by D J DuMont
“You’re right,” Sylvie said, jumping up and down. “This is great news! We just need to figure out what spell we can all do together to stop those moose from being a threat.”
“Oh, come on. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” Locke said. “Why would the mission require us to always work together? Dragon Heart leadership wants to see that we’ve all mastered what we’ve learned this year. How are they going to know that each of us have learned what we need to learn when we never do anything individually?”
“He has a point,” Cara said.
Willow bit her tongue to keep from saying something mean, but Sylvie had just about reached her limit.
“You guys, seriously?” Sylvie said, her eyes flashing angrily at first Locke and then Cara. “Have you learned nothing from the last year? What is the one thing that was always stressed in our Dragon Heart classes?”
“Teamwork,” Willow said, folding her arms defiantly across her chest. She didn’t even want to give Locke and Cara time to come up with an alternate response.
“That’s right. Teamwork,” Sylvie said. “More than any other magical skill, being able to work in teams to perform magic will make a difference in our success once we take on real missions. At least, that seems to be what Dragon Heart leadership thinks. They want to see that we know how to work together.”
“Whatever. You guys are just afraid to do anything on your own because you don’t want anyone to see how weak you are on your own.”
And with that, Locke charged forward, running straight toward the angry moose.
“Pertundo!” he yelled out as he ran, holding his magic ring straight up toward the moose. But his attack spell did nothing to stop the moose. Instead, the two giant beasts bellowed at him and continued to paw the ground. When Locke got so close to them that Willow thought he was going to run straight into them, he was suddenly thrown back with such force that he landed almost all the way back by Willow, Sylvie and Cara. Willow winced at the thud his body made when it hit the ground. Several leaves fluttered to the ground where Locke’s body had slammed against tree branches, and for a moment the moose were quiet as they watched the leaves. Then, the angry animals started bellowing again.
Locke groaned, and tried to sit up. “I’m alright,” he said weakly, even though he sounded like he was anything other than “alright.”
Cara tilted her head to one side as she looked at him. “Well, you have to hand it to him. He is pretty courageous. He should have gotten the courage ring, not me.”
Sylvie snorted. “Courageous, or foolish? Anyway, we don’t have time to waste arguing with Locke. We need to put our heads together and figure out how to get that sword. The clock’s still ticking, you know.”
“I know,” Willow said. “But I have an idea that just might work.”
“I like the sound of that,” Sylvie said. “Let’s hear it.”
And so, Willow took a deep breath, and started explaining.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was a simple plan, really. But Sylvie and Cara agreed that it was a smart one. Locke didn’t get a vote, since he was still groaning on the forest floor, and since he didn’t seem all that interested in working as a team, anyway.
The trick, Willow thought, was to distract the two moose. If each moose was distracted by trying to fend off an attack from a different wizard, then a third wizard could run in and grab the sword before the moose realized what was happening. At least, Willow hoped that the third wizard would be able to do that. There was no guarantee, but it was worth a shot.
Sylvie and Cara wanted Willow to run in and get the sword. They said it was only fair that she be the one to retrieve it, since she had come up with the plan. Willow wasn’t sure that she wanted to run in and get it, but she didn’t want to look like a coward. Besides, she was curious what the sword would look like up close. And, if she wanted to be completely honest, she had to admit that the idea of her getting the sword instead of Locke felt pretty satisfying. Locke was really getting on her nerves today.
Locke was complaining that he thought he’d broken a rib, but Yarrow was the only one paying attention to him. Yarrow was giving Locke’s face big, comforting licks, while the other three dragons looked on impatiently. Willow almost had to laugh at the expression on Saffron’s face. Sylvie’s dragon somehow managed to resemble Sylvie quite a bit. The dragon had the same impatient smile as Sylvie. As for Cayenne, she looked more bored than anything. Once it had become clear that the dragons weren’t going to have a further role in actually retrieving the sword, Cayenne had grown restless. Willow was starting to see where her dragon had gotten her name. Cayenne needed life to always be spicy and exciting. That beast did not like sitting still.
“Alright, on the count of three?” Sylvie asked.
Willow and Cara both nodded. Cara looked more pale than Willow had ever seen her, and Willow hoped the girl wasn’t going to chicken out at the last moment. If Willow was going to have any chance of getting to the sword, both moose needed to be fully distracted. Luckily, Sylvie wasn’t going to give Cara time to chicken out. As soon as Willow had nodded, Sylvie started counting.
“One, two, three, go!”
Sylvie and Cara took off, shouting “Pertundo!” in unison. The moose looked up and started shaking their heads angrily, getting ready to send off another blast of magical energy as soon as the girls got close enough. Willow waited until the moose both had their eyes fully fixed on Sylvie and Cara, and then whispered “Concelo.”
Willow wasn’t sure how effective the invisibility spell would be against the moose, since magical beings could often see through the cover of an invisibility shield. But she figured it was at least worth a try. With any luck, the moose wouldn’t look in her direction, anyway. Willow started running as fast as she could, making a wide arc around where the moose were standing to get to the cave behind them. To her relief, the moose didn’t seem to notice her. They were bellowing and trying to charge at Sylvie and Cara. Sylvie and Cara were both doing a good job of avoiding the moose attacks, and of loudly drawing their attention away from the cave.
“Alright, here goes nothing,” Willow said. She pointed her magic ring at the rock that served as the cave’s door and said, “Aperio.”
To her surprise, the door creaked open right away. She had expected it to be more difficult to actually reach the sword, but perhaps the hardest part about this task was supposed to be taking care of the moose. Willow knew that it was important to Dragon Heart leadership that they all work together. She just hadn’t realized that it was quite literally going to be what this whole practice mission hinged on.
“Whoa. You’ve got to be kidding me,” Willow whispered as the sword came into view. She knew the sword wasn’t really ancient. It had been created specifically for this mission and was a fake, since the Dragon Heart team would never entrust the fate of a truly priceless treasure to first year students. But still, whoever had created this sword had done a good job of making it look ancient and magical. The hilt was intricately carved, gleaming silver, and the blade was some sort of steel that glowed with pink, purple, blue and red light. The colors changed every few seconds, but no matter what the color combination, the blade was always sparkling, and always beautiful.
“I hope we can keep this when the mission is over,” Willow said, mesmerized by the sight. But a scream from Cara and a sharp bellow from one of the moose snapped her out of it. She didn’t have time to admire the sword right now. In fact, the sword’s beauty might have been just another trap, intended to distract the Dragon Heart trainees from focusing on their mission. Willow picked up the sword and ran from the cave with it pointed straight in front of her—just in case one of the moose was ready to attack her. The moose were still busy with Sylvie and Cara, though. Willow ran right past all of them, and past Locke and Yarrow, to hop straight onto Cayenne’s back.
“Let’s go, everyone!” Willow shouted. “I’ve got the sword! Let’s make a break for it!”
Sylvie and
Cara didn’t need to be told twice. They were all too happy to turn and run from the angry moose, which had become nearly impossible to hold off, even with strong magical defenses. Locke dragged himself up onto Yarrow’s back and started steering the dragon toward Willow and Cayenne.
“Let me carry it!” he shouted at Willow. “I should be the one to carry the sword.”
Willow rolled her eyes at him. “You? What did you do to deserve such an honor? All you’ve done is slow us down.”
“Not true! I softened the initial blow to make the moose easier to handle.”
Willow laughed. “Yeah, right. Whatever you say. Still, this thing is kind of heavy. If you want to be the one to deal with it then be my guest. It doesn’t really matter which one of us takes it back. But don’t you dare drop it.”
She tossed the sword over to Locke hilt-first, and he deftly grabbed it from the air. Willow shook her head. That boy was hopeless when it came to grasping for glory. But it didn’t matter. They were all going to get some glory tonight. As Sylvie and Cara hopped onto their dragons and all four beasts started gaining altitude, Willow smiled. They’d made it! They had the sword and they’d escaped the moose. All that was left to do was fly at a reasonably fast pace to make it back to Sam and Anjali in time.
But that flight would take about three hours—and a lot could go wrong in three hours. Willow gritted her teeth together and told herself not to let her guard down just yet.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
After an hour of the return flight had passed, Willow was beginning to relax. Ahead of her, she could see Locke with a firm hold on the sword. When she glanced behind her, Sylvie and Cara were flying safely along. Everything had worked out perfectly. Two more hours, and they’d be back at the Dragon Heart Academy to deliver the sword and officially end their first year of Dragon Heart training.
Willow finally felt like this year had gone well. Sure, there had been some bumps along the way, but she had managed to master most of the basic magical skills, and she had become the best dragon rider in her group of trainees. For a while, she had worried that there had been a mistake and she didn’t belong at the Dragon Heart Academy. But now, she felt like she had proven herself. She belonged. Maybe she had even done enough to make her dad proud—if he was ever found, that is.
Willow was letting her mind wander as she thought about what the past year had brought, when a loud roar from Yarrow brought her suddenly back to reality. Startled, Willow swung her gaze to look at the dragon ahead of her, then felt a rush of panic at what she saw.
A group of men dressed all in black with dark masks covering their faces had flown up to Yarrow. The men wore some sort of wing and jetpack combination that was allowing them to fly, and they were zipping around Yarrow in an attempt to box the dragon in. Yarrow was swishing his head back and forth, trying to hit them with a blast of fire, but the men were able to zip quickly back and forth with their winged jetpacks. Yarrow couldn’t seem to hit them, but they were hitting him. They were blasting off some sort of laser guns, and the laser beams were hitting Yarrow over and over. The dragon’s thick hide protected him somewhat, but even that was not enough to keep him from feeling the pain of the blasts. From the way the men aimed their guns, too, it was clear that they were actually trying to hit Locke, not Yarrow. So far, they had missed, but they weren’t slowing down their attacks.
Willow glanced back at Sylvie and Cara to see distress in their faces. None of them had been expecting another obstacle, especially not one involving attacking humans. Wasn’t this dangerous to the fake attackers? If Yarrow actually hit them, they would suffer severe burns. Willow frowned. Or perhaps, the attackers were wearing some sort of suits that protected against fire or acid breathing dragons.
“Come on,” Willow shouted back at the other two. “We have to help him. They’re probably trying to get the sword.”
Willow urged her dragon forward, aiming straight for where three of the attackers were huddled close together. She felt guilty using fire on them, knowing that they were actually Dragon Heart Agents, but she couldn’t worry too much about it now. She had to trust that they knew what they were doing and had protected themselves from any attacks she or the dragons might throw at them.
“Pertundo!” Willow screamed out, pointing her magic ring at one of the attackers. At the exact same moment, Cayenne let loose a long stream of fire.
And then, everything fell apart. Willow felt like she was watching it all in slow motion, and her jaw dropped as she watched things unfold.
Her attack spell hit one of the attackers square in the chest. From the way it blasted him backward and then sent him spiraling downward toward earth, Willow had to guess that he didn’t have any kind of protective shield up, magical or otherwise. Cayenne also hit one of the attackers with her flames, and that man’s jetpack wings caught on fire. A few seconds later, his jetpack exploded and he went hurtling toward earth in a giant orange ball. At the same time, one of the attackers must have hit Yarrow in a spot that really hurt, because the dragon yelped and roared, and then started tumbling toward earth himself.
Willow could see that Yarrow had some strength left, because the giant dragon was flapping his wings still, trying to at least go down to earth slowly instead of completely crashing. But he wasn’t able to fully get control of his flight before he hit the ground a little too hard, sending Locke and the magic sword both flying off his back.
Willow spun around, trying to see where the rest of the attackers were, but now it was hard to see at all. One of the attackers seemed to have set off some sort of smoke bomb.
“Sylvie? Cara?” Willow yelled out. “Can anyone still see Locke?”
There was no answer. Willow’s heart was pounding as she started guiding Cayenne down through the smoke. She had to get to Locke and help protect the sword. She had a feeling, though, that the attackers were going to get to him before her. They were quick as lightning with their winged jetpacks, and they had probably flown away before the smoke bombs they’d launched took effect and blinded them.
Willow peered through the smoke, her eyes burning but her hand raised high. Her magic ring was ready. The moment she saw an attacker, she would launch an attack spell. Finally, she saw one, and yelled out “Pertundo!” Her ring flashed, and the attacker howled in pain as the spell hit him. But then Willow heard another howl of pain. Locke was on the ground, curled in a tight ball around the magic sword and trying to keep it safe from the attackers. They were blasting him with their laser guns, and, although he appeared to have up some sort of magical defensive shield, they seemed to still be getting some of their laser blasts through.
“Locke! I’m coming!” Willow yelled. In that moment, she saw Cara suddenly appear out of the smoky haze. Cara ran forward and took the sword from Locke, which he gladly handed over. Then, she ran back into the haze. It all happened so fast that it took both Willow and the attackers a moment to realize what they’d just seen. The attackers screamed in anger. Half of them started chasing Cara, and half of them started taking their anger out on Locke.
Above her, Willow heard dragons roaring. She looked up and saw that Cara and Sylvie were disappearing to the south on Nutmeg and Saffron’s backs. Cayenne stomped uncertainly, as if asking Willow what she should do. At that moment, Willow was startled by a sudden squawking sound coming from her wrist.
“Willow! Willow do you read me?”
Willow jumped, and then calmed down when she realized the sound was Anjali’s voice, coming across on her radio watch. Willow felt a sense of dread starting to fill her. Anjali had said this watch was only for emergencies. Had something gone wrong with this attack? What was the emergency? Willow gulped back her fear and pushed the talk button on the watch.
“I read you.”
“Oh, thank god. I couldn’t get your watch to work. Listen, you need to get out of there, now. This attack is not part of the practice mission.”
Willow’s heart dropped. “What?”
“Get out of t
here, Willow. We don’t know who is attacking you or why, but they are not part of the mission. I repeat, this is NOT a fake attack. I need you to get away from there as fast as you can. Don’t worry about the sword. Just go.”
Willow blinked, trying to process everything. “Cara has the sword.”
“It doesn’t matter. The sword doesn’t matter. Just get out of there before you get seriously hurt, or worse.”
Through the smoky haze, Willow saw Locke, still fighting off the attackers, who seemed a hundred times more frightening now that Willow knew they were real.
“Willow, go! Don’t worry about anyone or anything else. Just get on Cayenne and get yourself out of there.”
Willow pushed the talk button again. “Roger that,” she said. The watch was quiet, then, but Willow didn’t hop on Cayenne to fly away. Not yet. Didn’t Anjali know or care that Locke was in danger? Willow’s orders were to leave, and not worry about anyone else. But she couldn’t leave Locke behind. Sure, he might be too proud for his own good, and he might have acted a bit too much like a bully at times. But he was still her teammate. She would not leave until she’d helped him get on Yarrow’s back so he could get out of there.
Taking a deep breath, Willow started running directly toward Locke, and toward the danger. She heard Cayenne behind her let out a surprised grunt, and then the dragon turned to follow her.
Willow couldn’t see Yarrow, but she could hear him occasionally roaring. He must be hurt pretty badly since he wasn’t right here next to Locke, trying to save him. Willow might be Locke’s last hope. She just hoped she was enough.
She glanced down at her magic ring, its deep purple stone glowing brightly.
“Loyalty,” she whispered. “I guess loyalty is my strong point after all.”
It was time to find out just how strong her Dragon Heart really was.
Chapter Thirty