Kingdom of Dragons

by Melody Rose

  “Face to projection?” I asked with a raised eyebrow, seeing if my word choice was correct. I shook my head a little and moved on. “Nevermind. So, what happened to the people who chose not to be contaminated?”

  “No one really knows,” Freja answered. “All they know is that one day they were here, and the next, they were gone. Some hope that he has kept them alive all this time. Others refuse to believe that is the case.”

  “Both scenarios are quite terrifying,” Julei said while she stared at her toes. She wiggled them in her boots before continuing. “Either your loved one is gone, or they have been tortured. It does not matter how they went, but they will not return to you the same person, that is for sure.”

  “Do you think he did that to other villages?” Hannan asked in a quiet voice.

  The three of us girls turned our heads to look at him. Then we shared a communal glance, unable to make up our minds on the right answer to his question.

  “I don’t know,” I said, unsure of what to say. “He might have wanted the citizens here for a specific reason.”

  “Or maybe he gave everyone a choice and some of my people…” Hannan swallowed in an effort to clear his tight throat. “My family might still be alive.”

  “Hannan,” I said as I put a hand on his knee, “I don’t know if that’s something you should wish for.”

  “You wish my family to be dead?” Hannan snapped, angrier than I had ever seen him. But that anger masked a hurt boy who had lost his whole world too young.

  “Not at all,” I said sympathetically. “I don’t know if wishing they have been under Reon’s rule this whole time, or been captured by him, or tortured is a thing to hope for is all.”

  Hannan fell silent but didn’t move away from me. He stilled and put a hand atop mine.

  “I wonder why he would need so many people,” Freja mused. “It is not as though he needs some sort of army to attack the castle. If he has all those people, why would he bother with the contamination at all?”

  “I never thought of it like that,” I answered, my forehead lines appearing as I considered Freja’s question.

  “If he has an army, why wouldn’t he use it?” Freja plowed on. She set the mug down by her foot so she could talk with her hands. “Think about it. If he has people and djers alike, then why not fight? What is he waiting for?”

  “It as though he does not want King Elroy’s crown,” Julei concluded. “As if he does not want to be king.”

  “Then what does he want?” I asked the group. “He wants power and a perfect world that he can mold and shape as he likes.”

  “His battle strategies confuse me,” Freja lamented. She plopped her head in her hands. “I would have raided the palace years ago, considering he had the only dragon djer for miles, but instead, he is attacking piece by piece. And randomly as well.”

  “How do we determine if it is random?” Julei asked. She inched forward on the log until her bottom barely touched the edge. “What if he needs each location for a reason?”

  “He originally did it to infect the dragons and destroy them,” Freja said as if she were reading from a book. “He knocked out that population quickly.”

  “Being as the Coast of Teine had one of the highest dragon populations, that would make sense,” I reasoned.

  “What about Hillcrent?” Hannan asked, jumping in unexpectedly for the second time.

  Once more, the three of us turned our heads to look at him. His leg jiggled up and down now, and he tapped his fingernails against his mug, which he never actually took any food from.

  “I don’t know why he contaminated Hillcrent.” Freja saved me the trouble of answering. “We will do what we can to find out, though. Hannan, I promise you that.”

  “I thought I had come to terms with the fact that they were dead, gone forever,” Hannan said, speaking to the floor rather than to the rest of us. “But now that there is this small chance that they are alive… I do not know how to handle that.”

  “I don’t think any of us would,” I sympathize. “And it’s entirely possible that Reon didn’t have a sound plan. He could very easily be picking places at random. Sometimes, these kinds of attacks don’t have any kind of sense behind them.”

  As I pulled another therapist fortune cookie out of my ass, I glanced around the camp. Despite my best efforts, I still hadn’t managed to locate Opala. Part of me wondered if she even existed and that Arabella and her people tricked me into helping them.

  I did manage to ask Monte once if that were the case.

  “Absolutely not!” he answered, clearly offended. “Opala is still alive and well. Arabella told me that she lives in isolation, especially since she is so far from the ocean now.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” I asked, not understanding.

  “In her old age, Opala spent most of her time out on the beach, looking out onto the ocean,” Monte explained. “She liked to be out there to wait for her mermaid to come back and get her.”

  “That’s depressing,” I answered, being rather insensitive.

  “That is one way to look at it,” Monte replied. “Others think it is romantic.”

  “Others being Arabella, I presume,” I said, not bothering to hide my snark.

  “Yes, indeed, she does,” Monte defended.

  “And what do you think?” I challenged, daring him to pick a side.

  Ever the diplomat, Monte replied without indicating one or the other. “I believe a person’s life is theirs to do whatever they wish. If Opala wants to sit out on the beach, then so be it. If she wants to be a hermit in a volcano, then so be it.”

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out that things were difficult between Monte and me. If I actually took the time to consider the issue, it was mostly my fault. I am sure that I could have joined him and Arabella in the rare moments when I was awake. But I was never in the mood to stand awkwardly by when they told their inside jokes or relived their memories.

  I told myself that I was giving Monte a gift. I was letting him have some time with his old djer before we left to finish out the rest of our adventure, but something nagged at me. A rude voice that told me I was instead just being petty, and I should just get over myself.

  However, it was a different voice. One that was much more of a nag with a sinister twist. It questioned Monte’s loyalty all together and challenged the idea that he would leave with me at all. I didn’t know what I would do if Monte stayed with Arabella on the Coast of Teine.

  Even though I was the Queen of Dragons and could have my pick of dragons to bond with, I still would pick Monte. The question was if he would choose me back.

  Unable to answer that question confidently, I threw myself into healing Teine. Because if Monte really was going to stay, the least I could do was make the island as beautiful as I could for him.

  For the dragon and for a young boy named Geoffree. Freja met the boy and told me his story. She learned he was born in the volcano itself. He never saw Teine in all of its full glory.

  So I put Geoffree at the forefront of my mind when healing the land. That boy deserved to know where he came from, what his history was, and what a beautiful place he lived in now.

  Some days, I felt like how the people who renovated Main Street after the shooting must have. Here I was, cleaning up after some tragedy and trying to make it as nice as it was before. I wanted to create the Teine they knew before the contamination, but at the same time, I wanted to make something that would last, and that wouldn’t remind them of the darkness that plagued this land for so long.

  That is mainly why I wanted to add immunity to the land. I couldn’t actually tell if that added effect was working. But what I did know was that once I healed a specific tree, hill, or plant, it didn’t get reinfected by the contamination. It stayed healthy even if there were other contaminated things around it. So, once I got everything cleared, it would really be put to the test.

  I barely made a dent into healing the whole of the
Coast of Teine. There was a clear path from the volcano to the beach and enough clean soil for the citizens to garden and grow more plentiful and nutritious fruit. It was a start, but only that. Nothing more.

  We didn’t have a lot of time until the Lunar Eclipse. It was impossible for me to finish the whole island before then at the rate I was going. I woke up that morning and knew we had to change our strategies.

  I approached Freja and asked her to do me a favor.

  “I need you to leave and find the other group,” I said after taking in a big breath.

  I didn’t know how Freja would take the news of me sending her away. She was the most logical choice, given her background and how she could survive the wild on her own.

  “We need to let them know where we are,” I continued, talking too fast to let the soldier get a word in edge-wise. “They could be at the meeting point, waiting for us, but either way, we need to make sure they know where we are.”

  “Alright,” Freja agreed.

  I blinked in surprise. “Alright? No argument? No counter? Nothing?”

  “No,” Freja said with a frown. “You gave me an order, and I will follow it.”

  “No, I didn’t give you an order,” I corrected. “I asked you for a favor. There’s a difference.”

  “Eva,” Freja said exasperatedly, “you are the leader of this group, the captain if you will. All of us will do what you say. We are following you. You are allowed to take ownership of that.”

  “I don’t think it’s right to force people to do anything,” I said apprehensively. I was fiercely reminded of how I compelled Jae to do my bidding, and the sheer wrongness of it crawled along my skin like a spider. I didn’t want to force anyone to do that, with magic or otherwise.

  “Sometimes, being a leader is ordering people to do things,” Freja informed me. “The difference is whether or not the person chooses to follow through on the order. But you should be more definitive in your decisions. They are better than you give yourself credit for.”

  “They are?” I asked.

  Freja raised a scolding eyebrow at me.

  “I mean…” I cleared my throat. “They are.”

  “Which dragon should I ask to accompany me?” Freja wondered even though we both knew the answer.

  “Gideonia,” I replied. “You and she work well together and will look out for each other. Plus, I think she will like being away from me.”

  “She really is a great dragon,” Freja said defensively. “I think you two just got off on the wrong foot, once or twice.”

  I scoffed. “Probably. But with dragons, they live long, and so do their grudges.”

  “I take it then that I will be doing the asking?” Freja suggested.

  I smiled wide and bright. “Yes, please.”

  “Fine,” Freja said with a sigh. “Eva, I will keep them at the meeting point until a week before the Eclipse. Then we are coming for you. We cannot spend any longer here.”

  “But I have to heal this island,” I said urgently. The panic of not being able to finish this insurmountable task held my throat hostage.

  “If you cannot do it with a week still left over, then we will find another way to get to the mermaid kingdom,” Freja reasoned. “The fact is this: we are running out of time. If we let Reon enact his plan on the Eclipse, then all of your work on the Coast will be for nothing.”

  Freja’s warning rang in my ears throughout the day after she and Gideonia took off. I thought about it constantly. All I could do was plead with Yerti, Arabella, and the rest of the citizens that I did what I could and that I would come back for them. Just as I would come back for all of Andsdyer and anywhere else touched by Reon’s horrid magic.

  When Yerti came to gather me for our next location, I started talking before she could.

  “I need to see Opala, today,” I demanded. “Now, preferably.”

  The older woman scoffed. She threw her hair back over her shoulder in a similar way to a high school girl. It annoyed me to no end, but I never mentioned the cattiness of the gesture.

  “She will not see you,” Yerti said as she crossed her arms.

  I mirrored her stance. “Why?”

  “Because she knows of our agreement and when she sees that the island is nowhere near being healed, she will not hold up her end of the deal.”

  I released a groan that bordered on a roar. “You know what?” I said the words as I made my decision. “I refuse to play Cinderella any longer. I am not your slave. I am the Queen of Dragons, and I do not have to put up with this shit. If your old hag doesn’t want to meet with me, fine! When the whole world rots under the contamination, all of that blood will be on her hands. Not mine. I’ll just swim the whole ocean until I find the mermaid kingdom because, at this point, that would be faster than dealing with you stubborn asses.”

  Yerti’s thin eyebrows shot up into her hairline as I spoke. I didn’t care that I shocked the woman with my language or my insults. I finally got to release the frustration and exhaustion that built up in me over the last two weeks, and if I was honest, it felt great.

  “Yerti,” said a voice from behind me.

  I closed my eyes as I recognized Monte’s sophisticated tone anywhere. I didn’t want to turn around and face him. I was so afraid that he would tell me off for being disrespectful again. That he would, once more, remind me that he was not on my side but that he was, and always had been, on theirs.

  “Please get Opala,” Monte asked with a soft voice. “Eva has done far beyond what you could have expected in this short amount of time. She will be back to heal the rest after all of this is over. You know that to be true, and if you do not believe her, believe me.”

  The woman tapped her foot against the ground, making little puffs of dirt fly up into the air with each tap. I held my breath and waited for her response. Instead of saying anything, Yerti spun on her heel and walked off into the jungle.

  The dragon and I stood there, with him feeling confident and me feeling a little dumbfounded.

  I looked up at Monte. “Thank you.”

  “You are welcome,” he replied plainly.

  We sat in awkward silence. It bothered me, having this tear in mine and Monte’s relationship. This had not been our first moment in a quiet tension, but we always seemed to break it. However, this one seemed to stretch into forever, and I had no idea how to end it.

  “You will come back, will you not?” Monte double-checked.

  “I promised you that I would heal this place, didn’t I?” I said, slightly offended that he would think I would go against my word. We both knew I didn’t keep every promise I ever made, but I had never lied to him.

  “You did,” Monte said with a nod. “And so you shall.”

  “That’s right,” I said. Then I clicked my tongue and decided to go fishing for information. “How’s Arabella?”

  “She is doing well,” Monte said. I could hear his voice lift in delight when he spoke of her. “She was so happy when you cleaned out that section of the ocean. It was wonderful to swim in the saltwater again.”

  “Glad she enjoyed it,” I said, my voice as tight as a violin string.

  “You are doing a wonderful job.” Monte tried on the compliment like he was speaking a foreign language. “It is just as I remember it.”

  “That’s because it is as you remember it,” I reminded him. “I’m using your memories, or at least, I think I am. When I picture what the island should look like, it comes to me so clearly. Like I lived here a long time ago.” I hugged myself and squeezed tight. “I always thought those were your memories speaking to me.”

  “I did not know we had access to those types of things,” Monte said tentatively as if he wasn’t sure yet how he felt about me tapping into his mind like that.

  “Yeah, well.” I shrugged but kept my shoulders up by my ears. “We are bonded, after all.”

  “As if I could forget,” Monte said.

  I couldn’t place his tone, and the turn of phrase worried me.
My mind decided to react instead of wait for a more appropriate response.

  “Do you wish you could forget?” I said, the words coming out as sharp as a knife. “So, you could spend time with Arabella, guilt-free?”

  “Not at all,” the dragon defended. “I made a vow to you and to her. I am doing my best to honor both of those promises.”

  I nodded my head slowly. “Good to know.”

  “Do you believe that I should be doing something different?” Monte asked with poison on his tongue. He was fishing for something too, but I decided not to give him the satisfaction.

  “I have always told you that you should do what is best for you,” I said. I released the tension in my body and let my arms swing down by my side. “I’m not going to force you or guilt you into anything. Do what you need to. And I’ll do the same for me. Right now, I need to go see Opala about a mermaid kingdom.”

  Even though I didn’t know where I was going exactly, I headed off and away from my djer. Or headed away from Monte because it hurt too much to think of him as my djer since I didn’t know if he really was that anymore.

  25

  As I walked away from Monte, I serendipitously and literally ran into Yerti. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and collided with the older woman. We latched onto one another to steady ourselves, but once we realized who the other person was, we immediately let go and coughed out the awkward moment.

  I straightened my shirt, and Yerti once again pushed her hair back behind her shoulder.

  “I thought you would be back at your tent,” Yerti explained.

  “Yeah, well, it was getting a little crowded over there,” I made up. “Did you speak with Opala?”

  “I did,” Yerti confirmed, but when she didn’t continue talking, I stuck my neck out a little and held out my hands.

  “And?” I prompted. “What did she say?”

  “I explained your case, and based on the current work you have shown, she has decided to grant you an audience,” she said as she held her nose in the air, so she appeared to be just millimeters taller than me.

  “Great!” I exclaimed. “Can we go now?”