“Even if he was, we’d be able to track the signature of our own magic,” Lisette said.
“This is likely the result of Jaeggi spells protecting the place where they’re keeping him,” Queen Diya replied.
From the corner of his eye, Sora saw King Rodrigo walk over to the railing of the bridge and hold his hand out over the water. The dragon’s eyes narrowed, and the lines in his handsome face deepened as he concentrated. Sora moved to stand beside him and looked over the railing. The water swirled under his hands and leapt upward like a puppy seeking affection.
“The water has memories of a brief fight here last night. A dragon and magic.”
“Did it see where the mages took Ravi?”
King Rodrigo closed his eyes completely and tilted his head. Sora’s heart stammered in his chest, waiting for them to locate his mate.
“No, but he’s not in the city. There are whispers of magic crossing the river farther to the north and heading away from the city.” King Rodrigo opened his eyes and dropped his hand back to his side. “It looks like Ravi was loaded into a car and taken north.”
“King Chalo—”
“Already on it.” The king of the Earth Dragons walked briskly over to the end of the bridge and knelt down, placing his hand on the ground.
Sora chewed on his lower lip. There was so much concrete and so many people walking on this ground. Would the earth be able to carry back the secret movements of a group of Jaeggi and one wind dragon?
It took only a second before King Chalo gasped and jerked his head up a little. “He’s underground. Those bastards have got him underground. I don’t have an exact location, but northeast of here. Outside the city.”
“They’re keeping a wind dragon underground?” Balin repeated in horror. “You can’t do that!”
Sora didn’t want to imagine how his wind dragon was suffering. He balled his hands into fists and swallowed hard, struggling to keep his emotions in check. Sahan stood beside him, a comforting hand squeezing his shoulder.
“Back in the air! We move northeast,” King Alric bellowed. He then looked over at King Chalo and said in a lower voice, “Take the lead. We check the whispers of the earth on your command.”
With a nod, King Chalo shifted back into his massive dragon form, dark evergreen scales glittering in the sun as he lowered himself so his delicate Queen Diya could climb on his back again.
In a matter of minutes, they were all in the air again, a strange memory for the people of Prague. He was sure others were racing to their vehicles to try to follow the thunder of dragons, but the dragons were fast and had a hell of a lead on the humans. If they were lucky, this wouldn’t turn into too much of a sensational news story—not that King Alric and the other kings seemed to care. The first priority was Ravi. They’d deal with the rest of the world later.
The dragons formed up behind King Chalo and set off across the sky. Sora could feel Sahan’s need to move faster, but they followed the earth dragon, whose massive size meant that he flew slower than the wind dragons. Sora commiserated with the wind dragon but bit his tongue. King Chalo was their best shot at locating Ravi right now.
Sora wasn’t sure how long they flew. It felt like forever, but it couldn’t have been more than ten or fifteen minutes. He kept his hand over his heart, clinging to the feeling of Ravi. As long as he could feel him, he believed they’d reach his mate in time.
Well outside the city proper, King Chalo finally led the dragons back to the ground in a large grassy field. A few cows looked up at the horde of dragons descending in a wave of red, blue, green, white, and grey. Only a handful shifted back to their human form. King Chalo shifted and sank to his knees, his old, powerful hands running back and forth over the ground as if he were trying to coax out its secrets.
“We’re definitely closer,” he murmured. Sora tucked his hands into his armpits and clenched his muscles. He wanted to reach out and shake the king, demanding an exact location.
King Alric was pacing, and Cameron was looking worriedly at his mate.
Even King Rodrigo appeared a little impatient. “Can the earth move this along a little faster than the shifting of the tectonic plates?”
“Patience—”
A massive explosion shook the ground beneath their feet. Sora twisted around toward the north to see a giant blue mushroom cloud rise up.
“I feel him. Yes, I definitely feel him. I know which way!” King Chalo shouted.
“Let me guess, my darling. It’s that way?” Queen Diya asked with a gentle smile as she pointed at the cloud rising higher into the sky.
King Chalo’s head jerked up, and his mouth fell open. “Oh, my.”
“I’m going to take a wild guess that Ravi has started the party without us,” Cameron said. A smile grew across his face, but his eyes were dark and fierce. “Let’s go give him a hand with the Jaeggi. I would be upset if I missed out on another shot at Thomas Jaeggi.”
Sora ran back to Sahan’s side and pulled himself up into position just as the dragon was pushing off the ground.
As the dragon rose in the air, King Alric shouted directions, breaking up the roughly fifty odd dragons into squadrons and evenly distributing the nearly dozen mages among them. They would attack the Jaeggi at Ravi’s location from different angles, boxing them in and scouring the area for their missing dragon as quickly as possible.
The king of the Fire Dragons was prepared for war. Listening to King Alric’s sharp orders, it was like Sora was getting a glimpse of a battle from the past, back when King Alric had fought to save his clan and mages. Sora was in awe of the dragon king. Hope filled Sora’s chest, but a ball of sadness lodged in his throat. This shouldn’t be happening again.
Shoving the sadness away, Sora clung to the hope, trying to send it back to Ravi so he would know they were coming for him.
As they drew close to the source of the blue mushroom cloud, Sora’s mouth fell open. They were approaching the remains of what looked to be an abandoned military town. Old concrete buildings stretched up ten stories. They had likely once been barracks but were now crumbling and covered in graffiti. Trees were tangled with vines, and roads were cracked and rutted.
But there were signs of life among the old buildings. Clothes were hung out on balconies to dry, and there was a scattering of cars. And, of course, people were running around and screaming. They’d started pointing at the tall building engulfed in flames and belching out blue smoke.
It was the strangest thing Sora had ever seen. Whoever had done it had mixed some kind of explosive with magic.
And then the people noticed the dragons.
As one, the thunder of dragons let out a deafening battle cry that rose above the sounds of the fire. The fire dragons swooped down, moving east to west, pelting more of the barracks with fire. King Rodrigo and his bodyguards dove, moving from west to east, covering the roads in a thick layer of ice.
The earth and metal dragons landed first, shaking the earth and allowing their mages to set down a layer of protective spells over the dragons.
Sora remained in the air with the wind dragons, vainly searching for a clue to where they might find Ravi. Most of the Jaeggi were running, abandoning their cars now that the roads were useless to them. They plunged toward the surrounding woods, desperate for escape from the attacking dragons and mages.