I clung to the Dragon Staff as my feet hit the water and I sank in over my head.
Here we go.
Chapter Eighteen
The pool had looked small from the opening above, but as I fell, it felt like I was falling through an ocean. But in this ocean, there was no comforting song. I drew in a steadying breath and smelled fresh water. Definitely not the ocean, then.
How would you test someone’s purity of heart? How could that even be tested? No one knew what was in a person’s heart except that person.
I waited, my mind racing as I fell. With every second that no test began, I grew more worried. There was nothing down here but water. I could see the rocky sides in every direction if I squinted. No secret passageways. No room of keys. No keys at all. Just rock and water and water and rock.
Had I been tricked somehow? Or was Samrin wrong? Had he brought me to the wrong pool somehow? How long should I wait before I just gave up and swam away?
I let myself sink to the bottom of the pool and sat cross-legged at the bottom as I waited. What if I gave up and a moment later the key I was looking for appeared?
I thought about the lines Samrin had showed me in Hubric’s book:
Only the pure in heart the secret keep. A key to open up the deep.
Only the strong in courage a mark will find. A symbol to both free and bind.
Only the one who gives it all, can bring the magic with the call.
Was there some hint in there?
Only the pure in heart the secret keep.
Hmmm. The secret. What could that mean? Was there something I was missing here?
The water felt like it was getting colder as the minutes dragged out. I began to shiver.
How long had I been sitting in here? It felt like hours. Hours upon hours as my belly churned and I got colder and colder until my teeth began to chatter. What was with that? I’d never really been cold in the water before. The magic that let me breathe underwater also kept me toasty warm where anyone else would be chilled.
It didn’t make sense that I was shivering. I scrubbed at my arm with my hand, trying to warm myself with friction. I gasped. My arm was slick with a fine coating of ice.
Ice!
I looked around the walls of the pool to see if ice had formed on the walls, too. As I looked, words began to appear on the wall. Was the coldness of the pool making them bright?
The Pure in Heart can See.
And under the words was the symbol of an arrow pointing upward. It reminded me an awful lot of the arrow on the key I’d taken in the room of keys back under the mountain. I stared at it, wondering if it was the same one.
And then, as if staring at it and memorizing it had some kind of magical property to it, I felt a burst of pain and then heard words in my mind.
You have been deemed pure of heart and given the key – a secret in your mind that will reveal itself when the correct time has come.
I gasped. That was the key? A secret buried in my mind that would come out when I went to unlock the Haroc? That was ... brilliant! A key no one could steal. A key that couldn’t be misused or even found except by the right person. I gasped at the thought of it. It was genius!
Had anyone else sat in this pool long enough for it to freeze up and show them that symbol? And how long had I been in this pool? It felt like hours. The light I was seeing from down here felt more like moonlight than like the noonday sun.
With a final shiver, I shot upward in the water.
I couldn’t wait to tell Heron that I’d got the key! I’d been so worried that Atura would have already taken it. We had a chance. We were still in this race! Even if somehow she had made the water freeze and the key had been given to her, too, we still had a chance!
I was almost dancing with excitement when my head broke the surface of the water into the warm air above.
I gasped, choking on water, as my lungs pulled in air to breathe instead.
It really was night!
Above me, a dome of bright stars, milky as a bridal veil, lit the sky and a small crescent moon joined them. I swam to the edge of the pool.
“Heron?” I called. Maybe they’d gone to sleep.
I would have thought they would wait up for me, but they’d been traveling long hours. Perhaps they’d drifted off while they waited.
I pulled myself out of the pool, wringing my long hair out. At least the underwater suit dried very quickly, and the air out here was much warmer than the water had been. I could already feel my body beginning to warm as the ice melted from the surface of my skin and suit.
Where were they all?
I walked around the edge of the pool, looking in the woods and over the hills. There was no sign of a campfire, no sign of a tent, no sign of life at all.
Chapter Nineteen
A chill descended over me that was nothing like the chill of the pool or the breezes of the night. My heart kicked up a notch until it was thundering in my ears.
Where were they?
How long had I been in the pool? Could it have been months or years instead of merely hours? I felt ill as I searched in an ever-widening ring.
On the far side of the pool from where I’d fallen in, I stumbled over something mushy under a heap of pine needles. Carefully, I swept the needles aside and looked at what I’d stumbled over.
It was a dead body. Or at least, I sure hoped it was dead. Because someone or something had boiled this poor person. His skin was a mass of blisters and burns so that I couldn’t even make out his features.
I froze.
The pool had grown icy cold for me, hadn’t it?
What would it do to someone it didn’t deem pure in heart enough to read the sign and gain the secret key?
Would it stay lukewarm and still as if nothing had happened ... or would it heat up? Would it maybe even boil?
I shuddered and backed away, looking up to the sky as fear lanced through me.
Had Atura been here before us after all? Had someone in her group – one of the Bubblers? Or even Atura? – gone into the pool and come out like this?
I didn’t want to look down again. I didn’t want to see that face and guess what it might have looked like when it was alive.
I kept my gaze up on the starry sky just above the treeline as I fought off nausea.
A flare of light dotted the treeline.
And then another.
Were those dragon flames?
I held my breath, squinting into the sky, but there were no more flames.
Shaking, I went back to the pool to rinse my hands of needles. The scent of boiled flesh was still in my nose and as I washed my hands I realized that I was probably washing them in the very pool that had boiled that person alive. I’d sat in it for hours. I’d breathed it in.
I stood up, suddenly, wiping my hands off on my clothing as if they were covered in blood.
I was shaking.
When had that started?
I bit my lip as my arms wrapped around me and I looked longingly to the sky.
I was trapped on this island. With no supplies. Alone.
And I had no idea what had happened to my friends or to my little dragon.
I did not sleep. I sat all night, worrying, as the acid from my belly ate away at me. And I cried and cried until I had no tears left. In the morning, I would search the island and hope that I saw no more bodies. In the morning, maybe things would be different.
But when morning came, nothing had changed.
I fought back tears.
Don’t give up, Seleska, I told myself. Don’t give in to your fears. You weren’t in that pool for days. You haven’t lost everyone you love – or at least, you don’t know that you have.
The only thing I could do now was search the island. I started in a circular pattern circling the pool – though I carefully avoided the dead body I’d found in the night – slowly making my way outward. By the time noon had come, I’d seen all of the island except for a single, cliff-surrounded bay and I w
as getting worried. I had fresh water here. I’d crossed the small creek about a dozen times in my journey – but I had a bad feeling that the water in the creek came from the pool and the thought of the pool still turned my stomach. Water wouldn’t be a problem if I could get over that, but there was no food to be found and no sign of my friends.
I was almost relieved in late afternoon – as I tried to edge my way into the hidden bay – when I finally heard a faint moan.
I scrambled through the thick brush toward the sound, slashing vines and small branches away with my staff as I chased after it. It had come from the bay ... hadn’t it?
I broke into a tiny beach in a little bay almost impossible to find unless you were looking for it.
My heart lurched at what I saw. On the sand, washed up to the edges of the rocky cliffs around the bay, Olfijum lay motionless, his head lolling to the side. I ran down, calling as I went.
“Heron? Heron!”
My heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest. Where was he? Was he ...?
There was no sign of him. No marks in the sand where he might have pulled himself if he was injured. No sign of anyone else. There was only his dragon.
I touched his nose cautiously, expecting him to snap at me, but he lay still.
“Olfijum?” I asked gently.
He moaned so quietly that I could hardly hear it, but there was still a sound and a small puff of breath.
“You’re alive!” I rejoiced, running along the length of him.
Massive claw marks ringed his body and gashes that looked like bites. He was badly injured and I felt helpless to do anything about it. How did you help a hurt dragon?
The tide was coming into the bay. It had already shortened the sandy edge of the rocky cliffs as I checked Olfijum over. If he wasn’t moved quickly, he would drown under the tide.
I swallowed.
What could I do?
I sat down hard on the sand as despair bowled me over. Nasataa was lost to me. I had no idea where he was. Heron, too. I could only hope beyond hope that they lived.
The flames I saw last night could have been Olfijum before he fell here. But if Heron had been on his back, then I would have found him on the island somewhere. Or, he might have perished in the sea. I swallowed back a sob.
I had no way to get help for Olfijum and I couldn’t help him on my own.
I heard Heron’s words in my mind, plain as if he was saying them all over again.
“Promise me,” he’d said. “Promise you’ll remember that you’re not alone.”
But I was alone.
I began to cry now, letting the floodgates open as my misery poured all over the sand and my gasping sobs mixed with the sound of the sea.
The sound of the sea.
I was not alone.
I lifted my head and gasped.
I was only alone if I decided to be.
I scrambled to my feet and ran into the surf. I would have looked like a madwoman if anyone had been watching. But no one was watching as I rushed out and plunged under the water.
PLEASE! I called into the water with my mind. PLEASE HELP US!
The Blue dragons had helped before. They’d healed me before.
Would they do it again?
I’d just have to trust. I’d just have to keep my promise to Heron and hope they would come.
Episode Seven: Keys of Power
Chapter One
I scrambled to my feet and ran into the surf. I would have looked like a madwoman if anyone had been watching. But no one was watching as I rushed out and plunged under the water, floating just under the surface of the briny sea.
No one was watching because everyone was gone. It was only me and Olfijum left and if I didn’t get him help soon, it would only be me. Just the thought of that made my pulse race.
PLEASE! I called into the water with my mind. PLEASE HELP US!
The Blue dragons had helped before. They’d healed me before.
Would they do it again?
I’d just have to trust. I’d just have to keep my promise to Heronvand hope they would come. He’d told me not to rely only on myself. What way to do that better than to throw all my hope into dragons I didn’t even know?
A nervous, desperate laugh bubbled up to my lips. But none of this was funny.
I hoped he was keeping his promise – if he was alive – the promise to keep Nasataa safe. I felt wild at the thought that I wasn’t protecting him right now, that he was somewhere on his own vulnerable and alone.
I shivered.
We come.
I felt the voices of the Blue Dragons swirling around me like the arms of a great octopus. They were musical and layered.
We come, we come, we come.
A flicker of hope fluttered in my heart.
I waited long moments, fighting to be patient when I knew the tide was rising above me, inch by inch. If they did not hurry, Olfijum would drown. I couldn’t let that happen – both because he was my friend now and because he was beloved by Heron. I couldn’t let Heron down. Just like I knew he’d never let me down.
I gritted my teeth and held on, watching the water rise.
I was just about to give up and swim to the surface. Maybe I could prop his head up on something. Maybe that would buy us just a bit more time. Maybe...
And then they were there.
Their tails and wings and long sinuous necks swirled all together in the water, tangled around one another so that it was impossible to tell which dragon belonged to what tail or neck or wings. The water of this strange ocean rippled through their semi-translucent fins, swirling them beautifully through the cold waves and their song – oh, their song! – rippled through me, breaking me down and remaking me all at once. It was as if it could reach in and touch my soul in places I didn’t know anyone could reach. And instead of destroying me with all that power, it was filling me up. I was like a pool being filled by the tide, like a jar being flooded with water, like a –
My thought cut off as they reached up out of the water, dozens of tails and heads surfacing all at once. There was a tugging motion and then I saw Olfijum tumbling under the waves.
I gasped. He was going to drown! He couldn’t breathe underwater like I could!
But they seemed unconcerned as they lowered him deeper under the surf, singing to him as a parent might sing to a sleepy baby, tumbling him gently from one set of tails and heads to the next until he was floating within a ring of their ever-moving bodies. Their song and movements filled up my vision and hearing, obscuring my injured friend. The Blue Dragons were circling the smaller purple one faster and faster until they were almost a blur.
And as their music reached a crescendo, he seemed to rise through the water.
I kicked up through the water, chasing after him. Where was he going? Was he moving on his own power?
He still seemed to be unconscious, his eyes closed and head lolling at the end of his long neck, but as I watched, the bite marks and holes in his scales smoothed over. A wing – which had been crumpled badly just moments ago – straightened, looking well again. He was being healed! They were doing it!
I didn’t know by what magic the dragons could heal, but as I watched they dove in one after another, flaming his legs and body before retreating again. It would only work for a dragon – or me – I thought. We were the only ones who could survive that healing.
Could they do that all the time? And if they could, why hadn’t they done this for Ramariri?
We can heal injuries of the body. We have no power over the mind.
Ramariri’s body had been failing.
The dragon who saved you. We know this story. Our brothers on distant shores have told us of how he bore a princess to an island far away. But he was tied by the union between dragons and humans. A tie made of magic – a binding we cannot sever. And we cannot stop it from dragging someone into death.
My heart was sad at that thought, but glad at the same time because Olfijum’s wounds coul
d be healed.
It was nearly an hour before they were done and the Purple dragon first opened his eyes. I had been drifting in the waves, watching and hoping. The moment his eyes opened, they propelled him upward, pushing him up out of the water.
I followed, clawing at the water as I tried to catch up.
Dozens of tails thrust him toward the shore, and I chased after them. I could barely see anything else between the filmy fins and sinuous tails, but when my head finally popped through the surface of the waves, there he was – whole and healed, his eyes bright and glowing.
I coughed as always, choking on the water I’d been breathing only a moment before, and then it was clear and I raced to him, wrapping my arms around his big neck.
THANK YOU! I sent to the Blue dragons as their tails flicked back into the water, leaving little ripples where once they were. Their song faded with their retreat and I felt a sudden wave of homesickness as they left.
They were gone. And it was only Olfijum and me left.
THANK YOU!
Would you mind keeping it down? I just recovered from near-death, a new voice said in my mind. I turned in wonder to see Olfijum staring at me with his glowing eyes. He was talking? To me?
No, I’m talking to the seagull over there. Who did you think I was talking to?
Chapter Two
They’d left us on a different beach than that hidden one – which was a relief since that beach had disappeared under the tide and despite his energetic mental tongue, Olfijum didn’t seem to have any other energy to spare. He slumped on the beach, putting his head on his paws.
I bit my lip.
“Are you still hurting?” I asked.
Healing takes a lot out of a guy. Did you think you could get something for nothing?
“Well no, of course not.”
I’m not Heron. I’m not going to baby you.
“Heron doesn’t baby me!” I exclaimed. I’d thought I’d be hearing a sweet voice of a kind Purple dragon – a friend. Hadn’t I watched him play so nicely with Nasataa?
Dragon Tide Omnibus 2) Page 7