A furious bellow shook the ground, so loud even the bayberries stopped to listen. Valenna clenched her teeth, her imagination parading horrific images across her mind.
Who was she fooling? Sit and wait? She didn’t sit and wait; she acted. She didn’t want to see Evander eaten, but she couldn’t bear this passivity. What if he was hurt and he needed her? What if he called out for her and she wasn’t there?
With a growl of self-loathing, Valenna sprinted across the meadow and through the trees, her arms pumping, her hair flying.
When she reached the paddock, a crowd of villagers stood thick against the fence, blurred by dragon smoke. Hera hadn’t made her appearance yet. Instead, six underkeepers were struggling with two lethargic land dragons.The creatures’ knobby armored plates clanked as they dug their clawed feet into the dirt. A keeper at the fence cranked a wooden winch attached to thick iron chains fastened to the dragons’ bridles. With each revolution, the dragons were dragged closer to the gate and the two huge wagons waiting outside.
The five Cobblepine trainees sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the top fence rail, beside the barn that stood at the far end of the paddock. Little Giles was sweating, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Ignatius and Elspeth kept smacking their fists into their opposite palms. Rosemary leaned forward eagerly, like she wanted to see someone devoured. Only Samara appeared relaxed, her hands resting on her thighs, her thick, dark eyebrows pinched together as the underkeepers fought the club dragons. Valenna recognized her look—a mirror of Evander when he was concentrating.
She spotted Evander leaning against the fence beside Haldir, his own brow furrowed as he shouted directions. Haldir immediately repeated everything Evander said.
Something wheeled in the sky overhead, and Evander looked up, his mouth set in a grim line. Valenna followed his gaze and saw the shadow of a giant winged creature silhouetted in the clouds.
Why was Raska here? So far from Ashkendor? So far from battlefields?
Evander watched the shadow until it disappeared, then he glanced at Valenna. For an instant, their eyes met.
He had seen Raska, and he knew her.
But how? How on earth could he know?
An old suspicion, so absurd she’d shoved it under layers of denial and excuses, cropped up like an ugly weed. Valenna quashed it and walked along the fence to where Evander stood. Haldir was giving directions to the Cobblepine trainees with loud bravado. He cut a handsome figure, dressed all in black, his shirt unbuttoned to show his chest, and his long dark hair blowing across his jaw. Beside him, lean and graceful, Evander removed his glasses and slid them into the pocket of his leather jacket, which he shrugged off and draped over the top rail of the fence. Underneath, he wore a snug, collarless green shirt with three open buttons extending a few inches from the neck.Objectively, Haldir was more beautiful than Evander, but there was something colorless about him. Like a gray-and-white painting, while Evander was warm and real, layered. Valenna felt vague appreciation when she looked at Haldir, but Evander made her ache.
The two land dragons were finally muzzled, chained, and packed away. With measured movements, Evander pulled on a pair of fingerless leather gloves and slipped his arms into a leather harness, tightening adjustable bands around his torso. One of the bands was loose on his back, and he twisted around, trying to fasten it. Valenna stepped behind him and looped the strap through the buckle.
He smiled over his shoulder at her. “I thought you left already.”
“And miss this show? People come from miles around to see it.”
“I’ll try to make it worth your time,” he said.
“You had better.”
Turning, he addressed the trainees. “Alright, everyone, this is the moment you’ve been training for. Remember your orders. If I’m incapacitated, then Samara is to take one of these …” He held up one of the chains affixed to the winch. “Dash into the paddock and fasten it to my harness. Samara, you don’t stay with me. You turn and run for the fence as fast as you can, and Giles will use the winch to drag me out.”
Samara nodded, her face set with determination as she strapped into her own harness.She was taking her job seriously, and that comforted Valenna.
Valenna stared at Evander with her teeth on edge as he tested his straps and inspected the chains. She understood that the harness was standard practice, but the sight of it buckled around his body made her stomach twist.
“Is Haldir going in?” Valenna asked. The new dragon master had strolled down the fence to flirt with a pretty village girl.
“He prefers a hands-off approach,” Evander said. “More dignified, apparently, for a man in his elevated position. But he wants me to muzzle Hera and fasten her necks together with a girth strap.”
“But …” Valenna’s head spun. “But won’t that make her angry?”
“Oh, it’ll make her furious,” Evander replied brightly. “She’s going to crush everyone in the paddock—including me, I suspect.”
The blood drained from Valenna’s face. “Vander, please, this is ridiculous.”
“Alright, everyone,” he barked, turning away from Valenna and toward the trainees. “No spark sticks, stay out of the paddock, only Samara can come in, and only if I’ve been down for more than seven seconds. If my head is caved in and it’s clear there’s no helping me, don’t risk yourselves to pull me out.”
“That’s terrible advice!” Valenna cried.
“That’s policy,” Evander replied. “If Samara falls, you remove her first, and then send someone for me once she’s clear.”
“Vander.” Valenna caught his shoulder, and he turned to face her. “Don’t do this.”
“If anyone can manage Hera, it’s me. Look, I appreciate you coming, I really do, but if anything goes wrong, I won’t know what hit me, so there’s no advantage in you being here. Go into town until it’s over. I’ll send word the second I’m done.”
