Daybreak arrived before anyone came to take us off the beach. I'd slept a little, but frequent nightmares and the uncomfortable feeling of being alone in my own head meant I woke up exhausted. A yellowish-tan katalni landed on the beach as I was getting up. He wasn't as big as the other katalnis which I'd seen, which made me think that he was younger than them.

"The two-legs are to be guests of the Council. Their things are to be taken up for them." He nodded at Tezzla.

"You must be joking, Pendro," she said.

"Orders from Elder Jortingal. Apparently, the two-leg leader is very convincing."

"Very well."

We left the thunderbeasts behind, and after a twenty-minute walk, we stopped in the entrance hall of a simply enormous building that the katalnis called their main meeting place. The entrance hall was mostly empty, and our footsteps echoed throughout the huge space. It was a beautiful room, paneled with gold-leafed redwood that matched the spiraling designs on the columns lining both sides of the hall. At the back of the room stood a set of double doors so large that two katalni standing on each other's backs could've walked through them.

Pendro had spent the entire walk up detailing how important his work as Jortingal's aid was. He started to talk again, and I thought he was going to brag some more.

"Only two of the two-legs are allowed to enter. Elder Jortingal said their names were Galantra and Ella."

"I'm Galantra." Galantra ran forward and gave Pendro a sly smile.

I hesitantly joined her. "I'm Ella."

Pendro nodded at the two silver-armored attendants standing beside the double doors. They opened them, revealing a meeting room almost as large as the entrance hall. Galantra and I went in, though she seemed much more excited about it than I thought she should've been. As soon as we entered, they closed the doors behind us. Being shorter than the room's massive conference table, I couldn't see much from where I was.

The nearest katalni offered his forepaws to us. Galantra sat in one and I and the other, and he lifted us to stand on the table.

Farot sat on the table next to the elderly brown katalni from last night who was probably Elder Jortingal.

To my surprise, our dragons were in the room as well. The four of them sat together on Jortingal's left. Unlike the katalnis, who sat on the ground and could easily reach the table with their claws, our dragons had to stand to reach the table with their snouts. Leera looked away when I noticed her.

Jortingal lowered his head to look down at us. "These two are both mages?"

"Galantra is." Farot gave me a strange look. "But I do not know why Ella is here."

"She passed through the shield around our island before it was lowered. Only someone with katalni or mage blood could do so. Her heritage is assured, though I know not of Galantra's. Let me test her." Jortingal clicked his teeth together and opened his mouth wide.

I summoned the quickest fire shield I could and threw it up in front of us. Jortingal's flame hit the shield and drove me back. The heat was so intense that I started to sweat, while Galantra simply crumpled to the table. My hands shook as I held them out to maintain the shield. The flames streamed around the edges of the shield, scorching the air. It was worse than any fire I'd ever been in, except maybe the one caused by the bronze katalni.

Only then, it hadn't been direct katalni fire, just fire the katalni had summoned. This was so much worse. Drenched in sweat, I fell to my knees, my heart pounding so hard it hurt. I could hardly breathe, but Jortingal didn't show any signs of stopping. Cracks formed in my shield.

"Enough," someone shouted.

The fire stopped coming, and I dropped my hand to my lap. Without Leera's strength, I didn't have the energy to keep up a shield like that for long. If the fire hadn't stopped, I would've been burned alive. Jortingal obviously hadn't cared one iota that we might die. After all that had happened, I didn't really blame him.

"Ella is obviously at least part mage. You don't have to kill her to find that out," Leera mumbled. Apparently she'd been the one who made Jortingal stop.

I stayed on my hands and knees, hardly able to lift my head, as Farot rushed over to Galantra.

"Galantra, speak to me." He lifted her partway off the table. Her head lolled to the side. It didn't look like she was breathing.

Jortingal narrow his eyes. "I believed that mages shared our complete immunity to fire. My apologies."

Apologies wouldn't save Galantra's life, if there was anything left to save. "She needs a healer."

"Agreed," Farot said. His face was twisted into an expression that imitated grief, but there was a spark of triumph in his eyes that made my stomach squirm.

Jortingal waved his claws at a gray katalni standing along the wall, who came and took Galantra away. Farot stayed and moved closer to me.

"Now you are the only one who can open the portal." He smiled. "You should have said, but this is still good. For the good of the katalnis, I mean."

Yeah, right. Now wasn't the time to upset him, though. I wasn't in any state to fight him off. He offered me a hand up, and I took it. When I glanced over at Leera, I saw that BlueIsle had her head buried under her wing, apparently not having wanted to see us become barbecue.

Jortingal cleared his throat. "Do you swear to open the portal and free the mindstones kept beyond it?"

"S-swear?" I hated to take an oath that I couldn't or wouldn't keep, especially since I still hadn't completely decided what to do about the mindstones. And it wouldn't have surprised me if swearing in front of a katalni carried some magical penalty if you broke your oath, which was the last thing I wanted to deal with now.

"Yes." Jortingal bobbed his head. "Swear that you will end the imprisonment of the Lykelan dragons if you are able."

"I swear." I did plan to free the dragons if I was able. And that was a big if.

"Then we shall feast tonight, for our brethren will soon be liberated." He bugled joyfully. The rest of the katalnis joined in as well, but the dragons seemed unsure about all this.

Once they'd all quieted down, I found that the room was swaying, and I was shaky all over. There were little spots forming at the edge of my vision that looked similar to my early fire magic attempts. "I don't feel so-"

I woke on a bed in complete darkness. I could tell that I'd been bathed and was wearing a new set of loose clothes that weren't mine. After pondering how that had happened for a second, I decided that I didn't really want to know and pulled back the covers. When I swung my legs out of bed, I hit a short table. I felt around the table and found a glow orb in one of its drawers. When I turned it on, a green snout inches from my face nearly gave me a heart attack.

Leera glanced around. "No fire? Surprising."

"It was bad enough when you did that at the Academy." I took deep breaths, trying to slow my pounding heart.

"Right." She raised a claw to scratch the back of her neck. "I just came to see if you were okay. You look okay. So... bye." She walked to the door.

"Wait." I stepped toward her.

"They put your things over there." She nodded at the opposite end of the room.

"That wasn't what I-"

She left.

Shaking my head, I went over to where my stuff was piled up at the end of the room. Everything was there, except for Leera's saddle. I wondered briefly what they'd done with it as I searched for my alabri. I just found one just as Clarisa walked in.

"You have a duty to Lykela."

I straightened. "Dragons are Lykelans. They-"

She grimaced. "Since when do you have fangs?"

"Since I passed out after Jortingal's fire test." I turned into a talme. "I just woke up."

"That was hours ago. I can't believe you've been sleeping all this time. We have to plan how to get Farot and his men out of the way."

"I passed out because a katalni tried to barbecue me and Galantra, not because I thought it would be fun to take a nap."

She raised an eyebrow. "And why would Jortingal try to barbecue you?"

"I didn't upset him, if that's what you're suggesting. He wanted to test if I was part katalni mage. Which I am. But of course, you knew all about that, didn't you?"