by Lucia Ashta
“You thought you knocked him out, apparently,” Scar said.
“Right. I hit him at the base of the skull. He crumbled. I went to check on Rosie, and when I returned to the guy, he was gone. I didn’t hear or see a thing.”
Brute whistled. “The guy got up after one of your hits to the back of the head?”
“Aye.”
“Then you’re right. He’s extraordinary. No mere mortal could get up after a hit like that, much less walk away without being heard.”
“If he somehow managed to get up,” Boom said, “he should’ve been stumbling and swaying. You would’ve heard him for sure.”
“Exactly,” Dean said. “See what we’re dealing with here? He was solid, but barely. He obviously has capabilities beyond those of regular humans. And worse, I have no idea what he might be.”
“If you don’t, we certainly don’t,” Peachy said. “You’re our expert on weird crap.”
“A dubious title,” Dean said. “But yes, and I have absolutely no idea what this guy could be. He snuck up on the best from the back and took them out without a sound. He crept among us while we slept without a single one of us becoming aware of it.”
“You knew,” Peachy said.
Dean deflected the comment away from me. “As terrible as our losses are, we got lucky he didn’t take all of us out.”
“So what’s the next step? What do we do?” Crush asked.
“For the first time in a long time, I don’t know, and I won’t risk all of you, especially when I’m so unsure.”
“Enough of that already, Dean,” Peachy snapped. “No more. We’re in this together, am I right, guys?”
“Hell yes!” Boom answered before the rest of them, but it was clear it was the shared sentiment.
“So, what do we do?” Peachy asked again.
When Dean didn’t answer, Brute said, “We should get the others. The tamers and the rest of the charmers.”
“Maybe not Yoon, though,” Scar said. “He has a weird kind of adoration for Pumpoo.”
“We’re not getting any of them,” Dean said, though he stopped short of saying he couldn’t risk them. “Not yet at least. We need to know more of what Pumpoo’s up to before we bring anyone else in. I need some time to feel into what’s going on and see if I receive any guidance.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Dean didn’t hide his connectedness. On the contrary, it seemed as if the Dragon Force relied on it.
“You do that,” Crush said. “We have some friends to send off.” Even though Crush’s voice was strong and he managed to keep the heaviness of the task from it, I could sense the depth of emotion everyone there was experiencing.
The team had suffered a loss that wouldn’t leave them any time soon, but they would fight on because they were the only thing that stood between the Ooba people and a madman.
Chapter Four
Only Dean and Shula stayed behind while the seven remaining dragon charmers went off to take care of the grizzly task of seeing their dead off. Ordinarily, the Ooba people built funeral pyres for the dead, reducing the physical body to ashes, which blew away in the wind. After all, only the eternality (the soul) mattered once the body was gone.
But the dragon charmers wouldn’t risk building a fire and drawing any more attention to themselves. They hadn’t mentioned what they were going to do with the bodies, and I was grateful for my ignorance. I didn’t want to know, anything to lessen the sadness I experienced even though I hadn’t been friends with the three sentries. I was certain to have seen them in the village at some point, but the Dragon Force kept mostly to itself, the dragon charmers especially. Their ways were just too different from those of the rest of the tribe, the risks of their everyday separating them from ordinary village life. The only person able to truly understand a dragon charmer was another. It was just the way it was, and the more time I spent in their company, the more I appreciated it. There were some life experiences that prevented you from ever returning to the way you were before. I feared our fight with Pumpoo was only just beginning, and already I could tell I’d never be the same.
Dean and Shula had remained behind because someone needed to protect Rosie. That was the partial truth they shared with the others. And since Dean appeared to be the mastermind of the group, they were all relying on him to come up with the answer to their situation. But as time ticked by, and Dean evaluated different alternatives while Shula paced behind him, I imagined what he’d eventually decide. We needed more information on what Pumpoo was planning before we could figure out what to do.
One thing was for certain: Pumpoo was out to increase his own power at the cost of his people. But that intent encompassed a wide range of actions. Beyond understanding that he was seeking information about faithum, something he claimed already to have, we didn’t know enough.
Which meant we needed to find out more. Nobody would turn on Pumpoo easily. The small leader was as intimidating as any of the dragon charmers, with their bulging muscles, hard attitude, and wild glint in their eyes.
The only way to figure out what Pumpoo was up to was to spy on him. To do so successfully, the man couldn’t realize he was being spied on. We needed to manage it in secret.
Which left me, the only invisible person among our tribe. I was the only one who could manage to eavesdrop on Pumpoo’s plans. If Dean hadn’t arrived at this conclusion, he would soon, and by then the others might have returned.
I stood. My blanket suddenly became visible as it left my energy field. “You stay here, girl,” I said to Rosie, but she stood anyway. I patted her head, which reached my hip. “Just stay, I won’t be going far.” But when I moved over to where Dean and Shula were, Rosie followed, her body pressed against my legs as I went.
Dean looked over at us, his focus faraway at first. Then he took in the scene directly in front of him, and smiled a bitter smile. “She doesn’t want to leave your side.”
“I don’t mind,” I said. “She’s had it tough.”
“Aye, that she has.”
Shula stopped pacing and drew next to Dean. Even though I was no threat to the legendary dragon charmer, her stance was protective. I suspected she did it without realizing, a longtime habit.
“I have a solution,” I began.
“I suspected you would think you did,” Dean said, “but there’s no need to even start. No way are you going to be the one to spy on Pumpoo.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised that he’d figured out what I was going to say, but I still was. “There’s no other way.”
“Of course there are other ways.”
“All right, then there are no other good ways.” He didn’t dispute it, so I continued. “If anyone else spies on him, sooner or later, he’ll find out. At that point, whatever information we’ve managed to gather will be corrupt, and Pumpoo might discover the spy before we realize it, and feed us misleading information, increasing the risk that we might make a wrong move. I’m the only solution that makes sense. He won’t know I’m there. He doesn’t know an invisible girl exists, so I’ll be safe.”
“Oh I wouldn’t believe for a second that you’ll be safe around Pumpoo, whether he knows you exist or not.”
“But I’ll be safer than anyone else would, and I’ll be able to recover more accurate information.” I was talking the talk of courage, but the reality was, even though I’d do this because I believed it needed to be done, I was more frightened than ever before in my life. The thought of spying on Pumpoo, with the threat of imminent discovery, was terrifying. But this was a battle I was determined to fight. I hadn’t had a purpose until now. I had a dragon and an entire people to protect, and I was uniquely suited to my role. I wouldn’t shun my duty, just as none of these dragon charmers did.
“She’s right, you know,” Shula said.
“Of course she’s right,” Dean snapped. “That doesn’t mean it’s what we’ll do.”
Shula drew up in front of Dean and brought her hands to her hips. She
was as large as the unofficial leader of the Dragon Force, and just as imposing. “We’ll all be taking risks in this fight. There’s no way around it, and you know it. Accurate information about Pumpoo’s plans is the best hope we have of fighting him. Sending an invisible spy to do the work is the best edge we have. Pumpoo has the advantage of numbers and a firm hold on the Ooba people. We have her.”
“There has to be another way.”
“There isn’t.”
Dean and Shula turned to look at me. They hit on my precise location since Rosie seemed permanently attached to my legs.
“Can you do it?” Shula asked.
I can’t, I thought but I said, “I can. I will.”
Shula put a hand on Dean’s shoulder. “We have to.”
He looked as if he were carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. To me, he said, “The others will have to know of your involvement if you do this. There’s no other way to explain the information you’ll be able to bring back.”
Even though I hadn’t taken a single step toward Pumpoo’s home, already my nerves were tingling, as if all it took was the decision I was arriving at to deliver me to danger. Since Pumpoo had already killed, it was more important now than ever to preserve the secret of my existence. He’d kill me without hesitation. “Are you certain I can trust them with my secret?” One of my secrets. I had one more, just as deadly.
Shula answered before Dean could. “They’d die before revealing it.” Certainty rang through her words.
“Then let’s tell them.”
“You’re sure?” Dean asked.
No. “Yes.”
“I hear them now. Once they enter the clearing, there’ll be no turning back. You’re certain this is the step you want to take?”
“Aye.”
“Then may the Something Greater help us all.”
I had the feeling we were going to need all the help the Something Greater, or any other force that deigned to interfere in the affairs of humans, would give us. I wasn’t ordinarily one to think of the Something Greater—I didn’t like putting my trust in something I couldn’t see or prove existed—but I wouldn’t refuse any assistance, no matter how unlikely. I’d take whatever help I could get.
As I squared my shoulders to the seven dragon charmers entering the clearing, my stomach sank, my palms started sweating, and I ran them nervously over Rosie’s head.
I was about to enter this fight in a way that allowed no turning back.
Chapter Five
“What is it?” Crush asked the moment he entered the clearing along with the others.
Dean glared at Crush, but it wasn’t unfriendly. “You don’t miss much, do you?” It was the same thing I’d thought of Dean. Perhaps all dragon charmers were more aware and alert than the rest of the Ooba people. It would make sense; they were in constant danger.
Crush’s youthful-looking face split into a grin. “Never.” He drew in front of Dean and Shula. “So? Enough with the delay tactics. What is it?”
I didn’t think Dean had actually been delaying, but maybe he had. I was starting to realize I knew even less than the little I thought I did about the charmers.
“Enough with your nonsense,” Dean said, but he sounded almost jovial, hinting at the camaraderie this team might enjoy under ordinary circumstances, when their lives weren’t in immediate danger—if there was ever such a time. “If you’d all stop dilly dallying and get your butts over here, I could tell you already.”
“Yea, yea, quit your griping,” Brute said with his own smile.
When the seven charmers, with their assortment of muscles, scars, and weapons, drew to a stop, Dean’s smile fell. “I haven’t been entirely forthcoming with you.”
That seemed to stun a few of them, but they waited, expressions not betraying a thing, eyes alert and watchful.
“We have an advantage in this fight against Pumpoo, but I couldn’t tell you until now.”
“And why is that?” Scar said, and this time there was an edge of bitterness to the question. “I thought our agreement was honesty at all times. Since when does this apply to all of us and not you?”
“Since the secret isn’t mine to tell. Since telling this person’s secret would endanger her life.”
“Her?” Peachy asked.
“Aye, a girl.”
“A girl? What do you mean a girl is an advantage to us? Oh, damn. Wait a second. Can she ride a dragon? Is that what the secret is about?”
“You all are just too impatient for your own good,” Dean said, but with the unmistakable pride of a man who considers those he leads his family.
“Well if you’d stop playing with words, we wouldn’t have to be,” Crush said. “Spill this secret you kept from us. Who’s this girl, and how can she help us?”
“This girl is an Ooba, and she’s going to help us by spying on Pumpoo and bringing back intelligence we can use to defeat him.”
“A girl? Is going to do all that?” Scar asked. His weathered face settled into lines of incredulity.
“Aye. She is.” Dean suggested a confidence in me he hadn’t earlier, one which I didn’t have myself.
“And how’s she going to do it?”
“She can get in and out without him seeing her, that’s how.”
“Are you serious? You’re going to send a girl to do such dangerous work?” Peachy said. “You do realize that if Pumpoo catches her he’ll kill her on the spot, right? Or actually, he probably won’t kill her then, he’ll make a public show of it, make it really painful, so no one dares to ever defy him again.”
Of course, besides Dean and Shula, the rest of them didn’t realize they were discussing me and my aptitudes—or lack thereof—in front of me. Perhaps Peachy would have been more careful with her words if she realized I was listening. I’d tried to ignore the thought, but of course, she was right. Pumpoo would kill me, and he’d enjoy making a show of it.
My hands shook until I had to clasp them in front of me. Rosie seemed to sense my distress and drew closer.
Dean sighed in resignation. “I’m in agreement with all of you. The dangers are great, and I wish there were someone else we could send to do the job.”
“Of course there are others you can send,” Boom boomed. “What are all of us? Steaming heaps of dragon poo?”
“This girl is uniquely qualified to do the job.”
“How so? Spit it out already, man!” Crush said.
Dean looked to me, and Crush looked as if he was biting his tongue so as not to yell at Dean for delaying by looking off into space.
I wasn’t ready to do it, but I doubted I’d ever be. “I can spy on Pumpoo because he won’t be able to see me.” My voice was little more than a whisper, but that’s all it took.
Crush’s impatience vanished, and his jaw drew slack. Brute’s brown eyes grew wide in his huge head, making him look like a stunned giant, and Scar ran his gaze back and forth across the space I occupied. Peachy said, “What the—” and Boom laughed.
He said, “You know, man, no matter how long we’ve known each other, you never cease to surprise me. What on O is going on here?” But now the charmers weren’t frustrated. Boom looked positively alight with the thought of new possibilities. He laughed again, and it was the kind of laugh that was infectious. It was easy to understand where he got his nickname.
“Well,” Dean said, “this wasn’t my surprise. You should’ve seen me when I first found out.”
“I bet y’almost pooed your pants.”
Dean chuckled but grew serious almost immediately. “Everyone, this is Anira.”
“And Anira is...?” Peachy trailed off.
“Anira is an invisible girl.”
Brute whistled. “Holy moly. And she lives among our people?”
“Anira, do you want to answer the questions?”
I didn’t, but what the heck? “I’ve lived in the village for seventeen years.” My voice wobbled only at the start, and I was proud of myself.
“Whe
re were you before then?” Scar asked.
“Nowhere. I’m seventeen, almost eighteen years old.”
“A girl.” He said it like it was a defect.
I said it like it wasn’t. “A girl.” I puffed my chest out even though they wouldn’t notice.
“And Rosie is always leaning against you, which is why she looks so awkward, like she’s off balance,” Crush said, putting it together.
“That’s right. I’m the one who found Rosie. She’s grown a bit attached to me.”
“Won’t that be a problem?” Crush asked Dean. “If Anira leaves to spy on Pumpoo, what will Rosie do?”
I was pretty sure that if roles were reversed it would take me a lot longer to digest the fact that an invisible person existed. But the dragon charmers rolled with the punches. Crush had already moved onto strategy.
Dean said, “We’ll have to figure something out, because obviously Rosie needs to stay here.”
“We could restrain her,” Peachy said.
“No!” I said a little too loudly.
Peachy’s voice softened, and she again turned to look where I stood. “Just until you can leave the area and she can’t follow. We’d never hurt her, you must know this.”
I didn’t know nearly enough. I’d kept my secret for so long, I felt as if I were losing control of it. There were seven people in the clearing aside from me, and now they all knew. Any one of them could tell Pumpoo I lived, and he’d make sure I didn’t.
“You can’t tie her up,” I said, even though I had no idea how else they could make her stay here while I left. I didn’t want to leave her in the first place.
“Are you always invisible?” Scar asked.
“Aye.”
“Are you able to reveal yourself?”
“No.” But even as I spoke, it felt like a lie. But it wasn’t, was it? I’d never revealed myself to anyone. Not even my twin had ever seen what I looked like. I didn’t even know what I looked like.