Heart of the Dragon King

by J Boothby

  Uriah holds up his hands. “All right,” he says. “All right, all of you. But we need to go quickly.”

  “You have another key?” I say to Xyr. “To the Whisperlands?”

  “I do,” Xyr says. “Of a sort. It has passed down for generations in our family. There are several mirrors in Elathor.” She stands and gestures to the map on the table. “I believe our best option is here,” she points. “It is not the closest mirror for us to get to, but it opens in a tower that was not actively used.”

  “Elathor is a living city,” Elohan says. “Literally. Monuments can spring up overnight. Buildings will rearrange themselves. Streets will move.”

  “And the mirror could have been moved, too. So we can end up anywhere,” Uriah says. “But we will want to get to the Narrow King's residence. That's where the heart will be. And that's probably where Sam will be, too.”

  “That is here,” Xyr says, pointing to the center of the map. “The residence is likely to remain near to the center, near the bakharian.”

  “The baka…?” Devon says.

  Xyr crosses her arms over her chest. “Where the aether enters the Elhyra.”

  “The residence looks like a giant dome,” Uriah says. “Kylie, you may be able to find it by following the aether.”

  “I was able to with the heart,” I say. “That stood out like a bonfire.”

  “Good,” he says. “You lead us once we're there, if the way is not immediately clear.”

  Outside the windows, lightning crawls across the sky like a giant, electric spider web. “Why wait?” I say. “Let's do this.”

  Uriah stands up. “And let's hope that we're the last thing that the Narrow King is expecting.”

  40

  Zara, Devon and I get our weapons back. The others change into dark clothes. Xyr carries her knife and wears a worn metal gauntlet on her left hand, the same one I saw her wearing in the Whisperlands. Xandro carries a staff. Elohan carries a thin longsword on her back and my uncle has one to match. The hilts of them look like they’re shaped from large, silver leaves.

  Xyr leads us up a set of spiral stairs that lead up a tower. They open onto a landing with large windows that wrap around it. Against one wall hangs an ornate mirror.

  Outside, the lightning arcs from cloud to cloud, it and touches down explosively in the distance.

  “He’s pulling us closer,” Elohan says, quietly.

  The tower sways with another tremor.

  “I know,” Uriah agrees. “There’s not much time.” He pulls a dark mask up over his face. “Let’s do this.”

  Xyr nods and steps up to the mirror. She touches the surface with the old gauntlet and it slides smoothly into the glass. Gentle ripples spread out across the surface.

  “Stay quiet,” she says. “Once we are all through, follow me quickly. The orrex may swarm for Kylie, and the Elathor mirror is not close, but we can make it.”

  We step through.

  Sounds are strange again. The air is close, and I realize I should have taken a deeper breath while I could have. My chest feels tight, like I’m about to drown.

  The Whisperlands.

  One great tree that seems to go on forever. Mirrors spinning everywhere.

  I try and take a breath. Another. My pulse is already pounding in my ears.

  I smell the sharp, metallic smell of ozone. And then I hear the roaring.

  Dozens of orrex are already swarming. And a minute after I step out of the mirror, it’s like blood thrown into shark-infested waters. Large orrex let out howls of hunger and start to churn in the air, searching.

  How they know I’m here?

  I have no idea, but a pack of them spins about in the air and charges down at us through the tree limbs. They shatter mirrors in their path and splinter limbs and branches.

  Uriah and Elohan draw their swords. Xandro crouches and braces his staff. Devon and Zara swing their guns around and take aim.

  Xyr steps through the mirror just behind me, and takes in everything at a quick glance. There’s the sound of thunder and an explosion of light as she draws her dagger.

  She makes her way to the front of the group. “Follow me,” she says. “Now! Quickly!”

  She reaches for the limb above and to the left of us, and she starts to climb. “Remember this path, in case we are separated!”

  I draw my dagger too.

  We try and follow Xyr. But we don’t make it very far.

  The first orrex closes in on us, with it’s huge jaw open wide. Tentacles flail out, trying to grab at us.

  Devon drops into a crouch and fires at it. The bullets splatter across a series of eyes and the orrex swerves aside and smashes down into our branch.

  I’m knocked to my knees, and I have to catch Xandro, who’s almost thrown off.

  He gives me a grudging nod of thanks.

  Another orrex comes in right behind it, and a third behind that one.

  Behind those is a whole cloud of them.

  That’s when everything goes to hell.

  Devon continues to fire. Zara takes aim and does the same.

  Xyr swings her knife underhanded, throwing off bolts of lightning, and Elohan and Uriah are swinging swords. The weapons vibrate in their hands, and as the orrex gnashes at the group of us Elohan slices downward, hard, and severs part of it’s jaw. It crashes down through the branches, away from us.

  Xandro swings his staff in an arc, and sphere of force leaps away from him and smashes against the side of the next orrex in line, sending it off course and into the giant trunk of the tree.

  I imitate Xyr’s motions, and throw a crackling arc of lightning. The recoil nearly throws me off the limb, but Xandro reaches out an arm to steady me.

  “Thanks,” I say.

  “I repay a debt,” he says. “That is all.”

  “Well all right, then,” I say. What’s wrong with this guy?

  The first orrex are past us, and they make their slow turns for another pass—supertankers trying to spin on a dime.

  The one Xandro hit is nearly past us too when three of its tentacles reach out and grab me.

  One around my ankle, one at my forearm, and one around my waist.

  I’m dragged off the limb. “Going down!” I yell.

  The tentacles are covered with some sort of acid. They feel hot, and they hiss and foam against the surface of my Blackstone suit.

  I toss the dagger to my open hand and chop away at the tentacle around my waist.

  It’s hard, like old wood. It wraps tighter around me, squeezing out what little air I had left in my lungs.

  Everyone else is pinned down.

  Xyr and my uncle are fighting off a swarm of tentacles. Zara sees me, but she’s reloading, firing again at three more that are heading straight for them. Devon continues to shoot into the cloud of them.

  Xandro leaps for the orrex that has me and lands about ten feet back along it’s back.

  Elohan has heard me too, and cuts a pathway through an orrex to get to the one that’s got me. She leaps and rolls onto the scaly back of it too.

  But she’s pretty far back.

  The tentacles are dragging me toward that mouth. That ozone smell is overwhelming.

  The tentacle at my waist squeezes tighter.

  I can feel the acid burning away now at my wrist. I reach out for some aether, but there’s nothing there. So I stab hard with the dagger. It goes deep into the tentacle and a burst of lightning crackles up it’s length.

  That one releases me, but it won’t do me much good. The other two still drag me in.

  So many teeth in that mouth! They’re long and sharp, the mouth of a gigantic eating machine, and they spiral in rows all the way down its throat. Tongues that look razor-sharp too wave in the air, dripping saliva.

  Then, the orrex spasms. It arcs in the air, tentacles flailing wildly, and it smashes hard into a limb.

  It drops me. I grab for a branch and just manage to wrap myself around it.

  As the bulk of t
he orrex pulls away, I can see Xandro. He’s swinging his staff in another flashing arc, beating on one of the biggest eyes.

  Then Elohan reaches him and plunges her sword deep into the eye cavity too.

  There’s a surge of energy from her sword, and all of the orrex’s tentacles shoot out straight.

  Xandro and Elohan grab onto branches as the orrex collapses and falls away from us.

  One down.

  A whole lot more to go.

  I get my footing. I throw lightning at an orrex that is veering down on them, and it turns aside, burning.

  I throw another bolt at one that’s coming for me, but it doesn’t stop.

  I climb, fast, and try and get above it. It barely misses me.

  I flip up onto a wide limb and run to where Elohan and Xandro are. We run deeper into the tree and climb.

  “This way!” Xyr yells.

  She’s standing many limbs above us, leading the group still upwards. The others follow, while fighting off the herd.

  In the distance, more roaring.

  Xyr is pretty far away.

  “Can you make it?” Elohan says.

  I think she’s asking me at first, but Xandro is holding onto his side. His dark cloak is torn and his armor is split open. There’s what looks like a long gash down his ribs.

  “Are you ok?” I ask.

  “I am fine,” he says, annoyed.

  He stumbles against the branch. He tries to steady himself with his staff, but he groans and slumps.

  “Grab his arm,” Elohan says. She’s bleeding too, from a deep wound on her left thigh.

  “I will make it,” Xandro says.

  “Just shut up,” I say. “Try not to bleed out.”

  I grab him under the shoulder while Elohan does the same, and we haul him up the tree while he curses in a language I don’t understand.

  Devon and Zara lay down covering fire.

  Xyr stands next to another mirror. She plunges the gauntlet into it.

  We make it to her, but the mouths of the orrex are right behind us.

  “Get Kylie through,” Uriah shouts, stabbing with his sword. There’s a gash on his forehead that’s dripping blood into his eyes. “Xandros too. We will follow.”

  “Come on,” I say to Elohan. “Jump!”

  41

  We fall out of the mirror into a hallway.

  It’s an ancient building—the floors and walls are old stone, the ceiling high and arched, and it all reeks of centuries of existence.

  It’s lined with lamps that are powered from the aether, and without even having to think about it, I can tell there are veins of aether coursing through the whole structure, too, like electrical wires in the walls.

  My hands are hot in an instant.

  I can hear voices in the distance, but there’s no one right here in front of us.

  “Find a room,” Elohan says. “We have to get him out of sight.” She’s limping pretty severely herself.

  “We need to keep moving,” Xandro protests.

  “You need to be quiet,” Elohan says firmly. “You’re not in a condition to go anywhere.”

  The voices are coming from the left, so we go right. Around a corner is a door. I don’t hear any sounds coming from the other side of it. It’s locked, but a quick pop of aether from my hands fixes that.

  I ease it open, and it’s some kind of long storage chamber filled with crates.

  We drag Xandro into it and shut the door behind us. I fuse the lock shut.

  Elohan stands up and shrugs off her backpack. “Kylie, would you get his armor off? I’ve got bandages. I think we’re going to need them.”

  I kneel next to Xandro, studying his armor. There are fasteners integrated into some of the carvings up under his arms on both sides.

  He’s pale and sweaty.

  “Sorry about this,” I say, and lift him up a little to unfasten some of the clips. He grimaces and catches his breath. I’m able to slide the chest plate off. He’s well built, that’s for sure—not that I should be noticing that at a time like this. Underneath the armor is a heavily-padded linen shirt that’s stained with dark blood. Elohan hands me a small knife, and I use it to cut it up the center of the shirt and peel it back.

  When my hand accidentally brushes against Xandro’s skin, a warm spark jumps between us. He jerks and curses.

  “Do not touch me,” he says, quietly.

  “Stop,” I say. “I’m not going to break you any worse than you’re already broken.”

  There’s a long slash that’s bleeding badly along the left side of his ribs. “It’s deep,” I say.

  Elohan pulls bandages out of her backpack. “You’re right,” she says. She applies some disinfectant to a bandage and looks Xandro in the eye. “This is going to hurt.”

  She’s not kidding.

  She puts pressure on the wound and Xandro gasps and curses. The bandage is immediately soaked through with blood. She replaces it with another, and then a third.

  This one she uses an adhesive to keep in place. She has to sit Xandro up to wrap some gauze around it.

  “Try not to move,” she says to him. “Kylie, he’s not going anywhere fast. Let the others know where we are?”

  “On it,” I say. I burn the door lock open again. I check the hallway to make sure it’s clear and then head back to the mirror.

  There’s no one there.

  The surface of the mirror is solid when I put my hand against it. Then, as I watch, the surface shatters. None of the glass falls out of the frame, but cracks spread out from a point just off of center, and fill the frame.

  There are orrex carved into the frame of the mirror. They stare back at me, mockingly.

  I duck back into the storage room. “No luck,” I say. “They’re not coming. At least not that way.” I tell her about the mirror.

  Elohan frowns. She’s wrapping a bandage around her own leg. “That’s not good.”

  Xandro looks paler than before, if that’s possible. He lays with his eyes closed, breathing very shallowly.

  There are a lot of discarded bandages on the floor near him, drenched in blood.

  I see that there’s a smaller pile near Elohan too. “Is he—”

  “I am not yet dead,” Xandro says, without opening his eyes. “If that is what you are wondering.”

  “But he’s not doing well,” Elohan says. She grimaces as she tapes off the end of the gauze, and then she gestures to the far part of the room. I help her limp over there, out of Xandro’s hearing.

  “Are you ok?”

  “I think so,” she nods. “But I’m probably not moving anywhere quickly. Did you see anyone in the hall?”

  “No. I heard voices, but they didn’t sound close.”

  “All right,” she says. She takes a deep breath. “All right.”

  “Stay here,” I say. “I’ll go find Sam.”

  “There may not be much of a point, without a way back to the Whisperlands,” she says.

  “Then I’ll find Erik Bennett’s son and get my key back too.” Of course, I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to pull any of this off.

  Elohan shakes her head. “And risk the Narrow King getting you too? I don’t think that—”

  “I’m not sure we have a choice.”

  “There’s always a choice. We can wait,” she says doubtfully. “They’ll find another mirror. They’ll find us.”

  “And we have time for that?”

  She frowns, looking back at Xandros. “There’s a toxin in the orrex’s tentacles. A small amount is survivable. But I don’t know how much he’s taken. It looks like a lot. But I hate the idea of you wandering the Elhyra on your own, Kylie. It’s exactly what we shouldn’t do. If your uncle is still alive, he’ll kill me.”

  “Me too,” I shrug. “I’m not sure we have a lot of choices.”

  “Are you able to sense the aether?”

  “Definitely. It’s everywhere,” I say. “There’s so much of it. Much more than Earth.”

>   “Follow the aether. But—”

  “But avoid the Narrow King.”

  “Get in, get your friend, and get out. We’ll find another way to handle the Narrow King and the heart.”

  “What if—” I say. I don’t really want to put into words what I’m thinking, but I need to. “What if Uriah’s not coming back?”

  Plus Zara and Devon. And Xyr.

  “They’re coming,” she says firmly. “All of them. I’m going to keep thinking that.”

  “All right,” I say. “Me too.”

  “And, Kylie,” she says, quietly. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For accepting me so quickly.” Elohan looks away. “That means a lot to me. We weren’t always monsters, you know.”

  “You’re not a monster.”

  “But that’s how most humans react. It was challenging for Uriah and I, when I started to change. You didn’t react that way.”

  “But I’m part smaug too, right?”

  “Sure,” she nods. “But you didn’t know that at the time. Your uncle’s a good man, Kylie. You’re a good person too.”

  “He was always my favorite uncle.” I grin.

  “As well as your only uncle?”

  “Heh, well yeah. That too.”

  What can I do? I give her a hug.

  She doesn’t seem to mind at all.

  42

  The corridors are mostly deserted. I check the cracked mirror one more time, in case everyone has come through, but no luck.

  I head left, where I'd heard the voices coming from. I don't hear them any longer.

  Aether pulses through the walls in regular rhythms, just beneath the surface of the stone. I can almost see it if I close my eyes. There's an awful lot of it. Sparks crackle between my fingers and tingle across the surface of my skin. I feel larger, somehow. My movements are more fluid.

  The hall turns and opens into a large, elegant stairway. There are balconies above and below me. They're empty of people too.

  I take the stairs down, careful to be quiet. They open into a big hallway, with a wide set of double doors at the end.