Gabe took the little man’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “Yeah, thanks.”
“You’re welcome, turd fighter.”
“No, you’re welcome, step stool,” he fired back.
Holding his belly, Garland laughed. With a wave of his hand, he turned his back and climbed up onto a basketlike perch just behind the portal. “See you when you leave, whipping post.”
Gabe couldn’t contain his grin. It might have been the first time he’d smiled in days. Garland was a friend who’d been picking at him since he made his first trip inside the den.
The dragon den was a strange building built underneath the city. Its climate was cooler than the world above and even damp in a few places. Gabe and Saul made their way down a short corridor that opened up into a kennel-like facility. Oil lanterns that hung from wooden beams illuminated it. The den, like many facilities, was made from a mishmash of building materials. No two planks were alike.
The cages, however, were identical. There were at least fifty of them, built with black metal bars. Storage cupboards separated them. Each cage was big enough to hold a dog, and they were stacked in rows.
Gabe pecked the steel bars with his knuckle. They were too thick for a man to bend. Each cage was filled with rocks, driftwood, and sand. Strange lights glowed above the cages, and a low, chronic hum filled the room.
His dad nudged him. He had a pair of heavy leather handling gloves, called dragonry gloves, in his hands. “Don’t forget to put these on once you get cleaning.”
Gabe made his way around the room. It was an oval with cages on the outer wall and workbenches in the middle. The bigger cages were at ground level, and the medium-sized ones sat on dark wood planks above those. Most of the cages were empty. He slipped the gloves on, squatted down, and tapped on the bars of a cage. Huddled in the back corner, with a small pile of rocks, lay a dragon. Bigger than a rooster, the creature had leathery wings folded over its back. It was mostly the color of sandstone with flecks of black and gray. One eyelid was cracked open, revealing a burning yellow eye. A putrid smell came from within.
Shielding his nose with the gauntlet, Gabe said, “I think we should start with this one. It’s a mess.”
“Lewis, huh?” Saul stood with his hands on his hips. “He always makes a mess, doesn’t he?”
Gabe nodded, noting the jagged scars on the dragon’s scales and the small tears in its wings. “I’m surprised he’s still fighting.”
“I think his last fight is coming.” Saul knelt by Gabe and slid the bar to open the cage. “Uh, let’s stick him in the empty cage on the back side of my left shoulder.”
Gabe opened the free cage and stepped aside. As he turned, his father already had his hands clamped over the dragon’s body. He tugged on the dragon. Its claws were locked on the metal mesh at the bottom of the cage. “He’s attached to his own filth.” With a fierce tug, he ripped the lizard free. Lewis’s black claws spread out like tiny razors. The dragon tore at the heavy gloves. It screeched and clawed. Its jaws snapped at the air. Gabe broke out in a cold sweat.
“Son, move back,” Saul warned. “This little monster is getting stronger.”
Gabe tried to scoot away, but terror filled him. He froze. His mind raced back to the huge grand dragon that had almost killed them all and the dangerous evil that had lurked in its eyes. He saw that in Lewis. He’d never been bothered by the dragon before.
The dragon’s wriggling became more defiant.
“Gabe, move!”
As if awoken from a dream, Gabe eased back.
His father started to shove the dragon into the cage. With a fierce lurching, the dragon broke free of Saul’s grip and attacked.
CHAPTER 20
“Secure the den, Gabe! Secure the den!”
The dragon’s neck rattled. It clawed and bit at the man. It beat its small wings in anger.
Gabe’s eyes were glued to it.
“Gabe, shut that door, or you’ll never make it out of here again!” Saul shouted. He slapped back at the dragon with his gloves.
Tearing his eyes away, Gabe rushed to the door and pulled it closed. He barred it with a piece of lumber. Nothing was getting out. Nothing was getting in.
“Gabe, look out!”
He turned just in time to catch the dragon crawling right at him. It slunk in low and fast with a mouthful of small, sharp teeth wide open. On instinct, Gabe’s hands lashed out. He wrangled it by the neck. Lewis’s claws latched onto his gloves and clawed at the leather. The dragon snapped at Gabe’s face.
Saul reached out, grabbed the dragon behind the wings again, and yanked it off. He hustled over to the open cage and stuffed the dragon inside. He closed the door and locked it shut. The dragon chewed at the bars and raked them with his claws. Rising to full height, Saul said, “Whew! Lewis really is getting cranky in his old age. Are you okay, Gabe?”
Fixing his gloves, Gabe replied, “I think that got the jitters out of me. I’ll be fine.”
Saul tousled Gabe’s hair. “Good. You had me worried for a second. So you’re ready to get back into the swing of things, then?”
Gabe nodded.
A pounding started on the door that Gabe had secured. Garland was hollering from the other side. “What’s going on in there?”
Saul put his finger to his lips. Gabe nodded. He went over by the door.
Garland continued to pound. “Are you okay? Ah, I knew you two nitwits would be dragon food one day.”
On a signal from his dad, Gabe cocked his foot back and kicked the door with a loud bang.
“Gah!” Garland screamed.
Gabe and Saul busted out laughing.
“Laugh it up, you two nitwits! Laugh it up!” Garland’s voice trailed off.
Returning to his father’s side, staring into Lewis’s new cage, Gabe said, “He’s getting too old and mean, isn’t he?”
“Garland? Nah, he’s always been that way,” Saul replied.
Gabe chuckled. “No, I mean Lewis.” He touched the dragon’s claws with his gauntlet. “His time’s come, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, the old warrior is getting too big and dangerous. They just don’t stay tame forever.” Saul stood up and headed over to a shelf that was back against the wall. It was lined up with clear jars filled with crickets and other bugs. He came back and sprinkled them into the dragon’s cage.
Lewis released the bars. Lewis’s tongue flicked out and snatched a cricket up.
“Why don’t you go get the old-timer some real meat?” Saul added. “He’ll need all the strength that he has for tomorrow.”
“There’s a coming battle?” Gabe said with a thrill going through him. He walked back to a cage that was separated from the rest. Unlike the others, it was made from glass panels and filled with rats. He opened up the top, removed his glove, and plucked one up by the tail. He closed the lid again and took the rat to his father.
“Go ahead—dangle it in there.”
Gabe lowered the rat through the bars of the cage. Lewis watched it out of the corner of his eye and struck. The dragon swallowed the rat in several chomps.
“The battle, Dad? Is the battle really tomorrow? Do we go?”
“Of course it is, or I wouldn’t have said it. And yes, we go. Same as always. Just remember to keep your head down when the Dominion shows.” Saul put the container of bugs back on the shelf. “But we’ve got plenty of preparation, and that’s why you’re here. So get to work.”
Setting his pain aside, Gabe got right after it. He’d been working inside the dragon den for over a year with his father, and the routine was fairly simple. As his father moved the dragons from cage to cage, he scrubbed them out with a heavy brush and bucket. It kept the caked-up excrement from getting nasty, and the Dominion was particular about it. After all, the dragons were theirs.
Gabe carried a bucket full of dragon crap over to a well that was nestled in one of the back corners of the room. It was covered with a round wooden lid with hinges in the middle. Covering his nose, he opened the fro
nt half of the lid and dumped the contents of the bucket inside. He didn’t hear the waste hit the bottom. He dropped the lid back in place with a wham so loud he jostled himself. Fanning his hand in front of his nose, he said, “Ugh, I hate that stink.”
“Gabe! Get over here,” his father said from across the room. He had a cat-sized dragon perched on his handling gloves. “Take a look at Mollie. She’s getting big, isn’t she?”
The dragon was a little smaller than Lewis. Her tail hung down and swished back and forth as she ate dried bugs out of Saul’s palm. The back claws were sunk deep into the glove’s leather.
“She looks good.” Gabe reached out his arm. “May I?”
Saul gave a nod.
Arm straight as an arrow, Gabe touched fists with his father. The dragon shuffled from one arm to the other. Gabe’s heart started racing. There wasn’t anything more exciting than holding a dragon, aside from fighting one. The dragon’s powerful claws squeezed deep, pinching the muscles in his arm. The dragon’s neck rattled a little, a sound like a purr, as Gabe stroked with his finger underneath her chin. “That’s a good Mollie. That’s a good Mollie.”
Out of the fifty cages in the den, less than twenty of them were filled with dragons. Most of them were huddled up under their strange lamps. A few others gnawed on hunks of wood or metal bars. All of the dragons had been raised in captivity. The young ones were tame, but as they became older—like Lewis—they became raw and feistier. Not many of the dragons ever lived to be so old. Most of them didn’t survive the games.
Gabe’s father and the other hunters sought dragon nests and brought back the eggs. But that wasn’t all that Saul did. He helped to raise them too as one of the dragon keepers. It was a special title that not many had, and Saul took it seriously.
“Okay, let’s put her up now in case she gets antsy.” Saul took the dragon from Gabe and put it in another cage. He removed his gloves and set them aside. “Come on. I want to show you something.”
Gabe followed him into a room adjacent to the one they were in. On the far side was a door that was always sealed. The dragon den was part of a larger building, but Gabe had only had access to a little of it.
Saul rattled a ring of keys with a smile. He unlocked the door.
Inside, they stood in a smaller, cleaner version of the room that they’d just been in. Another strange lamp illuminated a cage that sat on a wooden table by itself. Inside it was a nest made of twigs, rock, and clay. A bushel of unhatched dragon eggs lay in the nest. They were the ones from Dragon Valley. One of them moved.
CHAPTER 21
There were five purple-and-brown eggs plus the lone bluish one that Gabe had found. He knew it instantly. A crack had formed on the egg that moved.
“They’re about to hatch,” Gabe said with his face almost touching the cage. “Dad, where are the other eggs?”
“They’ve been taken. Where, I don’t know. They were here one day and not the next. These were the only ones that were left.”
“So do you think they’ll hatch soon?”
“Very soon.” Saul toyed with the cage’s padlock with his finger. “I can’t guarantee that we will be around to see it, though. I sent word yesterday to the Count. She’ll be down soon with some other people. It’s a big find.”
Another door to the room opened. Some men and women entered with a group of children, four adults and four children.
Gabe tried not to look as they entered, but he kept sight of them from the corner of his eye. Saul backed up, grabbed him, and led him farther away. He pushed Gabe’s head down.
They were the Dominion. Each of them wore a clean set of robes with decorative embroidery. Sandals were on their feet, just like the ones Sage wore. Their hair was short, even the women’s.
The Count and Sage came in after them. The Count gave a nod to Saul.
Sage produced a key and unlocked the cage.
Unable to keep his eyes averted, Gabe glanced up. A pretty girl with chestnut hair and blue eyes was standing over him. “What is your name?” she said.
“Uh,” he started to say. His father slapped him on the head. He sealed his lips shut.
“He may speak.” The girl was about as old and tall as Gabe. Her voice was soft and refined. She smelled nice. It was something he couldn’t describe. “I want to know his name. I’ve never met a child from the streets before.”
In a dry voice, he said, “Gabe.”
“Gabe. I want you to pick my egg. A champion.”
What is this weird girl talking about? Please go away.
There was some low chatter between the Dominion adults and the Count, who then said with a raised eyebrow, “Do as she says, child. Pick her egg.”
His father gave him a nod.
Gabe shuffled over, and without so much as a glance at any of the others, he reached for the cage. Another boy slammed the door shut on his fingers. He jerked them away. All of the children were laughing at him.
If he didn’t still have the glove on, it would have broken his fingers. He shot an angry look at the boy. He was taller than Gabe, blond and well built. His arms were crossed over his chest.
The boy said, “You better turn those eyes away if you want to keep them.”
Gabe hated the boy. He hated all of them in that instant. There was something off about them. Arrogant.
The girl brushed up against him and said softly in his ear, “That was not my intent, Gabe. Next time, be quicker.”
Gabe stepped away, eyes elsewhere as Sage opened the cage door again.
The boy who had belittled Gabe was the first to reach in and take an egg. It was the one that had a crack in it. The girl who’d spoken to him was next. She grabbed one that was the same as the others. The other boy and girl grabbed the remaining eggs, leaving the bluish one behind. The Dominion and the children departed.
Gabe could feel the girl’s eyes on him as she left. He ignored it. Sage followed the members of the Dominion out the door and closed it behind him. That left Gabe and his father alone with the Count.
She set her hands on the top of the cage. Staring at the lone remaining egg, she said, “They don’t like it. The warmth was gone.” She tapped her finger on the cage. “How much have you told your son about the dragons, Saul?”
“Not as much as you would suggest,” he said.
“I see.” Eyes still fixed on the egg, she continued. “We don’t know why, but when a child is the first to touch the egg of a dragon, they say a warmth carries through them. A bond is formed. They become the dragon’s mother, so to speak. The dragon knows a loyalty only to that child, at least until it is too old to control anymore. Those children had already bonded with their eggs… and they played a dirty trick on you.” Without a glance back, she sighed. “Did you feel the warmth, Gabe?”
Feet frozen to the floor, he didn’t reply.
“Listen to me, tricky men,” she said with a soft but deadly intent. “I shared the truth on that platform for you, and now you share the truth with me. Tell me, Gabe, did you touch it?”
With a glance at his father, he said, “I did.”
“Did you feel the warmth?” she asked.
At that moment, he wanted to tell her what he’d felt. It had been the most amazing thing, pumping vibrant life through all of his limbs. He gave his father a quick look and then glanced back at her. “I felt the warmth.”
She faced him, toying with the necklace of metal baubles hanging from her neck. “Well, ain’t that great.”
“I thought it was a stone,” Gabe said. “If I knew it was an egg—”
“Be quiet, Gabe,” Saul warned him. “So now what, Angela?”
Gabe couldn’t believe that he called her Angela. The last time he’d done so, she’d almost shot him. Her hands didn’t even go for the gun. Instead, all she said was, “We wait and see.” She stepped toward Saul and patted him on the cheek. “Keep me apprised. Are we going to be ready for the dragon games tomorrow?”
“Of course.”
&n
bsp; She ran her fingers down Saul’s cheek then moved back to the cage, locked it, and tossed Saul the key. “See you soon.”
CHAPTER 22
Gabe had a restless sleep. He dreamed of the egg hatching and a monstrous black lizard coming forth. He saw the egg tossed into a barrel of fire. Other dragons devoured it.
He woke up, rubbing his blurry eyes. Saul was sitting at the table, digging his spoon into a bowl of oatmeal. Saul’s eyes were fixed on a poster that hung on the wall. It was from the old world—a colorful thing that had survived. It showed a towering man yelling over a fallen one. He wore puffy red gloves.
“Morning,” Saul said.
Gabe took a seat at the table, fixed a bowl of food, and gobbled it down. It was bland but filling. “Where’s Mabel?”
“She’s over at Cotton’s again.” Saul pushed the bowl aside. “So are you ready?”
“I don’t think I slept a wink because of it.” He stretched as he yawned.
“Let’s go, then.”
Dressed and ready to go, they moved out into the hall. Gabe heard his grandmother’s voice when they peeked into Cotton’s room. Mabel and Cotton were sitting at a table, playing cards. They didn’t give Gabe and his father a glance.
“Stay upstairs until I’m back from the games, Mabel.”
Saul always called her Mabel. Gabe wondered why that was when he called her Grandmother or Grandma most of the time. He wasn’t sure if Mabel was his mother’s mom or his father’s. They avoided speaking about such things, as if something dreadful had happened. It would have helped more if he knew who his mother was. Maybe Mabel looked like her. Maybe Gabe did too.
Leaving the building into the heat of the sweltering day, they picked their way through the streets. Newton buzzed with excitement. “Dragon games” was on the tips of everyone’s tongues. Aside from some routine singing and instrumental performances in the pavilion, the dragon games were about the only source of entertainment most of them had. The games only happened about every three months.
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