Lork Island was on fire.
Plumes of thick black smoke painted the sky grey, visible from nearly a mile away. From this vantage point, it looked like little more than a flaming black dot in the middle of the sea. I wasn’t sure if this was good or bad.
Take us up beside Titan.
Ignimitra obliged, and when we were beside the grand creature, Solra fell in on the other side. I signaled my plans to them.
A fire that majestic had to have been the work of a Fire Dragon, or three. My instincts told me that Team 17 was alive, which made our mission even more important. We had to be quick and precise. As of right now, the enemy didn’t know of our existence on the battlefield. We had a short window to use that to our advantage.
On my command, we changed into the classic V formation. Ignimitra lead at its apex, with Titan on her left and Zelkor on her right. We would approach the island from the left, allowing Titan to light them up with his immense firepower.
But even then, we wouldn’t have a chance to win this battle without our Fusion Bonds.
Lend me your strength and senses.
Coming right up, Ignimitra chuckled, as we approached.
Her power was a soft crackle in my veins, warming my skin first then setting my bones aflame. Then I felt alive all at once—suddenly the world was bathed in sepia and I could see Lork Island as clear as if it were just a few feet away. A cacophony of sounds assaulted my ears, and despite the furor I was able to distinguish each one: my own shallow breaths, the whip of Ignimitra’s wings as they sliced the air, the waves crashing into the shore below us, and in the distance, the shriek of dragons.
One was more distinct than all the others.
Aresa, Ignimitra filled in the blank.
We flew faster, our three dragons quickening the pace until their wings were just a blur and it felt like we were plummeting from the sky towards Lork Island.
I loosened my legs from Ignimitra’s saddle. Despite her speed, I was sure I could balance well enough. I used one hand to unsheathe my sword, and the next to steady myself as I moved to kneel on her back.
On the northern tip of Lork Island, Team 17 was locked in what looked like an ill-fated battle. There were up against eight dragons, all of them the color of the black earth they hovered above. If it weren’t for my enhanced eyesight, I wouldn’t have been able to see them. They blended in so well.
Though our Fire Dragons had them outranked in size—and had managed to set most of the surrounding wooden structures ablaze—the Earth Dragons were in their element; we were on their turf.
This wasn’t going to be an easy fight.
The evidence was all over Aresa. The Majestic Firewing was nearly unrecognizable, her iridescent scales covered all over with dirt and grime. I’m sure if I squinted, I could even see some injuries.
We managed to sneak up on them. Our trio appeared above the melee almost suddenly, and the Earth Dragons had been so preoccupied with fending off the fireballs from our allies that Titan’s attack took them off-guard.
They scattered to avoid being hit by the flames, just as I had hoped.
Follow that one, I said to Ignimitra, my sights set on a dragon with two riders. It had fled towards the water’s edge, and I hoped to use that to my advantage. Take us above it.
Earth Dragons could only manipulate the existing terrain. Over open water, their powers were limited. So limited that odds were in favor.
Ignimitra pivoted quickly, twisting into a turn so sharp I had to wedge my foot into the stirrup of her saddle to keep from falling off. I regained my composure just in time, for we were upon the dragon in the next second.
I took a deep breath. Time to find out if my wild plan would work.
As Ignimitra passed overhead, I let go of her saddle and somersaulted onto the dragon below. It was a risky move, but one of us had to be engaged in a close-quarters fight if we were to win this, and I would have much preferred it to be me than Ignimitra.
I landed on the dragon’s trunk, right where it met the base of its tail. This dragon was proportioned much differently from Ignimitra—its trunk was wide and thick, lacking the svelteness I had become accustomed to riding on Ignimitra. At least the difference made it easy for me to find my footing.
The shoulders were shocked by my appearance. Then they sprang into action.
I righted myself just as the first one hopped from his saddle, sliding towards me. The wind was whipping around us wildly, and I bit my tongue to stop myself from chancing a look over the side of the dragon. Ignimitra hovered nearby, tense with anticipation. The Earth Dragon seemed to be aware of my presence, for he had stilled as well.
This had to be done quickly.
The Terragian soldier was taller than me and thicker than me, but since he had been the one to attempt apprehending me, I figured that he didn’t have a fusion bond with this dragon. More than likely I would be stronger if we were to face off.
Too bad I’m not here for him.
After shouting something in their native tongue, he lunged at me, sword in hand. Narrowly avoiding his attack, I capitalized on the fact that he wasn’t wearing shin-guards by striking him hard in his wrist as he slipped by me.
The sword fell from his hands, and as he struggled to cope with the temporary paralysis, I ran past him. There, saddled in the dragon was his tamer. He started at my appearance. We looked around the same age, and the realization wound a knot in my stomach.
He had a shock of copper hair and pale skin like Solra’s. In another world, we could’ve been friends perhaps. But today, we were enemies. He looked like he was debating between staying at his post and apprehending me.
I held his gaze as I plunged my sword into the spine of his dragon, all the way to the hilt. The dragon let out an earth-shattering cry, affirming that I had hit my mark.
Earth Dragons were less susceptible to our poisonous swords, so you had to hit them where it counted. It didn’t get much more precise than the spine.
I forced myself to keep my eyes open, but it took all my strength not to look away as the pain filled the rider’s eyes. He knew that I was killing his dragon.
In my peripheral vision, I saw the other soldier running towards me. He held his sword awkwardly in his non-dominant hand. The dragon’s tamer had broken out of his stupor and was after me too, in the process of unsheathing his own sword. Beneath us, the Earth Dragon writhed. It hadn’t stopped screeching yet, and with each moment its cries got more guttural as the pain deepened.
Catch me, angel, was all I said before I jumped off the side of the thrashing dragon.
My heart was in my throat as I fell towards the water. I closed my eyes against the tears forming in the corner of my eye. My mind was murky with thoughts from what I had just done, but I pushed them back with images of the tens of dead soldiers that we had buried at the Academy.
It had to be done.
I landed on Ignimitra’s back a second later. When I opened my eyes, the Earth Dragon plummeted into the water. The thought of who would mourn them crept into my mind, but the sound of the ensuing fight pulled me out of that place.
Our soldiers had managed to pick off three more Earth Dragons. We had the advantage now, as they were outnumbered and outgunned. Despite this, they weren’t going quietly. Not that I expected them to. If I had learned anything from the attack on the Academy, they fought until their last breaths.
Zelkor rained fire from above just as two dragons called on the earth to protect them, forming a rocky shield that shielded them from the brunt of the flames. I wasn’t foolish enough to think we were out of the woods just yet. Five Earth Dragons were still as big a threat as ever.
On top of that, we were two hours’ flight from the Terragi mainland. If we didn’t wrap this up quickly, their entire military force would be on us in no time, and then we wouldn’t stand a chance.
Zelkor and Titan had corralled two of the dragons to the eastern edge of the island, while Team 17 were engaged in close combat with the other two.
We have to force them over the water, Ignimitra read my mind.
She took off towards Team Sigma. Let’s push them back as best as we can.
Ignimitra flew closer to the two Earth Dragons than Zelkor and Titan had dared, bearing down on them with such speed and insistence that the dragons did exactly what I wanted them to. Instead of holding their ground, they flew further away from her, towards the ocean.
Solra and Irikai picked up on the situation almost immediately, and soon the three of us forced the dragons to go further and further towards the sea. Just as they neared the shore, Ignimitra let out a lance of black flames.
When the Earth Dragons tried to summon their powers, instead of rock, sand responded to their call and my dragon’s flames burned through it like paper.
Perfect.
The bigger of the two dragons was hit by our attack, and it did more damage than I expected to the supposedly fire-retardant dragon. Our trio tag-teamed attacking them with flames and teeth and claws until both dragons plummeted into the ocean.
When we turned our attention to Team 17, it was evident that the same idea had occurred to them. We flew in to join them, and that’s when I really got to see the extent of their injuries.
Vulknor and Aresa, though dirty had were the least injured. Aresa had a few scratches on her hide, and one wound on the side of neck leaked orange. Her tamer’s armor was dinged up in a few places, and he was missing his greaves entirely.
Lyle and Egann were in more dire straits. Most of their armor was missing, and their faces were stained with copper and dirt. Their dragons had injuries too: Lyle’s dragon was bleeding profusely from the shank and Egann’s dragon was missing a horn.
Despite this, they were alive and that was all that mattered.
I brought Ignimitra right up beside Aresa.
“Captain Kaos Kressin, rider of Ignimitra” I said to him. I was sure he knew who I was, but it had been ages since we had spoken. Part of me also wanted him to understand that I was his senior now, and he had better listen to my orders for the flight back home.
This disdain I expected from him wasn’t there. He actually saluted me.
“Cadet Master Vulknor, rider of Aresa. I am Captain of Team 17.” He gestured to the two soldiers who were hovering behind him. “If you hadn’t shown up when you did—”
I cut him off. “Save it till we’re safe.” I pulled a smile. “We’ll fly Formation-31 home.”
With a nod of the head, he ended the conversation and fell into the formation beside me after signaling his team. On my left was Zelkor, then Titan, who brought up the rear. On Vulknor’s right was Lyle, then Egann on his Giantwing.
The journey to Tartaris would be tiring, but we had to make it if we were to survive.
THE FLIGHT BACK TO Tartaris was rough—the winds weren’t cooperating with us, and the injured dragons in our formation didn’t make for quick flying—but we made it back in one piece. Which was more than I could’ve hoped for considering the circumstances.
We arrived under the cover of darkness. It had been a little more than two days since we were last in camp, and in that short space of time the place had turned into a ghost town. It was nearly bereft of dragons, and the few people who mulled around consisted mostly of the civilians we had brought with us.
I tried to tell myself that it was because so many soldiers had been dispatched to missions that would’ve taken longer than ours.
They were coming back.
Avek flashed into my mind then, his mission would take him more than a week.
He had to come back.
The minute we landed, our dragons were surrounded by nurses and the few Dragon Guard soldiers who were still on the island. Among the crowd that had gathered, I recognized Alchemist Huxin. I had gone more than 48 hours without sleep, but at the sight of him, all the tiredness was burned from my eyes.
Only anger was left in its wake. Ignimitra seemed to pick up on his presence too, for she snorted a plume of ash in his direction. He simply brushed the soot off his coat, that unwavering smile on his face.
It’s sad that he didn’t die in the attack, Ignimitra’s blunt words pulled a laugh out of me. I had to cover my mouth to hide it.
The mood in the camp was so somber that it felt almost strange to laugh.
They started tending to the wounded among us almost immediately. Food was brought for the dragons, and the nurses started examining their wounds. Lyle and Egann were carried to the makeshift infirmary—a hastily constructed bamboo structure a stone’s through from the center of the island.
Vulknor refused any aid, but Aresa was treated along with the other two dragons.
While Ignimitra ate, I tried to orient myself. We had been airborne for so long that my legs felt shaky when I hopped off her back.
I did stretches, while Irikai and Solra stood talking among themselves.
They seemed to always have something to talk about, and the thought made me miss Avek a little more. I hoped that he was okay.
A shadow appeared in my peripheral vision.
I straightened from touching my toes, to find myself face-to-face, well face-to-chest with Vulknor. In the light of the dwindling moon, he looked like he could’ve been a phantom. He was so dingy he looked like he could’ve blended in with the darkness.
Absently, I put a hand to my nape to find that the hair there was all gunked up from sweat and seawater. Maybe I looked as dingy as he did.
All I could see clearly were his twinkling eyes. They were hard, harder than when we last spoke. Perhaps the shock of almost dying had worn off and he was back to acting like the devil who spawned him.
“Thanks for your help,” he said, shoving his hands in his pocket.
It seemed like he was determined to look everywhere but my face.
I sized him up for a second. “You should thank my team, not me,” I said with a slight smile. “We did it together.” I pointed him to Irikai and Solra, who were now watching our exchange.
He looked as though I had asked him to sit still while I pulled out some of his teeth. Despite his obvious affront, he started to walk in their direction.
I followed him, curious to see the exchange.
It might have been my mind, but Irikai seemed to stand up taller as he approached. There was a flash of annoyance on Solra’s face. Apparently, they were still on bad terms. Clearly, he was just as vile as he had been when I was a cadet.
“Vulknor was just telling me thank you,” I said, relishing the way his eyebrows furrowed as I spoke. “And I told him that it was a team effort.”
Solra folded her arms, her lips pressed into a hard line. Vulknor clenched his fists, and for a moment I expected a snarky remark to fall from them. Instead he said, “Thank you for your help.”
But he was looking at Irikai.
“Don’t you mean thanks for saving your life?” Solra pressed, taking a step closer to him. Irikai’s hand found her wrist, and a soft yank stopped her from taking another step.
“You hardly saved my life, Solra,” Vulknor spat back. “We could have won, but you guys just made it easier for us to. Less hassle,” he scoffed.
Solra’s eyes widened at his words.
“We had orders to bring back your body,” Solra’s skin was growing pinker with each word. “You and I both know you wouldn’t have survived. You were lucky we came when we did.”
Her words seemed to shock Vulknor out of whatever grandiose train of thought he had been in on. At least, that’s what I thought until he said, “They thought I was dead and sent you?”
And with those words, he stormed off, leaving Solra with a whole lot unsaid. Irikai took one hand, I took the other and together we tried to calm her down.
After a few minutes of deep breathing, she could talk.
“I can’t stand him,” she said. Her eyebrows were drawn together, and her eyes were focused on something beyond us. On him, I assumed.
“I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual,” I quipped.
She smiled weakly. Irikai glanced between us, then moved to smooth out her hair.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” he said softly, then pressed a kiss to her temple.
All of a sudden, I felt like I was intruding on something. What just happened? What did I miss? It felt like there was more to the tension between her and Vulknor, more than just Vulknor being an ass. Right now didn’t seem like the best time to find out.
Are you ready to go home? Ignimitra’s voice was wavering, she was minutes away from passing out stone cold.
Truthfully, so was I.
After telling Irikai and Solra goodnight, Ignimitra and I flew to our house. Once inside, sleep found me quickly.
THE NEXT MORNING AFTER breakfast, our team was summoned for a briefing.
I had left Ignimitra to sleep. The next few weeks—or months, but gosh I didn’t like the sound of that—would require much more from her. She would need to get as much sleep as possible. Solra, Irikai and I walked from the smoke pit that had been set up in the center of the island to the Administrative Quarter.
Tartaris had been sectioned off into four quadrants. The Southern Quarters housed all the soldiers and civilians—we were still as separated as we were at the Academy. Us soldiers lived in the southeast, while the majority of the civilians stuck to the southwest. It was too uniform to be coincidental.
The Administrative Quarter occupied the northeast quadrant. It was here that the handful of commanders lived. However, most of the buildings were used as briefing and strategy rooms, and storage for supplies.
The northwest quadrant was home to the field hospital and triage rooms. Some of the buildings were used as hospital rooms for the gravely injured. Most of the people currently being treated there had been taken from the Academy when we relocated. Hopefully it would stay that way.
Our briefing room was in surprisingly good repair. The bamboo walls were scoffed but shining, and the thatched roof looked freshly done. Had this house been renovated since our arrival, or did they give us soldiers the horrible ones?
Inside, the wooden floors shone from some kind of polish and there were curtains in the windows. It was much more spacious than my own, with two rooms attached to the main one, and enough space for chairs and a large desk inside.
We stood in front of the desk.
Behind it sat a man that I recognized, but couldn’t remember his name. He was broad-shouldered, with russet-colored skin and a thick shock of golden hair. A long thin scar ran cross his nose, from one cheek to the other.
“Welcome, Team Sigma,” His voice was so deep I felt it reverberating in my chest. “I am Aerial Command Lieutenant Gavrok.” He looked us over with eyes so brown they were almost red.
The three of us saluted, then took a seat in the three chairs across from him.
Just then, another team entered the room and I was sure I saw sparks fly from Solra’s eyes when they settled on who it was—Team 17.
“You’re late,” Commander Gavrok announced, not looking up from the papers on his desk.
They moved to stand in front of him.
“We had to get cleared from the infirmary, sir,” Egann said, while he saluted.
He and Lyle looked better than yesterday. He was the tallest of the three, probably making him the tallest person in the room. He had brown hair that was tamed by six cornrows that brushed the small of his back.
Commander Gavrok looked up, regarding them with contemplative looks. Then he swatted them away. They took the row of seats behind us.
Vulknor ended up sitting behind me, and that unsettled me for some reason.
“Now that Team 17 has decided to grace us with their presence,” he rose from his seat, taking a stack of papers with him. “We can begin our briefing.”
He was so tall that it seemed like if he stood on his tiptoes his head would touch the ceiling. His military outfit looked as though it weighed more than me. The leather was piped with the colors of our flag, and the Dragon Guard insignia was branded over his heart.
Commander Gavrok handed us each a sheet of paper. There was a map printed on it.
“This is your target. The town of Vadhzo, on the eastern edge of the Terragi mainland.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek as he launched into the specifics of our mission.
“Since this is a joint mission, there can only be one leader,” Commander Gavrok said when he was finished explaining. He was now seated behind his grand desk, his fingers forming a tent in front of his nose. “Captain Kressin and Cadet Archer, you two are the most obvious choices.”
“I would like to lead the mission, sir,” Vulknor’s voice came a heartbeat later, before I could even voice my concerns. “I believe I have the most experience leading a team. Cadet Kressin’s last mission was her first as a team leader.”
I balled my fists, biting back the curse that was on the tip of my tongue. The drop of tolerance that I had for Vulknor was burned away by his insolence. It only took a night’s sleep for him to regain all his gall.
“It’s Captain Kressin,” I corrected him, pivoting just enough to look him square in the face. I had no interest in leading the mission, not with him reporting to me. He clearly had a problem with authority. But I also didn’t want him leading me. “Cadet Rushing has the same, if not more experience leading a team, sir. I would like her to stand in for me.”
Commander Gavrok did little to hide the incredulous look on his face. But I couldn’t tell if it was because of our bickering, or because I had nominated Solra in my place.
“Thank you for your consideration, Captain Kressin,” Commander Gavrok began. “But if you’re not willing to lead this mission, Cadet Archer will.”
Heat prickled the back of my neck. I looked over at Solra, who wasn’t trying to hide her disappointment. Maybe I should have just taken it?
“You’ll need these Team 17.” Commander Gavrok retrieved a box from his desk. He took the key that was hanging around his neck and opened it, revealing tiny vials. “These dragon enhancement serums are to be used to help your dragons withstand the grueling demands of the mission.”
My stomach flipped.
Vulknor snapped up a vial with bright eyes. Lyle and Egann followed suit.
I shared knowing glances with Irikai.
“What about your team, Captain Kressin?” His question caught me off-guard.
But Solra didn’t miss a beat and said, “Not yet, sir. We’ve been saving it for a dire situation.”
Irikai added, “We understand how important it is, and would rather use it when we absolutely need it.”
“Yes, exactly,” I choked out.
Commander Gavrok gave us a terse stare before slamming the box shut.
After that, he dismissed us curtly.
We had barely taken two steps outside the building when Vulknor struck up a conversation that made the pit of my stomach drop.
“I can’t wait to use this on Aresa!” He exclaimed. “If she’s so powerful now, just wait till she gets this.”
I wanted to warn him, to tell him that it wasn’t what he thought it was. But he was the Headmaster’s son. Anything I told him would reach the ears of his father, and the last thing I needed was the Headmaster to discover that I was responsible for the break-in at the research facility.
But not telling him created its own set of problems. There was a chance the serum would make their dragons uncontrollable, and did I want to be three days away from home with rampaging dragons in enemy territory?
As Vulknor spewed his enthusiasm about the serum, I saw the same look of worry on Irikai and Solra’s faces.
There was no way this would end well.
