“Are you all right?” Ido croaked. “That was too close. Either the ten are stronger, or we are weaker.”
I ducked out from under his hold, both my arms holding my weight. All my pain was gone. I tore away the field dressing— under the caked blood, the savage gash had knitted together as though it had never been.
Ido sat back, his full restoration also plain to see. He stared down at the smooth expanse of his chest and brushed his fingers across the uncarved skin, then twisted to see the condition of his back. I, too, could not help staring at his body and the marvel of my dragon’s healing power. All the damage was gone, his powerful breadth of shoulder and long legs unmarred by bru-tality. His musculature, however, was stark on the strong bones. Dragon power could not heal days of near starvation. Ido saw my attention, but did not move to cover his nakedness. “What is our number?”
I looked away, fixing on the dark figures outside the cell. Already the few had become many. “We are six, counting you.”
He rubbed his hand down his face. “Six? Is that all?”
“Eona?” It was Ryko’s voice, rough and urgent.
“Here,” I called, pushing myself up on to my feet. “We are unhurt.”
I touched my arm again. Better than unhurt.
“You’ve healed yourself, too?” Ido’s eyes ran along my body. “You are not crippled anymore.”
“No,” I said, flushing under his scrutiny. “A useful power to have,” he said. More useful than he knew.
“Soldiers,” Ryko said as he picked his way through the haze of dust and the tumble of stones that lay across the doorway. “We’re surrounded.”
Behind him, Vida, Dela, and Yuso struggled over the sliding, clinking rubble. I saw Vida pause at the sight of Ido’s healed body.
“They must have found the two men we killed,” Yuso said. He wiped at a wide, bloody gash above his eye, smearing blood across his forehead. “More are coming.”
“It does not matter.” Slowly, Ido pushed himself upright. He stared down at his feet and flexed his toes, then glanced across at me and gave one short nod — probably the closest he could come to gratitude. “Now that I’m whole, I’ll clear the way.”
“With your power? It is against the Covenant.”
Even as I said it, I realized how foolish I sounded. Ido had killed all of the other Dragoneyes. He would not care about the sacred Covenant of the Dragoneye Council.
His teeth showed in a wolf’s smile. “Don’t lie to yourself, girl. You know the Covenant is dead.”
“It is not.” The denial was hollow even to my own ears.
From the debris, Dela hauled out the clothes she had dumped earlier and handed them to Ido, grit cascading from their folds. “Since Lord Ido has already broken the Covenant in the service of Sethon,” she said, her voice hard, “the least he can do is break it again in our service.”
Ido eyed her as he pulled on the dusty trousers and tied the drawstring around his waist. “You have become very pragmatic, Contraire.” He pulled the loose shirt over his head.
“Necessity.” She licked her lips. “Will your power get us out of the palace?”
He looked down at his wasted body. “I should have enough in me to get past these men.”
“Do you have enough to kill Sethon?” she asked.
What was she thinking? We were here to free Ido to train me, not assassinate Sethon.
Ido shook his head. “I am not part of your resistance, Contraire.”
“But he tortured you. Surely you want to kill him.”
Ido’s jaw shifted. “I will kill him in my own time. Not at the convenience of your cause.”
Yuso stepped forward. “We all want Sethon dead, Lady Dela. But this is not the time. It is not our mission. We are here to get Lord Ido out.”
“The captain is right,” I urged.
“They are forming battle lines outside,” Vida reported.
A clipped voice of command and the ominous thud of running feet spun us all around to face the gaping hole in the wall. Troops were gathering around the building.
“We have men and horses waiting for us beyond the imperial guards’ gate,” Yuso said. “You know the direction?”
Ido nodded. “Everyone stay close to me,” he ordered. “If any of you stray beyond my protection, I will not stop.”
We clustered behind him, Dela and Vida huddling at either side of me, Ryko and Yuso at the rear. Ido’s breathing changed, the slight lift and fall of his shoulders sinking into the deep, slow measure that would ease him into the energy world.
This was the moment to test my link with him: I had to be sure I could control him.
Tentatively, I reached out with my
He looked back at me, amber eyes threaded with silver. Had he had sensed my presence? But a shout from the courtyard refocused his attention. The troops were advancing. He stepped through the hole in the cell wall — the rest of us moving as one behind him — and with an upheld hand, he hardened the light breeze into a sudden wind that raised the dust into violent eddies. They swirled around our tight huddle but did not touch us, their howling force building with every step we took toward the troops.
Soldiers raised their
How could I control the will of a man with such immense power?
We passed the Pavilion of Autumnal Justice, Ido reaming the earth on either side of us with a flick of his hands. The ground heaved under the next wave of soldiers, the cobbles ripped out from under them as they ran toward us. The stones arced in the air, then rained down on their heads with sickening thuds. Vida grabbed my arm and turned her head away as one by one the large oil lamps burst across another rank of troops, setting them alight, the wind whipping the flames across the oil-splattered, screaming men.
As we headed toward the palace wall, I caught sight of soldiers rounding the far corner of the guards’ quarters. Ido saw them, too. With a lift of his hand, he raised the sands from the training arena. I ducked, although I knew the pale cloud that arrowed over our heads would not touch us. It hit the men like a thousand tiny knives, shearing away skin and stifling screams with suffocating force. Behind me I heard Ryko’s soft moan of horror.
Ahead, a section of the palace wall exploded outward in a crash and tumble of stone and dust. Ido’s pace did not falter. We climbed through the hole after him and across the debrisstrewn riding track, all of us fighting the urge to run from the screaming devastation in our wake.
Before us spread the formal pathways and cultivated groves of the Emerald Ring — the lavish gardens that separated the palace from its surrounding circle of twelve Dragon Halls. We had emerged near the Lucky Frog Pond, its famed frog-house pavilion rising from the gilded waters like a miniature temple. The burning palace cast a burnished glow upon its surface, and caught the wet jewel eyes of the frogs crouched within it. Beyond the pond, a round moon gate framed a raked pebble garden, the pale stones gleaming in the reddened light like a pathway of gold.
Ryko hooked his fingers into his mouth and gave a series of shrill whistles that pierced even the cracking, shouting chaos behind us. The inky shapes of men and horses emerged from a stand of cypress trees to our right. I saw the pale, dappled hide of Ju-long and my heart leapt. Was Kygo among the men? Surely he would not risk it.
“The god of luck is with us,” Vida whispered.
“He had nothing to do with it,” Ido said, his voice rough with fatigue. “I saw their
