Invasion and Dragons

by Jekka Jones

  Landon still gripped the short sword—the top third was splattered with blood. He gazed at it, a sad yet desperate idea taking root in his thoughts. It would break Sri’Lanca’s heart, but what choice did he have? He had the amulet, but he was surrounded by monsters. There was no way he could fight his way free. They would capture him, and either kill him slowly or use the monster-creating amulet. There was only way to escape this hell.

  “Sri’Lanca . . .” he whispered. “I’m sorry.” He trembled, scared of what he was about to do.

  He grasped the hilt with both hands and placed the point on his navel.

  The silver dragon shouted a warning. It sounded terrified, and it flared its wings to spring at him. Landon closed his eyes and raised the sword.

  “Landon, no!” screamed a voice from above.

  It rent the air, silencing all the monsters. Landon’s heart leapt into his throat, and he froze. He turned towards the voice, hoping that he hadn’t imagined it. He sobbed, and the sword slipped from his fingers.

  A dragon was diving from the sky, racing towards him. Unlike everything else, this dragon had a face. Landon drunk in the slitted yellow eyes, the nostrils streaming smoke, and the mouth pulled back into an angry snarl. The bond was thickening so fast that Landon thought his chest would burst from it.

  “Keep back from him, all of you!” bellowed the wondrous and booming voice of Sri’Lanca. “Touch my tamer and I will rip you to pieces!”

  Chapter 31

  Landon jumped to his feet, laughing through tears. The richly dressed monsters shouted, and their small army retreated to the second row of cages, stumbling over each other in their haste. Sri’Lanca flared his wings and landed directly on top of Landon. He spread his wings to their fullest, bared his teeth, and breathed fire at the silver dragon. The dragon fluttered to a cage further off, snarling and hissing.

  “There’s more behind you!” Landon shouted, as he scrambled from beneath Sri’Lanca. The dragon whipped his head around, searching for more threats.

  “Where? I don’t see any more of them.”

  “Are you blind?” Landon cried, scrambling to Sri’Lanca’s leg so he could climb onto his back. “There’s a whole . . . army . . .” He froze.

  A monster was sitting on Sri’Lanca’s back. It was a young woman, with long black hair pulled into a tail. She wore the same clothes as the ragtag army but they were in better shape. She carried no weapons as far as Landon could tell. She had her hand extended towards him, her faceless head gazing down at him.

  “Nissizi Krumpets,” said the monster. “Uwusu humpback diddydiddy wok growsen.”

  Landon stared at the monster in horror, his heart breaking. It spoke in none other than Myra’s voice. He was too late. He and Sri’Lanca were the only ones left. But why was Sri’Lanca working with it?

  “Landon, what’s wrong?” asked Sri’Lanca. He sounded scared.

  Landon shook his head, backing away from the Myra-monster and his dragon. His eyes burned with the desire to weep, and he fought back the tears.

  A strange cry rent the air, and Landon looked up to see a gray dragon wheeling overhead. It was shouting gibberish at another flock of dragons, which had converged over the monsters in the cages. The ragtag army had moved forward, placing a defensive circle around Landon and Sri’Lanca. They leveled their weapons at the other monster army.

  “Landon, speak to me. What’s wrong?” Sri’Lanca pressed, nudging Landon with his tail.

  Landon met those yellow cat-like eyes. His dragon didn’t appear concerned that he was surrounded. If anything, he looked relieved to be among them.

  Betrayal leeched into Landon. “You’re working with them?” he accused.

  Confusion flitted across Sri’Lanca’s face. “Working with whom?”

  Landon pointed to the Myra-monster in answer. Sri’Lanca looked at her and back at Landon. “I don’t understand.”

  “The monsters!” Landon screamed. “Can’t you see them?”

  Landon didn’t think his heart could break anymore, but it did at the look on Sri’Lanca’s face. His dragon stared back as if he was the monster.

  The ground seemed to drop from beneath him. Landon swayed and collapsed onto his knees. He buried his face in his hands, digging his fingers into his scalp until it hurt. “Why are you helping them, Sri’Lanca? We’re bonded.”

  “Pitchus snow waggilo bunkersnuff trisket?” asked a voice. Landon’s soul recoiled in grief, and he looked up to see one of the monsters limp forward, one foot heavily bandaged. Although there wasn’t a face, Landon recognized Juan’s mannerisms.

  “I don’t know,” said Sri’Lanca. “I can’t make any sense of his emotions. Just stay back for now and let me handle this.” He turned his head to the sky and shouted. “Ti’Luthin, Liliana, can you come down for a moment?”

  The wheeling gray dragon overhead jabbered something in Ti’Luthin’s voice.

  Sri’Lanca growled and turned to the Juan-creature. “He’s right. Dre’Goran could order the dragons to attack us when we’re not expecting it. We need to call a truce and talk with the kings. Constable,” he said to a monster wielding an axe, “if you will find the judges and tell them what’s happening, I will try to understand what’s upsetting Landon.”

  Landon flinched at this. What part of “monsters” hadn’t Sri’Lanca understood?

  The monster nodded and disappeared in the crowd, heading towards the front lines. The Juan-monster stepped back among the others, his faceless head pointed at Landon. A few monsters broke away from the larger mass to examine the Darrin-monster’s body. They searched the pockets and shrugged, gibbering to Sri’Lanca.

  Sri’Lanca listened to them and shook his head. “I thought for sure he would have it. . . . I agree. A truce is our best option right now. The kings are just as confused, and an explanation will work in our favor. Balaam willing, we may convince the cretins to hand over Alyssa and the Dayns.”

  Landon stared at his dragon. “You can understand them?”

  “Of course, I can,” said Sri’Lanca gently. “Landon, please don’t look at me that way. I haven’t betrayed you.”

  “You are. You’re helping them make more monsters.” Landon’s eyes drifted back to the Myra-monster. The amulet was like a heavy weight in his pocket, a testament to Myra’s demise.

  Sri’Lanca’s eyes hardened. “That’s it. Myra, it may be best if you get off my back and join Juan for now.”

  The Myra-monster, which had been sitting quietly on Sri’Lanca’s back, nodded and slid to the ground. She walked towards the others, turning her faceless head towards Landon as she passed him.

  Landon watched her, unable to tear his gaze away. He remembered why Myra was so important. She was his fiancé. He loved her. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. That wouldn’t happen now; she was gone.

  The Myra-monster joined the Juan-monster, and they began to talk in low voices. This started a chain reaction, and soon all the monsters were muttering to each other. It became overwhelming. The faceless heads, the incomprehensible sounds, the hundreds of bodies pressing in all around was too much. Landon’s eyes drifted towards the sword. It was only a few yards away. . . .

  Sri’Lanca placed a clawed foot over the sword and brought his head level to Landon’s. Landon stared into those yellow eyes, seeing the confusion, and hated them. He wished he could rip the bond connecting them from his chest and throw it in the dragon’s face, but he couldn’t do that. They were bonded for life.

  Sri’Lanca sucked in a sharp breath as if Landon had struck him. “Landon, once again, and I beg you to be patient, tell me what is wrong.”

  “What’s wrong?” Landon repeated, anger creeping into his voice. “What’s wrong? Everyone’s dead, Sri’Lanca! They’ve all been captured and turned into monsters! Faceless, gibbering monsters who want to kill us and turn us into monsters too! That one killed Myra and stole her voice!” He pointed at the Myra-monster, shaking with rage and sorrow. “She’s gone. Everyone
’s gone. We’re all that’s left and you’re working with them?”

  Landon’s words hung in the air. He knew it to be true. The monsters had killed every person on the planet except for him and Sri’Lanca. They were the last, the loose ends to be tied off for a perfect, faceless world.

  Sri’Lanca exhaled a long, sulfurous breath and said, “Ah. I see.”

  Landon glared at him. “See what?”

  “I thought this might be it.” The dragon’s gaze flicked to the Myra and Juan-monster. “The Wizard’s Seal.”

  Those words had a profound reaction on the men and women. A ripple of gasps and excited jabbers swept around the small army, and many monsters began gesturing excitedly with their hands. Landon edged away from them. “Sri’Lanca, what’s the Wizard’s Seal?” he asked.

  “A long story that I will tell you once we have an audience with the kings. Katsunaka or Dre’Goran will have the Seal anyways, and I’m sure they will bring it with them. More importantly, Landon, I have a question for you.” The dragon’s gaze became intense. “What am I feeling right now?”

  Landon blinked. “What?”

  “Through the bond. What are my emotions right now?”

  “Er . . .” Landon turned his awareness inward, searching for something that wasn’t terror, grief, and betrayal. “Nothing that I think is you,” he answered. “I do feel the bond. It was thin and weak when I first woke up, but now it’s strong again because you’re here. It’s as thick as a mountain.”

  Whatever his dragon had been expecting, it wasn’t this. Sri’Lanca jerked his head upright, craning his long neck like a swan. He stared at Landon, shock written plainly on his face.

  “Why? What do you feel?” Landon asked, unnerved by Sri’Lanca’s reaction.

  “I feel,” said Sri’Lanca, “terror, confusion, and despair flooding from you. I have been feeling it for the past hour, and it alerted me to the possibility that you were awake. I wanted to search for you, but I couldn’t sense your location.”

  Landon frowned. “My location? You mean . . . you used to know where I was?”

  Sri’Lanca nodded. “The bond gave me the ability to find you, and allowed us to feel each other’s emotions. However, I lost that ability the moment you destroyed the Wizard’s Seal. And now, it seems, you have lost the ability to feel my emotions but instead can locate me.”

  There it was again: the Wizard’s Seal. Landon was about to ask what it was, when ten faceless monsters, mostly male with a couple females, crowded to the front of the circle. They immediately began jabbering in turn, and Sri’Lanca’s head was bobbing like a chicken’s.

  “You told them no, right? I think it’s best to be in a neutral place.” Sri’Lanca scanned the area with a calculating eye. “Yes, here is good. . . . It’s because he destroyed the Wizard’s Seal but the kings don’t know that. . . . Yes, I think it’s for the best. . . .” Sri’Lanca let out a sigh of relief, which was copied by almost every other faceless creature present. A few even cheered. “That’s a good sign.”

  Landon waited as long as he could, but that last bit was so confusing he couldn’t stay quiet. “Care to translate, dragon?”

  A ghost of a smile flickered across the dragon’s face. “The kings have agreed to a truce and are bringing your parents,” Sri’Lanca explained. “They don’t know what happened to the Seal, or why you are miraculously awake, but we do. If we do this right,” Sri’Lanca turned his attention back to the ten monsters, “we just might convince them to hand over the Dayns and Alyssa and go home. If what the kings were shouting is true, then all the Seers are dead. With the Seal’s power gone, there’s no reason to fight anymore.”

  “Fight?” Landon cried. “Fight who?”

  “The nations, of course,” said Sri’Lanca, a trace of annoyance crept into his voice. “Please, be patient. I will answer all your questions in time.” The dragon turned back to the ten monsters. “Let’s do this.”

  The men and women nodded as one and turned back into the crowd. Monsters shuffled around, moving rocks, crates, carts, and anything that could be set on into a large circle. The Darrin-monster’s body was covered by a length of canvas and borne away. The ten monsters sat on the crates, but all the others drew back behind Sri’Lanca and sat on the ground. One monster offered the Myra-creature a crate next to Sri’Lanca, and she took it, bobbing her head in gratitude. Her faceless head turned towards Landon, and he looked away, unnerved by its vigil.

  “Landon, would you feel safer on my back?” the dragon asked. He settled his body on the ground, tucking his legs beneath his body. He encircled his tail loosely around his body, including Landon within its border.

  Landon wanted to scream, and with great difficulty managed to reply in a dignified tone, “I’d feel safer if we were thousands of miles away and all these monsters were dead.”

  A sob escaped from the Myra-monster. Good. She deserved to know that killing his fiancé and stealing her voice was wicked.

  Sri’Lanca let out an exasperated breath. “None of these people are monsters. Well, at least the ones on our side,” he gestured at the ragtag army with his tail. “These are your people, the Nircanians. What you see is not the truth, Landon. The Wizard’s Seal has warped your perception of the world.”

  “What is this damn Wizard’s Seal?” Landon exploded. “Just tell me!”

  “I will but in front of the kings,” Sri’Lanca replied. The dragon brought his face close to Landon’s and laid a claw gently on his shoulder. The heavy weight was somewhat comforting. “I can feel your anger and fear, Landon, and I understand why. I want to tell you everything, but the kings must hear it at the same time. We have one shot at ending this war. Please be patient a little longer. Now, climb onto my back. You will be safe there.”

  Landon didn’t move. Betrayal, terror, confusion, and sorrow clambered about inside him. He was so sick of everything that he wanted to grab the nearest weapon and run himself through. Yet he knew Sri’Lanca would stop him the moment he reached for a weapon.

  “Can’t you just fly us somewhere else?” he asked in a quiet voice.

  Sri’Lanca chuckled. “Landon, you hate flying. It scares you to death.”

  Landon frowned. “It does?”

  Sri’Lanca nodded. “Myra and I find it the funniest thing in the world. Now, will you trust me and get on my back?”

  Landon hesitated. He wanted to trust Sri’Lanca, but the monsters. . . . How could he defend them? It made no sense, but what choice did he have? He could either willingly climb onto his dragon’s back or allow the monsters to scare him up there. Making up his mind, Landon climbed up to the spot where the Myra-monster had sat. He wrapped his arms around the spike in front of him and hid his face. A monster possessing his brother, Will’s, voice approached Sri’Lanca and engaged him in conversation.

  It was strange listening to one side of a discussion, especially because Sri’Lanca’s responses were “yes,” “maybe,” or “I hope so.” Landon tried to block out Sri’Lanca’s voice, yet it filled him with doubts. I hate flying? He was bonded to a dragon and dragons flew all the time. Landon’s memories were faulty, but his gut told him a tamer always rode his dragon. How could he be scared of flying? That made about as much sense as the world he was trapped in now.

  Movement caught his attention, and he tightened his grip on Sri’Lanca’s spike. The Nircanian-monsters bustled about, putting up canopies or handing out hats until everyone had protection from the sun. The other monster army was returning, the richly dressed men riding in the lead. Landon assumed these were the kings. The Issachar-monster was with them, his clothing ripped in several places and his sword stained with blood.

  The kings dismounted, and all six approached the circle of rocks, crates, and carts. Their faceless heads dipped towards the makeshift seats, and Landon sensed their disgust. They sat anyways and arranged their clothes to appear regal.

  The faceless dragons overhead landed and settled their bodies on the cages, including the silver dra
gon. The bars groaned beneath their weight but held. The gray one called Ti’Luthin continued to circle overhead. Landon tried to appear brave, but those blobs on the end of long necks and large wings reminded him of the dead dragons. He sucked in several breaths, trying to calm himself.

  Silence settled over the two armies. The richly dressed monsters said nothing, and the ten Nircanian-monsters who Sri’Lanca had spoken with made no effort to start a discussion. Faceless horses tossed their heads and shifted in place. Even the dragons were quiet, waiting. Clouds drifted across the sky, blocking the sun every so often but doing little to help with the heat. Sri’Lanca’s scales were uncomfortably warm, and the sun beat down on the top of Landon’s head.

  The faceless monsters began passing around canteens. Landon watched them, aware of how thirsty he was. He hadn’t drunk anything since the juice in the tent.

  As though hearing his thoughts, the Myra-monster walked to Sri’Lanca’s side and held a canteen and a straw hat towards Landon. He eyed her hands.

  “Take it, Landon,” said Sri’Lanca.

  Landon thought about refusing but decided against it. He took the offered items, and his fingers brushed the Myra-monster’s hand. He almost dropped the canteen from terror. “G-go away, please,” he squeaked.

  The Myra-creature’s head faced him for several heartbeats. “Twinak, wass loopaloop mennavi.”

  Landon glanced at Sri’Lanca for a translation, but his dragon was gazing at the Myra-monster with pity. Sri’Lanca untucked his right foreleg and drew the monster to his chest. “Have faith, Myra,” he said, his voice rumbling. “We’ll figure this out. He’ll be back to normal in no time.”

  Once again, Landon felt betrayed. He said nothing, trusting the bond to let Sri’Lanca know, and shoved the hat onto his head. He took a long draught from the canteen, forcing himself to stop before he drained the entire thing. Who knew how long this peace talk was going to last.

  The Myra-monster sobbed.

  More movement from the monster army gathered in the cages, and a small group of monsters entered the large circle. The monsters posing as his parents were escorted to the remaining crates right next to one of the king-monsters. This king-monster wore elaborate robes and trousers and had a short sword similar to the Darrin-monster at his belt.