Suddenly, I could see an enormous pile of pulsing silver orbs sitting in a dark void. Every orb held one of my memories. The most recent ones were on the outside of the pile by me, and through gaps between the outer orbs, I saw older ones deeper in. When I stepped towards the pile, one of the orbs flew up and displayed Clarisa's face. It spoke in her voice, but I didn't remember ever hearing what she was saying.

"You see the blue mist over there?"

I looked around and saw a patch of blue mist a little ways away from the pile of memories. It was hard to judge distances in this void, but the mist seemed fairly close.

The Clarisa orb continued, "The spell allows you to visualize your memories as physical objects and move them to a safe place where the probe can't find them. It doesn't last very long because the memories want to stay together in the main pile. If you are probed again before the spell runs out, you will have to hide the memories for a second time. If you are probed after the spell runs out, you're out of luck. Move any incriminating memory orbs to the mist quickly."

The memory orb quieted and started dropping from the air. I caught it just as a red, sweeping beam of light appeared on the opposite side of the pile of memories. It changed form and solidified into a daltek, who immediately began inspecting the orbs. I hoped there was nothing incriminating over there, because I couldn't steal memory orbs from right in front of him or he'd figure out that something was up.

I focused on the side of the pile near me, where I could see the memories that covered the time from when I joined the Academy until now. They all had a green glow around them that the earlier memories didn't, probably corresponding to when I bonded with Leera. I sorted through them, grabbing any that mentioned the mission or my true allegiance to Lykela.

Feeling for some reason that I shouldn't let the dalteks see my memories of the bronze katalni either, I reached for those as well. But because my arms were full of memory orbs at the time, I only managed to drop several as I picked up the new ones. They stuck to the pile as if magnetized, which made an audible zinging noise.

I glanced up at the daltek, who seemed incredibly focused on his task. He was already halfway to me. I didn't think I'd be able to run the orbs I was carrying to the mist, come back, and hide the rest in time.

"Let me help," a girl's voice said from behind me.

I jumped at the unexpectedness of finding someone else in my mind, but I relaxed as I realized there could only be one other person here. I turned around, expecting to see a green dragon but instead spotting a teenage girl about my age with long, green hair.

"Leera?"

"Yeah. Hands are more useful than claws, so I imagined myself like this." She picked up the memories I'd dropped and the the katalni ones as well. Frowning, she picked up the memory when I was an owl and the bronze katalni stopped her from eating me. "I almost killed you. You never said."

"That's not important right now. We have to hide these." I headed for the blue mist.

She followed close behind, and we deposited the memory orbs there. As soon as we finished, I felt like I was forgetting something big.

"You can't remember the memories you hid," Leera said.

"What memories?"

She patted my shoulder. "You'll remember soon."

I hoped so.

The daltek neared us but didn't look up from his work. His hands were like lightning, picking up hundreds of orbs and setting them back down before I could blink.

He checked the last one without incident, and I was pulled back into reality. His hands were no longer on my head, but I had a throbbing headache, and my entire body felt like I'd run a marathon.

"Strange girls, not fight, no screaming," the daltek said.

His friend mumbled something in Ferish.

"Don't drink paltors," the first daltek said.

I stiffened at the idea of them drinking my blood and tried to force myself about of the chair. It took both of the dalteks half-carrying me by the arms to get me up and out of the room. As much as my skin crawled when the bloodsuckers touched me, I couldn't walk without their help.

I stumbled over to Leera and leaned against her for support. "Thanks for helping me," I whispered since my head was hurting too much to send thought messages.

[We're in this together.]

A bolt of pain accompanied her message. Groaning, I massaged my temples.

Garavues stepped forward to address us all. "You are permitted to remain in Ferentis for as long as you wish. My men will escort you to the nearest inn, where you will be able to rest and recuperate after all that has happened to you. You should be advised that dragons without control collars are not allowed in town. I have several spares you can use."

Leera shifted uncomfortably, pulling back when he retrieved four mind-jinking collars from his saddlebags.

[I won't wear one of those.] She backed up and stepped on the foot of a katalni. His rider flicked his reins and caused him to snap his teeth in Leera's direction. She refused to move any closer to Garavues.

He handed me a collar. "Is there something wrong with your dragon?"

"Nothing's wrong."

He glanced at Leera and went to hand out the other three collars.

I understood why Leera would be resistant to the idea of wearing a mind-jinking collar, especially after her experience during the Choosing Ceremony, but now wasn't the time to argue. I turned to Leera and whispered, "You have to wear it."

[I won't.]

"You have to wear it here. It won't be that bad. It's not like I'm going to use it to hurt you." A twinge of guilt weakened my resolve. I'd long suspected that Callah's colleague had mind-jinked Leera into choosing me, meaning that the cinem she'd originally tried to choose was the person she'd actually wanted, not me. In that way, I'd already hurt her with a mind-jinking device. Not that I'd been in control of it then, of course, but I would be now.

There wasn't any point in feeling guilty. This had to be done. As soon as we were alone, I would take the collar off. I moved closer to her, and she bared her fangs.

She snarled. [I don't blame you for what happened at the ceremony, but so help me, if you take one step closer with that thing, I will flame on you.]

Not many dragons could make that threat without risking the life of their rider. Lucky me. "Okay, forget the collar."

"Do you need help putting on your dragon's collar?" Garavues asked. He'd mounted his dragon and now towered over us.

"I don't need any help, thanks."

Tawny pulled me aside. "You do need help. Admit it before your wild animal of a dragon gets us all killed."

"She wouldn't-"

Garavues whistled, and his golden mount tackled Leera to the ground.

"What are you doing?" I shouted.

He scoffed lightly. "Your dragon tried to bite Senvor's katalni."

[He bit me first,] Leera insisted, holding up her tail. She couldn't do much else while pinned by the katalni, but it was enough to let me see that she had been bitten.

"She's clearly feral. If you are too afraid to put the collar on her, I will, for the good of everyone she might come into contact with." Garavues jumped down from his mount and took the collar from me.

I stepped between him and Leera. "She won't be any trouble, I promise."

"This is not a personal insult to your dragon. All dragons must wear collars here. Step aside, or return to your country. It is your decision."

I hesitated for a long moment, but I knew that the success of the mission was more important than Leera's personal feelings. If we didn't succeed, all of us and everyone in Lykela would die or be enslaved by Ferentisians. I stepped aside and looked away from Leera.

She roared, then went silent. A second later, I was hit by the sudden realization that I was completely alone in my own mind. When I looked up, Leera was standing again, completely still. Even when I hadn't been able to sense her thoughts before, I'd always been able to tell that our mental bond was still there, but now... there was nothing. Was it possible that Ferentisian mind-jinking collars could actually sever the dragon-rider bond? If they could, I might have just made the worst decision of my life.

"She will not give you any more problems," Garavues said, smiling as if he'd done me a great favor.

"Oh-okay."

"Mount your dragons, and Menira will take you to Fraz city," he called to the others.

"Leera?" I asked.

She turned her head towards me but didn't show any sign of recognition.

"Could you... you know?" I pointed at the ground, and she cocked her head.

"You must give them direct commands," Garavues said.

"Kneel," I reluctantly said.

Leera knelt. I had a flashback to when I'd first joined with Leera, when I thought that being a rider would give me absolute control over a powerful beast. This was it, the complete obedience that you only got with a highly trained animal, but it made my stomach churn. The millisecond I had a chance, I would take the collar off her.