For an instant, I saw myself talking with my lieutenant, Henry, the green hatchling that was Zon cradled in my arms. I quenched the memory. Pity. Haru was trying to get on my good side.
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Again I thought of Zon. I swallowed, and tried again. “I don't understand. Those dragons are no better than robots. How could it respond to you?”
He scowled. “She responds just fine. She's still a living, breathing dragon, even though she's not a sparkly river spirit.” He pointed at me. “See, that's the arrogance of the Dawnlight Knights Anja tells me about. All you do is prove it, Saumyi. Every moment.”
The accusation stung. “What on earth do you mean? Arrogant? Do you so easily forget what we've done for humanity?”
Haru folded his arms and stared at me until it sank in. “Oh.” I was lucky it was still fairly dark as I blushed. “That's what you meant by arrogant …” Well, it wasn't my fault we were amazing.
Oh wait, yes it was.
“I know what you've done for humanity,” he answered. “Or what you say you've done. And it's because of that …” He took a deep breath, still fingering the stun wand in one hand. “That I'm willing to trust you now.”
I didn't respond. The trust thing wasn't exactly going both ways at the moment. “Yeah? Prove it.”
“Sure.” Haru stepped back and pushed the cell door open. “But you're going to need a plan, before you just run out there.”
I eyed him warily, particularly that prod. He could easily catch me in the back as I shot past. And then … what? Dump me back into the cell he'd just let me out of. What would be the point of that? Maybe the traitor was actually sincere. I thought of the tenderness in his voice as he'd spoken of his dragon. That, at least, I could relate to.
My hand drifted to my empty scabbard. “Anja broke my sword. I was going to use it to cut their bonds.”
“Would picking the locks work?” Haru asked. He produced a shard of my sword, about as long as my finger.
I frowned as I took it from him. “Where's the rest of it?”
“Just be happy I got this much. It wasn't easy.”
“Oh poor you.” Even so, I evaluated his offer. “We might be able to pick the locks, but that will only get us so far. Without sunlight …” My gaze flashed to Haru. “Wait a moment. How close are we to the surface?”
“Uh …” He turned his face toward the ceiling. “Well, there are some vents and things, especially farther up. Why?”
“Vents. Interesting.” Not ideal, but it would work. I took my belt back from him, and after dropping the shard inside, synched it around my waist—tight. “Come on. I've got a plan.” I strode past Haru as his jaw dropped and he raised a finger. Then he shut his mouth and hurried after me.
“Don't tell me you're going to bring the whole mountain down on our heads,” he hissed. “Because that's not going to save anything.”
“Please,” I retorted, voice low to avoid drawing attention. “Of course I'm not. Not the whole mountain. Take me back to Zon and the other dragons, and show me the nearest vent.” Remembering what he'd said about arrogance, I grudgingly added, “Please.”
“Look, you're improving,” he teased, flashing me a grin as he strode ahead, half-jogging up the tunnel. “They're up here. It's lunchtime, so I highly doubt anyone's patrolling around.”
He had to open his big mouth. No sooner had the echoes died than a pair of patrolling guards rounded the corner. “Hey!”
Haru's eyes widened, and he put up his hands. “What? What's wrong?”
Unamused, one of the guards grabbed the radio situated on his shoulder. “The prisoner is loose. I repeat, Saumyi is loose.”
“Oh, is she?” Haru glanced over his shoulder at me. “I hadn't noticed. You guys had better grab her fast. She's dangerous, you know.”
Shooting him a filthy look, the other guard lunged towards me. I prepared to take the blow and fight valiantly to the death, but Haru whipped out the stun wand and jabbed it into the side of the guard's neck, jolting him with electricity. He dropped heavily to the concrete floor.
“Oh hey, that's neat.” I paused, and then corrected, “I mean thanks.” As he offered a faint smile, I pointed to the other guard, fleeing down a distant corridor. “Except you missed one. That isn't going to be a problem later, is it?”
Alarms blared through the compound. “Oh,” I said. “Apparently it's going to be a problem now.”
“Typical efficient mooks,” Haru sighed.
“Mooks?” I repeated. “You're stealing my words now on top of everything else?”
“It's a free language!” Haru retorted as he started running again, towards the keening sounds of the captive dragons.
“You remember why it's a free language, don't you?” I demanded as I chased after him.
Ignoring me, he demanded, “What's this trick with the vents you've got?”
“Vent,” I corrected. “We only need to break open one. Are there any near Cascata?” I hadn't seen her before, in the mass of dragons. But then, there had been so many … I bit my lip.
He shrugged. “Maybe?”
We entered the cavernous dungeon, and Haru nodded to the left, toward a barely visible mound of blue. “That's her, isn't it? I think we can reach her easily enough.” He tensed and pointed to a gang of mooks tearing down the tunnel toward us. “Before they get us would be nice. Run!”
Haru grabbed my hand and sprinted, startling the rows of weakened solar dragons. I had sense enough to yank my hand from his. Some girls might find the cute-boy-turned-traitor-turned-hero fascinatingly romantic. I wasn't one of them.
I pulled a crystal egg from the pouch at my hip and tossed it behind us. It exploded in a flash of blinding light. Our attackers slowed, wailing in surprise. Ha!
“Too bad you don't have ten or so of those,” Haru said, eyes on the high ceiling. There was indeed a vent, but it was tiny, and sealed shut to keep the light from shining on these dragons. Or, more importantly, on Cascata.
Though she'd only been missing for a week, she looked terrible. Her massive wings drooped, and she had begun to pull feathers from her plumage in distress. They lay like fallen pieces of sky around the tiny stall where she had been chained. She peered up at Haru as he approached. Her mouth twitched, but it seemed she couldn't even summon the energy to hiss at him. I knelt at her side and touched her head. She leaned into my palm.
“How are we getting that vent open?” Haru asked, looking back at me.
“Working on it.” I pulled away from Cascata. If I could find Zon, he might have enough strength to help, but there were so many dragons … I couldn't see Zon anywhere. I forced down my panic. He was here. Somewhere.
My thumb rubbed against my pouch. I only had two crystal eggs left. They wouldn't have any effect on the vent, even if I could have thrown them that high, and they were too insignificant to power Cascata. A smaller dragon, though …
I peered through the crowd until I spotted her. With a silent signal, I motioned Haru to follow me to Sahara.
She glanced up at me, her golden eyes almost curious. I knelt at her side, and removed the two eggs with one hand as I touched her shoulder with the other. “Sahara. I'm going to give you enough strength to fly up to that vent.” I gently took her chin and tilted her face so she could see it. “If you open it, we can save everyone, okay?”
Haru stepped forward. “What do you need me to do?” he asked, staring at Sahara.
I took both eggs and pressed them into his hands, along with the shard of my sword. “Unlock her chains. Then drop both of these on my signal. Now that Sahara knows, someone needs to tell Cascata the plan, and I don't think she likes you.”
“I didn't think she did,” Haru said dryly. “I'm not having the greatest effect on girls today.”
“Nope,” I agreed as I raced back to the sky dragon.
She tilted her head as I approached, something flashing in her eyes. It reminded me of clear skies and starlight, but that was the most I
could think of before I was kneeling at her head, my hand back on her brow. “Okay, gorgeous,” I whispered. “Ready to save the day?”
She made a sound that might have been a chirp. It would have to do. I nodded to Haru.
He laboriously picked the lock on her neck chain, dropped both crystal eggs beside Sahara, and backed away fast. Golden light washed over her feathers, which burst into a deep, brilliant gold like the sands of the desert which she guarded. She raised her magnificent head, jaws parting in triumph.
At that moment, more mooks spilled into the cave. “Go!” I ordered Sahara, but she struggled to get airborne. Biting his lip and in a moment of true daring, Haru scooped her up in his hands and tossed her upward.
It was enough. Sahara took flight, wings sparkling—dazzling compared to the dim fluorescent lights. The other dragons stirred, watching. Somewhere in the masses, I heard Zon's coo. “Zon!”
Haru whirled to me. “Go get him out. Do you have any more of those lightbombs?”
I'd given Haru my last ones. That didn't matter though, I'd find some other way to save Zon. “Don't let anything stop Sahara from reaching that vent!” I ordered Haru. “And you,” I added to Cascata. “Do your thing.” With that, I fled into the mass of dragons, following Zon's cries.
Shooting me one of his obnoxious grins, Haru threw a look to the coming onslaught of guards charging down the tunnel. The solar dragons hissed and growled as Haru grit his teeth and lunged for the nearest dragon that could keep its head up. It snapped at him and he ducked, just evading its angry jaws.
“Chill, chill,” he muttered, stabbing the piece of sword into the lock and giving it a twist. It snapped open and he turned in triumph—only to face the wrathful, ice-blue eye of the Arctic dragon he'd released. It bared its teeth at him, emitting a low, rattling growl as unforgiving as the tundra itself.
I was on the verge of returning and intervening when, more concerned with its new freedom, the dragon lumbered into the corridor, stopping the mooks in their tracks.
Stun wand at his side, Haru raced after the dragon, which remained focused on Anja's goons—for now. Its head whipped around and he dropped low, skidding under its outstretched neck and bared teeth. Once clear, he sprang back to his feet and stabbed the stun wand into the nearest goon, twisting the prod out of his hands to bash it against another's skull. I was almost—almost—glad to have him fighting on my side.
Just ahead of me, Zon chirped again. I spotted a flash of emerald scales, and increased my pace, heart pounding as the skirmish behind me intensified.
I dropped to my knees before Zon. He looked at me, relief touching his eyes. I caught his huge head and hugged him tight. “You can't ditch me that easily, I'm afraid.” He rubbed against my hip.
Haru suddenly cried out. The goons had pinned him to the floor, and had now cornered the Arctic dragon against the wall. At the same moment, Sahara ripped the cover off the air vent directly above Cascata. Sunlight—weakened by the distance—beamed down on the mighty blue dragon. Her plumage ignited, turning a brilliant sapphire blue, and she roared.
The guards pulled up short, eyes widening in terror at the sight of the dragon, steadily growing to full power.
“Stop her!” Anja's voice cut through the echoes of Cascata's roar. When had she arrived? “Don't let her get free!”
Too late.
Cascata stood, her chains breaking. Her enormous wings spread wide. Their luminosity reflected off the feathers of the other dragons. She lifted her head and roared. Fire lit the ceiling, turning the air above us a blinding white.
All around Cascata, the other dragons flared their wings, heads lifting, arms flexing, chains snapping—
Beside me, Zon's roar joined Cascata's. He stood, nearly knocking me over as he spread his wings wide and absorbed the power of the firelight.
“No!” Anja screamed, losing her composure. “What have you done?”
“We can't keep them caged,” Haru said, muffled beneath the brawny woman pinning him with her elbow. “It'll destroy the Earth.”
She scowled. “They will destroy the Earth! Just by existing, they pose a threat to the very survival of our planet's biomes!”
“No,” I retorted. “They are our planet's biomes.”
Cascata roared again, and the songs of a hundred other dragons joined her. The mighty sky dragon reared her head, and above, the ceiling cracked.
Anja's cold eyes flickered to the cracks, and back to me. “Shoot those two.” She pointed to Haru first. “Then restrain those dragons—shut off the light before they cause any more damage.”
For someone who had accused me of being a savage, Anja apparently had no little thirst for blood. For the first time, I noticed that one of her goons had a gun, not just a stick or a stun wand. He aimed it at Haru's head. Zon roared, his pure song piercing the air, but we were too far away to help. Haru cringed, and turned his face to the concrete.
A different, croakier roar interrupted Zon. The goons looked up in time to see a massive gray dragon stalking down the tunnel, a chain dangling from the steel collar around her neck. She flared her leathery wings and roared again, charging the group of people.
Not even the best-paid mook would stand in the face of that. They scattered, abandoning Haru in the middle of the floor. The gray, mutated dragon came to a stop above him, looming like a mother hen over a tiny chick. It could only be Hai, the dragon he had so lovingly described. She pulled back her lips and hissed at Anja, showing off rows of gleaming teeth.
Anja stared, open mouthed, as if unable to comprehend how one of her precious drones could have gained a mind of its own. The look didn't last long, however—
Cascata launched herself at Anja, catching her from behind. The enormous dragon pinned the tiny woman to the ground with one paw and screamed in her face.
Anja gaped at it, unable to scream back as she stared into the jaws of the wrathful sky spirit.
“Cascata!” a commanding voice burst from the mouth of the bunker.
Cascata lifted her enormous head, feathers cresting. I whirled to face the owner of the voice. Surrounded by glimmering dragons, Henry—my Legion leader.
Cascata scooped up Anja, and like a proud cat, trotted over to Henry, depositing Anja at his feet. The dragon sat, tail curling forward to cage the villain as Cascata preened.
Anja scrambled back to her feet, jaw set. To her credit, she did not plead or beg, or try to defend herself. Her already small eyes narrowed at Henry, and she crossed her arms in silence.
Henry looked from her, to the mooks the other solar dragons—and, I was surprised to see, several more of Anja's own dragons—had pinned to the floor. “I see,” Henry said.
I wasn't sure he did, but he was trying. That counted for something, I was sure.
Haru at last struggled to his feet, hiding behind Hai. She glared at Henry, pupils narrowing, apparently daring him to come closer as members of my Legion took Anja Larssen away.
Though Henry eyed the strange dragon a little warily, he didn't approach. Instead, he met my gaze and cocked a brow. Rather than chew me out for ditching my legion and going on a mission by myself, Henry said, “I know someone who will be very happy to see this one.” He tilted his head toward Cascata and reached up to pat her snout. “Your master is waiting for you outside.”
“Her master …” My throat closed around my voice, so that when I finally pushed words out, they emerged as a tiny squeak. “You can't mean Prince Rocco is here?”
From behind Hai, Haru sighed loudly. “Stellar.” He motioned to the other dragons. “Can we worry about that after we get these guys outside?”
The arrival of the prince was something I preferred to worry about now, but Haru did have a point. I nodded once, and had the good fortune to step backward just in time to catch Sahara as she dropped like an excited puppy into my arms. “Well hello there! Nice work, little one!”
She chirped and shook out her wings. Already she looked bigger than she had when I'd first seen her. Wi
th another chirp, she took flight, gliding up the tunnel that would take her to sunlight. We'd have the Sahara restored to lush glory in no time.
Around us, the legion members who weren't dealing with the mooks had discovered the lunar dragons. Lunar being my name for them. I hoped it would stick.
I guided our motley group out of the tunnel. The lunar dragons moved in unison, staring at me and then to the gorgeous solar dragons as we emerged into the sunlight. Though Anja had built them to be capable of surviving in both darkness and light, they seemed rather stunned to be out of the mountain. Stunned—and lost. For once, they had no leader and no purpose. Only Hai seemed aware, lingering by Haru rather than her nestmates. He reached up, laying a hand on her long snout, and she leaned into his touch.
“Where can they go?” he asked.
Cascata stepped forward, her regal head high. Anja's dragons looked at her, the light of her feathers reflecting in their eyes. She trilled. The Lunar Dragons opened their mouths, hesitated, then tried to mimic the call. They didn't sound anything like Cascata, and it resulted in an awful tumult of noise, but they were trying, which was kind of lovely in its own weird way.
“I don't know,” I finally answered Haru. “But I think, in time, they'll find a place out here in the sun. There's light and life enough for everyone.” I nudged Haru's arm. “Even traitors like you.”
He smirked. “I don't know, even this world doesn't seem big enough for the ego of this many Knights.”
“Oh, I'm amazing and you know it.” I joked. Mostly.
Zon, meanwhile, carefully circled Hai. He stopped in front of her, and bobbed his head like a parrot, then paused and tilted his head, wings partially flared. In return, she bobbed her head, imitating him more than anything else. Then she jerked her head up and made a croaky chirrup as if in greeting. Zon repeated it, feathers fluffing. So pleased with himself.
“Saumyi!”
Heat flooded my cheeks as I spun around. “R-Rocco! I mean Prince, I mean …” I gestured stupidly to the enormous blue dragon behind me. “I found Cascata.”
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