by Amparo Ortiz
We get called out to the field before Zimbabwe. I’m at the back of the line, marching on the sand with the rest of my teammates. The Sol de Noches fly out faster than they did during our Russia match. Maybe because there are triple the amount of Puerto Rican flags today. With each dragon’s roar, the flags get higher and higher, raised to the skies as an offering of hope and pride.
When Héctor gets to the referee, Jeffrey Hines calls forth our rivals.
“Put your hands together for the first African team to compete in the Blazewrath World Cup! This is their fourth time in the tournament! Let’s hear it for Zimbabwe!”
I almost clap, too. I really have to train myself not to be such a fangirl.
Six girls and one boy hit the field. They’re all dressed in their bright-red leather suits, their golden chest plates and helms. Onesa is the first to walk out. Aneni Karonga, the team’s other Blocker, is right behind her. Wataida is second to last. The Pangolin dragons come out once their riders are halfway to the ref, flying in a synchronized, wavy line, showing off their wondrous wings and super-tough scales for the world to marvel at.
The ref goes through the rules. Héctor and Onesa agree to them.
“Runners, to the starting line! Riders, mount your steeds!”
I make it to the starting line before Taona Mawere, the Zimbabwean Runner, gets to hers. This is off to a promising start. I just need Esperanza to Fade again and stop Zimbabwe from scoring first. We have to show the Sire what we’re made of. We have to win for Puerto Rico.
We have to win in order to live. I’m not about to screw up and get us all killed, least of all in a quarterfinals match. We’re staying alive, and we’re going down in history.
The Rock Flame is tossed into the air.
Kunashe Hatendi, the Zimbabwean Striker, catches it before Victoria.
A frenzy of flapping wings, fireballs, and body slamming ensues. Wataida and his steed are careening toward Luis and Gabriela, forcing them to take turns pushing him back. The other Charger protects Kunashe from Esperanza’s attacks. She’s not Fading, though. She’s flying and fighting like any normal dragon. The Charger dragon shoves her back hard enough to clear Kunashe’s path to the goal. Héctor guides Titán down to block Kunashe’s shot, but the Pangolin pulls up suddenly, and Kunashe makes a quick toss.
The Rock Flame sails through the goalpost.
“Kunashe scores!” Jeffrey Hines freaks out. “Zimbabwe runs up the mountain first!”
I stomp my foot on the sand. Esperanza could’ve easily Faded by now! Has she not read Victoria’s mind? Does she not know about us getting burned to death if we lose?!
Taona hits the mountain. Edwin and Génesis swarm her at once, but she’s a rocket.
“COME ON!” I yell. “SOMEBODY STOP HER!”
Héctor grabs the Rock Flame from Kunashe.
I jump, fists high like a boxer who’s won the title belt. “Pass it to Victoria!”
Esperanza flies close enough for Victoria to fetch the Rock Flame, then shoots toward the opposite goalpost, where Gabriela is still fending off Wataida. Puya’s mouth is wide open in a roar. He clamps his teeth down on the Pangolin’s neck to prevent him from moving. As the Keeper dragon inches forward to help, Esperanza zooms by, faster than a bullet. Victoria is standing on her closed mouth. The Keeper dragon rushes to meet Esperanza halfway.
Before they collide, Esperanza blows out a cloud of fire onto Victoria’s back.
Victoria flies past the Keeper’s clutches. With a twist of her body, she tosses the Rock Flame through the goalpost.
I scream my head off. “YES!” Even though Taona’s already inside the first Block Zone, winning is in my hands now. I don’t have to count on anyone else to save us.
My two whistles blow.
I get out of the base faster than I did during the Russia match. The Pangolin dragons are on me before I can take a breath. They’re assuming positions, one to the left, one to the right.
Grab something, grab something, grab something.
As I lunge at the wall, the Pangolins curl into balls, then crash into the mountain. This is their modus operandi—slamming their bodies like boulders sent straight from the underworld. I’ve been such a huge fan of this tactic for the past four Cups, but being on the receiving end has drained me of all the fangirling I’ve ever done.
BOOM!
The mountain quakes. I’m latching onto a rock that’s jutting out of the wall, but my boots keep sliding back. The edge is about three feet from me. If this rock slips out, I’m done for.
The Pangolins retreat with open mouths. Fire might be next.
I dart forward. The first Block Zone is so, so close.
The Pangolins hit the mountain again.
I’m thrown to the edge. Sinking my fingers into the sand, I strain every muscle in my arms while my lower body dangles off the side of the mountain. The Pangolins are hitting the mountain over and over. I’m slipping, grunting, and gasping for air.
Puerto Rico is watching you. Show them how strong you are.
My boots scrape stone without finding a good-enough hold, but I’m digging my fingers deeper into the sand, fighting for my teammates’ lives as much as mine. Losing isn’t an option. So I kick up, raise myself an inch, and repeat until I can drag myself forward. The mountain is still rocking as I land on the path. I break into a run, then make it to the first Block Zone.
Aneni drops into my path. “Hello.”
“Hi. Please don’t kill me.”
“I make no promises.”
She sprints at me.
I dodge her jab-and-upper-cut combo. She tries to grab the Iron Scale. I kick her in the shin. Even though she yelps, she’s not crumbling. She’s not getting out of the way, either. I launch a roundhouse kick to her gut. Aneni blocks it with both arms. As she holds my ankle, I drop to the ground, then sweep her feet with another kick. She’s down at once.
I’m out of the first Block Zone before she can get up.
The earthquakes come back on the left side of the mountain. The dragon to my right is shooting fireballs at me instead. It’s a combination of super-unsteady ground and a super-hot shadow of death following me at every sharp turn. These Pangolins mean business.
Taona is racing up to the third Block Zone. She’s dodging Fantasma’s fireballs with ease.
I blast through the second Block Zone just as Aneni’s about to land inside it. I’m an unstoppable force, with even more speed than Haya Tanaka against the French Blockers in 2015. With an enraged cry, Aneni eats my dust. The quakes and the fire return on the way to the final Block Zone, where I’ll for sure meet Onesa instead. I’m pouring out more sweat, and my whole body’s throbbing even faster than it did the last time I ran this course. My gas is running low, but I don’t stop.
Onesa greets me inside the third Block Zone. “This is where your journey ends.”
She blows me a quick kiss goodbye.
God, I wish I could hate her, but I still have to beat her.
I check the other mountain. Taona is also on the last Block Zone, facing Génesis. I have to get past Onesa right this second.
“All right,” I say. “Let’s finish this.”
I rush toward Onesa, but she evades every blow. I even try faking her out with a double punch. She reads me before I can land a hit. She’s not lunging at the Iron Scale, which makes me think she’s tiring me out. And she’s not letting me gain a single inch forward, either.
Taona flips Génesis over her shoulder, launching her to the sand a few feet away.
She sprints up the last patch of mountain.
“No!” I’m striking Onesa with as much power as possible, but she’s a human wall. Génesis gets back on Rayo while I’m trying to tear down the unbeatable Blocker before me.
SWOOSH!
Onesa and I stop fighting, checking the skies at the same time.
The Sol de Noche dragons are gone. They’ve all Faded away with their riders.
“Folks, Puerto Rico’s drag
ons have disappeared from the stadium!” Jeffrey Hines announces. “They’ve Transported outside of—”
SWOOSH!
The dragons are back. Right where I last saw them—Blockers on Taona’s mountain, the rest hovering on the field, but they’re wrapped in flames from horns to tails. Even their riders are covered in fire. Esperanza roars first, then Titán, Rayo, Fantasma, Puya, and Daga join in a raging chorus. They’re ejecting flames from the sides of their bodies and connecting with one another until their flames form a circle. All six dragons are tied together in a broiling ring.
Taona isn’t moving. She’s transfixed by the ring of fire covering the field.
Onesa’s transfixed, too, gasping in awe. The Pangolins have also been lulled to a stop.
“What are they doing?” Onesa asks.
I don’t know what to tell her.
So I run out of the Block Zone instead. I fly up the final expanse of land, then slap the Iron Scale to the stone dais. Firelight beams up like a cannonball.
“Puerto Rico wins the match!” Jeffrey Hines yells.
Panderetas, güiros, and drums go off from all sides of the stadium. People chant, “¡Puerto Rico!” like it’s a Top 40 hit.
The ring of fire fizzles out, and my teammates fly to my mountaintop. Victoria tackles me to the ground, screeching in wild abandon. The rest of my teammates raise their fists at the crowd, chanting “¡Puerto Rico!” but there’s restraint in their cheering, a forcefulness to their smiles. Maybe the ring of fire freaked them out. Or did something else spook them?
I have no idea what just happened. I know the Sire’s seen it, though. He threatened to burn us if we lost, but the only thing that burned today was a team of six dragons flaunting their power for the world to marvel at. They burned so we could live. Their magic is our salvation.
I never want the Sire to forget.
Dragon mothers are the fiercest creatures on Earth. A dragon mother’s love for her egg makes the rider-dragon Bond seem trivial. A mother will fight to the death against her own kind in order to protect her unborn offspring, which makes her subsequent disappearance upon her baby’s hatching contradictory. The mother ensures her egg cracks at the right time, but she has no need to ensure the baby’s life continues past its incubation period. Every dragon grows up alone. Whether they would’ve made excellent mothers or not, their children will never know.
—Excerpt from Carlos Torres’s Studying the Bond Between Dragons & Humans
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I’M STILL REELING FROM THE RING OF FIRE WHEN MANNY DRAGS us into the locker room.
None of the riders are shivering. They keep glancing at one another with concern. Victoria’s the clear exception, burning with an effervescent thrill. She glides into the room, then catches her reflection in a mirror. Her smile is brighter than the sun on a summer’s day. When the rest of the team sits on the benches, she remains standing, as if she’s too wired to take a seat.
Manny simply says, “Start talking.”
Génesis takes the lead. “Our uniforms’ magic deactivated when we entered the Dark Island. I could hear it fizzle out once we landed inside. When we returned, the dragons must’ve restored their magic, because it protected us from that fire.”
At first, I think I’ve heard wrong, but when I check on Manny and Joaquín, they also look like someone’s given them an unsolvable trigonometry test. The Sol de Noche dragons can take magic away and give it back? That makes them more powerful than anyone in this locker room suspected. And their unprecedented magic has just been revealed to the whole world.
“What did you see this time?” I ask Victoria.
“The sand was still there, but now there are black palm trees and a black ocean and a throne.” I’ve never heard Victoria speak this fast or this high-pitched. “A freaking throne.”
Okay. I really need to sit down. I settle on the bench next to Héctor. “Victoria, I know you don’t have a sense of humor, but please tell me you’re joking.”
“Nope. I saw it, too. We all did.” Luis makes quick eye contact, as if he’s too stressed out to focus. “The dragons flew around the throne for a minute, but there was an invisible shield blocking it. We couldn’t get too close.”
What. The. Hell.
“The throne was built out of dragon-claw bone,” says Génesis. “Full-blown ivory. Each bone curved inward, as if the throne was designed to trap whoever claimed it.”
“No se olviden del pit,” Edwin cuts in. “Esas torres se veían brutales.”
Gabriela nods. “There was a square pit a few feet away from the beach’s shore, and these endless skyscraper claw-bone towers surrounding the pit.”
“Aiming straight for the stars,” says Héctor.
I put my hands in prayer form. Dragons who can build impenetrable thrones and bone towers are a little out of my league. They’re also out of Joaquín’s and Manny’s leagues, as they’re both totally spaced out. Not even Victoria snapping her fingers can get them to talk.
“Earth to adults. Hello, adults?” she says.
Joaquín comes to his senses first. “Did you all experience the Fade like Victoria had?”
Luis shakes his head. “There wasn’t silence or surprise. I could hear Daga singing in my head before she Faded.” He dabs a clean towel on his forehead. “Did y’all hear a song, too?”
Everyone nods.
Génesis says, “It was the same song they sing at the habitat, but I only had Rayo’s voice in my head. About five or six notes in, we Faded.”
“Igual yo con Fantasma,” says Edwin.
“Same here,” Héctor and Gabriela say together.
Joaquín blinks with heavy eyelids. “Then what happened?”
“We came back here, and the dragons went off with those flames,” Luis replies. “Daga wasn’t blocking me, but I couldn’t hear anything except for the roars. It gave me goose bumps.”
He lets those last words hang between us, waiting for the other riders’ reactions.
They’re all dreadfully quiet.
Then Joaquín says, “I think we can conclude the dragons’ song isn’t really a song. It’s a spell, and it’s getting stronger. So are your dragons. I just don’t understand why they keep Fading into the Dark Island during matches. They can secretly perform this magic in the habitat, but they’re choosing to do so in front of the whole world. Have they shown you why?”
“No, but they’re singing in our heads, and we can all Fade together now,” says Gabriela. “It could mean they’re almost capable of communicating more clearly.”
“They already are,” Héctor says. “That roaring was the angriest I’ve ever heard them. I don’t think it was an intimidation tactic for Zimbabwe. This was real rage. It was like they were out for blood. Like they were ready for war.”
“Oh, don’t be melodramatic. They just wanted to scare Taona.” Victoria is squatting down next to me, fixing her scraggly ponytail. “It was all strategy to stop her, and it worked.”
Gabriela rolls her eyes. “I felt it, too, Victoria. The rage. It was intense.”
“Like their wrath wanted to break free from its cage,” Génesis says.
Victoria’s good mood is dead and gone. Her arms crossed tight, she’s looking at everyone like she’s plotting their murders. “Because it was supposed to look scary.”
“You really think this was about winning a match?” Héctor raises his voice with every word. He stands up, towering over Victoria. “You’re really gonna tell me that’s all this was?”
“Obviously. Our dragons have sent us to the semifinals. Now we wait to see who wins the next game in a couple of hours and figure out how we can beat them in two more days.”
Héctor’s eyes are a silent plea for Victoria to see reason. “This was a call to arms, Victoria. You saw how the Pangolin dragons watched them in total awe. How mesmerized they were? Whatever our steeds did out there today, it wasn’t for us. It was for others like them.”
My heart’s speeding up.
Esperanza’s first public Fade had been such a wild card. This show of magical strength has been bigger, bolder, harder to ignore. If it really is a call to arms, then that means the dragons don’t want to be here. But they don’t want to go home, either.
They want to fight the Sire. They just don’t want to do it alone.
My thoughts flash back to the Sire’s counter curse. He only needs a Hydra and a Pluma de Muerte, and even though México is competing in the Cup, he rescued an Un-Bonded dragon instead of using one from the tournament. If the counter curse requires a willing sacrifice, the Cup isn’t where he’s getting his ingredients. It’s just where he’s picking soldiers. What if he tries to break the Sol de Noches’ Bond first? He could use them to fetch the Fire Drake’s crystal heart.
Victoria’s yelling brings me back to the locker room. “I told you to stop being ridiculous, guys! Our dragons used their fire so other teams would fear them. And they were successful.”
“Enough!” Joaquín’s cheeks are bright red. “There are reporters waiting for you as we speak. The Dark Island stays between us. Now let’s head out.”
I hang back so that everyone else can exit before me. Joaquín, Manny, and I are the last ones in the locker room. I edge closer to Joaquín. “Do you think they want to fight?”
“Go to your press conference, Lana. We can discuss this later.”
I’m tempted to demand that he answer the question, but he already did.
I perk up for the cameras. From the side of the stage, President Turner watches us like a hawk. My team and I stick to the Transport angle, seconding Victoria’s claims that the ring of fire had been a strategic attempt to distract Zimbabwe. I get a few questions about my demonstration yesterday. Specifically, if I think the dragons were protesting, too.
“The Sol de Noche dragons are gifted at many things. One of them is winning matches.” I smile like I’m a born winner. “Just like the six people joining me on this stage.”