Chapter 74 Alar
ALAR
"Secrets and signs, dreams and premonitions—these are often whispered among anxious soldiers in barracks and camps. A commander should neither rely on them nor forbid them, but observe which warriors are led true by such instincts. There may lie a pattern there that no manual can teach."
From 'Meditations on Command'— By General Soren Bardaky
The soft click of the door opening stirred me from sleep, and at first, I thought it was Kailin returning from a visit to the bathroom, but as I registered her warm body next to mine, my eyes immediately snapped open to see who the intruder was.
Shovia stood at the foot of the bed, a finger pressed against her lips in the universal gesture for silence, and the urgency in her expression instantly banished my grogginess.
She bent down, scooped my pants off the floor, handed them to me, and then turned around to afford me a modicum of privacy.
The hint wasn't subtle, and I had a sense that something was wrong.
The sunlight streaming through the gap in the curtains indicated that it was well past five in the morning, yet there had been no wake-up alarm.
That had never happened before. The academy's routine was unwavering—wake up at 0500, followed by conditioning every day regardless of weather, holidays, or anything else.
I shouldn't have drunk from Kailin's tea last night. It had only been a few sips to wet my throat, but since I wasn't accustomed to it, the effect must have been much stronger on me than it was on her. Still, she'd never been groggy in the mornings, not even after the first night she'd drunk it.
I turned to check on her, but she was facing away from me, so I couldn't see her expression. Her breathing was deep and steady, though, and it seemed important to Shovia not to wake her up.
I slipped out from under the covers and pulled on my pants, moving with care to avoid disturbing Kailin. I grabbed my uniform shirt from where I'd draped it over Shovia's desk chair the night before and pushed my feet into my boots without bothering to lace them.
Shovia handed me my bathroom kit with exaggerated stealth, then opened the door silently and motioned for me to follow her. I complied, still trying to piece together what could possibly warrant her odd behavior.
When the door closed behind us with a barely audible click, I finally broke the silence. "What's going on? Did we oversleep the alarm?"
"Classes are canceled," Shovia said, her expression unusually serious, but then her eyes flicked downward, and a smirk lifted one corner of her mouth. "I'll tell you more after you are done in the bathroom. This is distracting."
It wasn't hard to guess that she was referring to my morning mast, and the truth was that the need to empty my bladder was pressing.
I lifted a finger. "Don't move from here. I'll be back in a minute."
It took me a little longer than that, but not by much. "Tell me what's happening," I demanded as I returned.
"There was a massive Shedun attack on Podana during the night." Shovia started walking toward the mess hall, and I fell in step with her, stuffing my bathroom kit into one of the large pockets of my uniform pants.
"Isn't Podana supposed to be the safest city in Elucia?"
"It is, but the Shedun mounted a massive, coordinated attack, and the Dragon Force was mobilized to assist the ground forces."
"How bad is it?"
"We don't know the details yet," Shovia admitted. "But it was bad enough that they've canceled all classes. I assume that many of our instructors flew out to join the battle."
If the Shedun had managed to strike at Elucia's heart, it would send shockwaves through the continent. Eluria would finally have to acknowledge the threat was escalating, and my father and brothers could no longer dismiss my warnings as paranoid fantasies.
I hated seeing any benefit in what must have been a catastrophe, and I wanted to talk it out with Kailin, who Shovia, for some reason, wanted me to leave alone in the room, sleeping.
"Why didn't you want Kailin to wake up?" I asked.
"Saphir sent his assistant with explicit instructions that Kailin was not to be disturbed. That's why I came to get you—to make sure you didn't wake her."
Alarm shot through me. "Why? Did he give you a reason?"
She shook her head. "He didn't, but I have my suspicions."
We had reached the entrance to the mess hall, and through the doorway, I could see our fellow cadets gathered in clusters, their conversations more animated and urgent than usual.
I stopped before entering. "Care to share those suspicions with me?"
Shovia pulled me aside, so we were not visible from inside the dining area. "Think about the special training Kailin has been getting from Commander Ravel. It must be somehow connected to that."
As I immediately tensed, Shovia raised her hands placatingly.
"It's not romantic, Alar, so stop acting like a possessive jerk who wants to kill his competition.
The training is just one piece of the puzzle.
The others are the special medallion she got from Saphir, and then the tea he gave her with instructions to drink it every night and record her dreams in a journal each morning. "
The pieces started clicking into place for me as well. "Are you suggesting that Kailin's dreams have some military significance? That she can somehow share them with Ravel or maybe his dragon?"
"It makes sense, doesn't it?" Shovia said. "Why else would Saphir be so interested in her dreams? Why else would a commander spend so much time personally training a new cadet?"
It did make a disturbing amount of sense.
"Has Kailin ever shown any prophetic abilities?" I asked.
Shovia started to shake her head, then stopped, her eyes widening.
"Actually, maybe. She told me that the night her village was attacked by the Shedun, she had a strange feeling all day that something was going to happen, but she dismissed it as anxiety about being alone in the house for the first time.
Her parents had escorted her brother to Skywatcher's Point for his pilgrimage that day, and she was worried about them making the journey.
She'd forgotten about the premonition right before the attack until she read the journal entry she'd made that night a few months later. "
A chill crawled up my spine.
Kailin had told me about the attack, but she'd only mentioned Chicha's part in raising the alarm and how her little dog had saved the village. She'd also talked about defending her home and about being glad that her family had been safely away, but she'd never mentioned having a premonition.
Shovia leaned against the wall. "Kailin also told me about the connection she felt to Commander Ravel and his dragon, but when he began her training, she never mentioned it again.
" She flipped her long ponytail forward and started twirling the ends.
"What if the training was about developing her connection to Ravel, and the medallion and tea were about developing her premonitions? "
If Kailin could sense Shedun movements in advance, she would be the most valuable military asset in all of Elucia. No wonder they'd forbidden her to talk about it.
"Now I get all the secrecy," I said. "If word got out that a cadet could predict Shedun attacks, she'd become a prime target for assassination."
Shovia nodded. "Let's keep it between us. You can say that she's not feeling well, and it won't be a lie. Poor girl is probably delirious, but she will be glad to learn that she saved a lot of lives last night."
I hoped Kailin had warned Ravel in time and that the Shedun attack had been repelled before it had started.
As we entered the mess hall, the conversations around us briefly halted, then resumed with increased intensity. I caught snippets as we moved toward the food line.
"Have you seen Morek or Codric?" I asked Shovia as we collected our breakfast trays.
"Codric's over there." She nodded toward a corner table where my cousin sat hunched over, engaged in intense conversation with several other cadets. "Haven't seen Morek yet."
We made our way over to Codric, who looked up as we approached. The usual mischievous glint in his eyes was absent, replaced by worry and stress.
"There you are," he said. "I was about to come looking for you. Have you heard what happened?"
"Shedun attack on Podana." I set down my tray. "We don't know much beyond that."
Codric glanced around, then leaned forward. "It was big, Alar. Many of us heard the dragons landing on the terraces on the upper floors and taking off. It seemed like an entire wing was mobilized. Maybe even more than one. Didn't you hear them?"
I shook my head. "I slept like a rock."
The smile returned to his lips. "Oh, I get it. You were busy." He frowned. "Where's Kailin?" He suddenly noticed her absence. "Still sleeping?"
I exchanged a glance with Shovia before answering carefully, "She's not feeling well, and Shaman Saphir gave instructions to let her sleep."
Understanding dawned in Codric's eyes. He'd always been quick to connect the dots. "Interesting timing," he murmured, too low for anyone but Shovia and me to hear.
There was no way he'd connected the dots like Shovia and I had done. He wasn't as close to Kailin as we were. Then again, solving mysteries was a hobby of his, so maybe he'd been collecting clues for a while now.
As I picked at my breakfast, my mind kept spinning through everything I knew about Kailin, everything she'd told me about herself and her experiences, and my logical brain rebelled against the conclusions I was drawing. There had to be a rational explanation that didn't involve prophetic dreams.
Perhaps she was naturally sensitive to seismic activity that preceded the worms.
Perhaps she had exceptional hearing that detected distant tunneling.
Perhaps...
But no matter how I tried to rationalize it, nothing else made sense.
Kailin possessed an ability that had likely just saved Podana from destruction, and since she was still dreaming, still under whatever spell that tea had cast, still connected to whatever mysterious force was allowing her to warn the Dragon Force of impending catastrophe, she might still be saving lives while the rest of us speculated about what was happening over breakfast.
For the first time since my arrival in Elucia, I found myself questioning whether my mission was truly the most important thing happening here. Perhaps I had been inserted into something far larger, far more significant than I had ever imagined.
I thought of Saphir's cryptic words during our meeting—"You don't have that information yet either, Prince Alar, so you can't share it with me. But you will, and then we will go looking for those missing eggs."