A squall of wind and rain hit them with force, knocking them on their feet once more. The four of them scrambled to their feet, trying to get behind Zuma. Kaden didn’t know who was attacking him or what dragons were attacking, but he knew they were indeed water dragons.

“Water dragons?” Sayori shouted, as if she read his mind.

Kaden was pulling in his companions behind Zuma’s back foot. “I think they are the missing dragons from the rune traps.”

It was the only thing that made sense to him. He didn’t think that any of the Lords would outright rebel against the king. Lord Loratyk would be the only Lord that Kayden would have even suspected, but he was here already. Making these large attacks on important people.

In the forest, they were organized and knew exactly how to take a dragon down. The rune traps Kaden had found were precise, knowing exactly how to catch a dragon, how to subdue them. Now there were dragons assaulting the castle.

Behind him, the door flew open and both Lords were rushing toward them. Another blast of air and rain pushed even Zuma back. The dragons were using their powerful wings and their water magic to keep any mages from exiting the castle rooftop. He felt an opposing air force them back forward, lifting his feet briefly off the air as they stumbled back. It was bracing Zuma from aiding them from the assault.

He had forgotten that Lord Loratyk could use both air and water magic. For all the doubts he had, all the suspicions, the Lord was there helping defend the castle. He was defending his country. The two Lords moved in tandem as they made large steps closer. Their left feet slamming into the ground, a twirl to the right, fists thrust forward.

The water stopped around them, freezing in midair. It had been a torrent of rain with a cloudless sky. It now froze, hanging uselessly around them. Kaden’s eyes were wide with awe. He knew the Lords were in charge of their regions for a reason, but he didn’t know how powerful they truly were.

“Get on your dragons,” he heard Lord Cronley shout.

Shaking out of his stupor, Kaden climbed upon a saddleless Zuma. He pulled his companions up, one by one. They would get to their dragons and stop whoever was assaulting the castle. Looking back to the two Lords, they both gave him a brief nod before Kaden willed Zuma to fly.

The moment they took off, the wind hit them again. The protective barrier of the lords only extended so far. He felt Sayori’s arms wrap tight around him, trying her best to not slide right off the slick, wet scales. He lifted his head, looking for the others.

“Tell me where they are,” he yelled through the blowing mist. “I can’t see anything!”

She leaned in and said, “down. Down on the ground. Taldor can’t get up here.”

He didn’t hesitate and pushed Zuma to fly away from the top of the castle, away from the Lords. Xada should answer Lord Cronley’s call soon. They wouldn’t let any assaulting dragon get the better of them. He needed to focus on his team first. The Lords could handle themselves.

They broke through the cloud of mist and saw Taldor on the ground, fighting a large group of House of the Serpent soldiers. They truly were making a move on the castle. It amazed Kaden how quickly they were able to assemble for such an attack when the party itself was so impromptu. Where did they all come from? How were there so many here already?

Sayori didn’t even wait for them to land before she slid herself off. Leaning forward, Reese said, “Get Evonne to Jerri first and come back for me.”

He jumped off as well, and the two of them floated down to the ground with his wind magic. Taldor was throwing stone after stone toward the assailants, but it wasn’t doing much. There were so many of them and they were covered in armor that glowed with stones and runes. The rocks shot out at them from Taldor fell inert any time they touched them; the magic sucked right out of them.

He watched as Reese and Sayori didn’t hesitate to knock them off balance instead. Reaching behind him, he grabbed a hold of Evonne and pulled her closer, instructing her to hold on. Zuma hit the crowd with a cold blast of air, causing them to all brace themselves from above before he flew off. He trusted Sayori, Reese, and Taldor to at least keep the attackers at bay until they could return.

Evonne’s hands were wrapped tightly around him as they went higher into the sky.

“Where’s Jerri?”

“With Xada!”

That didn’t bode well for the fight they’d have to endure. “Where’s Xada then?”

He felt her point over his shoulder. Following her finger, he looked above and through a burst of cloud, he saw the massive blue dragon diving toward the castle. Jerri was behind them, riding in the wind stream. They were diving for an attack.

His legs tensed, and he urged Zuma up to join them. Jerri could fight well on their own, but they could do so much better if Evonne was on their back. The bond between rider and dragon made them stronger, faster, and more agile in combat. He was learning that the hard way.

The wind and mist pierced his eyes as they ascended into the sky toward the others. Xada’s massive wings burst out and the gust forced Zuma to stutter and slow. The two of them were holding onto them for dear life as the gust blew past them. Opening his eyes back, they saw Jerri spewing fire around Xada as they both assaulted what looked like dark blue dragons.

“Call them,” he yelled to her.

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“I have been!”

“Was Jerri not able to hear the call through all the chaos?” He mused.

Her voice was faded from the wind. “Get closer!”

Pushing his will into Zuma, he told them to fly closer to the battle. They didn’t resist and continued on. Burst of water and ice flew around them as they dodged left and right in the skies. The closer they got, the more his eyes widened as he saw the dragons. His head pounded as the visions flashed across his mind.

In the skies, across from his army where the lord commander was at his side, were dragons that were shimmering a dark color. They consumed the light, reflecting and absorbing it as the lightning struck the air. The dragons swarming around Xada were starting to resemble the dragons he had seen in his visions. These had been corrupted.

There were dozens of them swirling around Xada. A jet of water shot off the top of the dragon, throwing an assaulting dragon off balance. Lord Cronley had made it. He saw another blue dragon defending Xada by literally peeling off a smaller dragon that was latched onto the large dragon’s scales. He knew that one. It was fully armored. Of course, she kept hers armored. Vixenta and her dragon defended her father.

Jerri was the outlier within the mess of water dragons. They hadn’t fought with a fire dragon before, and it showed. The flames they were licking around the darkened dragons were causing them to flail. The closer they got, the more of them started to swarm toward Jerri.

A burst of wind boomed through the air, causing a wave of sound to pound into their ears. Beelin caused a wave of air to toss the drakes away just as they were about to set their teeth into Jerri. Even their dragons were going to defend each other.

“Why are water dragons attacking each other?”

“No idea! But I don’t think those dragons are normal. Something’s wrong. Can you feel it?”

He felt one of her hands release from him as she stuck it into the air. Kaden wasn’t sure what she was doing or if she could even feel what he was feeling. The corruption, the darkness that he felt at the citadel, it was floating in the air, pulsing around the creatures.

A sad whimper came behind him as she said, “they’re in such pain.”

He swallowed hard, trying to hold back his own tears. He had felt it, too. They weren’t acting how they wanted to. They were being controlled. It wasn’t like the bond that the dragon riders and their dragons had. This was worse, infectious. These dragons had to have been used by the House of the Serpent agents. How they did it, though, that was the mystery they still needed to solve.

They got closer to their fellow dragon riders and finally Jerri’s head jerked in their direction. Immediately, they peeled off and flew toward them. He felt Evonne standing behind him, holding onto his shoulders as the dragon flew close. In a moment of surprise to him, she leaped off toward the dragon as it flew under. He hoped her timing was correct.

Whipping his head around behind him, he saw that she was on the dragon’s back, flying back into battle. He knew he should help, but Reese needed to be on Beelin. He saw what Reese did before at the citadel on the dragon. The two were needed. Gritting his teeth, he had to trust that Vixenta, Lord Cronley, and Evonne would be okay without him.

Again, they were barreling back down toward the earth. He felt his feet lifting off Zuma as they dove. There was no one else riding them, no one else to worry about. If he fell off, Zuma would catch him. Or so he hoped.

The ground came quickly. There was a large dome with a hole at the top of it covering the ground. Reese sat on top, shaking his head, looking as if he was going to throw up. He saw Sayori climbing on top of Taldor, free of any assailants. There was none left on the ground.

He neared the dome, letting Zuma get as close as they could before yelling. “What happened?”

Reese looked back at him with hollow eyes, a state of shock on his face. “We couldn’t stop them from cutting our assaults off. We had to.”

“Had to what? What happened?”

He felt the wind from Taldor’s wings and he heard Sayori’s voice. “We gathered them in the dome, got them corralled. It took Taldor and I a lot of effort and magic. It’s several feet thick. They couldn’t dig out of it very quickly. I don’t think they expected earth magic here.”

Reese turned to look at Kaden and said in a monotone voice, “Everyone needs air to breathe.”

The words hung between them, heavy with their silence.

Sayori dropped her head. “Come on, let’s get you to Bee.”

He stumbled as he walked toward Taldor. Sayori pushed her arm out and a stone path went straight to Taldor for him. He took slower steps than Kaden would have liked, but if he did what he thought he did, no one in that dome was left alive.

“Beelin is defending Jerri and Xada. They’re swarming them. We’ve got to go,” he heard himself ordering.

The two’s faces changed again, hardening back into the fighting mode they were in. He knew that they just committed a massive horror, but they didn’t have time to mourn their actions. Their dragons could still yet fall. He saw Reese wrap himself around Sayori and they took off.

He was expecting awkward interactions and praise from nobles he didn’t know. He thought it was going to be like the party at the citadel. Kaden didn’t think the war was going to start at the party to celebrate him. They had brought his family here.

His gut dropped. He hoped that the only serpents that had made it inside were the ones that had tried to assault the king. His parents, his siblings were here. His whole family could be snuffed out in one evening. They came to show pride in their son and it may be their undoing.

He had to trust that Iratoi was in there protecting who she could. If there were soldiers down on the ground trying to get in, he had to hope that he was right, and that there were only a few inside.

They were flying behind Taldor and he noticed how much earth was wrapped around the dragon still. He wondered how that would work in the skies. They brought their ammo with them. The dark dragons wouldn’t know what to do at all when stones took them down mid air.

They burst through the layer of mist that was separating the skies and saw the battle was still raging. Several more blue dragon riders had managed to join Xada, but they were still far outnumbered.

“How many wild dragons did they catch?” he said out loud. That had almost been Zuma, had he not come along when he had. They would be forced to assault the castle and kill other blue dragons.

They weren’t close to a temple. The only dragons around were the ones that belonged to a rider. It would be hours before they got any back up. They were it. They were the only reinforcements they were going to get. There was no Lord Commander and his white dragons to sweep in and save the day. Everything relied on them.

Movement caught his eye, and he noticed the para-gliding serpents that had been at the citadel. He could only assume they were using the dragons to jump off of. They had the runed weapons that tore the dragon’s wings and plunged them from the sky. If any of them took out the dragons, they would quickly be decimated.

He shouted at Taldor in a booming voice, trying his best to use his magic to project it. They must have heard him and slowed so they were within yelling distance. He pointed to the small glider and he could swear Reese was yelling expletives. Reese had been the one tearing them from the skies at the white city. If anyone hated those types of serpents, it was him.

He pointed to Xada as Beelin flew around them faster than any other dragon. The wind dragons were just too fast, no one could catch them. Reese nodded and Sayori pushed Taldor higher. They needed to get Reese to Beelin before they did anything.

Shifting his gaze to the gliders that were flying in, Kaden squinted. It was his turn to take down some serpents.