Page 178 of Flameborne: Chosen

As an experiment, I asked Akhane to take another dive, but this time outside their spiraling defense—only to abort and use Akhane’s ability to dart and sweep when a second defender closed in and we would have come within firing range if we held the line.

I continued cursing as we drew off, over the trees, a quarter mile away. I asked Akhane to pull up and hover so I could watch the tower from a distance for a moment. We were just south of the ravine, a jagged, narrow tear in the land that ran from the hills near the sea, almost the entire way to the tower. But it was so narrow, there was barely room for a dragon to fit between its sides.

I’d dismissed it as little more than a distraction tactic at first, but now I saw how the mists gathered and thickened in the cool, damp valley of it.

‘Akhane, how much of a risk would it be for you to fly through that ravine?’

‘Little. But it leaves no room to maneuver. Once you enter it, your only escape is directly up, and the moment you rise out of it, the enemy has spotted you—if they didn’t earlier. There’s no where to go. We’d be flamed.’

‘What if we didn’t rise out of it?’

I had the feeling from Akhane as if her ears perked.‘Explain what you see?’

I showed her, trying to explain what I imagined, but I was interrupted by the scream of a dragon. It sang over the forest and my heart sprang into my throat as one of the other attacking Flameborne dove so fast I worried they were falling from the sky.

Even from this distance I could hear the defenders crowing and looping faster, spiraling on this side of the tower and celebrating as one of the evaluators dropped in on their dragon. That meant that within seconds that attacker was likely going to be ousted from the trial and our job was about to become harder, with two of us against three of them.

“Fuck. Dive Akhane! Now!”

My stomach rose back into my throat as she did exactly as I’d told her and dove, straight for that ravine while the others were all distracted.

I prayed none of them had been paying attention to us as Akhane maneuvered into the ravine where it was wider, slippingunderthe mists.

She waited until a slight bend in the path of it where the walls widened, then pulled up, back-flapping, and hovering so I could study visibility.

Which was easy. Because there was none.

‘If we can’t see them, then they can’t see us, either,’I sent.

‘But my flight will disturb the mists. They’ll see us coming.’

‘Not if we’re on the ground,’I said slyly, because now that we were down here, I’d abandoned the idea of flying up and surprising them. Akhane was right, they’d have the upper hand and descend on us the moment we emerged.

Akhane tipped her head, but kept us in flight.‘You want to walk?’

“I want to surprise them,”I said carefully, then showed her what I imagined. “Do you think it will work?”

It took her a beat to answer, but when she did, there was amusement underlying her tone.‘Either it will work, or Little Flame will go out in a big fire.’

My nerves clenched. Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe—

‘Don’t lose your nerve now,’Akhane chided me.‘It’s a clever idea, Bren. My challenge will be in building enough heat to create a cloud big enough. But I’ll try. Are you ready?

‘Are you?’I responded nervously.

Akhane gave a huff and dropped her head, gliding from the point where she’d been hovering, drawing us as deep into the ravine as she could without flapping so the mists above us wouldn’t be disturbed and give away our location.

There was water at the bottom—a wide, shallow river that would slow her pace somewhat, but offered more cover for sound.

But our progress waspainfullyslow. By the time we finally reached the area where the ravine broadened and began the climb to meet the land all the cheering and calls had stopped. There was the occasional shout, but it was clear the distraction of dismissing the Flameborne was over. Now either my plan would work, or we were about to be dismissed ourselves.

We climbed the rise out of the ravine as the sides faded out and dropped to meet the land. Soon the mists would thin and we’d be visible.

There were sounds above us—dragon wings, the occasional scream, and thewhoomphof multiple wings.

Then I caught sight of the base stones of the tower.‘Stop, Akhane! This is it!’

The tower was a hundred feet away. The mists still drifted around and above us, but the moment we rose higher we’d become visible—unless we could create a shield.