Page 37

Quinn

I was feeling desperate. I’d been flying for hours on Sulamon, resting when I thought he was getting too tired, but then afterward moving on, deeper and deeper into the mountains.

Surely, Rylan and Talon hadn’t strayed so far, but I’d searched all the closest lakes and even followed a river for a few miles and had seen no sign of them.

It was getting close to sunset, and then we’d have to stop for the night.

Starlight was barely enough to navigate by in these mountains, let alone conduct a search, and there was even the possibility of meeting wild vetami, which usually ran in packs.

I’d been calling out in my mind for Talon for some time now, getting a little more frantic all the time, when suddenly, I heard a faint voice calling back.

I was so startled to hear it after waiting so long I jerked hard on Sulamon’s reins, and he turned his head sharply to look at me, as if wondering if I’d gone crazy.

Maybe I had and this was just my imagination.

I flew around in a wide circle, listening intently and calling out again and again to Talon.

Then I heard it again. A faint voice calling to me and getting a little louder as we traveled in a northerly direction. I called again, “Talon! Where are you?”

Sulamon had heard him too by this time, and he was straining at his harness to reach him.

That’s when I heard the faint answering reply. “I’m here in the trees. I’m all alone in the dark and so hungry. Rylie left me!”

His words almost stopped my breathing, because I knew Rylan would never leave him willingly. Something was badly wrong, and I had to find Talon quickly to see what was happening. “Yell out again and describe what you see around you!”

“Just trees. Should I move out from under them? Rylie told me not to.”

“Yes, move out if you can, so we can see you. Sulamon and I are both searching for you.”

There was a little pause, and then, “I’m here now in the clearing. Can you see me?”

Sulamon had slowed way down, showing me yet again that he did understand at least some of what was being said around him, even though he didn’t always respond.

“Can you fly straight up in the air, Talon? Just fly up if you can and hover. Don’t stray from where you last saw Rylan.”

“I’ll try.”

There was another little pause and then Sulamon made a sound deep in his throat and began flying faster. I could hear Talon’s voice in my head, much louder now.

“I see you!”

His golden scales were a small speck in the distance, but we could see the faintest glimmer of him now in the scant light of the stars.

“Wait there for us. Don’t fly away from where you are!

” These trees were so plentiful, and the forest so thick, I was afraid we might lose the spot where Talon had last seen Rylan.

Where was he? What had gone wrong, forcing him to leave Talon? I was frantic with worry.

We flew right up to Talon, and he came up to Sulamon, stretching his long neck and rubbing his head on Sulamon’s chest. Sulamon made little huffing noises.

“I’m so glad to see you,” Talon said. “I was getting scared.”

“Why? Where’s Rylan?”

He glanced up at me. “He went to find the men in the woods.”

My heart actually stuttered to a stop for a moment. I felt it shudder in my chest before slamming back into rhythm again.

“ Men? What men? Talon, show me. Quickly!”

He turned and flew back downward, landing in a small clearing beside a big thicket of tall trees. “He left when we saw the big dragon flying over us. It was the same color as me. Then we heard the men’s voices. He went through there and told me to stay here until he got back.”

I ran toward the little opening in the trees that he’d indicated and peered in.

It was so dark that I thought if I’d stuck in my hand, I’d have left a hole when I pulled my hand back.

I turned to go look for a light in my packs, my heart pounding frantically.

I could hear Talon chattering to Sulamon.

“There were a lot of men. I hope they didn’t hurt Rylie.”

“What kind of men? Tell me what you mean, Talon. Go slowly but tell me.”

“A big dragon the same color as me flew by overhead while we hid from it. There were men riding on it—a lot of them. I didn’t know them. Rylie watched where they went down through the trees and then he told me to stay here while he went to look at them.”

“Look at them?”

Damn it, I was going to kill him! Nothing was going to stop me this time. No, I was going to lock him up in the house and only let him out when I was home to watch over him. He was a fucking menace! It was just like him to take these ridiculous risks, like charging after strange men in the woods.

I think my heart might have stopped right then if we hadn’t heard a loud rustling in the trees at that exact moment on the far side of the thicket.

I grabbed my weapon as Rylan stepped through the foliage, pushing it aside.

His eyes scanned the clearing in front of him for a moment until recognition suddenly lit his beautiful face.

“Quinn! Oh, thank the gods, you’re here!”

I ran to him, scooping him up in my arms and crushing him to me.

I think maybe I hadn’t realized how scared I’d been until that very moment.

I could hardly catch my breath. My hands were shaking as they slid over both sides of his body, checking him out, making sure he was intact and unhurt.

I kissed him hard, pulling him to me, so relieved that he was all right, and I had him with me again.

He trembled under my touch, and for a moment, neither of us could seem to speak at all.

Finally, I pushed him gently away—but didn’t let go of him—and looked down into those gorgeous blue eyes.

“I thought you’d left me. I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

“We got lost. We just wanted to go to the lake, the one we usually go to, but Talon and I were talking on the way, and I got distracted. We flew over it, so I thought we could find another one close by. We finally found a lake we hadn’t been to before, but then after spending most of the day there, we got lost and couldn’t find our way back home. ”

“And I was so hungry. Do you have any food with you?” Talon asked, his voice hopeful.

“Yes, I brought you something.” I hurried over to Sulamon, who was standing patiently, still loaded down with my packs.

I found the wrapped parcels of meat I’d brought and quickly got them out for both dragons.

Feeling guilty for being so distracted, I realized that Sulamon must have been starving too.

Rylan came over to help, and we got them fed before I could finish asking Rylan any more questions.

I thought it best not to remove Sulamon’s packs just yet, in case we had to fly away in a hurry.

First things first, though. I found a small packet of food and a little pouch of fresh water for Rylan and I to share.

He fell on it so quickly that I knew he must have been starving too and just hadn’t said anything.

We sat down beside the dragons to eat. After a moment, I asked him to tell me between bites just what he had seen.

“There’s a camp, right over there through those trees, maybe some six or seven hundred feet away, but hidden in the trees.

There are soldiers there in tents. Maybe a hundred or so.

I think they’re Thalian, but it doesn’t make sense, because there are so many.

It looks well established, but it couldn’t be, could it?

My grandfather said he had found out about the rebellion only recently.

And how did they get on this moon and bypass all your systems? ”

“What systems?”

“Detection systems? So you know when you have intruders.”

“Rylan, I hate to break it to you, but there is no stealth in space. Space isreally fucking big, and we can only monitor a tiny part of it. Which is to say, if a ship landed here, especially somewhere remote, it likely wouldn't be seen.”

“That’s crazy.”

“We might detect a heat signature, or an electromagnetic one. But a ten kilometer by one kilometer asteroid recently passed through this entire solar system, and no one detected it until it was on its wayoutagain. The astronomers estimated that ten or so of these things pass through the solar systemevery yearand we don't even see them. We more than likely would not detect spacecraft in the outer solar system either without being extremely lucky. When we get to the inner solar system, we are a bit better at detecting, but only a bit. Let’s say we have a pretty good history of missing things more than we do of finding them, and that goes for most planets and moons.”

“Well, there were no ships I saw, but there were vetami. Mostly big ones, the size of Sulamon, but I saw some smaller ones too. And all were Golden. They were keeping them in a pen under the trees, way on the far side of the camp, away from the tents. I don’t know for sure who it is, but they’re wearing green uniforms and consorting with dragons.

Are there any ports that aren’t as busy as the one we came in at?

Some place they could land and not be noticed? ”

“No, of course not. There’s an old, abandoned airbase deep in these northern mountains, but it’s in complete disrepair. It hasn’t been used in over twenty years.”

“Have you seen it lately? Maybe someone fixed it up.”

“But why would anyone do such a thing?”

“To have a place to hide their ships?”

“Think of what you’re saying. That would take an extensive and elaborate spy network, operating right under our noses. The scale of such an enterprise would be enormous.”