Wrath of the Dragon King
Page 1
Also by Brandon Mull
Series:
Fablehaven
The Candy Shop War
Beyonders
Five Kingdoms
Dragonwatch
Books:
The Caretaker’s Guide to Fablehaven
Fablehaven Book of Imagination
Spirit Animals
© 2018 Brandon Mull
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Shadow Mountain®, at permissions@shadowmountain.com. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of Shadow Mountain.
All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Visit us at shadowmountain.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
(CIP data on file)
ISBN 978-1-62972-486-7
Printed in the United States of America
LSC Communications, Crawfordsville, IN
10987654321
Cover illustration by Brandon Dorman
Book design © Shadow Mountain
Art direction: Richard Erickson
Design: Sheryl Dickert Smith
For my adorable Sadie
Contents
Old Friends
Invitation
Suspicions
Decisions
Stingy
Feast
Challenge
Declaration
Homeward Bound
Barrel
On the Road
Stranded
Roadblock
Captive
Rescuers
Traitor
Incarcerated
Stingbulb
Reunions
Shrunken Chances
Preparations
The Sentient Wood
The Bewilderness
Winging It
Silver and Gold
Contest
Quiet
Coins
Banishment
Forgotten
Identity
Wizenstone
Taken
Apprentice
Acknowledgments
Reading Guide
About the Author
Old Friends
The red-maned dragon coiled in the courtyard, rippling scales flashing in the sunlight, tail swishing lazily. Prowling forward, the lengthy body unfurled, several sets of legs working to bring the leonine head ever closer to the lone boy. Yawning, the dragon displayed a jagged array of yellowed fangs surrounding a fat tongue.
“What’s the matter?” the dragon inquired in a slightly mocking tone. “Speak. Move.”
Large nostrils approached the boy’s face and flared, sniffing. The nearby mouth was probably big enough to swallow him whole. Or at least to bite off the top half of his body.
Seth willed himself to lean away. To lift an arm. To murmur a reply.
His body refused to respond. He could not twitch a finger. He could not glance away. He was utterly paralyzed by dragon fear.
“Nothing?” the dragon asked. “You’re not really in any danger.”
I know, Seth wanted to say. You’re my assistant. Marat usually stayed in human form, but he had made an exception today after Seth had requested a chance to test his ability to resist dragon fear. If his sister, Kendra, could do it, there had to be a way!
“Come on, Seth,” chimed a little voice from his pocket. Calvin, champion of the nipsies, could keep his composure in the presence of a dragon, and he was only a couple of inches tall. “Try smiling. When I was just a boy, I remember my papa could smile his way out of anything.”
Seth could hear Calvin but couldn’t turn his head to see him. Seth could breathe. He could feel his heart beating. But his mouth refused to form words. His muscles would not budge, not even to pull his lips into a smile. He was a dragon tamer while holding Kendra’s hand. But now he was speechless and immovable. This wasn’t fair. She could maintain her composure while confronting a dragon alone—even in the presence of Celebrant, the Dragon King.
What made all of this even more humiliating was that this encounter was staged! Seth knew the dragon was a friend and meant him no harm. There was no rational reason to fear. Why couldn’t his intellect overpower his instincts? Was he really this spineless?
The long body reeled in as the dragon shrank into a mild Asian man in elaborate silken robes. The climate of fear evaporated and Seth could move.
“I wasn’t scared,” Seth insisted.
“Very few can resist dragon terror,” Marat said.
“Sure, I was frozen,” Seth admitted, “but I wasn’t afraid.”
“Your mind was free?” Marat asked. “That is something. But I still could have killed you at my leisure.”
“Am I just not desperate enough?” Seth asked.
“Petrified people are routinely devoured by dragons,” Marat said. “They remain immobilized throughout the process. Trust me, all of them are plenty desperate.”
“What made the difference for Kendra?” Seth wondered.
“She is fairykind,” Marat said. “She found a way to bring her power to bear. As a shadow charmer, you might in time do likewise.”
“Any tips?” Seth asked. “I need to master this. The dragons are madder than ever, especially at me after we got the scepter.”
“I’m no shadow charmer,” Marat said. “And I don’t feel dragon terror. You need a different tutor. Have you asked your sister?”
“No way,” Seth said. “Her power is different from mine. What’s she going to teach me? How to befriend fairies?”
“Kendra could teach anyone a great many things,” Marat said. “Perhaps your reluctance relates to her being your sister?”
“Of course it does!” Seth said. “Who wants their sister to teach them anything?”
“My sister helped me learn arithmetic,” Calvin piped up from his pocket.
“Big deal,” Seth said. “That’s just math. Kendra can talk to dragons alone! And I can’t.”
“Your nipsie might have ideas,” Marat said.
“I’m not sure I can help much,” Calvin said. “I don’t have techniques like holding my breath or crossing my fingers. My only advice is not to get scared.”
“You don’t get scared of dragons?” Seth asked.
“Not to where it freezes me,” Calvin said. “I can’t explain how or why except I don’t really get scared of anything.”
“Really?” Seth asked.
“I know dragons could kill me,” Calvin clarified. “I don’t want to die or get maimed. The danger makes me alert, not scared.”
“Marat, I want to try again,” Seth said. “Get ready for alertness.”
“Could you perhaps pause your exercises for a moment?” a voice asked from behind Seth.
He turned to find Agad emerging from a door into the courtyard. The wizard, dressed in traveling clothes and a cloak, was followed by Newel, Doren, and Tanu.
The arrival caught Seth so off guard that he hardly knew where to look first. It had been longest since he had seen Tanu, so his eyes settled there. The Samoan potion master wore a large pack, and several pouches dangled from his belt. Still broad and thick, he looked a tad leaner than when Seth had last seen him.
“Tanu!” Seth cried. “Have you lost weight?”
“We’re here too,” Newel said with a wave.
“Been eating well,” Doren added, patting his belly.
Seth had seen both satyrs just a couple of days before when he had gone back to Fablehaven through the teleportation barrel. “What are you guys doing here?”
“Things were getting dull without you around,” Newel said.
“We like to be where the action is,” Doren said.
“Since when?” Seth challenged. “You guys run from everything.”
Newel squinted one eye. “We like to be in the vicinity of the action. Not necessarily getting our hands dirty.”
“Or chopped off,” Doren added.
“Life can be like television from the proper distance,” Newel explained.
“Bringing the satyrs was my idea,” Agad said. “Seth, I thought you would find value in their companionship during these troubled times.”
“You told us there were acres of food,” Doren accused.
“The storerooms beneath this keep are all I promised,” Agad mumbled.
“Remember our road trip to see the Singing Sisters?” Newel asked Seth. “You introduced us to fast food! And convenience stores! Any time we get permission to leave our designated preserve is a thrill.”
“Especially if the food is good,” Doren said. “And the company.”
“Any news about Bracken?” Seth asked.
Agad exchanged a glance with Tanu. “No glad tidings,” the wizard said. “He had been captured, and we found where he was being held, but he was already gone by the time we arrived. We have no idea who took him.”
Seth hated to hear Bracken was lost, and he knew the news would devastate his sister. “Do you think he’s alive?”
“I suspect so,” Agad said. “A quick examination of the horn he left with Kendra will confirm.”
Seth walked up to Tanu. “Did you help find him?”
“I helped find his empty cell,” Tanu said. “We were trying. Soaring Cliffs has become a perdition of rampaging dragons. We were lucky to get out alive.”
“Sounds like the kind of adventure best viewed from a distance,” Doren commented.
“That’s one way to put it,” Tanu said. “The world is turning upside down. I understand there has been commotion here as well.”
“The dragons tested our defenses,” Seth said. “It looked bad for a while. Kendra and I recovered a scepter that strengthened the keep’s protections.”
“And you made a firmer enemy of Celebrant in the process,” Marat said.
“The Dragon King’s enmity was inevitable,” Agad said. “We are facing a global rebellion.”
“Wait a minute,” Newel said. “You told us there was unrest. Not a worldwide rebellion.”
“Unrest here,” Agad said. “A global rebellion is under way. We’re laboring to stop it. By no means is the uprising complete.”
“You can tell because we’re not all dead yet,” Tanu said.
“But Blackwell Keep is secure,” Doren checked. “And the storerooms.”
“Locked up tight,” Agad said.
A long, low note was blown on a horn, the hollow sound gradually growing deeper before fading.
“What was that?” Doren asked.
“Start of the satyr hunt,” Tanu said with a grin.
“The proudhorn,” Marat said, turning his gaze toward the sky. “An unexpected dragon approaches.”
“I think I may have left a scarf back at Fablehaven,” Newel said, edging back toward the door. “A real important one. Striped.”
“I’ll lend a hand,” Doren offered.
“The dragon can’t harm us,” Agad said. “I told you the keep is protected.”
“What dragon?” Seth asked.
“Let’s find out,” Marat said.
Invitation
When the proudhorn blew, Kendra was sitting cross-legged atop the keep’s outer wall, her back to the battlements, facing a semicircle of nine fairies. All but one had dragonfly wings. The other was the stockiest, with wings like a beetle. They all seemed generally hardier than the Fablehaven fairies, still lithe and lovely, but somewhat more muscular and noticeably warier.
Most of the fairies took flight at the sound of the horn, wings becoming a blur. The others were on their feet, ready to spring. Kendra stood and looked outward to find a gleaming dragon, smaller than most, gliding toward the Perch—a tower at the edge of the keep designated for conversing with dragons.
“It’s just Raxtus,” one of the fairies chirped.
“He’s acting strange lately,” another remarked.
“Almost like a dragon,” a third said with a giggle. The other fairies tittered.
“I should go,” Kendra said. “He must have come to talk.”
“I thought we were talking,” one of the fairies complained.
“It could be an emergency,” Kendra said. “Thank you for attending. We’ll meet again tomorrow. You have your assignments. Spread the word to the other fairies—I want to know about any suspicious dragon activity.”
Kendra turned and started trotting toward the Perch. Behind her, she heard fairies murmuring about how bossy she was but decided to ignore them. Fairies were hard to manage, but they could move around Wyrmroost with relative freedom and were small enough to be practically invisible to dragons. Because of Kendra’s fairykind status, they had to obey her, and so they could make excellent spies.
The situation with the dragons had become critical. Kendra had openly defied Celebrant, and it was only a matter of time before the Dragon King struck back. Where and how the dragons would retaliate seemed impossible to predict, but Kendra suspected that when it came, it would potentially be catastrophic. It really didn’t matter if the fairies complained about her, as long as they helped monitor the dragons.
Henrick the alcetaur, gamekeeper of Wyrmroost, came loping along the top of the wall to Kendra. He had the shaggy body of a moose, but from where the neck would normally be, there sprouted the torso of a man with broad shoulders, strong arms, and a stern face. Kendra had grown to trust Henrick when he had helped her and Seth retrieve the scepter and return it to Blackwell Keep.
Reaching down, Henrick scooped up Kendra and deposited her astride his back. “This is the dragon you know?” he asked.
“Raxtus, yes,” Kendra said. Normally she would have been thrilled to see her old friend, but during their last conversation, she had found he tended to side with Celebrant, his father, on the subject of the dragon rebellion. “I wonder what he wants to tell us.”
Air rushed past Kendra as Henrick zoomed along the wall. He clattered to a halt at the Perch just as Raxtus was about to land. The original Perch had recently been demolished by Celebrant, but Seth had used a portable tower obtained from the giant Thronis to replace it. Kendra slid off the alcetaur.
Quiet as a whisper, Raxtus landed with a graceful swoop. Kendra knew firsthand that the dragon was a talented aerialist. Unusually small for a dragon, his body was comparable to the dimensions of a large horse, though his wings, neck, and tail added to his size. His glittering armor of silvery white scales reflected a prismatic sheen that hinted at his unusual origin—Raxtus had been hatched by fairies.
“Hi, Kendra,” Raxtus said without his usual enthusiasm, his voice like a group of teenage boys speaking in unison. “Can the moose guy go? I can speak more freely if we’re alone.”
“Could be a trick,” Henrick warned, one hand straying to his bow.
“I’ll take that risk,” Kendra said. “Can we have some space? What’s an arrow supposed to do? I’m not sure any dragon has tougher scales than Raxtus.”
Henrick gave a humph and clomped away.
Raxtus brought his head clos
e to Kendra, the streamlined surface gleaming brighter than chrome. “Thanks for the compliment, but I know my dad has harder scales, and I suspect several other—”
“Stop being humble,” Kendra said.
“Are you doing all right?” Raxtus asked.
“I’m not hurt,” Kendra said. “Dragons all over the world are rebelling. Bracken went missing when Soaring Cliffs fell.” She clenched her fists at the mention of Bracken, willing away her tears and the sudden clogged feeling in her throat.
“Sorry to hear that,” Raxtus said. “I tried to warn you.”
“I remember,” Kendra said.
“You could still get away,” Raxtus said. “This is just getting started. It will only get worse.”
“That means somebody has to stop it,” Kendra said. “It’s my job now. I’m the caretaker of Wyrmroost.”
“Find a replacement,” Raxtus said.
Kendra sighed. “Do you think they would be using children as caretakers if they had replacements?”
“What they are doing is criminal,” Raxtus said. “Humans were never meant to run these big sanctuaries. Let alone young humans. Aren’t there laws against endangering human children?”
“Probably,” Kendra said. “But people do what they must in emergencies. We can’t let dragons take over the world. There would be no going back.”
“It’s too late,” Raxtus said. “Soaring Cliffs already got things started. More sanctuaries will follow. The dragons have waited a long time for this. They will not give up. People had their turn running the planet. Things are about to change.”
“People allowed dragons to live in peace on sanctuaries,” Kendra said. “Will dragons do the same for people?”
“We don’t know what dragons will do,” Raxtus said. “They have been imprisoned in these giant cages you call sanctuaries for too long.”
“Dragons used to roam free,” Kendra said. “What did they do then?”
Raxtus looked away and spoke sulkily. “They killed just about everybody they met.”
“And then?” Kendra asked.
“Dragons fought to take over the world,” Raxtus said. “But that was after people started hunting them.”
“People hunted dragons because dragons were already hunting people,” Kendra replied.