Nira, on the other hand, was hooting with excitement, which more closely mirrored what I was feeling myself. In mere seconds, we were soaring down the mountain, over the tops of trees and at such a speed that the wind was stealing tears from my eyes. Everything below us looked small, and I could see the village in the distance, and this is what Ava must have been talking about. This is what she’d seen as a crow, and it was exhilarating.
The ride hardly lasted minutes, and then we were swooping toward the earth, outside the village enough that our location was hidden amongst the trees. Night Phoenix thudded down on the ground, and the three of us climbed off as the others did the same. Skif retreated a safe distance from the dragons once he was down, but the rest of us were comfortable enough by now to linger.
“Looks like we’ve got what we needed,” I told Denig and Skif, reaching out to touch Night Phoenix’s snout.
“We’ll fetch your horses,” Skif volunteered, seeming all too eager to get away.
But Night Phoenix’s tail came around again, drawing me nearer to it. “I suppose we’ve got a different means of travel now,” I laughed.
“Do come back,” Skif told me, and were he not so afraid still of the dragons, I was certain he’d have come over to shake my hand or hug me. “I’m sure there’s so much we could teach you.”
“Thank you for everything,” I said, and my companions nodded their agreement.
Skif glanced over at Denig expectantly, waiting for him to say his goodbyes too, but he didn’t. He looked from Skif to me, around the group, and then at the dragons. He thought quietly to himself with an intense focus in his green eyes, and eventually told Skif, “I’m going with them.”
Skif choked on air, coughing through his shock. “What?” And that shock was reflected on each of our faces as well.
“You heard what Ava said,” Denig replied. “If they lose this fight, the king will likely come for the dragons. It’s our duty to protect them in whatever ways necessary.” As he spoke, Pine Shadow slid up beneath his hand, and he set it on the dragon’s head. “Right now, that way is by going to war.” He met my gaze as though seeking permission, and I nodded my eager consent.
“But Denig, war?” Skif whined. “We’ve never been to war.” Denig made no reply. While it seemed as though he and Skif were nearly inseparable friends, Denig appeared determined to do this no matter what. Skif had to know that, because he glanced back and forth between us, weighing his options. He took in a breath as if to make another protest. Whimpered his reluctance. Glanced between the dragons and grabbed the pendant around his neck. He whimpered again and threw his hands up. “Fine.”
I couldn’t keep a massive grin off my face, and when I met Ava’s eyes, they were full of a similar relief. Three Dragonkin were most certainly better than one, just as two dragons were better than one. And I suddenly felt a lot more confident about the outcome of this war.
Chapter 24
On Night Phoenix’s back, we were soaring through the low, overcast clouds. It had taken us long enough to find the dragons that, had we traveled to Cornwall on horseback, we’d have arrived later than I’d promised Kingston. It was fortunate, then, that the dragons were more than willing to carry us the distance. Our speed was so much greater than it would have been with the horses. We’d stayed the night in the mountain village and only been traveling since this morning, but we were already nearly at the castle in Cornwall.
Even Ava trusted the dragons more, and had grown comfortable enough by now that she was no longer hiding her face in my shoulder. She and Nira were reaching out behind me, making a game of trying to catch the clouds. In fact, the only one who didn’t seem thrilled with our means of travel, aside from Skif, was Haunt. She was strewn sideways over Night Phoenix’s neck just in front of my lap, and in the rare moments that her one eye wasn’t lidded with sickness, it was casting me indignant glares.
It had been an amazing journey, going over the Amalgam Plains instead of around them. The oranges and reds of the desert were a brilliant mix of colors I’d never seen but in a sunset. The marshes were dark and mysterious even under the light of the sun. The stony mountains were jagged and tall, spotted with trees and rivers and great waterfalls. It was the kind of place I could see the danger in trying to cross, but beautiful enough from above that I could also see why people risked it.
Luckily for Haunt, before long and nearing midafternoon, we were descending. We dropped beneath the clouds and came into view of everything below, casting a swift shadow on the ground as we traveled. We passed over the final range to the mountain-surrounded land that was Cornwall. The castle was so large that if I squinted I could see it in the distance, carved into an encasing mountain. And as we got closer, I could see that what looked from far away like scattered lines of boulders and trees weren’t boulders and trees at all. They were people. Armies.
Two armies were visible as we neared Cornwall’s capital. The first was just outside the castle walls. It was vast and broad, and littered with such a mix of Valens’s red and gold and Cornwall’s blue and gray that it made my stomach drop. They weren’t fighting, which could only mean that our rebel army had arrived too late. Whether Hazlitt had conquered Cornwall or the soldiers had simply surrendered, a majority of them were now fighting for Hazlitt.
The sight of the second army, however, was enough to lift my spirits. It was our army camped over a mile away from the castle walls. It was the Vigilant, and our numbers were so much greater than I ever could have imagined. I’d heard talk of how large our army had grown—though some still doubted it being big enough—but it was something else entirely to see the thickness of it. To see the wide expanse of our fighters, which almost rivaled the size of Hazlitt’s combined army, ready and waiting.
As we got closer to the Vigilant camps, I spotted the largest tent flying the commander’s flag, and shouted to Night Phoenix to drop down near it. The soldiers in the immediate area cleared spots big enough for the dragons to land, all looking a mixture of confused and terrified and defensive. Some of them ran as we touched down. The rest crowded around in a massive circle, some of them too stunned and curious to have run, while others pulled their weapons.
“Hold your fire!” I hollered to the archers, and they lowered their bows when they recognized me as murmurs went up around the camp.
Haunt slid off of Night Phoenix’s back first, retching with nausea as I reached the ground after her, and she made sure to glare at me at least once more. While Ava and Nira got off, Kingston rushed out of the tent to see what all the commotion was about. His eyes locked on the dragons, widening with shock and awe as a smile reached the corner of his open mouth. When his eyes finally met mine, I hurried over, so overcome at the unexpected size of our army and the pride in his expression that I didn’t know what else to do. I hugged him, feeling his arms wrap around me while his hand slapped my back with uncontainable excitement.
“I can’t believe it,” he muttered, letting me go. “You did it.” He stared at the dragons again. “You really did it.” His eyes filled with amazed tears and he grabbed my shoulders, looking like he wanted to give me another hug. “Your father would be so proud of you.”
“Of us,” I told him, making a deliberate glance at the vastness of our army camp.
He smiled a wide, beaming grin, and cleared his throat to rid the emotion from his voice. “Well, we’ve not won yet.” His hands fell from my shoulders, and he glanced around at my gathered companions, finally noticing Denig and Skif. “Hello?”