“Enslavement has been abolished in Isalina, but Joya del Mar still chokes our resources. And although Joyan influence smothers every aspect of our culture, our people still dance and sing, eat and smoke, live and laugh beneath a sun that never seems to set on us. When the first of my ancestors left Isalina, we settled in a land that soon became part of the Langlish Empire. Somehow, we’ve always had a natural aptitude for dragon riding. There isn’t a member of my bloodline, in any generation, who didn’t form a bond.” A wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows. “My brother and I were just the most recent. Only my father, who married in and took our name, avoided conscription. He became a military dracologist.”
“Is… that why he was arrested?” Elara whispered, a subtle reminder of what she’d read in the letters that had led them here. A subtle reminder of the information she held. “Because he didn’t bond with a dragon?”
The wrinkle deepened. “He was arrested for treason.”
“Treason?What—”
“What indeed,” Signey said in a clipped tone. It seemed to take a great deal of effort for her to corral her anger, but at least this time Elara knew that she wasn’t the real cause. “As I said, I have no issue against Reeve Warwick. I don’t disapprove of his actions during the war. I simply have a role to play until I can achieve my goals.”
“Which are…?”
Signey gave her a look that plainly saidIf you shut up long enough, you’ll find out. Elara, still processing that the girl she’d known until now was a phenomenal actress, couldn’t even find the energy to be annoyed. “Commander Warwick has always taken a special interest in our education because of our status as one of the mostimportant dragon-riding families. My mother pleaded for him to add classes to Hearthstone that gave the students more options for the future than the armed forces. And now that we’re in peacetime, I’m hoping that being a part of the inaugural diplomacy track will help us solve more conflicts with conversation instead of combat. For the first time, the Dragon Legion doesn’t have to be this… this ceaseless war machine. We finally have the opportunity to do some good if we join.”
“If you believe that, then why were you in the headmaster’s office?”
“Because the commander is planning something, and he is a warmonger. I suspect that we’re somehow part of a scheme to retake your island.”
Though it was exactly what the queen had said, Elara was still stunned to hear someone else legitimize the theory. Especially someone like Signey Soto, who had been, up to this point, the perfect little soldier. It was terrifying to think that the commander’s motives were so transparent that even one of his own people could see through them.
Signey was clearly a good liar. But was she lying to Elara right now?
Elara closed her eyes. Took a deep breath. “I think so, too. I was looking for proof. Any kind of proof. Instead, I found those letters about you and your family, which just proves what you already knew. Whatever is going on, it’s about both of us.”
“I wasn’t even meant to be at the Summit. None of us were, none except Commander Warwick and Irontooth. But two or three weeks before, the den was summoned to Luxton’s office. The commander said that because of our high marks, he waspresenting the opportunity to learn about international relations by attending the Summit. But then he kept me later than the others.” Signey wrinkled her nose. “He told me there was a chance, however small, that we might find my Wingleader among one of the other Novan countries. After all, I’m descended from Lindans. It stood to reason that my co-Rider might be, too.”
“But we didn’t invite any Lindans to the Summit. We’re already allied with them.”
“Something he neglected to mention. If he didn’t look as stunned as anyone else to find that you were my co-Rider, I would think he’d plannedeverything. But no one could have planned for someone like you.”
What’s that supposed to mean?Elara bit back the question. “So you were looking at my student record to see what, if anything, he knew about me that you didn’t?”
“Exactly. I didn’t find anything of interest, though, so we’ll have to wait until we go to the capital to learn more. He’s had all these years to mentor me as I passed all my other compulsory classes. But it’s only now that you’re here that we’ll be spending our weekends with him? Something is going on, and the sooner we figure out what, the better.”
“Are you sure Jesper shouldn’t be—”
“My brother cannot be involved.”Signey got to her feet so quickly that Elara jumped. “My mother, my sister, and their dragon were all killed fighting in a war they didn’t even believe in. A warnoneof us believed in. If I join my father in the Mausoleum, Jesper will be the only one of us left. I need him to stay clean. I need him to survive. Please, I—” Her voice cracked. “I can’t lose him.”
Elara’s mouth snapped shut. She hadn’t known that Signey hadlost her mother and sister. There was a wildness in her eyes right now, a bottomless grief that was impossible to fake. It spoke to something inside Elara, the parts of her that had heard her mother through the walls crying over the loss of her sisters, the memories of crawling into bed with Faron so they could share each other’s grief through the years. No one could lie this well. No one was this good an actress. Signey had lost and lost and lost, and still, she was trying to find a peaceful way forward.
Together, maybe they finally could.
“I understand. I swear, I understand that better than anyone.” Now it was Elara’s turn to stand, if only so that she could reach across the table, her palm upturned. “We’ll investigate together. We’ll find out what the commander is planning. We’ll keep your brother out of it. You have my word.”
Signey looked down at Elara’s hand for a long time before gripping it with her own. Her palms were rough with calluses. Elara told herself that was the only reason a shiver ran down her spine. “You have my word, too.”
They shook, and it felt like a powerful beginning.
Beacon was deceptively exquisite, a city that wore its long history in every structure and every street. The Langlish capital hoarded buildings that were a diverse collection of stone and wood, clock towers as tall as the clouds and tenements as squat as tree stumps.
But a miasmatic smog smudged the skyline, obscuring Elara’s view from Zephyra’s saddle, carrying the putrid scent of chamber pots and burning coal. The city was beautiful on the surface, but its filthy underbelly could stay hidden for only so long.
Commander Warwick had summoned them to something called the National Hall of Honor. It still looked like a castle, made of brick and stone and slate with mansard roofs and colonnades. Pearl white and taking up an entire section of the city all by itself, there was more than enough space in the back garden for Zephyra to land. Zephyra nudged her snout against Signey and then paused, her face turned toward Elara in question.
Elara smiled and pressed a hand against Zephyra’s scales. It was the first time she had touched the dragon for anything other than travel since the night they had bonded, and she’d expected to hesitate, to feel reluctant. But as Zephyra pressed against her touch, loving and warm despite her bumpy granite skin, all she felt was… belonging.
“We’ll be back,” Elara sent tentatively across the bond. Though the dragon had no expressions to speak of, she could tell that Zephyra was smiling as she shuffled off to drink from a fountain in the center of the verdure.
Gavriel Warwick met them in the North Chamber, a long gallery lined with oil portraits and curtained windows, lit up by gas chandeliers with iron dragons wrapped around the bases. Their empty eyes seemed to be watching Elara as she and Signey came to a stop in front of the man who had ruined both their lives, a man who smiled like an old friend.
