But that sparked a curiosity of my own. “How did the masters feel about you coming to fight with us?”
Rhien’s cheeks shaded as she admitted, “I didn’t tell them…” She glanced around at the looks of surprise on all of our faces. “They wouldn’t have understood. Nor believed that I could help without breaking my vows and taking life.”
“Because you can’t go to war without taking life,” Nira said.
“I’m not so sure,” Rhien disagreed. “Magic of the mind provides nonviolent ways of dealing with threats. I fled an invasion without killing.”
“You’re not running this time,” Nira pointed out, motioning between her, Ava, and me, “not a one of us has clean hands.”
In the short pause, I could feel Ava’s heart stutter, and I recognized the intake of breath that sought to swallow emotion. “Nira,” I murmured, and she followed my gaze to Ava, reading the thoughts behind my warning. All the blood on Ava’s hands was there through no fault of her own, and it was all from people she’d loved. Her mother. Her father. Her stepmother. Me…
“Sorry,” Nira said, adding carefully, “I just… I think it’s unrealistic.”
In spite of the sadness on Ava’s face, she offered a smile, telling Rhien, “I think it’s admirable,” and Rhien dipped her head gratefully. “So much destruction and loss result from unnecessary violence. Soldiers don’t decide war, rulers do. But when we can’t find other ways besides bloodshed, it’s the soldiers and their families who pay for it.”
“You’re a kinder soldier than I am,” Nira admitted, giving Ava an almost apologetic smile.
We sat there for a few minutes, finishing the remainder of our meal in silence. It wasn’t until we rose to pack up our small camp that Rhien asked, “Do you think we’re getting close to where the dragons might be?”
I glanced up from where I’d squatted to roll my sleeping fur. “I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “I’ve been trying to take us to where the mountain is thickest, but I thought we’d at least have some sign by now that the dragons were even still around…”
“You can spark jump three hundred miles,” Nira said as she threw her own fur onto her horse’s back, and nodded toward the sky. “Can’t you jump up there and see if there’s anything?”
“It’s jumping,” I said, “not flying.”
But at the word ‘flying,’ I couldn’t help but glance at Ava, because she could fly if she used her new magic… Nira and Rhien followed the look, and when Ava realized we were all watching her, she stopped shoving her tin plate into a saddlebag to look back. Her eyes went around to each of us as she took in what the looks were requesting, and then stared upward through the trees at the empty sky.
“It’s awfully high,” she mused, but I knew what she wasn’t saying. That she hadn’t tried flying since she’d turned into a crow in the infirmary, and going that far up without any practice was her worst nightmare.
“You haven’t got to,” I told her.
She looked at me, and then again at Nira and Rhien, taking a long minute to consider it. She stared at the sky, and then at the ground, and kicked her toe into the dirt. Then she inhaled deeply, letting it out in a heavy sigh. “I’ll do it.” She strode away from her horse so she’d have space, and glanced at Rhien. “Don’t suppose you have some mind magic to remove fear?”
Rhien winced. “Would you like me to pretend I do?”
Ava stared upward again, and then blew a loud breath through her lips and looked at me. “You’ve been good to me… Love you.”
“You’ll be alright,” I chuckled, and added encouragingly, “we’ll catch you if you’re falling.”
“Just stay a crow then, yeah?” Nira said. “Can’t catch an entire woman falling out of the sky.”
“That’s very comforting, sister,” Ava rolled her eyes, “thank you.”
“Ava,” I prompted, waiting until she looked at me and then saying seriously, “I’ll catch you if you’re falling.”
“With magic?” she asked, and I hummed my confirmation. “Right, then…”
She inhaled another breath, shut her eyes to focus, and in the next moment, she was changing. Just like she had in the infirmary, and just as quickly. Flesh became feathers, her arms became wings, and she shrank and twisted until a crow was in her place. She blinked her red eyes and gave a testing flap of her wings. It took another few moments for her to build up courage, but then she was off.
Ava flew through the trees, gaining speed and getting the hang of it, and then she swooped upward. She disappeared in the branches, and when I caught a glimpse of her in the sky above our heads, I thought she made it look easy. We squinted while she circled, watching her go higher and higher to search the mountains around us. After a minute, she flew off in some direction that I lost sight of her because of the forest, and I hoped that meant she’d spotted something of interest. A minute passed. And then another.
And another.
“You think she’s alright?” Rhien asked, shielding her eyes with her hand as she peered up to search the sky.
“I hope so.” I squinted for a good thirty seconds before catching a glimpse. “There she is,” I said, pointing.
“What if she doesn’t find anything?” Nira asked.
I watched Ava soar for another minute before replying. We’d been searching for about a week and a half, but I’d promised Kingston that we’d be at Cornwall when the rest of them got there, so we wouldn’t delay the battle or miss any of it. This left only five remaining days to get there, which was almost less time than it would take us to travel the distance. Though Nira hadn’t said anything about it, I could feel her growing more impatient by the day.
“We’ll search a bit longer,” I answered eventually.
She hesitated to say, “Kiena, we’ve already been out here longer than we should’ve.”
I couldn’t argue with her—she was right. I don’t know if it was my true belief that we needed a dragon to win this war, or an unconscious desire to see firsthand where my magic had come from, or to satisfy some deep need to discover if there were any of my kind left before I potentially sacrificed myself to this war, but there was something in my gut that wouldn’t let me abandon this without pushing a bit further. There had to be dragons here. In my ancestor’s memory, his people had been devoted to protecting them, and I’d seen for myself what our power was capable of. I couldn’t let myself believe that all of it had been for nothing. That they’d failed at keeping the dragons from going extinct.
Despite the instinct that told me we had to be close, there was the nag of reason at the back of my mind. We had a responsibility to be at Cornwall with or without a dragon. “We’ll start for Cornwall tomorrow,” I told Nira. “No matter what. I promise.”
While Nira nodded, I noticed up above that Ava had started a decent, circling lower and lower until she couldn’t circle any more because of the trees. It seemed that all she knew was to dive downward, but I could tell that she was heading toward the ground with far too much speed. She didn’t know how to land, and I’d promised to catch her if she was falling. As she neared, I sent out a stream of static, wrapping it around her and freezing her just a foot before she collided with the earth. The very moment after I set her down gently, she shifted back, letting out something of a relieved breath.
“Thank you,” she said to me.
“How was it?” I asked, noting how her heart was racing.
“Terrifying,” she admitted with a laugh. “But everything looks so different up there, it’s actually somewhat… exhilarating.” She took in a deep breath to calm herself down. “I think,” she began, her forehead creasing with thought. “I think there’s a village.”