“Hunting a fox, me and my son.
Dragon hounds have her on the run.
Chasing that vixen’s all I know.
Come now, arrow, nock on the bow.”
Ivory sang gruffly in Damara’s ear. With clenched teeth and limbs shaking uncontrollably, Damara fought to climb upwards. Other sounds filled the cave behind her, water lapping at the shore as cracks and pops shot off the walls.
What is that noise?! She was unable to look over her shoulder at its source.
Panting, she tucked her chin into her chest, staring past her feet to see just how high she’d gotten. The hatchling around her waist stared up at her with curious eyes. His black body inched its way to her shoulder blade, sending chills down her spine.
Damara could see Tide a ways down. He looked to be asleep.
If I were to fall right now…she worried, then cut her thoughts short.
No. I won’t.
Strenuously, she reached for another handhold, readjusting her grip again and again before trusting it would last. Stuck in an awkward position, her foot strived for a new place. The threat of slipping tested her like a cruel boy taunting a trapped animal. Still, she refused to panic.
The sea serpent’s hissing echoed off the cavern walls and Ivory joined in, causing Damara to seize up and cringe.
“Sttoppp,” she beseeched the wyvern, her voice wavering. The hatchling gave a short whine, his claws gripping her painfully through the fabric of her dress. Still, Damara made her way towards the sky.
At last, the crumbling ledge hung just above her. She squinted up at it, looking for some possible way over. She twisted her body dangerously around as she noticed a thick tangle of roots dangling off to the side of her. With great care, she checked her stability before reaching out with one hand to tug on it.
Please hold, she willed the roots, doubts prickling her mind like a thousand needles.
She sought for a foothold inside the cluster of roots and eased herself onto it. A bit of dirt dislodged from the hairy wood, falling down to where Tide guarded the nest. Damara dared not glance at the sea serpent.
Finally, she reached the top of the roots, heaving her entire body up onto solid ground. She lay stomach down in the grass and wept, her limbs aching.
The hatchling climbed off her back and began to wander away.
Come here. She coughed, feebly rising to scoop the little dragon up. He wriggled in protest at first, then relaxed in her arms.
On quivering legs, Damara stood and peered down into the watery cave. She froze at the gruesome sight.
Below her, the young sea serpent undulated through bloodied water with Chasm’s limp tail in his jaws. During Damara’s ascent from the cave, it had managed to dismember the dead dragon. The membrane from Chasm’s wing was torn away. One of his legs had huge hunks of flesh detached, reminding her of the deer haunches she’d seen dragons feast on. Chasm’s dead eyes were fixed open. Damara thought she saw the dagger still lodged inside his skull.
Oh God, she balked. Tide…
I have to hurry!
Despite her fatigue, she quickened her pace towards the nearby coast, staggering as she remembered Tide’s words, ‘Just follow along the coast until you reach the dry creek bed.’
Before her, the earth cut off into steep, towering cliffs. Below them, the ocean spread out, far vaster than her mind could comprehend.
With great force, a wave crashed against the land and Damara trembled. Memories rattled her. Memories of an entire dragon colony flying over wide, choppy waters into the open sky…without her.
Don’t stop now.
She hurried along as water swelled and again smashed against the earth. Sea wyverns screeched, their grey bodies blending in with the cliffs until they broke away to sail the air, like live gargoyles.
How will I know when I’ve reached the creek bed? Damara feared, stumbling over the ground. How am I going to get help in time?
A sick feeling overcame her as she noticed the sun drawing ever closer to the sea. The dark waters lightened, welcoming the great ball of fire. Waves sounded even more violent as a wind began to pick up. Damara hastened on.
Then, finally-
The creek bed!
Damara wasted no time stumbling up the natural path, into the forest. Very little water trickled over the wash, like a tongue trying to moisten parched lips. This route felt familiar to her, but she didn’t pause to reflect on it. Tide’s life depended on her to be swift and tireless.
She passed a clearing where a strange, flowery scent prickled her nose, a lingering ghost. Ivory imitated her as she sneezed, but still Damara pushed on, looking ahead as she came upon the mountains.
No…
Aghast, Damara halted in place, staring at the wreckage of a shelter collapsed against the mountainside. The creek bed cut straight into the mountain range, the pathway through which the Wystilian army had come.
The surrounding trees were burnt from a battle of man and beast, their trunks charred black. The area had obviously been looted since then, for no weapons scattered the ground. Nor was a single dead man in sight, the bodies apparently buried.
Upon the mountainside, the broken shelter was clearly abandoned.
Something else lay nearby as well, also deserted by life.
A foul odor wafted from the rotting corpse of a dragon. Neither the beast’s gender nor color could be distinguished. Flesh clung to its bones like sopping rags and its eye sockets were empty. Damara felt queasy at the sight of maggots spilling from its open ribcage. She pressed her hand to her mouth, blocking out the stench.
Where is the Wizard?! she grew even more panicky, swiveling her gaze in hopes for any sign of life.
Then, looking to the mountains, her heart faltered.
As still as trees, two dragons stood against the sky, watching her. Just by their posture, Damara recognized them as the ones she’d seen speaking to Lynx before the avalanche.
Are they hunting me?! she feared, staring up at their hostile stance. Did they kill Lynx?
She looked around frantically. Lynx was nowhere to be seen. Burdened by a hatchling and a half-crippled wyvern, Damara was alone.
I can’t outrun them.
But I can’t fight them with any hope of winning, either.
With haste, she placed the drowsy hatchling between two roots of a tree, before turning with her back against the trunk.
And then she waited.
In time, the dragons appeared, swift and silent as they slipped out of the undergrowth to stand but a few yards away from her. One, a ruddy female, stared at her intensely. The other lingered steadily behind, a flat black male with light grey wings and plating.
“Look how she holds herself,” the female spoke to her companion, studying Damara. “Not at all like the armored men who came before her.”
Don’t look scared.
The dragons didn’t advance on her. They were waiting, like her.
“Where is Lynx?” Damara asked, cramming as much hostility into her voice as she could.
The reddish female narrowed her eyes, matching Damara’s scorn as she answered, “You’re ally left for the kingdom after finding you were gone. It took him hours of digging at the snow to finally accept it.”
“He thinks I’m dead?” Damara was unable to hide her surprise.
“I’ve never seen that whelp so troubled,” the female replied unfeelingly.
Remorse weighed down on Damara, but she held herself straighter.
“So what do you want?” she demanded.
The dragon glowered past her feet. “What are you doing with that hatchling?”
Damara took a glance down at the little one. He was exactly where she’d placed him, fast asleep.
“What does it matter to you?” she challenged. “He isn’t yours.”
“He is one of my kind in the hands of a human,” the dragon rumbled. “I don’t settle well with him in harm’s way.”
“I heard rogues eat their young,” Damara said
. “I could just as well assume the same about you.”
The female stiffened. “I’ve killed others for committing such murderous acts,” she growled darkly. “Don’t judge us all so broadly.”
“Then we have something in common,” Damara said. “But if I wait any longer, more will die. Innocent lives.”
The female looked at her companion, who murmured something.
“What do you mean?” the female dragon asked Damara with a harshness, turning back to her.
“I have to find the Wizard.”
“The Wizard left this place when his friend nearly killed him,” the female told her, jerking her head towards the rotting dragon’s corpse.
Damara glanced past them at the decaying body.
“Where can I find him?” she urged, sensing the sky getting darker as dusk came upon them.
The female didn’t respond. Instead, the male addressed Damara for the first time.
“In the simmergrass,” he answered.
“Where is that?”
“Down this mountain range, within the Narrow Valley.”
Damara bit her lip. She’d never even heard of the Narrow Valley.
I have to get help now! Tide can’t protect all those little ones once they’ve hatched.
She knew she’d have to take risks.
“Can you take me there?”
. . .
The dragons left Damara at the edge of the simmergrass, disappearing into the dark forest without so much as a farewell. They never even told her their names.
Damara held the sleeping hatchling in her arms, staring up at the moonlit sea of reeds. Tall trees stood among them, branching out at the very tops of their smooth, skinny trunks to form a flat leafy canopy above.
The Wizard’s in there?
Damara hesitated, not sure of where to enter. The lanky simmergrass filled the entire space between two mountains, swaying in the breeze.
I’ll surely get lost.
“Hello?” she called out, stepping forward to peer inside. Nothing but layers upon layers of reeds met her eyes, but then something flitted overhead and she looked to the canopy. Little phoenixes gathered on the branches, their fiery colors dimmed by the night. She could see just well enough to know that they were watching her, feathers ruffling.
Oh, no…Damara backed up a bit, eyes fastened on them. She remembered how they had attacked Tide in the fall, driving their beaks for his eyes. They could do a lot more harm to me than him.
Ominously, the small birds took to the air, flocking above her head. Unlike the first time with Tide, they were intensely quiet.
She ran into the simmergrass, hoping that it would hide her. Immediately, a collective shrill sounded behind her as the birds followed.
“Help!” she cried aloud, moving as fast as she could without dropping the hatchling. Dead stalks nearly tripped her. Standing stalks lashed her face. She lost herself to motion- swaying reeds, swishing dress, soaring birds, running feet.
Then she skittered into a clearing. Before her, reeds were pulled into one giant sphere, a woven nest far taller than she.
Sitting at the base of it was a man.
Holding a torch.
Damara immediately thought of Xander in her dream and sprinted over to the man, who stood to meet her. Instinctively, she jumped behind him, huddling there as the phoenixes dove with fierce shrieks. The stranger warded them off, or rather calmed them, waving his torch until they returned to the canopy, settling as peacefully as sparrows in the branches.
But panic still had its grip on Damara. In her mind, she was killing Chasm again. She was falling, drowning, fleeing. It all pressed in on her, choking her.
Gasping for breath with heart racing, she barely even saw the man kneel before her.
“Eat these.”
Damara yelped, clutching the hatchling closer as the man touched her free arm. Gently, he closed her trembling fingers over a small handful of tiny round things.
“They’ll help.”
Damara focused her frightened eyes on the man. His eyes were mostly hidden, his hair long and shaggy, his beard overgrown.
“Are you the Wizard?” she implored and he nodded.
“I- I need your help-” she spouted urgently, but he stopped her.
“Eat these,” he repeated, tapping her closed hand. “You need to calm down.”
Damara opened her fingers, revealing three yellow berries. “Wh-what are they?”
“Tygen berries.”
The Wizard had a sullen tranquility about him that Damara found familiar.
If Tide trusts him, she determined, then I can too. She lifted the berries to her mouth, chewing them doubtfully, ready to spit them out.
The berries were awfully sweet. As she sucked on the syrupy mush of their flesh, she felt herself begin to relax. By the time she swallowed, a coolness had descended on her like a splash of cold water.
Taking a deep breath, she stood up with the Wizard. She met his eyes, or what she could see of them behind his veil of hair.
The light of his torch flickered. Damara noticed a beetle dart into the folds of his tattered clothes. He had a satchel slung over his shoulder, its leather flap offset to show a number of oddities stashed inside.
“Now- what’s wrong?” the Wizard asked.
Damara could hear the bleakness of his voice. She felt so calm that it took her a moment to think back on what she’d been panicking about.
Chasm and the sea serpent.
Tide and the clutch.
Before she could speak, however, Ivory opened her mouth, imitating Tyrone’s voice as she said, “Welcome back, River.”
The Wizard turned his head to the wyvern, then looked back at Damara. “You’re a friend of Tyrone’s?”
Damara thought for a moment of his words before nodding faintly.
What did I need to say? Oh, yes…
“Tide told me to find you. He’s guarding a clutch from a sea serpent-”
“Tide’s in the Earthen Cauldron?” the Wizard interrupted her, sounding concerned.
Dreamily, Damara readjusted the hatchling in her arms. She knew time was of the essence but failed to feel the urgency. Those tygen berries must have magic inside of them…
She asked, “Could you use your magic to tell Tyrone where Tide is?”
With a sigh, the Wizard muttered, “Magic doesn’t work like that.”
What kind of wizard are you? she questioned him silently, but told herself to pay attention to the matter at hand.
The hatchling sneezed in her arms and mucus slimed her dress.
Disgusting. Damara was distracted yet again.
“Send Ivory for him,” the Wizard told her.
With one leisurely hand, she peeled the wyvern from her shoulder and stated, “She’s crippled.”
The Wizard regarded the crooked body and patted down his clothes, as though searching for something. At least four beetles fell from him, landing on their backs with legs waggling in the air. One managed to get back up, marching over to the strange man’s foot to climb on again.
The Wizard found what he was looking for inside his satchel, a small glass vial. He held it up to the torch, gazing at the thin orange liquid that sloshed inside.
“Firesap fruit transformation magic,” he murmured. “Gave some to my sister once. Hold this.” Taking the wyvern from Damara, he passed her the torch.
With the dragon hatchling shifted over to her hip, she accepted it and stared intently into its flame.
There was a small popping sound as the Wizard casually removed the vial’s cork with his teeth. Damara tore her eyes away from the lit torch to watch him hold the glass up to Ivory.
“What are you doing?” she asked softly.
Without answering, he poured a small amount of light orange liquid into the wyvern’s open mouth. Ivory swallowed, red eyes sparkling in the flame of the torch. A shudder ran visibly down the creature’s spine and she spread her white wings, flapping them.
/> “You healed her?” Damara asked, her amazement suppressed by the berries.
“The magic restored her body,” the Wizard somberly confirmed as Ivory cocked her head at a beetle on his shoulder, devouring it in the blink of an eye. “Tell her what to say.” The Wizard held the wyvern up to Damara’s face.
Ivory peered into Damara’s eyes and flexed her wings.
“Um…” Damara droned, unsure. “Tyrone- I found Tide and the clutch in a water cave…but there’s a sea serpent trying to eat them…so please come quickly.”
What else happened? She felt like there was something more she ought to say and she closed her eyes, searching.
“Oh.” It came back to her.
“And I killed Chasm.”
She nodded to the Wizard and he boosted Ivory into the air, commanding, “Tyrone.”
In a flash of wings, Ivory took flight and was soon swallowed up by darkness. Damara stared after her, knowing she should feel relieved.
Well, that’s done…Now I should…go back to Tide.
“Will you come with me to the- the Earthen Cauldron?” she asked the Wizard.
The Wizard agreed, pushing reeds out of the way so as not to burn them with his torch. Damara followed with the drowsy hatchling held up to her chest.
Chapter 30