He turned to us and snarled, the blood from the hole in his face dripping onto his snaggled teeth. Pushing my power into the Parched Sword, I swung it into his face and set Fyrian’s dry venom alight.
Asproceros fell onto his back, clutching his burning face. “It hurts!”
“Roll around in the dust,” I shouted.
Phoenix strolled up to the writing ogre and punched him on the side of his head, knocking him out cold and onto his back. By now, the moon had emerged from the clouds, illuminating the ogre’s massive body. Grimacing, Phoenix reached into the ogre’s breeches and pulled out two more burlap sacks.
Dozens of dazed dragonets staggered out of them, their wings splayed out for balance.
“If you check those breeches, you’ll find the gold coins he stole,” said Fyrian.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m sure the witches will examine his secret compartments when they’ve fixed their staffs.”
She shrugged her wings. “Suit yourself.”
“I’ll take him to Master Fosco.” Phoenix transformed into a purple dragon, wrapped his front paw around the ogre, and disappeared.
The witches flew up into the mountain, presumably to get new staffs, and the rider cadets returned the rapier reds to their dwellings.
“Should we go with them?” asked Fyrian.
I shook my head. “This counts as an unauthorized mission. If Master Fosco’s in a bad mood, he’ll expel me.”
“Best to keep out of his way, then.”
I glanced around. We were still on the dry side of the mountain, and the ground had sustained little damage. “Isn’t this where we first met the wild dragon? Where’s his cage?”
Fyrian dipped her head toward an overhang. “Over the—”
I turned around and gaped at the empty cage. “Did they move him to the holding stalls?”
“They would have announced it in the last Council of Dragons meeting,” she replied.
I clenched my fists. “Then he teleported. I knew he was a purple dragon!”
Fyrian tilted her head to the side and squinted. “But Fosco said there were runes on his cage.”
“They put runes on your walls when they arrested Niger, and you rubbed them off. Maybe he scratched them.”
A worried rumble sounded in the back of her throat. “I don’t think the tamers would be that careless. Especially when you said the wild dragon was behind the attacks.”
“How else would you describe how he escaped, then?”
“I don’t know,” she said in a small voice.
Shaking my head, I strode over to where Fyrian sat on the ground. It looked like I would be seeing Master Fosco, after all.
A man wearing a black cloak emerged from around a corner and froze. Platinum hair hung loose over his shoulders, and he narrowed pale eyes at me. “Fairy!”
“Who are you?” I asked.
He bared his teeth. “I know all about your plan to poison the dragons.”
“A-Alba.” Fyrian’s voice shook. “Run. I’ll fight him off.”
My stomach dropped. If this man was as dangerous as Fyrian implied, turning my back on him would be suicide. “I’m not poisoning anyone.”
“I heard you tell your friend about the people making a poison base for you.”
“That’s wro—” my mouth fell open. “You’re the man from the mess hall who dropped a bowl of chicory.”
“The very same,” he snarled.
Fyrian blew a stream of fire at the man, but he stepped through it. Some of her flames caught the sleeve of his cloak, setting it alight.
I gulped. He didn’t even bother to douse the fire. What kind of man was he?
“N-not a man,” she said.
I pointed at his flaming sleeve. “You’re a master dragon!”
He curled his lip. “A what?”
“You’re the wild dragon.”
“And you’re the fairy who subjugated None-Of-Your-Business’s mind.” The male spread his arms wide, setting his hands on fire. “When I’ve beaten you senseless and rescued this green female from her enslavement bond, I will kill you and your ally, King Magnar.”
Chapter 20
Every ounce of blood in my face plummeted to my trembling feet. I blinked hard, not quite believing what I had heard. Fyrian shouted through our bond at me to run, but numb shock dulled my senses. The man prowling toward me made no sense. If I poisoned the dragons, Fyrian would die, taking me along with her.
Fire continued to burn along the male’s sleeves, and he advanced toward me with the languorous pace of a glacier tiger stalking trapped prey. With every step, the stones crunched beneath his feet. Moonlight reflected on his pale hair and skin, and his malicious, quicksilver eyes gleamed with the promise of murder.
Behind him, Fyrian roared. “Run!”
“I-I can’t.” In the face of a larger, stronger, faster predator, running would only turn a person into prey. I had to face him down and fight. Even if it meant losing.
Stepping back with my left leg, I raised the Parched Sword and bent my elbows into my sides. Every bone, every muscle and sinew, trembled with anticipation. If he came at me, I would aim for his throat. “You’ve got me all wrong. The poison isn’t for dragons. It’s for spigg—”
“Fairies have been trying to kill us since they banished our creator. You are no different.” Mayhem danced in his eyes. “What does this poison do? Another loyalty elixir to make us fight for you like mindless slaves?”
I inhaled a sharp breath through my flared nostrils. The wild dragon-man had obviously been eavesdropping into the conversations of other dragons and used the information he had gathered to exact revenge on those he thought were being abused. It was no wonder he wanted me dead.
“Listen to me,” I said through clenched teeth. “The poison is for spriggans.”
With a snort, he pointed a burning finger at me. “How do I know you’re not one of those filthy creatures in disguise?”
“Open your senses. Do I feel like a spriggan to you? The last time someone unleashed their dark magic, it woke the sleeping dragons and brought the Masters running.”
His steps faltered. Confusion flickered across his features for a split second before they twisted back to a mask of hatred.
I gulped and glanced around for anything that might give me an advantage, but only found a landscape of shattered sandstones on the ground next to a barren mountainside. How could he not know about sleeping dragons? And he hadn’t understood what I’d meant when I had called him a master dragon. Where had he been for the past millennium?
Fyrian raised her right forepaw and swiped at him from behind, but he batted her away with his fist. Flinching back, she hissed with pain.
Across the bond, agony flared across my right hand, and I reared back. What kind of dragon was he?
His face split into a grin of serrated teeth. “None-Of-Your-Business is screaming into my head, saying that you’ve saved dragons countless times. How are you controlling her?”
Sweat gathering on my palms caused the handle of my sword to slip. “I’m not.”
Fyrian bared her teeth and lunged at the male. He slashed his hand through the air, making her bounce off an invisible barrier. She staggered back and let out a roar of outrage.
“Fyri, stop trying to fight him. Tell Master Fosco and the others the wild dragon is loose!”
“Stop calling for Fosco.” The male ripped off his burning sleeves, exposing pristine, muscular arms. “He won’t come. I have wrapped my mind around you and little None-Of-Your-Business. No one can hear her pleas for help.”
“W-why are you doing this? If you can connect to her mind, you’ll know I’m not a dragon killer.”
He stopped and fixed me with a disgusted glower. “Yet you are betrothed to a dragon slaver.”
His words struck like an ogre’s fist to the gut and knocked the wind out of my lungs. The wild dragon had picked up enough to incriminate me and to learn who had hurt other dragons, but his mental pow
ers either weren’t acute enough to gather the whole truth or he was too crazed to care.
“King Magnar is my enemy.” My throat became so dry, it made my voice hoarse. “I’m the one who made the antidote rain over the dragons!”
“Give me his location. I searched for his hut yesterday, but the land I gleaned from the other dragons’ minds was empty.”
“I don’t know where he is,” I said.
“Liar.”
In the blink of an eye, he crossed the distance between us, knocked my Parched Sword out of my grip, and wrapped his hands around my neck. Then he slammed me against the hard, rocky mountainside.
An explosion of pain spread across my back, making me whimper. How could I fight against the strength of a dragon?
In a soft, cajoling voice, he murmured, “I can extinguish the flame of your life with my bare hands.”
His flesh felt both burning and freezing at the same time, as though hot and cold fire ran through his veins. Terror shuddered down my spine and seeped into my limbs, causing them to tremble.
Resisting the urge to squeeze my eyes shut, I forced out the words, “If you kill me, you’ll kill her, too.”
“None-Of-Your-Business is a traitor who submitted to a fairy. Her death will be of no consequence. Tell me the location of your King Magnar, and I will let you live.”
Swallowing hard, I tried to push myself off the mountainside, but his grip remained strong. The wild dragon had to be bluffing. Earlier, he said he would rescue Fyrian from her enslavement. He had attacked Livens for letting Cymatilis get bitten by the sea serpent, Muti for punching Rubens, and Silkie for locking up Percoquo during mealtimes.
“Y-you care about the dragons. All of them. And you’re not a killer, otherwise, some of the people you attacked would be dead.”
“I can see your bonds,” he whispered into my ear. “They are like yokes around the dragons’ necks. The moment I tear them apart, I will be free to kill you all.”
“There’s a reason why you haven’t done it already, isn’t there?” I said. “You’d be ripping part of the dragons’ souls.”
I closed my eyes, drawing as much of Fyrian’s power as I could into myself. The darkness of my mind glowed silver, as though I’d fallen into the moon. Even with our combined magic, we were probably no match for the wild dragon, but I had to prove something to him. Fyrian and I were so deeply connected that his efforts to separate us would kill us both.
The hands around my neck disappeared. “What is happening to your skin?”
“It’s her power.” I opened my eyes again. “I give her mine and she gives me hers.”
“An abomination!” he hissed through his jagged teeth.
“But it’s her choice. Every dragon who has bonded with an ogre-hybrid did it because they wanted to.”
“Most of the dragons here are civilians.” Fyrian pressed a front paw against the barrier. “No one puts them under pressure to work with the warriors. They can sit around and do nothing if they want.”
He shook his head. “The dragons here are children. Even Fosco doesn’t know what he wants. I have to save them all.”
“By severing their bonds and killing their bondmates?” Power, hot as dragon fire, surged down my arms and into my trembling fists. “What gives you the right?”
“Silence,” he roared. “I will start with you!”
“You’re not going to hurt either of us!” With all our combined might, I jabbed him hard in the throat with an uppercut, making him stagger back and cough. Triumph exploded through my chest. He had weaknesses. I reached into my sword belt and pulled out the Lightning Rod. Its gauge shone half-full.
His head snapped up, eyes narrowing into slits. “Where did you get this strength?”
“Dragons.” I shot a stream of power through his bare shoulder, creating a nasty burn.
He howled and clutched his wound. “Nobody has hurt me since the fairies.”
My legs widened into a fighting stance. “I tried to discuss things with you, but you’re the one who threatened to start ripping up bonds. I won’t let you hurt the dragons.”
He bared his teeth. “Do not mock me! I am their protector.”
“Did you even bother to ask them if they needed your protection?” I shook my head. “We tried to explain to you that we weren’t master and slave. We even told you how we bonded, but you ignored all that and believed what you wanted.”
His nostrils flared. “You mean to kill me.”
“If you try to tamper with our bonds, I might.”
“Why?” He pressed his palm on his chest. “I have done nothing wrong.”
“Apart from hurt people you thought were harming dragons. If you were so worried, why didn’t you speak to them? The blue dragon who got bitten by a snake volunteered to stay behind and protect her friends. And the rapier red who was punched in the face started the fight.”
He let out a guttural snarl that made my hair stand on end. “And what of the hungry dragon starved by his handler?”
“Percoquo eats everyone’s food,” said Fyrian. “He doesn’t know when to stop. That groom locks him up during mealtimes so we won’t tear him apart when he steals!”
His face stilled into an expressionless mask. I expected he felt a bit stupid for having attacked people without delving into their reasons for supposedly mistreating dragons.
“And King Magnar?” He asked. “Don’t tell me his loyalty elixir was for the good of all dragonkind.”
I aimed the Lightning Rod at his throat. “It wasn’t his elixir. Some alchemists poisoned the dragons to make them loyal to the Savannah royal family, so his father, King Calder, could regain his throne. Once we had defeated the alchemists, King Magnar took advantage of the loyalty elixir and wanted the dragons to go and fight the spriggans.”
“Lies!” He stamped his foot, crushing the loose stones to dust. “Spriggans were banished alongside the King Who Must Be Forgotten.”
I clenched my teeth. “They’re back, and they’re in Savannah. They took his throne and are holding four of King Magnar’s sisters.”
“Show me the location of these spriggans. I will defeat them.”
I gave the Lighting Rod a little shake. “Only this level of power can hurt a spriggan. We fought them at the border, but they trapped us with magic they’d developed over a millennium to control the dragons. That’s why my friends are developing a poison.”
He glared at me for several moments before saying, “I wish to see None-Of-Your-Business’s encounter with the spriggans.”
Fyrian closed her eyes and lowered her head.
The wild dragon also closed his eyes. His fists clenched, and his breaths quickened. Hope bloomed across my chest, but I still gazed across the skies for signs of friendly dragons or flying witches. If the wild dragon hated spriggans more than he hated ogre-hybrids, perhaps he would calm down and focus on the real threat to the dragons.
My gaze fell to the Lightning Rod. It would be so easy to attack him while his guard was down, but I’d destroy our tentative truce and put Fyrian in danger. Something about the wild dragon was different, and upsetting him further would be disastrous.
Several moments later, he opened his eyes. “I will fight by your side.”
I lowered the Lightning Rod, aiming it at his heart. “I-is this a trick?”
“The spriggans are loose,” he replied. “They will awaken the King Who Must Be Forgotten, and no dragon will be safe.”
Behind him, Fyrian slumped. “H-he’s released our minds.”
A heartbeat later, Master Fosco appeared, holding onto Masters Roopal and Solum. Phoenix appeared shortly after in his dragon form with Masters Klauw and Hyacinthus clinging onto his foreleg.
I placed my hand on my chest and exhaled a long sigh of relief. The wild dragon seemed serious about fighting the spriggans, but who knew what havoc he would wreak once he’d finished his task.
“He isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen or felt,” Fyrian said in a small voice.
“Not even Fosco and Roopal can tie up a dragon’s mind.”
The wild dragon raised his head and stared at the newcomers. “I suppose you are what the young Fairy calls master dragons.”
“Who are you?” Master Fosco strode across the wasteland, crunching stones underfoot. “I did not see the likes of you in the realm of the fairies.”
“Did the fairies make you after the fall of the Forgotten King?” asked Master Roopal.
Master Solum stepped forward. “Do you have a name?”
“He called me Gladius,” replied the wild dragon.
“Who?” I asked.
“The King Who Must Be Forgotten.”
“Why do you call him that?” asked Master Roopal. “It implies you might remember him.”
Gladius bared his teeth. “I have not forgotten a thing about the wretched fairy or his spriggans!”
I glanced at Fyrian, who raised her wings into a shrug. The wild dragon certainly had a wider range of powers than the other dragons. If he could remember the Forgotten King, he had to have existed around the time the older dragons were kept in the realm of the fairies.
“Again, who are you?” said Master Fosco.
“Did they not tell you about the King’s mount?” asked Gladius.
Master Roopal drew a breath through his teeth. “The golden dragon. You were the first.”
“Kept away from my brethren and banished along with my master,” snarled the wild dragon.
“But why?” asked Master Roopal. “No dragons were loyal to him.”
In the light of the moon, his grim expression made his features gaunt. “I was to be the weapon who killed the Queen of the Fairies. When the King fell, her subjects tore off my golden armor, wrapped me in their foul magic and buried me deep within the earth.”
A breath caught in my throat, and my mind rolled back to the history lesson about the Forgotten King. There had been talk of a golden dragon but Master Roopal didn’t say much about it because King Magnar kept disrupting the class.
“Ages ago, Albens said there was a clan of gold dragons terrorizing the Unknown Continent,” said Fyrian.
“Right. What if it wasn’t really a clan but one dragon?”
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