Sofia opened her eyes and blinked in confusion at the view. There was a pounding ache on the left side of her head, and she was lying on her back on some sort of cold, hard surface. Above her was a swirling blur of green, blue, and brown. She blinked her eyes again, trying to make sense of the colors. Slowly, the swirling stopped, and her vision cleared.
She was in a forest. The blue above her was the sky, and the green and brown were the leaves and trunks of trees. Below her was cold earth. She heard voices and glanced to her right, where she saw several of the Dark Warriors huddled together, speaking in low tones. That’s when everything came rushing back to her. She stifled a groan as she remembered how she’d been dragged from her bed this morning, dragged to the High Council building, and forced to open the vaults.
They had figured out she was a spy. Her heart sank in her chest as she considered the implications of that little fact. She could no longer move freely among the Dark Warriors, gathering information that would help the side of good. The High Council would be forced to make a move against the Dark Warriors almost immediately, cutting off their ability to bide their time and gather more information about the underground network of dark magic. And Sofia herself might not live through this day. She wasn’t sure where she was, but she would have been willing to bet it was at least a hundred miles from Torch Lake. The last thing she remembered was being dragged onto a broomstick amidst the shouting chaos. The red alert sirens had been sounded, and the military was rushing in. She’d hoped the Dark Warriors would not get away. But she’d been knocked out before she could see whether the military would arrive in time to stop their flight.
Now, she knew that her hopes had been dashed. Wherever they were, the Torch Lake military was not here. Sofia would have to fend for herself. She did a quick inventory of her body, wriggling each arm and leg in turn to make sure nothing was broken or severely wounded. She kept her movements as silent and small as possible. The longer she could keep the Dark Warriors members from realizing that she had regained consciousness, the better.
Her limbs all seemed to be in working order. The pounding in her head was worrisome, but she dared not lift her hand to feel for a wound. At least if there was one, it wasn’t bleeding. She couldn’t feel any warm trickles that would indicate blood. She wondered how long she had before she was bothered by her captors. She strained her ears to hear what they were saying, but she couldn’t make out the words. Were they planning her demise? Formulating a strategy on how to ransom her back to the High Council for an exorbitant price? Or something else entirely?
A small buzz on her left hip startled her, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. Then she smiled when she realized what had caused the buzzing. Her emergency signaling beacon, which she’d kept pinned to her clothes constantly since the day she became a spy, was still intact. No larger than a thumbnail, the small, metal disc was programmed to send out S.O.S. signals to the Torch Lake Military if it detected that Sofia was in trouble. The miniscule device could detect whether she had lost too much blood, gone unconscious, or lost her magic ring, among other things. Sofia resisted the urge to groan when she realized that her magic ring was indeed gone. She wasn’t surprised—of course her captors would have taken it from her. They would have had to have been complete idiots not to. But she still felt a rush of panic. She didn’t know exactly when they’d taken it from her. She’d still had it in the vault, although she’d been too weak under their dark magic spells to use it. Still, without her ring, she was completely powerless. Even with a reprieve from their spells, she had no way to launch any kind of magic attack or shield. She could still do magic without a ring, but the spells would be weak and unfocused. She didn’t stand a chance of escape.
Sofia swallowed hard. Whatever happened, she could not panic. She had to keep a clear head about her. The Dark Warriors had already used her to get the dragon records from the vault. She could not let them wear her down with torture and get more secret information from her. Her cover as a spy had been blow, but all that meant was that she could no longer sneak around amongst the Dark Warriors. It didn’t mean that they were going to learn anything more from her. She must be strong. There must be a way out of this. There was always a way. She just had to think, and be creative.
And what if there’s not a way out? a little voice in her head asked her. What if you die out here?
“Then I die, and I die with honor,” she whispered to herself. She had known when she signed up as a spy that things might come to this. She’d hoped they wouldn’t, but she had always known that she needed to be prepared for the worst.
Without warning, Leif’s face swam into her mind. She wondered where he was right now, and if he had heard of her capture. She wondered if the High Council had announced that she had been a spy, or if they were still keeping the situation under wraps. They would have had to have said something. The scene at the High Council building this morning had been chaos. People had been running around screaming, and once the red alert sirens went off the military would have been on their way in a matter of minutes. Sofia had tried to yell out for help, but she’d still been under some weird dark magic spell that wouldn’t allow her to speak of her own accord. It had been such a bizarre feeling, moving and speaking without consciously wanting to do so. Sofia shuddered. She had learned a little bit about dark magic spells since joining the Dark Warriors, but she didn’t know what spell that was. It had been horrible, and she shuddered again just thinking of it.
All that shuddering proved to be a mistake. One of the Dark Warriors noticed her moving, and yelled out to the others.
“She’s awake!”
The group all turned to look at her, and Sofia momentarily considered pretending to be passed out still. But she decided that doing so would only prolong the inevitable. Her captors already had plans for her, she was sure. And those plans would not be anything good. Waiting to see what her fate would be was almost worse than experiencing that fate. At least, that’s what she told herself as she slowly sat up.
“Where are we?” she asked.
The question made several of the wizards burst into laughter. Sofia wasn’t sure what was so funny, but she didn’t have long to ponder the question before another, more worrisome thought filled her mind. Oh my god, Vincent is here.
She hadn’t seen him right away because he was standing in the middle of the small crowd, but as they all turned and stepped apart to look at her, his face came into view. He sneered at her, and Sofia felt her blood go cold at his expression.
“Well, well, well. Look at this. Our little traitor is awake.”
Sofia said nothing. What could she say? She couldn’t deny that she was a spy at this point. And she would not beg for mercy, or for him to release her. He could do what he wanted with her. She would not give away any more secrets than what they had already forced out of her.
Vincent laughed. “Aren’t you even going to say hello? No? Well, never mind. I have someone else here you might be interested in saying hello to. Come with me.”
Before Sofia could react, two of the shifters stepped forward and grabbed her roughly by the arms. They dragged her after Vincent as he whirled and made his way through the trees. Several of the other wizards and shifters followed, laughing. Sofia struggled to keep her feet underneath her as they made their way along the uneven forest floor. She still felt groggy, and she wondered if she’d actually been drugged in addition to whatever spell it was they had cast on her. She felt another small buzz at her left hip, and she knew the S.O.S. signal was going off again. She wondered if there was any hope for her. She knew the High Council would do everything they could to save her, but she also knew that they were notoriously slow to act when it came to situations like this—situations where rescuing one person would put numerous other people at risk. Sofia imagined them all sitting around a table, trying to plan out the perfect way to save her without risking harm to anyone else.
Sofia stifled back a groan. They were never going to get to her in time. She might as well accept her fate. She looked up at the beautiful trees surrounding her, and did her best to concentrate on the natural splendor here instead of on her impending doom. If she could just focus her mind on the forest and forget about Vincent, she would be fine. The worst they could do was kill her. Then it would all be over.
But as they came into a large clearing in the middle of the forest, Sofia suddenly felt a lump of panic in her throat. She knew in an instant that she had been wrong. The worst they could do was not killing her—it was making her watch while they killed someone else.
There in the clearing, thrashing around in chains, were the two dragon trainees, Seth and Evan. They were in dragon form, but Sofia knew them well enough to recognize them anyway. Their eyes looked the same as when they were in human form. But how had Vincent captured them? And what was he planning to do with them?
“I imagine you know Seth Morley and Evan Wellman, the two dragon trainees whom you so skillfully managed to get sent off on an early training mission.” Vincent threw his head back and laughed, the evil sound chilling Sofia to her bone. She did not reply, but she couldn’t keep herself from staring at the two dragons as they fought against the chains. Those chains must have some sort of strengthening spell on them. She’d never seen a dragon held by chains. Most of the dragons she’d known would have ripped those chains right out of the ground, or torn out the trees that held them by their very roots. Sofia did her best not to give Vincent the satisfaction of seeing her react in fear, but she could feel dread filling her from the soles of her feet all the way up to the top of her head.
“So, my pretty little traitor,” Vincent said, tracing a finger across one of Sofia’s cheeks. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to answer my questions about Torch Lake’s top secret shenanigans, or I’m going to torture you and these dragons. If you insist on being stubborn long enough, I might even kill a dragon or two. Heck, I might kill you. So I suggest you cooperate from the beginning and minimize the amount of bloodshed here today. It would be a shame to kill off two lovely dragons. I can’t say I’d be so sorry to get rid of you, though. You might be beautiful, but you’ve proven to be quite a disappointment to me.”
More evil laughter. Sofia bit her lip, trying to hold down the bile that was rising in her throat. Vincent had put her in an awful position, and he knew it. Almost nothing was considered more valuable than the life of a dragon. And yet, even the life of a dragon was not enough to convince Sofia to divulge state secrets. To do so would be to place the entire town of Torch Lake at risk. Thousands of innocent shifters and wizards were depending on Sofia to be strong.
“You might as well kill me now, then,” Sofia said, sticking her chin out defiantly. “I’ll never betray Torch Lake.”
“Fool!” Vincent said. “Magicae illido.”
Sofia howled in pain as the force of Vincent’s spell hit her. Her right shoulder felt like it was dislocated as it slammed into the hard earth of the forest floor. Seth and Evan roared, as though they had been hit by spells, too. Sofia couldn’t tell whether they had also been attacked, or if they were just howling in anger that she had been hit. Sofia tried to look over at them, but she found her view blocked by the looming figure of Vincent as he hovered over her.
“Oh I’m going to kill you all right, and your stupid dragon friends. But don’t think I’m going to do it quickly and get it over with. I’m going to torture you until you not only wish you were dead, but also wish you’d never been born. Magicae illido!”
Sofia howled in pain again as the spell hit her. For a few moments, the pain was so intense that she felt like she couldn’t breathe. She gasped for breath, and clawed at the ground trying to get up. More roars came from the dragons, but Sofia could not manage to raise her head and look.
“Your only chance of making it out of this in one piece is to tell me what I want to know about Torch Lake. I’m going to get it out of you one way or the other, so you might as well make this easy on yourself. Tell me, Sofia, what does the High Council know about the Dark Warriors? Do they know I’m the leader? How many members we are? Who those members are? Where and when we meet?”
All of that and more, you fool, Sofia thought. But she would never answer these questions out loud. Those were the easy questions. Vincent was trying to ease her into the interrogation, thinking he could get her to let down her guard. He thought he would then swoop in with the more serious questions, learning all he wanted to know about the High Council’s inner workings. Sofia would not cave.
“I’m not telling you anything,” she yelled at him. He responded by hitting her with another dark magic spell. Then he turned and cast spells at the dragons, who roared even louder as their bodies writhed in pain. Sofia wished she could plug her ears against the sound, but even the world’s best noise canceling headphones wouldn’t have been able to drown it out. The awful sound was unnaturally loud. It must have been audible for miles and miles.
And so it went, for so long that Sofia lost track. Vincent asked her questions, and she refused to answer. He hit her with more dark magic spells, and made sure she saw the dragons suffering as well. At some point she started to bleed. The skin on her hands had been rubbed completely raw by all the writhing in pain that she had done. The dragons were bleeding too, blood flowing from long gashes that dark magic had cut into their sides.
Sofia could feel herself fading. She wouldn’t be able to take much more of this without losing consciousness. Maybe that would be a blessing. If she wasn’t conscious, she wouldn’t have to feel this anymore. Maybe she could slip away into oblivion, and then into death, where she would never have to see Vincent’s awful face again.
It was an empty hope, though. Vincent seemed to know how to keep her just on the edge of actually passing out. He would pull back just long enough for her to regain her breath, and then launch a fresh attack. While he was letting her recover, he would torment the dragons, so that their pain-filled roars would torture Sofia in a different way altogether. At some point, Sofia gave up pretending to be strong and indifferent. She began to whimper and beg for mercy, but Vincent only laughed.
“There is no mercy for traitors,” he said, his voice full of scorn. And then he launched another magic attack. Sofia squeezed her eyes shut, and vowed not to open them again. She would not look at Vincent or the dragons again. She would not speak to Vincent, no matter what he said. He could torture her all he wanted. She would not give him the satisfaction of another response.
Sofia tried to force her mind to focus on something happy. Perhaps if she moved her thoughts to something pleasant, she would be able to forget just a little bit of the pain and agony the horrible monster Vincent was inflicting on her. But when she closed her eyes, the first thing she saw was Leif’s face. Why couldn’t she stop thinking about him? He had been a jerk to her, true, but he hadn’t known the truth. He would find out soon enough, if he didn’t already know, that she had been trying to help his cause. It didn’t matter anymore what he thought. She just needed to get through this without spilling any secrets, and at least she knew she would be honored by Torch Lake after her death. Leif would feel sorry for what he’d said, and that was enough. Her good name would live on after her.
Sofia felt a sudden pause in the agony of the dark magic attacks, and she wondered if Vincent thought he could trick her into looking again. She refused to take his bait. She didn’t want to look anymore. She couldn’t bear the sight of the dragons thrashing around in pain. She knew the Torch Lake High Council, along with most of the city, would be absolutely devastated by the loss of the dragons. But there was nothing that she could do. She could not sacrifice the whole town for the sake of two dragon shifters.
Now, the dragons were quiet too, though. Sofia still did not look. This was some sort of trick. It had to be. She kept her eyes squeezed shut until she heard the unmistakable sound of fire, followed by a loud curse from Vincent. Sofia realized in that moment that this was the first time she’d heard dragon fire today. That struck her as odd. Why hadn’t the dragons breathed fire before? She supposed they could have been under some sort of spell that would have prevented them from breathing fire, although she had no idea what spell would be able to accomplish that. But why would the spell have been suddenly lifted, if that was the case? Vincent had seemed to have everything well under his control. It didn’t make sense that he all of a sudden would have lost control of the dragons.
Sofia heard the breathing of fire again, and her curiosity got the better of her. She opened her eyes just a sliver and peeked up, trying not to make it obvious that she was looking. She lifted her head imperceptibly and looked at the dragons, who were still thrashing around although they weren’t roaring anymore. She blinked a few times as she looked at them, feeling as though she must be seeing something incorrectly. They still looked like they were in pain, but they weren’t making any noise, and Vincent and his cronies didn’t appear to be throwing any spells at them. In fact, Vincent was staring up at the sky with an expression of pure disgust. Sofia forgot to pretend that she wasn’t watching as she raised her head higher in an attempt to see what he was looking at. When she saw it, hope made her heart leap in her chest.
There, circling high above the forest, was a large dragon. He was spiraling slowly lower, and every few moments he would let out a large stream of fire. Sofia’s jaw dropped. How had this dragon found them? Was he going to save her and the other two? Was he strong enough to overcome this group on his own? Perhaps he could free Seth and Evan, and work together with them to take down the Dark Warriors. Sofia herself was useless. Unless she could miraculously figure out where her magic ring was and fight it away from her captors—a prospect with a less than one percent chance of success, she might as well just stay here on the ground, out of the way.
The dragon circled lower and lower, and Vincent started yelling orders to his wizards and shifters. The shifters began transforming into animal form, and soon there were several wolves and bears snarling up at the dragon in the sky. The wizards pointed their magic rings upward and began to cast attack spells at the dragon. But the dragon seemed unaffected, and he continued to spiral down toward the clearing, breathing angry fire as he did. Sofia watched in awe as the magnificent creature moved. He was huge, but graceful. His long tail swished back and forth as his wings sliced through the air, and his dragon hide shimmered in the sun, its iridescent scales changing from green to purple to almost pink. He looked so much more impressive than the two dragons flailing around on the ground, although Sofia figured she couldn’t blame two captive, tortured dragons for looking a little worse for the wear. As the flying dragon flew lower, and the Dark Warriors began to panic even more, the two dragons on the ground continued to thrash about even though no one seemed to be paying much attention to them anymore.
Sofia herself seemed to have been forgotten for the moment as well. She sat up slowly, knowing she was taking a risk that someone might notice her and remember to throw magic attacks at her. But she couldn’t help it. She wanted a better view of the dragon who was coming to her rescue. Odds were good it was one of the dragons from Torch Lake, but which one? Jake, perhaps? He was always ranting about how important it was to keep every Torch Lake citizen safe, no matter the cost. Perhaps he had seen Sofia as worth the risk of coming out here to defend.
Sofia strained her eyes as much as she could as the dragon came in for a landing. And then, the large dragon swung his head to look directly at her. He blinked a few times, and Sofia gasped. She would have known those eyes anywhere.
Her dragon rescuer was Leif.