by Resa Nelson
She wanted to sink to the boards beneath her and cry. But the tears would have to wait. She had more important work to do.
Astrid assessed the situation.
Randim had never eaten lizard meat. That meant he couldn't shapeshift.
Donel hadn't eaten lizard meat for months, long enough for the effects to wear off. He couldn't shapeshift either.
Astrid remembered what had happened when she'd freed Mauri from her shackles. Mauri's hands had twisted into useless things, and Astrid had never been able to make them right. She didn't know if she'd changed Mauri's hands with her belief or if she and Mauri had only imagined those changes. Either way, Astrid wasn't willing to do that again to anyone, especially not to Randim and Donel.
Astrid examined the ironwork. She sighed with frustration. "This is good work, Randim."
"Thank you," he said, his voice thick with misery.
Astrid realized her sword was missing. "Where's Starlight?"
"Upstairs," Randim said. "Drageen took it."
She was surprised at how naked she felt without Starlight. Losing Starlight made her feel the same way she'd felt when she'd lost her arm to Norah.
Astrid checked the rest of their surroundings, feeling every nook and cranny in the dim light.
"There's nothing down here except for us," Astrid said. "There's nothing I can use to get you free."
"There has to be something," Randim said.
"There's me," Astrid said. She walked over to the ladder leading to the upper deck. The trap door was shut, but that didn't mean it was locked. "Maybe I can rush Drageen and—"
The ship pitched violently, knocking Astrid off her feet.
Thin sprays of seawater shot through the gaps in the floorboards above, stinging Astrid's eyes.
The ship dropped sharply, slamming against the water below.
Wind howled.
And then, abrupt stillness.
A voice whispered, the sound of it penetrating through the floorboards. "Scalding."
Just as Astrid pulled herself up, raced toward the ladder, and began to climb, the ship pitched again, side to side. Clinging to a rung, Astrid's body swung, crashing into a support beam.
Astrid struggled, regaining her footing on the ladder. She winced at a sudden twinge in her feet. Rung by rung, planting each foot and handhold with care, she climbed up. Shoving with her shoulders and arms, she pushed the trap door above her head open.
Cold rain stung her face, and the wind whipped her hair. The sound of crashing, booming waves filled the air.
The ship was awash in chaos.
Astrid fell, losing her footing on the deck, slippery with seawater. She scrambled to the ship's side and clung to the railing.
Drageen's brigands, the ship's crew, and the butcher slid across the deck when the ship pitched. They reached out to the empty air around them, grappling for anything to hold onto.
Clouds darkened the sky, and a pillar of seawater rose next to the ship.
The water shifted into the shape of an enormous dragon, and its jaws opened as it uttered, "Scalding!"
"Norah," Astrid murmured, recognizing her voice.
They'd come. DiStephan had found Taddeo and Norah, and they'd come.
And somehow they were shaping the sea.
Or maybe they had become it.
The butcher screamed as the dragon made of seawater hovered above the ship.
Astonished, Astrid watched while the brigands, the crew, and the butcher all shifted, changing into flopping, frightened fish.
It was impossible. The butcher hadn't eaten lizard meat in months, and Astrid doubted any of the brigands had ever seen a lizard, much less eaten one. They shouldn't be able to shapeshift, not without lizard meat in their blood.
Astrid remembered the rumors she'd heard for years of people so frightened when they encountered a dragon that their fear turned them into animals.
Maybe the rumors were true.
Maybe dragons had far more power than Astrid had ever realized.
A wave crashed across the deck.
Astrid closed her eyes, still holding onto the railing. Cold water slapped across her body, hard and fast.
She opened her eyes to find the deck cleared. All the fish were gone.
She heard Drageen cry, "Beware!"
A scream above him drew Astrid's attention to the sail.
Drageen’s ship had a new sail, a blood red sail. Large bits of white dotted its border. The figure of a woman pressed into the center of the single square sail as if she stood behind it, the cloth draping her body and outlining every detail of it.
Her hair streamed long, and even from a distance, Astrid could see her face scrunched up like a punched ball of dough.
Mauri.
CHAPTER 36
Astrid's blood ran cold as she took a closer look at the dotted white border of the blood-red sail.
Bone fragments. They'd been sewn onto the sail.
Mauri's bone fragments.
"Spirits and sprites," Drageen shouted, sword extended. "Goblin delights! Challenge me, and I challenge thee. Fear me, dragon, for I stand protected under my own Death Shadow!"
A second pillar of water rose even higher from the ocean, shaping itself into another, larger dragon.
"Evil spirit, Death Shadow," Drageen shouted, pointing his sword at the towering pillar behind Astrid. "Dragonslayer, you have no power over me. You are not the only Death Shadow here!"
Death Shadow. There are ghosts here?
Drageen pointed his sword straight up, above his own head, toward the red sail.
Astrid could see Mauri's shape more clearly in the center of the sail now, like a butterfly stuck in cobwebs.
Astrid shouted, "The dragons stand with me. Let my men go, and the dragons will leave you be.” It was a statement Astrid hoped, rather than believed, to be true.
The ship pitched again, and Drageen fell, losing his grip on the sword.
The sudden tilt of the ship sent the sword sliding down the drenched deck toward Astrid. She reached down with one hand, grasping its hilt.
Its touch felt like the familiar embrace of an old friend.
Starlight!
Drageen steadied himself. He withdrew a dagger from its sheath at his side.
To the alchemist, Drageen said, "Call upon your magic."
The alchemist cut the sail free from its mast.
"Behold my Death Shadow!” Drageen shouted.
The red sail billowed, floating above the ship. It wound tightly in place until it looked like Mauri, made of red cloth instead of flesh and blood. She spread her cloth arms apart, and lightning struck her fingertips. The red cloth glowed like embers.
The sea dragons transformed into water funnels, surrounding the ship and raising it high in the air.
The force of the funnel threw the trap door to the lower deck open. Sheets of water drenched the top deck, pouring onto the deck below.
Randim and Donel were chained to the lower deck. If it flooded, they'd drown.
"Taddeo! Norah!” Astrid shouted at the water funnel, lifting the ship higher by the moment.
They didn't seem to hear her.
Astrid let go of the railing but held onto Starlight, letting the pitch of the ship slide her across the deck. She grabbed onto the trap door as she approached it. Struggling to keep her grip on the door, Astrid forced it shut, despite the sheets of water pummeling down all around her.
Once shut, she noticed the door's latch. She closed the latch over the metal loop nailed to the floorboard.
She slid Starlight's blade through the metal loop and on top of the latch, locking the trap door shut.
Drageen pushed Astrid onto her back, holding the dagger against her throat. "Tell the Slaughter Demons to free this ship!"
Soaked and shivering, Astrid held still under his knife point. "Not until you free my men."
The alchemist staggered across the deck with rope in hand. She fell when the ship rolled sideways.
&nb
sp; Astrid kicked Drageen's knife away. She held onto Starlight, still securing the trap door shut, and Drageen slid away down the sloping deck after losing his grip on Astrid and his own knife.
"Protect me, Death Shadow!” Drageen shouted at the sail.
Astrid looked up to see the blood-red sail hovering in the air above, the impression of Mauri's face staring at her.
The sail turned, looking at Drageen, considering him for just a moment.
"I command you!" Drageen shouted.
The red sail obeyed and dove toward Astrid. It wrapped itself tightly around Astrid, squeezing her as if it were a giant snake.
"Mauri," Astrid whispered. "I'm not the one who killed you. Let me go!"
The red sail squeezed tighter, but Mauri's voice drifted through the cloth. "The alchemist controls me, and only one thing can break her control."
"What?” Astrid gasped. Her lungs burned for fresh air.
"Forgiveness."
Astrid struggled to force the words out. "I forgive you.” The words were automatic, something Astrid said as a solution to a problem.
Nothing changed. The red sail wrapped Astrid so tightly she thought her skin would burst.
As the cloth rubbed against her skin, she could feel Mauri's hand beneath it, holding Astrid's hand through the material. "I'm scared," Mauri's voice whispered, trembling.
In that moment, something shifted inside Astrid. She remembered the comfort Mauri had offered when she'd first held Astrid's hand, traveling in the child seller's cart.
For the first time, Astrid felt genuine sorrow for her, for everything Mauri could have been and never was.
With her last breath, Astrid spoke the truth. "May the gods forgive you, too."
The red sail unfurled from Astrid, then flew to envelope Drageen and his alchemist in its grasp.
Astrid felt a sudden, unexpected heat, like the white-hot center of a good welding fire.
The ship landed with a jarring thud on an unforgiving surface. It took a moment for Astrid to recognize where the ship had been deposited.
Dragon's Head Point.
The water funnel slipped away from the ship, falling back into the ocean below.
The ship was wedged on the razor-sharp crags that shaped the edge of the rocky outcrop.
Astrid had never been this close to Dragon's Head before, even though she'd seen it from a distance every day from her smithery yard.
She made out the shape of the dragon on the opposite end of the outcrop.
Liquid fire poured slowly from its open jaw, flowing straight down into the hissing sea. Even from here, the heat felt more intense than ten forge fires, spitting flames high into the air while white steam and gray smoke billowed. The ground, dark as a lizard's skin, rumbled noisily beneath the ship.
Astrid pulled Starlight from where it locked the trap door shut. She opened the trap door and climbed down.
There was only enough seawater below to cover her feet—not even a rat would drown in this little water.
"Randim?” Astrid said, sloshing through the water.
Donel was the first to speak. "What happened? Where are we?"
Astrid saw no reason to give details now. A basic truth would do. "We were caught up in a storm. We've landed on Dragon's Head. We have to leave. Quickly."
"We can't," Randim said. "When Drageen locked us down, he destroyed the key. We need the right tools—"
"Trep," Astrid said hopefully. "He's in Guell with the rest of the blacksmiths."
"Bring them here," Donel said. "We'll be safe. No dragon can fit through that door."
Astrid looked at the trap door above. Donel was right, but she worried less about lizards and more about the fire pouring out of Dragon's Head's mouth. What if the fire poured toward the ship? It would catch fire, and they'd burn alive.
There had to be another way.
The ship trembled with an explosive crack.
Drageen screamed.
She climbed back up the ladder, Starlight in hand. She bit her lip at the pain in her feet. Every rung she climbed felt like stepping on pebbles.
On deck again, she saw a stream of molten fire crawling across the outcrop and toward the ship.
In the distance, something rumbled.
"Sister!"
She saw Drageen, beaten and bloody, still wrapped in Mauri's grasp. "Help me!" he cried.
Astrid needed help to protect Randim and Donel.
"Mauri!” Astrid shouted. "Let them loose!"
The red sail obeyed, and the cloth reluctantly unfolded. The alchemist crept out of the tangled cloth on her hands and knees, while Drageen clambered to his feet, choking.
"Alchemist!” Astrid called out, pointing to the stream of molten fire. "What type of magic is that?"
"Where are we?" the alchemist said. "What place is this?"
"Dragon's Head," Drageen said, approaching them with dagger in hand.
The alchemist paled. "It was a Scalding who trapped the dragon here, and it's the Scalding touch that will set it free."
"Never mind that," Drageen said, tightening his grip on the dagger. He charged toward Astrid.
Astrid was close enough to a corner of the red sail to grasp and furl it in his direction.
Mauri's ghostly hand pressed through the cloth and slapped Drageen, knocking him down.
"How do we stop the fire?” Astrid said.
The alchemist backed away. "Sacrifice a Scalding to it!"
Astrid paused. "One of us has to be sacrificed?"
"It's the only antidote," the alchemist said.
Astrid considered calling upon Taddeo and Norah—despite the salty tang in the air, she could still smell their dragon scent. They were still here, hiding in the ocean. They wouldn't hesitate to do Astrid's bidding and sacrifice Drageen to the molten fire.
For a moment, Astrid longed for revenge. Drageen had sacrificed her to Norah all those years ago. Astrid could still remember the pain that made her wish she'd died. She wanted to do what Drageen had done to her, to hurt him, to make him scream with pain.
The desire twisted into a dark knot in the pit of her gut. It nauseated her, making her feel like a pitiful rod of iron, bubbled and burned from being left in the fire too long.
Astrid remembered Lenore and her story of how she'd looked into a mirror only to see she'd given in so much to her husband's wishes that she'd become him.
I would become Drageen. If I sacrifice him the way he sacrificed me, I become Drageen.
Drageen stood and approached Astrid slowly this time.
Randim and Donel were trapped below. What would happen to them if she didn't call upon the dragons for help?
I fight.
Astrid adjusted her grip on Starlight.
Calling upon dragons to sacrifice Drageen to the liquid fire wasn't fair play.
But a sword fight was.
Astrid pointed Starlight at Drageen's mouth as if he were a lizard.
Drageen squatted in a low stance just beyond Starlight's point, his feet angled wide apart.
Astrid and Drageen locked gazes for several long moments, each gauging the other. Astrid held Starlight with both hands—her flesh hand and her spirit hand.
Yelling, Drageen wrapped his free hand around Starlight's blade, pushed it aside, and thrust his dagger at Astrid's heart.
Startled, she fell to one knee, dodging the thrust. She yanked Starlight loose from his grasp, bloodying his hand.
The red sail rose behind Drageen, stuffing a corner of cloth into the alchemist's mouth before she could utter a warning.
Remembering her fight with Zavi, Astrid copied what she'd seen him do with his short sword. She raised Starlight high above her head and brought it down toward Drageen with the intent to bisect his body.
Drageen stepped back, and the red sail wrapped around him again, including the alchemist in its embrace. Rising off the deck, the sail carried them into the air. Loosening its grip, it dropped Drageen and the alchemist into the stream of fire. They sc
reamed, glowing like coals, flailing helplessly.
Ocean waves crashed up all around Dragon's Head. "Just as they captured you, the Scaldings now set you free," Norah's voice whispered in the wind to the dragon shape in the rock.
It was as if the dragon had merely been sleeping, caked in dried mud. The rocky shape rose, shaking itself free of the outcrop that had imprisoned it.
It was the largest dragon Astrid had ever seen, and it sidestepped the narrow stream of molten fire sinking into the crevices torn open by the dragon's emergence. It shook itself, seeming to stretch out the kinks from a long night's slumber. The dragon climbed headfirst down the outcrop and disappeared into the sea.
The molten river shifted away from the ship, carrying the shrieking Drageen and his alchemist up to where the dragon had lain.
Black smoke and ash exploded.
The red sail screamed as the explosion blew it skyward. The impression of Mauri's body still pressed through the cloth, her arms reaching toward Astrid. A strong wind whisked the sail away and it swirled higher and higher until it vanished from sight.
Astrid ducked, covering her face and head with her arms as ashes rained down around her.
When it stopped, Astrid looked up to see the flames extinguished and the last of the molten river drop into the steaming sea below.
Drageen and the alchemist now stood as rocks. They'd turned to stone.
A wave crashed high, spraying tiny droplets of salt water across Astrid's face.
"Go now," Taddeo's voice murmured in her ear.
Astrid hesitated. "My men are trapped below," she said.
"Your dragonslayer says he will be their first line of defense."
DiStephan. He must be here. She couldn't see or hear him, but he was here with her now.
Astrid slid Starlight in place to lock the trap door shut. No lizards would get inside in her absence.
She climbed down from the ship and over to the jagged cliff edge. Peering down, she gauged the drop to the water's surface. It looked far, but not as far as the jump she'd made with Taddeo and Norah from the top of Tower Island.
And when she’d lived with dragons in their underwater cavern, Astrid had learned how to swim.
She kicked off her shoes and dived headfirst from Dragon's Head into the ocean below.