by Lucia Ashta
“That’s not volunteering,” I said.
“No, it isn’t, which is why it was smart for the trainees to join him without protest. If they hadn’t, they would’ve endangered their lives.”
“And their families,” Shula said.
“Their families?” I asked so softly that I hoped no one would hear me, that the reality of our world wouldn’t be as bad as this.
But they did, and it was. “Aye,” Dean said. “Haven’t you seen enough yet to believe that?”
“I guess so.” Pumpoo had tried to throw Dean, Shula, Rosie, and me in a pit, from which I doubted we would have ever come out alive. “Did he send the shadow man?”
“That’s one thing we don’t know. Crush, did you see anything?”
“Nothing. The forest is empty.”
“Excuse me,” Rane said, “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, and I realize you all have loads more experience than we do, but if this shadow man blends into his surroundings, how can you be so sure he’s not in the forest? It’s dark, the moon’s not up yet, and there’s ash raining down darkening the sky.”
“I’m sure,” Crush said, and that ended the argument.
“Good,” Dean said. “At least that gives us some reprieve to figure out our next steps.”
“What will we do?” Traya asked. “Will Pumpoo really order the trainees to march against us?”
“Yes. You said he told them we were enemies of the sacred purpose of the Ooba people.”
“Aye, he said you’d finally gone crazy, and that while he honored your service and sacrifice, all of which had caused you to snap under the pressure of your job, we couldn’t allow you to continue on. That you were now a danger to the dragons, and that anyone with you was also an enemy of the Ooba. He said you were killing dragons down here.”
“Well, it did sound like that’s what we were doing. I suppose the fire was my fault too.”
“Yes, you set fire to the forest, intent on destroying everything the Ooba hold sacred.”
“And us?” Shula said. “We’re what, just unwitting idiots, who follow our leader wherever he points us?”
“Basically.”
Rane said, “Of course, it was all much more elegant than that. The chieftain gave a long discourse, showing what looked like real emotion when he spoke of the loss of some of the greatest and most fearsome warriors the tribe has ever seen. Really, it was crazy. If I didn’t know better, I would have believed him.”
“I’m sure he put on quite the show,” Dean said. “That man isn’t good for much, but he does know how to entrance an audience.”
“And suck out their energy,” I said.
“I didn’t tell anyone but Shula of this. Tell everyone what you saw, Anira.”
“At that first meeting with the new trainees at the sacred pools, when Pumpoo was talking to all of you about what the seer said, about the twins coming to steal the dragons and destroy the ways of our people—”
“We remember,” Scar interrupted.
“How could we forget,” Peachy said. “The chieftain leaves quite the impression.”
“Well, before he started talking, I saw him pulling out the energy—I guess that’s what it was—from every single one of you.”
“What?” Boom said, and that one word sounded deadly, as if he’d make Pumpoo pay for any harm he caused.
“I think it was energy, your life force or something. I’m no expert. But this light, glowy substance left every one of you and entered Pumpoo. He kind of... sucked it in, or maybe breathed it in is the better way to describe it.”
“Even us?” Rane asked.
“Aye, even you and Traya. It took everything I had not to yank the two of you out of there.”
But Rane and Traya would understand exactly why I hadn’t done that better than anyone.
Dean spoke to his dragon charmers, “And you all remember that I told you that he said he had faithum.”
“When did Pumpoo say that?” Rane asked.
“When he tried to imprison your sister and us in a pit at the edge of the village.”
Rane snapped his head to look at me. I gave him an apologetic look, but it was unlikely he saw it. Dean might have just seen me, but the light of the setting sun might have been the reason. It was too dark now. I could barely see Rane sitting next to me. But my face still expressed my regret at keeping him uninformed. He and I had always been closest. It’s just that I’d barely had the chance to see him or Traya since I first appeared to Dean as a dragon spirit.
“You have nothing to say for yourself, Anira?” Rane ground out the syllables of my name.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean not to tell you. A lot has happened in little time.”
“Well that’s the truth.”
Dean said, “If Pumpoo is stealing energy, says he has faithum, and wanted us to work with Rosie to figure out a dragon’s connection to faithum…”
Rane swung another accusatory look my way.
“And now that he very well might have a shadow man under his control, he’s more dangerous than we suspected. Plus, he’s adding to his forces. Not only does he have his obedient little emissaries to do his bidding, but now he’s culling from the Force.”
“We can’t expect more than a third to remain loyal to us,” Brute said.
“I agree. They’d be fools to align with us over him.”
“The Force is filled with fools,” Peachy said.
“Aye, that’s what I’m counting on. We need all those crazy enough to choose our side over Pumpoo’s. Especially with this shadow man out there. Remember that this shadow man was skilled enough to take out three of our own.”
Crush said, “But he had the element of surprise on his side. He doesn’t have that anymore.”
“True, and let’s be glad for that. Crush, your job is the shadow man. Can you handle it?”
“Do I really need to answer that question?”
“No, you don’t, which is why I know you’re the man for the job. Anira can help you.”
“How?”
“She saw the shadow man before I did. She can see him better than any of us, I think.”
“It’s more than that,” I said, realizing I hadn’t told anyone this. “I woke up from sleep because I felt something. I didn’t realize it was him at the time, but then I saw him.”
“Even better,” Dean said. “That means you can feel him to some extent. I don’t want you out in the forest where you’re more vulnerable, but I want you to keep an eye out for the shadow man from the clearing here, and keep your senses sharp, too. Can you do that?”
“Absolutely.” I was actually part of the Dragon Force... receiving orders from the legendary dragon charmer I never thought I’d even speak to. Amazing.
“Good. Keep Rosie with you at all times.”
“That won’t be a problem.” The baby dragon never left my side, especially not after we put her to sleep and I snuck away.
“I wish you could spend some time working with her to see if you sense any faithum in her, but we can’t afford the distraction yet.”
“Like what Pumpoo wanted, you mean?”
“Exactly. But later. We have to get out of immediate danger first.”
I looked around the clearing. Beyond the smoldering forest, everything seemed serene and quiet. But I knew dangers lurked where they weren’t seen. I especially understood how much could go on beyond what our eyes registered. I’d do as Dean said.
“Brute, I want you to patrol the forest with Crush. Stay sharp.”
“Got it,” Brute said.
“Shula, I want you to take first watch of the clearing. Peachy, Boom, and Scar, you take first rest. Sleep here next to the kids.”
I would have objected to being called a kid, but it was the truth. And the more Dean outlined our current dangers, the less I wanted to be a hero and the more I wanted them to protect me. It was one thing to realize you were under constant threat of death—when hiding from it was an option. It was quite anot
her to realize that the threat of death marched on you no matter what you did to prevent it.
“Anira, Rane, and Traya, try to sleep.”
“How are we supposed to sleep when we know Pumpoo might appear to take us down at any moment?” Rane asked, incredulous.
“Because you have to. Because you’ll need to be rested to perform at your best. And because Pumpoo knows how to play the long game. I expect he’s been planning this since he took over after his father died. We have no idea when he’ll move on us. But we do know that when he does, we need to be able to fight back. Rest. You’ll be safe. We’re going to be watching.”
“You’re not going to sleep?”
“Not yet. I have far too much to do.” With that Dean rose, and he, Crush, and Brute walked toward the forest. Shula settled into a stance she looked like she could hold all night long. And Peachy, Boom, and Scar claimed a patch of rock next to us, and closed their eyes.
I looked to my wide-eyed brother and sister.
“Sleep,” Scar said without looking at us.
I didn’t imagine I’d be able to, but I obeyed. I lay down curled next to Rosie and watched as the Plune Moon made its first appearance in the sky. I watched the sky take on a purple glow for a long time, until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, and finally, they closed.
16
I’d barely managed to fall asleep before Rane was shaking me awake. “Nir.”
I groaned, every part of my body aching and clamoring for more rest. “Let me be, Rane. Let me sleep. I’m tired.”
“I wish I could, but you need to get up.”
I groaned again, and kept my eyes firmly shut, hoping he’d take pity and leave me alone. “You need your rest too. Just sleep.”
“I did sleep, and so did you. There are others coming, and unless you want them to discover me talking to an invisible person, you need to get up.”
As much as I wanted to convince myself I didn’t care, I couldn’t. I opened one eye. “Who’s coming?”
“Brute ran ahead to tell us a bunch of the Dragon Force is heading down the mountain path. They’ll be here soon.”
I sighed. “Couldn’t they have waited until we’d slept? Didn’t they want to sleep? The moon’s still up.”
“Aye, the moon’s up all right, but not in the way you think.”
Lazily, I sat up and leaned my head against his shoulder. “Whaddya mean?”
“I mean, you slept through the moon, the entire time the Auxle Sun was up, and now the moon’s up again.”
I jerked straight up. “I slept that long? Are you serious?”
“Would I kid about something like that?”
“That’s exactly the kind of thing you would joke about.”
“Okay, okay, you’re right, but I’m not making it up. Ask Traya.”
I looked and found Traya sitting just out of sight. “Did I really sleep that long, Tray?”
When she heard me, she smiled, and moved over to us. “You sure did. Are you feeling better?”
“I guess I am.” I rubbed a hand over my face, another over Rosie, who was awake, wide-eyed and looking at me too. “I guess I must’ve really needed that.”
“You must have. It makes sense. From what the charmers said, you used a lot of faithum. You’ve never done something like that before, it’d be logical that it would take its toll on you.”
I blinked at my amiable sister, with her soft, dark eyes and ready smile. She was talking about faithum as if it were an everyday thing. It’s as if I’d fallen asleep and woken up in another world, one where all the things that were once forbidden were commonplace. I petted Rosie, cementing the idea. “How are you doing, girl? Feeling better?” I left out the last bit I was thinking, Now that you’ve had time to recover from me abandoning you?
But she seemed to have recovered. She gave me her best dragon smile and inched closer, something that didn’t seem possible yet she managed it.
“We need to hide you,” Rane said.
“Why? Did they find the shadow man?”
“No. Crush said there was no sight of him.”
“They might not have seen him even if he were here.”
“You heard Crush and Dean. If they say he wasn’t here, then he wasn’t.”
“Or we hope he wasn’t.”
“No, Nir, we have to trust them and their judgment. Remember how much more experience they have than us. Besides, Dean seems even more protective of you than I am.”
“That’s not possible.”
Rane smiled. “Maybe not, but he comes close. He wouldn’t expose you to danger if there was a way to avoid it. He says the shadow man isn’t here, so we can relax.”
“There’s no chance in hell I’m going to be able to relax.”
“Aye, well, me neither, but we can try, can’t we?” My twin looked in my direction for a while before saying, more softly, “Pa trusted Dean.”
“He did?” I asked. When Rane didn’t answer, I looked to Traya, but she didn’t notice. She’d turned away from us to stare across the rock plains and the precipice, which the purple glow of the moon illuminated. Finally, I was out under the Plune Moon, just as I’d longed to be for so long. Mother would freak out if she knew it.
Oh no. Mother. I’d barely had time to give her a thought. There’d been so much going on. “Tray,” I started gently, as if my tone alone could pad the difficulty of the situation. “What’d you tell Ma?”
Her shoulders slumped, then she turned to face me again. “I told her the truth.”
My heart started going crazy. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“You told her the truth! Why would you do that?”
“What else would you have me do, Nir? Lie to our mother?”
“No, not lie... but soften the sting of the truth a bit. If you told her the truth, then she’ll be worried out of her mind.”
“Probably. But I didn’t know what else to do. We have no idea how long we might be gone from home or what might happen. We owe her the truth. Will she worry more? Of course. But she always worries. At least this way she’ll understand what happens… whatever happens.”
“Man, that’s rough.”
“You have no idea.” Traya turned back to stare out into the distance, where there was nothing but rock and more rock, edged by forest, until it faded into a purple nothing.
I wanted to ask if Mother had cried, if she’d grown angry, if she’d been terrified for my safety. But the reality was that knowing any of these things would just make the situation harder. I didn’t want to know, imagining them was bad enough.
“She’s a wife and mother of the Dragon Force,” Rane said. “She understands what that means.”
“Aye, she knows all too well,” I said.
My brother, sister, and I sat in silence for the one moment we could spare. It wasn’t long enough.
“Enough introspection,” Rane said. “It’s time to get moving. The others will be here any minute. You need to be gone from here before then.”
“What do you mean, ‘gone from here’? You heard Dean. I’m a part of the Force just as much as the two of you now.”
“That may be so—and I’m happy for you, Nir, I really am—but that doesn’t change the fact that you’ll be in danger the instant all those forcers arrive.”
“But if they’re coming here, then that means they want to join us, doesn’t it? That they want to oppose Pumpoo too.”
“Yes, that’s what it means, but that doesn’t prevent Pumpoo from having turned one of them into a spy for his benefit. If even a single one of the forcers is working for Pumpoo, your cover is blown. For good. There’ll be no going back from there.”
“Rane, I have news for you. There’s no going back from where we already are. Everyone here already knows.”
“Aye, but everyone here can be trusted. We can’t be sure about the rest.”
“Dammit, you have a point, but what am I supposed to do? Just hide for the rest of my life? If things are
going down the way it looks like they might be, I can’t hide anymore, even if it makes sense. I have to stand for something at some point in my life.”
“You have to be alive to stand for something, and the more people who know about you, the more your life is at risk.”
Without turning toward us, Traya said, “All of our lives are at risk now, Rane, whether we like it or not.”
Surprised, I looked to our sister. Rane was the overprotective one, but Traya still erred on the side of caution—until now. “It seems to me that if we might all die before this fight with Pumpoo is over, then Anira should be allowed to do whatever feels best to her.”
I definitely wasn’t expecting that.
“You can’t be serious?” Rane said.
“Unfortunately, I am. There will be many of us who don’t get out of this alive.”
When she said it, my blood chilled. It sounded—and felt—all too much like a premonition. “You think it’s going to be that bad?” I held my breath in hopes that she’d dismiss the gravity of the situation.
But she didn’t. “Aye, I do.” She stared at the purple glow of the moon, the one that had always felt as if it held the secrets of faithum within it, even before I’d dared to believe faithum might actually be real—and that I might access it.
I sat up all the way, putting enough distance between Rane and me to look at him, head on. “You think it’s going to be that bad too?”
He breathed in and out fully before answering. “I hope it won’t be.” It wasn’t lost on me that he didn’t actually answer my question. It sounded very much like he thought it would be every bit as bad as Traya did.
“Damn.” I pulled Rosie closer and stared out at the purple moon too, hoping it would share some secret that would spare me and those I cared about from whatever was coming.
I’d started to lose myself to my thoughts, filled with hope and fear in equal measure, when Rane said, “I can see you.”
“What?”
“I can see you.” His words were little more than a cloud of breath on chilled air.
“How’s it possible?”
“I don’t know, Nir, but I can see you. After all this time, I can finally see my twin.”