One Night at a Soul Auction

by Amy Cross

  “You look absolutely mortified,” he says with a faint smile, as the heart continues to beat beneath us. “Milly, just don't look down and -”

  Suddenly the dragon lunges forward.

  I scream, but at the same time I hear the huge wings flapping against the wind and I realize we're racing out from the edge of the ridge. I squeeze my eyes tight shut, convinced that the dragon is merely running, but slowly I begun to understand that I can't fool myself. I hear Duncan laughing, but I wait a moment before finally opening my eyes as cool air blasts against my face. For a moment, I don't dare to look down, but finally I peer to my left and see the ground racing past below us.

  Far, far below us.

  We must be at least five hundred feet up in the air.

  “Now come on,” Duncan calls back to me, shouting so he can be heard. “Do you know anyone else who's ever ridden on a dragon? This is a unique life -”

  I scream again, clutching his arm tighter than ever. One of my feet slips momentarily against a scaly ridge, but I manage to cling on tight. The dragon's scaly skin is pulsing every couple of seconds with another beat of the huge heart within, and it's all I can manage to hold on tight and try to avoid looking over the edge. I can tell from the wind that we're flying fast, and I can see faint swirls of white in the air that I think might be clouds.

  “I want to get down!” I shout, closing my eyes again. “Please, Duncan, just make it land! I'll walk! I don't mind walking! I can walk and -”

  Suddenly the dragon lurches to the left, and I scream yet again. I feel myself starting to slide to the left, but I cling on tight to Duncan and a moment later he grabs my shoulder and hauls me closer. Daring to open my eyes, I see that the dragon's wings are now completely unfurled, and that the webbed sections are fluttering wildly in the wind as the creature arcs to the left. Wisps of cloud rush at us, reminding me just how fast we're going, and after a moment I look down and see vast tracts of land with glittering rivers far below. I even spot people walking along dirt roads, and then I see the dragon's shadow flitting across the grass as we continue to fly.

  “I don't want to be up here,” I stammer. “I don't want to be so high.”

  “Are you scared of heights, Milly?” Duncan asks.

  “I think so!”

  “Then -”

  Before he can finish, the dragon's wings suddenly rise up and then back crash down, flapping heavily and with such force that I feel the entire body shudder. I scream for the third or fourth time as the dragon tilts to the right, and the wings flap a couple more times before settling once more and resuming their glide.

  For a moment, the wing on the right side is covering the sun, and I see thick veins running through the webby membrane.

  Just as I'm about to cry out, I spot a large mass of darkness on the ground ahead. I squint, struggling to see properly as wind crashes against us, but I can just about make out what looks like some kind of town or city with a raised section in the middle.

  “The soul auction,” Duncan says, with a hint of bitterness in his voice. “All the worst excesses of every species, pooled together for a day or two of decadence and moral abandonment. There are millions of creatures there now, salivating to get started. The place is like a cancer on this world.”

  Gripping Duncan's arm tighter, I spot flashes of reflected sunlight coming from the soul auction. With sundown fast approaching, long shadows run from one edge of the makeshift town. I'm sure Duncan's right about the soul auction being a horrid place, but from up here it all looks rather unassuming. Nice, even. Still, I've spent my whole life going from one charming English village to the next, and the thought of going to a place that's so utterly filled with bustle is enough to make me feel positively nauseous. I'm a country girl, and I think I'd absolutely hate being in a -

  “Watch out!” Duncan shouts, and I turn just in time to see something long and thin flashing past us.

  Looking up, I watch as the javelin – it looks like a javelin, anyway – flies higher and higher and then starts to fall.

  “What was that?” I ask.

  “Hunters on the ground,” Duncan replies, sounding furious. “If they can bring a dragon down, they can sell off the carcass and be set for life.”

  He peers over the dragon's side.

  “More proof that the soul auction attracts the worst of the worst.”

  A moment later, a second javelin flashes past us, although this one is a little further away.

  “They've got catapults and everything,” Duncan explains. “You have no idea how much a dragon's body parts sell for. The heart alone could make a man rich, and a complete skull would be snapped up by any one of the kingdoms.”

  “That sounds horrible!” I shout.

  “Usually these types are spread across the seven worlds,” he continues. “Unfortunately, the soul auction is bringing them all together. It's at times like this that I wish I could just -”

  Before he can get another word out, there's a loud thudding sound, followed by a cry of pain, and then I spot the head of a javelin bursting up between the dragon's wings and then sticking fast with about five feet of wooden poking up.

  The dragon tips, first one way and then the next, and I grab Duncan's arm tighter. At the same time, I can feel him slipping too, and for a moment I feel certain that we're both about to fall off. The dragon cries out – almost a scream – and then a moment later something wet and warm splatters against my face.

  Looking toward the protruding javelin, I see to my horror that rich red blood is pouring from the wound and getting blown back against us.

  “She's hurt!” I shout. “Duncan, they got her!”

  Beneath my hands and knees, the dragon's heart is pounding now with such force that I'm almost bouncing against her skin.

  “What the hell is wrong with them?” Duncan mutters, gripping the dragon tighter as its wings flap with increasing fury. “Who looks at a magnificent beast like this and immediately thinks about how much its body parts are worth?”

  “She'll be alright, won't she?” I ask, staring in horror at the javelin that's still impaling the dragon. “Duncan, you can just take it out and she'll be fine! Isn't that right?”

  The dragon shudders again, and I feel its massive heartbeat starting to become less regular. And then, before I can ask another question, a second javelin slices straight through the dragon's body, this time hitting the area immediately above its right wing.

  “Stop!” I scream. “Make them stop!”

  The dragon roars with pain, as two more javelins miss her by just a few meters.

  “I see them!” Duncan shouts, looking over the side.

  Following his gaze, I spot half a dozen small specks running across the field. I open my mouth to ask how they can launch javelins so far, but then suddenly the dragon lurches and starts falling from the sky. I scream, and at that moment the dragon manages to right itself while turning and soaring down toward the specks.

  Almost immediately, another javelin slashes into the poor creature's body, cutting straight through its right wing and firing out the other side.

  “Duncan!” I scream, as the dragon rushes down toward the field. “Do something!”

  “Hold tight!” he shouts.

  Suddenly the dragon lets out an almighty roar, and I look ahead just in time to see flames bursting from its mouth. We're flying down almost vertically now, but the dragon manages to straighten itself as it flies straight over the running figures. The hunters vanish into a wall of flame, and as we race higher again I turn and look back to see that the entire field has been razed by fire. There's nothing left, and it's hard to believe that anyone could have survived.

  “That's what you get for provoking a dragon,” Duncan says breathlessly, still holding me tight. “You either bring it down fast, or you end up on the receiving end of its revenge.”

  “So she killed them,” I stammer. “Now she's going to be alright, isn't she? Duncan, tell me she's going to be alright!”

&nb
sp; “Come on,” Duncan says firmly, placing a hand against the dragon's scales. “You can do it. Get us down somewhere. Anywhere. It doesn't matter. Just get us down and I'll do what I can to help you.”

  In response, the dragon lets out a mournful cry that sounds somehow much weaker than the noises it made earlier.

  “You can do it,” Duncan continues, as the heartbeat slows. “You're a magnificent creature. Don't let those scavenging fools be the end of you. I promise, I'll do everything I can to heal you, but first we have to get down onto the ground.”

  I wait, desperately hoping that Duncan will say it's all going to be alright, but instead I hear and feel the heart thudding with several irregular beats. We're soaring through the sky, still a few hundred feet above the field, but now I can barely hear the dragon's heart at all and instead the only sound is the wind crashing against us. I wait for the heart to beat again, but as the seconds tick past I start to get really worried.

  “Duncan?” I say finally, hoping that he'll make everything okay again. “She's recovering, isn't she? She's getting her strength back. Right?”

  Again I wait, and again the only sound is the crashing wind.

  “We're gliding,” he says finally. “The wings... It's a miracle, but she must have set us on a glide before she passed. It's all she could do to help us.”

  “You mean she's...”

  My voice trails off for a moment as I try to comprehend what's really happening.

  “We're flying on a dead dragon?” I whisper after a moment. “Is that really what's happening?”

  “We are,” he replies calmly.

  “And how do we... How do we land?”

  “There are two main options,” he replies. “Option one is a controlled, gradual descent ending in a slightly large bump.”

  I wait for him to continue.

  “Okay,” I say finally. “And what's option two?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Brace!”

  As soon as Duncan shouts, I grab hold of him tighter than ever and lean into him. At that moment, I feel the dragon's body shudder as it hits the ground, and I'm immediately ripped away and send clattering off the dragon's side.

  Screaming, I hit the ground and roll, slamming into one of the wings and then bouncing off into the grass. The impact hurts, but as I come to a rest I at least feel that I didn't break anything.

  I wait for a moment, just to be sure, and then I slowly get to my feet. My knees are trembling, but I think I might actually be in one piece.

  And then I see the dragon.

  My heart sinks as I realize that the poor creature has landed in a crumpled heap. Lots and lots of dust has been kicked up, but as that dust clears I see the dragon's head tilted slightly to one side with its beautiful red eyes still partially open. The javelins snapped during the impact, but there's a lot of blood still spreading from the various wounds and leeching into the mud, while the dragon's left wing at least has been crushed and crumpled, with the webby membrane torn against countless rocks.

  A tear runs down my cheek.

  “Milly!” Duncan gasps, and I spot him crawling out from beneath the dragon's rear. He's struggling, but he manages to get out just as I run over to help. “Are you okay?” he asks, before collapsing into a series of coughs.

  “She's dead,” I whisper, looking along once more toward the dragon's face. “They really killed her.”

  “They really did,” Duncan says, stepping past me and going to take a closer look. He reaches out and touched the dragon's face, just below the still-open eye. “She was an old soul,” he continues. “Our telepathic contact was brief and weak, but she was an old soul who felt she'd achieved everything. Her only hope was that one day her children would come back to visit, but she knew that was unlikely.”

  He pauses, before turning to me.

  After a moment, however, I realize that he's looking not at me but past me.

  Turning, I see a row of scrappy tents and caravans barely more than a couple of hundred feet away, marking the start of the vast and sprawling soul auction. Already, there's a faintly stale smell in the air.

  “We're here,” Duncan says, stepping up behind me. “We're at the soul auction. Is that a coincidence, or did she deliberately try to...”

  His voice trails off. When I look up at him, I see a sense of determination in his eyes.

  “Is there really nothing we can do for the dragon?” I ask, before reaching out and tugging Duncan's arm. “It seems to me that a lot of weird things happen in this place. Isn't there someone who can maybe fix her up?”

  “Nobody can help her now,” he replies, with his gaze still fixed on the settlement. “All we can do is try to make sure that nothing like it ever happens again.”

  “But how can -”

  “You have to leave,” he says suddenly, grabbing my arm and leading me past the dragon and over to the far edge of the clearing, where he stops and points at some distant mountains. “Do you see that unusually deep gap?” he asks. “The sharpest v-shape in the range?”

  “I think so, but -”

  “Head for that.”

  “It's miles away!”

  “You're not going there, it's just so you stay on the right track. Head for that point, and after a while you'll reach a point where a river splits into four. One of the splits heads alongside a forest. Follow that split until you see a cave, and then go into the cave. You'll find your own way easily enough at that point. Don't be scared.”

  “I won't remember this!”

  “You have to!” he snaps.

  “Why?”

  “Because I'm not coming with you!”

  “But -”

  “I'm already here!” he continues, interrupting me. “This is where I need to be, Milly! I swore I'd never come to another soul auction, but now my sister is dead and I don't care anymore! Do you understand? I have to go in there and destroy the entire thing, or I'll never be able to live with myself! I have to do it for Matilda!”

  “What about -”

  “Many years ago,” he continues, sounding a little breathless now, “my sister and I crept into a camp at the very edge of the previous soul auction. We were just kids, we didn't really know what we were doing. We were just drawn in late one night, by the lights and the color and the sounds.” He pauses for a moment, as if he's reliving that night. “We knew the place was dangerous,” he adds finally, “but we were daring each other to always go a little further, to keep looking around the next corner and the next and the next. The place was intoxicating, it was like breathing gold.”

  “And then what happened?” I ask.

  “I was so nearly tempted,” he says. “I still wonder why I was able to resist, but some inner part of me knew that I'd be signing my life away. I'd lost Matilda by that point, but eventually I found her. She wanted to stay, but I persuaded her that we had to leave. On our way home, she showed me some rocks she'd been given. She crumbled them into powder, and then she licked the powder, and after that there wasn't a day when she wasn't feeling the lure of that stuff.”

  “Like Van took?” I whisper.

  “It destroyed her life. She was a good person, but she was so desperate for more and more of those rocks. She'd do anything, including selling people out. And now she's dead, and I'm going to put a stop to all of this or I'm going to die trying. Because I don't like what they did to my sister, and I'm not going to let it happen to anyone else's sister! Do you understand?”

  “But you're just you,” I point out. “This place is... huge.”

  “Sometimes you have to do things that scare you!” he barks. “Sometimes, even if everyone else says you're wrong, you have to go ahead anyway.” He taps his chest. “If you know in here that it's the right thing to do, then you have to do it. No matter what.”

  “But -”

  “Now go!” he shouts, turning me around and shoving me away. “Don't look back, Milly! Go home and never think about this place again!”

  “But -”
r />   “Go!”

  He pushes me again, then again, and then he tries a third time but I slip out of the way at the last moment and take a step back.

  “The soul auction is no place for a child,” he says firmly.

  “Aren't there any children in there at all?” I ask, sniffing back tears.

  “I didn't say there weren't,” he replies. “I just said that there shouldn't be. There shouldn't be anyone here at all, and I'm going to make sure this party ends before it ever gets started. I've told you the route home, Milly, and I know you'll be able to find your way. I'm sorry I couldn't come with you, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. You'll be fine, I have faith in you.”

  He hesitates, before reaching out to touch my shoulder.

  Flinching, I pull away.

  “I'm sorry,” he adds, turning and making his way toward the outer buildings of the tent city. “I have to do this.”

  “Come back,” I whimper, although I know he won't be able to hear me. “I'm scared.”

  When he doesn't reply, I run after him and grab his arm, trying to make him stay.

  “Milly -”

  “You have to take me home!” I yell. “You can't just -”

  “That's not how it works!” he shouts, turning and shoving me again, pushing me until I fall hard against the ground. “This isn't some Alice in Wonderland bullshit, Milly, where you rescue your pathetic little doll and get home in time for tea! You're not in Oz or Narnia or Neverland or some other made-up land where everything will magically be fine! You're here, in a dangerous world with dangerous people, and you should thank your lucky stars if you get home at all!”

  He pauses, and I'm too terrified to move as he continues to stare at me.

  “Go home,” he says finally, a little breathlessly, as he turns and walks away into the soul auction. “Just get the hell out of here.”

  I watch as he storms into the shadows, and then I feel a flash of fear as I realize that he's gone. My first instinct is to rush after him, to tell him that I'm too scared to walk alone in this world, but somehow I manage to stay with my feet rooted to the ground. My heart is pounding, even more so as I turn and look past the dead dragon. I can see the mountains in the distance, but I'm already starting to struggle when it comes to remembering the route Duncan explained to me.