The Dragon Queen Selection Chapter 164

CASSIAN

Aveline was in the courtyard too. She was adjusting her saddle on her dragon. The lithe and incredibly fast Sadan. 

"Aveline."

Aveline looked up.

"Cassian." She set down the brush. "You look terribly worried." 

"I feel terrible too." 

"What's wrong?"

I told her. I told her what I needed her to do, just in case me and Taheer failed in attacking from the skies. When I was done talking, her face was pale. 

"You want me to protect our parents," she said. "You want me to fly them out of the palace if..." 

"If."

"If everything goes wrong."

"Yes."

She looked at Sadan. The dragon blinked, slow and steady.

"I can do it," Aveline said. "But I don't want to." 

"I know."

"I'm a fighter, Cassian. Not a messenger. You know I can fight with you up there. We can take down Veyraxis together. I've battled the unbound dragons with Sadan before. I know I can do it." 

"I know that too."

She turned to face me.

"When this is over, when Veyraxis is defeated, you owe me."

"I owe you."

She almost smiled.

"Go. Do what you have to do. I'll handle the rest. I'll make sure our family is safe." 

I kissed her forehead.

"Thank you, Aveline."

"Don't thank me yet. Thank me when we're all still alive."

\-—————————————————-

Taheer was waiting in the courtyard.

He was massive, his bronze scales gleaming in the fading light, his golden eyes fixed on the horizon. Beside him stood Zephyr, Evander's dragon, and Sadan, Aveline's. Three dragons. Three riders.

Three chances, I thought. Against one of the oldest, angriest creatures in the world.

It's not enough.

It will never be enough.

Cassian. Taheer's voice rumbled through my mind. You are afraid.

"Yes."

Good. Fear will keep you alive.

"Or get me killed."

Also possible. He lowered his head. But not today. Today, we fight.

I climbed onto his back.

The courtyard was full of people, nobles and commoners, merchants and servants, children and elders. They were singing, dancing, laughing. Sellers called out their wares, minced pies and ale, ribbons and flowers, wooden toys shaped like dragons. Betting booths had been set up near the gates, men shouting odds and taking coins.

Calista is the favorite, I heard someone say. Three to one.

I have money on the Vale girl, another answered. She's gonna win.

Vale girl? She cannot win. She doesn't stand a chance.

Neither do you, old man.

They laughed. I wish I could scream at them all to go back to their houses and stay underneath their beds till the threat was over. But what good would that do when they were here now?

"Your Highness."

Captain Rennick appeared at my side, his face grim.

"The crowds," he said. "They're too dense. If the red dragon  attacks, if she gets past you, the casualties will be..."

"I know."

"Perhaps we should clear the courtyard. Move the people inside..." 

"There's no time. And even if there were, they wouldn't go. You'd have to use brute force to get them in the palace walls and thus will only cause them to panic." I looked out at the crowd. "This is what they came for. The spectacle. The celebration. They won't leave just because I tell them to now." 

"Then what do we do?"

"We fight." I gripped Taheer's scales. "Taheer will detect her if she gets close enough. And we'll meet her in the sky. Before she can reach the palace. Before she can hurt anyone. " 

"And if you can't stop her?"

I looked at Rennick.

"Then you evacuate as many as you can. Get as many people inside as you can and shoot everything you've got at Veyraxis." 

He nodded.

"Good luck, Your Highness."

"Good luck, Captain."

\-——————-____

We took to the sky.

The palace shrank beneath us, smaller and smaller until it was nothing but a toy, a bauble, a thing that could be crushed. The crowd became a blur of color, their voices fading into the wind.

Higher, I told Taheer. We need to be higher.

'The clouds?'

Above the clouds. She won't see us coming.

'And if she does?'

Then we fight.

Taheer climbed.

The air grew cold and thin. My lungs burned, and my eyes watered, but I didn't tell him to stop. Couldn't tell him to stop.

Here, I thought. This is far enough.

Taheer leveled out, his wings spread wide, his body suspended between the clouds and the stars.

'Now,' he said. 'Do it' 

I closed my eyes.

Reached deep inside myself, to the place where my magic lived, the place I rarely visited, the place that frightened me.

Focus, I told myself. Focus on the power. Focus on the task. Focus on... 

Focus on saving everyone. 

The power surged.

I opened my eyes.

And I pulled.

The cloak was not invisibility, not exactly. It was something older. Something deeper. A folding of light, a bending of perception, a way of making myself and Taheer seem like nothing. Like sky. Like air. Like something the eye slid over without seeing.

But it cost me. It cost me so much. Having raw magic meant the ability to bend it to your will, but this will, cloaking a dragon as ancient and powerful as Taheer, it took everything from me. 

The power drained from my body like blood from a wound. My vision blurred. My hands shook. My heart stuttered in my chest, beating irregularly. If I did survive this, it would take me weeks to recover. 

Cassian. Taheer's voice was urgent. You are pushing too hard.

"I can do it."

You are not that strong.

"I said I can do it."

Cassian...

"Just fly."

He flew.

The cloak held.

And I, Crown Prince of Aurelia, rider of Taheer, heir to the Dragon Throne, slumped against my dragon's neck, too weak to move, too weak to speak, too weak to do anything but hope.

Taheer, I thought.

I have you, he answered. Rest now. I will take over from here.

The attack...

I will watch for her. I will wake you if she comes.

And if she doesn't?

Then you wake when the trials are over. When the world is safe. When the world is not burning.

I wanted to argue.

Wanted to stay awake.

Wanted to fight.

But my eyes were closing and the darkness was pulling me under.