Dragon's Breath

by E. D. Baker

  “I saw it all,” said Francis. “A monster rolled you around in the snow and tossed you down the side of the mountain, Zoë. I tried to stop him, but he knocked my sword out of my hand and threw me after you.”

  Zoë shivered. “I had the nicest dream, though. I was all warm and toasty. The air smelled good—not like here. What is that smell?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.

  “I smell it, too,” said Francis. “It’s sour, with a real bite to it.”

  “I don’t smell anything,” Leo said.

  Simon smirked. “You never do.”

  “That’s the poison gas,” said the white dragon. “It won’t hurt you unless you breathe it in when it’s concentrated. That’s why I said you shouldn’t go to the back of the cave.”

  When Zoë shivered again, Millie turned to the white dragon. “Would it be all right if I started a fire? I’m Millie, by the way, and this is my friend Zoë, and my cousin Francis, and that,” she said, pointing at the troll, “is Simon-Leo.”

  The dragon grinned and his whole face lit up. Millie’s heart gave a funny lurch. What’s wrong with me? she thought. He’s a dragon, not a human.

  “My name is Audun,” he said. “You could start a fire, except I don’t have any wood. I can get some if you want. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. There are some trees on the south side of the last mountain in the range and I—”

  “You don’t have to go to all that trouble,” said Millie.

  “I don’t mind,” said the dragon.

  “Why don’t you just use coal?” said Leo. “I found some in a sack back there.”

  “What’s coal?” asked Audun.

  “I’ll show you,” said Leo.

  Everyone waited while Simon-Leo trotted into the cave and returned lugging a bulging sack. “This is coal,” Leo said, dumping the sack on the ground. “It burns like wood, only it doesn’t smell so good, so I wouldn’t do it inside the cave. We have a whole lot of it in our mountain.”

  “We’ll do it out here,” said Millie. “Maybe the fire will block the cold air from blowing into the cave.”

  Audun looked on while Leo piled the coal on the ledge. A puff of coal dust reached Audun, smudging his pure white scales. “My grandfather brought that with him. He was going to take it with us to our new home.”

  “What happened?” asked Millie. “Where is your grandfather now?”

  “He’s with my grandmother and my parents, locked away in a castle,” said Audun.

  “There,” said Leo, “you can start the fire.”

  “I’ll get two rocks,” Audun said, glancing back into his cave. “We can smack them together and get a spark.”

  “There’s no need,” said Millie. “I can handle this part myself.”

  Taking a short breath, she exhaled a trickle of flame onto the coal, turning it a warm, glowing red. At the same moment, a line of fire raced from Millie’s flame across the cave and into the room beyond. Whoom! Fire exploded in the back chamber, burning with great intensity for a moment and going out just as quickly.

  “I guess your poison gas was flammable,” she said, giving Audun an apologetic look. “I hope I didn’t burn up something important.”

  “There wasn’t much back there,” he said, his eyes wide in disbelief. “How did you do that? I’ve never seen anything like it. That was amazing!”

  Millie felt her face get hot. “All the dragons where I come from can do that.”

  “No one around here can. All we can do is breathe poison gas.”

  “That sounds pretty impressive to me!” said Simon.

  “I guess it makes sense,” Millie said, watching the water from melted ice trickle out of the cave. “If you breathed fire, you would melt half the mountain.”

  “What else have you got back there?” asked Simon.

  “Just stuff my grandfather collected,” said Audun. “We were on our way to a new home when we stopped to rest. We were planning to stay here only a day or so.”

  The troll was already edging back into the cave when Audun glanced in his direction. “Mind if we look around?” Leo asked.

  “I don’t care,” said Audun. “I already told you, there isn’t much there.”

  Millie was using her talons to rearrange the coals in the fire when Audun turned back to her. “You can touch fire?” he asked, sounding amazed.

  Millie glanced up. “Can’t you?”

  Audun shook his head. “Frost dragons can get burned just like most creatures.”

  Francis and Zoë got up to follow Simon-Leo, leaving Millie alone with Audun. “How did your family get locked away in a castle?” she asked.

  “The day after we arrived, an eagle told us that a witch had built a castle near here,” he said, his eyes growing fierce. “My grandparents went to see her. When they didn’t come back, my parents flew off to look for them. I wanted to go, too, but my father made me stay here in case my grandparents came back. He said it was so they wouldn’t think we’d left without them, but I really think it was to protect me. The next morning I went to the castle and saw their claw markings on the ice. The witch had blocked the door so I couldn’t get in and my family couldn’t get out. It’s been three weeks and nobody’s returned yet.”

  “Where is this castle?” asked Millie.

  “On the far side of that mountain,” Audun said, pointing at the next mountain over.

  “She wouldn’t happen to be the Blue Witch, would she?”

  Audun nodded. “That’s what the eagle called her. How do you know her name?”

  “She’s the reason we’re here,” said Millie. “I came to learn something from her and my friends came to help me.”

  “If you’re smart you won’t go anywhere near her,” Audun said.

  “I have to see her,” Millie replied. “It’s why we’ve come so far and gone through so much.”

  “Do you know a way in?” asked Francis. He had come up behind Millie, but his eyes were on the white dragon.

  Millie glanced at her cousin. “Audun says that we shouldn’t try to see the Blue Witch.”

  “If we listened every time someone told us not to do something, we’d have turned back long ago.” Francis held up a sword so the white dragon could see it. “I wanted to ask if I could borrow this. I lost my sword today and I don’t want to go into that castle without one. You have a lot of them back there.”

  “Sure,” said Audun. “You can keep it if you want to. It doesn’t have any jewels on it, so it isn’t worth much to me.”

  “Thanks!” said Francis, running his fingers the length of the scabbard. “This is perfect!”

  “Do you know a way in?” Millie asked the white dragon.

  “Yes, but you won’t be able to use it. After the witch captured my family, she filled in the entrance so nothing bigger than a human or a troll,” he said, glancing at Simon-Leo, “can fit through the door.”

  “Then I guess we’ll have to wait until Millie is in a good mood,” said Francis.

  Audun looked puzzled. “What does that have to do with going to see the witch?”

  Millie sighed. “I’m not always a dragon. I turn into one only when I’m angry. Usually I’m a human girl and could fit through that door.”

  “Did an evil witch cast a curse on you?” asked Audun.

  “Nothing that simple,” Millie said. “My mother is a witch who likes being a dragon. She was a dragon too often when she was expecting me, and I’m the one who has to pay the price.”

  Audun looked confused. “Do you really think that being a dragon is so awful?”

  “It’s not awful at all!” she exclaimed. “I love being a dragon! The only time I feel free and at peace is when I’m a dragon. It’s just that I wasn’t born to be one, not like you.”

  “So, about that door,” said Francis.

  “I don’t like this,” said Audun, “but if you have to go see her, I’ll show you the door on one condition. Once you get inside, you have to try to find my family. I need to know if they’re alive and
if there’s some way I can get them out.”

  “That’s it? Go into a castle made of ice, get an evil old witch to reveal her secrets to Millie, then free some dragons who will probably spout poison gas at us?” Francis was practically sputtering as he looked from Audun to Millie and back again. “You can’t be serious. It’s bad enough that we have to go in there at all!”

  “I don’t know what else to do!” Audun told Millie.

  “Of course, we’ll do it,” said Millie.

  “Millie!” said Francis.

  “We’re going in, anyway, aren’t we?” she asked her cousin. “It won’t be that hard to look around. Between your magic and Simon-Leo’s strength, it shouldn’t be any problem to free a few dragons.”

  Audun’s gaze traveled up and down Francis. “You have magic?” he asked.

  “Yes, I do. So you’d better watch your step!”

  Millie ground her teeth and glared at her cousin. “Francis, you’re being rude!”

  “Somebody around here needs to set this dragon straight,” he snapped. “And I know you’re not going to do it.”

  “How do you turn into a human?” asked Audun. “I wish I could.”

  “I have to relax,” Millie said, “which isn’t easy when I have such an infuriating cousin around.” She glared at Francis again, but he pretended not to see it.

  “And then what?” asked Audun.

  “Then it just … happens,” Millie said. “When I’m relaxed enough I think about being a human again, and I am.”

  “Can you do it now?”

  Millie closed her eyes and tried, but nothing changed. “I guess not. I must still be too wound up inside.”

  “Can you hurry up, Millie?” said Francis. “I want to get this whole thing over with and get home before my parents do.”

  “You didn’t get your parents’ permission, did you? How old are you, anyway?” Audun asked him.

  “That’s none of your business,” said Francis.

  “Stop it, both of you!” Millie roared. “I’m going to go lie down and try to relax, which isn’t going to happen if you two are fighting.”

  “I take deep breaths when I want to relax,” said Audun. “If that doesn’t work, I think about a place that I really like—one that makes me happy. That’s what my mother told me to do when I was just a hatchling.”

  Millie found a comfortable spot against the wall of the cave and curled up so that her nose was resting on her tail. Although she didn’t think she could fall asleep, she was so exhausted that she was soon snoring gently. When she woke a short time later, she saw Audun only a few feet away, watching her.

  “That was amazing,” he said. “One moment you were the most beautiful dragoness I’ve ever seen and the next you were the most beautiful human. You must have really powerful magic to transform that easily.”

  Millie sat up and brushed the hair out of her eyes. “I don’t know. I can’t control it yet.”

  “But you will. Someday you’ll be able to do all sorts of things. I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

  “I don’t think there are too many people like me around,” she said, and glanced past the dragon to the cave opening. “It’s time for us to go.”

  “If you’re ready.”

  “I am,” she said, taking the talon he offered to help her up. “I guess it’s now or never.”

  Fifteen

  Millie and her friends stood at the lip of Audun’s ledge, looking down. A small cloud floated past beneath them and when it was gone there was nothing to see for a very long way. The ground was so far below that only a dragon could have seen a human on its surface.

  “How are we supposed to get down there?” Francis asked. “I don’t think even Simon-Leo could jump from here and live.”

  “You don’t have to jump,” said Audun. “I’ll carry you to the castle. Millie, would you like to ride on my back?”

  Francis glanced at the dragon’s back and shrugged. “I suppose if it’s the only way. I’ll go first, and give you a hand up, Millie—”

  Audun snarled and lowered his massive head so he was face-to-face with Francis. “I offered Millie a ride, not you. I’ll carry you the same way you came here—in dragon claws.”

  “I don’t think that’s fair,” said Francis, turning a little pale.

  “Dragons don’t have to be fair. It’s the only way I’ll carry you, but if you don’t like it you can stay up here—forever. My lady,” Audun said, lowering his neck so that Millie might climb onto it.

  “Isn’t there any way—,” Millie began.

  “No,” said Audun. “I will not have that boy on my back.”

  “I’m sorry, Francis,” Millie said as she took hold of one of Audun’s ridges. “There isn’t room for all of us up here, anyway. And you’ll be perfectly safe in Audun’s claws. I carried you that way myself.”

  “Where should I go?” Zoë asked in a small voice.

  Millie glanced back and saw real fear on her friend’s face. “Audun, do you think perhaps …”

  The white dragon sighed. “I suppose I can carry her, but I’m not letting that troll climb up, so don’t ask!”

  “I wouldn’t want to sit up there, anyway,” grumbled Leo. “I’d probably get blown off!”

  “The wind …,” said Zoë.

  “You’ll be safe,” Audun replied. “Just hold on to my ridges and I’ll fly slowly.”

  The dragon held still while Zoë climbed up behind Millie. When he reached for the troll, Simon closed his eyes while Leo watched everything with great interest.

  “Uh-uh,” said Francis. “You’re not picking me up like that. Hold your foot still and I’ll climb on.”

  “I’ll have to tighten my grip so you don’t fall,” warned Audun.

  “I know,” Francis said, positioning himself so he could reach his scabbard. He tensed up, waiting for the pressure, and relaxed when the dragon didn’t squeeze him.

  “Hold tight,” said Audun.

  As the dragon’s muscles bunched under her, Millie felt Zoë lean against her back. The great wings began a slow and steady beat, and suddenly they were in the air, soaring out over the vast emptiness that had opened beneath them.

  “Wow!” Zoë breathed into Millie’s ear. “I’ve never flown this high before. This is incredible.”

  “It is,” Millie said, gazing around her in awe. Although she had flown alongside this same mountain only hours before, she had been too worried about her friends to appreciate the scenery. She gasped as the sun caught the snow on the mountains in a sparkling sheen of purest white. The deeper snow showed hints of blue, the same shade as the streaks on the white dragon. Tightening her grip, Millie glanced down. They were up so high that the river that ran between the mountains was the slimmest of lines. Riding a dragon was almost as exhilarating as being a dragon, although she would never have dreamed of trading one for the other.

  They were approaching the next mountain in the range when Audun said, “Watch out. We’re going up,” and then they were climbing. Millie leaned forward so that she was hugging the dragon’s neck, with her body pressed against the side of his ridge. Zoë bent over as well, holding her face against Millie’s back as they arrowed nearly straight up. Even after Audun leveled off, Millie stayed where she was and was glad she had when he began his descent and the wind whistled past them.

  She saw the ice castle right away; it would have been impossible to miss. The light reflecting off its surface would have been blinding if the sun hadn’t been setting. The castle had been constructed in the cleft formed by three mountains. Like the surface of the mountains around them, the walls of the castle were white and blue. With tall, slender turrets and pinnacles, and lacelike arches that reached to the mountains themselves, the castle could only have been built with magic.

  Millie’s muscles were beginning to tremble from the effort it took to hold on when Audun finally set down Francis and Simon-Leo before landing at the foot of the castle. Zoë groaned as she slid into Francis
’s arms; Millie soon followed, her fingers still bent and stiff.

  “The door’s inside that archway,” said Audun. “It’s the only door in the entire castle. There are no windows or other openings. I know, because I’ve spent weeks trying to find a way in.”

  “How are we supposed to do this?” asked Francis. “Do we bang on the door or sneak in? I think we should sneak in.”

  “I say we barge in screaming and swinging axes,” said Leo.

  “You would,” said Simon. “I think we should knock.”

  “For once I agree with Francis,” Audun said. “The only way you’ll be able to enter that castle is to sneak in.”

  “How will we get inside?” asked Zoë.

  “That’s easy,” said Francis. “The door is made of ice. I could open that in my sleep.”

  “Then I guess this is good-bye,” Millie said, turning to Audun.

  “Be careful,” said the dragon. “I know we’ve only just met, but I don’t want to lose you, too. If you’re not back in a few hours, I’m coming in after you. I can use that coal to melt the door.”

  “You won’t need to do that,” said Millie. “We’ll be back before you know it.” Standing on tiptoe, she kissed the dragon on the cheek and turned to join her friends.

  “I can’t believe you just kissed a dragon,” Francis told her as they started toward the door.

  “My mother kissed a frog,” said Millie, “and look where they are now.”

  “That’s different,” Francis grumbled.

  “Francis, half of the time I am a dragon. Do you really hate me so much?”

  “No, of course not,” said Francis. “But that doesn’t mean I have to like the dragon who has his eye on you.”

  “Do you think he really likes me?” Millie asked.

  “I don’t get it,” said Francis. “You’d have to be deaf, blind, and stupid not to see it, and I know you’re not any of those. He looked like you’d cracked a lance over his head when you kissed him, he was that stunned.”