“Right.” I let go of Ridoc’s hand and brush his hair back up his forehead. “You will not die. Do you understand?”
He nods, his dark brown eyes fluttering closed as I stand.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Brennan asks, his concentration wavering.
“I’m the best shot you’ve got. We both know it.”
“Fuck,” Brennan mutters.
“Find every wind wielder we have,” I tell Dain as I walk to the brink of the ledge, temporarily stopping traffic as Tairn swings his massive body around to face Poromiel. “I think there’s a storm wielder in First Wing. Not as powerful as my mother, but if we can raise the temperature it should help clear the clouds.”
“Violet!” Brennan calls out. “If we can’t clear the clouds, then use them to your advantage! No one here is as powerful as General Sorrengail. Come up with another plan.”
Ever the tactician.
“We could send the entire riot in,” Dain suggests.
“And if there’s one rider on that wyvern, we could lose the entire riot.” I shake my head.
“You’re wounded. You know that, right?” Dain questions me, glancing at his belt.
“And you’re a memory reader.”
His gaze narrows.
“Oh, were we not stating obvious facts?” I study the clouds around us, looking for any break, any sign of blue sky. “Hate to break it to you, but your signet isn’t exactly helpful in this situation.”
“No time for this.” Tairn lays his massive tail beside the ledge while keeping a steady hover.
“Would Riorson let you rush off into a battle against gods know how many wyvern—or worse, the venin who created them—when you’re wounded?” His eyebrows rise.
“Yes.” I step out onto the midpoint of Tairn’s tail, my stomach settling at the familiar territory beneath my boots as I look back over my shoulder at Dain. “That’s why I love him.”
I don’t wait for his response, not when Tairn is a giant target. He holds remarkably steady as I walk forward, navigating his spikes and scales with ease.
“The flier’s death is not your fault,” Tairn tells me as I find my saddle and lower into the seat.
“We’ll save that for another day.” I fumble with the belt for precious seconds. This fucking thing is nearly impossible with one arm, but I manage by holding the strap in my right hand and fastening with my left. “You know I can’t wield with one hand, right?”
“You don’t need me to tell you your limits.” Tairn dives and I’m thrown forward in my seat as we plummet through thousands of feet of dissipating clouds.
“You can’t feel them, can you?”
“I was aware something felt off, but if I could accurately detect wyvern—if any of us could—without seeing them, we wouldn’t be in this position.”
Fair point.
Wind bites at my face, and tears streak from my eyes, but I’m not going to waste precious arm movements on getting my goggles from my pack. We emerge from the cloud cover and level out just beneath it.
“The ascents are clear,” Tairn says. “We will not risk the high ground if there are no riders to defend.” With great beats of his wings, we jolt upward, back into the mist.
“Are there other dragons out here?” I reach for the buckle of Dain’s belt and carefully pull the leather aside to slip my arm free. I’m going to need it as soon as we’re done. “I don’t want to hit anyone by accident.” Even if hitting the wyvern would probably be an accident, given my aim.
“They’re all above, guarding the riders.”
“Good.” We fly straight through the thickest parts of the cloud, but there’s no trace of the wyvern.
Until they—as in two of them—fly by on either side of us, streaks of gray in the otherwise endless white.
“Shit.”
Tairn flies high, pushing up into blue sky.
Clouds stretch from the cliffs over the surrounding landscape. No wonder the riot didn’t see the wyvern. They have the perfect cover.
And Cianna isn’t powerful enough to dissipate all this.
Use it. That’s what Brennan suggested.
Wyvern aren’t just alive…they’re created. They carry a form of energy forced into them by dark wielders.
“I have an idea.”
“I approve.” Tairn sails into the cloud cover. “I’ve told Gaothal to instruct his rider to stop eliminating the clouds and instead push them away from the cliff.”
“Just from where the path is. Until then, keep the wyvern distracted.” I clutch the pommel of the saddle with my uninjured hand and shove my right hand into my flight jacket between the buttons to stabilize my shoulder as much as possible.
Then Tairn dives back into the mist.
