As they rode the current downstream, the dragon flew toward them from behind, its toothy maw spitting sizzling wads of fire. “I will ensure that you make haste!” With its forelegs extended, it grabbed the back edge of the raft with its claws. Beating its wings, it propelled them forward, faster and faster.
While Jason continued breathing into Elyssa’s mouth, the sound of rushing water reached his ears. As the rush became a roar, the current grew swifter. A rising spray appeared in the distance. He glanced at the steering pole lying on the raft. He couldn’t stop breathing into Elyssa to battle the dragon or try to halt their momentum. She would die. Only one option remained—ride it out.
Jason hugged Elyssa close, still breathing into her. The raft hurtled toward the falls. The front tipped over the precipice and stopped. Below, the water cascaded down a steep slope of grass and rocks, including boulders partially hidden by violent splashes.
“Leave us be!” Koren shouted, her voice failing. “You must … pay heed to me!”
“As you wish.” The dragon lifted off, calling as it ascended, “Pay heed to yourself, Starlighter. You are weaker than you realize.”
Two
As water gushed from behind, the raft teetered in place. Spray cascaded all around. Koren pointed at the sky. “Look!” A different dragon flew northward, carrying a human in its claws. “He’s taking Yeager to your army.”
Jason pushed another breath into Elyssa. Her chest lifted, then settled again to a motionless state. “We have to warn them!” His arms trembling, he grabbed the steering pole, lurched to the front, and jammed it against the rock. Pulling against the pole with his full weight, he battled the jamming stone and the pounding current.
Finally, the raft broke free and surged backwards several feet. With water splashing and sloshing over her body, Koren snatched the supply bags and held them in her lap. Jason threw the pole down, hooked elbows with Koren, and scooped Elyssa into his arms.
As the raft again reached the precipice, this time missing the stone, Jason leaned backwards. “Here we go!”
The raft slid onto the slope and streaked down the rushing current. Bumping and bouncing, Koren clutched a side while Jason tightened his grip on her arm and Elyssa’s body. Water crashed over the front and splashed into their faces, veiling the path ahead and the sky above. As the raft rattled, the logs shook against the binding vines, as if ready to fly apart at any moment.
A boulder protruded straight ahead, only seconds away. Still clutching both girls, Jason lunged over the edge of the raft and slammed against a flat stone just inches below the river’s surface. The force ripped Koren from his grasp. With Elyssa clutched tightly in his arms, he tumbled down the slope, turning somersaults in the shallow water and bouncing against the riverbed again and again.
Finally, he slid to a stop on his bottom, Elyssa in his lap, and the water beating against his lower back. While thrusting on her chest with one hand, he pinched her nose with the other and blew into her mouth, once … twice … three times. Come on! Breathe!
Still carrying the supply bags, Koren sloshed toward him from downstream. With every step, she teetered back and forth, and water dripped from her hair and her sagging cloak.
Jason pressed his lips over Elyssa’s once again and blew hard. She coughed, sending a stream of water into his mouth. He pulled back a few inches. A strand of saliva still connected their lips. She spat, breaking the connection, then heaved in a constricted breath, making a wheezing noise as precious air squeezed into her lungs.
Koren splashed to a stop at his side. “Give her room! Let her sit up!”
Jason slid Elyssa from his lap and helped her sit in the water. While blocking the current with his body, he slapped her on the back. She drew in breath after breath, each one easier than the last, and each exhale finishing with another cough. Wet, stringy hair covered her eyes. Her head continued swaying as if she were bouncing on a stormy sea. “I think—” She coughed again. “I think we made it.”
Jason swallowed a hard lump. His heart pounded, and his own breathing rattled. “I guess you could say that.”
He rose to his feet and helped her stand in the calf-deep water. Pieces of the raft floated by—broken logs, some with torn vines still attached. Her clothes clung to her body, outlining her rail-thin frame, the result of weeks in the dungeon. “Good thing I found that lever,” Elyssa said as she pushed her hair out of her face.
“Right.” Koren, her voice weak, arched her brow at Jason. “Good thing.”
Elyssa glanced at Jason and Koren in turn. “You two look awfully worried about something.”
Koren narrowed her eyes. “You act like dying happens to you all the time.”
“Dying?” Elyssa blinked rapidly. “What do you mean? I just swallowed some water the wrong way.”
Koren shook her head. “Your heart stopped for a long time. You weren’t breathing.”
Elyssa’s skin paled. “Did you revive me?”
“Jason did.” Koren nodded at him. “I helped, but he did most of it.”
“Not really,” Jason said. “Koren showed me how.”
Elyssa stared at Jason, tears trickling down her cheeks and blending with the river water. She threw her arms around him and held him close. Her body trembling, she whispered into his ear. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He returned the embrace. With wet clothes pressing against his skin, the contact raised a chill.
Jason pulled back and brushed a wet strand of hair from Elyssa’s eyes. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m okay.” Offering a weak smile, she grabbed a fistful of hair and began wringing it out. “I mean, I nearly died. Give a girl a break.”
After tossing her wet hair over her shoulder, Elyssa took one of the supply bags from Koren. Water streamed from the bottom. “I guess the food will be all right. Just soaked.”
“Probably.” Jason looked at his boots through the river’s clear water. “While you two get to dry land, I’ll look for my sword.”
He slogged upstream to the boulder where the raft met its demise. Near the upstream side, the blade lay in the bending grass, gleaming in the sunlight. He snatched it up by the hilt and hustled back to the girls, who now stood at the river’s edge, squeezing out the edges of their clothes.
He propped the sword against his shoulder and surveyed the river upstream and downstream. They had tumbled into a meadow and now stood in a field of grass and flowers. The river curved toward the west where it spilled into its original north-flowing channel and proceeded on its way at a pedestrian pace. To the south of that spillway, the old channel carried only a small stream that originated from a rocky slope. From that section of the slope, lying to the west of their wild ride, water trickled from several holes, giving evidence that the river once exited from those springs, the river’s escape route when the wall blocked the flow. “It looks pretty calm downstream.”
Koren gazed at the sky, her face paler than ever. “And no sign of either dragon. Maybe things will get easier for a while.”
Elyssa squinted. “Either dragon?”
“We saw a dragon carrying Yeager while you were napping.” Jason winked. “Let’s get going. Maybe Koren will tell the tale, and you can see what happened.”
After taking the second bag of supplies from Koren, he followed the edge of the river, Koren to his left and Elyssa to his right. Their wet clothes swept through calf-high grass and flowers, raising a sweet fragrance from the red and yellow four-leaf-clover-shaped blossoms.
When they reached the river’s original channel, Jason stopped and scanned the forest beyond the opposite bank, his sword hilt tight in his grip. Maybe the dragon carrying Yeager hid within, waiting for the army from Major Four to arrive. If the dragon took notice of the three escaping humans, would it try to stop them? Taushin had said in the other dragons’ presence that Koren would likely overhear their plans, so if a hidden dragon recognized her, it might realize that they were on a mission to warn the sold
iers.
Elyssa and Koren joined Jason, one on each side. Elyssa slid her arm around his and leaned her head against his shoulder. “What are you thinking?”
He cocked his head to look at her, but her face stayed out of view. He whispered in reply. “The dragon that carried Yeager. We have to watch for him.”
She pulled away. Narrowing her eyes, she stared into the forest. “I sense a presence, something smaller than a dragon. Not human.”
“I know there are wolves around,” Koren said. “I was dragged through this area by the leader of a pack.”
Jason looked down at the muddy riverbank in front of his boots. Paw prints drew a line parallel to the river, pointing northward. If the wolves were smart enough to walk single file, there could be dozens. “It looks like we might have company.”
“Someone else has been here.” Elyssa pointed across the river. “I see markings in that tree, the big one closest to the bank.”
Jason set the supplies bag down and waded across the river, trudging through waist-deep water and soft sand at the bottom. When he arrived at the tree, he set the point of the sword on the mark. Someone had carved a large letter M in the trunk at about chest level. A line radiated from the center of the top of the M and pointed to the left at an angle of less than ten degrees. “It’s Adrian’s mark,” he called. “He was here early in the morning, just after sunrise.”
“Today?” Koren asked from the opposite side.
Jason shifted the point to the base of the M. Tiny spheres rested within the notch. He dug them out with a finger and laid them in his palm, five brown kernels no bigger than grass seeds. He pivoted and looked across the river where Elyssa and Koren stood next to the supply bags, both watching with tired stares. Still wet, their shoulders slumped under the weight of their clothes. “What number day is this since we got here?” he asked.
Elyssa looked at her hand, raising a finger every few seconds until she had extended all four and a thumb. “This is day number five.”
Jason dropped the seeds to the ground. “He was here this morning.”
“Can you tell if he’s heading north?”
He looked again. A line protruded from the bottom-right leg of the M, pointing to the right. “He is.”
“Alone?” Elyssa asked.
Laughing under his breath, he looked across the river again. “How much do you think I can tell from a mark in a tree?”
Elyssa wrinkled her nose. “I thought you Masters boys might have a whole language made out of tree carvings.”
“He was not alone.” Koren raised her wet hood over her head. Her green eyes sparkled brightly. “He is accompanied by friends.”
Adrian appeared, carving the bark with the point of a sword. Semitransparent and completely white, he looked like the ghostly girls who lived in the Northlands. Wallace stood nearby, gripping the handles of a cart that held someone inside. A girl stood next to Wallace, and a bald child, perhaps another girl, sat on the ground in front of the cart.
Adrian blew into the carving, scattering dust. He and Wallace spoke to each other, but no sound came from their lips. Adrian poured seeds from his palm into the carving and kept his fingertip over them until they stayed in place. He studied his mark for a moment, then marched northward. Wallace pushed the cart behind Adrian, and the two girls shuffled along at each side, their heads and shoulders low.
As the cart passed, Jason looked inside. Partially covered by an animal skin, Marcelle lay curled on a bed of straw. Her eyes were open in an unblinking stare. A few seconds later, the entire company faded and vanished from sight.
Jason turned slowly toward the girls. Koren knelt at the edge of the river, shivering. Elyssa crouched next to her and hugged her from the side. With the Exodus disease ravaging Koren’s body, the effort to tell a tale had likely sapped her reserves.
Sword still in hand, he hurried across the river and laid an arm over Koren’s shoulders, linking arms with Elyssa. “Do you have the strength to go on?”
She nodded, her face locked in a grimace. “I don’t think I have a choice.”
“True, but we’re still a long way from the Northlands.” Jason looked at the river. Pieces of the broken raft drifted by, some still bound together. If only the raft had survived, they could ride the current at least as far as the waterfall.
“I sense something new.” Elyssa closed her eyes. “In the forest. I think it’s a dragon. He’s perplexed. Uncertain as to what to do.”
“How close is he?” Jason asked.
“It’s hard to tell. I normally can’t sense a living presence outside of hearing range, so it’s probably pretty close, but since a dragon is so big, maybe it’s farther than I think.”
Jason combed the forest with his gaze. Maybe the dragon carrying Yeager could be persuaded to carry Koren instead, but could she summon the energy to hypnotize it? How far might it be willing to take her?
Cupping a hand around his mouth, Jason shouted, “Dragon! If you can hear me, come forth. I want to speak to you.”
“Jason! What are you doing?”
“Skipping steps.” He tossed his sword to the side. “I am now unarmed. I know you are contemplating your next move. Come to the riverbank. Maybe we can help each other.”
A rustle disturbed the silence, then a rumbling growl penetrated the trees from deep within the forest. “How do you know what I am contemplating?”
“You are carrying Yeager, the diseased human, in an attempt to infect the approaching army. Yet you have stopped here in the forest, and you’re wondering what to do next. My guess is that Yeager has died, and you’re unsure if he is contagious any longer.”
“You are perceptive … for a vermin.” The rustling continued. A human flew out from between two trees and landed on the opposite bank. When he flopped over face-up, his diseased arm slapped the water. Yeager was barely recognizable. Sores covered his face, and most of his hair had fallen out, revealing ulcers on his scalp and a missing ear.
Elyssa gasped. Koren swallowed but said nothing.
The dragon pushed himself between two trees and shuffled closer. His head swayed at the end of his curled neck, and his wings fluttered, half-extended. When he stopped, he grabbed Yeager’s torn shirt with a foreclaw and lifted him a few inches. “He died only moments ago. The disease is hungry. It is merciless.”
Jason glanced at Koren. She had pulled her hood low over her eyes, making her expression difficult to read. So far, she had stayed silent. He would have to persuade the dragon himself.
“The disease kills quickly,” Jason said, “so you need another victim, someone who is still alive.”
The dragon’s brow slanted. “Why would a human suggest a living victim to be used to infect other humans?”
Jason touched the top of Koren’s head. “We hope to find a cure in the Northlands. She will die soon if we don’t get help.”
“Yours is a believable answer.” The dragon dropped Yeager back to the ground. “Now tell me why I should help you spoil our best defense against the human army that seeks to invade our domain?”
“Unless you deliver a living victim of the disease, you can’t be sure of fulfilling your mission, and returning to Taushin without that assurance might be fatal to you. While you hope for infection, we hope for a cure. If we are successful, which is far from guaranteed, that won’t be your fault. You will have accomplished your task.”
“How do you hope to find a cure? If I deposit her in the path of an advancing army south of the Northlands, she will not reach the destination you desire.”
“Wherever you wish to leave her, we will take her the rest of the way, even if it means exposing the army to the disease. So we need you to carry all three of us on your back and—”
“No.”
“No?” Jason drew his head back. “Then how will you deliver an infected human if you don’t take her?”
“I will take her. Alone.” The dragon beat his wings and lunged toward them, his foreclaws extended. He dug them into
Koren’s shoulders and zoomed upward.
Koren cried out. Jason leaped and swiped a hand at her foot but missed. Within seconds the dragon ascended above the treetops and sailed toward the north, Koren dangling underneath.
Jason snatched up his sword and chopped down on a branch floating by in the water. “I can’t believe it! What a fool I am!”
“Stop it!” Elyssa grabbed his arm and gave it a shake. “Don’t punish yourself. It was a good idea.”
“Not good enough. I didn’t think he would —”
“It doesn’t matter.” She pulled him into the river and began slogging across. “Let’s get moving. He has a huge head start.”
Jason followed her lead to the opposite bank and then northward along the edge. “Why this side?”
Now jogging steadily, she pointed at the eastern bank. “The wolves are over there.” She then pointed to the west. “Your brother’s mark was over here. Maybe he’ll give us more clues.”
“Good thinking, as usual.” Jason caught up and kept pace at her side. “There’s no way we can catch up with him, and it’ll be dark soon.”
“I know,” she said, her eyes staying fixed on the path.
Still gripping his sword tightly, Jason said nothing more, glancing between the muddy, root-infested ground underneath and the trees to his left. So far no wolf tracks, marks on trees, or human prints appeared. Since Marcelle’s cart probably would have bogged down in the mud, Adrian must have traveled in the forest.
Ahead, the northbound stream would soon tumble into a chasm. They would have to cross before that point and travel to the chasm’s east before finding the southbound stream and following it northward. Many miles lay between them and Koren, and not a single one would be easy, especially after nightfall.
Standing in the forest clearing on Major Four, Edison shed his cloak and laid it on the ground. As he drew his sword, he let his eyes dart from one section of the forest to the other. With Solarus high in the sky, light streamed through the branches above, providing plenty of illumination. No one could sneak up without warning. Just a few steps away across the portal, the same sun hovered at a similar angle, though it should have been near evening on Starlight. For some reason, Solarus never seemed to set in the Northlands.