Labyrinth

by K. Weikel

  Starfire? he thinks, and I can hear the exhaustion through this one word spoken from one mind to another. 

  The breath is knocked out of me as a big gray male dragon rams into me. I crash into a wall, a few bricks hitting me as they break loose from their uniform position. 

  A few more fall. 

  The dragon rams into me again, sending the whole wall caving in on itself. 

  The castle is falling.

  I claw my way through the bricks and stone that fall down as gravity takes ahold of them. I need to get Robin out. The dragon catches hold of my tail, and fire sprouts from my mouth. He lets go as a large portion of the upstairs room falls on him. 

  I see Robin and use my claw to cut him free. Gingerly, I take him and place him on my back. 

  He tried to find a place to hold onto me sleepily, carefully, as if he’s trying to avoid the wounds. 

  I try to take off. 

  My wings beat the dead air inside the collapsing castle and the bricks and stone fall onto my wings, not letting me go anywhere. 

  “Come on, Starfire!” I hear Robin slur. “You can make it! Come on, keep going!” 

  His voice sounds so far away, as if he is miles from me. 

  I roar out in pain as a rock hits my back, barely missing Robin. 

  That pain isn’t as far away. 

  Then everything goes black. 

  Chapter 8

  I wake up.

  Bandages cover my back where the whip had made it through to my skin, and I sit in a large courtyard with lush, green grass spreading as far as I can see. The sky is bright and there are only a handful of clouds drifting above me.

  Robin is on the bench in front of me, wide awake and alert as he watches me. He has dark circles underneath his eyes, like he hasn’t had much sleep. They make him look older than he is, and his eyes brighten as I look at him.

  I try to stand up, pain rippling through my body.

  “No,” Robin says softly. “You’re still not strong enough to stand yet.”

  His eyes are filled with exhaustion, excitement, and sadness. I never knew eyes could hold so many emotions at once.

  What… what happened? I ask him.

  “You passed out. It was partially from the loss of blood and then mainly because of the roof that had fallen on you. It took forever for us to get you out and bandage you up, and even after that, you were out for thee days. I was really worried that you were…”

  What day is it..?

  “The fifteenth.”

  Of?

  “August.”

  Wow, time passes by quickly, I mutter, resting my head back on my talons.

  “Yeah, especially when you’re passed out,” Robin chuckles, almost nervously.

  Don’t get smart with me, I smile.

  We sit for a moment, the wind brushing past our bodies. We let the silence surround us, and it’s almost comforting to me.

  What did they want with you back in the old castle? I didn’t see anybody after that dragon rammed into me.

  “Well, these men came as soon as you left. They didn’t recognize me as the prince, and they thought I stole you from them. I think they ran a Dragon-Rodeo or something… but their feathers were pretty ruffled. They were brutal… They had whips and I just had my bow, and then I ran out of arrows… I don’t know. It was all one big mess. And then when they took me to the castle, I tried calling to you, but I guess you were too far away to hear me. Then they threw open the door and tied me to the pole, and… you know the rest.”

  My heart breaks as I realize how selfish it was to just leave and go running to Robin. The Dragon-Rodeo people are very violent and possessive. I should have known it wouldn’t have been that easy.

  Oh, I’m sorry… I say, moving my eyes up to look at him.

  He shrugs, pain crossing his face for a moment. “It’s fine. I’m okay now, and that’s all that matters, right?”

  The quiet falls between us again, but there’s something in the air, something that he’s not telling me, and it’s creating this energy that cackles through the dead space and hums in your ear, just begging for you to ask what it is.

  “I have to go,” Robin says suddenly.

  He stands up with difficulty, the pain showing in his face. I can feel him making an effort not to think about something.

  What is it? I ask, and he closes his eyes and clenches his jaw. What are you hiding from me?

  He opens his eyes and glances at me sadly before turning away again, but he doesn’t walk away.

  “I have to go.”

  The exclusion, the cold shoulder I’d received from him cuts me like a knife. It’s no worse than the Thanksgivings where I’d be starving in the attic and my step-mother would be cutting the warm turkey and serving it, ignoring my cries of hunger behind the locked door. It’s no worse than being a child and not being able to put ornaments on a tree, but instead receiving a black eye and a swollen lip from trying to.

  It’s no worse than that, but it sure feels like it.

  I stare at him, not knowing what to say or do.

  He finally starts to walk back to his castle, and slowly makes his way up the winding stairs to the throne room. He kneels before his parents.

  I move my wings slightly, and decide that the pain is worth learning what I want to know. Dragons heal quickly, anyway, so the cuts should be almost finished scarring over by now.

  I make my way up to the window, hovering just outside to where I can see all three of them but they can’t see me.

  “You wanted me?” Robin asks.

  “You made a promise, Robin. I expect you to keep that promise. We saved your beast—”

  “Dragon,” Robin corrects.

  “Dragon,” The King spits the word. “And now I want to see you off mingling or whatever you kids say now a-days…”

  What did he promise? I ask myself.

  “But father, mother—”

  “No. You said the day you turned eighteen, you’d marry.”

  Good thing he’s only seventeen.

  “And that day is today.”

  I take it back.

  I stop breathing.

  He’s eighteen?

  My heart pounds in my chest like a drum. I lose the rhythm in my wings and drop two stories before I realize what’s going on outside of my body.

  He’s eighteen.

  And he’s getting married.

  That’s what he’s hiding.

  But why do I care so much?

  I fly from the castle without stopping. I don’t know where I’m going. I just know that I’m flying, and I don’t want to stop. I want to be as far away from him as I can.

  I end up on the other side of Dragonia.

  I land on the ground, panting and not able to stand, even though my wings miraculously seem to work.

  Suddenly, I remember the dragon’s book my mother had given to me.

  I was sitting in my room when I was reading it, probably for the umpteenth time out loud.

  “When a dragon’s muscles,” I had read. “Are damaged severely, the wings are the fastest healer. The muscles stretch or tighten to match the pain. The dragon’s brain doesn’t notice the infinitesimal of pain located in its body.”

  I groan as I realize I’m on top of one of my talons. There’s pain, but I can’t recall where, exactly.

  I can’t believe he hid his birthday from me!

  But why do I care so much?

  I think and think as I sit here, waiting to heal. But do I need to heal if I don’t really know if my heart is broken?

  Chapter 9

  Starfire!

  Robin’s voice rings everywhere, knocking me from my sleep.

  Starfire!

  I groan and close my eyes again.

  Go away, I’m trying to sleep, I tell him automatically, shifting to ease the pain as I sleep.

  “Starfire!”

  Great.

  He hea
rd me.

  I open my eyes and look up at him. He’s standing above me, the light starting to disappear behind the trees.

  He sighs. “Good. You’re not dead.”

  Of course I’m not dead, I snort.

  My heart jerks into a violent string of beats as my brain processes what’s going on. His handsome face appears before me as he squats down to look me in the eye. If I were human…

  I look away from him again, the wound in my heart opening up again. I guess I really am broken or something…

  Go have fun with your fiancé, I tell him.

  He sighs and plops down beside me. “I need you to come back to my castle with me. My parents won’t let me come home until I’ve found you.”

  He rubs my neck and I feel another tingle run down my spine like the one when we first met.

  Did you ever get through that maze? I ask, trying to change the subject.

  “No, I actually think I’ve gotten deeper into it. I’ve been having this dream every night after I met you.”

  Long time for a reoccurring dream.

  “I know,” he chuckles. “It’s weird. It’s like I’m expecting you to be… never mind…”

  His mind drifts elsewhere.

  Okay, I say and try to stand up. My muscles seem to react to my weight as if they wanted to cave in, but they hold and I’m able to stay on my feet. I’ll come. As long as I don’t have to come to the wedding—and I’m not locked up in some stupid Dragonstable, either. Deal?

  “You’re not going to be at my wedding?” He asks, looking at me as he stands up.

  It takes a moment before he says anything again.

  “Okay,” He finally says, nodding his head. “Fine. Deal.”

  I nod sadly.

  He didn’t put up a fight...

  He climbs onto my back carefully, pain clawing its way through both of our bodies. I take off to the skies back toward the castle.

  His parents aren’t happy to see me.

  “No fire breathing, intrusion, talking to him, stalking him, looking at him, letting him ride you—”

  “Mother, please!” Robin cuts her off. “Starfire and I already made a deal.”

  “Fine. But I want her to see the castle wizard,” she scolds.

  “You want everyone to see the castle wizard, mother. Abblestrough will get tired of it. He has other things to work on,” Robin argues.

  “So—”

  Can we just get this over with? I ask Robin, drowning out his mother’s voice. I’ll go, just stick a cork in her please!

  “Okay, mother, we’re going,” he says, and leads me to the wizard’s chamber.

  We have to scale almost half of the castle, not to mention go all the way down to the first floor, through another room, and down some more stairs made completely of stone. One side is a wall and the other is a straight drop to your death. There is one door at the bottom of the tall steps, made of heavy wood and iron with a knocker on the front in the shape of a lion.

  Robin starts to mumble something as I try to balance myself on the human-sized steps.

  What are you saying? I ask him.

  “I heard something, and I can’t get the words out of my head.”

  What are they?

  “Well they started off—”

  The door opens as we reach it.

  “Hello, Prince Robin. Hello, Starfire,” the wizard spoke, smiling. His long beard glistens in the firelight and his small circular glasses reflect the flames.

  He knows my name, how?

  I might have told him about you once… Robin tells me through thought.

  “Prince Robin has told me all about you!” The wizard smiles.

  Or twice, he thinks to me, his face turning red.

  “Come in, Starfire. Prince Robin, you can go away.”

  I chuckle. Well, as much as a dragon can chuckle.

  I follow him in and look back at Robin as the door closes. I stand in the middle of the room, tables scattered everywhere, and potions stuck in every nook and cranny. Books lie open and food sits out everywhere.

  The wizard circles me, stroking his beard.

  “So you were a girl before?”

  Yes—

  “Talk to me through your mouth.”

  My—

  He nods and I open my mouth.

  “Y-yeees,” I say, shocked. “Yes. I can… I can talk!”

  He nods. “Yes, Dragons can talk. It’s just not well known and only the educated know that they can, which explains why you didn’t know that.”

  “Excuse me?” I snap.

  “Not that you’re not educated,” he says, turning to pick up a bottle with glowing blue liquid. “I’m talking about the people around you. Now that you can speak, tell me about yourself.”

  I speak, fascinated by my own voice. Hours pass by, it feels, when I finally finish telling him.

  “Wow,” I say again, still amazed. I haven’t heard my voice in…

  Almost eleven years.

  “So you love him?” Abblestrough asks suddenly.

  Dumbfounded, I shake my head. “No. I’m not human, so I can’t be, it wouldn’t be right—”

  “No. Starfire. You are human. Tell me, why can’t you cry, Waterdragon?” he asks me, stepping really close to me. “Waterdragons are famous for their tears. Why did you think they are called Waterdragons?”

  “Because… Because they can manipulate water—”

  “You’ve wanted to break the curse so badly, that you haven’t noticed it. When you hear a poem recited to you, answer it with this: Though he says it all together/In her presence, he can’t tell/She’s listening, and the bonds of curse/Is what the love breaks through this spell.”

  “I won’t remember it,” I say.

  “You have a dragon’s mind. You will when the time comes.”

  “Nope.”

  The old wizard shakes his head and walks over to a bookshelf, pulling a book from it and reading a page.

  After a moment, he speaks up. “You love him. To cry is to learn and to learn is to live. To live is a blessing in itself, but to live life you need to cry. It can be happy or sad. Just cry.”

  Chapter 10

  I sit outside Robin’s walk-in closet in his house-sized bedroom, watching him come in and out with different tuxedoes on.

  He walks out into the room in his fifth one.

  “Too ruffly,” I tell him. “Tell me again why you wanted me to choose your tux.”

  “Because you weren’t going to watch my wedding,” he says from behind the closet door. “I can’t believe that Abblestrough taught you how to talk out loud.”

  “Well, believe it because it happened,” I chuckle.

  “What about this one?” He asks as he walks out.

  I sit up on my haunches, taken aback by the sheer handsomeness radiating from him as he steps into the room. I’m almost speechless.

  He wouldn’t even have looked twice at me if I was a human too…

  It’s perfect, I think, afraid my real voice might fail me.

  He gives me a strange look, but it passes by as he says, “Good, because this is the last one, not to mention that it’s the one that I wanted. This was my father’s-father’s. So, my grandfather’s. They wore it for their weddings, too.”

  I nod and look away, the thought of my being human sticking in my brain for some reason. What if I really was a human?

  And then I remember my powers.

  Robin, um… I clear my throat. “What if… what if you weren’t my dragonrider at all? What if I could read your mind without you even being near me?”

  “Well, I’d say that’s impossible,” he sighs as he sits down next to me. “Why?”

  “I don’t know… maybe because I really used to be a human…” I say, my sentence trailing off. But the evidence was clear. We were physically connected, just as a dragonrider is with its dragon.

  He rubs his hand over the scabs that I’d got
ten from him getting whipped.

  “If you weren’t my dragon, then this wouldn’t have happened to you…” he murmurs, lost in thought. “It’s all my fault…”

  “No—”

  “Yes it was,” he takes his hand off of me. “Ever since I’ve come back…”

  “You needed to, Robin.”

  “No. No, I should have stayed away.”

  “Robin, I was in a Dragon-Rodeo! I’m better off here with you.”

  He shakes his head. “At least they knew how to take care of you.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  “Starfire—”

  “I always have.”

  “You don’t get what I’m saying.”

  “Then what are you saying?”

  “That you’re better off without me.”

  I burst into acidic laughter. As much as dragons can laugh.

  “How am I—look, Robin. Do you know why I’ve stayed with you? I’ve believed you’re my Dragonrider this entire time, whether you are or not. And I’ve started to—” I stop myself, not knowing where I’m going with my rant. I shake my head and turn to the open window that leads to his balcony.

  Have fun at your wedding.

  I spread my wings as the outside air touches me with its warm fingertips and take flight.

  Chapter 11

  I wait until noon for Starfire to show up, hoping she changed her mind about the wedding.

  She never shows.

  “Prince Robin,” I hear my mother say softly. “It’s time to go. You can’t wait any longer.”

  I nod absentmindedly. Something pokes at the back of my mind. “Please, wait until three o’clock, mother. Something just isn’t right.”

  “Yes, something isn’t right, son. You’re waiting on a dragon, Robin. Please. Your bride is almost ready.”

  “I said, wait,” I snap.

  She is taken aback. “Alright, fine. You have until two o’clock, and not a minute later.”

  My mother leaves and I’m left alone in the hallway outside of the ballroom where a crowd is beginning to gather for the wedding. I stare outside the window, waiting for her to cross it.

  I start to pace, the words that I had heard in my head repeating like a poem, like a song. My feet start to hurt and my eyes get dry as I wear a path in the stained wood.

  Please show up… I think.

  I look at the time. It’s one-thirty.

  I cross the window about three more times before I see her pink body land in the grass outside. My heart starts to pound in my chest and I can’t seem to move from my spot.

  Come outside, she tells me as she stares back through the window.