Page 79 of Flameborne: Chosen (Emberquell Academy #1)

SOUNDTRACK: Maestro by cjbeards

~ brEN ~

An hour later we circled in the clouds high above the tower. I chewed the inside of my cheek and cursed, looking for a new opening.

Things had started great. With Akhane’s slightly smaller size and increased agility, we’d managed two successful dives where she’d fired the contents of the tower.

The first shot was iffy—Akhane blew too late.

But regardless, we were showing up. I’d felt great.

But now it had been half an hour since we’d made any real impact.

I had to keep abandoning runs because they caught sight of us too easily.

The mists hadn’t lifted, which should have worked in our favor.

Yet somehow the three circling the tower in staggered aerial spirals that kept them moving and constantly facing in different directions meant we couldn’t get a shot anymore.

I suddenly understood why Ronen said the Defenders always won this challenge.

“I should have chosen Defense,” I muttered.

‘Untrue, Bren. We aren’t suited to it. This is better. But we need a new approach.’

That was the rub: Akhane wasn’t supposed to take any line or maneuver that I didn’t order. So, I couldn’t just ask her how to get through. And even though visibility was worsening, they were too tight on the tower to offer us any openings.

‘What we need is a way to draw them further from the tower.’

‘Keep thinking, Bren,’ Akhane said smoothly.

The problem was that I couldn’t coordinate with others .

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, slipping under the 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 was painfully slow. 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 the whoomph of 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.

‘I’ll listen for the pass of wings—we want them to see it coming. Hold on tightly Bren, I’ll have to run as fast as when we launch, perhaps faster.’

I nodded and took a tight grip on the neck strap with one hand, and the safety clip with the other. ‘I’m ready.’

I could feel Akhane’s smile.

A moment later, she lifted her chin so it pointed at the sky, then she made the low hungh, hungh, hungh the dragons made when they were producing heat. It was unavoidable, and we knew it would catch the defender’s attention, but that was the point.

There was a shout and a dragon scream, then just as the mists above churned like they were being shifted by the mighty wind of a dragon’s wings, Akhane opened her mouth and spewed a plume of smoke and vapor that rose higher than the tower.

It erupted with such volume and force I was stunned and forgot how hard I needed to grip the straps.

When Akhane took off—not flying and climbing, but running while the mists above us were filled with smoke and vapor, blinding anyone to the ground, I almost toppled backwards.

I almost lost my seat, but as she tore around the base of the tower to its other side and launched herself straight up it’s side—no flapping, she jumped, then gripped with her talons and climbed it like a lizard, clawing into even the slightest crack between the stones for leverage.

When she reached the spiral staircase that circled the exterior, I unclipped and jumped off.

It had only taken seconds, but just as we’d hoped, the attention of the defenders had been drawn to her plume on the other side of the tower.

I was running up the stairs before she’d thrown herself back off the tower and swooped back out over the forest.

One of the defenders shouted and I prayed with her bulk to draw their eyes, they wouldn’t notice she was riderless and look down to find me. If they did, I was defeated.

I almost cheered when the whoomph of two dragons peeled around the tower and after her. Which meant only one of them circled now. Would they have stayed on the opposite side as we hoped?

Akhane had only gotten me halfway up the tower, so there was a significant run to reach the top of the forty-foot tower.

I hugged the stone wall and kept my head down, linked with Akhane who crowed in my head, darting and weaving low over the trees to keep visibility as low as possible, but allowing the defenders to stay close to range so they’d keeping coming for her.

I was panting heavily by the time I reached the final round, and Akhane grew thin in my mind, but I screamed at her mentally to come back, that I was almost there.

Then I pushed even faster up the last flight of the stairs.

Seconds later, she screamed nearby.

I vaulted over the turrets and onto the tower-top, swallowing a cry when I saw the flag tied to a large, rusty ring at the center of the tower that was intended as an anchor for canons.

‘I’m there, Akhane! I’m about to get it. Quick!’

‘On my way. Go east, towards the sea. The same side I flamed.’

‘Got it.’

It was ten running steps to the ring at the center of the tower. Two quick tugs to loosen the slip-knot, then I was running again, stuffing the flag into my waistband.

‘Got it, Akhane! Are you here?’

Her scream was the only answer I needed. She flew a route that our defenders would believe would take her past the southern window. They’d expect her to flame and bank right if they were behind her.

Five steps from the turret I realized what I was about to do and a cold chill skated down my spine. But there was no time.

‘I’ve got you, Bren! Jump! ’

I leaped to the top of the wide turret, then took two running steps and leaped again, clearing the stairway—then screaming as gravity took it’s grip and I plummeted like a stone.

But I’d barely dropped beyond the staircase when a thick, leathery body shot up from underneath me, wings retracted for speed.

There was a terrifying jumble of sights and sounds as my body thumped against hers, then slid.

I went from pinwheeling and desperately trying to stay upright in my fall, to fingers claw and scraping, my momentum dragging me down the length of her rising body.

But then she snapped her wings open and flattened her body, pushing into me as she banked away.

I caught one of her spines and held on, and when my legs drifted to her other side, she banked again.

‘Clip in, Bren!’

‘I’m too far down your body. Keep flying. I’ll move when they stop chasing.’

What followed was a full minute of the most thrilling and terrifying flight I’d ever experienced. I was convinced I was about to tumble into the sky again, and my body clenched up, remembering that awful fall from the Dragonmaw Cliffs. But I gritted my teeth and held on.

And then suddenly we evened out.

Under me, Akhane’s body rose and fell only slowly, with the beat of her wings. We were high over the trees. If I did fall, there’d be time for Akhane to catch me now. Still, my heart thudded in my chest.

I could hear shouts behind us, but couldn’t make out the words.

As Akhane dipped into a very shallow dive to give me traction against her back, I crawled up to her wing ridges and finally tucked my knees around them, grabbed her neck strap, and with shaking hands, clipped myself back onto the safety.

Then I stared at my clipped belt and the flag tucked into my leathers. And as Akhane tipped back up to ascend again, I lifted both hands and screamed.

“We did it! Akhane, we did it!”

She screamed too, crowing our victory.

Then, the horn that signified the end of the exercise rose mournfully into the gray day, and I blinked back tears of sheer happiness.

I kept slapping Akhane’s neck and pumping my fist, thanking her and crying with sheer joy. I couldn’t believe it. It worked!

All the dragons who’d held Officers and evaluators tipped towards the Keep and the horn’s cry rose again. Akhane circled and we followed them all back home. But even the light rain couldn’t wipe the smile from my face.

I was so exhausted, I almost fell off when Akhane landed. But thankfully I didn’t embarrass myself. A roar of cheers went up from my brothers—they’d gathered on the edge of the launch hollow. They jumped up and down and slapped each other when I raised the flag in one fist .

I was so happy I almost wept. I barely waited for Akhane to lumber to a halt before I unclipped and jumped down because I was too happy to give a flying fuck about dismount rules.

Throwing Akhane yet another thank you in my mind, I raced around her and towards the side of the launch hollow that led to the stables—only to suddenly hit a dark, steel bar that caught me right at the waist.

I oofed as I was whipped around. I registered dirty hands gripping me, dark, windswept hair, and hazel eyes so wide the white showed all the way around before those hands took my face and held it, fingers and thumbs clawed to hold me as he held my head like a ball and leaned right into my face, roaring.

“Are you crazy?! Bren, are you fucking insane? You could have been killed!”

I grabbed those thick wrists to pull them away. Then realized it was Donavyn .

His nose just an inch from mine. Eyes wild. His breath heaving, washing over my skin and making me blink.

Suddenly that warm skin under my palms wasn’t a threat.

Our eyes locked and I swallowed as cheers and screams rose around us, but neither of us moved.

“Holy shit,” he breathed. “Holy shit, Bren. You could have been lost.”

“Donavyn, I’m—” I cut off, uncertain what to say, barely able to breathe. “I’m fine.” I smiled, panting. But I didn’t move. My body froze, yearning for him not to let go.

One of his thumbs stroked my cheek, his eyes darting, searching mine like he still wasn’t convinced I was unhurt. But just as he opened his mouth to say something important—

“SHE DID IT!” The roar came from right behind me and in multiple voices.

Suddenly we were surrounded, jostled. Donavyn let me go like my skin burned him as my brothers swooped in and lifted me high.

I screamed and there was a trickle of fear. But I couldn’t stop laughing. I couldn’t help it. I cried, and laughed, and swore and sent every warm and grateful rush I could manage to Akhane through the bond.

‘We did it! We really did it!’

Akhane huffed and sent warm rushes back as my brothers carried me around the launch hollow in front of all the other Furyknights and stableboys—I even caught eyes with Benji who was pumping his fist, beaming, and elbowing the boy next to him.

When they finally let me down, I had tears on my cheeks. And a smile that could have lit the world.