by James Riley
Sikurgurd appeared confused. “Any child can do it. Diamond is as malleable as every other substance left to us by D’vale, who created this place. All you do is—”
“Wait, you’re saying an Old One created this place?” Jia asked. “But why?”
“For the Dracsi,” Sikurgurd said, sounding even more confused now. “Haven’t I mentioned? We were brought here to care for them, once they were changed into their present form. The Dracsi have only ever been able to digest metallic minerals, so we mine the gold and silver to feed them. Whatever we have left, we use to house ourselves.” He sighed. “The Dracsi would be perfectly able to feed themselves, if we let them out of their caves. They’re better diggers than we are, and prefer the heat of the underrealms anyway. Helps them digest their food.”
“Can’t they just… escape?” Jia asked. “There didn’t seem to be much holding them back when we saw them.”
“D’vale infused their cave prisons with some kind of magic to keep them confined,” Sikurgurd explained. “There are thousands of them down here in the underrealms, and obviously they’re very strong. But the magic in the rocks keeps them trapped, so if we didn’t care for them, they’d not live very long.”
“Okay, enough,” Rachel said, shaking her head. “There’s no way we can cross this whole city, not in a few hours. We have to turn back.”
“Can we take one of these lightning carriages?” Gabriel asked, looking down into the city. “They move pretty fast.”
“You’d be fighting your way through hordes of my kind,” Sikurgurd said. “People are headed to their daily tasks now, so the carriages are always full. Four went by before I could even get on one when I was on my way here..”
“Fort, think about this,” Rachel said, looking him in the eye. “Do you really want the Old Ones to return because of you? Would… would your father—”
“Don’t,” he growled, cutting her off. “Don’t… just don’t.”
She sighed. “You’re right, that was too far. But still, we can’t just—”
“We won’t put anyone in danger,” Fort said, turning around so he didn’t have to look at her. “But we can’t go back now. We can’t.”
“What about using the Teleport spell?” Jia asked.
Gabriel shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. You can only teleport if you’ve seen the location you’re going to. And even from here, I can’t make out that tunnel.”
He was right. There was no way they could open a teleportation circle, not without at least some kind of telescope or something. If only Fort could have read Sikurgurd’s mind, and seen what the mining tunnel looked like. Or…
Or seen it in a dream?
Fort’s eyes widened, and he turned back to his friends. “Jia, that actually might work.”
Gabriel gave him a questioning look as Fort quickly cast a teleportation circle on the wall next to them. It opened into darkness, but Fort didn’t wait for Rachel to light it, and quickly stepped through.
He emerged into a long, dark tunnel, dimly lit on one side by light filtering through some vertical rock formations that more than anything resembled the teeth of a dragon.
“It’s okay, you can come through,” he whispered back through the teleportation circle. “I got us here.”
Gabriel was first through the circle and looked around in amazement. “But how? You’ve never been here.”
“Not physically,” Fort said. “But it looks like I’ve had some pretty realistic dreams of it.”
He didn’t add what he’d seen at the end of the tunnel in those dreams, the thing that terrified him almost as much as the Old Ones.
But whatever was there, they’d handle it. Because after almost eight months, he had finally caught up to his father, and nothing was going to stop Fort from bringing him back home.
“I told you not to come here,” Sikurgurd said, watching them from the other side of the teleportation circle.
“You were right,” Rachel said as she stepped through after Jia. “What’s in here, anyway?”
The dwarf just looked at them sadly. “It’s called Dragon’s Teeth. What do you think?”
A long, low growl echoed through the tunnel, shaking the ground beneath their feet with its power.
A small movement out of the corner of Fort’s eye caught his attention, and he saw Jia reach out and squeeze Rachel’s hand supportively. He hadn’t realized how close they’d gotten since coming to the new school.
“I’m sorry about this,” Sikurgurd said as they all stared down the tunnel. “I really am. But if the Old Ones can go back to your home, maybe they’ll leave my people in peace.”
His words made Fort move, but it was already too late. Sikurgurd had his eyes closed and was slowly closing his hands together. “Hey!” Fort shouted, and leaped for the teleportation circle, but it closed as he reached it, with the dwarf on the other side.
“Betrayed again,” Rachel said, glaring at Fort. “Does he not realize we can just open another circle?”
“That’s what makes me nervous,” Fort said. He attempted to open a circle back to where they’d just come from. The magic filled his hands, but just like when he’d tried to teleport somewhere he hadn’t seen, no circle opened.
“Um, why aren’t you teleporting?” Jia asked, sounding a bit panicky.
The ground shook with another growl as Fort turned to his friends sadly. “Because I can’t. I think we’re trapped here.”
- THIRTY-ONE -
WE’RE WHAT?” RACHEL SHOUTED. “This is why I said we shouldn’t come. Among the other reasons, all of which are still valid!”
Fort winced. “I think we should probably be quiet,” he whispered. “If that really is a dragon down there, we don’t want it to know we’re here.”
“DO YOU IMAGINE I CANNOT HEAR YOU, HUMAN?” said a voice so powerful it shook dust from the ceiling.
They all stared at one another for a moment before Gabriel nodded and turned to walk toward the voice.
“What are you doing?” Rachel hissed at him.
“I’m going to see if that’s really what we think it is,” Gabriel said. “And if it is, I want to know if it’s the last one.”
Their conversation back in the skeleton room came flooding back to Fort, and he wondered again who might have been visiting Gabriel in his dreams. If he’d heard the Old One too, what had the creature offered him?
Fort hurried after him, with Rachel and Jia right behind. “We need to be smart about this,” Jia whispered. “Remember how they found the books of magic? Humans were riding dragons. That means we were allies somehow.”
“Or we used them as horses,” Rachel murmured.
Another growl shook the tunnel, this one the most intense yet. Jia glared at Rachel, who put up her hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, no more snarky comments!”
The tunnel was just like Fort remembered it from his dream. As they continued on, they started to see small golden stones lying on the ground. Picking one up, Jia showed it to them in surprise. “Um. This is actual gold.”
“And it belongs to someone,” Rachel told her, nodding in the direction of the growling. “Maybe leave it there for now?”
“I GROW IMPATIENT, HUMANS.” The voice shook the tunnel again, sending gold nuggets rolling back down the tunnel. It was the very same voice he’d heard in his nightmare, speaking to his father. “I WILL WAIT NO LONGER.”
Instantly, Fort’s body froze in place, no matter how hard he struggled to move. Everything immediately went dark as Rachel’s fireball extinguished, but from the groaning Fort heard nearby, he suspected he wasn’t the only one paralyzed. Air rushed around him as he felt his body rise into the air, out of his control, and begin floating along the tunnel at a dangerously fast speed. Without any light, though, there was no way of telling exactly what was happening.
That was, until he and the others emerged from the tunnel into the same cavern Fort had seen his father in.
The mounds of gold here rose severa
l stories high in the air, lit only by a red glow coming from the center of the room. That glow filled Fort with a terror just like he’d felt when he first saw the Old One floating above the floor in the officers’ mess at the old school. He wanted to look away as he rose toward the glow, but he still had no control over his own body. He couldn’t even close his eyes.
As the gold fell away below him, Fort found himself staring into the gigantic red eyes of a beast as large as an airplane, covered in golden scales and curled lazily up around another pile of nuggets. Its wings flexed, sending mountains of gold flying, and it slowly moved its head closer to get a better look at them.
It was then that Fort noticed a second, less intense light glowing in the dragon’s hand, and his shock almost overwhelmed his fear, if just for a moment.
The dragon’s claws shone with a rich blue glow, the same light as Healing magic.
“DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” it asked them, and Fort felt the paralysis leave his face, letting him speak.
Fort’s mouth felt dry as a desert, but he swallowed a few times until he found he could speak. “I think I do,” he said, his voice cracking.
“I AM D’HEA,” the dragon said, snaking its head up and around them, moving out of Fort’s sight. “I AM THE CREATOR OF DRAGONKIND, FATHER TO THOSE BORN OF PURE MAGIC. I AM THE CREATOR OF THE DRACSI AND THEIR KIN, CURSED BY MY BRETHREN TO DO SO. AND I AM THE FORGOTTEN ONE, DOOMED TO REMAIN WITHIN THIS TOMB FOR ALL ETERNITY.”
“You’re an Old One,” Fort whispered. “The Old One of Healing magic.”
“Oh no,” Jia whispered from his side.
“HEALING?” The dragon began to laugh, sending golden nuggets tumbling off their mounds. “YOU HUMANS NEVER UNDERSTOOD MAGIC. THAT IS WHY YOU STOLE IT FROM MY CHILDREN, LEARNING SECRETS THAT WERE NEVER INTENDED FOR YOU!”
“We didn’t steal magic!” Rachel shouted, and Fort was thankful that she, at least, wasn’t intimidated by the creature. “We’re here to find someone, not take anything.”
“My father was here,” Fort said. “I saw him in a dream. You were speaking to him.”
The dragon’s head came circling back to stare at Fort. He sniffed loudly, pulling them all forward momentarily, only to fall back into place when he was through. “YOU DO SMELL LIKE ONE OF THE LAST HUMANS I SAW,” he said.
“One of?” Gabriel said. “Was there another?”
“His name was Michael—” Jia said, but the dragon snapped his jaws, sending jets of fire exploding into the air to either side of his snout. “DO NOT MAKE DEMANDS UPON ME, HUMAN. IF I WOULD NOT SUFFER FURTHER FOR DOING SO, I WOULD RIP YOU APART FOR MY CHILDREN’S SAKE. YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOUR BETRAYAL OF THEM DID!”
“We didn’t betray the dragons,” Jia said, sounding as scared as Fort felt. “They were helping humans. We’ve seen proof. They were allies!”
“LIES!” the dragon screeched, loud enough to set Fort’s head pounding. “I CREATED MANY CREATURES, BUT MY GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT WAS THE DRAGONKIND. INSTEAD OF EVOLVING THEM FROM ANOTHER BEING, I PULLED THEM FROM MAGIC ITSELF, GIVING LIFE TO SOMETHING THAT HAD NONE BEFORE. IT WAS THE ULTIMATE FORM OF CORPOREAL MAGIC!”
“We didn’t do anything to them!” Rachel shouted. “You really think we tiny humans would be able to hurt a dragon? Like you said, we can barely use magic to begin with!”
“AND ALL THAT YOU KNOW WAS SHARED WITH YOU BY THE DRAGONS,” the Old One, D’hea, said. “YOU WOULD STILL BE SERVING MY BRETHREN IF NOT FOR MY CHILDREN. YET YOU STILL EXIST. WHERE ARE THEY? WHAT HAPPENED TO MY DRAGONS?” He turned and roared, shooting fire from his mouth hot enough to melt an entire mound of gold. “THEY ARE GONE, BECAUSE THEY SIDED WITH HUMANITY AGAINST MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!”
In spite of his fear and the heat of the fire, Fort almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Humans had learned magic from dragons? Could that really be true? The Old One of Mind magic, the one the dwarf called Ketas, had said something about humanity serving the creatures. Had dragons broken that servitude?
And if so, had they paid for it with their lives?
“What if there was another dragon?” Gabriel asked, and the creature whipped his head around toward the older boy. “One of the Old Ones came to me in a dream and offered me something if I gave them the last dragon. Are you interested in that information too?”
So they had come to Gabriel too? But what had he been offered?
“THERE ARE NO MORE DRAGONS!” the dragon roared, sending fire shooting out again around the cavern. “MY BRETHREN MADE SURE OF THAT!”
“You’re wrong,” Gabriel said. “But if you let us go, and give us back his father and my brother, then I’ll tell you the whereabouts of the last dragon. Because I know exactly where it is.”
- THIRTY-TWO -
GABRIEL’S WORDS SEEMED TO SHOCK the dragon just as much as they did Fort and the others. His brother had been taken as well? That could only mean—
“You’re Michael’s brother?” Jia whispered as the dragon turned away in silence. “Then you’re also Colonel Charles’s son? But I thought your last name was Torrance?”
“He’s my stepfather,” Gabriel said, sneering. “My brother took his name, but I never will. That man sent Mike to learn magic when he wasn’t ready, took him from me. I’ll never forgive him for that.”
Suddenly a lot of Fort’s questions about his roommate were answered. That explained why Gabriel was getting special treatment from everyone, since his father was in charge of the school. His tour of the skeleton room now also made sense, as he’d probably been at the school before they’d even arrived.
And he had been having the same dreams Fort had. But had Gabriel known what Fort had planned? There was no way he could have… except that he knew Fort had stolen one of the books of magic, and if he was Colonel Charles’s son, it probably wasn’t that hard to figure out which one.
All this time, he’d had so much more in common with Gabriel than he’d ever known. They’d both had loved ones taken by the Dracsi and would do anything to get them back.
Part of him wished he’d known all along, so he could have talked to Gabriel about it. The other boy could have shared at any point but hadn’t wanted to for some reason. There had to still be more to it.
And how on earth could Gabriel ever know the location of the last dragon, even if there really was one? They’d talked about it in the skeleton room, but he hadn’t said he knew of one. Or was he bluffing?
“YOU MUST BE LYING,” the dragon said finally, whirling around to glare at them. “IF ANY OF MY CHILDREN YET EXISTED, I WOULD KNOW. THEIR FATE IS WELL KNOWN TO ME, AND NONE ESCAPED!”
“I’m not lying,” Gabriel said. “Use your magic to confirm it, I don’t care. If you don’t want him, then I’ll give him to the Old One with the tentacles. He was willing to give me my brother for it.”
The dragon sneered. “KETAS. HE WAS THE ONE WHO EXACTED MY FAMILY’S REVENGE UPON ME, FORCING ME TO CHANGE MY CHILDREN INTO THE MONSTERS THEY ARE NOW.”
“You did something to the dragons?” Jia asked. “What did you… wait, the Dracsi?”
“YES, THE CURSED DRACSI WERE ONCE MY DRAGONKIND,” the Old One said, whipping his tail about in sadness and rage. “KETAS CONTROLLED MY MIND AND USED MY POWERS TO EVOLVE THEM INTO THOSE MINDLESS BEASTS, A WEAPON HE AND THE OTHERS USED AGAINST HUMANITY.
“BUT YOUR KIND USED THE MAGIC MY CHILDREN TAUGHT YOU AND EXILED US FROM OUR HOME. AND NOW, WHENEVER AN OUTSIDER IS BROUGHT, KETAS USES ME AGAIN TO TURN THE OFFENDER INTO A NEW DRACSI, REPLENISHING THEIR RANKS.”
Fort’s eyes widened. The dragon created Dracsi out of any outsiders? If that was true, then—
“You turned my brother into one of those… those monsters?!” Gabriel roared, his muscles bulging as he struggled against the magic holding him in place. “If you hurt him, I’ll spend every last day of my life hunting you down—”
The dragon turned to him, his hand glowing, and Gabriel’s body stretched out until it was flat, then compressed to the size of a mouse, only
to grow back to normal height a moment later, leaving the boy stunned and silent.
“I AM MASTER OF CORPOREAL MAGIC, WORM,” the dragon said. “YOU THINK I INFLICT PAIN FOR THE PLEASURE OF IT? I CAN MANIPULATE A LIVING BODY IN ANY WAY I WISH, AND CAUSE AS MUCH OR AS LITTLE DISTRESS AS I REQUIRE. IF YOU SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH WAYS, I WILL ILLUSTRATE IT AGAIN, THIS TIME CAUSING EVERY NERVE IN YOUR BODY TO FLARE IN PAIN.”
“… I’m sorry,” Gabriel said, catching his breath. “I shouldn’t have said that. But our deal still stands. I know where there’s a dragon on Earth. My friend has Summoning magic, and he can use it to take you there.”
“Um, Gabriel, maybe don’t give everything away?” Rachel hissed.
“I HAVE SAID THAT NO DRAGONS LIVE ON IN THEIR TRUE FORM,” the Old One said. “IF YOU DON’T LIE, THEN MY BRETHREN DID.”
“Why would they?” Fort asked, not sure if Gabriel was telling the truth or not, but it seemed like their best shot now. “They could have asked us for the book of Summoning, or for us to just open a portal, and that would have gotten them back to Earth. But they didn’t, they wanted the last dragon. Why lie?”
The dragon whipped his tail again in frustration. “THERE CANNOT BE ANY MORE DRAGONS! IF ONE OF MY CHILDREN WERE LEFT BEHIND, ALONE, IN DANGER… I CANNOT EVEN CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY!”
“Don’t think about the dangers it was in,” Fort said, his father’s image in his head. “Just imagine what it’d be like to have your child back! And we can give that to you, if you give us back our humans.”
“And let us go!” Rachel said.
The dragon sneered. “YOUR KIND ALWAYS DID BELIEVE THEY WERE SUPERIOR TO THEIR WORTH. YOU ARE AS TRAPPED HERE AS I AM! NO MAGIC CAN PENETRATE THESE WALLS. EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE POWER OF SPACE MAGIC, IT WILL DO YOU NO GOOD, NOT WHILE MY PRISON STANDS. D’VALE HERSELF BUILT THIS CAVERN, AND ONLY HER POWER CAN OPEN ITS GATES.”
D’vale? The dwarf had mentioned that name. She was the Old One who made the lightning. Which meant she was—
