Streams to ashes, p.12
Streams to Ashes, page 12
“You two should get rest. We have a distance to travel before we come anywhere near the islands, and I want everyone wide awake in case there’s a mishap. We’ll be sailing within sight of the island of Taikus. With them on the warpath, we could be in grave danger if they see us. I’ve had the lifeboats secured and ready with supplies in case we need to abandon ship. I’d like you two rested.”
“Fine with me,” Brad said. “Talk with you later, Alex.”
CEPHA PACED ALONG THE hillside above Telamande as the sun sank in the west. She and her troops had been hiding in the hills for days now, observing the capital city, the goings, and comings of servants and peasants alike, men and women both. Yes, Ivar was gathering an army, and a sad looking one at that, men from the hills, sheepherders, unfit, sick. She was wasting her time watching. How dare Donis send her away from the action to the castle to perform a remedial task like spying! She was a fighter. She might be skilled at spying, but she never liked the job. Besides, there wasn’t any information to gather other than what Donis probably already knew.
“We’re getting low on food, Cepha,” Madeline, her captain strolled up beside her. “We’re planning a raid.”
“A raid? Whose idea was that?” Cepha’s voice quivered with anger. Not only did Donis abuse her, but her troops were unruly and had little regard for her authority. This was not the first time Madeline and her friends acted on their own.
“Guess,” Madeline suggested.
“You’ll stay here and wait,” Cepha ordered.
Madeline rolled her eyes.
“I have plans for tonight,” Cepha said.
“What plans?”
“Look to the northwest.” She handed Madeline a spy glass and lifted her chin, proud that she had stood up to the woman.
“Ships. Whose?”
“Well, they seem to come from the northlands, don’t they? It appears to be an invasion.”
“Maybe. What does that mean?”
“It means we have an opportunity to carry out a remarkable plan.”
Madeline snickered and shook her head, handing the spyglass back to Cepha. “Sorry, I don’t follow you.”
“Then just do as I tell you to for once in your career. We may be closer to the throne than you, or Donis, think. Get the women up. Pack everything. We leave tonight.”
When Madeline didn’t respond, Cepha pointed to the king’s fleet on the docks below. “See those three ships at the end of the pier? Ready them to sail.”
“Tonight?”
“Now. And stay in the shadows so no one sees you. If the king’s soldiers try to stop you, slay them.”
“Did Donis allow this act?”
“She doesn’t have to. We’ll intercept those Kaempern ships and cause them to attack Ivar’s fleet. It makes more sense than waiting for the Lisbon army to come all the way up here. Now go!”
The woman hurried down the dark side of the hill to the others. Cepha chuckled to herself. Donis couldn’t have had a better plan than this.
BRAD STRUGGLED TO GET comfortable in the hammock, and his stomach churned from the smell of dirty feet and snoring sailors. Despite the awkwardness, the hike from Menek had exhausted him and he fell asleep. When he woke, his back hurt from the contorted way he had slept. He yawned, slung his legs over the netting and spilled out feet first to the floor with a thud. Luckily, he had woken no one, so he slipped on his boots, his coat, and climbed the hatch to the upper deck. Surprised to see the sun setting, and a hazy trace of land in the distance, he blinked the sleep out of his eyes.
He was not the only one awake. Aren was at the helm, his eyes peeled to the land mass that appeared from time to time in the distant fog.
“Is that the Isle of Refuge?” Brad asked.
“Taikus. We won’t be near the Isle of Refuge until after dark.” He pulled out his spyglass and focused on a certain spot away from Taikus, toward the open sea, and frowned.
“What do you see?”
“Taikan ships. Hold the helm steady while I get Amleth.”
Aren left his spyglass when he ran down below, so Brad picked it up and adjusted the lens. In between their ship and the island was a Taikan ship and as he watched, the thing exploded and burst into flame. Before Amleth and Aren were on deck next to him, three other Taikan ships appeared out of the mist.
“I think we’ve got our war,” Brad said.
“Where did that fire come from?” Alex asked.
“Ready the cannons,” Aren ordered, and ran to help his men just as the enemy fired the first magical missile at them.
“Holy Cripes” Brad exclaimed and ducked as the sky lit up and balls of fire exploded above him.
Kaempern archers were soon on deck, igniting the tips of their arrows. Sailors loaded the cannons and positioned them. Men grabbed muskets that had been dug up from the last war.
“We weren’t ready for this,” Alex grumbled as he unlaced the tie to a leather bag filled with black powder.
“Not without a wizard or two, that’s for certain,” Brad agreed, and picked up a musket. “How do you load this thing?” he asked.
The Healing is Finished.
Though Elisa didn’t regret her decision to stay at home to take care of Stenhjaert after her brother left for the Realm, caring for a dragon wore on her. She had to leave work as soon as she was done because of his feeding schedule, so she had no contact with friends. Her trips to the grocery store were depleting her savings account quicker than she had hoped, and Brad hadn’t left her any money. Stenhjaert refused to eat the vegetables she had prepared no matter how well she disguised them in his meat dishes and the more he ate, the bigger he grew, which meant the larger his appetite.
Her relationship with him had grown as well, and now she committed her time to him every day of her life. They talked to one another more often and she learned that dragons think in remarkably simple terms, and almost always give priority to emotions. He learned to confide in her, and one of his most wearisome complaints was being cooped up in a dark tunnel with no purpose in life. Because of his depression, she wondered if the portal cave could contain his massive body much longer. Especially since he was more energetic now that she fed him so well and gave him the love he had never known.
Late one afternoon, with her arms piled high in groceries, she entered the portal to find Stenhjaert sitting upright on his haunches, waiting for her.
“You cannot go on like this,” he said. She looked him in the eye.
“Like what?”
“Working so hard to feed me. You remind me of a mother bird forever hunting worms for her fledglings. How much longer can you care for me?”
“As long as I have to.”
“I’m ready to leave the nest.”
She set the meat she had brought him in a pile on the ground and sighed.
“I agree the job has been taxing and I’m sorry that you feel confined by the tight walls of the tunnel and long to spread your wings and fly. You’re probably tired of store-bought food, and I don’t know if the fire in you burns your belly, but I’m sure you’d like to do your own hunting.”
“And you are lonely for your friends,” he agreed. “Your eyes show your unhappiness. I’m not adequate company.”
“Oh, of course you are. I love being with you.”
“No. You leave for extended periods of time. Meanwhile, I sit here in the dark. I’m homesick.”
Elisa’s shoulders fell and she looked out the prism. “You can’t go back, Stenhjaert. They will kill you or enslave you.”
“Who?”
“The Taikans.”
“I can destroy the Taikans.”
He focused his eyes—vivid yellow pupils ringed in sapphire—solely on her. Scaly lids folded over them and opened again in a prolonged blink. When he groaned, the plates on his back rattled.
“This war will kill your brother and he will die, as will your friends. The power of Taikan magic is too much for them. They cannot survive without me.”
“Maybe they can,” Elisa said with little confidence.
The dragon stretched his neck out and let her rub his nose. “I will help?”
Elisa picked up a chuck roast and put it in his mouth, which he swallowed with one gulp.
“How? Set you free? Out there?”
“I’d be at your command,” he promised. “Until the heat of the battle. And then I would leave you some place safe.”
Elisa frowned. Could she trust him? Brad had warned her when they first began feeding him, he might try to escape. He was not a trustworthy sort, having destroyed forests and killed people, and now he talked about doing so again. His confinement had given him plenty of time to devise a scheme, and she was vulnerable, or so he might think.
“That’s very thoughtful of you. No.”
The dragon let his head drop to the ground and he looked up at her pleadingly.
“I tire of captivity and cannot hold my frustration any longer.”
“I know. But I don’t think you’re ready to be released.”
“What do I have to do to prove I am ready?” he asked as he raised his head. His chest lit up with flame beneath his skin and Elisa stepped back from the overwhelming heat he emitted.
“Stenhjaert, please.”
“I do not want to hurt you. However, you must let me go. Come with me and we can work as a team, and I will prove my worthiness. Or else I may become the old dragon who terrorized the world. If you do not guide me, I may even escape through your other door.”
“What other door? That one?”
She followed his gaze in horror. “No. You can’t come into our world. It wouldn’t work.” A dragon in Seattle? That would be disastrous. Elisa fidgeted with the remote in her sweatshirt. I have got to put this some place safe!
“Then come with me through the crystal.”
The fury that now flowed through his body scared her and she stuttered. With the amount of energy pulsing through his body, she had only seconds to respond.
“All right then. We will go into the Realm, and you may fly. And when you have worn off that frustration, we’ll return here. This is your home now, Stenhjaert.”
“No, I will never return here. I made my mind up and you cannot stop me. I appreciate the work that you have done for me, and for the love you’ve given me. But it’s time for me to leave. Come with me so that I might leave in company, return the kindness, and save your brother and your friends.”
“Wait then. Let me get my backpack, and my coat.” Elisa said and hurried out of the portal and back into her house. All her singing and sweet talking would not change this dragon’s heart. The only thing she could do would be to go with him. If she didn’t appease Stenhjaert, who knows which world he would choose to destroy? The Realm would be dangerous enough, but if he crashed into the real world that would be a disaster!
Her hands trembled as she gathered clothing, food, and supplies from the cache in the closet. As she moved about the house, she could hear Stenhjaert rumbling on the other side of the world.
Matches!
She reached for the desk drawer and pulled out a box. The dragon roared. How thin the wall of the portal had become! A quick touch of the controller would open it without the blue light on the computer screen, or on the floor of the bedroom. Perhaps using it every day had weakened the wall between the worlds, or perhaps, as Ian had once suggested, the worlds were shifting against each other. If that was the case, if someday the two worlds would have but a paper-thin invisible barrier between them, then for certain Elisa needed to tame Stenhjaert and find him a forever home in the Realm lest he become the Monster of Washington!
“I’m coming!”
Taking a deep breath, she held the controller. It was a wonder she could still click the portal button her hand shook so much. She stepped into the tunnel and then quickly shut the portal, stuffing the remote in the side pocket of her backpack.
The torches that lit the chamber flickered as Stenhjaert moved, his tail swishing in the dark. Stones crumbled; dust flew. If they didn’t leave soon, the dragon would destroy the entire mid-world tunnel.
“I’m ready as I will ever be,” she said. “But you must remember we’re friends. Remember, I helped you gain your strength, and I fed you.”
“And caged me,” he said as he turned his head to his side and glared at her with one eye.
“Are you going to betray me?” she asked.
He breathed in deeply.
“You promised that you were going to change your ways. All those confessions you made, all the sorrow you expressed. Now you’re going to forget your oath and become wicked again?”
The dragon exhaled, and the fire under his scales cooled.
“No. I will not be wicked so long as you’re with me to remind me. I cannot do this alone.”
“Very well. Then we’ll be a team. We’ll fly over the forests, and you can work out that steam inside of you, and then we’ll try to find Brad and the others. Deal?”
For an answer, the dragon lowered himself. Elisa took the rope she and Brad had used to gentle him, tied it around his neck to hold on, and climbed on his back.
“I need you to be mindful that I’m on your back and if I should fall, I’ll probably die. I’ve never ridden a dragon before.”
“Be brave,” was his reply.
THE CHILLY AIR HIT hard when Stenhjaert jumped airborne. Elisa screamed as the dragon flew into the prism that was the door to the Realm. The crystal burst. Chips of rock scattered in all directions, falling like ash onto the plains below. If Elisa hadn't gripped firmly, the dragon's jump would have sent her flying off its back. She closed her eyes as Stenhjaert bucked the wind and only peeked for a moment, long enough to see the Realm getting smaller and her feet trembling in the air.
She gasped.
They went so fast and so high that they soared into the sunset, their shadow gliding on the grasslands beneath them. Over the plains they flew, covering distance like a jetliner. When the dragon swooped in between the treetops of Alcove Forest, Elisa leaned low to the dragon’s neck and clung to his body.
No roller coaster or carnival ride had ever been this unnerving.
“Can’t you slow down?” she asked.
“If I were to slow down, I would not be flying,” he retorted.
“Surely there must be a happy medium.”
The longer they flew, the more Elisa became used to the feeling of air hitting her like a pressure washer. Though it took an effort to fight the wind, she sat up slowly, awed by the world from a dragon’s eye. They traveled south now, beyond any part of Alcove Forest that Elisa had known. Over rocky hills, where the reflection of stars glistened in a cluster of lakes below, where herds of antelope raced away from their shadow, where grasslands coated the earth like smooth icing on a cake.
“Where is this?” she asked.
“My hunting grounds,” the dragon replied.
“Are you hunting now?”
“No. I just wanted you to see these fields, so that if you can’t find me, you’ll know that this is where I’ll be. I’ll come back after I drop you off with your friends.”
“Drop me off? What about helping them?”
“Fret not,” Stenhjaert said, but his indifference did not convince Elisa of any intentions.
“Right,” she muttered as Stenhjaert winged higher, caught an air current, and glided northeast, which was much smoother riding,
“Where are your friends?” the dragon asked.
“They were going to Alisubbo,” Elisa said. “They’d be there and gone by now though if there was a war going on.”
“Ah. Then we shall look for a war.”
In time they came to the white walls of a city, a torn castle tower, a waterway, and a bridge that Stenhjaert hovered over like an eagle.
“What do you see? Anything?” Elisa asked. All she could identify below was darkness, and the glistening of stars in the water.
“Men. Horses. Oh,” he chuckled, and his belly shook, rattling his scales again.
“What’s funny?”
“They spotted us. Shall we have some fun?”
“No!” Elisa commanded as the dragon plummeted. “No! Stop. This is too serious a situation and they might be our friends.”
Stenhjaert ceased his dive with a sudden jolt, giving Elisa a mild case of whiplash.
“You could have just slowed down,” she complained, rubbing her neck. She peeked over his wing at the congregation of people below them. Soldiers, and two others.
“Who are those people? And why are they crossing over that bridge?” she asked.
“Look for yourself,” Stenhjaert said, and plunged again. Elisa white-knuckled the rope and pressed the dragon with her knees to keep from blowing off his back, yet she kept her eyes open wide. Before they crashed into the cluster of men who had stepped off the bridge onto an island, the dragon swooped back into the air. Some soldiers ran into a thicket, others aimed their weapons.
“Stop!”
It was a man’s voice ordering the soldiers not to shoot.
“I know that dragon. Come down here you fool!”
A peculiar-looking man in a yellow robe stepped forward and stretched out his arms, twirled his fingers, and released a puff of blue vapor. The mist shot out at them and encircled Elisa and the dragon, and when Stenhjaert breathed in, his entire body relaxed. He groaned and then fell from the sky. Elisa, also taken by the spell, screamed, and hung onto his back as gravity hauled them to the ground. Dizzy, the world spinning around her; flashes of the night skyscape and treetops whizzed by. She landed with a thud on Stenhjaert’s belly and opened her eyes to two familiar faces leaning over her.
“No!” she moaned. “Silvio? Whomticker?” Was she dreaming?
“Are you hurt?” A red-headed man kneeled beside her.
“I don’t know,” she answered, his face a bit of a blur.
“Can you stand? Let me help you up.” He took her by her hand to steady her as she rose, his gape as wide as hers.
“It is Silvio!” Elisa muttered.
“You know Silvio?” the red-hair man asked.
The soldiers who had scattered returned from the shadows and formed a circle around them. Stenhjaert’s body lay quietly on the cold stone pathway, a smile, if ever a dragon smiled, on his face.
“Fine with me,” Brad said. “Talk with you later, Alex.”
CEPHA PACED ALONG THE hillside above Telamande as the sun sank in the west. She and her troops had been hiding in the hills for days now, observing the capital city, the goings, and comings of servants and peasants alike, men and women both. Yes, Ivar was gathering an army, and a sad looking one at that, men from the hills, sheepherders, unfit, sick. She was wasting her time watching. How dare Donis send her away from the action to the castle to perform a remedial task like spying! She was a fighter. She might be skilled at spying, but she never liked the job. Besides, there wasn’t any information to gather other than what Donis probably already knew.
“We’re getting low on food, Cepha,” Madeline, her captain strolled up beside her. “We’re planning a raid.”
“A raid? Whose idea was that?” Cepha’s voice quivered with anger. Not only did Donis abuse her, but her troops were unruly and had little regard for her authority. This was not the first time Madeline and her friends acted on their own.
“Guess,” Madeline suggested.
“You’ll stay here and wait,” Cepha ordered.
Madeline rolled her eyes.
“I have plans for tonight,” Cepha said.
“What plans?”
“Look to the northwest.” She handed Madeline a spy glass and lifted her chin, proud that she had stood up to the woman.
“Ships. Whose?”
“Well, they seem to come from the northlands, don’t they? It appears to be an invasion.”
“Maybe. What does that mean?”
“It means we have an opportunity to carry out a remarkable plan.”
Madeline snickered and shook her head, handing the spyglass back to Cepha. “Sorry, I don’t follow you.”
“Then just do as I tell you to for once in your career. We may be closer to the throne than you, or Donis, think. Get the women up. Pack everything. We leave tonight.”
When Madeline didn’t respond, Cepha pointed to the king’s fleet on the docks below. “See those three ships at the end of the pier? Ready them to sail.”
“Tonight?”
“Now. And stay in the shadows so no one sees you. If the king’s soldiers try to stop you, slay them.”
“Did Donis allow this act?”
“She doesn’t have to. We’ll intercept those Kaempern ships and cause them to attack Ivar’s fleet. It makes more sense than waiting for the Lisbon army to come all the way up here. Now go!”
The woman hurried down the dark side of the hill to the others. Cepha chuckled to herself. Donis couldn’t have had a better plan than this.
BRAD STRUGGLED TO GET comfortable in the hammock, and his stomach churned from the smell of dirty feet and snoring sailors. Despite the awkwardness, the hike from Menek had exhausted him and he fell asleep. When he woke, his back hurt from the contorted way he had slept. He yawned, slung his legs over the netting and spilled out feet first to the floor with a thud. Luckily, he had woken no one, so he slipped on his boots, his coat, and climbed the hatch to the upper deck. Surprised to see the sun setting, and a hazy trace of land in the distance, he blinked the sleep out of his eyes.
He was not the only one awake. Aren was at the helm, his eyes peeled to the land mass that appeared from time to time in the distant fog.
“Is that the Isle of Refuge?” Brad asked.
“Taikus. We won’t be near the Isle of Refuge until after dark.” He pulled out his spyglass and focused on a certain spot away from Taikus, toward the open sea, and frowned.
“What do you see?”
“Taikan ships. Hold the helm steady while I get Amleth.”
Aren left his spyglass when he ran down below, so Brad picked it up and adjusted the lens. In between their ship and the island was a Taikan ship and as he watched, the thing exploded and burst into flame. Before Amleth and Aren were on deck next to him, three other Taikan ships appeared out of the mist.
“I think we’ve got our war,” Brad said.
“Where did that fire come from?” Alex asked.
“Ready the cannons,” Aren ordered, and ran to help his men just as the enemy fired the first magical missile at them.
“Holy Cripes” Brad exclaimed and ducked as the sky lit up and balls of fire exploded above him.
Kaempern archers were soon on deck, igniting the tips of their arrows. Sailors loaded the cannons and positioned them. Men grabbed muskets that had been dug up from the last war.
“We weren’t ready for this,” Alex grumbled as he unlaced the tie to a leather bag filled with black powder.
“Not without a wizard or two, that’s for certain,” Brad agreed, and picked up a musket. “How do you load this thing?” he asked.
The Healing is Finished.
Though Elisa didn’t regret her decision to stay at home to take care of Stenhjaert after her brother left for the Realm, caring for a dragon wore on her. She had to leave work as soon as she was done because of his feeding schedule, so she had no contact with friends. Her trips to the grocery store were depleting her savings account quicker than she had hoped, and Brad hadn’t left her any money. Stenhjaert refused to eat the vegetables she had prepared no matter how well she disguised them in his meat dishes and the more he ate, the bigger he grew, which meant the larger his appetite.
Her relationship with him had grown as well, and now she committed her time to him every day of her life. They talked to one another more often and she learned that dragons think in remarkably simple terms, and almost always give priority to emotions. He learned to confide in her, and one of his most wearisome complaints was being cooped up in a dark tunnel with no purpose in life. Because of his depression, she wondered if the portal cave could contain his massive body much longer. Especially since he was more energetic now that she fed him so well and gave him the love he had never known.
Late one afternoon, with her arms piled high in groceries, she entered the portal to find Stenhjaert sitting upright on his haunches, waiting for her.
“You cannot go on like this,” he said. She looked him in the eye.
“Like what?”
“Working so hard to feed me. You remind me of a mother bird forever hunting worms for her fledglings. How much longer can you care for me?”
“As long as I have to.”
“I’m ready to leave the nest.”
She set the meat she had brought him in a pile on the ground and sighed.
“I agree the job has been taxing and I’m sorry that you feel confined by the tight walls of the tunnel and long to spread your wings and fly. You’re probably tired of store-bought food, and I don’t know if the fire in you burns your belly, but I’m sure you’d like to do your own hunting.”
“And you are lonely for your friends,” he agreed. “Your eyes show your unhappiness. I’m not adequate company.”
“Oh, of course you are. I love being with you.”
“No. You leave for extended periods of time. Meanwhile, I sit here in the dark. I’m homesick.”
Elisa’s shoulders fell and she looked out the prism. “You can’t go back, Stenhjaert. They will kill you or enslave you.”
“Who?”
“The Taikans.”
“I can destroy the Taikans.”
He focused his eyes—vivid yellow pupils ringed in sapphire—solely on her. Scaly lids folded over them and opened again in a prolonged blink. When he groaned, the plates on his back rattled.
“This war will kill your brother and he will die, as will your friends. The power of Taikan magic is too much for them. They cannot survive without me.”
“Maybe they can,” Elisa said with little confidence.
The dragon stretched his neck out and let her rub his nose. “I will help?”
Elisa picked up a chuck roast and put it in his mouth, which he swallowed with one gulp.
“How? Set you free? Out there?”
“I’d be at your command,” he promised. “Until the heat of the battle. And then I would leave you some place safe.”
Elisa frowned. Could she trust him? Brad had warned her when they first began feeding him, he might try to escape. He was not a trustworthy sort, having destroyed forests and killed people, and now he talked about doing so again. His confinement had given him plenty of time to devise a scheme, and she was vulnerable, or so he might think.
“That’s very thoughtful of you. No.”
The dragon let his head drop to the ground and he looked up at her pleadingly.
“I tire of captivity and cannot hold my frustration any longer.”
“I know. But I don’t think you’re ready to be released.”
“What do I have to do to prove I am ready?” he asked as he raised his head. His chest lit up with flame beneath his skin and Elisa stepped back from the overwhelming heat he emitted.
“Stenhjaert, please.”
“I do not want to hurt you. However, you must let me go. Come with me and we can work as a team, and I will prove my worthiness. Or else I may become the old dragon who terrorized the world. If you do not guide me, I may even escape through your other door.”
“What other door? That one?”
She followed his gaze in horror. “No. You can’t come into our world. It wouldn’t work.” A dragon in Seattle? That would be disastrous. Elisa fidgeted with the remote in her sweatshirt. I have got to put this some place safe!
“Then come with me through the crystal.”
The fury that now flowed through his body scared her and she stuttered. With the amount of energy pulsing through his body, she had only seconds to respond.
“All right then. We will go into the Realm, and you may fly. And when you have worn off that frustration, we’ll return here. This is your home now, Stenhjaert.”
“No, I will never return here. I made my mind up and you cannot stop me. I appreciate the work that you have done for me, and for the love you’ve given me. But it’s time for me to leave. Come with me so that I might leave in company, return the kindness, and save your brother and your friends.”
“Wait then. Let me get my backpack, and my coat.” Elisa said and hurried out of the portal and back into her house. All her singing and sweet talking would not change this dragon’s heart. The only thing she could do would be to go with him. If she didn’t appease Stenhjaert, who knows which world he would choose to destroy? The Realm would be dangerous enough, but if he crashed into the real world that would be a disaster!
Her hands trembled as she gathered clothing, food, and supplies from the cache in the closet. As she moved about the house, she could hear Stenhjaert rumbling on the other side of the world.
Matches!
She reached for the desk drawer and pulled out a box. The dragon roared. How thin the wall of the portal had become! A quick touch of the controller would open it without the blue light on the computer screen, or on the floor of the bedroom. Perhaps using it every day had weakened the wall between the worlds, or perhaps, as Ian had once suggested, the worlds were shifting against each other. If that was the case, if someday the two worlds would have but a paper-thin invisible barrier between them, then for certain Elisa needed to tame Stenhjaert and find him a forever home in the Realm lest he become the Monster of Washington!
“I’m coming!”
Taking a deep breath, she held the controller. It was a wonder she could still click the portal button her hand shook so much. She stepped into the tunnel and then quickly shut the portal, stuffing the remote in the side pocket of her backpack.
The torches that lit the chamber flickered as Stenhjaert moved, his tail swishing in the dark. Stones crumbled; dust flew. If they didn’t leave soon, the dragon would destroy the entire mid-world tunnel.
“I’m ready as I will ever be,” she said. “But you must remember we’re friends. Remember, I helped you gain your strength, and I fed you.”
“And caged me,” he said as he turned his head to his side and glared at her with one eye.
“Are you going to betray me?” she asked.
He breathed in deeply.
“You promised that you were going to change your ways. All those confessions you made, all the sorrow you expressed. Now you’re going to forget your oath and become wicked again?”
The dragon exhaled, and the fire under his scales cooled.
“No. I will not be wicked so long as you’re with me to remind me. I cannot do this alone.”
“Very well. Then we’ll be a team. We’ll fly over the forests, and you can work out that steam inside of you, and then we’ll try to find Brad and the others. Deal?”
For an answer, the dragon lowered himself. Elisa took the rope she and Brad had used to gentle him, tied it around his neck to hold on, and climbed on his back.
“I need you to be mindful that I’m on your back and if I should fall, I’ll probably die. I’ve never ridden a dragon before.”
“Be brave,” was his reply.
THE CHILLY AIR HIT hard when Stenhjaert jumped airborne. Elisa screamed as the dragon flew into the prism that was the door to the Realm. The crystal burst. Chips of rock scattered in all directions, falling like ash onto the plains below. If Elisa hadn't gripped firmly, the dragon's jump would have sent her flying off its back. She closed her eyes as Stenhjaert bucked the wind and only peeked for a moment, long enough to see the Realm getting smaller and her feet trembling in the air.
She gasped.
They went so fast and so high that they soared into the sunset, their shadow gliding on the grasslands beneath them. Over the plains they flew, covering distance like a jetliner. When the dragon swooped in between the treetops of Alcove Forest, Elisa leaned low to the dragon’s neck and clung to his body.
No roller coaster or carnival ride had ever been this unnerving.
“Can’t you slow down?” she asked.
“If I were to slow down, I would not be flying,” he retorted.
“Surely there must be a happy medium.”
The longer they flew, the more Elisa became used to the feeling of air hitting her like a pressure washer. Though it took an effort to fight the wind, she sat up slowly, awed by the world from a dragon’s eye. They traveled south now, beyond any part of Alcove Forest that Elisa had known. Over rocky hills, where the reflection of stars glistened in a cluster of lakes below, where herds of antelope raced away from their shadow, where grasslands coated the earth like smooth icing on a cake.
“Where is this?” she asked.
“My hunting grounds,” the dragon replied.
“Are you hunting now?”
“No. I just wanted you to see these fields, so that if you can’t find me, you’ll know that this is where I’ll be. I’ll come back after I drop you off with your friends.”
“Drop me off? What about helping them?”
“Fret not,” Stenhjaert said, but his indifference did not convince Elisa of any intentions.
“Right,” she muttered as Stenhjaert winged higher, caught an air current, and glided northeast, which was much smoother riding,
“Where are your friends?” the dragon asked.
“They were going to Alisubbo,” Elisa said. “They’d be there and gone by now though if there was a war going on.”
“Ah. Then we shall look for a war.”
In time they came to the white walls of a city, a torn castle tower, a waterway, and a bridge that Stenhjaert hovered over like an eagle.
“What do you see? Anything?” Elisa asked. All she could identify below was darkness, and the glistening of stars in the water.
“Men. Horses. Oh,” he chuckled, and his belly shook, rattling his scales again.
“What’s funny?”
“They spotted us. Shall we have some fun?”
“No!” Elisa commanded as the dragon plummeted. “No! Stop. This is too serious a situation and they might be our friends.”
Stenhjaert ceased his dive with a sudden jolt, giving Elisa a mild case of whiplash.
“You could have just slowed down,” she complained, rubbing her neck. She peeked over his wing at the congregation of people below them. Soldiers, and two others.
“Who are those people? And why are they crossing over that bridge?” she asked.
“Look for yourself,” Stenhjaert said, and plunged again. Elisa white-knuckled the rope and pressed the dragon with her knees to keep from blowing off his back, yet she kept her eyes open wide. Before they crashed into the cluster of men who had stepped off the bridge onto an island, the dragon swooped back into the air. Some soldiers ran into a thicket, others aimed their weapons.
“Stop!”
It was a man’s voice ordering the soldiers not to shoot.
“I know that dragon. Come down here you fool!”
A peculiar-looking man in a yellow robe stepped forward and stretched out his arms, twirled his fingers, and released a puff of blue vapor. The mist shot out at them and encircled Elisa and the dragon, and when Stenhjaert breathed in, his entire body relaxed. He groaned and then fell from the sky. Elisa, also taken by the spell, screamed, and hung onto his back as gravity hauled them to the ground. Dizzy, the world spinning around her; flashes of the night skyscape and treetops whizzed by. She landed with a thud on Stenhjaert’s belly and opened her eyes to two familiar faces leaning over her.
“No!” she moaned. “Silvio? Whomticker?” Was she dreaming?
“Are you hurt?” A red-headed man kneeled beside her.
“I don’t know,” she answered, his face a bit of a blur.
“Can you stand? Let me help you up.” He took her by her hand to steady her as she rose, his gape as wide as hers.
“It is Silvio!” Elisa muttered.
“You know Silvio?” the red-hair man asked.
The soldiers who had scattered returned from the shadows and formed a circle around them. Stenhjaert’s body lay quietly on the cold stone pathway, a smile, if ever a dragon smiled, on his face.
