Dragon's Storm (Legion Of Angels #4)(27)

The fourth throne, that of the Fire Dragon was empty.

“Trainees,” the Earth Dragon said, her voice filling the entire room. The metal flower pin on her dress identified her as a major in the Legion of Angels. “You have come all this way for nothing.”

“Early this morning, Colonel Starborn, the Fire Dragon of Storm Castle, was called away on an urgent mission,” said the Sky Dragon. He wore the same psychic hand pin as Captain Somerset and Jace’s sister.

“Without the Fire Dragon, this training cannot take place,” added the Sea Dragon, another captain.

The Earth Dragon held up her hand. “Wait.” She was looking at Captain Somerset. “Captain, your reputation as a master of elemental magic is known throughout the Legion. The First Angel once offered to make you a Dragon.”

I gawked at Captain Somerset in surprise. So that’s how she knew you could refuse the Legion’s offer to make you a Dragon.

“That was long ago,” Captain Somerset said.

“Your magic has only grown since then,” replied the Sea Dragon.

The Sky Dragon nodded. “You could take the Colonel’s place until her return.”

Captain Somerset’s mouth tightened. “I already have a job as this soldier’s mentor.” She waved her hand to indicate me.

“If you do not become the Fire Dragon, this training cannot take place,” the Earth Dragon said. “And without this training, these soldiers have a much lower chance of surviving their next sip of the gods’ Nectar.”

Colonel Fireswift would make us go through with the ceremony, with or without the training. The trainees here from other offices might have a more reasonable leader, but those of us from New York weren’t so lucky. Without this training, not everyone would survive. Nerissa wouldn’t survive.

“You have to do it,” I whispered to Captain Somerset.

“You have to do it,” I whispered to Captain Somerset.

She glanced at Nerissa. She’d obviously come to the same conclusion as I had. “Very well. I accept,” she told the Dragons.

“She can’t do it,” Kendra declared. “Her trainee would be left without a mentor. The rules of this training state that every trainee must have a mentor.”

“Will you be my mentor?” I asked Soren quickly.

“Of course,” he agreed.

“A mentor cannot have two students,” Kendra said. “It’s not allowed.”

I turned to face her. “Oh, really? Where does it say that?”

“Article seventeen, section four.”

“Article seventeen, section four. ‘Every soldier who participates in the Elemental Trials must have a mentor. This mentor must be an officer in the Legion of Angels’,” I quoted the section in question. “Nowhere in there does it say a mentor cannot oversee two trainees.”

I could see the wheels turning inside Kendra’s head as she pictured that passage. Her mouth dropped in outrage. She knew I was right—and she hated it. Kendra Fireswift was obviously the sort of person who liked to hit people over the head with the Legion’s very fat rulebook. She was pissed off as hell that I’d grabbed that book and hit back.

“It’s decided. Captain Somerset will serve as the Fire Dragon, and Captain Diaz will take over her student in addition to his own,” the Earth Dragon declared. “Trainees, mentors, follow us.”

The three Dragons stood and walked toward the white door. The rest of us followed.

“I see you’ve been spending some quality time with the Legion’s rulebook,” Captain Somerset said to me as we moved out of the throne room.

“After what happened in Purgatory, I thought it best to be prepared.”

A few weeks ago, two gangsters had attacked a woman in my hometown. Purgatory was out on the Frontier of civilization. Things weren’t like they were in the cities. Crime lords and cowboy justice was rampant. The innocent suffered, but the Legion didn’t care who was running things way out there as long as they remained loyal to the gods.

The gangsters had attacked the woman right in front of my face, but I wasn’t allowed to hurt them back. As a soldier of the Legion, I couldn’t interfere with how the crime lords and their minions ‘kept order’ in their territory. I’d been ready to fight them anyway, but Nero stopped me. I’d been furious with him—until he lured the gangsters onto land owned by the Legion, where he was free to do whatever he wanted to them. He’d killed them and strung them up outside the Legion office for me to see.

That was angels for you. Some men wooed you with flowers; angels wooed you with the dead bodies of deranged criminals. I should have been horrified by the gesture. Instead, I appreciated it. That just went to show how much I’d already changed. I couldn’t afford to change any more.

I’d learned another thing that day, the importance of knowing the Legion’s rulebook by heart. Nero’s brutality notwithstanding, his knowledge of the rules had saved that woman’s life.

“You recited that passage perfectly,” Captain Somerset said.

“Thank you.”

“But you neglected to include the related passage in section twenty-six,” she continued, her voice a soft whisper. “Which does, in fact, state that a mentor may take on only one student in the Elemental Trials.”