«I can take you somewhere the priests won’t be able to get to you, if you want the chance to make your own choices,» he says. «But decide fast.»
Because the priests are here, their chants screaming as they close in behind us, and we only have seconds before they will be throwing every spell they have at this dragon whose only known sin has been existing—and perhaps undermining my faith; their power over me.
But even that blame I can’t lay at the dragon’s feet.
I have no idea where the dragon means to take me. He could bring me to a dragon’s den. He could abandon me on a mountaintop. He hasn’t injured me physically, but that’s a far cry from enough reason for me to actively trust him.
It doesn’t matter.
He’s offering a chance; a light of direction in an otherwise flailing abyss.
And more than that, he’s offering metime.
The barest hint of resolve flares in me, and I seize it.
“Please,” I whisper.
Somehow the dragon hears it.
The powerful burst of his wings doesn’t blow me back only because I have used my magic to anchor myself against his wind, a gold glow—stronger now—in the early morning light.
My stomach drops at the realization that he’s leaving me after all, to the samesituation—
And then a shadow falls over me,pastthe Precipice, instants before claws close around my torso and pull me into the air.
The priests fire their spells, blasts of colorful magic that must hit on this side, because the dragon roars—in anger perhaps; or pain.
But he doesn’t drop me.
Another powerful beat of his wings, and we are—Iam—on the Quiet side.
Out of the priests’ reach.
For now.
Thedragonisholdingme so tightly I can’t breathe, the autumn trees below a blur of color overwhelming my vision. I scramble to perform a kata only to feel my power vanish in a rush, like the life has been drained out of me.
The sensation, along with the lack of air, accomplish what nothing else ever has, even in the worst of my sage training.
I black out.
Iwaketothefeeling of being shoved.
My training takes over, and I roll to my feet into the stance for a kata—
—only to feelno powerthrumming through me.
I freeze—like a weakling, likeprey—
«Finally,» the dragon’s voice snorts in my head.
I jolt again, turning to see him standing behind me, bone-white scales glinting in the morning sunlight.
I can barely even sense a dragon.
There’s only one place that means I can be, and sure enough, behind the dragon looms Celestial Sanctuary Temple... on the mountain of Sanctuary Isle.
We’re in the Quiet.
