"How do we want to do this?" Joran asked, glancing at her sideways. “We’ll probably be recognized by the guards at the gate and be arrested before we can get anywhere near Il’esandra.”
“Oh I’m counting on it,” Ky’ara said grimly.
Joran stopped dead in his tracks. “Really? Last time you tried that ploy it didn’t work out so well.”
“We managed to rescue Hallahna, didn’t we? I’d say it worked out just fine.” Ky’ara kept walking. Joran hurried to catch up and then planted himself in front of her.
“According to Taren, everything fell apart and you ended up having to fight all the guards. ‘All the guards’ here would be an awful lot of people—people you probably don’t want to have to kill,” Joran pointed out, shifting to keep her from walking around him.
Ky’ara stopped trying to get past and fixed him with a look of annoyance. “Do you have a better idea then?”
“Actually, yes,” Joran said, rather smugly. “There’s a way into the city that doesn’t involve walking past the guards...and even if it’s been discovered and guarded, it’ll make a lot less racket to knock out the guards there than to storm the front entrance.”
“And once we get inside? How do we find where they’re keeping Taren?” Ky’ara asked.
“Don’t you know where Il’esandra lives?” Joran asked.
Ky’ara shook her head. “Royal residences were closed to all but the most elite nobility...I know the general area, but not enough to get us anywhere close...and besides, we don’t even know if she’s keeping him there.”
Joran thought for a moment, then shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Ky’ara sighed and motioned him forward. “Lead the way.”
* * * * *
Hallahna and Amischel stood by the edge of the camp, waiting anxiously. Amischel had been sent to explain Calistra’s new plan to the Shaari leaders before they joined the meeting she was holding in the command tent. She had done so, and then been overwhelmed by an inclination to come here—an inclination she’d fought the entire time she’d been speaking to them. Hallahna had noticed her distraction and insisted she give in to the notion, especially when Amischel said she felt it might have something to do with Irakyll. Asara had accompanied them, much to Amischel’s embarrassment. Just when she was about to give up and suggest maybe she’d imagined the feeling, a sudden pop high above their heads heralded the return of Hallahna’s dragon.
Irakyll shrieked excitedly and swooped low over their heads, circling once and landing on Hallahna’s outstretched arm. She chittered excitedly, her eyes whirling. Amischel thought she caught flashes of thought, brief images of dragons and people and a mountain valley she didn’t recognize. Hallahna murmured soothing sounds and focused intently on what was being communicated, and then looked over at Amischel in excitement.
“She found them?” Amischel asked, anticipating the answer. She couldn’t get one of the images out of her head—five dragons in a circle, surrounding a swirling portal.
Hallahna nodded, “They were a lot farther afield than we expected...but I think we have a way for Calistra’s plan to actually work.”
“I saw the portal,” Amischel murmured. Asara started, and then gave her a long, hard look. Hallahna murmured something to her, looked at Amischel reassuringly and then sent Irakyll off. The dragon disappeared with a brief pop and then appeared a moment later with a few other dragons. They all chittered excitedly to each other. Amischel got brief flashes of the portal image again, as well as the sense of a technical discussion of how to do it. Then, to her surprise, they all turned and focused on her. A gold and white dragon cocked its head questioningly and broadcast the unmistakable image of an ethereal, floating sylph who bore more than a passing resemblance to Amischel.
Amischel furrowed her brow and shook her head. ‘Not me.’ She somehow pushed the thought towards the dragons. The white dragon flew closer, then turned back to the others and seemed to push the image more insistently. Irakyll flew down and hovered eye to eye with Amischel. She seemed to be asking permission for something, so Amischel reached out, gently touching her snout. A burst of memories poured through her mind, and she dropped her hand in shock. Irakyll closed her eyes and thrummed, focusing on something, and then pushed one of the images back to her. A small painting her mother had once shown her, a portrait of her grandmother. Then the image of the sylph overlaid the memory and merged with it.
Hallahna stared at Amischel in surprise. “I knew there was something different...I did not realize you were Yseldrin.”
“I’m not...I don’t even know what that is!” Amischel spluttered, “Why are they so excited about it? What does it mean?”
“It means you are descended from their cousins, the Winged Ones of the Air. And it means that you can help them to bring us all to the capital, so we can pin the Destroyer in her den and eliminate those who would aid her in the final confrontation,” she bared her teeth in a smile that was more vicious than joyful. Her eyes glinted. “It means we can finally fight.”
* * * * *
Calistra leaned back against the tent post, frowning. The instant she had presented her plan for distracting the Destroyer the room had dissolved into chaos. Some of the mages were adamantly against exposing themselves so dramatically, the others felt that it wouldn’t be enough to make a difference—they were too far away for the King to care. The captains wanted to know how they were supposed to protect the rest of the encampment if the King did retaliate, and the three councilmembers hollered that they had not been consulted and would not agree to any plan that didn’t involve bringing the crystal bearer back. Geri gave her a consoling look and shrugged his shoulders. “Trying to get anyone to agree to anything is going to be next to impossible.”
“I should’ve brought Amischel with me from the start,” Calistra said wearily, “But I was hoping—oh good, there she is.”
The tent flap opened, bringing a welcome breath of air, and Amischel came in followed by Hallahna and Asara. The arguing gave way to annoyed murmuring in their wake, and then ceased altogether as Calistra held up a hand for silence and turned toward the newcomers.
“Amischel briefed you? Where do the Shaari stand in all of this?”
Hallahna and Asara exchanged a look. “We may have a solution to everything,” Hallahna said breathlessly. The volume level in the room started to rise again, and Calistra murmured a spell irritably, muffling the sound so she could only hear those immediately around her. “I’m open to suggestions,” she said wearily, “anything is better than sitting here doing nothing, and no one seems to like my plan.”
“Our plan is your plan...except we do it from closer to the capital.”
Calistra narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“They’ve found a way to open portals, without wearing out all of your mages,” Amischel said quietly.
Calistra’s eyes widened, and she dropped her spell as the room went silent in shock.
“Explain.”
“When we heard about the attack on Ainon Caseia we sent Irakyll to see if our families back home were safe. It took her ages to find them...because their dragons had somehow portaled them to safety in a remote mountain valley. “
“What! You mean…? How—I thought most of your wing-bonded were here,” Calistra asked, her mind reeling with the implications.
“They are,” Hallahna replied, “That is the best part—there were only five wing-bonded there: my father and four other elderly warriors. Five dragons moved a hundred people in an instant.” She snapped her fingers.
“And this has never happened before? How do you know we can replicate it?” Calistra asked, her gears spinning as she started to mentally rework her attack strategy.
“There have always been stories,” Asara said calmly, “But we always dismissed them as myth—no one in our day has ever experienced it.”
“Irakyll talked to the dragons who pulled it off,” Hallahna said, “She thinks she
and the others can do it, if Amischel helps.”
Calistra blinked in surprise and gave Amischel a questioning look.
“They need some sort of bond to channel their power together, apparently,” Amischel said softly.
“The five who did it in the homeland were all from the same clutch of eggs—they share a certain kind of affinity for each other. Irakyll thinks having Amischel join them will accomplish the same thing.” Hallahna glanced at Amischel as she said this, she didn’t say the other thing the dragon had mentioned, for which Amischel was grateful. She was having enough trouble coming to terms with being...not entirely human...without having the fact spread around.
“I wonder if they resonate at the same frequency…” Calistra murmured, mostly to herself, as she did some mental calculations. “Do you think if all the dragons joined in we could move everyone at once? Twenty people per dragon means that with a hundred dragons we’ll have more than enough to move everyone, including horses.”
Asara and Hallahna exchanged another look. “It’ll be more like thirty dragons or so...not everyone is willing to try it. And the younger ones may not have the capability.”
Calistra acknowledged this with a curt nod, and turned to address the crowd, most of whom were furiously whispering to one another in various mixes of excitement and disbelief.
“Well?” she said, “What do you think?”
“This plan presents its own challenges,” one of the mages who had been adamantly against her original idea spoke, garnering nods from those around him. “But if executed properly we could accomplish in a few days what would otherwise take years of fighting. If they can truly do what they think they can, we must take advantage of it immediately, before word can get back to the Destroyer and we lose the element of surprise.”
* * * * *
Lauryn’s lunge carried her close enough that she just managed to grab hold of the back of Norika’s tunic as she made contact with the rip in the air. For a moment she felt like she was frozen in place, suspended above the ground from her leap. She only had enough time to note that Sukylar had somehow latched onto Nori’s arm, then she was yanked forward through the hole in the air and it closed behind them with an audible pop.
Everything was black and grey and chaos. An icy cold that went more than bone-deep filled her mind and left her gasping for air. She couldn’t feel ground beneath her feet. Their leap should have left them lying in a tangled heap, but somehow they were still falling, tumbling and turning uncontrollably through the darkness. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the gloom, but they didn’t. It was eerily silent. Barely audible whispers resonated through her mind, but didn’t seem to pass through her ears. She became distinctly aware of her grasp on Nori’s tunic, probably because it was the only thing that seemed to connect her to anything in this place. She tightened her grip, hanging on with the kind of determination that only comes from fear. This was very different than when Ky’ara had transported them through the portal.
Lauryn didn’t know if they’d been falling for seconds or hours, but eventually she noticed a bright light up ahead. It darkened momentarily as someone passed through it, then started to shrink. A jolt of panic went through her and she flung out her arm toward the light, willing it to stay open long enough for them to pass through.
Whether because of her efforts or simply due to the chaotic nature of their fall, they shifted sideways just at the right moment, and made contact with the light. Unlike their fall into the darkness, the light didn’t suck them through on its own. It resisted, feeling like a piece of cloth that pressed against Lauryn’s skin. She forcefully pushed her hand through the barrier and grasped the edge of the opening. It was slippery, like silk, and she couldn’t really get a grip on it. She felt the darkness trying to pull them back in, and in another moment of panic she let go of Norika and shoved her other hand through the barrier, grabbing the first thing she touched and hoping it was something attached to the ground.
Norika had caught hold of her leg somehow and held on tightly as Lauryn used her leverage to pull them all through the narrow opening. They landed in a heap on the floor of an unfamiliar room. Lauryn let go of the desk leg she’d used to pull them out of the portal, and peeked her head out from behind the piece of furniture to see where her father had gone. The door was just closing, and the windowless room was empty. Somehow, they had managed to follow him without his noticing.
“Shades curse it, what were you thinking!” Sukylar hissed angrily, sitting up and fixing Norika with a glare.
“He was going to get away,” Norika said, her voice strange.
“So what if he had? Catching him is not worth risking your life!”
“Keep your voices down!” Lauryn whispered, looking at the door to make sure no one was coming.
“If we don’t catch him, I won’t have a life anymore anyways,” Norika muttered,
“You had no idea what would happen in there—what if we’d been cut in half by the closing portal, or lost in that darkness forever?”
“You’ve dragged me through a portal before, how was I supposed to know this one was going to be different?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because the mage who opened it is evil!” Sukylar said scathingly.
Norika looked down at the ground and rubbed her arms as though she were cold.
“What, no more excuses?” Sukylar said caustically.
“Sukylar—” Lauryn said warningly. He whirled and opened his mouth to start in on her too, but she pushed past him and put a hand to Norika’s forehead. His anger evaporated instantly, replaced by concern. Norika was shivering uncontrollably, her eyes glazed.
“She has a fever. She shouldn’t have even been walking around, let alone diving through portals and arguing with you,” Lauryn said, “We need to get her somewhere safe, where she can rest.”
Sukylar nodded curtly, standing and walking to the door. He listened carefully, then motioned for Lauryn to stand watch while he went back and helped Norika to her feet. He picked up her pack, his own having been lost in the portal, and wrapped his other arm around her to lend her the extra support.
“I’ll be fine,” she said weakly, wavering on her feet.
Sukylar shook his head in exasperation, but bit back the caustic remark that came to his lips. Arguing with her was not going to help her recovery.
They eased their way down the hallway, looking for a way out, or even a window to let them know where they were. The hall was narrow, with passages leading off in other directions, and doors to other rooms every few yards.
“Do you think we’re in the palace?” Lauryn whispered.
“Possibly,” Sukylar said, “But I can’t be sure without seeing outside. I’ve only been to the capital a few times.”
“This wing looks mostly deserted. We might be better off hiding here, at least until Norika recovers well enough to walk on her own,” Lauryn suggested.
Sukylar hesitated, his concern for Norika warring with his desire to know where exactly they were and what they may be up against. “Ok.”
They listened carefully at one of the doors and then slipped into the empty room. Dust was thick on the floor, hopefully that meant no one was likely to use the room anytime soon.
Lauryn blew the dust off a bench in the corner and laid her bedroll on it. “Lay down and try to rest.”
It was a sign of how sick Norika felt that she didn’t resist as Lauryn helped her lay down, spread a cloak over her and tucked it around her shoulders. Sukylar stood at the door and peered anxiously through the crack.
“Why are you keeping watch? It’s not like there is anywhere to hide if they decide to come in here,” Norika said weakly.
Sukylar turned away from the door wordlessly and settled himself on the ground next to her instead. She smiled softly and let her eyes drift closed. A moment later she was sleeping. Lauryn watched shrewdly as Sukylar tucked the cloak a little more securely around her and laid a hand on her head. He caught her watching and pulled
his hand back somewhat sheepishly.
“Don’t let me stop you,” Lauryn said dryly. “I’ve been wondering when you two were going to admit you like each other.”
Sukylar looked down at the sleeping woman, a subtle pink tinge appearing in his cheeks. “I’m fairly certain the feeling is not mutual. She’s too stubborn to change her mind about me.”
Lauryn snorted. “I’d argue with you about that, but she did just dive through a portal rather than give up on chasing my father... Speaking of, I’m going to go out and do a little reconnaissance. Be back soon.”
“What?” Sukylar looked up in surprise as Lauryn slipped out of the room. He couldn’t very well call after her and risk drawing attention to them, and he wasn’t about to leave Norika alone in the state she was in. With a grunt of annoyance he settled back down and returned to watching her.
* * * * *
Joran led Ky’ara around the city wall, giving it a wide enough berth that the guards at the gate would not see them. He stopped in front of a sewage tunnel that the organization had modified years ago to allow passage into the city. “It’s not the most pleasant way in, but it will get us past without anyone knowing we’re here.”
Ky’ara nodded and followed him into the narrow tunnel, trying not to think about what she might be stepping in as the splash of their feet echoed back at her through the darkness. Joran stopped abruptly, startling her.
‘What is it?” She asked, ready to throw a spell at whatever the threat might be.
‘I can’t believe it!’ Joran thought back, ‘I can feel traces of him here...Taren passed this way!”
Ky’ara tried not to let her emotions get the better of her. Part of her wanted to race through the tunnel and attack whomever she had to until she found where he had gone. Instead, she grasped Joran’s shoulder to convey her excitement, and then let him lead her through the shadows and back into the harsh sunlight. They skirted the inside of the wall, taking cover behind some shrubs until they reached a street with enough people to blend in with the crowd.
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