That morning was a whirlwind of action. They had been one of the few groups to catch any of the house of the serpent attackers. Every single one of them had taken their own life instead. No one had been able to immobilize them as Zuma had in ice. Once we had assistance, they were able to bind them appropriately.

The Lord commander was staring us down in an empty room next to the Earth Ambassador. She sighed and asked, "Why didn't you go for help?"

"When? Before or after we were fighting for our lives?" Reese was not pleased at having to be interrogated.

These type of direct questioning kept happening to him. No one ever believed his word and always had to judge what they said. He knew things were often over the top, but at some point they needed to accept that if was wacky and Kaden was involved, they just needed to listen to what he said, not question it.

"You were the only ones who were outside fighting," she motioned behind him. Kaden had been so turned around in the halls he just had to assume that direction was correct. "You could have run out of your room and woken up others."

"I'm sorry, if the giant explosions we were causing didn't wake people up, I don't think us running the halls would have done much," said Sayori.

"You are all untrained riders. What did you think you were gonna do to an army of serpents?"

Kaden related to his companions' irritability. They were the only ones to have caught any of them alive and they were getting in trouble for even defending themselves. He knew they were new, but clearly they knew what they were doing.

"We clearly stopped a lot of them," he said, remembering all the bodies they caused to fall from the incredible height.

She rubbed her eyes and turned away from them. The Lord Commander was staring at them intently. He had let her do all the talking, not having said much himself.

"How is it that you alone were able to stop them before they even got in?" She asked, while facing the wall.

"I couldn't sleep," shrugged Kaden. "It's been a crazy few days, and I just happened to be awake."

The commander's low voice pulled them all to attention. "Or it was fate that kept you alert."

Part of him wanted to believe that. He wanted to think that there was something mystical that had happened that kept them from becoming victims. In reality, he was pretty sure it was just anxiety that saved the day this time.

"Whatever it was," Reese interrupted, "we're alive. We stopped so many of the assailants that I'm sure a bunch of other people are alive as well."

The commander nodded. "You were able to delay them long enough for my patrol and I to get back to stop them."

"What were they after at the dragon tower?" Evonne cut through the pleasantries and was asking the real question.

He shifted nervously, cutting his eyes away. "Eggs."

Kaden shook his head in surprise. "Eggs?! Are there even matriarchs here?"

He watched as the ambassador gave him a disapproving look. He waved his hand toward her, dismissing her. "Yes. There are two matriarchs up there. They're not known about by the public."

"Two?" Reese shook his head frantically. "No, no. Matriarchs do not live together. They do not cohabitate. They're too territorial for that."

"Wait," Sayori interrupted him, "If the public doesn't know about them, how did they know about them?"

Ambassador Remni put her hand on the Lord Commander's shoulder. "That's what we need to be finding out."

Reese's hand went to his forehead. "There are vipers in the citadel."

"There are vipers in the citadel," he repeated.

Remni clapped her hands, making Kaden jump. "Okay, enough talk of all these classified details with the children."

"Ambassador, we would have no evidence if it wasn't for these young riders, they deserve more of your respect." The Lord Commander was not letting her weasel her way out of it. Kaden gave him more respect than he already had at that moment.

"Yes, but the less they know, the better. They are already painting really bright targets on themselves lately. We should try our best to keep them safe. This is an internal issue, we–"

"They nearly assassinated us, Ambassador. I'd hardly say this is an internal issue anymore," Reese said with anger in his voice.

She sighed and walked toward the door. "The less you all know, the better."

Lord Commander nodded to her, turned back to them, and said, "She is right, in a way. We don't know who the leak is and the less you know of our investigation, the safer you'll all be from them. They want you because you are riders and have a connection to dragons. They don't need to come after you because you're also in on finding out who they are. You four do not have experience politically here. We don't want you to accidentally get manipulated. Don't trust anyone here."

Reese crossed his arms and leaned his weight back on one leg. "And you two we can trust then?"

The commander looked to Remni, nodded again, and said, "Only us."

Evonne shook her head, a look of confusion on her face. "What about our ambassadors?"

"Especially don't trust them." The commander shook his head again. "Talk with no one but each other about the events. For your own safety."

"Can I see Jerri now?" Evonne pleaded.

"Yes, we are moving you four up to a stable loft. It will be safer for both you and your dragons. We can have you escorted there now." Remni opened the door and motioned for them to follow.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

It was a pretty straightforward ascent to the dragon tower. Once they got to it, Kaden heard an awful scratching sound. It only got louder the closer they got. It was stone on stone scraping together.

Remni grumbled as they neared, "this is ridiculous. Are there no water mages to lubricate the stones?"

"We have all hands on deck. They're busy. The lift will be fine for a while without constant lubrication," the commander explained.

Walking through a large arch, Kaden looked above to see endless space inside the building. Lights were placed strategically up the spire to light the way into the sky. The open tower revealed to Kaden where the noise was coming from. A large platform was descending to their level. It was scraping against stone indentions as it did so.

The platform settled down in front of them as several earth mages stood atop it. Stretching their arms out as they came to a stop. The earth mages were using their magics to lift the stone up and down. Off to the side, was a smaller platform with only one Earth mage casually leaning against a pillar. They caught sight of the group of them and frantically tried to look like they were busier.

"Use the personal lifts if you can. The large one is for supplies and dragons."

"Did any survive their falls?" Reese said in a quiet tone.

He saw the ambassador swallow hard. "No."

The Lord Commander put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a brief nod. Shaking away her tears, she said, "This is where we part. I have meetings up on meetings to get to about everything. The Lord commander will show you your loft but he has business up there. Remember, do not tell anyone anything other than the barest of details. You four do not need to be any more of targets than you already are."

She gave them a bow and was walking off before they could say anymore. The Lord Commander motioned for them to head to the personnel lift. He eyed the earth attendant as they filed in. Kaden felt uneasy with everyone they met now that they said not to trust anyone. Anyone could be a serpent in hiding.

"So are we staying together again?" Asked Evonne as the Earth mage was throwing his hands and stomping the ground. The lift rumbled and they all had to brace themselves as it shook before ascending.

His gaze looked to the mage then back to them. "Yes. All of your dragons and you will be in the same loft. Don't worry, it is big enough. There are accommodations already there. I had them supply it right away."

"Why didn't they put us up there to begin with?" Asked Reese.

"Because bureaucrats think they know what's best for dragon riders."

"And they're often wrong, aren't they?" Said Sayori.

"Yes."

The rest of the ride was an awkward silence as they climbed up and up the tower. Kaden was trying his best to not look over the railing to see how high they had gone. He had enough teetering on the edge of stone platforms for the day. He would rather not look to see a dangerous death of an accident occurred.

The platform lurched as it clicked into another platform. Above them was open skies. Kaden could hear the rumbles of dragons nearby, and he was itching to see Zuma again. The Earth Mage unlocked the gate holding them in and the Lord Commander led them up a set of stairs. The sounds of splashing and rumbling echoed down to them as they ascended the final stairs.

What he saw as a marvel. There were pools, hot springs, large perches, and several very large mud puddles. Dragons splashing, playing, and lounging all around of every color and tint he could have thought of. There were even mixtures of colors, purples, pinks, and even silver ones milling about. He never thought he’d ever see so many dragons like this. At least… he had hoped he wouldn’t have to considering the vision he had had.

He tried to shake the memory of it away as he followed the lord commander past the dragons. Even they stopped to bow their heads toward him. Remarkably, even they recognized him as an authority. He truly was one of the most important people Kaden would ever meet.

There were rows and rows of stable housing like he had stayed in with Zuma at the water temple. He was leading them down toward a larger one at the end of a row. The stables were stacked on top of one another, still towering higher and higher into the air.

At the bottom of a set of them, he pointed to upward and said, “You will be in the fourth one up.”

Kaden’s eyes followed his hand as he saw the spiral staircase that hugged the side of the structure. Each floor had an enormous gaping hole on it with a small human sized entrance just off the staircase. The set of stables he had directed him to were larger than their neighbors. He could only assume it was because of the fact that four of them were expected to stay together in it. Kaden wondered how Zuma would feel about being with other dragon breeds.

“I must get back to investigating. You four were lucky that one of you was awake to stop the attack. I can’t promise you it won’t happen again. We are doing everything we can to prevent it, but I suggest having a sleep rotation for safety from here on out.”

They looked at each other and just nodded a confirmation to him.

“We want to get you out of here as soon as we can. This place is obviously not safe for you. They are discussing pushing your ceremony up earlier to get you back on your pilgrimage. I suggest you all prepare to leave at a moment’s notice. You won’t be spending much time here at all, I’m afraid.”

He didn’t wait for them to respond before he bowed and walked away. Kaden reached for his arm and he stopped, letting the connection remain. “Sir, please be safe.”

He smiled, nodded, and left them there. Kaden didn’t know what urged him to reach like he had, but he felt the need to let him know he was in his thoughts. If it wasn’t safe for them here, it was really not safe for him. They would want to take out the leader of all the mages and dragons. He couldn’t imagine was it was like to have such power and reverence for everything he did. He hated all the publicity he got already. Kaden didn’t think he could do what the Lord Commander does.

Reese wasn’t waiting for the rest of them as he sprinted up the staircase. Sayori was shaking her head as she motioned for Evonne to go before her. The two of them started up the staircase. Kaden slowly followed them behind, thoughts running through his head.

Kaden felt he could trust the Lord Commander. He had seen him in his vision, flying next to him in the darkened storm. He knew that in the end, he would be an ally to him. What surprised him was that it was the Earth Ambassador he had brought with him, not Kaden’s own water ambassador. The way he spoke about how others couldn’t be trusted, Kaden was wary that he should even trust his own representative.

“Whoa!” Reese’s shocked yell caught his attention, and he saw the girls running above him, trying to catch up.

Sprinting up the steps, he took two or three at a time, trying to ascend them as quickly as possible. He nearly fell over the edge as he collided with the two women at the stable entrance. All four of their dragons were lounging around the massive room. How they knew which stable was theirs confused Kaden.

It was massive inside. He saw Zuma’s tail and only their tail in a mess of pillows. It twitched as they entered, letting him know that they were aware they were inside but too comfortable to sit their head up for their pillowed lounging.

“Look at this,” Reese said as he motioned to the large amount of pillowed bedding. “It’s like they’ve got us living in the clouds up here. There are four dragons in here, four!”

He couldn’t help let out a laugh as Reese went digging through the bedding for his dragon. It made a huff and a smaller pillow flew into the air above it to show him where it was laying.

Evonne was running to hug Jerri. Sayori shook her head at the scene but put a hand out to Kaden to stop him before he joined the dragons as the others had.

“We need to talk about them, excluding your ambassador.” She said with a stern look on her face. “You understand this could mean they are they leak, correct?”

He swallowed hard. The thought had already crossed his mind, but he didn’t want to vocalize it just yet. “Yeah, I thought it was curious that only Remni was with the Lord Commander.”

“This could mean both of theirs are suspects, too. We’ve got to play this carefully as citizens of our respective nations.”

“We don’t want to make the other nations mad in any way from this. Yeah, I get that.”

“Now do not confide in my ambassador entirely, either. While she is trustworthy in these regards, she is still an opposing nation to yours. Be careful with her. Be careful with everyone, Kaden. I know you’re knew to this, so I felt I needed to say it. We don’t know Evonne or Reese much at all.”

“I don’t know you much at all.”

She gave him an irritated look, but shrugged. “You’re not wrong. I’m just telling you, be careful. Things are getting really heated. If we make the wrong move, it could end in an all out war.”

He felt his stomach drop. Being the cause of a war was the last thing he wanted. The memory of the vision atop an army of dragons popped into his mind. War may just be inevitable, but he wasn’t about to start one now.