Chapter 3

"Kyle!" A voice pierced his dreams. "Kyle, wake up!"

Kyle mumbled something incoherent and shoved the heavy weight off his chest. Nacure squeaked with annoyance at being disturbed. Kyle opened his eyes to see the tired face of Fodr looking down upon him. He felt as if he were covered in bruises, he probably was. Had his armor not protected him, he would most likely have a few broken bones as well. "What happened?" He asked. "Where are they?"

"She got away."

Kyle sat up, wincing. Nacure crawled into his lap, holding his torn wing at an odd angle. Looking around, Kyle saw that only a few buildings had been damaged and that the town was very still. "Where are the people?" He felt he already knew but had to ask.

Fodr confirmed his gut feeling. "By now they are probably long dead, their souls trapped inside their decaying bodies by the necromancers she brought with her. I don't know if the ones you led away made it out, I haven't checked."

Kyle frowned. It bothered him that he was so obsessed with Mritha and Odgne that he valued other lives so little. He felt a small prickle of fear when a stray thought of wonderment entered his mind. Did Fodr value him and Nacure so little as well? The young dragonlord pushed the dark thought away as he glanced over at his sword, lying on the ground where it had fallen from his hand last night. Dried blood covered a third of the first part of the blade. "What is she, Mr. Fodr? Why didn't she die?" His mind wandered back to the conversation he shared with Mritha and Odgne last night and continued, glancing over at the elder dragonlord. "What are you not telling me?"

Fodr looked away. "Now is not the time for such matters."

"Both Nacure and Tyr-Gullin are injured; it will take several hours for their wings to heal for flight."

Fodr and Kyle stared at each other, their eyes locked. Neither was willing to give in at first, but Fodr finally relented after several moments of uncomfortable silence. This boy was proving to not be as blindly trusting as Fodr expected. "Twelve years ago…" Fodr paused and sighed, then took a deep breath and continued. "Twelve years ago, the Order sent Ahtirm on her first solo mission behind my back. She was far too young and untrained to go on a mission yet, but their excuse was that Engdo would protect her and they were sending another dragonlord, just in case." Kyle sat unmoving as Fodr paused again. "They claimed to be sending them on a scouting mission, but in truth it was just to flaunt Engdo."

"What made Engdo so important?" Kyle asked.

"Her age. It's also why she is so large. Engdo is very small for a dragon her age but still one of the biggest alive today."

"How old is she?"

Fodr shrugged. "I don't think even she knows but going by the events taking place near her hatching; I'd estimate the lower two thousand range, possibly high one thousand."

Kyle's eyes bugged. "T-two thousand?!"

"Give or take."

"No wonder the Order wanted to show her off." Kyle commented, though he privately was having trouble believing that the Dragonlord Order could be so materialistic. He wondered if the words Fodr spoke were true, or out of bias and bitterness.

Fodr scowled and nodded. "They were proud and arrogant because of it; they ignored the lying lizard's past and believed her when she said she had changed. I wasn't convinced, but that isn't a story for today."

Kyle let that sink in before asking. "What happened to Ahtirm?"

Fodr's face saddened. "She disappeared."

"How?"

"I found out after months of searching that they were ambushed. Engdo was attacked from behind with dragonsbane by the same dragonlord whose idea it was to send them on that mission and accompanied them on it. She wasn't expecting the attack from one she trusted so she wasn't prepared to defend against it. With her down, Ahtirm wasn't much of a fight. Engdo later followed her captor when she had healed enough to do so."

Nacure nuzzled Kyle's hand, his wing healing rapidly, the gashes in the thin membrane no longer as wide or long as before. Dragon magic was full of little wonders such as this. "How do you know all this?" Kyle asked.

"Someone within has been slipping me information. He knows he is being watched and isn't trusted, so he can only send fragments every now and then. I have to piece them together." Fodr sat heavily on a large rock, leaning forward in his seat and fingering the gold hilt of his sword. "Most of it was confirming a specific rumor. At first I refused to believe they were true, the things they spoke of were impossible."

Kyle felt sympathy start to grow for the older man. He looked so worn and tired, haunted even, sitting there. "Tell me, please."

Kyle waited several moments before he received his answer. "Ahtirm and Engdo are Mritha and Odgne, respectively."

"Impossible! Ahtirm could change the color of her armor and learn to use another element, but Engdo was a white and gold light dragon! Odgne is a black and purple darkness dragon!"

Fodr shook his head. "I was told the one holding their will is powerful, but I cannot fathom how he was able to pull that off."

"Wait, hold their will?" Kyle asked, confused.

"Yes… he is somehow controlling their actions, again I don't know how."

"So, last night when they attacked and killed those people, continuing the pattern they have kept in the past, they were acting against their will and wouldn't have taken lives otherwise?" Fodr nodded.

In the distance, the two men and their dragons could hear voices. "The evacuated townsfolk have returned." Tyr-Gullin announced.

Kyle breathed a sigh of relief as he stood and made his way to them. "Be quick, Kyle," Fodr said. "We need to leave soon."

Kyle frowned, confused. Why was he in such a hurry? Still, he nodded in acknowledgement and continued on his way to convey the news to the people that all their loved ones who stayed behind to fight were forever gone. At least some have survived, not all are lost. He thought to himself.