Lisabet pushed herself back into human form, panting. “Transforming is much harder work than usual in this heat,” she said, grabbing her boots and lacing them up quickly. Meanwhile, Anders stuck his head out into the hallway to check that the coast was clear.
“Let’s try for the infirmary,” he said. “I want to find out where Rayna is.”
“The dragons are going to ask questions if they see us wandering around,” Lisabet pointed out. “They locked us in.”
“Most of them won’t even know who we are,” he replied. “We look just like them when we’re in our human form. And we’re wearing their clothes.”
She hesitated, but he knew she was going to come around. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have helped him break open the door. “Let’s do it,” she agreed.
They made their way quietly out into the hall, keeping on the balls of their feet, ready to move—ready to run—at the first sign of trouble.
They did their best to retrace the path they’d followed with Ellukka the day before, but it proved busy, and soon enough they were obliged to duck into lesser-used passageways, taking each new turn that seemed to lead them in the right direction—or so Anders hoped. The first few hallways they looked down were nothing special—they found more bedrooms, and then a small communal area with nobody in it. The common area had tables and chairs, some couches, some playing cards left out. On the bright side, it also had a bowl full of dark bread slices spread thickly with creamy butter, waiting for hungry dragons to come along. Anders and Lisabet both took a slice in each hand and kept on their way.
It wasn’t until a few hallways later that they discovered the room of maps.
When Anders carefully poked his head through the doorway, the chamber waiting for him was much larger than any they’d been in so far, except for the Great Hall. The walls were plastered with maps, showing everything from small sections of Vallen to the whole of the island—that map took up nearly an entire wall.
A big table ran the length of the chamber, with a dozen seats around it, all facing toward one end of the room.
At that end, a huge map—taller than Anders himself, taking up another whole wall—was pinned up.
It was a map of the city of Holbard, capital of Vallen and home to Ulfar Academy. Around the edges were marked the plains that surrounded the city on three sides, as well as the harbor that bordered it on the fourth.
“That’s a map of home,” Lisabet said, poking her head in beside his.
They both walked into the room, their footsteps audible on the stone as they made their way up to stare at the Holbard map.
“There’s Ulfar,” he said, pointing at the squares that outlined the adult barracks and the Academy. There was a large red cross marking it.
“Why do they need to look at it on a map?” she whispered, sounding as worried as he felt.
They walked along the base of the map, taking in all the landmarks they knew so well. By the docks, there was another place marked with a bold red cross. Anders peered, trying to determine exactly what it was. Suddenly, all the air went out of him. “Lisabet,” he whispered.
She was at his side in a moment. “What is it?”
“Right here, this is where the fire was at the docks. This is the exact place, the exact buildings.”
“Pack and paws,” she whispered.
“Are you lost?” someone said from behind them, in a pointed tone. It was Ellukka’s voice.
They both turned and found her standing beside Mikkel, the smirking boy they’d met on the mountainside the day before with Ellukka and Rayna. Mikkel dipped into a deep, sarcastic bow. “I see our honored guests have been exploring,” he said.
“We’ve been looking all over for you,” Ellukka added.
“You thought we’d be in our room, where you locked us in?” Anders asked pointedly.
Mikkel shrugged. “You’re wolves,” he said, as though that explained it.
Ellukka, despite her irritated expression, actually looked away. Maybe she wasn’t quite as unapologetic as he was.
Lisabet cut across his thoughts. “Why is the site of the docks fire marked on your map?”
Ellukka frowned, walking into the room to stand by them and stare up at the map. After a moment, Mikkel followed. He was tall, with a shock of copper hair, long and curly on top, short on the sides, and had fair skin. He looked a lot like Anders’s wolf friend Sakarias, except that where Sakarias’s eyes were blue and always full of laughter, Mikkel’s were a dark brown—clever, intent, and maybe even unfriendly.
“Right there,” Anders said, pointing. “That’s where a huge fire started just a week ago. It was dragonsfire, I saw it myself.”
“Look,” said Mikkel. “I don’t know what it was, but nobody would have lit a fire in the middle of Holbard. It’s too dangerous.” He sounded sure. “We’d know.”
