Chapter 12

Violet - 

"Behind you." Allani called out, her voice bored. 

I pivot to see Oren's sword held high, ready to separate my head from my shoulders, but the golden dragon snaps its jaw and Oren stumbles to the side with terror-filled eyes, as if he's just now realized that it has teeth. Athana lowered her head, positioning herself so that she would be at the perfect angle to torch us all, except her rider, since she had turned when Xaden came.  

I recalled what Kaori had said about Allani's dragon. 

"She's brutal. Vicious. She'll kill you because you annoyed her, or maybe because you annoyed her rider. Athana's one of the fastest dragons as well, and can rival Codagh in size. She and her rider's bond is something that had never been seen before in a rider and a dragon. They're more than just bonded, they're family. You piss one of them off, you'll have to deal with the consequences of the other. Not to mention her hatchmate's mate, Sheryl, and her hatchmate, Tairn." 

I take the chance while he's distracted with watching the amethyst dragon, and sidestep, ramming the handle of my blade against the base of his skull. He crumples, unconscious, and I don't wait to see him fall before turning back toward Tynan, who has his bloodied sword ready.

"You can't interfere!" Tynan shouts at Allani, but I don't dare look away from my opponent long enough to see how the wingleader reacts.

Even without turning to look at her, I still hear her scoff, and can feel the strength of her glare burning into Tynan.

"No, but she can narrate," Xaden retorts, and I hear the sound of Allani hitting him, and then his grunt in response to the hit. 

He's obviously on my side here, which confuses the hell out of me, since more than anything, I'm certain he wants me dead. But maybe it's not my life he's protecting but the golden dragon's. The one I was most confused about wasn't him though. It was Allani. From what I've heard about her from Mira when she was in her third year and Allani was in her first, the wingleader was vicious, protecting nothing except what she considered her own, and that wasn't many. Whoever it was, they certainly didn't come to Basgiath, or maybe there was no one that she thought deserved the title of hers. So why was she protecting me now? Maybe her dragon just wanted to make sure the golden dragon was safe, because she certainly didn't seem like she wanted to be here right now. 

I chance a quick glance. Yeah, Sgaeyl looks pissed. Her head undulates in a serpentine motion—a clear sign of agitation—and those narrowed golden eyes of hers are focused on Tynan, who is now trying to circle me like we're on the mat, but I won't let him get between me and the little golden dragon. I don't even have to look at Athana to know that she's just as, if not more pissed than Sgaeyl. I could hear her rumbling growl from here, and feel the heat radiating off of her. I just hoped that she would refrain from scorching this entire clearing until after I was already out of here. 

"Your arm is shot, Sorrengail," Tynan hisses, his face pale and sweaty.

"I'm used to functioning in pain, asshole. Are you?" I raise the dagger in my right hand just to prove that I can despite the blood that runs down my arm and drips from the tip of my blade, saturating the wrap across my palm. My gaze drops meaningfully to his side. "I know exactly where I sliced into you. If you don't get to a healer soon, you'll bleed out internally."

I felt Allani's gaze burning into me, as though she was trying to assess whether I was worth saving anymore. 

Rage contorts Tynan's features, and he moves to strike.

I try to flick my knife at him, but it slips from my blood-soaked hand and lands with a thud in the grass several feet away.

And I know my bravado won't be enough to save me now.

My arm is shot. My leg is shot. But at least I made Jack Barlowe run away before I died.

As a last thought, that's not a bad one. 

I see movement from the corner of my eyes, right as Tynan reaches for his sword, I glance over, seeing Allani and Xaden move at the same time, but whereas Xaden moves toward me for half a step before pausing, Allani strides straight to the golden dragon, not even giving me a second glance as she rests her hand on the dragon's shining golden scales, and the dragon responds by making some sort of purring sound. 

Not surprising, if anything, only confirming that she was here for one reason and one reason only. The confusing part was that Xaden seemed like he was planning on helping me, saving me. I start to register the fact that he was going to damn the rules and interfere, but before I could, a gust of wind blew slammed into my back, and I stumbled, nearly falling over with my destroyed ankle. 

Tynan's mouth hangs open and he staggers backward, his head tilting so far back it's nearly perpendicular to his torso. Shade envelops us both as he continues to back away.

Chest heaving, my lungs desperate for air, I chance a look over my shoulder to see why Tynan's retreating.

And my heart lurches into my throat.

Standing with the golden one tucked under an enormous, scarred black wing is the biggest dragon I've ever seen in my life—the unbonded black dragon Professor Kaori showed us in class. I don't even come close to reaching its ankle.

A growl resonates through its chest, vibrating the ground around me as it lowers its gigantic head, baring dripping teeth.

Fear ripples through every cell in my body as its hot breath blows over me. "Step aside, Silver One," a deep, gruff, definitely male voice orders.

Allani - 

I watched as Sorrengail blinked, looking up at Tairn as though she couldn't register the fact that he had spoken to her. I turned, focusing my attention completely on Andarna, but that didn't stop Tairn from picking up on my thoughts. 

"Cut her some slack, Ruthless One." Tairn told me. 

I glared at him. "For what? She survived, good job. But we're riders. If we paused after each time we defeated a couple of enemies, we would be dead multiple times over. Especially since you decided to bond her. People are going to come for her, and she can't be hesitating every single time that she takes someone down." 

"Or did you not notice that even with all of the chances that were given to her to land a killing blow, she didn't take any of them. Not. One. Single. One." I added. 

"She's merciful." Andarna said, automatically defending the one that she would bond. Because I was sure that she would still bond with her, even if the "rules" said that one rider could only bond one dragon. I would like to see Panchek try and argue with Athana, who would certainly defend Andarna's Right of Benefaction.

"She's merciful, yes, but that only means that she's weak. Mercy has no place in war, especially not against the venin and their wyverns." I replied. 

"Not everyone can be blessed with being born without a conscience like you." Xaden said, laying on the sarcasm thick. 

"Don't act like you don't have one either, Xaden. There's a reason that Sgaeyl chose you." I responded, and turned to my dragon. "Now that Tairn's here, can we finally go?" 

"Yes." Athana replied, and I mounted her, leaving behind Tairn, Andarna, and Sgaeyl, along with their riders, or soon to be riders, in Violet's case.

Xaden - 

I watched the dark amethyst scales of Athana glimmer in the sunlight as she launched, and tracked her path through the sky until her purple form faded into black, the large dragon turning into a pinpoint on the horizon as she flew away. 

I glance towards the silver haired woman one standing in the clearing on last time, before mounting Sgaeyl, my dragon immediately taking flight and following the earlier path of her mate's hatchmate. 

"I still don't understand how your emotions are even conflicting over the Ruthless One and the Silver One." Sgaeyl started. 

I groaned, shifting my weight slightly to make sure I don't fall off as Sgaeyl made a sharp turn. "Can you not? You've berated me enough since Violence came into the Quadrant." 

Sgaeyl made an annoyed chuff, which I was sure targeted toward the nickname I had given Violet, and spiraled down towards the field where I could see the other dragons waiting, Athana standing out as the biggest, and obviously, the only dark purple one.  I tightened my grip as to not fall off of my dragon's back as she landed, dust rising and settling from where she disturbed it. 

"What the hell Sgaeyl?" I asked. 

She swung her head to meet my eyes, narrowing her golden ones. 

"Don't ask me. Ask my mate's sister how you pissed her off, and why she asked me to try my hardest to throw you off my back." Sgaeyl responded. 

I turned my gaze to where Allani was leaning against Athana's foreleg, then to Liam, and the red daggertail standing at his back. My co-wingleader was smirking slightly, looking indefinitely more relaxed than she had earlier, whether it was before or during Threshing. I settled on glaring at Athana, who didn't even look at me before I felt her presence slip into my mind, the shimmering purple bond coming into focus as she dropped her walls. 

"What now, Wingleader?" she asked. 

Before I could respond, I'm distracted by the simultaneous roar of celebration of every dragon except for Athana distracted me, and I looked up to see Tairn soaring in, a smaller, glimmering golden form flying slightly behind him, lagging behind the pace of the massive dragon, who was weaker than only Codagh and Athana. 

I watch her carefully as she slides down the leg that Tairn had turned into a ramp when she hesitated at the top of his shoulder, as though calculating how she would be able to dismount. Once she was safely on the ground, I turned away, walking towards Liam, who was still talking to Allani, having only glanced over at the commotion once before resuming his chat with the woman who was basically a mother to him after the apostasy. 

Their conversation stopped once Allani's eyes turned to me, the silver rings and golden flecks shining like flames in her eyes, like they did whenever she was using her signets, meaning they were almost constantly blazing, since she nearly always had her blood signet cast out like a net over a crowd to get a sense of who was there, the injuries, weaknesses in short, and using that information to calculate how to defeat anyone, even a crowd of this size with their dragons more than ready to help protect their riders. 

Before I could reach my foster brother, Sgaeyl stopped me, something urgent in her tone. 

"Wait. And watch. This'll be good." Sgaeyl said, meaning that I probably wouldn't like it, and she would enjoy watching me hear the news. 

Allani paused in her conversation with Liam, tilting her head and turning to face Violet, who was giving her dragon's name to the roll keeper. Tairn kept his golden eyes fixed on his rider, only glancing once or twice at Allani and Athana. Allani whispered something to Liam, before walking towards Tairn and the small golden one, looking at them, her eyes sharpening as though she could talk to them. 

But she couldn't. Right? Dragons only spoke with their riders, and Violet was bonded with Tairn, obviously, since she came in on his back, and the golden dragon was unbonded. 

"You'd be surprised at the secrets she is hiding." Sgaeyl said.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, turning to my dragon. 

She didn't answer, and a sudden commotion in the field drew my attention back to the people gathered there. 

"Both of them?" one of the generals exclaimed. 

Shit. Violet had bonded to both Tairn and the feathertail. 

How did you guys like this chapter? I'll try to get the next one up sooner, but it really depends on how busy my coach and my teachers make me.