Page 142 of Shadowborne: Reckoning

‘Yes,’ I told her reluctantly. ‘But… you passing out midflight in our last few hours doesn’t serve us at all. Tired, Akhane. We need you tired. Not dead. We’re going to reach home tonight if we’re smart about it. So… Go. Find something to eat.’

I gave her one final pat, then turned in the direction where I’d found that camp, what seemed like a lifetime ago, though it had only been, what… two months? Three? I shook my head. I felt like a different person standing in this spot. I recognized the terrain, despite the morning light. The wood in front of me would thin and reveal a clearing on the other side. As I started walking, my legs trembled. My steps were shaky. Small lights twinkled at the edge of my vision, and it seemed harder to breathe than usual. I was spent.

We still had many hours of flight ahead, but we would reach Vosgaarde tonight. I’d resolved not to eat today, though I might sleep. I had to keep myself on the edge. They had to believe we’d fled Donavyn’s death, which heralded Kgosi’s. With memories of Ciar fresh in their minds, even without the judgment, they’d expect to see us both at the edge of our limits.

As I walked, it became clear my body was closer to that ledge than I’d thought. And that worried me—was I dragging more because Akhane was worse than I’d thought? Did our weariness make each other feel worse? Or were we truly reaching the limits of our strength?

When I reached the clearing—which the forest was already working to reclaim—I stopped and considered the space, remembering those strange fire-roofs they’d built to keep anyone overhead from seeing their flames. I remembered the banners, and the men patrolling the camp.

I was struck, anew, with fear, realizing how close I’d come to being in the hands of actual enemies.

Then my blood ran cold, remembering those enemies were ordered by the very man we’d been working to protect.

I turned towards the edge of the clearing—there had been another camp inside the trees to the east, and I’d meant to look more closely there because I’d seen less of that area.

But then, as my mind turned over that entire, impossible night, my shaking steps drew up short.

The king had sent me out here to men who, presumably, didn’t know me. Had I been uncovered by those patrolling guards, what might have happened?

I frowned. Donavyn and I hadn’t yet bonded, though the dragons, it turned out, were already aware of their bond, and holding off on completing it to give us time.

No one had known, when I flew out of the Keep that early morning, that my death would have hurt Donavyn.

So, what had been the king’s game?

‘Do not give energy to questions you cannot answer, Bren,’ Akhane sent me wearily—along with reassurance that she’d found some food. Though, given the ache I could feel in her middle, it wasn’t more than a few mouthfuls.

‘But the king… he was behind all of this. Why?’

‘Who knows why evil men do the things they do? Who knows what draws them?’

‘But why me? Donavyn thinks he just found me an entertaining distraction at the beginning. But for him to intervene when I was still a Flameborne… he had to think he was gaining something from this, Akhane.’

‘I’m certain he did. But I do not know what it was. And I don’t believe you can guess.’

I chewed on that as I walked around the areas the camp had spread, but beyond an occasional forgotten dish, and a handful of spots that had been dug out for firepits, I found nothing.

When I walked—slowly, painfully—back to Akhane, it was to find her sprawled on the grass, sunning her wings, her neck outstretched.

She was miserable. I walked straight to her head and scratched the spots she liked best—her eye-ridges, and the skin behind her ears and at the base of her horns.

“Do you need to eat more?” I asked her, genuinely concerned. This trip at a leisurely pace would normally take almost a week. We would do it in less than four days. Even my brothers and their larger, male dragons had been exhausted by this trip, and they’d eaten properly and slept more.

Akhane sighed and I leaned on her neck, truly worried about her for the first time. ‘Akhane… do we need to rest for longer?’

But, in answer, she heaved herself to her feet and shook. ‘No, Bren. This is the purpose—to be weakened and haggard, yes?’

‘Yes, but—’

‘Then, we will keep going. And today, we will take the first steps to defeating this bastard,’ she said, her tone determined… and shockingly dark.

~ DONAVYN ~

I swore as a massive greenscale—usually a healing dragon, though some were incredible fighters—bore down on us once more.

‘Can you reach him, Kgosi?’

‘He resists,’ my dragon growled in return. I pinned myself to his back, shaking my head.