Dragon Tide Omnibus 2)

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  I had to hold on to love and hope. But I wasn’t sure how you hoped when what you were hoping in seemed to be failing you and I didn’t know what use it was to love when love only made everything more painful and losses more pronounced.

  We scrambled through the ‘forest’ pursued by the darkness. Those strange flag-like red clouds waved gently in the water and it felt surreal to be dodging these spires in almost silence, alone except for our enemies.

  After long minutes – or maybe even hours – it was hard to tell in the middle of all of this – a blue glow became visible. And long, long minutes after that, an opening appeared ahead in the forest. In the very center of a clearing, a portal sat, glowing peacefully as always. Saerdes didn’t even slow.

  He slid into the clearing, darting directly for the portal and went down it like a worm into the earth. I checked to be sure Nasataa was still holding on as we plunged through into the other side and then checked to look over my shoulder at Heron as the air hit us and the water fell away.

  He wasn’t there.

  My heart seemed to stop in my chest, but then I saw him by the portal, jamming the symbols on the side like he had before in that cave after he rescued me.

  The light faded from the portal and the world around us went dark.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I’d had enough darkness for a lifetime. If I survived all of this, then I would carry a lantern with me everywhere for the rest of my life so I wouldn’t have to live in the darkness ever again.

  A light flared – one of the dragons.

  I looked around us and gasped. This place was spectacular.

  Blue dragons were carved in stone on every wall – and this wasn’t just a cave. The walls were carved flat and straight. There were doorways carved into the walls and a huge basin at the center of the room.

  Light flared again, and this time, Nasataa flamed over the basin and it lit, filling the room with an orange, wavering glow. It was meant to be a light, I realized.

  Slowly, I let go of Saerdes’ harness and slid to the floor to join Heron and Nasataa beside the basin.

  This place was once a meeting place between us and humans, Saerdes said. It was for a land of humans who no longer exist – the last of their line died in Tambrel, a human country. The wife of the king there was one of the last of the Troitan people – our friends. She spoke to our minds as you do, Seleska. She could hear our songs.

  My mother.

  As could all the Troitans. They were our ambassadors on the earth, to help us see what was coming. Even before they passed, we knew that the end was near. We built the portals with the help of the Troglodytes. And we made this place into a refuge. A place to find help when all else was lost.

  I looked around. The doors leading out of the main room were full of mystery. Was there a way out, or had Heron destroyed the only exit?

  There are four portals in this place. Four ways in and out. One comes out close to the Haroc. This was always the plan – if the Chosen One was found, they were to be brought here.

  And he’d done it. He’d brought us here.

  But the problem with a plan that everyone knows is that by now our enemy will know it, too. You must be quick before they find another portal and someone to open it for them. You must make our plans in haste and be gone from here as quickly as possible.

  I took a step and realized that I was standing in a puddle. It took me a moment to realize that I was standing in Saerdes’ blood. I rushed to his huge head and put my hand on his forehead.

  “Saerdes! You have sacrificed too much for us.”

  Only what was needed.

  Tears pricked my eyes and I wiped them harshly away.

  “He’s dying?” Heron asked, concern in his voice.

  He can’t hear me. I am too weak. I can speak only to you now.

  “He says this is a meeting place and a place to run to when you’re in trouble. He says we will be followed here, but there are portals and one of them might get us close to the Haroc.”

  “I destroyed the one closest to the Haroc,” Heron said, anxiety making his words tight and sharp.

  There is another. Look for the arrow pointing down.

  “He says there’s another with an arrow pointing down,” I said. “And there might be some kind of supplies here.”

  You must destroy all the portals to this place.

  But then he would certainly die here. There would be no escape.

  “We’ll have to destroy all the portals so we can’t be followed,” Heron said, and I shot him a look of pain. He wasn’t worried about Saerdes? He didn’t care that he would die here?

  He looked away, ashamed but not backing down and then he scrambled up the decorative steps and through the nearest door. Exploring, probably.

  Don’t hold it against him. He is correct. The entire world is counting on you to save it from the Draven and you can only do that if you make it impossible for them to follow you and stop you. That means I must die here. He is correct.

  I didn’t like admitting that.

  Already I feel weak.

  Heron emerged from the first door carrying a trident and two skins of fresh water.

  “Drink while you can,” he said, throwing one to me.

  I caught it and poured some in a nearby basin for Nasataa. He drank as greedily as I did. I hadn’t even realized I was so thirsty. My stomach rumbled unhappily, but there was nothing I could do about that. If we won – if we survived – I’d have to eat for months to gain back all the weight I was losing from days on end with very little food.

  “There’s a portal in that door that works. We’ll use that one to escape,” Heron said confidently. “I’ll go destroy any others.”

  “Wait!” I said, but it was too late. He was already striding to the nearby doorway. I closed my waterskin and slung it over my back, grabbing the Dragon Staff from Saerdes’ harness. We’d need any weaponry we could find. The trident was a nice touch for Heron.

  Saerdes leaned his head on the ground. His eyes flickered and then closed.

  Was he ...

  Not yet. But slowly, I return to the sea. I gift to you my song.

  I didn’t know what that meant. But there was singing in my mind, a sweet song, filled with longing and joy all intermingled in the salty tears of the sea.

  I gift to you the hope I have for the world.

  Nasataa came close and leaned against Saerdes with a whine. I don’t want him to go.

  I gift to the small one, my last breath.

  And then his huge lungs stopped breathing and he was still. Heron emerged from the second door.

  “I’ve disabled that one. I feel awful destroying such amazing craftsmanship and magic.”

  But he was already dashing through the third door. I didn’t like this. At all.

  There was a strange sound in the first room. A sound like a pebble dropping on stone. A furtive sound like someone stepping quietly.

  “Stop, Heron!” I yelled. “Don’t do it!”

  I was running before the thought was fully formed in my mind, pulling on Nasataa’s ear to bring him along with me.

  Saerdes – he began, but his mental voice was cut off at the same time that my second call to Heron was cut off halfway out of my lungs.

  “Her – ”

  Draven! There must be Draven near. I plummeted toward the door Heron had disappeared into. I just hoped he’d heard me in time. They must have come through that first portal when we weren’t looking. They must have followed us somehow!

  We were through the door and I caught a look of shock on Heron’s face and then my vision was gone.

  I didn’t know if he had closed the portal. I didn’t know if he had tuned it to the arrow pointing down. I didn’t have enough information at all. All I had was my hand on Nasataa’s ear and I refused to let go as I stumbled forward, Nasataa in one hand and the Dragon Staff in the other.

  The portal had been just ahead of us. If we hurried, we’d at least have a chance. I pres
sed forward, hoping I was aiming correctly for the portal.

  The silence was deafening. The blackness warred against the hope in my heart.

  My breathing was coming too fast when I hit the lip of the portal and stumbled over the edge. I half expected to hit my chin on the stone floor but the moment I fell through, I could see. We were underwater again, Nasataa and me. And I still had the staff.

  But that was the only good news.

  We stood in the old ruin of what had once been a stone building on the floor of the ocean. Far in the distance, I saw the mountain range that I knew led to the Haroc but I could also see the shapes of Draven moving over the ocean floor.

  Any moment now, they would notice me.

  And there was no sign of Heron anywhere.

  And I didn’t know how to close the portal glowing beside us.

  My heart was racing so quickly that I thought it might beat right through my chest.

  Episode Ten: Chosen One

  Chapter One

  I huddled against the side of the ruin, tucking Nasataa in close to me. The broken rocks and pillars disguised us, but would it be enough to hide us from the masses of Draven rolling across the ocean floor? From where I was hiding, I could see them in the distance. There were more than I could count. They completely surrounded the sea mountain where the Haroc was as their human helpers led trains of anthrods with burdens and cages on their backs toward the central spire.

  There was no way that we could get in there. Even if we could somehow sneak in unnoticed, that many Draven would leave us blind and deaf. They didn’t need to do anything to make it impossible for us to penetrate their ranks.

  My breathing was coming too rapidly, and I tucked my knees to my chest, huddling against the rock, and tried to calm down. I didn’t know what had happened to Heron. Every second that passed was like an eternity. I didn’t dare go back through the portal. I couldn’t leave Nasataa here alone. We had to get him to the Haroc somehow. But I also couldn’t lock the portal. I didn’t know how, but even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to lock Heron in there. Not when I knew it meant sure death.

  I clutched the Dragon Staff, gritted my teeth and watched the portal. We should be moving. If the Draven came through instead of Heron, then they would capture us, and all this would be over. But if we didn’t wait – if we went on without him, then what would happen to Heron?

  I chewed my lip, torn by indecision, and I played with the Dragon Staff in my hand. It was a strange thing. I hadn’t thought much about it since Vyvera first gave it to me – other than to figure out how to use it. It turned back magic, like a thing that was both shield and mirror. It had worked on Manticores and on Bubblers. Would it work on Draven?

  But how could you turn back blindness? How could you turn back deafness?

  Beside me, Nasataa began to squirm. Was he anxious to leave?

  I see ...

  And then a vision crashed through his mind and he shared it with me.

  I could see Draven ringing a skycity. Dragons and men fought side by side against them, on foot, in the air, and with weapons or fire. There were more people then I’d ever seen in one place before. A roaring, raging mass of humanity and dragonkind standing and bleeding side by side in the muddy fields around the city.

  Far in the distance, high up on the walls of the sky city I saw the faces of those they were defending looking down and watching as their protectors fought for their lives. The orange glow of sunset lit the fields and washed over the agonized faces torn with hope and despair, ripping apart with fear and desperation.

  I gasped as the image fled. Beside me, Nasataa was shaking in the water, sucking in long gasps of breath as he tried to calm himself. I reached toward him and he darted into my arms, whimpering.

  “Shhhh,” I whispered. We couldn’t afford to be heard. There were too many eyes outside the ruins.

  When he calmed, I twisted in the water and floated up to look over the edge of the broken wall. There was a dark form not far away – an anthrod with a human on it’s back. It stood very still, facing away from me. Was that a guard? Had they set a guard over this portal?

  I craned my neck to look a little further around the edge of the ruin.

  There was another one! Just a little way down and around the ruin from where the first man and anthrod stood. More than one guard. That wasn’t good.

  My breath caught in my throat as tension washed over me. But it made sense, didn’t it? After all, if they knew this portal was here, then they knew it was a vulnerability and an asset and in both cases, it would be vital to guard it.

  I slid back down the wall. If I’d been out of the water, my hands would have been clammy. This changed everything. How were we supposed to sneak out of here when the place was being watched by guards?

  Nasataa butted his head against me and I hugged him absently, my mind racing. It would be a good disguise to pretend to be a human on an anthrod. That might be a way to sneak past the guards. But what would I do with Nasataa? I couldn’t easily disguise him. He was getting so big now that I thought I could probably ride on his back. And how would I get the clothing of one of those humans? They wore Rock Eater patches over their mouths and were dressed in Bubbler red. Any violence to them would be immediately spotted and they were unlikely to just give me their clothing.

  Trick them?

  It was a good idea, but how would we do that?

  I bit my lip to think but barely bit back a scream when something leapt through the portal, a dark cloud streaming around him. He screamed as he passed through the portal.

  He was going to give us away!

  The bubbles cleared and I nearly gasped with relief when I was it was Heron. Our eyes met for a moment and then something tugged at his leg.

  “Wait here!” I hissed at Nasataa, swimming toward Heron but he was already calling to me.

  “Don’t! Stay back!”

  He was tugged a foot into the portal. And then another.

  With a grunt he leapt forward again, his eyes rolling back into his head as a second arm of darkness reached around him and tugged him backward.

  This had better work.

  I leveled the Dragon Staff as I pulled up beside him, aiming it toward the arms – but I didn’t have to. From behind me, a bolt like lightning streaked out and hit the arm. It released Heron, dropping back through the portal. Another blast hit the arm around his leg.

  Heron leapt in the water, trying to get distance between himself and the Draven on the other side while I hit the buttons around the rim at random.

  My hand landed on a spiral shape and I hit it hard.

  The arms disappeared as the portal exploded, knocking me backward with the force. I was sailing through the water before I’d even realized I was successful.

  When I landed, I knew immediately that our chance at sneaking around had just escaped with Heron.

  Chapter Two

  Had that just happened?

  Was Heron really okay? Had he made it through the portal?

  Something grabbed my arm and my spin through the water stopped abruptly as pain flared in my shoulder.

  Nnngh.

  I clenched my teeth against the pain and saw Nasataa – wide-eyed – staring back at me with my arm in one paw and Heron’s in the other. He’d caught us both from the blast.

  Whew.

  My gaze skittered to Heron – his collar that generated a breathing bubble was still in place and the trident he’d found was still in one hand. I wanted to ask him if he was okay, but after that blast, I was afraid that all the guards would be coming for us. A single word and they might hear me and close in.

  He nodded at me encouragingly as if he agreed, his eyes locking with mine for a brief moment before Nasataa’s movements jarred me again.

  Nasataa pulled us in close to the ruined wall, tucking in as tight as he could to the masonry. Could he do that lightning thing again?

  It felt like I was reflecting their power back at them. Only it came out like l
ightning. It was like I was making them blind and deaf.

  Hmmm. That would be ... amazing. But there was no time to consider it. Bubbles swirled around the wall. Something was coming in hot.

  I sank back against the stone of the wall, hugging my body to it as tightly as I could and Nasataa released my arm.

  As soon as he let go an anthrod head snaked into view, followed quickly by the rest of him and his rider. I heard a clucking sound from beside me and the anthrod turned toward us. The moment he moved toward where we hid, Heron leapt, grabbing the Bubbler by his red robes and pulling him from the Anthrod.

  The Bubbler aimed his bubble rod, but I already had the Dragon Staff ready and was thinking about all the things I had to be grateful – the sacrifice of the Troglodytes and Saerdes to get us here. Heron’s safe arrival back with us. Nasataa’s new power – I was thankful for it all. I pushed that feeling into the rod, letting it burst out and reflect the bubbles back at our opponent.

  Heron already had the man off the Anthrod, and as he pulled him through the water, he ripped the bubble rod from his grip and then jabbed it at the man. There was a chittering sound and then the anthrod lunged toward me. I leveled the Dragon Staff, swallowing down fear, but I needn’t have bothered. Nasataa sailed through the water, opened his powerful jaws and bit down on the anthrod’s face. The crab-like creature tried to back up, but the little dragon held his ground, tugging at the creature as its huge pinchers snapped at him.

  I leapt forward, jabbing with my Dragon Staff at the exposed belly of the anthrod. The blade of the staff stuck in and I pushed with all my might. The blade had found a crack between the upper shell and lower shell and as I shoved, Nasataa wrenched at the underside of the anthrod. With a sickening pop, the lower shell tore away from the upper shell and his green guts spilled through the water in a cloud of gore.

  I clenched my eyes and mouth shut, clawing out of the gruesome morass to cleaner water. By the time I had shaken the gore away, I saw Nasataa shaking the upper shell with his jaw and then slipping under it so that it hung over his frame. From even this short distance away he almost looked like an anthrod.