Page 19

I could feel Tallu’s hand on my elbow, I could see Nohe’s face in my peripheral vision, and I could feel the heat of rage in my chest, the anger of fire magic climbing up my throat. How was it possible I still had fire magic, when my ice magic was melted away to nothing, when forest magic was so distant this far from the shore and, even when close, required so much?

But anger would always be open to me. Anger and rage and any other feeling that clawed at my reason, tearing me from sense.

In my arms, I became aware of Naî shifting, her eyes opening. Her scales went cool, then cold, as though I was holding a chunk of ice, broken directly off the walls of the Silver City.

“No,” I said. “The best we can hope for is to make General Kacha understand the consequences of pushing us, of hurting us, of hurting those we love.”

Naî nipped at my wrist, but I handed her over to Tallu, even as I could hear her in my head.

What are you doing, Airón? You know the consequence of using fire magic.

But I wasn’t about to use fire magic. Instead I dug deep, finding the source of it inside myself and feeling something split open. I had found a small puddle in the forest, and now was digging deeper, finding a raging river beneath.

It was painful, as though I was tearing out my own heart, but when it was done, I could feel the power inside me. Had it always been there? Had this been what Naî had sensed when she told me that removing my animal speak had given me access to power beyond my comprehension?

People were talking, but I wasn’t listening. I could hear the wail of the elder trees in the distance, a high-pitched keen that spoke to their sadness, their desperation to save Tavornai. A wave of green came across the narrow channel, a thousand leaf-shaped dragons, answering the scream inside my own chest, the ocean of magic I now had at my disposal.

The small dragons shifted and twirled in front of me, forming one shape and then another before they slid together, becoming the large forest dragon I knew.

“What are you going to do?” they chorused.

“Save Tavornai,” I said. I reached out, wading into the water and they took me in their claw, gently placing me on their back before launching into the air, their massive wings sending a spray of water onto the shore. “Save Tallu. Defeat Kacha. Save Tavornai.”

The magic bubbled up inside me, anger, want, and sacrifice mixing together. I could not have pulled them apart any more than I could reach into the ocean and separate what had once been rainwater from what had flowed down from the mountain streams.

“Find me Kacha,” I said.

The dragon dove, passing close to the canopies of the trees, the topmost branches brushing its stomach. It roared, and the trees around it shivered, bending out of the way as we headed straight for the fires.

I clenched my jaw, seeing them, and remembered how Naî had put them out. I reached into that endless ocean of magic and thrust it forward, dousing the flames, freezing the trees. The fire sputtered and sparked and went out, smothered by the weight of water and snow.

I clenched my thighs tightly and the dragon spun up into the sky, as though it was trying to fly directly to the sun. It stopped abruptly, its wings spreading wide, turning back onto its stomach and we searched through the forest until at the edge of it, I saw an army.

It was a familiar sight, I’d seen it before when Kacha had first arrived at Tavornai, but this time I was not afraid.

With a roar, the dragon dove toward it, and I pulled at the forest magic. Have your sacrifice, I thought.

Roots swept up from the ground, twisting around men whole and dragging them under. Even with the air screaming past my ears, I could hear the desperate cries muffled by dirt and debris.

The dragon circled the group of men, and I reached into the air, pulling down what I wanted. The sky above me darkened, snow clouds forming around us. The humid swamp air turned cold, then colder still.

Kacha wanted to fight with me? Kacha wanted to destroy us? I would show him what destruction was.

Icicles rained down, forming to my rage. There was no snow in these clouds, only sharp death as I used the fire dragon’s magic to power ice.

The soldiers’ screams continued, the forest floor drinking the blood. I heard the whine of electricity, as a dozen men struggled to turn an oblong tube toward me. Its wheels stuck in the mud and dirt, and they strained against the forest when they moved it, finally getting it to face me. Electricity sparked and crackled at the head of it as two men directed it, with another ten behind them, all using electro magic together.

An icicle struck a man on the left, but the rest kept going. When I breathed in, I could feel the forest underneath me, as though I had become an elder tree, as though my roots extended through the entire nation of Tavornai.

I sent roots up, reaching for the electro cannon. They pierced its outer metal shell, and the electro mages scrambled over each other as they tried to get away, but they were not fast enough.

The electricity contained inside exploded, and only a few of them were able to deflect it. The rest went down smoking, their bodies dragged into the earth.

Something disrupted the clouds, scattering them, turning the icicles to water.

“Airón!” Tallu shouted, his voice nearly inaudible over the pounding of blood and magic in my ears, the wind that whipped around us.

I looked and saw Naî, her teeth bared, her white scales gleaming iridescent.