by Amie Kaufman
“What are you doing here?” she demanded, refusing to let go. Her skin radiated heat, but he didn’t care.
“I—” he tried, but with the air squeezed out of him, he couldn’t make a sound. Over her shoulder, he could see the boy and the girl walking slowly toward them, and he had no idea what Lisabet was doing behind him. He shoved weakly at Rayna, and with a laugh, she let him go.
“What are you doing here?” she repeated, looking him up and down, her eyes widening as she took in his uniform. “And wearing that?”
“We came to get you back,” he said quietly and urgently, hoping the two other dragons wouldn’t overhear. “The equinox—”
“You didn’t join Ulfar, did you?” she said, talking straight over the top of him. It was the same voice she always used—tell me you didn’t mess things up again, it said.
A flash of pure frustration flowed through Anders, hot and quick. She thought him joining Ulfar Academy was the problem? Rayna was the one who’d been herded away by dragons, flown out of sight against her will and not heard from since. Rayna was the one who’d transformed into a scorch dragon, one of the creatures that had killed their parents.
Lisabet came up to stand beside him, leaning in to press her shoulder against his in silent understanding, and answered for him. “The equinox is tomorrow,” she said. “We had to get to you before . . .”
Rayna was looking at them blankly. This was why she was busy telling him off, Anders realized. She had no idea what was coming. The dragons hadn’t told her—of course they hadn’t. Why would they warn her?
His sister’s gaze flicked across to Lisabet, and her eyes narrowed for a moment, weighing the other girl. Anders knew what that look was—Rayna wasn’t used to Anders being a “we” with anyone other than her.
A shiver went through Anders, so sharp it hurt the bruises all along his ribs where he’d hit the rocks in the river.
Rayna’s face softened. “You’re wet,” she murmured. “That was no way to say hello, I’m sorry. Here, have my coat.” She peeled it off and handed it over, and Anders took it without a protest, pulling it close around him. The wolf in him liked the cold, but his human body couldn’t take much more.
Some tired part of his brain was still working overtime, trying to figure out how he could convince Rayna to come away with him and Lisabet, with two dragons standing right there behind her.
The warmth left by Rayna’s body in the coat’s fur-lined interior sank blissfully into his skin as Rayna took his hand in hers again.
The girl and the boy—the two dragons, his brain corrected him—were still watching them, brows raised. The girl spoke, her voice cutting across their reunion. “Are you going to introduce us, Rayna? Or shall we just set them on fire and save everyone the time?”
Anders nearly stopped breathing, but Rayna didn’t seem to take it seriously.
“This is my brother, Anders,” she said. “And that’s . . .” But she had no introduction for Lisabet.
“Lisabet,” Anders supplied. “My friend.” Better not introduce her any other way. Like mentioning her mother.
“Your friend?” Rayna said, sounding surprised, as if she had no idea how Anders had come by such a thing in the short time since they’d parted.
“He can’t be your brother,” the girl said with a sniff. “He’s a wolf.”
“He looks like her,” the boy said, thoughtful.
“But he can’t be,” she argued, as if that settled it.
“Well, he is,” Rayna told them, curling her hand around Anders’s. She didn’t seem to have any of the doubts he’d harbored, or if she did, they didn’t show on the outside. Then again, Rayna’s doubts never seemed to. “We’re twins.”
The girl snorted. “Impossible.”
Anders’s head was spinning. Rayna was acting like anything but a prisoner. Clearly she had no idea about the sacrifice, and the dragons intended on keeping it that way. He had to find a way to warn her.
“We should take them straight to Drekhelm,” the boy said. “The Dragonmeet will want to see them immediately. They’ll want to know what wolves are doing in our territory when all our leaders are here.”
“They’re spying,” said the girl, backing up several steps. “We’ll take them in as spies.” Before either of the wolves could reply or protest, she dropped to a three-point crouch, the fingertips on her right hand pressed to the ground, dropping her head.
She suddenly swelled, morphing in seconds to the sunrise colors of her dragon form, limbs lengthening, neck growing, until she settled into her new shape. She exhaled with a low rumble, breathing gold-and-white sparks.
Drekhelm? How would they ever get out of Drekhelm, once they were surrounded by dragons?
Lisabet spoke behind him. “We didn’t come to spy. We came for Rayna.”
The boy shrugged. “Well, now you’ll come with Rayna to Drekhelm. Rayna, you take your brother, I’ll take the girl.”
Anders looked across at Rayna, his mouth dry. She didn’t look much more comfortable than he was.
“Don’t try and run away,” the boy called, backing up the slope to make room for his transformation. “I’d hate to have to roast you, but I’ll do it.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the sunrise-colored dragon. “And Ellukka here wouldn’t even hate it.”
“It’ll be okay,” Rayna whispered, letting go of his hand to back up with the other dragons, moving into the space up the mountainside so she could change without colliding with the group.
“What are we going to do when we get up there?” Lisabet whispered once they were out of hearing.
“I have no idea,” Anders whispered in reply. “They can’t let us go, we could show Sigrid the way to Drekhelm. And I’m not even sure Rayna wants to go back.” Frustration surged through him for that admission. After everything he’d done, everything he’d risked, Rayna was just charging on past him like she always did, without bothering to stop and ask what he wanted. How he felt. Taking over yet again. “She has no idea about the equinox. I have to find a chance to get her alone and tell her.”
Lisabet nodded. “They’re not as friendly as I’d hoped,” she admitted, and though the words were mild, Anders could tell from her face that she was beginning to realize just how much trouble they were in. Just because she wanted to talk didn’t mean the dragons wanted to listen.
“I don’t think we have any choice,” Anders said eventually. “They’ll catch us if we run. We have to go with them.”
Ahead of them, the boy transformed to a dark-red dragon, and Rayna crouched, turning to the reds and bronzes of her dragon’s form.
Once the transformation was complete, Anders and Lisabet made their way up the slope, Anders buttoning his borrowed coat tightly, each heading to the sides of the dragons who would transport them. Rayna crouched, pushing out her foreleg so Anders could use it as a ladder.
Up close she radiated heat, like the sun shining straight on his face in the middle of summer. Her scales were a rich red color, and the streaks of copper and gold he’d seen the other times she transformed were in every overlapping scale, a marbled patina of different metallic shades, glinting at him in the dawn.
The sight of a dragon so close—even one that was a person he loved—shot shivers straight down his spine that had nothing to do with the cold. It was as if he could hear the crackle of the white dragonsfire and the screams of people around him, see the golden sparks raining down around him, smell the smoke. As if his dreams were surging to life.
Rayna rumbled encouragement deep in her huge chest, and Anders forced himself to reach out and lay one hand on her foot. He’d expected the scales to be hard, like a seashell or a bone, but they radiated warmth through his hand, and there was a yield to them, despite their toughness. He didn’t reach out to touch her claws, but he knew they’d be as hard as he expected, and as sharp.
Careful of hurting her, reminding himself that this wasn’t just a dragon, it was his sister, he lifted his foot to step up onto he
r paw. She twisted around to watch him, her dark eye half the size of his whole head. She didn’t seem bothered by his weight, so carefully he climbed up her leg to her elbow, and from there to sit astride her back.
He’d been wondering how he’d stay in place without anything to hold on to, but he found that he fit pretty well into the spot where her neck met her shoulders. He could notch his legs in front of her shoulders and shove his body between two of the ridges that ran the length of her back, wrapping his arms around the one in front of him.
There was a surge as Rayna leapt, his stomach lifting for a moment right up into his throat, and then another as she brought her wings down in a long sweep, soaring off the side of the mountain. She spiraled around in a dizzying ascent, and Vallen spread out beneath them like some kind of incredible miniature model, complete with snowy slopes, winding rivers, and dark forests.
There was no turning back now—they were headed for Drekhelm.
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE SKY WAS LIGHTENING AHEAD OF THEM as they glided out over the valley, gaining height as dawn took over the sky. Anders could see the forest, and the glint of the river tumbling through it in the early morning light, and beyond it a dim hint of the plains. With the sun rising now, he wondered if out on the plains Ennar would be able to see the dragons around the mountain, or whether the distance and the clouds would hide them.
Then they were wheeling around, and the mountain rose before them. Rayna flew in formation with the other dragons, following them up and up and into the clouds, where the freezing-cold air bit at his exposed skin, numbing his nose in seconds. He knew they must be moving, because Rayna was still pumping her wings, and he could feel the wind in his face, but in the pearly cloud around them it looked like they were perfectly still.
She tilted to wheel sideways, and he chanced a look down—then found himself staring. Through a gap in the clouds and a gash in the side of the mountain he saw fire—was it a dragon breathing flame?
But no, it wasn’t fire. It was lava, bright and hot, like a living thing in the belly of the mountain. This was the lava Lisabet had told him was somewhere beneath them, making it harder every moment to transform from wolf to human, or back again.
The dragons turned as one, arrowing straight ahead, and as the clouds parted he realized they were heading for a cliff. Rayna’s speed didn’t flag, and Anders’s heart began to kick up, hammering wildly in his chest as they flew directly toward the rock face.
He tightened his grip on Rayna’s neck ridge, ducking down close to her body, as if that would somehow shield him when they plastered themselves flat against the mountain.
At the last possible moment the dragons fell into single file, and one after another they swooped in toward a black spot on the mountainside that suddenly resolved itself into the mouth of a cave. The opening swallowed them whole, and Rayna flared her wings to slow their flight, then landed with a couple of skipping steps, stumbling and stopping, jolting the breath right out of Anders’s lungs. It was a comfort to see there was something about being a dragon she hadn’t perfected yet.
The cave was enormous, with room for several dragons to land at once, the ceiling so high and perfectly smooth that he couldn’t decide if nature had made it that way or if it had been somehow carved. There were huge doors that could close off the cave mouth where they’d flown in, and underneath them, doors sized for humans. Both stood open, offering a view of the snowy mountain beyond.
Grand tapestries lined the walls, some with sections still to be completed, and up at the end of the hall farthest from the mountainside was the human-scaled section. A long, ornate metal table on a raised platform was surrounded by chairs, and several doors led off in different directions.
Every place at the table was taken, and its occupants were pushing back their chairs to stand or twisting around to get a better look at the newcomers. Some of the people staring at them were silver-haired, but a couple of them looked young, perhaps no older than the final years at Ulfar. They were as varied as the wolves at the Academy—old and young, tall and short, with skin ranging from the deepest brown to as white as Lisabet’s, some with stern faces, others simply serious.
But what they all had in common was that they were staring straight at Anders and Lisabet.
Anders climbed down Rayna’s side, hitting the ground with a tired thud and leaning against her for a moment.
Lisabet was dismounting nearby, and once the two wolves were clear, Rayna and the other two dragons suddenly seemed to shrink in a way his eyes couldn’t quite follow, diminishing rapidly until they were just three humans, crouching in formation, one hand pressed to the ground.
Up at the fancy metal table, a man who reminded Anders of the girl they’d met on the mountain with suntanned skin and a blond braid, broke the silence. “Who are those humans?”
An instant later, a woman was pointing at Anders, then Lisabet. “Wolves!” she shouted. “Those are wolves!”
It was the woman in the green dress—the woman he’d seen in the streets of Holbard with Rayna’s hairpin. Other people—other dragons, they must all be dragons—were standing now, a low murmur going through them. The man standing at the head of the table pushed back his chair and rose more slowly to his feet, walking several steps closer to look at the newcomers thoughtfully.
He was fit and strong, with a shock of red hair and a neatly trimmed beard, and ruddy cheeks, as if he was outdoors a lot. He had a politely interested expression that was hard to read, though Anders wished he could.
Rayna took hold of Anders’s hand to lead him forward, but Anders could hardly make his feet move. This was Drekhelm. These were dragons themselves staring down at him, and he was utterly helpless—there was no way he and Lisabet could make a run for it.
And the equinox was tomorrow.
Rayna yanked on his hand, and he stumbled forward beside her.
“Leif, this is Anders,” Rayna said to the redheaded man, as respectful as he’d ever heard her sound. “And his friend . . .” There was a pause as she hunted for a name. “Elsabeth,” she said after a moment, triumphant.
“Lisabet.” That was the copper-haired boy who’d carried Lisabet, speaking from somewhere behind him. Anders could still hear that same smirk in his voice.
Rayna ignored him. “Anders, this is Leif. He’s the Drekleid, the head of the Dragonmeet.”
The Dragonmeet must be the group gathered around the table, Anders thought—though some of them were young, they all had an air of assurance around them, of power. They were in charge of the dragons, he was pretty sure.
But even the members of the Dragonmeet fell silent, waiting for their Drekleid to speak. He didn’t for several heartbeats, gazing down at the five of them, looking at something behind Anders—Lisabet, probably—before his gaze fixed on Anders himself. “And what,” he said finally, “brings you to our territory?”
Anders drew in a careful breath, trying to make sure his voice didn’t shake. “My sister is here,” he said. His voice did shake a little.
“That is unlikely,” Leif said quietly.
Rayna squeezed his hand and raised her voice beside him. “Leif, I’m his sister.”
A ripple of shock went through the room—some of the adults at the table just laughed, and not kindly, others waved away the idea, or turned to their neighbors to raise their voices in denial. A voice rang out from the group, a big man with a bushy beard. “He’s a wolf, he’s no dragon’s brother. He’s a spy.”
“I give you my word as a dragon!” Rayna shouted, raising her voice over the crowd.
“What good is that?” the man scoffed. “You’ve only been here a few weeks, we barely know you. This could have been your plan since the moment you arrived. The wolves got you young, turned you against us, and now you’ve brought them right to our home. It’s impossible that he’s your brother.”
Voices rose all around them, shouting and arguing, and Anders tightened his grip on Rayna’s hand. At this rate, the dragons we
ren’t going to wait until tomorrow to start sacrificing people.
“Leif—” he tried, raising his voice. But the redheaded man didn’t answer. He was busy watching the others argue, and it probably didn’t matter anyway. Anders didn’t know what he would have said if he had got the Drekleid’s attention.
Another woman was shouting now. “The Dragonmeet is all gathered in one place; the equinox is tomorrow, it’s the perfect time for the wolves to attack.”
Then Leif raised his hand, and one by one, everybody fell silent. The whole room was looking at him now, waiting. “Anders, was it?” he said, looking down at Anders.
Anders swallowed hard and nodded. The way the Drekleid spoke, so quietly, was actually more intimidating than the Fyrstulf’s growl, he decided.
“Very well,” said Leif. “We will speak to you first. Rayna, please take your other guest through to the reception room.”
Rayna squeezed his hand tightly, and in just the same way as he knew what the wolves were saying, even when they didn’t make a sound, he understood his sister. They were a pack of a different kind, and they had been learning to speak the same language their whole lives.
I’ll be nearby, she was saying. I’ll be listening for trouble. I’ll come running if I hear a thing.
Anders desperately didn’t want her to leave, but he couldn’t think of a single way to have her stay, so he nodded and made himself unpeel his fingers from around hers one by one.
She and Lisabet turned to walk across the hall, both casting anxious, backward glances at Anders as they went. He was pretty sure neither of them would have chosen him to speak on their behalf if they’d gotten a vote, and he didn’t blame them.
The boy and the girl who had brought them in both bowed to the members of the Dragonmeet and turned to disappear through a door in the opposite direction.
And then Anders was alone with twenty-five adult dragons.