Dragon Slayers

by Lisa McMann

  The ghost dragon scooped up Aaron and Ishibashi before the Revinir could send another wave of fire. He took off at a velocity rarely seen in ghost dragons, heading south toward Ashguard’s palace. As Thisbe and Rohan disappeared into the thick of the forest, the Revinir sent another ball of fire at the rising ghost dragon, but could do no harm to Quince’s underside.

  The rest of the ghost dragons surrounded the Revinir, raising their wings around her to trap her and delay her from going after either party. When Quince had moved out of the Revinir’s fiery range, he used his tail to put the two men gently on his back, one at a time, as he continued flying.

  Aaron, scorched and blistering, rolled to his side as the throbbing pain began and grew. “I’m coming, Ishibashi!” he cried, his voice ragged. He pushed himself to his feet and stumbled across the dragon’s back to the scientist. In the distance the Revinir let out a frustrated, bloodcurdling roar.

  Aaron stared at Ishibashi’s limp body, then quickly knelt by the old man’s side. He checked the scientist’s vital signs, cursing himself all the while for not bringing medicine with him.

  But Ishibashi had no pulse. No heartbeat. Aaron bent his face near the scientist’s but could detect no breath left inside him. The young man tried his best to revive Ishibashi, ignoring his own agonizing pain. But in time, Ishibashi’s neck and chest grew cold beneath Aaron’s hands. After too long, Aaron finally gave up. Heaving and exhausted, he looked at the man’s face. Ishibashi… was dead.

  Aaron’s eyes widened as unshed tears burned them. But then a desperate, wretched sob escaped. He took in a sharp breath, and more sobs came. Sick, angry, broken sobs. Sobs that had never come when his own parents had died. But Ishibashi had been more than a parent. “No!” Aaron screamed. “No!”

  An overwhelming feeling and an intense realization enveloped Aaron, pressing down like a weight on his chest. The man who’d rescued him. The man who’d taken him in. Who’d shown him love and had taught him discipline. Who’d promised just moments ago to spend the rest of forever with him… Ishibashi was dead. How could it be? He’d died.

  As Aaron sat numb on the back of a ghost dragon with the scientist’s body in his arms, his mind spun between sorrow and wonder. He felt the weight on his chest lifting and lightening. The soul of the beautiful old man seemed to leave its burned shell and rise to the air, moving far away to the east, taking bits of Aaron’s sorrows and one of his biggest fears with it.

  As Fifer and Dev struggled to survive at Ashguard’s palace, and as Thisbe and Rohan ran for their lives toward the forest, something incredibly sad and horrible yet tremendously important had just occurred. And it changed everything for Aaron. For his future. For his life… and for his death.

  Ishibashi Junpei, grandfather, scientist immortal, had died. But in the midst of deepest, darkest sorrow, grief, and loss, Aaron could squint and barely see a tiny ray of light. Leading Ishibashi home.

  * * *

  The Revinir broke free from her ghost-dragon prison. The two traitors were out of sight in the forest, but she could smell them easily enough. It would only be a matter of time before she had them back in her grasp. The question now was what she would do to them. As the Revinir rose up above the trees to track them, her eyes narrowed in anger and her heart grew colder than ever before. She’d let Thisbe in, and the girl had cruelly turned on her. How dare she? The dragon-woman wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  As Thisbe and Rohan stumbled through the forest, fleeing for their lives, a faint, desperate whisper of a single word fought to bridge the distance and found its way to Thisbe’s ear. But then a furious roar from the Revinir revealed that she was closing in, and the word was gone on the wind.

  Water.

  Acknowledgments

  I want to thank Brian Luster, the copy editor of so many Unwanteds books. If anyone knows my books better than me, it’s you. You save me from embarrassment by suggesting I should change gristly to grisly (good call). You fix my comma issues time after time after time. (Or is that time, after time, after time?) We have a strange relationship—we’ve never met, and we don’t communicate directly. But I’ve come to rely on you. And I’m really grateful that you’ve stuck with this series all these years. Just one more book to go! I don’t know if you’ll miss these characters, but they’ll definitely miss you. An extra-large thank you to all the others who make my manuscripts shine. In the publishing world, authors don’t often meet the people who make our books better, and we hardly know just how many hands touch these words to help tell the best story we can. I’m so grateful for all of you.

  Thanks to Liesa Abrams at Aladdin, who guides the ever-growing big picture of these books. This penultimate book felt especially daring to me, and your support gave me the confidence to go for it. And thanks to the entire team at Aladdin, from editorial and education to sales, art and design to publicity and marketing. Special thanks to my publicist, Lauren Carr, for making everything easier, especially around tour time.

  I’m unendingly grateful to Owen Richardson, who has stunned me with his cover illustrations a grand total of fourteen times over the past decade. Your iconic art has brought warm feelings to readers for years, and will continue to do so for years to come. When readers think back to the world of Artimé and the joy it brought them, they will picture your covers in their minds.

  To Kilian McMann, who has provided various forms of art for The Unwanteds and Unwanteds Quests—posters, illustrations, pins, postcards, and art for my presentations—I’m so glad to have worked with you from the moment the idea for The Unwanteds began to form. Your dedication to your craft since then has made this journey in Artimé feel so much more special, and it has made my belief in the value of the arts that much stronger. I’m also extremely proud of you.

  As always, I’m enormously thankful for my agent, Michael Bourret. Twenty-five books and counting, thanks to you. You’re simply the best.

  And huge thanks to my readers. Some of you are just finding this series, others shuffled through the gate into Artimé with the debut of The Unwanteds, and still others picked it up somewhere in between. I hope you see yourself in these books, and I can’t wait for everyone to discover how it all ends in book seven.

  More from this Series

  Dragon Fury

  Book 7

  Dragon Captives

  Book 1

  Dragon Bones

  Book 2

  Dragon Ghosts

  Book 3

  More from the Author

  Island of Dragons

  Island of Graves

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Author photograph © 2015 by Ryan Nicholson Photography

  Lisa McMann lives in Sacramento, California. She is married to fellow writer and musician Matt McMann, and they have two adult children. Her son is an artist named Kilian McMann and her daughter is an actor, Kennedy McMann. Lisa is the New York Times bestselling author of over two dozen books for young adults and children. So far she has written in genres including paranormal, realistic, dystopian, and fantasy. Some of her most well-known books are the Unwanteds series for middle-grade readers and the Wake trilogy for young adults. Check out Lisa’s website at LisaMcMann.com, learn more about the Unwanteds series at UnwantedsSeries.com, and be sure to say hi on Instagram or Twitter (@Lisa_McMann), or Facebook (Facebook.com/McMannFan).

  Aladdin

  Simon & Schuster, New York

  Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids

  www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Lisa-McMann

  Also by Lisa McMann

  THE UNWANTEDS SERIES

  The Unwanteds

  Island of Silence

  Island of Fire

  Island of Legends

  Island of Shipwrecks

  Island of Graves

  Island of Dragons

  THE UNWANTEDS QUESTS SERIES

  Dragon Captives

  Dragon Bones

  Dragon Ghosts

  Dragon Curse

 
; Dragon Fire

  FOR OLDER READERS:

  Don’t Close Your Eyes

  Visions

  Cryer’s Cross

  Dead to You

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Aladdin hardcover edition September 2020

  Text copyright © 2020 by Lisa McMann

  Jacket illustration copyright © 2020 by Owen Richardson

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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  Book design by Karin Paprocki

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: McMann, Lisa, author.

  Title: Dragon slayers / by Lisa McMann.

  Description: New York : Aladdin, 2020. | Series: The Unwanteds quests | Summary: Rohan leads the effort to rescue Thisbe from the Revinir, without knowing if she will prove loyal to Artimé or not.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2019057354 (print) | LCCN 2019057355 (ebook) |

  ISBN 9781534416079 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534416093 (ebook)

  Subjects: CYAC: Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Brothers and sisters—Fiction. |

  Twins—Fiction. | Dragons—Fiction. | Fantasy.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.M478757 Dx 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.M478757 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019057354