Dragon Tide Omnibus 2)

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  I shuddered, turning to where Heron stood over the fallen Bubbler. He was already pulling on his red robes, the rod clutched in his hand.

  That was ... genius. Really. There were just two problems. Problem one was that this was not the only guard and there were sure to be more coming in a moment. Problem two was that I didn’t have a fancy Bubbler cloak.

  Heron pulled the robe around his collar from Bareena, disguising the bubble of air that let him breathe with the hood of the robes.

  As I watched, he looked up, gave me a warm smile and then his face fell as he looked behind me.

  I spun.

  Behind me, two more anthrods were slipping into the ruin – each with their own Bubbler rider.

  Instinctively, I raised my staff as one of them charged forward and the other spun around.

  Heron says don’t let him escape!

  Since when was my little dragon a war leader?

  Since I began to grow up.

  I leapt forward, dodging the stream of dark bubbles that the Bubbler sent my way and swimming up through the water toward the fleeing Bubbler. I had to get to him before he left the ruins and everyone on the other side saw him.

  Lightning shot past me and the Bubbler crumpled, but the anthrod was still running. I swam harder, kicking with all my might.

  We were getting close to the edge of the wall.

  I only had seconds to close in and stop him before he alerted everyone.

  The unconscious Bubbler fell from the anthrod’s back to the ocean floor. I stole the reins from his dead fingers and pulled as hard as I could. The anthrod stopped, his feet leaving trails in the soft sand below. We settled in a cloud of kicked up sand and whirling bubbles and it was all I could do to calm my breath as I guided the anthrod back with the reins.

  Had the other one gotten free?

  I looked behind me, but to my relief the other anthrod and Bubbler lay in crumpled heaps in front of Heron and Nasataa.

  Okay, well, that was one problem down, right?

  I needed to keep thinking hopefully, or I was never going to get through this.

  Chapter Three

  I shrugged the red robes over my clothing and the hood over my head but there was nothing I could do about the Dragon Staff. I was looking at it worriedly, trying to think of something, when I was pulled suddenly to the side. I almost lashed out before I realized it was Heron, pulling me close to his body and kissing me with such passion that it startled me.

  He leaned in close to whisper in my ear when he was done – and I was more grateful than ever for those bubble collars Bareena had given us that made underwater talking possible.

  “I thought I’d lost you, little honey. Took me ages to get away from them. I didn’t want to leap into danger again without a last kiss. Be careful for me. I want you to live through this.”

  His tone was sweet and longing and anxious all tangled up together, but before I could even reply he pulled away and then grabbed me by the waist and boosted me up onto the anthrod, giving me his best, most confident smile to encourage me. I could have swum up to the anthrod’s back on my own but I appreciated the gesture.

  Heron was mounting Nasataa’s disguised form before I could do anything more than recover the reins and then we were riding as fast as we could away from the portal and out the back side of the ruins.

  Hopefully, no one had noticed the guards come in here. Hopefully, no one noticed they were missing for long minutes before ‘they’ came back out again. Would we pass as guards? I wasn’t sure. Any close scrutiny of Nasataa would give him away immediately, but Heron had him tucked in tight beside my anthrod and it would be harder to notice he was a fake anthrod when I was riding a real one.

  The real anthrod was not a problem. He was amazingly responsive to the reins so that I only had to use one hand to manage them while I carried the staff as surreptitiously as possible in my other hand.

  Nasataa stumbled, leaning into the anthrod and Heron and I shared an anxious glance before the vision hit me – hard and fast. I knew I was seeing it with his mind, and even like that it was challenging not to keel over.

  I was in the desert, wind whipping around me and howling through the strange rock formations that I and the others were hiding in. A child was crying, his mother desperately trying to silence him while I kept stealing little glances around the edge of the rock.

  In the distance, the creeping wave of darkness rolled over the earth – Draven – that’s what the dragons had told us to call them. But wherever they went, the earth behind them was dry and cracked, plant life gone. Animals silent. The Ko’roi had taken the last of the dragons to fight them. I could see him in the distance on his beautiful color-changing dragon. She was smaller than some of the others with him – the Green dragons surrounding her were much larger – and it made me ache to think of her dying so that we could live. But this was it. Our last chance to escape while they bought us a little more time.

  “Come on, Harrow,” my mother said, pulling me by the hand. “It’s our turn. We can’t hold up the line.”

  I took a last look back before following my mother. Her face, high above mine, looked grave and worried. We hadn’t seen Father in days. Not since he and his wing of oosquer flew toward the black wall of darkness.

  Nasataa’s mind cleared and I shuddered as his vision left me. We were fighting for these people. We had to be bold and brave even if we were scared – for the sake of children like Harrow who had already lost so much.

  I urged the anthrod into a trot. We’d cleared the ruin while Nasataa and I were in a shared trance and now we were joining the others – long streams of people and anthrods. They barely glanced at us as we fell into line behind them, but my heart was in my throat. One good look at us and all would be lost.

  My eyes strayed up the sea mountain toward the Haroc where the Draven swirled above like black clouds. Could we live long enough to make it there? We just had to get that far and to get Nasataa onto that seat, but now that we were nearly there it felt impossible.

  We can do it, Sela!

  I smiled down at Nasataa. He was so brave.

  And it was up to me to make sure that he got to use that bravery to save the world.

  Chapter Four

  We weren’t following the anthrods for long before I felt the shift in the dark clouds of Draven above. They had sped up. I stole furtive glances around us. On our side of the mountain, the Draven were closing in closer to the lines of humans as if they didn’t even care that they would block out sight and sound. And that worried me. What had changed? What had made them suddenly agitated?

  A memory slammed into me – not a vision like Nasataa was seeing but one of those memories their collar forced into my mind to torture me – and I fell forward over the anthrod’s back as it leveled me with its intensity. I was standing in front of a man with a long face and sharp eyes. The shape of a skull was painted – or maybe tattooed? On his face, so that I couldn’t make out his features easily. It gave him a terrifying visage.

  “She must be the weapon,” he said firmly. “If she is not, then we lose what we have built. Hone her. Train her. Make sure she will pass the test.”

  “Of course, Saaasallla,” the man whose memory I rode in said. “I shall begin at once.”

  “Have her execute the visitors for me if they will not be turned.”

  “The ambassadors from Tambrel?” the man’s voice shook with the words.

  “Yes.”

  “She is but seven years old.”

  The skull-face raised an eyebrow. “You think she is too old to begin?”

  “Of course not, Saaasallla,” he said, bowing.

  The memory faded, but above me, the Draven whirled faster and faster. I swallowed as I realized why. This vision was not what was happening now – that was what Nasataa was seeing. This was a memory of the past. They could give me the memories even here – even without that seat and those rocks. I reached into my hood and tugged at the woven collar, but it didn�
�t budge.

  If I hadn’t been underwater, I would have been sweating. What was I supposed to do now?

  They could sense me somehow – and they could debilitate me with visions. And that meant that they could find me and through me, they could find my friends.

  My eyes danced across the landscape looking for any way to get to the top of the sea mountain without following the line of anthrods and humans.

  The mountain is crowded with Draven.

  Nasataa was right.

  Heron thinks we could try to get close to the mountain and hide in the crags and dips to keep ourselves hidden. He thinks I can blast them secretly if they come too near.

  I glanced at the mountain, trying not to look too obvious. The base of it was close. That could work. It might take longer, but there was more cover and if Nasataa shed that shell he would be camouflaged in the craggy rocks of the sea mountain. We humans would stand out, but we were smaller to hide behind rocks.

  Heron agrees. When we get to the base of the mountain we will slip off from the group and hide until they pass. We can leave our robes and shell there and climb slowly up the mountain, hidden.

  It was a good plan. But only if I wasn’t with them. If the Draven could track me, then they could close in with numbers even Nasataa couldn’t keep back.

  Nasataa froze, stunned into silence by a new vision. Heron patted him on the shell, willing him to keep walking, but he just stood there. We shared a look of worry and then the vision took me, too.

  I watched the last of my soldiers fall to the Draven below us in the fields under the sky city. Fear made me taste copper and I couldn’t keep my eyes in one spot for very long. I moved nervously to a new place along the battlements, looking down at the mass of darkness below us.

  How could there be so many? They seemed to cover the ground for as far as I could see and as they’d destroyed our armies they had seemed to swell – to grow larger with each dragon and warrior they consumed. Terror was my companion, ever tormenting me with each inch of ground they took and now it was too late.

  The silence had descended over all of us. I couldn’t hear the cries of my men anymore, though their mouths opened and moved as they called to me for guidance.

  In the next hour, we would lose all sight. In the hour after that, we would be gone and the innocents behind us would face the darkness alone.

  I said my last prayer.

  Heron grabbed my arm, shaking me as I came back to my senses. We were too far behind the crowd of people now. I gasped as I realized that we’d been seen. Someone was making their way back down the ranks of anthrods and riders, moving toward us. I’d recognize the face of the man riding that anthrod anywhere – Branson Kendark.

  I gritted my teeth. We had minutes – if that. This was the time to be courageous.

  I leaned close to Heron, letting my bubble touch his so that we could talk.

  “He’s coming for me. That’s Branson Kendark.”

  “The one who attacked Abergande?”

  I was relieved that he had his memory back.

  “Yes!”

  And now memories were flooding back to me. I remembered Zin’s words as she spoke to her husband, “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 prevail.”

  And then Bataar’s words to me, “She said I had to share my wings with you. I’ve thought about it for hours. She is my wings. My love for her makes my heart soar.”

  He’d thought that the wings he was supposed to give me was to remind me to rely on Heron – to let him help me.

  I was thinking about doing just that. But it was risky. And I was afraid. I wasn’t sure that I could do this. I wasn’t sure that I had what it took to ...

  My vision darkened by another vision from Nasataa. This one hit hard after just having thought of Bataar and Zin.

  The last of the children were through the doorway. In silence, I followed, wishing I could give a last word to the man with Ko on his arms who was shutting the doorway behind me. He offered a last smile as he locked the doorway. Bataar. He turned to face the darkness, raising his arms in defiance.

  And then he was gone and there was nothing but darkness beyond the World of Legends.

  I gasped as I returned back to my body. The vision had only taken a few seconds. But now that I had possession of myself again, I knew that I didn’t dare hesitate.

  “Heron,” I whispered. “They don’t realize who you are or that Nasataa is with you. I need to give myself to them and let them use me to open the Haroc. But you need to protect Nasataa and get him there while I distract them. When they use me to open it, you and Nasataa need to be there so that my little dragon can be on the throne and not this Felroc. You have to fight through them and get him there. It’s our only chance.”

  I didn’t dare wait to see if he would agree. There wasn’t time, and I was worried that he would argue for my safety. I wasn’t going to argue with him. I’d just watched noble Bataar die to save his family. I could do that, too.

  I gathered all my courage as I snapped the reins and sent the anthrod forward toward Branson Kendark and my fate.

  Chapter Five

  Come on, you stupid anthrod!

  I was worried. Would they notice Heron slipping away? Would he go?

  I can’t leave you!

  Go, Nasataa! Go! I begged. I was torn inside, aching for him, hoping he was okay and that he could just get to those crags before anyone noticed. I didn’t dare look over my shoulder – didn’t dare tip my hand that something behind me was important.

  There are a lot of anthrods back here, but they’re going to notice me now! My legs stick out from this shell. It’s hard to keep my wings and tail under it.

  He was right. I wasn’t drawing enough attention.

  I set the Dragon Staff on my knees and struggled out of the red cloak, throwing it behind me as I regained my staff. The swirling of the Draven above us intensified. Did they see me, too, or was it just that my collar was exposed now and they could reach it more easily?

  With care, I stood up on the anthrod’s back, Dragon Staff gripped in one hand and reins in the other. They might not be able to hear me, but I tried anyway.

  “Branson,” I called. “If you want the keys, come and get them.”

  I was crazy. I was going to die with this stunt.

  All their eyes are on you. No one is noticing my legs.

  Would they be able to get to the base of the mountain in time?

  Maybe. We’re trying. Heron is nervous.

  Okay. More drama. I was good at drama. I could do this. I waved my staff over my head, fighting the weight of the water as I spun it. Was it enough?

  Yes! Branson’s anthrod had sped up and now he grew frustrated, throwing the reins away and kicking off to swim toward me with a gleam in his eye. He made a sign with his hands and the humans on the anthrods nearby dropped their reins, swimming after him from every direction. I was dying to look behind me to see if the humans there were distracted, too.

  They are! We’re almost to the mountain. Oh no!

  Nasataa? Nasataa?

  Nothing.

  My heart kicked up into a speed I didn’t realize it could reach. My breath was coming in gasps. They had to make it! They had to!

  Above me, the Draven swirled as more of them rose up from the sea below to join the ones high above. They blocked out most of the light, swallowing it like everything else they touched.

  I couldn’t help it. I spared a tiny glance for the mountain and my heart froze in my chest. The Draven on the mountain were wrapping further around it – almost as if they didn’t care if they had an effect on the humans. That meant that Nasataa and Heron would have to be very close to them to scale the mountain under cover. Close enough to be made deaf and struck dumb by their effects. Close enough that they might have to climb some parts of the mountain completely blind.

  I felt ill. I might have
vomited.

  But there was one good thing. I couldn’t see any sign of them at all. Nothing except a tiny corner of red peeking out from behind a rock at the base of the mountain. I was just going to have to trust my wings – trust my Heron to do what I couldn’t and to climb with my young dragon safely up the mountain and to the Haroc.

  I tore my gaze away from the mountain before I could be caught looking. I didn’t dare look again. Any sign that Heron or Nasataa might exist must be hidden from my enemies – or all would be lost.

  Something slammed into my back, knocking me off the anthrod. The Dragon Staff spun from my grasp and the air was knocked from my lungs. I coughed into the sudden pain as more weight slammed me into the seafloor and then held me flat against it.

  My enemies.

  I was in their hands again.

  And I couldn’t be happier.

  Because the longer I distracted them, the more hope there was that Heron and Nasataa would be able to climb the mountain to the Haroc – and save us all.

  Chapter Six

  By the time they pulled the weight off me, I was hurting. My ribs ached. My cheek had been smashed in the process and it stung like I’d been hit. Rough hands pulled me to my feet and then shoved me to my knees. Branson had my hair in his hands and he jammed my head down so that I was bowing.

  I didn’t expect the first kick, and when it hit me in the ribs I moaned.

  Thank goodness that Nasataa and Heron couldn’t hear me right now. Thank goodness that the silence of the Draven would protect them. I didn’t want them to be tempted to come back for me. I didn’t want anything to distract them.

  Another kick slammed into my hips and I fell to the side before the hand dragged me up again.

  Pain, I could handle.

  Death, I would accept.

  Failure was not an option.

  “Back so soon, cousin?” a low voice asked me. Branson could still speak underwater. Lucky man. And so could I with the bubble collar.