The pair was about ten paces in front of them, still looking up from that low spot between the rooflines, still not making a move. He was hiding here, Anna realized. Some kind of spy. But did she dare risk a fight here, in the open, for anyone to see?
The rider's hand inched stealthily towards his gun.
And then there was nothing to do but attack.
"Go!" Anna roared.
They charged.
22
M
OONDAGGER SAW THE
enemy. And he knew exactly what needed to be done. The enemy was bigger. The enemy was stronger. The enemy had been trained. But none of that mattered. What mattered was that battle had arrived. Real battle. The waiting was finally over.
23
A
SNAP OF
wing and Moondagger launched from his perch, cutting up and to the right. Anna drew her high silver blade and leapt to the left. She sprinted down the roof peak, jumped to the top of a protruding chimney, and leapt through the curling smoke straight at the rider. The grey dragon hissed with surprise, reared, and unfurled its wings. The rider had drawn his revolver, but he wasn't aiming it at her for some reason—and then it was too late. Moondagger had arced deftly up and away, returning with incredible speed as he gathered momentum with the touch of elevation. Anna slashed past the grey's wing, her dagger low and lethal. They hit their targets together, Moondagger slashing at the grey's throat, drawing blood, flashing past, snatching the grey's head in his rear claws, clamping down hard in mid-flight, spinning the dragon's head around like a corkscrew, its long neck jerking, stretching, twisting, spine popping like hot corn in a kettle. Simultaneously, Anna swatted the rider's gun aside and drove her dagger into his heart, high silver blade splitting his armor like air, a grunt as Anna twisted the blade, turning the point up, levering the tip deeper into his chest. The young man's back arched, lips and teeth frozen open. Anna clamped a hand over his mouth. For a moment, the rider looked into Anna's eyes, a puzzled expression on his face. Then he shuddered and bent lifelessly against his saddle's high cantle.
Anna stared at him. Then looked away. She'd fought in battles before. She'd seen the dead. But never like this. It had been over before she'd known what had happened. Nothing at all like the poems and songs. Never this close. Never with her own hand.
"Traitor," Anna muttered.
But the words sounded hollow in her ears. She suddenly wished her old friend—that dark rage—would come back. But it didn't. She just felt slightly sick.
"It's our duty," she muttered lamely.
Dagger grunted, staring at the enemy dragon. He nudged the dead beast with his snout, then turned his eyes to her. There was blood on Dagger's neck, but it wasn't his own, bright red against his white scales. Anna blinked, wiped her silver blade on the rider's uniform, and sheathed it along her forearm.
A large, black crow landed on a nearby chimney and cocked its head at the carnage. Then it stared at her. No ruffling feathers, no cocking its head, no cawing. Just staring, its flinty black eyes flat and intelligent.
Anna looked around, scanning the horizon. The fight seemed to have gone unnoticed, which was good. At least she didn't see any other scouts. But that was no proof that they hadn't been seen.
The crow leapt from the chimney to the roof near the enemy dragon's head, its sharp beak bobbing. It peered into the dragon's violet eyes, as if assessing their taste.
"Get outta here!" Anna snarled, scooping up a shard of slate, side-arming it at the bird. She missed and the crow fluttered back to its chimney perch. It sat there for a moment, took a long look at Anna, then flapped away.
24
A
FTER THIS, IT
took no time to reach the roof above Master Zar's armory and they crossed without further incident. But when they arrived, two squads of House Tevéss guardsmen were waiting for them.
"All right," Anna whispered.
Maybe they weren't waiting specifically for them, but they were still in the courtyard, blocking the yard's main gate and the gate to Master Zar's armory.
Moondagger, lying belly down behind the ridge beside her, grunted what sounded like a question.
Anna nodded. "Let me take another look."
She tilted her head and peaked sideways over the roof ridge.
The armory's courtyard was a large, rectangular space, about thirty paces across and some one hundred paces long. It was open to the sky and paved with grey granite. Its long axis ran northwest to southeast, away from the High Keep. On the northwestern wall, to Anna's right, a gate of wrought iron opened into the citadel proper. This gate was shut. Five Tevéss guardsmen loitered in front of it. They were armed with spears, round shields, and short battleswords. Anna saw two carbines slung over guardsmen's shoulders, but no other firearms. On the other side of the courtyard, in the southeastern wall, a pair of bronze-bound, double-wide doors granted access to Master Zar's armory and the southeastern launch platforms. These doors were also shut. Another five Tevéss guardsmen stood outside them. In addition to the usual gear, three of the guardsmen carried carbines.
The long wall of the courtyard, the wall directly across from the warehouse on which she hid, was lined with the main forges of the High Keep. Each forge was made of well-cut stone and roofed by a shed of silver-grey slate. Their chimneys were fashioned from the same grey granite as the courtyard's pavers. In front of each forge, horned anvils of various sizes squatted on thick, iron-bound blocks. Rows of black tongs, clamps, punches, swages, pinchers, and hammers hung from iron bars tacked between the sheds' supports. Even in times of peace, the courtyard was one of the busiest areas of the High Keep, especially in the morning. But now the yard was silent.
Anna eased herself back from the roof ridge. Ten Tevéss soldiers total. Armed and armored. Five firearms. Dagger turned his white snout toward her, eyes glowing, as if he perfectly understood her thoughts.
Master Zar's armory couldn't be reached on foot except through the courtyard. In fact, the only way for her to reach the armory without passing through the courtyard would be to climb down the side of the southeastern wall of the warehouse, climb down the mountainside itself, and then enter the armory through the launch platforms. And that would take forever.
"We'll fly."
Dagger cocked his head and stretched his white wings wide. The morning sun blinked through the hole made by d'Rent's bullet. There was no other choice. There was no way to get past Lord Gideon's men. And if she didn't tell Master Zar what was going on this moment, then it would be too late. Climbing down the cliff side without tackle would hardly be less dangerous.
Dagger stared at her. The white tip of his tail quivered with excitement.
Anna scooted back away from the ridge, crawled to the eastern edge of the warehouse roof, and peered over. It was a sheer drop down the cliff side into the mist and green forests below. She nodded. They could do it. Straight out and down. Land on the southeastern launch platform. It was closest, and it was the biggest.
"Come here."
Dagger obeyed.
"Put your head down."
Dagger put his head down.
Anna took off her belt, looped it around Moondagger's neck, and latched the belt's tongue on the last buckle hole. She pulled the belt tight. There was about a palm's breadth of space between the belt and the white scales of Dagger's neck. His crest hadn't been trimmed for harness yet, so she'd have to lay on it. It would be uncomfortable, but if this plan didn't work, she'd have bigger problems than a few cuts on her chest.
"We'll launch and turn to the right." She pointed, not because he could see but out of habit. "Aim at that platform there. You dive too steep, you won't be able to pull up, and we're both dead. You dive too shallow, we'll fly over the platform, and only the Great Sisters know what'll happen to us then. Got it?"
Dagger stared at her, hissed, and spread his wings to show her how strong they were.
"Good." She nodded, realizing that she wasn't worried at all that they'd make it. "Let's go."
Dagger scooted forward, his white tail rasping across the slate tiles. Anna stepped over his neck and smoothed down his spinal crest. She sat and leaned forward along his neck, pushing his crest flat with her chest.
"How's that?" she asked.
Dagger cocked his head slightly. Anna slid her arms beneath her belt. The backs of her arms were against Dagger's scales. She closed her elbows so that the belt was locked between her forearms and biceps. She pulled a couple of times against the strap. Should be all right. Beneath her elbows, Dagger's neck was whip-strong muscle wrapped in smooth white scale.
"When you launch, you've gotta lift your head a bit to keep me horizontal."
Without pause, almost like he couldn't wait, Dagger stretched his head over the roof's edge. He held himself and Anna there, perfectly still, perfectly balanced above the precipice. The drop was dizzying and deadly and—oh Great Sisters—she was strapped to a baby dragon with a
belt
.
Anna closed her elbows hard on her makeshift harness. She pressed her hips against Dagger's spine, wrapped her legs around his neck, and locked her ankles.
"Go."
A muscular grunt, a crunch of slate, and Moondagger dove out into the air.
25
O
F COURSE,
A
NNA
had ridden dragons countless times before—as a squire.
She'd already experienced the crazy weightlessness that steals your breath when you plummet earthwards like a falling meteor. She'd already tasted the thrill of a sheering, leaf-splitting roll through the lush fissures of Jorgun Gorge. She'd already felt the heartbreaking awe that wells up in your chest when a slow climb through purple twilight opens onto moonlit landscapes of endless, violet cloud.
But Anna had never ridden a dragon by herself.
And she most definitely had never ridden a dragon that could be rightfully called her own.
So when Dagger leapt from the rooftop, something
clicked
in her mind.
It was a kind of certainty. A kind of clarity. All her fear vanished. And with it, all her rage. The past, the present, the future—all disappeared. In their place, there was nothing but a crystallized jewel of the
now
, a crazy, dizzying joy that seemed to radiate a holy light from the very center of things.
And in that frozen moment, in that eternal flash of time, Anna Dyer knew—knew with a certainty that defied all reason—that she would spend her entire life, however long or short, with Moondagger in the sky.
26
F
OR THE FIRST
time, Moondagger saw everything clearly.
This was how it was supposed to be.
This was how it was meant to be.
This and only this.
He and his rider.
In the sky.
Forever
.
27
T
HEIR MAIDEN FLIGHT
lasted all of ten breaths and ended badly.
But Anna didn't care.
And she knew Dagger didn't care, either.
Their target, the armory's southeastern launch platform, was enormous. It'd been built specifically for Voidbane about a hundred years ago and was cantilevered from the cliff side on an intricate lattice of iron trusses. All told, it was well over a hundred paces across. And that didn't include the flight ramp, which could be lowered like a drawbridge on massive chains to give the largest dragons more room for takeoff and landing.
They approached the platform smoothly, a gliding arc descending cleanly from launch point to destination. No tricks. No horseplay. Just tight, proficient flying, the wind whipping her dark hair, the morning sun warming her face, their hearts pounding in each other's chests. It took everything she had not to shriek like a triumphant demon.
But Moondagger was a newborn. And, obviously, he'd never tried to land with a rider before.
Or land at all, for that matter.
So when they neared the platform, he flared his wings a bit too late and they came in too fast, skidding, hopping, and bobbling across the platform—white serpent tail slapping crazily against the deck, rear claws furrowing wood, Anna's legs coming loose, dangling and flopping everywhere—before Dagger managed to dig in his claws, trip, and belly slide a good ten paces while Anna, still belt-locked to her dragon's neck, nearly dislocated her shoulders, the impact punching her wind out like a fist to the gut.
"Good morning, Miss Dyer." A deep voice behind her. "Looks like we've got guests, eh, Gregory?"
There was a murmur of good-natured laughter. Dagger grunted, pulled himself up, and shook himself off, nothing hurt but his pride. Anna turned, speechless, lungs on fire, and found herself standing in front of Master Zar and two dozen armorers and assistants.