DARKLIGHT

- 3 -

Riding Hecatus was always tricky. Unlike a natural lion, he had huge wings that he could use to gain running speed, but unlike dragons, larger eagles, and other ridable fliers, they weren't quite low enough on his body to support the legs of a rider. Instead, both of us were practically kneeling with our toes just barely touching his wings. Sliding any lower than that would prompt Hecatus to complain about the weight, as his wings were rather fragile in their age. He often called them creaky.

Other arkaetres and their mages were also on the road, but they only represented a small fraction of the total population. Many people didn't have mage symbols, and the few that did could easily have smaller arkaetres that would be impossible to ride. As such, cars and buses quickly surrounded us. Having had enough of the commotion, Hecatus leaped over the car in front of us and pumped his wings to get some air, soaring over the roads. As we gained height, we joined a few nearby dragons and phoenixes with their riders, and I even spotted a group of pegasi in the distance.

When we got to Serkha City, where the Order's headquarters were located, Hecatus had to fly over its huge stone wall and in between the skyscrapers, but he had done it so many times with my dad that my extra weight hardly made a difference. A few minutes later, we touched down in the huge landing plaza in front of the Order's main building. It was a giant glass dome, with many walkable streets leading away from it to smaller domes and other buildings. I'd only ever heard about the headquarters from my parents, and its sheer size astonished me. "How many people are going to be here?" I asked.

My dad dismounted Hecatus and called him back into his symbol. "Merus." Then he replied to me, saying craftily, "As many as the Councilors want there to be."

There were lots of other mages gathered in the plaza, addressing the arkaetres they had ridden with curt nods or short dialogue. The doors to the building were big enough for even the largest dragon to enter, but still only a small imperfection in the huge structure. I knew the door was the size of a dragon because I could see one to compare it to, flying above the dome. Then I realized that the dragon was black. "Dad? Look up there."

He looked up and cocked his head in confusion. "I've never seen anything like that before." The beast was quite high in the sky and didn't look particularly threatening, but it still spooked me to see an arkaetre that wasn't white. After watching the shadowy dragon for a few more moments, my dad said slowly, "It seems like they have no rider. We should probably tell the Council about this."

I nodded and followed him inside the dome. "But what about the opening ceremony?" I asked nervously, looking down at my watch.

"We've got some time."

Hundreds of mages and arkaetres were crowding the halls. Once they saw the status stripes on my dad's shoulder, though, they gave him and me a wide berth, and we soon reached the elevator tower in the center of the dome. All ground floor hallways came together in the elevator lobby, so it was even more densely packed.

We got into the closest elevator and headed up. I knew that the Council room was at the very top of the dome, but the ride took even longer than I expected. When we finally got to the top, it was obvious that something was very wrong.

The room was fairly spacious, but buzzing with activity and as crowded as the halls. Many mages were shouting angrily, and the Councilors all looked unsettled and upset. They sat in a raised platform of seats, arranged in a ring to create an inner circle and an outer walkway. Both areas were practically vibrating. One of the Councilors said shakily, "We're doing the best we can to resolve this. Our best fliers will be up there shortly."

The scene was intensified by the fact that the roof of the room was glass and open to the sky, and the Dark dragon could still be seen above the dome. However, that didn't mean we were in danger. Even if the dragon attacked, the Order buildings and the collective Order grounds were each protected with magic and resistant to spells. Nothing would get through as long as the magical barriers were up.

I looked up to see if anything had changed, and was surprised to see that the dragon was much closer than it had been before. And it was diving. Its front legs were close together in a very human-like posture, and magic appeared to be collecting between them.

A crash echoed through the room as most of the ceiling fell away from the dragon's magical beam. Bits of glass littered the floor, and they were quickly joined by plummeting metal rods from the framework of the ceiling. I yelped and dove for cover at the edges of the room where the ceiling was still barely intact. Most people followed suit, but the Councilors were trapped behind the dragon's hulking form in the Council circle, along with a large group of mages that included my dad and a woman that I could only see the back of. She had two green science division stripes on her uniform. It was my mom.

The dragon eyed us haughtily, shook its head, and began to change form. Within seconds, its legs and arms had morphed into human limbs, and soon a person stood before the group of mages and Councilors, wearing a long black cloak that obscured their features. Then, they partly turned to size up the crowd outside the Council circle, reaching up and sliding off their hood to reveal a man's face. He looked young, perhaps in his late twenties, but his face was riddled with scars. One of them went over his right eye, another down his jawline, and a third from his nose to his neck. His voice permeated the sudden silence. "Hareket Burada Kohtar."

Dark arkaetres began to appear in the outer circle, quickly outnumbering the mages in the room. The flurry of activity kicked people into action, and one of them tried to open the elevator door, but a Dark sphinx jumped over our entire group, blocking the path. It also turned into a human, and the person activated their mage symbol by running their finger down the length of their forearm. Their symbol glowed deep black, and a Dark mist-like barrier appeared in front of the door.

More Dark arkaetres joined the sphinx, and they attempted to keep us cornered against the walls. A few others had joined the dragon man and engaged my parents and four of the Councilors who hadn't managed to escape the circle in rapid physical and magical combat. I dodged the arkaetres blocking my path and ran forward to defend them in any way I could. Glass crunched under my Order uniform boots.

Phari and Hecatus were fighting too, as well as the Councilors' arkaetres, but they were quickly overpowered. A giant wolf with a fiery black mane and wings, a kludde, grabbed Hecatus with its fangs, and with a dark flash from the symbol on the arkaetre's front leg, Hecatus and my dad collapsed and disappeared. The kludde turned into a smug female mage, and I screamed and ran at her back with my griffin blazing. She turned and watched my approach with a calculating stare, then dashed at me and grabbed my arm, and the world faded out.