What do you think, Achi? I ask after telling him the dilemma. The choices I have are either to let the crew rest, take a few, or take everyone. But the longer the wait, the more casualties the Iron Fleet will incur. But this is a suicide mission. For the best chance of success, I need everyone in their best shape.
He thinks for a few moments, but someone knocks on the door before he answers. They don’t wait. There’s a beep and the door unlocks, and they walk into the room. Sanna. She closes and locks the door as swiftly as she came in.
I’m going with you, she says. Those are my people. Tykon can handle the tournament preparations. We’ll be back in time for the opening ceremony. All we need are your Raptors. I just spoke with Drakon and they’re good to go, so we ride at dawn. I’m taking five good pilots. And no, you don’t get a choice in the planning. My people, my fleet, my mission.
Well, looks like that’s settled. I’ll be off now. Achi says and ends the video call in a hurry.
She takes off her coat and boots and sets them off to the side. She pulls up a chair to sit beside me at the scratched-up, worn desk.
It’s midnight. What are you doing?
I’m staying with you tonight in this crappy motel. I don’t know why I let them stay in business, but whatever.
I can tell you, but you won’t like the answer.
Then don’t tell me.
So why are you here? Could’ve told me over a call.
I’m here to make sure you’re up and ready to go at dawn. Nothing more.
I don’t believe you.
Then don’t believe me.
***
True to her word, she wakes me before dawn. We ready ourselves for the long journey. It will take two or three days to fly south to the Horn of Skyland. But for now, we must meet with Drakon and his crew. I say it’s his crew because he is the one that recruits and trains the members of his squadron. Except for Maria. I recruited her and she was already trained, but still.
Can tell daylight is upon us because the sun peeks above the horizon and the overhead sky is visibly blue, masking most of the stars, leaving satellites and the brightest stars. Sanna’s breath is visible, which surprises me.
Never knew it got this cold here, I say.
It is the coldest it will get, she says. Surprised you didn’t say anything about the coat and boots last night. But you know I wouldn’t live here if the temps dropped any lower.
But you’re a Firekeeper, thought you were supposed to stay warm.
There’s much I’m supposed to do.
What’s that supposed to mean?
Nothing. Let’s get going.
And we do just that. Few people are out besides us. They are merchants and shopkeepers, bakers and butchers, blacksmiths and tradesman, but none of them were Firekeepers. Which is funny to me. Would think that with their name, they’d be the hardest workers, that they'd be the ones that keeps society warm, so to speak. The name is not meant literally. It means they are the engine of society, they tend to carry us forward, and they make sure that traditions are not lost to time. Sounds like a contradiction, but it makes sense in a way I can’t articulate.
We arrive at the airfield fifteen minutes later. Drakon and his crew look like they’ve been here for a good while now as they’re all ready to go. Sanna’s fighter pilots don’t look like they’re ready for take-off, but could be that they will trail behind us until we are near the wreckage. After all, they’re in modern fighter jets. Though, it would be more accurate to say that the jets are nothing more than flying guns. Some will carry missiles, so flying missile-launchers. The common folk refer to them as Flying Drums for the similarity of the bursts of gunfire and a drumroll.
He chose the standard kardyu steed for us all: a faldor. They are bird of prey in name only, as they are vultures. The fastest of the endurance raptors, but they aren’t the strongest, the most durable, or the most nimble. They can take a few hits and they can dodge some attacks, but can’t ask them to engage in a dogfight. That is why we tend to have other aerial kardyus as escorts. There’s a psyfox, a flying psychic fox, in both the front and rear guards. They are able to detect anything in a five-ten mile radius, whether it be a human, a kardyu, or even a sprite, and they hit fast and hard, but they are frail.
Drakon’s guardian, as his name might suggest, is a black horned dragon named Calamity. It has orange, expressive eyes, and it is sleek, but with massive wings. Drakon tells nothing about it, not its proper name, not its ancient name, and neither its elements nor its capabilities. All he said is that Calamity is benign and indifferent, but powerful. And Calamity itself remains silent. No roars, no growls, nothing. And in battle, red mist is the only indication that some Eldritch Horror exists.
I’ve never seen such a… creature, Sanna says, trying to sound amazed. But it is not amazement, it is thinly-veiled terror. And terror is the correct feeling, the only feeling, to have in the presence of an ancient dragon.
Tykon, of course, has Doom, and Doom is scary to be sure but he doesn’t inspire the sort of sheer terror that Calamity does. Doom is more of a common dragon, as common as dragons go. Dragons are not common. Their numbers range around a thousand, in a world where billions of people live. And all but a handful belong to the Thunderers, the People of the Storm, the people that descended from the mountains above the clouds. They are said to be the ancestors of the Firekeepers.
Very few have, Drakon says. He rubs Calamity’s neck and then leans in and whispers something indecipherable in its ear, a language only the Thunderers and select historians know. Seconds after, the dragon launches into the sky and disappears. Drakon looks to Sanna and to those who haven’t seen Calamity. No questions will be asked, thank you.
***
As the sun reaches its high point, we reach an outpost at the most southern tip of the Isle of Solton. Faldors do not need the rest - they could stay in the air from dawn to dusk, as could any experienced flyer. We stop because Sanna needs to contact the leaders of Skyland, amongst others, on a secure line. We’re still on-schedule to arrive at the Horn after two nights.
Still we, meaning Sanna, were not able to reach the fleet’s crew, or for that matter, anyone in the general area. But we did hear from Skyland’s Navy. Some of their ships had went dark around the same time the Iron Fleet did. Communications had went down not too long after the initial attack, but the message that an elder had attacked was able to be sent.
Get out, she says. She realizes the harshness of her voice. Please. This is important.
And so we do, and by we, I mean Maria, Drakon, and I. So the three of us head outside and then we sit underneath the leafy trees where most of the crew lounges. There are a few swimming in the water. Everyone’s kardyus are in the open, as is best practice. Leaving them in their gem for too long and or over great distances cause them to be disorientated upon release. That could be a fatal mistake.
So what’d you say to Calamity, I ask in a quiet voice. I’ve told you this before, but I know that Calamity is Elder-class. Doesn’t matter if he is one or not. Still I need to know what you’re up to.
Well, Drakon says. He then says something that is intuitive, that helps me understand how Calamity is terrifying, in addition to him being Elder-class. So Drakon says, I can’t tell him to fight, or do anything for that matter. His will is his own, entirely separate from mine. All I do is ask.
But I asked him to scout. If he returns with a bird, then it means that the Elder is in the area. If he returns with a piece of metal or fabric, then it means he founds the fleet. If he returns with nothing, then he found nothing. I told him to bring me back what he finds. In theory, that means he could bring back a body.
Wonderful, Maria says. Nothing like being woken up to a orange-eyed void carrying a mutilated bloated purplish-blue corpse.
You have a way with words, I say. Both of you.
It is why you recruited us, sir, Drakon says. You are… the hammer. We are the scalpel. We have our jobs.
I’m not a scalpel. I’m more of a sword. Maybe a katana? A greatsword? Hmm. No, no. A saber. Like the ones the Skyland warriors use.
But you’re not as graceful.
Not everyone needs to be as graceful as Sanna and the people of Solton. Put me next to a Ravager and I’d be the most graceful woman you have ever seen. Speaking of which, I wish to make a formal request.
Yes?
We must attend a ball the next time we’re in… I forget the name, the common language name. The city with the waterfalls and the ice caves and the normal caves and the buildings built into the cliffside and the canals. The city the Masked built.
There? That’s on the other side of the world.
So we must go to the other side of the world. Our adventures will lead us there again, I’m sure of it.
If we survive this, then yes, I promise you, we will go there.
In summer, I hope.
In summer.
And then Sanna exits from the sole outpost building. A blank facial expression.
That does not seem to be a good sign, says Maria.