Scarlett Meris's Arc

Chapter 13 of 15

They flew back to the blue dragon under a low sky. Rivilin landed hard in the ferns. Scarlett slid down before the green dragon had folded its wings. The horns from the creek had stopped. That was worse than the noise. Brynn was already there. She had climbed the ridge on foot with her satchel slung across her chest, copper braid dark with sweat. Scarlett had not expected her this far east. Brynn was the human healer who had first pulled the barb from the silver pup, and the only mortal Scarlett trusted at her back. "Riders came through the healing house," Brynn said. "Fae. Not yours." "The king's?" "Wearing his colors. They took the last two dragons in my care. They said the court is done hiding. They said the king is going to war for every fae the humans killed today." Kieran had come up behind them. He stopped when he heard it. "He's calling it a rescue," Brynn said. "He's moving tonight." "Then we move first," Scarlett said. Kieran shook his head once. "We can't outrun a court muster. He'll have every rider in the sky by dark." "We don't outrun him. We empty the board." Scarlett turned to the blue dragon under the boughs. It had lifted its head at Brynn's voice. "Every dragon that trusts one of us. We take them east tonight. The old sanctum in the rock. He can't wage his war without dragons to blame." "He'll say we stole them," Kieran said. "He'll say that anyway." Brynn looked between them. "How many can you carry." "Three from the peaks. The blue here. The two from your house if we can find where his riders took them." "They flew north," Brynn said. "Not toward the city. Toward the muster field." Scarlett closed her eyes for a breath. Two dragons already inside the king's line. She was not getting those back tonight. "Leave them," Kieran said. His voice was flat. "We save what we can reach." She hated that he was right. She nodded. They worked fast. Brynn packed red petals and moonpetal root into Scarlett's saddlebag. Kieran cut the screen of boughs off the blue dragon and coaxed it upright. Rivilin crouched for Scarlett. The blue would follow her in the air; it had since she pulled the barb. "Come with us," Scarlett said to Brynn. "No. Someone has to be in the house when the next wounded one comes." Brynn tightened the strap on her satchel. "Go." Scarlett swung up onto Rivilin. Kieran mounted behind her without a word. The blue dragon lifted from the ferns and turned east on its own. They left the ridge as the first war-horn sounded from the fae side of the valley. Two dragons behind the king's line. Four ahead of them, if they were fast. The sanctum was a night's flight east, and the king was already in the air.