Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 31: Tayna Ritual

Tawny leaned around Clarisa to look at me. "Why didn't you tell us what you were doing?"

"I- I had to leave right away. That's why I couldn't tell you." As much as I wanted to tell them about the mission, I realized that they couldn't know. It would only bring up unpleasant questions about why exactly I was the one who had to destroy the portal.

"Could you not even stay long enough to have a conversation?" She raised an accusatory eyebrow.

"No, I didn't." At least that was the truth. I was sick of having to lie to everyone.

"There's nothing stopping you from running away with the two of us." Kuertis shrugged. "After all, it's only three against one." He gave Clarisa a pointed look.

I cross my arms. "I'm not going with you. I can't." I didn't know what it was about Kuertis, but there was something about him that seemed strange. He almost acted like he knew me, or maybe it was just that Tawny had told him a lot about me. He looked at me like we were sharing a secret, even though I didn't know anything about him.

"If you don't leave in five seconds, I will call a patrol to pick you two up," Clarisa warned.

Tawny cocked her head, then looked both Clarisa and I up and down. "I don't believe either of you are wearing a uniform. Nor are you flying in the correct direction in order to reach the fleet. You're not going to the war-front. You must have some other reason for leaving."

Clarisa brandished her wand. "I'm serious. I'll call them."

Tawny and Kuertis just waited. When Clarisa didn't do anything, they went to start unloading their dragons and setting up camp. Leera slunk back into the cave, bothered about something she wouldn't tell me.

"What are you doing?" Clarisa asked.

Tawny looked at the bundle of tent stakes in her arms. "It looks like I'm putting up a tent." She pounded a tent stake into the ground.

Clarisa didn't seem to have an adequate response, so she just stood there with her jaw clenched. After a minute, she said, "at least tell me how you found us, so I can keep any other unwanted visitors from doing it."

Kuertis looked up from the tent pole he was helping Tawny put up. "Sarafin told us he saw your dragon flying away from the island in this direction. We thought it would just be you and your dragon." He frowned, then turned back to his work.

Clarisa sighed and marched back to the cave.

"So, where's your sister?" I asked Tawny, sitting down at the base of a tree.

"According to Raven, I have no sister. She refuses to acknowledge any relationship to someone who would desert the Lykelan cause." She slammed her mallet into another tent stake, and it nearly disappeared into the ground.

I wasn't sure what to say. I sat in silence for a while, holding up the glow orb so the two of them could see. "You guys really can't stay with us."

Tawny tossed her mallet inside her dragon's saddlebag and stood facing me. "I didn't come all this way to let you push us away because, for some reason, you would rather be with Clarisa then your best friend."

"I didn't ask you to come here, and I definitely didn't ask you to desert the fleet." I stood, feeling like I wanted to throw the glow orb at something. They would be in serious danger of being locked up for the rest of their lives if they were caught by a patrol.

"Ella, we could have gone south, to Gorgoli. They don't care whether someone has deserted or not. They just like anyone who can stand the smell of the swamp. We came this way to bring you with us."

I knew that she never would have come after me if she'd known the truth about what I was. And if they stayed, there would be a million more opportunities for her to find out the truth.

"It doesn't matter why you came. You can't come with us tomorrow." I headed for the cave.

"At least wait to make us leave until after we can do the Tayna ritual. Our alabris are almost out of energy."

I paused. "Fine, but that's it. Just the ceremony tomorrow morning, then we'll go our separate ways." I went back inside the cave, and Clarisa sent her dragon out to keep watch.

Clarisa laid down in her sleeping bag. "You know as well as I do that keeping them with us is dangerous for both us and the mission."

I flopped down on my own sleeping bag and let my teeth go back to fangs as I turned off the glow orb. "I know. They're leaving tomorrow, after we do the Tayna ritual. My alabri's drained, so I need to do it too."

"That ritual had better not take long."

"It won't, don't worry."

***

When the first rays of sunlight were peaking over the trees, I left the cave and met Tawny and Kuertis in a nearby clearing.

We put all our alabris in a pile between us, held hands, and looked up at the brightening pink and purple sky.

Tawny started the Tayna chant. "Ki ki nor tayn voo raz kim si." A golden aura appeared around her and her alabri.

Kuertis followed suit, and the the aura spread to envelop him as well.

I was reluctant to say the third verse because it was impossible to stay transformed during a Tayna ceremony. My fangs would show if I spoke. Hopefully, the other two would follow the exact instructions of the ritual and keep their eyes on the sky. I continued the chant, and the golden light enveloped me.

We circled around again, each of us repeating our verses over and over until all we could see was a solid gold wall around us. On our fourteenth time through, the light turned a brilliant orange, exploded outward, and faded away.

It took a while until my eyes had adjusted back to the soft light of mid morning and I could see our charged alabris. I turned away from them and quickly transformed my fangs before saying what I knew I had to say. "You have to leave."

The others looked crestfallen—Kuertis strangely so—as if they'd expected me to change my mind during the ceremony.

A curious look came into Tawny's eyes. "Oh, well, goodbye. I suppose we won't see each other again soon." She headed back to the other dragons with Kuertis. They'd already packed their tents, so nothing slowed them as they left.