Dragon Tide Omnibus 2)

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  That sounds awfully familiar.

  “What stopped him?” I asked. And what had animated the ones we encountered?

  “Not a what, but a who – the Ko’roi. He was our unexpected hero. He has the ability to suck these souls back and return them to the World of Legends. From there, they can go on to the Lands of the Dead.”

  “Could he return all souls like that?” I asked hopefully. If I’d known that, I would have asked him to help me with the rock in my belly and to help Heron with the rock I’d accidentally fed him.

  “I do not know,” Bareena said. “Perhaps. The Ko’roi is surprisingly adept. It is possible, but he has his own responsibilities to deal with now. As does the Dominar in the Dominion. In her lands, the trouble came from the Dusk Covenant. There, the Troglodytes gifted their human allies with Truth magic. All Troglodyte gifts are like that – truth, gratitude, forgiveness. These things are more powerful than you can imagine.”

  It was a nice sentiment. And I knew that gratitude fueled my Dragon Staff, but what were truth and forgiveness next to thousands of stolen souls?

  “I can see by your face that you discount the power of these things. I will try to convince you of their power – but not yet. We are nearly at our destination. I found this by accident once and I knew immediately that it was the place the prophecy spoke of. Have you read this one? Last hope after all falls, the small one blue and bright, But only if he finds the pool with matching light. Sounds like your dragon. Doesn’t it? And there aren’t many lit pools out there.”

  She might be surprised if she knew how many I’d already seen.

  “Can you get the Purple dragon to angle down into the center of the ring of mountain peaks? The ones that look like a crown?”

  I heard her, Olfijum muttered. No need to treat me like a mindless horse.

  He was already dropping altitude, streaking toward the crown of rapped mountaintops.

  “When we get to the center, you’ll see the pool.”

  “There isn’t a key there, is there?” I asked.

  “Unfortunately, there is not. The places where the keys are hidden are somewhat mysterious, though there are rumors that the Dusk Covenant made a map of every site.”

  I reached into my belt pouch and carefully pulled out the map that had belonged to Jeriath.

  “A map like this?” I asked Bareena, handing her the map.

  This time, it was her turn to have her jaw drop open.

  “Where did you get this?” she asked.

  “I helped a dying man,” I said. “A traitor, but even traitors don’t deserve to die like he was.”

  Bareena smiled. “And you said you didn’t believe that forgiveness was powerful. And yet, it gave us this map.”

  Chapter Five

  Bareena was still studying the map as Olfijum circled the pool in the center of the mountains. It was a brilliant blue, almost as blue as the little dragon following behind us. But I could see why it made such an impression on Bareena. I’d seen lakes and rivers from the air before and sometimes they had a blue look, but usually, they were grey or green. This one was so bright, so blue that it couldn’t just be the water making it that bright. Around it, huge chunks of rocks lay scattered as if thrown around the pool at random and nothing grew – not grass or trees or even thorny bushes.

  It felt ... otherworldly. As if we had accidentally stepped into a story.

  When doesn’t it seem like we’ve stepped into a story?

  Olfijum had a point.

  Are we going into the pool, Seleska? Nasataa sounded incredibly eager. It had been a while since he’d been in the water and I felt the twang of homesickness in his mental voice.

  We’d probably have to. So far, all the underwater portals had been underwater. I laughed at my own thoughts. I’d have to check Olfijum’s saddlebags to see if Heron’s breathing patches were still in there. We might need them for him and Bareena.

  Inconveniently, they won’t fit me. I’m starting to resent that.

  Sorry, Olfijum.

  We landed beside the pool as a cold breeze blasted the rocky plateau. It froze me to the core, blasting through my cloak and clothing. Maybe getting underwater wasn’t the worst idea. At least it would protect us from the blast.

  I’m not cold at all, Nasataa said as he leaned against Olfijum.

  I reached down to caress his head and frowned. Could dragons run a fever?

  We don’t really get too hot – ever, Olfijum said.

  And yet, Nasataa felt hotter than he usually did. I tried not to let that worry me too much. Even if he was running one, he could fight it off, right?

  Bareena slid down from Olfijum’s back first, her face still buried in the map.

  “It’s clear. These are the sites of the keys. I’m certain of it. But there are more sites listed here than keys. How many keys have you found so far?”

  “Just two,” I said.

  “And how many were you told to look for?”

  “Three.”

  “Hmmm. Well, there are five marked here if I’m reading this correctly. And two of them make no sense at all.”

  She had tottered over to stand beside Nasataa who yawned dramatically. He didn’t care about maps. But it struck me for the first time that he was larger than her. His head level with her grey-haired one. Wow. He was growing so quickly! Even with Vyvera and Hubric’s warnings, I hadn’t realized it before.

  He wasn’t really a baby anymore.

  “Do you think the map marks other things, too?” I asked, looking in the saddlebags for the breathing patches and pulling two of them out with a satisfied smile. Perfect!

  Heron slid from Olfijum’s back carefully and offered me a hand down.

  “Oh, thank you.”

  That was surprising. He hadn’t been in his right mind for so long that I had started to discount him. A gesture like that ... well, it made a difference.

  “You mattered to me, didn’t you?” he asked quietly as I slid down from Olfijum’s back, a small smile on his lips.

  I landed on the ground so close to him that our bodies almost touched, and a little thrill shot through me.

  “Do you ... remember that?” I asked shyly, afraid to hope.

  “No,” he said with a frown and the way he frowned made his lovely face look so sad. “But I do remember other things. I think. Unless I’m imagining it.”

  “What do you remember?” I asked gently.

  He laughed as if laughing at himself and then rubbed the top of his head with his hand – that thing he always did when he was nervous or uncomfortable. I hadn’t seen him do it in so long. I held my breath, waiting for the answer.

  “I don’t know,” he said after a moment, shaking his head ruefully. “I just remember everything being greener.”

  I tried not to let the disappointment in my heart flicker in my eyes. Instead, I gave him my best encouraging smile.

  “I’m sure your memories will come back!” I said, but I didn’t believe any of it.

  And part of me wondered if we should leave him somewhere the first time we came to a safe place.

  Not here, obviously. Not somewhere war-torn, but Baojang might be peaceful and if it is, then maybe we should find him a safe place to wait until our journey is over. Right now, even with his mind gone and his attachment to Atura dissolved – maybe? – he still has no memories. He can’t help us, and he can only get hurt along the way.

  I gasped at Olfijum’s analysis.

  It’s not that I don’t care about him. I do. But why get him killed when he can’t defend himself? It might be kinder to spare his life by leaving him somewhere peaceful.

  Did he really think we were all going to die, then?

  I think it is a distinct possibility.

  And ... he was okay with that?

  I have decided to go with you and Nasataa for as long as I can help, no matter what happens. But I don’t want to see Heron die. Especially if he is not in his right mind.

  If I was being honest, ne
ither did I. I took the dragon staff from Olfijum’s saddle and shot Heron a last look.

  It felt empty to love someone who didn’t know you anymore. It felt hollow. And I didn’t know what to do with that, because I knew that if our positions were reversed, he would have held me in those huge arms and protected me and kept me safe forever, even if I never again acknowledged him. He would have done better by me than I was doing by him. Protecting the ones he loved had always come easily to him. He was a natural.

  But would he take me into danger, knowing I was helpless? Would he have chosen to leave me somewhere to keep me safe?

  “You look sad,” he whispered, his dark eyes clouding with mirrored sadness. “Have I made you sad? I don’t think that I want to make you sad, Seleska.”

  I tried to smile as I gently laid a hand on his arm. “Don’t blame yourself, Heron. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

  A throat cleared and I turned to look at Bareena.

  “Is this why it’s taking you so long to find the keys even with a map? Have you two been mooning over each other this whole time?” She shook her head as if she was disappointed. “Well, come over here and look at what I’ve found before this map gets wet again.”

  Chapter Six

  Bareena pointed to the map. “See? There’s a mark here near this island in the Dominion. Is this one you visited in the Dominion? The place where you found the key there?”

  I nodded.

  “Did you notice an arrow pointing up by any chance?”

  I gasped. I hadn’t noticed that before.

  “That’s the arrow I saw when I received the key.”

  “And it points north on the map. Toward the key in Ko’Torenth.”

  “Ummm, maybe?” I said. Wasn’t that kind of jumping to conclusions?

  “And did you see another arrow when you received the next key – the one in the World of Legends? Maybe an arrow pointing right? Like the one on this map?”

  I stared at the map as the memory flickered through my mind. I had seen an arrow pointing right – in the smoke with the words. Hmmm.

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  “On the map, it points to Baojang,” Bareena said with satisfaction. “Which means that if we go there next, we have a chance of finding the next key and the next arrow.”

  “Can’t you just tell by looking at the map?” Heron asked, hesitantly. He never would have been hesitant before. He’d lost his confidence.

  “There are two spots located on the map in Baojang,” Bareena said calmly. “See? Here and here. And each of them is marked by an arrow pointing a different way. One points further east. The other points south. We need to know which one points to the key.”

  I swallowed, but this was good information. If she was right about this, it would help us find our way to the next key. And if this had belonged to the Dusk Covenant – our enemies – then Atura probably already knew all of this.

  “That’s very good, Bareena,” I said. “Thank you.”

  She smiled and folded the map up before handing it back to me with a wistful air. “Don’t lose it. I’m sure there’s more to be mined from it. But it belongs with you and not with these old hands. Now, what are we waiting for? Let’s see if you can do something with this pool.”

  I cleared my throat, suddenly nervous.

  “I’ll be back in a moment,” I said.

  I thought about stripping off my outer clothing, but if she was right and we all had to go into the pool, everything was going to end up wet anyway. That had been fine back in the islands of my home, but here where the weather was gusty and cold it was a lot less comfortable.

  I stepped into the water, wincing as the cold leaked into my boots and crawled up my leg. Another step and it was almost to my waist. I shivered. The drop-off was steep. One more step and I was in over my head, breathing in my first breath of water.

  I was never going to get over how amazing that was – that I could breathe both water and air. I felt a smile tickling my lips at the thought and I drew in a huge breath to savor the freshness of the mountain pool. It was an even brighter blue under the surface than it had been above it and as I gazed down into the depths, the brightness increased. Something down there was glowing.

  Excited, I swam down toward it at the same moment that something plunged into the water beside me. I spun in a jumpy reaction, but it was only Nasataa, giving me a dragony smile as he plunged deeper into the water. I was stunned by how big he had grown. Hadn’t he been riding on my shoulders just a short time ago? And now his head was up to my chest. It wouldn’t be long until he was as big as Olfijum.

  I’m going to end up waaaay bigger than him! He said jubilantly into my mind.

  What makes you think that?

  Have you seen Blue dragons? They’re ten times the size of those Purple ones.

  I froze. He was right! He was going to be massive. No wonder he was growing so fast!

  Shaking my head, I followed him down into the depths. At the bottom of the pool, there was a portal, just like the ones we’d seen in the ocean floor. How incredibly odd. A rim of rock was set around it, inscribed with glowing symbols – symbols I still couldn’t discern although now that I was looking for it, I saw that some of them looked like the stylized arrows of the keys.

  Interesting.

  I found my bearings and then looked. Was there one that pointed east? I thought this one might. Carefully, I depressed that rune. The portal seemed to glow brighter – though it may have been my imagination. I gave it a good look – it would be just big enough for Olfijum to swim through. But could he hold his breath long enough to get to it? I thought so. It wasn’t nearly as long of a swim as even the first half of his swim in the warrens – but we didn’t know where it might end up. It could take us to the bottom of the ocean. He’d have a difficult decision to make.

  No, it’s not difficult.

  He said that now, but he might feel differently if he died as a result of this. He’d been saying that they should leave Heron somewhere safe. Maybe I should leave them both here. They could find a safe place together.

  Not going to happen.

  He was just being stubborn.

  Tell me you don’t need me.

  I ...

  Yeah, that’s what I thought.

  Chapter Seven

  I broke the surface of the water and swam back up to them.

  “Okay,” I said, “We can try this. I think you’ll need to be touching Nasataa or me when we go through the portal. And Heron and Bareena will need to wear breathing patches. Don’t take them off until you’re sure you won’t need them anymore.”

  I showed them how to attach the patches and then they joined me in the pool.

  “Don’t be afraid,” I said, looking at Heron’s troubled eyes. I’d forgotten that with his memory gone, he would have no idea what we were doing. “This patch will help you breathe underwater. It’s a great adventure!”

  I reached out and took his hand, pulling him after me into the water.

  Okay, here goes nothing.

  Bareena’s eyes were wide as we plunged toward the portal, and I had the feeling that she was as excited by this adventure as I was the first time. Maybe, if I was lucky, I’d be like her when I was old, still out looking for adventures long past the time people thought I would be doing that.

  I smiled at the thought and pulled Heron after me. This was going to work. Underwater stuff was my kind of thing. I felt safe under here.

  I didn’t feel any anxiety until Olfijum dove through the water streaking toward us.

  Oh yes – we were on a time limit – for him.

  Lead the way, Nasataa.

  My young dragon swam toward the portal and I followed, with Bareena and Heron right behind me. I held Heron’s hand and the dragon staff and he held Bareena’s hand – it was just a hunch, but I thought everyone would need to be touching either Nasataa or me to go through.

  Nasataa plunged through the portal with Olfijum clutching his tail between ge
ntle teeth and I felt my heart in my throat as I watched them go. The other side had to be safe – right?

  Olfijum’s tail had barely cleared the portal – both of them disappearing into the light – when I darted after them, pulling the others with me. The light embraced us, and I felt a tug as if I was being pulled down a steep chute and then as I dropped in a burst of bubbles, I was spat out into new water.

  The yellowish murky water smelled of something acerbic. I ignored it, dropping Heron’s hand as I spun, frantically looking for the dragons.

  There!

  Above me, I saw them kicking toward a light source. The surface, I thought. Wherever we’d landed, this water source was deep. I could barely see that light. I just hoped beyond hope that Olfijum could get to air in time.

  Anxiously, I grabbed Heron’s hand again and began to kick up to the surface with him and Bareena.

  The water felt strange around me. Almost as if the world was shaking, but that didn’t make sense. I must just still be disoriented from the journey through the portal.

  It was, indeed, a long way up. But dragons were big, right? And with his wings to help propel him through the water, Olfijum should be faster than I was. He should be up to the surface by now. It would be fast enough. I just needed to believe that.

  There he was!

  I angled us to the side to break the surface beside him, but the rock was narrowing here. I kicked through the narrow gap, surfacing in a crack of water about as wide as my body with a rocky roof just over my head. I could leave the pool here, but it would be a tight fit for Heron. Quickly, I crawled out of the opening as I coughed, choking on air as usual. Behind me, I already heard the others surfacing. I crawled out from under the rock ledge. We were in a narrow crevice of yellowish rock, wreathed in shadow. Above me, the sun looked bright, but here in the crevice where it was dark and deep, not a plant bloomed nearby. There was nothing here but rock and dust.

  I heard a skittering sound and thought it was a mouse or snake but then the earth began to ripple under my feet, and I realized the skittering sound was loose pebbles falling into the crevice.