Riley
"Viper suit?" I asked.
Seeing Mist for the first time, since I went to the disastrous meeting with Ember and all that happened afterwards, made me feel slightly off balance. The suit made her blend in with the desert night around, making her pale face seem to float in the air. This gave me creeps. That she wore a Viper suit and requested that we'd met alone outside of the base was strange enough for me not to let my guard down right away. Did she not trust me? I could not handle more drama at the moment. We were so screwed and I still could not wrap my head around how this have happened.
"No need to announce to the Order of St George, what we have found out about magic. Besides, it's a combat suit. Actually I think we should fly them over the ocean the usual way and just say, that we are good at avoiding border patrol." Mist went straight to the case. No how are you? or good to see you. I was getting soft if I wanted that from another dragon.
"I'm afraid, this way we would risk a pursuit by Talon and they have adult dragons, remember?" I answered dryly."Where are Kain and Nettle?" I added.
"Saying goodbyes." Mist said and I almost snorted.
There was never time for goodbyes in rogue's life. I said a word and they were on the move, immediately. But I stopped myself from commenting. This was different. They were relatively safe and I requested that they run toward danger. I almost regretted dragging them into this. But I needed dragons to transport twenty soldiers of St George to London before Talon found out what we were up to. I needed their help.
"What have you been up to in London all this time?" I asked.
"Loitering." Was Mist's curt reply.
"That must have been quite a loitering if I were to judge from my card reports." I said but let it go for now. I had other more pressing issues to deal with. I had better filled Mist details of what last months brought.
"We didn't end Talon when we had a chance and see what it has brought us? Now we have a chance to get rid of the Order of St George once and for all, are you not afraid the same will happen if we pass up?" Mist asked another question.
It was perfectly logical, but rubbed me the wrong way. She could still be very much Archivist's little ruthless agent sometimes.
"They have helped us free dragonells from the breeding facility Mist. They want to help us again..." I answered leaving out, that I felt desperate for their help.
I would rather not involve the sad remains of my scattered underground, that consisted mostly of traumatized dragon kids and humans, who had spent big chunk of their short lives fleeing and hiding. I have ordered them all to go underground right after... the mating flight.
Mating flight, that I once wanted so much, talked about all the time, and yet it felt like an act of betrayal, like an attack. Fortunately I had wits enough to warn my underground about possibly incoming troubles.
"You should know better than that Cobalt. How long do you think they will stay loyal to you after this... series of disasters? How long until they slit Garret's throat and go back to their usual ways?" Mist said accusingly.
"They are twenty people. We are still more than them. We can always fix things, should this too turn out to be a mistake." I said.
"There are more of them in London. They have a building that is magically proofed against dragons. If this is a mistake we might not have a chance to fix it." Came Mist's flat answer.
"What do you want me to do? Murder them in cold blood? Drown them in the ocean, while we're supposed to transport them?" I asked angrily.
Maybe Mist was up for this, but not me. This little thing I still wouldn't do.
"I would have stayed in Talon if I wished to do such things." I added.
Mist looked at me for a little while, she was completely motionless only a strand of hair, that escaped from white braid was blowing in the wind.
"Fine, maybe it's for the best anyways. Stealth cares about them, and Jade is Garret's friend. Two powerful adults we don't need to enrage. Just take me to them then." She said finally.
"They are sleeping. I wouldn't mind to close my eye too if you would be as kind as to stand watch." I answered.
"I cannot imagine what I could do against Stealth but fine." She said.
I turned to walk but she stopped me with a sigh.
"Okay, we fly then." I said and shifted.
Immediately I felt better, with the desert wind under my wings. Being in my true form made some of the fatigue after last day's battle inconsequential. I was glad for the respite from watching out for Stealth creeping back. I wasn't sure if I could detect her, if she did come back, but I couldn't just go to sleep leaving a couple of kids on watch and hoping for the best.
With the base destroyed and Talon knowing our exact whereabouts my skin crawled in this place. It was no shelter. It was a trap.
We landed on the armory's roof, where Madison and some soldier sat and talked quietly. The soldier immediately pointed his gun at me but lowered it just as fast. They weren't completely hopeless.
"This is Mist, she's here to help. I asked her to keep watch. She'll be on the roof of the HQ. Goodnight guys." I said and jumped down to the ground using my wings to slow down the fall.
I really needed to sleep. It wasn't normal fatigue, the past months were some kind of a fucking nightmare and I couldn't completely unravel the dread that has settled in the pit of my stomach when my soul merged with Ember's for the brief moment during our mating.
I barely closed my eyes when I heard dragon slayers in the building beneath me stirring. I slept on the roof as I hardly trusted anybody but Garret inside of the building.
I stuck my head under my wing and decided to go back to sleep. I drifted away straight into a nightmare. Ember was watching me with greedy eyes, her muzzle wrinkled with a malicious sneer just before the tossed her head backwards and let out keening sound setting me aflame. I fought to not follow her as she leaped into the air but I could have just as well fight a wave in the ocean. Something in me was struggling to follow her and I feared that my heart would be ripped out of my chest if I didn't move, follow...
"Stop it Cobalt!" I heard cool voice and felt a punch to my shoulder blade.
I opened my eyes to blinding sun and saw Mist standing next to me in her human form watching me with wide eyes.
I yawned and relaxed my tense body.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Seven. You've cloaked yourself and then whimpered and screeched in your sleep." Mist said with thinly veiled disgust.
"At least nobody's heard me." I tried to smirk even though the dream left me nauseated and shaken.
"Tristan heard you and asked me to find you. Your cloaking might need improving." Came Mist's reply.
"Let's find Garret, it's time to get out of this hellhole." I said stretching my wings and leaping from the roof. I heard Mist shifting and following behind.
Fortunately Garret apparently agreed with me and his men seemed to be salvaging all they could of equipment and vehicles and getting ready to move out.
I could see how well organized group the Order of St George was as I circled the base with Mist by my side. There were six vans and a semi truck parked in the middle of the base, soldiers stood in a perfect line with small backpacks that I guessed contained all their belongings.
I decided to sweep down and land in the middle of them.
"What the hell... Dragon! You will not do that again unless you want me to shoot you!" Knight shouted at me.
I shifted and strode away brushing dust off my jacket. Mist landed on the other side of the nearby truck and shot me an incredulous look.
"Sorry, I'm still tired after last night. Not a steely soldier like you." I threw over my shoulder and led Mist towards where I hoped Garret was.
I've found him and Tristan in the impromptu command center, that was almost emptied of all equipment. A detailed map covered the table cleared from anything else. All ready to go.
"What's the plan Commander?" I asked him teasingly but regretted it immediately, when I met his gaze. Too tired and hard for a seventeen years old. For a moment I saw a hatchling in need to be rescued from an organization that required too much from him without giving anything back. But then I recalled that I had actual hatchlings waiting to be rescued from Talon and steeled myself for what was to come.
"We move out at noon and head toward Vegas. Ember have once told me that Talon's influence in the town is... not absolute as there's a Wyrm stationed there, who runs his own branch of the organization independently." He said looking at me with question.
"Yeah, but he is worse than Talon in many ways. And he hates the Order of St George." I answered truthfully.
I have hidden myself successfully in Vegas at numerous occasions, but a convoy of soldiers driving into the town. At best everyone will know where we are within hours. I told him that.
"Okay. We split and enter the city in two groups. Those who are to go to help at the facility, will stay together to plan the attack. The others will get an order to split and blend in until evacuation. Speaking of which, how long do you think we need until we can bolt?" Garret asked me and I saw a change in him, that I earlier attributed to battle fatigue. He was somehow dimmed. He wasn't fully there. I remembered what Mist said and wondered if I should worry.
"If I may." Mist cut in. "What is the point of them staying here if they're not to be used in the rescue? Why not let us evacuate them now?" She asked.
Tristan rose to close the doors and Garret closed the window and beckoned for us to lean in closer.
"The reason is, that I need them to need me. I cannot send Commander Knight and his men ahead to London and be sure I won't be greeted with a bullet, when I join them later on. I have one friend in the Order there, but his position is not high enough to prevent a coup. Therefore I'd rather have them exercise laying low for a couple of days, than give them time and peace to plot against me."
Garret said quietly and I felt sorry for him again. He didn't sign up for this. He's left the Order, promised never to fight dragons again and have done little else since.
Damn it I was getting all touchy feely. This is not how I have kept my underground alive and safe for twelve years. Actually it was me and Wes. And I missed the cranky bastard. It was easier to plot with him. He'd wail and bitch and let me do whatever I wanted. Mist... Mist was a different case completely. She pierced me with her pale blue eyes, asked calm logical questions until I myself found out, that I'd rather done things her way not mine. This thoughts helped nothing of course, so I pushed them aside and leaned over the map to discuss details of our relocation to Vegas.
"If everybody stays, then we should use everybody." I said. "Especially that little hacker girl of yours."
Tristan's head snapped to me and his lips thinned, but he said nothing.
"We need to figure out and disable the security system on the facility in order to get the eggs out. This is a job for a basilisk. I would rather not go anywhere near to not alarm Talon with my interest, if they're not alarmed yet. So it's a job for you." I said turning to Mist.
"When everything is ready we go in and meet the dragonells there. One team teaches them a trick to... glitch to another location. Another team steals the eggs and once they're done, they give a signal to go. Soldiers of St George cover our escape with a half hearted attack until we give them a sign. Then they flee and we pick them up one by one and dump in London." I recounted our plan.
It was full of holes, that we hoped to fill in with results of Mist's investigation of the facility during the next couple of days...
The small convoy cruising the desert far underneath looked like a bunch of bugs from where I was their winged rearguard. Mist was far ahead, her pale body shining brightly in the noon sun. We were unable to cloak ourselves from the view of Garret and Tristan felt us somehow. My guess was it was because we were just not that good at this. Mist said she had another guess, but would tell me later.
We left sharp at noon. Took only most normally looking vehicles, that in the Order of St George meant five black and silver vans. And one semi truck full of heavy weapons, that they intended to stash somewhere until later.
Whatever Mist said, soldiers seemed to follow Garret's lead and like him much more than the other Commander, but I knew that this didn't mean they wouldn't turn on him in a blink of an eye. For all I knew some members of his execution squad could be among them.
Soaring over the desert gave me time and peace to finally think about, what was truly a problem.
Ember. From what I have seen during last few months... It was either her or us. She would get us all killed without blinking. How could I have missed it? The ruthlessness, cold calculating mind and a heart of stone? She was pregnant with my egg and I felt nothing but anger about it. It was a maneuver, to achieve what? I wasn't sure. It has granted her some strange control over me, but she have released me in the end... That she wanted to be bound to some facility for a year was beyond me. I kept all about what Mist, Nettle and Kain learned about dragon magic a secret, but the Archivist knew something, Ember's assistant was at least four hundred years old... Who knew, what Ember have learned since she's become the CEO of Talon?
I knew that we needed her dead. It hurt and felt so wrong. But it was true. The truth that I didn't dare to break out to Garret and the others. Poor kid loved Ember like I have never seen it done. He would never agree to that.
Well, one thing at the time Riley. Let's free your dragons from the facility and find a safe place before we plot taking on another CEO of fucking Talon. I suddenly thought it should be called "Hydra" instead. When you cut off one old head a new one grows in its place, and gets pregnant.