Legend of the Realm

by Alexandra Ott

  “Right,” I say. “I’ll still only give it to the sickest gyrpuff for now, just to be safe. If he reacts well, then we can make more of the potion and give it to other sick creatures in the Realm. I bet more have been infected by now.”

  Runa nods. “Let me know how it goes. Are you going to test it tonight?”

  “Of course,” I say. “The sick gyrpuff doesn’t have any time to waste.”

  Now there’s just one thing left for me to do. The one thing that all of the other Seekers, including Ari, have asked me not to do: enter the Realm alone.

  * * *

  Lilja is very confused.

  She’s used to me and Ari meeting her at Dragon’s Point together, and it’s been a while since I’ve flown with her alone. When she appears, her silhouette dark against the glow of the moon, she lands clumsily, stares at me in confusion, and yawns.

  “Sorry to wake you up, Lil,” I whisper. “But we have a secret errand to run, okay? You remember how we used to train at night?”

  She blinks sleepily.

  If only Ari were here—he could use his empathy gift to make her feel more energetic and awake right now. But Ari doesn’t approve of what I’m about to do, so this is one task I’ll have to undertake on my own.

  I climb onto Lilja’s back, letting my gift swirl around her energy in a feeble attempt to perk it up a bit. Lilja makes a grumbling noise but raises her wings and takes off shortly afterward.

  I steer her straight for the southern cliffs.

  I feel the energy of the boundary spells before the cliff even comes into view. The other Seekers did a very thorough job. There’s so much magic in the air that it ripples ahead of us, and Lilja slows down, not liking the feel of the barrier.

  “It’s okay,” I tell her, giving her scales a pat. “Let’s find a place for you to land farther away.” I need to keep her out of the quarantine zone, so there’s no risk that she’ll be exposed. Since humans can’t get the sickness, there’s no risk of me breaking quarantine, but I have to make sure that no magical creatures cross the boundary. I find a safe spot to land about a mile from the base of the cliffs, well outside the quarantine line. I give Lilja a few berries and set a spell to keep her in place, and then I head out.

  I have to do a lot of hiking.

  I’m not sure how long it takes me to get all the way to the right cliff, but it feels like ten years. By the time I finally cross the boundary spell, I’m already tired, but I still have work ahead of me.

  My original plan was just to open up a gap in the boundary spell around the quarantine. But, as it turns out, I can’t do that. I’ve never broken a boundary spell this strong before, and I don’t know how. I’m not a defender, and my gift isn’t much of a match for Seeker Ludvik’s skill. I broke a Realm boundary once before, the day the Vondur came to the island in the middle of the Seeker competition. But I was feeling urgency and desperation then, and I’m not feeling it now. I don’t know how to break the spell open.

  But after a couple of minutes of examining it, I realize that the spell doesn’t restrict humans from going in and out. It’s more than enough magic to deter Lilja or another magical creature, but I don’t think it will stop me if I try to walk through it.

  I feel a swell of victory as I finally enter the quarantine zone, but it quickly dies as I realize I’m not nearly done yet. I still have to climb down the cliff to the gyrpuff nests, administer the cure, and then climb back up.

  This is going to be a long night.

  Another issue I didn’t anticipate is how different the cliffs look in the dark. It takes me several minutes to orient myself, and I can’t see handholds or footholds in the rock in this blackness. I use my gift to illuminate the cliff and seek out the presence of gyrpuffs, which helps a little, but it still takes ages to climb down.

  At long last, I reach the first nest, the one Ari and I found with eggs inside. The egg we found before is still there—the baby gyrpuff hasn’t hatched yet.

  I slip into the crevasse behind the nest, to the place where we found the first gyrpuffs, still marked with Ari’s blue ribbon. Seeker Ludvik’s magic is even stronger here. I can practically feel it in my bones as I walk through the darkness, the green light of my gift casting eerie shadows against the rocky walls.

  I almost miss the sick gyrpuff. His life spark is so feeble, so tiny, that I don’t notice it at first. He’s just as still as before, lying tucked against the wall, but clearly one of the other Seekers tried to make him more comfortable—he’s surrounded by grass and feathers to make a cozy nest, and there’s a small pile of fresh fish for him to eat. I crouch down beside him, and he barely lifts his head in my direction. His eyes are still an eerie, pupil-less black.

  “Hey, little buddy,” I say. “It’s time to take your medicine.”

  I pull the little glass vial from my pocket. My hand curls over the stopper, and I hesitate. What if our tests on the plants weren’t enough? What if it’s some kind of poison? What if it makes things worse?

  The gyrpuff blinks slowly at me, barely able to move, and I uncork the vial. If I don’t do something, he will definitely die. If I give him the potion, there’s a chance he’ll live. It’s risky, but it’s the only option.

  “Here you go,” I say. I coax the gyrpuff with my gift, urging him to open his beak. He resists at first, but he’s so weak that eventually he gives in, cracking his beak open a tiny bit. Carefully, I tilt the vial and pour the potion into his mouth. After a moment, the gyrpuff swallows.

  I sit back and wait.

  Nothing happens. The gyrpuff seems to have fallen asleep, his eyes closed. His chest is still moving up and down with shallow, labored breaths. He doesn’t seem better, but he doesn’t seem worse. His life spark hasn’t changed.

  Should it have worked by now? How long do I have to wait?

  I walk to the opening of the crevasse, checking the moon’s position in the sky, and then return to my vigil. Maybe the potion needs more time to work.

  I’ve been waiting for what feels like forever when a sudden noise startles me. It’s a thudding sound, like something big moving around outside the cave—or someone.

  As quietly as I can, I creep forward to the cave entrance, straining my eyes to see in the dark. I don’t dare use my gift, in case it’s one of the other Seekers—

  “Caught you,” says a familiar voice.

  “Ari,” I say, exhaling in relief. “You nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought you were one of the Seekers!”

  “I am one of the Seekers,” he says.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “You mean, you thought I was someone who was going to get you into trouble for sneaking into the Realm against the rules?” He raises his hands, and the yellow glow of his gift illuminates his face. His gaze is unreadable. “What makes you think I’m not?”

  “Oh, come on,” I say. “You’re not supposed to be here either. You can’t tell on me without getting in trouble yourself.”

  “Sure I can,” he says, and he can’t quite hide his grin. “I could claim to have seen you sneaking up to the Point and just spied on you while you called Lilja and went into the Realm. They’ll never know I was here too.”

  I tilt my head. “How did you figure out I was here?”

  Ari rolls his eyes and holds up his glowing hands. “Empath, remember? I know everything.”

  “I’d hardly call it everything. Seriously, how’d you know?”

  Ari scoffs. “Please. Your emotions have been clear as day. Ever since the last Seekers meeting, you’ve been feeling determined and stubborn and reckless. Even more so than usual, I mean, which is really saying something. And you’ve been talking nonstop about how we need to take action and do something to save the gyrpuffs ourselves, and I knew you were working with Runa to make a potion. It wasn’t hard to guess you’d come here alone.”

  “I—okay, you make a good point. But if you really intended to get me in trouble, you would’ve done it already instead of coming out here to me
et me. So it’s not hard for me to guess that you’re here to help.”

  “I can’t let you have all the fun without me,” he says. “Besides, someone has to stop you from doing something reckless.”

  “When have I ever done something reckless?” I say with a grin. “But how’d you get here? I put a boundary around Lilja, so she couldn’t have met you at the Point.”

  “I copied Seeker Ludvik’s whistle and rode Snorri.”

  My eyes widen. Ari’s only ridden a fully grown dragon once, when we fought the Vondur. “How’d you manage that?”

  “Wasn’t that hard. Snorri’s a pretty easygoing dragon. I left her with Lilja, and they were already becoming friends.”

  “Well, we should probably get back to them,” I say. “I already gave Runa’s potion to the gyrpuff, but I don’t think it worked. Nothing happened. I’ll come back and check again tomorrow, but I doubt anything will change. The potion must still be missing something.”

  Ari starts to respond, but we both jump as a loud thud echoes from somewhere overhead.

  “What was that? The dragons?” I ask.

  “No. They’re too far away,” Ari whispers. “I think someone else is up here.”

  “Quick, stop using your gift so the other Seeker doesn’t—”

  But Ari’s gift flares more brightly around his hands as he gazes toward the top of the cliff. “I don’t think it’s a Seeker,” he whispers.

  “What?” I ask. But somehow I know what he’s going to say before he says it. Dread coils in my stomach.

  “Vondur,” he whispers.

  For a moment neither of us speaks. Another thud sounds from above, but it’s fainter this time.

  “Are you sure?” I whisper.

  “Yes. I can feel their magic.”

  I remember the feeling of Vondur magic and shudder. Ari wouldn’t mistake that for anything else. “What are we waiting for, then? Let’s get up there and stop them!”

  Ari and I race up the cliffside as fast as we can, but it’s hard to climb in the dark, especially while trying to make as little noise as possible. By the time we finally scramble to the top of the cliff, no one is in sight. We both cast our gifts out wide, searching for a life spark—

  “There,” I say, detecting something in the distance. “Moving away from us.”

  Ari nods, and we break into a run.

  We’re much less concerned about making noise as we race to catch up, plunging through the thick trees surrounding the cliffs. Branches snap and leaves crunch as we run, the green and yellow lights of our gifts bouncing wildly off the trees.

  “I don’t know if we’re going to catch up,” Ari says, panting. “Their energy feels fainter than before.”

  “Wait,” I say, skidding to a stop and holding up my hands. “Do you see that?”

  Ari follows my gaze. There, imprinted in the dirt ahead of us, is a trail of paw prints.

  Ari’s eyes widen. “Sea wolves,” he says.

  I nod. “Looks like it.”

  Ari raises his hands, illuminating the tracks with his gift. “They’re fresh.”

  “Looks like they abandoned their usual dens. They must have come this way.”

  “Headed north,” he agrees, studying the tracks. “But why? Did they sense the plague in the cliffs?”

  I let my gift fly wide, searching the surrounding area. To the south, I can sense it.

  “Water,” I say. “There’s a stream south of here. And it feels like there’s something wrong.”

  Wordlessly, Ari and I rush through the trees, following the sea-wolf prints south to their origin point. Eventually, the ground gets firmer and the tracks disappear, but we keep moving toward the sound of running water straight ahead.

  We break into a low clearing near the coastline. The same jagged cliffs we just climbed down rise before us, and descending from one of them is a bubbling stream, rushing rapidly over the rocks and disappearing into the forest.

  “Do you think—” Ari says, but he stops. I follow his gaze and gasp.

  The banks of the stream are covered in fairy clovers, which isn’t uncommon—they often grow near water. But most of the flowers are wilted and drooping. As we walk closer to the cliffs, following the stream to its source, more and more flowers are drooping and even dying. Ahead, the banks of the stream are charred and blackened, all of the flowers and even the grass reduced to nothing but ash.

  I don’t need to use my gift to confirm the truth, but I do it anyway. I can’t find a single life force in this part of the stream or the area surrounding it. No fish, no moss, no flowers. Everything close to this stream has died.

  “The sea wolves,” Ari says quietly. “They ran in the opposite direction. They were fleeing from this.”

  “And this stream goes into the cliffside,” I say, pointing. “I’ll bet you anything that its source is where the gyrpuff colony gets its water too.”

  “Either this stream is the original source of the plague,” Ari says, “or it’s been contaminated by the source of the plague. And the animals are getting infected by drinking the poisoned water.”

  “The sea wolves were smart enough to recognize that the water was contaminated,” I add, “but gyrpuffs aren’t as intelligent. They didn’t know any better.”

  “And they may not have had another water source. They can’t migrate as easily as the wolves, not when they’re nesting.”

  “We need to follow it,” I say, walking closer to the stream. The dead plants crunch under my feet. “We need to find where it starts and—”

  “Careful!” Ari calls. “The Vondur is around here somewhere!”

  “But we found the source! If we can get there, we can—”

  “I think we need to go for help.” Ari steps forward and places a hand on my shoulder. “Please, Bryn. We need to tell the other Seekers about this. They’ll know what to do.”

  “Ari, that Vondur could be doing something terrible right this second! We have to stop this fast. We don’t have time to go for help.”

  “Whoever that was, they’re long gone by now. I can’t sense them anymore. But if we get the other Seekers, we can all spread out and find them.”

  At that moment, a terrible cry rises over the trees. Ari and I stare at each other with wide eyes.

  It’s Lilja, and she sounds like she’s in trouble.

  TWELVE

  Lilja!” I call, running toward her as fast as I can, with Ari right on my heels. We both whistle for her, but it’s no use. My boundary spell is trapping her in the place where I last left her, so she can’t come to us.

  “It must be the Vondur,” I gasp, ducking under a low tree limb. “They must have found her!”

  “We don’t know that for sure,” Ari says, but he runs faster.

  “We have to find her.” I leap over a rock and burst through another clump of trees, hardly caring that the branches are tearing at my clothes. “Lilja! Lilja!”

  I fling my gift out as wide as I can, seeking Lilja’s familiar life source. As we move farther from the path of the stream, the dying plants gradually disappear, but I still can’t believe how far into the forest the damage has traveled. The plague is spreading fast.

  Finally, we reach the clearing where I left Lilja, and I catch sight of her silvery scales. “Lil!” I yell, hardly caring if there are a hundred Vondur who can hear me. “Lil, are you all right?”

  She bounds toward me, breaking the limbs off nearby trees as she goes. Her ears perk up at the sight of us, and her tail thuds the ground.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask her.

  She yawns, revealing a tongue stained blue with bilberry juice.

  “Look,” Ari says, pointing behind Lilja. Through the trees, I can just make out several clumps of bilberry bushes. And lurking just behind them is a massive brown dragon—Snorri. He’s lying with his head on his front feet, staring longingly at the bilberry bushes.

  “Um,” Ari says, “do you think maybe… they were just arguing over the food?”

&nbs
p; I look around for anything else that might have been distressing, but there’s nothing. No danger. No signs of the plague. No Vondur.

  “Lilja!” I say. “Did you cry like that just because Snorri tried to eat some of your berries?”

  Lilja happily thuds her tail against the ground again, looking delighted with herself.

  I sigh. “You’re ridiculous.”

  Ari shakes his head. “Honestly, Lil, we need to work on your training. And you need to get along better with the other dragons!”

  She huffs a breath at him, rustling his hair.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Ari says. “We need to tell the other Seekers what we found.”

  “Um, Ari,” I say, looking at the ground. “You know they’re going to be really mad that we came out here alone again.”

  “Yeah.” He tilts his head, and I suspect he’s reading my emotions with his gift.

  “I think…” I take a deep breath. “I think I should take the blame for this one. I’ll say I came out here alone and describe what I saw. They don’t need to know you were here.”

  “No,” Ari says. “I am here, and if you’re getting in trouble, then I should too.”

  “But I don’t think either of us should get in trouble,” I say. “Why let them punish us both? What happens if they decide to kick us off the Council for breaking the rules again? We don’t want that to happen to both of us. And besides, you wouldn’t even be out here if you hadn’t come looking for me. It was my idea, and my fault. I’ll take the blame for it this time, if they’re mad about it.”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s more of a ‘when’ than an ‘if,’ ” Ari says. “It isn’t fair, though. I’ll take the blame too.”

  “No.” I look up and give him my firmest glare. “I’m taking this one. It just makes sense. You can owe me one for next time, okay?” Before he can protest further, I hop onto Lilja’s back. “Come on, we don’t have any time to waste. We have to tell the Seekers.”

  Ari decides to fly Snorri, just to make sure that the dragon isn’t going to stay out here close to the poisoned stream. The dragons drop us off back at the Point and then head straight for the Valley of Ash, probably wanting to catch up on some sleep after this long night.