I nodded. With that, I felt a surge I could no longer resist. It came from the Servant, and it latched on to me, binding me. It was too fast and sudden for me to prevent, but there was no pain, no danger, only a flash of heat and fire that flowed through me.
I wondered whether I had made a mistake.
19
I rode atop the green dragon, far more stiffly than usual. Power cycled out of the dragon, into me, and flowed through the cycle, connecting me to Natalie and Thomas, giving me at least a feeling of their presence. They were out there, even though they were not with me. I no longer knew when I’d see them again.
Wind whipped around, swirling past me. I could feel the energy of the wind, could feel its power as it flowed around us, and it left me uncomfortable.
Some of that discomfort came from the fact that the Servant sat in front of me.
He rode atop the dragon too, seemingly far more comfortable than me. He sat with his hand resting on the dragon, but made no effort to hold on tightly. His body, his entire posture, gave off a relaxed feeling.
And it worried me.
He shouldn’t be comfortable. The Servant didn’t care for dragons, but he really shouldn’t want to bring someone connected to the dragons the way I was into his lands, someone who was a part of the Academy. A dragon mage.
Only I was uncomfortable.
I felt almost as much discomfort as I had when traveling into the Vard lands. As we neared the edge of the Southern Reach, where I could see movement down below, the ground started to shift, becoming darker, angrier. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was, only that as I stared, I could see some aspect of it changing. It was rippling, as if the power that existed down below was trying to course through everything. I needed to do something here, but I didn’t know what.
“You must travel above them if you want Affellah to calm,” the Servant said.
We traveled from Berestal, along the border, and passed over the first of the pits. As we did, there came a powerful surge of heat radiating off of the Servant. That power slammed into the pit, and the lava flow suddenly abated. The dragon on the ground next to it lurched. I felt a pulse of power through the cycle, and I understood. The dragon wanted me to link him to our cycle. I pushed power outward, looping that dragon in, and fed it power from the cycle.
The Servant looked back at me. “What was that?”
“I was trying to make sure the dragon was unharmed,” I said.
Could he tell what I was doing?
Already I worried about what connection had formed between me and the Servant. I could feel something from him, could feel the way he had touched upon me, using his strange power. I had to be careful with it, and because I could feel it, I knew he could probably feel something from me, too.
We made our way to the next pit. Like the last one, the Servant used some strange power, and the lava stopped pouring from it. I helped the dragon, joining it to the cycle, and the Servant looked back at me, seemingly aware of how I touched upon the power of the dragon.
I didn’t explain anything this time.
We traveled along the border, and I realized there were eleven separate pits—all of them ceased flowing as we passed over them.
“What about the one in the capital?” I asked.
“What about it?”
“You need to stop that, as well.”
“There is no attack on your capital,” he said. “I have told you who was responsible.”
“You said nothing other than—”
“Murtar.” He fell silent as we flew. “I will show you the real danger. Then you will understand.”
I wasn’t sure how to feel about it, though I’d long suspected there was another faction responsible. I didn’t know who the Murtar were, but I would learn. Then I would bring that knowledge back to the kingdom. And we could use it to keep our people safe.
For now, I wanted to ensure the capital was safe.
I focused on the cycle. Adding these eleven dragons had increased the cycle, and over time, I had to hope that power would grow.
It might diminish the possibility that others within the kingdom could join the cycle, at least until Thomas understood it well enough to add dragon mages. Perhaps the Sharath would share with him, and give him enough information to know how to add power to it.
Within that cycle, I found Natalie. There was a hint of worry—a concern for me and what I might face. Strangely, I was far more aware of it than I had been before. I focused on what she might be seeing, and strained, wanting to know whether the capital had cooled.
It took a while, but a vision slowly began to drift into my mind.
I could see it.
The tunnels that had started to fill with flame had cooled.
I had no idea how long they would remain cool, or whether there was anything else that would change, but for now, it seemed as if the Servant had calmed the attack on the kingdom.
“Are you satisfied?” the Servant asked, looking at me.
“As much as I can be.”
“Now you must live up to your bargain.”
As he said it, I felt a burst of pressure within me. There was something he did, some aspect of power he pushed upon, that I could feel within me when he spoke. There was an energy to him.
I breathed out slowly before focusing on the dragon, and we began to fly to the south. As we crossed over the Southern Reach, I studied the plains, watching the ground flow past. And then we flew beyond.
Everything shifted. The landscape was bleak—all black rock, cooled lava. I knew it wasn’t like this indefinitely from when we had gone deeper into the Vard lands, but this aspect
