Chapter 9
She felt Eli’s altitude dropping before she saw the lights of New Hope in the distance, but she was glad that their journey was almost over. Her legs were numb, and her lips felt chapped from the constant wind that had blown in her face the entire way. Even covering her face with a jacket hadn’t helped, and she could only lay down on Eli’s back and use his neck to block the wind for so long before her body hurt from the awkward position. Once they had Lucy, she hoped that they could find a quiet place outside the city to bed down for a night before they raced home, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen. If Lucy had been discovered, then they were going to have to break her out and race away as quickly as possible. They wouldn’t be able to stop until they were in Aman, and even then, the choppers would likely follow them the entire way back. If they lasted that long. The choppers were faster and, unlike a living, breathing dragon, could go on almost indefinitely.
It was going to be a long night.
She looked across the darkness at Jason, who looked like he wasn’t fairing nearly as well as Anna was, and she felt a twinge of pity for him. He was going into this unprepared. Aman’s newest residents hadn’t spent much time training in hand-to-hand combat, and that put them at a disadvantage. But even knowing that they were outgunned and outnumbered, people had still stepped up and volunteered to go to New Hope to rescue Lucy. Many of the same people that had stood by and done nothing while Anna was running for her life in the village so long ago were the same ones here now, and Anna couldn’t help but wonder if they were here to make amends. They’d done nothing to help Anna when she had needed it most, and she was sure that the guilt of those moments almost a year before had eaten away at them. Whatever their reason for stepping up now, she didn’t care. They were taking care of Lucy, and they were putting their own lives on the line to do it. They had no idea what they were up against, and not one person had hesitated to step up in defense of the Princess. The turnout had done Anna’s heart good. After the deep sense of betrayal she had felt the year before, it was heartwarming to know that people could and did change for the better.
Eli landed well outside the city, and the rest of the group followed suit, landing near him and quickly finding cover beneath the trees of the dense forest on the outskirts of the city. Anna slid off Eli’s back as he shifted seamlessly from dragon to man. He reached out to steady her as she took her first step on legs that were cramped and wobbly.
“Thanks,” she said, wincing in the darkness, then rolling her eyes when she realized that he could see her expressions despite the cover of darkness.
“It’s alright,” he chuckled. “No one expects you to be comfortable riding that long.”
He rolled his shoulders and his neck, stretching his own tired muscles while the group gathered closer to wait for instruction.
When everyone was close enough to hear him, he laid out the plan and divided the people gathered there into four groups. He drew a rough map of the city in the hard dirt with a stick, and Anna was reminded of the times when they would play in the woods when they were younger, mapping out the trails and teams in much the same way. She could picture him as a young boy doing the same thing, even though they grew up worlds away from each other, and she fell in love with him a little more in that moment.
“Have you been to New Hope before?” Anna asked quietly when Eli finished divvying up the zones and the groups broke off to set up their plan.
“I came here a few months before we met. My father and mother met with Johansson and his wife to discuss renewing the treaty since it was nearly fifty years old.”
“Did that go well?” Anna asked.
“It did, but while we were here, we tried to explain to the President that he must be in danger.”
“Because it was in the Prophecy?”
He shook his head.
“The Prophecy isn’t as cut and dry as it seems. It’s hard to explain, but when we came here to smooth the waters and try to get ahead of any issues, we found that the sitting President was completely on our side and had no desire to change the way that things were going.”
“That’s great,” Anna said.
“Except, it wasn’t. Because we knew that there would be a leader among men who would challenge our right to life and our ownership of Aman, and President Johansson had more than a year after everything is prophesized before there would be another election.”
“Which meant that you realized that he was in danger,” Anna finished, the truth dawning on her as the pieces fell together. “He was either going to die or be thrown out of the government, but either way, his role as leader was in jeopardy.”
Eli smiled and brushed his thumb across her cheek tenderly.
“You are amazing,” he said quietly so that only she could hear him.
“I’ve learned a lot from you.” She noticed Jason and Kieran getting antsy, so she pressed Eli to get to the punchline. “Did you warn him that he was in danger?”
“We did. And we were very specific. He laughed it off and basically said that it was sweet that we still believed in fairytales. No matter what we said, he wouldn’t listen, and he brushed our Prophecy off as something that only the most superstitious believed in. He was dead within a year, and no one knows how he died.”
“And his wife?”
“Never found.”
“That’s terrifying.”
“That’s why we have to get Lucy out of here as quickly as possible and head home to ready ourselves for battle. Someone hates WereDragons so much that they would murder the President just to have their puppet in the White House so that they can manipulate him into ending the treaty and killing anyone who stands in the way of reunification. As long as Lucy’s here, we’re in danger of having her used as leverage to force our hand, and we can’t let the good of one trump the good of many.”
Anna’s breath caught in her throat as she struggled to take in his words.
“You don’t mean?” she gasped.
“I won’t leave her here,” he said. “But we can’t risk any other lives for her, and if she’s caught and we can’t get her away without complying with their demands and letting our entire nation down, then we will have to let her go.”
“I can’t do that,” Anna said fiercely.
“Then, let’s make sure that it never comes to that.”
He took her hand and began leading her toward the city, Jason and Kieran right behind them.
“Where are we going?” she whispered.
“The military base,” he said. “It’s the place she’s most likely to be, though I sent the others to secondary locations that have potential.”
“Maybe she’s not at this military base,” Anna said matter-of-factly.