Jenni saw her companion’s mouths drop open in shock seeing a dragon the size of a car form in front of them. With a thought, Jenni changed her color from black to green. She had always liked green.
“Jenni!” Crank yelled. “You figured it out!”
“Not really,” she said. “I just realized things felt different here on Earth, like it was supposed to feel on Mother, but didn’t. I still don’t think I’d be able to do this there. But for now,” she said smiling, flashing her dragon teeth, “we have transportation.”
They all laughed. Crank reached up and hugged her around her neck.
“Fantastic,” Mr. Kain said. “Let’s saddle up and get going.”
After a few tries, Jenni created a couple of seats on her back to make it easier for the two to ride. They placed Matt around her neck again. Mrs. Osorio and the backpack rode with Mr. Kain.
It took Jenni several attempts to get off the ground and fly, but she managed to do it without dumping her passengers. She had to change her wing size and shape a few times before she got the hang of it. Watching a dragon fly and being a dragon flying were two very different things.
As dawn broke over the horizon, they were on their way. Mr. Kain worried about them being spotted from the ground and suggested she change her color, at least on her underside, to match the sky. She did her best and they set off in pursuit of Brandon and the others.
41
Brandon was pleased with how well they had handled things.
Not being able to make a doorway at Hanford had set them back, but they had come up with a solution that should work, and had kept moving. And he had led them!
It was midmorning and they were almost there. They’d been fortunate the truck had been fully gassed up so they hadn’t needed to stop for fuel. Todd had left the Interstate about half an hour earlier and was winding his way through the mountain roads, back to the campground where they had left the bus on their field trip, seemingly so long ago.
Brandon had been concerned, but so far, he didn’t think they’d been spotted. He stayed as low as possible, hoping to not be picked up on radar. It had tested his abilities to keep illusions on the truck and himself at the same time.
Alisha and Mrs. Minch both seemed agitated, but he couldn’t hear them because of the wind. That’s one of the nice things about flying, Brandon thought. He didn’t have to listen to them complain.
He banked right and saw Todd maneuvering the truck up the dirt road to the campground. Off to Brandon’s left was Lake MacElroy, their destination. The hard part was going to be getting the truck through the forest for the last mile or so, but Brandon had an idea.
He came in for a landing, just as Todd was pulling into the parking area. Brandon gave everyone a chance to climb down, then turned to speak to them.
“Okay, almost there,” he said. “I’m going to clear the trees along the hiking trail so Todd can drive the truck, hopefully, all the way to the lake.”
“Brandon,” Mrs. Minch said, “I think we were being followed.”
“Followed? How? I didn’t see anything.”
“I don’t know,” she replied, “but, two or three times, I felt other elemental spirits, just at the edge of my perception, since we left Richland.”
Brandon let out a disgusted sigh. “Well even if Mr. Kain and those guys got away from the police, we’re too close now for them to do anything. Everyone stand back.”
He walked to the end of the dirt lot where the hiker’s trail began and took a breath. He sprayed his acid in a narrow swath through the trees in front of him, aiming for the bases. After allowing the corrosive do its job for a minute, he simply walked forward, letting his bulk and weight do most of the work. He knocked down trees for about thirty yards. Satisfied, he took another deep breath and repeated the process.
It took about forty-five minutes, but they finally broke through to the clearing around the lake. Brandon had to lift the front of the truck up once to get over a tricky spot, but all in all, his plan had worked to perfection.
Todd drove the truck around the southern end of the lake, splashing through the small outlet stream, and to the eastern edge, where they had stopped for lunch. He turned the engine off and got out.
The others had walked behind the truck up the trail and made their way around as well.
Being there gave Brandon a strange sense of déjà vu. He remembered the place vividly, but through different eyes. He leaned over and took a drink from the lake. In it, he saw his reflection and was startled at the form looking back at him. He was a dragon! His blood raced as he admired his strong jaws and teeth, capable of tearing cattle to shreds. He couldn’t wait to get back so he could go hunting again, without the worry of being seen by airplanes or scared people that wanted to destroy him.
Mrs. Minch and the others caught up with him and gathered around the truck. He looked at her and asked, “Do the spirits think this will work?”
Mrs. Minch paused for a moment, listening. “Yes, they think so.” She smiled a hideous grin that spread from huge ear to huge ear.
“All right,” Brandon said, “let’s get outta here.”
Mrs. Minch lowered herself to the ground and retrieved the bowl and other items she needed from her bag. She poured the dark liquid, which Brandon smelled and realized was blood, into the bowl and concentrated.
Just then, he heard a rapid thumping sound reverberating off the mountains around them. It grew louder, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
“Look!” Todd shouted and pointed at the sky to the north. “Over there!”
Brandon saw the source of the noise. Two army helicopters, complete with rocket launchers, headed straight for them.
“Mrs. Minch,” he shouted, “don’t stop! Just ignore them and keep working. Everyone get close and sit down!”
Agonizingly slow, lights appeared over the bowl.
The two helicopters flew in and hovered over the lake, facing them. The sound was deafening. Someone leaned out of the one on the right with a megaphone in his hand.
“Everyone stay where you are and don’t move!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Brandon saw Alisha jump up and run south, along the lake shore. Damn her!
In front of Mrs. Minch, the lights jumped and flickered more rapidly, and a mist formed all around them.
“Stop what you are doing and put your hands up, or we will be forced to shoot!” the soldier with the megaphone blared at them.
The lights grew brighter and Brandon’s eyes closed.
42
Jenni saw the helicopters just as Mr. Kain shouted a warning.
She put her nose up and flapped hard to gain altitude.
The helicopters stayed on course, heading southeast.
“I don’t think they saw us!” Mr. Kain shouted in the wind.
Jenni flew above and behind the two choppers. They were definitely military, both painted olive green with rockets hanging from the sides.
A few minutes later, they arrived at the lake. The helicopters hovered over the lake with their noses pointed east. Jenni saw Brandon and the others there, huddled near a truck. A man was leaning out of one of the helicopters with a megaphone, but Jenni couldn’t hear what he said. She picked a spot on the opposite shore, behind the helicopters and descended.
Lights jumped and flashed around Brandon and the others and Jenni saw mist forming. She landed, then noticed movement across the lake.
“Someone’s running away!” Crank exclaimed.
Mr. Kain squinted. “I think it’s Alisha.”
The whirling blades of the helicopters caused the lake to ripple and churn up spray, making it difficult to see. Mist completely covered the area where Brandon had been. One of the helicopters veered to the right, following the lone running figure.
The other chopper moved forward, dispersing the mist with its rotors.
Brandon and the others were gone.
“We’re too late,” Jenni said in despair.
&nb
sp; Both helicopters landed, one on the southern end of the lake and the other where the group had disappeared. Uniformed men toting rifles poured out of each and fanned out, searching for their quarry.
Jenni hustled everyone over to some trees and bushes for cover and reverted to her human form.
They watched from their hiding place for several minutes as the soldiers swept the area. Alisha was apprehended and taken to the closest helicopter. Her hands were bound and they placed her inside with a guard.
A few minutes later, two more helicopters arrived, adding more men to the search. The one with Alisha took off and flew to the northeast.
“I think we should find a better hiding spot,” Crank said. “It looks like some of those men are circling around to this side.”
“What do you think? The lake?” Jenni asked.
Mr. Kain shrugged. “Probably the best place. I doubt they’ll spend time looking in the water.”
Matt and the others made preparations and shortly they were underground in a bubble of air again. They moved slowly through the darkness, then emerged at the bottom of the lake, safely encapsulated in their cocoon of air. Lori and Bonnie made a nearly invisible tube that reached to the surface to give them a fresh air supply without having to expose themselves.
Helicopters came and went throughout the day, and the place crawled with soldiers. They sat in despair under fifty feet of water.
“We have to get back, if nothing else to warn others of the danger. If that truck was full …” Mr. Kain didn’t finish. He didn’t need to.
“Well, we can’t make a doorway here,” Mrs. Osorio said. “It takes our full concentration. Lori and Bonnie wouldn’t be able to keep up the bubble for you.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait for nightfall and try to sneak up there,” Mr. Kain said.
Jenni’s eyes filled with tears. They had worked so hard, only to see Brandon still accomplish his goal. Now, she was so close to home, but unable to go the last few miles to see her parents. It was too much.
Crank put his hand on her shoulder. She was glad to feel his touch. He had lost everything — his home, his family, and now even his form — his identity. He wasn’t Nomenstrastenai anymore, but neither was he human. Yet, he still cared enough to offer her comfort. Suddenly, Jenni felt ashamed.
Mr. Kain leaned in near her. “You don’t have to go, Jenni. The rest of us can go and warn the others. You can stay here.”
Jenni wiped her eyes and shook her head. “I want to stay … but I can’t. I can’t stay here knowing you guys are going back into danger.” She turned and looked into Crank’s eyes. “You’ve lost so much since we came into your life. I can’t abandon you now.”
She saw tears form. “Thank you, Jenni.”
Jenni hugged him and they held each other for a long time.
* * * *
The hours passed slowly, but finally darkness descended. They made ready and moved along the bottom of the lake to the eastern side for a closer look. Under water, in the dark, it was hard to see what was going on above. One helicopter was parked nearby, and likely it was guarded.
“Matt,” Jenni asked, “can you create a dome over us, and you guys do your thing under it?”
The plan sounded good, so Matt made a sphere of stone around them and they traveled the short distance through the ground to the picnic site. They then rose up slowly out of the ground, still encased in stone.
Jenni heard a muffled shout outside. No doubt any guards had been startled by the appearance of a big stone orb emerging from the ground.
Jenni took Crank’s hand and held it while Mrs. Osorio and the others performed their magic.
More noise came from the other side of the stone, dull thuds could be heard. Someone was trying to break the stone barrier.
Jenni had a frightening thought. “They won’t be transported too will they?”
“No,” Mrs. Osorio said. “We have control over what goes and what stays. Relax, we’ll be through soon.”
As before, lights appeared and moved around Mr. Kain, dancing and jumping. Soon, the familiar mists materialized inside their shelter.
Jenni said goodbye to her parents and slipped into sleep.
43
Sara stood, sweating in the afternoon heat, looking across the plain at Mogritas’s army, and wondered what they were building.
She and Denny were atop the archway between the two guard towers at the eastern entrance to Seren’naie. Captain Herina, Ba’ize, and a few others were there as well. Denny was watching the army too, but through a spyglass he had created.
“It’s a catapult,” he sighed.
The Captain looked puzzled. “What is that?”
Denny lowered the spyglass and tried to explain. “It’s a … simple machine really, it has a lever arm with a counterweight on one end … basically, it can throw things really far. Heavy things.”
“Heavy things?” the Captain asked, still confused.
“Yeah, like boulders and such. Heavy enough to do some major damage.”
Sara looked behind her at the city. Major damage had already been done.
Things had gotten worse after the aborted Council meeting — much worse. Most of the taller buildings in the hub had completely collapsed. Anything that had been structurally enhanced with captive earth spirits had come apart once the bonds were broken. The catwalk over the stadium had only been the beginning.
To make matters even more dangerous, many of the spirits hadn’t been content with simply being free, they wanted to exact some revenge for their centuries-long imprisonment. Several buildings that had been declared safe were destroyed by angry spirits. Many people had died and Sara had been called upon, along with the rest of the guard force, to assist in many gruesome rescue operations.
Second Seat Arlaugh had disappeared shortly after Sara had eavesdropped on his conversation, along with several other Gobinstratstorai officials. Sara had told Ba’ize and Captain Herina what she’d overheard — neither had seemed surprised.
Much of the city, perhaps a third of the population, had fled into Lodir’naie. There, they were living like peasants off the land, but they were alive, and free from the terrors the spirits were causing.
Charles had tried talking to any of the water or earth spirits that would listen, but he didn’t know if he was getting through to any of them.
Four days after Jenni and the others had left to free Mr. Kain, Tori and Merlin had returned. She told them the frightening story of Mr. Kain’s rescue and their subsequent transport to Earth in pursuit of Brandon, Mrs. Minch and the others.
Sara had felt a small pang of jealousy, hearing Jenni had returned to Earth, but a much stronger feeling was fear. Fear for her friend and what she might have to face. Tori’s account of Brandon’s size and Mrs. Minch’s powers had been sobering. If Mrs. Minch were, indeed, a Strodin’i, one who could command and control the elemental spirits, they could be in far more trouble than they realized. Add to that hazardous chemicals, and things looked bad.
Then, yesterday, the Seat of Governance had collapsed.
Sara supposed the bindings on the spirits in the Seat had been the strongest, and therefore the last to break. Ba’ize had been working nearly round the clock for days with volunteers to remove the Mayor’s library and the considerable amount of records and information about the city that were kept in the tower. Most of it had been saved, and everyone had been evacuated in time, thanks to a timely warning from Charles.
Ba’ize had stood on this very arch, watching as the building where he had spent a large portion of his considerable life disintegrated into a pile of rubble and crystal shards. Sara had seen a tear slide down his dust-covered cheek. Then he had gone back to tending the injured and visiting with the populace, trying to raise morale.
“Denny,” Ba’ize said, snapping Sara from her reverie, “can you tell how long before they will have it complete?”
Denny looked through the spyglass again. “Maybe tomorrow … it looks like
they’re having trouble with the counterweight and I don’t see anything around they could use for ammunition either, so that’s good news at least.”
Ba’ize nodded. “Very well then. Captain, please keep guards posted with an eye on their progress and alert me if anything changes.”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Captain Herina replied.
Ba’ize walked to the tower and descended the steps to ground level. Sara, who had been assigned to him as a personal guard, nodded to her captain and followed him down.
“The thing that puzzles me,” Ba’ize said, to himself as much as Sara, as they walked, “is why Mogritas hasn’t appeared to gloat or make demands. His army has been sitting out there for several days, doing nothing but building this contraption. They haven’t even bothered the refugees fleeing to the forest.”
It was times like this Sara really appreciated her new, longer legs. Ba’ize always set a brisk pace wherever he went but, thanks to her changes, she had no trouble keeping up with him. “Maybe he’s waiting for something,” she offered. “Like for Brandon and those guys to get back.”
Ba’ize nodded, lost in thought as they walked. “Yes, but what I fail to understand is how they plan to return. You see, hundreds of years ago, there were several expeditions to your world once it was discovered. Some believe that’s where the dragons went. We have some sketchy records in the archives. But the thing is … no one ever returned from any of the trips. No one. Thoughts of Earth were abandoned, and the method of travel was lost to us over the years.”
“But someone figured it out, I mean, we’re here.”
“True, but I believe Mother Herself brought you here. All the proper elements were in place possibly, but She was the one who caused it to happen.”
“Why?” Sara asked him.
Ba’ize sighed. “Balance. Our world is out of balance, has been for a long time, and I believe you were brought here to help return balance. Unfortunately, that process can be quite violent at times — as we’ve seen.”
“Mogritas must have figured it out. You said you didn’t even know how to send anyone to Earth anymore. Maybe he discovered that, and a way back too.”
Ba’ize nodded. “Possibly. He’s probably the most brilliant scholar on Mother, so if anyone could, it would be him.”