“I stabbed a dagger into the cliffs to get up. I figured that wouldn’t go over well with a dragon.”
He laughed, barely, just a single syllable leaving his lips. “You aren’t climbing her,” he said, looking down at me, and Suns, his gaze was melting. I hated that I found him attractive. How I kept staring atthe hard lines of his face, and noticing even the small details across his skin. I wasn’t here for this. I had to figure out who Hael was, learn his weakness, and then get back.
“Unless you want to be incinerated,” he added. “Only riders can go on a dragon’s back.”
I shuddered, looking at the bones of the Tallik, and remembering how quickly the dragon burned it to a crisp, envisioning her doing the same to me.
Claws wrapped around my body before I got the chance to ask what I was supposed to do. The dragon moved so fast I couldn’t even scream before I was scooped up, and instead of its talons digging into me like the thatcher’s always did, they completely engulfed me.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
And then I was being carried into Viven, exactly as Dahes predicted.
Chapter Ten
Viven
MAGNOLIA
Iwas surprised by how long it took to fly across Viven—how massive the kingdom was. I saw glimpses of low-rise buildings, stretches of green grass, and rolling grassy hills before it shifted to looming mountains.
I tried to keep my eyes open, to take everything in, but it was terrifying. I never thought I’d be scared of flying. I’d been in the air before with a thatcher—just not nearly as high or as fast.
I always dreamt about it, wishing the ability to fly was my Token instead of what I actually got. And now, here I was, in Viven,flying. But the knowledge that the dragon could loosen its claw, sending me plummeting to my death, turned the thought to trepidation. That, and the fact that I wasn’t actually free. I still belonged to Moriann, to Dahes.
As we flew across the Fourth Province, my gaze kept flicking between the dragon carrying me and the landscape below. But I could barely glimpse anything over its large claw. Anytime I turned my head upward, my vision was consumed by iridescent scales. I couldn’t even see the rider. By the time we were flying over a mountain range, I gave up trying to glimpse anything.
My face was wind-burned by the time we landed. I sucked down abreath as the dragon dropped me. I half expected it to be from fifteen feet like the criminal drops were, but it swooped low, making the fall minimal, even though I still managed to trip over my feet. The drakin rider gracefully hopped down and stood in front of me in seconds. I honestly had no idea how he stayed on its back the entire time, how he hadn’t fallen off from the sheer speed at which we were flying.
He didn’t help me up, only watched as I rose on shaky legs. I straightened my slip, trying to adjust the rip in it to cover more of my thigh. The only saving grace was that it was now dry.
The first thing I noticed was the warmth. It wasn’t the blistering heat of the Sands or the sticky humidity of the Valdern Forest, but it was nice. I could feel the two suns shining down on me without feeling like I was going to pass out from a heatstroke. A light breeze brushed past me, but it was so gentle, so tame compared to the gusts in Moriann. It barely moved my hair—not that it mattered. I knew it was a matted mess from the flight over the kingdom.
I spun in a circle, taking everything in. We were standing in the middle of a dark, circular platform halfway up a mountain pass. There wasn’t a railing, and this high up meant a one-way ticket toward the lower peaks. Mercifully, the diameter was wide, probably spaced to fit three dragons, so I didn’t have to be near the ledge.
Hundreds of steps led upward toward a massive sandstone castle that rivaled Dahes’.
I spun again, taking in my surroundings behind me. More steps led downward, toward the start of the range. The lack of railings, coupled with the path’s twists and turns as it wove through the mountains, made it look perilous.
I squinted, not sure what I was seeing at the bottom. It looked like a black crater was dug into the grassy plains around it, except it had thick walls encircling the hole, like it was blocking it off from the rest of the world.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“We’re between Soffikane and the Grigg.” He pointed toward the looming structure above our heads. “That’s King Elion’s castle.”
I turned my head to the right, trying to see if I could see the coast,but we were too far off the shoreline. I saw glimpses of it as we flew over, but now knowing where we were—between the First and Second Provinces—it had to be the Triovian.
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing down toward the crater resting at the bottom of the stairs.
It was refreshing—being able to ask anything I wanted and not have to worry about the repercussions of someone inside my head. Now that I wasn’t running for my life, the lack of Dahes’ presence felt intoxicating. And I had so many questions. I knew a lot about Viven, both kingdoms grew up hearing about the other. But it was hard to determine fact from myth. And it was entirely something else to see it in person.
“That’s the Dome.”
“The Dome?” I repeated as I glanced at him over my shoulder.
He looked at me, then at the crater. “Some people call it the Egg.” He shrugged. “It’s one of the drakins’ training grounds.”
I looked back at the crater, this time understanding the nickname. It looked like a dragon’s egg cracked open and turned upside down.
