by Jerry Hart
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“We’re going to finish what my family started. We’re going to release Dargonius.”
A large soldier walked into the room, surveying the scene.
“Help us!” I screamed at him.
He looked at me and smiled. “I think not.”
Andor continued to point the gun at Aneela. “Maleeko,” he said to the soldier, “go with him to get the key.” To me, he said, “If you try anything, I’ll kill her.”
“Fine. I’ll get it. But you have to take me with you.”
“Why’s that?”
“There are certain things you have to get through to get to the prison. If you want to get through them, you’ll need me.”
He nodded. “Fine.”
* * *
Maleeko and I rowed a small boat to the second island while Andor “supervised.” We hit the shore and pulled the boat out of the water. I walked in front of them, up the grassy hill. When we reached the giant rock door, Andor pulled me back.
There was a guard posted at the opening.
“Oops,” I said with a grin.
“Not as big a problem as you might think,” Andor said, pushing me forward again.
The guard saw us and stiffened, but then he relaxed and said, “Josh, what are you doing here? Where’s the queen?”
Andor chuckled. “She’s coming.” Maleeko shot the guard.
“How many people do you have on your side?” I asked Andor, looking at his murderous friend. I couldn’t believe what was happening.
“Not as many as I should. A lot of people aren’t happy with the way Queen Aneela is handling the plague, but none of them are willing to do anything about it. Why let our people die for the fear that Dargonius might attack the rest of the world?”
Maleeko put the key in the indention now. The door opened.
“Haven’t you heard?” I asked Andor, though I knew he hadn’t. “The plague is already on the mainland.”
We were heading down the staircase when Andor pulled me to a sharp halt. “Then why are we even discussing this? If it’s already done…”
He pushed me and I tripped down the rest of the stairs. He picked me up and shoved me into the closed prison chamber. I read the words that appeared (Andor couldn’t read them, luckily) and I had to struggle not to fall into the acid pool that surrounded Dargonius after Andor pushed me through the open door.
“Hello, Dargonius,” Andor said to the floating figure in the cylinder.
“What is this?” he asked.
“I’ve come to set you free. Our people are dying. I don’t care for the rest of the world, which I’ve just learned is already suffering the plague. If I set you free, will you cure us?”
Dargonius stared at us. At least, I think he was staring at us. It was hard to tell, considering he was made of cyan-colored dust. “I will cure everyone on this island only.”
“Good enough. How do we release you?”
“I must possess a living person.”
Andor and his friend looked at each other. “Do you have a preference?” Andor asked Dargonius.
The figure looked straight at me. “This boy intrigues me. What are you?” he asked me.
I didn’t answer at first. Andor nudged me again, and I was truly getting tired of that. “I’m a form of incubus!” I yelled angrily. “I can suck the life out of people.”
“Ah,” Dargonius said. “That sounds like an interesting power.”
“Rockne said the same thing before I killed him.”
Dargonius laughed. “You killed the all-powerful Rockne? Yes, I think you will do nicely. I choose him,” he told Andor.
Andor, in return, nodded and looked around the chamber. “How do we get to you?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Someone has to come over and open the cylinder.”
“Through the pool?”
“Yes.”
“It’s filled with acid,” I said.
Andor and his partner looked at each other. “I’ll do it,” said Maleeko. “For the sake of the island.”
“Thank you, Maleeko,” Andor said, clapping his friend on his massive shoulder.
Maleeko stepped into the pool and began screaming at once. He walked quickly toward the cylinder. As he took wide steps, I saw his legs as they left the black water. They were nothing but bone and torn muscles. The skin was gone.
He reached the cylinder and started pounding on it, trying to find an opening. “Where is it?” Maleeko screamed. He was getting weaker. I couldn’t stand watching him die, so I turned away.
He kept screaming for only a few more seconds. Then I heard nothing at all except a small splash. When I looked again, I didn’t see him.
An opening in the cylinder appeared.
“A sacrifice in the Black Pool was required,” Dargonius said. “Rockne had a dark sense of humor.”
I wanted to throw up.
Dargonius was free.
He soared across the Black Pool, toward me.
Chapter 16: Dargo’s Dark Past
When I opened my eyes, I was walking. I had no idea where I was, but I knew it wasn’t the chamber. I was outside, in broad daylight. My body didn’t ache like I expected it to. I was carrying a basket of laundry along a stream in the woods and couldn’t stop myself. I wasn’t in control of my body.
I knelt down, grabbed a pair of pants and began washing them in the stream. I continued doing this for five minutes, going through the whole basket.
“Father!”
I turned and saw a little boy of about six running out of the woods toward me. He was dressed in what looked like Pilgrim clothes. He had a little green jacket, with pants that came up to his knees, with white stockings. He ran into my open arms and looked in the direction from which he came.
I looked and saw an old man run up a second later. “What is the meaning of this?” I asked him.
“I caught your lad stealing one of my chickens.”
“And? He’s just a boy.”
The man blustered at that. “Don’t think I don’t know what you and your boy are. The whole colony knows. He was trying to acquire a chicken for a blood sacrifice.”
I laughed. “What are you going on about, Thomas?”
He took a few steps forward. “I know you’re a demon. I’ll prove it, and I’ll see you burn.”
“Those are strong words. I still don’t understand why you think these things, Thomas.”
He laughed. “You know exactly why I say these things, Dargonius.”
I understood, then, that I was experiencing a flashback. I said to Thomas, “You claim to have seen me fly. Do you not realize how ridiculous that sounds?”
“Prudence saw you as well.”
“Prudence is an old woman. She doesn’t know what she saw.”
My heart—or Dargonius’s—sped up. I looked down at the boy. “Henry, does Thomas not say the silliest things?”
He looked up at me with bright eyes. “Yes, Father.”
I looked up at Thomas, who backed away, pointing at me. “Your time will come, Dargonius. You and your son’s.”
“None of that, Thomas,” I said. The tone in my voice wasn’t lost on the other man. He ran away.
Suddenly I was flashing forward to another time. It was night and I was in bed.
My room was on fire.
I jumped out of bed and ran to a hall, where I saw the entire house was completely covered in flames. I tried to run to a door that was blocked by fire. “Henry!”
“Father!” I heard his tiny, scared voice from the room I couldn’t get to.
I raised my hands and the fire parted. I ran through it and into the room. Henry was in a corner, cowering in fear. I picked him up and ran back through the gap. Outside the house, I saw over a dozen angry people screaming at me.
“Die, demon!” an old woman screamed before throwing a rock at us.
I turned so it hit me instead of Henry. It struck my back and I cried out in pain. More rocks came
. I turned back to the crowd and roared, and an invisible force shot everyone away. Everyone flew at least twenty feet off the ground and landed hard. I ran away, toward the woods with Henry in my arms. I didn’t know where I was going until I got there.
A river. I stepped into the freezing water, trying to cross to the other side. “Swim, Henry.” The little boy tried to swim as the water reached up to my neck. I could barely feel the bottom with my feet. I held on to Henry with one hand, but he was slipping from my grip. “Henry!”
I lost hold of him and he was carried away in the current. “Henry!” I screamed until my throat was raw.
* * *
And then suddenly I was somewhere else. I was floating on my back in a vast ocean, looking up at the sky.
“That was just a taste of the injustice I suffered at the hands of men,” a voice in my head said.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I told Dargonius out loud. “Those were different times then. Everyone who hurt you is dead.”
“It may be a different time, but society will never truly change.”
“You’re no better than them, in my opinion,” I said. “In fact, you’re worse. You’re planning to kill people who have never done anything to you. You’re using your power for evil. You’re becoming the monster those colonists accused you of being.”
“Perhaps. But it doesn’t matter now. My son died that night, and so did the old Dargonius. When I found Henry, he was cold and pale, looking at me with lifeless eyes. I held him for days, unable to move or speak or think.
“When I regained my senses, I buried him and wandered into a village, sick with fever. The people there took care of me for a while, but when my powers manifested during a fever dream, the villagers reacted the same way as the colonists.
“I killed every last one of them.
“On and on, people reacted the same way when they discovered I had powers. Then, one day, I met a woman who knew nothing about me. We got married, had children. Two girls and a boy. When they started manifesting abilities of their own, my wife panicked. She tried to kill them, so I killed her.”
“What happened to your children?”
“I tried to keep them safe, told them not to use their powers, but people found out anyway and killed them. It was then that I realized I could not live a normal life in a society that feared magic.”
“The world doesn’t fear it the way it used to,” I said. “We even make movies and write books about magic. No one would try to hurt you.”
“Rockne told me the same thing. I don’t want to hurt society for what it might do now; I want to hurt it for what it has already taken from me.”
Part Two: Astrid
Chapter 17: Playing with the Elements
“Is this right?” I asked Nalke—Dad—as I swirled the dark gray clouds in front of me.
“Yes. That’s a great start.”
Swirling the clouds was like swirling paint on a canvas. It was cool, but also a little messy. Since Dad’s palace was on top of a giant cloud, the other clouds moved at the same time; I didn’t have to go chasing them. My little cloud was my practice canvas, trying to conjure lightning.
“I’m so happy you decided to hone your nature skills,” Dad said. “I’ve enjoyed training you these couple of weeks.”
I nodded, distracted by my art. “It’s like magic.”
“It’s exactly like magic, yes.” He stepped up next to me. “You know, Rockne and I were actual wizards once.”
I tore my eyes away from the cloud. “I thought you were nature demons.”
“The nature demons died out a long time ago. Before doing so, they appointed my father—your grandfather—honorary nature demon. He took over when they vanished from this world.”
“Can only wizards become nature demons?”
“It would have to be a being of supreme power. A giant, for instance, cannot become one. Neither can werewolves or vampires. I was able to bring creatures up here, as protection, but they hold no magic.”
“So, could I become one?” I asked.
“You already are. Your birth was the first of its kind—the union between a nature demon and a sorceress. You can exist in both worlds in a way I cannot.”
“What about Josh?”
“He is a human with traces of my power. He can’t use it to his advantage. I don’t think he can become one of us.”
“Oh.” I abandoned my cloudy portrait, which was starting to look like Josh, and looked over the edge of our cloud, which was like a giant gray front yard. I saw a city beneath us, with little lights throughout. “Where are we?”
“Dallas, I think.”
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing. I saw five little red things flying not too far beneath us. “Are those birds?”
Dad pulled a little gold telescope from his robes. “I believe they are. The birds from Dargo?”
I took the telescope. “Yes. I’d recognize them from anywhere. We have to stop them before they infect more people.”
“We’ll use the elements.” Dad twirled his hands in a weird way, and a giant funnel cloud dropped from a large cloud across from us.
I watched as the tornado broke up the flock. It captured a couple of them, tearing them to bits. The three remaining tried to fly away from the twister, but Dad caught one of them. The tornado hadn’t touched down, and the birds flew closer to the ground.
“I’ll have to use something else,” Dad said.
“Can I try?” I asked.
He looked at me with pride. “Of course. Try lightning.”
We were too far away, so we teleported to a cloud just in front of the two remaining birds. I conjured lightning bolts very slowly. Dad had taught me to use anger to get started, though it wasn’t necessary. I hadn’t been able to do it earlier, but I could now.
Lightning shot from the cloud, nearly striking the three birds. The near-hit made me even angrier. I tossed half a dozen bolts at them, striking one out of the sky. “These suckers are fast,” I muttered, squeezing my lips together.
Only one remained, and it flew in a random pattern that was hard to predict. I tossed more bolts, but none of them hit.
“Astrid, stop!” Dad yelled, appearing behind me.
I stopped and realized I was exhausted. I was breathing so fast I thought I would pass out.
“You can’t exert yourself so much on your first try.”
“Sorry,” I said, watching the last bird fly away. Dad tossed a bolt toward it and it exploded, leaving no trace it ever existed.
He pulled out his telescope. “I don’t see it. I think I got it.” He looked at me. “That was very impressive, Astrid.”
“Thanks.” I was breathing normally again.
“Perhaps it’s time you returned to Dargo to give the good news.”
“Good idea. Thanks for teaching me. It was more fun than I thought it would be.”
“You could make this your home….” We reappeared on his home-cloud.
I looked at him. “I like living on Dargo.”
“Even with all that death?”
A crack of thunder startled him. “Yes,” I said heatedly. “Even with all that death.”
“I’m sorry if I offended you. Just know that you’re always welcome here in your second home, where you can be young forever.”
I saw through his sneaky invitation. “I’ve had my whole life to get used to my curse.” I thought of something. “What would happen to nature if you died?”
“Without a successor? I imagine absolute chaos.”
“So, I pretty much have to take over for you?” I asked, my heart racing.
“You don’t have to. I’m sure I can find another magical being to take over. Your mother could become one if she were so inclined. She hasn’t used her powers in a while, but she’s an excellent illusionist. I won’t have to worry for a long, long time.”
That made me feel a little better, but not much. I walked to the center of the cloud-yard and turned back to my dad. He waved. I wave
d back and said, “I’ll see you soon.”
“I look forward to it.”
In a flash of light and a roaring wind I returned to my house on Dargo. When I stepped out of the closet, I nearly ran into a boy I hadn’t seen in a while.
“Estevan?” I yelled, backing away.
“Honey,” Mom called, running from the living room. “Josh brought him here while you were gone. He has the plague.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. “Where is Josh?” I asked Mom. “Dad and I killed the rest of the birds on the mainland.”
“He went to the palace to check on the status of the cure nearly an hour ago. I haven’t heard from him since.”
“I’m going up there,” I said. “Is there another horse I can take?”
“Yes. Aneela left us two of them. Josh took one, but the other is in the backyard.”
Chapter 18: Dargonius Returns
Before I got to the palace I knew something was wrong. People were running around the courtyard, yelling among each other. I couldn’t tell what they were talking about. I jumped off the horse and ran inside the palace, where I found Commander Rhys.
“What happened?” I asked, running up to him.
“The queen was attacked.”
“Is she okay? Where’s Josh?”
“He’s missing. The queen said Andor attacked her. She doesn’t know what happened after that.”
We stood at the palace entrance. If we hadn’t been, we might not have heard the explosions. At first I thought it was thunder, but I saw colors in the sky. I’d never seen anything like it before. Reds, blues and greens rained down over the second island.
“What is that?” I asked, backing away.
“Fireworks,” Aneela said, joining us. She had a big bruise on her left cheek. “Josh mentioned them as something used to celebrate on the mainland.”
“They must be on the second island,” I said.
We headed down to he shore, but before we could even get to the boats, we saw one coming toward us. Someone was standing in it. No one was rowing the boat; it was rowing itself. The standing man stared at us, his arms crossed behind his back.
