“Listen to me! I didn’t drag you out of there so you could sacrifice yourself for others. They’ll let your cousin go soon enough.”
“And Kirja?”
“Isn’t yours to worry about! Save yourself. Save your Aquinder. The queen is lying about killing any Aquinder—they’re too precious. You may one day know freedom, and when you do, you’ll race again. Run!”
Hiyyan was cutting through the sea and getting close to the docks. Silver could feel his movements, and his uncertainty.
She could also feel his hope. That she, Silver Batal, water dragon racer recognized by the greatest water dragon racer of them all, had saved his mother. She had finally won Sagittaria’s approval. But that wasn’t the promise she’d made Hiyyan.
“I can’t run. And Kirja isn’t the queen’s water dragon.”
Silver darted from Sagittaria Wonder.
FORTY-SEVEN
Silver yanked the jewelry from her face, hitched her gown up, and got to the docks as fast as she could. It was much quieter on the streets of Calidia than it was in the palace, and either the guards posted outside didn’t know what was going on, or they were inside the palace looking for her. She ran past the inn, merry with late-night storytellers, then the dark vendor carts, hulking in the shadowed corners of the streets.
Finally, she made it to the docks, passing under the wooden arches and over the shimmering black waves lapping the pilings. At the end of one dock, Hiyyan waited.
Without a thought, Silver leaped onto his back and threw her arms around his neck. My Hiyyan. She pulled the camouin from his sides and tossed the metal into the depths of the sea.
“Too much trouble to be worth it,” she said, hooking her slippers into Hiyyan’s wing joints. “Okay, my friend, let’s rescue your mother.”
She led him to the open harbor, then to the seawall. But soon, dozens of dark blobs were closing in on them.
“Abruqs. Oh, there’s Ferdi, too!”
Before the Abruqs could reach her, Ferdi and Hoonazoor sped to her side.
“How did you find me?” Silver called out.
“Never mind that. Follow me,” Ferdi said, and pulled his reins to turn his water dragon around.
The Glithern’s speed was remarkable. Even faster than had been revealed in any of the races. Ferdi became a blur, and Hiyyan had to spread his wings and take to the sky to keep up.
“You’re a prince?” Silver shouted down at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“There was never a right time,” he yelled back.
Hoonazoor disappeared into a narrow cut in the shore on the opposite side of the palace from the seawall. Hiyyan kept near, sweeping so close to the palace that Silver’s heart rose up her throat. But the guards were on the ground, scrambling to get across the palace beach, their heavy boots sinking into the soft sand, and the little Abruqs couldn’t possibly keep up with the larger, faster water dragons. Back at the seawall, harpoons were being loaded, but Hiyyan swept around the corner long before they were released.
As they soared around the palace towers, spurred on by renewed shouts from the crowds, Silver spotted a huge lake with several water dragons. The fabled Royal Pools of Calidia. Silver squinted to see better. Several dragons … but not Kirja. But for the first time, the pendant stone pulsed with heat, and an intensity that hammered Silver’s chest. Kirja had to be near.
“Where is she?”
Hiyyan let out an excited sound and dove for the ground.
“Do you see your mother?” Silver peered over his shoulder. She still didn’t spot Kirja, but she did see a girl, waving her arms over her head. “It’s Mele! Fly close to her.”
Hiyyan swooped down and slowed.
“Where’s my cousin?” Silver called to Mele.
“They let him go. But I showed him how to get underground earlier today like you asked,” the girl said. “He should be down there somewhere. Hopefully, no one follows him.”
“I wouldn’t count on that. Be on the lookout,” Silver said.
Hoonazoor turned a circle in the holding pools.
“We have to hurry,” Ferdi said. “Follow me.”
“Come with us,” Silver said to Mele.
But Mele shook her head. Her gaze went to a Shorsa not far away. “I can’t.”
“Is that your dragon? Bring her and come with us,” Silver said.
“I can’t. That’s stealing.”
“It doesn’t matter what some list says. You belong together. It’s water dragon law.”
Mele hesitated. “But not our law!”
“Please, Mele,” Silver said. “Guards are coming. I can’t leave you here to get in trouble for me.”
“I don’t know the way. Not through these pools.”
“Ferdi’s dragon does.”
Shouts came from the other side of the lake.
“Mele, we have to hurry,” Silver said. “Please!”
The pretty Shorsa watched them, swishing its tail slowly, like she was waiting for Mele to make a decision.
“Your water dragon wants to go,” Silver said. “Close your eyes … Feel what she feels. Your Shorsa will tell you I’m right.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Ferdi shouted.
The guards were closing in on them. It was now or never. Mele let out a shrill whistle, and the Shorsa dove toward her. Mele scrambled onto the water dragon’s back.
“Follow me,” Ferdi said. And then he disappeared under the lake, with Mele and her Shorsa close behind.
Hiyyan lifted into the sky. Silver took a deep breath. Then they turned and dove into the lake.
Silver kept her eyes open for Ferdi and Mele as they sliced through the water. But they were hard to see. The Shorsa was small and very quick, and Hoonazoor’s glittering coloring went dark once underwater, blending into the shadows. But they also trailed bubbles behind them, which Nebekker’s pendant lit with an eerie effervescence. Hiyyan followed those bubbles until they broke through the water and surfaced behind Mele.
Silver reached into her bag for her lantern before remembering it had smashed in the caves. Her hand brushed against her dagger, and she pulled it out, fastening it around her waist with a bit of scarf.
“Not far now.” Ferdi’s voice came just ahead of Mele’s.
“Where are we?”
“Sonflir River caves,” Mele said. “There are well openings for the fruit orchards farther down the river. That’s how Brajon will get in. They’ll provide us with some light, too.”
“How do you know your way?”
“My family works in one of the orchards. It was down here that I first saw Luap,” Mele said, patting her Shorsa’s neck.
“That Shorsa wasn’t meant for the Calidians,” Ferdi said. “She was bred for another nation. Mine. See the marking on her tail?”
Silver and Mele both examined the spot: three diagonal lines and a sunburst.
“My father’s crest,” Ferdi said.
“Your father,” Silver said. “I keep forgetting that you are Prince Ferdi.”
Ferdi sighed. “A free prince, for once. Or so I’d thought.”
“A special guest of the queen, and friend to Sagittaria,” Silver said carefully.
“That first part is true,” he said. “The second is not.”
Silver gave a soft grunt. “That’s why you weren’t upset when I beat you today.”
“You’ll never let me live that down.” Ferdi laughed. “Yes, I would’ve been at the Winners’ Audience win or lose. As is my duty,” he said. “Anyway, we have to hurry. The guards—and who knows who else—will be down here before we know it. The holding tanks aren’t far.”
“Swim faster,” Mele said. “Brajon should be just ahead of us.”