, I rubbed my face with my hands as tiredness crept in.
“Ah, did you come up for air?” Payson asked, setting down what he was working on. “Everyone went to get dinner and leave this room for a bit. I would suggest you do the same, but I’m not sure you would listen.”
I gave him a tired smile and pushed my chair back from the table. “Vasin is the one who decided that enough was enough, and I needed to be done. It’s hard to argue with a person who can literally get inside your head.”
At my words, Payson jumped to his feet and walked over to me. “Where might I be able to take you, Cassarah?”
“Seeing as he is right outside the door waiting for me, it won’t be too far of a walk if you wouldn’t mind helping me?” I asked slowly, getting to my feet and stretching my stiff body.
“I don’t know if I should let you walk over there, even with my help, seeing as Dayson had to restitch your leg,” Payson cautioned.
“What if I helped?” Gavin asked, scaring a squeak out of me. He chuckled as he walked over to us. “That must be why he calls you little mouse. It’s cute.”
My cheeks heated at his words, and I couldn’t meet his gaze, uncomfortable with the compliment.
“What do you say, Payson? If you steady her on one side and me on the other, we should be able to get her to the door without too much trouble,” Gavin encouraged.
“I’m gonna need to keep up the strength in my good leg, right? If I keep getting carried everywhere, it will just get weaker,” I reasoned, crossing my fingers, hoping he agrees to at least let us try.
“Fuck it, who am I to tell the queen no? Come on, let’s get her out of this room before she changes her mind and has us bring in a bed,” Payson said, pulling my right arm over his shoulders.
Gavin did the same on my left side, and we started toward the door.
It was an awkward process since I was shorter than them, but we managed, laughing the whole way as we kept stepping on each other.
Gavin pulled the door open to reveal Vasin’s large head looming behind it in the shadows, making him jump. Only he didn’t let out a squeak.
“Climb on, Cass. I will make sure you get out safely.”
Leaning on Payson, I shuffled over to Vasin’s side, and Gavin helped Payson vault me onto Vasin’s back like you would a ride on horseback. Settled and confident I wouldn’t fall off, I wrapped my arms around his neck, keeping my body flush with his as he started to move.
“Where will you be so I can tell the others,” Payson called after me.
“Tell him not to worry, and if they really need to find us, send Tahir. I need some of my own time with you, Cass.”
I laughed as I turned to answer. “He says not to worry and just have Jade send Tahir to find us. That tells me no one should be able to get to me unless they come by dragon, and we’ll see that easily.”
Payson opened his mouth to speak, but Vasin was already on the move.
Once we reached an open area, he spread his wings and shot up into the air.
I closed my eyes, trusting that Vasin knew where we were going as we left the light below and headed right into the pitch-black darkness.
I knew the moment we left the mountain and reached the night air, the wind whipping around me.
Opening my eyes, I sat up and looked around, the sun low on the horizon, causing a burst of red and orange like the mountains were on fire.
Vasin flew leisurely through the mountain peaks, letting me breathe in the clean, fresh air and soak up the last moments of the sun.
Finally, he landed on a grassy plateau and assisted me off his back, tucking me against his chest where his ember burned, keeping me warm.
The night air was getting much colder now that the sun wasn’t around to warm the land, warning us that winter was coming.
Vasin and I sat in silence, letting me be, and enjoyed watching the stars coming out as the moon took over shedding its cool light over the mountains.
It made the world look far more intimidating, casting shadows where there were none before.
I might have been frightened if I didn’t have a massive dragon with superior night vision watching my back.
“I feel your mind whirling, Cass. What is it that has caused you to worry so intently?”
“Everything we are dealing with now has been looming in the darkness for a long time. In some ways, I feel like it’s been building for centuries.”
“Why do you say that?”
Shifting, I sat more to the side so I could see his head as I asked, “Why do the dragons need to keep the original agreement so secret? They slaughtered a man and his whole family, burned down his home, and hunted anyone he might have told. For dragons who think so rationally, how could they do something like that unless it was absolutely necessary?”
“If the terms of the original agreement are known, it will be the end of dragons as we know it. They were tricked into it, and Norden is the only country still holding onto the practice, but we are fighting to be free of them. There is a reason that fewer and fewer dragons are pair-bonding.”
“That is because of the agreement?”
“I cannot tell you much, but what I am willing to say is we have waited a long time for someone like you to be born. We’ve tried over the years to free ourselves, but we can’t do it alone.
” Vasin let out a deep breath, smoke puffing out of his nose in his frustration.
“The first King of the Mercenaries was also the first man to pair-bond with a black dragon. It was because of him that they became the symbol of royalty.”
“Vasin, have I trapped you?”
“No, I chose you, Cassarah. It is our deepest wish for us dragons to be lucky enough to find a person we truly bond with. I knew the moment I felt you enter the castle that we were going to do great things for this world. Never doubt that I want to be by your side.” Vasin dropped his head to nuzzle me, reassuring me with actions as well as words.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught something glinting in the moonlight seconds before an arrow shot over my head and bounced off of Vasin’s scales. “What’s happening? Can you see who is shooting at us?”
As quickly as I could, I pulled myself to my feet and threw myself up on Vasin’s back, flopping like a fish on land, trying to get astride him. While I was doing that, Vasin batted another arrow out of the sky with his wing before using his nose to shove me the rest of the way on his back.
“There is a dragon hiding in the peak above us. I can’t tell where his rider is, though.”
“How did they sneak up on us?”
“I wasn’t looking for them. Foolishly, I believed we were safe here. Hold on… I’m taking off. We can’t sit here out in the open.”
The next thing I knew, we were leaping off the edge of a cliff, hurtling down a few feet before Vasin spread his wings, and we leveled out.
Trusting him to keep us safe and not lead this dragon back to our hideout, I shut my eyes.
I reached out to Tahir, hoping we weren’t too far away.
Knowing what I was looking for, it was easier to lock on to him this time.
He was napping on the still-warm rocks at the peak of the mountain we resided in.
The moment my mind touched him, he was awake.
I still couldn’t get much from him but emotions and impressions of his thoughts, but no words.
“Tahir, we are being attacked. Get Jade.”
Immediately, I got the impression he understood what I’d told him, and he sent me back a flood of worry and understanding as he went to find his pair-bond.
“I was able to talk to Tahir. He’s going to find Jade and come help us.”
“I can’t tell what allegiance this dragon and his rider hold, but I can tell you he found us because of the call I sent out.”
“Dammit, that means somehow it’s important to his rider that we’re found, but why attack us?”
“I’ve been trying to talk to him, but he’s blocking me out of his mind.”
The whoosh of wind sounded above us as the dark brown dragon darted by, wheeling to dive right at us.
Clinging to Vasin, he snapped his wings closed, and we plummeted, only to sharply turn right into a narrow space between two rock walls.
Vasin latched onto one of the walls and thrust himself up, shooting us skyward, his leathery wings propelling us toward the moon.
I shifted until my feet could rest on the place where his wings joined his body, giving me something to help keep myself from sliding off his back.
My leg burned at the weight I was putting on it, but that was the lesser of two evils.
Falling off and dying as I was smashed against the rocks below was a far worse option.
Now out of the rock and back into the open sky, I swiveled my head around, trying to see where the dragon was. I knew it couldn’t be that easy to lose him. Sure enough, the dragon came charging right at us from the left, his rider sitting tall with a bow drawn right for me.
“Cass, hold on with everything you’ve got. I’m going to have to spin!”
I knew there was no way I could manage to hold on with only my arms around his neck, but we didn’t have much of a choice.
Clinging to Vasin for dear life, he rolled to the right and banked toward a grove of trees on the mountain side.
I managed to hold on for the spin, but when he banked and curved, my injured leg seized up, sending a shockwave of pain through me, and I couldn’t keep my grip on his neck.
Scrambling, I tried to grab hold of anything as I started to slip.
Vasin tried to right himself, but the brown dragon darted in at us, forcing Vasin to jerk to the left.
Once I lost my hold on him, it was impossible to stop at the speed we were flying, and I flew off his back into the night sky.