The Last Dragon Rider (Book 1 of Rider Series)

Chapter 38

I gasped when the wraith unwrapped themselves from around me, and I blinked back the stars that decided to appear in my vision. I took a deep breath of the stale air that filled this place and cleared my throat while I blinked again.

The wraith stayed silent and watched me, being patient. They floated still near me, and I had a feeling that they were waiting for me to get my bearings before they did something else with my permission.

I shook my head and cleared my throat again, finally able to get my bearings. I looked at them and pressed my lips into a thin line while I raised an eyebrow. "Is that it?" I asked, wondering if they were done with me. Questions swirled around my brain about Mirïna and what it meant to me and my dragon, a- "Shilan?" I asked, feeling the bond between my dragon and me there again.

"Marini!" my dragon exclaimed, relieved to hear my voice. His anxiety filled the bond between us, and I could tell that whatever happened to me had freaked him out because he wasn't able to contact me. "What happened? Where did you go? W-"

"Just look through my memories, Stupid," I said, interrupting him while he gave me a headache because of his questions. I pursed my lips and grimaced while I rubbed my forehead, trying to relieve some of that stress. "There is no need to bombard me with multiple questions at once, Shilan."

"'There is no need to bombard me with multiple questions at once, Shilan, '" my dragon mocked, and I mentally rolled my eyes at him. He said something else, but I didn't care to listen to what he had to say while I looked at the wraith in front of me.

"Well?" I asked when they didn't respond and continued to float in one spot. I raised an eyebrow in question while I cocked my head and studied them, pressing my lips into a thin line. "Was that it?"

The wraith shook their head, no. They gestured towards me, and I knew that they were wondering if they were allowed to set up a normal link between us so that they could show me what was wrong and the other reason why they contacted me.

I pursed my lips in annoyance but nodded, letting them know that they could. I could feel Shilan poking around my memories about what had happened and knew that he would have some questions later, even though I had no idea how to answer them. "Go ahead," I confirmed out loud, knowing full well that was what they were waiting for. "Don't tell Arden or Jonah what had happened to me with him."

"Oh, I wasn't going to," Shilan said and dismissed my warning. He rolled his eyes when he felt my annoyance but didn't say anything about it, even though I knew that he wanted to. "They had left already before any of this, anyway, but they'll be back for your training tonight."

"Hmph," I replied and watched the wraith while they let out one tendril instead of the multiple that had happened the first time.

The tendril made its way towards my head, which was normal, and I closed my eyes so that I could see what they wanted me to see. An image of the fake Silan appeared in my mind, walking around and talking with the people of this part and the people growing wary of him.

"What has he been saying?" I asked out loud, even though I knew that they would have understood me if I had said it through my mind.

The wraith didn't know, and I pressed my lips into a thin line and decided to question the people later. The wraith sent an image of fake Silan clearly before it went hazy, and this was their way of saying that he was fake.

I nodded. "I know," I said, deciding that it'd be safer to talk this way because I had no idea what ears I had on me. "Can you keep an eye on him?"

The wraith bowed their head, and they confirmed that they would keep an eye on him.

They changed the image to an old man, who was the real Silan, that clutched something in his hand, begging people to pay attention to him and help him, but no one did; the people of this place shunned him because they had no idea that he was the real Silan and not some stranger they thought he was.

My heart grew heavy when I saw that, but I understood where they were coming from; they were protecting themselves from an outsider, even though they didn't know the truth, and they couldn't get to me yet to either confirm or deny his story.

The image changed again to the Old Man coming across Silan, who had sat down on one of the stoops, still clutching the thing in his hand and looking downtrodden, and my heart grew heavier with grief.

The Old Man placed a weathered hand on Silan's shoulder, and his hand glowed. And for a moment, the real Silan sat in his normal form instead of what they, whoever they were, created him to be before the glow died down and was replaced with the man that had been sitting there.

The Old Man pointed to a direction, and Silan nodded and went that way before the Old Man walked off somewhere else.

The wraith stopped the images and sent a question into my mind, wondering if they should keep an eye on both the real and not real Silan, and I nodded.

"Please," I said, biting back a sob of relief because I was happy that they would watch out for him. "Make sure that the real Silan stays safe. Keep me updated if you can on both of them."

The wraith pulled the tendril away from me, and I opened my eyes and looked at them. They bowed their head, and they silently told me that they would do what I had asked before they disappeared without a single glance back, letting me know that our meeting was done.

I took a deep breath and looked in the direction towards the last place where I had left Silan. I yearned to go to him, but I knew that it wasn't possible, so I turned towards the entrance back into the real world and walked that way, praying to the Gods to keep him safe until I was able to figure out how to get the real him back and not be someone's puppet like he was now.