I didn’t remember any of that. And I wasn’t sure if I cared. The flow of the water felt nice through my hair and I let my thoughts drift as I swam after her. I wasn’t thinking about anything at all. Just the flow of the water and the soft ripples around my body.
We were nearly at the Haroc. The people who came with us were crowded in around us so very close. I was watching the glow of the strange cage with dreamy eyes. It was a seat – sort of, but more like a flat platform for a dragon or troglodyte to sit on – surrounded by a huge spherical metal cage. Tendrils reached out from the seat, stroking the cage with ropes of light that swirled and curved around it like vines and leaves. It shimmered a little and then disappeared and returned.
It was part of this world, and not at the same time.
It was like I was seeing it for the first time – and yet I knew I’d seen it before. My brow furrowed as I tried to remember what had happened last time.
And then, just below the cage, I saw the tiniest flicker of Blue.
Nasataa? Was he nearby?
My heart skipped a beat. I didn’t want to stare in case it drew attention.
But I couldn’t remember why I couldn’t draw attention.
Maybe it wasn’t that big of a deal.
Maybe I should just call him over here.
We were opening this cage for him, weren’t we? Although I couldn’t remember why ...
“Seleska? Stop just hanging in the water there like a dead weight,” Atura said. “It’s time to begin. Let’s see if those keys of yours work.”
Chapter Thirteen
Key. There was something about that I was supposed to remember. I felt like my mind was screaming at me from the inside, but I couldn’t think of what it was. Something to do with keys.
Frustration filled me as I tried to remember. It was something important. Yes, my brain screamed at me, so important! Something that I shouldn’t forget.
Atura was pulling the leash from my collar, untying it quickly. One of her hands wasn’t working and she frowned as she shook it – as if trying to shake life back into it.
“It probably won’t make a difference, but I’m worried it will get caught in those swirls of power before they get the keys out of you and we need you intact to open this rock-blasted thing,” she muttered as she worked. “It was more fun to talk to you when you were capable of thought.”
“I’m sure it was,” I said. “But I’m pretty sure that whatever is wrong with me is your fault, even though I can’t remember what it is.”
She laughed bitterly. “Well, it wouldn’t be the first thing I was blamed for. Although this one isn’t technically my fault. I did try to get those keys myself you know. If you hadn’t gotten in the way, we wouldn’t have to be here.”
“I thought they were only for the pure in heart?” I said. Now, where had that idea come from? I couldn’t remember it now.
She pulled me close as she flung the rope lead away, peering into my eyes. “Still some memories in there, hmmm? Okay. Here we go.”
She turned me around so that I was facing the Haroc, watching as it flickered in and out of reality, and then she shoved me forward and I shot through the water at the same time that the long tendrils of light and power reached out from the metal cage and grabbed me.
Something blue flickered on the edge of my vision. Please be Nasataa! Please!
And then the Haroc had me in its grasp and the tendrils entered my mind, searching, sifting, looking for something that even I couldn’t remember anymore.
A key. That’s what they were looking for. A key in the mind? How strange.
A symbol popped up behind my eyes – a symbol of an arrow pointing up. And for a brief moment, I remembered being in a still pool and reading the words of victory as the key impressed itself into my mind.
And then the tendrils were sifting again, looking – I realized – for other keys.
The memory of a room of keys surfaced in my mind. The tendrils shoved it away – but not before my memory triggered. The key! The little steel key that was in my belt pouch right now.
I reached into it, my arms free even as my mind was not my own.
I pulled the key out, clutched in my hand. But I couldn’t remember what it was for.
And then a memory of a pair of scales filled my mind and a second key – another arrow- but pointing in a new direction.
The tendrils seemed brighter and the Haroc more solid. The Draven swirled so fast that I swore they couldn’t keep it up. They’d have to die from all that swimming – run to death like a horse.
And then a memory of the kah’deem and the third and final key.
The Haroc burst with light, the tendrils shaking wildly, and I was flung back at the same time that the metal cage creaked open.
Everything seemed to happen at once.
I was flung backward, the key clutched in my hand. A dark-skinned man with pretty eyes shot out from the rock, with a Blue dragon by his side. The Blue dragon darted toward the Haroc at the same moment that Atura flung a stream of bubbles at him.
“Seleska!” the man said, his beautiful eyes confused and worried all at once. “Get her! Where is your staff?”
Who was Seleska?
Atura’s guards grabbed the man and he fought them, kicking and screaming, landing punches that left them spinning through the water and thrusting violently with a trident in his hands.
I felt like I should care about that, but I didn’t know why.
Atura had the Blue dragon’s head under her arm, its mouth clamped shut with her hand.
They were bringing the baby Manticore up on the sheet, ready to put him in the Haroc. They brushed my arm as they passed, leaving the Manticore to sit in the water beside me as the guards hurried to quell the havoc the dark-eyed man was causing. Two guards already drifted lifelessly in clouds of blood-tainted water. Another one cradled a limp arm, swimming away as fast as his feet could kick.
My heart was bursting inside me, screaming at me to do something.
But I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to do.
“The collar! What have they done to you?” the dark-skinned man roared, his face full of pain when his eyes met mine. But he had to look away again as he fought for his life against Atura’s guards. Why did they want to hurt such a beautiful man?
And why did he seem like he was hurting so much just by looking at me? His desperate eyes tugged at my heart and my hand reached up to feel the collar he’d mentioned. It was woven of metal cords with a keyhole in the center.
How odd.
I had a key, didn’t I?
Open the lock! Open it!
My brain was screaming at me but I didn’t understand why it was so desperate to use this key – why it was acting as if this was my last hope in a life or death situation. I wasn’t the one being threatened here. But since I couldn’t silence it, maybe it was better just to give in and make it stop.
I reached up and fitted the key in the lock and twisted it.
Nothing happened at first as I drifted peacefully, watching the frantic battle in front of me.
And then the collar clicked open and fell away. I snatched it from the water. I didn’t know why I was swimming forward, but the back of my mind was exulting when I slipped up beside the small Manticore and snapped the collar around his neck.
My heart sped up, leaping into my throat as the young Manticore roared in anger.
Chapter Fourteen
He spun, slashing my forearm with his claws, but although I couldn’t remember who he was or why he was my enemy I knew I couldn’t let him get in the Haroc. I grabbed him around the throat, struggling to wrap my hands through his thick mane.
His guards weren’t here. Maybe, if I could just hold on ... maybe ...
There was screaming all around me, but it was Atura’s voice I heard most clearly.
“Seleska, drop the Manticore!” she ordered.
My hands loosened their grip but then I forced them to hold tighter. Pain flare
d through me as the young Manticore’s claws ripped at my chest and belly.
It hurt so much. I just wanted it to stop.
But though I couldn’t remember anything else, I remembered one thing – I had to stop this creature from entering that cage and sitting on that throne.
“I won’t,” I said.
“There are dozens of us and only one of you,” Atura said.
The Manticore’s attacks were dying down. Maybe that collar was doing something to him. He looked around with as much confusion as I felt, but the water around us was dark with my blood. And I was getting cold.
“And look, I have your little dragon subdued,” Atura pressed.
My eyes turned to her and to the struggling dragon she had pinned somehow with her magical rod. His eyes were wide, bulging in his head and he was frozen in place.
The second I saw him, recognition blossomed in my chest. Nasataa! My little dragon!
And with the recognition, memories.
He needed to go in the Haroc! Now!
“Atura,” I said, grasping for words – any words. “You have to put him in the Haroc. Do it.”
She laughed bitterly, as behind her a muffled scream was cut off quickly. The dark-skinned man was buying me time, but I had to use it.
I glanced at the Manticore I was holding. His eyes were unfocused, his face confused. He wasn’t going anywhere. I tossed him away from us and launched myself at Atura, trying to ignore the screaming protests of my body as my wounded flesh fluttered in the seawater.
It hurt so much.
But I always knew I would die like this.
I did?
I hadn’t remembered that until this moment but now that I did, it made it possible to override the pain and do what I needed to do.
“This is the moment, Atura. This is the time. Release the baby dragon.”
“I won’t,” she said, leaning forward as she fixed me in her gaze, but she didn’t seem to notice that one of her hands – the one she’d shook before as if it were asleep – was grabbing the rod from the other hand. It flicked it and the young dragon blinked, unfrozen from his binding.
“No!” Atura gasped, looking at her traitorous hand in horror. “Hubric? What have you done to me?”
“Hurry Nasataa!” I screamed. “Get into the Haroc!”
There was a moan from behind me – a deep, velvet thick moan – and I knew without knowing how that the dark-eyed man had been grievously injured.
“There’s no time to waste!” I launched myself at Atura, screaming when her grasping hands found my tattered flesh and pulled. I wrapped my hands around her face, sinking my thumbs into her eyes. I didn’t need to win. I just needed to stay alive and keep her here long enough for Nasataa to get into the Haroc.
I couldn’t see him.
I didn’t know if he was doing it.
My heart hammered in my chest so hard that it worried me. It was pumping all my blood out, darkening the water around us in clouds of red.
Atura squirmed in my grip, snatching at me with violent hands, shredding my ruined flesh even more.
I screamed.
And at the same moment, there was a loud squeal of metal and then light flared so bright and hot that I couldn’t see anything else, couldn’t feel anything else, couldn’t hear anything else.
Nasataa was in the Haroc.
Chapter Fifteen
I was seeing visions again – visions of what was happening around the world just like I had when Nasataa was showing them to me.
This time, something was different.
The skycity was shaking, the skysteel screaming as the whole city was shaken back and forth. Around me, I heard screams and desperate prayers – prayers for salvation or for the salvation of the children hidden here in the Castel. I was crying as I sat on my dragon’s back on the edge of the Castel wall and watched the Draven consuming the edge of the city.
This was the end. I had done all I could. I had fought as hard as I could, trying to save innocents, trying not to spend lives in vain and it had all been for nothing.
We could fly away now, Raolcan and I. And yet, I could not leave my people to die in fear on their own.
Good girl.
At least we would die together.
Together.
Leng had died already ... I couldn’t think of that. The Captain of my guard and the love of my life had died at the edge of the city – absorbed by those horrific black creatures. Even if I’d tried to order him not to save those children, he wouldn’t have listened. And I wouldn’t have asked.
But the ache of his loss hurt worse than my leg ever had.
He was gone. And soon Raolcan would be, too.
And soon all these little ones who had turned to the Dominar for help would be lost.
I’d given up crying behind my cold mask hours ago. There were no tears left. There was only a vast aching land of sorrow.
Light flared across my vision, so bright, so hot that I couldn’t see.
I blinked, purple spots filling my eyes as the light receded.
My brow furrowed and I turned my head side to side, trying to see out the corners of my eyes. I couldn’t see the Draven anymore. The purple spots must be in the way.
Or.
Or what? I held my breath, barely able to hope for what he hoped.
They’re gone. They’re all gone.
I gasped.
But something was moving along the edge of the city. Thousands of figures, rising up. I gasped, flinching at the sight. The Draven weren’t gone. They had just ... ducked or something.
No! Use your eyes!
My eyes were still blinded by the light.
Those are people! Those are people standing back up! They’re coming to life. Look!
My dragon’s voice, powerful and exuberant filled me. And I was too afraid to hope that he was right.
He launched into the air, kicking off into the sky. I barely heard the cries of the children in the Castel asking what had happened before he was high in the sky and climbing, looking down not just on the Castel, not just on the city, but on the surrounding countryside.
I held my breath watching.
Look! Oh, look, Amel! They’re alive! They’re back! Look! I didn’t want to believe him. I was too scared to hope. Too scared that my hopes would be shattered, but it was impossible to ignore his joy shooting through our mental link. Look! It’s Janis and the Black dragons and riders! They fell on the edge of the city hours ago. They’re all alive! Look! There is Havrenac Cartbringer and his Red wing! Forty dragons and their riders! See their armor gleaming as they rise. What a sight! Oh, sweet Skies and Stars! Amel? Do you see the citizens? There are thousands of them! And the armies in the fields. And the children, oh the children!
And now I was hoping. I couldn’t help it. I looked to that place on the edge of the wall and my heart nearly broke when I saw a Purple dragon’s wings unfurl. My heart stuttered. Stopping, then starting, then racing as the Purple flew right toward us. The gleam on the rider’s head broke a sob from my lips. Leng! Oh, Leng! He was back! My husband was back from the dead.
What magic was this?
Raolcan was already flying toward him while my heart soared.
It’s magic, Amel. It’s magic back in the world. I can feel it everywhere. The little dragon sits on the Haroc!
I ripped off my crown and mask as the other Purple dragon dove in close and my sweet husband leaned in to embrace me with wild enthusiasm.
And then the vision was gone, and I was Seleska again, gasping, shocked. Had Nasataa just saved the Dominion? Had he really just brought their dead back from –
The thought was swallowed up by a second vision right on the heels of the other.
I leapt into the air, wings feeling the strength of the updraft, glorying in the ability to fly once again. Already the corruption of death was melting away. I was free! Free! I climbed into the air, looking for my companions.
Taoslil? What is happening? That was Ieoolin
. Always a curious dragon.
I do not know. I was dead – killed by these Draven and made a stone – and now I live.
I scoured the ground with my vision, but already I could see the glowing rocks below bursting back into dragons, flying up to meet me in the air.
It was not all of us. The bodies below shredded by Manticore teeth remained still. There would be no salvation for them. My heart was heavy with the thought, and yet threads of joy wove through every thought as my hungry eyes ran over the wings and shimmering scales of my dragonkind. We would live. The Chosen One had succeeded. I could feel the magic in the air, in the ground, in the water. It pulsed and throbbed with light. We would rebuild. We would grow strong again. There would be Drazenlofts and young dragons and ... hope.
I blinked as the vision fell away, leaving me Seleska again, but it was replaced by another and another and another.
I was a Baojang Prince. My hands filled with glowing rocks – all that was left of my best warriors. I was the last one living, surrounded by dark bodies. I braced myself in the silence. In moments, the darkness would take me, and all this would end. I would fail. I would fail my people just as all of our warriors had.
Light flooded my vision and I dropped the stones.
And as I blinked in the afterlight, the black forms were gone. One of the horses sprang up from the ground. I could have sworn he’d been dead – touched by the filth of those black blobs of death. Wait. Was that Rameed on his back? He lived?
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