“Did you find her?”
In answer, Sorrow crouched down, lowering himself against the stone walkway, all the while keeping his eyes on Safire. As if to say,Get on.
Carefully, Safire climbed atop him, knowing that at any moment she might make the wrong movement, trigger the poor creature, and be dumped. Or trampled. Or worse.
Sorrow did none of these things. He tensed a few times,looking back over his shoulder as Safire adjusted the blue dress—which needed to be hiked to her knees if she were to ride properly—but he didn’t panic. At least, not until voices came out of the mist behind them.
“Do you see that?”
Safire looked back just in time to see two shapes materialize out of the fog.
“See what?”
“Something’s out there....”
Sorrow’s tail began to lash, his muscles bunching in fear. Safire pressed her palm to the creature’s scales, willing him to keep calm.
“It’s a...”
Sorrow swung around to face them. To keep from falling, Safire threw her arms around the creature’s neck, locking her hands.
“Dragon!”
The Lumina soldiers drew their swords in unison, their eyes lifted from the dragon to its rider just as Safire clicked the command forflight.
Sorrow spread his wings, hissing as he did.
The two men drew back in fear. Safire could see the whites of their eyes and the tightening of their hands on their hilts.
“Sorrow, now!” Safire whispered, clicking the command again, fearing the dragon didn’t know it. Fearing these men would charge and kill him.
Before they could, Sorrow turned and leaped from the walkway. The fog instantly covered them as his wings caught a windcurrent. Safire clung on, hearing the shouts of alarm increase behind them. But the fog kept them concealed as Sorrow glided through it, rising ever upward.
The voices behind them faded into the night.
Good boy,thought Safire, pressing her cheek to the dragon’s neck and relaxing into him.
As the city of Axis fell away beneath them, Safire felt for the bond she knew was supposed to form in first flight. Asha described it as a lock, clicking into place. But no matter how hard Safire concentrated as they soared through the air, she felt no clicking lock. No forming link.
Maybe it was true that Sorrow would never link with a rider.
Maybe that’s okay,she thought.
Eventually the fog cleared and beneath the silver light of a waxing moon, the sea gleamed below them, its waves crashing softly on the shores of a small cove nestled beneath a massive headland. From up here, she could see a smattering of tiny houses out on the point, their windows shining with lamplight.
At the crest of the headland, Safire could see a silhouette. No,severalsilhouettes. Three people and a dragon. One of them held a glowing lantern in their fist.
Sorrow was heading straight for them.
They circled once. Kozu looked up first. Safire could see his one yellow eye burning in the night. Sorrow started to descend too quickly, then remembered he was carrying the weight of a rider. They were headed straight into the tuckamore forest.
Safire felt him panic. Panicked, too, she forced herself to be calm and ran her hands smoothly over the creature’s scales,murmuring encouragement even as the night screamed in her ears and the trees rose up too fast.
At the last moment, Sorrow banked, catching a current, then slowed his descent. The tuckamores faded. Mossy rock appeared beneath them. And finally, Sorrow landed—a little clumsily—in the moss.
“Perfect boy,” Safire murmured into his neck, then patted him gently as she dismounted.
Sorrow seemed to brighten, watching her.
