by Brandon Mull
“We should pause and plan,” Grady suggested, dragging his paddle to slow the canoe. Mizarine redoubled her efforts to pull them forward.
Faro surfaced and rested a strong arm on one of the outriggers. “Once we cross into the mist, Jibarro will hunt us.”
“What’s the best strategy?” Grady asked.
“We should work together to propel the canoe to the island as fast as we can,” Faro said. “If Jibarro appears, I will antagonize him, draw him away.”
“You’ll be killed,” Grady said.
“I’m very quick in the water and accustomed to confrontations with big game,” Faro said. “I’ll make my escape. Just get Kendra to the shore without delay.”
“We should free the nova song from the boat,” Grady said. “Kendra can hold the chain. We may need to move in great haste.”
Grady came forward, unfastened the slender chain from the front of the canoe, and handed it to Kendra. She noticed his eyes lingering for a moment on the wrapped sealskin. Then he returned to the stern and held his paddle ready.
“Are you going to push?” Grady asked the merman.
Ducking his head, Faro vanished beneath the swells with a flick of his tail. Kendra hoped he could see farther underwater than they could see through the mist.
“Ready, Kendra?” Grady asked.
She held her crown in one hand, the fairy chain in the other, and felt the sealskin in its leaf wrappings at her feet. She checked her sack of gales and the unicorn horn. The thought of perhaps presenting it to Bracken soon was encouraging. “Sure.”
With a sweep of Grady’s paddle, the canoe surged forward much faster than ever, making Kendra rock back. She could only imagine how hard Faro was pushing under the water.
Cool mist breezed against Kendra’s face as the canoe entered the grayness. Kendra peered ahead, hoping to see land before she saw a dragon. The visibility within the patchy fog varied, allowing her to see sometimes a hundred yards before them, sometimes fifty.
When the island came into view up ahead, Kendra’s relief was interrupted by a tremendous roar. Turning in the direction of the earsplitting bellow, Kendra saw the enormous head and neck of a dragon coming into view through the mist from off to one side.
“Get to shore,” Faro said, surfacing and racing toward the dragon, spear upraised. “I am Faro of the merfolk!” he shouted in a surprisingly loud voice. “I have come to slay the sea tyrant Jibarro! You must be his little niece. Fetch him for me!”
The answering roar showed that the taunt had struck a nerve. Faro began to veer away from the island to lure the sea dragon away from the canoe. Grady paddled furiously.
“I always thought dragons belonged in the sky!” Faro yelled. “They look so majestic soaring against the clouds. Sea dragons are too fat and dull for such sport! They waddle like ducks and bob around like infants.”
The island was coming into sharper focus. The ruins of stone fortifications mingled with jagged rocks. The forbidding coastline offered no obvious place for the canoe to land.
Jibarro had taken the bait. The huge sea dragon was closing in on Faro, who looked tiny by comparison. Kendra squeezed the crown through the sack. What spectacular dodge was going to save him? Faro looked doomed.
“Choke on me!” Faro called, hurling his spear. It pinged harmlessly off the scales of Jibarro’s neck. Jaws agape, the sea dragon launched forward.
In the last moment, Kendra saw Faro’s eyes go to her. He seemed encouraging and at peace. Kendra realized the merman had never planned to avoid the sea dragon. Jibarro was too large and too fast. This had been a sacrifice from the start.
Her heart squeezed at Faro’s heroism as he disappeared into Jibarro’s mouth, maybe fifty yards away. Why had he done it? Maybe he understood how badly the sanctuary needed the Sunset Pearl. Maybe he believed in her. She would never know for sure.
Suddenly the canoe was catapulted into the air as an enormous tail rose up from beneath them. Flying out of her seat, Kendra let go of the nova song’s chain but held tight to the crown. As Kendra soared through the air, she marveled that the dragon had kept track of the canoe even while moving away to devour Faro. She was also astounded at the size of the dragon—that his head could be so far away and his tail could still reach her.
Kendra hit the water and sank amid the bubbles of her splash. Kicking her feet, feeling waterlogged in her clothes, Kendra rose to the surface. She saw Grady nearby.
Without the canoe they were mostly helpless. Neither she nor Grady had much chance of making it to shore ahead of the dragon. She saw no use in preventing Grady from becoming a seal. “The sealskin is yours,” she yelled.
A thunderous roar announced that Jibarro was pivoting around to come her way. Grady dipped down under the water. Kendra started swimming toward the shore, hampered by her shoes and the sack in her hand. The unwelcoming shore wasn’t far now, and Kendra realized she might get hurled against the rocks by the waves, but it seemed preferable to getting eaten.
Another roar told her that the sea dragon was closing in behind her. She was simply too slow. She would never reach the shore in time.
Something bulky nudged up against her under the water. After the initial surprise, Kendra recognized it was a chocolate brown seal. Assuming it had to be Grady, she threw her arms around the pinniped’s neck and held her breath.
The large seal plunged down deep. Kendra had expected to get water in her face moving along the surface, but the seal had other ideas. Hoping the seal understood the limits of her lung capacity, she held on tightly.
They reached the underpinnings of the island and slipped into a little cave. The rocky walls brushed against Kendra as the seal darted forward, her clothes mostly insulating her against scrapes. Somewhere above and behind them, Jibarro was roaring. Kendra kept her eyes squeezed shut and held her breath.
As the seal swooped upward, Kendra fought the desperate urge to breathe. They finally broke through the surface of the water, and Kendra saw that the cave had widened as it curved upward into a large, landlocked pool, open to the sky. The water in the pool was turbulent, surging up and down, so she clung to the seal. The rocky walls of the pool extended at least twenty feet above the high point reached by the water, making Kendra feel like she was looking up from the bottom of a well. The sea dragon bellowed with a fury that made her ears buzz.
The seal towed Kendra near the wall of the pool and, when the surf was near the high point, helped boost her onto a shelf. Kendra released the seal and climbed to a higher shelf before the water surged up again. Panting, soaked, she covered her ears as the dragon roared again.
In that moment, with a hand over each ear, Kendra realized she no longer had the sack. She could hardly breathe as the implications sank in. She had deliberately kept hold of it when she fell into the ocean. She remembered feeling it in her grasp as she grabbed hold of the seal. That was her last sure memory of the sack in her hand.
Kendra watched the water in the salty pool rising and falling, almost reaching where she sat. The seal was gone.
The crown could be out in the ocean or in the cave. It might be directly beneath her. There was no way to be sure.
Kendra took a shuddering breath. Her insides felt hollowed out. Why had anyone trusted her? Why had she trusted herself? Bracken would stay captured. Seth would have no help. The Sunset Pearl would remain in the custody of the undead. Faro had died for nothing. The Fairy Queen had lost her crown. What would that mean for the Fairy Realm? And for fairies in general?
Jibarro roared again, sounding farther away. Part of Kendra wished the dragon had simply eaten her. It would have been a much cleaner death than what now awaited her.
The seal popped back into view, a sack in its mouth. Kendra felt an unexpected surge of hope. Could the crown still be in there? Was Grady really still helping her?
The next time the water surged high, the sea
l slid up onto the shelf where he had first deposited Kendra. She climbed down to that shelf and accepted the sack from the mouth of the seal. The crown was still inside.
Kendra flung her arms around the seal. “Thank you, Grady. I was about to lose my mind. I won’t let you down. I promise.” She ended the hug and started wiping away tears of relief.
When she looked back at the seal, he was Grady again, sealskin in his hands. “Good job, Kendra,” he said quietly. “You can do this. Climb out of here and finish what you started.”
“Okay,” she said. “Thank you so much. You saved me twice.”
“You’re trying to save so many of us,” Grady said. He then pointed out the route she could follow to climb out. Kendra appreciated the advice. It was impressive that Grady had rescued her. She wondered how much he had needed to wrestle with his seal instincts to do so.
“Was it hard to help me?” Kendra asked.
“A little,” Grady said. “My instincts were to flee. And I always feel a strong urge to shake off my land memories. That will happen soon enough. Go. I want to see you make it to the top.”
“All right,” Kendra said, putting the wet sack in her mouth. Stepping carefully, taking care to find good handholds and stable places to set her feet, Kendra made her way up. It was easier higher up, where the rocks were dry. After scrambling up from the highest ledge to the top, she took the sack from her mouth, then turned and looked back.
Grady was a seal again. He barked once and then dove into the roiling water.
“You made it,” a voice said behind Kendra.
She turned to find Mizarine fluttering nearby, shining white in the gray mist, the slender chain still dangling from her ankle. Kendra smiled. “You waited for me.”
“Following orders,” the nova song said. “The darkness is so close now.”
“Let’s go light it up.”
Just after midday, the keel of the clever boat scraped against sand, and Seth vaulted out onto the beach. He carried his satchel and had Calvin secreted in his pocket.
“Welcome back to Timbuli,” Ronodin said, disembarking as well. “Consider this your final exam. If you pass the test, you can leave school and start living life.”
Seth backed a few steps away as Ronodin called the boat up higher onto the beach. He still didn’t have a clear plan, but he felt he should at least play along until he found the Everbloom. Otherwise Ronodin or the Sphinx might claim it without him, and he would lose the ability to influence the outcome.
“This way,” Ronodin said. “These caves make up a complex system with several entrances. The opening we’re looking for isn’t far.”
Seth followed Ronodin onto a trail between leafy philodendrons and fragrant anthuriums. The day was mild, less humid than normal, with a light breeze. It seemed like a strange day to confront the toughest choice he could remember facing.
Ronodin carried a duffel bag. Seth wondered what it might contain.
They branched left off the main path along a faint trail. After winding through trees and shrubs, they reached a grouping of boulders. In the ground between two of the largest boulders gaped a crack just large enough for a person to crawl down into.
“This isn’t a cave,” Seth complained.
“It leads into one of the largest cave systems on any island in the world,” Ronodin said. He set down the duffel bag, unzipped it, and removed a garden trowel. “Dig up the flower with this. The Everbloom is resilient, but try to get as many of the roots as you can.” Then he held up a ceramic flowerpot. “Keep the flower in here. Pack soil around it.”
“Okay,” Seth said.
“Time for your ointment,” Ronodin said. “I’ll give you some privacy.”
After Ronodin walked out of view, Seth stripped down and took the broad stopper off the ointment jar. He gave a generous dollop of the ointment to Calvin, who went to work on himself inside a pocket.
“Need any help?” Seth whispered.
“I’ll be fine,” Calvin said. “You gave me enough to drown in. Your pocket might be a mess, though.”
Seth slathered bluish jelly all over his skin, leaving him greasy but hopefully impervious to the heat he was about to encounter. More than three-quarters of the jar was empty by the time he finished and put his pants on.
“Ronodin,” Seth called. “Can you get my back?”
“Absolutely,” his answer came from a distance.
“I could reach most of it,” Seth said. “I think I missed part of the middle, though.”
Ronodin strode to him, picked up the jar, and began applying the ointment. “Is it a comfort to know I have your back?”
“At this moment?” Seth asked. “Sure. I’d rather not catch on fire. What about my clothes?”
“The contact of the material against the ointment on your skin should grant heat resistance to your clothing. You can smear a little extra onto your clothes to be sure. Your back is done.”
“Thanks,” Seth said, putting his shirt back on.
“Isn’t a situation like ours interesting once trust has disintegrated?” Ronodin asked casually.
“Trust isn’t gone,” Seth said.
“No?” Ronodin asked.
“I’m going to get the Everbloom. You’re letting me.”
“I trust that you have compelling reasons to act in your own interest,” Ronodin said. “I believe it is so sensible for you to fetch the flower and give it to the Underking that you might actually do it. And I’m also aware you might not.”
“Giving the flower to the Underking is the key to my freedom,” Seth said. “You can trust I want this chain off me. But with you, I don’t know what to trust.”
“Probably wise,” Ronodin replied. “It’s clumsy to trust anyone. People are uniformly imperfect and erratic. But if you have to guess, bet on them serving their own interests.”
“Is that why you’re unclear about what you want?” Seth asked. “To make it hard for people to guess what you’ll do?”
Ronodin grinned. “A penetrating insight. You could have been a great pupil.”
“Could have been?”
“Had you really wanted to learn from me,” Ronodin said.
“You’re a very talented teacher,” Seth said.
“Have you learned enough?” Ronodin asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s imagine everything you heard from the Hidden Sage is true,” Ronodin said. “Kendra and Bracken have shared their perspectives. Maybe others have too. Given all you have heard, how much do you suppose you can trust the light-makes-right brigade? What do you presume they want from you?”
Seth considered a careful answer. “They act like they want to help me.”
Ronodin laughed. “They want to do what they do best, Seth. They want to lock you up. They’ll lure you with honey if you respond. But make no mistake: you have broken their laws. They see you as a threat who must be neutralized.”
“Maybe,” Seth said. He hadn’t considered this possibility, and he found the suggestion disconcerting.
“You really don’t understand. They lock up dark creatures. They will imprison you simply for who and what you are, the same way they might imprison a wraith or a dragon. You have committed crimes against them, Seth, of your own free will. You destroyed an entire dragon sanctuary. You got some of the people protecting Wyrmroost killed—I know this for a fact.”
“You weren’t honest about what I was doing,” Seth said, distressed to hear that his actions had led to deaths. Hopefully Ronodin was lying about that.
“Really?” Ronodin asked. “You’re going to tell them you released wraiths and revenants without knowing anyone might get hurt? Would you forgive a killer for not knowing how a gun functioned? How many would have to die before you stopped pardoning his ignorance?”
“You tricked me,” Seth said. “I d
idn’t understand what I was doing. I didn’t have my memories. I still don’t.”
“You don’t have to convince me,” Ronodin said. “I’m on your side. Bracken and his allies were holding creatures captive. The only crime those wraiths and revenants had committed was following their natures. Jailers assume the risk of being harmed by their prisoners. I think you are a hero, Seth, a liberator of the oppressed. The problem is how Kendra and Bracken view your actions. It’s their perspective, their laws, that condemn you.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“You might like to believe you once belonged among them,” Ronodin said. “Let’s imagine you did. Even if that were true, somewhere in your hypothetical past, you don’t belong there anymore. It’s too late for you. In their eyes, your crimes are too great. In their eyes, your nature is too dark. They’ll lure you in, take what you offer, then zip you into a straitjacket and leave you in a cell.”
“Maybe I belong locked up,” Seth said. “Maybe you do too.”
Ronodin gave Seth a sad smile. “You need to believe that if you want to rejoin them. You need to accept that you are a villain, a fiend. Because that is the treatment you will receive. In their camp, you’ll always be an outcast. With me, you’re a prized pupil. You have a great deal to offer. You mean well. You’re only beginning to realize your potential. You could make a positive difference in this world. Or you can let them lock you up and throw away the key.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Seth said.
Ronodin grew grave. “I’m sure you’re smart enough not to consider taking the Everbloom to them. I presume the sage advocated for you to leave the flower alone or to pass it to those who would guard it. Any who possess the Everbloom will use its power to serve their desires. Giving the flower to Kendra and her kind only increases their capacity to oppress you. Don’t give them the rope they will use to hang you. And don’t turn yourself into my enemy.”
“I’d hate to do that,” Seth said.
“So would I,” Ronodin said. “We have been allies up until now. You don’t want to see what I do to my enemies, Seth. Not firsthand. And what the Underking would do to you is a hundred times worse. Don’t ruin your life so you can give a flower to people who hate you. They want you in chains. Don’t let somebody else collect the flower for the Underking. Use the flower to buy your life back. You deserve to seek out your memories.”