Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 32: A Secret

Clarisa came out of the cave on her own dragon. "Now that you've made enough light to alert anything one within a mile radius of our position, let's get out of here."

I hurried to put my trunk, saddlebags, and saddle back on Leera. We flew away from the cave at top speed, racing low over the trees to avoid being too visible from a distance.

We flew until nightfall before landing and setting up camp again. I set up my tent in a few minutes while Clarisa struggled with her own. She'd forgotten to hammer the tent pegs into the ground, and every time she tried to insert the support struts, the tent would move or fold over on itself.

I sat on a fallen log by the edge of the clearing and watched her for a few minutes. "So, why exactly are you leading this mission again?"

She looked up from her failure of a tent and scowled. "Because Callah knows the mission won't fail if I'm leading." She went back to struggling with her tent.

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to Leera instead, who seemed to be trying to sneak up on two birds in a tree. The birds hadn't noticed her yet, their attention clearly focused on me and Clarisa. That was strange enough, but the fact that one of them was a brown hawk and the other was a snowy owl was even weirder, especially since they were sitting inches from each other on a low branch. I didn't think I'd ever seen a snowy owl in real life before. They shouldn't be this far south or hanging out with hawks.

Unless... [Leera, stop!] I jumped to my feet.

Leera froze but didn't close her mouth, having been on the verge of roasting the two birds with her flame. [Why should I?]

[I think they're talmes.]

She reluctantly closed her mouth, and I heard her mentally relay the news to Clarisa's dragon, Moonhawk. I couldn't hear Moonhawk's reply, though.

Leera licked her lips and sighed at the birds. [Clarisa says she'll handle it.]

"Stay where you are," Clarissa shouted, spinning around to aim her wand at the birds.

They took off into the trees, and Leera ran after them. I was right on Leera's tail, debating whether I should transform or use my own wand to take them down.

Leera leapt into the air in front of me and flew after the fleeing birds. The narrow spaces between the trees forced her to land a second later. She crashed through a pocket of thick foliage and skidded to a stop. I tried to stop myself in time to avoid a collision but was unsuccessful, tripping over her tail spines and hitting the ground hard.

She moved aside to give me a view of why she'd stopped as I stood up. The birds had landed on the backs of two dragons—a blue class 5 female and a crimson class 4 male. Tawny's and Kuertis's dragons.

"You said you weren't coming."

The birds were already transforming, the snowy owl into Kuertis and the brown hawk into Tawny.

"They obviously lied," Clarisa said from behind me.

I jumped. "Don't do that."

"What, scare you? Them coming should scare you more than me. Unless you think they'll be okay with you being a-" She mouthed the word "paltor."

"Don't say it. I know they can't come." I looked back at Kuertis and Tawny.

They finished transforming and walked over to us.

"Why did you follow us?" I asked

"I figured out why you were evading us," Tawny said with a curious smile. "You must be on some sort of secret mission. Am I right?" She must have seen the answer in my expression because she continued, "I thought so. You might run away, but the niece of the Academy director never would, unless her aunt had sent her on a mission. Because you wouldn't tell us what it was, I assumed it must be secret."

"You can't come where we're going."

"We can go anywhere you can." She puffed up a little bit. Kuertis seemed to feel the same way, though he only smirked silently.

I rolled my eyes. "It's a secret mission. You're a deserter. You just can't come."

"I don't think you can stop us."

Leera laughed, the noise sounding like rocks crashing against each other. [She thinks a class 4 and a class 5 would have a chance against to class 7's?]

BlueIsle snorted and pawed the dirt, while her owner looked more than a little embarrassed.

[Cut it out,] I said.

She stopped laughing, albeit a little reluctantly.

"Maybe you could stop us." Tawny crossed her arms. "But you shouldn't. We can help. You don't have to explain everything to us if you don't trust us. Just let us come."

[Moonhawk says Clarisa says she could wipe their minds, make them forget why they ever came out here,] Leera said.

I considered the idea, but mind wiping was dangerous at the best of times. With a novice like Clarisa, they could end up forgetting their entire lives.

[Tell her it's a last resort.] I had to come up with something to get rid of them that wouldn't hurt them. As I racked my brain for an answer, my hand went to the necklace at my throat out of habit. Even after going so long without wearing it because of the Academy dress code, I still automatically fiddled with it now that I had it on.

Kuertis stepped closer. "That is an unusual necklace."

"I guess."

He seemed to be waiting for me to say something more. When I didn't, he asked, "What is the pendant made out of?"

His sudden interest in my necklace seemed strange, until I realized that he was probably just stalling so he didn't have to leave. Seeing as I still didn't have any idea of how to get rid of them without wiping their minds, I decided to entertain him for the time being.

"It's Amillian."

His eyes went wide as he gazed at the red crystal pendant.

I held the crystal tighter. "What is it?"

"I can't tell you." He gave me an uneasy smile.

"And why can't you tell me?" I asked.

"It's a secret, maybe just as secret as your mission."

I understood his game. He wanted me to trade the secret of my necklace for allowing them to come on the mission. I wasn't about to fall for it.

"Then I'll keep my nose out of it, like people should do with things that have nothing to do with them, like secret missions they weren't invited on." I turned back toward our campsite. To Leera, I said, [Maybe we can grab our stuff and lose them in the air.]

[Me and Moonhawk think that you can fly if you want, but we've been flying all day. We're ready to take a break.] She seemed surprised at herself for agreeing with Moonhawk.

[Fine. Do you have any better idea about how to get rid of them?]

"Ella, you want to know what I know," Kuertis said from close behind me.

I spun around to find him barely a foot away from me, and I took a step back, my face heating up. For a second, I thought I might be doing fire magic, but then I realized it was a different type of heat entirely.

"So, why would I want to know what you know, exactly?" I asked.

"He'll just be making something up to get you interested," Clarisa said.

I ignored her, which seemed to be becoming a habit of mine, and raised an eyebrow at Kuertis.

"Amillian crystals can record messages," he said.