Descendant

by Giles, Nichole

  “Have we met?”

  Gabe lets his laughter free. He’s much more informal, more comfortable than the rest of the Dragons. I like him. “Yes.”

  Of course. The lodge. “I thought you were a Ranger?”

  Gabe’s lips twitch as he sinks into a bow. “My day job.”

  “Well, it’s nice to see you again, Gabe.” To Val, I whisper, “Why are they all bowing?”

  Val folds his arms. “Protocol, I suppose. The Ring of the Princess was lost to us when Theron died, and the royal bloodline lost with it. Or so we thought. If your ring is the one Theron gave to Raina, the fact that you’ve shown up wearing it and haven’t been burned to ashes by its powers indicates you carry the bloodline of Theron and Raina. Theoretically. Didn’t Kye or Eoin explain all this?”

  “Not about burning to ashes. Or the bloodline either, come to think of it.”

  “Well, let’s call the bowing thing a show of respect. The Dragons were fiercely loyal to Raina. If that loyalty has been carried forth, it is only to our advantage right now. Why don’t you tell them what you know and see if they can help us find Kye?” The wrinkles at the corners of his dark eyes deepen. For the first time since I met him, Valdemar appears vulnerable.

  On a moss-covered forest floor, a crumpled form struggles for life-sustaining breath. Blood flows from the tips of his reddened hair and runs down the sides of swollen, purple cheeks. A sticky, red trail spreads away, as if someone dragged him to this place and flung him carelessly in a corner like garbage. I run to him, screaming his name, but can’t reach him before the monster that guards him stops me cold. “Only one of you can live.” His fetid breath blows in my face, the smell only explainable by centuries of decay. “Which one will it be?”

  Cradling my rounded belly, I coax movement from the life inside me, wondering how I can ever choose between the two, the death of my love or the life of his child.

  “Abby.” Valdemar murmurs. “Focus. Draw away and focus.”

  The bitter taste of bile has risen in my mouth. I swallow it, concentrate, twisting my ring around and around. I won’t let it come to anyone’s death. Not this time. Power zings up my spine. I draw myself up to full height, shaking off the effects of the vision, and meet Zane’s eyes. “Sir Zane, we need your help.”

  THIRTY-SIX

  The Council

  Geothermal heat radiates from the walls in the underground Dragon Council chambers. The temperature stifles my breath and causes a sheen of sweat to coat the back of my neck as I explain what happened in Las Vegas and New York—minus some personal details.

  Eric stares at the table, gripping the edge with white knuckles, and when I get to the part about sharing a hotel room with Kye, beads of sweat roll down his forehead. Guilt, guilt, guilt.

  Zane hunches over a notebook, scribbling fast. When I tell him what Tynan said, he looks up, frowning. “Into the jaws of the beast?” I nod, and he taps the tablet with his pen, staring at the smooth wall. “To restore the true order of Dryden?”

  Val asks, “What are you thinking, Zane?”

  Zane leans back, rubbing a hand over the tattoo on his neck. “They must have taken Kye to the chambers where the sealed tomb is located. It’s not far from here.”

  Kye is close. I can go to him. My heart flutters. I can save him.

  “The question is, why?” Zane continues. “Why him? Why there?”

  “Because of me,” I say, my eyes refusing to focus. “They want my ring. I have to go to him.”

  Whispers echo across the room as the Dragons speculate on the possibilities. Valdemar, Zane, and Akers lean together for a hushed conversation. When the buzz finally dies, Zane looks at me again. “The Dragons can’t go into the chambers with you. Only guardians in possession of one of the Arawn Keys can pass through the portal that will take you to the tomb.

  A knot forms in my stomach. “I have two Keys.”

  Val nods. “Yes. Which means two people can pass through.”

  I glance around, wondering who I should take with me. Whose life am I willing to risk? Zane grips the back of my chair. “Who will you send?”

  I shake my head, unable to make such a choice. “I’ll go by myself.”

  A chorus of disagreements rumbles around the table.

  “No!”

  “Abby, you can’t.”

  “That isn’t a good idea.”

  I ignore them and ask Zane, “Will you show me the way?”

  Chair legs scrape against the floor as Zane stands, weary. “I can take you there, Abby, but you need to think this through. It’s a trap. They want you to come, and they expect you to bring both Keys. By taking Kye, they’ve set you up to lose one way or another. Either you surrender yourself—in which case they’ll take the Keys, your Gifts, and probably your life—or they kill Kye. If you are the one to go, the chances of you both surviving are slim to none. I understand you care about him—”

  “Let me tell you something,” I say, and the room goes silent. “I’ve spent my whole life running from things I didn’t understand. I’m tired. Kye is the first—the only—person who truly understands me. He taught me to face my problems and find a way to solve them rather than run. I have to go after him.”

  “Listen.” Zane and the other Dragons stand on one side of the table, facing off with me and my friends. “However much you care about him—and I promise I understand—going through that portal means risking the Keys. Do you know what will happen if Tynan’s people get their hands on all four? This isn’t just about you and Kye.”

  Furious, I lean toward him, bracing my hands on the table. “No, it isn’t just about me and Kye. It’s about Theron and Raina. How will Dryden ever be restored if Theron is killed again?”

  Zane takes a calming breath. “Theron isn’t here.”

  “You’re right, Zane. He isn’t. Wanna know why? Because Boone took him. Kye is Theron. Tynan called that one, not me or Kye.” Zane drops into his chair, suddenly looking old. “Now tell me what’s at stake, Zane. Tell me I’m being selfish, that I haven’t considered the consequences.”

  No one answers for a long moment, and then Val rests a hand on my arm. Strands of white hair fall into his eyes and stick to beads of sweat on his forehead, and for a second I can See him wearing a priest’s robe, offering fatherly advice and congratulations to the newlywed royal couple. “It’s your choice, honey.”

  “All right, then.” I straighten, resolved. “Let’s go.”

  Gabe holds me securely in front of him as we glide over the snow on his opalescent disk, my eyes closed against the wind as we swish past pine trees and around rocky outcroppings. Rose and Jen cling to Zane on his disc, Eric rides with Toby, and behind us are Valdemar and Akers.

  “Sorry to hear about your friend,” Gabe says. “I wish there was more we could do to help.”

  “You and me both.”

  We fly past geysers, hot springs, and a wandering bison, and I do my best to push away the terror brought on by my most recent vision of Kye. The sun is falling toward the western horizon by the time we stop near the side of a mountain. Not far away, clouds of sulfuric steam twine a white trail around the tree trunks, winding about until the wisps evaporate somewhere near the top of the tallest ones. Gabe hops nimbly to the ground, his boots passing through a layer of snow, and offers me a hand. Behind us, Jen and Akers are arguing.

  “Jennifer,” Akers says, “your skills will save Abby a lot of valuable time. It’s not going to get out of hand, I promise.”

  “You can’t make that promise.” Jen stomps snow off her feet, only to have more build up.

  “Come on, Jen. Look around.” Rose’s consoling hand is shaken off Jen’s arm. “Everything’s soaked. There’s nothing here to burn.”

  “Except people,” Jen says. “I could burn people.”

  Val folds his arms. “Young lady, you underestimate my ability if you think I would allow you to burn your friends. Now, are we going to stand in the snow, or are you going to clear a path?” />
  Jen’s shoulders tremble and her eyes shoot killing looks alternately between Akers and Valdemar. Feeling like they’ve unfairly put her on the spot, I pull her aside, turning our backs to everyone else. “You don’t have to do this,” I tell her. “Really. I can dig my way through. I’m getting good at that.”

  With a half laugh that turns into a deep sigh, she hugs me, holds on tight. “Thanks. I’m just—I’m so afraid. When I was twelve, I caught my mother’s kitchen on fire and my baby brother ended up with third-degree burns down his back. He’s scarred forever. I don’t ever want to be responsible for hurting someone again.”

  Understanding completely, I squeeze her back. There are certain things that are too much to ask—too much to expect. “Don’t do it. I’ll find another way to get to Kye.” Releasing Jen, I turn to eye the several feet of snow that currently stand between me and the portal. I can’t walk through it, and shoveling will take hours, but I won’t ask for something Jen can’t give. I glance at Gabe, whose muscles bulge beneath his cloak. “What are we all doing standing around when we could be digging? Let’s go, people.”

  Fifteen minutes later, we’re kneeling on the snow and have managed to scoop out a path almost two feet by two feet when Jen grabs my arm. “Stop. This is crazy. It’s going to take hours. Kye doesn’t have that long.”

  I want to scream at her how much I know that. It’s all I can think about as I dig handfuls of snow while the boy I love suffers, but everything I want to say is lodged in my throat and all that comes out is a wail.

  Jen pulls me up and hugs me again. “Stop, okay? I’m going to do it. It’s too selfish of me not to try. Just—” She glances at each of us. “Just stand back.” Her hands shake as she aims her palms at the ground. Her energy changes as red heat flows from her core and into her arms, then slowly down to the tips of her fingers until flames shoot out in short bursts, melting random patches of snow and coming precariously close to melting Toby’s boots.

  The flames stop and Jen takes a breath.

  “Focus,” Val murmurs. “Concentrate on a small area at a time. See the snow melt in your mind’s eye. See the fire bow to your command. See the wind be still. Force it to obey your thoughts. You control the fire—it does not control you.”

  Jen tries again. Moving her palms in slow circles, she closes her eyes and listens to Val. As she does, a funnel blazes forth, melting a path that looks half a mile long, setting a number of trees and shrubs in its path aflame. Unfortunately, the path is going in the opposite direction from where Val wanted it, and Toby and another Dragon—whose pant leg looks suspiciously blackened—rush to put out the residual fires before anything else catches.

  It takes more encouragement, and a reminder from desperate, frustrated me, but Jen agrees to try once more. Again, the fire pulses from her core, but this time the flames lick to life more slowly, wavering but steady as Jen commands the heat. Like ice cream in the summer, the snow shrinks into the sodden earth, evaporating under Jen’s power. After several minutes, she has melted enough to allow us through, only four small shrubs are left burning, and no one has been terribly injured aside from Gabe’s eyebrows getting singed. It’s good enough.

  Jen’s arms—shaking with the exertion—drop to her side and her eyes roll back in her head as she lets out a relieved breath. “Could’ve been worse, I guess.” She turns to Val. “How did you know what to do? How to help me?”

  “Decades of training.”

  Drooping from the energy drain, she clasps the arm of the nearest Dragon for support, still talking to Val. “Will you teach me more?”

  “One thing at a time.” Val turns his attention to me. “Let’s get Abby through this first.”

  Zane and Akers lead me to a muddy gray pool, boiling beneath the entrance to a tall cavern. The mud pulls and spits in and out of the cave like the breath of an enormous beast, and smelling just as bad. We step over a short fence and climb the hill to stand above the sloshing, belching water. “That’s not a portal,” I say.

  “I know.” Zane frowns, an I-warned-you look in his eyes. “The portal’s inside the cave.”

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  The Prison

  Zane’s brow creases as I gape at the gurgling mud. “Is that water or acid?”

  “A mixture of both, and it’s around two hundred degrees, so you won’t be swimming.”

  “How, then?” I bite my thumbnail. “How do I get inside?”

  Val and Zane exchange a look. “Any ideas?”

  “Probably something to do with the Keys.” Val blinks, glancing at my ring.

  I point at Gabe’s hovering contraption, now green in the weak sunlight. “What if I borrow one of those disk thingies?”

  Zane shakes his head. “Solar-powered. They’ve run all day already, and I’m afraid you’ll lose the charge in the dark. Also, you don’t have the clearance you’d need. Even crouching low you’d still have to skim the water—and the acid content will dissolve the disk.”

  A breeze winds around my legs, raising goose bumps on my skin. I zip the coat up to my chin. “There has to be a way.”

  Jen throws up her hands. “I know. Rose can just talk it into submission.”

  Rose snorts. “Yeah, like that would work.”

  The Dragons do their murmur-whispering thing again, and I decide I’m really sick of people having muted discussions right in front of me. Finally, Eric hops over the railing and climbs the hill. “What if I freeze the surface of the water? At that temperature I could only ice over a small area at a time, so I’d have to go with her.” I blink and he shrugs. “It might work.”

  Val rubs his whiskery chin, looking skeptical. “Are you sure you can handle it? It’s a lot to ask—even for someone with experience using his power, which isn’t necessarily you.”

  Eric shrugs. “You have a better idea?”

  “What about the acid?” I ask, wondering if Eric’s ability is as sporadic and unpredictable as Jen’s. “Wouldn’t the acid burn your skin?”

  “Not if I don’t touch it. I’ll have to really focus, the way Jen did.”

  I catch up to Eric and turn him to face me. “Are you sure you have to go with me? That you can’t freeze the surface enough from the edge? All I need is a path.”

  “I’m sure,” he says, annoyed.

  I really, really need him to understand what he’s getting into. “They could kill us both.” Probably will.

  His head droops and he lets out a weary sigh. “You really have no faith in me.”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a lot of faith in anyone right now. This whole thing is just ... a lot.”

  He raises an eyebrow. “Ya think?”

  After another short conference in which it is decided this is an option worth exploring, Zane and Val lead Eric and me to the edge nearest the cave, warning us to be careful. Eric grasps my wrist, a strange light in his eyes. “Ready?”

  I blink and nod, but say, “No.”

  He holds the palm of his free hand over the water, cold seeping into my arm where he touches me. A patch of thick ice forms and Eric guides me onto it, leaning over to repeat the action so we can take another step. For every foot we move forward, one behind us melts, and the faster we go, the thinner the ice. There is no turning back.

  We slide across the smooth surface, Eric gripping my wrist and me shivering, trying really hard to concentrate on keeping my balance and not falling into the boiling acid.

  When we’re halfway across, Rose yells, “Um, Abby? Turn around.” I glance behind us and see that the single square foot I’ve considered our safety zone has completely melted, leaving us standing on a ribbon that feels awfully thin. Thin enough that I can feel the heat through the soles of my boots as the last of the ice disappears. We probably don’t even have a minute before we’re dumped in the acid.

  The mouth of the cave is still several feet away, but hot clouds of steam billow in our faces. “Can we hurry this up?” I choke.

  “Doing my best here,” Eric s
naps. He does manage to freeze a larger section this time, which—hopefully—buys us a few more seconds. Still, it’s not enough. I’m having visions of what it will feel like to be boiled alive when we finally duck under the top edge of the cave and Eric stops.

  “What?” The energy inside the cave is anything but calm, and that scares me as much as being boiled alive.

  “We can’t go any farther. This must be the portal, because I feel like an invisible wall is blocking me.”

  From the outside Zane yells, “Are you in?”

  “Not yet!” Eric answers. “Give me the ring.”

  My stomach clenches at the thought. “No.”

  “I have to get in somehow. The necklace, then.”

  I lower the zipper of my coat enough to touch the warm stones. Powerful, yes, but I’m far less connected to the pendant than to Gram’s ring. As long as I have my ring, Gram will be with me. I unclasp the chain and drop the pendant in Eric’s hand. With a triumphant smile, he shoves it in his pocket, but nothing happens. We still can’t move forward.

  Val calls, “Abby, are you in yet?”

  “I don’t know what to do,” I shout. “We’re both holding a Key and nothing’s happening.”

  The section of ice on which we’re standing shifts, cracks, and Eric refreezes it, but I can feel how his terror mirrors my own. Voices blend together, trying to send words of advice or encouragement, but I can’t make sense of them. Then, as if I’ve called her to me, Gram’s voice is here, whispering in my ear like the wind in the trees. Like a song driven into the cave from the awful steam that blocks the entrance.

  Concentrate. Work from the heart. Pull the broken energy inside you and send it back whole.

  Closing my eyes, I think of Kye and take a breath of rotten, stinky air, pull it inside me, and let it swirl into my core until it’s fresh and clean. My ring hums, emitting a sound I’ve never heard or maybe never recognized—birdsong and harps, the fluttering of down in a comforter, the pop and sizzle of water hitting an open flame. Soft music and loving voices and the sunrise breaking through the clouds at the end of a storm. The sound of a rainbow.