All at once, any other thought left Coquina’s head and she was as wide-eyed and frantic as her friend. “What?” she gasped. “How long has she been gone?”
“The Precil wasn’t specific, but he mentioned that it was Hemï,” Tidi said. “So a good while. Then today she flew into the Peak Circle and announced a clan meeting when the Corisol sets tonight.”
Her voice had dropped now to a whisper, hushed with the secret, despite there being no nearby dragons. The closest set of scales were a pair of grey dragons chasing each other around a mountain peak in the distance.
“How did you get him to say all this?” Coquina asked, subconsciously doing the same. “And why doesn’t everyone know?” she added, the sudden realisation edging her tone with annoyance. “If the Dux has been missing for that long, surely the whole clan should know? She is our leader, after all.”
Tidi shifted her scales, moving closer to Coquina, her gaze darting from side to side. “I don’t know, but clearly they were trying to hide it. The Precil also said he got recently promoted and was told then. Which is probably why his tongue was a little looser, too.” She smirked. “I barely even provoked him. He just got annoyed because I was working slow -- I’d call it careful, but whatever -- and I asked what the hurry was. He mentioned that meeting. I asked why, and he explained.”
Narrowing her eyes, Coquina shook her head slowly. “Did you also threaten pain?”
A sheepish smile tugged at Tidi’s snout. “Maybe. He did have very sensitive wings.”
A pause followed, in which Coquina’s mind raced. Latriis had been the only Dux she’d ever known, but from what her Mator and the other older dragons said, she was a little more secretive than the previous leader. While the Dux before her had been very open about announcing clan meetings, Latriis often only told those highest in the clan -- the Precil and Duxil Proeliars, and of course her two loyal Secundux -- of her plans. She had no mate, and no heirs; a matter she seemed strangely unbothered by.
She had also, as far as Coquina knew, never ordered them to attack another clan. The Hiedium clan remained passive, every dragon staying firmly within the borders of their territory. Coquina had never seen a Teffré, or a Dâstri, or a Flūvio, knowing only of them from her Mator’s teachings. Only the Celïsora dragons that made up Hiedium.
Which was why it was so strange that a green Teffré, and apparently a red one too, appeared within her visions.
Shaking off the thoughts, she met Tidi’s eyes. They both shared the confusion. It made sense for such a secretive leader to cover up whatever she was doing, but it didn’t prevent their curiosity.
“Did the Precil say what the meeting was about?” Coquina asked eventually, unable to withhold her thirst to know more.
Sadly, Tidi shook her head. “I don’t think he knew.” Suddenly, her expression changed to one of mischief -- eyes alight, claws tapping, smile twitching. “But there’s a way we can find out.”
Coquina’s eyes widened. “We go?”
“Exactly. It’s not like they’ll stop us. Just because they don’t tell us about these things doesn’t mean we can’t go.”
Tilting her head to the side, Coquina frowned. “Really? I didn’t think they’d let a Humil and a young Medicor in on something like that.”
Tidi shrugged. “My Mator tried it once, when she was flying over the Peak Circle and stumbled across it. No-one chased her out.” Her grin widened. “I’ve always wanted to try it, but Latriis has meetings so rarely. But now I can. We can,” she added, nudging Coquina.
She squirmed. It didn’t feel entirely right, snooping on secrets she wasn’t strictly supposed to know. But she couldn’t deny the way her heart sped up at the thought, filled with the same thrill freefalling straight through cloud had provided.
Coupled with begging curiosity, the decision was automatic. Her head nodded of its own accord. “Yes. Let’s do it.”
Together, they spread their wings and took off into the dimming sky. The mysteries of magic and strange dragons could go unsolved for another night. Right now, Coquina had a real mystery to solve, one that came with the possibility of making sense.
Yet as she cut through the air, another feeling tugged at her scales. A nagging feeling, one that whispered of doubt and danger. How she would regret stepping into secrets she wasn’t supposed to know.
But, just as she had with the red dragon, she ignored it.
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