“I’m sorry,” I said. “Thomas is wrong.”
“You are making a mistake, Ashan. You will never be a dragon mage if you attack the Academy.”
I could be making more than just a mistake. I could be pitting myself against the king. But I couldn’t let this attack continue to press inward, destroying more and more. I could feel the energy, the way it was rolling here, and I knew if I didn’t do anything, if I waited too long, this attack would overwhelm the city. The sense of power was bubbling underneath the city even now. It was far too potent to let linger.
“I have to do this. If you feel you need to—"
Eleanor charged at me.
Natalie reacted, which surprised me. She laced a quick strand of dragon magic around, little more than a twisting fiber of power that worked from her feet all the way to her head, confining her. It was effective, and for a moment, I feared Natalie would burn her, but she hadn’t used nearly enough power to do that. It merely held her in place. I could feel the way she had borrowed from the dragon cycle, adding that power into her approach.
Natalie locked eyes with me for a moment, then nodded.
We crawled forward, into the opening.
It didn’t take long for us to reach the Djarn space deep beneath the Academy.
As we reached the branch point, I could feel lava flowing, heat radiating off of it, even if I couldn’t see anything other than a faint glowing.
And then we reached the opening.
Thomas was there, as was the Servant.
He looked over to me, surprised to see me. “You shouldn’t be here,” Thomas said.
I shook my head. “Do you even know what is going on?”
“The Vard have attacked.”
I shook my head. “The Vard haven’t attacked. They were used. Much like the Djarn were used. Much like you have now been used.”
Thomas eyed me for a moment. “You shouldn’t have come here. You shouldn’t intervene. This place can hold him,” Thomas said.
Given what I’d seen and what Eleanor had said about this space, I knew he was probably right. “All it’s doing is drawing their attack to the city. Is that what you want?”
“I thought you said the Vard weren’t attacking.”
I took a deep breath, trying to find a way to get through to him. “They haven’t been, but they will. If we continue this, then they will have no choice.”
I looked over to the Servant, and I found him watching me. Somehow, I could feel the heat radiating off of him, energy that was drawn through him. I held his gaze, but found it difficult to do so. “But the Vard were not responsible for this, were they?” I looked past Thomas, asking the Servant himself.
He held my gaze. I could feel the heat in his. “No,” he said, his voice hoarse and painful.
“The Vard have always been after us,” Thomas said. “And they will continue to descend upon us.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “And if we stop this, if we get him to help us stop this, then we can finally put an end to this.” I looked at the Servant.
It was going to take more than that. He had been held captive, and I wanted Thomas to reveal how he had captured the Servant, even if he didn’t want to.
But that was for later.
“We have to release him. Let him return to his people. And let him call off Affellah.”
“Agreed,” the Servant said, his voice a rough, awful sound.
I glanced over to Thomas, and he continued to frown at me. “The king wants me to hold him. There is so much we can learn about the Servants.”
“Don’t you think we could learn it another way?”
“They have no way to work with us. We know what the Vard are capable of. We have seen it for years. You are too new to your role, Ashan, but over time, you will come to learn the truth.”
It had nothing to do with how new I was to the dragon magic.
I could see the truth. I had felt the truth.
“I don’t know what happened with the Vard in the past, but I know what I’ve heard. I know what you have said, what the Djarn have said, what Manuel has said. The Vard have not attacked in years.” I watched the Servant as I said it, and saw him nod his head just once. “They had no reason to attack us. And then you captured the Servant.”
“You’re blaming me?” Thomas asked.
“No. Unless you are responsible for those pits along the Southern Reach, but I don’t think you are. That was too similar to what happened before. This is something else.”
This time, the Servant did react.
I couldn’t tell anything from his expression, though there was a strange light that shone in his eyes, something that burned, something strange.
And there was agitation within him.
An agitation that I couldn’t quite understand.
“Murtar,” he breathed out.
I looked at him, wishing I understood what he was saying.
“What was that? Murder?”
The Servant seemed to glow hotter. “You don’t know.”
I couldn’t tell if it was a question or a statement.
“Murtar,” he said again.
“This wasn’t the Vard. We have to let the Servant go,” I said.
“I have been a part of protecting this country for a long time. I know what must be done. You have to trust me,” Thomas said.
I frowned. “With lava flowing toward the city, I’m afraid I can’t.”
“You can’t trust me, or you can’t serve your king?”
“If we let that lava flow here, the city will be destroyed.”
“They won’t be able to destroy the city.”
“They will. You may not believe it, but I do. I can feel it.”
I looked past him and saw an opening in the ground with a pattern over the top of it. The Servant was inside. He looked up at me, and I could feel a pulling coming from him, or an
