Daybreak (30 page)

He hasn’t
.

“He might’ve.”

No, I’m fairly certain he hasn’t
.
 

“We’ve been flying all day and haven’t caught a single glimpse. So maybe —oof!”

His stomach leapt up his throat as Kyleigh plunged downward. He thought she was only doing it to shut him up when a gust of wind ripped across his body, nearly snatching him from her back. 

A familiar noise sank into the air above them: a deep, rumbling hum. Kael twisted his head upwards and saw the black dragon’s enormous shadow pass overhead, silent as the darkened belly of a cloud.

Be very still
, Kyleigh warned as she turned.
I’m going to bring us closer
.

She climbed into a tight loop and shot off after the black dragon. The speed made the air howl inside Kael’s ears. He couldn’t even hear his own breaths. They followed the dragon’s trail for nearly a full minute, but he was careful to stay inside the clouds — and the dark of his scales hid him well.

After a moment, Kyleigh had no choice but to drop back down. Kael felt as if they’d fallen into a pit. The clouds hung around them so thickly that after a moment, he forgot about the stars. He was certain there’d never been any light at all.

Even Kyleigh seemed hesitant. Her wingbeats weren’t nearly as confident as they’d been before.

Kael’s skin had begun to crawl when he caught something out of the corner of his eye: a bright red glow, a steady pulse that stained the clouds around it pink. 

His collar is glowing again
, he thought, and he knew by how her ears pinned back that the words must’ve burst inside her head.
We have to get away before he sees — are you mad
?

But Kyleigh didn’t stop. Her long neck twisted around and her body followed. She moved slowly towards the red glow, keeping a steady distance. Kael jumped when she suddenly burst into song.

Kyleigh’s hum was low, but much softer than the black dragon’s. It was the noise of a distant wind, of a breeze across a chimney’s top. When the black dragon boomed in reply, she hummed again.

Kael thought furiously:
This is a horrible idea
.
Please don’t —

I know what I’m doing
.

He’ll tear you from the skies
!

No he won’t — because you’re going to stop him
.
Get ready
.

Before he could think to protest, the black dragon turned. The glow of its collar grew larger and brighter with every second.
Kyleigh’s wings tensed, preparing to throw her body into a tight loop.

Kael reached for his dagger.

Clouds parted around the black dragon’s spiny muzzle. Kael caught a glimpse of his burning eyes, his jagged fangs — of the storm of golden flame brewing between them. Kyleigh dropped from the clouds. Wind screeched through his ears and his eyes streamed as she cut beneath the black dragon’s belly.

Get ready
! she cried.

The force of her loop flattened Kael against her back. His head screamed as it tried to hold on to consciousness. The veins inside his neck were about to burst from his skin when the pressure finally stopped.

The world was upside-down; the black dragon was beneath them. He paused, confused, watching as they sailed over his back. At the height of Kyleigh’s loop, the earth stood still. They were suspended, weightless for a breath.

And they were directly above the black dragon’s head.

Now, Kael
!
Break the collar
!

He could’ve done it. All he had to do was drop from Kyleigh and onto the black dragon’s neck. His hands could’ve torn through the collar in an instant — and the warrior in him howled for the chance. But in the split second he had to decide, the dragon’s eyes told him everything.

They flared up the moment they found Kael. Every vein within them swelled, trembling as they made way for a rush of seething yellow. The flame between the dragon’s jaws began to spill past his teeth; his shock had given way to fury. A breath of air filled his mighty lungs.

In that moment, Kael knew that if he set the black dragon free, he would tear them both to pieces. There wasn’t an ounce of mercy within those eyes — there was only rage.

He raised the golden dagger and his every muscle tensed to throw, adjusting to its weight. His eyes locked upon one of the blackened slits and he focused, prepared to send the blade hurling through its middle …

Kyleigh’s voice rang inside his head, but he couldn’t hear what she said. Time slowed. His arm was already coming forward when the dragon’s pupil collapsed: its points shrank into its center and as it widened, blue burst into the yellow.

It doused the fire, cooled the rage. The flames fell dark between his jaws. Fear and confusion filled these eyes. They made Kael’s throat twist tight. He doubted slightly, just as his arm came forward.

And it was that single doubt that saved the dragon’s life.

The golden dagger flew wide of its mark. The tip glanced the scales beside the dragon’s eye and skittered off, glinting as it fell into the darkness. A thin spatter of blood trailed its path. It hissed as its fires struck the cold night air and made the dragon roar.

His voice was weaker than it’d been before — more shocked than angry. Those blue eyes widened as they flicked from Kael to the sky ahead. Then his great body twisted around. The black dragon shot back towards the Kingdom, pounding the clouds aside with the panicked strokes of his wings.

Kael grit his teeth when the second half of Kyleigh’s loop flattened him again — followed closely by a torrent of her furious swears.
What in blazes were you thinking
?
You could’ve killed him
!

“That was the plan,” Kael said back. The memory of the dragon’s panicked stare hung behind his eyes for a moment before he shoved it away. “I won’t set him free. I won’t risk loosing him on the Kingdom. He’s a monster, Kyleigh —!”

He is
not
a monster
!

Her thoughts burned hot between his ears, bolstered by a roar. Kael held on with all of his might as she whipped around and went tearing off after the black dragon’s trail — swearing with every beat of her wings.

She was mad! It was completely and utterly insane, to go chasing after the dragon — especially since they’d very nearly been scorched. When he said as much, she replied with something that could’ve made a pirate blush.

“Fine! Go on, then,” Kael said back. “I’d love another crack at him.”

What if I cracked your skull on an ice cap, whisperer
?
Would you
love
that
?

“You wouldn’t —”

I most certainly would
.

Finally, Kael had reached his wit’s end. “What in Kingdom’s name has gotten into you? You’re being completely —”

All at once, Kyleigh’s body flipped upside-down, and Kael wasn’t ready for it. He felt the pull on the insides of his ears as the world spun; his lungs slammed against his ribs. She moved with more force than ever before, and it caught him by surprise.

The spines jerked from his grasp and his legs clamped down upon the empty air. Wind tore at him, tried to rip his face from his flesh. The weight of his armor sent him plummeting at a speed he was sure his bones couldn’t withstand. Somehow, Kael managed to twist his body around to catch one look at Kyleigh before the clouds swallowed her up.

She was nothing more than a shadow behind the clouds: a creature with wings spread wide and claws bared for the fight. Her body twisted onto its back just in time to meet the fall of a second creature. When they struck, the noise split the air like a thunderclap. Kyleigh’s furious roar clashed with another.

In half a second, Kael had fallen too far. All he could see now was the bottom of a starless night — and the glowing ocean awaited him with opened jaws.

All of his muscles tensed as the warrior in him braced for the fall. He could do nothing to stop himself from striking the waves, and he couldn’t bear to look. Kael shut his eyes, teeth clenched together as the wind tried to rip him apart …

In the instant before his body struck, a pair of claws wrapped around him. He tensed to keep their grip from shattering his ribs and held on tightly as Kyleigh swooped him upwards.

“What happened? What was that?” Kael said, his heart still screaming.

Before she could reply, a chorus of hums filled the air above them. There were three different voices: one carried a steady tone while the other two fell above and below it. Together, they formed a perfect song.

A gap broke within the clouds, and Kael saw them: monstrous, winged shadows circling tightly overhead. They moved like wraiths caught between the worlds of the living and the dead — beings that paid no heed to the earth’s laws.

“
More
dragons?” Kael hissed.

Kyleigh didn’t reply. Her tail curled tightly beneath her and slowly, she turned — moving away from the Kingdom’s shores and deeper into the shadowed sea beyond.

The dragons circled hungrily. Their song had risen to such a height that Kael’s ears began to ring. Just when he feared they would burst, another voice silenced them.

It crackled across the other three, the labor of a storm about to break. Kael was expecting the resounding
boom
at its end, but it still made him jump — and it drove the other three voices into silence.
 

“What’s happening?” was all he could manage to say. His heart was crammed so tightly against the floor of its cage that he could barely feel it beating
 

And that was before Kyleigh’s thought filled his ears with a heavy sigh: 

We’ve been captured
.

*******

Kael couldn’t believe it. By this point, he was entirely fed up with being captured — and they had absolutely no time for it. “Whatever you did to them, just apologize. Maybe they’ll let us go.”

I didn’t do anything — honestly
, she said when he twisted to frown at her.

It was difficult to sound severe while he dangled from her claws, but he glared and tried his best: “I doubt that very seriously. I don’t think you could put a toe across any border without stirring up some sort of trouble.”

She inclined her head.
True. But I’ve never been across their borders. I’ve only
dreamt
of it
.

“Well, what if you only
thought
you were dreaming? What if you sleep-flew over here and wreaked all sorts of havoc — it isn’t funny!” he snapped over her rumbling laughs. “We’re in enough trouble as it is. We don’t have time to be anybody’s prisoners.”

You can’t accuse a woman of sleep-flying and expect her not to laugh
.
Dragons are rather protective of their territories
, she said when she saw the words forming upon his lips.
I’m sure that’s all this is. We crossed into their skies without permission, and they’re going to make us land and sulk on the ground for a few days
.
Once we’ve been sufficiently shamed, I’m sure they’ll let us go
.

Kael hoped she was right.

But at the same time, he doubted it.

The dark of the clouds and the howling winds eventually broke — giving way to an endless sky. Countless orbs of light filled the space above them. There were so many worlds stretched across the night that there was hardly a patch of black between them. The ice caps thinned a bit — no longer the massive islands they’d been before, but shards of glass balanced atop the sea. Their flesh seemed to wink at the sky as the waves rocked them.

And the stars winked back.

The dragons’ song above them rose and fell in blusters: it grew so slowly that Kael could feel the chilled bumps rising across his arms before his ears even caught the song. The dragons’ voices would swell to fill the air, trembling with such force at their height that Kael’s limbs sagged beneath them. But just when he began to fear that his bones would crack, the song faded — slipping back like the tide from the shore.

Kyleigh’s wingbeats stiffened each time the dragons sang, and Kael knew it had nothing to do with the cold. The next time the song came, he pressed his hands against her scales and concentrated on listening for their voices.

The song struck Kyleigh’s ears and their words trailed like ghosts beneath the tremors:
Fly on, halved one
…
fly to the Motherlands
…
do not stop
.

When he tried to ask Kyleigh what the Motherlands were, his mind struck a wall. She was keeping him out on purpose. There was something she didn’t want him to hear, something she didn’t want him to know. Now when he tried to listen, the dragon’s song was as cryptic as it’d been before.

He didn’t know what she was hiding, but he knew it would do him no good to argue with her now. He would wait until they’d landed.

A great, black mountain rose from the sea before them. The mountain was a hole carved from the starry horizon — a shadow that seemed untouched by the world. It was as if every pale strand of starlight had died upon its shores. Kael doubted if even the sun could warm it.

The crackling thunder came again. The dragons’ shadows peeled off the back of his neck, and Kael watched as they pulled ahead. Their great wings carried them swiftly onward, until the mountain’s shadow swallowed them.
 

He was so busy watching them that he didn’t notice another shadow coming until it’d already passed. It flew much higher than the others: drifting slowly across the stars, swerving on monstrous wings in a pattern that made him dizzy to watch. It followed in the path of the other three, disappearing into the shadowed land.
 

A space of rolling hills surrounded the mountain — a whole region’s worth. Kyleigh didn’t carry them far beyond the shore. No sooner was there earth beneath their feet than she landed. Kael slid off her back and into a patch of stringy, knee-high grass. He was surprised to find grass this far north, and even more surprised at how soft it was. But there was little time to wonder.

“What’s going on, Kyleigh?” he said as she slid into her human form. “You’ve obviously done something to make the dragons angry. And I have a right to …”