PRESENT…

Dariux has been rather melancholy lately. I never cared much for the man, but after everything I learned about him in the sea camp, and after everything he’s done to help Luddux save his daughter, I’ve prepared to admit I’ve been wrong about him. Turns out Felicity is much better at reading people—even Draekons—than I am.

Everyone is finally in one camp. There are forty-four of us. Nine-humans, twenty-one from my exile batch, and fourteen from the Firstborn’s batch. It’s crowded on top of the cliff. Everywhere I turn, there are people. It makes me yearn for the peace and quiet of our treehouse in the lake camp.

After the nearly non-stop flying of the last week, we have very little by way of chores today. “Enjoy your day off,” Nyx says to me cheerfully. “You’re going to be on patrol duty tomorrow.”

A day off is a rare treat. Even better, Felicity doesn’t have much to do either. “I just have to mash the kunnr so we can make wine,” she says cheerfully. “And then I’m done. You want to get out of here?”

“Luddux could use the distraction.”

She nods soberly. His mind keeps returning to his daughter. The uncertainty is eating away at him.

“And so could Dariux,” I add.

Felicity looks surprised. “Dariux? Why?”

“If I had to guess, it’s the loss of the ThoughtVault. For sixty-five years, Dariux had a quest, a purpose. And now, it’s over. He’s been a bit flat. Let’s see if he wants to go with us?”

Her lips twist into a teasing smile. “I thought you were jealous of Dariux,” she says.

“I told him that I’d rip him from limb to limb if he ever did something untoward.”

Her mouth falls open. “Seriously? I’m not sure whether to be irritated or flattered.”

I brush a kiss across her cheek. “You are my mate. The love of my life,” I tell her, a growl in my voice. “And yes, I’m possessive about you, little one.”

She stands up on tiptoe to kiss me back. When she pulls away, I’m seriously regretting suggesting that Dariux come with us. After the pain of the last few weeks, neither Luddux nor I can get enough of Felicity.

* * *

Nyx learns we’re going to fly to the meadows east of the Na’Lung range. “Oh good,” he says. “Dennox isn’t back from his patrol yet. Can you take Beirax supplies on your way?” He sighs in exasperation. “Exiling the scientist on the Dsar Cliffs seemed like a good idea,” he says. “But it turns out that if you put someone on the top of a cliff that can’t be scaled, you’ve got to fly them food and water every two or three days.”

“Sure,” Luddux says. “Where are the Dsar Cliffs?”

“South-east of here,” Nyx replies. “An hour’s flight. You can’t miss it. It’s the tallest peak in the range, and it’s almost flat on top.”

Dariux looks alert. “Almost flat?”

Nyx nods. “You can’t really see it from the air,” he says. “But when you get closer, you’ll notice what I’m talking about.”

Lud and I transform. Dariux settles between Lud’s scales, and Felicity clambers on my back. We’ve spent most of our waking hours in the air for the last three or four days, and Felicity is getting a lot more comfortable on dragon-back.

We take off. It’s a lovely day, warm and sunny, and I’m looking forward to exploring this part of the prison planet, so different from our camp. We fly over dense jungle. To the east, I can see the meadows that are our ultimate destination. To the southwest of me, a river snakes through the foliage. Dariux has mentioned that it eventually connects to the sea to the south of Lake Tuli.

For the past sixty-five years, we’ve been bound by the distance we could travel on foot. But things are different now. Enough of us can fly that we can travel through the air, faster than we’d ever thought possible.

Once Raiht’vi is found and the immediate threat dealt with, I want to explore the entire planet, not just this continent. I want to see what lies beyond the great desert to the north. What lies west of the sea. I wonder if Felicity wants to travel too. It’s not the inter-planetary travel that I was used to before I was exiled, but in many ways, exploring this uncharted world feels more exciting.

Lud dives. Thank Caeron one of us is paying attention. I bend my neck and see the oddly-rectangular peak that Nyx described.

The Dsar Cliffs. Nyx is right. It really is distinctive.

The two of us land on the flat plateau at the top. Felicity slides down to the ground. I transform and put my arm around her. “You’re getting pretty comfortable flying, aren’t you?”

She chuckles. “I suppose I am. No barrel rolls though. I still have ongoing nightmares about falling.”

I’m about to ask her what barrel rolls are when I’m distracted by Dariux. He’s walking around, a frown on his face. “This is strange,” he says.

“What’s strange about it?”

“I thought Nyx was exaggerating,” he says. “But he wasn’t. This is really flat. Too flat to be natural.”

I stare at him. “What are you saying?”

“Umm, guys,” Felicity interrupts. “Forget about that for a second. Where’s Beirax?”