VARIDIAN
Kamaal and I exchanged a single glance, then a nod. We would follow the wyverns and crush them between our legions before they could reach their next target. They were a threat we wouldn’t allow to live, not after Wyfell, Tourlestyn, and now Strava and Morysen. I hadn’t seen what became of the town where Ameirah was raised, but rumour said smoke rose in multiple thick, grey columns.
What lies above here?The lightning soul asked, the first words she’d spoken in hours.
Woodsurn,I replied, picturing the terrain.Fallow Gate. Then above that, the wall. On the other side, they could reach Orvynna in Kalder.
Fallow Gate,she echoed.There’s an access point into Kalder?
There used to be. It’s been fortified for decades.Every now and then we got rogue threats crossing the wall there, but it was guarded day and night by both a legion and ground warriors.
But someone could still gain access to the wall there.
Yes.I frowned, pushing my knee into Mak’s side to guide him after that dark legion.Why?
There is something you should know. Something I hoped wouldn’t be necessary to tell you. The wall wasn’t built after the war, as you were led to believe. Only a handful of people knew, and all are dead.
Knew what?I bit out, scanning the sky, my heart thumping my ribs even as I tried to calm it.
The wall was built by Zalaam warriors when they realised they would lose the war after a slew of defeats in battle. None of my kin ever knew why, only that they hurried to build it. I think it was to contain something. Tohideit.
I stared at the wall that towered over everything this close to the border.You’re telling me the Wall of Hydaran is Zalaam made and protects something so important to them they builta wallso we didn’t discover it.
I hoped we were wrong. But there’s been too much activity near the wall. The emissary said people were missing on the other side. Tigers, too. If the dark magic hidden by the wall has claimed them…
More enemies. Just what we needed.
I glanced over my shoulder at where Ameirah flew at the tail of our formation, a slight knot easing from my chest at the sight of her. Her eyes blazed with ferocity, visible even from here, and there was something so satisfying about seeing her in the crimson and vipers of House Marrakchi. Something even more satisfying knowing what spilled over her skin beneath those leathers.
I would never send her away again,couldnever send her away again. Not only because it had made everything worse, or because I could barely survive without her, but because she’d proven she was deadly in a fight; we needed her.Ineeded her.
“Varidian,” Zaarib shouted, Dahab’s golden nose nudging forward, until we flew side by side. “There’s a rider at the head,” he said, pointing at the enemy legion. “Look at him.”
I did as he bid me, ignoring the ripple of unease in my gut as I assessed the wings blotting out the sky. I saw the rider, straight-backed on a wyvern at the head of the formation. Broad shoulders stretched the dark leather he wore, and his tight black curls were tied at the base of his neck, golden skin visible. There wasn’t one thing I could single out as familiar, and yet it nagged at me. I knew this man. And worse, I knew exactly who he was.
“Burhan,” I said. Zaarib nodded, his expression tightening at the suspicion confirmed.
“What do we do?”
What did we do about the man who trained us in wyvern flight and combat, now leading a legion of our enemy up the wall? I sighed, the heavy weight of decision-making familiar even if it wasn’t easy to carry.
I signalled to my legion, to Kamaal and Silverstorm, and we dipped below the treeline, landing hastily while the two brothers of his legion remained above, tracking the dark wyverns.
On the ground, I laid out a brief plan and simple orders, and we were airborne again in minutes. The tension that had hovered over us all morning tightened until my chest hurt, but I didn’t let it show.
Within minutes, we were upon them. Fyrevein drove in from the right while Silverstorm hammered from the left. Amr, my brother’s warrior, froze the wings of the creatures closest to Burhan, and I fought a shudder as the temperature plunged. Ice crystals crawled over scales, startling the wyverns enough that their tight formation scattered. Taking advantage of their panic, Nabil threw his magic in a brutal strike, shattering frozen wings on impact.
It was almost too easy to use the shock to sweep in and separate Burhan from his legion. I braced for the impact when Mak slammed his tail into the jade green wyvern Burhan rode. Not the dark grey he’d flown when he trained us. The Zalaam queen had corrupted him somehow, had made him into a dark warrior, the same way she tainted araethawn people.
We brought him down just as the path that wound towards Fallow Gate came into view.
“Aliah,” I yelled. “Rally the guard from the gate.”
She peeled off, Habiba flying as fast as an arrow for the nearby gate, for the backup we badly needed.
In minutes, we’d followed Burhan to the ground, forced to fly single file as the mountains grew closer, thrusting sharp spears into the sky. I fixed my stare on my old training officer as Amr’s ice magic crawled across the wings of his wyvern.
I could roast him,Mak offered.One blast of fire and he’d be toasty. And no longer a problem.
