Taoslil. Sorry. I shouldn’t be spying. We don’t usually do that, but I heard you making the promise – you were broadcasting your thoughts so loudly it was like you were an actual dragon. Giving the vow without being asked – well, to me that means you must be the one meant to protect the dragonlet.
Could he help us get Natastaa somewhere safe?
Not now. We are under attack. All able dragons must fight. But don’t worry. Your Ilerioc Guard will keep you safe.
He should know that the prophecies were about me – that Ramariri, the Gold Dragon who saved me was carried on the backs of Blue Dragons as he died saving me.
I will remember and I will honor him.
His voice was gone suddenly, and I could almost feel him pulling free from my mind. I blinked my eyes as we reached the bottom of the stairs and rushed forward.
“Where are we?” I gasped as the light of flickering lanterns finally registered.
The room was huge. And it wasn’t all lit with lanterns. Light filtered in from holes in the wall, sealed with glass. Water was on the other side of the glass and fish swam past the portholes.
I spun, trying to figure out where we were. I hadn’t seen an ocean when I looked out from the nest.
“It’s a river that leads to the ocean. The ocean is not far, but that’s a river,” Hubric said as we ran further into the room. His ability to read my mind just by watching me was getting spooky.
At the center of the room was a metal orb with rivets all along the sides. It was perched over a round pool that glowed mysteriously. Racks of equipment and garments were set up around the pool.
It drew the eye so strongly that I didn’t even notice the other wall until a hoarse voice called my name.
“Seleska!”
Like a shot, Nasataa leapt from my shoulders and flew – flew! – a few wobbly flaps before hitting the ground and running full speed to the dark barred cells along the other side of the room.
I knew exactly why. My quavering gasp came only moments later.
“Heron! You’re here!”
I chased after Nasataa, following his lead as my own eyes tried to adjust to the darkness of the other side of the room and find where Heron’s voice was coming from.
I almost stubbed my toe on the bars when I finally reached him. He was on the other side of a wall of bars, gripping them in either hand, his face pressed up against them as if he could get through just by wanting it enough. If that was a prison cell, it was an awful one. It was dark and damp with only a narrow rock wall for a bench and a drain in the middle of the floor. There were no other prisoners, no guards and no sign that Heron had been given food or water.
“Seleska! You’re alive! You’re okay! I’ve been so worried. You look like you aren’t even injured anymore.” His words poured out like a torrent of relief. Were his eyes glassy? His smile was wide, and his too-bright eyes flashed in the low light.
I leaned in close to try to get a good look at him and his hand snaked through the bars to find the back of my head and tangle in my hair, holding me gently but firmly like he was afraid that if his grip slipped at all I would vanish like a ghost.
“I brought you to their door and I begged them to take you, but they wouldn’t, Seleska. Not until I forced them to. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“What did you do to force them?” I asked, my eyes wide at the thought of gentle kind Heron forcing a dragon to do as he wished.
“Stay back from the prisoner,” Jeriath warned, coming up from behind me. “We don’t have leave to free him. He is under judgment.”
“I thought you said you would consider it,” I said.
“I fought them,” Heron said, not letting go of me. “I fought them and demanded that they take you and help you or I would kill them.”
“He broke Carhan’s arm and leg and nearly killed him,” Jeriath said harshly.
“Please,” I begged, turning to him. “You can’t leave him here. You promised to reconsider.”
“I have reconsidered. He’s a criminal.” There was a sound of finality in his voice. “He stays here. Get your gear on and get ready. After we send the Chosen One and his guardian down, we’ll send you next. Even if you’re a fraud, you’re still under our protection.”
“A what?” Now I was reeling from all the crazy conclusions he was jumping to. Heron a criminal? Impossible! Me, a fraud? He was joking, right?
“The other girl is the True Guardian. We will watch her say her vows and then send her to safety with the guard. We can only send eight people at a time and it is essential that she is properly guarded.”
I clenched my jaw and put a hand on my hip, and turned my whole body to him – but I made sure to stay close enough to Heron that he could keep his hand in my hair.
“Then why don’t you go ahead and take care of that, Jeriath? If it’s so important to you, then I don’t know why you’re wasting your time here?”
He made an angry sound in his throat, but he said one more thing before he stalked away.
“If that’s how you feel, then you’re on your own, imposter. We have important charges to protect and we don’t have time for your dramatics.”
My face grew hot at the finality of his tone. I’d just lost my guard with my sharp words.
Chapter Fifteen
I heard them begin to prepare Atura for her vow as Hubric stepped closer.
“You should be more careful with that temper, Seleska. You’re going to get your friend in even more trouble if you provoke Jeriath.”
“It’s unfair, Hubric,” I said irritably. “They’ve imprisoned him and all he was trying to do was save my life and now they all believe Atura just because she’s such a great liar.”
Hubric snorted. “Way of the world, kid.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s right!”
“Of course, it’s not right. People believe what they want to believe – even what it’s patently false. And they are swayed by confidence and a tidy story but in real life, true stories are never tidy and the people telling them are rarely confident.”
“So, what do I do?” I asked. “We can’t just leave Heron here!”
“Wait here a minute.”
He hurried off and I turned back to Heron. He smiled warmly at me, tenderness in his eyes but also concern.
“Seleska,” he said. “You shouldn’t stay here trying to free me if it puts you in danger. Go with the others. I’ll be okay.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. And it was just the truth. I would never leave Heron when he needed me, just like he would never leave me when I needed him. “Did you really fight guards and dragons to get me help?”
“I’d do it all over again, too.” The look in his eyes was blazing.
I stood up on my tiptoes, pressing into the bars so that I could reach him and with great effort, I managed to stand high enough to just brush his lips with mine.
When I pulled back, he bit his bottom lip.
“Seleska?”
“Yes?” I asked innocently.
“You need to stop doing that.”
“Why?” I made my eyes as large as I could.
“You’re my best friend. But if you keep doing that, I might just fall in love with you.”
“Oh,” I said as if I had no idea that was possible. “Oops.”
But that left it in my hands, didn’t it? I could decide to keep things the way they were, and we could be friends forever – the kind of friends where he went away to Abergande and apprenticed there without telling me first. I frowned.
Or, I could keep kissing him and we could maybe be more.
I felt all tingly at the thought of it. That would be ... nice. The wicked smile I shot at him as I thought of exactly how nice it would be probably suggested the truth – that I planned to keep kissing him and see what happened next.
I would have followed up on it right away, but Hubric was back with his arms full.
“These are rare. Swimsuits and goggles. They are insulated and
lightweight and cover you from neck to wrists to ankles, but they are a tight fit, so they’re hard to change into. There’s a screen over there that you can change behind, Seleska. By the look of this place, I think it’s more of a staging area for river expeditions than it is a prison,” Hubric said, handing me a strange suit made of a material I’d never felt before. “Heron and I need to wear the breathing patches, too. Why don’t you leave us to it?”
“And I have the super-rock still,” Heron said, reaching down and then holding it up in the air. “No one knew what it was, so they left it with me.”
Hubric grunted, pointing to Nasataa. “Take your charge with you. He shouldn’t be burning holes through the bars.”
I glanced down the line of bars to where Nasataa was flaming the bars so hard that he had left little tears and holes all along the bottom of the cells.
“Oops,” I said.
“Yeah. Ooops,” Hubric said dryly.
With my face blazing, I caught Nasataa and tucked him under one arm as I hurried behind the screen. Hubric was right. The suit was hard to put on. It fit far too snugly, but I could tell it would be easy to move in once I was underwater and it wouldn’t be catching at the waves all the time like my regular clothing did. Worse, the rock under our feet was shaking even harder than before and it made it hard to balance and dress with the floor rippling like water.
It was all I could do to keep a positive attitude and not to panic. It wouldn’t help anyone if I was scared of the floor, would it?
From behind the screen, I heard Atura finishing her vow and her new guards hurrying to get her into the metal orb together.
“It’s on a cable and it will take us out to the ocean. It’s a quick way out of Haz’drazen’s Drazenloft,” one of the guards was saying. “We must keep you safe, Honored Guardian. For the sake of the world.”
“Your loyalty pleases me,” Atura said.
I made a face behind the screen. Atura was terrible. She’d probably called for the attack going on above us.
Wait.
Had she? I’d asked that question before, but I knew I was biased. The thing was, it was very possible that somehow she had betrayed us. After all, why else was she here? She hadn’t attacked Nasataa or me – which was what I’d thought she was here for at first. And I knew that the Rock Eaters wanted to kill dragons and drain their lives to fill up magic reservoirs. Maybe she had been here all along to find a way in for her people. Was that crazy? Was I just thinking these things because I hated her so much?
There was a crash in the distance.
Crash. Smash.
Do you sense something, Nasataa?
Trouble comes. Crash!
I darted out from the screen, Nasataa in my arms and the Dragon Staff in one hand. The last guards were loading into the orb. They weren’t even looking to where Hubric and Heron were changed into their swimsuits and trying to equip their breathing apparatuses. Maybe the need to keep the Chosen One safe was more important than stopping someone from slipping swimming gear to a man behind bars was. They were definitely not looking to where the doorway light was blocked and where suddenly dust and tiny bits of rock were raining down as a booming sound filled the air.
“We need to get her out!” Jeriath yelled as the last guards shoved into the orb and he pulled the door shut behind him.
I saw his eyes looking out through a single window on the door just before the orb shot down into the pool in its metal cable, zipping away. What manner of magic was that?
I didn’t have time to think about that.
There was a loud click and I turned in time to see Hubric fiddling with the lock on the cell door and then Heron burst out from behind the bars – had Hubric picked the lock?
“Run to the pool!” Hubric shouted before slapping a breathing patch over his face.
I meant to run.
I really did, but as the huge head burst into the room from the stairway above, I wasn’t able to move at all. I stood, frozen in place, completely immobile as I stared at the horrible creature breaking the rock to enter the room.
How was a thing like that even possible?
Chapter Sixteen
“Manticore,” Hubric croaked and I knew he was right. I’d seen them before when they tore into the Troglodyte, but that didn’t make them any less hideous. This one was massive – his almost human head was stuck into the room growling and snapping with broken, rotten teeth and his mane shook as he pushed against the rock.
A groaning sound ripped through the rock and then a crack. That must be magic. No matter how strong he was, he couldn’t be breaking rocks with just his muscles!
Lightning fast, Nasataa dove from my arms and ran toward the pool. As if it had shaken me awake, I chased after him.
The Manticore slid into the room, his lion paws scuffling across the rock of the floor, crumpling cell doors along the one wall.
“Go!” Hubric yelled, shoving Heron into the pool. He fell rapidly holding the heavy super-stone and Nasataa leapt in right on his heels.
I was nearly there. Just a few more strides.
And then the Manticore was loose, barrelling toward us, driven by insane power. I threw up the Dragon Staff instinctively to protect us.
“You first,” I called to Hubric and his answering growl could be heard even through the muffling of his breathing patch. He grabbed my arm, pulling me after him but I was the only one armed and I needed to protect them.
“You won’t help anyone if you’re dead, fool girl! Bravery is good. Sense is better!” he yelled, pulling the patch off so he could talk to me before replacing it and dragging me after him. Wouldn’t that nullify the magic of the patch? Or were these patches different from Rock Eater ones?
We plunged into the embrace of the river, falling into the pool.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Too soon.
The huge face of the Manticore plunged into the water behind us, searching, his dark eyes wide open in the fast-moving water of the river.
I swam as fast as I could, kicking with the current. My world was a haze of fast-moving images and panicked breaths, all drowned out by the frantic pounding of my heart.
In front of me, Heron and Nasataa swam through the water, the rock propelling them as they both clung to it, beckoning me to follow.
The river was long and straight and far ahead of them, I saw the round orb moving down the line. It was steady and sure, but not fast.
I spun to look at the thrashing Manticore. He fought against the rock rim of the pool. We’d have to swim fast to outdistance him before he broke through.
And there was no way we could swim that fast.
This was insanity. Why was I Nasataa’s protector when I had nothing to protect him with? What was the point of this Dragon Staff if it couldn’t help keep him safe?
The Manticore roared and then rock fell down from the pool entrance to the bottom of the river and bubbles roared toward us as his huge body tore through the water, his wings flapping in it like the fins of a great fish.
He was terribly fast. Faster than anything else I’d seen underwater other than a Blue Dragon.
And I had had enough.
I spun in the water, leveled my staff and screwed up my face.
“Okay, Staff,” I said, but under the water, it was just bubbles. “You’d better be good for something! Come on! Do something!”
Vyvera said it would eventually have some kind of power. She said that if I practiced and got familiar with it, it would show me the power. And at least once before it had deflected magic back on the person doing the magic. But did Manticores have magic? Could this even work?
I hadn’t had time to practice other than panicked fighting. And by the look of things, I never would. It was just one desperate battle after another for old Seleska, so if this Staff was ever going to be any good, now was the time for it.
I thought I could feel Hubric tugging at me from behind, but this time, I wouldn’t be swayed. We couldn’t outrun th
is creature, and it could clearly pulverize anything it got its grubby paws on.
And I was done. I was done running. I was done fleeing.
I was making a stand.
Focus.
That wasn’t Taoslil or Nasataa! Who was that in my brain now? It was like a ship port with all these people coming and going!
No questions. Focus.
I saw an image in my mind of a Blue Dragon. Deep and mysterious. Its bright eyes turned to slits as it said again, Focus.
I focused on the Manticore as it swam toward me, bubbles streaming from its open mouth as if it was roaring as it tore through the water toward me. Mud and water weeds spun in clumps where they’d been torn up by its huge paws.
I focused on it with all my mental strength. It was everything dangerous trying to destroy us. It was everything I needed to protect Nasataa from. I focused as hard as I could.
Not that kind of focus. Don’t focus on the evil thing you fight. Focus on why you fight.
I wanted to protect Nasataa like Ramariri had protected me.
Heat flared in my chest as I thought about the gratitude I felt for him – for his kindness and mercy. For his faithfulness.
It swelled, hotter, brighter.
Hubric was shouting from behind his patch through the water behind me. He must really be loud for me to hear his garbled voice.
The Manticore was nearly close enough to snatch me from the water with his paws. I saw the look of triumph begin in his eyes, the lips pulling back from jagged teeth.
I focused on gratitude instead.
Heat and light flared around me, so bright that it blinded me.
I blinked.
And when my vision cleared, there was no Manticore.
Chapter Seventeen
I turned to see Hubric’s face, bug-eyed behind the googles. He looked like he was saying something under his breathing patch, but I couldn’t hear him. This time, I followed when he tugged on my arm, swimming as fast as I could with one hand still gripping the staff.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, I thought to the Blue Dragons. If it hadn’t been for them, we’d all be dead.
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