Dragon Tide Omnibus 1

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  I could use one of those!

  Heron fiddled with the handle of his rod, like he was trying to activate it. He’d better be careful with that thing. If he hit us with those bubbles, this attack could backfire on us!

  The Bubblers ahead pointed their own rods at us, shooting huge bubbles toward us in an array of colors – purple, green, red.

  I braced for them. We couldn’t outrun the bubbles racing toward us and we couldn’t maneuver around such a big cloud. My only option was to pop every one of them before they hit us.

  Staff outstretched, I clenched my jaw and slashed my staff through the water as the first bubbles arrived, popping them as quickly as I could, as far away as I could. With the bubbles bursting downstream, their effects couldn’t reach us – but only if I kept popping them in time.

  The water dragged at the staff and working it under the waves took all my strength. If I could sweat underwater, I would be slicked in sweat at the sheer effort of trying to move the staff at any speed underwater. Maybe slashing wasn’t the best idea.

  I changed my approach, jabbing at bubbles as they came toward us, but my heart was pounding. There was no way I could destroy them fast enough this way, and Heron still hadn’t figured out his rod.

  Fortunately, they’d fired from too far away and into the current instead of with it. The last bubbles coming toward me stalled and then floated the wrong way, leaving the Bubblers on their tail to dodge their own weapons. I slashed toward them with my staff, but with those super-rocks they used were just too fast!

  Each super-rock was steered by one Bubbler while one or two passengers hung onto the handles and shot bubbles from their rods. They were formidable. They outnumbered us. They were faster than we were. They were better armed.

  Frustration filled me as they swept in so close that they could almost touch me, and fired a second cloud of bubbles. I fought to pop them all, but one bubble landed, searing the skin on my arm. I screamed underwater, my eyes searching for Heron.

  He had given up on trying to use the rod as a bubble weapon. I caught sight of him at the same moment that the group of two Bubblers reached him, firing off their rod. He waited as bubbles floated toward him. He wasn’t even trying to slash them. What was he doing?

  My attackers had passed, but they were probably circling around to attack me again. And yet, I couldn’t peel my eyes off of Heron, wondering what he was thinking frozen like that.

  And then he moved so quickly – quick despite the weight of the waters! – and clipped the pilot of the super-rock on the back of the head, grabbing the handle of his super-rock. He held on with one hand, dropping his bubble rod and reaching out to snatch the mask and the patch from the mouth of the shocked Bubbler beside him.

  The Bubbler dropped the handle like it was hot, kicking upward toward the surface.

  Yeah! Right on!

  But now my enemies were back again, and I wasn’t a muscle-bound blacksmith’s apprentice who could hit people over the head and steal their super-rocks.

  As the bubbles rushed toward me, I slashed and hacked wildly. Two more small bubbles hit my legs, searing them with painful agony. They burned – even underwater they burned! I screamed and then forced myself to stop screaming, biting my lip instead.

  Something grabbed me from behind. An arm as thick as a tree.

  Heron!

  I adjusted my staff to keep it away from him as we streaked through the water. He nodded to the handle, indicating that I should hold on and the minute I turned and grabbed it with my free hand, he reached out with his spare hand.

  What was he reaching for?

  In the whirling bubbles, and flowing underwater cloth filling my vision, I barely managed to see my enemies beside us holding their own super-rock.

  Heron had seen. His arm wrenched the rod from the nearest Bubbler, turning it on him and whacking him so hard in the face that he lost his grip and spun away from the super-rock.

  Heron leaned as far out from our super-rock as he could while still gripping it, aiming another blow at the face of a second Bubbler. I wanted to watch, but I realized suddenly that if he was fighting, I should be steering us.

  I kicked my legs, using them like rudders to keep us aimed toward the wall of bubbles and churning water where the waterfall entered the basin.

  We were almost there!

  I felt Heron tugging madly at the handle, but I couldn’t look at him or I wouldn’t be able to steer. Hopefully, he was holding on!

  Hopefully ...

  We plunged into the wall of bubbles and my vision and hearing were filled with nothing but the chaos of water crashing into water.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I’d never been under a waterfall before. I wished I could have enjoyed it instead of fearing for my life.

  Nasataa spun loops in the bag, agitated by the roaring falls and Heron’s tugs at the handle bothered me. I couldn’t see more than his arm holding the handle and a blurry outline of the rest of him. Even that was hard to see well. What was he doing that was causing so much turbulence?

  And what would we find here? We’d been sent to go under the waterfall, but where did we go from here and what could be found that would be different from what the Bubblers could find?

  If only Vyvera were here to tell us.

  And then we emerged from the flurry of water.

  I hadn’t even realized I was holding my breath until the water was suddenly calmer and I could breathe easily again. Heron bucked and I looked back to see him fighting against the last two Bubblers. One of them had his rod wrapped around Heron’s neck and he was pulling, pulling, pulling against it.

  Horrified, I spun, trying to get closer and ease the pressure from Heron’s neck, but my movement only seemed to make it worse as his face darkened a shade.

  Help! Help us!

  I cried in my mind. If only we were in the ocean where friendly Blue Dragons could hear our cry or even a passing squid.

  Please! We will die!

  As I thought that, a second pair shot out of the wall of water, waving their bubble rods. And then a third. And then a fourth. And then a fifth.

  Oh no.

  Please!

  I was nearly in tears now.

  Something bumped my super-rock and I looked to see we’d hit the rocky wall of the cliff behind the waterfall.

  And there was nothing here. Nothing at all.

  I gritted my teeth. Well, Seleska didn’t just give up. Seleska didn’t just stop fighting when there didn’t seem to be hope.

  I let the super-rock stay against the wall, and I twisted to face outward, my feet behind me getting leverage from the super-rock. I’d have to aim this attack carefully.

  I aimed with my Staff and then jabbed it as hard as I could. It slipped under Heron’s flailing arm into the body of the man strangling him.

  I knew I’d hit him hard when Heron fell forward, nearly knocking into me as all his fighting energy propelled him forward. His arms reached for me and he clung to my waist, his legs hanging limply, like he’d lost the strength to do more than cling for dear life to my waist.

  I jerked the staff, trying to free it, but instead, it shook my enemy on the other end like a fish on the end of a spear.

  He fell free after long seconds passed, but a ring of Bubblers was around me now and closing in while my back was to the wall. They raised hands and rods.

  This was it.

  They were going to finish us off. I gritted my teeth, flinching.

  Here it came.

  But they were waiting for something. One of them looked behind him as if what he was waiting for was about to emerge from the bubbles.

  I tried one last plea.

  If anyone can hear me, please, please, this is my last chance. This is Heron’s last chance. This is Nasataa’s last chance. Please, don’t let us stand alone. Stand with us!

  I didn’t know who I was hoping would help us, but I nearly cursed when I saw who our enemies were waiting for.

  She shot fr
om the wall of bubbles like an arrow from a bow.

  I knew it was Atura even with her mask and goggles on. It was impossible to mistake the confident arrogance of her stance for anyone else. Impossible to miss the laughter as she saw me surrounded and helpless.

  Please.

  Well, if it was time to die, I wasn’t going to cower. I held my chin high, ready for what was going to happen.

  And then the sound of rock scraping against rock filled the water and light lit the faces of my enemies from below.

  I looked down into bright light.

  And then something seized my foot and dragged me down, so fast that I couldn’t catch a breath in the rushing water. I clung to my staff and the propelling super-rock as the waters rushed around me and the light grew ever nearer.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I was pulled into an underground cave through a crack in the rock. Rocks bumped me as I was dragged through a cavern. I hoped Heron was holding on!

  The thing holding my leg was long and thin like the tail of a dragon, with translucent skin and glowing bones and veins. My eyes were practically bulging out of my head when we were finally dragged above the surface of the water into a cavern filled with air. Waves of green light – something living or a plant? I couldn’t tell – rippled along the dark walls.

  And in the center of the room was a glowing portal like the ones I had come through under the water to get to the land of the Rock Eaters. Only this portal was huge. It lit the room with rippling aqua light so that while we were breathing air, the light made it look like we were still underwater.

  Heron ripped the patch from his mouth, choking and gasping for air as the tail of the giant creature in front of us released its grip on me.

  We swam to the rocky ledge and climbed up. As soon as the super-rock propeller hit the air it stopped pulling. I kept a hold of it. I didn’t want to lose something so useful.

  But my eyes never left the creature in front of us. Not even to check the wounds on my legs – burning worse now that we were in the air – or Heron. I could hear him gasping beside me. That would have to be enough assurance of his safety.

  Towering above us, a huge creature – like a chameleon but translucent and glowing – towered above us, a single eye looking down at us. Something crunched under our feet as we walked toward him. Something like glass.

  It took a moment for me to realize that it was scales. Translucent scales. Vyvera had said that the Troglodyte could not move because he was dying. Was that what I was seeing? Scales shedding as this magnificent creature died?

  YES.

  I gasped as pain filled my brain along with a voice so overpowering and heavy that it shot through every nerve of my body at once, like they had been hit with a thousand blacksmith hammers.

  OUR TIME IS FADING. WE MUST SEE THE CHOSEN ONE SUCCEED BEFORE WE FADE FROM THIS EARTH.

  Vyvera said we needed to restore magic to the earth – not that I had any idea how to do that.

  YOU MUST BE DELVED.

  That horrific nerve-smashing feeling shot through me again and I froze in the pain of it. Behind me, I heard the rocks cracking. The Troglodyte wasn’t opening them up again, was he?

  YOU ARE FOUND ACCEPTABLE.

  There was the sound of a stone crashing. Heron crowded in close, taking the super-rock propeller from me so he could hold my hand.

  OUR ENEMIES GATHER. NOW THAT I HAVE REVEALED MY LOCATION THEY WILL BREAK INTO THIS CAVE.

  And then what?

  AND THEY WILL KILL ME. BUT FIRST I WILL SERVE MY LAST PURPOSE. I HAVE FOUND THE CHOSEN ONE AND THE GUARDIAN AND VERIFIED YOU ARE THE ONES WE HAVE WAITED FOR. YOU ARE CAUGHT, CHILD, IN A WAR YOU KNOW NOTHING OF. A WAR BETWEEN THE TROGLODYTES AND OUR ANCIENT ALLIES, THE DRAVEN.

  MANY CENTURIES AGO, WE EACH BIRTHED DESCENDANTS – FOR THE TROGLODYTES IT WAS THE DRAGONS, OUR BELOVED CREATURES. FOR THE DRAVEN IT WAS THE MANTICORES.

  BUT WE WARRED ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS WORLD. THE DRAGONS FLED AND WERE NEARLY DESTROYED AND WE – THEIR ELDERS – HID IN THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH. OUR DAUGHTER, HAZ’DRAZEN HAS FORGED A NEW AGE FOR THE DRAGONS.

  BUT EVEN AS SHE ESTABLISHED THEM, OUR ENEMIES HAVE BEEN WORKING. THEY ESTABLISHED THEIR MANTICORE RANKS. THEY FOUND THEIR OWN HUMAN ALLIES. PASSED ON THEIR OWN PROPHECIES. GAVE THEIR OWN RELICS.

  THEIR PROPHECIES SPEAK OF THEIR HEROES: HANCOR – THE DISSIDENT, ISKARIS – THE USURPER, STARIE – THE CHOSEN ONE, HALBAZAR – THE CONQUERER, APEQ – THE ARTIFICER, ATURA- THE GUARDIAN, FELROC – HER CHARGE. MANY MORE. EACH WORSE THAN THE LAST.

  SELESKA, THEY ARE OUR SHADOWS, OUR OPPOSITES, THE TERRIBLE DARKNESS THAT MIMICS OUR LIGHT. WE HAVE TRIED AND TRIED TO STOP THEM BUT EVERY VICTORY HAS ONLY DELAYED THEM. YOU ARE OUR LAST CHANCE TO TURN THE TIDES TO US. TAKE BACK THE MAGIC THEY STOLE FROM US.

  But wasn’t magic fading from the earth?

  There was another loud boom from behind me. Heron gripped my hand pulling me toward the bright portal.

  THEY WANT YOU TO THINK SO. IT IS NOT SO. THEY HAVE BEEN STEALING IT ALL, STORING IT UP TO SECURE THEIR VICTORY.

  IF THEIR BABY MANTICORE – FELROC – IS PLACED IN THE HAROC INSTEAD OF NASATAA, ALL WILL BE LOST FOR THEY WILL HAVE WON. YOU MUST STOP THEM. GET NASATAA THERE. GET HIM TO THE HAROC.

  The what?

  FIND THE HAROC. IT IS THE SEAT OF LIFE.

  There was a final crash and then the floor shook, and light poured into the darkness, blinding me. Heron tugged me backward and I followed the leading of his hand, trying to blink away the bright light.

  A sound like a garbled scream – long and gut-wrenching – filled the air and then my vision cleared and what I saw made no sense at all.

  Strange creatures, ridden by Bubblers in flowing red, swarmed into the cave, light streaming in all around them. With long harpoons, they speared the Troglodyte, throwing one after another after another, like knives driven into a sleeping goat.

  What was his name? How could I honor him if I didn’t know?

  I AM KO. I WAS KO. NOW, FLEE DAUGHTER!

  I gasped as a harpoon lanced toward me, clattering on the rock as it missed me by inches.

  “Come on,” Heron said, pulling me the last step toward the stone ring portal.

  “We need to pick the right symbol,” I said, my throat tightening as translucent ooze ran down the sides of the groaning Troglodyte. His ancient scales shattered under our feet as we stepped up onto the rim of the portal.

  Heron turned to me to say something but his eyes went big and then pain lanced through me – pain so powerful that it knocked me forward and the last thing I remembered before blackness took me were a pair of powerful arms wrapping around me and a voice slowly fading away as it spoke in Heron’s husky voice.

  “Don’t Seleska. Stop moving or it will kill you. Just hold on. I’ll get you to help. Just hold on, please!”

  Episode Four: Bubbles of Hope

  Chapter One

  I woke from a troubled sleep, surfacing briefly to see a dark face and a pair of worried eyes. Heron.

  “Try to stay still, Seleska. Try not to move. I’m getting you help.”

  “Heron,” I murmured.

  “Please, sweet honey, keep breathing. Don’t stop. I’ll find you help. I promise.”

  He shouldn’t be so worried. Everything would be okay. I felt fine. A bit numb, maybe. And it was hard to breathe. But I didn’t like seeing him so upset.

  A little face poked out from around his head – little Nasataa standing on Heron’s shoulder. I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of a Blue Dragon so close to Heron who had always been prejudiced against them, but something choked me up and then everything faded to black again.

  I thought I could hear voices echoing outside the darkness of my own head.

  “What is this place, little guy? It seems ... oh!”

  There were scuffles and then nothing and then I wasn’t sure how much time had passed until my eyes were flickering open again.

  We were stepping out of a cave into the light and the vis
ta before me would have taken my breath away if I wasn’t gasping for it with every jarring step of Heron’s feet. He carried me in his arms like a child, clutched close to his chest as he walked. His head was thrust forward as if he was doing the most important task on the planet and wreathed around his head like a crown sat Nasataa, his head also thrust forward to look at the amazing scene spread before us in the golden half-light.

  Black peaks of volcanoes rose up from the landscape like dark dragon teeth – the tops of some of them broken from the violent splashes of lava that spurted up unexpectedly. The slopes falling away from the jagged peaks were sleek with black sand and stunted trees.

  We were stepping out of a cave mouth toward a very strange feature, a double-peaked dormant volcano with a wide shelf between the peaks. A massive arch made of stone – a dragon biting its own tail - was centered on the middle of the shelf. Its proportions were so gargantuan that a dozen dragons could have flown through in a cluster without breaking formation. I tried to follow the twist of the tail, which dipped down into the ground before rearing up again into the dragon’s mouth, but one edge of the pattern became another seamlessly and my eye lost its reference point as it twisted in on itself. A winding road led to the arch from the low land below, like a ribbon twisting through a ring.

  My eyelids fluttered and blackness took me, voices fading in and out again.

  “Can’t you see he’s a baby dragon? Doesn’t he get access to your precious Dragon Door?” A pause. “Dawn’s Gate? Whatever. Will you help her or not?”

  Murmuring. Voices. Then Heron again.

  “Are you just a scaly sack of bones or are you going to help?”

  Frantic voices and then a calming one. I blinked and my eyes opened to see a pair of new eyes looking into mine. The rest of the face was hidden by cloths wrapped around face and head, but those eyes – those lizard-like eyes blinked at me in golden disapproval.

  “There is no passage for humans without a special edict. You must be – weighed.”

  “There isn’t time for any of that,” Heron said as my vision began to narrow again. His voice sounded panicked, on the edge of tears. “Can’t you see she’s dying? Can’t you see that there just isn’t time?”