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I found Saboraak on the top of the open tower, nursing a gouge in her already torn tail. Tachril was licking it. Gross.
It will help it heal.
That or your boyfriend thinks you’re so sweet that he just wants to eat you up.
She rolled her eyes at me. I took that moment to quietly signal Nostar. He and the other riders sat in a tired ring, bandaging their own wounds and drinking from a waterskin. Just looking at the waterskin reminded me how dry my own tongue felt.
Nostar joined me in the shadows, offering me a smaller waterskin.
“Thanks,” I said, taking a long swig from the skin. “I need your help, Nostar.”
He nodded, tiredly. “This isn’t good, Tor. We’re losing this fight.”
“Yeah. We can’t get any initiative unless we have more information. You know that. And to get more, I need to sneak in behind enemy lines and see who is controlling these golems. I talked to Estabis about it like I told you I would. He agrees. But I can only do that if I really can sneak.” I pulled a dirty burlap sack out from the crates and barrels in the shadowed corner. It smelled of wet jute. “And that means it has to be Saboraak and me alone. No one else.”
Nostar shook his head.
“What? You don’t agree?” I asked, returning his waterskin and pulling out my belt knife to carve holes in the bottom of the sack.
“It’s not that. I do agree. But there’s no way we can separate Tachril and Saboraak. I can’t even get him to leave the rest of the wing anymore. He’s vigilant.”
“Leave her here when you fly back up. We can say she needs a few more moments of rest. Then, I’ll sneak out of here with her. Next time you need a break, use some kind of excuse to land somewhere else.”
He looked like he thought we were wasting time.
“Just try, okay?” I said. “We need this to work.”
I slipped the stinking sack over my head, wiggling my head and arms through the holes I’d cut. It was the closest thing I could find to camouflage.
Nostar sighed. “Your face is lit up like a Winternight festival.”
He pulled one of his scarves from where it wrapped his midsection and wound it around my head.
“Thank you,” I said. I knew that the giving of scarves was a big thing in Dragon Rider society – an assurance of loyalty or a bond of friendship.
“Pull your hood up, too,” he suggested. “Those tattoos aren’t doing you any favors.”
“You’ll help me, then?” I asked.
“She’ll just tell him. It won’t matter what I do.”
“Leave her to me.”
He nodded reluctantly and then he walked back to the group. I stayed in the shadows. No need to tip my hand.
“Mount up,” Nostar said, his voice heavy with exhaustion.
“Are you sure?” Letina asked. “The female dragon needs more time to rest.”
“We’ll fly without her for this round.”
It seemed to take forever for them to gather their things and urge their dragons back into their saddles. With every minute that passed, my nerves increased. How would I convince Saboraak to do this with me? What would we do if we were discovered out there in the middle of the golems and then they turned on us? Could we escape? What if there were more Magikas out there than just Eventen?
The questions rolled on, one after another like waves onto a beach and I didn’t have answers for any of them. When the Greens finally launched into the night sky, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Step one: complete.
Now for step two.
The step where you convince me to leave my beloved Tachril when he most needs me to join you in some hairbrained scheme?
“The step where I convince you to make Tachril proud and join me in the most ingenious move of this battle in a way that only you can. You know me, Saboraak – I’m a born winner.”
You’re a born something, that’s for sure.
I gave her my best grin, but it never worked on dragons. “That trick you did with the camouflage in the city street – the one where you blended into the landscape. Can you do that while we fly out over the fields behind enemy lines?”
It’s not easy to do while you’re moving. And I haven’t agreed to try.
“Well, obviously you’re going to try,” I said, grabbing her saddle and beginning to fit it to her back. “Why wouldn’t you?”
Because we could end up dead!
I cinched the belly strap, quickly securing the other straps, too, so I could hurry around to her face and take her snout in my hands.
“You’re an amazing dragon, Saboraak. You’ve never let me down.” I paused to let that sink in. “But now we have a whole city of people who need help and together we can’t let them down. Come on, old girl. Tell me you’re in!”
She looked away, rolling her eyes.
Just don’t get me killed, trout. I made promises to my Pledged Wing.
“I’ll try my best.”
I need a better promise than that.
I mounted her, strapping into the saddle.
“I’ll try your best. There, is that better?”
She huffed irritably, but we were in the air a moment later, climbing high into the sky above.
“Try not to let Tachril notice you. This is one time when an entourage is unwelcome.” As opposed to all the other times when I was just thrilled to have every step dogged by a posse of dragons.
I heard that.
Maybe I wanted her to.
I needed to stop teasing my dragon and pay attention. You know I love you, don’t you, Saboraak?
Would I be doing this if I didn’t?
Probably not.
“Look! See where the Black dragons are fighting a wave of flying golems over there?” I could just pick them out in the moonlight. “That’s a good distraction. Let’s try to stay clear of them and fly away from the city to the south and then circle far to the east, loop up north again, and sweep in behind the enemy.”
If you say so.
She sounded uncertain. I felt just as uncertain. It was hard to see the golems in the dark – hard to see anything with only a sliver of moonlight – and what we were doing was insane.
See, didn’t I imply that?
Was Saboraak camouflaging herself?
Yes. Not that it will do much at night with our silhouettes against the moonlight.
We’d just have to do our best.
We flew south, flying under or over or around any cloud or gust that made us think it might be a golem. I was already tired when we finally swept east. It was going to be a long night.
It’s always a long night for hardworking dragons when you are around, Tor. You’re a taskmaster.
See? I knew I was the master of something ...
Ha!