by T. J. Klune
“Ah, see? Didn’t even hear us.”
And he hadn’t. He moved slowly, his wings taking almost a full minute for each movement up and down. I thought he could probably move fast if he wanted to, but the boney crown was moving side to side, as if he were searching for us. The area behind the crown looked free of protrusions and spikes, but I didn’t know how to use that to our advantage. If only I could get down to it and try to talk to him. I could talk my way through almost anything. If that didn’t work, I could at least try to hit him in the eye as I’d done with all the others. That seemed to work too. Granted, the idea of punching a dragon’s eye that was probably twice the size of me wasn’t too appealing.
We coasted above the Great White for a time, the dragon below us moving almost lazily as he flew over a specific area. There were breaks in the clouds below as the rainstorm started rolling on, and I could see the tiny trees of the Dark Woods so very far away. My stomach felt oily at the sight of it, and more and more of the Great White came into view as the clouds cleared. It was the biggest creature I’d ever seen, all scale and spikes and muscle. Even my vision of him hadn’t truly impressed upon me the sheer scope of him.
“He’s not doing anything,” I said, frustrated.
“And we can’t take him head-on,” Kevin pointed out. “I may be faster, but I don’t know that I can outrun him forever. And I can’t feel him. Not like I could with the others.”
He was right about that. Aside from the initial wave of magic and the voice momentarily in my head, I couldn’t feel anything about the Great White. But it wasn’t as if he wasn’t there at all. Instead, there was a void in my mind where he should be.
Like he was shielding himself from me.
“We can’t keep this up,” I said. “Eventually he’s going to either look up or go back down. And we don’t know how far the others got. We can’t take the chance of him finding them before we do anything.”
“Dimitri will protect them,” Kevin said. “And now that I’ve said that aloud, I realize how ridiculous that is. We gotta do something. Now.”
I closed my eyes and raised my face toward the sun, trying to think of something, anything I could do to get the dragon’s attention that wouldn’t result in the immediate and most likely painful death of Kevin and myself. If only we could get closer somehow and just get him to listen to me. But I didn’t know how amenable he would be to Kevin being near him, and it wasn’t like I could get to him by myself to—
I opened my eyes.
“Oh no,” I whispered fervently. “I’ve just had the worst idea ever.”
My skin felt cold as I peered back down at the dragon below us. Either this would work or I would die, and the chances were greater for the latter than the former. But we were running out of time, the forest below us revealed as the clouds disappeared. I thought maybe that’s what the dragon had been moving in circles for, that his massive size had been enough to shift the clouds away.
Smoke streamed from his nostrils, leaving trails behind him that rippled along the massive spikes on his back. His tail moved back and forth almost lazily. The crown of his head turned from side to side as he scanned for something, most likely me.
“I’m gonna do this,” I said, trying to psych myself up. “I’m gonna do this.”
“What?” Kevin asked, starting to sound slightly hysterical. “What are you gonna do?”
“I need you to get above him,” I said, never taking my eyes off the Great White. “Don’t let him see you. The sun is low enough that your shadow should stay behind him if we move quick enough. Get as close to his front as possible, but don’t go any lower.”
He looked back at me with narrowed eyes. “Why do I have a feeling you’re planning something that Gary’s going to yell at me for?”
“Least of my worries right now,” I said through gritted teeth, mouth flooding with saliva in that way that signaled I was about to be sick. “Oh my gods, I am so fucking stupid. Oh gods.”
But I didn’t have a choice.
Kevin moved carefully, making sure to approach the Great White from the rear. It was only moments before we were above him, Kevin’s shadow encompassed by the Great White’s on the earth below. We couldn’t stay right here forever. If I was going to do this, I had to do it soon.
My hands were sweating.
My heart was about to beat out of my chest.
My breaths were light and quick.
Everything was in sharp clarity, the colors bright.
I said, “Listen to me. Whatever you do, you don’t come after me. You get the hell out of here. Find the others. You tell—you tell them this was my choice. That I did this because it was the right thing to do.”
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.
“I need you to trust me.”
“Trust you? I barely even know you!”
I grinned at him. “Love you too, dude.”
And then I pulled myself up until I was standing on Kevin’s back, the wind whipping around me.
“No,” Kevin said, shaking his head furiously. “Don’t you do it. You hear me? Don’t you—”
I ignored him as I turned away, facing his tail, my arms behind me as I held on to the spike on his back.
“Sam! You sit your ass back down right now!”
I took in a deep breath and let it out slow.
“Who the fuck do you think you are!”
I glanced over my shoulder, winking at him. “I’m Sam of Wilds. See you soon.”
And then I turned and started running.
Kevin’s back was wide enough that I was able to move left or right to dodge the spikes. The muscles beneath my feet shifted as he tensed. The wind at my back pushed me along, my strides swift and sure. My eyes watered. I heard him shout my name as I reached his midback. I heard him scream for me as I neared his tail, but it was muted now. The blood was roaring in my ears, the scars on my chest felt as if they were electrified, and I saw green and gold darting around the edges of my vision. There was magic here. It carried me past the moment of no return, my mind whiting out at the last possible second.
I took a breath.
I balled my hands into fists.
And then I leaped from Kevin’s back into nothing, narrowly avoiding his tail as it whipped by me.
It wasn’t like jumping from the cliff.
I wasn’t suspended in midair.
I saw the sun, and then I saw the dragon and the clouds below as I began to fall.
Kevin roared above me.
I folded my hands against my sides as I fell face-first toward the Great White.
BAD IDEA, my brain supplied helpfully. THIS WAS A VERY BAD IDEA.
It took only seconds, but they passed by in an age.
I didn’t even have the wherewithal to scream as I plummeted toward the Great White.
I narrowed my eyes against the wind.
There was the green-black of the forest, but then all I could see was white, white, white, and the moment before I landed, the moment before I crashed into it, I thought, no, and the green and gold were as bright as I’d ever seen them. The air around me liquefied, the moisture being sucked out of the sky and gathering below me, water swirling in a swift eddy until it was bigger than I was. I hit the surface of the water, feeling it close up and over my head, slowing my descent, bubbles trailing from my nose and mouth. I slid through the depths of it, burst through the other side in a shower of droplets that caught the sunlight around me, glittering brightly.
I landed on the back of the Great White’s neck, water raining down around me, in the shadow of the dragon’s crown.
“That,” I wheezed, rolling onto my back, “was so fucking awesome. Stupid, but fucking awesome.”
And the dragon known as the Great White said, “Wizard.”
Chapter 19: The Choice
I PUSHED myself up slowly, the skin beneath my hands wrinkled and tough. It was thrumming, like it was roiling with magic just underneath the surface. It was warm and v
ital and alive in a way I’d never felt before. The way it emanated from the dragon was overwhelming, and the green and gold felt out of control, like if I were to just let it go, my magic would take over and everything could be consumed.
It was a seductive thought.
I tried to push it away.
Why, though? a little voice whispered in my head. Why can’t you let it? It would be so easy. All you have to do is close your eyes, and there will be green, and there will be gold, and it will become everything you hoped it would be. The things you could do with it, Sam. You could end this. You could end him. And then the star dragon would be a liar. There would be no sacrifice. Vadoma would be a liar. Ryan would not be upon a slab of stone, a shell, a husk, that which makes him him having crossed the veil.
I squeezed my eyes shut, gritting my teeth against the onslaught. Because that voice was right, wasn’t it? It would be easier. To let it all out, to see what I could become, to be stronger than anything else in the world, stronger than Myrin. I could control it. I knew I could. I could control it and shove it back when I was finished—
“No,” I ground out, hands fisted at my sides. The air tasted burned and crisp around me, like it was lightning-struck. I opened my eyes, and everything was covered in a haze of white, like the brightest light was shining from within me. It was too much, too strong, too powerful, and I wanted it, and I didn’t. It was everything and nothing, and as it railed against me, as it bowled over me, I knew it was right there, right there for the taking, and all I had to do was—
Because it’s always been you, Sam. I promise. I promise. I promise, because when I look upon these stars, there is nothing I wish for more than you.
“No,” I whispered.
And then it was gone.
All that was left was the sky above. The clouds below.
I stood upon the back of the oldest living creature in the known world, his great wings moving slowly up and down. I couldn’t see Kevin, though I thought he was near, having ignored my order to find the others. He was stupid like that. I might have loved him just a little bit.
“Why have you come here?” a voice asked, the words reverberating all around me. I couldn’t be sure if they were spoken aloud or just in my head, but I didn’t think it mattered.
I stepped forward until I was back in the shadow of the crown, which blocked out the worst of the wind. I reached up and pressed a hand against it. It was smooth, the skin stretched tight over bone that was as hard as steel. The moment my fingers touched the Great White, there was a little burst of light in my head, and I thought of Zero, the way his garden had grown in the ruins in the desert, of Pat and Leslie, their devotion to each other, the weight and power of their dreams.
And I thought of Kevin, bright and brash Kevin, who’d been scared and unsure of his place in the world until he’d carved himself a home in the hearts of a hornless unicorn, a half-giant, a knight, and a wizard’s apprentice.
I pulled away from the Great White, seeing my handprint left upon his crown, the green and gold burning like a brand into his skin. I watched as it faded until it disappeared altogether.
“Just because my kin believe in you, apprentice, does not mean you have what it takes to fulfill what the gods have demanded of you.”
I stared up at the back of the dragon’s crown, unsure of what to do next. Unfortunately for me, my mouth moved before my brain did. “Dude, four out of five ain’t bad, you gotta give me that at least. And the star dragon keeps saying he’s impartial, but we both know that’s a lie. Also, it’d be totally cool if you could stay out of my head, because that’s just rude. Don’t be a dick.”
Man, Morgan and Randall were going to kick my ass if they ever found out about this.
“Why are you here?” the Great White asked again.
“You know why.”
“I would hear you speak it.”
I was barely able to restrain the eye roll as I began to list the reasons rapid-fire. “The short version? Prophecy, villain, bad-touch grandma, sexy wannabe cornerstone, snake dragon monster thing, mated lesbians, my boo, best friends, adventures that are capitalized so you know they’re true, saving the world, best friends 5eva, the King, Pete, my parents, the people who hate me because of Lady Fucking Tina who I loathe with a fiery passion that will never cease, my home, my country, Morgan, Myrin, Randall, who, by the way, told me to tell you that I can be as annoying as anyone or anything you’ve ever seen before in your long, long life. I think that about covers it all.” I frowned. “Wait, no, also, I’m here because I need your help, and it’d be super cool if we could just do this thing without the whole rawr-I’m-going-to-pretend-to-eat-you-but-it’s-actually-just-a-test thing that dragons seem to do to me for reasons I still don’t quite understand. Okay, now that’s all.”
There was a beat of silence. Then, “It would appear Randall was correct,” the Great White rumbled. “For once in his life.”
“Because that’s what you took away from that whole speech,” I said. “And I take offense to that. I was bad-touched by my grandma. Come on, dude. Priorities.”
“I warned you,” he said. “In the woods. I warned you. And yet here you stand.”
“Yeah, I know you don’t know me and all, but seriously. Telling me not to do something is a surefire way to make me do it. I’m kind of an asshole that way. Also, not to be repetitious, but four out of five dragons. That’s gotta count for something.”
“I see your heart, apprentice,” he said. “There is strength within it. And goodness. Even now, after everything you’ve done, after everything that’s been done to you, you have not allowed yourself to be consumed by the darker path of magic. That is to be commended, given the power you wield. But still I stand by my prior decree: you are not ready.”
“That’s fucked,” I said, a little angrier than I’d been just a moment ago. “That’s fucked, and you know it. I have done everything that has been asked of me. All of this was pushed down upon me, all these secrets and lies and a godsdamn destiny that I never asked for, and I have done it all. I went to the desert. I went to the mountains. I have faced Myrin and survived. These are not my sins, but I’ve taken their burden upon me. You don’t get to tell me I’m not ready when I’ve done everything I’ve been told to do.”
“You have fire,” the dragon said. “And strong wits about you. But you are reckless. Arrogant. You do not understand the weight of sacrifice, the power in facing what is lost.”
“And you do?” I demanded. “You turned your back on Randall when he needed you the most! He had you, and then Myrin came and you left. You were his mentor. You should have been there for him. You should have been there when Myrin fell into darkness, but you hid yourself away in the woods, sleeping the centuries away while he and Morgan suffered—”
“Don’t you speak to me about suffering,” the Great White snarled, and there was a burst of pure white magic all around me that I could do nothing to fight. I was rooted in place, unable to move. “You know nothing about suffering. I warned him of the path that leads to darkness, and he made his own choices. He is human; therefore, he is fallible. He fell prey to the entrapments of his kind, of love and loyalty to one who would bring him to ruin. And here you stand, speaking of a unicorn and a half-giant and a knight. Tell me, wizard. If you could end this now, if you could save the world and all its people, would you sacrifice the ones you love?”
“I would find another way,” I snapped.
“And while you are finding this other way, the world descends into chaos and madness. Villains will rise and heroes will fall because you cannot make the decisions necessary. There is no place in this world for love, not while it stands upon the brink of destruction. I warned Randall. I told him of the dangers of giving his heart unto another, and he ignored my counsel.”
“Myrin was his cornerstone! You can’t ignore that kind of magic!”
“You can,” the Great White said. “You can, and if you hope to succeed, if you hope to fulfill your desti
ny, you must do what Randall could not, Sam of Wilds.”
“What?” I breathed, skin buzzing.
The dragon’s wings suddenly folded into his sides as he tilted his head downward. I was knocked off my feet and landed on my back against the inside of the crown. I was pinned in place by sheer force as he hurtled toward the earth. The sky disappeared into a mass of swirling clouds. Thunder rumbled around us, and lightning flashed. Rain slashed down as I closed my eyes, waiting for whatever end was to come.
His great wings opened, the air causing them to billow like sails. The pressure against my body increased exponentially until I thought I would be crushed under the weight of it, but as he slowed to land, it lessened quickly, and I slid from the crown back down to his neck.
I knew the moment he touched down, hearing the felling of trees, the branches and trunks cracking and splintering under the sheer mass of him. I ran for it, moving out from underneath the crown toward his right side. The rain hit hard, and I was instantly soaked as my feet slid out from under me, sending me sprawling. I landed roughly on dragon skin and began to slip off his side. There was a moment that I was freefalling before I was snatched out of the air and clutched against a familiar chest.
“Kevin?”
“You fucking idiot,” he snarled at me as he landed a ways off from the Great White, who made no move to follow. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“Honestly? I don’t know that I really was.”
“No shit. There’s going to be no end to how much Gary, Tiggy, and Ryan are going to murder you.”
“Eh. We were above the clouds. They didn’t see anything.”
“Oh, trust me, they’ll know.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” I said, glaring up at him.
He bared his teeth. “Watch me, pretty. Think of it as payback for the heart attacks you almost gave me. I have six of them, Sam. Have you ever felt a heart attack coming on in six hearts?”
Maybe that made me feel a little guilty. “What would I have to do to make you keep this to yourself?”