I opened up my treasure sense, straining to focus in on the boxes. This was a bit more difficult, as the boxes didn't have significant value like most treasure did, and there were real valuables buried beneath the forest floor that the treasure hunter in me itched to dig up. “This way,” I said, sensing something to our left. “Tell Ykos so he can follow.”
I gave Lessie a mental sense of where I felt the box was, and she veered in that direction, careful not to scrape her wings against the tree branches. The trees were far enough apart that the other dragons could navigate as well, but despite Lessie’s recent growth spurt, she was still smaller, and could navigate the turns much easier and faster.
“Here we go,” I said as I spotted a box hanging from a tree branch. They’d been tied to the branches, which was smart, because the winds were strong enough that they all would have blown away by now. “Slow down just a hair.”
Lessie did as I asked, and I reached out and snatched the box up. “Dammit,” I cursed as I held it up to my night vision to inspect the symbol. “Wrong one.”
Lessie circled back around so I could return the box to the tree branch, wasting precious time. I scowled at the sound of someone else crowing triumphantly, and Lessie huffed, echoing my sentiment.
“Maybe we should try splitting up,” Rhia shouted over the wind as she passed me. “We’ll get more done if we can divide and conquer.”
“Yeah, okay,” I shouted back. Pulling up the mental map in my head, I marked the locations of where I thought the boxes closest to us were, and then sent that image to Lessie. “Tell Ykos to take the ones on the right,” I told her. “We’ll go left.”
Once we did that, the hunt became much easier. After two more duds, Lessie and I finally grabbed a box, and so did Rhia.
“Two down, two to go,” I told Lessie. “And then we can get out of this blistering cold.”
Lessie made a low sound of agreement. “The weather is miserable,” she said, “but at least we’re together, and you’re not still stuck with Salcombe—”
An explosion rattled my teeth, and Lessie immediately ducked lower, her belly nearly scraping the ground. The hairs on my arms rose, my neck prickling with dread—I knew that sound. A shrapnel cannon, disturbingly close even though we were nowhere near the Zallabarian border.
“Get some altitude,” I ordered Lessie. “Tell Ykos to follow.”
Lessie flapped her wings hard, pushing us high into the sky, above the burgeoning clouds. Rhia followed suit, and the two of us exchanged worried glances as we moved away from where we’d heard the sound, using the clouds for cover.
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Rhia shouted above the roaring winds. “How can there be cannons here? Has the war already started?”
“I don’t know, but we need to warn the others!” I shouted back. Through the bond, I could feel Lessie’s anxiousness as she reached out to the other dragons, warning them to take their riders to safety. We needed to get back to the academy, to tell Major Falkieth what was going on—
The pained roar of a dragon ripped through my thoughts, and Lessie jerked, nearly tossing me from the saddle. “It’s Ragor!” she cried. “He’s hurt!”
“Shit.” Ragor was Ullion Tegar's dragon, a second-year rider and a fresh-faced seventeen-year-old with a gentle soul. Anger bloomed in my chest at the thought of him or his dragon hurt—he had no business getting caught up in a war like this. “How bad is it?”
“A large gash in his side,” Lessie said. “He’s in too much pain to fly his rider back to the academy, so he’s seeking shelter in the trees.”
I gritted my teeth. “We need to figure out where this cannon fire is coming from.”
Using Lessie, I silently communicated to Ykos and Rhia to stay quiet and follow me. Carefully, the four of us flew higher, scanning the skies for anything out of place. As we rose above another layer of clouds, Lessie stopped short just before we crashed into a large, dark object, and my heart flew into my throat.
“Dragon’s balls!”
“What IS that?” Lessie asked, hastily backpedaling away. But before she could get very far, I squeezed my legs, commanding her to stay where she was.
“It’s the hull of an airship.” Swallowing hard, I craned my neck to get a better look. We’d been directly beneath the belly, and now that Lessie had moved back a bit, I could see the cannons sticking out from the aft side. Two in total, and probably two more on the other side.
Rhia and her dragon rose from the clouds on my left side, and her eyes nearly bugged out of her skull at the sight of the warship. Pressing my fingers to my lips, I used my dragon to communicate with her, not wanting to risk being overheard. We were damned lucky the crew didn’t seem to notice us hovering below, and I wanted to take full advantage of the element of surprise.
The sound of something crackling made my skin prickle, and I clapped my hands to my ears. “Get down!” I mentally shouted at Lessie.
Lessie and Ykos both dropped beneath the cloud layer just as the ship fired another cannon. My heart pounded hard, blood thrumming in my ears as I wondered if another dragon had been hit. Poking up above the clouds, this time on the other side, I was surprised there were no cannons.
“Rhia suspects that more would have weighed the ship down too much,” Lessie relayed after I’d told them what we’d seen.
“Right.” We regrouped below the clouds. “We need to take out that ship,” I shouted at Rhia.
“Should we try jamming the cannons first?” Rhia shouted back.
I shook my head. “Too risky. Besides, if we destroy the cannons, we’ll never be able to get a chance to study them properly.”
The two of us briefly conferred, then flew around to the port side of the ship. Rising through the clouds, our dragons opened their mouths and immediately began blasting the airship with fire. Screams filled the air as the flames licked the sides of the ship, but the moisture from the atmosphere protected it, keeping the fire from spreading as rapidly as we would have liked.
“Go for the air balloon!” I shouted at Rhia.
Ykos flapped his wings, pushing him and Rhia higher into the air as the crew began shooting at us. Lessie roared as one of the bolts grazed her wing, but the danger only spurred her on. We darted around the ship, evading more bolts as we continued to bombard the crew with fire. One of Lessie’s fireballs made it past the men guarding the cannons and collided with a pile of shrapnel bombs.
“Duck!” I screamed, and Lessie dropped like a stone, so fast that my ass briefly left the saddle before being yanked back down by the stirrups. I clapped my hands over my ears, but the resulting explosion still rattled my brain.
“They did it!” Lessie crowed as Rhia and Ykos sped away from the ship. Sure enough, I saw that the giant balloon holding it airborne had been destroyed. Lessie and I hurriedly got clear of the ship as it immediately began to plummet to the ground, trailing smoke and screams in its wake.
The dragons roared their triumph to the sky, lighting up the clouds with more streams of fire, and Rhia and I exchanged grins. Her face was flushed, her thick chestnut hair flying like a wild cloud around her head, and her eyes blazed with the same thrill of victory I was feeling.
But that heady feeling quickly disappeared as I looked down and remembered the injured dragon. Sensing my thoughts, Lessie tucked her wings in at her sides, and we dove through the layers of clouds, heading back to the forest to search for our fallen comrade. As the ground finally came into view again, we saw smoke rising from the field—the ship had crash-landed just on the outskirts of the forest, quickly becoming a blaze of kindling.
“I doubt any of them survived that,” Lessie said.
Flying lower, we passed over the ship briefly to check if there were any survivors. Seeing none, we continued over the forest until we found Ragor and Ullion. My gut twisted as we flew over splintered trees that had been hit by the cannons—several were on fire, and Lessie used the gusts from her wings to put them out as we passed. Ulli
on and his dragon were huddled under a large tree that remained unscathed, and I winced at the sight—the dragon had spread his left wing out on the ground, and it was torn and bleeding in multiple places. Ullion was curled up against his dragon’s other side, clutching his leg, which was also soaked in blood.
Lessie landed a few feet away, and I jumped to the ground and ran over to them. “What happened?” I asked as I dropped to Ullion’s side. “Where’s your partner?”
“I-I’m not sure,” Ullion stammered, his voice shaky. The boy’s face was pale with blood loss, and anger surged through me that his partner wasn’t here with him. “I think he fled with everyone else.”
Rhia sighed as she approached, a sympathetic expression on her face. “You can’t blame him, Zara,” she said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “We did tell all of them to run.”
“Sure, but I wouldn’t have left you,” I growled.
“Nor I, you,” Rhia agreed. “But most of these guys are still kids.”
I looked at Ullion again. His freckled face was baby smooth, his eyes glazed over with shock, and I had to agree with Rhia. He was a kid, as were so many of the other cadets. Raised in luxury, with no real concept of war since it had been so long since Elantia had been involved in any real conflict. Most of the wars we'd been involved in happened in foreign territory; few countries were brave enough to attack us on our home turf.
A quick examination of Ullion’s wound told me that he still had shrapnel embedded in his leg and would need surgery from a doctor or mage healer. I drew my knife and cut off a piece of his tunic to bind the wound, then handed him off to Rhia to take him back to the academy. Lessie and I would wait here with Ragor, who was still bleeding and defenseless, until someone could come out to heal him, too.
While Lessie licked the blood from Ragor’s wounds, trying to close them up, another dragon landed in the clearing. I narrowed my eyes as another boy, this one even younger than Ullion, dismounted and approached. Kade Malte, I thought, digging his name up.
“W-where’s Ullion?” Kade asked, his eyes darting around the small clearing.
“Heading back to the academy.” I pushed myself to my feet despite the exhaustion dragging at my limbs. “You’re his partner?”
“Yeah.” He looked at Ragor’s shredded wing, guilt written all over his pale face. “I wanted to help him, but I was too scared to approach. The sound of that cannon fire—”
“It’s all right,” I said, gentling my voice. The fear and guilt eating at him eroded my anger, and I let out a deep sigh. “You did the right thing, hanging back until the cannon fire stopped, and then coming back to find your partner.”
He nodded shakily. “Should I go back to the academy and check on him? Or do you need help watching his dragon? Gosh, that looks like an awful wound,” he said, peering around me at Ragor again.
Ragor made a grumbling sound in his throat, as if in agreement. “I think you should stick around a bit,” I told him, eyeing the sword strapped to his side. “It’ll be nice to have another dragon to help protect Ragor while we wait for help, and you can be my backup.”
“Your backup? For what?”
I gave him a tight grin. “We’re going to go exploring.”
Leaving Lessie, Ragor, and Dinmar—the third dragon—behind to help with Ragor’s wounds, Kade and I set out for the airship. We walked a good forty minutes to reach the edge of the forest, but the downed airship was easy enough to find, still spewing smoke into the sky. The stench of charred flesh, wood, and gunpowder reached my nose long before we stepped out of the woods, and Kade retched a little.
“This is terrible,” he said as we circled the wreckage. The remnants of the cannons were strewn about the grass, and he kicked at one of the smoking pieces of metal. “This thing did so much damage, and that was just one ship. What if we’d had to face off against a dozen?”
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” I said grimly as I poked through the remains of the airship. One of the cannons was damaged beyond repair, but the other one was merely cracked—still salvageable, and certainly intact enough for us to study. The cabin had broken into several pieces, and I counted the scorched bodies of seven men in the grass. “The enemy has vastly superior technology to us, and the capability to hurt our dragons badly.”
Kade nodded. "You were right, Zara," he said. "When you told us in the mess hall that we were too cocky, and that Zallabar had superior weapons, I thought you were exaggerating. But this…" He shook his head. "It's monstrous."
I nodded, crouching in the grass to examine one of the bodies. I felt no pleasure in his acknowledgment—I'd rather Ragor and Ullion be whole and healthy over the Zallabarians proving me right about my fears. I studied the man's clothing. He wore plain leathers rather than a military uniform. Were these men undercover, or were they mercenaries?
"If Zallabar is swelling their ranks with soldiers for hire, we are in bigger trouble than we thought," Lessie said.
“No kidding.” I straightened, turning to look at Kade. “Do you see anything about this ship that identifies it as Zallabarian?”
Kade pursed his lips a minute as he scanned the wreckage, then shook his head. “Nothing. The men aren’t wearing uniforms, and there are no identifying markings on the canvas or the ship itself. If not for the cannons, there’d be no way of knowing.”
I nodded my agreement. “What do you think they were doing here?”
Kade turned south, looking back toward the city. “If I had to guess, I’d say they were on their way to Dragon’s Table,” he said. “Maybe they planned to hit the stables and try to scare our dragons out into the open so they could maim and kill them before we were called to active duty.”
“Except they didn’t have to,” I said grimly, “because we were already out here, flying about without a care and ripe for the picking.”
Rage burned in my gut as I thought of how the Zallabarians must have gleefully turned their ship toward the forest. It should have been perfectly safe for these cadets to fly within our own territory; Zuar City was nowhere near the border. With no one patrolling the skies this far up, they had managed to sneak a ship into our airspace and target our precious dragons. It was unacceptable.
“How did the airship end up down here?” Kade asked.
“Rhia and I found it high up in the clouds,” I told him. “It hadn’t noticed us, so we came around from behind and torched it.”
“That’s crazy,” Kade said, shaking his head. “Crazy, and amazing. Thank you.” He bowed his head. “You probably saved my partner’s life tonight.”
The sound of flapping wings drew our attention to the sky, and we turned to see Major Falkieth and Headmaster Caparro descending, along with five other riders. “Son of a hoggleswaith,” Major Falkieth swore as she rushed over to the smoldering remains of the airship. “So, it’s true!”
The headmaster was on her heels, his eyes wide with disbelief as he took in the scene. “Where is the injured dragon?” he demanded.
“Farther into the woods,” I told him. “I can lead you there—”
“I’ll do it,” Kade interrupted, stepping forward. He turned toward the two riders standing nearby and holding medical supplies. “Follow me.”
He strode back into the forest, and the other riders followed, leaving me alone with Falkieth and Caparro. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself for their questions, and gave them my full report.
When I was finished, the headmaster shook his head. “What you and Rhia did tonight was a bit foolish, but very brave. The two of you, and your dragons, saved many lives.”
“How did you know to look for that airship?” Falkieth asked.
I shrugged. “Instinct, I guess. I didn’t see any wagons on the ground, so I assumed that the cannon fire was coming from the sky.”
Falkieth looked like she’d swallowed a lemon. “The old cannons were far too heavy to mount in an airship, so we never expected an attack from the sky,” she said. “We’ll have to start regular sky
patrols above all the major cities. You there,” she barked at two of the dragon riders. “Secure these cannons. We’re bringing them back to Dragon’s Table for further study.”
“We don’t have the manpower for regular sky patrols,” the headmaster growled. “From the reports we’ve been getting, we’re going to need everyone we can spare to fight in the coming conflict.”
"Then we'll have to bring the older dragons out of retirement," Falkieth countered. "It isn't enough at this point to draw on the reserves. We have to protect our people, no matter what."
They finished examining the wreckage, then ordered me to take them to Ragor. When we arrived in the clearing, the dragon's wound had been treated and bandaged. Kade and the other riders were half-finished building a small shelter around him.
“We’re not going to be able to move him for a few days,” one of the riders explained, “so we’ll have to keep him here until he’s recovered.”
We all pitched in to help, and then Lessie and I returned home while the other riders scoured the skies, searching for any other enemy airships that might be lurking. I held my breath the whole flight home, fearing we'd missed something and that Lessie and I might be shot out of the sky at any time.
“Don’t be silly,” Lessie chided as we touched down outside the stables. She turned her long, sinewy neck around so she could nuzzle me in the saddle. “They didn’t send more than one ship. This was a stealth mission to gauge our defenses.”
“I know,” I said, nuzzling her back. Hopping down, I led Lessie into the stables to put away her tack and rub her down for the night.
We’d made it back safe, for now. Whether or not we’d continue to be safe depended entirely on whether the council took this threat seriously or decided to keep their heads buried in the sand and ignore just how hopelessly outgunned we were.
13
When I woke up the next morning, we were unofficially at war.
Dammit, I thought as I trudged into the mess hall, my limbs still heavy with exhaustion. I’d slept the entire morning away, which normally would have been fine since it was the weekend, but I’d been planning on going down to the shop to help Carina out and fill her in on everything. She probably heard the cannon fire last night and was out of her mind with worry. The morning was gone now, along with it the busiest time for us on Sundays, but maybe I could still go down and hang out with her for the afternoon.
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