We left for Vadhzo that evening.
It would be a three-day flight. Two if we pushed our dragons to their limits, which was what Vulknor seemed to want to do. We were expected to make it without stopping to make camp—since there was no friendly territory anywhere on the journey—so sleep and freshly cooked food were out of the question.
Vulknor’s horrible personality translated into his leadership style. He made us fly an attack formation that required much more energy from our dragons, at an altitude where the air was almost two thin for us to breathe well.
He made the decision, even after Irikai, Solra and I disagreed with him. Because Egann and Lyle agreed with him, he used his own vote as the tiebreaker.
Are you well, Kaos?
I was pressed against Ignimitra, trying hard to relax, though every breath felt like my lungs were shrinking by the minute. We had been flying for half-a-day by this, at a breakneck pace to keep up with the schedule.
Yes, I said. Then I amended: Just a little winded, that’s all.
Ignimitra’s thoughts shifted from concern to alarm. The next second, there was a violent throbbing in my chest that almost sent me over the edge into the panic attack that I was desperately trying to fend off. But then it stopped, and the air going into my lungs suddenly felt enough.
I will help you breathe, Ignimitra said.
Stroking her hide, I thanked her in my heart. I felt her appreciation flooding over me until it was like I was cocooned in a warm dragon hug. It was the same comfort that had me trading my dorm room for her cave in our first few months at the Academy.
She made everything just a little bit more manageable.
Are you well? It was my turn to find out how she was.
Yes, the sleep helped. As did the pellet. Since we couldn’t stop for food, dehydrated food pellets were the only way to keep Ignimitra satiated. They had turned the serum into a pill. Just in time for the war it seemed, since feeding Ignimitra something so viscous midair didn’t seem like it would have ended well. I do not feel hungry at all. It is like I just ate.
I chuckled. Great. We have a long journey ahead of us.
Long was an understatement.
WE LANDED IN TERRAGI two days later under the cover of darkness—spent, but satisfied that we had made it. The landscape was so thickly wooded that we were able to find cover for our dragons easily, about three miles from Vadhzo.
It was a marvel that we had snuck into such a heavily guarded part of their country unnoticed. Perhaps it was true that most of their soldiers had died in their ill-fated attack on the Academy. Our mission would be easier.
The moon was bright and high in the sky as we set up camp.
Ignimitra, Titan and Zelkor fell into sleep almost as soon as we landed but Team 17’s dragons—particularly Aresa—seemed more energized than ever. My suspicious were confirmed when I took a closer look at them.
The first time I met Aresa, she had reminded me so much of Jairyn, my father’s dragon. They were obviously the same breed, but more than that, they had the same honey gold eyes.
That wasn’t true anymore.
Aresa’s eyes were now a bright green, the color of that wretched serum.
The more I looked at her, the less familiar she looked. Muscles rippled under her hide that hadn’t been there yesterday, and her tail swished about agitatedly. Looking over the other two dragons, I realized that they both had the same wild look in their eye.
“They gave the serum to their dragons,” I whispered to Solra as we put the finishing touches on our tents. The camp was split in two—Team 17 on one side and Team Sigma on the other.
She nodded. “I can tell.” Then she added under her breath, “I don’t know how they think that sort of thing is okay. Even the pace they set for us in the formation was way too fast for a journey this long.”
“And their dragons don’t even look tired,” I added. If it weren’t for Ignimitra’s stamina we would have fallen out of the sky.
“I had to give Zelkor five food pellets yesterday, just for him to keep up.” The pellets were supposed to replace one full meal. The most I had ever given Ignimitra was three.
Irikai had finished setting up his tent beside Solra’s, and walked over to join our conversation.
“Do you think they’ve perfected the serum?” He said when he noticed our line of sight.
I considered his question. “We destroyed the research,” I whispered. Then, I shook my head vigorously. “Even if they’ve improved it, it can’t be perfect.” I cast another glance in the direction of the enhanced dragons. “That can’t be normal.”
“Doesn’t it take more time to perfect something like that?” Solra asked in a coarse whisper.
Irikai nodded, his eyes pensive. “It should.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “But I don’t know what to believe anymore. They gave it to all of us. What’s the point of that if its unstable?”
“The Headmaster always plays the long game,” I said, feeling uneasy at the fact that the villain in our story was our teammates father. This conversation had to end here. “Let’s just hope that whatever’s happening to them doesn’t get in the way of our mission. They’re our only allies out here.”
We had successfully snuck into Terragi, but things could go left at any moment. We only had Team 17 to rely on for backup—it would take days before another team could reach us out here, provided there even was one available.
The last thing I wanted was to leave our lives in the hand of three crazed dragons led by an even crazier man. In the back of my mind, I tried to think of a contingency plan. How could I save Team Sigma if we were in a tight spot?
“It better not,” Solra spat, walking away to get something out of her rucksack. Irikai left after, taking interest in the fruits growing from a nearby tree.
Left to my own devices, I realized just how tired I was. My limbs ached in more places than I thought possible. Even my chest complained with every breath I took—no doubt from the thin air on the way over here.
Two days’ worth of sweat and grime were caked into my skin and hair. We couldn’t have risked the exposure of camping near the river, so I would have to get clean with one of the bottles of water that I had carried.
The idea repulsed me, but the thought of trying to sleep when I was so dirty disgusted me more.
I used Ignimitra slumbering body as a hedge to protect me from any prying eyes as I rinsed the dirt from my skin and hair. It wasn’t nearly as refreshing as shower would have been, but it did enough for me to feel comfortable changing into a new set of clothes.
Thoughts of our mission consumed me, despite how tired I was.
Our duty was two-pronged.
We were tasked with destroying the city of Vadhzo. According to Intelligence, the city was home to a Terragi training ground. The soldiers who had ambushed the Academy were trained here, and with the war in full swing, dozens of teenagers were being recruited.
It was our job to ambush them and set the settlement ablaze. Vulknor had decided to do it in two phases. First, we would divert the river that ran through the town. The lower water level would make it impossible for them to quench the blaze before it devasted their camp.
Then, we would rain fire down on the city from all angles. There would be nowhere to run—it was a city in the middle of a forest, where all the buildings were made from wood. For once, we seemed to have the advantage. Most of their active-duty soldiers were out in the field. Vadhzo was a sitting duck.
The city would be up in smoke before they could even launch an attack.
If we were successful, this would be a huge win for Pyralis, and would possibly turn the tide in this war. It was a direct response to what they had done to the Academy.
There was a lot riding on our success.
THE NEXT MORNING AFTER another meal of dried meat and food pellets, Vulknor split us into groups to work on diverting the river and scoping out our target.
He was paired with Lyle, Irikai with Egann and Solra with me.
Solra and I were given the job of creating the spot that would house all the water we diverted from the river. About a mile east from the middle of the river’s course, we would dig a hole big enough to hold a considerable amount of the water—it would become a pond after we were through.
Irikai and Egann would dig the channel from our pond to the river channel, while Vulknor and Lyle would trek to the village on foot to get a better idea of what we were up against. They had brought clothes to blend in the residents.
It was a good thing we had dragons to help us with the digging, for when Solra and I arrived at the location for the pond, there was no way that we would have been able to accomplish this without Ignimitra and Zelkor.
After changing into more comfortable clothes, we fashioned tiny posts out of tree branches to mark the perimeter of the ditch we were about to dig. When we were through, Zelkor and Ignimitra cleared the area with their huge tails and powerful jaws—uprooting trees and crushing rocks to leave exposed soil.
When they were through, Solra tossed me a shovel and we got to digging.
Ignimitra and Zelkor had to use their mouths as shovels. It was rather crude to look at—dragons with their mouths full of topsoil—but it was the best we could do. We had to dig this huge hole before the sunlight waned.
The sun had just begun its ascent into the sky.
It felt hotter here in Terragi, which took me off guard since Pyralis often felt like a cauldron. Despite the heat, Ignimitra seemed to be enjoying herself—I could feel her upbeat mood radiating from her scales.
“Don’t you feel like he gave himself the easiest part of this?” Solra muttered to me, wedging her shovel between two deeply buried rocks.
I snorted, tossing dirt over my shoulder. “It was either we dig the ditch, or the channel,” I said to her. “We’re women, there was no way we could’ve gone unnoticed while we scouted a military training base.” Based on what I had heard and seen first-hand, Terragi had no female soldiers.
Solra scoffed, stomping on the step of the shovel’s blade. “I think we could pass for men if we tried.”
She was entirely serious, and that’s why I couldn’t stop the laugh that ripped from my lips. Maybe I could’ve passed as a man—I didn’t have much of a figure, and the months of difficult training had made my shoulders and legs sinewy—but Solra could never. She had always been shapely, and now that her weight had settled from nearly a year of strenuous training, she looked exceptionally feminine.
Even covered in grime from digging a ditch.
She swatted me away just as her shovel found purchase in the dirt. With a groan she rolled the huge stone away, and a few moments later Zelkor removed it.
The digging on my side was easier.
“I’ll have muscles as big as Commander Gavrok’s by the time we’re through here,” I called to her. It was her turn to laugh at me, and laugh she did.
My arms didn’t find it funny though, they were already screaming from all the work.
“By the time we’re back you’ll be able to throw Avek over your shoulder,” she grinned, smiling at me.
The mention of him made my heart flutter.
Heat gathered in my cheeks. Solra paused digging to pin me with a look I couldn’t quite read. Was it some kind of gladness?
“I can see that you’re happy,” she said. “And that makes me happy. He isn’t my favorite person, but he clearly brings out the good in you.” Her smile grew. “I think that’s all that matters.”
The mood between us had shifted, and all of a sudden, I had to remind myself that we were on a mission and I couldn’t run over to hug her.
“Thanks, Solra.” My voice was shakier than I expected. “That means a lot. I know that we didn’t get off on the best foot when you and Irikai first went public with your relationship, but I want you to know I feel the same too.”
That seemed to genuinely delight her.
Her face always lit up at the mention of his name. “I didn’t see it coming either,” she chuckled, resuming her digging. “One moment I hated him for always arguing with me, and the next I’m getting butterflies when he smiles at me.”
My shovel found resistance in the dirt. “There were clues,” I said, fighting with whatever was buried in the ground. “They always say that you argue a lot with someone when you’re in love.”
“That’s not always true,” she said quickly.
I nodded, trying the soil from another angle. “For sure. By those standards, you and Vulknor would be soulmates.”
It was a joke, but I was the only one who laughed.
Solra had grown quiet, quieter than I expected of her. The tension between her and Vulknor flashed back to my mind then. Was there more to it than I knew?
“What’s up with you and him, by the way?” I called out to her. “Things seem…edgier than I remember.”
“That obvious, huh?” She hadn’t looked up at me since this topic had come up. “It’s complicated.” Alarm bells started going off in my head at her words. What kind of issue could Solra and Vulknor have that would have made things so tense between them? My mind was alive with theories.
“We’ve got nothing but time,” I gestured to the circle we were standing in. For all the digging the four of us had put it in, it barely looked like a hole. “I’m all ears.” I kept my thoughts to myself. The last thing I needed was for her to change her mind about opening up to me.
Solra sucked in a breath, a glimpse of sadness on her face. I had only ever seen her this affected twice before, and both times life-altering things had happened.
Gritting my teeth, I prepared myself for the worse thing I could think of.
“Maybe a month ago, we were in Sergeant Sadon’s class,” she began. “Vulknor and I were in a dead heat. I wanted to win so badly, but I didn’t know how. Then a voice appeared in my head. It felt the same like Zelkor’s voice usually did, but it wasn’t his. The voice wasn’t even talking to me, it was pointing out something about how unsteady my stance was.”
Whatever I had been expecting, this wasn’t it. I paused shoveling to put an arm akimbo. Where was this story going? “And?”
“I adjusted my stance when I heard it, but Vulknor tried to knock me off my feet at the same time. I was just a moment faster. He seemed confused that he had missed.” She had stopped digging now, and was looking out over the tree-line, her features the picture of a painful recollection. “But then we faced off again, and it happened again. I kept hearing this voice in my head, telling him how to exploit my weaknesses and he was clearly hearing them too because he was acting on them.”
“What do you think it was?” I had an idea, but it sounded so crazy in my own mind that I didn’t dare speak it out loud. It was impossible for that to happen…right?
“I didn’t know for certain until I spoke to Irikai about it,” she continued. “He told me about something that he had read in the Dragon King Letters, about how close blood relatives of a bonded dragon tamer could hear the voice of a dragon if the Fusion Bond was strong enough.”
My mouth fell open and I took a few steps towards her. “You think you heard Aresa?”
“I know so,” her voice was so low it barely traveled the distance between us. “I keep hearing her whenever I’m close by Vulknor. Even heard her this morning.”
My tongue was a piece of ice, my tongue numb. “You’re related to Vulknor…” Solra’s mother had been a taverness. She didn’t know her father or her mother’s family. On what side was she related to him? I turned things over in my mind.
“It’s more than just being relatives, Kaos.” Her eyes found mine, and in them I saw an ocean of sorrow. “When the Dragon King Letters mentioned close blood relatives, it meant twins.”
“Twins?!” I exclaimed; my voice was louder than I wanted it to be. “Surely you can’t mean that…. That’s impossible, right? You can’t be….” Whichever way I spun it; I just couldn’t bring myself to say it.
Solra was silent for a few heartbeats.
Even our dragons had stopped their work to look at us. Ignimitra had the twinkle of curiosity in her eye, no doubt she was putting the pieces together, just as I was.
“My mother is a taverness. You and I both know that it’s the Lyteri and Deftero men that keep them in business,” she huffed.
“But he has claimed Vulknor as his son. He looks just like him. He has his last name.” If I didn’t say it out loud, maybe I wouldn’t have to confront the reality of what Solra was saying. “You’re…”
Solra’s shovel fell from her hands, and she walked over to me, her fists balled.
I could see that she was angry, but not at me. “My mother has rich dark skin and thick dark hair. Not this wispy blonde mess.” She touched at her hair. “The only things I inherited from her are my hazel eyes.” I could see the emotion welling up behind her eyes. “Growing up, I always knew that I got the lightness of my skin and my hair from my father. Nobody in my mother’s family looks like this.”
Deep down, I could feel the truth in her words.
As much as I wanted to deny it, what she was saying was entirely plausible. The physical similarities between her and Vulknor had struck me from the moment I met him.
“I believe you,” I finally said, gripping her forearms. “I really do.”
“And it all makes sense,” she continued. The whole story was spilling from her. “I had always wondered how my mother was able to get me that scholarship to the mainland. Why she acted like she never knew my father,” her voice was mangled with sobs by this. “It was because she never wanted me to feel unwanted. She knew that she gave birth to two children that day, and he took one and left the other.”
It was breaking the rules of the mission, but I couldn’t hold it any longer.
I caught Solra in a hug, rubbing circles into her back as her tears stained my shoulders. This was more than I expected, and more than anyone had to bear. If I had the power to, I would have taken all her hurt away.
When she came up for air, I asked her another question.
“Does Vulknor know?”
She shook her head. “I have only told you and Irikai.” She cleared her throat. “But if I can hear Aresa’s voice, then he can hear Zelkor’s. It’s only a matter of time before he figures it out.”
“And then what?” The question was loaded, I knew. But it wasn’t every day that your best friend discovered that she was actually the daughter of the man you hated most in the world. The man who you were almost certain killed your own father.
“I still hate him,” she said, pulling her eyebrows together in a scowl. “Maybe more now that I know that he discarded me because I was born a girl.”
I stroked her hair. It was a relief to hear her say that.
“Hopefully I’ll have a chance to ask my mother soon,” she said. “I didn’t want to send this kind of thing in a letter.”
I nodded. “I hope you do.” My mind traveled to Hakan then. Had Avek made it to him yet? Did he get my message? Had he sent me one back? “This is…a lot.”
The sound of birds fleeing the trees around us jolted us back to reality. Solra and I shared a glance, reaching for the swords strapped to our backs. A few moments later, a wild boar came scampering through the forest towards us. He doubled back as soon as our eyes made six.
When I eased my sword back into its scabbard, I realized that I had to put this conversation with Solra on hold. We weren’t in Pyralis right now.
We were in the middle of enemy territory. In the middle of a mission.
We got back to digging, only this time my mind was elsewhere.
