Caden's Comet

by Annabelle Jay

  Shull raised his eyebrows. “You’re not even going to put up a fight? What happened to the fiery Sun Dragon who thought he could defeat me?”

  “He’s gone. Now let me watch my mother go free, and then I’ll do whatever you want.”

  “Very well.” Shull pressed the button in his hand, and the vessel my mother was in shook violently and then disappeared into thin air, hopefully reappearing on Draman a second later. “Now, if you’ll follow me into the invention room, I have a new machine I want you to try.”

  I did as I was told, trying not to show my fear. Blair and the four mechanics had been handcuffed in my absence, though without my powers, I couldn’t have stopped their captors anyway. Shull and I moved past them into the room filled with machines and assembly lines, where tired workers tinkered with Shull’s new toys.

  “This is your destination.” Shull directed me toward a machine that looked like a cross between a medieval throne and a robot. The armrests had metal straps to hold my arms down, and the seat had been bolted to the floor. “Take a seat.”

  “Grian, no!” Blair called out, but one of Shull’s associates put a hand over her mouth.

  “I gave Shull my word,” I said as I slid onto the cold seat. “He let my mother go free; now I must keep my end of the bargain.”

  Assistants strapped me down and attached some kind of monitor to my chest. Then they lowered a metal helmet, the device that actually connected to the machine and would apparently drain my powers, on my head.

  “I would say ‘this won’t hurt a bit,’” Shull said, his eyes looking more gleeful than I had ever seen them, “but it will. Other test experiments have wept for their dead mothers or offered Council secrets I didn’t even know to ask for. Even the great Grian will not be able to fight its power. I will drain you like an orange, and all your Earth Dragon boyfriend will be left with is a sad, magic-less pulp.”

  One of the assistants took control of the machine with his handheld computer. The device came to life, vibrating my head and chattering my teeth, and then emitted a terrible whirling sound. Blue light blinded me, and I disappeared into the violent shaking.

  “He’s not screaming,” I heard Shull say from what sounded like miles away. His voice somehow carried over the machine’s racket. “Why isn’t he screaming?”

  “I don’t know, Sire. He absolutely should be screaming by this point. I’ll turn the machine up to full power.”

  The shaking intensified, and the machine moved from a wail to a scream.

  “It’s not working,” Shull yelled. “Turn it up.”

  “But, Sire—”

  “Do not argue, or you’ll be next!”

  The machine must have reached its highest point, because a minute later the whole thing began to whistle and steam. Slowly, the great machine shut down like a sleeping dog. When I opened my eyes, Shull was inches from my face.

  “You broke my machine,” he said. I could tell he was trying to stay calm but failing. “Test him,” Shull demanded of his associates.

  They brought their computer over to me and used it to do some kind of diagnostic scan. One of the testers was so close to my face that I could see the dullness of his eyes, the defeated, downcast stare at the screen.

  “No magic,” the man confirmed in a bland voice.

  “So it worked?”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  Shull never smiled, but his lips did twitch.

  “Good. Now take him and his accomplices down to his cell and await further instructions. Oh, and do be sure to turn on his TV monitor. We’ll let him watch what happens to his precious Draman from between the bars.”

  “Draman?” I asked as men grabbed my arms and tried to haul me out of the room. “What do you mean? I thought you promised to keep my mother safe there?”

  “Safe?” Shull mocked surprise. “I promised no such thing. I sent her back to her home planet, where she belongs, to be exterminated with the rest of the Bone Dragon abominations.”

  “Exterminated?” Blair asked as she too was taken by the arm and pulled away. “By whom?”

  “You’ll see soon enough,” Shull promised. “Just tune in to Jupiter’s Channel Four News for updates.”

  Back we went through the stairs and hallway. I got my own cell, while Blair and the four mechanics went in the cell next to mine. The rooms were empty except for a cot and chamber pot, which reminded me of the less technologically advanced Draman and made me ache with nostalgia. Perhaps such primitive acts would seem strange to humans, but we Dramanians loved our traditions. Even after the humans and their robots had introduced us to space travel, the rest of our society had stubbornly gone on as usual.

  One of our captors turned on the large screen and changed to Channel Four. There, unmistakable, was a vision of my mothers’ castle. Things looked the same there, from the guards on the walls to the apples on the trees in the far corner of the screen, which meant whatever punishment Shull planned to perform had not begun.

  “Don’t even try to transform,” he called out to Blair without turning around. “These cells are made to punish changers like you.” Eventually, after scooting a roll of bread per person and a cup of water into our cells, he disappeared.

  “Grian, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Blair asked once we were alone.

  “I’m fine.” I sank down onto the cot, and springs bit into my legs.

  “But your powers? Are they really gone?”

  “They were already gone,” I whispered in case anyone was listening in. “Let’s just hope that the women who took them plan on giving them back sometime soon, or we could be stuck here forever.”

  “Don’t forget about Merlin, Caden, Skelly, and Bernard,” Captain reminded us. “They could be planning a rescue as we speak.”

  “Don’t count on it,” a voice said from the darkness across the walkway.

  “Caden?” I squinted in the dark. “Is that you?”

  “Indeed. Merlin’s here too, and Bernard and Skelly are on the other side. We got caught in a magic sensor right after we left you and have been waiting here ever since.”

  I could have cried, but that would not have been very princely. Instead I put my head in my hands and leaned on my knees so that in case a tear or two did drop, no one would see it. I stayed that way for a very long time, so long that I shifted into a semisleep.

  In my dreams I was back on Draman.

  Chapter Sixteen

  WE FOUND out Shull’s plan for my home planet soon enough. It began with a terrible roar, not from anywhere on Jupiter’s facility, but from the screen.

  “What was that?” Blair sat with her back to mine and the bars between us.

  “It can’t be,” I said as I whipped around. “How—”

  The roar came again, and then the shadow. So large it darkened half the castle, the Dragon Killer swooped in and turned, swooped in and turned, like a bird hunting a scurrying mouse. The machine itself never came into view; only its terrible blackness appeared.

  At the window I knew to be my mothers’, two faces came into view. They looked red and puffy, as though they had both cried when they reunited after so many years. I imagined Sara Lee picking up Nimue and spinning her around, the way my mother had described in her stories about Sara Lee, and I wished I could have been there to see it. True loves finally together again, just in time to be destroyed.

  “He’s going to kill them all,” I whispered as the fearful faces watched the Dragon Killer. Skelly moaned, and their voice felt like it cut right into my heart.

  We all stared, rapt, as the Dragon Killer finally made its appearance.

  Just like in my vision, the metallic beast was over a hundred feet long. Using its sharp claws, it perched on one of the towers, chunks of stone falling to the ground under its strong grip. Fire blazed in its path, as blue as its eyes.

  “Merlin, we have to do something,” I shouted across the hall. Merlin had been silent since we arrived, having fallen into some kind of trance that Caden, who was housed with
the sorcerer and Bernard, could not rouse him from.

  “It’s useless,” Caden said. “Merlin’s apparently hung the Do Not Disturb sign on his door.”

  “Shake him, throw a glass of water on him, try everything. He needs to help me get my powers back before my whole planet is burned to a crisp.”

  But nothing worked. Even a splash of water, the most precious commodity since we only had one cup, did not wake him from his reflective slumber.

  “I will strangle that sorcerer with my bare hands when he wakes up,” Skelly growled. “If he’s not already dead…. It’s hard to tell the difference at his age.”

  On the screen, the Dragon Killer began to tear the castle apart piece by piece. Windows crashed in under sharp nails; trees fell beneath pieces of rock wall. Handcrafted centuries before by my forefathers and their loyal subjects, my home would take some time to fall—but eventually, the Dragon Killer’s metal claws would prevail.

  “What now?” I asked Blair, who had taken my hand through the bars and was gripping it so tightly with her nails that I knew half-moons of red were forming on my skin.

  “I don’t know,” she muttered. “I don’t know, I don’t know. But we can’t just sit here and do nothing. Are you sure the sorceresses didn’t drop a hint about how to get your powers back? A spell or an incantation or some kind of ancient ritual?”

  “No.”

  “And Skelly definitely doesn’t know anything?”

  “We’ve already grilled them for information. This was all Merlin’s doing anyway. They had nothing to do with it.”

  I didn’t want to mention the part about my lack of “true love” for Caden or for myself, but Blair apparently knew me well enough to tell I had withheld information. She kept pressing me, and whether it was the cold bars in my back or the screams emitting from the screen, I finally folded.

  “Fine,” I whispered, “but this does not leave the cell. The sorceresses told me that I had to ‘find the value of the person beneath’ my powers if I hoped to regain them. Apparently, my superficial love for Caden didn’t make the cut, and they thought removing my powers would help me look deeper.”

  “So if you fall in love with Caden at whatever deep level the sorceresses demand, will you get your powers back?”

  “I don’t think it’s that simple. It sounded like I also have to fall in love with myself—that sounds stupid, I know, but I’m just paraphrasing what they told me—if I hope to become Grian the Sun Dragon again.”

  “And how are you supposed to do that locked behind these bars?”

  “I have no idea.”

  On the screen, guard after guard transitioned into Bone Dragon form and attacked the Dragon Killer to no avail. I recognized their tactical maneuvers, moves I had practiced with them thousands of times during my own training days, but nothing worked. In a way I was glad I could not see their faces, for I knew my comrades were falling.

  “Wait a minute.” Blair was staring at me instead of the screen. “Aren’t you like the representative of your clan or something?”

  “A prince, you mean?”

  “No, I’m not an idiot. I mean, do you think loving your people can be the same as loving yourself?”

  She posed an interesting question. As a Dramanian prince and Sun Dragon, could my love for my people count as true love?

  “You might be onto something, Blair. But how can I prove it?”

  “You don’t have to,” she said, and her voice was softer. “True love is true love, plain and simple. And you do love them, don’t you, Grian?”

  I looked back at the screen, then at the place where Skelly lay slumped on their cot. Every tear they had cried felt like it came from my own eyes, every sob like it had come from my own throat. We both felt the impact of every injury that happened on screen, and the pain of every citizen as the stones of our great castle fell.

  “Yes, I do. I may still be figuring out who I am beneath all the magic and dragon transitions, and I may not have found a way to fall into true love with my apparent soulmate, but I swear I have never stopped loving my land or its people. Until the day I die, I will not stop—”

  “Uh, Grian? Look down.”

  My body was bathed in a shimmery yellow light, and like the sun’s rays, the emissions lit the whole room. Even Skelly sat up and turned to stare at its brightness. My hands felt warm and tingly, and the heat spread to my entire body. No longer could I feel the cold of the bars, nor the dampness of the cot’s blanket.

  “Welcome back, Savior,” Blair said. “Now get us out of this cage.”

  Luckily, my magic was not wizard magic, and therefore was immune to Shull’s spells. With just a hand to the door, my cell lock opened, and soon the others were free too. Only Merlin remained in his cell, fast asleep or deep in a trance or walking on Mars, for all we knew.

  “Merlin.” Skelly spoke loudly into his ear. “Merlin! Fine, you leave me no choice.” Without warning, my godparent slapped Merlin across the face. At least it worked, and soon the sorcerer startled awake.

  “Oh my, I guess I dozed off for a minute. What did I miss?”

  “Only the destruction of our entire race,” Skelly yelled. “Nothing important that could have used the help of the most powerful sorcerer in the universe.”

  “Skelly, please, yelling isn’t going to help. Remember, we don’t want them to know we’re free. Merlin, now that you can get out of your cell, can you take us to Draman? Oh, and maybe destroy Shull’s surveillance monitors while you’re at it?”

  “I can try. Shull’s spells prevent us from using magic to get into this place, but as was proved by Skelly and my recent rescue mission, there is no spell preventing us from getting out. Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen—and Skelly. This trip is going to be bumpy.”

  Before Skelly could slap Merlin again, the prison walls began to spin.

  I BARELY recognized my planet. Rubble covered the ground in all directions, as though Draman was a place of ancient ruins instead of recent progress. Smoke made sight in all directions hazy, disappearing any trees, buildings, and remains of the castle still standing. The only way we could determine our location was the steady roar of the Dragon Killer as it relentlessly brought down my home.

  “This way,” Skelly called out.

  They cleared a passage through the fog with their magic, and this we followed until we reached the stone entranceway of the castle. Bodies indicated our progress like mile markers, and though I wanted to look away, I forced myself to stare into each of their pale faces. Whether I wanted to or not, it was my duty as prince to honor my subjects.

  That was how, halfway between our arrival point and the castle, I stumbled upon a face I knew better than most. The round cheeks, filled out with years of bread-eating, were unmistakable, as was the pasty skin the color of dough. In his last minutes, Sren must have put up a fight; judging by the number of wounds on his body, he had been attacked several times before he fell.

  “Do you know him?” Caden asked.

  I couldn’t speak. Instead I sank to my knees, the rocks and rubble biting into them, and touched Sren’s hand. The skin was cold and clammy despite the combination of Dramanian heat and dragon fire. I had held those hands. I had kissed those lips. How many of the boys whom I’d been fond of as a young man lay dead because of the Dragon Killer—because of Shull?

  “Get me to the castle,” I said through my clamped jaw. “I have a Dragon Killer to put down.”

  At the castle, the royal guards had barricaded the doors and windows that remained in the back left quadrant of the house and brought all the survivors there. The rest of my childhood home was completely destroyed, crumbled like a stale cookie, beneath our feet.

  “Let us in,” I cried as we pounded on the door.

  “Prince Grian?” one of the guards asked through inches of solid wood. “Is that really you?”

  “It is. My friends and I need shelter from this monster while we figure out a plan.”

  The guards removed
the boards from the bottom half of the door, and we crawled through on our hands and knees. The room we rose into was the drawing room, where my mothers would take their friends to enjoy a glass of wine after a royal dinner. The paintings had toppled off their hangers, and several of the silver decorations had been looted in the panic, but besides that, the beauty of the room remained much the same.

  “Where are my mothers?” I asked the guards who helped us up.

  “We are not sure, Sire, but we believe they’re still in the right tower. The Dragon Killer seemed to target them specifically, and we believe he has taken them prisoner by destroying all passageways to their location. Naturally they can’t transform; the Dragon Killer snatches flying dragons out of the sky like he’s the swatter and they’re the flies.”

  “I need to go there,” I told the guards who had begun boarding up the door as we spoke.

  “Prince Grian, no! You’ll be killed.”

  “Maybe. But I have to try anyway. Blair, Skelly, Merlin, and Caden, I can’t ask you to come with me, but—”

  “Of course we’re coming with you,” said Blair.

  “So are we,” added Captain, who until this point had been relatively silent. In truth, I had forgotten all about the mechanics, who stood dumbfounded by the random planet they had ended up on. “We might not have magic, but we do have guns.”

  “Very well, then. I’ll distract the Dragon Killer while you get to the top of the right tower. Captain, you and your crew can ride on the backs of the dragons to get up there and let my mothers know when it’s safe to transition. If I fall, Merlin, you take my place as distraction, okay? The most important thing is rescuing my mothers, is that understood?”

  “Yes, Grian.”

  “Good.”

  Once outside the castle again, we didn’t need to search long for the Dragon Killer. A hundred feet away, waiting patiently, was the monstrous machine. Its toothy mouth seemed to grin, though I knew that was probably just my human side projecting emotions onto Shull’s toy.

  “Go,” I ordered the others, who began their transformations. “I can handle this.”