“I’m all right,” Todd insisted. But he wasn’t. His knees wobbled as he tried to walk the last few feet to the others. The back of his shirt was heavy and damp. Todd hoped it wasn’t blood.
Todd fell to his knees. Except his knees didn’t hit the ground. “Is this any way to treat your guests?” said a voice behind him.
“Nunn!” Maggie shouted as she reached for her bow. The other three were already fitting arrows to theirs. Todd realized that he was drifting away from them, toward the voice to his rear. Bobby was moving, too, his arms and legs flailing wildly three feet above the ground, like some puppet doing a mad dance.
“Nooooo!” Bobby wailed.
“Most assuredly yes,” Nunn’s voice replied lightly. An arrow whizzed past Todd’s ear. There was a soft whoosh behind him.
“You boys were very rude not to accept my earlier invitation,” Nunn continued. Todd realized that he was spinning slowly as he floated toward the wizard. Soon he would be face-to-face with Nunn.
Two more arrows flew past. This time Todd was able to turn his head enough to see them burst into flames and disintegrate before they could reach their target.
“Help us!” Bobby shrieked. His fists had swung forward, like he wanted to pummel Nunn. Todd twisted his head a bit further to get his first glimpse of the wizard. Nunn was tall, with a long, thin face, his skin a bloodless white against his black robes. His eyes were jet-black as well, all darkness save for tiny flecks of white, as if his eyes held part of the night sky.
The wizard pointed a finger, and another arrow burst into flame.
Nunn reached out for the two of them. “I believe we will be going now.”
“No!” Bobby lashed out, striking Nunn’s shoulder.
Todd wished he had the strength to fight back. His shoulder throbbed with a heat that seemed to drain all the energy from his body.
Somehow, through his frantic movement, Bobby managed to twist away from the wizard. Nunn turned with the boy, grabbing him before he could float any farther.
An arrow struck the wizard’s shoulder.
Nunn spun back around to stare at the archers, the darkness of his eyes turned to a molten red. “I will be back for you!” One of Nunn’s hands grabbed Todd’s shirtfront. The light flared out from the wizard’s arms, enveloping his face, then rushing across his shoulders and arms until it encompassed Bobby and Todd as well.
Todd felt a great pain, starting in his back, and then exploding out to include the world.
Nunn was annoyed. That was not done well at all. Rushing to grab the children, confronting the Volunteers! He had been too sure of himself, and impatient to be done with his work.
He reached back and touched the arrow that protruded from his shoulder. It crumbled to dust. Nothing more than a minor aggravation, really. Except that the pitiful Volunteers had managed to get one of their tiny weapons past his defenses. They knew that he could be reached. That was unfortunate. The more Nunn looked all-powerful to those around him, the easier it would be to become truly all-powerful. Now he would have to find some more-inventive ways to reignite the humans’ fear.
First, though, it was time to bring some fear to those close to him. He snapped on a light above his head, a ghostly moon, as cold as a light could be. Despite his anger, he had to admit it was a nice effect.
It was time to discuss how his two newest guests might be useful. “Where are we?” the younger one—Bobby—cried out against the sudden light. “You can’t do anything to us!” The tone of Bobby’s voice said that Nunn would be able to do whatever he wanted.
The wizard looked around his study, to see where the other one—the quieter one, Todd—had fallen. Nothing but silence.
Maybe Todd’s wound was more severe than the wizard thought. Nunn should be careful not to let him die. It was such an arduous process to reanimate these people.
He waved a finger to increase the illumination of the moon, driving the shadows from his study.
“Where’s Todd?” Bobby demanded. “What have you done with him?”
For an instant, Nunn couldn’t believe it. Todd was nowhere in the room. The second child had not come with them.
It couldn’t be. Something had taken Todd away, away from the power of Nunn! No one could do that. No one had ever dared.
Nunn was no longer simply annoyed. Nunn was angry.
Everything was blinding white. Yet Todd felt there was no light anywhere.
Todd couldn’t see a thing. But, in another way, he could see everything. He saw the woods where he had left the Volunteers behind, and the castle where his father slept. In the blink of an eye—but he wasn’t seeing with his eyes—he was in the clearing with Nick. There was Todd’s mother, waking up with the morning light. Somehow she’d gotten away from his father at last.
He saw Mary Lou, now with Jason and the black bird and the tree man. It surprised him how much better he felt to know she was safe. And he saw someone—or something—that reminded him of that crazy man Sayre, although this guy seemed even more intense than the lawn man, dragging himself across the island toward Nunn’s castle, pushing himself through bushes and clumps of vines as if he no longer realized they were there.
Todd could see all of the island, and everything that happened there; not so big a place, really, with a deep green ocean all around. He could see everything, except a couple of the neighbors, Bobby’s father and Evan Mills. Todd didn’t want to think about what that meant.
Instead, he wondered what had happened to him after the wizard had shown up. He saw Bobby then, huddling in a place far away from Todd. The kid cowered in another corner of the great structure that also held Todd’s father.
Nunn was in the same room with Bobby, and Nunn didn’t look happy. He screamed, his arms high in the air. And the room seemed to respond. Small objects were flung around the raging Nunn to smash into the stone walls, even though no one touched them. Bobby looked like he wanted to cry.
Todd imagined he was the cause of all this. He had a talent for making people angry.
He blinked again, or his mind thought he blinked, as he tried to look closer. There was simply nothing there, nothing, at least, that his eyes or mind’s eye could focus on. Todd could see everything, except for where he was.
But, wherever he was, he felt he wasn’t alone.
There was a vibration that he felt in his fingers and toes and teeth, a deep rumble, as if he was close to some great machine. Except the rumbling rose and fell, not like machine noise, but some living, breathing thing.
He thought about the strange light he more felt than saw. It made him think of fire. Light and fire. Suddenly, as certain as if someone had told him out loud, he knew he was with the dragon.
While he looked at the world around him through the dragon’s gaze, the dragon was looking at him.
The rumbling went deeper now, so that he could feel the vibration in his bones. And Todd knew that these tremors were only the slightest hint of the creature’s power. The creature was judging him. One wrong move, and Todd could be obliterated by flame.
Somehow, though, he wasn’t frightened. Instead, he found he was angry. Not at the dragon. It would be useless to get mad at something as powerful as that. No, his anger lashed out at Nunn, and the way he tried to use people; at Nick, for being the good boy on the street, the A student he could never match up to; at Mary Lou, for turning away from him when he made his clumsy attempts at getting to know her better; at his mother, for being so weak that Todd felt weak as well; at his father, whose own drunken anger bled over all those around him and poisoned everything he touched. And Todd found his anger turned inward, too, at the boy who could beat up those smaller than he was, but was always beaten—when he was young, with fists, and later, with looks and words—by that monster who was his father.
The rumbling deepened and grew closer, shaking Todd so hard that he felt his skin would separate from his bones. Todd opened his mouth in surprise, and hurt, and anger, and heard his own voice mix with the
great voice of the dragon.
Todd, and the dragon, roared.
PART TWO
The Dragon’s Request
Thirty-Five
Jason was so glad when the Oomgosh opened his eyes.
The tree man smiled. “It’s good to be with friends.” His broad brow furrowed when he looked down at Jason. “Don’t be so concerned. I’m bound to recover. One way or another, there always has to be an Oomgosh.”
Raven cawed at that. “So true! The Oomgosh is the second most important creature in all the world!”
“After all,” the tree man agreed, “if I were not here, who would keep Raven in his place?”
Jason quickly woke his sister. She was the only one who had really slept during these last couple of hours before morning.
She sat up with a start. “Oh, Jason. I’m glad to see you’re really here.” She smiled slightly. “Since I’ve come here, I think I have difficulty figuring out what’s real and what isn’t.”
“I’m sure I don’t have anything to do with that feeling.” Jason turned around to see the ghost-man standing behind him. The transparent fellow had disappeared soon after they’d found Mary Lou. Now he was back. Charlie stopped sniffing the surrounding trees and started barking.
“I’ve done some exploring,” the phantom said to Mary Lou, ignoring Jason completely, “but without much success.”
He waved to the dog. Charlie’s bark stopped abruptly, replaced by a curious whine. A moment later, though, the dog started wagging his tale. This ghost-fellow seemed to have a way with everybody but Jason.
“My real self-discovery seems to have begun with your arrival,” the phantom said to Mary Lou. “If I’m going to continue to find out more about myself, I suspect it will be around you.” Jason couldn’t believe the smile his sister gave to this guy. It was the sort of look she usually saved for those rock stars she always had to watch on TV, especially when Jason was watching a cowboy movie on another station. How could anybody get that kind of sick-cow expression on their face, especially about some guy who wasn’t even there?
He glared back at the guy, who still didn’t seem to notice. Mary Lou referred to him as “the prince.” Well, maybe that deep blue costume of his could look royal, if you studied it in the right light. Otherwise, the pants and jacket looked like a set of baggy, fussy Levi’s.
“Jason,” the Oomgosh called, “it is time to leave. There are people to meet.”
“More people?” the black bird called in protest. “Raven knew this wasn’t going to be the best of days.”
“Do you have something against people?” Mary Lou called as she stood.
“People are difficult,” Raven acknowledged. “People are ignorant.”
“Mostly,” the Oomgosh added, “people do not recognize Raven for what he is.” He smiled as the bird flapped his wings. “Raven is the most singular of beings.”
“It is a great burden to bear,” Raven agreed. “And it takes these great black wings to bear it.”
“Raven will bear it with us, as we walk this way,” the Oomgosh said, taking his first step forward. If he was feeling any ill effects from the past night’s injury, Jason couldn’t tell. The tree man’s strides were as bold and steady as they were the day before.
Jason turned back to his sister, who smiled at him and shrugged, and then started to walk after the Oomgosh, as if she was game for anything. The prince, however, was nowhere to be seen.
“What happened to your friend?” Jason asked.
“Oh, he’s still around,” Mary Lou replied as if she had known this ghost-man all her life. “The prince doesn’t have to travel like regular people, one foot after another. He can leave one place and reach another like that!” She snapped her fingers. “He’ll be there when we need him.”
“And the rest of the time, he’ll just be spying on us?” Jason asked. He didn’t know what had gotten into his sister. To him, this ghost-guy was definitely creepy.
“Brothers!” Mary Lou raised her palms to the sky, as if she was imploring the heavens. “Why do I even try?” She laughed, unable to seem really upset. “You don’t know, Jason, how happy I was to see you last night.”
“Sure, Mary Lou,” he replied. “As long as we stick together, everything’s going to be fine.”
Charlie barked then and looked up at Jason with his red, glowing eyes. Even if they survived, Jason had the feeling that they would change in ways they couldn’t even imagine.
“We will find the others.” The tree man’s deep voice seemed very reassuring. “And, as we walk, I will tell you a story of long ago, and how the Oomgosh first discovered rain.”
“How you discovered rain?” Jason asked.
“Well, yes,” the tree man admitted quietly. “Either myself or someone very much like me.”
Raven flapped his wings and took to the air. “I have heard this one before!”
“And I have heard all yours as well,” the Oomgosh noted. “The difficulty with being friends.”
“Old friends!” Raven called as he lifted himself to the trees.
“Almost older than either of us can recall,” the Oomgosh explained to the others.
“Raven should recall the prince,” the bird shouted down from up above. “Except he wasn’t a prince. That much Raven remembers. It will come back to me. It always does, sooner or later, come back to Raven.”
With that, the great black bird flew up until he was lost beyond the leaves.
One minute he was the entire world. The next he stood in the forest.
“Todd!” Maggie called. She strode quickly but cautiously toward him, as if she expected Nunn to pop from the bushes at any second.
Todd shook his head. He didn’t seem able to speak. The immense feeling of well-being he had only lasted a moment before was gone. Instead, he felt as though he hadn’t slept in a week.
But he was back with the Volunteers, delivered by the dragon. He had the feeling that everyone who visited the creature wasn’t that lucky. It was as if he had passed some sort of test, like he was a piece of some great puzzle the dragon was putting together.
Todd fell to his knees. Wasn’t this where he’d come in? He heard other voices around him.
“Todd, boy.” That was Wilbert. “Someone’s taken the arrow from your back.”
The arrow? Todd had trouble thinking about what had happened to it. He must have lost the arrow when he was with the dragon. It was all so clear just a minute before. As tired as he was, Todd realized there was no soreness in his shoulder.
“Shirt’s pretty much a waste, though.” Stanley this time. “I didn’t know people could have this much blood, hey?”
Hey, he thought, you’d be tired, too, if you didn’t have any blood. Todd managed a smile as his face pitched forward toward the forest floor. Strong hands caught him before he could reach the ground.
Todd could hear something being dragged. He managed to open one eye. The trees were moving above him. It took him a moment to realize that the trees were standing still, and he was moving. He was on some sort of litter, like the one the soldiers had built for Mrs. Smith. He tried to remember what had happened. The Volunteers had to get somewhere in a hurry. Time was important.
Other things were important, too. There was something at the edge of his consciousness, more feeling than thought, that seemed urgent. It had come to him on the edge of waking, almost a dream. He felt it there, in the back of his mind, like he could reach it if he only knew which way to turn.
Damn it! If only he had more strength.
When he thought of strength, he thought of fire; fire and the dragon.
Whatever was in his mind came from the dragon. The creature had given Todd something that needed to be passed on to all the other players in this drama. But the dragon didn’t speak in words. It spoke in emotions, and actions, and finally in destruction.
The images of destruction were very strong in Todd’s mind. But, even as they swept through his memory, Todd realized they were onl
y a small part of what the dragon had to say. A new feeling welled up in Todd’s chest: a sure thing, why this was so important.
Somehow the dragon had told him the only way he, or any of them, could survive.
Thirty-Six
Bobby had to get out of here. It seemed as if this whole room would come crashing down around him.
Nunn took a deep breath. Books and vials and jars and feathers and stones and shells, the ones that hadn’t yet smashed against the walls and floor, all froze for an instant in midair before settling down to those surfaces from which they had come. The wizard frowned as he looked around the room. A jar that had been smashed knit itself back together on the floor, the golden powder spread around it funneling back inside. Torn parchment knit itself back together and rerolled itself into a scroll. A great black bird reinserted its cotton stuffing and flew back to a perch high on the wall.
“Now that we have that out of the way, we can get back to business.” Nunn sighed. “But what are we going to do with you? Oh, any number of things, most assuredly, but where shall we start?”
Bobby sat up straight in the corner where he had taken refuge from the flying missiles. This wizard wasn’t going to scare him! Well, actually, Bobby was plenty scared. But he’d do his best not to let it show.
“What have you done with Todd?” he demanded.
Nunn laughed softly at that. The wizard’s grin looked forced, but the lightly teasing tone was back in his voice.
“I suppose I could take credit for his disappearance, but I really wanted to bring both of you boys here together. This Todd business—” Nunn waved his hand as if shooing away a fly. “I’m sure this is all my brother’s fault. Obar, I mean. You see, I snatched someone away from him not long ago—one of your friends. Nick. I’m sure he only wanted to return the favor. Something to do with his idea of fairness.”
“Is Nick here?” Bobby looked around the room, as if he might find his friend hiding in another corner.
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