Chapter Sixteen
On the other side of the doorway, chaos reigned. This was why Ambrosia had not returned for us. She had her own problems here.
The cart with the doorway had been hauled through the rest of the mountain pass to the edge of the forest surrounding Questan. From the hillside road where it sat, I could see around the bowl of the valley as I stumbled through the door, Gran and Stef close behind me. I was still struggling to walk on my newly-thawed feet.
In the center of the valley, Questan loomed like a high platter on a stem, her thriving city full of life. Smoke curled up into the sky over the city and baskets hung from the underside. My heart lurched at the sight of the city. It was so vulnerable and so precious. And I’d seen how that could all turn for the worse.
I would have thought it was business as usual in Questan, except it was anything but that. I breathed a sigh of relief at the dragons flying rings around the city. They were still there, and they were still safe.
My relief lasted only a moment.
The golem army had already flooded the valley, surrounding the city. Flying golems swarmed over the heads of the creeping ones, not high enough to reach the city, but placing themselves as a protective cover over the wolf-golems. The reason why was immediately obvious.
A ring of Magikas surrounded the city, each at the head of teams of wolf-golems hitched to long chains. The chains were attached to the stem of the city. I could already see what they were planning in my mind’s eye. When the teams were ready, the Magikas would pull back and let them wrench the city apart – if that was even possible. Was it possible?
“Sweet mountains and cold winter save us,” Gran gasped.
Not my kind of cursing, but I agreed.
Why weren’t the dragons above the city soaring down and attacking?
“The flying golems are smart cover,” Gran said. I don’t think the people up there know what’s about to happen.”
I was about to open my mouth to say what we should do next when I felt a weak voice in my mind.
Tor?
Saboraak! I scanned the edges of the forest, looking for her and the next horrific scene scalded across my vision. My dragon and her wing of Green dragons were all strung in a long line hanging by their feet from one of those thick chains between two hillsides. On either hill, wolf-golems in groups of eight strained to keep the chain tight. Their heads were pinned to the ground with chains and their wings chained to their sides. With the dragons, a pair of oosquer were also chained. And was that Lenora’s Green dragon, too? And Lee’s Black dragon?
I took a step forward before I saw the long line of humans strung up just like the dragons only steps away, dangling head downward.
My friends.
Hung up like the people I had seen in the cavern beneath Apeq A’Kona’s House of Marvels. A gasp ripped through my throat.
I was moving before a clear thought surfaced.
I had to save them.
I had to do it now.
They hadn’t posted guards at the doorway – fools! But there were soldiers between me and the dragons – human soldiers. The golems were all gathered in ranks around the city, waiting for their chance to tear the innocent apart after the city fell – or at least that was how it felt. The actual golems probably felt nothing at all and the souls inside them did not see their victims as enemies.
“Stop! Will you stop, you fool?” An urgent whisper followed the tugging at my arm.
I turned, shaking the tugging hand off. “Those are my friends up there and I’ll do whatever it takes to get them out of that mess and safe again!
Gran Ti’wilren rolled her ancient eyes at me. “You’re thinking too narrowly!”
“It’s a narrow threat, Gran.”
She grabbed me and pulled me behind the cart. We hadn’t been noticed yet. Everyone’s attention and energy was focused on the innocent victims hanging from the chain or on the city they were about to destroy.
If that’s you, Tor, please hurry! I feel so weak ...
“Ignore the old woman and go save your dragon. Her mind is probably too muddled to know what’s happening,” my mimic said. “You only let her come so that the others would secure an empire for you back in Ko’Torenth.”
I tried to shake the old woman’s hands off. I needed to get to Saboraak! But she clung to me like lichen to a rock.
“Get a hold of yourself!” she whispered.
“Listen to Gran,” Stef agreed, poking me in the ribs with her staff.
We were all three huddled behind the cart – useless! – while our enemies had the chance to do whatever evil they wanted.
“Focus!” Gran grabbed my face between hands as strong as a vice. How had the old woman gotten so strong? I’d always thought old people were delicate. “You are going to run off like a fool and ruin everything. Don’t you see that there are two huge problems here?”
“Of course, I see!” I hissed. My heart was racing, panic choking me. I needed to get to Saboraak and I needed to get there now! I was going to be too late! “If I don’t rescue my dragon, I won’t be able to do anything about the city they are trying to collapse. Don’t you see? I need to get to her right now.”
I shook her off like a dog shaking off water.
“Please!” she begged. “Please listen! You are the Ko’roi! You can stop both things, but only if you listen.”
“What could an old woman say that matters?” the mimic asked, laughing. “You’re going to lose everything because you’re too nice to tell an old woman to go to – ”
“Talk fast,” I growled, forcing the mimic out of my head. He disappeared in a puff of black smoke. My hands were shaking, energy rushing through me like fire. I would give her a heartbeat to offer me a plan. If the mimic thought she was useless ... well, I’d done well in the past when I ignored his prejudices.
It hurts. Please, Tor!
Saboraak’s voice rang in my mind and my head whipped around to look through the cart toward her. I felt like I couldn’t think. The thought of her in pain made me crazy.
“You can tell all the golems to stop pulling the city and at the same time, you can send golems to stop what is happening to your dragon. The ring around your neck – it was called a “Yoke” when it was made – is powerful enough for that. But you must push away your panic and trust me. You must focus your mind. From the cart, you can see the whole valley. You can do this from there, but only if you listen. Stef and I will protect you while you work, just please listen!”
I felt like time had frozen. I had to make a decision and I had to do it now, but it would mean trusting an old woman I had only just met, and I wasn’t good at trusting. I was better at relying on myself and my own strength and cunning.
“You’d be a fool to trust her. You’ll lose everything,” the mimic wailed.
I tried to push him away, but his scoffing filled my ears instead. I was too weak. I gasped, anxiety welling up. I knew I should trust the old woman, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to solve this myself and every moment that I wasted thinking about it was a moment that I wasn’t doing it.
A gentle hand took mine and I had already followed a few steps before I realized that the old woman was leading me back up to the bed of the cart. She was humming a tune that sounded like a lullaby. In harmony. Oh, wait, that was Stef. Stef squared herself on the steps after we passed, taking her pack off and holding out her staff.
“Think now about channeling the power of the doorway into the Yoke and then push against the Yoke to harness it,” Gran said, still holding my hand.
I gritted my teeth and obeyed. I hated relying on someone else. Hated it so much. But what if she was right? What if I could do both things at once? What if I didn’t have to choose – for once?
“Now, grab a hold of the golems close to where your friends are in trouble. See them there?”
I could certainly see them. There were eight golems on each end of the chain that held the dragons. They kept it pulled taut. Two more hel
d the chain from which the humans hung. Surrounding both chains were groups of Magikas and human soldiers.
“Get ready to tell those golems to relax the chain – but don’t do it yet!” Gran said. How did she know how to direct them? How did she know what to do? “And now find the souls in the golems surrounding the city – the ones with the chains. Can you feel them? Can you feel the Magikas directing them?”
I could feel them. Oddly enough, I could feel each one now, separate them out from the cloud of consciousness, feel their distinct flavors.
“Now ... stop them while you ask the others to ease the dragons and humans down to the ground. Focus. Focus.” Her words dissolved into her lullaby and the gentle hum of the lullaby calmed my mind as I focused on doing both things at once.
It was working! The golems eased the dragons and humans to the ground while the Magikas and soldiers around them scrambled like ants with an upturned hill.
The golems in the distance stopped dead against their chains.
My heart raced. It was working! It was really working!
“I knew you’d be back,” Eventen said, stepping out from around the edge of the cart. The look on his face was smug.
Chapter Seventeen
“And look who our spies found sneaking around near Sky City? Turns out there was a way through those warrens after all.” He held Zyla in his grip, twisting one of her arms painfully behind her back.
In the distance, behind him, I could see the prisoners struggling against the chains holding them. Letting them back to the ground had not been enough to free them. With a mental shove, I pushed the golems nearby, rousing them in their teams of eight and moving them slowly toward the Magikas who were trying to shift them back into place to tighten the chains. I didn’t think that golems had enough dexterity to free the human prisoners, but maybe if I could delicately move one of their mouths to grip the chains of a single dragon, I could wrench those chains free. Even one free ally would help to free the others.
Sweat broke out across my forehead as I tried to maneuver the golems and speak to Eventen. I had to divide off more focus to keeping the golems at the city stuck in place. Apeq was trying to reawaken them. Each one he woke up, I shut back down, but I was trying to take in too many things at once and I could feel the pressure frazzling me.
“Wow, yeah, you guys are amazing, spies everywhere,” I managed, wincing at the pain in my mind from doing too many things at once. I gripped Gran’s hand as if I could gain power from her. Right now, she felt like the only one nearby who might be stable. How was that for ironic? And the mimic had thought she was useless!
I caught Zyla’s gaze in mine, trying to communicate that I was glad she was alive and that I hoped I could get her out of this again. Her bright eyes sparkled with unshed tears.
“You could ease up on her arm, you know,” I said to Eventen.
“Oh, you don’t like this?” he asked in a petty voice twisting her arm a little more. She gasped in pain.
“If you hurt her any more, I’ll make one of these golems wrench your arm off and see how you like it,” I said between gritted teeth.
Gran tsked at my words, clearly disapproving. But it was hard to be subtle. It felt like my brain was melting out of my ears as I reacted to Apeq reanimating the golems: flick, flick, flick. While I fought back flick, flick, flick. And at the same time, I maneuvered a heavy golem to the nearest dragon – Lenora’s? It was hard to tell from here – and opened its wide mouth, slowly lowering the head and pinching the chain wrapped around his wings and torso. Okay. Careful, careful, careful.
My breath hitched in my throat while my heart hammered a million miles a second.
It was too much.
Every nerve of my body hurt. Magic flowed through the yoke like a torrent. I could feel it passing through me as I fought to keep the golems under my control.
And what about Saboraak? Had I interrupted them in time to save her.
Her voice was faint in my head.
We are weak. They did not get our souls yet ... but we are weak.
The chain pulled free from the first dragon at the same moment that Eventen lifted his free hand and balanced a Magenta fireball on his palm.
“You might be playing games with golems, Tor, but I have all the aces. You’re defenseless, easy to find, and your enemies are closing in.” I risked a glance to see he was right. Now that Eventen had alerted them, soldiers were racing toward us from every direction. “And I have the winning piece – the girl. Don’t cry, Zyla. You chose this fate. Remember? I offered you a better choice before. But now none of us has any choices.”
“You healed me,” I spat, fighting to get my golem in place to free Saboraak from her chains. The first dragon was fighting the Magikas surrounding him, flaming and snapping like his life depended on it. It probably did. Magical fires flared from every direction around him. If any one of them hit the imprisoned humans, it would kill them.
“I healed you because I thought you would leave. Our reports said you were never given a choice. And you’re terrible at this. You aren’t a thinker, Tor. You just react to things that happen, following gut instinct instead of anything useful. You aren’t a fighter. You aren’t a leader. You aren’t even much of a friend. Of course, we thought you’d be happy to find a way out. Why wouldn’t you? I guess we gave you too much credit. You weren’t even smart enough to do that. And now I have you cornered like a bug.”
He stepped forward and Stef backed up to stand to my right, her staff held out with the end in front of me.
Gran was still on my left, whispering to Stef but whatever their plan was, it wasn’t going to be enough. Eventen was right. I was trapped.
The golem I was directing freed another dragon – I thought – hoped? – it was Saboraak, but in the chaos, it was impossible to tell, and her mental voice was weak. I moved him to another one.
But I was losing the golems down around the city. As fast as I was, Apeq was faster. He had only one task to concentrate on. And other Magikas were helping him somehow, grabbing the golems the second he reanimated them – moving them immediately so it was harder for me to find their flickers of soul.
My vision was darkening around the edges as I tried to focus, desperately tried to bring every bit of mental strength to bear. The darkness began to close in.
A third dragon was free.
Gran and Stef pushed me back a step as Eventen stepped forward. Whatever they were muttering wasn’t doing anything. They should run while they had the chance. I opened my mouth to shout at them to go, but I had too many thoughts buzzing in my mind and the words wouldn’t come.
A fourth dragon was free.
“Now!” Gran yelled and Stef punched the end of her spear into Eventen’s belly.
He roared, releasing his magenta fireball. It tore past me, splashing across the side of my face before flying through the doorway.
Pain filled me and a scream tore from my mouth, but now everything was happening at once.
Stef grabbed Zyla while Eventen was distracted, pulling her toward me. She reached for something on the doorway that I couldn’t see, guiding Zyla’s hand to press on the doorframe and then jumping through with Zyla still caught in one of her arms.
“Tor!” Zyla called as she was pulled through the doorway, her words cutting off as she left me.
At the same moment, Gran jumped in front of me and shoved me backward as hard as she could.
I was still screaming in pain as I stumbled backward and fell through the doorway
The last thing I saw was the look of shock on Eventen’s face.
Dragon Chameleon: Color of Victory
Chapter One
I was still gasping when we hit the ground on the other side of the Doorway in the World of Legends. My face felt like it was on fire.
“Don’t touch it!” Gran said urgently. “Magic fire sticks like tar!”
I hissed in pain, my hand hovering just inches from the burning pain in my cheek. It was all I could do
not to scream.
“And it’s marked up your crown!” Gran said, her hands steadying me as I quietly keened at the agony, my eyes rolling up in my head and my jaw aching from clenching so hard. “What a shame. Hand me my bag, Stef!”
“Can you help him?” Zyla asked, grimacing.
“Hurry, Stef!” There was a shuffling sound. “There it is.”
Gran rubbed something on my face and the pain went from screaming agony to a dull ache.
“You’re lucky,” she said. “But then you knew that. You have an Eye Pendant, don’t you? They make you lucky. Or at least they give you extra chances. I don’t know if I’d call that luck every time.”
She was still rubbing.
“We need to get back there,” I said now that the blinding pain was subsiding.
“With what army?” Stef asked. “Didn’t you see the soldiers charging toward us? I can only hold off so many attacks with my staff!”
“Eventen ...” I began but my words were cut off by Zyla. She grabbed me by the shoulders and kissed me fiercely on the mouth until my cheeks were on fire in an entirely different way.
When she was done, she pulled back, looking entirely shameless.
“I knew you’d never get around to that on your own,” she said. “Sometimes, a girl has to take charge or she’ll wait forever for a man to do the right thing.”
“I ... I was just getting to it,” I stammered, my cheeks getting even hotter at the combination of amusement and disbelief in the eyes of all three women. “I’ve been preoccupied.” I frowned at their giggles. “We need to go back there. Or haven’t you noticed that we’re in the middle of something?”
Zyla nodded fiercely, her laugher cutting off and her expression turning serious once again. She rolled up her sleeves like she meant business.
“Another Ko bearer!” Gran said with a grin. “This is good. You will give her some of your power.”
“She doesn’t have a ring,” I objected.
“The ring only amplifies what you can do and how much you can give. You can still share your power with her. Give her some.”
Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 9-12 Page 19
