by D K Drake
Javan gave her a sideways look. “What was that all about?”
“Once we leave this cave with these eggs, we only have forty-eight hours to get through the portal. I don’t want to waste any of that time fighting more crazy birds that might be hiding in this tunnel.”
“The little lady is smart.” Ravier slapped Javan on the back, but that simple action caused him to lose his balance, and he dropped to his knees. “Whoa. What happened to my legs?”
Taliya studied the puss-filled gashes of torn flesh on Ravier’s shoulder from the grizzlet bite. “That was scary fast. These wounds are already becoming infected. We have to get him out of here and back to the ocean as soon as possible.”
Micah helped Ravier to his feet. “Why the ocean?”
“The combination of salt and other minerals in that purple water are the best chance he has to fight this infection.”
“No ocean.” Ravier shook his head. “I don’t know how ta sthwim.”
“He’s slurring his words.” Taliya jumped in the tunnel. She reached for Ravier’s good hand with her free hand. “We need to move. Now.”
He responded to her command by grabbing her hand and stepping into the tunnel behind her. “Stay with me,” she said, wrapping his fingers on the handle of her bag. “Keep holding onto my bag and focus on putting one foot in front of the other.”
“Othay.”
“We better hurry.” Taliya marched forward through the uphill tunnel, keeping her eyes on the slightest hint of light in the distance.
◊◊◊
They burned four of their precious forty-eight hours getting back to camp. Javan teleported back to Varjiek as soon as they emerged from the tunnel, but that was right in the middle of Varjiek’s feeding time. Javan had to wait for the dragon to eat, then lead him back to the others, then force an uncooperative Ravier to get on and stay on Varjiek while they flew halfway across Dusk Territory carrying large yet fragile dragon eggs to the shore.
Treating Ravier by keeping his shoulder submerged in the warm ocean water took another two hours, and now the man who was supposed to devise a strategy to get them through the portal was zonked out from a fever induced coma. Fabulous.
Micah didn’t seem too concerned about the prospect of getting through the portal, either. After the long dip in the ocean, he had devoured a chunk of the food they brought with them from the cabin and passed out on a makeshift bed of his own near Ravier.
Javan was still too wound up to sleep, so he made a cozy sand bed for the dragon eggs under a palm tree. He used Varjiek’s breath to start a fire about twenty feet away from the sleeping men while Taliya finished wrapping Ravier’s shoulder with plantain leaves. He took two carrots from the food sack and offered Taliya one when she joined him by the fire. “How’s he doing?”
“Hard to say.” She chomped a bite off the carrot and chewed it up before continuing. “The dip in the ocean did wonders for his cuts, but he won’t be in any shape to travel for at least a day. Maybe longer.” She traded her carrot for some kind of goo she pulled out of her bag. She rubbed it on her finger and reached for Javan’s chin. “This might sting.”
Javan turned his head away. “You mean stink. What are you trying to put on my face?”
“Just a little mixture I developed. It’s good for you. Trust me.”
His nose didn’t want to trust her, but he lifted his chin anyway. As soon as the goo touched his cut, his skin burned with a searing intensity. He bit his lip to keep from yelping in pain, and breathed a sigh of relief when the burning subsided a moment later.
“There,” she said. “All better. Until the morning, anyway. I’ll need to put on a few more doses until it heals.”
“Wonderful.” He carefully bit into his carrot and chomped in slow motion, testing the effect of the goo on his cut. It made his skin feel like it was glued together but caused no pain when chewing. That allowed him to turn his attention to their present dilemma. “I guess we have to figure out how to get through the portal without Ravier’s help. Are you ready to open it?”
“Honestly? No. But if I can have one focused day tomorrow to study the book, I’ll be ready.”
“Then that gives me and Micah one day to come up with a strategy for distracting the soldiers guarding the portal so you can get to it and enter the code to get it open.”
“Micah’s not the only other one on the team.”
“I know that.” Had he made her think he didn’t value her input? “It’s just that I thought you wanted to focus on studying the book.”
“You’re right. I do.” She shook her head. “I’m not talking about me.”
“Oh. Good.” Sometimes she confused him. “But Ravier’s asleep. We don’t know when he’s going to wake up or if he’ll be in his right mind when he does.”
“I’m not talking about Ravier, either.” Taliya rolled her eyes at him. “I’m talking about Kisa and Varjiek. One can teleport to the exact place we need to go. The other can keep them both invisible. Why don’t you send them to the portal to scout things out? It will be easier to devise a strategy if you know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
“Of course!” Javan rolled his eyes at himself. “I’ll send them both now while it’s dark and have them return before we even wake up in the morning. Thanks, Taliya. You’re brilliant.” Without thinking, he kissed her cheek. Then he realized what he had done, and his entire face glowed from embarrassment.
To escape the awkwardness of the moment, he ran away in search of his dragons.
◊◊◊
Micah shifted to his side, vaguely aware of the mumbled conversation between Taliya and Javan. He didn’t care what they were saying. All he wanted to do was sleep now that he had a full stomach and relaxed muscles thanks to the massaging work of the ocean’s gentle waves.
He breathed a deep sigh of relaxation when the voices finally subsided and the sounds of the night took over. The whooshing of the waves. The chirping of the crickets. The crackling of the fire. The perfect symphony of sounds to fall asleep to.
He took one more deep breath of the cool salty air and gave his whole body over to sleep. But that’s the precise moment Ravier sat up and began shouting.
“Javan! Where’s Javan?”
Without opening his eyes, Micah waved his arm in the direction of the fire. “Over there.”
“Decoy. At dawn.”
“What?” Micah glanced over to see Ravier staring straight ahead. Talking to no one. Javan wasn’t around. Neither was Taliya. Where did they go? And what was Ravier babbling about?
“My uniform. Stalker. Eat. Chaos. Portal. Earth. Eggs. Safe.” With that final word, Ravier collapsed. He resumed sleeping as though he had never said anything at all.
Micah laughed. “That made no sense, but don’t worry. I’ll keep your crazy babblings to myself.”
He turned onto his back and mulled Ravier’s words over in his mind as he stared at the stars.
A decoy at dawn. With the uniform of a soldier. To create chaos and get through the portal. “Hmm. Interesting.” He rolled back over so he could face Ravier. “You know, old man, that crazy plan just might work.”
Chapter 29
Decoy at Dawn
From the time Taliya snuck away from the sleeping Ravier and Micah to retrieve her hidden book until she ate the stew Micah had concocted for dinner the following night, Taliya trained her eyes on the pages of the book and forced her mind to memorize the patterns required to open the portal. Other than taking a few breaks to tend to the wounds of Ravier and Javan, she had dedicated herself completely to the task of learning how to open the portal.
However, the lack of sleep combined with the constant reading had turned her mind to mush. It struggled to handle the simplest of tasks—like chewing—and it made the early evening darkness of the world around her appear foggy. All she really wanted to do was sleep. But she couldn’t. Not yet. She needed to read the book one more time before they teleported to the portal in the middle of the night.
&nbs
p; Leaving her coconut bowl of soup mostly untouched, she stretched out by the fire and opened the book once again.
“Nope.” Javan jerked the book away from her.
“Hey. Give that back.”
“I will. After you get some sleep.”
“I’ll sleep after I open the portal.”
“You won’t be able to open the portal unless you get some sleep.”
“I’m fine. Not tired at all.” She yawned, and Javan smirked. “Maybe I’m a little bit tired, but I have to get through that book one more time before we go.”
“Get some sleep first. Then you can read the book with fresh eyes.”
“You do look exhausted, Taliya.” Micah tossed a log on the fire. Sparks hissed upward and disappeared into the night. “Those eggs are never going to hatch if you are too tired to make sense of the flickering lights of the portal.”
She looked at the eggs, snug in their bed of sand. They needed her at her best. Otherwise they would never have a chance to hatch. “Fine.” She laid down on her own bed of leaves and closed her eyes. “I’ll rest my eyes for a few minutes.”
If Javan or Micah said anything else, she didn’t hear them. She did feel Javan nudge her shoulder mere moments later.
“Taliya,” he said, “wake up. It’s time to go,”
“Go where?”
“Earth.”
“What? No. I’m not ready. I need to read through the book once more. I just closed my eyes for a minute.”
“Your minute was more like six hours.”
“Why did you let me sleep that long?” Taliya jumped up, aware that the fire was no longer burning. “What if I can’t get the portal open because I didn’t have that last chance to read the book?”
“How many times have you read the book?”
“Four.”
“Do you have it memorized?”
“Mostly. But not completely. That’s why I needed to read it again.”
“You’re ready.” Ravier put his hand under her chin. In the moonlight, she could see that he was wearing a new shirt and pair of pants he must have gotten from Micah. “Reading can only take you so far. It’s time to put your knowledge into action.”
“When did you wake up and start making sense?”
“Shortly after you fell asleep.”
“We’re ready.” Micah approached on the back of Mertzer. He appeared to have a man slung over Mertzer’s neck in front of him, but the man had no head or feet. That’s when she realized it was actually Ravier’s tattered shirt and uniform pants stuffed with grass. “Why is Ravier’s uniform stuffed to make it look like a person?”
“Excellent question.” Javan beamed at her, and she could tell by the playful look in his emerald eyes that she wasn’t going to like the answer. “We’re going to need you to do one thing before entering the portal code.”
All three men now smiled at her, and she suddenly wished she had paid attention to their strategy sessions instead of spending the entire day reading.
◊◊◊
Javan’s nerves tingled as he sat perched on his invisible dragon surveying the portal area in the dim glow of the sun that had yet to rise over the horizon. Kisa and Mertzer stood invisible under Varjiek’s wings on either side of him, and Taliya had her head sleepily draped on his back and her arms around his waist. Ravier and Micah both sat on Varjiek’s front paws. All remained silent. They had nothing to do except wait.
The longer they waited, the more details of the landscape Javan noticed. A tall, wide waterfall in the middle of two spectacular cliffs crashed into a shimmering lake. Vines, moss, and ferns covered the rocks to the right of the waterfall, but a twenty-foot high octagon on the cliff to the left was free from any sort of woodsy growth.
Having been to the portal in North Zandador with his mother, he recognized the smooth surface of that tall, wide octagon. He knew it was made of thousands of pieces of dragon scales, and those scales formed the portal that led to Earth. Somewhere beside the octagon was a spot to insert four Stalker scales that would activate the portal. He would leave that task to Taliya. His task was providing cover so she could get to the portal.
Standing in their way was the lake and an army of soldiers. One patrolled from the top of the cliff. Two more patrolled the shore of the lake, and another pair covered the wide area to the left and in front of the portal. And stationed like statues directly in front of the portal was a line of seven muscular soldiers.
Countless tents populated the grounds beyond the range of the patrolling soldiers while the trees were filled with sleeping okties that would soon be used for air patrol. According to Kisa’s report, they didn’t patrol the air by night, and she was also right about the fact that none of the soldiers on the ground seemed particularly alert this early in the morning.
Unlike Kisa. This was her prime feeding time, and her colorful scales indicated she was ready to eat. They had been waiting for her to get hungry, and judging by her restlessness, she had reached that point.
“It’s time.” Turning to the Dawn Stalker under the protection of Varjiek’s left wing, Javan spoke, hoping the roar of the waterfall would keep his words from reaching the soldiers across the lake. “Kisa, take Mertzer and Micah to the far end of the camp, then come back here for Taliya and Ravier.”
Kisa nodded and began slinking around Varjiek toward Mertzer.
“I’ll take good care of Kisa while you’re gone,” Micah said, moving towards Mertzer as well. “We’ll find a good place to hide in the mountains north of here.”
“I’ll remain with them,” Ravier said. “We will all rendezvous at the Zandadorian portal located near Gri every day at noon until you return.”
“Thank you both,” Javan said.
“Dragon eggs always hatch within three days.” Taliya lifted her head off his back and let go of Javan’s waist in order to stretch and talk to Ravier. “They also can’t survive Earth’s atmosphere for more than seven days without scales, so we’ll be returning as soon after they hatch as possible.”
Javan tapped the food sacks draped over Varjiek’s neck that now held the two dragon eggs. “Hopefully these dragons are so eager to hatch that we will be returning tonight.”
“Until then.” Micah climbed on Mertzer’s back, nodded his goodbye, and Kisa whisked them away.
“We’re next.” Draping the stuffed uniform over his weakened right arm, Ravier reached his good hand up for Taliya.
Varjiek lowered his stomach to the ground, but before Taliya could slide off, Javan turned to her. “You have the scales, right?”
“In my bag.” She patted the leather pouch slung over her shoulder.
“You know what to do as soon as Kisa teleports you to the other side?”
“That part I can handle. It’s the opening of the portal that has me worried.”
“I’m not worried.” Actually he was. A little. After all, if she didn’t succeed, his chances at winning the throne were dead. But he needed to instill her with confidence, not more pressure. “Remember what your father told you, and trust your instincts. You focus on the portal, and I’ll protect you from the sky. Ravier and Micah will have your back on the ground with the help of Kisa and Mertzer. You let us handle the soldiers, and you get that portal open. You can do this.”
“If you say so.”
Kisa returned, ending the conversation. Taliya slid silently off Varjiek and moved alongside Ravier to touch Kisa’s leg. In the next instant, they were gone.
You seem nervous, young Collector.
“You picked up on that, huh?”
Taliya is smart. She will figure out how to open the portal and get us to Earth.
“You just want to get to Earth so you can see Skylark.”
She is the reason I let you ride me. She’s been hiding on Earth long enough. It’s time to bring her home.
“Agreed.” Javan smiled, remembering how Varjiek’s demeanor changed when he mentioned Skylark’s name that day he met Varjiek. Had it not been for that cu
te little dragon crush, Javan may never have collected his Noon Stalker. “The first step to getting to Skylark is getting Taliya to that portal, so let’s fly.”
Yes, sir!
Varjiek vaulted into the air, and Javan immediately began scanning the ground for Kisa, Taliya, and Ravier. His eyes found them within seconds. They were hugging the base of the cliff, right around the corner from the portal. “You can do it, Taliya,” he whispered. “You can make this crazy plan work.”
◊◊◊
Taliya pointed to the stuffed uniform Ravier was about to put in Kisa’s mouth. Careful not to raise her voice and garner the attention of the nearby soldiers, she said, “I’m still not sure anyone will believe that’s an actual person.”
“That’s why we’re doing this before the sun has a chance to rise.” Ravier matched her quiet tone. “But I guarantee the one thing they will believe is that this dragon is hungry. I don’t care how groggy they are or how dark it is, no one will miss Kisa’s colorful scales. It all starts with you being convincingly scared.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve never been this scared about anything, and I’ve lived through a volcano eruption.”
“And you’ll live through this. Just run straight ahead, yelling as you go.” Ravier pulled out his sword. “Once the chaos begins, head back to the portal. I’ll handle any of the guards that don’t fall for the distraction.”
Taliya nodded and turned to Kisa. “You ready, girl?”
The hungry glint in her eyes was answer enough. “Okay, then. Let’s do this.”
Ravier threw the uniform in Kisa’s mouth, and Taliya began yelling and running. “Get away! Get away from here now! A hungry Dawn Stalker is on the loose. She’s already feasting on one soldier and won’t stop until she’s eaten everyone she can catch!”
Kisa’s deafening roar shook the early morning air. Taliya stumbled and turned to see Kisa standing on her hind legs chomping the last shreds of the grass-stuffed uniform. She did look pretty terrifying, and the soldiers around her seemed to agree. The ones closest to the lake dove in and began swimming to the other side. The others ran behind and around her, screaming like unashamed babies.
