Starsong

by Annabelle Jay

  I suddenly felt two sets of claws wrap around my ankles and pull me down deeper into the water. I kicked at the being doing the dragging, some kind of small dragon, but it was transparent as water and simply re-formed and took hold again almost immediately. This did not feel like the water guide the hairy man had told me of; this felt like an attack.

  There’s no point in struggling, dragon girl. Once the water lady has a grasp on you, she never lets go.

  I did not die—bone dragons do not need to breathe since we have no lungs—but I did panic. My human side did not like being held under water one bit, nor being dragged by a water creature for what must have been over an hour. The creature did not seem to be able to fly in the air; though it had the general shape of a dragon, its wings were more like the pectoral fins of a water creature than any dragon I had ever seen before. Its body seemed to be able to melt into the water and then re-form, much like my bones apparently could break and then reconnect. The wings, though fluid, moved us as quickly as a boat’s motor. At times I could not even see the dragon, though it never released its tight grip.

  Finally, the dragon stopped its furious flapping when we reached a lake. Gliding into the center of the water in front of the opening of a cave, it called out gleefully, Water Lady! Water Lady! Look what I found!

  Elaine did not show herself at first, but hundreds of water dragons just like the one who had captured me swam out from their hiding spots and circled us like sharks. I observed their long, almost snakelike bodies, and their four legs instead of the traditional two. Their gyrating wings and torsos would have been beautiful if not for the deadly abilities I knew their claws and jaws possessed.

  What have you brought me? asked a sleepy voice from somewhere inside the cave. Is it a little snack?

  Better, the dragon said eagerly. It’s a bone dragon. Made of bones. But it’s a drag—

  Shut up.

  The enthusiastic dragon clamped its jaw shut.

  Much better. Now show me this catch of yours.

  The great Elaine, mother to these eerily loyal water dragons, emerged. I had never seen the Mother in her physical form, but I knew enough about Nimue to be surprised at Elaine’s appearance. Unlike her beautiful sister, Elaine’s body was bloated and a foamy blue. She had barnacles on her arms and legs, and seaweed knotted into her hair. She floated under water instead of on the surface, a hulking, whalelike mass of a woman who eased herself forward with a few lazy undulations of her tail. Opposite to any other creature I had ever seen before, Elaine’s back parts were more alligator than graceful navigator.

  Oh my, she whispered, her voice practically oozing over to me through the water. My, my, my. You have done well, my pet. You’ve brought me just what I asked for, and it isn’t even my birthday yet.

  The water dragons let out a chorus of high-pitched laughs that went on way too long to be comfortable. They’ve been driven mad, I realized as I gazed around the circle. Elaine has made them that way.

  Mad? Elaine asked, her eyes flashing. Apparently, she could hear my thoughts. The only one who made my creations and I mad is Merlin. He called my babies an abomination, and then he locked us under ice for so long, we forgot what it felt like to swim in a lake or a stream or even, heaven forbid, the sea. He froze our tails and halted our powers and stripped us of everything that made us magical. And oh, how he shall pay for it.

  Pay, the dragons whispered. Pay. Pay. Merlin shall pay. Their voices got louder. Pay! Pay! Merlin shall—

  Shut. Up. Elaine sent a stream of blue light directly at her “pets,” who scattered in all directions to avoid it.

  I am trying to have a conversation here, she continued when the noise had been silenced. If you keep up with your chanting, I won’t get to the really good part.

  Good part, Water Lady? the water dragon asked tentatively.

  Yes. The part where we force her to tell us where the other one is and then we kill her.

  We’ll kill her, the dragon repeated with a lick of his teeth. One by one, the other dragons took up the call.

  Chapter TWENTY-FIVE

  NIMUE

  ON THE way to Niagara Falls, I tried to recall anything and everything I had ever read about destroying a lady of the lake. Now that I knew there were three of them, I wondered which of the stories applied to which woman. Most of them had to be the sorceress Nimue—giving Arthur Excalibur, marrying Sir Pelleas to enact social change, serving as one of Arthur’s advisors—but stories like the girl who trapped Merlin in a tree after he taught her all of his secrets seemed to fit this new character more than the old. Which led me to wonder—how reliable were the texts that were my sources of information, and who were Sir Malory or Geoffrey of Monmouth to change these historical events to serve a literary purpose?

  The one weapon I wished I had with me was Excalibur. As a baby a drawing of it by the royal artist had hung on the wall of my room. As I grew up, that sword had become a symbol of the throne I would one day inherit, and the power that throne would bring. I thought often of Arthur pulling Excalibur from its stony sheath and proving to the people that he was the true and rightful King of England, and how I wished my own worthiness could be tested so straightforwardly.

  Instead of forcing such fancies from my head, my mother had encouraged them. She loved the old tales, and knew even more about them than I did, at least until her pain made her forget.

  “Maybe one day you’ll pull the sword from the stone,” she used to tell me at the end of a bedtime story about Merlin. “I’ve heard rumors that a true royal who deserves power can actually call upon the stone as proof, and you, my dear Nimue, are as true a royal as they come.”

  I wished I shared her confidence, but I did share her belief in the stories. For hours on end I would sit in the royal gardens staring at our biggest rock, waiting for Excalibur to arrive; needless to say, I never found a jeweled hilt.

  Before I could think more on Excalibur’s capabilities, I reached Niagara Falls. Unlike anything I had ever seen before on dry Draman, the water booming down from the three sections took my breath away. Imagine such amounts of water on our planet, I thought as I perched on the railing keeping tourists from plummeting to their deaths below. Imagine the peace of mind it would bring.

  Following the orders of the bearded man, I whispered Elaine’s name into the thunder of the falls. Beneath the water’s surface far below me, a blue stream of light to my left, leaving behind a trail of lighter blue light for me to track. This I trailed for miles, until I reached a lake where, from beneath the surface, bubbles of activity boiled on the top. Peering hard to look beneath them, I saw a sight I could barely believe.

  A crowd of water dragons circled Sara Lee like vultures. A hideous woman who looked like a cross between an alligator and a sickly reef seemed to be leading these dragons, and in an uncharacteristic appearance for her, Sara Lee actually looked afraid. No one seemed to be speaking, but I knew enough about dragons to expect telepathy.

  I’m never going to be able to stop them on my own, I realized as I perched in a nearby tree. If Sara Lee, who’s stronger and smarter than me in every way, couldn’t defeat them already, then I don’t stand a chance.

  Again, Excalibur came to mind. What if I hadn’t been on the right planet? Maybe Excalibur was like a short-range radio, and Draman had simply been too far away to reach? Why not try it one more time, I thought as I stared at a rock in the center of the lake near where Sara Lee floated. If there’s one thing I had learned about the magical world, it was never to dismiss the impossible.

  I closed my eyes and conjured the image, then called to it as strongly as I could. Excalibur! If you’re here on Earth, a royal needs your help! Excalibur!

  And perhaps because Excalibur really did only move between locations on Earth, or because a lady of the lake had created the sword, or because I was a royal in need of help, this time, my call was answered. When I opened my eyes, there, in the middle of the lake, was the gleaming hilt of the weapon.

  Be
fore the creatures under the water could catch sight of it, I flew to the rock in one swift motion and took the hilt in my jaw. Pulling up as hard as I could, I waited for the victorious feeling of metal sliding from sheath. And waited. And waited. My neck strained, and my back pulled, my jaw felt like it might snap off, but nothing worked. Excalibur might have answered my call, but I was not worthy of its help.

  Acting on instinct, too full of adrenaline to think about what the words would mean, I called down to the one person I knew was worthy of such a magical tool: Sara Lee, this is Nimue. I need you to climb onto the rock on your left and pull the sword from the stone now!

  She never hesitated. In one smooth motion, Sara Lee leaped from the water and did a flip in the air, coming to land gracefully with her jaw right on the hilt of the sword. Before Elaine could even figure out where her fresh catch had gone, Sara Lee had pulled Excalibur from the stone with as little effort as a cook pulling a knife from a wooden block.

  The rightful ruler, I thought, and perhaps I did not keep my thoughts to myself, because Sara Lee turned and looked at me strangely. But there was no time to talk; bubbles boiled on the surface, and then the head of the evil Elaine emerged.

  Now you will die, you bony little—

  Sara Lee flew right at her. Too late did Elaine see the shine of light on the smooth blade of the weapon, the twinkle of the diamonds on the hilt, for in fact Excalibur blinded the bearer’s enemies when first removed. The sword pushed through the woman’s bulbous flesh, sending blue liquid oozing out of her wound like a popped pimple.

  This cannot be, Elaine moaned as she slid back the way she had come. It was foretold that I would destroy Earth, that I would get my revenge on Merlin and finally be free of this torturous quest. Quick, my pretties, she said, addressing her sea creatures but not able to censor who received her message in all of her pain, send messages far and wide to my inventors. Tell them that it’s time to let the robots free. Do my work, my babies, and you shall rule Earth even in my absence.

  Before we could stop them, the blue bodies disappeared in all directions like a bag of dropped marbles, Elaine’s blue blood helping to distort their path even more. As she bled out, I sent a distress call to the Secret Keeper and all of the other dragons in case they were close. Come quickly. We’ve killed Elaine, but her water dragons will activate the robots anyway.

  By the time they arrived, their fury at being left behind evident in their hard landings and glares, Elaine had finally stopped her moaning and fallen to the lake floor.

  What is the meaning of this? Allanah demanded. I thought we were going after Elaine together, and then the next thing we know, you’re both gone.

  Sorry, I said not very apologetically, but this was something we had to do alone.

  At least you succeeded, Victoria said as she glanced down at the body of Elaine and then looked away quickly. So what now?

  Well, we killed Elaine, but we set loose a dozen crazy water dragons on their way to wake up whatever sleeping beasts live in Elaine’s laboratories. Prototypes of her future minions, probably. Not the whole army, but enough to do a whole lot of damage.

  And our plan? Roger asked me hopefully. The others mimicked his gaze.

  Don’t ask me, I said. Sara Lee is the rightful ruler now.

  Everyone turned to Sara Lee questioningly. She raised Excalibur, and everyone gasped. Is that? Can it be? How?

  It’s just a sword, Sara Lee said as the group crowded around her. It doesn’t mean anything. Nimue is still my princess, and the only rightful ruler I know.

  Naturally, they all agreed, but deep down, I knew something had changed.

  I had been tested, just like I had always dreamed of… but I had been found unworthy.

  Chapter TWENTY-SIX

  SARA LEE

  IF I could have shoved that sword back in the hole from which I had pulled it, or if I could have reversed time and gone back to that moment when Nimue told me to remove the sword, I would have without pause. I had defeated Elaine, but I had lost Nimue in the process. Plus, the water dragons had scattered, and robots on the other end of their journey were way worse than that barnacled beast.

  As we flew to our first lead, a company called Angry Robot Company, or ARC for short, that apparently had been doing some secret robotic work that Benita and Roger had been investigating before our arrival, Nimue didn’t say a word to me or anyone else. Her silence in itself was not unusual—I had known her to go days at a time without a single word—but usually I was not one of the people she ignored.

  However, she didn’t need to speak or even send me secret messages to tell me what was wrong. I had grown up with Nimue; I had seen the drawing of Excalibur on her wall, and I knew what such a test meant to her.

  I, too, had become enamored with that drawing as a child, but not for the same reason. What did I care about ruling the land, when I had seen the awful things a princess had to go through to do it? Fancy robes, balls, feasts, and the like were not my idea of a good time. I wanted to be out in the world slaying bad guys, that jeweled sword by my side.

  As a young maid, I had snuck into Nimue’s bedroom and taken down the piece of art from the wall, then used an old scrap of paper and a stolen pencil to trace the outline and as many of the details as I could before Nimue returned from her lessons. This copy I hung in my own cramped bedchambers, where the sword cut into many of my dreams. I even learned how to use a sword in real life by watching the royal guards practice in the early hours of the morning, their technical terms swimming around in my head until they found meaning: en garde, contratempo, coup de main. As I aged, Excalibur came to represent the things I wanted the most in my life: justice, independence, and freedom.

  Please talk to me, I sent just Nimue while the others discussed our route.

  I’m not in the mood to talk, she replied. At least she wasn’t giving me the full silent treatment, which meant that I specifically was not the problem.

  I’m sorry about Excalibur. I know how much that sword meant to you.

  Apparently not enough, she said angrily. I wasn’t worthy of its power, and that means I’m not fit to rule.

  Nimue, pulling a sword from a stone is not the only way to prove you’re the rightful ruler of our people. Did King Vortigern pull a sword from a stone? King Aurelius Ambrosius? King Uther? Okay, the last one was a bad example, but you know what I mean. Arthur was one king among many. If this sword does give me the power to rule some unspecified place, that doesn’t negate your abilities as rightful leader. The two are unconnected.

  But I couldn’t pull the sword from the stone, she repeated.

  I know. But maybe that’s because you wouldn’t have ruled with it. Be honest with yourself; if you had pulled the sword from the stone, would you have rushed off to start slaying bad guys with it? Or would it have sat in a glass case in your castle, reminding your people of your greatness?

  Careful, Maid, Nimue said, but I could tell by her tone that my comments had given her pause. I suppose you’re right. I am not the type of leader to strategize battles or slay opponents, and Excalibur would have gotten no use in my hands. Perhaps it does belong with you, after all.

  I was so relieved I almost flew into the others, who had stopped some ways off from a building and were debating the best way to enter.

  We can’t just fly in and start breaking beakers with our teeth, Roger reasoned.

  Naturally, Dad, but they’ll obviously know we don’t belong if we walk in as humans. There’s probably surveillance, a security code, or laser beams for all we know.

  This is not a James Bond movie, Benita chided, and whoever James Bond was stopped Victoria’s complaining. We have a talented witch with us who I’m sure can make us some fake badges and lab coats, right Allanah?

  Uh…. Allanah seemed suddenly very interested in Grian’s scales. It’s not that I can’t do something like that… I just don’t want to promise that I can either. I usually use my magic to talk to dragons or fight in battles or raise
protection spells—that’s my specialty, just like organizing objects is Victoria’s—and beyond that, I haven’t expanded much outside of my comfort zone.

  What better time? Benita said encouragingly, though as soon as Allanah’s back was turned, she shared a worried look with Roger.

  We landed well outside of ARC and transitioned into our human forms. From our hiding spot we walked about a mile to the first security gate, where we would secure the proper badges and outfits before we made a play for the main building.

  The small security post had two guards, both so young they were almost boys, in gray uniforms. One gate let cars in and out, though of course no cars came by so late at night. I spotted at least one security camera in the top right corner, which would need to be our first order of business.

  “I can do this,” Dena said. She waved a hand and a vine snaked up the brick wall and over to the camera. The tip of the vine nudged the camera lens upward by slowly growing beneath it, now showing only sky to whoever was on the other end.

  “And I’ve got the gate,” Victoria said. “Allanah, let’s see those battle skills in action.”

  While Victoria disassembled the gate, Allanah headed for the door. As soon as the guards caught sight of her through the window, she waved a hand and knocked them all unconscious, then tied them up using their telephone cord. Once the coast was clear, we followed her into the guard post, where she was staring at a badge so intently that her eyeballs looked like they might pop out.

  “Who’d have thought replicating something would be so difficult,” Allanah said desperately. “I mean, I’m a Level Five witch! I should be able to do a little laminating.”

  “Let me try,” said Victoria as she came up behind us.