And that ended the argument.
Flynn shoved his hands into his pockets and wandered up and down the dead-end corridor. Emma knew the waiting was killing him. He was such an impatient sort of person. Sand was sitting against the wall, rubbing his thumb along the edge of a knife his leader had supplied him with. Simon and Mystic were talking at the very end of the hall and keeping a close watch around the corner for Matt. The thieving girl – Lanai – was still standing close to the statue of the strange creature, along with a tired looking Titus, who had his arms awkwardly crossed.
‘What is that, Lanai?’ asked Emma.
The other girl merely blinked in acknowledgment.
‘This … is a D’jao,’ she said quietly, ‘a cursed creature of the desert that controls not only wind and sand … but the hearts of dragons, too.’
‘How can someone –’
‘Something, Emma,’ cut in Titus, who was – in fact – listening to their conversation. ‘The D’jao are not like people or dragons or even animals. They have their own speech and beliefs … their own selfish desires. They are dangerous, and were banished from the Outlands many years ago.’
‘Well, how can something control a dragon?’ questioned Emma. ‘How is it possible? I thought dragons had powerful magic.’
‘That they do,’ said Lanai. ‘A D’jao, they say, also has powerful magic – magic beyond that of a dragon. Not many are the D’jao … not many were the D’jao. They are … a declined race, and to where they were banished … no one is certain.’
‘So … if they were more powerful than the dragons, how were they banished?’
‘Ah …’ Lanai inclined her head and gazed up at the D’jao’s strange eyes. ‘That is but a simple question. Every creature has a weakness of a certain kind.’ Her voice grew sad and quiet. ‘The D’jao must be bound to a master; they cannot live freely with one. If that master … dies, then they are free to roam the world once again. That is the way of the D’jao.’
‘So their master banished them?’ said Emma thoughtfully. She frowned. ‘But … if that was years ago, then wouldn’t that master be dead?’
‘It is a lifetime punishment,’ replied Lanai, her voice dropping even lower. ‘They serve it forever … or until another master comes to their banishment place to free them of their prison.’
‘Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,’ said Titus warily. ‘With the drayskul problem at large, who needs a herd of D’jao at our heels, too? That is … unless you make a deal with them.’
‘A deal?’ enquired Emma.
From the end of the corridor came the sound of Matt’s tired voice and Emma suddenly forgot about the D’jao. She hurried to the front to meet him, anxious to hear about what had transpired while they were waiting.
‘Matt!’ she exclaimed. ‘Your mask fell down!’
He stood staring at her for a moment, trying to figure out what she meant, until he finally understood and pulled the long cloth back up around his nose, covering his face once again.
‘It must have fallen off on my way back,’ said Matt uncertainly.
‘It’s a good thing no one saw you,’ said Emma, relieved.
‘Never mind that!’ exclaimed Simon impatiently. ‘What did you do while you were gone?’
Matt gave a tired sigh. ‘Not much, really,’ he admitted modestly. ‘I convinced a few guards that Vanyir needed them down in Vashgal. I told them that spies were running loose.’ He gave a heavy shrug and then beamed. ‘We’re free to roam the Dark Riders’ rooms!’
It was like their mission had suddenly become ten times easier, like the world had become fair. Emma felt light, lighter than she had during the whole trip through the Black Fortress. They were going to make some progress now, and as she listened to Simon’s cheerful voice babble on about how awesome his brother had been, and heard Mystic scorn the thieves for being so doubtful, Emma could not help but be tempted to join into the banter. She remained silent, however, and searched her eyes through the group. Behind Flynn, Titus excluded himself from the conversation at hand with a distant look in his eyes – the same look Emma had noticed from before. She could not stop the sickening feeling that entered her stomach when she saw that strange gaze.
‘The corridors are all empty,’ Matt was saying as he flung open the door containing the bedrooms. ‘The Dark Riders are all gone. I figure Sheena has to be in one of the rooms in the last hallway. There were more guards patrolling that one, but I didn’t stay long. It would have taken me too long to search all the rooms myself.’
‘We’d best be quick then,’ said Flynn, who was already running down the first corridor.
There were three hallways in total, all joined together to form the shape of a Z. The second one was longest, but the third was shortest. All of the rooms contained elite riders – those most faithful to Vanyir and deserving of living in the tower.
They passed thirty doors in the first corridor, fifty in the second, and only twenty on the last. At the beginning of this hallway they started their search.
‘This is the place,’ said Sand excitedly, hurrying down the corridor while the others flicked open the doors on either side of the passageway. ‘This is where I was kept! But which room … which room!’ He stopped at the last door, touched the wood surface, and pushed against it, but it would not budge. ‘This door is locked. Maybe …?’
Flynn was already beside him. He knocked loudly on the door. ‘SHEENA!’ he shouted. ‘SHEE –’
‘Be quiet!’ hissed Mystic. ‘Are you trying to throw away your chances of ever finding her? Why don’t you –’
‘Flynn?’
A quiet, female voice answered the thief’s calls, and Mystic flicked his ears momentarily before nodding to the door next to one Flynn was pounding on.
‘She’s in there,’ he said quietly.
That door, like the last one, was also locked.
‘Sheena?’ whispered Flynn, pressing his ear up against the wood. ‘Sheena, are you there?’
‘I’m here!’ she said eagerly. ‘Oh, Flynn! I thought you were never going to come! Can you open the door? Please say you can!’
Flynn looked over his shoulder to Lanai. ‘Think you can pick the lock?’ he asked her.
She narrowed her gaze to the handle and studied it for a moment. ‘I think I can do that,’ she answered calmly.
He stepped aside and Lanai bent down towards the handle. Without looking back she said, ‘I would like to be left alone. This is a … troubling task.’
‘You heard her,’ growled Flynn, crossing his arms and leaning his back against the wall. ‘Down the hall!’
Emma wanted to watch a real thief at work and was disappointed when she had to drag herself away from the scene. Within seconds of their absence though, they were called back to the door.
‘I thought you said it was troubling?’ mumbled Simon, as he passed the girl thief.
‘It was,’ said Lanai firmly, and folded her arms across her chest, as if to make the answer definite.
The door was then swung open by Flynn, and a girl with the same blue eyes and fiery red hair as the thieving leader burst out of the room. She swung her arms around her brother’s neck and laughed happily, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.
‘I knew you’d come!’ she cried. ‘I knew it! Those travellers in the woods … I knew you were one of them!’
She was then aware of the others standing behind Flynn, and she blinked, allowing her gaze to drift from one to another. She slid out of Flynn’s grasp and stood beside him, slightly flustered.
‘Hello, my name is Sheena,’ she said meekly. She glanced towards Titus, a distressing look crossing her face. ‘You shouldn’t be here, Titus. Vanyir is after you.’
‘I know,’ was all he said.
‘And Sand!’ exclaimed Sheena, gaping at him. ‘Where have you been all this time?’
‘Locked away in Vashgal, like you would have been if we hadn’t saved you,’ he replied, grinning widely.
Sheena then turned to the others: Emma, Simon and Matt – she had yet to notice Mystic, who came no higher than halfway up towards Emma’s knee.
‘Thank you,’ she said, nodding to them in turn. She paused when her gaze fell upon Matt, and she gave him a puzzled frown. ‘Do I … know you?’ she asked him.
‘N-no, I - I don’t think so,’ he stammered, shaking his head. ‘D-definitely not. I … I’ve never met you before.’
Sheena smiled uneasily and then spoke to her brother again.
‘Vanyir is still here – in the tower. We should leave right now,’ she said.
Flynn bowed his head. ‘There’s a little complication with that, Sheena,’ he said softly.
‘Complication?’ she questioned. ‘What complication? I heard Vanyir here before – sending out his guards in a rush. We should leave while we have the chance!’
‘Pardon my interruption,’ said Mystic from the floor, ‘but we have other business here.’
Sheena stared at him as though he had ten heads attached to his neck. ‘You … you’re a … a talking cat,’ she said blankly.
Mystic rolled his eyes and sighed. ‘Yes, I’m a talking cat. Can we skip this part?’ he said impatiently. ‘Vanyir is our goal. We plan on meeting him.’
‘Meet him!’ exclaimed Sheena. ‘Whatever for!’
‘He has the Crimson Stone,’ said Mystic, ‘and unless he leaves it unattended, we have to face him.’
‘You mean that red necklace of his?’ whispered Sheena, touching the middle of her chest, where an invisible trinket hung. ‘You’re after that?’
‘You’ve seen him wearing it?’ asked Mystic eagerly.
Sheena nodded. ‘He keeps it in his pocket these days,’ she said. ‘He lost it once, he told me. He makes sure it never leaves his side.’
‘Perfect,’ muttered Simon, ‘absolutely perfect.’ He looked to Matt. ‘Is this why we came here? To face off against a killer?’
‘No,’ whispered his brother. ‘No … I hoped it wouldn’t be this way.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Sheena suddenly, staring at Matt, ‘but you sound an awful lot like someone I know. I just can’t …’ she trailed off, shaking her head.
‘Never mind,’ said Flynn quickly, grabbing his sister by the hand. ‘I’m not so sure of this plan anymore. What if we don’t get out?’
‘We’ll never get out …’ said Titus quietly in the back. Everyone turned to him, puzzled by this grim statement and wary of what he would say next. ‘From the moment I stepped inside this cursed tower, I knew I would never step back out. It may not be the same future for us all, but for me … and few others … that will be our future.’
‘That’s what you saw in the mirror, wasn’t it?’ demanded Flynn.
Titus closed his eyes. ‘I wish it were so, but no … that is not what I saw in the mirror.’
‘Then … what did you see?’
Titus was silent for a long time, before finally replying, ‘I saw the world’s destruction through the bars of my cell window in the highest dungeon of the Black Fortress.’
Emma gulped. ‘But … but that can’t be true, can it?’
‘Of course not,’ snapped Mystic, glaring at the seer now. ‘It’s a ridiculous lie and he’s only trying to weave falseness into your heart. Don’t listen to him.’
Whether he was speaking to Emma alone, or to all of them, she could not tell, but his words seemed to calm the group somewhat. Only Flynn remained completely shaken by the prediction.
‘Well, if the world’s going to end we might as well face Vanyir while we can,’ said the leader of the Dragon Marauders. He let out a shaking breath and glanced down at the cat. ‘Which way to the top?’
Mystic smirked. ‘I thought I’d never find sense in you,’ he said, amused. ‘There are two ways to the very top. One entrance beside another entrance. It is called –’
‘The Divided Stairway,’ whispered Titus, his eyes wide. ‘That’s where we have to separate.’
‘Now what are you mumbling about?’ said the cat darkly.
‘I thought we had to stick together?’ Emma glanced from Simon to Matt. ‘Together as a group. We couldn’t separate or else … or else someone might die.’
‘Things have changed,’ said Titus briskly. ‘To ascend to the top we need to split into two groups. That is what we have to do to ensure we all make it alive.’
‘What’s the point of living here?’ Sand lifted up his arms, pointing around to the tower’s interior. ‘I mean, if we’re going to be thrown into a dungeon, I think I’d rather choose death. Besides,’ he added, ‘I’d be happy to see my brother again. He might be lonely without me.’
‘You are lucky to still be alive,’ retorted Lanai angrily. ‘Stop speaking of the dead with such ill manners. To welcome death is a sign that you are unwilling to live – are you unwilling, Sandros?’
‘Hey –’ Sand placed one hand on his hip and pointed his other at Lanai ‘– didn’t I tell you not to call me that?’
Lanai glared at the other thief before diverting her gaze quickly to the floor.
‘Can we figure this out when we get to the stairs?’ said Matt loudly. ‘I don’t feel safe standing here when the Dark Riders could be back any minute.’
‘He’s right,’ said Flynn quickly. ‘We should get moving.’
To the centre of the fortress they ran. Sand’s map was becoming fuzzy in his head at this point, so Mystic guided them there. With rumours of spies in Vashgal buzzing throughout the tower, everyone was in a rush and paid little attention to the group moving up the Black Fortress. While the Dark Riders deserted the central stairway, Mystic took this opportunity to take that route. They passed under a wide archway and into the heart of the tower, where the walls were curved into a perfect circle. The staircase led all the way to the top, but branched off at each floor of the tower for easier access. Emma had lost count of which floor they were on as they hurried up the stairs, but it seemed as though they had a while yet to go.
Time passed more slowly on the stairway, as they could see their destination but could not reach it immediately. Through the windows of the tower Emma could see the ground far below. She shivered at the thought of falling and moved closer to the railing of the steps.
Three more floors flew by, and then they passed storeys that only contained a single dark hallway or an eerie-looking room. After leaving more than thirty floors behind, they finally reached the end of the stairway and stepped out into a dark corridor. Lamps hung from the walls and a deep red runner led to the end of the hall, where there was a wide wall with two stairways on either side. Hung on the centre of this wall was a long painting of a city Emma had only seen once before – in her dreams.
‘That’s Dragon City, isn’t it?’ she asked Mystic quietly.
‘That it is,’ he replied grimly. ‘It’s the largest city ever built in the entire world of Dragonis.’
Matt looked from the left stairway to the right stairway. ‘Now what?’ he said. ‘Does it matter which way we go?’
‘We reach the top no matter what,’ answered Mystic. ‘So no, it doesn’t matter.’
‘But we must split here,’ whispered Titus, ‘into a group I choose.’
‘Why do you choose?’ asked Matt bluntly. ‘Why does it matter who we spilt with? My group will go with me, and your group will –’
‘No,’ interrupted Titus impatiently. ‘You don’t understand the way this works. It has to be exactly the way I see it. I’ll tell you which groups will be formed. … Emma, Simon and I will take the left staircase, and everyone else will take the right one.’
‘You call that splitting?’ snapped Mystic. ‘I’m not going to take a different route than Emma, so you can forget about your plan.’
‘I knew you would say that,’ Titus murmured, ‘but what if I told you that Emma would die if you followed her up this passage?’
Mystic grew silent and his ears flattened against his head. ‘How can you be sure?’ he asked quietly.
/> ‘How can you not be sure?’ said Titus. ‘Someone will die if we do not do this, and I’d rather if no one died. Are you all so desperate to stick with one another that you would risk losing a teammate?’ No one replied, so Titus continued. ‘Yes … I thought so. What I saw will happen, and what we are doing will prevent it from happening.’
‘How can splitting up save the world?’ said Simon, shaking his head. ‘That doesn’t make sense.’
‘Change one fragment of the past and you wind up with a different future,’ replied Titus. ‘That’s what we’re going to do now.’
Before heading to the stairs, Mystic stopped beside Emma and beckoned her to crouch down beside him.
‘I don’t like this idea,’ he whispered, ‘but it seems we have no choice but to separate. I want you to be extra careful up there. It will be a long time before we meet at the fork in the passageway. It’s not just a stairway up. There are more corridors.’
‘More?’ Emma grimaced. ‘How does anyone get around up here?’
‘No one does come up here, unless on strict business,’ said Mystic. ‘But Vanyir probably has a hundred secret passages throughout this tower. A thousand years of searching and you could discover something, after all.’ He took a step away from her. ‘Just be careful, all right?’
‘All right,’ she promised, and with a last look over her shoulder at the others, Emma vanished up the stairway with Simon and Titus.
The red carpet that started at the beginning of the hall continued up the steps, and more paintings hung on the walls. Some were of places Emma had been to, but were slightly changed. A few pictures were of dragons, which Emma found very strange. Vanyir hated the dragons. Hanging paintings of them in his tower did not seem fitting. Even weirder were the twin dragon statues at the very top of the steps.
There was only one way to go from the top – and that was straight down a narrow corridor. The farther they travelled, the lighter it seemed to become. The windows here were not as murky or opaque as the ones downstairs. They were wide windows that touched the floor, with slim columns between each pane and a smooth sheen to the glass. This type of window continued out into a small room, where the red runner forked into two directions: straight ahead and to their right, where a large, framed portrait of a gleaming, black dragon hung at the centre of the wall. Simon stepped towards this picture, a puzzled look on his face.
The Secret World of Dragons Page 26