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  I swallowed. What a horrifying thought.

  “They deserve to be decently and respectfully laid to rest. Can you give me a solid reason not to do that? Do you feel some sort of enemy around? We saw no one from the air. Whoever did this is gone.”

  Savette shook her head. “It’s just a feeling. A terrible, terrible feeling.”

  “Do you feel the Ifrit here?” Hubric was already climbing off Kyrowat. He did not expect her to say yes.

  “I feel evil just like his ... but I don’t feel him. It’s like an echo of him. Usually, you can feel him in the earth since he is made of earth.”

  “But not right now?”

  “No...” she seemed uncertain.

  “Then let’s get to work.” Hubric strode over to his fallen friend and I got down from Raolcan, helping Talsan to do the same.

  “Who is the girl with the bandaged eyes? The one who can feel evil?” he asked.

  “Savette Leedris.” What point was there in lying? He wouldn’t live out the week.

  “A Castelan?”

  “High Castelan,” I corrected, but I was just distracting myself. I’d never dealt with so many dead bodies as there were today. I wasn’t sure I could handle more.

  Talsan bent double in a fit of coughs, spewing black all over the ground. He spat, wiped his mouth and then turned back to me. Was there anything I could do to ease his pain? No one should die like this.

  “It’s worth it,” he said when he caught my eye. “Darshh was the best of dragons and my very best friend. I’m dying now because we were so close that our souls intermingled. There isn’t one without the other anymore, but it was worth it.”

  That was something I understood. I felt the same way about Raolcan.

  You know you are my life.

  “Come on,” he said, gesturing for me to follow. “We’ll gather up the poor souls who ran toward the docks.”

  I followed him, grateful that he walked slowly enough that I could keep pace with him.

  “I’m glad to see you’re a Purple. All the best of us are Purples,” he said.

  I glanced behind my shoulder. Raolcan leaned gently over a body Hubric had laid out. I knew he was about to honor the dead with his flame. Hubric and Findar had already moved to another fallen victim but Savette clung to Enkenay, shaking from head to foot while Rakturan tried to console her. Was her magic affecting her again? I hadn’t seen her so affected since the night at the healing arches. It set my teeth on edge.

  “I’ve met more than my share of Purples, or so Hubric says.”

  “Oh, we’re rare alright. Don’t even know each other half the time, if we didn’t go to school together. It’s a lonely life and even our council are taciturn and prefer to be alone. It’s a good life, though. None of the competitive brutality of the reds or the sycophantic words of the golds. I never could see the attraction to that. Healing is good, but it was clear pretty soon why Whites are our enemies. You can’t get a straight answer out of one of them. Blacks are stuck. Stuck in one place forever like a planted tree. Who chooses that? If I wanted to be stuck I would have stayed on my parents’ farm.”

  “You left out the Greens,” I teased. It was too bad Talsan was leaving this world. It was better for having him in it.

  “Thick headed fools who rush to conclusions without thinking. You’ll learn that if you run into them often.”

  I already did know it, but I still missed Lenora, Olla, and Orra. I honestly hoped to see them again. I wouldn’t even mind seeing Ephretti if she rode in here with a plan to save Leng.

  We leaned down to gather up an elderly man whose prone form was half-charred. A tear slid down my face. He’d had friends and maybe family. Who had done this to him? He had no weapon marks or arrows on him.

  “Never seen a man die like this,” Talsan said, sadly. He took the man’s long belt knife and put it in his own belt before helping me lift him.

  I tried to follow his lead and grip the poor soul under the shoulder, but he was heavier than I thought, and I lost my grip, dropping him and even losing my balance so I fell to the ground. Embarrassed, I struggled to stand again.

  “I’m so so-”

  “Down!” Talsan seemed panicked.

  I looked up to see a figure rising up from the river. Water poured off his enormous body, sliding away to reveal a massive, towering form of smoke and fire. A steam-like hiss erupted from his open, cavernous mouth.

  Behind me, I heard Savette scream at the same moment that the Ifrit lunged toward me.

  Roll to the side!

  I obeyed without questioning Raolcan, rolling to the side and then planting my crutch and heaving myself back on my feet. I wasn’t fast enough. The Ifrit lunged towards me again. He was about to knock me off my feet. To kill me, as he’d likely killed the old man I’d been trying to respect. I couldn’t run fast enough, couldn’t dodge, couldn’t even fight such a massive creature. I clenched my jaw and squinted my eyes. At the last possible second, Talsan leapt between us with an ululating cry. The Ifrit scooped him up and threw him, dashing him against the ground. I fled toward Raolcan. He darted past me, clearly on the warpath.

  Faster than even my dragon, a bolt of light sprang from the hands of Rakturan and Savette. It sped past Raolcan and towards the Ifrit. Together, Rakturan and Savette screamed, lifting off the ground like they were being drawn up by ropes, their hands clasped together.

  The bolt struck the Ifrit and he went white and then the white light flared out from him in a wave toward us, knocking first Raolcan and then me off our feet and throwing us backward to the ground. My head rang and my vision doubled, purple images filling what little clear vision I had.

  By the time my vision cleared, there was no more Ifrit in sight.

  Chapter Nine

  Are you hurt?

  My ears were ringing. Purple images danced across my vision. But no, I wasn’t hurt. I pulled myself up on my crutch. My leg and hands were shaking. He’d been waiting for us. Lurking under the river like a horror of the deep. Was Raolcan hurt?

  No.

  I limped over to Talsan. His body was twisted in a way that bodies weren’t meant to be twisted, like a wrung-out rag. Behind me, I heard Hubric’s voice raised. His pitch was too high, like his own ears were ringing, or perhaps emotion was simply overpowering him.

  “I thought you said you couldn’t sense it here?”

  I stumbled to my knees beside Talsan. Black fluid leaked from the corner of his mouth.

  Savette’s voice countered Hubric’s. “It must have been the river. It cloaks the earth beneath it. I didn’t feel him because he was hiding under the water.”

  Talsan’s breath was gone. I closed his eyes. That he was dying already didn’t change the deep sadness blossoming in my heart. He’d been one of us. A Purple. And he’d been desperate to save Leng, just like me.

  “You should have mentioned that you couldn’t feel him under water!” Hubric sounded as desperate as I felt.

  “Leave her alone.” Rakturan’s words were almost a hiss. “Didn’t you see her blow the Ifrit away? You aren’t her sworn master like you are Amel’s. Finding Savette doesn’t make her your keeper.”

  “I’m so sorry, Talsan,” I said. I searched his message pockets. I didn’t expect there to be one. Wouldn’t he have mentioned it if there was? All there was in his message pockets was a battered deck of cards and a small, palm-sized leather-bound book, tied with leather lashings. I unbound it and began to read.

  Ibrenicus Prophecies

  Copy penned by Talsan Woodcarver

  He’d had his own book of prophecy, just like Hubric. Did that mean he was a Lightbringer? I tucked the book in my own empty message pocket and the deck of cards in the other and took the long knife he’d removed from the old man and put it in my belt. I didn’t want to forget Talsan. He’d saved my life. He’d given his for it, instead. And these things had mattered to him. I’d use them and remember him.

  The argument behind me was getting louder. I stood up.
I didn’t think I could drag Talsan to a pyre on my own.

  Let me take care of him and the old man. I think the other humans need your help.

  I swallowed back a lump in my throat, not even bothering to blink away my hot tears. Talsan shouldn’t have had to die like that.

  He was right, though. He did have one more thing to do before he died. His death was noble. We will remember him among dragons, even as we remember Darshh, his companion.

  Those last words sounded formal.

  They are dragon funeral rites.

  I glanced at Raolcan. His eyes looked glassy, too.

  “We aren’t bound to you, Hubric. We don’t have to stay with you and we don’t care about your Lightbringers!” Rakturan’s voice was louder.

  I spun and headed towards them, trusting Raolcan to do his work for Talsan. Hubric stood with his arms crossed and Kyrowat’s head right behind him, like he was backing Hubric up. Rakturan and Savette stood opposite to him, their own arms crossed, their bright eyes penetrating the scarves wrapped around them.

  Off to one side, Findar coughed miserably, looking from one group to the next. If we’d hoped to keep our identities quiet, we hadn’t succeeded.

  “And where would you like to go?” Hubric’s voice was icy, his eyebrows raised as he spoke.

  “The Feet of the River,” Savette said. “There is something there – don’t ask me what – something that we need.”

  “Leng is there,” I said. “Or will be soon.”

  “What could you possibly need at the Feet of the River?” Hubric asked, frustrated.

  “Read your prophecies,” Savette shot back. “You know exactly what I’m talking about:

  The light brightens and grows

  Crown to toes

  But fragile lies

  Our key to the skies

  And only the arrow

  Shot from the bow

  Can steel us for

  Coming war. “

  “It’s an obscure passage,” Hubric said angrily. His hoary eyebrows knit together as he peered at her, but I noticed Kyrowat back up a bit and begin to look toward Raolcan. He was no longer as certain as his master. “And it doesn’t mention the Feet of the River.”

  “Where there are feet there are toes,” Savette said triumphantly.

  “Ridiculous!”

  “Whether it means that or not,” Rakturan said, quietly, “tomorrow we will fly east with Enkenay and follow the Great Drake River to its Feet. We’ll find out for ourselves.”

  “Come with us!” Savette pleaded.

  “I cannot.” Hubric hung his head, clearly torn. “My messages are too important.”

  “Important enough to leave Savette with no one but me to protect her?” Rakturan asked.

  “They could stop a war. They could keep our Dominion whole,” Hubric said, his words as heavy as stones. Each one laid down carefully. “I dare not break my vow.”

  I dared. I realized in that moment that I dared to defy Hubric and break my vows to go after Leng. Perhaps, in the morning, I would fly east with Savette and Enkenay.

  Hubric’s head whipped toward me. “Did you like watching Talsan die slowly? Did you like watching him cough up his life?”

  “Of course not!” I was horrified he would suggest such a thing.

  “Vow magic is real, Amel. Leave with them tomorrow, and that will be you. You might live long enough to save the boy, but not much beyond that. And Raolcan would die with you.”

  Could that really be true?

  He’s right about the Dragon Rider vow magic. You know it keeps us within our alcoves when we are in training. You know it can bind a rider to their dragon so that their lives are intertwined. Trust me, he is likely correct when he says we will die that way.

  I thought Hubric was on my side.

  Hubric is on the side of the Lightbringers and the Dominion. You are his vassal. In his mind, it is your job to plant yourself firmly on his side.

  “The dragons are exhausted. Our enemy is vanquished. Let’s finish honoring the dead, clean up, and set up camp. There is nowhere else nearby to go. We might as well camp here.” Hubric’s tone was so sorrowful that I almost thought he might be sad to have to fight with Savette and threaten me.

  If you don’t know how torn up he is, you still have some growing up to do.

  Chapter Ten

  By the time we’d honored the dead, built camp and cooked dinner, none of us were speaking anymore. We all knew who wanted what. Savette, Rakturan and I all wanted to go to the Feet of the River and Hubric wanted to deliver his message to the Dominar. I couldn’t leave Hubric. He didn’t want to leave the Chosen One.

  At one point - I didn’t even hear what prompted it - Rakturan said, “What are you going to do to stop us?”

  After that, there was nothing but bitter silence and cold anger between us all. Hubric searched the rubble and found a bottle of something, but he didn’t offer to share it. He sat and drank in front of the fire as the shadows grew into the dark of night.

  Rakturan and Savette set up one of our tents and hid themselves within. I heard the susurration of whispers when I passed it, as if they were in deep discussion. Would they decide to go on without us like they were planning? If they did, they would be on their own and impossible to hide from prying eyes. They’d also have no one else to help if it turned out the Feet of the River were already crawling with Dusk Covenant. If I couldn’t go with them, then they should at least wait for us.

  I helped Findar get comfortable, sharing our blankets with him. I’d be a bit colder tonight without the extra blanket, but at least I had Raolcan. I was worried about Findar. His injuries seemed severe and he winced often with pain.

  “Do you think you can sleep like this?” I asked, leaving him close to the fire.

  “I’ll be fine,” he said, his words tight and his eyes on Hubric. Even someone outside our party could feel the tension between us.

  With a sigh, I left him, finished tidying the campsite, and curled up in my other blanket against Raolcan. With the Ifrit gone, we didn’t need to watch the camp so carefully. We knew who had destroyed this place and he was gone now.

  Enkenay says he will keep watch for the first stretch. Raolcan was as tired as I was – more, perhaps. He and Kyrowat had seen little sleep in the past week.

  I’m so tired I will sleep for a week if you don’t wake me. Tell me if there’s any trouble. We should be safe here.

  My own feelings and thoughts were tangled knots. I didn’t want to think about the decisions that would be faced tomorrow morning. Would I have to choose Hubric over Savette and Leng? I refused to dwell on it, forcing the thoughts from my mind. There would be enough heartache tomorrow morning.

  Just sleep...

  I thought I heard Raolcan’s thoughts fade seconds before sleep found me, too.

  Everything was silent when I woke, stretching in the dim light of early morning. My blanket had fallen off and the fire was out. Shivering, I nuzzled against Raolcan, feeling his snore vibrate through his entire body. At least he was warm. I tried to get comfortable again, but I couldn’t. There was something about the quiet that troubled me. Had there been crickets last night that were gone now? Was that it? Or some other sound that was missing now? I stood up, letting the blanket fall to the ground. Across from the dead fire, Kyrowat snored, his breathing matching Raolcan’s. Good thing Enkenay was keeping watch.

  Hubric was sprawled by the fire, without a blanket, arms and legs spread outward. Who slept like that? It was as if he had nothing troubling him at all, while I was plagued with worry. I swallowed down irritation and walked around Raolcan’s sleeping form to check on Savette and Rakturan.

  Their tent was gone. So was Enkenay. I glanced down the river in one direction and then the other, my heart pounding. It must be a mistake. Maybe they went for a walk. Maybe they needed some time alone for a few minutes. Maybe they decided to fish.

  The boats at the dock were gone, too. That must be it. They’d gone fishing. I
hobbled down to the dock, looking up and down the Great Drake River for as far as I could see. There was no sign of a boat. No sign of a dragon. Nothing but water, waving reeds, and the occasional diving bird.

  Heart thudding, I raced back to the campsite. In my sudden clarity, I saw that Findar was also gone. He’d taken my extra blanket with him. Behind me, the sun rose in the sky, shining its golden beams across the ground, painting it gold and black in the tiger stripes of dawn. A long black shadow stretched out from Hubric’s prone form, but in the golden light, I saw something I hadn’t noticed earlier.

  Blood.

  I hurried toward him, dropping to the ground.

  “Hubric! Hubric, are you okay?”

  At his groan, I almost sobbed with relief. His hand went to his head and I pushed it away, studying the gash on the back of his skull. It was shallow, I thought, already crusting over.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “They’re gone,” I said, and I could hear the panic in my voice.

  “Savette, Rakturan, Enkenay, and Findar. All gone. The boats and the tent and my blanket and everything they had.”

  “Slow down.” He stood, shakily, hand still clutching his head, while the other hand patted his Dragon Rider leathers urgently.

  “Gone where?”

  “I don’t know! I woke up and they weren’t here! What are you looking for?”

  “My messages,” he said, a look of absolute horror on his face. “They’re all gone, too.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Someone must have hit you over the head,” I said, reaching for the healing kit in his baggage nearby. With the wound already healing, it was easy enough to bandage it. “Hold still.”

  “Not Savette. She wouldn’t have hit me.”

  No, she wouldn’t have. “I don’t think Rakturan would, either. They probably slipped away so that they wouldn’t have to say goodbye and fight with us about going.”

  “Findar.” Hubric cursed. “What did we really know about him?”