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It was cold. Really cold.

Asha curled up into a tight ball of feathers to try and keep warm, and she contemplated cuddling Renjee, the equally soft gryphon that she was stuck with. The underground prison had no source of heat, so as time wore on it felt more and more like her feathers would freeze off. Renjee shivered on the other side of the cell.

After learning all she could about her father—all that the gryphon would tell her at least—the only thing she had left to think about was Terrin while she mulled over what came next.

He must be so worried… He’s probably searching every nook and cranny for me, and I’m nowhere to be found. I may end up dying here and he would never know… He would search to the ends of the Earth.

That thought ate at her. It made her want to cry, but she held strong and buried her muzzle in her paws, letting out a big sigh.

She also wondered if her father knew she was missing. Apparently, he and Renjee had come back for a quick visit, but Blade had gone off to another town along the river. Whether or not he had returned to the city was up for question.

Now that she knew why her father had left, the resentment she held toward him had slightly faded. Renjee had explained all of his reasoning that he had shared with him, and it made sense to her, but she still couldn’t shake the fact that he abandoned her and didn’t even try to keep her in his life. She tried to imagine what sort of crime he had committed; from what Renjee had said, it must have been something terrible.

And Renjee was kind of Blade’s mate, her new father, and she didn’t know what to think about that.

A metallic clank echoed down the dank hall from the top of the stairs. She heard the footfalls of humans as well as the rattling of chain armor. Watching five humans stroll into the prison, she gave a low growl.

One of them wore white and gold silken robes and a hood while the other four looked like guards donned with weapons and armor. The fancy one sneered at her as he caught her eyes and stuck his nose all too close to the iron bars of her cell. Had she had any motivation to slice his face off, she would have, but she was too busy shivering.

Then, the black dragon came slinking behind them, keeping a small distance. He glared at the group of humans like they dragged him here on a leash.

“So, this is the beast’s daughter?” the human asked. He inspected her like an animal in a cage, which was exactly how Asha felt being trapped in here.

The dragon responded, “I’ve not seen any other dragon with feathers in the city before, and she looks extremely similar to the descriptions you gave me, as well as the fact that she was at the same location you gave me. It’s far too coincidental for her to be anything but his spawn.”

He stared at her over his long nose, his evil, beady eyes peering at her through the shadow of his hood. “And what of the gryphon?”

Renjee shifted and clacked his beak as those eyes turned to him. Even he knew not to speak in this situation.

Again, the dragon answered, “I am unsure of his relation. He could possibly be his mate.”

“How barbaric,” he scoffed. “Is it common for you beasts to breed with another kin? With the same gender no less?”

Asha hated the way beasts rolled off of his tongue. It was purposely meant to insult them, and it was obvious that he saw them all as animals. If she could have her way, she would bite his face off.

The black dragon, however, didn’t seem affected by his slang. “No, it is not. I assumed this because of what you told me before: that he was the mate of Akir the Thief, another male.”

Asha’s ears perked up. My other father…

“Ah, yes, yes… That would make sense that he would take another after all of these years. I do wonder how attached he is to this gryphon. I can only imagine that he’ll try to wreak even more havoc than the last.”

Asha hissed and jumped up, sharp teeth bared and claws unsheathed. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on him!”

Renjee looked at her in surprise, and she was surprised at herself. In her mind, she thought about what it would be like to lose Terrin, someone she loved with all of her heart. It would be utterly devastating.

But the human scoffed and gave a hearty laugh. Asha would have torn through the iron bars and slashed his throat into ribbons if she could. Anger boiled inside her; she knew she had to control it—it was what he wanted to see.

“I am certainly going to enjoy the festival this year,” he said, a smug half-smile raising his cheek. “Now! You, dragon,” he said to the black dragon. “You must stay here and guard our prisoners.”

He growled and snarled. “That wasn’t a part of our deal, Alexander. I want what I am due.”

“You have yet to bring me the dragon I want. Instead, you brought me his daughter and his lover. Once I’ve captured him, you will receive your pay.”

The dragon snorted and turned his head. “Very well.”

“Now be a good dragon and keep an eye on these two,” the man mocked and left with his contingent of guards.

Asha glared at the dragon, and he ignored her. Troubling feelings reached out to her from the darkest parts of her mind. Whoever that man was, he was a ranking noble, and he planned on using his power and wealth to punish her father for the crime he committed over a decade ago. Asha would play a role in his capture. It would be her fault when they capture her father.

“What are they planning on doing with us?” she asked the dragon.

He rolled his eyes at her and lay down next to the cell with his head resting on his forepaws. Ignoring her still, he faced the other direction.

Before Asha could lash out angrily at him, Renjee stepped up beside her and gave a soft smile. “Thanks for sticking up for me. I thought that was really brave! You were totally angry, too.”

She sighed and shrugged her wings. “I hate how he thinks he can just treat all of us so poorly.”

“He can and he will,” grumbled the black dragon.

Asha hissed at him. “You’re no better! You would rather sell out your own kin than stand up to him.”

He turned his head and glared at her with piercing red eyes. “There is no standing up to him. There is no fighting him. The world runs by kill or be killed, and frankly, I’m not the one that will be dying. I’m on the side that won’t get me killed while I earn my wealth along the way.”

Asha gritted her teeth and let her tail flick behind her. “What is he planning on doing with us?” she repeated.

It looked like he wouldn’t answer her again, but after a moment of silence, he said, “You’ll be publically executed during the height of the Sun Festival, and he will look like the hero while you’ll both be made out to be villains.”

Asha’s heart sank into a hopeless, abysmal hole. The reality that she was going to die was finally sinking in.

“And most likely your father will be watching. If I know anything about the High Bishop, it’s that he enjoys torturing anyone who’s wronged him… Well, I think he enjoys torturing in general.”

“What did my father do to wrong him?”

He looked at her like she should know the answer already. “First of all, your father’s mate was the leader of the Shadowscales, and together they stole objects worth thousands upon thousands of gold from the temples. Second of all—”

“Wait—Shadowscales?” Asha asked.

He sighed. “I don’t have to answer your questions.”

“Please?”

He let out another exasperated sigh and continued unenthusiastically. “Yes. They were a bunch of feral dragons that stole things and sometimes murdered humans. Akir was their founder, and they still exist today under a new leader. Their whole philosophy was about taking revenge on the humans, and they were a giant thorn in the kingdom’s side. Not so much anymore now that their numbers have dwindled; they’re no more than just a gang of thieves.”

“And my father was a Shadowscale too?”

“No. He had no part in it. From what I had heard, Akir had given himself up to protect your father as a part of a deal. He must not have realized how tainted the humans were—which is silly to think about since his entire organization is based on the fact that humans are the bane of the city. But Blade didn’t give them a chance to prove themselves untrustworthy: he attacked the palace itself and killed many soldiers, one of them happening to be Alexander’s father.”

She paused and glanced at Renjee—he was staring at the ground between his paws. Not even he knew exactly what Blade had done, and the information that her father was a mass-murderer was rather… shocking. More and more questions pressed at her mind, but she knew the dragon’s patience would only answer so many.

“So… We’ll be tortured?”

“If your father gets caught, you most likely will be,” he answered. He looked at her as if to express his sympathy, but his face was almost blank. “Alexander will make him watch. He may do it anyway to lure your father out, if he hasn’t shown himself yet.”

With a pained look, Asha lay down and took a deep breath. Her life would be over soon… and she felt like it had only just begun. She and Terrin were only mates for only a month, and they had just moved into a house together.

Renjee warbled softly and laid a wing over her as he lay next to her. “Hey, it’s okay. Blade is going to save us, and we have nothing to worry about!”

Asha scowled and shook her head. “He is a murderer… He hasn’t been here for me my entire life. Why should I expect him to come save me now?”

He placed a paw on top of hers, but she pulled away and growled. “Because he loves you,” he said. “I… wish he would have told me what he did, but I understand why he did it. I would be angry too if I lost someone I loved that much.”

“It’s his fault I’m stuck in this prison. It’s his fault I’m going to die.”

“That’s the spirit,” the dragon muttered and returned to ignoring them.

“He will save us,” Renjee insisted.

Asha growled and stood up away from the gryphon. “No, don’t you get it? We are going to die.”

Renjee’s ears drooped as he looked away from her.

“Painfully,” she added. “I’m never going to see my mate again. I’ll never see my family again—the family that has always been there for me. I wasted my time—and now my life—trying to find my father. If I had just forgotten about him like Terrin said, I wouldn’t be here.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she sniffled and tried to wipe them away. Her legs were trembling, so she lay down again and hid herself under her wings.

Silence. With no other prisoners here, the tunnel they were in had an eerie emptiness to it.

“Hey, scary dragon guy,” Renjee said. “If we pay you triple what the mean human is paying you, will you free us?”

Asha peeked out from under her wings and saw that Renjee had grabbed his attention.

“You’ll pay me fifteen-thousand gold coins?” he scoffed. “I sincerely doubt you have that much gold.”

Renjee fluffed his feathers and nodded. “We do! I-I think... It’s not so much gold coins but a bunch of jewelry and gold bars and diamonds too. It’s like a lot.”

He looked skeptical. “I need proof of this before I even think about saving you.”

“Well, that’s kind of hard with us being in a prison and all… but if you go into our house and look in the dresser by our bed, there are two leather satchels filled with a lot of gold and stuff.”

Asha remembered the satchel her mother had found, the fortune they had yet to entirely spend. She knew the contents of all that was worth two or three thousand gold pieces. If there was more of that somewhere…

The dragon definitely looked interested, but that glimmer in his eye faded. “I’m just as interested in gold as I am staying alive. I could live happily off of five-thousand gold pieces, and all I have to do is watch you two for a couple more days. It’s not worth the risk. Plus, now that you’ve told me where it is, I can just retrieve it after you’ve all been killed.”

“You greedy, slime-bellied lizard!” Asha hissed.

“You’re too kind,” he responded. “No one crosses the bishop and lives. He would hunt me down to the farthest corners of the Earth.”

“My father has lived all of these years. With that kind of money, you wouldn’t need to live here anymore; you could run away and hide.”

“If you haven’t noticed, your father is most likely going to die soon, along with you and your friend,” he replied. “Alexander is one of the most powerful beings I know. There is no escaping him.”

Asha growled and snapped her maw shut. It’s only because he came back that this whole thing happened.

“You’ll see,” Renjee said confidently.

“You realize I’ll stop him if he comes anywhere near you two, right? And before he can get to me, there are triple the normal amount of guards upstairs.”

Renjee either didn’t care or had lost his mind. He was smiling and nodding his head, but he didn’t seem to be paying the black dragon any attention. Asha sighed and settled down. She closed her eyes tight and tried to think of something other than her impending doom.

But that wasn’t possible.

* * *

Blade and Terrin waited next to the palace district in a secluded alleyway. Once night fell, they would make their move and sneak just over the wall so they could patrol the area and scope it out for the next part of their plan. They sat across from each other in an awkward silence.

Terrin’s attitude toward Blade had softened considerably, but he could still sense some resentment coming from him. Blade couldn’t blame him—he knew he deserved it.

But he was genuinely surprised when Terrin started a conversation with him.

“So… You like other males?” Terrin asked as he picked at the ground with his claws.

Blade chuckled and nodded his head. “Females too, but you don’t have to worry about me trying to get under your tail. You’re my daughter’s mate after all, and that would be weird.”

The red dragon made a face at that and scrunched his brow. “What’s it like? To uhm… with a male…”

A big grin spread his lips. “You’re curious about trying it?”

Terrin’s eyes popped open and he shook his head back and forth. “N-no! Nothing like that… just was wondering what it… felt like. Or why you took another male as a mate. Asha is my mate, anyway, and she is all I need.”

Blade’s thoughts roamed to Akir. They had spent quite a few times in situations like this, where they were waiting for the night to come to sneak or break into something somewhere. It hadn’t occurred to Blade that he would be doing something like this again, all of these years later—without his mate.

He scratched lines into the dirt and continued to wear a big smile as he reminisced about the times when he was younger. “For the same reasons you took Asha as your mate. You love her with all of your heart, right?”

He looked at Blade thoughtfully and nodded.

“We felt the same way about each other. I spent my entire life with Akir. We were always together, and I never wanted to leave his side. I loved him more than I had ever loved anyone else, and it just made sense that we would become mates. Pleasure is pleasure, and it was something we could share together. Gender didn’t matter to us; we just loved each other.”

Terrin nodded in understanding. “I see…”

“And to describe to you how it feels, you would just have to find out for yourself,” Blade teased with a wink. “Most males never know about this, but there’s a special spot inside you that feels really good when it gets rubbed by a cock.”

“Okay, okay, okay, that’s too much information,” Terrin said and covered his ears.

Blade laughed and looked up at the sky. It was getting darker, and in another hour they could set their initial plan in motion. What Blade was looking for were patrols, how often they came around, and if there was any way to slip past them under the cover of night.

Since Asha and Renjee had been captured by the High Bishop, it only made sense that they would be in the palace’s dungeon. There was no way they could fight their way there and make it out alive, so the best idea was to stealthily sneak in and out. But Blade hardly knew the layout of the palace; ferals and most two-legs weren’t allowed inside it, and the only time he had ever set a paw in there was when he was blinded by rage. He didn’t remember any of the details.

Blade looked over to Terrin and saw him staring at him, a question at his mouth ready to be asked. He looked somber. “What is it?” Blade asked. “More questions about males?”

Terrin opened his maw and then shook his head, glancing away. “No…”

“We have a little more time to kill. What is it?”

He winced at avoided meeting Blade’s eyes. “How do you… cope? How do you continue living without your mate?”

Blade clenched his teeth and took a deep breath. “That’s not something you will ever have to worry about. We will save Asha and Renjee.”

Terrin nodded and his hard, chiseled expression returned. “This changes nothing between us,” he stated, having returned to his normal behavior. “Once this is over, you need to leave.”

Blade sighed and agreed. “You two will have to leave too. You’ll need to go somewhere else or else they will find you.”

Terrin grimaced. He hadn’t thought of that. “If you’re hoping we’ll decide to come with you, you are wrong.”

“As long as you’re both safe, I don’t care where you go,” he replied, frowning. “Take your families with you.”

The red dragon’s expression shifted. He looked troubled with worry-lines etching his muzzle, but he didn’t say anything. Both of them remained in silence until the cold darkness came and disguised them.

Moving quickly and silently, Terrin followed behind Blade as they climbed over the palace wall. Even after all of these years, there was a small area left almost unguarded; two tall buildings blocked them from view. As long there wasn’t anyone on the street behind the wall, it was safe.

They slinked between the two tall buildings and Blade peeked around the corner. There was one patrol marching with a bright, glowing lantern. These would be the hardest guards to slip past, and it looked like there would be a lot of them.

Blade knew humans couldn’t see as well as dragons generally, but the nighttime was especially difficult for them. Unfortunately, at this time of the year the darkness would only last for a pawful of hours before the sun would rise again, so they had a limited amount of time to study the guards—and the next night, they would have even less time.

After the guards had walked past, Blade led Terrin into a small alleyway that connected to other backstreets in this south-eastern sector. The palace district was evenly divided into four different sectors while the palace itself rested in the middle of all of them. The spires of it could be seen from here, towering above the domed roof.

Humans typically stuck to a schedule based on the day and night cycle; ferals didn’t particularly follow the same pattern, but no one liked to be out in the dark anyway. It was when criminals would prowl the streets, just as Blade and Terrin were doing now. Blade worried that a stray human would catch them and alert the guards, but thankfully it seemed that everyone was asleep.

The two of them quickly dashed across an open, cobblestone street, and dived into another passageway surrounded by houses. When they approached the other end, the backside of the palace came into view.

There were guards everywhere. They were spread out evenly to cover every angle that Blade could see, and there were archers up in small wooden towers. And there were lights surrounding the palace so not one patch of shadows existed. Sneaking in through here was hopeless, and Blade could only imagine how even more difficult sneaking in through the front would be. Maybe there were doors along the side?

“Are there usually this many guards?” Terrin wondered aloud.

Blade shook his head. “No… They’re expecting me.”

“What’s the plan now?”

“We have to find another way in… but I don’t know where or how.”

They continued around the palace, clinging closely to houses so they wouldn’t be caught. Blade’s heart thudded in his chest; this was dangerous. If they were caught, he wasn’t sure if they would be able to escape before they were surrounded. Even if they flew, there were archers everywhere, and a single arrow had the potential to knock them out of the sky.

The sides of the palace were well-guarded too. It seemed impenetrable.

Blade gave a heavy sigh.

“Now what are we going to do?” Terrin pressed. “Have we already failed?”

Blade shook his head. “Worst-case-scenario, we’ll rescue them before the festivities begin_._ We have time. Don’t panic.”

“We do not have time,” Terrin hissed. “We have only one whole day left before then. The longer we wait, the higher the chance of her rescue failing. Diving into a public execution is suicide.”

“You think I’m not anxious to save them too?” Blade growled in a hushed voice. “We have to stay calm or we’ll make mistakes.”

Akir had taught him everything he needed to know about high-risk situations. Those were his exact words to Blade many years ago, and ever since then Blade had learned to keep calm in most situations. It was best to pick the time to strike than to miss an opportunity and be struck first. As long as they had the element of surprise, they clung to a small advantage.

Terrin glared at him but didn’t say another word.

Then, a door opened in a corridor behind them, and a light came spilling out of it. Blade shifted into the shadows and motioned for Terrin to do the same, huddling against a wall. Someone with a lantern came wandering out, a sword in the other hand—they must have heard Blade and Terrin.

Slowly, the human crept toward them. He was dressed in his night clothes, something easy that two dragons could tear through, but Blade wasn’t interested in killing an innocent man, and being spotted by him ran the risk of getting caught by the guards all around. But, he came closer and closer, and his pathway would lead him past the corner where they were hiding.

Blade glanced behind them. The only other way out was into the main street, where there were guards everywhere. He peaked around the corner and saw the man getting closer. His paws shifted uncertainly, wings unfurling at his sides.

And then Terrin jumped out of hiding and pounced on the man. A gut-wrenching scream pierced the night before Terrin clawed out his throat, and the sounds that came after that were even more bloodcurdling.

“Why did you kill him!?” Blade hissed angrily.

“Because you weren’t going to do it and something needed to be done!” Terrin growled back.

Blade heard armor rattling and clanking as guards ran to their position. He cursed and shoved Terrin to the way they had come.

“Move, now!”

Shouts of distress called out until they were surrounded in voices. They sprinted down an alleyway, cut across a street where guards were swarming, and ran to the farthest edge of the district. Already, there were archers all over the wall, and there wasn’t any other way out. Footfalls echoed off the walls around them, and it was only a matter of time before they were surrounded.

“If we fly straight up, no one can touch us,” Terrin said and was nearly about to jump.

“No!” Blade shouted and grabbed his tail. “There’s a magical barrier that protects the district, and if you fly too high you’ll get caught by it and most likely fall to your death.”

“You really believe that? That was a fable made up so we wouldn’t bother the humans!”

Blade shook his head. “No, it’s true. Akir knew it and warned me, and now I’m warning you. We have to go quickly over the wall and stay low.”

Terrin growled his disapproval, but he followed Blade anyway. Blade wasn’t keen on getting shot at either, but he’d rather take an arrow than risk being paralyzed mid-flight.

He sprinted toward the wall, and they were spotted almost immediately by the several archers manning the walkway. An arrow whizzed past Blade and skidded off the cobblestone before another few followed it. With a giant leap, Blade extended his wings and gave one powerful beat and propelled himself up onto the wall.

An arrow embedded itself into his side and pain shot through his body. He heard Terrin growl before the cries of a human suddenly cut off; a body fell over the wall with a thud. Blade jumped down and softened his landing, but he was struck by another arrow that buried itself in a hind leg. A couple more nearly hit him, and one grazed his neck before he scrambled for cover and ducked into an alley in the two-leg district.

Terrin was behind him, and they ran through the buildings, weaving in and out until the wall was far from them and the archers out of sight. He wasn’t sure if the guards would give chase or not, but he knew it would be nearly impossible for them to be found again.

Blade limped to a stop and hissed as he bit off the arrows stuck in his flesh, leaving the metal heads in so he could treat them later. Terrin only had a couple scrapes since his scales were hard enough to have the arrows glance off his hide.

“You shouldn’t have killed him,” Blade stated. “You didn’t have to kill anyone.”

“What did you want me to do, then?” Terrin snarled. “He was going to find us anyway, and I almost had him before he yelled.”

Blade bit his tongue and wondered what he could have done differently. His first instinct was to kill him, too, to keep him from squealing like a pig, so he couldn’t blame Terrin. He snorted a huff of air and continued sneaking through the market district. They quickly skulked back to the feral district, to Terrin’s home.

“We’ll have to figure something out tomorrow,” Blade said. They made it back safely to home. “Do you know of any other ways into the palace or have any friends that might?”

Terrin grumbled and shook his head. “We didn’t spend our childhood committing crimes.”

Blade gritted his teeth and wandered over to the water supply, taking linen scraps with him to bandage himself again. He winced in pain and hissed as he dug his claws into his flesh and dug out the arrowheads.

“Although… Maybe Vespera’s mate does. Ash said that he used to run with the wrong crowd before he became mated to her mother.”

Blade wrapped the cloth around his wounds and tied it tight to keep from losing more blood. “Vespera has a mate?”

Terrin looked at him and nodded. “You seem surprised.”

Blade let out a small chuckle and shrugged his wings. “She never seemed like one to settle down with one dragon.”

Terrin grunted and turned to the door. “We’ll talk with them tomorrow. Right now, I have to check on my own mother… I’ll be back soon.”

Blade noticed a sad look in his eyes, but he nodded and let him go.

Taking the moment to relax, he let out a sigh and flopped onto his back to get comfortable in some fur bedding. He wished Renjee was here. To cuddle and snuggle his gryphon friend and enjoy that warmth again… He wanted nothing more.

After their failure to find a way into the palace, Blade grew increasingly worried about losing Renjee. He knew he couldn’t handle that. Losing Akir brought him to the very edge, where he danced with death and pulled back just in time. In the process, he had lost most of his heart and soul. If Renjee died, there wouldn’t be enough of him left to keep moving on. That would be the end of him.

Blade elicited a soft whimper and curled up into a tight ball.

And he would lose Asha, his only daughter, the one he abandoned when she was just a hatchling. He had been so careful not to reveal himself… and yet he failed. It was his fault both his daughter and lover were about to die.

He took in a deep breath and let it all out. It was a struggle to find sleep, but he eventually managed before Terrin returned.

Blade took a nervous gulp as he approached Vespera’s new home with Terrin beside him. He wondered how Vespera had changed since he last saw her, and he also worried about what she would think about him, since he had abandoned Asha with her.

He stood back as Terrin knocked on the door. Inside, Blade heard dragonets squeaking and scratching around, and a green muzzle with a black snout tip appeared in the window.

“It’s Terrin!” he shouted and scrambled out of the window and jumped onto Terrin.

Terrin chuckled and nuzzled the little dragon. “You’re getting a little too big for this, you know? Pretty soon you’re going to crush me!”

He meeped and shook his head. “Nuh uh! You’re big and strong, so I can’t crush you!” Then his head cocked toward Blade, inspecting him with a glowing curiosity only a dragonet could show. “Who’s this!? He’s got feathers like Asha!”

Two more dragonets jumped out of the other window, their colors a mixture of black and gold. They were excited to see Terrin too and danced around his feet before their attention turned to Blade. Both of them nervously peeked around Terrin’s legs.

“This is Blade,” Terrin said. He hesitated, unsure of whether or not to explain to the dragonets who he exactly was. “He is Asha’s dad.”

“Woooah, no way!” the biggest one exclaimed from Terrin’s back.

Then, the door finally opened, and Vespera’s familiar face appeared. Aside from looking just a little bit older and more mature, her appearance had hardly changed. She greeted Terrin with a nuzzle before she glanced at Blade. And then she did a double-take.

“Blade!?”

Blade bared a soft yet uneasy smile and dipped his head. “Vespera.”

She stepped to him and wrapped her wings around him in an embrace, a tight squeeze following after. “Oh dear gods, I’m so, so, so sorry. I can’t believe you’re still alive. Aaaahhh, I’m so sorry…”

Blade froze; he didn’t know how to react. What was she sorry for? He should be the one apologizing to her.

“You must miss him terribly. I can’t even fathom how much it had hurt you,” she continued. “You poor thing…”

And then he realized what she was talking about: Akir. Blade winced and nuzzled into her neck. Thoughts of his mate hit him like a sack of bricks. “I do… I miss him a lot… but I’m okay.” He gently pulled away and looked at her somberly. “There are more pressing matters at hand.”

She made a glance at Terrin and back to him, a glimpse of realization in her eyes. “Where’s Asha?”

“That’s what we need to talk to you about,” Terrin said. The green dragonet climbed down from him and joined the other two; they quieted down considerably as they became more attentive, ears perked.

Worry crossed Vespera’s muzzle. “What happened to her? Is she alright?”

“She’s fine right now,” he answered. “But we need to rescue her.”

“Where is she?” she pressed.

Blade replied, “She’s in the palace’s prison. It’s my fault… I’m sorry.”

She looked him up and down, but she didn’t seem to bear any resentment toward him like Terrin had, though her face was expressionless.

“Prison!” one of the young dragonets squeaked. “What she do?”

Blade wanted to explain everything to her, but he didn’t want the little ones to hear. It seemed that Vespera had the same idea because she ushered them inside.

“Come, come,” she said. “This isn’t something for you little ones to listen to.”

“I want to rescue sis!” the oldest one yelled. “I’m tough—let me help!”

A soft smile curled Vespera’s lips as she rubbed his snout with hers. “I know you are, but this is for us adults to handle, okay? I need you to keep a look after your brothers.”

He sniffled and nodded dutifully. “Okay, I will.” He and the two littlest ones went inside, but moments later Blade saw that same black nose poking out at the window.

Blade clawed at the ground and shifted his wings as Vespera’s attention returned to him. “I can’t be more sorry for what I’ve done. Everything is my fault.”

“I know, Blade. It’s okay,” she said. “What are we going to do?”

“Well, Blade and I are looking for a way into the palace to go unseen. We need to sneak inside. Would Neil be able to help us?”

Vespera grinned and nodded. “I think so. He’s told me stories about how he’s been in the palace before, and how extravagant it is. But I don’t know where he is right now… He said he would be back before long.”

“We need to hurry,” Blade added. “Tomorrow is… when they plan on executing her, or worse.”

She pinned her ears back and frowned. “B-but why? She didn’t do anything wrong… right?”

“It’s because he came back,” Terrin accused. “They’re using her to get back at him for what he did.”

Blade nodded slowly. He felt terrible, and that gnawing feeling bit his gut harder and harder, tearing apart his insides. The way Terrin glared at him only made it worse, and when Vespera looked at him with sadness in her eyes, it made him want to bury himself in the sand and never come back up.

“They have my friend, too…” Blade added, his thoughts eating at him.

Was it hopeless? Even if they found a way into the palace, how were they going to get out?

Maybe we’re going at it the wrong way… What if we fail and I end up getting all of us killed?

Vespera rubbed her snout against his. “It’s okay, Blade. It will… it will be okay,” she said uncertainly. That didn’t sit right in Blade’s stomach. “I may have an idea of where Neil is. You two wait here for him and I’ll be back shortly.”

They nodded and watched her take to the sky. The hot sun beat down on them before the stepped into the house and joined the dragonets. The three of them appeared less excited now than they initially had been.

“Where Sis go?” one of the younger ones asked.

Terrin nuzzled him and plopped down on his side, letting the three of them curl up against him. Blade wore a soft smile and took the moment to rest across the room from them.

“She’s fine. We’re going to go get her soon and bring her back home,” he answered.

Blade was glad to see that Terrin made a good fatherly figure. It made him hopeful for his and Asha’s hatchlings, if they ever decided to have some of their own… if the next day went as hoped.

When Vespera returned, she brought along with her a gold-colored dragon. His scales were the colors of the desert, a variety of different yellow-hues. Thicker scales protected his limbs like armor in a dark, sandy color.

And when he turned his head, Blade saw a row of scars right below his eye. It suddenly clicked in his head that he recognized this dragon, and from the strange look he gave Blade, he recognized him too. Blade couldn’t remember where he had met this dragon before, but he was certain that he had seen him on more than one occasion.

“You have need of me?” he asked Terrin.

The red dragon nodded. “We need to know how to sneak in and out of the palace. Asha is in the dungeon… We need to rescue her.”

He shot both Blade and Terrin an uncertain glance and rustled his wings. “It’s easier getting in than it is getting out. Once you’re in, you can’t let a single soul see you or else it will be very difficult to get out. You need help, and we need to plan this thoroughly.”

“We don’t have enough time to make a thorough plan,” Terrin said. “We need to break in tonight or we’ll have to wait until noon tomorrow when it’ll be even harder.”

Neil furrowed his brow and walked over to a stone table molded into the wall. “Vespera and I can help you. There is a drainage pipe that leads out of the city from the inner part of the palace, but finding it is rather difficult, and you can only come out of it—it’s impossible to use it to sneak inside. It has magical traps set to capture trespassers, but I can disable them myself. That will be your way out.”

He grabbed a sheet of parchment and dipped his claws in an inkwell, beginning to draw lines on the paper. Blade and Terrin stepped over to him while Vespera gave her attention to the dragonets.

“But how do we get in?” Blade asked.

“Akir never told you?”

Blade gulped and shook his head. He knew Akir…

“There is an herb that nullifies the magical barrier surrounding the district. It would normally paralyze you, but if you chew on this special root, the magic won’t affect you.”

“So there is an actual magical barrier?” Terrin asked incredulously.

Neil nodded and pointed to a wooden storage box in the corner. “Check the bottom right compartment.”

Terrin stepped over and pulled out a lanky root. He made a face and brought it over. It had a powerful, bitter odor that clung to it, which made Blade want to plug his nose.

“Everyone will need to consume at least a small part of this in order to enter and exit the barrier. A small branch is enough to last for ten minutes, which will be about the time it will take to traverse the drainage pipe. You will be able to fly in no problem, so only eat a tiny part of it as to not waste it. These are hard to come by, so do not lose it.”

He finished scribbling and opened the sheet of paper to them. On it was a crudely-drawn map of the palace with a couple circles around key points. “You will want to fly in here at the center. It will have maybe have one guard that patrols close to the area, but no one expects intruders to come from here. After you infiltrate, it will be up to you two to use your best intuition to make your way here to the dungeons. There are always guards at the entrance, so be wary.”

We’ll have to kill them, Blade realized. There’s no way we can get out of this without shedding blood.

“Could we cause a diversion to draw out some of the guards?” Blade asked, remembering a few missions Akir brought him along on.

Neil considered it, but then he shook his head. “They’re expecting you, yes? Instead of drawing guards away, a distraction like that would most likely cause them to group around the dungeon’s entrance and make it impossible for you two to sneak inside.”

Blade nodded with a frown.

“Unfortunately,” Neil continued, “the prison cells are sealed by magic. There is no physical key. So, the only way you will be able to free Asha is if you take this crystal and break it against the magical seal.” He handed Terrin a shiny, blue stone. “It should be fairly obvious what the seal will look like.”

“After you free her, you will want to make your way back up to the main floor and cut straight to here. At his point, I imagine you will have upset the entire palace unless you are skilled assassins, so be as quick as you can. In this area should be a small entry down a pit into the drainage pipe. Once you’re there, just be as fast as you can and Vespera and I will be waiting for you at the end.”

Both of them nodded in understanding.

Blade scratched at the floor and took in a deep breath. “After all of this is over… We all need to leave the city.”

Neil glared at him. “I’ve been doing this for over a decade and have never been caught or recognized. There is no reason for us to leave.”

Blade gritted his teeth and shook his head. “You don’t understand. This… High Bishop… is dedicated to destroying me. If our plan succeeds, he will only come at me stronger, and if he finds out who helped me, he’ll make all of us suffer. I can’t… I can’t handle that responsibility…”

Terrin and Neil looked at him in contempt. Neither one of them wanted to leave their lives behind, and Blade understood that fully well, but it made his heart ache to think about the terrible things that could happen—and it would all be his fault.

Everything was his fault.

“We’ll worry about that after we’ve rescued Asha and Renjee,” Terrin stated. “Let’s get some rest before we go over this one more time. Once night falls, we’ll make our move.”

They all agreed and dispersed throughout the house to rest.

Blade closed his eyes, but all he could see were the haunting nightmares of his past, and the restless visions of his future. One wrong move and everything would fail. He ran through every scenario and situation he could think about, imagining the worst possibilities. Most of them ended in Asha and Renjee’s deaths while some of them were painful visions of his own and Terrin’s.

“You’ve grown,” Vespera said and lay beside him.

Blade shook his head free of those vicious thoughts and wore a solemn face, ears drooping. “You have too.”

A warm wing blanketed him and pulled him closer. “You have a lot of scars, Blade—inside and out. I can see how they hurt you.”

Blade turned his head and clenched his claws. “Is it… Is it that obvious?”

She rubbed her snout into his neck and laid a paw on top of his. “I don’t blame you.”

He looked at her and met her eyes. He saw her sincerity, but his own emotions rebuked her words. “How can you not? I left Asha on your doorstep, and the moment I return, I take her away from you and put her in serious danger. She may lose her life, and it’s because of me.”

“Don’t say that, Blade. You couldn’t have known that this would happen. I know how much you still care for her. I remember the joy I saw in you when she was just a little hatchling, fresh out of the egg. For you to have abandoned her… I knew it was your last resort. I knew it tore you apart. We are going to save her.”

What she said was true, but her words could hardly calm his spirit. “You’ve changed a lot, Vespera.”

“As have you, Blade.” She squeezed his paw and gave his cheek a soft kiss. “Everything is going to be okay.”

Blade only stared at the floor between his paws, his eyes moving and following visions none could see but him. Vespera left to curl up with Neil, leaving Blade to himself to search for rest, but he never found it.

The sun descended lower toward the western horizon, leaving an orange and pink concoction obscuring the blue sky. They went over the plan one more time and worked out any kinks, and with all of the questions answered, it was time to begin.

Blade swallowed hard and looked at the palace sitting in the distance, his heart thrumming. Will we succeed?

“Let’s go, Blade.”