Dragon Bonds (Return of the Darkening Series Book 3) (14 page)

I must have looked worse than I felt because Seb moved closer to me. And Varla asked, “Thea? Who is it from, Thea?”

“My family. My father and Reynalt. They want me to join them.” I shook my head and kicked the sand. I wanted to throw the scroll into a lake or an ocean. But I had nowhere that I could get rid of it. I just had my father’s words to me.

Silence fell. Everyone was staring at me. My face heated, and my stomach tightened into a hard knot.

“Thea?” Seb’s voice sounded very low and worried. “If it’s bad news and you—”

Slicing the air with one hand, I cut him off. Crumpling the scroll with one fist, I shoved it into my jerkin where it would stay safe until I could burn it.

“No. It’s not…well, it is bad news, but my place is here.” I tried to smile, but it felt stiff and strange on my face. I think Seb could see I was upset. Beris gave a nod and slapped Syl’s arm and they headed over to check on Gaxtal. Merik and Varla went back to the shrine—or whatever it was, talking low and looking at the scroll again.

I glanced at Seb. “I should be asking if you’re the one feeling well. That was a lot of work to control the blacks.”

He was pale, but he nodded. “And you?”

I waved a hand. We were both lying, and we both knew it.

He was in pain over what his Dragon Affinity was costing him and I was in pain over what the letter had really said—that my father, mother and older brother Reynalt had thrown in with Lord Vincent, the true king, for he was strong enough to lead us all.

Now I must fight my kin, my blood, my family.

W
e made
camp not far from the shrine, or whatever it was we had found. Thea had been quiet since she’d gotten that message, and I didn’t ask her again about it, but something was wrong with her family. I knew that much. A thin curl of smoke rose from the fire Varla had made. She had made only a small campfire, and we sheltered under tall pines where no one else would see us, but we still posted guards. Beris was taking first watch.

The wind ruffled my hair, and I leaned back against Kalax.

What now?

I sighed, not really expecting or even wanting an answer.

Thea’s message from her family had me thinking about my folks. I didn’t know where any of them were—if they were still safe in Torvald or if they had left the city. I wanted to go and find them, but I knew I was doing them more good here. My job was to end the war—that was the best way to keep them safe. If I could. And I hated that the message Thea had gotten seemed to be dredging up a lot of her old troubles, like was she a Flamma, a Dragon Rider or just plain Thea.

Be all three,
Kalax thought, and I felt her confusion.

It’s different for people
.
We have to choose one thing to get good at, if we want to get really good. And if everyone says you are a Flamma, then maybe she’s thinking that’s where her heart should go.

Kalax considered my thoughts quietly for a moment.
Is like asking a rock is stone or rock or boulder.

I didn’t understand, and I looked at her.

Kalax lay with her eyes half closed, her head resting on the ground.
Rock is all. Boulder must be stone and must be rock, too. Humans draw lines around things to say that is this and this is that and has to be so. All very strange.

That was a piece of dragon logic I could agree with—although I didn’t know what it meant for Thea the Dragon Rider or Agathea of the House Flamma.

“Hold!” I heard a shriek from across the camp and looked over. Merik was hanging onto the two largest of the swept-back horns of one of the black dragons as it undulated through the sky. I counted the times that he bounced in the makeshift saddle—visibly leaving the leather. How he’d gotten a saddle on the dragon I didn’t know. I stood, cursing that I had let my concentration drop.

The dragon twisted, throwing Merik. His harness snapped and he grabbed for one of the many spines on the dragon’s neck. His hand slipped and Merik fell, but Feradima swooped in to catch him.

“By the First Dragon,” I muttered and stood, heading over to where Feradima had dropped Merik to the ground. She hadn’t set him down gently, meaning she wasn’t happy he was trying to ride another dragon.

Kalax called up to the wild dragon, but it shook off its saddle and swooped out into the woods.

Merik stood up, dusting off his leathers. Over by the fire, Beris and Syl were laughing and slapping their thighs.

Merik shook his head and pushed up his goggles. “I was sure I was going to get it this time.” Shaking my head, I turned my attention to the black dragons. I could hear them in the woods, growling at each other. I was sure that I sensed it had thought dumping Merik was a fun game.

Kalax sent me an image of all the boring drills and the training she had gone through.
Dragons not born knowing saddles.

“Maybe that’s it,” I mumbled, reaching out to brush minds with the wild dragon.

I felt Kalax’s annoyance, and she broke her thoughts off from me. It still hurt to use my affinity for anything other than Kalax—why it was so easy with her, I wasn’t sure. But I was getting used to it.

The dragon Thea had named Scratch sent back actual thoughts for once.
Human hunt me? Drop and Feradima catch.

Scratch gave a snuffling trill, and Hiss, the other black dragon, hissed back.

I saw that Scratch thought Merik and the saddle were trying to bring her down.

No, no!
I thought at her, sending an image of how Kalax wore her saddle and let us ride her.

Scratch sent back an image of herself doing a double-roll in the sky with no rider on her back.

How do I say this?

And then had an idea.

Maybe the wild dragons would learn more from playing games. We didn’t have time for the long process of earning and building trust with them. What if learning all of the complicated movements and signs that Kalax and the other trained dragons knew could be made into fun?

I could sense interest from Scratch—she liked the idea of fun.

I sent a memory of Thea skipping stones across the lake water and how the pebble stayed close and low to the waves, riding along them. I sent an image like that we had found on the standing stone of a man on the neck of a dragon.

How long can Scratch hold
a human?
I repeated the memory of the skipping stone, riding over the water.

Easy!
Scratch hissed. The black burst up from the trees, rolled once in the air and flew toward Merik. Feradima hissed at it, as did Gaxtal. Beris and Syl ducked, and Varla scooted out of the way, but the black seized poor Merik with its front claws. Merik gave a shout. The wild dragon rolled in the air, throwing Merik up toward the clouds. The black rolled again and caught Merik on her back.

“Don’t shoot. Merik’s fine,” I shouted to Thea, who was reaching for her bow. I hoped desperately that I was right.

I watched as the wild dragon rose higher. Merik—his leathers flapping and easy to spot against the black’s gleaming scales—scrambled up the beast’s neck and grabbed the horns. He had no harness and saddle, but it looked to me as if he might be better without them. The way that the wild dragons moved, bobbing their necks up and down, meant the harness straps that usually secured a rider to the saddle were thrown all over. Without a saddle, Merik was leaning into the dragon’s movement. He could crouch low and use the dragon’s scales to help hang onto the dragon by tucking his legs between the scales.

I was glad to see Merik had figured this out, but it might be hard to get any other Dragon Riders to ride without a harness and saddle. Our weapons and gear were all held to the dragon—what rider would want to do without those things?

The riders won’t be able to fight.

I let out a breath. We’d deal with that later.

At least the wild dragon wasn’t trying to throw Merik off. This time, whenever I brushed Scratch’s mind with my own, I could see the image of the stone skipping across the wave tops, bouncing smoothly and cleanly, as the wild dragon focused on its chosen task. That was a first, too. It was flying fast, and Merik was only able to hang on.

The wild dragon flew low over the tree tops, bouncing like a stone.

Dragons fight
.

Kalax’s thought left me breathless. “By the First Dragon—you’re right!” Why would Merik need a bow or a spear if he was on a flying, angry ball of teeth, claws and fire? “Kalax, you are a genius,” I breathed.

This would be a whole new style of dragon fighting. If the riders acted as little more than navigators, choosing targets and using the dragon as the weapon, we could fly faster and have double the amount of available riders!

But we can do things that they cannot. I remembered how I could work in tandem with Thea with her shooting other riders out of the sky and leaving the flying to me and Kalax.

We do both,
Kalax agreed.

“Kalax, if we ever survive this, I am going to credit you as discovering a whole new type of dragon riding!” I told her.

Not new. Just different,
Kalax corrected.

Now all we had to do now was to get Hiss playing the same ‘game’ and then we had to make sure that they could take commands from their rider.

Then find all of the other wild dragons.

I gave a short, dry laugh.

And there was still the King’s Dragon Stone to find. Nothing but easy work ahead of us.

Still, despite how difficult everything seemed as I looked ahead, it was nice to know we had at least tackled one task. The next one was to figure out how to get Merik off the black.

Kalax suddenly lifted her head and swung it back in the direction of Torvald, her nostrils quivering as she snuffed the air.

And Merik shouted, “Dragons!”

From the back of the black dragon, Merik pointed to the eastern horizon.

A small knot of wild dragons flew toward us. Hiss screeched an alarm, and my mind raced. Were they Lord Vincent’s dragons come to find us? Or just a wild band on the hunt? Should I try to capture them—and could I manage so many?

I tried to open up my awareness. As soon as I did, Kalax’s thoughts wrapped around mine.

No! Feel more. The cold. The dark.

I could feel her concerned. The fact that she, a crimson red, one of the most dangerous things in the sky was worried sent a shiver down my back.

It was here—the Darkening.

Kalax kept her mind small, unwilling to connect our thoughts any more than that or the Darkening might sense us. I could feel the shadow of the evil coming closer, like black clouds against the edges of my mind. It seemed to me that the blue of the sky and the green and russet trees faded and paled, as if winter had deepened and the sun had dimmed.

A foggy panic crept through me, chilling my bones and locking my joints. I glanced over at Thea and saw her frozen. Beris and Syl, too, stared up, their faces pale and their expressions tight. The other dragons kept quiet—we could all sense danger.

The Darkening hadn’t sensed us yet, but it would. I had been a fool to think we might be safe while we searched for and trained new dragons. Of course the Darkening would sniff us out. It used dragons—it even seemed more than half dragon itself! And if a Flamma Messenger Dragon could find Thea, an ancient and powerful magic would surely find us, too.

Stop!

Kalax’s thought crept into my mind. She had sensed the panic rising in my chest. The urge to run into the open, begging for mercy lodged in my throat. Kalax mentally surrounded me with her warmth.
Not you. Stop.

I saw at once that she was right. The fear came from the Darkening itself as it rode the minds of the wild dragons. It was spilling out and hitting me through the Dragon Affinity. Sorrow for the wild dragons lifted inside me. They were being used as if they were puppets, their minds warped and molded to suit the wishes of the Darkening. The fear came from them.

Hide,
Kalax thought.

Looking up, I waved to Merik and pointed at the foothills, to the deep gorges and ravines. He and the blacks we had needed to hide. Scratch seemed only too ready to do anything to avoid the fear coming our way. The wild dragon swooped low, flying close to the trees like a shadow, and Hiss followed, both of them quiet and fast. They were well adapted to sneaking and staying hidden.

Varla mounted Feradima and Beris and Syl were already on Gaxtal. Thea had our gear on Kalax and swept me up. We took to the air, following Merik, Scratch and Hiss.

I glanced back and saw Thea’s tight frown. She gave me a nod, but I knew she must be fighting her own battles against the panic the Darkening spread before it. We’d both been too close to the Memory Stone and to Lord Vincent before this. I wondered how anyone could ever stand to be near the Darkening? How had Lord Vincent even managed to raise it from its slumber—or was he too much part of it to ever notice?

The wild dragons led us past fallen trees and under bridges, doubling back along the ways we had come, pausing for a few breaths in caves I hadn’t even seen. They swept around rock outcroppings and kept low to the ground, using the fading daylight to become almost invisible.

No wonder they’re one of the chosen tools of the Darkening.

I could imagine what it must have been like for the first towns that had disappeared under the Darkening. They would have had no warning their doom was coming—one night they would be frozen in sheer panic.

After a long time of flying, Scratch chose a deep cave by the side of a waterfall. We each flew in through a spray of water before settling on the smooth, damp floor. It was crowded with five dragons, but the blacks weren’t bickering. Our dragons turned to face the cave’s opening and we waited, weapons ready, hearts pounding and no one saying anything.

* * *

“
I
think it’s gone
.” Thea broke the silence and shivered. She stood beside me, and we both leaned against the reassuring warmth of Kalax.

You are right.
Kalax snuffed the air.
Darkening gone now to search.

“Why is it searching?” I said the words aloud, but I looked at Kalax. The others needed to hear this conversation. “What is it searching for?”

“The King’s Dragon Stone,” Varla said, her voice soft. It was dark in the cave, and I could barely see her as just a dark outline. “That must be it. It wants every scrap of power or anything that could threaten it.”

My stomach gave a lurch. I felt sick.

Thea put her hand on my arm. “I know that none of you are going to like what I am about to suggest, but I think…I think we should go after those wild dragons. Let’s use them for once. Let’s follow them.”