Kingdom of Dragons

by Melody Rose

  Impatiently, I called to the light, and it flared up on my hands. Even though the mole couldn’t see me, I held up both of my hands and twisted them like a magician showing there was nothing up his sleeves.

  “I’ve got us covered,” I said exasperatedly. “We’ll be fine. Polonis, if you don’t mind leading the way. We’re on a bit of a time crunch.”

  “Certainly, Your Highness,” Polonis said with another bow. He backed into the doorway, and it remained open behind him.

  “Please don’t call me that,” I said as I bent on all fours to crawl after the mole.

  “What would you prefer to be called?” he asked with an inquisitive voice.

  “Eva is fine.”

  “Then right this way, Eva.”

  I took the lead, with Julei directly behind me. She left Neeto with Monte, sure that the cat wouldn’t be comfortable in the enclosed space. Lyla, however, did accompany us through the doorway, riding on Hannan’s head. Hannan followed next, and Freja took up the rear. With a snap and a click, the door in the tree shut behind us and plunged the group into total darkness. I asked the light to brighten, and it did so. My hands illuminated like a glowstick in the damp darkness.

  We crawled down a dirt tunnel with packed walls that was wider than it was tall. Polonis the mole squeezed through with only an inch on either side of him as he waddled down the passageway. I wish I could have stood and been a better beacon, especially for Hannan and Freja all the way in the back.

  The eeriness of the situation wasn’t lost on me. The whole thing had horror-movie vibes, and I wondered briefly if we had just done the dumb thing of walking into the haunted house.

  “Polonis?” I ventured the question, my voice weak even to my own ears. “How long is it going to take us to get there?”

  “Not long,” Polonis replied, his voice amplified in the smaller space. “Though it will take us some time to navigate the Library once we get down there.”

  “How far down is it?” Freja called out from the back, her curiosity getting the better of her.

  “Rather far,” Polonis reported back. “However, we have a quick way of getting down.”

  “How is that?” I asked, my mind flashing to some sort of old-timey elevator. I didn’t know how advanced this underground society was going to be.

  “We fall.” The mole’s voice sounded joyful at the proclamation.

  I stopped in my tracks and sat back on my knees, perching. “What do you mean, fall?”

  “You will fall down the tunnel,” Polonis said matter-of-factly. “Do not worry, Eva, you will be safe. We have never lost a life in the Library.”

  “Yeah, that may be true, but free-falling into an underground Library still seems like a huge leap of faith,” I argued, not bothering to hide my skepticism.

  “Sometimes adventures like yours requires a leap of faith,” the mole said with an irritating level of casualness.

  “What do you know about our adventure?” I prodded, suspicious that this creature knew more than he let on like Reon did.

  “Only what you have told me, I swear,” Polonis said innocently. “That you are looking for something, but what, you will not tell me.”

  “How secure is this Library?” I questioned. “This tunnel specifically?”

  “No one can come into the Library unless they are let in by one of the librarians,” the mole reported like he was reading out of a rule book. “If you are worried about anyone overhearing us, they will not. You cannot even speak with you djer within these walls.”

  A spark of panic made my elbows shake. I tried to page Monte, but the dragon didn’t respond. His curt responses or words of encouragement were nowhere to be found.

  “That would have been nice to know before we left,” I said with a pang of guilt. I should have said goodbye to Monte. Not that I thought I would never see him again, but I had gotten used to the idea of him always being there whenever I needed him and vice versa.

  “I am sorry,” Polonis said. “I thought I gave you all the necessary warnings.”

  “Why do I get the feeling that there will be a lot more surprises as we go?” I commented, not really to anyone.

  “Such is life,” the mole said like a fortune cookie. “So, what are you looking for in the Library?”

  I looked over my shoulder at the rest of my group to get their thoughts on the situation. We didn’t know how trustworthy this mole was, but if the Library were as vast as everyone claimed, we would definitely need a guide through it. Hannan offered me a shrug. Freja gave a warning look, a sign not to reveal too much. Julei said nothing. She kept her head to the ground as she followed my light through the tunnel.

  “We’re in search of a key,” I said vaguely. “Well, part of one anyhow.”

  “And you believe it to be in the Library?” Polonis checked. “Hm, normally we carry information stored in tomes. Rarely do we have other items in the Library. We can certainly look, but unless it is a physical book you are looking for, I do not know if your key is here.”

  Freja muttered something behind me, but I couldn’t quite make it out. I wondered briefly if she and the dragons had interpreted the riddle incorrectly, and we were in the wrong place.

  “We are here at the hole,” Polonis announced. The echo of his voice confirmed his pronouncement.

  An archway led to a circular room covered from top to bottom with stone. The rocks were smooth and even. They curved upward into a dome, whereas below us was the largest pit I’d ever seen. It stretched at least twenty yards wide. There was a wide pathway around the edge where Polonis balanced. A few other archways led to other entrances, I assumed.

  Finally, I could give my knees a break and stand up. It was a precarious maneuver, but I tapped into some of Timone’s gifted grace and scrambled to my feet. Julei remained seated and dangled her feet off the edge. She fell back against the floor, the only other one of us to stretch out fully. Hannan and Freja, on the other hand, paused in the archway, neither choosing to stand.

  “This cannot be happening,” Freja muttered. She shook her head with a firm frown. “This cannot be happening.”

  “You expect us to jump down into that?” Hannan pointed into the center of the pit.

  “It is the only way to get to the Library,” Polonis informed us. “I assure you, you will be perfectly safe. We do it all the time.”

  “Moles can’t secretly fly, can they?” I asked the room, losing all confidence in any knowledge I thought I had about this species.

  The mole released that same gargling laugh. It vibrated around the walls like we were caught in a surround sound room with that irksome noise.

  “Sadly, no,” Polonis confirmed, “we cannot fly. We will save that for your dragon friends, yes?”

  I looked over the edge and into the blackness of the ongoing hole. I stretched my glowing arms out as far as I could, hoping to spread the light far enough to get a glimpse of the bottom. But it was no use. The bottom remained hidden in the darkness.

  “You know, I think I was wrong about the riddle,” Freja said suddenly. “I do not think the piece is actually here.”

  “Are you saying that because you actually think you’re wrong or because you’re afraid to jump down into this enormous pit?” I asked candidly.

  I flashed the light near Freja’s face and could see that it had gone pale. “I am not afraid,” she said defiantly. “I simply do not believe it is a sensible idea to be jumping down into a huge hole in the ground with no idea where it leads.”

  “What if we sent Lyla first?” Hannan suggested. “She can fly down and then back up to let us know what is down there.”

  “I vote for that!” I said with an enthusiastic point towards Hannan.

  “I am sorry, but that will not work,” Polonis said with a sigh. “Once the butterfly goes down, she will be unable to fly back up.”

  “But…” I babbled, baffled. “That’s not how physics works.”

  “That is how magic works,” Polonis countered. “W
e have a separate exit for the Library for extra security purposes.”

  “Well, then how are we supposed to get out of there when we are done?” Freja wondered, a suspicious eyebrow cocked upward.

  “You will need to be escorted out,” Polonis informed us. “No one is allowed to enter or leave the Library without an escort.”

  “That’s quite a lot of trust we’re putting in you,” I said with a glare at the mole.

  “You put your trust in me, for better or worse, the minute you walked through that door,” Polonis pointed out. “We are guarding some of the most precious and powerful secrets in the world. We have to be careful, and we do not let just anyone into the Library. The fact that you are the Queen of the Dragons means that the dragons trust you. These comrades are only here because you trust them. You may find our methods absurd, but we do them to ensure the safety of the Library.”

  “There’s no other way but down?” I double-checked.

  The mole shook his head. “No.”

  I inhaled sharply and looked at my friends and back to the hole. Julei finally sat up and shuffled herself closer to the edge.

  “It seems rather simple to me,” the young girl said bravely. “We need to get to the Library, and the way to do that is to jump. So we should jump.”

  Before I had the chance to respond, Julei pushed off the ledge and down into the pit.

  “Julei!” I cried out after her.

  The rush of the fall shoved the loose parts of her clothing up, and her arms flailed over her head. Like a cliff diver, I watched Julei fall as long as I could until she was consumed by the ocean of black waiting below.

  11

  “I’m going to kill her!” I shouted into the chamber. I braced myself against the back wall with my arms but leaned out as far as I could into the abyss below.

  “Her parents are going to kill you,” Hannan corrected.

  “Damnit, Julei!” Freja cursed. She rubbed a hand over her face. “We have to go after her.”

  “I know we have to go after her, but I don’t quite have the resolve of a twelve-year-old, okay?” I snapped at Freja, though I wasn’t really frustrated at her. “Give me a minute.”

  “We might not have a minute,” Hannan protested, his words coming out in a rush. He got to his feet and brushed off his pants. “She could be hurt down there.”

  “I do not know how many times I have to tell you, but she is fine,” Polonis said irritatedly.

  “We cannot leave her alone, Eva,” Hannan appealed to me. “We promised her parents.”

  I huffed, knowing he was right. Before I had the chance to tell him so, the caretaker launched himself over the edge.

  “Oh, my God!” I covered my mouth with my hands as Hannan fell. His ponytail flapped behind him until he, too, disappeared into the black.

  Freja had her forehead against the wall. She clutched the side with white knuckles, and her eyes were closed. One knee was upright, the other supporting her frame on the floor.

  “Freja,” I said, but the soldier didn’t respond. I raised my voice, turning it into a barking command. “Freja!”

  “What?” she snapped back at me, not moving away from the wall.

  “We have to go down there,” I told her with more strength than I had.

  “I know,” she said back to me with clenched eyelids. “I know.”

  “It’s okay to be afraid,” I reassured her.

  “I am not afraid!” the soldier barked.

  I sighed and leaned my head back, exasperated. “Okay, fine, you’re not afraid. Whatever. But remember when you said you had enough confidence for the both of us?”

  Freja nodded her head, scraping it along the wall.

  “Well,” I said as I scooted my way over to her, “I have enough courage for the both of us to do this. Take my hand.”

  I held out my hand to her, but the woman continued to clutch the wall like it was a life preserver.

  “I can do heights, it is the falling I do not like,” Freja murmured to the wall. “I always close my eyes when Gideonia descends.”

  “We can close our eyes now, and I’ll jump with you,” I offered. “Come on. Julei and Hannan are sitting ducks down there without us.”

  “How are they ducks?” Freja asked, finally peeling herself from the wall to look at me with confused eyes.

  “I mean they are helpless without us, fighting wise. They’re vulnerable. We have to get to them.” I pushed my hand closer to her. “Jump with me.”

  She released a string of clever and colorful curses, but the soldier got to her feet. Freja clutched my hand so hard, I thought my fingers might fall off, but I didn’t let on to the pain. I knew she needed me, and if I ended up with a couple of broken phalanges, I would heal it whenever we got down to the Library.

  If we got down there.

  No. I shoved that doubt to the back of my mind. Polonis said we would be safe, and I had to believe that Hannan and Julei were down there waiting for us. I couldn’t accept any other scenario. This quest couldn’t be over before it began.

  “On the count of three, okay?” I guided Freja through the sequence. “One.”

  She squeezed her eyes even tighter and inched to the edge until her toes hung over.

  “Two.”

  Freja lifted up onto her tiptoes with a sharp, nervous inhale.

  “Three!”

  Together, we swung our arms out and up. I tucked my knees in closer to my chest, and for the briefest of moments, Freja and I hung in midair, together, connected by our hands. It was a beautiful, freeing sensation.

  Until gravity hit, and we tumbled down. Wind flew up around our ears, making them pop as we lost altitude. Freja screamed the whole way, but the rushing air swallowed her voice. We gripped each other’s hands and held on as if we were handcuffed together.

  As we fell, the light coming off my arms seemed to glow right off my skin. It illuminated the surrounding darkness, becoming a three-dimensional light show. It coiled and curved, like a series of dancing ribbons. The light circled around Freja’s arm and joined the two of us. It wrapped around us in a cocoon of bright white as we descended.

  The light pierced Freja’s eyes until she was forced to open them. Her mouth dropped open at the seaweed-like light encased us. Slices of darkness slipped through the light, and suddenly we weren’t alone. A narrative of images played out against the darkness, like movie clips, as we fell and fell and fell.

  There was a man, fat and stubby, with a five o'clock shadow coating his jaw, hovering over me. The perspective made me much smaller than him, which unsettled me, especially when he smiled. He was missing his right canine. The image of the man put a finger to his lips.

  Then a wave of nausea wracked my body, I thought my stomach would unravel right there. My abdomen churned and ached with sharp stings. I was caught in a tidal wave of uncomfortable feelings. Guilt slammed into me with a feverish sweat. Terror made my muscles sore. Disgust reeked off me. Shame sat like a boulder on my chest, making it hard to breathe.

  The whole time I stared into the cold, amused eyes of that man I didn’t recognize. I begged for this fall to end, so this misery could cease. I didn’t care if it ended with me in a broken puddle of bones and skin splattered against the floor. I just wanted this to stop.

  The memories were not mine, I held onto that truth at least. I didn’t recognize these feelings, yet they attacked my body and my mind as if they were my own thoughts and emotions.

  I yanked my will up from the flood of feelings and shouted at the light. I begged it to encompass us fully and protect Freja and me from these images. I pushed it out from me and shaped the light into an egg-shaped shield around the pair of us. It cinched around us until the remaining darkness disappeared.

  We finished the rest of the fall in the ball of light. Suddenly, we slowed and jerked to a stop right above a stone floor, splayed out like a spy hovering over a pressure-sensitive floor. After a brief pause, Freja and I gently fell to the ground with an audible gru
nt.

  The light dissolved and retracted back into my arms. It returned to its standard shape of coils and vines. Once again, my gift was the only source of light in this new space.

  I pushed myself over onto my back and huffed out. My body felt as though it had been through the wringer, and all we had done was fall. I barely got out a full breath before Julei’s long face popped into view above my head.

  “Finally!” she lamented. “You all took forever to get down here.”

  “It was a long way down,” I argued breathlessly.

  “No, it was not,” Julei protested with her hands on her hips. “It took only a couple of seconds. The scariest part was not having any light, but now that you are here, we should be good.”

  I grunted and sat up. Julei stepped back and let me have my space. I clutched my head and tried to shake off the weird sensations that followed us down the hole. It was as though a weight had been placed on my shoulders, a ten-pound bag that I couldn’t shake off.

  I rubbed my eyes and looked up to take in our surroundings. Before I could assess anything, however, I spotted Freja, who curled into herself with Hannan crouched beside her.

  The soldier was crying.

  “Freja?” I ventured hesitantly. “What happened?”

  “Eva,” she whimpered. She gulped in an audible breath of air before continuing. “I had no idea.”

  “About what?” My voice rose an octave in my panic. “What are you talking about?”

  “Did you…?” But Freja cut herself off and switched her question. “What did you see coming down the hole?”

  “I didn’t see anything really,” I said, trying to remember. “I mostly saw the face of this man I didn’t recognize, and then I got hit with this wave of feelings I can’t seem to shake.”

  Freja’s eyes grew wide and hard. Suddenly, the flow of her tears stopped, and her face paled.

  “What happened to the both of you?” Hannan asked tentatively.

  “I don’t know,” I replied wearily. My words came out slow and cautious. “Freja, what did you see?”

  “An empty house,” Freja reported stonily. She sat up straighter and unfurled her legs. “After a funeral.”