I stared at the blades, then at her face, my heart swelling with gratitude so fierce I could not suck in a breath. This was more than a gift of weapons. It was a show of trust.
“Thank you,” I breathed.
“Thanks are not needed.” Her gaze met mine. “This is a promise. Kill as many of those bastards as you can.” A ghost of a smile touched her lips. “I’ll be watching.”
“You’re coming with us?”
“Nothing in this world or the next could make me stay behind. We ride as one.” She held out her forearm, and I clasped it.
With a soft laugh, she pulled me into a hard hug before she stepped back and left.
I stared after her, securing the blades at my sides.
“I’m amazed,” Kerralyn said, her journal open, her pencil scribbling. “And I’m writing this down. We ride as one. Got it.”
We loaded the few dragons we had, two or three riders to a saddle, more clinging to harnesses meant for cargo. I climbed onto Kyreth’s back with Kerralyn settling behind me, her arms wrapped around my waist, the journal secure in the pouch on her back.
As Kyreth shifted toward the opening, preparing for flight, I closed my eyes, reaching for the power that simmered beneath my skin. I didn’t push it away. I didn’t fear it. Ipulled. The wind answered my call, swirling through the stall. It wrapped around us in a whisper of support.
For the first time, my magic felt like a gift instead of a burden. My power was not a weakness to be hidden but a weapon I could wield to protect those I loved.
With the proper nudge of my heel, I urged Kyreth forward. She scrambled toward the opening, her strong hind legs digging into the sand. We burst from the stone wall into biting air. The dragon’s massive wings caught the wind, the first downstroke a jarring lurch that threw Kerralyn against my spine.
“Sorry, sorry,” she called out. “I’ll hold on better. That…was interesting, right? Amazing, actually. I’ve never ridden a dragon before. Look at all the trees!”
Pherin burrowed into my hair, her tiny, warm body pressing against my skin.
We waited above the valley until our fleet was ready, then turned our mounts south, aiming for Silverstream.
Every wingbeat carried me closer to Trew and closer to the battle, where I belonged. The wind whipped through my hair, and my magic hummed along with my determination.
I was born to stand beside Trew. Not behind him, not waiting in safety, but with him, facing whatever might come our way.
Through the night, our ragtag fleet of dragons clawed its way across the sky. Over a hundred of us, from new warriors who’d barelysurvived the recent Rite to grizzled fighters like Naveah, all clinging to saddles and cargo harnesses, their faces grim.
Let the advisors call it treason. Let them say I was much too reckless. History would remember a woman who fought for her people, not a princess who hid in a tower.
Finally, dawn arrived, and the world lit up, a tapestry of every imaginable color stretching as far as the eye could see.
“We’re getting close,” Kerralyn shouted over the roar of the wind, pointing with her pencil.
I leaned forward, trying to see past Kyreth’s powerful neck. Then we cleared a high ridge, and the world fell away.
My blood stopped flowing.
Silverstream lay ahead, a spread of stone and wooden buildings that looked impossibly tiny from this far above.
Skathes massed in the plain beyond, a roiling, living sea of nightmares pouring from the wasteland. Hundreds of them, a tide of gaunt bodies, clicking fangs, and mindless, ravenous hunger, commanded now to move as one.
We landed hard in a field above the village. Before Kyreth could fold her wings, scouts in dark leathers emerged from the forest with drawn weapons, surrounding us.
“By the fates, what’s this?” one of them hissed, his gaze raking over our overloaded dragons and the sea of warriors dismounting around us.
I slid from Kyreth’s back, my boots landing hard on the soft earth. Naveah strode over to stand beside me, her expression unyielding.
“Reinforcements,” I said, my voice leaving no room for argument.
“We don’t have time to babysit you,” the scout snarled.
