Race for the Dragon Heartstone

by K. D. Halbrook

  “Interesting,” Ferdi breathed.

  And what else? Ge nodded encouragement.

  “Gifts can be enhanced by any heartstone, I think. Nebekker’s helped me communicate, but it’s just not as strong as when I’m using my own heartstone. And the same goes for bonded dragons: The gift is stronger between a human and dragon who are bonded, which is why Nebekker couldn’t heal Hiyyan even though she could heal Kirja. The poison was too powerful. And it’s why I can talk to any water dragon but can actually tap into Hiyyan’s senses.”

  Sagittaria looked from Silver to the dragon council. “What about bonds? Must they exist for the heartstones to work at all?”

  Silver squirmed. She knew what the legendary water dragon racer was really asking: Could she use one? “I don’t know. I think there is more to the heartstones than I have discovered yet.”

  Kyan nodded. She seemed ready to speak again, but Sagittaria Wonder stepped forward.

  “Give me one,” the water dragon racer demanded. “I’ll test the question right now. If you won’t let me destroy them, I must have one.”

  “Why do you want to destroy them?” Silver clenched her fists, exasperated.

  Sagittaria snarled and looked from dragon to dragon. “You have all forgotten where we came from. Where you came from.”

  When the water dragons glanced at her, Silver rushed to translate.

  “Hhhrrmmm,” Kyan growled her dissent, standing regally, her tail sweeping around her paws.

  “If you remember so clearly, then you know that the past must remain buried,” Sagittaria said. “The good and the bad.”

  “What is she talking about?” Silver whispered to Hiyyan. He shrugged, his own thoughts reaching Silver as a jumble of songs that made no sense.

  You think we have more power than we do. Ssun shook his head sadly. We can no more stop the future than you can.

  Sagittaria’s jaw clenched and unclenched. “Bury the heartstones. Destroy bonds for good!”

  Silver looked at each face in the room.

  “You’ll never take our bond away. It’s not a dangerous thing!” She buried her nose in Hiyyan’s mane for a moment, steadying herself. “We just want to be free, to live, and to race,” she said under her breath.

  “This is more important than races, girl.” Sagittaria’s eyes glittered dangerously.

  Silver opened her mouth to snap back, but just then she caught a glance of another dragon lingering in the shadows behind Sagittaria. Before Silver could speak. Sagittaria’s Dwakka burst into the room, heads swiveling and growling, and swept the Abruq away from Sagittaria.

  “Get behind me!” Ferdi yelled.

  But Silver was already reaching for Hiyyan. Before she could climb on his back, the water dragons against the walls mobilized to secure the Dwakka while Sagittaria, in a flash of black riding suit and hair, somersaulted between Silver and Ferdi. More water dragons got underfoot, knocking Ferdi to the ground and causing Hiyyan to rear up with a frustrated growl.

  Shlink. In all the chaos, Sagittaria leaped onto Ssun’s back while, at the same time, pulling a long dagger from her belt and pressing it against the water dragon’s throat.

  Hiyyan’s skin went as cold as a glacier. He snarled and crouched low, prepared to pounce.

  “Don’t do it!” Silver cried.

  “Give me a heartstone. Either destroy them all, or give me one!”

  Every dragon and human in the room froze, the only motion the up and down heaving of chests, the only sound the echo of bubbling hot springs. The hairs on the back of Silver’s neck rose.

  It doesn’t work that way, Kyan said calmly. We don’t have a supply at our disposal. They appear from the depths of the volcano, very rarely, and we follow to call to the human who is under trial for one. That is all.

  Silver’s hands shook. She tried to clear her throat, but a stubborn lump remained. How was she supposed to translate when Sagittaria Wonder threatened the life of a water dragon?

  “They can’t … they don’t have…” Silver croaked.

  Sagittaria caught on. She nodded at the ornamental clasp around the Glithern’s neck. “What about yours?”

  It was only then that Silver noticed that each of the four regal water dragons wore their own stones, the individual colors blending seamlessly into their scales.

  The same, Ssun choked as Sagittaria pressed her forearm more tightly around his neck. They appear … we are called … to the council …

  Dortaal moved slowly toward Sagittaria. It is thought they can be transferred through blood.

  “Transferred through blood?” Silver repeated. Kyan hissed.

  Go on, the ancient Aquinder continued, as if Sagittaria Wonder could understand him. Spill this water dragon’s blood. See if the heartstone then becomes yours. Test the theory.

  “She cannot!” Silver cried.

  Sagittaria Wonder hesitated as she looked from the water dragons to Silver, her hold on Ssun beginning to loosen, and Silver knew he’d called her bluff. But then, in a moment she would replay in her mind a thousand times, never certain what really happened, Dortaal moved quickly, grabbing some part of Sagittaria Wonder—her hair? her shoulder? the knife itself?—and thrusting her back so that the dagger nicked the side of Ssun’s throat.

  No! The furious cries of the water dragons engulfed Silver. She pressed her hands over her ears, but they were in her mind, their shock and anger and outrage. The room filled with their echoes, the sound a rising choir of despair. With a roar, Kyan and Ge encircled Ssun, teeth flashing at Sagittaria and Dortaal. The old Aquinder stared them down.

  Abruqs danced around, their feet in a frenzy, uncertain whom they should protect, whom they should restrain. Ignoring them, Dortaal ripped the dragon heartstone from Ssun, smeared it through the small vein of blood dribbling down his neck, and presented it to Sagittaria.

  You shed this water dragon’s blood, and I am called to give this to you.

  You cannot! Kyan said. But she didn’t stop him. The theory had been tested and found sound.

  The dagger clattered as Sagittaria dropped it and backed away. “No.”

  “What have you done?” Silver said. Her voice shook. Her hands went cold. The very room seemed to become a vacuum of impossibility. She didn’t know if she was screaming at Sagittaria or at Dortaal. “Why did you do this?”

  Water dragons murmured and shuffled. Ferdi put a hand on Silver’s elbow, not to stop her anger from rising up, but to show support.

  Do you think humans are the only ones driven by individual motivations? That we water dragons are all of one mind? Simple girl. Dortaal draped the bloodied heartstone around Sagittaria’s neck. I have waited an age for this.

  Sagittaria Wonder put one fingertip to the heartstone, stunned at first, but then her eyes began to sharpen. Calculating.

  “Give it back,” Silver said. Always, always, she wanted Sagittaria Wonder to be the hero of her younger days. “It’s not yours.”

  It’s hers, Dortaal corrected Silver. And what wondrous things might she do with it? What is her great talent, Silver Batal? How will it be enhanced?

  With one great snarl, Kyan silenced the chaos in the room. Her eyes blazed with fury. She took two steps forward, planting herself directly in front of Dortaal, her paws wide on the ground. Tension crackled, every water dragon’s back raised in expectation of something Silver didn’t understand. Slowly, never taking her eyes from Dortaal, Kyan lifted and tapped her talons, one at a time, beginning from the outside and working her way in.

  Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

  Ge gasped.

  “What’s happening?” Silver asked Hiyyan. His mane brushed her face as he shook his head.

  I don’t know. I don’t understand this.

  No, Ssun moaned. Do not do this on account of me.

  This, too, Kyan said, has been a long time coming.

  Dortaal pulled himself to his full height. He was a massive, majestic water dragon. He laid his paws out before him, flat to the groun
d, just as dedicated to keeping his gaze locked with Kyan’s.

  Ge shook her multicolored head, distressed. This is how water dragons formally challenge one another to battle. It is an honorable thing but … girl, I have never spent time among humans, but I’ve heard rumors of how terrible you can be to one another. So you probably don’t understand this, but water dragon familial bonds are very important. Kyan challenging her own father is shocking!

  Hiyyan made a distressed sound in the back of his throat.

  “That’s her father?” Silver asked. But there wasn’t time to explain, because even more slowly than Kyan’s talons, Dortaal’s claws tapped. One, then two. Three.

  No! Ssun rose quickly to stop them, but just then, Dortaal pressed his final talon to the stone.

  The battle began immediately. Teeth gnashing, claws slashing, colors blurring, fur flying. All other water dragons stood down and watched. The mineral scent of blood reached Silver. This couldn’t be happening.

  “Stop!” she screamed.

  Ferdi grabbed Silver just as she’d decided to dash into the melee. The ground suddenly jerked under her, and she fell hard on one hip, Ferdi following to land awkwardly across her ankles. The fighting paused as the water dragons felt the tremor. Cracks opened in the stone walls. Aquinder and Glitherns breathed heavily, circling warily.

  The tremblings, Ge said, and, as though calling up a force from the very center of the earth, the ground beneath Silver began to shake even more. A few bits of ceiling came crumbling down, and Silver shuffled closer to Hiyyan, pressing her shoulder against him. But the rattle lasted mere moments before settling.

  “What’s happening?” Ferdi got to his feet, then threw his arms out to maintain balance as the ground rolled once more.

  There have always been tremblings, Dortaal said. They mean nothing! Resume the battle or admit defeat and be dismissed from the council!

  “Don’t fight!” Silver yelled.

  This is the dragon way, Ge said.

  Hiyyan growled. I don’t like it.

  The woman caused it, Ge said.

  At this, several voices in the room rose up with a singular demand: Throw the woman into the volcano!

  “I’ll do it!” Silver snarled, reaching for Sagittaria.

  No, this is deeper than the woman. Deeper than any human and not for them. Dismiss them. Spit them out! Kyan screamed at the walls.

  A strange sensation came over Silver, turning her brain in circles and lifting nausea in her belly. Now the walls were shaking, too. She swayed as the room went fuzzy and then faded from her vision completely.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Silver rolled onto her side with a groan. Her back ached, and a fierce pounding in her head refused to be ignored. Was it too much to ask that she and Hiyyan would get one whole day of feeling good?

  She opened her eyes to slits, the pale, northern morning light stinging her pupils. Ferdi stood over her.

  “Please, Silver. Eat some breakfast today.”

  He asked so gently, a wobble of worry in his voice, that for the first time in three days, Silver took the bowl of porridge he offered her. In different circumstances, she would have enjoyed the richness of the coconut cream the grains were cooked in, but now they scraped painfully down her throat.

  Ferdi sat at the bottom of Silver’s cot. On the ground next to her, Hiyyan raised his head and rested his chin on Silver’s leg, blinking his big, dark eyes at her.

  An image of the Dragon Council room, and the four water dragons in power, filled Silver’s mind.

  Yes, she told Hiyyan. We need to understand what happened there.

  And what happens next, Hiyyan replied.

  Silver nodded.

  They were on Ferdi’s training island. Before that, the last she could remember, she was deep underground, trading a puzzling conversation with the council of water dragons. There was blood … Sagittaria with a heartstone in her hand … a terrible battle between father and daughter … the very core of the earth shaking. After that, the water dragons danced or swayed—or maybe it was the room that moved—and everything went dark. Silver bit her bottom lip. Somehow they’d punted her and Hiyyan and Ferdi out of their council room and across the seas.

  She hadn’t belonged there. They’d made that clear. Deeper than any human and not for them.

  Silver pressed her fingers over the small lump in the chest pocket of her tunic. With shaking hands, she reached in and pulled out the dragon heartstone, her eyes filling with tears.

  “And now there are three in the world,” Silver said.

  “What do you think Sagittaria will be able to do with hers?” Ferdi asked.

  “I don’t know. She’s full of talents. What I don’t understand is why she accepted it when she seems to want bonds and heartstones destroyed completely.”

  Hiyyan let loose a low growl. She is wrong.

  Silver’s thumb rubbed the heartstone slowly. Is she? Without bonds and heartstones, the things in the council wouldn’t have happened. I brought that chaos. I …

  Hiyyan growled again, this time flashing his teeth at Silver. No! Sagittaria brought chaos. Your heart is true and loyal.

  Ferdi cleared his throat and gave them a sheepish look. “Uh, don’t mean to interrupt, but I know you’re talking and I’m feeling a little left out, here.”

  “Sorry, Ferdi. We’re just trying to understand, well … everything.”

  “Sagittaria? The council? The battle?”

  Silver winced.

  Not for you, human, Hiyyan reminded her, gently.

  Silver gazed at the Aquinder for a few beats of time. Maybe he was right and Silver had to keep her nose out of water dragon business. On the other hand, her bond connected her to the water dragon world in ways few other humans were. So … what was her place, then?

  “What about the tremblings?” Silver asked. “Dortaal said they’d always been there, but the other dragons were alarmed.”

  Ferdi took Silver’s empty bowl and stared at it, but he couldn’t hide the troubled way his eyebrows drew together.

  “In our stories, the Great Tremblings created the Island Nations. But they were created out of a darkness that we’d never want to see again.” Ferdi shook his head. “They’re just stories.”

  “There are a lot of things I used to think were just stories,” Silver said, quietly. “But the more the world shows me, the more I find truth in the tales. We need to learn more.” Silver counted on her fingers. “And we need to find out what Sagittaria and her new heartstone are up to. And we need to—”

  “Find safety,” Ferdi said firmly. “Because nothing will get done if you’re always hiding. Come with me. My father hasn’t wanted to get involved with you and Hiyyan any more than he already has. But things are changing … are happening. The time for political apathy is over. Stand before him with me, Silver, and together we’ll demand action.”

  “And if he refuses to help?”

  “Whatever you need, I’ll help you. Wherever you go, I’ll come. And if my father can’t make a promise of protection to you…” Ferdi’s eyes went mischievous, but there was a determined strength behind them, too. A prince on the verge of becoming a king. “Then he’ll see what kind of son he’s raised.”

  “HHHHHuuurrrrrgh!” Hiyyan roared his approval.

  Silver’s smile was tiny, but it was sincere.

  She kneaded the back of her neck for a moment.

  Ferdi is right. And his offer is noble. But we’re close to the Watchers’ Keep. We should check on Kirja and Nebekker and Mele before we go to the Island Nations. They need safety, too. Silver felt Hiyyan’s pang of longing to see his mother. Felt it not only through their bond but also as an echo of her own longing to see her family. The pull to go south to Jaspaton was stronger than it had ever been. She couldn’t even guess when she’d step foot in the deserts again.

  “Tomorrow,” Silver said. “Today, I regain my strength. Tomorrow, we return to the Keep. After that, to your home, Ferdi.”


  Ferdi reached a hand out, squeezed Silver’s fingers once, and nodded.

  * * *

  AN IMPOSSIBLY WARM breeze ruffled Silver’s hair. It was growing back, tickling the base of her neck now.

  “The Calidian Stream,” Ferdi said, his approach across the island beach nearly soundless. “It’s a warm current that flows north for a week or two every winter. An anomaly of weather.”

  “It will make our passage to your home island a little less brutal.” Silver gazed over the seas. Ferdi had mapped out a route for her and Hiyyan to take. It cut through the Iceberg Seas as far north as possible. There would be warriors along the way to ensure her safety.

  “I hope to…” Ferdi trailed off, his cheeks flushing pink.

  … make everything less brutal for you, Silver finished in her own mind. Was that what Ferdi was going to say, or just what she hoped would happen?

  To her left, Hiyyan and Hoonazoor lay on the sandy beach, singing to each other. Their notes unraveled into words for Silver. A conversation about what the Island Nations were like. Hoonazoor changed the direction by asking about the water dragon council. Hiyyan raised his head and caught Silver watching them. He hesitated and Silver felt a pang of curiosity. Was Hiyyan avoiding Hoonazoor’s question because he didn’t know the answer, or because Silver would overhear?

  Sensing her turmoil, Hiyyan sent Silver a blanket of warm emotions. Yes, there was a lot for them to figure out, existing between the water dragon and the human worlds as they did, but they would do it together.

  Ferdi gave Silver a sidelong glance and a smile. “I wish I could understand them.”

  Silver didn’t reply. She watched Ferdi step lightly across a series of rocks, his arm disappearing into the tide pools several times. There was something special about seeing him in his natural habitat—the ocean—that reminded her of seeing water dragons on the sea for the first time. They all belonged somewhere. They all drew their strength from a place, from home. Silver wondered how much her life would change once they’d convinced King A-Malusni to protect them. Once they’d figured out how to make Hiyyan free and would spend fewer and fewer moments in her desert home as they raced across the globe. Could she ever be as strong in the ocean as she was in the desert? Would she ever gain that way that Ferdi had—that way of interacting with the environment so naturally, so full of wisdom and confidence?