"Do you see that?"I asked.
"The red smoke. Yes."
I knew what it meant. Commander Langston had covered the joint rescue protocols in one of our early lectures. A crimson flare meant a life-threatening emergency requiring dragon-assisted evacuation. The protocol had existed for generations, one of the many ways Elucia and the Elurian Federation cooperated.
Someone was in serious trouble over there.
"That's a rescue flare,"I said."Should we notify someone?"
"The border outpost will have seen it too. They'll relay the request through the standard channels."
"It might take too long,"I said."Between the time it takes for the message to travel to the right department, and Storm Wing scrambles a rescue squadron, at least an hour will pass. We can do that instantaneously."
I could contact Nyxath as I had done before, but so could Morgateth. "If you contact her now, she can dispatch a squadron right away, which will cut the response time by more than half."
Morgateth was quiet for a beat, and I felt his surprise ripple through the bond. Not at the suggestion itself, but at my decision to act rather than let the system handle it.
"Shall I?"
"Please."
I couldn't hear the exchange, which meant that Morgateth was shielding the communication from me.
I wondered why he was doing that.
"Done,"Morgateth said."Nyxath is handling it. The Storm Wing squadron should be airborne within minutes."
"Thank you."
"No need to thank me. You were right to act quickly. An hour can mean the difference between life and death on those mountains."He adjusted his flight path, angling slightly west so we could watch the squadron deploy."You have good instincts, little shaman."
"Please, can you not call me little?"
"Would you prefer small? Compact? Vertically modest?"
I bit back a laugh.
I had no idea that Morgateth had a sense of humor buried beneath all the fury and grief.
"How about just Kailin?"
"How about just shaman? It's what you are."
"I'm not a shaman yet. I'm still just a cadet."
"We both know that's not true. You can communicate with every dragon in range, your prophetic dream saved Podana, and you are being personally trained by Saphir. You are as much a cadet as I am a hatchling."
It was funny to think of Morgateth as a baby dragon. Was it just as funny for him to think of me as a cadet?
From afar, I saw five little dots heading our way.
"That was fast,"I said.
"Storm Wing are trained for rapid response, exactly this kind of mission. The hikers on that mountain are fortunate that we were in this area today."
"Perhaps it was fated. Did you plan to take me all the way to the border with Tarina?"
He chuffed."I didn't, but since I don't have one prophetic scale on my body, it was probably your influence. Whoever got hurt over there might owe their lives to you. If they had to wait for the alert to go through the official channels, someone might have bled to death. You shaved an hour off the response time."
