I slid down from Olfijum’s back bringing the Dragon Staff with me and whispered to Heron, “Stay with Olfijum. He will make sure you are safe.”
He nodded, but no emotion touched his face. I tried not to sigh, but the sound escaped my lips anyway. Was there no hope for him?
I shook my head and put on my most charming smile as I turned to see Zyla speaking to Bataar.
“Oh, he’s around here somewhere. I’m sure we can find him for you – or for her.” Her eyebrow rose at the sight of me and her tone turned a little acid. “You sure she needs to speak to him?”
“It is of most desperate importance,” Bataar agreed.
She turned, but she didn’t even need to take a step. The man who hurried out, fussing with his coat cuffs was not as good-looking as Bataar – though a strange, almost magical golden crown seemed to be tattooed on his forehead, stretching down over his temples to the sides of his face. He had none of that desert charm and formal elegance – but he strode into the room with a kind of energy that was magnetic and when he looked my way the cheeky grin he shot me made me blush. No wonder this Zyla was protective of her man. I would be, too!
I glanced sadly back at Heron. My best friend didn’t even look interested, never mind jealous. I suppressed another sigh.
“Get back, Yaweanl!” the Ko’roi said, swatting at a half-grown Red dragon who nipped at his heels. “You can’t see we have company? Or are you just making a nuisance of yourself?”
A white dragonlet barely bigger than Nasataa had been when he first crawled out of the egg, fluttered up from behind the door and landed on the Ko’roi’s shoulder flaming into the air wildly.
“If that’s my hair I smell burning,” the man said with a dramatic scowl. “Someone will pay! I don’t know how I got roped into nannying you all but it’s no job for me! It would take the patience of a hero to put up with all of you. And now what trouble have you brought to our door, Bataar? Oh, stop looking like someone just killed your grandmother! Look, your daughter is safe. Your kingdom thrives – and mine does, too. All reasons to be happy, right?”
He put an arm around Zyla and her possessive smile widened. She adjusted how she was standing so I could see the knives strapped around her legs and waist. There were a lot of them. But as the Ko’roi moved, I realized he had even more up his coat sleeves and in every conceivable place a knife could be worn. Undressing probably took more than an hour just to shed all the knives. I blushed at the thought and Zyla’s eyes narrowed as if she could read my thoughts. She couldn’t, could she?
“Honored Ko’roi,” Bataar began.
“You can call me, Tor, Bataar,” the Ko’roi said wryly. “Or is my name too difficult to pronounce?”
“Zin, the Seer of Kav’ai has seen a vision and made a prophecy,” Bataar continued, manfully ignoring the Ko’roi’s rolling eyes.
“My sister-in-law?” Tor – the Ko’roi – asked dryly. The tattooed crown sparked a little as he shook his head. “What did she say?”
Bataar quoted word for word and my mouth dropped open. We’d both only heard that once – and he remembered it perfectly?
“When the Manticores feet touch the sands of Kav’ai all Kava’ai trembles. All Ko’Torenth shakes. When the soul-stealers pluck at memory, all the land cries in pain. Look to the door to the future, the door of the past, the fruit of the fight. Look to the wanderer found in the sand to open the doors at last.
And the noble son of sand will lead them, will guide them to the home of fire. He will entrust to them the wings of his heart. And with those wings they will see the treasure of the sands. All this must be done before the third day, or the shadow will fall, and night will reign.”
Tor winked at me while he was talking, and I had to admit that I found his roguish cynicism a lot more appealing than Bataar’s formal dramatics – though that crown tattoo still distracted me. Bataar’s utter devotion to his wife was appealing, but I suspected that Zyla had more fun with the man she’d chosen. She was still looking daggers at me, so I smoothed my expression carefully.
“Well the first part is clearly talking about the Doors of Heaven, but what about these Manticores?” Tor asked at the same time that a tremor began in the earth below us. I gasped. The last time I’d felt that had been when the Manticores invaded the Lands of Haz’drazen.
“Kav’ai trembles!” Bataar exclaimed, lifting his little daughter up into his arms as he looked around himself wildly. “Ko’Torenth shakes.”
I gasped at his words. Was the prophecy already coming true? We were supposed to have three days! What happened to those three days?
“Inside!” Tor demanded. He was the first to act, pulling Zyla inside behind him and motioning for all of us to follow.
In the distance, the sky darkened and a heavy black shadow from the clouds above rolled over the drazenloft so quickly that it almost felt as if Bataar wasn’t being dramatic at all – only realistic.
Chapter Fourteen
“How many days did you say?” Tor asked lightly as we all – dragons, oosquer, humans, and dragonlets crammed into the wide-open room. Something about the way the marble floors and walls were polished suggested to me that they were polished from constant use more than for any other reason. In the center of the open room was a fire in a huge brazier and stone benches surrounded it with big gaps in between – big enough, I realized, for dragons to lounge easily in between. A long-suffering looking white dragon lay next to the brazier while a half-a-dozen dragonlets bounced up and down on him.
Her. Olfijum corrected me.
Before my eyes, she turned from White to Purple and met his eyes, dragonlets tumbling off her neck like puppies from their mother as she lifted her head to see him.
He ambled over easily, Heron still on his back. Heron was watching everything with wide eyes and a frown. Well, at least maybe he’d remember this. We had to start making some of those memories again somehow.
“Three days, honored Ko’roi,” Bataar said again. His formality was softened a little by the sight of his daughter burying her dark curly head into his chest as if he could make the shaking go away single-handedly. I felt another burst of pain. How many times had Heron held me like that?
Enough, Seleska! There was no one to be tough for me anymore. I needed to be tough for him instead!
I swallowed that down and focused on what was being said. The ground still trembled beneath us, but the structure of the drazenloft seemed unaffected.
“Three days to do what?” Tor’s voice seemed tense. The winking and charm were on the back shelf now. Beside him, his wife – that’s what she was, right? – stood with the expression of a hunting hawk on her face.
“She says she must find a key in these lands,” Bataar said. “And rescue a dragonlet that was taken from her.”
“My rival is looking for the key, too,” I added.
“Rival?” Tor lifted an eyebrow.
“Atura. She’s a Rock Eater princess. And she commands a wing of Manticores and carries a baby Manticore with her. She disguises them as dragons and her Bubbler allies as Dragon Riders.”
“I don’t like that,” the tall Dragon Rider – Nostar – said with a frown. I had forgotten all about him after Tor appeared on the scene. He hovered close to Zyla, worry in his eyes. “Manticores – well, who would have thought such creatures were real! But they have no call disguising themselves as dragons. This troubles me.”
“Agreed, Nostar,” Tor said. He turned to me. “We’ll help you find this key and get your dragonlet back.” He looked around him at the chaos in the room as a second dragonlet landed on his other shoulder and burped loudly. Rolling his eyes, he said, “Though why you’d want him back, beats me. Enjoy the peace while you can.”
“He doesn’t mean it,” Zyla said at the look of loss on my face.
I shook my head. “Of course not.”
“He never means those things.”
“And I suppose,” Tor continued without acknowledging what we were saying.
“You’ll need a hero to accompany you on this dangerous quest.”
“If you mean you, you can think again,” Zyla said moving her fists to her hips. The drazenloft shook again.
“I’m no hero,” Tor said defensively, throwing his hands up as he smirked at her.
“Mmm hmm,” she sounded unconvinced, but the ground shook again, making all of us stumble as we tried to regain our balance.
“Incoming!” Nostar shouted and I gasped as the dragons in the room sprang into action, forming some sort of battle-like formation with the dragonlets and humans inside the ring. Nostar was on the back of a big Green dragon before I could even consider what I should be doing, but I saw no threat through the window, only a lone Purple dragon flying toward us at top speed.
The dragons backed away enough to leave a long section inside the door clear.
Just in time.
The dragons soared through the arched doorway, nearly hitting the pillars with its wings before skidding along the marble floor. It hadn’t even stopped before its rider leapt off, landing in front of Tor and falling to one knee in a single motion. She was breathless, her cheeks flushed and eyes bright.
“Ko’roi,” she said, saluting fist to heart. “The ground opened up beneath Ko’Loska and creatures we do not know are pouring out. The army is organizing the defense. The dragons are ready. We await your orders, Ko’roi. Ko’Torenth is under attack.”
Around me, the hisses of indrawn breath filled the room.
Chapter Fifteen
It was only a moment before they were all scrambling into action as if they already knew what to do, though that didn’t stop the Ko’roi from barking out orders. He had such an air of authority about him that I doubted he really needed to bark. Anyone would listen to him no matter what tone he used.
“Zyla, Nostar, I’m leaving you here with Saboraak to defend the drazenloft – if it comes to that,” he shot Zyla a worried look despite the confidence of his voice. That crown on his forehead was starting to make a lot of sense now. “Bataar, you’ll be needed with your people. Prepare for the worst. If they can come through the earth to get to us, then your safe places are not safe enough. We will fight them to the last drop of blood in Ko’Torenth, but that may not be enough to save you.”
He cleared his throat.
“Danix,” he said to the Dragon Rider who was still kneeling in a salute. “You will fly me to Ko’Loska to face the enemy.”
She seemed to glow at his words.
“You know I have to leave you, Saboraak,” Tor said with a wry grin for the dragon in the center of the room. “Without you, this drazenloft can’t exist.” His face turned stern and he shook a finger at her. “But I expect you to mourn me if I die, understood?”
Was that a joke? There was a long pause as if he were listening to her before he gave her an affectionate smile and turned to me.
“You, Seleska, have arrived at an inopportune time. Fortunately for you,” he winked. “Or unfortunately, as the case may be, what you seek – a Door of Heavens – is accessed through Ko’Loska. You can come with Danix and me to retrieve it. Ready to leave?”
“Yes?” I didn’t mean to make it sound like a question, but it was the first time anyone had asked me if I wanted to fly into a war and my belly flipped and flopped over the idea a lot more than I’d expected.
“Then mount up.” He was already turning to kiss Zyla – a kiss that lasted for as long as it took me to find Olfijum, mount him, and slip the Dragon Staff into a strap on the saddle.
“Ready for another adventure?” I asked him grimly.
Sure. Why not? It wasn’t like I was enjoying my life as a dragon anyway. Does it feel to you like every place we know is under attack?
It did feel that way. And maybe it was true. The Troglodyte had said that the Draven had been waiting centuries to take over the world. All that planning had to go into something, right? Perhaps this was that something – all-out, world-wide war.
I swallowed down a bubble of fear. All I could do was hope we found the keys in time to stop it. And that I’d find Nasataa in Ko’Loska, at the heart of a battle. I felt sweat forming on my brow just at the thought of it.
It wasn’t right for him to be on his own without me!
“You look worried,” Heron said and I gasped.
Had he ... did he ...? No. His face just wore a curious and slightly concerned look.
“We have to fly to Ko’Loska” I said evenly. It felt like talking to a stranger. “Nasataa and Atura might be there.”
His eyes lit up. “Atura?”
“Don’t be so excited,” I muttered.
“Atura is going to fix everything.” He sounded so confident.
I hated him for saying that. And I hated that it broke me – that it smashed my heart like an egg.
Do you think she really has his memories in one of those stones like she put Hubric’s soul in a rock?
If she did – had she swallowed it? Did she know me now the same way that the love of my life had? I shuddered.
“Atura,” I said, turning to the blank-Heron looking at me. “Stole everything you love from you. She stole your very self.”
He looked back at me blankly and I bit back a curse. I would get him back somehow!
“Here,” I said, reaching into the saddlebags and offering him some of the food. “You look hungry, you should eat.”
It killed me to see him like this. I wanted to claw out Atura’s eyes. I wanted Olfijum to flame her into a cinder.
Just get me to her and I’ll make all your dreams come true.
I couldn’t even laugh. I was just so choked up.
“I don’t understand why you want me with you,” the blank-Heron said to me, his manly face creased with confusion.
I made my eyes big and my tone appealing. One last try.
“Because I love you, okay? And you used to love me.”
He shook his head and I turned around so he wouldn’t see my eyes welling up. Atura must have known what she was doing when she took Heron’s memories. She must have known how much it would cut me. Bataar and his stupid wings couldn’t save me because I couldn’t rely on Heron ever again. And I didn’t have faith that he would remember me someday or that I could win back his trust. Mostly because I didn’t know how or why he’d ever picked me in the first place, but also because he was clearly infatuated with Atura. He was hers now. She’d seen to that.
We’ll claw her eyes out together, Olfijum assured me.
But it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough.
Agreed.
The ache filled me as I watched the Ko’roi saying goodbye to his family – both human family and dragon family. It ached so much stronger and more painfully in the presence of all this love. Every hug – even when formal Bataar reached out for a hug – filled me with poisonous grief. It ripped at my heart a piece at a time.
So much for carefree Seleska. This adventure had first made me anxious and then left me bereft. By the time it was done, there would be nothing left of me.
Olfijum leapt into the air, following the other Purple dragon carrying the Ko’roi and Dragon Rider.
Cavivio.
We soared out into the desert morning, the hot sun on our backs, burning and oppressive, but the sun couldn’t come close to the desolation that beat down on me. Not even close.
Chapter Sixteen
We had barely flown an hour – had it even been that long? – when Cavivio dove toward a ragged range of desert mountains. They looked more like piles of tumbled stone than mountains – like overly large sandcastles made by an inattentive toddler. But Cavivio’s movements were too focused to be random.
He claims there is a shortcut. It’s how his rider and he got here so quickly from Ko’Loska.
A short cut? Not the warrens again, I hoped.
Olfijum and I shuddered in unison. I would have thought he would have gone back to talking to Heron instead of me now that we had him back.
Do we have him back?
He doesn’t know me any more than he knows you. He’s not himself.
I would do anything to change that.
So would I. Anything.
But I was glad to still have his friendship. I didn’t know what I would do without it.
One of those empty doorframes was nestled into the rubble of the mountainside. It looked so innocent sitting there. But there was nothing innocent about those things.
Cavivio landed in front of it and Olfijum landed beside him, but inside me, anger burned.
“These things are evil,” I said the moment Olfijum’s feet hit the rock. “We shouldn’t be near it.”
“It’s a Doorway of the Heavens,” Tor said calmly. “And since it’s here, we’ll use it.”
“Will it work, honored Ko’roi?” Danix asked. “I was forced to use it to bring you the message. With magic returning to Ko’torenth so very slowly, will it work to take us back?”
Tor was shaking his head. “I don’t know. But I do know one thing.” He turned to me. “You want to find that key, right?”
“Yes,” I said. But I wanted to find Nasataa and Heron’s memories more. Could they really be hidden in a rod or rock somewhere?
“Then you’ll need to be marked by ko.”
“What?”
He smiled. In the bright sunlight, the crown-like golden tattoo around his head and the side of his face looked like he’d been kissed by the heavens.
“A marking like this crown,” he said, pointing to it. “But the Ko marks only show in the moonlight.”
“Will that open the Door of the Heavens to her, honored Ko’roi?” Danix asked.
“It will now,” Tor said with a smile. He looked to me again. “Anyone can enter the Door of Heavens from one side and it will lead you to another doorway. This one leads to the top tier of Ko’Loska. But, if you go through the other side, it can take a person to the World of Legends. At one time, anyone with ko could enter the World of Legends. That ended when I was marked as Ko’roi, but as magic is returning to the world and as I rebuild the World of Legends slowly, it is possible again for those with Ko to enter. We will need to get you some.”
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