This was my chance.
Behind me, I could hear Elaine and Alison stepping through that brush.
I spun, and as soon as Elaine stepped into the clearing, I jumped.
“Ashan!”
I ignored Alison’s cry, focusing on slamming into Elaine. Pain started to shoot through me, the needles combined with that electrical jolt, but as soon as I collided with her, it was disrupted. I slammed down onto her, using my shoulder to strike at her face. I kept her on the ground, using my shoulders as fists, driving them into her face until she stopped moving.
Only then did I lean back, sitting on her.
That tension within me persisted, as did the burning. I turned to Alison. “You need to get my hands free,” I said to her.
“What happens when she comes around?” Alison asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. We aren’t going to be here.”
Elaine had been responsible for all of this. She had been the reason Alison had been captured.
Was it worth sparing her life, knowing she might come after us?
She wouldn’t have done the same for us. I was certain of that. Once she found the dragon, she’d have no use for us.
That wasn’t me, though. It wasn’t Alison.
“Come on,” I said. “We have to find Joran.”
I had no idea what had happened to him, but we had to head back to the Djarn path to see if we could find him.
“But she can find us.”
“I don’t know that she can. You forget, we’re in the forest where no one escapes.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Alison whispered.
20
I managed to untie Alison’s bindings, and she did the same to me. Having my wrists freed gave me the chance to at least move them, rubbing the pain out of them. The tingling that I felt seemed to persist, as if it came from more than just the ropes, though as I looked down at Elaine’s fallen form, I thought that was likely.
“Help me tie her up,” I said to Alison.
She nodded. The two of us worked quickly, securing Elaine by the wrists and ankles. When we were done, Alison stepped back. “What now?”
“I’m not exactly sure,” I said. “We could leave her.”
“We probably should,” Alison said.
“Only I don’t know. Something’s going on. She was with the Academy, and until we know just what it is that’s taking place, maybe we shouldn’t leave her.”
“She tried to hurt me. Because of her, others were hurt, even killed. She deserves anything that comes to her,” Alison said.
She was right, but until we understood who this other person was in the forest, and what they were doing, I didn’t know if we would need a dragon mage.
“Come on. Let’s go to this light.”
“What light?”
“The light I see in the distance. You don’t see it?”
“I don’t see anything, Ashan. I didn’t know what you are doing. When she forced you to keep going, I thought you were leading us back to Berestal.”
“There’s a light in the distance. I don’t know what it is, only that I can see the outline of it.” I turned and looked into the trees, but couldn’t see anything out there other than a hint of the pale light that had drawn me in the first place. It had come out of the darkness, guiding me, and calling me toward it.
It was the dragon, though I didn’t know why I was the only one of us who could see it.
I looked down at Elaine. She hadn’t moved since I’d knocked her out, though I was worried that she might start moving again. With the magic that she had, it was hard for me to know whether she would come around faster than I expected.
“You can see the dragon?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Maybe.” I thought about what Elaine had said about the connection that I might have to the dragon, though I didn’t know whether it really made sense to me, or whether it even mattered. “When I freed the dragon, there was a light that glowed from it, so for all I know, it is the dragon.”
“Now that she’s knocked out, why would we go toward the dragon?”
“I didn’t get the sense that it wanted to harm us. It killed two of the Vard, though it left me alone. It seemed as if it did that intentionally.”
“I still don’t know why we would go after the dragon. Let’s go home, Ashan.”
I turned back to my sister. It was a good question. Why would we go back toward the dragon?
I had wanted to see a dragon, and now that I had been given the chance to see it up close, I no longer knew if that was what I wanted. Seeing what had happened to her, and seeing the way that she suffered, I couldn’t help but feel as if we needed to return home.
I stared into the distance. There was still that glowing light. It seemed to call to me, though not the way that it had when I had been near the wagons. This time, I could ignore it.
“Something is bothering me,” I said, looking over to Alison. “It’s something Joran said about the Vard. They don’t like the dragons, so why would they want to use one?”
More than that, why attack the Djarn?
“There’s something wrong. With all of this.”
“It’s not for us to worry about,” Alison said. “We’re farmers. Not a part of the kingdom. Not a part of whatever war the king has with the Vard.”
It hadn’t been an open war before now. Some sympathizers in Berestal, but nothing like this. I didn’t know what this was, but I started to wonder if it was even the Vard.
And if not, what had happened here?
“There’s someone else from the capital who serves the king out here. If we can find him, maybe we can—”
The steady rumble that I’d heard before erupted. It was behind
