After about ten minutes of walking, the dining pavilion still hadn't come into view. I stopped and sat down under a bluewood tree to try and calm down before I started walking again. Luckily, everyone was at breakfast, or I might've been seen. My hands were still, and I couldn't smother them, no matter what I tried. All I could think about was what would happen when they realized why Leera hated me so much. I could imagine it - a procession of enforcers leading me to a death wizard to be killed. In my mind, the death wizard was Sarafin.
I heard a dragon's heavy footsteps padding up behind me bolted to my feet, sparking fists behind my back. The dragon was Sarafin's. He and his dragon both peered down at me.
"You're a paltor, aren't you?" Sarafin asked. I jerked back at the word, then spun around and took off running. There was no time to transform and fly off, but even if there had been, I realized that the Alabri I'd brought with me was the one I'd drained last night.
"Stop!" Sarafin shouted after me. That only made me run faster, though I wasn't sure where I was running to.
The ground in front of me erupted in flames from above, and I stopped so quickly that I fell to the ground inches from them. Before I could get back on my feet, I felt claws at my back. I heard Sarafin jump to the ground and come over to me. The claws moved, then he grabbed my wrists and pulled me to my feet. My hands were still sparking, but I was tried to keep them from getting too hot so I wouldn't burn Sarafin. From the skull and crossbones insignia on his gloves, I knew he was a death wizard. Burning him would only bring about my execution quicker.
"Don't try anything foolish," Sarafin warned, taking out his wand. He turned me back towards his dragon. I went without fight when he forced me up on his dragon's back and sat behind me in the saddle. We took off a second later.
As we flew across the island, a thousand questions ran across my mind about how I could escape and where I would go if I did. There was no way Leera could know to come and help me, even if she was willing to do it. I cursed my absent mindedness for not bringing a charged Alabri and tried to come up with some way to get free.
All too soon, the director's office building came into view on the island's dragon-head-shaped peninsula. We landed just outside the marble-columned building, and I searched desperately for some route of escape. Sarafin didn't let go of my wrists for a second, but even if he had, he could still kill me at a distance with his wand. My heart pounded at the thought. I knew that the moment I saw the slightest chance at freedom, I had to take it. Better to die trying to escape than in front of a crowd of jeering onlookers.
Sarafin led me up to the office's double doors, keeping one hand on my wrists when he opened them. We went in, and his dragon stayed outside. The open entry hall headed in two directions - up a staircase and down a smaller hall. Sarafin headed for the smaller hall, and I decided that now was my last chance to escape. He had to think I wouldn't dare to try, so I had the element of surprise. Or so I hoped. I let fear heat my wrists to boiling. Sarafin let go with a shout, and I started running for the stairs as soon as he did. I reached the second floor landing and searched desperately for somewhere to hide. Sarafin was a second behind me, so I ducked into the first door I saw. When I slammed it shut behind me, it locked.
"Callah!" Sarafin shouted, pounding at the door. Relieved that I had at least some time to find a way out, I turned to inspect the room. A table full of very important-looking people were staring back at me. I'd managed to stumble into a conference room of sorts. There were a dozen or so wizards, cinems, and talmes sitting at a long, oval table made of marble. A man near the far end of the table caught my eye. He was the wizard from the alley - the one who'd been selling mind-jinking collars. What kind of meeting was this?
"I believe our guest has arrived." A pale cinem woman at the head of the table stood as she spoke, smoothing out a wrinkle in her sky-blue silk dress. White-blond curls fell to her waist. I could immediately tell she was in charge by the way she held herself. Even so, I felt obligated to interject.
"Guest? You were expecting me?" I asked, furtively looking around for another escape root. The cinem woman nodded. That wasn't good. How could they have known what I was before Sarafin had even told her?
"Not in this precise manner or at this specific time, but I did expect your arrival to occur sometime today," the woman answered. She sounded like she was about to say something more, but Sarafin shouted "Callah!" again, and she stopped.
"Do let him in," she said after a moment. I wanted to argue, but what good would that do? They had to know what I was already; there was no other reason why they'd be expecting me. What I didn't get was why they'd sent a single wizard and dragon to bring me in, when usually half the province's enforcers captured paltors. Then again, Sarafin had done a pretty good job of putting me in a situation I had no way out of.
Reluctantly, I turned and unlocked the door. Sarafin threw it open and froze when presented with the room full of people.
"Cal - I mean, Miss Dorimal, I didn't realize you were conducting a meeting," Sarafin said. I noticed his hands were a violent kind of red where he'd been holding my wrists, and I grimaced. The thought of running out behind him crossed my mind, but I realized that I'd be shot down before I took a step, what with the room being full of wizards. Maybe if I waited, there would be another chance to escape.
"I do have important news," Sarafin announced, "Ella is most definitely a paltor."
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