“We came all this way,” said Allie, her voice tight. “We gambled our lives and our Locks’ lives on this rock. And it’s broken.”
“Maybe it will still work,” said Sirin.
Allie rapped it with her knuckles. Sirin and Joss recoiled, gasping.
But nothing happened.
“Bellacrux,” Allie whispered, and then her eyes went foggy, which told Sirin the girl was communicating with her Lock, asking for advice.
She and Joss watched Allie hopefully. After a moment, Allie blinked and turned to them. “She wants me to look at the runes. She said maybe there are instructions or something.”
So they waited another minute while Allie paced around the chamber, looking at the walls and ceiling, where mysterious ancient hands had carved the stone.
While she waited, Sirin reached for her Lock. Sammi?
Sirin. Did you find it?
Maybe.
Find it. Hurry. Sammi sounded exhausted. The battle with the Raptors had to be pushing all their Locks to the limit.
As if in confirmation, Joss looked at Sirin and said, “Lysander can’t hold up much longer. They got him with firestix where D’Mara took his scales. He’s hurt, Sirin.”
Sirin balled her hands into fists. Be careful, she sent to Sammi. I’ll be back as soon as I can.
Her Lock couldn’t even manage a reply, but she caught a brief, blurry glimpse of what she was seeing: burning skies, Raptors everywhere.
Finally, Allie returned to them. “Bellacrux couldn’t make out much. She had to focus on fighting. But what she did read she said looked like the same lament Thorval saw. But she also saw something else. A name.”
“A name?” echoed Joss.
“Sirina.”
“Hey,” said Joss, “that sounds sort of like Sirin.”
“Sirina was apparently the one who carved all these runes,” said Allie. “She was the Skyspinner’s Lock.”
A strange feeling ran through Sirin—like the prick of static electricity she’d sometimes got on playground slides. “The Skyspinner had a human Lock.”
“Who mourned her after she died,” said Allie. “She’s the one who broke the heart.”
“Sirina shattered it?” Sirin looked at the dark stone with its cracked surface.
“She was angry, but the runes don’t say why. Only that she thought the Heart’s power shouldn’t ever be used again. She took one piece of it and … There.” Allie pointed to the set of runes nearest to the darkened stone of the Heart. “This bit says the Skyspinner’s Heart would forever be close to Sirina’s. That her daughters would bear it through all of time, and long after the rest of the world had forgotten dragons, they would remember.”
They would remember.
The words echoed through Sirin as if her heart were a struck gong.
They would remember.
Another voice came rushing behind the words, startled out of the recesses of Sirin’s memory. It wasn’t Allie’s voice, or Sammi’s.
It was the voice that, until two days ago, she’d been trying so hard to forget.
A long, long time ago, her mother had said to her, so long ago that most people have forgotten, humans and dragons lived in harmony together.
“And here,” said Allie, pointing to another line of glowing runes, “Sirina says that just as she and the Skyspinner broke the bond between humanity and dragonkind, one day, her descendant will help restore it.”
“Whoa,” said Joss. “Imagine having the Lock of the Skyspinner for an ancestor!”
Sirin felt cold and hot at the same time. Her scalp prickled. Her mouth was dry and her thoughts whirled like leaves. Her hand moved to her collarbone and the hard pendant beneath her shirt.
I like to think, her mother had said, it belonged to one of our ancestors caught up in a dragon battle, and that they survived to tell the tale.
Sirin lifted her eyes to the burning runes all around her, bearing their tale of loss and grief and fragile hope through the centuries. Joss and Allie were still talking, but she barely heard them. Sound was muffled behind the thumping of Sirin’s own heart, and she felt as if she were floating as she moved toward the black stone embedded in the cavern’s rocky grip.
The dragonstone was in her hand, her fingers curled over it, its silver band cutting into her palm. A bit of prying with her nail, and it popped free of its setting. She saw, for the first time, that the back of it wasn’t smooth like the front. Instead, it was jagged and rough, as if it had been broken off a larger whole.
“Sirin?” called Joss. “What are you doing?”
She couldn’t have answered even if she’d known what to say. Her throat was in a knot.
Eyes wide, breath suspended, Sirin held out the dragonstone. Her eyes followed its familiar contours, the blue-green colors on it shifting as always, as if it were alive.
“Sirin!” Allie said. She and Joss were standing behind her now. “Is that …”
“No,” said Joss. “It can’t be. No way.”
Sirin swallowed hard.
Then she placed the dragonstone into the small gouge at the center of the Skyspinner’s Heart.
It fit perfectly.
All at once the stone began to glow. Veins of blue light spread outward from the dragonstone, and the three kids jumped back. With a sound like splintering stone, the cracks sealed themselves. The chips smoothed over. And Sirin’s dragonstone, which she’d worn over her own heart for as long as she could remember, which was her last tangible connection to her mother, melded into the stone until she could no longer even tell where it had been.
Instead, she beheld before her the blue-green shine of the Skyspinner’s Heart, whole again, glowing faintly, pulsing with hidden power.
“Nicely done, mudbrains,” said a caustic voice behind them, followed by the slow clapping of hands. “I love it when others do the hard work for me.”
Tamra,” Allie sighed. “And I suppose that’s Mirra lurking behind you.”
“I am not lurking,” Mirra said sullenly, but she stepped out of the shadows, standing even with her twin.
The girls were dripping wet, having just surfaced from the flooded tunnel of the Skyspinner’s throat. They looked terrible, the signs of battle evident in their singed hair and torn clothes. Allie felt a savage stab of satisfaction; Bellacrux, Lysander, Thorval, and even little Sammi must have been giving the Raptors as good as they got.
“Ma was right,” said Mirra. “They did lead us straight to the Heart, like dummies. Ugh, this place is gross.”
“All of you step aside,” said Tamra. She’d brought a firestik with her, and now she raised it like a spear. “We’ll be taking that shiny rock.”
“Taking it right back to your mother, I suppose,” said Allie, grinding her teeth. “And Valkea.”
“What’s D’Mara doing with Valkea anyway?” said Joss. “I thought she was your Lock, Tamra.”
Tamra’s face hardened, and Mirra snickered. “Not anymore. Ma Locked with her. They broke their old bonds to do it. Tamra’s been puking her guts out for the last two days because of it.”
“Shut up,” Tamra hissed, driving her elbow into Mirra’s ribs.
“Ow!” Her twin glared at her.
“I don’t even care,” said Tamra. “Valkea was a lousy Lock anyway. I bet it was all her idea. Good riddance, I say. Now move, or you can eat fire.” She brandished the firestik, forcing them to step away.
Allie clenched her fists as Tamra approached the Heart. Mirra stuck close to her twin, while keeping a watchful eye on the Morans and Sirin.
“It’s not much to look at, is it?” said Tamra. She shrugged, then used the firestik to begin hacking at the rock around the Heart.
“Be careful!” cried Sirin. “It’s fragile!”
Ignoring her, Tamra dug and chipped away until at last the stone was free. Then she picked it up, hefting it in one palm. “It’s lighter than it looks,” she said musingly. “And so small. This Skyspinner must have been a real jerk, with a hea
rt as small as this.”
“You saw the Skyspinner,” said Allie. “Tamra, you saw her in that scroll. Remember? She died to protect to this world. You can’t do this.”
“Nobody tells me what I can’t do,” Tamra growled.
“Including your mum?” asked Sirin softly.
Tamra shot them a sour look, but Allie saw her hand tighten on her firestik.
“She stole your Lock,” Allie said. “She betrayed you in the worst way anyone could. She’s just using you, Tamra. And you’ll still give her power over two worlds?”
“Maybe I’ll use it,” said Tamra. “Maybe I’ll get revenge on all of you.”
Mirra frowned. “Tamra. Don’t be stupid. We’re taking it to Ma.”
Tamra shrugged, as if she didn’t care one way or another, and tossed the Heart, catching it again. Beside Allie, Sirin flinched, her hands twitching like she wanted to grab it from Tamra.
“What about you, Mirra?” Joss said. “It’s not like you’re exactly D’Mara’s favorite. Do you really think she deserves control of all the dragons?”
“He’s got a point,” said Tamra, smirking. “I mean, it’s not like you and Ma are best of friends.”
Mirra’s face darkened. She stared hard at the floor, a storm brewing in her eyes. Allie felt a stirring of hope. Tamra might be a lost cause, but Mirra had always seemed gentler, more pliant. A little more like Declan, and now he was fighting on their side. Maybe it was just Tamra’s influence that had made Mirra act so horribly in the past. If she was willing to switch sides, Allie might even forgive her for trying to feed her to Bellacrux.
“You’re right,” Mirra whispered at last. “You’re all right. I’m not the favorite. I might as well be Tamra’s shadow. It’s always been Tamra, clever Tamra, who seemed in charge.” Then at last she looked up, at her twin. Her eyes blazed with fury. “Which is why everything will change when I am the one who gives Ma the Skyspinner’s Heart!”
Before anyone could react, Mirra snatched the Heart out of Tamra’s hand and ran.
“You—” Tamra stared in shock at her empty palm, then at the receding form of her sister. Instead of running toward the tunnel, which was now blocked by Sirin and the Morans, Mirra ran deeper into the cavern.
“Get her!” yelled Allie.
They all took off running, Tamra in the lead. Her legs were longer and she soon outpaced them.
The walls of the chamber began to change the farther back they ran. Instead of round walls, they saw sharp angles, unnatural corners. These were, Allie realized, the foundations of buildings. The city had dug deep roots into the ground, right into the stone remains of the ancient dragon. And between these foundations ran a great many tunnels and tubes. Soon they were forced to proceed in single file, down the square tunnel Mirra had taken.
“I think we’re in some kind of drain system,” said Sirin. They were running through shallow water, the slap-slap of their shoes echoing around them. A few seconds later, the tunnel branched three ways.
“Great!” said Joss. “Where’d they go?”
They stopped to listen, but sound in this place was warped and confusing, and they couldn’t tell where the echoes of the twins’ steps were coming from.
“Split up?” suggested Sirin.
“No,” said Allie. “We might never find each other again in this maze.”
She chose the left tunnel at random.
They ran onward, the tunnel air starting to stink around them. Allie didn’t want to think about what they might be running through. Soon, she started to panic, realizing they’d never find their way back now. They’d taken turn after turn, and it was nearly pitch-black. Ten minutes passed. Twenty. Allie’s legs were turning to lead. Through her link with Bellacrux, she knew her dragon was even more exhausted. The fight against the Raptors was taking everything the old Green had—and she didn’t have much more to give.
They needed to recover the Skyspinner’s Heart and end this battle. Fast.
“Sirin?” Her own voice sounded high and alarmed in her ears.
“There’s a big drain here,” said Sirin, knocking on slatted metal above their heads. “If we can open it, maybe it’ll lead to the outside. We’ll have to catch them in the air now.”
They pushed together, and the grate clattered aside onto a hard floor. The opening was just wide enough for them to crawl through.
“Some kind of basement,” said Sirin, looking around. The room was dark and large, and mechanical shapes loomed around them.
Joss found stairs, which they raced up, their wet shoes squeaking and leaving a trail of puddles. Up and up and up they ran, the staircase crooking round and round—until they burst out into a shining, magnificent room with stone murals on the walls and ceiling.
“Wait, I’ve seen this in movies,” said Sirin, blinking at a sign on the wall. “It’s the Empire State Building!”
“What does that mean?” asked Joss.
“It means we should run!” Sirin pushed them both toward the next staircase just as a uniformed man appeared from a doorway, shouting at them.
“You kids, stop right there! We’re closed!” he called. “The city’s under attack! HEY! STOP!”
They didn’t stop. They just ran faster, up and up and up.
In minutes, Allie was panting, her legs aching. But she ran on. The man was chasing after them, roaring at them to come down, but she could hear that he was getting winded too.
Up and up and up.
Ten minutes later, they were no longer running but gasping as they heaved their legs up stair after stair.
“Should have … taken … the lift,” groaned Sirin.
“What’s … an elevator?” asked Joss.
Fifteen minutes later, they were leaning against the walls. Sirin was crawling on her hands and knees.
“Almost … there,” she gasped, pointing to a sign that said OBSERVATION DECK.
Allie moaned and forced herself up another step.
Finally, they came to a door that opened to a balcony, its railings far too high to climb and tipped in spikes. Allie stared at the view beyond. The city gleamed all around them, aglow with lights. Darkness had fallen since they’d been in the cavern, but with all the gleaming windows and signs, it seemed nearly as bright as daytime.
“What now?” said Joss.
Allie grinned, took a moment to catch her breath, then said, “Dingbat. Now we fly.”
Allie ran a few steps, jumped into the air—and caught hold of Bellacrux’s claw as the dragon swooped down to meet her.
Did you get it? her Lock asked.
Yes, but then we lost it. And hello to you too.
Bellacrux growled, then wheeled to make another pass at the building. The uniformed man had reached the balcony, his chest heaving and sweat running down his face. When he saw the great dragon soaring directly at him, he screamed and flattened himself against a glass window.
Bellacrux picked up Sirin, and a moment later, Lysander arrived to pluck Joss from the balcony. Then they winged away, Sammi darting in to lick Sirin’s cheek.
Allie saw scorch marks all over her dragon, and there was a tear in Bellacrux’s left wing.
Are you all right, Bell?
Of course I am. It takes more than a few mewling Raptors to take down Bellacrux the Grand!
The Green’s reply was proud, but Allie could feel the strain in her wingbeats. Bellacrux was beyond exhausted.
Mirra has the Heart, she sent. We have to find her.
I saw her, on Trixtan, moments ago!
The twins must have found their way to the surface first.
Bellacrux lifted higher into the air, scanning every direction. They soared above the city, the grid of streets below glowing with cars and buses. It seemed even busier than in the daytime. The towers gleamed with yellow windows and signs flashed every color along the shops. Above, she heard a sudden roar like a dragon’s snarl and looked up to see a trio of winged machines speed overhead.
“Fighter jets!”
said Sirin. “They’re fast, but they’ll never catch the Raptors as long as they stay low among the buildings.”
Sure enough, Allie spotted shadows racing over the streets—Raptors on the hunt.
We took the battle to land soon after you dived, when the human things called fighter jets appeared, said Bellacrux. We’re harder to catch here, both by the humans and the Raptors. And D’Mara’s flight has been forced to separate to hunt for us.
We have to find Trixtan and Mirra before they find D’Mara.
Agreed.
It didn’t take long. All they had to do was follow the trail of smoke left by dragonfire. Several buildings were ablaze, and sirens wailed to the sky, sounding like wounded dragons. Allie saw a flash of green scales in the light of a flashing sign, and pointed.
“That’s her!”
Bellacrux and Lysander dived in silent unison. Allie could now make out Mirra’s face, shifting from blue to red to green as Trixtan soared across the bright signs. Her gaze was intent on a certain point; Allie followed it to see D’Mara waiting on Valkea, above a wide-open area filled with masses of people and lit by hundreds of flashing lights. Valkea bellowed a roar that shook the windows, followed by a wide spray of dragonfire. She was calling the other Raptors to her. A wave of screams rose from the crowds below. People ran in all directions, but a great many stood and took pictures. Others cheered.
Earth humans were, Allie had decided, completely bonkers.
“Times Square,” said Sirin behind her. “Oh, Allie, we’ve got to stop her!”
Bellacrux put on a last burst of speed, and Allie knew her Lock was drawing on her final reserves of strength. She tried to will her own remaining energy into her dragon.
But before they could reach Mirra, another dragon darted between them and looped upside down.
Kardessa and Tamra!
Tamra snatched the Heart out of her sister’s hands, and then Kardessa righted herself and they flew high, high into the air.
Bellacrux spread her wings, changing course with an audible groan of effort. More Raptors appeared, answering Valkea’s summons. They gathered in the air, circling and hovering. Bellacrux, Lysander, and Sammi stopped across the square, just out of range of their fire.
The Lost Lands Page 20