Page 68 of Veiled Flames (Destiny of Dragons #1)

Forty-Nine

Rosomon

Z ogar’s wings flap strongly, and the motions create wind—strong gusts, followed by sucking that feels as if it’s pulling all the air from my ears. The space Zogar’s been housed in is far bigger than the pens in the enclave’s labyrinth.

You will tell me more details about my people’s prison as soon as we’re across the veil.

“What?” I cry out. “We can’t cross the veil! The Darkness is there. There are demons. I’m not even armed.”

Have no fear, my queen. You are with Zogar.

I have no chance to continue the argument. He lifts into the air, and I hang onto his saddle handles, gripping so tightly my knuckles turn white and my fingers ache, reminding me of everything my body’s gone through to get to this point.

The last time my hands ached like this, I thought I’d tumble from that elevating cage and be crushed on the canyon floor. At moments, I felt certain that Zogar would incinerate me, or tear me to shreds with his powerful talons.

I have no desire to hurt you, and you need not grip me so tightly. I have you secured.

We rise higher and higher into the sky, lifting toward the Great Beyond.

Tynan told me that his vision changed while upon Xendus, but his description did not do this justice.

Roule taught us that dragons can’t see without a rider, but atop Zogar, it’s like I’m perceiving the world through his eyes as well as my own.

Logically, my vision should be blocked by his body, yet I can see the full horizon ahead and far off to both sides. I can even see the ground below us. Only a narrow strip behind isn’t in my field of vision.

His spiked tail swoops from side to side. Watching it appear and disappear helps me understand the dimensions of our mutual blind spot.

To my great relief, Zogar follows my bidding, and instead of flying toward the veil, he heads toward camp. As we soar, I tuck my face behind his massive neck to shield my eyes from the wind, but I’m still able to see, using our combined vision.

He soars directly skyward. I grip the handles more tightly, but it’s amazing how I’m able to remain upright, easily resisting the pull from the ground.

I'm fastened to him using a comparatively small part of my body, and a very small part of his, yet it’s as if I have straps around the outside of me too.

As if Zogar is wrapped around me, keeping me tightly seated on his natural saddle.

You will never fall from my back, my queen. Not while I live.

My queen. I smile. Saxon and Tynan each gave me pet names, but I like Zogar’s the best. I like how he calls me his queen, even if it’s in jest.

I rarely jest.

Swooping to the side, we drop. The rush of air is exhilarating, and I shout in glee.

He levels out, flying low, about thirty spans above the ground as we pass over the training fields, and riders and candidates shout up from below.

My hearing is enhanced along with my vision. I can’t recognize any of the voices, but it’s clear that no one in the group knows who I am. They’re expressing shock that someone has mounted the behemoth.

Zogar rumbles beneath me.

“I’m so sorry,” I tell him. “I’ll try very hard to avoid that word.”

Where are my people imprisoned?

It takes me a few seconds to realize what he’s asking. “I don’t know the exact location of the matched dragons, but those unmatched, the ones who don’t yet have riders, are this way.”

I look in the direction of the enclaves, and Zogar banks, steering us exactly where I meant him to go. More shouting rises from below, but I ignore it.

We pass over the walls of the enclaves. Dragon handlers and riders shout as they watch us, and as we soar low over the labyrinth of pens, a deep sadness floods me.

I felt for the dragons the first time I was here, but now, it’s more clear that the dragons are imprisoned, cramped and trapped and unhappy.

They call out to us, and Zogar’s sorrow weighs down my heart, as if it were my own.

In fact, I’m not sure how to discern which emotions are his and which are mine.

Rage overtakes the sorrow. The rage is his, and I’m glad we can each feel separately too.

I will free my people. I will punish all those who enslaved them. But first I must regain my full powers. He heads toward the barrier mountains that separate camp from the veil.

“No! We can’t go that way!”

What do you fear, my queen?

“Demons! They live in the Darkness. You were trapped for four hundred years. I suspect much has changed over that time.” Perhaps there were no demons back then.

He grumbles, as if trying to reach a decision. Tell me more of these demons. If humans never cross the veil, how do you know of them?

“The veil ruptures and they come through.”

Impossible. The veil was designed to hold for eternity.

“And yet it tears periodically.”

When did this begin? He swoops low over a field and then soars toward the Great Beyond.

“Centuries ago.”

How can you know that? he asks. You are too young. You are a mortal.

He banks hard to the right, and the rush almost distracts me from our conversation. “I know, because I’ve been told.”

He grumbles and then turns again, soaring between two mountain peaks and diving down through a verdant valley. He’s still headed toward the veil, but it’s hard to feel fear while seeing the world from this vantage point and so much of it at once.

Tell me more of these demons. What type of demon invades? Are they greater or lesser demons? He banks again, and flies so close to a mountain peak I feel the chill of the snow there.

“There are types of demons?” A shiver traces through me that’s not from the snow.

Oh, my little one. You have much to learn. There are many varieties of demons, but they divide themselves into two overall classes: greater and lesser.

His tone, even in my head, indicates he doesn’t approve of this division.

And I certainly don’t know what type of demon comes through the veil.

I’ve only ever seen drawings of demons depicted in books I was not meant to read, and those illustrations looked nothing like the creatures Tynan described.

This human you call Tynan rides Xendus, Zogar says. And he’s the one who’s told you of demons.

“Yes.” I’m still shocked each time Zogar knows things I haven’t explicitly said. Some I didn’t even realize I’d thought.

Please describe these demons. He swoops lower, taking us through a valley, then he banks again and starts to climb.

I recall all the things Roule told us in class, plus what Tynan recounted last night.

“The demons are the blackest black, and they fly as if they are snakes. When slain, they drop to the ground like sludge, or a thick black syrup that quickly disappears as smoke, as if the ground incinerates them. Their eyes are red, their teeth are large and sharp, and there is fire inside their bodies.” That’s all I can remember.

That is a lesser demon. Likely a minion of darkness.

Looping around, we head back toward camp at great speed, and relief overtakes me. He’s following my directions, as dragons are meant to. Soaring through a mountain pass, I drink in our surroundings, elated and awed at how I can see so much of the world from his back.

Soon, we cross the enclaves again, and below us, the dragons roar and shriek, clearly aware that we’re flying above. Do they know which dragon I’m on? Can dragons recognize each other?

My people recognize their king. Zogar’s booming voice answers my unspoken question. I’m introducing them to my queen.

“You’re a king?” Shock ripples through me. “Why do you keep calling me your queen?”

When you freed me, you earned the right to become my queen.

I bristle. I escaped one arranged marriage to a king I didn’t know; there is no chance I’ll marry another. Especially not one who’s a dragon.

Zogar chuckles. There is so much you do not understand.

I narrow my eyes. “I can’t be your queen. I won’t. I refuse.”

I sense tension inside him, but no clear words or emotions.

It’s almost as if he’s blocking his thoughts from me.

He banks around, and crosses over a group of dragon pens I haven’t seen before.

This must be the matched dragons’ enclaves.

In fact, I spot Xendus and Surath, penned next to each other.

They both roar, and Surath sends a stream of fire into the air.

You don’t yet understand, Zogar says after a pause. There is so much you don’t know. Once all is explained , you will not refuse me.

I frown. I don’t like how he’s making all these assumptions and declarations, or how he keeps telling me that I don’t understand anything, even if there are many things I don’t know.

“What are minions of darkness?” I switch back to a less personal subject. “And why do they break through the veil?”

Those lesser demons are nothing, mere slaves of the Darkness. They possess no ability to think on their own and exist only to do the bidding of their masters.

“Who’s sending them? Greater demons?”

That, I do not know.

For the first time, I sense uncertainty from the self-assured Zogar.

You are correct. I’m not certain who has sent these minions. He soars high toward the sky, and then swoops down, and my stomach rises and falls inside me.

I require additional information. But first, I require food. I have not eaten for many years.

“What?” He can’t be serious about this. “I was told the dragon masters drop livestock to feed the—to feed you.” I narrowly avoided the word he hates, and yet his anger grumbles beneath me.

Dragon masters?

More anger tremors through me. Not my anger. His.

I am no one’s slave!

“Of course not.” I let go of one of the handles and lay my palm against the scales on his neck, pleased when it seems to calm him. I’m still amazed at how I can sense this dragon’s moods and emotions, and how I can hear his voice and see what he sees.

Thank you for freeing me, he says softly.

“Thank you for letting me mount you.” I stroke his scales again. “Proving I can ride a dragon means a great deal to me.”

He banks again, heading back toward the training field. I tense. He said he was hungry. Does he intend to eat the people there? My heart races. “There is livestock. Cows, sheep, swine. Whatever your taste. Please don’t eat any humans.”

He chuckles again. Non-human meat would be my preference, my queen. Even if your kind did enslave me.

His anger builds again. He keeps implying that humans enslaved the dragons, and while I can’t deny that we’ve been using their fire to keep the veil intact, I can’t conceive of how mankind could have ever entrapped the dragons.

You have much to learn.

“So you keep telling me.” I concentrate on the fields that house the fully grown livestock, those not being used for milk, or mating. I hope I can direct him there, and away from the candidates and riders in the field.

Zogar swerves, and our speed accelerates as we fly toward the livestock housed to the northeast.