The Lost Lands

by Jessica Khoury

  She hoped that the search for the Skyspinner’s heart would take a good long while so they wouldn’t have to face the Raptors again so soon. Then she felt guilty for hoping that, thinking of all the lives the Lennixes and their dragons could destroy the longer it took Allie and her band to stop them.

  Hearing a non-dragon sniffle, Allie sat up and peered around, her vision sharpening gradually in the dark. There was just enough pink light from the coral pools to illuminate Sirin, who sat on her own pallet, knees drawn up to her chest, her face buried in her crossed arms. Allie wasn’t the only one having trouble sleeping.

  She crept over to Sirin, taking care not to wake Joss. Boy and dragon breathed in unison, synchronized even in sleep. Sometimes Allie suspected the bond between her brother and his Lock was even stronger than the one she shared with Bellacrux. The Green Grand was snoring a few feet away.

  “Sirin?”

  “Huh?” Sirin looked up. Sammi—snoozing beside her—curled her tail reflexively around the girl’s waist, as if Sirin were a doll she was reluctant to let go of even in sleep. “Oh. Hi, Allie.”

  “What’s wrong?” Allie asked. “Are you crying?”

  Sirin rubbed her eyes. “No.”

  “You don’t have to do this, you know. You could go home to your family. No one would blame you.” If Allie was being really honest, she would have added that she didn’t see how Sirin could help much anyway.

  “No! I’m not going back!” Sirin said fiercely. “Please, don’t make me! I swear I can help you. You have to go to Earth soon, right, since that’s where the Skyspinner’s Heart might be? You’ll need someone who knows her way around!”

  “Whoa, easy! No one’s making you do anything. Just letting you know there are options. Sheesh.”

  Sirin watched her warily, as if she suspected Allie might toss her back to the Lost Lands then and there. “I never thought I’d go on an actual quest, you know? The sort I always loved to read about. Of course, it’s a lot more terrifying when you’re in the story, not just reading about it in real life. But that’s what I really want right now. Something so different that it’s like … like time has stopped, the way it feels when you’re reading a really good book. As long as you keep reading, nothing bad can happen. Nothing will change around you. You’re safe in a book.”

  “Sirin … this isn’t a book. You’re not safe here. What we mean to do is as far from safe as you can get.” She looked closer at the strange girl. “What happened to you back in the Lost Lands, that this place feels safer?”

  Sirin gave a bitter laugh, then changed the subject. “Why does it have to be you two, anyway? When did saving dragonkind become your responsibility?”

  “The day Joss found that Silver egg, I guess.” Allie could still remember her shock the day she’d walked into Joss’s shepherd’s hut and found him with the newly hatched Lysander. “If Lysander had been any other kind of dragon, then we wouldn’t be here now. But a Silver changes everything. And if he’s the only way we can get the Heart … It’s not like Joss would let Lysander go without him. And I can’t abandon Joss. We’re family. He’s my real, most important responsibility. I’d do anything to protect him.”

  “I know what you mean,” whispered Sirin. “You’re a good sister. He’s lucky to have you.”

  Allie wasn’t so sure of that. A good sister would have voted to keep her brother safe even if it meant running away and hiding and leaving the rest of the world to deal with their own problems. But even if Allie had been willing to do that, she knew Joss and Lysander never would have.

  “Better get some sleep,” she said. “Tomorrow—”

  Allie was interrupted by a thunderous roar that rattled the stone walls and vibrated in her ribs.

  Every Blue in the cave jolted awake.

  “RISE, CLAN!” thundered Ash, who stood in the cavern’s great entrance, the storm lashing his scales. In the hot white flashes of lightning, he looked mighty and terrible, his fiery blue eyes aglow. “We are under attack!”

  * * *

  The sky teemed with lightning and dragons. Raptors struck out of shadow and vanished again, as if a part of the storm itself. It had taken Allie, Bellacrux, and the others only minutes to evacuate the caves and take to the skies, but now the Blues, disoriented and panicked, scattered in all directions. Despite the orders issued by Ash and the other seniors, the clan was struggling to regroup and defend the islands. Some fled entirely, while others—confused by the thunder and lightning and darkness—mistook their own broodmates for the enemy and clashed awkwardly in the air.

  Allie rode upon Bellacrux, circling the mountainous crest of the island. They’d gotten separated from Joss and Lysander, who had Sirin and Sammi with them. It was useless to call out; the storm drowned out even the dragons’ roars. Allie’s heart pounded, and she struggled to stay seated on Bellacrux’s wet, slippery scales. When a streak of lightning flashed nearby, every hair on her arms and scalp stood on end.

  Do you see them? she asked her Lock.

  I see trouble, Bellacrux replied grimly.

  Hurtling toward them, out of the belly of a great black thundercloud, came an enormous dragon. It was impossible to identify him or her in the darkness.

  Lock, hold fast! warned Bellacrux as she pumped her wings mightily and tilted sideways, perpendicular to the ground below. Allie clenched her teeth and held on with all her strength, her fingers gripping Bellacrux’s spiny crest. She felt the dragon beneath her swell and heat with flame, preparing to unleash a torrent of fire upon their attacker.

  Then lightning flashed again, illuminating the approaching dragon, and Allie yelled, “STOP!”

  It was Ash, and he wasn’t alone. Lysander flew just behind him, with two figures silhouetted on his back.

  “Falana te’ma!” roared Ash. His voice was just barely audible between rolls of thunder. Fly away now!

  Bellacrux growled, tossing her head in the direction of the western sky, where a dozen or so dragons—Raptors and Blues—were battling. Flashes of dragonfire competed with the lightning, every blast illuminating the terrible scene for a few seconds. Allie glimpsed outstretched talons; gaping, fanged jaws; scorch marks over scales. With a shudder, she pushed her wet hair behind her ears and sent a mental query to Bellacrux: Should we help?

  Bellacrux clearly thought they should, but Ash screeched and blocked the Green’s path, forcing her to hover in place. Lysander bobbed to the left, waiting.

  In dragonsong, Ash said, “We cannot risk the Silver, old friend. Take your flight far from here!”

  All across the skies, dragons screamed in pain and fury. Most of the ones falling from the sky were Blue, and Raptor victory cries pierced the night. Allie thought, for a moment, she glimpsed Tamra Lennix astride the Red Valkea, the girl’s eyes and teeth glowing white in a flash of lightning, delighting in the carnage.

  “We still don’t know where to find the Skyspinner’s Heart!” Bellacrux protested. “Isn’t there anything else you can tell us—”

  “Go!” Ash ordered. “NOW!”

  Then Ash pinned his wings to his sides and fell into a clean dive, before swooping up and grabbing hold of a Raptor in his talons. Allie gasped as the great Blue Grand hurled the enemy dragon into the sea, then cried out as five more Raptors descended on Ash, shrieking and spitting flame.

  The last she saw of the magnificent Blue, he was plummeting toward the sea, crawling with biting, snarling Raptors.

  “Allie!” Joss yelled. She could barely hear him over the storm and snarls. “What do we do?”

  “We fly! Stay ahead of Bell and me.” If any Raptors followed them, she would be between them and Joss.

  She hated running away, hated that they were abandoning the Blues. But Ash was right. They had to keep Lysander out of the Lennix’s grasp at all costs, and besides, the best way they could help the Blues now was to find the Skyspinner’s Heart and use it to stop the Raptors for good.

  “Let’s go!” Allie called out. “As fast as we can. And w
hatever happens behind you, don’t turn around, don’t slow down. We’ve got your back.”

  She saw Joss nod in assent, felt Bellacrux’s mental agreement.

  Fly, my Lock! she urged the Green. Fly faster than you ever have before!

  Bellacrux and Lysander shot into the darkness, their small flight vanishing into the storm.

  In a blinding flash of lightning, Tamra Lennix saw the brief outline of two dragons fleeing the terrible battle—one enormous Green and one sleek Silver. There was no mistaking their identities.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” she said through her teeth. “You’re not escaping again.”

  Valkea! Fly!

  Her Lock responded at once, wheeling away from the fight and swooping after Bellacrux and Lysander and their riders. There was no time to alert D’Mara or any of the other Lennixes. If Tamra didn’t give chase at once, they’d lose the Silver in the clouds.

  Loosen your grip, whelp, and stop yelling at me! Valkea thundered in Tamra’s thoughts. I know my way and I require no assistance.

  Biting back a mental reply, Tamra forced her fingers to relax a little on Valkea’s crest. She blinked as rain stung her face, her breath sharpening when Valkea put on a burst of speed. The sudden change of pace nearly unseated the girl altogether.

  Clumsy idiot, Valkea spat.

  Being Locked was nothing like Tamra had imagined it would be.

  Declan had often spoken of his bond with Timoleon, and how close they were—closer than he’d ever been to any of his family members. Tamra saw how even her father and Decimus respected and loved each other, and there was no mistaking the fact that D’Mara cared for her Krane more than her own children.

  But with Valkea, Tamra had experienced none of the trust or affection she’d expected—even hoped for, if she was honest. After sharing Trixtan with her moody sister for so many years, Tamra had dreamed of not only having her own dragon, but her own Lock. Someone who would be to her what even Mirra, her own twin, could not be.

  A confidant. A friend.

  But if anything, Valkea was like another D’Mara: always giving orders, always criticizing, always sneering at Tamra’s best efforts to please her.

  Now, as Valkea tore through the sky with Tamra, trying her best not to annoy her Lock, while also staying seated, a hot spike of anger ran through the girl. She was a Lennix! She shouldn’t have to live in fear of her own dragon. So she gripped Valkea’s crest even harder than she’d been holding it before.

  Can you go no faster? she taunted the Red. Will we lose the Silver again because you couldn’t keep up with him? Will you be known as Valkea the Slow?

  Valkea’s reply wasn’t so much worded as it was a blast of fury that scorched Tamra’s thoughts, nearly blinding her. For a moment, she thought they’d been struck by an actual thunderbolt.

  Redoubling her pace, Valkea flew like a bolt of red lightning, flames sparking on her tongue. And Tamra clung to her like a wildcat, howling with glee.

  They were closing in on Lysander.

  The Silver didn’t seem aware of them on his tail, nor were the two riders on his back looking over their shoulders. The idiots probably thought they’d gotten away. Tamra recognized the dark curly head of her ex-brother Joshua. Blood and bones, but wouldn’t she like to give him a shove—right off his dragon’s back and into the ocean far below. The second rider, a girl whose black hair streamed behind her, Tamra didn’t recognize. She was probably some equally worthless brat. A sheep girl to go with the sheep boy. Tamra would make them both bleat.

  But just as Valkea came within snapping distance of the Silver’s tail, a small, scaly head popped up from over the girl’s shoulder. It was a hatchling, its little fangs shining white as its jaw fell open in surprise. It spotted Tamra and Valkea at once.

  Now! Tamra bellowed to her Red.

  Don’t give me orders! Valkea snapped back.

  With a desperate lunge, Valkea threw herself at Lysander just as he banked sharply in an evasive maneuver. Carrying her momentum forward, Valkea went into a dive, Tamra rising out of the dip and hanging on only by her nails. They were streaking straight toward the sea, though all Tamra could see was a mat of black cloud below.

  What are you doing? Tamra asked.

  Valkea didn’t even deign to reply. She pierced the black cloud and Tamra was lost in its mist, unable to see even the snout of her dragon.

  Valkea!

  Still her Lock ignored her.

  Then the Red whipped up so suddenly that Tamra’s teeth clacked and bit into her tongue; she tasted blood in her mouth.

  Valkea shot out of the cloud, right in front of Lysander, startling him. The Silver reared back, wings flapping frantically as he struggled to maintain balance without throwing off his riders. For a fraction of a moment, his soft underbelly was exposed, and Valkea took full advantage of the chance.

  Her claws tore into the Silver, and Lysander shrieked. The two dragons collided hard in midair, the screams of all three human riders mingling in a clap of thunder.

  Stop! Tamra cried. He must be taken alive!

  Her Lock seemed senseless with rage and bloodlust. But Tamra’s urgent cry must have penetrated her mind at last, because Valkea didn’t go in for the kill, even though Lysander was floundering. Blood ran from his scales, the metallic smell of it mixing with the burnt-match smell of the lightning storm. Tamra put her hand to her cheek and found a spray of hot dragon blood on her skin. And wedged into the scales on Valkea’s shoulder was a single, shining silver scale.

  What have you done? she asked, aghast. Valkea!

  Then, out of nowhere, came Bellacrux, with Allie Moran seated on her back, her eyes blazing. Her gaze met Tamra’s for a split second.

  “DON’T. TOUCH. MY. BROTHER!” Allie yelled.

  With a roar to drown out the storm itself, the Grand spat a cascade of flame at Tamra and Valkea. The Red reared back, stumbling just clear of the deadly fire. Tamra was forced to shut her eyes and curl over to avoid having her face melted.

  When she opened her eyes again, Bellacrux, Lysander, and their riders were gone.

  And Valkea was plummeting, unconscious, toward the sea.

  WAKE UP! Tamra screamed. “VALKEAAAAAA!”

  The Red blinked, shook her head, then let out a harsh cry as she realized they were falling to their deaths. Hold fast, Lock!

  Valkea threw her wings wide, pulling up just in time, her talons raking the choppy waves—

  —and lightning struck.

  All Tamra saw in that moment was a blinding white tunnel of light. All she felt was a prickling jolt that ran the full length of her spine.

  It seemed to last an eternity.

  But then the sky cleared—no clouds, no storm, no wind—and Tamra gasped as she found herself gazing into a placid-blue sky, above a glittering, massive city of silver and white.

  Valkea too was so astonished she couldn’t even throw out one of her usual insults. Instead, Raptor and Lennix coasted on a gentle breeze for a long minute, gaping at the strange land below. Beyond the city, the land was green and peaceful, and the air smelled fresher than anything Tamra had breathed before. And there were people—hundreds, thousands of them walking on the streets below.

  Then Tamra felt the crackling energy again, saw the tunnel of white, and a moment later, they were back in the storm, buffeted by wind and thunder. It might all have been a dream, a shared hallucination.

  No, Valkea said, and for once, there was no undercurrent of anger in her thoughts as she touched minds with Tamra. It was real. It was the Lost Lands.

  But … how? That’s impossible!

  Then Tamra looked down at the Silver scale still stuck to Valkea, and with an effort, she managed to pull it loose. It glinted like a coin in her hand, hard and smooth and still crackling with energy. Lights like tiny lightning bolts seemed to run beneath the surface, though they faded as Tamra watched.

  It was this, she sent. This took us through a portal. To the Lost Lands.

  Valkea flew h
igher and higher, to where the air was more still and the storm’s fury raged beneath them. There she glided, her mind thoughtful. Neither one of them suggested giving chase to their quarries; the magnitude of what they’d just seen was too important, and they needed to regroup and rethink their strategy. For the first time since she’d Locked with the ferocious Red, Tamra felt they were synchronized, their minds running the same course.

  Reaching the same impossible, wonderful, earth-shattering conclusion.

  Tamra clenched her hand around the scale.

  Valkea, she sent, what if we don’t need the Silver at all?

  Joss could barely breathe for the pain.

  Doubled over beside Lysander, he blinked away tears and gripped his Lock’s neck, trying to be strong for him. It was ridiculous to feel this way when he wasn’t even the injured one. It was Lysander bleeding all over the place, not him. There wasn’t a scratch on Joss.

  But the Silver’s pain was bleeding into Joss’s thoughts, until it felt it was his own belly that had been torn apart. Valkea’s claws had gone deep, through the unscaled skin over Lysander’s stomach. Lysander had managed to fly only a few minutes more before he was forced to land.

  He, Allie, Sirin, and the three dragons were in the worst place possible, a lifeless heap of rock in the middle of the ocean. There was nothing here but wet stone beneath a gray sky, and no other land in sight. The place couldn’t even be properly called an island. It was only just large enough for three dragons and their Locks. They huddled there like bedraggled wet rats. Sammi was curled against Sirin, shivering and frightened. Bellacrux clung to the highest point of rock, keeping watch for any Raptor scouts who might be tracking them.

  They’d been here all night, waiting for the storm to subside. When it had, Lysander was not strong enough to fly again. So they waited, Joss sharing his Lock’s agony while Allie and Sirin argued about what to do. They’d been at it since dawn, and it was grating on Joss’s ears.