Manuel frowned. “Dangerous,” he whispered. “I’ve been trying to understand why the Vard have been agitated. The mesahn have followed more Vard than usual, though none have attacked. They’ve just been… searching.”
Manuel must have been tracking Vard when I’d seen him in the forest. For the first time, it actually was the Vard responsible—but there might be some other reason behind it. “You know about the Servant?”
“The king has Hunters tracking the Servants. Many have been lost over the years. Including many of the mesahn. The Servants of Affellah are powerful, Ashan.”
“I understand that.”
He shook his head, glancing toward the edge of the forest again. “I don’t think you do. There have been rumors of one of the Servants having been abducted, but it wasn’t Thomas who did it. I would’ve known,” Manuel said.
I watched him, and I could see the concern in his eyes. He was one of the Hunters, and with his mesahn, with whatever power they possessed, I would’ve expected that he would have known.
“Did the mesahn tell you?”
Manuel regarded me for a moment. “The mesahn are part of the hunt,” he said carefully.
“And they hunt the dragons?”
“They might hunt the dragons, but they have no reason.”
I couldn’t tell him what I knew about the dragons and the mesahn.
Not now.
I didn’t know if telling him would reveal something that shouldn’t be revealed, or if it would only lead to more questions. I had been there when the mesahn had been killed under the dragon’s fire. And now that dragon was a part of my cycle.
I wished I could ask the dragon about it, wished I could gain some insight, but doubted that there would be anything I might learn.
Instead, I chose not to say anything about the mesahn.
“The Servants have some way of calling upon fire,” I said. “And the king will make sure he destroys the Vard to keep them from doing that in Berestal. Even if it means destroying Berestal.”
“He won’t attack Berestal if he can keep them from the border. I know you want to protect your people, but he’ll focus on the Southern Reach first. If they have decided to try to infiltrate our southern border, they won’t get very far. With a dozen dragons and mages, they will find that the Vard will scatter.”
“What if they take the dragon’s power?” I asked.
“That’s not even possible,” Manuel said
“But what if they can?”
Then the king would have no choice but to destroy the Vard.
Regardless of where they were.
“I know you think you have an understanding of the dragons, and I know you have been involved in many things throughout the kingdom in your time here, but what you’re saying is not possible.”
I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as I looked over to Manuel. “I don’t know what’s possible. I think that’s part of the problem. I have no idea anymore. And that worries me. I don’t know what the Vard might do. If this is something else, the same way the attack in Berestal was meant to look like the Vard, then we need to understand what they’re really after.”
“Ashan—”
“Help me,” I said. “Maybe you don’t believe me, and maybe you don’t think this is the same threat, but I know what I have experienced. I know the danger we are in. It’s possible this is the Vard, but it’s also possible there’s something else taking place here that we don’t know about. Wouldn’t you rather dig into it, look for all of the possible angles, and know the truth?”
I didn’t know what this other threat might do, only that they would find it all too easy to overthrow the kingdom. I thought about the Servant, the strangeness I had felt from him, and the way I feared him and what he represented. If the Vard did come, what might the Servants do? What might they expect of us?
The problem was I simply didn’t know.
Manuel sighed, then whistled, and there came a flurry of movement from somewhere in the distant forest before he turned. He whistled again.
“I will see what I can do,” he said.
“You have to be careful.”
“I don’t know that I do,” he said. “If you’re concerned about the Vard having some way of connecting to dragons, then I don’t need to fear them The mesahn aren’t dragons. I don’t need to worry about them getting compromised.”
“But the mesahn can be injured.” I still hadn’t said anything about having seen one of the dragons kill a mesahn—I didn’t know how the Hunters would have taken it.
“I suppose they could,” he said.
“And if they were, what would happen?”
Manuel stared at me. “The south you say?”
“To the south,” I said.
“I will see what I can find.”
He turned away, disappearing into the trees and fading from view more quickly than I could follow. I stood there for a moment and finally turned away, heading back through the forest, back toward Natalie. When I reached the edge of the forest, a third dragon had landed. It was enormous, a pale white, yet heat radiated from it. I had never seen it before, and was not surprised to see the Sharath sitting atop it.
“What was that about?” Natalie asked.
I glanced behind me, looking toward the trees. “That was about me seeing if we could get help.”
“Help?” her father asked.
“If we’re right—at least, if Natalie and I are right—then we won’t be able to stop the Servants with just the three of us. It’s going to take more than that, and whatever cycle—or circle—we can connect to. I asked one of the Hunters to bring the mesahn.”
The Sharath frowned, pressing his lips together tightly before nodding. “That might work,” he said. “I suppose you know the mesahn are able to neutralize much of the dragon magic.”
I frowned. “Actually, I’m not aware of that.”
“Why did you ask him to join us then?”
“Because he serves the king, and if anyone could help, it would be Manuel.”
“You know Manuel. That is right,” the
