Caden's Comet

by Annabelle Jay

  The confidence in my voice was fake, but it seemed to convince them. One by one, dragon carriers pushed off and soared the humans up to the right, where I hoped my mothers waited for rescue.

  Alone, I turned to the Dragon Killer.

  The machine whirled wildly as its teeth gnashed and claws bit into the ground, and then it ran at me so fast that I barely saw it coming. I started to transition, but I wasn’t fast enough. The full force of the Dragon Killer’s head pounded into my half-human stomach and knocked the wind out of me as it sent me flying twenty feet across the yard.

  Hurry up! I yelled at my body as it continued the transition process.

  The Dragon Killer lunged at me again, but this time, I was prepared. I sidestepped the beast, sending its head crashing into a nearby apple tree. Like a confused dog, it shook its head back and forth a few times, snapping its jaw at me as it did so.

  Finally my transition finished, and I pushed off the ground into the air with all of my strength. Sunlight poured from my wings, and where the light touched the Dragon Killer, the metal began to melt.

  Sunlight is its weakness, I realized as the beast moved out of my trail. With my powers, I can actually destroy this creature.

  Because of its bulk, the Dragon Killer was slow in the air. The creature was like a blue whale making its way slowly through the ocean, while I was a dolphin, leaping and gliding. I sped ahead, trying to give myself time to think as the Dragon Killer caught up to me.

  Think, Grian, think. Sunlight. Sunlight. How can I amplify my sunlight enough to destroy such an unconquerable foe?

  I thought of the light that had emerged from my hand when I touched Caden, and later, the mark of the Sun Dragon I had created. But those two anomalies had happened without my control or calling, and I couldn’t do that again by will. Could I?

  Far below us, the others, with the addition of two new Bone Dragons in their pack, made their way back toward the castle. Unfortunately, the Dragon Killer noticed this progress too, and it turned abruptly and headed back to ground level to head them off.

  Hey, come back here, I called as I pulled on its enormous tail, but all that accomplished was cuts in my claws and arms from the glass spikes. It’s me you want, not them!

  But apparently the Dragon Killer had been programmed to find my mothers and kill them—after all, we were not supposed to have shown up—and it could not be distracted. Closer and closer it got to my mothers, and further and further away seemed the hope of saving them. How could I, the apparent savior of the universe, be unable to even rescue my parents?

  Oh, come on, Grian, a voice whispered in my ear, and this time, it wasn’t mine. Don’t you remember the three steps?

  Understand, accept, act, I repeated.

  Very good. Remember what we told you: your powers are outside of you, like Sara Lee’s Excalibur, to be picked up and wielded when necessary.

  But how do I wield them if I don’t even know what they are?

  How does the sun continue to shine? the voice asked me cryptically.

  But that’s not a choice. It’s the sun’s job to shine; it’s the definition of its very nature.

  In the distance, Blair flew in front of the Dragon Killer, who batted her like a baseball with one of its enormous claws.

  Exactly. What you’re doing right now, at this very moment, is keeping yourself back from shining. To shine would simply be to stop. Do you understand?

  About as much as I understood anything else the sorceresses said, which was to say, not at all. But I followed their instructions, willing myself to remove whatever cap I apparently had put on my power button so I could save my family and friends. Shine, Sun Dragon, I willed my body. Shine like you were born to do.

  And shine I did. Beams poured from my skin like water through a strainer, finding every pore to use as a vessel for their explosion of light. Then, like a nightlight beaming down a dark hallway, my powers headed straight for the Dragon Killer and my friends. The yellow light found the tail of the Dragon Killer first and lit it on fire, then burned down its spikes to its back legs.

  Finally distracted, the Dragon Killer turned and began to strike at its own body wildly, but to no avail. My light was not a fire that could be put out. The flames moved to the torso, then enveloped the front legs and head.

  Please don’t kill me, said a little voice.

  Who said that? Who are you?

  It’s me. Dragon Killer.

  Why do you sound like a little girl?

  Because I am. I was only born yesterday, remember? Listen, this fire must have severed some kind of control system the scientists put in place, and I don’t want to kill you anymore. Can you let me live?

  I groaned, which, as a dragon, came out as a huff. But I knew before I gave the order that I would save the girl—it was the princely thing to do.

  Put out the fire, I called to my friends. Quickly, she’s burning alive.

  You’ve got to be joking, Blair said. Didn’t this demon dragon just try to kill us?

  Do as I say, Blair. Now.

  But where would they get water to put out a fire in midair? Even Merlin was a dragon at the moment, and by the time he transitioned, the Dragon Killer would be a pile of ashes.

  Quick, follow me, I urged the Dragon Killer. There’s a lake about a hundred yards behind the apple orchard.

  We soared, two flaming dragons, across the castle so recently destroyed by the dragon at my tail. The fire inched forward, to the dragon’s shoulders, while the parts already flaming began to melt and rain down on the grass.

  Dive! I ordered, and the Dragon Killer obeyed. We headed straight for the water, a serene pool in the midst of all of Draman’s destruction where any debris had sunk on impact. The Dragon Killer threw herself into the lake, while I pulled up just in time and hovered a few feet above the water. I didn’t know the effects of a liquid bath on a Sun Dragon’s flames, but that didn’t seem like the time to find out.

  The Dragon Killer stayed down for a long time. On the shore, the other dragons and humans gathered and waited, staring expectantly at the surface for signs of the vicious killer. Even I doubted whether the dragon had really changed her ways—though now that I knew how to use my magic, I could always just burn her again.

  Finally a giant jaw emerged from the lake, followed by a whole dragon. The Dragon Killer found her balance in midair, then shook off the excess water from her metal body.

  Much better. Thanks, Sun Dragon.

  You’re welcome. And I think I have a way you can repay me—unless you didn’t mean what you said about Shull’s control.

  I meant every word. That evil man deserves to die, and if he was here right now, I would snap him in half myself.

  Good. Come to shore and tell us how we can defeat him. If we succeed, I will permit you to remain on Draman as long as you wish without fear of danger or coercion.

  You’d do that for me, even after I just destroyed your whole planet?

  Everyone deserves a second chance, I said. Across the lake, I locked eyes with Caden until he turned away.

  Chapter Seventeen

  WHEN THE Dragon Killer and I reached shore, I transitioned as quickly as I could. My mothers were already running for me, their hands clasped together until the moment when they stretched out their arms to me, and though I had not lost my tail or my spikes, they hugged me anyway.

  “Grian, is that really you?” Sara Lee asked as she put her hand to my cheek. “But it can’t be. You were just a little boy when I last saw you.”

  “It’s me, Mother.” I hugged her again, and she squeezed me so hard that I couldn’t breathe.

  “I’ve missed so much, and I don’t know how you can ever forgive me for leaving you,” she said. She didn’t cry, but her face got very red again and she kept her eyes locked somewhere in the distance. Nimue put her hand on Sara Lee’s back, which seemed to make her more emotional instead of less. “All of the memories we would have had….”

  “And even though I’ve bee
n here the whole time, you look different to me too,” Nimue said as she put her hands on my shoulders and looked at me. “You became a man when I wasn’t looking. I’m so sorry about how I’ve acted over the years—”

  “No need to apologize, either of you,” I said. “This was not your doing. The man responsible is Shull, and he shall pay for what he’s done to our family.”

  “And this monster?” Sara Lee asked as Dragon Killer walked out of the water. Her hand went to her belt, where she probably imagined Excalibur’s hilt would meet her hand. “Why did you rescue it?”

  “It’s not an it, it’s a she,” I said, “and she’s just a child who was forced to act on Shull’s orders. She cannot be held responsible.”

  “You really have grown up,” Sara Lee said with disbelief. She relaxed her shoulders, and I knew that Dragon Killer was safe, at least for now.

  “Grian!” Blair ran into my arms, and I picked her up and spun her around the way I always imagined Sara Lee spinning Nimue. “I thought you were going to get yourself killed, you big idiot.”

  “I thought about it, but who would you get mad at if I were gone?”

  Everyone surrounded me, all talking at once. Merlin kept going on about Shull’s plans, while Sara Lee told me about the work they were doing on Jupiter and Skelly yelled about how much danger I was in. Only Caden, hands in his pockets, stayed away from the crowd. I couldn’t blame him—he was already furious at me for taking a risk and putting everyone’s life in jeopardy, and now I had done it again.

  “Quiet, everyone. We don’t have much time, and we need to enact a plan now before Shull realizes what has happened. Everyone who arrived on Draman with me, meet my mothers and me in the royal dining chamber. Guards, take the citizens to the town square and begin rebuilding until you are summoned for your next orders. Am I understood?”

  “Yes, Prince Grian.”

  The crowd dispersed. My group began to trek back to the castle, but a voice called me back.

  Uh, Prince Grian? What am I to do? Dragon Killer dragged a toe in the sand.

  “Dragon Killer, you come with us. But you must stay outside and talk through the window. I don’t think the servants can handle any more damage to the castle.”

  Understood. Oh, and Grian?

  “Yes?”

  It’s Draki. My name is Draki.

  “Very well, Draki, I’ll alert the others. Now come along. We don’t have much time.”

  The dining room was covered in dust and stone shards, but it would have to do. Some of the servants had already gotten to work clearing the table and floor, and we found seats amongst the rubble.

  The plan was simple: the Dragon Killer—Draki, I reminded myself—would confirm with Shull that both my mothers and I had been destroyed, and that my friends had been captured for further questioning. After finding out Shull’s location, she would take her “prisoners” there, along with my mothers and me.

  In order to convince Shull, Draki gathered the others together and called Shull to prove to him that she had done his bidding. My mothers and I hid in the broom closet, from which we could hear every word that was said after Draki’s call went through and see the image projected from Draki’s eyes onto the wall across from her place outside the window. The creature was basically a dragon-shaped computer, complete with intergalactic video conferencing and a speaker in the shape of a snout.

  “Well done,” Shull’s voice purred to his pet. This was the friendliest he had ever seemed, though his nice voice was actually scarier than his mean one. He had changed from his usual uniform into a lime green golf polo, which made him look even more like a standard business executive and less like a conqueror of worlds.

  “Thank you, Master. Now where should I take the prisoners? Earth? Jupiter?”

  “No need to bother yourself, my dear dragon. With Grian out of the way, I’ve decided to take over Draman myself.”

  “You mean… you’re coming here? Now?”

  “Indeed. We’re in transit and should arrive on the planet in under an hour.”

  To her credit, Draki displayed no fear or panic. She seemed as mindless as when she’d first attacked me with her emotionless voice and the dead eyes of a robot.

  “Do you know how long I’ve dreamed of this day?” Shull mused. “The Earth Dragons have fallen into line, the Ice Dragons are imprisoned, the Bone Dragons’ planet has been turned to rubble, and the only Sun Dragon is dead. I am in charge of the universe, and it feels even better than I’d imagined.”

  In the dark I felt Sara Lee’s muscles begin to twitch.

  “Now I can complete my one true task: take down the Artists.”

  I had to put a hand over my mouth to stifle my gasp, and through the crack in the door, I saw Merlin’s eyebrows rise in the same surprise. Taking over the dragons was one thing, but going up against the makers of the entire universe? Even Shull didn’t seem stupid or fearless enough for such an impossible task.

  “They thought they could stop us with their prophecies of love and hope, but oh, how wrong they were. Caden and Grian seemed about as in love as two strangers on a subway train trying not to touch shoulders.”

  My cheeks flushed, and I looked away from the door so I would not have to see Caden’s reaction.

  “Now, my pet, prepare the prisoners for questioning,” Shull said as he finished his thoughts. “Hopefully someone on that godforsaken planet can tell me where the portal to the Artists’ world is—assuming it’s actually there and our Artist prisoner didn’t lie to me before he died.”

  Without further explanation, the image Draki was projecting went blank. My mothers and I came out of the broom closet, but we all seemed too upset to speak, and for a long time, no one said anything.

  “Well… that was worse than I expected,” Blair finally said, breaking the silence.

  “Tell me about it.” I sank into a nearby chair, ignoring the shards of stone beneath me. “Merlin, why didn’t you tell us about the portals?”

  “I didn’t know about them, my dear prince.” Merlin seemed to be thinking hard. “I mean, I’d heard rumors that the Artists put portals on all of their creations so that they could check in on them whenever they wanted, but such rumors were never substantiated.”

  “Well, if even the great Merlin didn’t know about the portals, how did Shull find out about them?”

  “He mentioned an Artist in his custody,” Merlin said. “He must have broken the prisoner… there’s no other explanation.”

  “But Merlin, aren’t you an Artist?” Nimue asked. “Can’t you go to their land and talk them into helping us stop Shull now that he’s on his way to kill them?”

  “Of course, but such work will take time. Shull will be here in an hour, and I’m not sure I can get there and back before he discovers Grian and the queens.”

  “It’s a risk we have to take,” I said, speaking for all of us since I already knew what my mothers would say. “The most important thing is keeping the people of Draman safe.”

  “Very well.” Merlin rose with difficulty. “But if I’m not back in time for Shull’s arrival, you will need to distract him before he finds the portal.”

  “We will,” I promised. “Now go, before more time is wasted.”

  Merlin clapped, and then he was gone.

  THE HOUR in which we waited for Shull’s arrival seemed like the shortest in my entire life. There was so much to do, and yet no time to do it.

  Firstly, a hiding place needed to be found for my mothers and me where we could hear the activities—if an emergency happened, we would need to provide backup—but not be discovered. We ended up back in the broom closet, but under a trap door hastily built by the servants that led to a space just large enough for three people to squeeze into. The trap door would be covered by a red velvet rug that would hopefully minimize any sounds of our breathing and gasps.

  Then we needed a set of distractions. Shull was smart, and he would see right through most attempts to draw him away from his task. How
ever, he was also in love with his own power, and through a series of servant questions about the castle, we hoped to draw him into a long discussion with the head butler about redecorating the house.

  If that distraction failed, one of the captors would need to feign an escape.

  “We all know it’s going to be me,” Skelly said. “Who better to worry Shull than a Bone Dragon fairy with magical powers and a bone to pick about the dead prince?”

  “So true,” agreed Blair, “though I would also be a good candidate. Shull hates traitors, and that means he especially hates me.”

  “I think he hates me more,” Caden said. “After all, I was supposed to save the universe with my magical love.”

  His words had a weight to them that, because he had not spoken much during the trip, I had not identified before. Was Caden disappointed in himself? Did he see our lack of true love as a failure on his part too, or was he upset that I had gotten my powers back without it? I wished I could talk to him about such things with the openness of our first night together, but thus far, that intimacy had never returned.

  I moved my hand a few inches upward, as though to place it on his arm. His eyes moved to look at me, and in them I saw hope that perhaps things would work out between us after all, but I also saw something else: his eyes were not the eyes in my dreams after all. They were dark brown with wide pupils, just like the dream, but now I remembered one other detail. The eyes in my dreams had appeared like that because it was nighttime in the dream, but in the light, they became hazel.

  I let my hand fall.

  “Skelly would be best,” I concluded, “though in the end, I’m sure Shull plans to execute all of you. If for some reason Skelly is taken down before Merlin returns, Draki must draw Shull away from the house instead. Now, quickly everyone, gather the weapons you plan to use if there is a battle and hide them somewhere in the house before Shull arrives.”

  Most people in the group headed downstairs to the armory, but Sara Lee pulled me aside and led me upstairs instead.

  “What is it, Mother?” I asked, though she did not respond.