He had received the letter to the King early in the evening by a courier. They didn’t say anything, but there was a small envelope attached to it explaining that it should not leave Kaden’s side before delivery. Holding it in his hand, he turned it over this way and that. Within the sealed envelope was a letter telling his king that his ambassador was a traitor of the highest order.

His nation was already in disarray from Kaden’s actions. Now he was about to bring the King direct evidence himself that there was more poison growing from the vines. If his name wasn’t known by the King before, it would be known the day he hands those dark words over. There had been rumors of the king having angry outbursts. He hoped he wouldn’t target them with them.

Lord Loratyk had said he thought the king was looking to frame him. There was more going on than Kaden could even guess at. The water was clearly tainted and the matriarchs were probably accurate in saying he shouldn’t trust the lords. He didn’t even know if he could trust his King.

He was staring at the envelope as he sat at their table. The rest of them had shed their formal clothing fairly quickly when they finally arrived back at the stables. The courier had caught them just as they had arrived after a long afternoon that lasted way longer than anyone had expected.

They didn’t talk with Reese’s father again and more nobles had come by to tell them how honored they were to meet them. It was such a strange phenomenon for him to be greeted with such reverence. A month ago, people in his village wouldn’t even give him the time of day. Now there was a long line of nobles and politicians ready to shake his hand.

Sayori pulled up a chair next to him. “Starring at it isn’t going to change its contents.”

He let out a deep sigh. “This one letter will cause a huge ripple of trouble that could easily turn into a wave, a tsunami of grief. In my hands, I hold evidence that those in our highest ranks are treasonous while an investigation looking for that exact thing is happening already. They were chasing tails, blaming others, and I’m going to walk in and hand them the next puzzle piece.”

“You’re going to have to tell us more of what we’re walking into,” said Reese as he was shoving some of his belongings into his pack. They would be leaving before first light, authorized to fly right out of the neutral zone.

“I can’t,” he said quietly.

“If this delivery is going to possibly cause the rest of danger, we need to know why,” he pressed.

Swallowing hard, he said, “they’re investigating some of the high lords there. That’s all I can say.”

Evonne shook her head as she joined them. “And you’re about to give them a letter validating their search, huh?”

“Yeah,” he said, looking down at the letter again. “It’s going to cause a lot of the lords to get even more difficult.”

“Did they know about this before deciding we should go there?” asked Sayori.

He shook his head. “The ambassador wasn’t very forthcoming about our nation’s issues, I don’t think. Honestly, I am not surprised. It would have made us look weaker to the rest of you. I did tell the Lord Commander afterward, but they didn’t change the orders after we spoke.”

Reese leaned over the back of a chair. “Do you think serpents are involved there, too?”

All he could do was shrug. He didn’t even know the House of the Serpents were a threat until they had attacked him and Sayori on his way in. It hadn’t even crossed his mind that they could be involved until the incident with the ambassador. There were too many political moves being made with the lords that he wasn’t even aware of. How deep did the ambassador’s reach go? Was he even at the top?

Sayori abruptly slammed her hands on the table, slapping it with an audible thunk. “It’ll just be the first challenge! Well—secon—thir—fourth challenge of this pilgrimage. We’re seasoned pros at handling shenanigans now! We’ll do fine! They’re sending us to the temples directly. We won’t have to do the song and dance across their nation, go through all the trails. We’re going straight to the matriarch sources! We’ll have the water nation done and dusted before any of the drama really kicks up.”

Reese squinted at her. “I think you just jinxed us.”

“I did not!”

“You totally did,” laughed Evonne.

Kaden went back to staring at the letter as they laughed with one another. This one piece of paper was going to change the trajectory of so many lives in his nation and he was the one to give it to the king to kick all of that off. It was a burden he didn’t care for.

The dragons must have sensed the rider’s eager attitudes. They were all excited when they were strapping their saddles in those early hours. Kaden hadn’t gotten used to putting on a proper dragon saddle quite yet. With Zuma wiggling, he was having a harder time tightening the straps. Reese was already ready to go, impatiently waiting for the rest of them to finish strapping their supplies in.

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“Do you need help?” He asked in an irritated voice.

Grunting as Zuma shook again, causing him to drop a strap, Kaden broke down and said, “yes, please.”

Reese put his hand out to Zuma, letting them drop their head in a bow before letting him approach. Moving toward Kaden, he ran his hand along their side as he approached. Zuma immediately calmed down from his touch.

“You have to be quick about it. The saddles pinch the under belly so they don’t like them when you’re first adjusting them. They’re already antsy to get moving and you’re taking too slow to get it on them.”

He slid in front of Kaden and in a quick move whipped the strap up and around and through the ringed loop before Kaden could even keep up with the movements. He gave one good tug before tucking the strap back in. Giving a flourish of presentation at the saddle, he smirked at Kaden.

“Thank you. I’m not used to any of this yet.”

Kaden had expected Reese to say something cocky or sarcastic, but he just patted him on the back and said, “we all started somewhere.”

Walking off to check on the other two, Kaden nodded his thanks. If they would just help him learn, he’d be able to do so much more. He was new to it, far newer than any of them. Even though his bond with Zuma was strong, he was still a new magic user and a new rider. The matriarchs could deem him worthy all day and night, but he was still uneducated and lacking needed experience.

He’d have to practice his saddling. He’d have to practice a lot. Tranlee would probably make a list for him of all the skills he needed to work on. He snickered at the thought as he finished loading the packs on Zuma. He was looking forward to seeing his water mage companions. Tranlee would be super excited to hear about the new development with his visions and the matriarchs.

Reese was standing in front of all the dragons and riders. He was taking it upon himself to being wing leader of their little crew. They had discussed it and agreed with him leading them. He was the best flier of the four of them and it was no contest. Kaden hoped he would learn a lot from him on their trip.

“Okay, we are leaving out the western pillars. We have clearance of this, so if anyone comes in to challenge us, they are a threat.”

Evonne tilted her head. “Do you think we’ll have someone threaten us?”

“Did any of you expect an ambassador to be a blood mage house of serpent leader? No. Shit’s wild these days. It is better we are prepared than surprised.”

“All the dragons around are from these stables, there are no wild dragons out there. Especially not within the citadel limits. It’s not like the serpents have their own dragons. We’re fine,” said Sayori.

“Unless they’ve captured dragons,” said Evonne flatly. “Like they tried with Zuma and Taldor.”

Sayori lost her balance for a moment as the memory hit. She cleared her throat and said, “even if they took dragons, they can’t ride them. We won’t have to worry about attacking dragons.”

“Nevertheless,” Reese continued, “We will not be caught off guard in the skies! We’re going to make a diamond formation. This should allow the back dragon to coast along the midstream. We will rotate this position as we fly to let each of our dragons rest. If we do it properly, we won’t need to stop and we’ll arrive this afternoon to the King’s castle!”

“Wait. I thought you said we’d make it in two days?” asked Evonne.

“I did. But I changed the plan.”

Sayori crossed her arms. “You can’t just change the plans.”

“I can, and I did! I don’t want to be camping on the cold ground tonight. If I can get one of those soft feather beds at the King’s grand castle, I’m going to. You can sleep on the ground if you want, but I want to avoid it.”

Kaden rolled his eyes. The ground wasn’t that bad. He had to remember that Reese was a prince. He probably never had to deal with hard beds and cold food. Kaden was going to learn so much about his companions as they traveled.

Evonne shrugged and turned to climb on Jerri without acknowledging the bed comment. Sayori just shook her head and climbed onto Taldor. Reese laughed and was making his way to Beelin. Turning to his companion, he smiled at Zuma and tried to push his thoughts of excitement and wonder toward them, hoping his anxiety wouldn’t come through.

They shook their body and gave out a purr as he grinned. Pulling himself up, he wrapped his hands in the saddle and leaned forward, using his will to instruct Zuma to leave the stable. With a jolt, she took off. All four of them ran out the door and their wings took them immediately into the air.

He hadn’t been flying on Zuma much since they had arrived. His fight with the serpents had been the only time he climbed on their back. The wind was rushing through his hair and the euphoria of moving so fast and so high hit him again. His heart was beating wildly in excitement as Zuma took up position behind Reese and Bee.

These were his people. This was his team. The dragons and riders who saved the citadel on the Night of Fallen Wings. He knew they were going to ace this pilgrimage. Even if none of them received an additional blessing, all of them made a name for themselves by merely doing the right thing on a horrible night.

Evonne took the position behind, gliding in the air steam the other three produced. Kaden watched as Jerri didn’t have to flap their wings as hard to keep their lift. It made sense that they’d use this formation if they were going to travel the whole way through.

They quickly reached the edge of the citadel’s region. As they passed a pillar, they saw a silver dragon perched atop of it. Waving at them as they passed was Laudy. He heard her give a hoot of a noise and a whistle. It warmed his heart that they had already made friends with other respected riders. It meant that whatever was going to happen in the water nation, at least he had support of other riders.

Knowing that his visions were possibilities of the future, knowing that he had the support of other dragon riders would possibly be the most important thing Kaden could be doing. He thought of the rows and rows of dragons that flew next to him, armored to the teeth and ready for war.

What could cause so many different breeds of dragons, so many different mages to take up arms like that? The attack with the ambassador happened close to what they had shown him. He worried that this was going to be the same. He was not looking forward to what looked like a war.

So many visions, so many possibilities. Why was he their messenger? What message were they trying to truly share? What was happening to the dragons that they needed to have such a personal hand in protecting themselves?

The wind whipped in his hair as they flew toward the Water Nation, toward the king. A king who was about to learn of the treason at the highest court was caused by his own ambassador. Kaden’s stomach turned at the thought of it. He ruminated about the meeting for a while as they flew silently.

His thoughts were distracted when he felt Zuma lurch to the side, dodging something. Several large ballista arrows flew past him, nearly knocking him right off. He heard Beelin roar behind as Zuma dodged out of the way.

Reese had been right. Someone was a threat out there.