Tala Phoenix and the Dragon's Lair

by Gabby Fawkes

  "That wasn't so bad, was it?" she said brightly.

  All I could do was take a great, heaving breath of air before, with my hands braced on my knees, I craned my neck up. And up and up.

  Yeah, that was a hella tall building.

  So tall that its top was obscured by clouds. Not that its visible bottom gave away much – it looked like a giant cinderblock, dotted with one massive, round window clock.

  They were already heading for the structure, although I couldn’t see any kind of door or entrance.

  "To be on trial is seen as a mark of great dishonor,” Minnie explained shortly.

  "Yeah, here I thought this building was super welcoming," Kian said sarcastically.

  As we approached it, creatures materialized out of the stone. I gaped as two gargoyles marched out and gave us a hard look.

  "You have gargoyles?"

  "Of course," the short-haired one snorted. "They are useful mercenaries."

  My friends and I exchanged a thoughtful look. This revelation didn't prove that the witches had been the ones to set those gargoyles on us. But it didn’t prove that they hadn’t, either…

  And it wasn’t like I could really tell gargoyles apart. Their distinguishing features were… their ugliness, and, yeah, their ugliness. Although if these gargoyles recognized us, they gave no sign. No; instead, one marched right up to Kian and shoved the palm of his hand onto her heart.

  "Hey!" she cried, struggling back.

  "Don't struggle," Winnie said curtly. "It is only a precaution."

  That block of stone is not getting anywhere near us, PV hissed as every nerve in me itched to lunge away.

  "What precaution?" I asked through gritted teeth as the other gargoyle approached.

  Its hand slammed into my chest and a pins and needles sensation overtook my body.

  "Just removing your powers for the time being," Minnie said lightly, walking through the wall.

  "Taking away my what?" I snapped. "This was not part of the deal."

  "There was no deal," said Winnie. "You said you wanted a trial in front of the Council of the Seven Sisters. We got you one."

  "We didn’t ask for you to leave us powerless and helpless," Kian yelled.

  But they'd already passed through the wall. The gargoyles had merged back into it, too. I glanced at Kian, who looked livid. "Can all gargoyles do that?"

  "Don't think so," she said, not sounding entirely sure. "The witches probably granted them extra powers."

  "Do you really think we should still go in, like this?" Demi said.

  She raised a hand, and nothing happened, save a sad expression crossing her face. I guessed she’d probably tried to grow a copse of fig trees, or a field of wildflowers or something equally as useful in our current predicament.

  "I don't know," I said, torn. Our odds looked grim, at best. But we were wasting more time, and this was not only our best chance at getting into Mathusalem – it was also most likely the only one. A look around found we were in a vast, empty cement wasteland. Even the brooms had disappeared out of sight.

  "I don't think we have a choice at this point," I said, walking toward the wall.

  "Yup, just walk through the wall, this is totally normal," Kian muttered under her breath. Although, tapping a finger into the wall and seeing it get suctioned in, she had to admit, "Okay, so it seems to work. But I'm not going in there alone."

  "Here, we’ll hold hands," I said.

  With Demi and Kian’s hands clasped in mine, I felt less scared. A little.

  Taking a breath and bracing ourselves, we walked through the wall.

  12

  "Oh, so you decided to join us," a loud unctuous voice boomed directly into my eardrum.

  Somehow, I’d been whisked away into a blackwood pulpit, which looked over a mass of staring witches. Demi and Kian had been transported to faraway but identical podiums on the opposite sides of the room. On a platform above and away from us, on one large plush maroon velvet couch, sat seven women who certainly didn't look like sisters.

  One looked like she could’ve been a poster girl for what a witch was supposed to look like. The giant beak of a nose had a wart on the tip, while her frazzled salt and paper strands ran over her shoulders like limp snakes. Another sister seemed genderless, bald and staring. Another was so huge she took up four seats, another had an outfit that seemed to be composed of several whishing curtains, another I almost mistook for part of the chair until she blinked.

  "We weren’t told-" I began.

  A giant golden judge’s mallet slammed into a bronze gong in the center of the room. An earsplitting sound – BONG, BONG, BONG – rattled through me as I staggered back a few paces.

  "The accused are not permitted to speak unless asked a question,” said the same unctuous voice.

  Whirling around, I spotted what had spoken. Perched on the opposite side of the room from the Seven Sisters was an enormously fat owl, with brown feathers, a white poofy belly and, oddest of all, glasses.

  "You're kidding me," I muttered under my breath.

  "The accused?" Kian snapped. "We only came here to see if we-"

  "Silence!" the owl bellowed again, and the judge’s mallet crashed into the gong several more times.

  "We have begun giving testimony," the owl continued in its officious tone, which would’ve been funny and maybe even cute under different circumstances, "which suggest that not only are you a great a danger to Mathusalem, but you are currently a danger to the world at large. You have performed acts so horrific they rival even the most despicable of those performed by our very own Romamagi."

  On the gong, images of us from the DSA news broadcast were shown, as well as footage of the ruins of the Royal Amsterdam Palace.

  "Come on," Kian protested.

  "Now,” the owl continued calmly, "for the defense."

  Finally, I thought to myself.

  "We will allow the vicious Phoenix dragon shifter to go first."

  The room broke out in excited muttering. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Talk about a shitty prejudiced introduction. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

  On the spot now, with an uncomfortable spotlight searing into me and a microphone floating in front of my mouth and actually tapping on my lower lip insistently, my throat dried up.

  What was I supposed to say? We had destroyed the DSA's base, even if it had been for a good reason.

  The only thing I could think to start with was the truth. "My friends and I mean you all no harm. We just want a place to be safe. To be free."

  "Let us remember that this is a dragon shifter, a Phoenix dragon shifter," the owl's voice screeched as I continued trying to speak.

  By now the room had broken out into loud talking, with no one in the audience making any attempt to keep their voices down.

  "It's true that the DSA are after us," I continued, grasping for an argument, something convincing enough to win this hostile audience over. "But we haven't done anything wrong, other than escape from the School for the Different, where they told us we were orphans who had no magic and…" I trailed off, my hands clenched into fists.

  Even the Council, the Seven Sisters, were clearly not listening. Instead, they were passing around what looked to be mini muffins while chuckling over what looked to be a poster-sized picture of a white and gray kitten coming out of a giant pumpkin.

  "All right, all right," the owl said. "That's enough."

  Evidently, he meant me, since everyone else continued talking loudly and passing around mini muffins.

  "You didn't even give her a chance to finish!" Kian protested.

  "And I won't give you a chance to start if you don't pipe down," the owl said with a derisive hoot. "I am Ius. Highest and most honorably thrice-and-thirty times confirmed chancellor of law, ordained and revered by every and all mighty and powerful witches in all Mathusalem."

  Kian crossed her arms around her chest, her dark eyes set in a glare at him. I could almost hear her thoug
hts, Pompous idiot.

  But the owl seemed satisfied by this. Giving a small hoot, he said, "Carry on."

  As soon as Kian begin to speak, though, he said, in a magically amplified voice, "Let us remember, while this Kian is technically a sister, she is one who has been raised outside of our norms, and subject to fraught and unscrupulous influences."

  Just then, I spotted the three witch sisters. They seemed to be the only quiet ones in the yammering crowd below. Catching the eye of Linnie did nothing – she only looked away quickly, head hung.

  My nails dug into my palms. How could the witch sisters not have known this would happen? Was this why they’d been trying to avoid having my friends and me come here at all costs? And what about Walario? Had he been working with the DSA and plotting this from the start?

  "What Tala says is true…" Kian was saying. "We found the lab, with all these horrific half breeds…"

  "Oh, so they do know of the DSA base," the owl said significantly, prompting everyone to chatter even louder.

  At this point, the Seven Sisters had gotten out cards and looked to be paying bridge. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

  "Seriously?" I demanded. "You won’t even hear us out, give us a chance? Something big and horrible is going on, and the DSA and Ulrulu-"

  "Silence!" the owl shrieked. He hoisted himself up and leveled his bulk to give me a scalding glare with his glittering black marble eyes.

  "And now the dragon shifter speaks of Ulrulu," he said with a snort.

  The whole room erupted into laughter. Even the Seven Sisters chortled as they eyed me over their cards.

  My hands clenched into the wood of my pulpit. What I wouldn’t give right now to shift and teach these asshole witches a lesson in manners…

  The three sisters were still looking to the floor, unable to meet my gaze.

  I kept looking from the fat, pompous owl to the completely distracted Seven Sisters, half-expecting to see something different. It felt like I was in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ or some kooky parallel universe.

  Demi hadn't gotten a chance to speak, but that didn't seem to bother anyone in the slightest.

  “Wait,” I said.

  I’d suddenly remembered what Walario had said, about me using the treasures hidden deep in Speranță as a bargaining chip.

  "All right, all right," the owl said, as though he hadn’t heard me. "Quiet down. The verdict shall be read presently."

  "Already?" Kian asked incredulously.

  A commotion sounded from down below.

  "Intruders," came a raspy voice. "We tried holding them off."

  The front doors slammed open. Axel and the other Olympians barreled through, followed close behind by officious, sneering gargoyles, their stony arms out and wings beating maniacally.

  "Get them!" the warty-nosed Seven Sister shrieked, her cards spilling off the platform and onto the crowd below.

  Already, Axel and the others were crashing their way through the shocked mass of witches.

  Bang!

  Chains descended from the ceiling, beckoning to me like snakes…

  They’d almost reached my arm when a terrific bang exploded them into dust.

  "Run, girls!" Minnie yelled, her wand raised, having performed the spell. "Run!"

  But where was there to run?

  From the ceiling, gargoyles were diving every which way, one headed straight for me. Down at the edge of the crowd, a throng of black-clothed agents were pressing in.

  The DSA. Here?

  No.

  My arms burned, but every time I tried shifting it was like running into an invisible wall.

  "Silence!" the owl shrieked. "The accused are pronounced as guilty! Guilty! Seize them!"

  "You corrupt idiot!" yelled Winnie, wine-colored curls streaming out in all directions as she pointed her wand at the big fat owl. “You’re all a bunch of treacherous hypocrites!”

  Everything fell into a shocked silence.

  He puffed his chest out angrily. "You wouldn't."

  "Maybe not," Kian said, getting out the wand that Dion had just given her. "But I would."

  With a fizzle, the owl shrank to the size of a mouse. It would’ve been hilariously cute in other circumstances. Flapping its minuscule wings angrily, it shrilled in a ludicrously high-pitched voice, "What are you waiting for? Arrest them!"

  While I tried to figure out how Kian couldn’t do magic with her hands, but could with a wand, Axel leapt to me.

  "I can't shift," I told him. "I don't know why. Kian's powers…"

  "No time," he said, grabbing my hand. He held me pressed to him tight as he leapt off the pulpit, then sprinted down the only hallway there was.

  On all sides, the audience of witches, who had finally gotten their wits about them, were casting spells at us. Axel covered me with his arms as spells ricocheted off his back. He winced and groaned from some of them, but continued barreling ahead at top speed.

  "But the others-" I said.

  "Are just behind us," Axel said. "The witches won't risk hurting one of their own, and Demi probably has her magical invulnerability. You're the most at risk now. They’d love to hurt a dragon shifter, to hand you over to the DSA."

  He fell silent as we stopped in front of a dead end. I groaned.

  "We're trapped."

  13

  Axel spun around. The witches who’d followed us were moving to the side as the DSA agents rushed through, vicious expressions of glee decorating their faces.

  Where were the others?

  There was no time. I looked at the wall and set forward.

  "What are you doing?" Axel said as I passed through it.

  "You can just… walk through them like that?" he asked incredulously, now beside me.

  "What did you do? Break through it?"

  Axel shrugged. "Worked well enough."

  We emerged into an alleyway that looked like it was definitely on the rough side of town. Broken glass littered the streets, while garbage and gunk seem to coat everything. It smelled like burnt rubber and, weirder still, overly sweet bubblegum.

  The sky was yelling: “INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS!” It was a neat trick, and I idly wondered whether we could set something like it up back in Speranță.

  "Come on," Axel said, pulling me along.

  We ducked down another alleyway, and I could hear the orderly thump of the DSA’s steps close behind us.

  "Careful," Axel said. I had rested my hand on the wall, which was already sucking in my arm.

  Axel gave it a punch and the wall whined, letting my arm free but an unmistakable black-eyed and lipped scowl appeared on the wall where I'd been leaning.

  "What was that?" I asked as we hurried on.

  "An enalearon," Axel said. "They’re drawn to filthy areas like this, and swallow anything unlucky enough to come into contact with them."

  I didn't bother asking where we should go. Right now, the only thing that mattered was to lose the DSA. Everything beyond that could wait.

  Axel turned to me. "I'm going to pick you up and run as fast as I can, okay?"

  Without waiting for me to respond, he grabbed me around the waist and ran. The scenery whipped by us hyper-fast. Walls, buildings, a bent-over person blurred past. Glass crinkled. Wind and dirt scraped at my face. My ponytail elastic fell off. And through it all, all I could do was lie there and wonder what my PV would say about this. I was surprised by how much I missed it. For the first time since I’d discovered my true nature, I couldn’t feel my power. It felt like a limb had been severed from my body.

  The sky voice was still roaring: "INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS!"

  Axel slowed to a stop and set me down.

  "Where are we?" I said. Looking around, I found that we were in what looked to be a cardboard box with a balled-up plaid sleeping bag in the corner. One cardboard flap slapped at us, but Axel punched it, and, with a whine, it fell limp.

  Axel shrugged. "Pretty sure that this is someone's shitty-enchanted home,
but right now, it'll do for hiding out in."

  He took out a walkie-talkie, and said, "Apollo? You there?"

  "Just barely," he said. "Artemis and Demi are hurt, but we're on our way."

  "How do they know where we are?" I asked.

  "Your friend Kian brought the map."

  "You mean the magical one we used back in New York? She still has that?"

  I frowned. Weird that she never mentioned it. Then again, this whole go-to-the-trial-ASAP thing had been pretty last minute.

  “You don’t think Demi...?” I said.

  “She’s fine,” Axel said, steadying me with a hand and squeezing my shoulder. “I saw her in training. She doesn’t have full Olympian healing capabilities, but she definitely has improved ones.”

  I nodded, forcing my mind off of it. If I thought too much about how Demi could be hurt, hurt bad, then the tears thrumming in my head and the panic slamming into my chest would break free and-

  “What happened, anyway?” Axel said.

  “Just what you thought,” I said dully. “They were completely biased against us. It was ridiculous. They barely gave us a chance to talk, and didn’t listen when we did.”

  “I’m sorry to be right about that one,” Axel said gravely.

  "Why do you use walkie-talkies anyway?" I asked Axel, changing the subject. Anything to not think about what a grand mess we were in, thanks to me. It still felt awkward being alone with him like this too. It had been the first time… since our intense, unsettling talk. "Why not phones?"

  "The witches despise reggie technology. Including walkie-talkies, if they’d care to know about them. Luckily for us, this technology is so outdated, it must be below their notice. They scramble everything else. Artemis brought them, figured it was worth a shot."

  All we could hear now was the voice, as close, genderless and loud as ever, boring into my head and giving me a headache: “INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS!”

  My stomach clenched. It seemed impossible, how badly this had gone. How much I’d failed everyone. “You were right. I should’ve listened. I should’ve-”

  Axel held up a hand. "You couldn’t have known how bad their corruption was without seeing it. Even Apollo was surprised."