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“The time has come for us to make our last foray towards the Needle. When we get there, we have to be on our guard. We might be attacked as soon as we arrive, or we might be able to sneak in. There is an island around the volcano. I assume that Ilvar and his dragons have made a base there. It must be where they’re holding the ship as well. They’re going to defend themselves to the death, so we have to be prepared to fight until the end. There’s still a chance for people to turn back if they want to. Nobody will judge you; nobody will blame you.”
Mason paused, waiting for someone to come forward. Nobody did.
“Good,” Mason continued. “I’m glad you can all see how important this is. We might not be able to speak much when we get there. We need to strike quickly to take out Ilvar and the dragons. We know what they’re like. We know that they’re powerful and-”
“I had an idea,” Kadie interrupted. All eyes turned to her. “It’s going to be hard taking on Ilvar in a straight fight. He is a powerful dragon, and I think a fight is what he wants. Butmaybe… maybe I could go in first and try and talk with him. He always had a soft spot for me. I could try and distract him.”
My heart seized. Thankfully Mason felt the same way. “It’s too dangerous, Kadie. I’m not going to have you be used as bait.” As far as Mason and I were concerned that was the end of it, but Buck had other ideas.
“Hang on, you shouldn’t just dismiss her plan like that. We’re all putting ourselves at risk here and, if she wants to do the same thing, then she has a right to. After all, she knows Ilvar better than any of us and, maybe, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to have him distracted,” Buck said.
“And put Kadie in the line of fire when Ilvar eventually realizes that something is amiss?” Mason shot back.
“We’ll be watching her. And Kadie can handle herself,” Buck retorted.
“I want to help. I don’t just want to sit by the sidelines. If I get close to Ilvar, then I might be able to find out how long it’s going to be until his plan comes to fruition. And I might be able to take him out myself.”
Mason was clearly troubled, but Zeke had never been the kind of leader to block other people and their instincts. Mason had learned a lot from him, and so he was going to lead in a similar vein. The longer he spent arguing with Kadie, the less time we had to stop Ilvar, and I think we both knew that, if Kadie wanted to do something, then she was going to do it, no matter what, so eventually Mason relented.
“When we reach the island, dive under the waves. Hopefully we’ll be undetected. Find cover and then we’ll take a quick survey of the land. I don’t want us to fly right into a battle. We need to be better prepared than that,” Mason said.
These were his final orders before he wished everyone well, and that he hoped to see everyone on the other side. His words were somber, and it was the first time that it had actuallysunk in for me; we were flying into a battle that might be our last. Even if we stopped Ilvar, there was no guarantee that all of us would return, even me. I was suddenly filled with pangs of regret, knowing that I had wasted so much of my life on bitterness, resentment, and anger. It all seemed so petty now that I had Kadie, and I could only hope that our happiness was not fleeting.
I vowed that I would do anything to protect her, and if she got close to Ilvar, then I would make sure that he never got his hands on her. Any of us could die this night, but not Kadie. I would not allow it.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Mason
I could have killed Buck for being so self-righteous about the freedom to choose your own destiny. Did Kadie really need to go and speak to Ilvar? It seemed an ill-suited plan no matter how I looked at it. I knew she wasn’t going to be able to dissuade him from his plans, and what more was she going to learn? Any information she could glean wasn’t going to be worth the risk of losing her. If Buck hadn’t spoken up, then I’m sure that Kadie would have seen the sense of my words. It wasn’t as though I was trying to stop her from fighting, I just didn’t want her to put herself in the hands of the enemy, especially when it was clear how dangerous Ilvar was.
But now there was no stopping it. I just had to trust in Kadie, and in the rest of us to take care of her.
As we took flight from the mountain and soared into the night sky I was filled with trepidation. I had only been leader for a short time, yet here I was, leading the thunder into battle, a battle that might be impossible to win. It would be a grim epitaph if we failed. My first real test as a leader, and it would only prove that I had never been suitable for the role in the first place.
Everyone else seemed to think that I was a natural fit, and the other dragons certainly seemed happy enough that I had taken the lead, but deep inside, it didn’t feel right. I kept waiting for something to go wrong, for someone to speak up and remind everyone that I had never shown any aptitude for being a leader before, and that I didn’t deserve to be one now. It was as though we were all lost in some muddle where we were left with me simply because I was foolish enough to step forward. I didn’treally know what I was doing; I only did what I thought was right, what I thought Zeke would have done. I hoped it would be enough.
I hoped we would see another night rise, and that I would not have to witness this world turn into ash.
I led the dragons away. Occasionally, I would turn my head and look back at them, watching the different colors surging through the night. My eyes inevitably drifted towards Kadie and her soft lilac scales. She looked so beautiful in any form. My body tingled and my heart beat that little more rapidly when I thought about what we had all shared together. It was special, and I had never believed I would ever share anything like this. It made the feelings I had for Jade seem small and silly, as though I had just been pretending to be in love. Being with Kadie made me feel alive and it made me feel like a giant. I’m quite certain that I would never have been able to lead these dragons without having her in my life.
I pitied Jade, and all the other dragons who had left over the years. They had no idea what was happening in the world and how precarious their lives were. The irony was that they had left precisely because they were tired of hiding, and thought that, by leaving for the human world, they would be a part of things. Instead, they were as oblivious as the rest of them, preoccupied by petty problems while their world was threatened. They would never know about this either, and would likely hold resentment in their hearts for the foreseeable future as they believed we did nothing but hide in the shadows for the sake of preserving our culture.
I liked to think that there was room on the planet for all of us. From Kadie, I had learned that Ilvar was afraid that the humans would keep expanding and keep spreading until they swarmed over the whole planet, but I didn’t think that was the case. There were some parts of the world that they would neverreach, for there were places that were inhospitable for humans. They needed their concrete buildings, whereas us dragons could withstand the elements. We could find a home anywhere in the wild.
But that was not a narrative that Ilvar wanted to follow. Why would he? He wanted to be the grand dragon that would lead his thunder back to Drakon. He wanted to etch his name in history, looming over his descendants as an example and an inspiration to live up to. This was just a matter of ego, and it made me sick. The fact that Ilvar would treat every life on this planet as irrelevant when compared to his own sense of identity and legacy was abhorrent.
My thoughts turned as we left the coast behind and surged across the water. I strained my eyes, looking for any signs of dragons. I wondered whether Ilvar would even have guards patrolling the skies. From what I knew of him from Kadie, I suspected he would be arrogant enough to think that nobody could stop him, so what was the point in having guards? After all, he would have no idea that Kadie had come to find us, or that we were on his trail.
The island came into view. The volcano was a huge, towering piece of dark rock that rose from the ground. It was like a shadow that had been placed upon the earth. The island below was a forested piece of land that rested in the ocean. We were far from the human world, and I doubted any of them were watching this island. To them it was an empty piece of land, devoid of interest and barren of anything noteworthy. But this was a way into the heart of the planet.
As we approached, I could not see any dragons patrolling the skies. There were no flares of flame, no warning roars, but I was not willing to take any chance. I started my descent and the other dragons followed suit. I broke through the waves like a spear. I flattened my wings against my body and kept my tailstraight, and I pierced the water without making a loud splash. The other dragons did the same, and we must have been like falling shards from space being welcomed into the watery world. The ocean was murky. I could just about make out the island. I slithered towards it like an eel, not wishing to flap my wings to swim as I didn’t want to create a large wave that might attract the attention of a waiting dragon.
The water became shallower, and my feet could reach the sand. I emerged and immediately shifted into my human form and crept towards the forest. I shielded myself in the leaves and breathed a sigh of relief as nobody came to attack us. One by one, the other dragons joined me. We huddled together, shivering as the water lingered on our bodies. Kadie snuggled next to me for warmth. When I spoke, I kept my voice low.
“So far, it’s quiet. We need to press our advantage. We’ll circle around to the volcano and then Kadie-”
I was interrupted by a massive creaking sound. It sounded as though something was being ripped apart from the world. I immediately crouched down and put my hands above my head. I felt the dragon prowling inside me. It was ready to attack.
