The Crystal Dragon Series Collection

by Katie Cherry

  “It’s alright,” Thaddeus pipes up. “Although I’m touched by your concern.”

  I walk up to the other side of his bed, opposite Nathan and Angela. “How are you doing, Thaddeus?”

  He takes a moment to respond. “Well, I’ve certainly been better,” he sighs. “My leg is broken and I cracked a few ribs. I’ll be fine in a few weeks, though.”

  “They’re giving you the fast-healing stuff?”

  He nods. “It doesn’t work on me as well as it used to, however. I used it a little too much in the past.”

  “Which is why the doctors are making me heal at a normal rate,” Nathan comments. “So when I really need to heal quickly, I can still do so.”

  “Makes sense,” I murmur.

  Nathan picks up a needle laying on a tray next to Thaddeus’s bed. “What’s this?” he asks, fingering the sharp tip.

  “Painkillers,” Thaddeus chuckles.

  “Huh.” He’s just putting the needle back when he suddenly lunges for Thaddeus’s neck.

  “Nathan!” I gasp, just as Angela grabs him and pulls him back. “Thaddeus-”

  “I’m fine,” he assures me, his hand over his heart.

  Nathan turns white as a ghost as he realizes what happened and drops the needle instantly. He then turns and races out of the room. Angela follows on his heels. I just stand here, shocked at what I had seen, before collapsing into the chair beside Thaddeus. How was I going to help Nathan fight through Hunter’s mind control?

  ******

  After discussing the issue with Thaddeus, the solution becomes obvious and I wonder why I hadn’t thought of it before. Hurrying back to Nathan’s hospital room, I rush to tell him my idea before he can say anything. “That golden liquid that you gave me- do you still have it?”

  After a few seconds of staring at me in confusion, he gasps. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” He then reaches into his pocket and pulls out the syringe.

  “How is that still intact?” Angela gasps.

  Nathan shrugs, then rolls up one of his sleeves. He holds the syringe over his arm. I notice his shaking increase. That’s when I realize- he has a fear of needles. “Wait,” I interrupt. They both look at me curiously. “…Let me,” I continue, gently taking it from his trembling hand.

  “Thanks,” he smiles gratefully.

  “My pleasure,” I respond, concentrating on slipping the needle into his arm. I then release the remaining serum into his vein, unsure of how much he really needs. I golden haze settles over his body before fading away. “I take it that means it worked?”

  Angela frowns a little. “Well, there’s no way to know for sure unless he tries to attack Thaddeus again.”

  “No.” Nathan immediately rejects the idea. “I can’t endanger him like that- not again.”

  “Maybe you won’t have to,” I murmur thoughtfully.

  “What do you mean? How else could we tell?” Angela demands.

  “The mermaids. The King’s Trident, specifically,” I explain. “He should be able to find out if it worked or not.”

  “Brilliant!” Nathan praises, grinning at me. “Let’s go, then.” He starts walking towards the door, then realizes that Angela wasn’t following him. “Hey, you coming?”

  She shakes her head sadly. “How could I? Unlike you and Crystal, I can’t breathe underwater,” she points out.

  “Oh. Right. Well, what are you going to do here, then?” he asks.

  “Angela, could you keep an eye on Nora for me?” I ask.

  She shrugs carelessly. “Sure.”

  “Thanks!”

  “We’ll be back soon,” Nathan promises, giving her a light kiss on her forehead. She just nods in response, obviously downcast because she can’t come with us. I, however, am elated to find that, at last, it can be just Nathan and me.

  “So… how are we going to get there?” Nathan asks as we walk out of the hospital. “We can’t fly. I guess we could use the Lightning shoes, though…”

  I laugh. “I was just thinking we find Vlad and ask if he can fly us there with the helicopter thing they picked us up in after the Third Challenge.”

  “…That works too,” he laughs. I watch his eyes crinkle as he laughs at himself. It’s been quite a while since I had seen him laugh. If… if Angela was the reason he was so happy now, then I guess… I should at least try to not hate her so much. For his sake.

  <<>>

  Crystal seems strangely withdrawn the rest of the way to Vlad’s house, but Nathan doesn’t question her about it. He knows that if there’s something she wants to talk about, she’ll tell him about it. All the same, he finds his happiness slipping away the longer the silence stretches between them. The wound in his heart from the loss of Greg opens wider without her helping to keep the pain at bay. He doesn’t say anything, though. He’ll be alright; he doesn’t want to burden her. She has a lot going on, after all.

  Crystal glances at him and gives him a reassuring smile as if she knew what he was thinking before knocking on Vlad’s door. It takes him a few seconds before he realizes that the smile was meant to assure him that the meeting with the Mermaid King will go well, not meant to help ease the pain in his heart.

  “Crystal? Nathan? To what do I owe the pleasure?” Vlad asks after opening the door.

  “I need to go and talk to the Mermaid King,” Crystal explains. “Could we perhaps get a ride from that helicopter thing that picked us up from the Third Challenge?”

  Vlad looks shocked for a moment. “Oh… that’s right, you’re friends with those creatures… sorry, for a moment I thought you wanted to go on a suicide run! Of course you can use it. I actually can’t fly it, but Nehru can.”

  “…Nehru? The announcer for the Games?” Nathan confirms, surprised.

  Vlad chuckles. “Yes. Just let me get my shoes on, and I’ll help you find her.” He waves them inside before slipping his shoes on. “Alright, off we go!”

  <<>>

  The ride seems a lot bumpier than I remember. “Nehru,” I shout over the howling wind. “Are you sure you can fly this thing?!”

  “Well, I admit, it has been quite a while since I last flew,” she reveals as we hit more turbulence. I cling to my seat and grit my teeth. My knuckles are white with how hard I hold on, but I don’t relinquish my grip. I’ll hold on for dear life until we get there, whether I lose a few fingers or not. I glance back to where Nathan’s sitting. He winks at me and gives me a thumbs up. I stick my tongue out at him. He had opted for the safer seat, and Nehru had insisted that I sit up front with her. I figured it would be fine.

  I don’t think I’ve ever been so wrong in my life.

  We finally reach the islands where Nathan and I had started the Third Challenge, then turn and fly south, away from the shore. When we’re almost to the point where I believe the Mermaids to live, I have Nehru fly lower and hover just above the water. I then jump out without hesitation.

  The cold water is a shock, but I quickly grow used to it. Nathan jumps in after me. We both surface and wave to Nehru as she turns and heads back to the Village. I told her that I’ll just have the Mermaid King transport us back.

  Now all that remained was to find the King.

  When Nathan and I dive back under the water, we come face-to-face- with a couple of giant jellyfish. I vaguely remember seeing them when we left the Mermaid King the last time. They seemed to be guarding the walls of the city- some unnaturally high growing seaweed served as the city’s boundaries. I wonder if they’ll attack us.

  Deciding to try and talk to them before we get zapped to death, I open my mouth and introduce myself. Before I can get much out, a small merman swims up to us. The jellyfish let him pass. “Dragongirl! You’re back! I mean, the King had me on the lookout for you, but I wasn’t expecting a visit so soon!” He beams at us, sighing and smiling happily.

  Nathan and I glance at each other, wondering what we should do. He gives me a tiny shrug. Sighing, I turn back to the small blue merman. “Tha
t’s actually why we’re here. Can you take us to see the King, please?”

  “Oh, yes, of course!” the young scout excitedly affirms. “Those are actually my orders. I’ll take you to him immediately!” With that, he spins around to face the wall of seaweed once more. “Follow me!” he cries, reaching out to touch the seaweed. It withdraws at his touch, causing an opening to appear as if he had pulled back some curtains. Nathan and I look at each other once more before following him through the gap. The seaweed closes behind us.

  As we swim, the young merman bombards us with questions and unrequested information. “So, humans underwater. That’s something I’ve never heard of before! Is there some kind of magic you use to change and become more like us?” He continues before we can answer. “This is my first assignment! I just enlisted to the army a few days ago.”

  “Really? How old are you?” Nathan asks curiously.

  “I’m thirty moon cycles old,” he announces proudly, puffing out his small chest. Only a little over two years old? …I guess mermaids must grow a lot faster than we do. “I enlisted as soon as I was old enough! Mom doesn’t like it, but Pop seemed pretty proud.” He pauses at this. “Well, he wasn’t angry at me, at least.”

  “Is he usually angry at you?” I glance at Nathan as he asks this, wondering why he’s so curious about the boy.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” he admits, turning to look back at us with sad orange eyes. “Anyway, so my name is Curzon. Sorry, I meant to tell you that from the start! Guess I got too excited,” he happily continues. Boy, nothing really gets this boy down for long, does it? I note with a small, amused smile.

  Curzon rambles on for a while longer before we reach the King’s sunken castle. As soon as we do, our guide falls silent and stops at the doors, trembling. Nathan catches on first. “He’s afraid,” he murmurs to me. He puts a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Hey, thank you for showing us the way. We can take it from here, okay?”

  “Yeah, and we’ll be sure to put in a good word for you,” I add.

  He brightens immediately. “Really?! That would be great! Thank you so much!” With that, he happily swims away. Smiling at Nathan, we both turn and pull the doors to the castle open. The sunken castle is much the same as I remember. The dark stone covered in rich green moss, which seems to absorb the light, making it feel dark inside, despite the numerous underwater torches burning on the walls.

  “Dragongirl! Back so soon?” Kaifeng, the Mermaid King, greets, smiling as he swims up to us.

  “I’m afraid so,” I reply. “I’m hoping there’s something you can help us with.”

  “You know I’ll do anything I can to help. What is it you need?”

  “My Gifts were taken or… blocked, or something,” Nathan replies, his voice shaking slightly. “We’re also hoping that you can make sure some… mind control has been reversed for me.”

  Kaifeng laughs and shakes his head. “You two, always getting into trouble.” He peers at Nathan seriously. “I’m not sure I can do anything about your Gifts, not if the same thing happened to you as Crystal. The mind control should be easy enough to discover, however. Was it caused by another’s Gifts?”

  “Yes, actually,” Nathan confirms. “But my Gifts- they were blocked by a sorcerer. It’s not… it’s not what happened to Crystal.”

  “Hmm. Well, we’ll just see what I can do for you, then,” he replies before turning and swimming down one of the corridors. With a glance at Nathan, we quickly follow him through the dim hallway. He leads us to a room with nothing but a safe in it. He opens it and pulls out the Trident. It regains its green glow the instant it’s in his grip.

  “Now then,” Kaifeng begins, turning back to us. “Let’s see what we can see about that pesky mind control.” Nathan nods and takes a steadying breath. “Now, place your hand on the Trident.” Nathan does as he’s told, and suddenly both of them freeze. Tremors run through their bodies and have labored breathing. After what feels to me like hours, Nathan’s hand springs open, releasing the gold as he stumbles back a few steps. They’re both panting lightly. My eyes dart between them nervously.

  “…Well? What’s the verdict?” I finally demand.

  The mermaid King doesn’t respond immediately, staring thoughtfully at Nathan. “Whatever you used to cure him certainly worked. So well, in fact, that I doubt mind control of that sort would ever work on him again.” Immense relief floods Nathan’s face at the news.

  “Really?”

  Kaifeng smiles at him. “Really.” He pauses. “Ready to find what we can do about your Gifts?”

  Nathan runs a hand through his hair; a rare nervous habit of his. He nods determinedly. Kaifeng nods back, then lowers the Trident so it’s pointed right at Nathan’s chest. He then begins chanting the same thing he had when he’d tried to help me with my Gifts. “Heal. Fix all that is hurt, return all that is lost. Return control to whom it belongs…”

  This time I can see what happens on the outside during the process. As the Mermaid King’s energy depletes, Nathan seems to buzz with excess. As the King lowers the Trident, Nathan suddenly seems to explode with a white light. He then crumples to the ground. I rush to his side, blinking away the afterimage of that bright light. “Nathan?”

  He stirs in my arms. When he opens his eyes, they look all black at first, but it quickly recedes into his pupils, returning his eyes to normal. “Crystal?”

  “Nathan, are you okay? How do you feel?” I worriedly ask him.

  He sits up and grins at me. “I feel fantastic!” He jumps up in one fluid motion, energy seeming to pour out of him. He then promptly turns into a fox, then turns back. “My Gifts are back!” he crows, taking my hands and happily spinning me around. He catches me in his arms and I laugh, dizzy.

  “That’s amazing,” I reply, smiling up at him. Suddenly realizing how close we are, we spring apart. After a few seconds of silently looking at my feet, I look back at him, brimming with curiosity. “So how does it feel?”

  “It’s… man, it’s incredible. You know how there’s some energy we get when we grow into our Gifts? It’s like that, only about four times better.”

  “What… what did you… see while he was using the Trident?” I ask, wondering if he figured out a way to do what I could not.

  He shrugs. “A dark room. There was this red lockbox, so I pulled out a key and unlocked it. This white light washed over me, and the next thing I know, I’m on the ground.”

  “Huh.”

  “What did you say you saw, again?” he asks me.

  I give a light sigh. “There were four pools of water on a hill. The water was supposed to flow, I thought, so I started to remove the stuff blocking it from flowing.”

  “And nothing happened?”

  “Well, I didn’t get to finish.”

  “Then that must be why it didn’t work! You just needed more time!” He spins back to the mermaid King. “Can you try again? Please?”

  He smiles and stands from the chair he’d been resting in. “Of course. I’m not sure how much time I’ll be able to give you, though,” he warns me.

  “It’s okay. Thank you for doing this for us.”

  He offers a soft smile in return. “Anything I can do to help you defeat the Dragon Hunters,” he replies before pointing the Trident at me once more. I close my eyes as he does so, tense with anticipation. When I hear him begin his chant, I open then and once again find myself on the starlit hill. Walking forward, I peer into the first pool, staring at my reflection. Could this be it? At long last? Reaching out, I quickly pull more rocks and twigs out, using both hands and tossing them behind me. I’m about two-thirds of the way done when I feel the tug telling me to return. “No!” I gasp, desperately scrabbling at the stones. Too soon, I’m pulled back to the real world.

  “No… send me back!” I cry, turning to an exhausted Kaifeng. “I wasn’t finished!”

  His bloodshot eyes pierce mine. “Crystal. I have no more to give. I’m sorry. That’s all I can do for you. I
don’t even have enough energy left to send you home. I’m sorry, Dragongirl, but I gave you every second I could.”

  I feel a pang of guilt as I take in his drained state. “Oh… I’m sorry…”

  He lifts a hand and waves it off. “It’s fine. Besides, I was actually going to send a garrison of my mer-warriors with you.”

  “Oh, we can make it home alright,” Nathan hurriedly assures him. “We don’t need guards.”

  “No, no, no,” he chuckles. “I was sending them to your Village with you. To help you fight those black cloaked… land dwellers. No offense to the two of you, of course. We figure that since they’re on land, it would be more productive to fight them on land. We can’t kill them all just waiting for them to come to us.”

  “But… can you even do that?” I ask worriedly.

  “My warriors know what they’re doing and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices,” he assures me. “Besides, I can reverse the spell on any full moon.”

  “So… they just walk up onto land with us and their tails turn into legs?” Nathan asks.

  He nods. “I have already placed the spell on them a few days ago, so yes, as soon as they are out of the ocean, they will be given legs.” Stifling a yawn, he waves a hand towards the door. “Now go. They will be waiting for you outside.”

  “Thank you, Kaifeng,” I reply, turning to go.

  “Wait. How did you know my name? I don’t recall telling you what it was.”

  “Oh. Yeah, my dad told me,” I inform him.

  “Alexander? …Of course. Well, please do not share it with anyone else. Names contain power, you know.”

  I nod. “Of course.”

  “Thank you. Until we meet again, Dragongirl.”

  I smile at the weary merman. “Farewell, oh King.”

  “Thanks again,” Nathan adds. “For everything.” Kaifeng smiles in reply and dips his head to us in farewell. We both bow a little in response, then turn and swim out of the door and back into the hallway. As we make our way back to the front door of the castle, I look over at Nathan and find that he’s still bubbling with energy. Literally. Tiny bubbles occasionally lift from the surface of his skin.