The Dragon War - Chapter 15

Chapter 15
What's Lost

It was a month before Zilia flew with Twilight for the first time.  Almost two weeks before, three men had passed by the mountain below us and caught sight of Icemoon.  We flew into the Dragon Academy as quickly as possible to hide, but they had obviously seen us and took an even quicker pace northward.  I didn't even know how they got past the fairies in Melagoya, so I consulted Flamalista and she told me that she had never seen them.  She thought I was joking.
Those strange men haunted my thoughts until I was helping Zilia saddle her beautiful purple dragon.  Juniper was going to aid Zilia in her flight training, and Garnet and Alexandria were there to watch and fly with us, even though Alexandria should have been in a literary class.
Juniper leapt into the air.  Zilia, on the back of her Scythe Dragon, flew up to a steady position beside the beacon.  The girl's hazel eyes shone with excitement, as her black hair flew in the wind behind her like a flag in a storm.  I tailed behind by about 20 yards, watching from Icemoon's back at Zilia's progress.  Twilight faltered slightly, his large, fan-like, deep purple wings angling toward the ground.
Keep his wings up, Zilia, I instructed.  Juniper turned to face the girl and dragon, and suddenly, from the east, came a large black form.  A siren.  I hadn't seen one in so long that my reaction was delayed.
I shouted out to Juniper, and she turned just in time, but lost her concentration and started to plummet.  Her wings flew out and buffeted her, keeping her up in the air.  She twirled and flew off to my right, and one siren became four, carrying a large net.  My heart began to race like the quick movements of a field mouse.  They wanted to capture the beacon.  I angled Icemoon toward the sirens, who were gaining much speed and less than five feet from Juniper.  Zilia and Twilight tried to come down to help as well, though the dragon couldn't fly quickly with the unusual weight of his rider.  Prophecy, as well, tried to help.
Stay back from the sirens, and watch out.  They're quick, I warned Zilia and Alexandria. Twilight alighted his wings and struggled to stay aloft. I turned back to Juniper and chased after the sirens.  I saw the beacon slashing at the biggest siren with her knife.  I could see she was having trouble by the cut on her cheek.  It tore away from her after we came nearer and launched itself toward Icemoon, while the other three sirens engulfed Juniper in their net.  I took in a quick breath as the force of the impact jarred my senses.  I slashed Moonblade through the air in a wide arc, aimed right for the siren.  It screeched as my weapon hit its mark, but was only slightly injured, and dropped down below us, flying over to where the other sirens were attacking Juniper.
I called out the beacon's name as the air around me slowed.  My senses were exaggerated tenfold, and I gasped with fear as Twilight neared the sirens.  All at once, Zilia screamed and suddenly fell back when Twilight was grappling with the sirens.  Though she was strapped into the saddle, one leg must have slipped free, because Zilia fell further and dangled from a single strap of leather.  Twilight roared and Icemoon joined his voice.  My dragon flew down under Zilia, and I grabbed her arms and pulled her up to position, holding her one arm while she strapped her leg securely.  I looked up to see Juniper struggling to get free from the ropes.  Twilight thrashed with a siren, and made it harder for Zilia to hold on.  Icemoon tried to help the inexperienced dragon, while I was becoming increasingly agitated.  My friend was being captured, and a training Dragon Keeper was holding me back from doing anything useful.
Finally Zilia was secured properly, so I released my grip and switched my sword from my left hand to my right.  Suddenly Juniper cried out and I reached toward her as Icemoon came closer to the sirens.  With my sword I slashed several ropes of the net in half, but it was hardly a big enough area for Juniper to escape from.  The beacon was working to free herself with her own knife, but it didn't seem to be working well in her favor.
Icemoon launched himself onto the sirens in an attempt to throw them and save Juniper, but they held fast and moved as one, weaving around my dragon and dodging my swings of the sword.  It was hard to attack full-on while I had the chance of injuring Juniper.
Then the sirens picked up their wings and flew to the east, where they had come, all but the one I had injured, which lurked behind and attacked Zilia, catching her off guard from the back.  It flung itself at her, claws first, and just as I shouted out its talons dug into her back.  Zilia cried out and leaned forward heavily.  She pulled her arm up, sword at the ready, and the siren taunted her.  As Icemoon neared, the siren turned and its shrill cry was suddenly cut short.  Icemoon released the black body from his claws, and it fell to land right in front of the Dragon Academy below.
When both Icemoon and Twilight had landed, I ran over to Zilia and helped to untie her from the saddle.  The wound wasn't as bad as I had thought, but was still serious.  Where the siren had attacked her back with its talons were long, ragged rakes from her shoulders to the center of her back.
Since Twilight had only flown once with his rider, I moved Zilia to Icemoon and he flew her down into the academy with ease.  I walked alongside Twilight toward the entrance, my head down, thinking only of the beacon that was out there in the sky somewhere.  The beacons had all gone after her as we landed.  What would the sirens do to her?  I looked up into the sky when Twilight stopped walking, and noticed he was doing the same.
This is my fault.  I'm sorry, he said, not even looking my direction.
You didn't do anything wrong.  You're a training dragon.   I knew though, that Twilight would help me find Juniper, whether he wanted to or not.

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I wanted to save Juniper and help the sirens that left to get her back, but Garnet talked me out of it.  "We can't risk being seen again!  It's been too many times already, and Icemoon is the most infamous of the dragons among people in Besun now.  If he was caught flying overhead again…" I remembered the days when Icemoon was a hatchling and Garnet seemingly led the world against me in my efforts to keep him hidden, but now she was doing me a favor and making sense of the situation.
"I can't go," I would then say softly, and turn to her and ask why she couldn't go either.
"It's important that we both stay here now.  The worst that can happen to Juniper is that she won't be found by the beacons and will be killed by the sirens, but her friends were all right on her tail.  There isn't a single possibility that she won't be found and saved." I nodded over and over again, trying to tell that to myself.
I was not the only one feeling guilty; Twilight barely ate and I was sure he didn't sleep much either.  Since Zilia was injured and unable to train much in those following days, he spent his time worrying instead of being useful: a common pattern of his, though I couldn't blame him.  Deep inside though, I held a quiet resentment for the dragon.  I tried to push it away to the back of my mind, but it surfaced every time I saw him.  I hated myself for blaming the son of Silvia and Silvertongue, my own dragon's brother, for all my own problems.
So, really, several problems bugged me in the following days as I awaited the beacons with bated breath.  Three days after they left, though, something new and exciting occurred.
I was helping Sam in the forge prepare for a class since Flix, his forge assistant, was off finding Juniper.  Noah and Ferox came down together and took their seats, talking to one another as we waited for Alexander, the third student.  Icemoon sat in the corner and watched us with mild interest as he occupied Lybia.  She was becoming more and more interested with everything around her and played with Icemoon's paws.  Sam trusted Icemoon primarily with his daughter because of his inability to breathe fire.  Icemoon pretended not to mind, but I knew it ate at him.
So I cleaned up around the forge while Sam got out all the tools we would be using that day to teach all three students how to make a sword hilt, as they had learned the different parts of a sword in previous lessons.  Once we were ready, ten minutes after the class should have begun, Alexander was still not there.
"I'll search for his consciousness," I told Sam.  I found everyone's mind in the academy, even Lybia's, but not Alexander's.  "Where is he?" I turned to Icemoon, but he couldn't find his thoughts, either.  Alexander was either hiding from us, or gone.
"I'll start the class," Sam said, "Go look for him." I nodded and ran outside the forge and halfway up the gray stairs in the center of the hall, and then something made me stop and turn around.  A feeling was pressing against the side of my mind.  I latched onto it and saw Alexander through my mind's eye, standing in the Snow Dragon cave.
I nearly fell down the steps trying to get there quickly, but upon my arrival my little brother was cradling a softly rocking egg in his lap on the floor, in the same spot Judah had helped Aduro to hatch and the same spot Judah gave me back my haven.
The sight of seeing a dragon hatch never got old, but I wasn't as surprised as I normally would be.  I watched from the doorway as Alexander pulled away both halves of the light brown egg to reveal his dragon.
Tears formed in my eyes to watch the expression that came across my brother's face: complete awe and amazement, mingled with such an excitement that all he could do was hug the tiny dragon that wrapped its paws around his shoulder.
It was built in stature like Aduro, since it was a Snow Dragon.  I quickly noticed its short horns and tiny claws, which led me to believe it was a female.  Her scales were pure white, like beautiful, shining pearls.  Her eyes were soft brown – like the color of her egg – and large and beaming.  Alexander just noticed I was there.  Tears of joy were streaming down his cheeks in rivulets.  I connected with his elated mind.
This was the time, I assured him with a smile.  He came over and I hugged him comfortingly.  The little Snow Dragon squawked in protest.  He pulled away and looked hard at her.  Have you chosen a name?
Ebony, he answered immediately.  I wanted to name my dragon for the opposite of its color, even though it sounds odd.
Ebony fits beautifully.  After a minute of talking about the newest addition to the Dragon Academy, I called everyone in to see Alexander's dragon.  I was so proud of my little brother for all that he had accomplished.  When Sam came all he could do was stare in awe at his brother.
"You're the only one left," I said to him as we watched from out in the hallway.
He looked at me and then back to Alexander.  "I'm not sure if I want a dragon.  I'm not sure if I want my family to have dragons." His words surprised me.  I turned and stared at him.  His expression was serene.  "I think being around them so often is enough for Alicia and I.  I don't think Lybia needs a dragon." I nodded once to show my indifference, though inside I was burning to know why.  I thought Sam would come with us to be a part of the dragons.
My mother seemed worried by Alexander's acquiring a dragon since he was considered the baby of her children, as Alexandria was slightly older than him.  I assured her that this was the time for Alexander to play a part in the academy, as before he had been contemplating whether he wanted a dragon or not.
I never asked Alexander what led him into the Snow Dragon cave, or why he was there and not in the dragon's forge for class.  Sam was upset that he couldn't teach his students how to make swords, since every time a dragon hatched at least an hour was taken from everyone's schedule.
We resumed the day and had a feast of a dinner, though every evening turned out that way.  Ebony quickly became friends with Aduro and Prophecy since Alexander and Alexandria spent so much time together.  The following day when I went out with Garnet to the base of the mountain for a walk, Alexander came and brought Ebony with him.  She chased butterflies and Shamba Phoenixes and fairies while we watched and laughed about the times we had with Icemoon in the Diamond Stone Abbey.  I grew closer to Alexander then, and I brought him to the cave to show him the Hanging Steps.
"I want to fly with Ebony from these steps," he said as we sat on the top step.  His little white Snow Dragon ran circles around us and coughed little bursts of flame.  
"That's what I did with Icemoon.  Garnet flew with Silvia for the first time over the waterfall about a league away, and everyone else did from the academy roof.  You can fly wherever you want." He smiled wide at me, as he had been doing all day, and turned his attention to Ebony.  I looked up at the stars and couldn't wait to watch Alexander touch them as I had.