ALAR
"The confidential information your allies keep from you may be the key to defeating your enemies. Pursue it and leverage it to your advantage."
—Commander Brusdick Gorlin, Elite Forces' Vedona Academy
Through the open window, I watched as the ground fell away beneath us, the enormous Elucian port of entry growing smaller and smaller until it was nothing more than a speck in the sprawling landscape below.
As we climbed higher, the world around us transformed. The vegetation changed, becoming sparse and hardy. And above us, the ribbons of green, purple, and blue light shimmered andswayed in a celestial ballet that now seemed almost close enough to touch.
"Would you look at that," Codric said, the awe in his voice reflecting my own. "The auroras are even more spectacular up close."
I couldn't look away. It was beautiful, alien, and unnerving.
Auroras could be seen from almost anywhere on Aurorys, but the sky seen from the flats of Eluria paled in comparison to this magnificence.
As the car swayed and climbed, the world below shrinking, I couldn't help but think about the structural integrity of the cable it was suspended from.
Next to me, Codric chuckled. "Stop worrying, Alar. We are not going to plummet to our deaths."
"Why would I worry?" I kept my sarcastic reply low for the sake of the other passengers. "We are only hanging from a cable thousands of feet above the ground."
"I knew it." He shook his head. "I saw you frowning at the cable before we boarded the car, checking out the bolts. You always pay attention to the smallest details and fret about their construction and how sound their maintenance is."
"Of course I do. Maintenance is done by humans, and if things don't get routinely inspected, people begin to slack off, and malfunctions happen. In the case of a cable car, a malfunction means death. We are trusting our lives to the work ethic of greasy fellows like the ones who attacked us."
He put his arm around my shoulders. "This is the only access to Elucia, save for on the back of a dragon or following a burrowing worm. Do you really think they would let it fall into disrepair?"
He had a point, but I wasn't ready to concede. "The Elucians are so focused on security that they might overlook maintenance and upkeep issues."
Travel in and out of Elucia was restricted, so the cable car rail was mostly used for bringing in merchandise and for transporting export goods. Shuttling passengers was secondary. Still, enough people sat in those cars every day for the rail to be a target for their enemies.
Dragon patrols were supposedly stationed along the way, guarding the rail, but I had seen none so far. In fact, I had never seen a dragon in person, only in films and photographs, and I couldn't wait for my first glimpse of one. Even if I didn't become a rider, seeing a dragon up close was almost worth the international scandal Codric and I were risking by sneaking into Elucia with fake identities.
Hells, a scandal was the least of my worries. It could get much worse.
After a while, I gave up on trying to spot dragons and turned my attention to the chatter around me. The lilting accents of the Elucians created a melodic backdrop to our ascent, and if I concentrated, I could catch snippets of conversations and glean more insight into the world I was entering.
"...the Shedun scum are relentless," said the guy sitting across the center aisle from us.
He was holding up an Elucian newspaper in front of his face, so all I could see was a portion of his profile.
"Any casualties?" the woman sitting next to him asked anxiously.
"Thank Elu, they were spotted in time." The guy folded his newspaper and put it on his lap. "They came through multiple tunnels simultaneously. Those drakking worms, burrowing up through our mountains like they were nothing but giant anthills. There was no way the defenders could reach the village in time."
The woman gasped. "Then how did they manage to avoid casualties?"
I leaned in, trying to appear casual as I listened more intently.
"The civilian patrols stopped them," the guy said. "They detected seismic activity and sounded the alarm. The civilians fought them off, holding the line until the riders arrived. The dragons roasted some of the vermin, but the rest managed to retreat into the tunnels and collapse them as they slid back down the shafts."
"Thank Elu it ended like that," the woman said. "It could have been another disaster."
"Indeed," he agreed, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.
"How much more of this can we endure?" she whispered. "When will it end?"
"I don't know," he said. "I don't know why Elu cursed us to live surrounded by those demon worshipers."
