Silver Batal and the Water Dragon Races

by K. D. Halbrook

  “Brajon,” Silver said. She emptied some dried meat and vegetables into her cup and added some river water, then set the whole thing on the fire to boil. “What do we do after we rescue Kirja? Where do we go?”

  “Can’t we bring her back to Jaspaton and Nebekker?” Brajon asked as he peered eagerly at the cooking stew. His stomach let out a growl.

  “No, that’s where Sagittaria would go first to find her again,” Silver said. “And we can’t tell anyone where Hiyyan is, either, because wherever he goes, they’ll follow, hoping to find Kirja. It’s not right for him to hide away his whole life, and it’s not right to separate him from his mother.”

  “But we have to go home at some point,” Brajon said.

  “I’m starting to feel like after all of this I won’t have a home anymore,” Silver said quietly.

  At this, her cousin fell silent.

  Silver slowly stirred the stew with a spoon, watching the curls of steam rising off the surface. The water lost the clarity it had gained from being filtered by rocks and pebbles for hundreds of miles. It turned murky as the meat and vegetables released their colors. The dried food plumped up, and the stew thickened. Soon enough, little bubbles began to pop along the surface.

  She thought about cooking with Aunt Yidla. About working fibers next to her mother. About designing jewelry with the weight of her father’s gaze on her. It was true that she didn’t want to do any of those things her whole life, but it was also true that those people—her family—weren’t just their livelihoods. They were also smiles and support, listening ears, love, and comfort.

  She would have Hiyyan and she was determined to have her racing career, but would that be enough? In all the stories she’d been told, Silver couldn’t remember ever hearing about Sagittaria Wonder’s loved ones.

  Silver pulled her cup off the fire and set it aside to cool as she looked for Hiyyan. She suddenly felt impossibly lonely and needed to bury her face in his furry mane.

  He was easy to find. He’d taken a small offshoot in the cave system, where a school of fish congregated, but he wasn’t very far down that stream.

  “Hello,” Silver called out to him from the main path, nearby. Her Aquinder looked up, a squirming fish dangling from his mouth. He slurped it all the way in and loped over to her. The fish were too bony for her or Brajon, but Hiyyan swallowed them whole, so all those little bones didn’t bother him.

  Silver sat with her back against the cave wall, and Hiyyan joined her. She stroked his silky fur. He was a comfort to her. “Do you miss your mother?” she said to him.

  Hiyyan was so young. She didn’t even know how long baby dragons stayed with their mothers. She wished she’d had more time to ask Nebekker questions. Hiyyan was going to need help learning to fly, but she had no idea what else he needed to know. She’d always assumed she would learn everything in Calidia, as she trained beside the greatest dragon racer ever. Water dragon life cycles, how to care for them, their preferred diets. She didn’t even know if Hiyyan particularly liked the fish in the underground river. Maybe what he really craved was some nice grass or juicy berries. How she wished she could communicate with him more clearly.

  Agitated, Silver gripped Nebekker’s pendant, wishing it held the information she sought.

  Hiyyan seemed to understand, and she felt warm waves coursing through his body in response.

  Silver sat up in excitement. This was new and unexpected. Was his temperature linked to his emotions? She wanted to test it out.

  “Do you like the river fish?” Silver asked him. In response, he sent a different kind of signal to her. The waves were shorter and quicker. His body temperature was still warm. “Hmm. That feels like a dance! How about … Do you want to fly?”

  The waves intensified. And they seemed rounded, the best word Silver could think of to describe them. Like the waves were music, twirling at the very end. Hiyyan’s body grew so warm that steam rose off his skin.

  “Do you like Brajon?” Silver asked with a giggle.

  The waves slowed a bit, and Hiyyan’s hot skin cooled back into a mild warmth. Silver laughed.

  “Okay, so you’re mostly neutral on Brajon. I don’t think his feelings would be hurt, since he feels the same about you. He thinks you’re just an oversized lizard.”

  The Aquinder swooped his head around to look Silver square in the face with a grimace. Silver laughed again. Then she narrowed her eyes.

  “What do you think about Sagittaria Wonder?”

  At her name, Hiyyan’s skin turned ice-cold. His waves were erratic, with no discernible pattern. Even his breathing was short and stuttering.

  “Okay,” Silver said. She rubbed his scales. “It’s okay. Me too, Hiyyan.”

  So heat was good; cold was bad. Long, rolling waves were good; short, erratic ones were bad. But what about …

  “Show me,” Silver whispered, “something in your heart.”

  Silver closed her eyes and waited. Hiyyan had done it before. He’d planted images in her mind earlier—she knew he had.

  There was only darkness behind her lids for a long time. But just as Silver was about to give up, light flickered in the corners of her eyes. The cavern back at the oasis. Hiyyan, the smallest he’d ever been, and Kirja. Her big body was curled around the baby Aquinder, and they both sighed contentedly.

  Another figure entered the scene. Nebekker, Silver thought, but no. It was a girl.

  It was her.

  Silver grinned and rested her head against the curve of Hiyyan’s neck.

  This time, Silver tried to send a vision of her own. One of a hoped-for future. Her mother, her father, Brajon, and all their family surrounding Silver and Hiyyan. She pictured herself climbing on Hiyyan’s back and the Aquinder racing across the Jaspaton cliffs, unfurling his wings and taking flight just as they reached the edge of the city. Silver gasped with delight, then she and Hiyyan bubbled over with giggles. The feeling of soaring filled their hearts near to bursting. To the side, Nebekker rode Kirja. They were free, and they were safe.

  Silver smiled and opened her eyes. Hiyyan tucked his head under her arm, and he sent the softest, soothing waves of warmth to her. He’d seen the vision. Silver pressed her palm to her chest. She had never felt so connected to Hiyyan before, and she didn’t want it to end.

  “I promise I’m going to do everything I can to get your mother back. And then we’re going to make my vision come true. Freedom and racing and—”

  “Silver!” The sound of Brajon’s voice broke the spell.

  “I’m here,” Silver yelled back. “Come on,” she said to Hiyyan. “Let’s go. We shouldn’t leave Brajon alone for too long.”

  As they neared Brajon, Silver sniffed the air. It was richer than before, full of not just the scents of the cave but also the scents of food and homes and bodies and travelers from far foreign shores. It was increasingly metallic and animal, layered with perfumes and spices.

  Calidia. That must mean they were close!

  Silver took another deep breath through her nose, but the scents were gone. She realized she wasn’t detecting the smells through her nose but through her mind.

  “You can smell the city, can’t you?” she said to Hiyyan. “And through you, I can sense them, too. Just like earlier, when I heard the desert foxes rattling in the caves. Does that mean we’re getting close to Calidia?”

  She was filled with Hiyyan’s waves of warmth. Silver felt newly energized knowing they were closing in on Calidia. And newly nervous.

  NINETEEN

  Silver left Hiyyan there to fish the river while she went back to join Brajon and share the good news that they were getting close.

  She paced impatiently as she drank her stew, lost in thought. The river roared a few feet away. As they traveled, the river would get wider, then narrower, then wider again. Here, the river was fat and rushing, as though knowing the seas—its final home—were close. Silver thought about the northern mountains where the water originated. Back in Jaspaton, the mountains
were just a blur of gray on the far horizon, but the tops were covered in snow all year long and the lower valleys, she was told, were bursting with life. Someday, Silver and Hiyyan would fly to them. Silver would see snow for the first time in her life.

  A strange sound reached Silver’s ears.

  Silver held herself as still and tall as the cliffs of Jaspaton.

  Rattle, rattle.

  Brajon looked up from his stew, his eyes wary. He had heard it, too.

  “The foxes,” Silver breathed. But if it was them, why were her hands trembling?

  Rattle, rattle.

  She tossed the remainder of her stew in the river and tucked her cup in her bag. “Brajon, we have to go. Now.”

  For once, Brajon didn’t question her. Silver swung her pack over her shoulder and felt for the weight of her purse at her hip, as she always did. Still full of jewels. The stolen jewels, Silver thought with a pang of guilt.

  The cousins began to walk, Silver’s neck hairs on end. From Brajon’s rushed walking, she could tell he was unsettled, too.

  “Hold on. I’m going to call Hiyyan,” Silver whispered.

  Silver closed her eyes, attempting to send an image to Hiyyan, but she stumbled on a rock and fell to her knees.

  Rattle, rattle.

  Rattle, rattle.

  As Brajon helped her up, the sound came faster.

  “Let’s run.”

  “Run? All the way to Calidia?” Brajon got a good look at Silver’s face and bit off his words. “Okay, let’s go.”

  As the cousins broke into a jog, Silver sent Hiyyan a feeling of fear and an image of all three of them running.

  Hiyyan popped into the main cave, slurped down the fish half dangling from his mouth, and burped. He knelt down without needing further instruction.

  “Brajon … get on,” Silver panted as she scrambled onto her water dragon’s back. “Hiyyan, get us to Calidia!”

  With a roar, the water dragon ran.

  * * *

  BY THE TIME Silver stopped feeling like something terrible was after them, her hair was plastered to her forehead and the caverns had narrowed again.

  “Thank you, Hiyyan.” She pressed a cheek to his neck, hot from exertion, and stroked his back. “You did well. We can walk now.”

  “What’s gotten into you?” Brajon said. He was out of breath from clinging to the back of the running dragon.

  Silver shook her head. “I don’t really know. I just heard something.”

  “Right, the foxes.”

  “It wasn’t the foxes.”

  Silver pressed her lips into a line, and they walked on. Silver closed her eyes and focused on reading Hiyyan’s emotions. She sensed he was tired, but she also noticed an ache—his wing joints hurt. Silver frowned. Did Aquinder have to fly, the way humans had to eat or sleep?

  Soon, I promise, Silver thought.

  Hiyyan grunted and sent her more sensations. The smells from before were stronger. And there were sounds. Muffled sounds she couldn’t identify, but different from the never-ending dripping water, and boots shuffling through cave dirt. Silver grinned.

  “We’re really close,” she called back to Brajon.

  Hiyyan’s big feet splashed in the water. Here, there was no riverbank. The water went all the way to the cave walls and partway up, too. Silver closed her eyes again and took several deep breaths. She was starting to feel caged in. The walls and ceiling were too close, the ragged ceiling like a maw.

  Brajon put his hand on her shoulder. “It’ll open up again, soon.”

  “I’m okay.” Silver reminded herself of the smells she’d sensed. Spices, perfumes. “We’re almost out of this place. Nebekker was right. Just follow the main cave all the way and—augh!”

  The party of three skidded to a stop. The cave narrowed into an opening, which they could have squeezed through, one by one. Except for the massive boulders that were blocking the way.

  “No,” Silver whispered. All this way, and now they were trapped.

  “A cave-in.” Brajon groaned. “That would explain why the river’s gotten so high here.”

  At the cave-in, the level of the river was at Silver’s chest. Silver slid from Hiyyan’s back. Even here, many feet from the rocks, the water was above her knees.

  “Maybe there’s an opening in the rocks,” she said, “somewhere under the water.”

  “What do you want to do? Swim down there?” Brajon scoffed. “We would have our bodies pounded against the rock by the current.”

  “We have our water dragon,” Silver said.

  “Which would be useful if you could see under there. Look how murky it is near the rocks.”

  “What’s your solution, then?” Silver snapped. Calidia was on the other side of those rocks. They had to get through. They were so close to saving Kirja. So close to the races.

  “We have to turn back,” Brajon said.

  “Huh?”

  “Hiyyan’s hearing is better than ours. I bet he’ll know when we’re near the foxes. He can hear fox feet running and scratching. That’ll be where their burrows are.”

  Silver’s eyes lit up, and she hugged her cousin. “Brajon, you’re a genius! Burrows will have holes to the surface. A way for us to get out!”

  “More useful than a jelly pickax, wouldn’t you say?” Brajon grinned. “Let’s go.”

  Instead of riding Hiyyan, Silver and Brajon walked. They kept close to the wall, dragging their fingers over it and looking closer whenever there was a small crack or hole.

  Silver also kept a lookout for those silvery eyes that had watched her before.

  “Not much longer now—I can feel it.” She closed her eyes and connected with Hiyyan’s senses. “I can hear their paws pitter-patter on the other side of these walls. We just have to find an opening or some way to get to them.”

  Brajon called, “Foxes … foxes, where are you?”

  Silver was careful to not pass up a single crevice as she searched the walls with both hands. Finally, farther back the way they’d come, she saw them: silvery eyes.

  “Fox! Don’t go!” she whispered. The eyes disappeared, but Silver broke into a run. Brajon and Hiyyan kept pace with her, the excitement of her discovery spurring them all on.

  Silver stopped and patted the cave wall. “I saw its silver eyes. The foxes were here.”

  “I don’t see anything,” Brajon said. “There’s nothing there.”

  The walls were almost perfectly flat, unwilling to give up their secrets.

  Silver closed her eyes and connected to Hiyyan’s senses again. She could hear the foxes’ yips and calls louder than before. But how were they getting to the other side of the wall?

  She moved to a small, dark cave off to the side. Nebekker had warned them to stay in the main river cave, but Silver sensed that the burrow was here.

  Rattle, rattle.

  “Come on,” Silver said to Brajon. “I hear something.”

  Silver ran ahead into the smaller cave, holding her lantern in front of her.

  “Fox, fox, where are you?” Silver called.

  Rattle, rattle.

  “We’re close,” she called happily over her shoulder to Brajon. They were almost out. She couldn’t contain her laughter. “Hurry!”

  But when Silver faced forward again, she screamed.

  TWENTY

  At the sound of Silver’s scream, the beast whipped its head toward her. The creature was so tall it had to hunch over to move in the cave. Four arms extended from its thorax and two long, spindly legs protruded from its midsection. They were as thin as a desert spider’s legs, but at least six or seven feet long.

  Rattle, rattle.

  With horror, Silver realized the beast was the one that had been making the rattling sound.

  She watched the creature put its weight on its four arms, dragging its legs, its claws curled into loose fists, its knuckles dragging on the ground. Spikes jutted out on the backs of its leg and arm joints, and its tail flicked back and forth. Ther
e were three more spikes on the tip of the tail.

  But just as Silver was about to let out another scream, the beast vanished into thin air.

  Silver stood frozen, searching the darkness. She heard something roll across the cavern floor toward her. It hit her foot. A small bone, picked clean.

  Silver scrambled backward, her boots sliding against gravel. She heard Brajon calling her name and running toward her, but she was too scared to make a noise. She fell, scraping the skin off her palms, but flung herself up again. There was a massive splash as something enormous jumped into the center of the stream, then began moving in her direction, sloshing water everywhere. The thing was coming closer.

  The creature reappeared directly in front of Silver.

  “Stay back,” Silver shouted.

  Trembling, she held up her lantern to get a closer look at the beast, then instantly wished she hadn’t.

  Its head was massive and made up mostly of a huge jaw filled with teeth. She couldn’t see eyes or ears or a nose. Only that long fang-filled mouth. The whole creature was white, like the color of bones that had been bleached by the sun in the vast desert. She felt its hot breath blowing on her face.

  Brajon finally caught up to Silver, but he slammed into the back of her. She lurched forward, and her lantern fell to the ground and shattered.

  “Don’t move,” Silver said. Her voice shook.

  The cave went deathly silent. Even in the dark, the creature’s teeth gleamed eerily.

  With some relief, Silver sensed Hiyyan joining them in the darkness. He pushed his body in front of her and Brajon, and gave a low warning growl.

  Rattle. Rattle.

  The cave monster was shifting. Silver wanted to turn and run, but she knew the burrow entrance was near. Her mind filled with the scent of fresh air and desert sand, just beyond the monster. They had to get past the spidery beast.

  Rattle.

  The creature was coming closer, its unnaturally glowing teeth looming bigger. The beast moved slowly, and the waiting felt somehow worse than being attacked.