“I saw another door like this, honored – ”
“Not you, too,” he interrupted.
“What?”
“I have begged the Dragon Riders to stop calling me ‘honored Ko’roi’ all the time. It makes me sound ancient.” He gave Danix a sharp look. “Don’t tell me you’re going to do it, too.”
“What else should I call you?”
“Tor.”
“Okay, Tor,” his name felt strange all by itself like that. He felt like someone who ought to have an important title. I saw where the Dragon Riders were coming from. “I saw another door like this. They dragged my baby dragon through it, but when I tried to follow, it led to nowhere.”
He nodded with understanding. “They shut it somehow.”
“They’re shutting doorways?” Danix seemed shocked.
“That alone is a crime,” Tor agreed. “But if they can shut the doorways, it’s possible that they also were able to give themselves Ko and enter the World of Legends.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means this will be harder than we thought.” He frowned. “But we’ll just have to take the gamble.”
“Ready?”
“For what?” I couldn’t help the anxiety in my voice. Why did he just jump so quickly into everything?
“We’ll go through the door to Ko’Loska. Then you’ll put your hands on the frame and hope it has enough magic left to give you ko so you can step through the other side of the door and enter the World of Legends.”
“Does it mark everyone?” I asked.
“Only the ones it hates,” he said wryly. “Come on, time is wasting.”
“Then why not do it here, on this doorway?”
He grinned, “Because Danix and I have to get to Ko’Loska. So, we’ll use the magic for that first and if there’s enough left over, we’ll use it to give you ko after that.”
“Oh.” It was nakedly serving his own agenda, but I had the feeling that Tor was an essentially honest person under all that charm. He didn’t mind acknowledging that his priorities were different from mine.
Cavivio stepped forward into the doorway and Olfijum followed right on his tale. Even knowing what was supposed to happen, I still gasped when Cavivio and his riders disappeared into the doorway. We were next and I braced myself, ready for anything, but all I felt was a brief flash of pain and coldness and then we were on the other side.
It was a good thing that I wasn’t afraid of heights.
We emerged on the top of a roof, on top of a mountain in front of an empty doorframe identical to the one we’d just left. In the light swirling snow, everything seemed surreal. Frigid air hit me like a punch to the gut, but so much worse than the cold was the smoke spiraling upward and the screams from below.
I leapt from Olfijum’s back, ran to the edge of the parapet, and looked down. An entire city was built layer upon layer, level upon level, up the side of this mountain, but at the base of the mountain, a wide glowing red fissure pulsed as strange figures seemed to ooze out of it like puss. What in the –
“Seleska!” Tor shouted to me. “We don’t have time for sight-seeing! Get over here!”
I ran to where he was, and his fierce eyes brought me back to the task at hand. The key. I had to get it. He was the one to fight the battle here.
“Put your hands here, and here,” he said, pointing to two leaves carved into the doorframe. I hadn’t even realized they were there. “Are you a gambler?”
“I don’t think so,” I said, a little stunned by the haste.
“Well, let’s hope you can learn to be.”
I put my hands where he told me to, and a pain shot through them like grabbing a hot poker before it had cooled. I gasped, releasing the doorway, and looked down at my hands. They seemed fine.
Behind me, Cavivio stamped impatiently.
“Did it – ”
“No time to check,” he said, grabbing me by the arm and practically flinging me toward Olfijum. “If you want your friends to come, you’ll have to go through together – but remember if they go in, they might face danger.”
“Worse than this war?” I asked, pointing toward the spirals of smoke. Somewhere in the distance, a loud horn sounded, like a warning to the people inhabiting Ko’Loska.
“Maybe,” he said seriously. “Ready to take a gamble?”
I nodded, stunned by the swiftness of all of this.
“Then go,” he said as he leapt back onto Cavivio’s back. “And remember, ‘Only the strong in courage a mark will find.’ Be strong and courageous, don’t let terror overcome you. And look for the mark! I have a nation to save – again.”
And then Cavivio was leaping up into the air and I was clearing my throat nervously.
“Okay,” I said to Olfijum and Heron. “If you don’t want to go in with me, then you’d better wait here.”
I’m coming. Olfijum said.
I looked back at Heron. He was watching me speculatively.
“Are you a princess or something?” he asked.
“Why do you ask?” I hedged.
He shook his head like he was confused. “You just seem to be ... royal.”
“Do you want to come with us through the doorway?” I asked gently.
He nodded. “Atura is in there.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“She had me swallow a stone. And the stone lets me know where she is and lets her know where I am.”
He seemed so peaceful about that, like it was no big deal that he was now Atura’s property. I swallowed down bile.
“Was it a person’s soul?” I asked harshly.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. But I dream of fire.”
That answer was way too creepy for me, so I just swallowed down the butterflies in my belly and faced forward again. It was time to take that gamble.
“Let’s go,” I said aloud.
Chapter Seventeen
We stepped through the doorway, a wave of cold rushing through me, and stepped into a world like none other I’d ever seen. The sky was a thick velvety purple and the ground was black as night where the doorway stood beside us. There was light, but it didn’t come from any source I could see, it just lit the place in a dull, twilight hue.
We stood on what seemed to be an island connected to other islands all around us by bridges or steps, but the islands hung in the air in unnatural ways, trailing hanging plants or even plunging waterfalls, but not suspended in anything – not floating in water or hanging by cables or supported by a structure below. One island just floated near another – above or below or to the side seemed to make no difference at all. My stomach lurched at the thought that the island we stood on was likely equally unsupported.
No wonder Tor had called his place magic!
“Atura,” Heron breathed reverently, and my blood began to boil as the rock in my belly grew hot.
“There you are,” a voice like a bell said.
I looked up and to the side a little squinting to see Atura on an island about four above where we were. It was hard to make out more than her silhouette looking down at us and the wings and tails of Manticores nearby.
“I’ve been waiting for you. If you hadn’t arrived soon, I would have had to torture the little dragon to find you.”
I gasped, hope and fear springing up in equal measures. I felt hope at the fact that Nasataa must still be alive and fear about what she must have done to him.
“Why wait for me?” I asked boldly. “Why not just get the key and go? I thought this was a race.”
“So it is!” She called down with a tinkling laugh. “But whoever designed this little artificial world knew to hide the key well. To access it, two people must race.”
“And you didn’t race one of your Bubblers?”
She laughed again. “Trust me, I tried that, but you have to race an opponent – a human opponent, so not the dragonlet – and this rock-splitting thing can tell if they aren’t really your adversary. I don’t h
ave time to torture one of my own for long enough to truly make him my adversary, so your arrival is timely.”
I felt ill at her words.
“Do you want to wait here?” I whispered to Heron and Olfijum.
No.
Olfijum was kicking off before I realized it, gliding up through the islands like a fish through water. Oddly, this strange floating world made me think of an underwater home. I glanced back at Heron, but his eyes danced with excitement. Great. Just great.
As we leveled off at the island above, the Manticores there hissed and snapped.
“Enough! Back!” Atura commanded and they cleared enough space for Olfijum to land.
The atmosphere was tense around Atura but Tor had told me I needed to be brave. Did he know this was where I would be going?
Yes.
How would he know that?
He built this place. And many other places contained within. It’s his job – or one of them. Cavivio told me all about it. The Ko’roi rules Ko’Torenth but he also rules the World of Legends – the place where their dead go and where the living are tested. The testing ground is supposed to be an ancient forest of trees with long-dead heroes conducting the tests, but Tor burned the place to the ground.
I gasped.
Apparently, he had to. Anyway, it takes time to grow a forest and gather heroes – even if they’re all spirits – so this is a temporary solution and we’ll have to make do with any spirits nearby.
So, this was a poor girl’s version of the World of Legends?
In essence, yes.
I was flattered.
“Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to join me?” Atura asked, gesturing to a huge metal scale with a basket-like seat on each end.
“What is that?” I breathed.
“The competition. It will weigh us one against the other. I suspect you’ll be a little light if they’re comparing our talent, accomplishments ... or even just our common sense.”
“I guess I should have eaten more cake,” I said dryly, but Atura didn’t laugh.
“You take the test, or the baby dragon dies,” she said, motioning to the Bubblers.
“Nasataa!” I gasped as they brought out his cage.
Sela! I missed you!
He was alive! I blinked back tears of relief.
I stepped toward the cage, but something drove into my jaw, forcing me to stop. It was a rod held in Atura’s hand – a red stone rod the length of my forearm.
“Stay right there,” she warned.
Was Nasataa okay?
I’m cramped and hungry. But otherwise, I’m fine.
He could speak in full sentences now! I’d missed his first ones!
They did something to Heron.
I knew that. Hang in there, Nasataa! I will free you somehow.
I will keep an eye out for an opening, Olfijum said to me.
“We need to have a little talk, Seleska,” Atura said mildly, but I didn’t like the gleam in her eye.
“What do you want to talk about?” I asked.
“About whether we’re going to kill your friends right now or whether you’re going to give me what I want.”
Chapter Eighteen
“You know that you’re the villain in this story, right?” I said through clenched teeth.
“Only to you,” Atura said mildly. “In my story, I am the sole pillar of honor – the brave princess willing to take any chance, to risk any harm, to destroy any enemy for the sake of my people and our honored allies, the Dravens and Manticores. You only think I’m the villain because you stand with those who will lose this fight. You stand for weakness, loss of magic, waste, and prejudice. We stand for strength and community, for magic and power.”
“Community? Don’t make me laugh!”
“Did you learn nothing in our lands? Each person serves the whole. Each person gives of their dreams and labor to the Saaasallla and the Saaasallla gives back safety, security and wholeness. No person is complete outside the community. It is your fierce independence that has ruined you and all the people connected to the dragons. It is my willingness to serve that has kept me whole and favored.”
“And your diet of human souls?”
She smiled wickedly. “That’s just a bonus.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Atura,” Heron sighed from behind me as my face grew hot with embarrassment for him.
Atura smiled widely. “I will attend to you soon, Heron. Have patience.”Her words were fond for him but she swiveled back to me as her expression hardened. “I want competition. This device will not work for me alone.”
“What good will it do you?” I asked sharply. “You don’t even have the other key.”
She laughed, taking the red rod from under my chin and tapping her temple with it. “Oh, but I do.”
Did she mean that after the Bubbler died in the pool, she’d gone in herself and succeeded? Was that even possible?
“And if I compete with you, then you’ll let my friends go?” I asked sharply.
She laughed again. Yeah, I was a riot. She pulled a glowing stone out of her pocket and bounced it up and down on her hand. It glowed red, drawing the eye. Who had she trapped in there?
“Not at all. But I’ll let one of them go. And I’ll let you pick which one. How’s that?”
I gasped. There was no way I could pick. She smirked as I thought, bouncing the rock again on her palm and catching it with hands so fast I could barely keep up, like she was playing a game with both it and me.
You’ll pick the baby. And I will fight for Heron.
Olfijum was being too noble. Fighting to the death was not his responsibility.
I think that you and I both embraced death days ago. We’re only just realizing it now.
And once again, we were of one accord. But I hated to just concede.
“You’ll have to throw in that red rock,” I said, pointing to the rock she was playing with. Maybe I could save one more soul if I won. Just one. And I didn’t even know whose it was, but wasn’t every soul precious?
She laughed again, this time, with a wry twist to her mouth. “I think I like the irony of that. To give you the prison to hold onto when you don’t even know what dwells within. And if you swallowed it, it would kill you – ah, that irony is pure gold.” She was silent a moment, seeming to almost gloat in her choice. “So, let it be done. We will compete. And if you win, you may save the life of one friend and keep the rock. And if you lose, everyone dies.”
I felt a chill as she took a step back, gesturing to the basket seats. “Shall we?”
Chapter Nineteen
I sat down in the basket – though it wasn’t exactly a basket, almost more like a birdcage missing the door but so tightly woven of metal strands that it easily held my weight. I let my legs dangle out the side of it. I’d brought the Dragon Staff with me, though I wasn’t sure what I expected to do with it.
“Ready?” one of the Bubblers asked.
They’d formed a ring around the huge scales, the Manticores a bit further out. It was surreal – as if I were dreaming all this. This couldn’t be real, could it?
I could see Nasataa’s cage from where I sat, and Olfijum edging just a little closer to it every time no one was looking. Heron was still in his saddle, but the way he leaned his whole body toward Atura made my skin crawl and my belly ache. He broke my heart with every breath.
“Ready!” Atura agreed and the Bubbler lifted the bar that held the scale still.
Everything froze around me, as if time was standing still and a spectral figure emerged from thin air.
I gasped.
He only had half a face. The rest was just missing. So was half his body and one of his arms. The edges of him that still existed were ragged and dark, as if he was a scrap of paper left over from a fire.
“I am Gautm of the Goat Water Tribe, returned to the World of Legends by the Ko’roi to serve as tester of the people.”
“Are you ok
ay?” I asked, my eyes huge at the sight of his burned body. His only clothing was a pair of loose pants – or what had once been a pair of loose pants. Now there was only half of an orange waistband wrapped many times around his waist and shreds of white cloth that covered one leg to the knee. The other leg did not require clothing since it wasn’t there at all.
“There is no pain for the dead,” he said calmly. “But the last two to be tested burned our world to ash and I alone of the ancestors has returned to test the faithful.”
“Get on with your test, old man,” Atura said sharply. “We didn’t come here for reminisces.”
Gautm frowned but he continued. “This test revives your ghosts. It tests your courage. It delves your soul – ”
“Do you have the key?” Atura interrupted again. What had her so agitated?
And then, suddenly, another flickering figure appeared beside her.
“Hubric!” I said, the joy in my voice temporarily driving my fear away. “You’re here!”
“Sort of,” he said, but though he was a specter, his smile was real.
“Of course, he’s here, Atura said acidly. “How else would I have the knowledge to open the World of Legends or even find this door.”
“Humility, Atura, will take you much further in life,” Hubric scolded.
“Didn’t you see me swallow the stone?” Atura asked me.
“Of course,” I agreed.
“And a haughty spirit will bring destruction,” Hubric said.
“He’s useful, but extremely irritating. Try listening to this man in your head lecturing you half the time!”
Interesting. What would it do to someone like Atura to have Hubric lecturing her in her mind?
I missed Hubric. But it was strange that he was here. Perhaps, like Gautm said, we brought our own ghosts. I looked around for mine and saw a silent Octon glaring at Atura. I almost jumped.
“Octon!” I gasped.
He simply nodded. “Keep an eye on the enemy.”
“Shall we return to the task at hand?” Gautm asked mildly. I gave him my best smile. Anyone who was irritated with Atura was an instant friend of mine.
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