I peered through the darkness. Ashana Willowspring stood at the other end of the cage, a pair of Dragon Riders on either side of her, purple scarves fluttering at their elbows and knees.
The murmur of our guard's voice drifted away in the night, joining the sounds of the camp - a constant dull noise, but with no clear words or sounds standing out from the rest. The worry knotting my belly mixed with the sounds to give me a dull headache. I limped forward, stiff and sore from a day of flying behind Starie.
I saluted. "For now."
Ashana looked us up and down. "Your dragons?"
Leng shook his head. "Ahlskibi lives - I think - but he was badly injured in our last battle and I don't know where he is. Captured, perhaps."
"Raolcan is alive," I said. "But I lost contact with him."
Ashana nodded briskly. "These are Eluci Daggerworn and Peln Vendris. We were taken by the Dusk Covenant two days ago."
"These cages seem well built," Leng said, joining the others. I followed him, worry filling me. I didn't like that they had us in these caged wagons. There was something about this that seemed strange. Why take prisoners this way? It was almost as if they had planned for it.
"I don't think they are for humans," Eluci said, braiding her hair absently as she spoke. "We've checked and rechecked them and they're built very solidly - overbuilt, really - no human would need something so strong to hold them. Why waste the resources and increase the weight for no reason?"
"What pulls them?" I asked. No single horse could pull something so heavy - not even a team of horses.
"They are using dragons to pull them." Ashana shivered. "Dragons are not made to be draft animals."
"We weren't made to be caged," Leng said.
"So, they built them for dragons then?" I asked, quietly.
Ashana nodded. "And they built them a long time ago - before this war started. I think they only have put us in here temporarily."
"If they want our dragons," Leng said, "They need to keep us alive. Every Dragon Rider they kill is one less dragon they can use."
Ashana nodded. "We concluded the same thing. But the Council and all other Dragon Riders are divided. Some are loyal to the Dominar. Others of us find ourselves drawn, instead, to our dragons."
Beside her, Peln shifted irritably.
Ashana laid a hand on his arm. "If I speak to these two it is because I trust them."
"She's not even a full Dragon Rider," he objected, pointing to me.
"Hubric Duneshifter says I am," I said quietly. "If you have so few Dragon Riders to call on, why worry about whether my title is formalized?"
"Because to formally be raised to the title you must pass tests and inspections that verify you have what it takes to join our ranks." Peln was frowning. "With Dragon School in complete disarray, it's impossible to determine these things. You could betray us thinking you were doing the right thing."
Ashana clicked her tongue. "Enough. Hubric said you were ready?"
I nodded.
"Then let it be so. She is raised a Full Dragon Rider of the Purple."
"You can't just-" Peln started, but Ashana threw up a hand.
"I can, and I did. Now, enough squabbling. We have limited time to hatch a plan before they decide to do something more than keep us in cages."
"They plan to use me as bait," I said calmly. "To trip up Savette Leedris."
"And you're fine with that plan?" Peln asked. "Savette Leedris and her rebellion are the last hope of saving our dragons. Do you know what they plan to do to them?"
"Yes."
He looked shocked. "And you're fine with that?"
"Of course not. I won't let her use me."
There was the sound of feet outside the cage and a call as two soldiers passed, calling drunkenly back and forth to each other. We all fell silent, huddling closer in the night.
"We'll wait until the guard changes to speak more on this," Ashana said.
"More waiting," Peln grumbled.
Ashana rubbed the bridge of her nose between her fingers. Her patience must be growing thin trapped with Peln all this time.
"We all have dragons we are worried about, Peln. Taking it out on each other doesn't help anything."
Peln had the good grace to look embarrassed before mumbling a 'sorry' and sitting down. Ashana sat down next to him and we all followed suit, forming a ring in the bottom of the cage. I missed the benches we'd had the last time. My bad leg always hurt when I sat on the ground. It was hard to get it into a comfortable position.
"First," Ashana said, "You'll catch me up on everything that has happened since last I saw you-”
“Actually,” Leng interrupted, “Now that we’re in the same place, I was hoping you’d grant my request.”
Chapter Eight
The dark of night was falling now, and the night was moonless. The only light in our cage was coming from the cookfires of the camp a little way off. I shivered, huddling into my cloak. What was Leng talking about? Ashana was hardly in a position to grant anything from the inside of a cage. And yet, she had an ironic twist to her lips as she looked back and forth between us and he was almost vibrating with the tension of whatever his request was.
"In the middle of a war?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Yes." I loved how firm and certain Leng's voice was. No matter how confused or unsteady I was, he was always a sure thing.
"With our enemies currently winning? With us caged like animals, and the fate of the world in our useless hands?" Her gaze bored into him.
"What other time would there be?"
He was smiling slightly and in the velvet darkness, he reached out and took my hand. I felt warmer - safer - despite where we were.
The caress of his calloused palm against mine – so real, so safe, so certain – comforted me.
My eyes strained in the darkness to see him, only seeing hints and flickers of his expression when the light caught it the right way. I shivered, conscious of the strange incongruence of the safety I felt with him and the evil all around us.
This was us. Two leaves rushing down the same waterfall side by side. Two doves huddling on the same branch in the storm. Two flickering candles holding off the dark of the night. Maybe someday there would be peace and sipping tea in safety together, but for now, a clinging grip of two hands, flickers of emotion in the corners of the mouth, hope in the eyes – this was enough. I could rest in this. I could treasure it forever.
Ashana laughed. "Well, if I am going to die tomorrow, I might as well help a pair of lovers marry tonight."
Beside her, Peln groaned, but my heart was beating a mile a minute. I had forgotten about Leng's request! He was asking her to marry us in the middle of a prison in an enemy camp!
My gaze drifted to the soldiers outside bent on destroying the land we loved, to the pavilions on the hilltop where Starie, Grandis Elfar, and their cohorts plotted the destruction of our dragons, to the darkness beyond the camp where somewhere our beloved dragons fought for their lives.
I would have liked Raolcan to be here. But I wouldn’t miss this one chance. Besides, he probably would be complaining that it was too mushy for him. He would want us focused on defeating Starie and setting her army ablaze.
Coming...
Raolcan! I could barely sense him, but he was there - and he was coming! Excitement welled up for my dragon and for Leng. I felt like I could take down this entire enemy camp with the intensity and energy that filled me.
"Do you want to marry Leng Shardson, Amel Leafbrought?" Ashana asked, slicing through my reverie.
Of course, I did! The only thing I wanted more right now was victory.
"Yes," I said.
"Don't tell me. You're just going to say, ‘you’re married,’ like you did when you raised her to Dragon Rider," Peln objected. "We have traditions and ceremonies for a reason First Rider!"
"We do," Ashana said, authority in her voice. "Ceremonies and traditions are vital to the future of the Dragon Riders and always have be
en so in our past. Through these traditions, we find meaning and our place in this world. We come to understand our shared values and agree to keep our promises as a group. But what are the fires of war and the famine of adversity but a kind of ceremony all their own, inducting us into a deeper kind of life?”
Maybe this wasn't a formal ceremony, but her words felt formal. And we were in the core of a war right now, we’d been swallowed down the throat of battle and found ourselves in the churning belly of conflict.
"A marriage between Dragon Riders," Ashana continued, "is different than most other marriages. Both Riders are dedicated to their own tasks, their loyalties to their dragons and to their Color, but at the same time, you are promising to have a greater loyalty to one another. It is complicated and not without strain. Dragon Riders rarely marry and are rarely given permission to marry. Do you understand that?"
“And maybe it would be a good reason not to do this now,” Peln grumbled, but I didn’t care that he objected. The whole world could object, and it wouldn’t’ change my mind.
Leng loosened his grip on my hand. Was he afraid? I felt a stab of uncertainty until I remembered he was the one who had pushed for this. He was the one who had interrupted Ashana to ask all over again. He was simply letting off the pressure, so I could decide for myself. I gripped his hand tighter to assure him that I was with him. I wanted this. No cost was too high for the chance to call him my own.
"Yes," I agreed, and this time I was proud that my voice wasn't shaking at all.
"Yes," Leng echoed.
"It is only because of the great loyalty and dedication that you have already shown that I am offering you this opportunity. I trust you will not falter in your other duties, that you understand that you are servants of the Dominion and that your own commitments will often have to come second to that. You are committing to seeking the good of the other above your own, to lifelong loyalty and to an intertwined life. Are these things what you want? Is this the truth as you see it?"
"They're true," Leng said, and his words were like granite. My breath was just a bit faster at the thought of him beside me through the days ahead. I felt warmth spreading through me at the knowledge that in these hard times, these toughest of tough days, he wanted to promise to keep loving me, to stay by my side, to keep loyalty to me close to his heart.
"Yes," I said aloud and this time my voice was quivering, not with uncertainty but with an intensity of emotion that I hadn't expected. I'd hoped for his love, but I'd been almost too afraid to hope that he'd offer me this - a future.
When I’d joined Dragon School I’d been looking for a purpose in life- and I’d found it. I hadn’t expected the family that came with it and I’d certainly never expected this – a permanent place in someone’s heart - a place guaranteed by promises and truth.
"Then we don't need a ceremony," Ashana said. "As the head of the Purple Dragon Riders, you have my permission. You are married."
I leaned into Leng, closing my eyes to savor the moment. I could smell his warm musk and feel his strength against me. If Raolcan was here, he'd be teasing us and laughing at us for getting married in a cage in an enemy camp, but nothing about our love had been normal or predictable. It made sense that our commitment to each other would take place in an unexpected way. I was just grateful for him - for his love, his strength, and the sudden hope that sprang up in me as I held his hand. Surely, in a world where Leng could exist, not everything was dark and hopeless!
“I have something more to say,” Leng said, almost shyly. He turned so he could hold my arms, bringing his face down close to mine, almost intimately. “No matter what comes, Amel, I’m yours. I won’t ever stop loving you, stop protecting you, stop helping you. No matter how our circumstances change, or how we change, I vow not to leave, not to give up, not to give half-heartedly. From here on, I am yours.”
Heat flooded me and I was suddenly very aware of him so close to me.
“I promise the same thing, Leng. We’ve been through too much to ever walk away from each other. We’ve saved each other’s lives over and over. No matter what happens next, I love you and I promise to be there for you.”
The moment felt precious – like a perfect drop of dew on a sunny morning, like a feather floating in the air. I wanted to hold on to it forever.
"And now, you talk.” Ashana's tone changed to something that had a growl behind it. Beside her, the other two Dragon Riders seemed to perk up. "Tell me everything that has happened since last I saw you."
“At least let them kiss first,” Eluci said, speaking up for the first time. “It’s not a proper wedding without a kiss.”
And she was right.
Leng gathered me in his arms, feeling in the dark to find my waist with one arm and to cup my face with the other hand. His lips were hot and gentle, fierce but yielding. As if it were the seal on the promise we’d made, it seemed to brand our new place with each other onto my heart and into my flesh. I wanted it to go on and on, to lose myself in the moment and forget the war and the cold metal surrounding us as I fell into him. I felt my cheeks heating, as if the blaze within couldn’t be kept inside. He was mine! Mine!
I should have stayed away. I finally get close enough to hear you and I get this! I did not come back for squishiness! There’s a war to win, Amel. Am I going to have to come down there and do this myself?
Chapter Nine
We talked long into the night, sharing information before we drifted off to sleep. When the Dragon Riders were finally talked out, I slept curled up against Leng, sharing the warmth under both of our fur-lined cloaks. There was something so precious about laying my head on his chest and listening to him breathe as I fell asleep and something so fleeting about the way our shared warmth would flee with any movement under the cloaks. It, like the preciousness of the moment, was too fragile to last.
I woke to the squeal of the cage door as it opened and a Magika called from outside the cage. "We're here for the cripple. Send her out."
I untangled myself from my cloak and pulled myself up, adjusting my crutch and cloak. Outside, the Magika cursed and pulled one of his magic whips from inside his own cloak.
"No need for that," Leng said from beside me, sleep still thick in his voice. "She is only gathering her crutch."
He looked up at me, concern in his eyes. We were together in life now, our fates intertwined. He hurried to stand, pulling a scarf from where it was tied around his waist and wrapping it quickly around my hips and cinching it tight. I knew what that meant now. Dragon Riders didn’t give out scarves without a deep meaning and this scarf – wrapped around as much of me as he could get it – had the deepest meaning of all the scarves I wore. I liked the feel of it there – like a snug reminder that we were tied together now.
“Don’t worry,” I whispered.
“Be safe, heart of my heart.”
His fingers brushed mine in a goodbye before I hobbled out of the cage, sending him a last fleeting look as I left.
Would I see him again?
That question had weighed heavily on me before, but now it had a heavier feeling to it, as if our commitments to each other made the link between us both more powerful and also more significant. If one of us fell, it would drag the other down in a way that wasn't possible before. If one of us rose, it would pull the other up, too. It was a strange thing to feel, but just as precious as that fragile warmth and in a way, it kept me warm inside as the Magika pulled me roughly down the steps.
He was no longer patient enough to let me walk at my own pace, gripping my elbow to pull me through the skim of snow that coated the tents and ground and made everything seem brighter somehow.
"This whip isn't for show. Keep up or feel its bite."
I ignored him. I was already going as fast as I could. Whipping me would only slow me more. These Magikas were on edge - too on edge to realize the idiocy of their threats. I needed to focus on that. Where there was edgy behavior, there was weakness and where there was weakness, there
would be opportunity. If I watched carefully, I might find out what that opportunity was.
We hadn't settled on a plan last night. Ashana's account had been simple enough. Having rescued the refugees in the warrens and brought them to the lands of Haz'drazen, the Dragon Queen had been kind enough to deliver her to the Dawn's Gate. After the chaos there had subsided, she'd hitched a ride to Sky City and helped the Lightbringers in their underground work there until Rasipaer had returned. After that, she'd been running messages for Savette along with the other Purples loyal to the true Chosen One. It was while they were running a message to Casaban that they had been caught by Starie's Magikas and Ifrits and pulled from the sky. None of that helped with a plan. And I needed a plan and needed it quickly.
"Have you been a Magika long?" I asked my guard, making conversation as we slipped through the wet grass and slick layer of snow.
"What's it to you?"
"I'm just making conversation."
"Save it. We all know your fate. There's no point getting to close to someone who has only one purpose."
"As a prisoner?" I asked, poking to see if I could get anything more out of him.
"As bait. Either you will be tortured for your friend to see or you’ll be left alive long enough to draw her out of Sky City and bring her into the reach of the Chosen One. After that, all you'll be good for is raising an Ifrit."
I shivered, but not from the cold. I knew how they raised Ifrits. Somewhere around here, there was a dust demon made from the life of my old friend Tomas.
I wondered, idly, as if my mind were trying to distract itself, how the Ifrits did in the snow. They didn't like water. They hid under rivers and avoided them when they could. They liked to stay in touch with the dust from which they came. How did they cope on a landscape coated in frozen water?
We had a long walk to Starie's pavilion. My guard, strangely enough, seemed to be a favorite in the camp. At every campfire we passed, someone called out a greeting to him or bowed respectfully. He returned their calls with comments equally cheerful. How strange. To me, he was the boogeyman come alive. To them, he was a buddy.
Dragon School: Starie Night Page 3