Kingdom of Dragons

by Melody Rose

  My thoughts raced through my memories. I never thought about that man again. I always assumed that it was fine since the town was healed, and no one ever mentioned anything.

  Panic shot through me. I knew Monte had severely injured the man, but did my light deal the final blow? Had I unknowingly taken a life?

  “No,” I said the word aloud, more to myself than Reon. “My gift is used to heal, not hurt.”

  “But you have used it as a weapon,” Reon taunted. “When you shot the pegasus out of the sky when you first discovered your gift. Or when you tried to blast me out of existence in this very space.” Reon opened his arms to gesture out to the white room around us.

  “How do you know all of this?” I asked, my voice rising to a shout. “Seriously? It’s creepy as fuck.”

  “You have what I want, Eva Lawrence.” Reon surged forward and grabbed my chin. I jerked to get out of his grip, but his other hand wrapped around my throat and squeezed. “And I will take it from you, one way or another.”

  “Get off me,” I growled through his choking grip.

  Reon, instead, pulled me closer, our noses almost touching. “That man and his harpy weren’t my only followers. You learned that with sweet Jae, didn’t you? As much as you would like to think so, I am not alone in my beliefs, Eva. They will capture you, and they will bring you to me so I can finally have what I want. Complete and utter control.”

  His spit got on my face from his sharp consonants. I kept my mouth shut as I listened to his monologue. I called the light and beckoned it to come bright and hot. It responded to my anger and came out of my hands with a blinding flash.

  Reon stumbled backward, and I inhaled a full breath. I bent double, with my hands on my knees, gasping for air. I lifted my head to glare at Reon.

  “I’m coming for you, Reon,” I wheezed the threat.

  “And I you, Eva,” Reon returned with a snarl. “See you soon.”

  The false king snapped his fingers and disappeared in a swirl of darkness. The darkness grew into a liquid-like substance and rose like a tornado into the air. Suddenly, the inky black morphed into the shape of a dragon’s head. It roared with an open mouth, large teeth, and glowing red eyes. I threw up my glowing hands and ducked behind a shield.

  The black dragon collided with my shield, and the whole scene exploded. The sound screamed in my ears. It felt like standing next to a jet engine ready for take-off. My mouth opened, and my own scream rang out, not nearly to the level of the explosion.

  However, the echoes of my scream in the cave forced me awake. I shot up from my bedding, panting like I’d just ran a marathon.

  The snowstorm raged on outside, blowing in cold air, but the fire countered the chilly conditions. One side of my body was near burning, and the other was freezing cold. Despite the contrasting temperatures, I sweated all over from the intensity of my encounter with Reon.

  Suddenly, Freja was in my face with a hard and concerned expression. “Eva, what happened?”

  “Reon,” I said through my heaving breaths.

  “The false king?” Freja repeated, her whole body growing tense. She reached for the sword, back at her hip. “Where?”

  “In my dream,” I panted. I waved a weak hand at her. “Relax, he’s not here.”

  Freja sat back in her spot by the fire, but she kept a hand on the hilt of her sword. “Do you always get unexpected visitors in your dreams?”

  “Only recently.” I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. I rubbed the excess moisture on my blanket. “It’s really annoying, actually.”

  “I can only imagine,” Freja sympathized. “What happens? When they visit you?”

  “It’s hard to explain,” I said as I ran my fingers through my hair. I had taken it out of its standard braid before going to bed, and now, the repetitive motion soothed me.

  “Please try,” Freja urged. “I am anxious to know, in case it ever happens to me.”

  “I don’t think it will,” I admitted. “I think it’s a chosen one thing.”

  “What do you mean?” Freja asked. “Reon met Kehn when he was contaminated. It could happen.”

  “I forgot about that,” I sighed.

  When Kehn got sick, he encountered Reon in the white space. He was the only other person that I knew that had that happened. I asked anyone else that had been contaminated, even Julei’s younger brother Lance, but no one mentioned seeing the false king. Kehn had kept that crucial detail from me for a while, but when he did eventually tell me, I had no answer for why Reon decided to visit Kehn.

  I looked at Freja and recognized her desire to be prepared. It was one of the qualities that made her such a good soldier. She firmly believed in having as much knowledge as possible in order to make the best decisions. The least I could do was provide her with more information.

  I inhaled sharply before beginning. “They bring me to this white space.”

  “They?” Freja asked for clarification.

  “Reon. Irena. The dragons. All of it happens in this white space. I don’t know where it is or what it is.” My fingers wove together and around each other as I tried to find the right words. “The space is malleable. Things can be created there, change, destroyed. It’s sort of a free for all. I used to think we couldn’t touch each other in that space, but…” I reached for my throat and rubbed it gently, still disgusted by the feeling of Reon’s touch. “Guess that’s not the case.”

  “He touched you?” Freja leaned forward with a sharp expression. “Did he hurt you?”

  “Just threatened me,” I assured her. “Nothing lasting. He did it to scare me, I think.”

  “Do not let him have that kind of power,” Freja said sharply. “He does not deserve it.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s kind of hard not to be,” I admitted, looking at my knees. I lifted them up to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs. “It’s so disconcerting, knowing that he can just pop into my dreams like that.”

  “Can you not leave?” Freja bit her lip, thinking. “Sometimes, I can tell myself I am dreaming when something is uncomfortable or fear inducing. Then I can wake up. Can you not do that in this white space?”

  “I’ve tried,” I confessed, “but I don’t seem to have that kind of control over the space.”

  “But you’ve said you can manipulate it,” Freja considered. “Maybe you need to lean into that.”

  “I did that once.” I thought about the time I cheated at chess with Reon.

  “Then do it again,” Freja said affirmatively. “Make the environment one you are comfortable in. That way, you limit the power he has over you.”

  “He said he was hunting for us. Well, for me specifically,” I told her with a soft voice.

  “That is not surprising,” Freja said with a shrug. “Kehn and I figured as much.”

  “He’s also hunting for the key,” I said, remembering the conversation. I wanted to make sure I told someone else, so that I didn’t forget any crucial parts.

  “Again, not surprising.” Freja frowned. “It only makes sense. That is what we would expect him to do for a strategy standpoint.”

  “Good news is he doesn’t have Irena’s clues,” I kept going. “But we might lead him right to the key if we’re not careful.”

  “Then we will be careful,” Freja said confidently. She leaned her back against the wall and stretched one leg out, the other raised so she could rest her elbow on it. “We will find it before he does.”

  “I wish I had your confidence,” I admitted.

  “Well, when you are lacking, I will have enough for both of us,” Freja said as she closed her eyes and rested her head back.

  “Thanks,” I said with a scoff.

  Freja’s eyes popped open. “Do you resent my offer?”

  “No,” I said hurriedly. “I just wish I had enough of my own that I didn’t have to share yours.”

  “It comes with practice and time,” Freja advised. “You will get it.”

  “Thanks,” I said half-h
eartedly.

  “Did the false king say anything else?” Freja wondered.

  “He told me I didn’t know anything about the world, and that’s going to be a problem for me,” I deciphered. “I only know about Andsdyer, and that’s why I can’t figure out the riddle.”

  “I have been thinking about the riddle,” Freja said. “Well, our section of it anyway. I believe I know where we should go.”

  “You do?” I leaned forward onto my knees, excited. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Why do you think I asked for the first shift?” Freja said with a smirk and a shrug. “I had an idea, and I needed more time to think about it.”

  “Well?” I prompted.

  “I want to confer with the dragons on it,” Freja began, “but I believe we are meant to go to the Library of the Moles.”

  “The what now?” I asked, sure I heard her wrong.

  “The Library of the Moles,” Freja repeated slower this time. “When Queen Irena united the kingdoms and created the first bond between djers, the animals finally gained some level of advanced intellect.”

  “I know that part,” I rushed her. “Tell me about the moles.”

  “The moles had a whole underground civilization. They established a library to collect all of the histories of all of the creatures and their various clans. Human histories of Andsdyer are there too. Queen Irena bargained with them to keep a lot in the court’s library, but this one is said to be underground, tucked away so all of the knowledge could be safe.”

  “And,” I said, “it’s run by the moles.”

  “Exactly,” Freja confirmed. “We just have to find it, and I bet that is where our eastern piece is.”

  “Wait, find it?” I asked. “Doesn’t anyone know where it is?”

  “That’s just it,” Freja said as she shook her head. “No one knows but the moles.”

  “Brilliant,” I said with a sigh.

  “Like I said, I am not sure, but it seems to fit all of the clues.” Freja pulled out the parchment with the riddle on it. She read through it quietly. “Yes, I am very sure of this, but I would like to talk to the dragons in the morning.”

  “Good plan,” I agreed.

  “I think I will sleep now since you are awake,” Freja said, laying flat on her bedding.

  “Yeah, I don’t feel like trying to sleep anymore tonight,” I confessed.

  “I will let that slide for now, but you cannot function without sleep,” Freja informed me. “You will not allow him to take that from you.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said with a sloppy salute.

  Freja didn’t say anything else. She settled into her section of the cave and closed her eyes. My gaze shifted from the soldier to the continued downpour of snow.

  9

  The ground was coated in a thick layer of white when we woke up the next morning. I ended up letting Hannan sleep through the rest of the night, taking the rest of the shift. He was not too happy with me, though, when he saw daylight.

  “If you are not going to let us be martyrs, I will not let you become one either,” Hannan told me.

  I explained about my dream with Reon, and Hannan seemed to understand. Yet he insisted on taking the first watch when we stopped the next night. I paged Monte, who informed me that they were on their way to the nearest clearing.

  “You will have to trek a bit in the snow, I am afraid,” Monte informed me.

  “We were prepared for this,” I reported back. “We’ve got the gear we need.”

  After cleaning the cave of our stuff and snuffing out the fire, we ventured out into the forest. It looked like a Christmas card. Miles of untouched snow stretched out before us. The kid in me wanted to jump and roll and play until the pristine snow lay wrinkled and messy. I resisted the urge and settled with the crunch under my feet as I ventured onward.

  Julei managed to get through most of the way, but the poor girl was so short she had some trouble maneuvering through the foot of snow. Eventually, Freja took the extra pack, I took her cat, and Hannan took Julei. She settled nicely on his back, and Hannan, now weighed down by the twelve-year-old, took slow steps. He followed Freja’s already made tracks as best he could, to ensure the most stability.

  We met the three dragons in a wide, oval-shaped clearing. Their massive forms swept away most of the snow, so Hannan could set Julei down without fear of her tripping again.

  “Good morning,” I greeted the group.

  “Good morning,” Monte replied cheerily.

  Zulu offered a gracious nod, whereas Gideonia said nothing. If anything, she grimaced, but I wasn’t sure. I cleared my throat and looked over at Freja for approval. The soldier nodded, giving me permission to run her idea by the clan.

  “Freja had an idea about where our piece of the key might be,” I began.

  “Oh, really?” Monte asked, intrigued. “We had one as well.”

  I blinked, a little taken aback by his response. “Well, that’s great. What’s yours?”

  “No, please,” Monte said with a bowed head. “You go.”

  “Do you all know about something called the Library of the Moles?” I ventured the question with a little hesitation like I was going to get verbally slapped.

  Monte’s face broke into a delighted grin. “That has to be the answer, then, because that is the conclusion we reached.”

  “Awesome,” I said, a little too excitedly.

  “The problem is that no one really knows where that is,” Freja stepped in.

  “Someone does, but she is too stubborn to say.” Monte shot Gideonia a not-so-subtle glare.

  My head whipped to Gideonia so fast it cracked loudly. “You know where the Library is?”

  “She ran an errand for Queen Irena once,” Zulu stepped in.

  “Zulu!” Gideonia snapped, clearly betrayed.

  “I will not adhere to your pettiness, Gideonia,” Zulu said, like a mother scolding her child. “We have a duty to serve the queen, whether we like her or not. Right now, the location of the Library is crucial to our success. If you cannot see beyond your own selfishness, then you do not deserve to serve the Octis clan for the queen.”

  Silence reigned as the weight of Zulu’s accusation hit all of us. I felt as though I had been socked in the stomach. My breath held in my throat, and I was scared to even move.

  Zulu so rarely spoke that her words were powerful when she did, and she picked a hell of a time to speak up. A weird suspicion surfaced, though, that Zulu was probably the only creature on the face of the planet who could talk to Gideonia that way and live to tell the tale.

  “Gideonia,” I said the word with such gentleness, I almost couldn’t hear my own voice.

  The navy blue dragon definitely heard me, though, because her giant head snapped in my direction with murderous eyes. Her glare told me to back away, to stand down. However, I gulped and inhaled some courage.

  “I know that you and I have beef,” I started cautiously. “I get it. You have every right to be angry with me. I accept that, and I will probably be spending the rest of my life trying to earn back your trust.” I straightened my shoulders and stepped forward. “But this is bigger than us right now. We need to get to the Library and see if the piece is there, because if it is, then we are one step closer to defeating Reon. We are one step closer to healing Andsdyer and avenging the dragons.”

  As I spoke, Gideonia’s glare softened from shooting daggers to a determined scowl. The dragon turned her head away from me, and she looked to Julei.

  “Have you seen anything about the Library?” Gideonia asked her, with the gentlest voice I had ever heard from her.

  Julei shook her head. “No, my dreams were clean last night, and I haven’t seen anything this morning.”

  Gideonia puffed out a sharp bit of air. The winter chill caught it and made it visible to the group as a whole. The dragon narrowed her eyes at me and licked her lips. She sucked her teeth, a noise like a plunger being pulled from a toilet. I continued to keep eye co
ntact with her, despite the fact that she was stalling.

  Gideonia broke our connection with a dramatic eye roll. “I will lead you there as it is difficult to describe.”

  “Thank you, Gideonia,” I said as I took a step forward, but the dragon turned her head away from me and sauntered to Freja.

  “We should go,” she announced, not acknowledging me at all. “That is if we do not wish to waste any more time.”

  Freja jumped onto Gideonia’s back, and the pair launched into the air before any of us had a chance to mount the remaining dragons. I released a breath that I didn’t know I had been holding.

  “Do not dismay, my lady,” Zulu said from behind me.

  I looked up, surprised at her addressing me. “I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me.”

  “You have to understand, dragons live for many years,” Zulu explained with a soft voice. “We have time to be angry and hold grudges. She will come around to forgiveness, just not within the timeline you expect.”

  “Good to know that she’ll forgive me eventually,” I replied sardonically, “maybe even after I’m dead.”

  “I do not anticipate it will be that long,” Zulu said with gentle eyes. “But it is a possibility.”

  “Great,” I muttered.

  Zulu left me in the center of the clearing and picked up Hannan. He sent me a reassuring nod before the pair of them lifted into the air. I watched the black and orange coat of the small dragon recede up into the grey sky. They hung up there with another figure, Gideonia’s navy blue form.

  I sighed and glanced over at Monte, who waited expectantly with Julei on his back.

  “Do you plan on coming?” Monte spoke the words aloud.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said as I broke into a jog. I climbed onto Monte’s back and pushed myself up against Julei so I could hold her tight once we got above the treeline.

  “Onward and upward,” the young girl said with a toothless smile.

  “Onward and upward,” I repeated, adopting some of her confidence as my own.

  Monte crouched and then pushed up with his powerful wings. I tucked my legs in tight, to hold on while I wrapped my arms around Julei. A gasp left her mouth as we ascended.