Fire Breather

77.

   "I should've melted the viscount's brain," I muttered, staring up, and up, and up the Cliffs of Dralor to where they disappeared into a thick layer of clouds.

It had been four days since the deal with Tecarus and three nights ago, we delivered the luminary to an offshoot of the valley above Aretia where the new forge was located. Yesterday, all cadets were ordered to pack for a three-day mission and assemble for flight formation at four in the morning, and now we were standing in a field west of Draithus, looking at the drifts gathered on the other side of First Wing.

"He can't be serious," Ridoc said beside me in formation, an arm propped on my shoulder while also looking up at the steep, barely visible, narrow trail Brennan just pointed at.

The series of ledges and switchbacks carved into the granite cliff looked more suitable to a mountain goat than a gryphon.

"Agreed." Visia nodded. "He has to be kidding. That's not a trail—it's a death trap."

The path Brennan was excited about wasn't even wide enough to support a full wagon, let alone the width of a gryphon...and he wanted them to hike it...with us to hike it with them while our dragons flew patrol.

"Pretty sure he's serious or we wouldn't all be here," Rhiannon said over her shoulder.

"What the hell does he expect us to do besides climb with them?" Aaric asked, keeping his voice down.

"Catch them if they fall off?" Ridoc suggested.

"Right, because we're capable of catching a gryphon," Imogen remarked before looking at me. "Aren't you normally the one helping the Leadership with these plans? What do you know?"

"I'm currently...suspended from my duties," I muttered and then shrugged my shoulders at their questionable looks. "After I decked the viscount in the jaw, Mom decided I need to work on my anger."

"I'm surprised Xaden wasn't the one to hit him after the shit that was pulled," Sawyer scoffed, shaking his head. "Or even Tavis."

Like my brother, Garrick had left for some type of secret mission that I wasn't allowed to join considering I left Aretia with the Sorrengail's.

Ahead of us, Brennan continued to lecture us about the length of the journey from where he stood on a bound stack of crossbolts, amplifying his voice over the field. "The journey should take you twelve hours, though I recommend taking time to rest along the trail."

The only sound was the fall breeze rustling the leaves as he scanned over us. Even the dragons and gryphons fell silent around us, as if they couldn't believe what was happening, either.

"So they can push us off?" a rider from Third Wing asked.

"That question is exactly why you'll be going with them," Brennan said as Syrena climbed up the pile to stand with him. "Not only have the wingleaders been given the locations of the gryphon traps to disarm them, but you need to learn some mutual respect and trust before you can be educated together. No rider will respect a cadet who hasn't crossed the parapet." He gestured at the trail behind him. "Behold a parapet for them to cross."

"It's narrow, but it's not that narrow!" Ridoc called out, earning a few scoffs of agreement from the riders around us.

"And if we were just risking ourselves, perhaps it would be appropriate to deem it inferior to your death bridge at Basgiath," Syrena stated, clasping her hands behind her back and facing the riders' half of formation. "But consider while you climb, while you decide if you'll truly accept fliers into your ranks that while this trail is perfectly safe for humans, it's perilous for gryphons. And ask yourself if you would risk the lives of your dragons climbing a trail built specifically to kill them into hostile territory so you can learn how to better destroy your enemy with the very people you considered your enemy up until last week."