I can’t believe it. War has begun with Klevor attacking Amenyl, without any warning. And we, the people of Inizion, are their first victory.
Led by Vladykar Lochan who rides a dragon. A real, breathing, light-bronze scaled dragon named Pesokvglazu, who watches us intently with his bright copper irises that fill his angled eyes.
Brushing an invisible speck of dust off his chainmail and leather mixed armor, Vladykar Lochan leans forward in his saddle, waiting for us to quiet. At last, he clears his throat. “First thing’s first,” he says. “Has anyone here seen a dragon before Pesokvglazu?” He gestures to the great beast he rides.
Not a soul nods. I can just imagine Braxton making a couple of jokes about the ridiculousness of such a question, but even he seems to have realized that this is the worst time for such jesting.
Vladykar Lochan glances at the Klevorian soldiers. “Guess she didn’t come this way.”
“Should we send out troops to check further south?” a Klevorian soldier asks.
“No need.” Vladykar Lochan looks back at us. “On to business: you have two choices: You can surrender, or you can die,” he says, as easily as if he were chatting with a neighbor about the weather. “Simple as that.”
“And if we surrender?” Brian asks. As Inizion’s leader, he holds himself high, even kneeling as he is, with his right arm in the sling I’d made for him earlier that day. “What becomes of us?”
“You become slaves. Most of you, at least.” Vladykar Lochan shrugs. “You’ll at least see something more interesting than this pathetic village.”
Brian glares up at Vladykar Lochan. “Inizion is not pathetic! We will not be slaves!”
Vladykar Lochan swings his leg around the saddle. Pesokvglazu lowers himself as Vladykar Lochan climbs down the saddle one rung and then jumps down to the ground with ease, despite the drop. “No?” Vladykar Lochan says, righting himself. He’s tall, not as broad-shouldered as many of the soldiers I’ve seen, but his steps seem oddly poised to me. He doesn’t look more than ten years older than me, his face still carrying a bit of youth to it, and yet he carries himself as if he were many years older.
“Brian,” Mom whispers. She’s visibly trembling, her dark eyes wide. I’ve never seen her this scared before. But at least she can move and speak. I’m still frozen in place. “I think we should surrender.”
Brian doesn’t hear Mom, or ignores her. “We might be a small village, but Inizion will not bow to the likes of King Gunnar, who attacks an undefended village at night!”
His gleaming black boots crunching in the dusty ground, Vladykar Lochan nods, as if considering Brian’s comment. He walks close to me, as I’m still separated from the rest of the people of Inizion. I shy back a step when his dark brown eyes flicker in my direction, and my heart pounds with fear. After a pause, Vladykar Lochan continues on pass me.
Coming to a stop just in front of Brian, Vladykar Lochan unhooks a waterskin attached to his side. He uncorks its end and takes a sip of it. Then he holds out the waterskin to Brian’s face, high enough so that everyone can see.
“Imagine that you people of Amenyl are this water,” Vladykar Lochan says. “Water is useful for consumption. By consuming it, a body is sustained.” He starts to pour the waterskin out on the ground in front of Brian. “Streams of water can be used to move things and help build a nation. Its usefulness is in its fluidity. Its activity. Its life.”
Vladykar holds his hand over the water. I gasp as what was once water pouring out is now sand.
“Sand is useful, but not in the same sense,” Vladykar Lochan continues. “Sand can be tread upon. A nation can still build upon it. But sand’s use is in its solidity. Its inertia. Its deadness.
“So, people of pathetic Inizion, are you water or are you sand?”
Brian stares at the sand piled in front of him and then up at Vladykar Lochan.
“Well?” Vladykar Lochan asks.
“Water,” Brian whispers.
“That’s what I thought.” Vladykar Lochan looks around at the villagers. “Anyone else want to be sand?”
No one moves, including me.
“Very good,” Vladykar Lochan says cheerily. Stoppering his empty waterskin, he turns to the Klevorian soldiers. “Tie them up. Burn the houses.”
Protests go up from among the crowd, but the Klevorian soldiers pay them no heed. I don’t even bother to plead for the seven books in Mom and I’s home and office, or our tools, or the few clothes we owned. These are a cruel people, and I can see them relish every shout from the Inizion townsfolk as they raise their torches to set fire to the buildings.
Seeing that the Klevorian soldiers begin to line everyone up, I make my leaden feet finally move toward Mom and Warin, who are watching me. I want to be with Mom, and I trust that Warin will look after us as best as he can. But Vladykar Lochan grabs my arm and I freeze in surprise.
“Estelle Brand,” Vladykar Lochan says, “you’re coming with me.”
Mom’s eyes widen. “Please let my daughter go!”
Vladykar Lochan stares in disbelief between us. “Your daughter? Took after her father, did she?”
“Please, don’t hurt Estelle,” Mom says.
Vladykar Lochan smirks at Pesokvglazu, who chuckles. Without responding he turns, pulling me back toward Pesokvglazu.
“Estelle!” Mom shouts.
I struggle against Vladykar Lochan, but he’s strong. Not just a little strong, either—despite his litheness, he’s the strongest person I’ve ever met. And being Mom’s medical assistant, I’ve worked with some tough patients. My boots slide in the dirt as he drags me along.
“Estelle!” Mom is pushed to her knees as Klevorian soldiers tie her hands behind her back, but her eyes are locked on me. “Use it!”
I feel my stomach drop. I know what she wants me to do. But even now, faced with such danger, I’m afraid to.
“You have to use it!” Mom screams.
Vladykar Lochan turns, frowning. “Use what?” He looks me over, his hands running over the pockets on my gray slacks and along the sides of my white cotton shirt. “What does she mean?”
I stare into his dark brown eyes, too frightened to speak.
Vladykar Lochan’s frown deepens. “What does your mother mean?” he asks, a warning in his tone.
I flinch as Vladykar Lochan yanks my arm hard, and we walk to where the Klevorian soldiers are holding Mom. Drawing a thin sword from his side, he points this at Mom. “Whatever you’re talking about, explain. Now.”
“Don’t tell him,” Mom says. “You use it, and then you run. Run as fast—” She cries out as Vladykar Lochan cuts her across her face.
I can’t help my tears and cover my eyes with my hands to hide them. “Please,” I beg in-between my sobs, finally managing to speak.
“Then tell me what she was referring to, and we can move on,” Vladykar Lochan says.
I peek between my fingers. My gaze goes from Vladykar Lochan’s cruel, angry glare to Mom’s loving gaze. She wants me to use the magic within me, the power that’s always threatening to burst, and run. But I don’t want to leave her, or the people of Inizion.
“You have to,” Mom whispers.
I scream in surprise as Vladykar Lochan thrusts Mom through her side with his sword. “This is your last chance, Estelle,” Vladykar Lochan says to me.
Dropping my arms, I look Vladykar Lochan in the eyes. I’ve never met anyone as cold as this. He’s going to kill Mom, if that’s what it takes to get me to tell my secret.
The power inside me rises. I lift my right arm, my palm extended, willing the magic to my hand.
Vladykar Lochan looks at my hand, clearly expecting me to be holding something. “What is it?” His eyes suddenly widen and travel from my hand to meet my gaze. “Wait—”
Yellow-tinged orange flames blast out from the palm of my hand.
Vladykar Lochan was faster than I expected—he jerks, twisting to the side to avoid the tongues of fire. But the fire still strikes him across the left side of his face, and he shrieks as he falls to the ground, batting at his face. Pesokvglazu roars and I flinch at the sound, ceasing the fire magic, and pant—using magic requires energy, not unlike like exercising.
Mom throws herself into the back of a Klevorian soldier’s legs, still bleeding from her side. “Run, Estelle!” she screams overtop the shouts of surprise from Klevorian soldiers and Inizion townsfolk alike.
Tears running down my cheeks, I turn and sprint toward one of the burning buildings. Warin rises to his feet, and though his hands are tied he shoulder-checks a Klevorian soldier, opening a way for me. “Run!” he shouts at me, echoing Mom.
I don’t want to leave him anymore than I want to leave Mom. But I do as they say, fleeing toward a burning building. I scream in surprise as a spear embeds itself into the ground just scant inches from me. The Klevorian soldiers are racing for me.
“No!” Vladykar Lochan shouts. “I want her alive!”
The ground shakes with heavy steps, and I spin to see Pesokvglazu coming my way. He runs faster than seems natural for his size, his eyes pinpointed on me. I run around our burning home, but Pesokvglazu is waiting on the other side.
“You can’t outrun a dragon, fire wielder,” Pesokvglazu drawls. “You will pay for what you did to my bonded.”
I don’t know what he means by bonded. But I can hear the anger in his tone, and I know he has to mean Vladykar Lochan. Turning, I sprint straight north, ducking around another burning building to avoid the Klevorian soldiers on my heels. I no longer see Pesokvglazu, so I run out of Inizion toward the forests that lie north.
It’s the heavy bursts of wind gusts that alert me that Pesokvglazu is in the air. I look over my shoulder to see, by the fire glow of Inizion, Pesokvglazu flying my way, Vladykar Lochan on his back. The dragon opens his mouth, and my heart leaps up into my throat.
A blast of glassy sand pelts down to the ground just in front of me. It tears away the grass and bores into the dirt, as if multiple people had been digging for hours. Crying out in surprise, I turn left, heading west, while Pesokvglazu circles around to the east. Spotting more Klevorian soldiers coming my way, I’m forced to go northwest, and I run with everything I have into the dark night.
I realize I’ve reached the cliffs, and the edge of Amenyl, when I hear the rushing sound of water—many meters below. Staggering, I jerk to a stop against the crude fence we’d built, kicking a couple of rocks that clatter down the side of the cliffs. In my panic to flee, I’d gone the wrong way, and now stand at the edge of a cliff that drops hundreds of meters into a river below. I’m trapped.
My mouth dry I turn, staring as the Klevorian soldiers approach, a couple of them with torches that light up the area. They part as Pesokvglazu lands, the dragon growling at me, while Vladykar Lochan drops to the ground. The left side of his face is charred, his hair burnt, but he otherwise looks fine.
“That’s a neat little trick you’ve got.” Vladykar Lochan’s glare is livid, even as he smiles. “While I plan on having a few words with you first, I think Vladykar Malyncor should meet you, Estelle. He would adore such a talented little woman like yourself.”
I’ve never heard this name before, but if he’s anything like Vladykar Lochan, I don’t want to meet him. Swinging my legs over the fence, I teeter on the edge of the cliff.
“Please,” Pesokvglazu says. “Even if you have the guts to jump—and you clearly don’t—I can catch you, so don’t bother.”
My vision blurs with tears as I look down, hearing the roar of the rapids somewhere in the dark depths below. No one has ever survived a drop from this height. I notice a glint of light below, but I’m not sure what I saw.
“Easy, Estelle,” Vladykar Lochan says. “You don’t really want to make us angrier, do you?”
Ariadna, help me.
I jump.
Tamara Rivers 
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