Something very wrong! Olfijum sounded panicked. I glanced back at him and then to the city. I couldn’t see anything.
“Dead. Their souls sucked away,” Samrin said grimly. If it hadn’t been for the Ko – ”
The rest of his words were lost to me as Olfijum shrieked in my ear.
GET OUT OF HERE!
“Olfijum is upset,” I said grabbing Samrin around the waist as I leaned forward. My heart was in my throat. What had he seen?
Olfijum soared over us, his belly almost scraping Samrin’s head as he plunged forward.
“But I don’t see anything,” Samrin said. Confusion painted his face.
“What does Tharrac say about it?” I asked, forgetting that he couldn’t hear his dragon. Silvers didn’t speak to people.
“What?”
He smells it, too!
As if spurred by Olfijum’s words, Tharrac leapt forward with him.
Samrin bit off a fast curse. “What’s going on, boy? Here now, settle down hmm?”
He was pulling at the reins, trying to slow him.
But now I could see what Olfijum was talking about and the scream bubbled up from my lips before I could stop it.
“Look!” I screamed, pointing. “They aren’t birds!”
Or at least, they weren’t all birds.
Three huge shapes sped toward us, but they didn’t move like natural-born creatures, didn’t flap their wings, and their eyes were only glowing points of light as they swooped toward us.
“Flying golems!” Samrin said and there was dread in his voice. “I heard about these. They fought in the golem wars. But usually, they had Magikas on their backs to guide them.”
He was twisting as he spoke and then he pointed a little off to the west.
“There!”
A fourth golem rocketed toward the others, but this one had the figure of a human on its sleek back.
“How do you kill them?” I asked.
He shook his head like he didn’t know.
“How were they killed in the Golem Wars?” My voice rose up an octave with fear.
He was still shaking his head when Tharrac pulled to a sudden stop, his wings cupping behind him to leave him upright in the air for as long as it took to pull in a breath, before he twisted in a way that seemed almost painful to me, spinning in the air before flapping hard to keep his place.
My eyes grew huge faster than my scream could catch up with them.
One of the golems should have smashed into us. Tharrac turned us right into it so that I could see every horrifying detail of the golem barreling toward us. Calmly, he snatched it from the air with his paws. The weight of it pulled us downward and he fought it as it tried to break his grasp. With a snarl, he bit, shredding its shell and tossing it to the earth.
My heart was in my throat. My hands held the saddle in a death grip. I felt like I’d been dropped and caught and then dropped again.
“Nice work, Tharrac!” Samrin praised.
Duck.
“Move!” I screamed even before I looked up to see Olfijum dropping a second mangled golem right above us.
Tharrac shuddered forward and then his big wings caught the air and we made a long swoop down, looping back up again at a greater speed than I could imagine.
The third golem was shooting straight for Olfijum, and I squinted as the fourth sped toward him, too. The man on his back was dressed in a Bubbler mask and robes. No point in hiding who you were in the middle of an ambush, I supposed. But what did Bubblers have to do with golems?
My belly burned hot, screaming at me to do something and then before I could think to respond my hand was pulling the Dragon Staff free of its place in Tharrac’s saddle and raising it of its own accord. Whatever traces of Octon had been in that stone must have realized what I needed to do before I did.
I was grateful for that.
And my gratitude was just in time.
The Bubbler raised a rod and I expected bubbles to pour out of it – but not this rod! A blast like lightning shot from the end of the rod straight toward us. Tharrac flinched at the same moment that the blast hit the Dragon Staff. I clenched my teeth, bracing myself against the pain that was sure to come, but no pain hit me, no powerful force knocked the staff from my hand. The lightning was reflected somehow off the end of the staff, shooting backward and striking the metal flying golem under the Bubbler.
He screamed raggedly as the golem fell from the sky like a chunk of metal – which was all it was now.
I opened my mouth to yell, but Olfijum was already there, plucking the Bubbler from the back of his dead mount. He shook the man like a mouse in the claws of a hawk.
“What’s he doing?” I gasped.
“Rod,” Samrin choked out. “I’ve never seen the like.”
As if to punctuate his words, the rod flew out of the Bubbler’s hands and Olfijum swooped upward with as little difficulty as he would have had if he didn’t have a struggling Bubbler in his claws. It was probably too much to hope that was Atura.
“We must be close if they are setting traps,” Samrin said grimly.
“What should we do with the Bubbler?” I asked.
Samrin said nothing.
From high above, a scream started.
The Bubbler plunged past us, clawing at the air, his screams a ragged punctuation to the howling of the wind in my ears. I gasped, my heart in my throat, and looked up. Had Olfijum slipped?
The triumphant look in his dragon eyes told me he had not.
“Samrin!” I called desperately. “Catch him! Samrin!”
We didn’t stray from Tharrac’s course.
“Samrin!”
My gaze followed the falling man. I didn’t want to look. I couldn’t look away.
Horror filled me when he struck a jutting rock below, smashing on it so that his blood slicked the stones.
I swayed in the saddle my head suddenly light. And then it was all I could do not to coat Tharrac in my vomit as I leaned over his side and lost everything I’d eaten in the last day.
“Why?” I gasped when I was done. Samrin handed me a waterskin casually and I paused to rinse my mouth. “Why did you let him fall to his death?”
“He planned to kill us. Your compassion is wasted on him.” Samrin’s voice was hard as flint.
“He might have had information we could use!” But I knew that wasn’t why I was so horrified. It was his senseless death that left me shaking even now.
“If we weren’t on the right track, he wouldn’t have been planted here to ambush us,” Samrin said sensibly. “We’ll just keep on this way. We’re nearly to the border with Ko’Torenth.”
I felt tears brimming in my eyes. The Bubblers were no friends of mine – not at all. And yet. They were still human. And human beings shouldn’t be treated as if they were disposable. As if you could just throw them away. I fought against my speeding breath. I needed to calm down or I was going to lose it.
I did what I had to do. Olfijum didn’t sound any more friendly than he had last time he spoke to me.
Sure. Because it was so much work to carry him in his claws.
He would have killed you with that rod.
No, he wouldn’t. I wasn’t dead, was I? The Staff had turned his attack.
He would have eventually.
He’d already shaken the rod away from his hands before he let him go!
The best enemy is a dead enemy.
But I didn’t believe him. I reached in my belt pouch, tears spilling from my eyes as I thought about Jeriath. He’d been a friend and then an enemy and then a friend again.
The best enemies weren’t dead enemies. The best enemies weren’t enemies anymore because they’d become your friends.
I don’t see it that way.
TRY! I shouted with my thoughts. Just try.
Chapter Six
I’d been too upset to talk to any of them after that. Upset at their callousness. Upset at how Olfijum winked at me when he flew by. Upset that our ene
mies felt the very same way and that they had Heron and Nasataa in their grip.
I chewed my lip as we flew and worried as my belly burned inside me.
“Seleska,” Samrin said very formally after my breathing calmed down.
“Yes?” I tried to keep the bite out of my words. I was too worried to keep my tone calm.
“We are getting close to the border with Ko’Torenth.”
“Yes.” I tried not to let anxiety fill me too far. Once we arrived there, he would have to leave us – his quest complete – and it would just be Olfijum and me. And we weren’t getting along very well.
I can do what I have to do for Heron and Nasataa. Even put up with you.
Olfijum was the worst. But yes, I could put up with him, too. If I had to.
Ha! See? We aren’t so different.
Except that I was nice and he was not! I tried!
I’m trying.
I didn’t believe him.
“I am loathe to leave you,” Samrin said eventually.
“But?” I asked, waiting for him to complete the thought.
“No, that is all. I am loathe to leave you with your companions taken and your hopes dashed. And you have the key.”
“Yes, I have the key,” I agreed, confused by where he was going with this. Did he want to take the key? Well, he couldn’t. It was inside of me. Maybe that was why whoever hid it planned it that way. Once you had it, it was yours.
“You are clearly pure in heart or you would not have received the key. And the Captain believed your story about the Manticores. And I believe it, too. Tharrac and I fought them.” He paused. “I do not think he will consider it a betrayal if I continue on with you.”
I gasped. “Continue?”
I sounded like an idiot, but I couldn’t help it. I never expected him to keep on helping me!
“The Dominion has close ties with Ko’Torenth thanks to the efforts of Hubric Duneshifter.”
“Hubric?” I wasn’t helping my case. I sounded like I’d been hit over the head, but I was so surprised that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
“He mentored the Ko’roi – the king of Ko’Torenth, I suppose you could call him.”
I gasped. “Is there anyone important that Hubric didn’t mentor?”
“Jalla,” he said with a twist of his mouth. “The Winged Prince of Baojang. If Hubric had mentored her, then maybe she wouldn’t be so ... Jalla. I can tell the Dominar is not fond of her.”
Interesting. “I thought you said ‘Prince’ but then you said ‘her.’ Is Jalla a prince or a princess?”
He snorted. “She calls herself a prince. I’m not in a position to ask her why.”
“Maybe I will when I meet her,” I said speculatively. I was curious about that.
Samrin sounded like he was choking. It was a long beat before he got over it and spoke again. “Let’s save your friends first.”
I could tell when we finally crossed the border into Ko’Torenth, because Samrin tensed up, worry all over his face.
“It’s the right thing to do,” I heard him mutter.
“Thank you,” I said, laying a hand on his shoulder. I could tell it was hard for him, though and he was quiet as the days passed one after another.
We traveled through the day and slept at night as the forest faded into desert sands. I worried constantly. We’d seen no sign of people since the trap at Woelran – other than a small caravan that sold us food and claimed to know nothing about Atura and her Manticores.
I’d almost given up hope when at dusk, on the fourth day, Samrin gasped.
“There!” he pointed to a flat hill ahead of us. Smoke curled up into the air and I could almost make out figures gathered around it. Could he be sure?
It’s them. But they are on guard, the Manticores and Bubblers are wary. Oh! I see Heron. He is in a cage. So is Nasataa. But different cages.
I couldn’t see at all. I looked frantically toward the mass of dark figures, trying to stand in the stirrups to look better, but it was no use. Not only were my eyes not good enough, but Tharrac was also diving into the sand dunes to hide us from prying eyes.
Can’t let them see us. We need the element of surprise.
I hoped he was right, and that they were really there.
Do you doubt these eyes?
When it came to something this important, I doubted everything!
Patience, Trouble Girl. Soon we will have our revenge!
But it wasn’t revenge I sought as I waited in the sand dunes with my belly in knots. It was hope. I desperately needed Nasataa and Heron to be okay. I needed to believe that I could set them free. I needed to believe that we could really defeat a dozen Manticores to free them.
I needed hope. And I was having trouble finding it.
Chapter Seven
“We can’t attack them head-on,” Samrin whispered after we’d taken a moment to water the dragons and drink from our water skins. “We already know that doesn’t work. That means our only chance here is to sneak in and try to snatch them before the Manticores or their humans notice us. I’ll go for Heron – he’s in the biggest cage. You get Nasataa. Do you think Olfijum can carry his cage?”
Olfijum rolled an eye.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Samrin said. He frowned at Olfijum. “Do you think he’ll carry you again? I understand carrying you on the way to find his rider, but it’s hard to be in the middle of a bond like that. He won’t want you on his back the moment he sees his true rider.”
“He doesn’t want me on his back right now,” I said wryly. “But if he wants Heron free, he’ll stick to the plan.”
Another eye roll.
You know I want him free.
And he knew he’d have to stick to the plan. Samrin was right. Surprise and a sneak attack were our only options. I gripped the Dragon Staff tightly in my hand. I was tired – bone tired. I swayed a little just standing there. But we were all tired. None of us had slept more than two hours together since we left the island. We’d been doing everything we could to catch up to Atura and her people and now that we had caught up, our bodies and minds were paying in exhaustion.
“Don’t fall over on me,” Samrin said with a smile. “We made it. Now we have to do what we came for.”
I nodded. “Let’s go. We can do this!”
We were all nodding now, even the dragons. We were one in purpose. We could do this!
I mounted Olfijum quietly, strapping in and checking the Dragon Staff.
You won’t have to do much. I’ll be doing all the work.
He sounded even more confident than I was.
I sure am! Let’s get this done!
We were in the air before I’d realized we’d even kicked off, skimming along the sand so close to the ground that I thought Olfijum’s scales might be getting worn down. His dragon laugh echoed through my mind. I glanced over at Samrin to see he was keeping pace with us on Tharrac, flying just as low in the rising moonlight – so low that Tharrac seemed to have no shadow under him.
We skimmed along the ground so quickly that my hair whipped out behind me like a long flag. I felt exhilarated, anticipation filling me up to the brim. We could do this! We were going to grab our friends in a flash and then I’d get to see Heron again and hug Nasataa and all would be right in the end.
Yes!
And for once Olfijum and I were thinking the same way, both of our spirits soaring with our bodies.
We’ve got this!
We climbed the hill, flying up the slope of it and hugging it like I was going to hug Nasataa when we got him free.
I could feel my heart pounding in my ribs. I was so excited. I could barely think, barely focus. I couldn’t wait to see them again!
Me, too!
I grinned as our shared anticipation seemed to dance from mind to mind. Maybe this was what it was like for Heron to ride Olfijum all the time.
Like this, but a hundred times better!
Maybe this was why they were so attached to each
other.
We curved over the peak of the hill to where it flattened out and were immediately in their camp, already soaring inches over the head of a sleeping Manticore. They must have dropped their pretense when they left their Dominion escort at the border.
I gasped as Olfijum leapt just a little higher in time to clear the Manticore’s mane. I thought I could almost feel a hair brush my foot. I gritted my teeth together, not focused on his sleeping form, but focused on what was coming up.
The Manticores stood or slept in a ring around the hill and inside their ring were the campfires of the Bubblers but there were no tents. I hated those creatures with their ragged feathers and lion manes. You’d think they would look beautiful, but they were just stinking and patchy and their almost-human faces made their sneers of disgust so much worse.
I found the twisted doorway sitting at the center of their camp confusing. What was that thing? Had they dragged it out here? Bubblers stood in front of it, carrying items in their hands – bundles, tents, baskets. Where were they going?
Four of them had the cage bearing Nasataa slung on two poles they carried on their shoulders balanced two people to a pole. They stood just outside the doorway on one side. Beside the doorway, a larger cage held Heron, but the door was open, and a Bubbler held a rope that tied Heron’s hands as he led him out of the cage.
Were they being moved?
There was no sign of Atura.
I’d taken it all in during the time it took to take a single breath. I felt confusion washing over me, but there was no time to think more. In that second, a roar from behind us erupted. The alarm was being sounded.
I spun to look behind me. The Manticore we’d passed over was already on his feet leaping toward us while the rest of his ring jumped to the alert.
Olfijum sprang forward just as quickly. He as fast. Faster than the Manticores, as if his young muscles could do what theirs could not.
He leapt toward Nasataa. If he was as fast as I thought he was, we might still get to Nasataa before the Manticores could get us.
We dove toward the Bubblers. The first ones scattered, screaming. A basket dropped, rice hitting the ground with so much force that it sprayed over the crimson-clad Bubblers as they parted before us. Nasataa’s bearers froze in place, their mouths open. We were getting closer! I could see his little face!
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