All The Skills

The bad weather had given Arthur one advantage: He was able to keep secret how many dragons he’d brought with him. Only his retinue was close by and visible in the gloom.

Thinking quickly, Arthur directed Brixaby to send a message directly into the minds of his followers: Land safely, get under shelter, and above all else, stay quiet.

Brixaby’s stated range was ‘within shouting distance’. Out in the open, even in a storm… that meant he could easily reach most minds he wanted.

Meanwhile, Arthur’s retinue followed Sams and the rest back down to land on the newest level.

On the ledge, the temperature was artificially warmed thanks to environmental card magic. Even the outcropping the dragons landed on was dry — the rain evaporating inches above the surface.

Arthur took in a breath of fresh air that smelled familiar in a way that the Mesa Free Hive never had.

We’re back, he thought to himself.

But he only allowed himself a moment to relish it.

Horatio had dismounted off his dragon the moment Sams’s claws hit firm rock. He came striding up to Arthur, boggling not only at him but at Brixaby as well.

“Rumor had it your dragon hadn’t been growing,” he said, “Seems you figured out what was wrong.”

“Nothing was wrong!” Brixaby boomed. “This hive simply did not afford me the right opportunity to grow!”

In more ways than one, Arthur thought.

“Horatio, how are you here? Why aren’t you at Buck Moon hive?”

His friend shook his head impatiently. “Never mind that. How are you even alive? News came in that you died during a scourgeling eruption. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but then it seemed to be true because my friend would have sent me a message.” He glowered at Arthur, just in case he didn’t get the point.

Arthur didn’t have time to let the guilt soak in. Several of Horatio’s other riders had dismounted and had come striding up to listen. But a few of their dragons had slid off to speak to purple messengers who clung on crags off to the side. Those purples quickly buzzed away.

No doubt word of their arrival— and miraculous survival— back to Wolf Moon Hive would quickly spread.

Arthur glanced over his shoulder long enough to ensure the rest of his personal retinue of Cressida, Digger, Laird, and Tannai had landed safely behind him.

Turning back, he stepped forward to grip Horatio’s upper arm. “We don’t have much time. Tell me what’s going on. Why is there a storm beating down on the hive? Is Valentina… is her dragon…” he trailed off, unsure how to finish.

He would never say he’d been friendly with the other two Legendary riders — especially after they’d failed to prepare him for his visit with the king. But out of the two, he much preferred Valentina over Whitaker.

Horatio’s expression went from shocked and offended to grim.

“No one official has said anything. Sams and I are Rares, but we’re still low on the totem pole. Valentina and her dragon haven’t died,” he added quickly, “but the general gossip is that their strength is failing.”

“Then why do I sense three Legendries?” Brixaby asked in a dangerous voice.

Arthur winced. If Brixaby could sense three of his kind, they could likely sense him soon… if they already hadn’t.

Horatio shrugged at the dragon’s question. “Politics. It’s part of why I’m here, too.”

“The other hive leaders thought we were dead and took the opportunity to try to take over the leadership of Wolf Moon?” Arthur guessed.

Horatio nodded once in affirmation. “Buck Moon has been leading the charge — and you never answered my question, Art. How are you still alive?”

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“It’s a long story…” Arthur began.

“Oh! Oh!” Behind them, Joy jumped up and down. “We were kidnapped by a hive that’s outside of our Kingdom, but now we get to save one of their sister hives, instead. Maybe them, too. I don’t know. It’s very twisty. Hi, I’m Joy,” she added to Sams who was looking down at the pink in puzzlement.

Horatio sputtered. “What do you mean, a hive outside the kingdom? There’s nothing outside the kingdom!”

“Turns out,” Arthur said, “Not only is there livable land outside our kingdom, there are other kingdoms. I’ll explain later,” he added, “But I have to speak to the leadership. I’d like an escort through the storm to back up top, but we’ll get there on our own if we have to.”

One of the Uncommon riders who stood near Sams objected. “That’s not a good idea, sir. We don’t know if these people are who they say they are. They could be using an illusion or body mod card to impersonate someone. We should wait to get them checked out by one of the mind mages.”

“That isn’t going to happen,” Arthur said. He wasn’t about to let anyone go shifting around his, or Brixaby’s mind.

Beside him, Brixaby flared two of his wings in a threat. “I dare any white dragon to shuffle through my mind and come out the other side!”

Which was a good point. As a Legendary rank, Brixaby could likely overpower any Rare or Uncommon the hive could throw at them.

From the shuffling of feet and uncomfortable looks, others knew it too.

Arthur turned back to Horatio. “You and I were roommates at the orphanage. We both worked at a restaurant, scraping card shards together—“

But Horatio shook his head. “That’s common knowledge for anyone who does a little research.” He considered for a moment, and then his dark eyes narrowed. “When we were kids, I snuck out and went to the festival — one of the first you’d seen, if I remember right. You remember what else happened that night?”

Arthur felt a grin stretch his face. “Yeah, except I was the one who snuck out and you followed. And you took me to see card duels. I’d never seen anything like it.”

Horatio stared at him for a moment as if trying to weigh his answer, but Arthur knew he had spoken true.

Finally, he nodded and looked to Sams. “It’s him.”

“I can feel the weight of their Legendary cards,” Sams added. “Assuming that is not some sort of trick.”

“It’s not, but we need to speak to leadership, and we need someone to light the way.” Arthur looked at Sams who, as a yellow, was a dragon with naturally light-based natural magic. “Didn’t you once ask to be part of my retinue?”

Instantly, the troubled look on Horatio’s face faded and he grinned. Arthur had just won him over.

****

For all the commotion on the lower levels, word had not yet spread up to the top of the hive.

The storm was every bit as bitterly fierce as it had been before, but this time Arthur and the rest of his retinue were prepared for it.

And, most importantly, they had Sams to light the way.

The big yellow dragon glowed like a miniature sun ahead of them.

Through the driving blizzard, Arthur lost track of where his position was in the sky, and most importantly, the stone-hard sides of the hive. One gust of wind could dash them all against the rocks.

But the dragons seemed to know where they were, and so Arthur was forced to put his faith in Brixaby.

Life was so much easier now he could ride his own dragon.

So instead of worrying about what could happen, Arthur let himself focus on the rapid beat of Brixaby’s four wings.

Odd. He’d always thought of it as a droning buzz, but now he realized that there was a pattern to his wing beats. The bottom pair beat a little less rapidly than the top pair. They were broader and stretched to cup more air with every wing-stroke. The top two were faster but bent more with the wind.

He realized that the bottom pair focused on stability and power. The top was for directional control.

Arthur’s revelation was rewarded with not one, but two additional levels in his Dragon Riding skill.

The moment the notifications came, Arthur gained the wisdom to shift his seat slightly back toward Brixaby’s center of gravity.

The dragon grunted something in surprise — Arthur couldn’t catch the words, but thought they were affirmative. And he didn’t think he imagined that Brixaby powered through the air faster than ever.

However, the wind got worse as they rose in altitude and the temperature plunged. If this continued, Arthur worried he’d get frostbite on his exposed fingers and nose.

Just when he wondered if he should direct the retinue back into the hive and climb to the top from the inside… the glowing beacon that was Sams came in for a landing upon a platform wide enough to hold a Legendary dragon.

Or, in this case, three of them, if Brixaby was right.

Brixaby landed with Joy right behind him. Cressida, on her neck, yelled something that was lost to the winds.

In front of them, something gigantic moved.

It took Arthur too long to understand what his eyes were trying to tell him. He hadn’t forgotten the size of Elissa, Valentina’s old Legendary dragon, but she was a cloudy blue color and the lines of her shape were obscured by the storm.

He thought it was clouds from the storm moving until a massive dragon head resolved itself out of nowhere and stared down at Arthur and Brixaby with the stern expression of a disappointed grandmother.

“You,” the massive dragon’s voice was even louder than Brixaby’s but still quivered with age. “You have arrived, at last.”