What about the dragons?

Vespir kept hearing that plaintive voice in her head. Karina! Vespir thought, pressing a finger to her temple as if that’d help. Are you all right?

“Vespir!”

So far, that was all she could hear: her name, repeated.

If Aufidius and Hyperia dared to touch her girl, Vespir would kill both of them. Gritting her teeth, Vespir surged to her feet and watched from behind a marble pillar as the door splintered further. The Hydra used his talons to tear through the entrance. Guards sliced at the dragon with swords. Lucian led some more soldiers around the corner, wielding long spears. They threw the weapons, which sank into Aufidius’s haunch. Roaring, the dragon retreated.

Vespir waited for the creature’s head to reappear, but it didn’t. Sunlight shone through the now-broken window. A full minute passed.

“Is it over?” Emilia gasped. She’d been propped up against the pillar and tried peering around to look.

“Wait here.” Vespir raced through the soldiers and debris, her heart trammeling. She dared poke her head outside through the broken door and found that Hyperia and her dragon had really vanished. The path to the aerie was clear, and Vespir could still hear Karina’s voice. She could even see Dog, shivering in the center of the courtyard. Aufidius had not hurt him.

“It’s okay, boy!” she called.

Then she heard Aufidius’s roar, distant but still bone-rattling. Great gouts of flame appeared as Aufidius sped through Dragonspire. The creature blasted buildings and swooped lower. Vespir froze, realizing the Hydra’s game. He was going after the people in the streets.

They were defenseless. Vespir imagined children burning to ash as they sobbed for their parents, men and women screaming in agony. Her legs nearly gave out at the thought.

Her stomach dropped. Hyperia had gone absolutely mad. That, or…she was trying to draw them out.

There was no escape.

“She’s burning the city!” Vespir shouted over her shoulder. Lucian’s eyes widened in horror at her words. She watched him instantly gather the troops. Rather, they clustered around him naturally. As Lucian hurried to discuss a plan with his soldiers, Ajax came up beside Vespir, peering out the door. When he saw Dog, he deflated in relief but still did not run outside. The boy bit his lip and looked to the sky, probably waiting for Hyperia to descend on them at any moment. Vespir ran back to confer with Lucian.

“How fast can we coordinate with the city guard?” Lucian asked the captain. “We have to get as many people away from her as we can.”

“Getting to street level will require a bit of time. Technically, the imperial guard is never supposed to leave the palace. Ten stories is a lot of stairs,” the captain replied.

“Order the soldiers down, then come with me. My dragon can carry two long enough to get us to the main outpost. We can start evacuations from there.”

“If Hyperia comes after us?” Rufus asked. Lucian paused. A Drake carrying two passengers could never hope to outmaneuver a bull Hydra.

“I can distract her,” Vespir said, catching their attention. Hopefully, she sounded more confident than she felt.

“You might not be able to outrun her,” Lucian said.

“You need to get the people to safety, and what she really wants is us, the competitors. She’ll leave everyone alone if I show, even if I can’t stay ahead forever…” Vespir took a shaky breath. “You’ll have enough time.”

“I can’t ask you to do that,” Lucian said, horrified.

“No. You can’t. That’s why I’m telling you.”

Lucian squeezed her shoulder. “Then good luck.”

While Rufus and Lucian gave their orders, Vespir rushed for the door, doubling back to drag Ajax along with her.

“You’re going to help me,” she said.

“What’m I supposed to do?”

“You’re going to try reconnecting with Dog. When you do, come and support me against Hyperia.” Vespir cursed as Ajax yanked away.

“I can’t. Even if I connect with him, Dog is blind.” His eyes tightened in pain. “I’m not getting him killed!”

Vespir grabbed his shoulders, all but shook the boy.

“If you climb aboard with no saddle or bridle and place your forehead against the back of his head, it’ll help. Physical contact makes it work. I swear you can do this!” She gripped his hands. “Don’t you want to give Dog the sky again?”

“Yes, but I don’t want him shot down five minutes later.”

“You won’t. Karina and I can buy you time while we let Lucian and Emilia get the people to safety. Trust me.” She stared into his eyes. “Will you trust me?”

“If you stop digging your nails into my skin.”

Vespir dragged him outside by his wrist, plunging through the shattered door. Ajax raced for Dog—his fear melted when he saw his dragon.

“Dog!” The dragon’s fright changed in an instant. The beast trundled toward the sound of Ajax’s voice, weaving a bit to find his way in darkness. Vespir watched the boy grip his dragon by the jowls and press his face to Dog’s snout.

“Climb aboard. Quickly,” she said. Ajax did as she asked, and Vespir stroked Dog’s nose while she instructed his rider. “You have to let your mind go. It sounds odd, but you need to let yourself be equal to him. Two sides of one coin. Yes?”

Ajax shifted between the dragon’s wings. He looked rather pale.

“What if I can’t?”

“Then wait here.”

“You’ll die, Vespir.” He said it with certainty. “Your dragon’s too small.”

“I won’t die.” She made a fist. “I’m the greatest rider in the damn empire.”

She needed to believe it.

All of the dragons were out of their stalls, congregating in the center. She could not hear Chara’s or Tyche’s voices; she heard only their chitters and groans. But Karina lunged at Vespir, and the other dragons made way. Her dragon, with her brown riverbed scales, her flat, hornless head, her wide amber eyes, and her curved tail came up to Vespir, stretched out her long neck, and spoke.

“Vespir! My little Vespir!”

It was a voice of baking bread, of calm nights in front of the fire, of warm hands smoothing her hair, of home. Overwhelmed, Vespir pitched forward, only for Karina to break the fall. As Vespir clung to her dragon’s neck, she heard that voice once more: “I’ve got you now.”

Vespir couldn’t see through her tears. She felt as though a warm, wonderful liquid had filled her.

“Karina,” she whispered. “How?”

The dragon’s eyes held an amused gleam. She cocked her head to the side, nosing Vespir’s hair.

“It’s like I’ve never seen you before,” the dragon whispered, her voice—sedate and playful and young and old—reverberating in Vespir’s mind. “As though I’ve dreamed you for years.”

“I used to imagine talking to you, but Plotus told me it was worse than crazy to think that way. But…how? It’s like you’re in my mind.”

“There’s much I still don’t understand, but we dragons have lived in bondage for generations. That much I know by instinct.”

Then…Vespir had made Karina her servant. Her slave.

“You mustn’t think that.” Karina tutted, sniffling at her cheek. “A dragon’s bond with their rider is the most precious thing in this world. It is a choice. And it makes the joining of man and wife appear quaint.” Karina booped her nose against Vespir. “A demonstration of my love, my little Vespir.”

Vespir decided to retire the word boop.

Her hands trembled as she stroked Karina’s snout and the flat of her head. A scream of joy welled, blocking her breath. Karina…Karina was free.

“Can I hear the other dragons?” Vespir asked.

“I don’t believe so. Once, perhaps, but…now it seems a dragon bonds with a rider, and a rider with a dragon.” Karina extended her neck, looking over the top of Vespir’s head. “Though I’d be surprised if the others start off with as keen a bond as we share. After all, you and I have connected several times.”

“I need to stop Aufidius.” Once she’d have simply jumped aboard, but now she needed permission. “Will you help me?”

“As if you needed to ask.”

Vespir climbed onto Karina’s back. She did not need to lock in now; the Red flashed before her eyes at once. With a few flaps, Karina brought them out of the aerie and launched into the sky. The wind whipped through Vespir’s hair as they turned for the smoke in the distance, for Aufidius. And Hyperia.

Hopefully, the others would join them soon.

Vespir wondered what their dragons sounded like.