“Is it bad if I did?” Lachonus asked.
“I don’t have a replacement in my pocket,” Senia snapped.
I’ll get it.
Isray folded his wings and dropped out of the sky. Fire sucked in his breath as the wind billowed past them. Passing through the clouds into open air, he scanned the earth, and recognized the mountain range. It was the same that connected to Xshaltheria, and bordered the southern side of the valley where the alliance had fought the fiends.
“I can’t believe a swordsman dropped his sword,” Senia fumed.
“I would never drop my sword,” he protested. “But I would test the oracle’s skill.”
Fire spun in his seat, just as Lachonus pulled the sword into view. He began to laugh as Senia glared at him. Isray opened his wings and pulled out of his dive, the rumble in his chest indicating he was less than pleased.
“You want to test me?” Senia’s voice turned dangerous.
“Not when you ask like that,” Fire said.
Her eyes flicked to him, and Fire regretted speaking. Then his smile faded as he looked beyond Isray’s spiked head and through the gap between two peaks. He could just make out Xshaltheria.
“Down,” he hissed.
“I’m not falling for that again,” Senia snapped.
“Down,” Fire snarled.
Hearing the warning in his voice, Isray dropped lower, falling behind the string of peaks. Suddenly tense, the three remained silent as the white dragon found a roost behind a ridge. Fire dropped from the saddle and sprinted up the slope, slowing as he reached the top.
The peak on his right rose into the clouds. Fire took a place behind a boulder and surveyed the valley beyond, and Xshaltheria rising in the east. Senia and Lachonus joined him, and the oracle lowered her voice.
“What did you see?”
Fire didn’t respond. The remains of the scattered tents and war machines were still present in the valley, visible in the horde of fiends marching west. The river that ran through the center of the valley was almost invisible beneath their sheer mass.
The volcano sat at the eastern end of the valley, a dark haze rising from its mouth. The road and battlements had more fiends, the creatures marching from the gates at the western side of the volcano’s mouth.
Isray morphed into Rake and he joined them, but Fire motioned them to silence. All four scanned the fortress, and then a large shape dropped out of the clouds and settled on the rim of the volcano. Rake sucked in his breath.
“Gorewrathian is here?”
“That’s what you saw?” Lachonus asked.
Fire nodded. “I saw his wing as he turned back. Both of Draeken’s dragons are here.”
“He must have sent them back to guard the fortress,” Senia said.
“You didn’t see it?” Rake asked.
She cast him a withering glare. “As Lachonus has just irritatingly demonstrated, I do not foresee everything. I can only catch glimpses of the future.”
“Is this a bad time to point out that I saved us all?” Lachonus asked.
“How did you do that?” Rake asked.
“If I hadn’t pretended to drop my sword, we would have flown around the fortress and come from the east, where we surely would have been discovered by the two red dragons.”
Fire grinned. “He has a point.”
Senia rolled her eyes. “If I didn’t need you, I would kill you.”
“So what do we do?” Rake motioned to the red dragons. “Gorewrathian is the king of dragons for a reason. He’s four times larger than Isray, and that doesn’t include Bendelinish.”
Serak’s dragon appeared out of the clouds and curved around the fortress, obviously on patrol. Gorewrathian dropped from the volcano and flapped for altitude before turning into the valley. It soared south, towards the foursome, before sweeping along the mountainside.
Fire ducked behind the boulder, crouching with the others as the great shadow passed above them. Senia grimaced and shook her head, but Fire realized why she was angry. She blamed herself for not seeing the dragon’s presence.
“We need a new plan,” Fire said.
“And it needs to be fast,” Lachonus said. “Noonday is only a few hours away.”
“Can you see another way in?” Rake looked to Senia.
Fire watched the doubt on her features. The entire plan hinged on them destroying the Dark Gate. They’d counted on Draeken retaining the bulk of his forces at Ilumidora, leaving Xshaltheria open to attack.
Senia’s jaw set in a firm line and she settled into a hollow between the boulder and the rock. “I’ll have to,” she said.
As Senia dropped into her farsight, Fire returned his gaze to Xshaltheria. The presence of the dragons changed everything. The four of them would be hard pressed to kill a single dragon, let alone a second—or the fiends. And that didn’t include Draeken’s mysterious sentry.
His thoughts shifted to his brothers. The sun would rise soon, and when it did, the final battle would begin. Elenyr, the other fragments, everyone had hung their hopes that he and the others could destroy the Gate at the appointed hour. He grimaced as another person came to mind.
