by Bryan Davis
Randall staggered forward to keep from toppling. He looked around, squinting. “Where are the white dragons?”
Moans erupted from the sea of diseased slaves. A few of those standing crumpled to the ground. Some who had been sitting keeled over and lay motionless.
“He’s dead!” a woman cried out. As she continued her lament, new moans and wails drowned her voice.
His sword bared, Randall marched up the portico’s side stairway. “Koren! What’s going on? Why are you with Taushin?”
Koren held up a hand. “Stop!”
He halted, blinking. “Are you using your Starlighter power on me?”
“Only to give you information.” She pointed toward the grottoes. “Go to Arxad’s cave and help Elyssa. She will provide all the information you need.”
Rubbing his eyes, he backed down the stairs. “Elyssa?”
“Yes. She needs your help.”
When Randall reached the bottom of the stairs, he turned toward the grottoes and began an unsteady march. As he weaved through the crowd of slaves, he stumbled at times but caught himself.
When he was out of earshot, Taushin set his snout near Koren’s ear. “I said I would allow protection for Elyssa, but this one is dangerous. I do not want the two Darksphere visitors to conspire against us.”
Koren turned. Mallerin sat behind Taushin, scanning the area. “Were you able to see the look in his eyes?” Koren asked. “He wanted to kill you.”
“He is far too ill to do me any harm, but I want to avoid encouraging Elyssa with his presence and his knowledge. Bring him back.”
Koren nodded. This could work out perfectly. “Randall!” she shouted.
Nearly falling as he spun, Randall gave her a confused stare. “What now?”
She raised her hood and locked gazes with him. “Rest, my friend. Think of the forests and creeks on your world. Think of shade and cool water.” As she spoke, the circle of cobblestones around him transformed into lush grass with a bubbling stream passing next to his feet. “Enjoy the refreshment. I will bring you back here at the proper time.”
“Excellent,” Taushin said. “As ill as he is, this is the best situation for him. If Elyssa has already made it safely to Arxad’s dwelling, she needs no guard, and she is quite capable of working alone.”
A boy skulked past Randall and headed toward Arxad’s cave. Koren focused on him. From the back he looked like Wallace.
A man called from the crowd. “Koren! What are we to do? Where is the medicine?”
“It’s coming very soon.” She spotted the man, a young miner from the looks of his dirty, calloused hands. He sat only a few steps away, holding a motionless little girl in his arms. Her dark, stringy hair draped his muscular forearm. “One of the Darksphere visitors is preparing it.” “Are you sure it works?”
She lifted her tunic, once again revealing her stomach from her navel to her lowest ribs. Her skin had stayed clear, but the miner couldn’t see the pain growing within. “This is what it did for me. I’m not sure if it’s a complete cure, but it helps.”
“It’s a lot better than nothing.” He stroked the girl’s head and ran his fingers through her hair. “Reesa doesn’t have much time.”
Pressing her lips together, Koren nodded. “I know. None of us do. Just try to be patient. The medicine will be here soon.”
Taushin set a wing on Koren’s back. “Let us go now to complete —”
“Wait!” Koren blinked. A vision from Exodus flowed into her mind, a dragon with fear in his eyes flying this way from the south. “I see a messenger dragon, one of yours. I think he bears bad news. He will be here soon.”
“Mother,” Taushin said, “guide me to a better viewing place.”
He and Mallerin flew down to the street, while Koren navigated the stairs. After avoiding several slaves, she reached the bottom and stood next to Taushin. Koren and Mallerin both looked up. Clouds drifted across Solarus, forcing it to peek through intermittent gaps.
After a minute or so, Taushin murmured, “Koren, have you been able to see Cassabrie?”
“Not yet. I’ve been scanning as far as I can to find her.”
“Either you are telling the truth, or you are a skillful liar.” Taushin settled to his haunches and said no more.
A few moments later, a drone flew toward them from the south. When it landed, it gasped for breath. “I found Fellina!”
“Where?” Taushin asked.
“She is down. Magnar has joined the battle against the Benefile near the closer mining mesa. Fellina is in the forest near that area, but I could not tell if she is dead. An old man is sitting with her, and they are out of the battle zone.”
“How are our dragons faring against the Benefile?”
“Not well. They have to battle the ice and the spears of the human army. They hoped to use the slave children as a shield, but the humans have thwarted that plan.”
A look of worry bent Taushin’s features. “Did you see Xenith?”
“Not in flight,” the drone said. “Several have fallen victim to the ice, but when covered in white, they are not recognizable.”
Taushin spread out his wings. “We must join them. Mother, you will be my eyes once again, but first, take the sword from the Darksphere human.”
While Mallerin shuffled toward Randall, Taushin touched Koren’s abdomen with a tip of his wing. “I hear churning within.”
Koren slid her hand under his wing and pressed her stomach. The pain was definitely getting worse.
“Your alliance with me will be tested now. Do not let me down.” Taushin waved a wing toward the dying slaves and set his eyebeams on her cheek. “It would be tragic if you lost these people after all you have gone through.”
“I know.” Koren looked away, dodging the beams. “Maybe you’d better hurry. Fellina needs you.”
Taushin waved a wing at the messenger. “Guide us to Fellina.” The messenger took off, followed immediately by Mallerin and Taushin.
The breeze from the three sets of beating wings blew back her hair and flapped her cloak. While she waited for them to fly out of sight, moans and cries rose all around. The miner called, “What will you do now, Koren?”
Koren took a step toward him. He sat in the same place with Reesa in his lap. With her face covered with sores and her hair falling out, she looked more dead than alive. “How is she?”
“She’s breathing. That’s all I can say.”
Letting out a sigh, Koren looked toward Arxad’s cave, then at the Zodiac’s entry doors. Taushin probably wouldn’t be gone long, and there was so much to do.
“Hold on. I will be back as soon as I can.” She ran to Randall and grabbed his arm. “Wake up! I need you!”
Randall shook his head hard. “Where am I?”
“I’ll explain later. Just come with me.” Tugging him along, she hurried up the portico’s stairs and marched through the Zodiac’s entry corridor. Randall staggered now and then, but his eyes seemed to grow clearer and clearer. As they neared the entry to the dome room, she spotted two ropes pinched between the floor panels and leading to one of the wall lanterns. She hadn’t noticed them while flying in and out with Taushin. Maybe he hadn’t seen them either.
When they arrived in the dome room, she stopped at the interior threshold and let go of Randall. “Follow if you can. I’m in a hurry.” She ran to Jason and slid on her knees, stopping in front of him. She grabbed his hand in both of hers. “Oh, Jason! I’m so sorry about everything. I prayed that you’d come and rescue me from Taushin. I saw you in my vision, so I knew you were near. That’s why I let him get so close. I hoped you’d interfere before he took complete control, but at the last second, I saw Mallerin coming, and I didn’t want her to kill you. If she had seen you attacking Taushin, she might have burned you alive before I could stop her.”
She took a deep breath. “Do you understand?”
Jason stared at her, obviously focusing on her eyes. “Is Taushin looking at me?”
“No. No! He never got in.” She yanked at a manacle, but it held fast. “I have to get you out of here.”
Jason glanced toward the doorway. “Randall’s coming, but he looks dazed. Did you hypnotize him?”
“I did, but he’s shaking it off.” She jumped up and ran to the trunk. The lid still lay at the side, allowing easy access.
“Deference has been looking for the key,” Jason said. “She searched through that trunk three times.”
Koren picked up the sword she had laid behind the trunk. Fortunately she had remembered to block Mallerin’s view of it from the moment she picked it up until the moment she hid it. “If Deference is here, where is Madam Orley? It would be odd for them to be apart.”
“I have no idea. She didn’t mention Madam Orley.”
“Where is Deference now?”
“I don’t know. I think she’s still looking for the key, but I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“That’s Deference. She’ll do anything for you, but you don’t always know when she’s around.” Koren set the lid back on the trunk and scooted to Jason. Stooping, she laid a hand on the back of his head. “I’m really sorry about this.”
He pulled away. “Why were you making a covenant with him? If he has control over you, why should I trust you?”
“First of all, I didn’t make a covenant with him. He recited his part of the agreement, but I never said I’d do anything for him. I’m pretending to be on his side because he has a plan to hurt Cassabrie. He thinks I’m going to help him, but I’m really going to stop him.”
“And you can’t be sure you can stop him unless you stick by his side.”
“Exactly.” She raised the sword. “Let’s see if I can break one of the chains.”
Jason slid to the side and pulled on a manacle, stretching a chain across the floor. “The links look too thick.”
“I have to try.” Koren chopped down. The blade clanked against the chain and recoiled, vibrating painfully in her grip.
Randall shuffled up to them and crouched. “You just nicked the blade. You’ll never cut those links with a sword.” He mussed Jason’s hair. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you out of this.”
“I’m glad you’re confident.” Jason’s voice took on a skeptical tone. “Koren, do you have an alternate plan?”
“Just to get the key.” Still holding the sword, she patted Randall’s arm. “I’ll need your help.” As she and Randall headed for the entry corridor, she called back. “Jason, I don’t blame you at all for not trusting me. I’m not even sure I can trust myself, and I know what Taushin’s up to. He’s crafty, and his influence has overwhelmed me before. I just have to be careful to keep my boots off.”
“Keep your boots off?”
“Never mind.”
“Where are you going?” Jason called, his voice muffled by the Zodiac’s walls.
“When I gave Elyssa the medicine ingredients, she told me where a copy of the master key is. It’s hard to get to, so I wanted to check the trunk again first.” She stopped at the middle of the corridor and looked up at the wall mural. A redheaded, green-eyed girl stood in the midst of Exodus. Wearing a Starlighter’s vestments—a white dress and blue cloak—she gazed toward the sky, her mouth open as if telling one of Starlight’s tales.
“The key’s up there, Randall.” Koren reached with the sword and touched one of the Starlighter’s hands. “In that little hole in her palm.”
Randall nodded. “I see it. Can you get it out with the tip of the blade?”
“I don’t think so. Even if I could, it’s not a good idea. Elyssa said the floor would open if we take it, and you already know what’s down there.”
“Sharp stakes and a stinky dead dragon.” Randall turned toward the dome room. “I found a lever that closes the floor, but I’m not sure it would work without the key in place. Too risky without a test.”
Koren rested the blade on her shoulder. “And we can’t test it without removing the key.”
“I have an idea.” Randall jogged to the rope’s pinch point near the interior door and began pulling one section upward. It rubbed against the point, forcing Randall to pull harder. He gasped and paused, pressing a hand against his stomach, then set to work again. With light from the dome room framing him, he looked like a miner standing on top of a mesa hauling a bucket to the top. After several seconds, the rope snagged.
“Do you want me to cut it?”
“You’d better. I think we have enough.”
While Randall leaned to tighten the rope, Koren crouched and chopped at it horizontally. The sharp blade cut it cleanly.
Randall staggered to the wall and braced himself there. Wagging his head, he loosened the rope from the lantern post and fed it around the door’s highest hinge. As he walked backwards toward Koren, he pulled the rope, checking the new attachment’s strength. “It looks secure.”
“What are you planning?”
“I thought I’d boost you to the key while I hold the rope. When you get it out, I’ll swing with you to the doorway.”
“Over sharp stakes?”
“And a stinky dragon.” Randall shrugged. “Unless you have another idea.”
A new voice piped up. “I have one.” Deference crawled along the wall like a spider until she settled next to the Starlighter’s palm. “I’ll drop the key to you. All you have to do is catch it and swing on the rope. It’ll be a lot easier than carrying Koren.”
Koren looked at Randall. His eyes were alert but bloodshot. “Let me swing,” she said. “You go to the door and catch me. I’m lighter, and you’re sicker than I am.”
“Are you sure?” He looked like a slave trying to choose between working while sick or taking a beating for claiming sickness.
“I’m sure.” She handed the sword to him. “I don’t think I could catch you if something goes wrong.”
Randall backed toward the dome room, letting the rope slide through his hand. “I appreciate the excuse.”
When he arrived at the doorway, he laid the sword down and set his feet. “Ready.”
Koren wrapped the rope around her waist, hung on with one hand, and extended her other toward Deference. “Let it drop.”
Eighteen
Elyssa smoothed out the note on the table in Arxad’s kitchen and squinted at the messy script. As she read, her pendant dangled at the end of its chain, twirling one way and then the other over Uriel’s instructions.
Wallace stood beside her. He appeared to be his usual self, if a bit tired. He set a wood carving on the table, an exquisite representation of a girl with a feather cap, though only the top portion was finished. “Who is that?” she asked.
“A girl named Regina. It’s a long story. We’d better get started.”
“Well, she’s beautiful.” Elyssa pointed at a lantern on the floor. “I’ll need more light.”
Wallace picked up the lantern and held it close to the table, illuminating their makeshift surgical surface. A butcher’s knife lay next to Elyssa’s hand as well as the finger box, the wax envelope, and a needle and thick black thread. The crucible, now unsealed, sat in a roasting pan over a fire in a brick oven embedded in a wall.
“It says to combine the gunpowder with the energy crystals by grinding them together in the crucible.” Elyssa touched the wax envelope. “Do you see anything to grind this with?”
“I’ll look.” Wallace rummaged through a basket of instruments. “Something hard with a rounded end?” Clinks and thunks echoed in the chamber.
“Yes.” Elyssa picked up the box from the table and opened it, revealing Cassabrie’s finger. From the tip to the second knuckle, it was intact, but tight stitches bound one end, obviously truncated.
Elyssa removed the finger from its velvet bed and set it next to the knife. Chopping off a section would be the hardest part of the procedure. The instructions called for using half the finger in hopes of saving some for another time, but if the mixture produced no blue smoke, they would have to use the rest immediate
ly.
“This should work.” Wallace set a gray pestle on the table. “Right?”
“That’s perfect, exactly what I need.” Elyssa frowned at the note. “This is confusing. I think I was supposed to grind the crystals and the powder together before I put it over the fire.”
“That can’t be helped now.” Wallace grabbed a set of tongs and carried the crucible from the fire to the table. The particles within radiated brilliant light, too bright to stare at for more than a second.
Wallace set the lantern on the floor near the cave wall. “I don’t think we’ll be needing this.”
“Probably not.” Elyssa tore open the wax envelope and sprinkled half of the powder into the crucible. Yellow sparks sprayed in long arcs, and white smoke spewed toward the ceiling. She jumped back, batting sparks from her hands. After several seconds of spitting and popping, the reaction settled.
Wallace picked up the pestle and laid it in Elyssa’s hand. “Do you need gloves?”
“I don’t think so. The sparks didn’t hurt. They just startled me.” She pushed the pestle into the crystals and pressed down, twisting as she applied pressure. More sparks jumped. Heat from the crucible rose into her fingers and face, but not enough to cause pain.
“Does it say how long to do it?” Wallace asked.
Elyssa shook her head. “I just have to guess.” After nearly a minute, she lifted the pestle and laid it next to the finger. “Now the hard part.”
“I can cut it for you,” Wallace said. “I know how to handle a knife. I can stitch it up, too. I cut my foot once really deep. I sewed it up with fiber from a vine.”
Elyssa winced. “That must’ve hurt.”
“Not as much as a dragon’s whip. I had to get back to work.”
“Well, then you’re just the man for the job.” Elyssa smoothed out the note again. “According to this, we should stand back when we add the genetic material, so I’ll do that part.”
