Page 72 of Cast By Flames (Dragon's Breath)
I wiped thesweat from my brow. “Phew, that was close.”
Everyone was breathing hard from exertion, including Verena, who had pushed her powers to the max. I didn’t look forward to repeating this process throughout today and tomorrow, but it had to be done. Every mask we grabbed could mean one more life saved.
“It will be two hours before I can regain enough power to open and hold it again,” the sorceress said, brushing sweat-slickened brown hair from her face.
I was pretty sure she kept it open for closer to three minutes, but I doubted she could pull that off again without more time to recharge. We’d have to work even faster next time.
Galadon moved toward us, gesturing to head toward the back offices. He held a finger to his lips, indicating to keep silent. A Kandoran patrol must be out there. I had begun to wonderwhy we hadn’t seen any yet, but I supposed they couldn’t cover every inch of the open territory all the time. This place probably hadn’t had any notable activity for them to watch closely in quite a while.
We waited in silence deep inside the building, hardly daring to breathe. We couldn’t risk getting caught, especially this early into our mission. Galadon went back out to check. He eventually returned half an hour later and gave us the all-clear.
The next barracks building across the parking lot looked identical to the first. We repeated the process of gathering the masks from each NBC room and then combining them together. I organized where everyone would stand while throwing the masks to minimize the time it took to move them. Once I gave Verena a thumb-up, she opened the portal.We were tossing them through the second it opened, as if we were competing for a medal at the Olympics.
Once again, we barely finished before the portal closed. It had been only two minutes this time, and I suspected it would be even shorter the next timeas we continued to drain her powers. The fact she could do it so many times was a testament to her strong abilities.
It occurred to me she could have done much worse things to us if she’d actually been an enemy all those years ago. True, she’d messed with mine and Danae’s memories and inserted commands against our will, but she’d technically had a good—if dubious—reason. I’d stayed angry at her for so long, even after she saved my life, but she was risking herself again. Maybe it was time to let it go.
We barely reached the next set of barracks before a Kandoran patrol came along again. Galadon made us wait until it passed and returned twenty minutes later before letting us getto work. That was fine since Verena needed as much of a break as possible to recharge. We used it to drink water and eat some beef jerky we’d brought with us.
I rubbed my shoulders. “It didn’t occur to me we’d be getting a workout.”
“No kidding.” Conrad flexed a bicep. “These babies are in great shape, but they’ll be even bigger by the time we’re done. My girl’s gonna be happy.”
I smiled and shook my head.
Rayna rubbed her arms. “The more strength and endurance we have before the war, the better. I couldn’t have replicated this kind of workout if I tried.”
I cocked my head. “Do you exercise much?”
“Every day,” she said and took a swig of water. “We have natural strength, but I fight better when I do hardcore daily workouts in the morning. Plus, there’s not much else to do between hunts except read or talk to the birds.”
Galadon frowned at her from where he stood, watching for Kandoran, but said nothing. Did she really mean that last part about the birds? Nah, I didn’t want to know.
I finished eating my snack before going to speak with the lone shifter. “You’re helping with the masks on this next round. Titan can take over here.”
Galadon was the strongest of us and the most rested. We could only send masks one more time before Verena would need to take a break for the night, and we needed to get as many through as possible. The lone shifter could probably throw twice as many as me with my small hands.
I only preferred using him for thewatch because his kind had better eyesight and could spot dragons coming from longer distances. Galadon also had a knack for sensing their dark magic sooner than anyone due to being part sorcerer, but now I needed his strength and speed even more.
“Very well,” he said.
I went to grab Titan so they could switch places.
***
We’d slept in the barracks during the night and early morning hours. There were more than enough beds to spread out, and it didn’t appear anyone had used them since shortly after the dragons arrived. Of course, the shifters laid camrium blankets on the mattresses before lying on them to avoid starting a fire.
Verena, Rayna, Conrad, and I woke an hour after dawn. The shifters wouldn’t be able to rise until at least eleven in the morning, but I didn’t want to waste valuable daylight. There wouldn’t be any Kandoran patrols so early in the day. We gathered the rest of the masks from the training area and sent them to Norman. The work went slower with fewer people, but we finished a batch about the time the shifters got out of their beds.
Now, we’d have to find masks from the other units scattered around Ft. Sill, but those were on the other side of I-44. We gave Galadon, Freya, Titan, and Eliam thirty minutes to eat and get ready before heading out on the long walk down the road.
“Damn,” Conrad said after we crossed under the interstate. “They didn’t fuck around over here.”
The rest of the base was in terrible shape. It appeared the military had put up a much bigger fight on this end when the dragons arrived, and it had been deadly. I spotted destroyed buildings with only partially crumbling walls left. Craters were in the roads, fields, and parking lots almost everywhere. Ft. Sill wasn’t as condensed as some military posts. There were a lot of wide open spaces, but the battles had happened almost everywhere.
Though we tried to keep up a swift pace as we searched for intact buildings, it wasn’t easy. In the ruins on one corner, we spotted numerous partial skeletons across the floors of the destroyed structure. I couldn’t begin to estimate how many people they belonged to, but it was clear dragon fire had hit the place with all the scorch marks.
Sometimes, only hip and leg bones wereleft, and others, the opposite, with only the skull, spine, and ribs. In several cases, fingerbones still clutched at half-disintegrated rifles. Visions of how they must have died made my throat tighten. The flames only burned what they touched, so everything else remained intact. My stomach curdled at the suffering some must have endured if they didn’t die immediately.
