Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 39: Hesitations

We flew for all of that day, though I slept through several hours of it. When we landed, Leera was out cold after a quick dinner, but I stayed up to see if Clarisa would send another sliver. She didn't, and I eventually went to sleep.

The next day, we flew until nightfall again, and Clarisa said that we were half a day from our destination.

"What is our destination?" Tawny asked.

"Our destination, not yours. You came this far against my wishes." She glared at me as she dismounted Moonhawk. "But you can't come where we're going."

Kuertis joined her on the ground. "We can go anywhere you can, Clarisa."

"No, you really can't, no matter what a certain someone says."

Tawny had started setting up her tent but paused to look plaintively at me. "I thought we agreed that we were coming one way or another, so you might as well let us come with you."

I dismounted and joined in on unloading my things. "Why can't they come, exactly?"

Clarisa gave me a look that could've cooked a fish. "Because it's risky enough having two riders going where we're going. Four is too many." She kept staring at me as if she was about to say something more. There was a jabbing pain in my temples, and I heard her voice again. Only this time, it was in my head.

[They'll check our minds before they let us into Ferentis. I have to do a type of cinem ceremony to make it so we can hide certain memories from them when they check. Your little friends can't be a part of that, unless you think they'll believe that it's normal for a fire elent to have mental powers.]

I'd thought we could avoid using forbidden magic in front of them, but if it was really necessary... "Maybe you shouldn't come after all."

Tawny raised her eyebrows. "You said we could come."

"I changed my mind. It's too dangerous."

Kuertis stepped forward, his face slightly darker than usual. He was blushing. "If this is about what happened that night-"

"No," I practically shouted. "It has absolutely nothing to do with that." Now, I was blushing too, and everyone was staring at me with questioning looks.

Bubbles of laughter came from Leera over our mental link, though she quickly tried to suppress them.

I blocked her out and tried to ignore the stares. "I- it has nothing to do with that. It's just too dangerous for a bunch of us to go."

Kuertis shook his head. "If two riders with class 7 dragons can go, it should be easy to bring us. Class 4's and 5's don't call much attention to themselves."

I had to admit that he had a point, but that had nothing to do with why they couldn't come. "We're going to Ferentis. Any extra attention is too much."

Clarisa looked furious, Tawny terrified, and Kuertis strangely unsurprised.

"F-Ferentis?" Tawny asked, eyes wide. "With the nasty criminals and vampiric dalteks and horrible paltors—that Ferentis?"

"Yes, that Ferentis. And you don't want to go there, so there's no reason to argue about it."

"You didn't know they were going to Ferentis?" Kuertis asked Tawny.

She blinked at him. "No, of course not. How did you know?"

He shrugged. "We've been heading toward the border for days, and it's half a day from here. It wasn't hard to put two and two together."

"Let me guess, you still want to go anyway?" I asked.