by Gregory Heal
She tightened her grip on Victor as Skarmor tucked into a tight corkscrew roll, successfully evading two more blasts from the silhouette. Skarmor then quickly leveled out and started gaining altitude.
Jen shot a look over her shoulder and saw another fireball coming right at them.
The light from the last blast briefly illuminated the silhouette, showing a beast so hideous that it made Jen gasp in horror.
What she saw would haunt her dreams for years to come: a menacing, bloodred- and brimstone-gray-scaled wyvern dragon with enormous, venous wings and teeth that looked deadlier than the sharpest swords. Sickening bone spurs protruded out of the tops of its wings, slicing through the night air every time it flapped.
Even though Skarmor was flying at top speed, he wasn’t shaking the dragon; in fact, he was losing ground. Victor knew it too, so he made a quick decision.
“Jen! Switch spots with me!” he yelled through the wind and between ear-splitting roars.
“Switch spots? Why?!” Jen yelled back. She couldn’t move, even if she wanted to; her body was frozen with fear.
“I need to lay cover fire or Draconex will fry us!”
Jen couldn’t believe it. “Draconex is on the back of that thing?!”
Victor didn’t answer. Jen couldn’t tell if he didn’t hear her, or if he was just focused on switching spots with her. Jen let out a prolonged scream as Victor maneuvered around her and slid her up toward Skarmor’s neck. Quickly after, he cast a volley of spells that exploded near the dragon, which was still hot in pursuit.
Jen grabbed ahold of Skarmor’s neck, intertwining her fingers together so she wouldn’t fall off amid his high-speed aerial maneuvers.
“Come on, boy,” she whispered, fighting back tears.
Eyes squeezed shut, her world was consumed by ear-splitting roars and buffeting explosions as Victor and the dragon exchanged shots. Just then, she felt a tingle on her wrist and opened one eye to see that her charm had started to vibrate and glow on her totem bracelet. A rush of energy swept through her, and out of nowhere a forceful gust of wind erupted from her hands, throwing her off of Skarmor and high up into the air.
Jen opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Panic set in, making her temporarily mute as she flailed in the air, starting her descent to the rocky ground two hundred yards below. She was thrown forward and slightly to the right of Skarmor, so Victor, who was continuing to issue spells from his staff, didn’t see Jen get knocked off.
She dropped past Skarmor’s right side and hurtled toward the gray landscape. Shaking her bracelet, hoping it would do something, she began to see her life flash before her eyes—and a future life that she would possibly never experience.
The ground was getting closer and closer when Jen instinctively crossed her arms in front of her to try to break the fall—but she felt herself suddenly stop, as if a soft net had caught her.
Peering out of slitted eyelids and cautiously uncrossing her outstretched arms, she saw with disbelief that she was slowly floating down to the ground, which was now about three feet below her. Her charm was shining as it stood straight out from her bracelet, clearly channeling the power of her nexus.
Her knees were the first part of her body to touch the long, swaying grass, followed by the tips of her shoes, and finally the palms of her hands.
I must’ve done something to slow my fall, thought Jen. But what?
Without an ounce of strength left, she collapsed and rolled onto her back. As the grass blades pricked the nape of her neck, she opened her eyes—
To see the dragon’s silhouette diving straight toward her.
Fear gripped her stomach, but her body was too weak from the fall to move more than a few inches. Helpless, all she could do was pray that the dragon would not slam into her.
Instead, Jen saw a dark figure leap from the dragon’s back as the beast spread its enormous wings and swooped over Jen.
Skarmor’s screech alerted Victor as he lanced a lightning bolt straight for the pursuing dragon. To his chagrin, it missed wide, but bought him enough time to quickly glance behind his shoulder. Fear washed over him when he couldn’t find Jen anywhere. Forgetting about the immediate danger, he frantically looked in every direction, finally seeing her falling toward the ground, followed closely by the dragon.
In one fluid motion, he twisted back around to his proper riding position and commanded Skarmor to fall into a dive. Wind rushed over his face, making it hard to breathe, but he didn’t care about that; all he cared about was saving Jen . . . he had to save her.
Skarmor was catching up to the dragon, but they were still too far away to make a difference. Their flight path was the same as that of the dragon, but between flaps of the its bony wings, Victor could see Jen lying on the ground. At first his heart stopped, but she seemed, somehow, miraculously unharmed. Relief faded into dread when he then saw Draconex leap from the back of the dragon and land near her prone figure.
He was about to jump off Skarmor when the dragon swooped around and shot back up toward them.
As the dragon rumbled past, whipping Jen’s wavy locks over her eyes, Jen saw the figure of Draconex land with the grace of a cat not three yards away from her. In one smooth motion, the figure stood up and began to close the distance between them. Under the bright light of the full moon, Jen saw that he was lanky. His gait was smooth and purposeful, but carried a dishonest intention. She gasped when he pulled his hood back to reveal a stark, gaunt face that had a long scar splitting his left side from forehead to lip.
“Jennifer Lancaster. We meet at last.” He sneered. “I am Lord Draconex. Big fan.”
Jen didn’t say anything back, but shot a glance up toward the sky. The dragon was blocking Skarmor and Victor from landing. More fireballs whizzed past Skarmor as he tried in vain to outmaneuver the dragon.
Victor would not make it to her in time.
Jen pushed herself up and tried to back away, but her feet felt like lead, so she quickly changed tactics. Holding up the bracelet on her wrist, she tried to will her totem to produce a spell of some kind that would shoot Draconex with a lightning bolt or sink him into the ground or . . . something . . . but instead it just jingled on her wrist like a common bracelet.
“I see you have a new totem. Is it broken?” Draconex feigned concern. “Well, I don’t want that one anyway.” He stepped closer. “I want your ring. The Ring of Lancaster.”
Out of habit, Jen covered the area of her chest where it hung from her necklace, remembering too late that it was safe inside Watercress’s Sacrarium.
“Oh, so it’s on a necklace?” he asked, not waiting for a reply. “Show it to me!” Draconex lunged at Jen, grabbing the hair on the back of her head with one hand while pulling the necklace off with the other, only to contort his already hideous face into an expression of rage. “Where is it?!” He let the empty chain slide from his palm.
Somehow Jen found her voice and it came out braver than she was expecting. “Someplace where you’ll never lay a finger on it.”
Draconex laughed. “Don’t be so sure, Lancaster. Everyone talks eventually, so until you disclose its location, you will be my personal guest aboard Feralot.” He dragged her by the hair while he whistled a call to his dragon.
Immediately he was answered by a ground-shaking roar and Jen saw the dragon bank around and fly low for a strafing run toward Draconex and Jen. The dark sorcerer let go of her hair and jumped high into the air with the leg power of a kangaroo. Gracefully, he landed on the beast’s back as Jen was snatched off the ground by the dragon’s massive claws.
“Victor!” Jen screamed as she was lifted into the air.
Victor heard Jen scream his name. The desperation in her voice sent a chill down his spine, and he fought the urge to blast the dragon out of the sky. He couldn’t risk it; he might hit Jen.
He was not about to give up, and neither was Skarmor, so they pursued Draconex until dawn broke over the mountainside and gave shadows to the cluttered
trees in the forest below.
It was then that Victor noticed something strange. From this distance, Jen’s body seemed stiff and hard, like a wax mold. Victor had Skarmor fly a little bit closer to the dragon and, with the aid of fresh sunlight, Victor understood why Jen had looked so strange: the dragon wasn’t carrying the real Jennifer Lancaster, but an exoskeleton of her.
Victor, in all his years as a mystra, had only heard of the moltic spell; it was incredibly hard to master. Jen must have used animancy and channeled the ability to form an outer layer and shed it off like a reptile, meaning she had taken the plunge into the perilous Amaranthine Forest below, which spanned close to three hundred square miles.
A proud smile crossed his lips before he fiercely scanned the canopy below, realizing the new kind of danger Jen now faced, lost and alone in a forest that was known to confuse and swallow its wanderers. After telling Skarmor that Jen had fallen into the Amaranthine Forest, Victor had him peel off and start retracing their path for any sign of Jen.
We’ll find you, Jen. We’ll find you.
Chapter Twenty-Five
WHOOSH . . . WHOOSH . . . WHOOSH . . .
Volcanor flapped his large wings rhythmically, in a steady beat, pushing the air below him so he could keep his three-ton body aloft. Smoke was still wisping out from his crusty nostrils as Lord Draconex set his sights on Feralot, eager to update his army that he had captured the fugitive Lancaster.
He looked behind him and noticed that Skarmor was slowing down. With his eyes still trained on the receding form of Victor’s griffin, he saw it turn around. A sense of complete victory flowed through his veins and he almost laughed aloud as he looked forward again. He never thought that Victor was the type to give up. Maybe those ten years living as a recluse had weakened his resolve. At any rate, his ambush could not have gone better; he humiliated his old friend and kidnapped the one person who had one of the keys to fulfilling his destiny . . . he’d worry about the lost journal of Merlin later. He glanced over the side of Volcanor to see a stiff arm of his prey.
Jennifer Lancaster had finally run out of luck.
Draconex never doubted that he would succeed in capturing her, but he had to admit to himself that he was surprised at how truly easy it had been; he didn’t even break a sweat. Even harder to believe was the fact that Malcolm had failed so miserably twice, which led him to question the boy’s level of intelligence.
No matter, he thought. I got what I came for, and Lancaster should be easy to break. In no time, I will know the location of the Ring of Lancaster and have it in my grasp shortly thereafter.
In a quick hour, he reached the gateway portal that would take him and his prize to Nyzanth, the fifth known realm. The portal was nestled between two large rock cliffs that seemed to stretch upward into the clouds. Nyzanth was a barren wasteland complete with deserts, volcanoes, extreme heat . . . and the current base for the ever-roaming Feralot.
Volcanor kept his speed as he broke the portal’s dimensional plane, sending them into the ether, only to rocket out of another portal gate milliseconds later, this time on Nyzanth.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jen awoke to something licking her face. Opening her eyes, she let out a surprised scream before realizing it was the same cat she had met on Hephalon’s compound the night before. The feline wasn’t startled, but shied away a few steps, dropping its head.
“Oh . . . I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scream at you,” Jen consoled the little creature. “Thank you for waking me up.” The cat lifted its head higher and moved closer to her as she spoke. “I’m gonna call you . . . Treeow.”
Petting her new friend, Jen looked around and saw nothing familiar but trees, roots, and bushes. Bars of light filtered through openings in the dense canopy, letting her know that it was daytime. Morning or afternoon, she didn’t know—but at least Draconex was nowhere to be seen.
Jen really couldn’t remember how she had escaped that dragon’s grip; it was like a vise. All she could remember before blacking out was feeling her body begin to . . . harden? . . . and then a sense of weightlessness as she lost consciousness. Shaking her head, Jen struggled to comprehend how she was even still alive. That fall should have killed her.
She seemed to have regained some movement in her limbs, so she cautiously stood up, shaking the soreness from her legs. She then reached upward to stretch her arms, but felt shooting pain erupt from both her shoulders. She winced as she slowly brought her arms down to her sides and saw that there were two diagonal gashes going up from her armpits to the tops of her shoulders—where the dragon had held her.
As her mind cleared, Jen thought of Victor and Skarmor. She hoped they had escaped the ambush unharmed—and if they did, she knew they would be searching for her. With that in mind, she needed to find her way out of this forest; the only problem was that she hadn’t the slightest clue in which direction to start walking.
A rustling from behind started Jen, causing her to back away. Terrified, she watched as Treeow dropped low to the ground and slinked toward the noise, its shoulder blades rolling underneath its prickly fur as it prepared to pounce.
A low rumble shook the vegetation just before Treeow leapt into it, issuing a piercing growl that sent a shiver up Jen’s spine. With a cold sweat, Jen held her breath as a painful yelp echoed off the trees and boulders before getting swallowed up by silence yet again.
Beginning to breathe once more, Jen fought every urge to run—run in any direction so she wouldn’t be a sitting duck for whatever was behind that bush—but she stayed, waiting for Treeow to return.
As seconds turned into agonizing minutes, she dared not look away from that very patch of vegetation into which she saw the cat jump . . . until she heard something behind her. Feeling as if her heart had jumped out of her throat, Jen twirled around to see Treeow unscathed. It cocked its head to the side as Jen stumbled over a thick tree root and collapsed onto the soft, mossy ground. The pain in her shoulders was masked by the adrenaline still in her system.
Looking behind her at where the rustling had been, she sat up and said shakily, “How did you . . . ?” She let her question trail off as the cat pressed its body to her leg. “You were protecting me,” Jen realized. “Thank you.” She scratched behind its ears. “You probably can’t understand me, but do you know the way out of here, Treeow?”
The cat looked at her for a moment, then walked in the direction to her left. After a moment’s hesitation, she slowly got back up and followed it, hoping that it was leading her to the forest’s edge.
The first hour was hard going. There was no clear path in the dense forest, so Jen found herself climbing over fallen trees, pricking her ankles in thorny bushes, or crawling under thickets just so she could keep up with her guide. Every so often she would hear the hooting of owls and the chittering of other woodland animals. Those noises didn’t bother her; she was just thankful she wasn’t hearing the fear-inducing roar of Draconex’s nightmarish dragon.
The second hour was even harder. At one point, Jen thought that Treeow was taking her deeper and deeper into the forest, sealing her fate of dying hungry and cold. Fatigue was starting to take its toll as Jen huffed through cracked lips, trying desperately to keep Treeow in her sights, even though every part of her body screamed for her to stop.
I can’t stop—not now. I’ll die here if I do.
With thighs burning and shoulders stiffening from her injuries, Jen was looking around for a flashing sign that said Victor and Skarmor are this way when a crooked branch hooked onto her shirt. Whimpering from exhaustion, Jen tried to shake it off, but that only seemed to make it worse. Trapped, she felt her knees buckle as the will to go on left her drained and curled up in the dirt.
Letting her eyelids close, Jen felt Treeow nudge her chin with its head, as if it were trying to show her something. Squinting, she forced herself to look forward and noticed that the forest was clearing up ahead. Hope gave her a second wind as she felt the cat tear the branch from her s
hirt.
Jen looked at Treeow with thanks in her eyes before she pushed herself up off the ground and trudged to the forest’s edge, fighting off the strong whisperings of exhaustion step by step. Treeow, on the other hand, didn’t even seem fatigued, spryly jumping over thick tree roots. Feeling herself smile, Jen pushed aside a pair of low-hanging branches to greet an open field that was filled with sunlight and a gentle breeze.
She had made it out. Jen fell to her knees and began to sob, letting out all her anxiety and exhaustion. The cat sat licking its paws as Jen wiped her eyes and found the strength to say:
“Thank you.”
She knew that she was still lost and needed to find Victor, but at least she was out of that dreaded forest. Too exhausted to get up, she went to lay down, intent on resting for a minute before resuming her search; but she was fast asleep before her head hit the soft, warm grass.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Feralot had roamed a great distance since Lord Draconex had left to capture Jennifer Lancaster. It was nearly at the opposite side of the dwarf planet Nyzanth, so it took even more precious time—time that he did not have—to get there from the portal. Cracked, dry ground blurred into mottled brown as he coaxed Volcanor to fly faster.
He hadn’t heard much commotion from his prisoner below. She must have given in to her fate; she was smarter than her parents. As they passed a small, steaming volcano that had just recently erupted, Draconex glanced down into its open maw, impressed with its natural power—enough to make the whole world quake. Draconex yearned to feel that kind of power coursing through his veins. Luckily for him, Lancaster would be the key to helping him obtain it.