“It was just a nightmare,” I said to Onyx. “It felt so real, though.”
"You were sharing the dream with Kailin,"Onyx said."She is broadcasting it to me and every other dragon in this sector."
Before I could respond, the alarm blared, the high-pitched, unrelenting wail of the emergency system, and a moment later,General Lesten Zorian's voice echoed through the comm system in my room.
"This is General Zorian. All present wing commanders report to Mission Control immediately. All present riders of Fury Wing, prepare for an immediate deployment to Podana. You will receive instructions en route. This is not a drill. Elu's speed to all!"
My blood ran cold. Podana. Just like in my dream.
The Wrath Wing was deployed to the southern border with Sitoria this month, and the Sentinel Wing was always the backup, safeguarding the Citadel but ready to deploy if needed. The same was true for the Storm Wing.
A known Shedun tactic was to stage a diversionary attack in one spot while a larger force was sent to a different one. We could never send all our riders to one location, even if the breach was massive.
Besides, Podana had a large base of ground forces, who should be able to handle the Shedun or at least hold them back until we arrived.
As I bolted out of bed, what Onyx had said right before the General's announcement finally registered. “You and the other dragons were dream-sharing with Kailin.”Did she have a prophetic dream?
"Yes, except it isn't prophetic,"Onyx said."At least I don't think it is. Kailin is broadcasting events as they are happening in real time. It seems like she's touching the consciousness of a variety of animals, both on the ground and in the air, from within and around Podana."
I shook my head. “That shouldn't be possible. She will go mad from the sensory overload.”
I felt Onyx tense through our bond."I hope our Little Warrior will survive this. She even reached Nyxath, who woke Saphir up. He told her to follow Kailin's projections and informall the dragons to wake their riders, but you were already awake."
"I must have shared her dream somehow."I finished buttoning my uniform and grabbed my leather flight jacket.
"Yes. That's most unusual. I wonder if other riders shared it too."
If she was connecting with animals and birds, humans should be easy for her.
The implications were staggering, but there was no time to dwell on them. I zipped up my flight jacket and rushed out of my quarters, sprinting down the corridor. Other riders were already streaming toward the platforms, their grim expressions communicating what we all felt.
Commander Nyla Kestrel fell into step beside me. Her short, curly black hair was wild from sleep, but she was fully alert. "Any idea what's happening?" she asked.
Her dragon must have skimped on details when he'd woken her up. "Shedun," I said. "They're attacking Podana. I don't know what happened to all the sentries and patrols, but worms are breaching the surface all around the city. One made a big hole in the perimeter wall."
Nyla paled. "They must have overpowered the perimeter defense, taking them all out."
"We'll know more when we get there," I tried to reassure her, even though I feared her assessment was correct.
She narrowed her eyes at me. "We haven't been briefed yet. How do you know the details of the breach?"
"Kailin. Somehow, I must have tuned into what she was broadcasting to the dragons."
Her eyes widened. "She can do that?"
All members of the high command knew about Kailin's ability to communicate with dragons because of the tests we'drun, but no one could have anticipated her gift to be so powerful that it matched Nyxath's.
I nodded. "Apparently."
"I don't think any shaman in all of Elucia's history has been able to do anything like that," Nyla said. "Not even close."
"Evidently, Kailin can." I pushed open the doors into the Mission Control room.
The briefing was terse and confirmed what I already knew. We were each assigned a quadrant of the city's perimeter and were dismissed with instructions to stand by for further updates. It was clear that Saphir had communicated the scale and scope of the attack and the urgent need to stop it before it would become impossible to do so without massive civilian losses.
In all the decades I attended these pre-mission briefings, I never saw such worry-bordering-on-panic as the commanding officers present tried, and failed, to hide.
Dragons were landing on all platforms, while others hovered in the air, awaiting their turn. We'd practiced emergency deployment protocols hundreds of times, so everyone knew what to do—dragons, riders, and the ground crews who were fitting harnesses, loading weapons, and preparing the dragons for battle.
