He kicked to the surface, and a wave threw him toward the shore. Before he could come up for breath, a second wave hit him. His lungs burned, but he refused to let go of Simoni’s wrist. A third wave smashed into him, and he thought he was going to drown when his feet suddenly touched ground.
Gasping for air, he pulled Simoni toward him. Her body was limp, her arms and legs flopping about with each wave. Lightning flashed overhead, revealing her white face. Trenton touched her cheek. Even against his freezing fingers, her skin felt cold.
She wasn’t breathing.
Pressing his mouth to her icy lips, he blew air into her lungs. Nothing. He tried again, and again, and again. “Breathe,” he whispered.
He’d promised Angus he would take care of her. He’d promised his friends he’d blow up the lab. He’d promised the Runt Patrol he’d get them out of the city. All of those promises—broken. Every plan he’d made had been a failure. He’d pretended to be a leader, but it was all a lie.
Still, he couldn’t let Simoni die.
“Breathe!” he shouted through chattering teeth. Pressing his mouth to hers, he blew with all his strength. Her chest rose, lowered, and rose again. This time on its own. She was breathing! He turned her head to the side, and water gushed out of her mouth.
“Simoni, can you hear me?”
Her eyes fluttered open, then shut again.
Propping her against a boulder, he rubbed her hands and arms, trying to warm her.
“Wake up.”
Her eyes fluttered again. “Tired.”
She was alive. He couldn’t believe it. His body shivered until he felt like he would rattle to pieces.
He shook her gently. “It’s me. Simoni. Please wake up.”
Her eyes opened all the way, and her gaze met his. “Trenton?”
“Oh, thank goodness.” He wrapped her arms around her. “I thought you were—”
“Where are we?” She tried to sit up on her own and moaned. She touched her nose and winced. A line of red trickled down her face, and a second cut ran along her hairline. “I think I hit my face on something right before—”
“Who’s down there?” a voice shouted.
Trenton turned to see men with lights using ropes to climb down the side of the cliff. A beam of light flashed toward them, and Trenton pulled Simoni behind the boulder.
“We have to get out of here.” He tried to stand, but his leg gave out under him. A bolt of pain shot from his ankle to his thigh.
“You’re hurt,” Simoni said.
He ran his hand down from his calf. “I don’t think it’s broken.”
But even if he could walk, Simoni was barely strong enough to sit up by herself. There was no way he could carry her. And where would they go? The shallow water went all the way to the edge of the cliffs. They couldn’t climb up, and the men coming down would be there any minute.
He heard a thunk against the rocks next to him, and a wide plank of wood from the submarine washed ashore. He glanced out to sea. Ships were already on their way around the point. They’d arrive soon after the men on the cliffs did. There was no way he and Simoni could remain out of sight for much longer.
They were trapped.
He pulled the plank toward them. “Help me get you onto this.”
Simoni’s eyes opened wide with fear.
“I’ll hold on to you. We aren’t going out any deeper than I can stand. But if we stay here, the guards are going to catch us.”
With Simoni’s help, Trenton got her up onto the plank. Holding on to the wood and putting most of his weight on his good leg, he was able to wade out to sea until the water came up to his chest. It took him a moment to get his bearings, but once he figured out where they were, he knew the meeting place was somewhere to the northeast.
Could he get the two of them that far? How long would it take? Would the others wait for them or would they assume he and Simoni had been captured? And what about the water dragons? Where there was one, there had to be more. All he could do was head in the right direction and hope for the best.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the guards at the water’s edge. He hoped they’d see the wreckage of the submarine and assume there were no survivors. Several boats were nearby, but the water was too shallow to let them get close. Their searchlights swung back and forth, but if he stayed in the dark, he didn’t think they could see him.
Clinging to the wood, Simoni shivered. The water was cold, but it felt almost warm compared to the night air. “I wish I had something to keep you warm,” Trenton said. “I lost my jacket when we crashed.
“I guess we didn’t b-blow up the lab,” Simoni said.
Trenton nodded. “The plan was a failure.”
“We t-tried our b-best. There was n-nothing more we could have done.”
“I feel like I should have done more,” Trenton said.
“It’s o-okay,” Simoni said, her teeth chattering. “Just talk to me so I have something to think about.”
“All right.” Trenton tried to think of something to say, but the only things he could think about were how cold it was, how much he hurt, and that every guard in the city was probably searching for them right now. None of those seemed like good topics of conversation.
What came out of his mouth was not what he’d been expecting. “I guess you like Angus.” As soon as he’d said the words, he wished he could take them back.
Simoni tilted her head, her teeth flashing as she smiled. “I guess you like Kallista.”
“Sure,” Trenton said. “But not that way.”
Simoni gingerly touched the cut on her head. She winced and took her hand away. “What way do you like her?”
“I mean, we’re friends.”
“Good friends?” Simoni’s eyes flashed.
Trenton was glad for the darkness. “I guess.”
“So, do you like her as much as . . . cheese?”
“What kind of question is that?” Trenton said.
Simoni laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes. Do you like her as much as ice cream?”
Trenton wrinkled his nose. “Stop talking about food. You’re making me hungry.”
“How about machines? Do you like her as much as you like working on machines?”
Trenton felt like they were getting into dangerous territory. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Simoni shifted on the board to face him. “If you had to ch-choose between being with Kallista but it meant n-never working on machines again, you’d p-pick her?”
“Why are we even talking about this?” Trenton said. How did girls manage to twist your words so easily?
Simoni laughed again. “You brought it up.”
“I didn’t say anything about Kallista. I asked you if you like Angus.” Trenton didn’t want to talk about who liked who, but if it would keep the conversation away from Kallista, he was willing to push through. “It’s just that you’re nice almost all the time. And he’s such a . . .”
“A jerk?” Simoni asked. Her expression turned serious. “I don’t think people understand Angus the way I do.”
The rain had finally stopped, and although the night was still cool, it wasn’t so bad without the wind blowing.
“It’s hard to understand someone when they’re punching you,” Trenton said. “Trust me—I’ve had years of experience.”
“I know,” Simoni said, looking up at the sky where the clouds were clearing away, revealing a galaxy of sparkling stars. “He can be a jerk. And a bully. But I think it’s because he doesn’t really understand who he is.”
“Yeah, he’s dumb too,” Trenton said.
Simoni glared at him. “That’s not what I mean. As weird as it sounds, Angus spends most of his time thinking about who he can protect—his family, his city, his father’s reputation.”
“And you. He wants to
protect you,” Trenton said.
“I think he’d give his life for me,” Simoni said softly.
“I think so too,” Trenton said.
Simoni nodded. “But what you probably don’t know is that he’d give his life for you too. For anyone in our group. He fights hard, he talks hard, and he flies hard because he believes it’s the only way to protect the people he loves.”
It was all Trenton could do to keep from shaking his head. If she really thought that Angus loved him, she was totally wrong.
Caught up in the conversation, Trenton didn’t see the small boat until it was almost on top of them. “Get down,” he whispered, uselessly looking for a place to hide.
“Simoni, is that you?”
“Angus?” Simoni sat up, nearly overturning the plank.
The boat floated closer, and Trenton made out four shapes in the darkness.
Angus leaped out of the boat before it had reached them, plunging waist-deep into the water. “What happened? Are you all right?”
He charged through the water, lifted Simoni from the plank, and held her close in his arms. Then he saw the blood on her face. “What did they do to you?” He glared at Trenton. “You let her get hurt.”
“I’m fine,” Simoni said. “A sea dragon attacked the submarine, but we’re okay.”
Trenton waded to the boat as Kallista and Clyde pulled it toward them. He licked his lips. They tasted salty. “We didn’t blow up the lab. We were almost to the cave, but we couldn’t see where we were going and then a dragon came out of the water and—”
“It’s okay,” Kallista said. “I’m just glad the two of you are all right. When we didn’t see you at the meeting place, we thought you’d been captured—or worse.”
“Just a twisted ankle,” Trenton said, keeping his weight on his uninjured leg.
“What now?” Clyde asked.
Trenton looked at Kallista. He wanted to be a leader. He wanted to tell everyone he had a new plan that was even better. But he wasn’t a great leader, and he didn’t have any more plans. He looked at the boat, not even bothering to ask where it came from. Maybe with all the commotion they could make it to Alcatraz. They definitely couldn’t go back to the city
“I guess we try to make it to the island, find our dragons, and leave. It’s over.”
The sky was beginning to turn the purplish-pink of dawn when Kallista pulled the boat up to the edge of the island. Nobody spoke. As Clyde and Angus helped Trenton onto shore, he glanced back at the mainland that looked far too close for comfort. There had to be twenty or thirty dragons flying overhead.
“We have to sink the boat,” Trenton said. “They probably already know where we are, but it might buy us a few extra minutes.”
“What if we need it?” Clyde asked.
“We won’t,” Kallista said. “We won’t be coming back—here or anywhere else near here.”
Trenton dropped his head. The truth was sinking in for all of them. They’d failed. Not only was the monarch unharmed, but the lab was still completely functional. Every dragon in the city would be hunting for them now, and going back would only put themselves and their friends on the Runt Patrol in danger.
Clyde found Trenton a stick to use as a cane, and they watched as Angus smashed a sharp rock against the boat until the wood cracked and water began to seep through the hull. Kallista and Simoni pushed the boat deeper into the water. It floated out into the bay, sinking lower and lower until, eventually, it slipped from sight. Trenton thought it was a fitting metaphor for everything they’d tried to do. They’d tried their best, and they had failed.
He didn’t realize he was crying until Kallista wiped a tear from his face. “If I hadn’t been so stubborn, maybe—”
“No.” He shook his head violently. “You aren’t going to take the blame for this. None of you are. This is my fault.”
Tears leaked from his eyes, and he didn’t try to stop them. The only one who wasn’t crying was Angus. He stuck out his chin like it was a pickax and he need to break through a vein of coal.
Plucky pushed Allie into Trenton’s hands. “Holding something warm and fuzzy is good when yer feeling blue, yeah, yeah.”
Trenton tried to say no, but there was something about the soft kitten that made him want to hug it to his chest.
As the six of them hiked slowly to the crumbling garrison, Angus dropped back to walk by Trenton.
“Something you want?” Trenton asked, wondering if Angus was going to slug him for letting Simoni get hurt.
Angus cleared his throat before saying in a soft voice, “We’ve never gotten along very well.”
“You think?” Trenton asked. Angus had terrorized him every year of school. Violence was supposed to be against the law in Cove, but Angus had managed to “accidentally” trip him, hit him, or knock Trenton’s lunch out of his hands at least twice a week. It only got worse around fifth grade, when the two of them started competing for Simoni’s attention.
Angus shoved his hands in his pockets, looking down at his feet. “You probably don’t believe me, but I’m sorry about all the stuff I did.”
“You’re right,” Trenton said. “I don’t believe you.”
Red creeped up Angus’s neck, but it wasn’t from anger. “Believe me or don’t, but I am sorry. I know I’m a bully,” Angus said, “but that’s kind of the way I was raised. I’m not saying that as an excuse, just that maybe it’s part of the reason I did all those things to you.”
Trenton looked at him out of the corner of his eye. “Go on.”
Angus waved his hand. “What I want to say is that I really appreciate what you did for Simoni last night.”
Trenton nodded. “Okay.”
Angus cleared his throat, struggling to find the right words. “The thing is, you really stepped up. I’m not much for the whole leader thing, and I know I’ve given you a lot of trouble on this trip, but I owe you. If you ever need anything from me, anything at all, say the word and I’ll drop whatever I’m doing.” Angus stuck out his hand. “I promise.”
Trenton stared at the outstretched hand in wonder for a minute before gripping it. “You don’t owe me anything. I didn’t help Simoni because of you. I did it because it was right.”
Angus grunted. “Yeah. You always do the right thing.” He paused for a moment, then added so quietly Trenton almost couldn’t hear it, “Sometimes I wish I was more like that.” He gave him a quick nod of his head, then hurried to the front of the group to walk by Simoni.
Trenton hobbled up to walk beside Clyde.
“What was that all about?” Clyde whispered.
“I’m not sure,” Trenton said. “I wonder if maybe Angus is actually human after all.”
Clyde considered it for a minute, then grinned. “Who would have thought?” He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and asked, “Where will we go from here?”
Trenton sighed. “Back to Discovery, I guess. Regroup. Tell everyone about what is happening here. Hope the white dragon doesn’t find us, but prepare a defense just in case it does.”
Flying out of Discovery for the first time, Trenton had felt like the world was his. They could go anywhere they wanted, explore anything that seemed interesting. But they weren’t exploring anymore. They were running.
He saw Clyde take Plucky’s hand as they walked. It made him smile. Maybe something good had come from this disaster.
Trenton moved over to walk by Simoni. Angus had gone ahead to help Kallista clear a path for the others. “Can I ask you something? When we were in the submarine, before the dragon attacked, you were going to tell me what you were best at.”
Her hair was plastered to her head from the seawater, her nose was swollen—he was pretty sure it was broken—and her eyes were pink around the edges, but when she smiled, he thought she had never looked more beautiful.
She started
to flip back her hair with one hand, realized it was stuck in clumps, and lowered her hand to her side. “It doesn’t matter now.”
“It does to me,” he said.
She wiped her nose, winced, and stuck her hands in her pockets. “I thought—well, I thought maybe I was best at seeing things clearly. I can look at a situation and know what needs to be done. I’ve always been good at strategy, but I mostly used it back in school to get good grades and make boys like me.”
Her face pinked, but she kept going. “Out here, though, I realized I was good at battle plans. I figured out ways to work through the bureaucracy of the city to get what we needed. I always told myself one day I’d see something that needed to be done—something really and truly important—and when that moment came, I wouldn’t hesitate to do the right thing. I guess it’s too late for that now.”
They walked into the building, and for a moment Trenton thought the figures moving in the darkness were guards. Then he realized how small they were. It was Alex and the other members of the Runt Patrol.
“Leaving without saying good-bye?” Alex asked.
Trenton raised his hands. “It’s not like that. After the initiation, we followed Kallista’s father and discovered a lab . . . Wait, how did you get here?”
“You’re not the only ones who can steal a boat,” Michael said. “Especially during the kind of confusion that happens when some fools try to seal the monarch in his own tower.”
“Where’s the submarine?” JoeBob asked.
Trenton couldn’t meet his eyes. “Destroyed by an underwater dragon.” He shook his head. “I’m really sorry. I ruined everything.”
Alex folded his arms across his chest. “What’s this about a lab?”
“It’s hidden under the white tower,” Trenton said. “The only people who go in and out are scientists.” Together, he and Kallista explained what they’d discovered about the origin of the dragons, the jewel wasp DNA, and the white dragon’s power. The longer they talked, the more amazed Alex and the other members of the Runt Patrol grew.
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