by Amie Kaufman
Last time Anders had thrown icefire, both the wolves and the dragons had been so confused, so overwhelmed, it had been enough to end the battle.
This time, they were prepared. His heart sank as he realized the wolves were already launching another volley, and the dragons were regrouping, preparing to reply.
This time, his icefire wouldn’t be enough.
Everything was moving so quickly around him, images whirling past, the wind whipping at him, steam rising from below, ice cracking buildings and heat sending billowing updrafts to grab at Rayna. He thought he saw Mikkel, and Theo, but could his friends have caught up with them already? Once he saw five wolves racing across the roofs, and his heart wanted to tell him they were his Ulfar friends, but his head told him they were simply more attackers.
His gaze traced back a path the way they’d come—and then he blinked, and looked again. Amid the ruins of Ulfar, the crumbled stonework and the jagged trench running through the Academy, there was a beam of white light shining up from one corner of the debris. It was perfectly straight, spearing up into the sky. His tired brain tried to make sense of what he was seeing, tried to understand which part of the Academy the light was coming from, whether it was some kind of new danger.
But then he realized he knew exactly where it was coming from.
It was Hayn’s workshop.
Was their uncle sending them a signal?
He howled to Rayna, throwing his weight in the direction he wanted her to look, and her great head swung around as her wings beat to keep them aloft. Unhesitating—trusting him utterly, even though she had no idea why he was asking her to do it—she made for the pillar of light. She dodged and wove, and he clung to her straps with claws and teeth, flung around like a rag doll as she narrowed in on the signal.
He could see even as they approached that the workshop itself was empty, the whole roof missing, as if it had been blown off. Where Hayn was, he did not know, but the light was shining up like a beacon from a huge sheet of metal, engraved in runes. What had Hayn wanted them to see, or do?
He flung himself from Rayna’s back, aware they had only moments before the wolves would be on them, forcing himself back into human shape even as his feet hit the ground. His sister couldn’t transform—not without losing her straps, and the only way she had of carrying him safely. She roared a warning—to him, or perhaps to the approaching wolves—as he scrambled over the rubble toward the center of the room.
There, beside the almost blinding light rising from the metal plate, were two pendants, hammered discs of metal engraved all over with intricate spirals of runes.
He had seen these before. He had seen them in the drawing of Felix and Drifa, each of them wearing one around their neck. And now here they were again. Had Hayn found them in his search for augmenters? Were they augmenters?
As he snatched them up, he saw they rested on a sheet of paper, a quick note scrawled in his uncle’s hand:
Use them well.
—H
Anders threw one around his neck, and turning, stared up at Rayna for a heartbeat. He couldn’t get the augmenter around Rayna’s neck. But perhaps pressing it against her skin would be enough. He ran back to her in three quick steps, shoving the leather necklace through the nearest part of her harness, intending on tying it there, hoping it would stay secure.
But as if it knew its home, before his eyes, the necklace simply melted into her skin, vanishing, perhaps to the same place her clothes and the contents of her pockets had gone when she transformed.
He threw himself onto Rayna’s back, and even as he wedged himself into the straps and prepared to transform again—though his icefire, he knew now, would not be enough—she was launching herself back into the safety of the air. They spiraled up, and as another wave of cold air hit them, the Sun Scepter blossomed with heat—a new, burning heat that forced Anders to turn his face away. It seemed hotter than ever. Was it the augmenter around his neck? Could he . . .
He got no further in that thought. The next moment, a huge explosion of ice and frost billowed up from the Wily Wolf below, as if in answer to the challenge of the scepter. As if the Snowstone itself had exploded—and perhaps it had.
And tucked into Rayna’s harness, a moment later, the Sun Scepter gave a deadly quiver of warning.
And then the Sun Scepter exploded too.
Rayna went whirling down toward the rooftops, the force of the detonation tossing her end over end in a terrifying cartwheel. She kept trying to spread her wings and stop her fall, only to be thrown around once more.
Anders held on to the harness with teeth and claws, with everything he had, and together brother and sister tumbled to the ground and skidded across the green of the rooftop meadow. He was flung free of her, arcing through the air, not knowing which way was up or down. His breath was knocked out of him as he connected with the grass, and he and Rayna tumbled over and over until they came to rest against a sloping roof.
Anders staggered to his four feet, forgetting his pain, the heat, the cold, the battle around him, forgetting everything as he scrambled toward his sister.
She wasn’t moving.
As he reached her, standing up on his hind legs to press his paws against her side, she groaned and raised her head.
Her straps and her scales were burned out where the Sun Scepter had been, and there was no sign of it. Had it truly exploded, burning out the last of its essence in an attempt to fight the Snowstone? Had the Snowstone done the same?
Dragons were wheeling overhead, the sky orange behind them, and in his daze, Anders wasn’t sure if it was the sunset or if the whole world was on fire.
He turned and saw a huge lone wolf racing toward them over the rooftops. He howled at Rayna, willing her to stand up, to be able to fly again.
In a rush of air, Ellukka and Lisabet landed beside them, Lisabet shouting a warning over the chaos and pointing at something.
He whirled around, and from the other side he saw a group of wolves leaping across the rooftops, running toward them in an arrow formation.
It was his classmates! He saw Sakarias in the lead, with Viktoria, Jai, and Det behind him, and Mateo’s hulking form bringing up the rear. They were racing toward them at top speed. For an instant, Anders’s heart insisted they were coming to help, and his head told him he had to be careful, but he had no more time to wonder about it than that.
Sakarias yipped a greeting, and then his friends were taking up positions around the twins, facing out, ready to defend them.
On his other side, the lone wolf was drawing near in big, powerful strides, and—his heart swelling to have his friends with him once more—he ran to take his own place in the formation. He had to defend his sister, but he didn’t want to hurt any members of the Ulfar pack in the process. What was he going to do?
Ellukka bellowed a challenge, standing over the injured Rayna, swinging her head back and forth as if threatening to breathe flame on the first wolf to come near their group. Anders wasn’t sure if she’d really—that she’d really kill someone—but he knew the Wolf Guard wouldn’t hesitate to throw a spear at her.
Lisabet’s voice somehow carried over the howls and snarls and roars, the crashing noises of a breaking city all around them.
“Stop!” she screamed, sliding down Ellukka’s side and running to stand between Sakarias and Mateo, facing the lone wolf as it drew closer.
Anders had no idea what she was going to say next, but he didn’t get a chance to find out. For suddenly the lone wolf had reached them, and even as she ran, she transformed, pushing herself into human shape.
And then Lisabet and Sigrid were face-to-face.
“Lisabet, what are you doing?” The Fyrstulf’s voice was sharp, furious, her soot-stained face white with rage.
“I’m trying to stop the fighting,” Lisabet replied, lifting both hands to gesture to the carnage around them. “I’m trying—”
Sigrid cut her off. “You will join the pack this instant. All of you wil
l join the pack.”
“We won’t,” said Lisabet, lifting her chin.
Sigrid stared at her, fury in her pale-blue eyes.
“You’re no daughter of mine,” she said, the words carrying perfectly clearly over the noise around them.
Even in draconic form, Anders heard Ellukka’s gasp, sparks spilling from her mouth as she let out a quick breath, as if someone had punched her in the stomach. He could practically hear her voice: Daughter? The Fyrstulf’s daughter?
Lisabet’s head bowed, her shoulders rounding, as her mother’s words went through her like a weapon.
Sigrid simply looked away, dismissing Lisabet completely, to survey the other Ulfar students ranged in front of Rayna and Ellukka. “All of you will come with me,” she snapped.
Nobody moved.
With a snarl, Sigrid sank back into her wolf form, baring her teeth.
Anders heard himself give an answering snarl, and then he heard it echoed, louder and deeper, behind him.
With a sound halfway between a groan and a roar, his sister was staggering to her feet, ignoring her burns, to defy the Fyrstulf. And knowing she was there gave Anders the strength to address the furious pack leader directly.
I don’t know what the icefire will do if it hits you instead of your spears, he said, speaking with a flick of his ears, a snarl that bared his teeth. And I don’t want to find out, but I will if you make me.
You are cast out, she snarled in reply. You are exiled from the pack.
And then she lifted her head and howled, long and loud, summoning the Wolf Guard to join her and take up the fight.
Panic ran through Anders’s friends, and they backed up, tails low, heads swinging around as they looked for escape. Mateo howled a warning beside him, and Anders whipped around in time to see Mikkel and Theo swooping low overhead.
Let them down! he howled to his friends, raising his voice above the cacophony of battle.
Lisabet was running back to Ellukka as her mother howled her summons, and she joined Anders in shouting to their friends. “Let’s go! Now, all of us!”
Anders saw the moment the realization hit his friends. They’d just lined up to defend him. Sigrid’s order of exile had included all of them.
They’d just made themselves traitors. The very deepest part of him was pierced with pain at the knowledge he was forever separated from the pack. But they had not a moment to lose—the Wolf Guard were racing toward them, to join the Fyrstulf and take up arms against them.
Viktoria was the first one to throw herself back into human form, making the transformation as neatly as ever, despite the chaos. Mikkel and Theo took it as a sign, and each of them landed, buffeting the wolves with wind as they flared their wings.
Anders stayed in wolf form—he had to be ready, in case more icefire was needed, though already he wasn’t sure if he could manage it again. He wasn’t sure it would help.
Sakarias ran alongside him in human form, his gray Ulfar cloak flapping, and together they scrambled up onto Rayna’s back, grabbing hold of the half-burned straps. Surely, any moment now, Sigrid would throw an ice spear—and with her strength, it would be deadly, killing whoever it struck.
But as they ran and scrambled to safety, the spear didn’t come.
He could see Viktoria climbing up behind Lisabet, Mateo climbing onto Mikkel’s back, and Jai pulling Det up behind them on Theo’s back.
The Wolf Guard were seconds away from joining their leader now, at least a dozen of them running up behind Sigrid, and any moment the adult dragons overhead would realize what they were doing. With Mikkel and Theo back in the fray, their pursuers had come as well, and there were more dragons up there than ever.
As the Wolf Guard reached her, finally Sigrid came to life once more, and ice spears flew past on either side of them. Whatever hesitations she’d had about attacking her daughter, about attacking children, were gone, and the Fyrstulf joined the other pack members as they tried to take down the Finskólars and their passengers.
What would the wolves and dragons do if the children fled? Would both sides keep on fighting?
Anders knew he couldn’t let that happen.
He reached deep within himself, pulling every ounce of his power to the surface, and howling to Rayna as she launched. He could see what every movement was costing her now, but she made a noise he hoped was a reply and winged her way up once more.
Rayna’s movements were jerky and uneven, and Sakarias wrapped both his arms around Anders to keep him in place, taking handfuls of his fur and clinging to him.
Desperately, pulling up every last ounce of his energy, Anders threw his icefire again, hardly seeing what was happening. He hurled it out blindly into the void between the wolves and dragons with everything he had, hoping against hope they’d see that neither side could win. That he’d stand between them, force them back to peace. That they’d believe it, before he completely ran out of energy.
The silver flames bloomed, and then they kept growing—and growing.
And growing.
They blossomed out until they were almost touching the combatants, sending the wolves scurrying back along the wall with howls of alarm, the dragons veering sharply away to escape by a hairsbreadth.
This flame was impossibly large. Impossibly strong.
Because it wasn’t just his.
Rayna, who hadn’t breathed a single flame, not a spark, since her transformation, had joined him.
His sister had found the same well inside her that he’d discovered in his desperation, the gift of both their mother and their father, and as the augmenters Hayn had left them did their work, he knew that together their silver flames were bigger, stronger, more powerful than his had been alone.
Though she brought a dragon’s fire and he brought a wolf’s ice to their silver flames, together they would always be stronger. No difference between them—no time apart—could weaken them. The more they grew, the more they learned to know themselves, the stronger they became.
The Snowstone was gone now, and the Sun Scepter, and together, in this moment, the twins were the most powerful thing in Holbard.
The silver flame rolled out across the city, consuming ice spears and dragonsfire, consuming everything in its path.
It halted the spread of the ice in the streets below.
It calmed the hot wind left behind by the Sun Scepter.
It traveled out and out, enveloping everyone and everything, leaving them standing in its wake, their fire cooled and their ice gone.
And when it finally dissipated at the city walls, everything below them was still and silent.
Anders had nothing left, and he was sure Rayna didn’t either, but she gamely circled around, as if to bluff the adult dragons that the twins were ready to do it again, and again, until everyone else gave way to them.
What would happen if the wolves somehow rallied for one more attack?
What would happen if Torsten and the dragons swooped in to breathe their white-gold flame again?
Anders howled his warning, and Rayna bugled her challenge, and both of them knew they were lying—that this was their last and only remaining move.
One second passed, and with it a swoop of Rayna’s wings, a thump of Anders’s heart.
Another second.
Another.
And then, as the children watched, the members of the Dragonmeet turned one by one toward the northwest.
And they flew away from the city, on a course for Drekhelm.
Chapter Sixteen
DARKNESS WAS FALLING RAPIDLY AS THE DRAGONS disappeared into the blue velvet of the night. Anders could still make out the wolves in the city below, forming up, ready to defend Holbard if the four dragons still above them descended.
Rayna and the others were talking about something, bellowing to one another across the distance between them, but he had no way of knowing what they were saying. Some decision must have been made, though—as one, they turned for the west. They were leaving the city
but picking out a direction that made it clear they weren’t following the adults.
They crossed the Sudrain River by moonlight after about half an hour, and slowly descended to land near a clump of trees in the farmland beyond it. The Great Forest of Mists loomed on the horizon, black trees wreathed in white fog.
One by one the dragons came to ground, and the wolves slid down from them. Anders transformed as soon as his paws hit the earth, and once human, silently pulled off Rayna’s harness so she could do the same. Nearby, Lisabet was seeing to Ellukka. Both the harnesses were charred in places, and he wasn’t sure Rayna’s would hold if they used it again.
One by one the dragons transformed, until the eleven children stood in a circle. Some leaned over to rest their hands on their knees, exhausted, others hugged themselves, staring at their companions in the moonlight.
The tableau was broken when Kess suddenly streaked across the circle, leaping down from Lisabet’s arms to run straight for Anders, scaling his body and perching on his shoulders. He was so exhaustedly happy to see her, he didn’t even mind the places where she sank her claws in.
As if the cat’s movement had woken her up, Viktoria spoke in a whisper. “What have we done?”
“The same thing as us,” Ellukka replied. “You can’t go home. Neither can we.”
“We had to,” Lisabet said, sounding just as tired as the others. “If we hadn’t brought the Sun Scepter, the wolves would have weakened the dragons until they killed them. If we hadn’t kept it from the dragons, they’d have used it against the wolves until they could attack instead. We’re the only reason they’re not at war right now.”
“All we did was destroy half of Holbard instead,” said Theo, looking sick.
Rayna sighed. “And they’ll still be at war, once they’ve had the time to think about it. They hate each other. The wolves think the dragons just attacked them, and the dragons know the wolves were getting ready to do the same.”
“Then we’ll need a plan to stop them,” someone said.
Anders blinked, as he realized it had been him. Everyone was looking at him. He took a deep breath and continued. “Viktoria, Sakarias, Det, Mateo, Jai, this is my sister, Rayna,” he said, pointing at her.