“I do not give my juice lightly.”
Leah’s knees plunged into the snow, her chin touching her chest. “I seek not for myself, but for my people—the dragon riders who are wounded, the citizens of Dragons’ Realm who are dying.”
“I sense the piaua trees in the south are all dead. Why?” The sadness in the tree’s voice made Leah’s arm hair prickle.
“An awful being has invaded the realm. His monsters wreaked this havoc.”
The piaua’s leaves rustled. Hissing filled Leah’s ears. “We must fight this enemy and protect our people and our realm. I will strengthen your injured riders with my juice so they can do so. Step inside my most sacred grove.”
Leah was already in the sacred grove. What did the tree mean?
“Behold your future,” the tree whispered. One side of the piaua rustled. The leaves and branches bowed, creating a gap.
As Leah walked through, the tree sealed the way behind her.
She gasped. She was inside a ring of giant piaua trees. Not as large as the one she’d spoken to, but still enormous. Within the ring were piaua saplings as tall as her waist, her shoulders and her head—a piaua nursery. Tears streamed down Leah’s face. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined such abundance. She could harvest what they needed and come back for more.
On the far side of the clearing, a brown dragon was curled in the snow, his head raised. He opened his maw and breathed warm air over the young trees.
His rider, a handsome boy not much older than her, looked up from brushing snow off the saplings’ leaves. He shook his light brown hair back from his eyes. “Welcome. Um, I’m Eryk.” The dragon rider stared at her with wide eyes. “This is Beryk.” He gestured at his dragon.
“I’m Leah.”
A breeze built in the clearing and the leaves of the mighty tree shook. “A tree speaker must never be greedy. Take only as much as you need.”
Leah pulled Marlies’ small metal spigot out of her pocket and cast about, wondering which tree to take juice from.
As soon as she had the thought, the mighty tree’s leaves rustled again.
Leah strode to the tree. Apart from Marlies’ brief whispered instructions, she was still in the dark. Oh shards, if only Marlies were here. Swallowing, she placed her hand on the pitted gnarly bark. “Please, mighty piaua tree, I come requesting thy juice to heal the wounded and dying. I promise to use it sparingly.”
She waited. Marlies had told her of a hum she’d feel beneath her fingers. Leah would never have described the sensation that ran through her hand as a hum. Elation coursed through her arm, her body vibrating with a peculiar energy as if she was being filled with light. She tapped the spigot against the trunk. The tough bark parted like soft butter. She held out a vial under the spigot. When it was full, she stood the vial in the snow as she filled the next, and the next.
When all her vials were full, she corked them and stowed them in her healer’s pouch and rucksack. “That might be enough now.” She placed her hand on the spigot to remove it, but the tree’s rustling voice filled her head again.
“You’ll need more for war. What else can you fill?”
Leah rummaged through her rucksack and found a flaccid waterskin. Marlies would be thrilled. She could hardly believe it, her hands shaking as she held the waterskin under the spigot.
When the skin was half full, a shudder went through the tree’s trunk. “I must replenish my resources before I provide you with more. Please use the juice of my brothers and sisters.”
Leah went to the next tree, and the next, taking a little juice from each until the skin was full.
“I heard you talking to them.” Eryk bit his lip, his eyes upon her. “You can hear the trees speak?”
Leah nodded.
“My people need piaua too. Do you think you could ask for them?” He gestured at some waterskins hanging from the back of his saddle.
“I’ll try.”
Eryk passed her the waterskins.
Leah took them. “I’m sorry for the scourge that hit your people.”
He ducked his head, a lock of his hair falling over his eyes. “I’m just glad it’s over. Well, I hope it is.”
When Leah had filled his skins, Eryk knelt on one knee and thumped his hand over his heart. “Thank you for the gift of life. I’ll take this to Darynn for our people. It’s an honor to be in your presence, tree speaker.”
In her presence? She was no one. An orphan. A humble trainee healer. It was the piaua who gave life, not her.
A Peaceful World
Tharuks had stealthily been surrounding the riders while Ezaara spoke, rousing her people. Master Giddi shook his head. The foolish dragon riders would all be killed.
“Good riddance,” the shadows whispered. “Such unruly disorganized rabble deserve to die. They lack Zens’ impeccable sense of order and strategy.”
Giddi agreed. Commander Zens certainly had impeccable strategy. His plan to take Dragon’s Hold had been flawless. The vermin had been driven from their burrows, and now, all that remained, was to finish the job.
Tharuks burst from the bushes, firing arrows dripping with limplock and tipped with methimium at dragons and riders. Rustling, flapping wings thundered in Giddi’s ears as hundreds of riders scrambled to their dragons and took to the sky above Mage Gate. Roars ripped through the sky as Zens’ shadow dragons met them.
A surge of elation ran through Giddi. For once, it was good to be on the winning side.
A troop of tharuks marched Giddi through the trees into the clearing. Hundreds of brightly colored flapping wings whirled above Mage Gate. Giddi tilted back his head. Zaarusha was there, too, leading them all.
The teardrop-shaped crystal was warm against Giddi’s chest. His magic thrummed under his skin as he pulled sathir from the trees, waiting until Zens gave him the signal to release it.
“Your time will come,” whispered the shadows. “Zens will help you create a world where chaotic human relationships, anger, and pain are replaced with order and peace. There will be no dragons fighting, no petty politics, or councils.” Master Starrus’ face flashed to mind—and Septimor’s entrails strewn across the tree as he’d died. That had been stupidity—caused by a power-hungry wizard. And Giddi’s lover had been banished due to such power games by dragon masters. All of them deserved to die.
“Open the world gate when Zens commands you,” the shadows hissed. “And welcome a better world.”
A vision opened in Giddi’s mind: Dragons’ Realm was a barren wasteland with not a living thing. Forests had turned to marshy swamplands. Caverns were long abandoned. The air was free of creatures. And everywhere Giddi walked, he sensed quiet solitude amid trees devoid of leaves.
“Even plants need no longer struggle. Zens will take care of them all. There is beauty and simplicity in following Zens.” Transfixed by the vision, Giddi let tharuks lead him into the middle of the clearing as the shadows kept whispering. He was looking forward to a peaceful world. “Will you obey the commander?”
“Yes, I will.”
§
They’d flown hard and caught up with the riders from Dragons’ Hold at Mage Gate. Ezaara had dispensed opaline headbands to them all and ordered them into the air to fight the shadow beasts. Dark dragons swarmed around them as Fenni, at the front of the saddle, ducked their flame and shot mage fire. Kierion wriggled down Riona’s back. It was tricky maneuvering with Riona bucking to duck flames and those slicing eye beams, but he hung on, edging along bit by bit until he was halfway down Riona’s tail.
She flicked her tail. Kierion sailed through the air and angled his body to land behind a mage on a dark dragon. Kierion aimed his dagger between the mage’s spine and shoulder blade and drove it into his back and through his heart.
The mage slumped, blood streaming down his back. Kierion kicked him out of the saddle, hoping the dark dragon would feast upon the carcass as it tumbled earthward. Sure enough, the dragon dived. Kierion leaped off and Riona caught him. If on
ly there was some way to get from her talons up to her back again. With the opaline headband on, he couldn’t meld with her.
She dived over a dark dragon below, giving a twitch of her talons. Who needed to mind-meld? Her signal was clear enough. Kierion squeezed her foreleg, readying his arms and legs. Riona dropped him smack on top of a mage. He plunged his dagger into the mage’s throat. Eyes rolling back, she slumped over her dragon’s spinal ridge.
Tucking his knife in his belt, Kierion pulled his sword from its scabbard and smote the dragon’s neck. Its howl shuddered through Kierion’s bones. He launched himself off its saddle into the air.
Riona plucked him up again. Thank the First Dragon Egg that she had good reflexes. Riona ascended through a swathe of dragons as Fenni cleared a path with blazing green mage fire. Riona threw Kierion onto another dragon’s back, and he swung his sword, cleaving the fake mage’s head from its body. In a spray of blood, the head bounced on the dragon’s spinal ridge and again on its foreleg, then ricocheted off another dragon into the forest.
Beasts swarming around it, the dragon he was riding snarled, turning its neck and breathing fire at Kierion. Without thinking, he leaped, scanning the sky for Riona.
But she wasn’t there.
Above, she was fighting tooth and talon for her life as Fenni shot flame at a dark dragon with its jaws clamped around Riona’s neck. Gods, no. His dragon was going to die.
And so was he.
Kierion plummeted ever closer to the spear-like tips of the trees.
He squeezed his eyes shut. They said it was easier to die if you didn’t look.
Not that he was a coward or anything.
Still he fell.
Something thwacked against Kierion’s backside and bounced him in the air. His eyes flew open. Danion’s blue dragon had tail-slapped him. She dived under his body and caught him neatly between her spinal ridges. Kierion clung onto Danion, trembling. They were barely above the sharp pines piercing the forest canopy. Moments later, and he’d be dead.
Danion laughed as his dragon ascended.
Kierion couldn’t even lay his hand on his dragon’s hide to mind-meld, thanks to the opaline headbands. “Tell your dragon thank you.” He panted.
“Her name is Onion,” Danion replied with a chuckle. “She wanted me to name her when we imprinted. I was young and cocky with a terrible sense of humor.”
If the way Danion had been goading Fenni was anything to judge by, his humor hadn’t improved. “Thank Onion for me, please.”
Onion beat her mighty blue wings, ascending above the forest and the swarm of dark dragons. She dived upon the dragon attacking Riona, shredding its wings with her talons. Riona released her jaws from its neck. The beast scrabbled with its talons, gouging her side, and then fell, roaring through the air to be impaled upon the very pines that had almost claimed him.
Homeward Bound
Leah and Taliesin wrapped themselves in their warm cloaks and climbed upon Esina.
Darynn came to the cave mouth to see them off. “My riders are preparing as we speak. Half will stay behind to guard our sacred piaua grove, the other half will leave tomorrow for Dragons’ Hold.” He reached up and shook Leah and Taliesin’s hands. “Our numbers are no longer great, but we’ll do what we can to aid Dragons’ Realm.”
“Thank you,” Leah said.
“We appreciate your help.” Taliesin waved.
Saddlebags bulging, Esina leaped off the ledge and flew toward the Northern Alps. When they crested the alps and swooped toward Dragons’ Hold, Leah breathed a sigh of relief. They were heading home.
Dark clouds rolled in from the west, but at least there was no storm to hamper their progress yet. “We did it, Taliesin. I can hardly believe it.”
In front of her in the saddle, Taliesin turned, his lake-blue eyes grave.
That somber look didn’t bode well. “What is it?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I’m uneasy.”
“Perhaps it’s that approaching storm.” Leah gestured at the dark cloud racing toward them.
“Could be.” He squinted. “There’s something odd about those clouds, though.”
Strange, there wasn’t a strong wind, but the cloud was breaking up and moving quickly.
Taliesin’s fingers tightened on Esina’s spinal ridge. “Dragon’s claws! It’s not a cloud.”
Then what was it? One of the smaller clouds speared toward a mountaintop, gusting orange flame.
Dark dragons.
“Quick, Esina, faster. Perhaps we can out-fly them.” At Taliesin’s urging, the red dragon flapped her wings valiantly, spurting ahead.
Within half an hour, shadow dragons surrounded them and blasted flame at Esina, the beams from their eyes cutting dangerously near.
Leah’s stomach lurched. No. Only a day’s flight from Dragons’ Hold…
A male mage upon a dark dragon lobbed a green fireball at Esina. She snarled, twisting her neck aside, and the fireball sizzled past, barely missing her snout. He tossed another fireball back and forth between his hands, his dark dragon swooping so close overhead that Leah had to duck. The wind from its wingbeats shook them in the saddle.
The mage yelled, “Land at once or I’ll blast your dragon out of the sky and toast it for our mounts to eat.”
The resounding roars from the dark dragons rocked Leah’s bones.
Taliesin turned to her, panic on his face, his shoulders tight. “I’m telling Esina to go down. I won’t risk her life.”
Leah nodded. Not that it mattered either way. They were all going to die. She couldn’t trick these ferocious beasts with little emblems made from sticks and leaves. Nor could she talk her way out of this, or slip away without anyone noticing.
And no one was going to rescue them.
Their piaua would be taken. This whole journey had been a waste.
Esina spiraled down toward a mountaintop. Leah’s breath caught in her throat as she saw the gleaming peaks of Dragon’s Teeth in the distance. So close, yet impossible to reach.
In years to come, would anyone find their bodies, frozen up here on this mountain, and wonder what had happened to two young riders and their dragon? Her throat constricted, making it hard to breathe. She’d never see Marlies again. Never heal another wounded rider. And never get to bring this precious piaua juice home. Many lives would be lost because she’d failed.
Taliesin reached back and squeezed her hand. “Never give up hope,” he said. “When the tharuks whipped me, I thought my life was ending, but look at me now: I have a dragon.”
From tharuk slave to dragon rider. His had been an amazing journey. And so had hers. From an injured villager to trainee healer to a tree speaker who had found the remedy that could save her people. But was her life worth anything if it was now destroyed?
Never give up hope, Taliesin had said.
The dark dragons swarmed around them, herding them away from the mountain that Esina had been aiming for, pushing the red dragon down into a narrow valley between two peaks. Below, troops of tharuks were waiting. Shadow dragons swarmed above Esina and shot flames either sides of her wings, forcing her to land.
§
Tharuks rushed forward and surrounded Esina. Mages mounted on dark dragons landed—identical to the mage who’d spoken—all wearing a sneer, venom lacing their eyes. What were these bizarre creatures? Was this man one of the mages who’d been captured by Zens? Tharuks swarmed around Esina. She let out a small gust of flame, driving them back, but tharuk archers raised their bows, dripping green with limplock.
Esina ducked her head, trembling.
“What were you doing so far north?” the mage asked.
Leah straightened her spine, holding her chin up. “We sought allies for the war, but found no one willing to help us.”
The mage snapped his fingers. “Search them. See what you can find.”
Tharuks swarmed up Esina’s sides. A tharuk with a scarred snout grappled with the healer’s pouch on Leah’s belt. She re
leased it.
The beast ripped her pouch open with its claws and threw the contents into the snow. All her remedies, her weeks of training, the precious substances that could save lives. Tharuks stomped on them with their boots, smashing the vials of precious piaua. Staining the snow pale green, they ground the herbs with their strong boots, snorting and laughing.
“She won’t need those healing supplies anymore,” the mage said.
A chill ran down Leah’s spine. He was going to kill them.
The mage slid off his dragon and stalked through the snow, kicking at the shattered vials and strewn leaves with his boots. “So little after traveling so far.”
Taliesin’s eyes slid over the bulging saddlebags to the waterskin fastened behind them.
The mage jerked his head at the waterskin. “Bring that to me.”
The same scarred grunt tossed the waterskin to the mage.
He opened it and sniffed the contents. Then, laughing, he poured the precious piaua juice over the snow.
§
“Why are you trembling?” Esina asked.
“Whips. Blood. Pain. Every time I see or smell tharuks, I remember. Then the shaking starts and I can’t move for fear.”
“Use my strength, little one.” Esina’s love washed over Taliesin, calming his shaking hands.
He rested them on her spinal ridge. “Thank you.”
“You’re stronger than these monsters. You have freedom and strength of spirit, but they are slaves to a terrible master.”
That had never occurred to Taliesin. These monsters obeyed Zens’ every whim: murdering, slaughtering, and doing his bidding. But he was free to choose for himself. “I guess that does make me stronger.” Taliesin breathed deeply, willing his legs to be steady in the stirrups.
Suddenly, a vision appeared in his mind. He was riding Esina in battle, firing arrows as Esina slew dark dragons with fire. Was it a vision? Or merely a dream of something that would never be? He frowned. It felt like a vision.
“Even in the face of all adversity, anything is possible. You told Leah to have hope, now take some hope yourself, and nurture it.”
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