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A natural wind gusted over the Red Meadow, below Vahly’s perch on a western outcropping. The tiny flowers moved like ruby waves among the vast crowd of jewel-toned dragons dressed in their finest.

“So many rings and necklaces,” Vahly said wryly to Arc and Nix, who stood beside her on the high rock. “Sparkling like sand on the beach.”

“Your lot look like sad little leaves next to mine,” Nix teased, jabbing Arc with an elbow.

She was decked out as well, dressed in a new quadrant-cut cloak in the darkest green can be before it becomes black and a split-leg dress to match, embroidered with the symbol of the Breakers.

The flame over the talon glittered a deep gold in the sunlight.

Her red hair was knotted at the top of her head and her bright eyes scanned the distance like a true predator.

Arc wore a black linen shirt beneath his usual black and silver surcoat.

Fully released from his evil cousin’s spellwork, his magic twirled about his head and hands in purple tendrils and gold circles.

His straight black hair hung loose at his broad shoulders.

The breeze tousled its ebony length, and for a moment, Arc appeared bed-rumpled and vulnerable.

But his gaze remained hawk-like, and it held Vahly’s attention for reasons she wasn’t ready to think about.

He was pretty much breathtaking, Vahly had to admit. Not that either of them had the time for romance. There was so much to do and they had no time to do it.

She knew for certain the earth was telling her to visit the region near Bihotzetik. But she had no idea why. Arc and Nix had agreed to accompany her there.

Vahly decided they would tell the world they were busy in meetings with Amona, deep in the Lapis mountain palace, but truly they’d be on a quiet mission to discover the secret her magic was desperately trying to tell her.

Below them, in the meadow, the elves stood well apart from the dragons.

They had chosen to gather on the Lapis side of the meadow.

A smart choice. The Jades were not yet sold on this idea of including them in the war against the sea.

Their Matriarch, Eux, paced the grassy area.

She appeared ready to explode in anger at any second.

Vahly couldn’t see her orange and slitted eyes from here but she would bet all of last season’s gambling haul that they were darting from Amona to Cassiopeia with complete and utter loathing.

Cassiopeia stood, willowy and grim, before the host of elves.

From the small pool of elves with royal blood, the elders had crowned her the new ruler of Illumahrah.

And she looked every inch the queen. Her crown of spinning light and curling darkness was visible even from this distance if Vahly titled her head the right way and slid her gaze side to side.

The peaks of the magical diadem stretched higher than Mattin’s ever had.

She couldn’t trap anyone with a massive barrier wall or bend minds like Mattin had.

Her magic was true. But she could do enough damage with her own elemental wind, piercing light, and controlling shadow.

Arc’s power was the only one of their kynd that was nearly equal to hers now that she wore the crown.

Nix raised an eyebrow at Vahly and pointed down to the Jades. “I think you’d better speak up, Queenie Vahl. If they’re bunched up together for too much longer, it’s not going to be pretty.”

Arc grinned and glanced at Vahly from the corner of his eye.

Vahly stepped forward. “Wish me luck, you two. Because if I go down, you’ll likely be salted right along with me.”

“I don’t like my odds against Eux. Or Maur for that matter.” Arc’s eyes widened as he gazed at the dragons.

Vahly waved him off. “You’d give them trouble before you died.”

“Comforting,” Arc muttered.

Nix smiled. “Our Vahly isn’t known for coddling or mincing words, Arcturus.”

“I thought you wished to call me Arc.”

“Well, now everyone is using the nickname,” Nix said. “It fails to be rebellious at this point. I’m going back to Arcturus.”

The ghost of Dramour drifted through the conversation. Vahly could almost hear his laugh and see him adjusting his eye patch. She gritted her teeth. She couldn’t break down again now. That would have to wait as well.

After a meeting with the elves and their elders, Vahly, Arc, and Nix had brought together every elf and dragon who wished to mourn the lost. They’d all visited the burial mounds in the forest and set flowers and pine boughs over the graves.

More tears had been shed and none had argued when Arc, Vahly, and Nix joined hands in silence there, as they had before.

Grief had bonded these three and Vahly was so glad to have them. She never could address this crowd without them by her side.

She belonged with them, her small band of Breakers.

Spreading her hands, she spoke as loudly as she was able to the legions of dragons and elves.

“We are united in our fight. From this day forward, we are never enemies. If we fight amongst ourselves, we will fall and fall quickly. For the Sea Queen prepares for the final flood. Her forces are visibly stronger, raising massive waves and churning whirlpools, in the waters off the Lapis territory as well as in the Jade. Her army has grown in power and ability for they practice their maneuvers in many places at once now. Scouts from all corners of our island have reported increased activity and sea levels surpassing every high water mark. Matriarch Eux’s scouts reported an unusual tide this morning.

This is unprecedented. We must unite. As the hopeful Earth Queen, determined to wake my powers in full, I ask that, today, all highbeasts take an oath to defend and fight for all others in our midst. That Lapis will support Jade.

Jade will back elves. That all will fight together, as determined and led by our strategists, Matriarch Amona, Matriarch Eux, Queen Cassiopeia, and me. ”

The dragons lifted their heads and blasted dragonfire into the sky, Nix doing the same at Vahly’s side. The flames crackled and snapped as the elves wove light and dark into spinning clouds like windstorms above their own congregation.

As one, the highbeasts spoke in dragon, the chosen tongue for discussions of this sort. “We promise to fight as one, to respect the wishes of the strategists, to unite against our common enemy.”

The magic of the promise felt like a quick burn of a too-bright sun as it seared the hearts of every intelligent creature gathered in the wide meadow. The red hat flowers danced in the wind, oblivious to the serious nature of the moment.

As if on cue, the dragons and elves began to stream out of the Red Meadow and back to their assigned positions on the isle.

Some to scout or begin planning attacks and defenses.

A good many to test the new talents of the sea folk army in the North.

Groups to gather supplies and move young and old to higher elevations.

Battle dragons, both green and blue, shifted and flew into the skies to run drills.

“Ah!” Nix pointed high. “Euskal and Miren are there. With those Jades!”

Sure enough, the cider house Call Breakers had joined up with a unit of Jades and were practicing quick dives and flying rolls. Their bodies reflected the sunlight and were nearly too bright to look at.

“This would have pleased Dramour to no end,” Nix said quietly as Arc and Vahly followed her off the rock and down a winding path bordered by wide, low-branching oaks that humans had pruned for centuries for charcoal.

“And Kemen too, I think.” Vahly braided her hair tightly.

“Ibai would’ve hated it,” Nix and Vahly said in unison.

They shared a sad kind of laugh as they took their satchels from Arc, who’d retrieved them from their hiding place behind a cluster of rocks.

Nix strapped a large, brocade bag over one shoulder and buckled it neatly beneath her wing joint.

Her wing had not yet recovered enough for flight, but she didn’t seem overly bothered by pain or discomfort.

She had also taken up a long stick that she claimed General Regulus had taught her to use in fighting.

Seems they had been busy while Arc and Vahly were meeting Cassiopeia before her coronation.

Who could have guessed that a dragon and an elven general could become allies in such a short time?

Not Vahly. Surprises, some wondrous and others gruesome, now filled her life. And it wasn’t going to get any easier.

Arc wore a satchel strapped to his back, bow and arrows sticking out from the top near a rolled up sleeping mat.

His knives gleamed from where they hung on his wide, black belt.

He’d met privately with Vahly last night, during a bonfire to celebrate the coronation.

With his hand in hers, he’d sworn full allegiance to her, saying that Cassiopeia had insisted upon it.

Arc, royal-blooded elf that he was, had embraced the ceremony of the situation, going to his knee and presenting his knives to Vahly, hilt first. The gesture was not lost on Vahly.

She had kissed his head primly and raised him up, accepting his fealty with pleasure.

“So. Are we ready?” Vahly’s veins pulsed with the beat of the earth’s heart as she looked over her two closest allies.

“We have no idea what we’re looking for,” Nix said, raising an eyebrow, “and no idea what we’ll face when we get there, so—”

Arc interrupted. “Of course we are.” He glanced at Nix and winked.

And so the Earth Queen and her Band of Breakers headed into the wilderness, following the whispers of the world.