The dragon patrols circling the city curved by them and waved them on.
Cobalt climbed rapidly into the frozen air and angled his flight to the southwest, across the Khalkist Mounttains.
Sara planned to avoid as many populated areas as possible by flying north of Sanction and across the New Sea to Abanasinia. It was the route she had flown before, many years ago, on a different dragon, but with a similar purpose. With luck, they would make the flight without a stop. She did not want trouble in any form from sharp-eyed townsfolk still irate at the Knights of Takhisis, or hill dwarves, or even other dragons looking for a fight.
Nor did she want to announce her arrival in Solace. She decided to leave Cobalt hidden somewhere, and she and Derrick would slip in like any other pilgrims to the tomb, pay their respects to the dead they revered, and slip out. After that, she did not know what would happen.
Sara huddled deeper into her cloak and tightened the muffler wrapped around her lower face. She was glad she had dressed warmly for this part of the flight. The westerly winds swept over an endless range of snow and ice below and lost any hint of warmth they might have brought from the wastelands. The wind stung her flesh and cut deep into her bones. Breathing was difficult and talking was almost impossible while the dragon flew above the frozen mountains.
Eventually the mountains fell away to a valley that rolled placidly to the sea. Only a light coating of snow lay on the ground, and the air lost much of its bitter cold. To the south lapped the blue waters of the New Sea. In a matter of moments, Cobalt left the land behind and soared out over the waters of the inland sea.
Clear weather followed them southward. Sunlight sparkled on the water and warmed the air currents that flowed like water around them. Far to the south, Sara could see the peaks of the southernmost Khalkist ranges and the verdant grasslands of Blodehelm.
This portion of the New Sea they flew over narrowed to a strait before widening into the main body of the sea. Due southwest, perhaps an hour's flight, lay the isle of Schallsea, and just beyond it was Abanasinia.
Warm at last, Sara and Derrick came gradually out of their cocoons. They unwrapped mufflers, removed their fur-lined cloaks, and took off their gloves. Without the cold to shrivel their noses and freeze the air they breathed, they could talk over the rush of the wind and the rustle of Cobalt's wings. For a while they talked of simple things, of the snowstorm in Neraka and the fun the talon had sledding down a hillside on their shields, of Derrick's home in the mountains near Jelek, and of their memories of Jacson.
But there were too many unsaid things between them that neither were ready to broach, and so eventually they retreated into a long, unbroken silence.
Cobalt kept one ear cocked back to listen and made no attempt to interrupt their stillness. Dipping south to bypass Schallsea, he winged over the northernmost tip of New Coast, an area of flat grasslands and rich pastures.
At Sara's signal, Cobalt found a place to land on a broad strip of beach along the coast just to the north of the ruins of Sithelbec. A small creek provided fresh water, and a clump of trees offered cover and some shade for a quick meal. The dragon touched down heavily on the sand.
Sara slid down, glad to stretch her legs. Derrick unpacked the food, and together they sat under the trees to eat their lunch. Cobalt had eaten a fat cow before they left, so he entertained himself digging in the sand like a huge overgrown reptilian puppy.
Sara and Derrick watched him and ate their meal in the same contemplative silence.
A stiff wind picked up by the time they were ready to leave again, and clouds had begun to gather in the northwest off the Straits of Schallsea.
Cobalt snuffed the wind and tasted its moisture on his tongue… "There's a storm building," he warned Sara.
She nodded. "Do you want to risk the last leg across the open water?" she asked him.
The dragon appreciated her question. Her respect for his abilities was one of the things he loved about her. "It is near, but we shouldn't have any problem reaching the coast."
Without further delay the two humans climbed atop the dragon and took their seats in the saddle. The big blue pushed off immediately and pumped his wings to gain altitude. As soon as he reached his preferred cruising height, where he could catch the best drafts, he leveled out and pushed hard to race the storm across the wide stretch of water.
Sara and Derrick kept a watch to the northwest and said little.
Derrick was the first one to scale the wall of silence. "Knight Officer Conby-"
She interrupted him. "Please call me Sara on this trip. A title like that might be a giveaway to the wrong people."
He chuckled. "I'll try to remember that." Then his tone turned serious again. "I… I mean we… were wondering if something was bothering you? Were you not pleased that we became knights?"
Sara stiffened in a sudden chill that had nothing to do with the wind. She clasped her hands together to hide their sudden trembling. "I'll match you your question and raise one. Are you happy to be a Knight of Takhisis?"
He looked at her keenly, considering how he should answer this. "I thought I would be."
She heard the unspoken hesitation and swiveled around to look at him. "But?" she prompted.
His eyes were shadowed, like the dark depths of a grotto, "But… now the truth eludes me. I don't know."
"Why did you take your vow?"
He snorted. "What choice did I have? Besides, I thought it was what I wanted. I thought it was what you wanted."
"Me" Sara cried, more astonished than she had ever been. "By my sweet grandmother's knucklebones, whatever gave you that idea?" She was appalled to think the squires had even considered taking their vows to please her.
He stared at her as the blood drained from her face. "You did! By your training and your duel with Massard and the way you helped us. Isn't that why you were there? To make us into knights?"
Something shattered in Sara. Of all the things she had worried about and imagined, this possibility never occurred to her. She leaned over, wrenched her skull helm loose from its bindings, and, giving an anguished cry, threw it into the sea.
The young knight behind her stared, stupefied, at the helm as it fell and splashed far below.
"I didn't want to train anyone!" Sara said miserably. Her gray eyes glistened with unshed tears. "I came only to see what was happening in Neraka. But we were found and brought to the general, and all I could do was go along with the masquerade. She put me in charge of a training talon, thinking my experience would benefit you all," she ended bitterly, spitting out the word "experience" like a foul taste.
Overhead, the clouds drew together in a thick canopy and brought a chilly, wet wind whistling by them. Cobalt pushed harder for the coast. With his keen dragon eyes, he could just make out the distant line of land in the thickening mist. His riders paid little heed to the worsening weather. They concentrated on each other and the truth that finally gnawed its way out.
"I don't understand," said Derrick. "Are you not a Knight of Takhisis?"
Sara turned again to face him, and her heart jumped painfully to see him. His shoulders were slumped and his proud face looked bewildered. "No, I am Sara Dunstan. Steel Brightblade was my adopted son, and I spent ten years with the dark order trying to convince him to leave it."
Derrick jerked upright. A cloud of anger scudded across his features. Words and phrases she said became clear and stabbed like knives into his pride. He had respected her, admired her! For nothing but a sham. Without probing deeper into her motives or her feelings, he lashed out with his own bitter hurt.
"You lied to us!" he said savagely. "You spoke of honor and courage, all the while hiding behind a mask of deceit! You're just a filthy spy. All you wanted was information. You probably laughed at us while we worked so hard to earn your approval. We thought you were one of the most honorable knights in Neraka. We wanted to be like you. Like you!" he shouted furiously.