and Tressa.
They scrambled into place. Fi transformed and Tressa wore her new armor stolen from a dead Red warrior. She felt out of place wearing red while everyone else was dressed in black, but she had no other option. It was that or be naked.
Tressa climbed onto Fi's back. Within breaths they were airborne, heading north toward the sea. They flew for the better part of a day. Tressa snacked on jerky and bread from the bag slung on her back. All riders carried their own basic supplies to avoid frequent stops. She took a sip from her water skin, saving as much of it as she could for the rest of the journey.
Eventually the sea appeared in the distance. The setting sun bounced off the gentle waves. The scent of salt permeated the thick air, tickling Tressa's nose. She tried not to think about the time she'd been trapped in the small boat, stuck out in the sea, wondering if she'd ever make it back to shore alive.
Why hadn't she changed into a dragon then? Was it possible she hadn't lost hope yet, that she'd still believed everything would work out okay, even though she had no food or drink? But when she fell from Fi's back, there had truly been no option. She’d had to change or die in a broken heap of bones on the unforgiving earth.
The dragon horde banked to the left, flying along the seashore. The ground wasn't sandy and filled with tall grass like in the Sands. Here in the Hills of Flame, rocks covered the bank leading to scorched, dry earth. Cracks raced around the ground like thousands of little roads.
We'll camp here, Fi told Tressa.
Tressa turned up her nose. She didn't see a freshwater source nearby. She was relieved she'd been stingy with drinking from her skin. And at least she could bathe in the seawater. After everything she'd been through, she needed a good cleansing.
The dragons circled, landing one at a time, claiming their spots. Fi was always one of the last to land. She'd explained to Tressa it was because she wanted to keep an eye out in the skies until the very end.
As they circled lazily, Tressa swallowed a fearful breath and let go of Fi's scales. She slipped off the side, falling through the air, waiting for the change to come again. Willing it. Then panicking when she realized it might not happen again. Tressa screamed, her arms flailing in the air until the wind was knocked out of her. She opened her eyes, feeling an arm around her waist.
Granna whispered in her ear. "You can't just force your dragon out like that. You'll kill yourself first."
"Nothing else has worked," Tressa protested. "I just want to be like everyone else."
"You are nothing like the others," Granna said as they coasted to the ground, Mestifito landing with a jarring thump. Tressa tumbled off his back and onto the hard ground. Her head smarting, she sat up. Granna slid off Mestifito, landing next to Tressa. "You have a death wish."
"I only want to be able to control the dragon inside me. I see nothing wrong with that," Tressa snapped. "If you hadn't caught me, I might be flying right now."
"If I hadn't caught you, you would have broken your neck on the landing. I'd be asking the men to bury you." Granna turned on one heel and stalked away.
Tressa rubbed the back of her head and stood. She wandered over to the bank, pulled her boots off, yanked up the bottom of her pants, and waded into the water. The water nipped at her toes, cooling her off quickly. She took a few deep breaths and looked to the northwest. Out there was the island that made the hair stand up on Fi's arms. No matter. She turned back to the east. Their true enemy lay hidden in the hills, secreted away in a castle Tressa hadn't even glimpsed in Malum.
Fi had shown her a map of the city. It was the largest in the Dragonlands, even dwarfing the size of the Ruins of Ebon, under the Charred Barrens. The castle itself was inaccessible without a dragon, built into the crags of the hills. They'd have to fly in and confront the queen. Tressa wanted to kill her after what had happened in Malum during the Descent Festival.
No one wanted peace. They all wanted to fight. To dominate the other, even in the Black, when they supposedly wanted nothing to