Come, Sela! Come see! He called to me.
I would never get over the fact that he could talk in my mind – even better, he learned more all the time. I tried to smile, to enjoy this new thought from him, but the pain was agonizing.
Nothing for it. I would just have to soldier through as I pulled myself to the waves. Tears leaked from my eyes as I fought my way to the water, inch by inch across the sand. I was making things worse. The pain in my leg flared hotter and more painful with every move I made.
The minutes stretched, seeming to last forever until finally, I was in the water on my elbows with my legs dragging behind me. It lapped up to my chin, soaking the underwater suit I’d barely been able to use until now. It felt good.
The pain wasn’t gone, but the fury of it lessened under the saltwater. I let myself ease under the waves, breathing in the fragrant brine of this new sea.
And then suddenly, they were there – two Blue dragons so massive that they dwarfed ships. They reached for me, drawing me with heir sinuous tails like a floating rag, so that I was pulled out to where the sand shelf dropped off and the two of them sat beneath the blue waves. Nasataa swam delighted loops between the two of them and then without a word, they began their song again, swimming so that their mouths were close to my injured leg.
It was like a dream. A strange, fever dream.
And then they flared, both at once, their flames engulfing my leg, spreading up my body and washing over my face. I stiffened, expecting agony. Instead, the pain flowed away. First from my face and scalp – I hadn’t even realized they were injured so badly! – and then from my aching chest right down to the agony in my leg. Slowly, gently, the pain ebbed away. I felt myself take a long, lingering breath, reveling in the bliss of a body free of pain.
Our champion and our guardian.
You are not alone.
And then with a flowing, graceful motion, the tails shot me back to the sandy shelf and washed me back up to the shore.
Chapter Fifteen
“Seleska!” I surfaced to see Heron’s panicked face. He looked like he’d lost something infinitely precious. “Oh, little honey, I woke up and you were gone. I thought ...” he half-laughed, half-choked as if relief was worse than the worry had been. “Come here.”
He drew me in, clutching me to his chest like something he had lost and only just found again. I could feel his lips against my hair and my cheeks heating with embarrassment.
“I said some things.” I was hesitant in my words. “Things I regret.”
“So did I.”
“I thought it would be too late to apologize.” A lump was forming in my throat.
“So did I.”
“That I’d never see you agai – ”
He cut off my words with a kiss and I let him. Was that forgiveness? It had to be. Nothing else could taste so sweet.
“Your leg?” he asked when we finally broke apart. Both of us were looking at my leg in the water. The underwater suit was tattered where it had been torn apart, but my skin was whole and well again.
I nodded shyly toward the water, biting my lip. “I didn’t know that Blue dragons had healing properties.”
Nasataa took that moment to leap out of the water, spouting water and then bright flame into the air.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“South of where we need to be, just south of a Dominion City called Umtal. The Manticore destroyed the way to the test, so we had to take a longer journey. I begged Samrin to take you for help, but he was under strict orders. He kept saying it would work out. He’s going to be smug after this!” He pointed to the ocean. “We have to fly over that bay to a string of islands where a small pool is. Samrin said it’s only a few more hours, but when we emerged from the warrens, we were too exhausted to go on without sleep.” He looked down at my leg again. “And now I’m glad that we didn’t. I can’t believe your leg is healed.”
I shared his joy, but fear filled my heart as I asked, “How many days did you travel with me unwell?”
“Two.”
I felt the blood draining from my face. “That means they are three days ahead of us. We can’t catch up.”
Heron shook his head looking stoic. “We have to try.”
“I ...” I paused, looking for words. “I have to rely more on other people instead of just myself.” He laughed and I startled. “What’s so funny?
“I didn’t think you’d ever admit that.”
I stood up, frowning. I wasn’t that bad, was I?
“You have an independent streak thicker than a dragon’s scale,” he said wryly.
“You aren’t making it easier for me to admit that!” I protested but I calmed down when I saw Samrin striding toward us as he yawned.
“Already back to bothering each other? You’re worse than your dragons.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nasataa and Olfijum fighting each other again in yet another mock battle. How long would they do that for before one or the other grew up.
“Thank you for keeping Nasataa safe, Samrin,” I said shyly. We’d barely spoken before all this began and he felt like a stranger to me.
“It’s my honor,” he said with a smile, reaching into his belt pouch to hand me the book of prophecies. “I need to return your book. I hope you don’t mind, but there were new prophecies from the Seer of the Kav’ai contained within. I copied them into my book to study.”
“When did you find the time?” I asked, shocked.
His face crinkled into a grin. “That first night when you slept. I didn’t realize you were a protégé of the legendary Hubric Duneshifter.”
“He was Legendary?” I asked.
“Was?” he asked back with a rueful twist to his grin. “I guess I’ll never meet him, then. But whatever lessons he taught you should help at the test.”
“What kind of test is it?” I asked, worried now. Hubric’s strongest lessons to me had been about dying. And I didn’t know if I was ready to face that again so soon.
“And your leg is better,” he said smugly, punching Heron in the arm as he spoke. “See what I told you?” He turned to me. “Mount up behind me and I’ll tell you about the test on the way. We’ll go fastest if you ride on Tharrac and give the young dragon a break.”
Heron nodded encouragingly, but I noticed his eyes never left me as he saddled his dragon and readied his things. I buckled myself in behind Samrin, curiosity lapping at me like the waves of the ocean as we rose into the air in the morning light. His silver dragon flashed so brightly that it hurt my eyes.
Beside us, Nasataa soared with ease. I was foolish to have ever doubted him. He was amazing.
“The test?” I prompted when we were all in the air over the water. Below us, I saw a flash of fins as the song faded from my mind. I felt empty as it left. I never realized before how it filled me up inside.
“Is for the pure in heart,” Samrin said, completing my sentence.
“What does that mean?”
“That the key will only be given to the pure in heart. Why do you think I wasn’t worried about delays? If your rival has a black heart like you say she does, she won’t be able to get the key anyway.”
He sounded confident.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Trust me, Seleska. I know about the key and the test. It’s part of the secret knowledge passed down to Silver Dragoons – the Dominar’s exclusive guard. The key will only be granted to the pure in heart and that is you. So, stop worrying so much and enjoy this beautiful morning.”
But despite his confidence, I wasn’t so sure. Atura had fooled a lot of people – maybe even the Dominar and Haz’drazen. She could fool a test, too, couldn’t she?
Chapter Sixteen
I liked flying with Samrin. He was an easy conversationalist, telling me about his childhood in the Dominion. How he grew up in a small fishing village along a river close to Dominion City and would watch the dragons fly overhead. It was all his parents could do to keep him ho
me until he was old enough to go to Dragon School. The day they finally gave him permission to go, it turned out he didn’t need to make the journey. A group of Silver dragons touched down in his village and one of the Dragoons riding them started talking to Samrin. He left with them that night.
“Was it as much of an adventure as you’d hoped?” I asked, excitedly. I would have done it, too. I would have leapt onto the back of a Silver dragon and flown away into the sky just like he had.
He laughed. “It’s amazing to ride dragons. You know that. And we are drilled very carefully and precisely as Dragoons. It’s a great life, protecting the Dominar and our Dominion. But I’ll admit – a lot of it is boring work guarding and drilling. I haven’t been on an adventure in a long time – if that’s what you want to call all this battle, magic and near-death craziness.”
“I think I’ll have to keep calling it that or risk losing my mind,” I said lightly, but my eyes strayed to where Heron flew on Olfijum and where Nasataa flew between us. I was worried about them.
Despite the song of the sea that still reached my ears from time to time as we flew over the choppy blue surf, I was still worried. And worse than that, I was worried about the whole world. Atura had certainly arrived at the test before us and she would not wait around. Once she had that key, she’d be off to get the next one. Part of me hoped that Samrin was right and she would be stuck at the test, unable to progress when her black, black heart was discovered, but the rest of me knew that she would easily beat a test like that because Atura never played fair and a simple test wouldn’t be able to see through whatever crafty plan she made to thwart it.
We dropped down on a beach at noon to eat and refill our waterskins. Despite the calming song of the sea in my mind, I couldn’t rest. I paced up and down the beach, eating and drinking hastily while the dragons shook out their wings and rested and Heron and Samrin stretched their legs. I felt like I should be running. All this sitting still and riding was driving me crazy. My mind tumbled over itself in haste. I needed to get to the test!
“Are you trying to wear a path into the sand,” Heron asked, offering me a waterskin. I took it and drank as he continued. “You need to calm down. Anxiety isn’t like you.”
“Not being anxious isn’t like you!” I protested.
He laughed. “I think that Olfijum might be good for me. He helps me stay calmer and less anxious.”
“Does he talk to you all the time?” I asked, glancing to where Olfijum and Nasataa were play wrestling in the sand again.
“Constantly,” Heron said with a grin. “He’s as bad as you are. Always teasing or pouting.”
I gave him my very best pout.
“Yes, just like that,” he laughed. “Is Nasataa not too chatty?”
“No,” I said. “He’s only a baby, so his vocabulary is limited.”
The pictures he was sending with his mind were all of attacking Olfijum, trying to nip at the backs of his legs where the skin was looser.
“I think it must be nice to have someone in your mind all the time,” I said.
Heron snorted. “It’s ... complicated. I have trouble thinking my own thoughts with someone else speaking into my mind all the time. It’s hard to do both at once. It’s going to take me time to get used to it. And you and I don’t have time.”
“No, we don’t,” I agreed. “Are you worried about this test?”
“Are you?” He gathered me in his arms.
“Yes,” I whispered. “I’m not actually all that pure in heart.”
He chuckled. “Have you been greedy, Seleska?”
“Frequently,” I said, distracted by the feeling of his arms around me. “Greedy for you. Greedy for Nasataa.”
“Envious?”
“Often. Mostly of Olfijum.”
“You don’t need to be,” he laughed, kissing the top of my head.
“Prideful?”
“Ummm ...” I felt my cheeks flushing.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Murderous?”
“I will be if you don’t stop teasing me.”
He kissed me chastely with gentle lips and then looked into my eyes with his warm brown ones. “It will be okay, Seleska. I agree with Samrin. You will pass this test.”
“And Nasataa?”
“I don’t see how he could fail – if he even needs to be a part of the test. He is everything a small dragon should be, don’t you think?”
We looked together to where he was flaming at Olfijum’s tail, leaping dramatically at it like a kitten learning to pounce.
“Energetic. Dangerous. Headstrong,” I said.
“Loving. Faithful. Playful,” Heron added and we shared a grin before he released me. “Samrin says we aren’t far now. Promise me something, Seleska.”
He sounded so serious that I swallowed before answering. “What do you want me to promise?”
“Promise that you’ll remember that you aren’t alone. Promise you’ll let us help you.”
“I promise,” I said, and I hoped I was telling the truth.
We mounted up again, flying the last leg to the final test but despite my promise, I was worried. If I didn’t pass this test, then I was going to let everyone down. And I was pretty sure that I wasn’t pure-hearted. I was frequently selfish along with all those other character traits that Heron had mentioned. What was I going to do?
Chapter Seventeen
When we reached the pool, not even an hour after we’d left the beach, my heart was in my throat. It was shockingly quiet. That was the first thing I noticed.
The breeze teased the treetops – strange trees with poky needles instead of the thick fronds I was accustomed to – so that they swayed gently. The same breeze rippled the surface of a small pool nestled between white rocks laced with black, glittering seams.
But despite the stark beauty of the island pool – not a creature moved, not a bird chirped, not a track was left.
We landed next to the pool in among the tall trees – tall enough that even Tharrac had to move carefully between their waving trunks. The dragons landed around a carved lip surrounding the pool – a detail I hadn’t noticed from the air. The carving all around the rim read: Only the pure in heart may see.
I felt a burning sensation in my belly at those words. Was that just nerves or was it bothering the ghost of Octon, too?
“This place feels sacred somehow,” Heron said as he carefully dismounted.
I joined him, clinging to my Dragon Staff and taking a moment to cradle Nasataa’s head against me. He was growing by the day and now his head easily reached my shoulder.
“Are you okay, little buddy?” I asked him.
Not little.
“Sorry. I guess you really aren’t little anymore.”
Still Sela’s buddy.
I smiled and kissed the top of his head.
“You always will be, li– ” I corrected myself, “big buddy.”
He snorted a gust of flame and then I stepped forward, reading the carving again and trying not to break out into a nervous sweat.
Samrin was already striding ahead of me, the polished metal of his cuirass and greaves sparkling in the sunlight. He stood up on the ledge around the pool and intoned:
“Given to us by the ancients to protect against the day,
This key will open eyes and show the way,
Do not enter lightly herein,
Only the pure in heart can ever win.”
I waited for more, but that was all there seemed to be. He grinned at me.
“Okay, hop in!”
“In the pool?” I asked with a frown.
“That’s how it works.”
“And Nasataa?”
“Only you need to enter.”
Well, that was a small relief.
“Here,” Heron said, striding over and returning my Dragon Staff to me. “You might need this.”
“Thank you.” I smiled up at him but then grew serious as I looked around. “I don’t see any signs that Atura and the o
thers were here,” I said, looking around. The wilderness looked untouched except for where our dragons’ claws had scored the earth.
“I think it is untouched,” Heron said nervously. “But they should have arrived days before us. They had a direct path to these islands.”
“What if they are all in the pool?” I asked. “Atura. The Bubblers. The Manticores.”
Samrin raised an eyebrow. “In this pool? You see that it is but ten paces across, hmmm?”
I looked around us. The hills of the island were quiet. Not a bird chirped. It felt ... weird.
“Something about this isn’t right,” I said.
“I agree,” Heron said.
Samrin looked concerned. “You have traveled long and far to get here. Are you saying you will not take the test?”
“No,” I said, but I wasn’t certain. “I just have a bad feeling about this. Could they have come and taken the key and left without leaving a single trace?”
“Perhaps,” Samrin said. “Perhaps they truly are dragons with Dragon Riders. If this is so, then they may have passed without a trace. You assert they are not what meets the eye. And I believe you. But I was told to take you here and carry out the test. If you still want to do that, then we should proceed.”
I bit my lip.
“Take care of Nasataa for me?” I asked Heron.
He nodded briskly. I could sense he wanted to come to me, to hold me just one more time first, but I held him off with a gesture.
“I need to this alone.”
He frowned. “You promised ...”
“Which is why I’m relying on you to take care of my little dragon.”
Nasataa snorted fire at the word dragon, but Heron nodded gravely. “I will.”
“Okay,” I said, turning to Samrin. “I’m ready.”
He smiled. “Excellent! May your heart be pure enough!”
I climbed up over the lip of the pool, took one last look behind me at the peaceful clearing, the swaying trees, and my happy friends and then stepped over the edge and into the pool.
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