“Kaos! Wake up,” a harsh whisper floated into my consciousness.
A pair of hands gripped my shoulders, shaking me so vigorously my head started to pound. My eyes snapped open. The world was white-hot and all too bright. Grimacing, I covered my eyes with the back of my hands.
“Kaos!” It was another voice.
Then came more shaking. Despite the disturbance, I could feel that the sleep I had been in before was close. If I could just close my eyes for a few moments in quiet, then maybe I could reclaim it…my bones still ached so deeply.
“Wake up!” Another pair of hands shook me.
Slowly, I moved my arm from my eyes, taking a chance at opening them again.
This time, the world didn’t look as blinding.
There were two figures above me, contrasted against the grey canvas of my tent.
“Just a couple more minutes,” I finally found my voice. My mouth was parched and full of gravel. I desperately needed some water.
The blurriness of their faces faded, bringing the two people above me into focus.
It was Solra and Irikai.
Why were they waking me? Had I overslept?
Little by little, my knowledge of reality came back to me.
Crap, we were in the middle of a mission.
Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I sat up. My back wailed from the simple movement. Why did I feel like I had fallen off a cliff? Even though I was waking up from sleep, it felt like weeks since I had gotten any.
“Kaos, you have to get out there,” Solra’s voice was urgent.
I had missed that before.
She pointed through the open flaps of my tent to, presumably, the camp outside.
My eyebrows wrinkled. “What? Why?” My tongue was still lazy.
“Did you do it?” Irikai’s voice was just as pressing.
Now that my eyes had adjusted, I realized that they both wore worried looks—eyebrows drawn together, lips pressed together in a scowl. I rarely ever saw them look like this at the same time.
Something was amiss.
“Do what?” I asked, stumbling to my knees.
My legs were wobblier than they should have been, even if I had gone nearly a week without a proper night’s rest. It took all my strength to keep my body taut.
They shared a look that I couldn’t quite read.
“Everybody’s out there waiting for you,” Solra said.
I started crawling towards the exit, not trusting my legs.
The next moment, I felt myself being lifted to my feet.
Solra had a hand around my waist, and Irikai put one of my arms over his shoulder. It was a little awkward exiting the tent—we turned diagonally so Solra could leave first—but we made it, and I was grateful for their help.
But my happiness didn’t last long.
Most of the camp was packed up, all that remained were two tents and the pieces of driftwood that we had dotted around Drin’s tree for the watch.
The sky was hazy, reminding me of the brassy moon from last night.
Everyone was gathered around Drin, turning to face us as we approached.
Suddenly, what I had done last night came crashing back to me.
The water. The food. Had they found out that I had helped him?
If Solra and Irikai hadn’t been holding me up, I was sure that I would have collapsed then and there. My dry throat began to itch.
The crowd was blocking me from seeing Drin, and silently I hoped he was still there. If he had managed to escape because I had given him strength, I wouldn’t be able to live this down.
Craning my neck, I saw Ignimitra beside my tent…still asleep?
Jules’ face was hard—her eyebrows drawn together, her jaw set. Her arms were akimbo, a grimace on her face that I knew well.
I had seen it when she had faced off with Drin just a few days earlier.
She was pissed.
Tearing my eyes away from her, I realized that everyone else wore some variation of that look. Only Avek and Cuinn seemed to look at me as if I was still human, but what looked like disappointment painted their features.
Oh God.
“Explain yourself, Captain Kressin,” Jules shouted, taking a menacing step towards me.
The woman who I had traded stories with just a few months ago, who had helped me save my dragon from inhumane testing, was replaced with a brawny warrior who looked ready to cut me down.
I swallowed hard.
I was nervous, but not nervous enough to incriminate myself. “I will explain if there is an accusation to answer to,” I said as evenly as I could manage.
Jules lips twisted into a smile that was anything but warm.
She let out a low, hollow chuckle. “So, you want to be a smart-ass,” she huffed. “Step aside, so she can see her accusation!” She turned to the other soldiers.
So, this was definitely about Drin.
I felt tears prick the corner of my eyes, my mind already piecing together a plan of how Ignimitra and I could escape this. Part of me wishes she would pluck me from out of the camp right now and fly me to wherever her heart led us.
But when they stepped aside, my mind ground to a halt.
Drin Accan was still very much tied to the tree.
In fact, he looked much like how I had left him—bruised all over, with his head leaned against the tree. I would have thought he was sleeping, if it weren’t for one thing.
A dagger lodged in the side of his neck.
My dagger.
Foolishly, I took a quick look at the scabbard strapped to my thigh.
It was empty, of course.
That dagger had been a gift from my father, a one of a kind piece that he had commissioned in celebration of my impressive combat training performance nearly a decade ago.
Now it was in the neck of the prisoner that we had been given clear orders to keep alive.
“I’ll ask again,” Jules snapped. “Explain yourself.”
My throat worked.
Explain? What was there to explain?
I understood how it looked, but they actually believed that I would have killed Drin? And that on top of that I was stupid enough to use my own dagger?
“I didn’t kill him,” I said. “Why would I kill him?” I continued. That didn’t seem convincing. “I had first watch; I couldn’t have killed him.”
Jules’ folded her arms across her chest. “Vulknor and Egann had last watch,” she said. “I found them stone cold asleep in front of Drin. You clearly came back to kill him.”
I couldn’t believe my ears.
I felt my strength returning, but for a completely different reason.
I was angry. Angry that Jules would think that I could have done this.
“Why would I kill him?” I shouted at her.
“She sympathizes with the enemy!” Vulknor shouted then, pointing at me. Why was nobody grilling him about how he fell asleep during his watch and allowed this to happen? “She tried to stop us from carrying out our last mission, and now she’s killed our biggest lead!” And if that wasn’t bad enough, “I even caught her sneaking around camp in the middle of the night.”
My jaw slackened.
“Did she?” Jules sucked in a breath. “And now she has killed Drin to save him from our interrogation?” She took another step towards me. “Smells like a traitor.”
I loosened myself out of Solra and Irikai’s grip then, desperately searching the faces of everyone around me. Did they really think I was a traitor? There was no way I could have killed Drin. My head was pounding.
“I did not kill him!” I shouted. “I had no reason to. I want this war to end as much as anyone else here.” I felt the anxiety bubbling in my throat. “I wouldn’t hurt him.”
She didn’t seem fazed.
“I say we carry her back as prisoner too!” Vulknor was having the time of his life with this, wearing that sadistic smile. “We have enough evidence against her.”
I felt my heart splintering.
Jules seemed to be considering his idea. Was I stuck in a bad dream? Everything was happening so quickly that it felt like all the oxygen was being leeched from the air. I could barely breathe.
Vulknor took a step towards me.
“Don’t you dare,” Avek spoke for the first time since the whole thing started.
His rebuke rolled off Vulknor. But he stopped in his tracks when Avek drew his sword, pinning the blonde with a death glare. A silent challenge passed between them.
I never seen Avek that serious.
“I’m not convinced she did it,” Avek said, meeting my gaze with one that was so soft it soothed the raging storm within me. “It’s too convenient.” His eyes snapped back to Vulknor, who was still within range of his sword.
“Neither do I,” Cuinn spoke up then, folding his arms.
“Kaos wouldn’t kill him,” Solra said then, turning to look at me.
“It’s downright stupid to kill someone with your own blade,” Irikai piped up. “And Kaos isn’t stupid.”
Jules glanced at them one-by-one.
There were nine of us in the camp; eight people who could pass judgment on me. Four of them weren’t convinced of my involvement. I knew enough of Pyralian war to know that she couldn’t make any decision without majority support.
She huffed. “If it wasn’t her,” she pointed a finger at me, “then which of you will show yourselves as the traitor who ruined our chances of winning this war?”
Silence.
“That’s what I thought.” She walked over to Drin’s body. “We will bring his body back to Tartaris. Since nobody wants to fess up, we will stand trial.”
Her gaze was fixed on me as she spoke.
I HAD TO LAY MY SWORD by Ignimitra’s nostrils for her to wake up.
Even though she was a heavy sleeper, this was unusual for her.
She woke with a start, thrashing her head wildly.
It’s only me, angel. I moved to stroke the side of her head. She stilled at my touch, and the fear melted away beneath my fingertips. She blinked her eyes madly. I could tell that the first images she saw were so bright they burned, like it had been for me.
Kaos, she hummed my name. Then, after looking around the camp—mostly everything was packed up—she said, I overslept?
I nodded.
Don’t worry I did too. I knew she could feel the wad of tenseness within me, from my aching muscles to the twitch of my eyelid. Drin is dead, and they believe I killed him.
Ignimitra’s amethyst eyes snapped to mine, anger kindling behind them. Why would they think you would do such a thing? The fact that she didn’t even question if I had done it soothed me just a little. Ignimitra knew my heart and believed in me.
They used my dagger, I sucked in a breath.
That knife was one of my most prized possessions.
It was the last gift I had gotten from my father. My constant reminder of him. Now it was stuck in Drin’s neck and I wasn’t sure if I would ever get it back.
It was evidence.
Too convenient, Ignimitra spat. Somebody wanted to make it look like you did it.
They snuck into my tent while I slept and took it. My skin crawled at that. They could have killed me too if they wanted. Then they killed Drin.
Ignimitra snorted, a plume of ash filling the air. It stung my skin; she was clearly agitated. Which of them believes?
Vulknor and Lyle mostly. Jules too, I think. I glanced over my shoulder, watching them load their dragons. Solra, Irikai and Avek know that I didn’t do it. And Cuinn, he knows that I wouldn’t.
I bet it was Vulknor, she said.
I shrugged.
I couldn’t bring myself to think about it that deeply. Whoever it was had purposely framed me for an act so vile I could be killed for it. If I ever found out who it was…I wasn’t sure what I would do. To think that Vulknor would be so desperate to get rid of me added a new dimension to my thoughts that I didn’t like. Especially when I knew his kin had a habit of getting rid of their teammates.
He and Egann were on watch when it happened. I said, moving to check that everything was securely strapped to her. They fell asleep on their watch.
Ignimitra snorted again. That is also very convenient.
I had trouble waking up this morning, I said to her. My recollection of the morning was patchy. It couldn’t have been from how tiring this mission has been.
Or you think that—
I finished her sentence. All of us have sleep powder.
That would make sense.
While she spoke, I moved to her saddlebag in search of my rucksack. If the person did use sleep powder—on me, and possibly Ignimitra—their supply would be depleted. It could prove my innocence.
I found my vial of sleep powder. It was empty.
You only ever needed a sprinkling of sleep powder to put someone to sleep for an hour or two. The more you used, the deeper the subject’s sleep became—and there was a chance they wouldn’t wake up if you used too much.
My missing sleep powder would have been enough to knock Ignimitra and I into the deepest sleep we had ever experienced.
But it was also enough to knock out Lyle and Egann too.
It had been my sleep powder that we had used on Commander Gavrok.
Whoever it was had used the last of my sleep powder. If I brought this up, I would have to explain where the rest of my sleep powder went.
They used my sleep powder; I quickly stowed the empty vial way. My heart was shrinking. Or switched mine out for theirs, I guess.
Ignimitra considered me for a few heartbeats. How will they find the killer?
We are going to stand trial when we get back to Tartaris.
Trial? She questioned.
Yes. Two or three Commanders are going to examine all the evidence and make a decision. My stomach turned just thinking about it.
As of right now, all the evidence pointed at me. Using my dagger seemed too convenient. But the missing sleep powder? If I could have figured that out, I was certain the Commanders could too.
And if they find you guilty?
We already knew the answer to that.
They will kill me.
MY BODY WAS NUMB AS we took to the skies.
I was flying to my own death, and there was little I could do about it. In two days, they would have me swinging high, and I wouldn’t even get to eat a good meal before it happened.
The past year at the Academy, I had come face-to-face with death many times.
Each time, I had a general idea that my choices could have earned me that dire consequence. But I made them anyway, because I felt that they were right.
There nothing that I had done to warrant this end.
There were many other traitorous things that I had done, things I would have preferred to die for. Like derailing the Headmaster’s Dragon Enhancement Program.
Something that I wouldn’t have been able to do without Jules’ help.
Out of everyone’s reaction, hers hurt me the most.
Before all of this, I figured we were something like friends.
But to see how easily she believed that I was a traitor when she had done similarly treacherous things felt like a stab in the back.
Did she think that lowly of me?
A brisk cold air pulled me out of my thoughts. The air had shifted dramatically, giving me goosebumps. The yellow sky was fading into an angry grey, the wispy clouds thickening with each passing second.
Bile filled my mouth.
This was all too familiar.
I clutched Ignimitra’s reins tighter, gritting my teeth. We flew the back end of the formation, between Nurik and Titan. The cold wind was becoming more violent, whistling by my ears. Ignimitra fought the wind as best as she could, handling it much better than the last time this happened.
Are there any orders from Jules? I pressed Ignimitra.
We were only a few hours from The Wilds. If we were decisive, we could make it back and ride out the storm there.
If this even was a natural storm.
No. She was just as agitated as I was. She seems determined to press on, from what I can sense of Phobos.
My uneasiness was becoming fright.
It took all my willpower to fight back the feeling that we were flying into another Lightning Dragon attack. The nightmares from my time as an Astraphotian prisoner had faded, but the memories hadn’t.
The wind was throwing us off course.
