I stood there, dazed, as one by one all my hatchlings slowly rose to their feet, announcing their consent. Only Kain and two of his friends remained seated until the very end, but when the final hatchling stood up, he muttered a curse and climbed to his feet, as well, crossing his arms.
I shook my head at them all. “You stubborn idiot hatchlings,” I almost-whispered. They set their jaws or crossed their arms, staring back at me, and I hardened my voice. “You realize what this means, don’t you? Take a good look around. Count how many of you are standing here right now, because some of you aren’t coming back. If you do this, there are going to be casualties. Some of you are going to die, that’s just how it is in war. How do you think that makes me feel, trying to keep the lot of you alive all this time, only to have you charging off into the middle of a war zone?” They didn’t answer, and I fought back the helpless anger threatening to smother me. At my side, Ember was quiet, watching us all. She had won. She had put out the call to fight, and the hatchlings, tired of running and living in fear, had responded. I hadn’t realized how much they wanted to do something, anything, until now.
Deep down, even though I hated it, a part of me knew she was right. But still, this was my underground; for the past decade, I’d fought to keep it safe. I’d watched these kids from the beginning, watched them live and struggle and grow up...but that was the problem, wasn’t it? They had grown up. They knew the stakes, knew what they were getting into, and I couldn’t protect them any longer.
I sighed and looked at the ceiling. “All right,” I muttered. “Go on, then. I can’t stop you. If this is your choice, I won’t stand in your way. It’s not like I can ground every single one of you and expect you to not go out the window the second my back is turned.” That coaxed a smile from a few of them, though the rest remained unnaturally solemn. They did understand what was happening, I realized. They understood all too well.
Nettle stepped forward, seeking my gaze. “You’ll come with us, right, Cobalt?”
“I...yeah.” Slumping, I raked a hand over my scalp. “I think this is a mistake, but I’ll be damned if I stay here while the rest of you go out to fight with St. George.” Shaking my head, I glared at them all. “I’m probably going to get myself shot full of holes trying to save you ingrates, but...I’ll be there. And I’ll fight the bastards for as long as I can, I promise.”
I finally looked at Ember, standing at my shoulder, and forced a smirk. “Well, you got your army, Firebrand,” I said, watching her brow furrow. “We’re all going merrily off to war, it seems. Helping St. George fight Talon.” I shook my head in equal amounts disgust and disbelief. “I just hope that, when this is all over and the smoke clears, you’ll be able to live with yourself.”
Because I don’t know if I can.
GARRET
“What do our defenses look like?”
I gazed at the crudely sketched map in my hand as I walked beside Tristan down the narrow road that cut through the base. It was late afternoon, and around us, the base was eerily silent, though I knew no one was idle. A tense stillness hung over the chapterhouse, and soldiers went about their duties in full combat gear, myself included. For the first time in months, I was back in uniform, the black-and-gray combat armor of the Order of St. George. I knew I had to wear it to survive, that the suit designed for fighting dragons was my best shot at coming out of this alive, but I took no pride in it. It was just another reminder of what I had done, the years I had killed without a thought. Tonight, though, I would wear it to defend my former brothers and the dragons I had once driven toward extinction.
I glanced at the map again. The scribbled drawing showed the whole of the Western chapterhouse in messy black lines, but the layout was as familiar to me as the back of my hand. None of the hastily scrawled “buildings” were labeled or numbered, but I knew each of them by heart.
“Snipers will be set up here, here and here,” Tristan answered, pointing to three positions on the map. Chapel tower, headquarters and armory roof. “We won’t be staying in position, though,” he added. “Orders will be your standard ‘shoot and scoot.’ We can take two, maybe three shots at most. But then the risk of discovery becomes too great, and we’ll have to fall back to avoid being swarmed.”
I nodded and gazed up at the chapel as we passed beneath, at the faded white walls and pointed steeple; it wasn’t hard to imagine Tristan up there, aiming his rifle at passing dragons. “We’ll need more guns in the air than just snipers,” I muttered, and he nodded.
“Yeah. Machine gunners will take up position at these four points,” Tristan went on, tapping the map. “So all angles of attack will be covered. Hopefully we can fill the sky with so much lead it’ll be like it’s raining dragons.”
I tried not to wince at that image, visualizing a small red dragon tumbling limply from the sky, landing on the hard ground with a thump. For a moment, my thoughts strayed. I hoped she was all right. I had tried calling her this morning only to remember that all our personal possessions had been taken away when we’d been captured by Talon, phones included, and I had no way of contacting her. I didn’t know if she’d been able to convince Riley and the hatchlings to fight, but I had to assume that we were on our own—that no help would be coming.
Truthfully, part of me hoped she wouldn’t come. After sending away the civilians, the true rookies and the small number of family units, there weren’t very many soldiers left. Surprisingly, few actual soldiers had opted to leave, and the number had been far less than I had expected, but the loss of every dragonslayer still hurt. From what I’d learned of the Night of Fang and Fire, Talon knew the exact number of soldiers stationed here; they would know the numbers needed to take us out. If the Order fell, if I died tonight in a hail of gunshots and dragonfire, I would rather Ember be far away, safe from the madness that was to come.