by Gow, Kailin
It was at that point that things got worse again.
The dragon beat its wings once, creating such a downdraft of air that those closest to it were blown back several steps. It reared up on its hind legs, until its heads nearly touched the stalactite encrusted roof of the cavern. Three pairs of eyes focused on the knot of men containing Sparks, Rio and Goolrick. Three capacious mouths opened simultaneously.
“Get down!” Gem cried out.
Afterwards, she would feel guilty at the surge of relief that hit her as the wizard and the two boys fell flat. It wasn’t right to feel relieved that white-hot flame burned through the men behind them, and not them. It wasn’t right to be glad that they’d escaped unscathed when others beside them burned and fell like human candles.
Not entirely unscathed, as it happened. Rio and Sparks both scrabbled at their armor, heated by the closeness of the dragon flame, but while Rio got his clear in time, Sparks wasn’t quick enough. He cried out in pain as he tossed the gently glowing armor away, and when Rio and Goolrick stood, he couldn’t rise above his knees.
Gem hurried forward, ducking under a horizontal swipe of the dragon’s claws as she worked her way closer. When she was close enough, she grabbed Goolrick by the sleeve, forcing him to pay attention.
“Nothing’s working. If we stay here, we’ll all be killed. We need to retreat.”
As if to substantiate what she had said, a jet of flame came perilously close. Gem would have preferred a slightly cooler sort of proof, but she took what she could get.
“Goolrick, order your men to retreat, or I will.”
The young wizard nodded, and yelled for his remaining men to retreat. Above them, the dragon swayed, as though trying to decide which of them it should incinerate next. Gem hoped that they would get out of there before it realized that, with three heads, it could easily kill all of them at once. Kat was still, unmoving, while Jack moaned softly where he had fallen. Spark’s was more or less at Gem’s feet, so she knelt beside him, trying to work out how best to get him up to his feet.
“Rio, help me,” Gem instructed. Maybe it was because it was her doing the asking, but Rio didn’t hesitate. He hauled Sparks to his feet, not very gently, in Gem’s opinion, and gave a bitter laugh.
“Guess I get to be the hero here, farm boy.”
“You want to be a hero? Help the others. I can make it.”
Sparks didn’t look very steady as Rio let him go, but he staggered towards the tunnel quickly enough. Gem turned to Rio, not daring to risk a glance up at the still swaying dragon.
“You grab Kat, I’ll get Jack.”
Without waiting for an answer, Gem sprinted for the red-haired boy. It was like her movement was a trigger, because the dragon chose that moment to flame again. Gem dodged left and right, trying to keep clear of the blowtorch-hot fire. Only when a transient break in the flame came, the dragon pausing for breath, Gem guessed, did she dare to grab Jack and try to haul him to his feet. Jack groaned in pain as she did it.
“You’re heavier than you look,” Gem complained, but a thought struck her. “Fortitude.” Strength flooded her, and it was easy to move him then. Even so, to move quickly Jack had to help, and that clearly hurt him with every step. They’d gone two paces before Jack put his hand to his now bare face.
“My glasses.”
Gem didn’t hesitate. Spontaneously, without thought, she shoved him towards the exit, then whirled back, snatching at the glint of glass and wire among the bones. She dodged back, just as a scaly foot came down where she had been, then ran, almost sweeping up Jack as she did so. Behind her Gem could hear the dragon taking another breath.
They hit the gap in the rocks an instant before the flame came. The heat was tremendous, and Gem kept running, deeper, heading for safety. Only when the others caught her did she stop.
“Going back for those… objects?” Goolrick gave the glasses in her hand a pointed look. “There is, even for you, a point where an intrepid spirit spills over into an impetuous one.”
“Jack needs them to see.” Gem handed them to the boy, who put them carefully back in place.
“Thanks.”
“Where are Kat and Rio?”
“Right here.” They were further along the tunnel. Kat had come round from being knocked out, but was still leaning against the wall. She was also staring at Rio. “He actually saved me.”
“Well, yeah.” Rio looked almost embarrassed about it, then glanced at Gem. “If you hadn’t gone back, you’d have beaten us here.”
“Just so long as we’re all here,” Goolrick said. But they weren’t. How many men had died in the cave? Gem didn’t know for sure. She did know that it wasn’t over though. Looking back, she could see the faint yellow glow of eyes behind them, pressed against the gap in the rock.
“It knows we’re in here.”
“Then let’s not be here,” Rio suggested. It was a good suggestion, and one they followed readily. The remainder of their group walked, staggered, and occasionally limped its way back along the tunnel, out into the hall where they had fought the zombies.
They didn’t stop there. Maybe it was because everyone could remember the jubilation they had felt after facing the dead, but no one wanted to linger inside. Instead, they made their way out into the light and the air. There, they checked their wounds. Some of them were far from pretty. Sparks’ back was red and blistered from the heat.
“Try the “renovation” ruler word,” Gem suggested. Sparks did it. It seemed to make a difference, and he certainly didn’t seem to be in as much pain, but it didn’t heal everything at once as Gem had been half-hoping. Then again, her parents had had some renovations done to their apartment once, and that had taken weeks, so she should probably just be grateful it wasn’t taking that long.
Their efforts were interrupted by the sound of the dragon’s roar, followed by the beating of leathery wings. Gem looked up, and found the dragon circling above them like some great reptilian bird. One of its three heads stared down at them, while the other two stared back the way they had come. Gem tensed, wondering if it would swoop down to attack them once more.
It didn’t. Instead, the dragon wheeled once more before setting off on a great, gliding flight along their former path. Gem let out a sigh of relief. Goolrick didn’t seem so happy.
“Men, gather your weapons. Prepare to march. We must hurry.”
“What is it?” Gem demanded. Goolrick pointed. From their vantage point on the mountain it was just about possible to make out Anachronia’s castle. The dragon was heading straight for it.
Goolrick led the charge back towards the castle. He didn’t care that it had taken them more than a day to get this far. He only cared that soon, a dragon would be terrorizing his people. His…
Sparks struggled to keep up, with the pain in his back, but he didn’t let that stop him. If he had been stronger, if he had been able to kill the dragon, they wouldn’t have had to run at all…
Kat didn’t much feel like going another round with a giant, fire-breathing newt, but she didn’t really have much choice. With Goolrick’s men running around her, all she could do was try not to be crushed in the press…
Jack was still a bit groggy from being knocked about, but he didn’t let that stop him. He was so grateful to Gem for saving him. Now if only he could tell her that. Come to think of it, where was she…
Rio loped at the back of the group, conserving his energy. It was a long way back to the village. He was pretty surprised when Gem grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the trees. “Trust me, Rio,” she insisted, and Rio let himself be pulled from the path…
Chapter 13
“Gem, do you want to tell me what this is about?” Rio asked. Gem pulled him a little further from the path. “We should be heading back to the village to stop the dragon.”
“How?” Gem demanded. “We can’t get there before it does, and even if we do we can’t hurt it. Anyway, I’m not sure that’s where it wants to go.”
“What?”
How could she explain it? Looking at Rio, Gem knew that the only way was the truth.
“Rio, Goolrick gave me a ring, a magic ring. It lets me see what people really want. It was how I could communicate with the Shadow King.”
“You didn’t say anything.”
“I didn’t have a chance at first, and then I was worried that it would look odd, Goolrick giving me something like that but not the rest of you. Rio, when I touched the dragon, I knew what it wanted. Something has taken its egg, and it wants it back. I even know where the dragon thinks it is, more or less.”
Rio leant back against a tree.
“We could tell the others all this,” he suggested. Gem shook her head.
“They might not believe it. Anyway, they won’t want to risk it. We have to find that egg though. I’m convinced of it.”
To Gem’s surprise, Rio nodded. He grinned.
“What? You thought I would say no? Not after everything you’ve done so far. If you say there’s a dragon’s egg, Gem, then there’s a dragon’s egg.” Rio gestured to the forest. “If you think you can find it, we should get going.”
Rio was right about that. They couldn’t afford to waste time. Gem sensed that the dragon’s egg was important; she had been able to feel how much the dragon had cared about it. If they wanted to make use of it though, the two of them would have to get to the spot Gem had seen in the dragon’s thoughts before the creature itself did.
That was easier said than done. Gem tried to lead Rio on what she thought was the correct course down the wooded slopes, but the image she was working from had been from the point of view of a creature flying over, not one walking between the tree trunks. Even using the sun as a guide, it was hard to be certain that they were going in the right direction.
The ground grew soft. Large flowers in yellow and pink bloomed in gaps between the trees, apparently thriving in the muddy conditions. The flowers were almost bigger than her head, though some of the thorns on them looked wickedly sharp. Shadows flitted between the trees too, and Gem found herself wondering if they were reporting back to their king.
In at least one way, the muddy ground didn’t help things much. Although Gem’s dress had seen a few fights, a lot of dirt, and several near-misses from a dragon, the last thing she needed was the hem of it weighed down with half a ton of mud as she walked. At the next patch of mud, she hitched her dress up to her knees to cross it.
Rio’s flying tackle ruined that plan nicely, though with the whistle of something whipping back and forth just above them as they fell, Gem didn’t mind the sudden immersion in mud. Well, not too much. Looking round, she saw a plant creeper being reeled back to a flower like a fishing line, or like a frog’s sticky tongue after it had just missed a fly.
Wary, Gem stayed very still, and then rolled as another creeper shot out for them, missing by inches. She scrambled to her feet and Rio did the same.
“Run?” Gem suggested.
“Run,” Rio agreed.
They ran. Creepers shot around them, but never quite connected as Gem and Rio ducked and wove their way through the woods. The plants were tenacious, Gem had to give them that. Twice, she thought they were safe, only to find flowers just feet away. Keeping Rio’s hand in hers so as not to lose him, Gem ran until she couldn’t run any further.
Mostly, that was because the ground dropped away sharply in front of her, leaving Gem and Rio teetering on the edge of a small cliff disguised by the trees. Gem dared a glance down. It wasn’t more than fifty feet, but it didn’t need to be. Gem wondered how many people, fleeing the plants, had fallen to their deaths over it.
Thoughts of the plants made her turn back towards the trees. Gem could make out large shapes shuffling slowly through them, creeping along on thick roots, almost swimming through the soil. There were a lot of them. So many that Gem doubted that, even using the ruler words, Rio and her would be able to deal with them all. Even so, she resolved to try.
“Venerable,” Gem said, pointing at one plant. It withered and wilted with age, collapsing on itself. It seemed the flowers didn’t live very long. “Arid,” she tried, pointing at another. It browned and shriveled like all flowers do when left without water. “Deleterious,” she continued, choosing a third. It exploded in a shower of leaves. It didn’t matter. The others pressed onwards.
“Looks like I shouldn’t have brought you on this trip, Rio,” Gem said. Rio didn’t reply. Instead, he stepped in front of her, hacking at the first plant to come close, then the second. Gem moved to help.
“Just stay behind me, Gem. I won’t let them get you.”
Rio hacked at more and more of them. Gem destroyed a few more with words. Still they kept coming. Gem was starting to wonder what it would feel like to be eaten by a plant. Probably not that good, really.
The shadows fell on the plants in their hundreds. It made what they had done to Goolrick’s men earlier look gentle. Here they weren’t trying to capture, or to test. Here, they had merely found something they wanted to destroy. It took only minutes for there to be no sign of a single flower among the trees. A small, shadowy squirrel leapt onto Gem’s hand. She laughed.
“What is it?” Rio asked.
“I can see what it wants, remember? It wants us to be safe, because its king told it to look after us.”
“That doesn’t sound very funny.”
“It also wants some more of that tasty salad we found for it.”
Rio laughed then, and almost fell off the edge of the cliff doing so. Gem grabbed him, and found him suddenly close to her.
“You know I’d do anything for you, Gem,” Rio said.
“Would you?”
“Yes. You deserve to be ruler here, I see that. I thought I could be, but you’re… so much more than I could be. And I… I like you a lot. I’ll help you, whatever it takes.”
Rio kissed her then, and Gem let him. It was a good kiss, better than the one they’d had before, despite the fact that they were both covered in mud. Gem wasn’t sure if she wanted as much from Rio as he obviously wanted from her, but for now, she was just glad to taste his lips on hers. Well, except for the mud, obviously.
They broke apart, and Gem knew she should say something. She just wasn’t sure what. Looking around for inspiration, she glanced over the cliff again, and stopped.
“Rio, look!”
A nest sat near the base of the cliff, sheltered by it. It was a huge nest, the sort of thing that you could really only miss the first time when being chased by hungry plants. Gem didn’t want to think about the size of the bird that had built it. In the nest, snug in one corner, sat an egg.
“We’ve found it,” Gem said. Rio nodded.
“How do we get down to it though?”
That proved to be surprisingly easy, at least when they managed to convey what they wanted to the shadows and convince the creatures’ current leader that leaping wasn’t an option. Even if it was a squirrel, they weren’t lemmings. As easily as they’d tied together the shadows of Goolrick’s men, the shadow creatures wove together strands of darkness from the shadows of creepers and vines, forming a dark rope that seemed to be firmly attached to the shadow of an oak tree.
Gem climbed down it first, with Rio following. Close up, the nest seemed even larger, and the egg was huge. Gem suspected that she would barely be able to lift it comfortably.
A screech came from above. Gem looked up to see two huge shapes racing one another towards the nest. In the lead was a giant bird that looked like it might have swooped down on elephants the way owls did on mice. Behind it, breathing flame from each of its three heads, was the dragon. It lunged after the bird, trying to catch it, but the bird looped and dove, dodging the strike.
The bird whirled then, perhaps because it was so close to the nest. It struck at the dragon, its huge talons skittering off the other beast’s scales. A plunging thrust of the giant beak found itself met by the dragon’s jaws. The two creatures tumbled away from each other in mid ai
r, then wheeled for another run at one another.
The great bird climbed, then swooped down at the dragon, which somehow managed to hover there in spite of its bulk. It looked to Gem like the dragon was almost waiting for the bird. That thought was substantiated a moment later when the dragon whirled in mid air, bringing its tail round in one of those whipping sweeps it had used in the cave. Attacking as it was, the bird couldn’t stop in time. It flew into the striking tail with a sickening crack, then fell limply, lifelessly, until it hit the ground with a crash that shook it.
The dragon roared its triumph, then stopped, staring down at the nest. Gem knew that it would be able to see her and Rio, knew that it would be able to see its egg. Worse, trapped in the nest as the two of them were, there was nowhere to run. As the dragon landed, its heads on a level with the bird’s nest, Gem struggled to think of a way that she and Rio could keep safe.
The dragon opened its mouth to flame. In desperation, Gem snatched up the egg, holding it between her and the dragon like a shield. The dragon hiccoughed, but didn’t flame. It looked at Gem in puzzlement. It tried to dart its heads around to the side, but Gem pressed back against the cliff wall, keeping the egg in the way.
“If you try to hurt us, I’ll drop your egg,” Gem warned. She wasn’t sure if the dragon would understand or not, but she had to try. The dragon let out a whine and shuffled back a little.
“I think it got that,” Rio said. “Try something else.”
“Maybe we could come to some sort of amicable arrangement?” Gem said to the dragon. “You know, a compromise?” She didn’t know if that would be too complex for the creature. It moved closer. This close, Gem could reach out and put a hand on its scaly skin, so she did so. It was easy to see what the dragon wanted. It wanted to protect its egg, and feed the tiny dragon that would come from it as well as itself.
