“But unfortunately effective,” Thorne muttered.
Commander Dareth nodded. “They suppress the Aether bond just enough to delay dragon resonance and mute her presence in the stream. But they don’t erase it.”
He turned to Garric. “Can you follow the echo?”
“Not for long,” Garric said. “Once the wards settle, the trace will vanish. But I can give you a direction. Maybe a stretch of sky where the dragons can pick up her scent.”
By nightfall, the map was marked with three potential sanctums. They were all old, hidden, and dangerous. Commander Dareth’s finger hovered over the northernmost one, where the cliffs split like a jagged wound into the higher ranges.
“Stoneveil Hollow,” he said, voice taut with memory. “Last I heard, the scholars abandoned it many decades ago when the storms shifted. It has enough deep warding to suppress any bond.”
“That’s a full-day ride,” Garric muttered, his hand still burning with blue light as he maintained the directional pull. “And if they move her.”
“They won’t,” Commander Dareth said. “Not until the bonds are fully suppressed. Cloaking that kind of power takes time and ritual. Thaelyn won’t be able to call for help. Not yet. But she’s alive. We’d know if she wasn’t.”
Thorne didn’t speak. He was watching the horizon, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles cracked with each flex.
“She’s scared.”The thought came from Vornokh, low, furious, and distant as thunder. She’s hiding her thoughts, but Ifeltit. She raised her mental shields to protect herself and us.
Thorne turned. “We go now.”
Commander Dareth raised a hand. “Not alone. You’ll need a team. One that is quiet and will not alert anyone to the secret rescue mission. We will need a team that is fast and dragon-bonded. No noise. No messengers. We don’t know who else is part of this.”
Thorne’s gaze turned toward the dark end of the field where dragons were gathered in a loose crescent. Already, three of them had stirred. Tieren, Brynnek’s, was alert. Tarken was still coiled, waiting. High on the perch tower, Mirra watched with luminous and frost-touched eyes.
“I know who I’m taking,” Thorne said. “The ones who’d die for her.” He strode away from the command table, his voice rough with command as he passed each shadowed cluster of riders.
“Brynnek, Darian, Rowan, and Sorren. Gear up. You’ve got ten minutes.”
Brynnek grunted, “I am ok to fly again, no arguments.”
Garric flicked his hood up and vanished into the darkness with a whisper of mist.
Thorne turned and found Sorren already beside him, silent as ever, nodding once before slipping into the shadows.
“You’ll need someone watching the skies while you’re inside,” Commander Dareth said. “I’ll send Vaelion with you. He can cloak the valley from above while the others circle wide.”
“And what aboutyou?” Thorne asked, pausing.
“I’ll ride to the northern observatory. If the bond flares again, that’s the closest point I can amplify from. If she breaks through, if shecalls, Razorth will hear it.”
Thorne nodded, then turned back to Vornokh. “Arm us,” he said. “We ride in silence.”
The dragons moved in eerie coordination, no roars, no light flares. Only the tightening of flight harnesses, the soft thump of heavy claws, the low, bone-deep hum of power building in their chests. Kaeroth’s saddle was secured around Darian now. Rowan mounted Tarken. Brynnek mounted Tieren. Mirra’s wings spread with gliding ease as Sorren leapt up behind her head. Vornokh turned his head, massive and dark, to watch them all fall into place behind him.
Thorne’s hand found the hilt of his second blade, the one gifted to him by the Queen herself. A rare steel meant only for shadowbound heirs.
“Are we sure about the site?” Garric asked as he mounted.
“No,” Thorne answered, tightening Vornokh’s reins. “But if they picked the wrong place to hide her,” his voice dropped, “Then they’ll regret it.”
Commander Dareth stepped forward one last time. “Thorne, don’t let rage blind you. You’ll soon feel her panic through the bond. It’ll pull at you. Twist you. You’ll want to burn everything to the ground to get her back.”
“I already do.”
Commander Dareth nodded grimly. “Just make sure you don’t burn out and that she’s alive when you find her.”
The air was thick, too thick to breathe correctly, like it had been steeped in dust and silence for a century.
