by Katie Cherry
“Kill him!” An excited, nasally voice suggests.
“Torture him?” A sly sounding voice chimes in.
“No, no, he’s a favorite of Patrick’s. We can’t do that, or we would jeopardize our own standing with him.”
A quiet voice finally peeps up. “We… could tell Patrick things. Things… that would make Bryce seem… like a true traitor. Things that would raise us in Patrick’s eyes, and get Bryce either killed or evicted from the group. Although he already has his insignia… so obviously he cannot be allowed to leave.”
There’s a pause. Nathan can feel his breath coming fast and hard. He tries to quiet it. His head is spinning. So, was Bryce fooling these Dragon Hunters? Or was he fooling the King and Queen? Whose side was he really on?
This insignia… was it like a brand on the Dragon Hunters? Did it enlist them to Patrick’s service forever? …Where was this sign, and how would he find it? Would that help him confirm who’s on who’s side? Or would it even prove anything? After all, Bryce could have gotten it simply to get closer to Patrick and it didn’t actually mean anything.
Nathan backs away from the group, tripping on a root and falling on his back with a loud gasp. There’s rustling from the direction of the voices and before he can even scramble to his feet, he is yanked into the air by multiple pairs of rough hands. He stands, panting, and sweeps the area with his eyes. He’s surrounded by six Dragon Hunters- two of whom had been in the group attacking Angela just a few minutes previous.
“Nathan Anderson,” the strongest looking one comments. He was one of the ones attacking Angela and seems to be the group’s leader. “What a… surprise.”
Nathan cocks an eyebrow. “Is it? Or am I just an unpleasant inconvenience? I heard you talking. You knew I was here.”
The man looks surprised, then laughs. “Oh, dear, no. I had no idea you were there. I did, however, know that you were the wolf that tore down three of my men and escaped with barely a scratch…” he reaches out and tears Nathan’s hastily made bandage from his wound. Nathan doesn’t flinch, just watches the man carefully and steadily. “Hmm,” he says, wiping some blood off of his arm with his finger and casually inspecting it. “It seems to me that a steeper price must be paid for the loss of my men- don’t you agree?” The group surrounding Nathan tightens and the men chuckle eagerly.
Nathan slowly eases into a crouch and prepares his mind to shapeshift or manipulate the weather. A dark storm front rolls in and rain starts pouring down. Nathan doesn’t move an inch, waiting for the Dragon Hunters to make the first move. They watch him just as warily. Finally, one of them flinches as Nathan’s piercing gaze suddenly shifts to his. Nathan quickly leaps, transforming into a cougar, tearing out the man’s throat before the man can hardly lift his hands to defend himself.
He then feels the icy bite of a metal blade in his hind leg. Swiveling around, he swipes at the man who cut him, slicing open his chest with his long, strong claws. Nathan quickly transforms back into himself, ducks under another attack, and changes into an eagle, taking to the air and winging away from the group of Dragon Hunters.
He doesn’t get far before he’s suddenly stopped in midair, unable to advance any further. Glancing down, he notices one of the men with his eyes locked on him, his hand extended in a claw as if he was grasping Nathan, ready to pluck him out of the air. He’s chanting as he does so. As Nathan strains against the magical bonds holding him back, the man begins pulling him closer. Panicking, Nathan shifts into himself, nearly landing on the warlock, who dives out of the way just in time.
Panting, Nathan stands again, grimacing and trying not to put any weight on his injured leg. The first man, the leader, grabs him from behind and pins him. As Nathan struggles, the warlock stands, brushing some mud off of his cloak. Glaring at Nathan, he advances, once again stretching forth his hand and slowly walking towards him while chanting.
An aching pain begins to overtake Nathan, starting in his feet and spreading upwards. Desperate, Nathan changes into a snake. The instant he does, however, the pain instantaneously overtakes his entire body, filling him with agony as it intensifies. He’s shocked when he reverts to his normal form without evoking his Gift. The leader makes a move to grab him again, but it’s not necessary. Nathan collapses to the ground, convulsing in pain as the Dragon Hunter continues to chant.
After a few more minutes, he stops, just as Nathan was on the verge of unconsciousness. Two men pick him up by his arms. He hangs limply from their grasp, struggling simply to breathe. The magic-wielding Dragon Hunter turns to the leader. “It is done.”
The leader grins widely. “You did it, then? You took away his Gifts?”
“To the best of my knowledge, yes. But we should keep him under observation to see if my spell holds true. We don’t want him to be getting his Gifts back any time soon.”
“No, that we do not… very well, we shall take him with us.” He motions to the two men holding Nathan up, who can barely stand on his own two feet. “Let’s go.”
<<
“Come on now, Angela, let’s get you home,” Auna urges, hovering by her shoulder. Angela stays where she is, standing still and staring after the place where the silver wolf who saved her had disappeared.
“Who was that?” she murmurs.
“Does it matter? We need to get you home!” Auna insists.
Dark clouds then quickly roll in. Within a minute, Angela is drenched from the fat raindrops. Shivering, she turns from the park at last. “…Okay,” she finally concedes. “Let’s go.”
<<
Bryce curses to himself under his breath. He had lost track of the boy. Who knows what trouble he may cause without his supervision? Knowing his luck, the boy could have stumbled across the Dragon Hunters as they tried to accomplish their actual goal rather than the diversion that Bryce and his helpers had set up.
Rain starts coming down in driving sheets, and he curses again as those around him scramble for shelter. This rain wasn’t predicted in the news, which meant that the weather was induced by a Gift. He just hopes it had nothing to do with Nathan. Not only would he never hear the end of it from the other Dragon Hunters, but things could go drastically wrong should Nathan discover things meant to stay a secret.
A girl walking fast from the direction of the park suddenly bumps into him. “Oh, sorry!” she exclaims, lifting her head. Angela. Now he knows that Nathan had indeed discovered their real goal. He growls in anger. The boy just complicated- if not ruined- everything!
The girl’s eyes widen as she takes in his cloak and gloves. Bryce sighs. He was hoping to save this for later. It was a rather rare thing, after all. There was a limited amount of times that he could use it.
Angela turns to run, but another, smaller Dragon Hunter stops her. “Bryce,” he says calmly, keeping his eyes on the girl. “We can do the job ourselves…”
“No,” he responds, shaking his head as he pulls out a vial of black powder that’s about the size of his pinky finger. “She is not part of my job.”
“Your job,” the other man replies, sneering, “is to keep Nathan Anderson occupied and ignorant. Use him to find Rex if you must. This girl?” he continues, grabbing Angela by the arm as she tries to flee, “This girl was assigned to protect Nathan, and to keep him from knowing that anything is amiss.”
“And isn’t that exactly what we’re trying to do as well?” Bryce calmly replies.
“Not exactly, and you know it!” the other Dragon Hunter replies, exasperated. “Our job is to keep him occupied, to keep him from knowing anything about our designs in Zilferia- and especially Second Earth. He absolutely cannot know about Crystal. You know how he would react. He cannot know about any of this… and as helpful as it may be to use him to find Rex, that is not our main priority, and you know it!”
“Oh, shut up already,” Bryce sighs, pulling Angela from his grasp. She spins to face him, her eyes wide with fear.
“Please,” she whispers. “Please… don’t
hurt me…”
Bryce looks into her eyes, shining with unshed tears, and feels a pang in his heart. His wife had looked so similar to this girl. Of course, everyone claimed that he saw her everywhere, in many girls. With a swift, decisive move, he opens the vial and tilts her head back a little with his other hand. “Don’t worry,” he murmurs softly, wiping some of the powder on her eyelids as she remains frozen in place with fear. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He spreads more around her ears. Her eyes flutter back open, but now they are devoid of the fear they once held.
She looks at Bryce in wonder and confusion. “What… what did you…”
“Shh…” He gently replies, lying her softly on the ground. “Sleep well,” he adds as her eyes close and her breathing slows and deepens.
“Well wasn’t that just touching,” the other Dragon Hunter mocks. “Saving her life by erasing her memories. …You know it’s only temporary, don’t you? It may not be our job to remove her, but it is someone else’s. She won’t last long.”
Bryce sighs and stands, closing the vial and tucking the rest away. There’s only two- thirds of it left. “John, I will do what I have to do to protect the innocents.”
John scoffs. “The innocents? Dude, wake up, we are Dragon Hunters! Not only that, but we are at war! In order to complete our mission- and Patrick’s vision- there will be casualties. Besides, this girl is not innocent. She’s from Zilferia, and she’s on a quest for Queen Pearl. That practically makes her enemy number one.”
Bryce stalks toward him menacingly. “She. Is just. A girl. I want her to stay out of this. Little girls do not belong in war.”
John sighs and shakes his head. “Fine, fine. We’ll leave her be.” He turns and flips his hood back up over his brown hair. “I don’t know how you ever made it to your status with that soft of a heart in the first place,” he sighs quietly, knowing Bryce heard regardless. With that, he vanishes.
Bryce kneels by Angela’s head and looks at her peaceful, sleeping face. With a trembling hand, he shifts a lock of hair off of her face. How was it possible that she looked so much like his dead wife? He strokes her cheek gently with the back of one rough finger before quickly standing and striding off into the rain.
Time to find Nathan.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Trident
A warm hand on my face wakes me. My hand jumps up to cover the hand as it cradles my face. My eyes flutter open sleepily. “Chet?” I ask quizzically. “What’s wrong?” His face is only a couple feet from mine, and his green eyes sparkle mischievously- more like the Chet that I first met than the one I have been seeing for the past few days.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he murmurs, smiling at me.
…Then why are you in here?” I ask, sitting up as he removes his hand and leans back a little. “What time is it?”
“No one else is up yet,” he says. “Now might be a good time to…”
“Visit the mermaids?” I finish for him.
He raises an eyebrow. “Um, I was going to say read the journal before you have to do other things, actually…”
“…Oh,” I say. I don’t want to read that dumb journal. I want to finish uniting Zilferia against the Dragon Hunters. I need to go visit the mermaids. “Oh!” I suddenly exclaim, remembering what Zeke told me the day before.
“…What?” Chet asks quizzically.
“Nothing…” I start to reply before I remember that he had been recaptured by Patrick since I was gone. “Actually, there is something… while you were at Patrick’s castle… did you happen to notice… a huge Trident?”
“No,” Chet replies, looking increasingly curious. “I think I heard Patrick ranting about how Vlad’s impostor never gave the Trident to him, though. Said he must have hidden it somewhere. He tortured him to get the information out of him, but just before he told him the location, he killed himself by jabbing a knife in his throat.”
“So Patrick doesn’t have it? And he has no idea where it could be?”
Chet looks at me a little strangely. “No. Why?”
“Well… I promised the mermaids that I would give it back to them if I could. I think it would be the best way to not be killed on sight if I’m returning it to them.”
“Ah. Sounds reasonable,” he concedes, laughing a little and standing. “Well if we’re going to search for it, then you should get dressed. I’ll see if I can grab us some breakfast real fast before anyone else gets up.”
“Okay. Thanks,” I reply, swinging my legs out of bed as he closes the door behind him. As I get dressed, Nora wakes up.
“And just where do you think you’re going? Thinking about leaving me behind again?” she asks. I can hear the hurt in her voice. “My job is to protect you and advise you. I can’t do that if you keep leaving me behind and making foolish decisions.”
I pull on some black, waterproof pants. They adhere to my skin once I put them on so there’s less resistance as I swim, I suppose. The dark green shirt does the same. “Nora, I’m just going out to find where Vlad’s impostor hid the Trident so I can return it to the mermaids. I probably won’t even leave the Village today, plus Chet will be with me. And you are welcome to come as well.”
“Good, because I’m coming whether you want me to or not,” she responds, flying to perch on my shoulder once I put on a black jacket and a matching pair of slim, water-proof shoes.
Chet doesn’t bat an eye at Nora when she joins us for breakfast. “I found some leftover pancakes in the fridge,” he says, placing a plate of steamy blueberry pancakes in front of me. He pulls out a chair for me. Smiling, I sit down as Nora flaps up to the post on the chair to wait. “So, what’s the plan?” He asks me as he sits down and grabs the syrup.
“Well, I was thinking about talking to Thaddeus to see if he has any ideas of where the impostor could have hidden the Trident and after that… I guess we just look for it.”
Chet raises an eyebrow as he takes a large bite of pancake. “You know how long it could take us to find it?” He swallows. “This is not really a one-day venture.” He eyes my outfit. “So you didn’t really have to get all ready to go out and meet the mermaids yet.”
I shrug. “Better safe than sorry. I would rather return the Trident to them as quickly as possible.”
“So your parents can’t stop you?”
“Well… yes, but also because it will help them fend off the Dragon Hunters.” And because there’s a chance the King could heal me so I could get my Gifts back… Again, I don’t add this part. My gut instinct tells me that I shouldn’t let Chet know about my Gifts or my Dragon part. I’m not really sure why, but I’m not one to go against my instincts.
“Ah. I guess that makes sense.” His brow furrows in thought as he glares at the pancakes on his plate. I can’t even begin to guess what he’s thinking about, so I just shrug and start on my own pancakes.
<<
Dang! Getting Crystal on our side seemed so easy when Patrick asked me to do it! Why are all these snags coming up? Why is she trying so dang hard to unite Zilferia against us? Why isn’t the journal destroying her like Patrick promised it would? Sure, it’s distasteful to her so she doesn’t want to read it anymore, but that’s not enough!
If we actually do find the Trident, how am I supposed to prevent her from delivering it back to the mermaids without blowing my cover? I can’t just sit back and let the mermaids regain their primary weapon against us! Hunter lets out a heavy sigh and pushes one hand through his hair and stands abruptly. That’s it. I need to contact Patrick and let him know what’s going on. I need him to advise me on what to do.
“I’ll be right back,” he says to Crystal, who nods.
He then shoves his way outside, breathing heavily. He absolutely did not want to do this, but it seemed it was now necessary. He quickly makes his way into the surrounding woods, glad that it was early enough that few peeping eyes were out and about.
After going a ways into the woods, the sounds of the Village fade. The for
est is quiet. Hunter feels a pang. He missed the song of the trees, the noises of the animals roaming freely through the trees. He missed the sounds of life. Hopefully the Dragon Hunters will quickly win this war, and everything can go back to how it was before.
With trembling hands, he pulls off his gloves and lets them drop to the earth. He then holds his right hand up to the light. A silvery blue tattoo shimmers on the back of his hand. It’s in the semblance of an eye.
Hunter takes a deep breath and lightly brushes the image with the index finger of his other hand. The eye turns a fiery orange and moves, blinking and looking around. Hunter tries to contain a shudder as his skin crawls with the peculiar feeling the magic induces. “D… Dravyn…” he says, trying not to stutter. “I need to talk to Patrick.”
The eye stares at him for a few seconds before the fiery ink swirls and forms the image of Patrick’s face. “Hunter?” It inquires, its voice faint. “Why would you contact me this way? What’s the emergency?”
Hunter is beginning to sweat. The magic required to use his Eye was taxing. He didn’t have long to relay his message. “I wouldn’t have done it unless there wasn’t enough time to contact you another way and receive your answer in time as well.”
“Well spill it, boy! And hurry, I have urgent matters to attend to.”
“Yes, sir. …It seems Crystal is more difficult to persuade than you led me to believe… she’s trying to unite the dragons, Sohos, and mermaids. Not only that, but today she means to set out and find the Trident and return it to those fish.”
“Hmm,” Patrick murmurs thoughtfully. “It would indeed be a setback should they have their Trident back… but it would be even worse should your cover be blown. You are the only inside man I have left.”
“Wait… what? What happened to the others?” Hunter asks, beginning to shake from the toll of the magic from the Eye.
“Old Thaddeus and Vladimir were hunting them down. I ordered the last few to flee. You are the only one left completely undetected. Keep it that way. Earning Crystal’s complete and utter trust should cement your standing with the others as well. As for the Trident issue… try and distract her as often as you can. Should you find the Trident before she does, do not let her know of the location and lead her elsewhere. At the end of the day, deliver it to me as she sleeps.”