Sasha and Elias were heading towards the camp. The very secretive and exclusive camp for training the king's knights. It was filled with myths and Sasha hated every one of them. She had to see for herself. This was what had formed her stepbrother, the institution that had made Isaak to whom he was. A silent, unemotional cold machine with the softest of hearts.

It looked more like a kindergarten. The young boys were just playing around, their supervisors not different from the babysitters Sasha was used to. The only difference, the king's knights made the babysitting.

“They stay here for two years?” Sasha asked. She really couldn’t get her head around it. There was a huge playground, surrounded by numerous small houses lodging the boys. “Why?”

“It seems innocent enough, but they study them intently, learning who has the magical abilities and who will do for good knights. The ones that do not fit to the standards are sent home again after two years, the rest”, Elias continued to a small path leading to the housing of the older pupils.

“Isaak went here.”

“As did I. The king and the queen made no difference”, Elias said. “Didn’t see them for two years.”

Sasha’s anger was boiling up. This system was insane.

“And they continue to be sent home, year after year”, she said. “Why?”

“As we grew older the demands increased. Some couldn’t stand the pressure. And some just learned how the system worked and fucked it up.”

“Isaak”, Sasha said with a bitter smile. They had let him out at the age of thirteen, and at that age, his parents didn’t want him back. A red-haired tiny boy covered with dirt, ending up at their doorstep.

“Yeah, Isaak”, Elias said.

“You were friends here?” Isaak had never mentioned anything like that.

“The queen thought he was a bad influence. Isaak learned fast. In public we didn’t hang out, but, we are friends.”

Sasha whistled.

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“I still think they might have let him go just because of me”, Elias sighed.

“Their loss, my gain”, Sasha said.

Elias stopped some ten meters in front of the next open space. If the previous had been a play garden, this area was much more serious. The students here were old enough to soon graduate, and their training was violent.

Sasha recognized some of the techniques Isaak had learned her.

“You never stopped hanging out”, she said, looking baffled at Elias.

“You don’t give up on a friend”, Elias said.

“I want to fight them”, Sasha said.

“A girl in the camp? My father will be going lucid.”

“The king is already lucid. I don’t mind fighting him. It would make a nice change, him picking a fight with a girl that actually could kick his ass.”

“Let's do it”, Elias said. “It's crazy, but I want to stir in the pot, come here.”

“I guess the rules are rough?”

Elias just laughed, pointing at his chest.

“We have a need of really good healers for a reason. I like this. The boys would learn a lesson and you will gain some reputation.”

“I already have a reputation”, Sasha said.

“Not here”, Elias said. “You are not known outside the criminal circles, but you will own this. You are the next queen in line.”

“Ivy is, not me”, Sasha said.

Elias stopped. He turned around, laying his hands on her shoulder.

“I don’t think you understand rebel, when the dragon queen put the dragon breath in your chest she made you hers. You are not just the heir, the dragon queen has already crowned you.”

“She crowned you as well”, Sasha said, “What’s the big deal?”

“You are the big deal. The dragon queen dethroned my mother. She did not just take you into her comfort, she filled your breast with the dragon breath. You are the queen.”

“I don’t understand. Didn’t you say she had already bonded with you as well?”

“No, Sasha. Mother took me down there, and the dragon punctured my finger, but she never introduced me to her subjects. She had every dragon in the realm to acknowledge you.”

Sasha tried to get a grip of what Elias said. The queen had bonded with her, she felt every soul of the dragons inside her. It was as if the connection had always been there, just waiting for someone to turn on the lamp.

“Really? So the queen, your mother?”

“She doesn’t know, I think”, Elias said. “Don’t bother about it, the dragon queen knows what she does.”

“Yes”, Sasha said sighing. She had her very life to thank for that. Sasha thought of what the queen had said, there would come a time, a time when everything she thought she knew would be turned upside down. Having fire erupting from her hands and controlling the element truly felt upside down. She wanted to fight, the traditional way, with technique and brute force. Was it time to visit the queen? Maybe she was the Achilles heel she so badly needed?

“Ivy will still be the queen, not me”, Sasha said stubbornly.

Elias took a long look at her and smiled wearily. He shook his head and took some steps forwards ignoring Sasha for now.

“Boys”, he said. “Today we will train.”

Some ten people turned their heads. An older mentor looked at Elias, and the younger lads smiled.

“I will take you down this time”, one of the lads laughed. “I have trained since last. You will not stand a chance.”

“Oh”, Elias said, waving Sasha forward. “Today I have another lesson for you. I have taken a tutor with me.”