Chapter 10 #2
The minute they touched down at Mikaela’s side, though, the dragon reared up and flung both Kasi and Shadow free.
The two of them exploded into shadows that streamed away from Nika, who slammed to the ground with a thunderous roar, then calmly lowered to the ground so that Mikaela could clamber onto her back.
The look on Mikaela’s face was one of sheer determination as Nika took off like a bullet.
“How are they doing?” Elliot plopped down beside me in the bleachers.
“Not bad. I thought you’d be waiting for Mikaela by the shore.”
“Nah, she’ll need time to wash the scent of the dragon away. Told her I’d meet her here instead.”
“You do realize she’s riding a female, right?”
“So?” Elliot scowled. “She’s still a dragon and she’s carrying my mate when that’s my job.”
“Right.” It made no sense to me that Mikaela was terrified of the wild dragons, yet experienced no fear when flying on Elliot, whose dragon form was at least three times the size of the wild ones.
“It’s because they’re wild!” Mikaela always exclaimed when I pointed this out.
“There it is,” Elliot said, pointing down at the 3D model the professors had set up in the arena for spectators to watch. “That’s one of the obstacle courses from Extreme Sports.”
Far below us, 3D projections of Mikaela and Nika barreled into the first part of the obstacle course, thundering through a maze that appeared to be shifting, its walls moving in obvious attempts to trap or confuse the dragon.
Nika was good, though.
Really good.
She hurtled over and under obstacles, veering wide of nets that would have ensnared her and booby traps that would have released gases or darts to put her to sleep.
All Mikaela had to do was hang on and Nika took care of the rest.
By the time Nika hit the shoreline and plunged into the waters, everyone in the stands was cheering.
“She’s doing really well, yeah?” Elliot asked.
“Way better than any of the other teams did,” I agreed as Mikaela dove free of Nika and Vorzak exploded from the water, his snakes leading the way, one long serpent hooking around Nika in a hold I recognized and yanking Vorzak on board.
The very next moment, Nika plunged into the water and we lost sight of the two of them for a few moments as the 3D model adjusted itself to the water course.
When the image cleared, we could see Nika as she bulleted through the water, entering an underwater maze I recognized from Extreme Water Sports Ed.
She barreled through the maze so fast, the shifting seaweed and moving walls had no chance of trapping her.
Then they were in the underground ship, hurtling past the sleeping water dragon so fast, he barely even stirred.
“Wow,” Elliot said.
I just nodded. I knew what was coming up next and even if they survived the water serpent, I wasn’t sure how they were going to get past the water sprites.
The water serpent climbed over the top of the ship a moment later, but Nika and Vorzak were long gone.
“Damn, she’s fast,” Elliot said.
I nodded. “She might even be faster in the water than she is on land.”
A few moments later, they were hurtling over the giant sand castle and sprites swarmed the two of them, completely obscuring our view.
It took a few moments to understand what was happening.
“Are the sprites riding the dragon?” Elliot exclaimed.
I grinned. “They are. I should have thought of that. Sprites love a good ride. They’re so playful. If you just play with them, they’ll let you pass without any trouble at all.”
Lesson learned.
Every once in a while, you just have to stop and have some fun.
Play with the sprites.
“You’d better get a move on,” Elliot said.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Damn. Looks like I’m going to have to do something after all.” I raced down the steps, and toward the center of the arena.
I barely made it in time.
Inside the miniature 3D model, deep in the ocean, Nika barreled upward.
As she breached the surface, huge waves of water surged outward and then she was free, lunging upward, each flap of her wings sending water spraying everywhere, drenching the spectators in the stands.
When she reached sufficient height, she flung Vorzak from her back with a twist and a roar of rage.
Vorzak went flying, but Kasi was there to catch him with her shadows, which was a good thing because I was busy splashing through the model, eyes on Nika high above.
She twisted midair and came hurtling downward, headed back for the ocean model.
I flung out my voice, commanding the waters.
They came to my call, surrounding me and flinging me up, so that for one glorious moment, I was airborne, flying toward Nika as she hurtled back down.
As she flew by in a rush of wind, I manage to hook both arms around her neck and the water did the rest, slamming me up, then back down onto her back.
Before I could even register the pain of that move, we were plunging deep into the ocean, the whirlpool just beneath the surface of the 3D model flinging us back into the midst of sprites.
They immediately surrounded us, hitching rides as we barreled through the ocean back toward their home.
Over the castle we swam, with a wave to the sprites, who darted free with gleeful joy, then back to the shipwreck, where the water serpent and water dragon waited impatiently.
Nika hurtled past the water serpent, who whirled and snapped at us with her three heads, but she missed and then we were past her, swimming toward that hole in the ship, where the dragon waited.
Nika bellowed something at the dragon and he stumbled back in surprise, then astonishingly, backed away from our entry point.
Nika dove through the ceiling down into the bowels of the ship, swam through it and out another hole into that underwater maze with its shifting walls and ceiling of seaweed.
Long moments later, Nika exploded from the depths of the maze and hurtled upward toward air again.
Breaching the surface, she climbed high only to turn and hurtle back toward land.
We raced across fields of flowers, then thundered through another maze with shifting walls and dangers everywhere.
We burst free from that maze and launched sky high once more, barreling through obstacles mid-air, avoiding nets, booby traps and more, until finally, we broke free into wide open skies, and racing across them with a bellow of sheer joy, we headed back toward the arena.
Rather than fly to the center of the arena and land, Nika flew around the perimeter, once, twice, three times.
It was during those three tours high above the arena to the sound of crowds cheering that I finally understood why Nika had allowed us to fly The Gauntlet successfully.
I leaned forward and murmured in her ear, “You fraud. You’ve been in total control this entire time. I guess you wanted to win more than you wanted to toss the gorgon off your back, huh?”
She let out a snort, tossed her head, then banked and headed for the entrance to the arena.
It was a narrow entrance, not made for dragons, but Nika clearly didn’t care.
She flew us lower, lining up with the entrance, then hurtled through it, tipping to the side just enough so that both wings cleared the narrow tunnel.
We came out of the tunnel like a rock flung from a slingshot, flying just above the land, so low I was shocked we weren’t crashing, then we were landing, Nika skidding to a halt right at the center of the arena, where Vorzak, Kasi and Mikaela were all waiting.
Nika let out a roar of triumph as the crowds screamed her name.
I went to slide off her back when I happened to see Vorzak’s face.
Clearly alarmed, he raced toward me, but then, he disappeared as the shadows once more yanked me elsewhere.
We’re lost. The shadows whispered.
We’ve been lost a very long time.
We’re lost.
Come find us.
Come fight for us.
Why won’t you fight for us?
I stood in the middle of a swarm of people, so many people streaming past, their thoughts grazing mine, like tiny blurs of lightning bolting past.
We’re lost.
We’re unfound.
No one knows where we are.
We’re gone,
Gone.
Gone.
Why won’t you find us?
Even though the world was made of shadows and nothing more, the people streaming by mere ghosts of lives once lived, I felt every loss as if it was happening right then, as if the people and their lives were lost right in that moment.
Gone.
That place inside me, that place that had cracked, it gaped wide and the anguish of millions poured in.
I couldn’t contain it all, so as the shadows came for me, as Lydrel Zowen came for me, I opened my mouth and I sang to him the melody of his life, the melody of his legacy.
I sang the song of loss, pouring all the anguish and grief millions of people had felt during his rampage through the realms.
The Shadow Realm itself shook and buckled as my voice exposed the cracks at its center, the souls it was still eating to this day.
A roar I recognized.
The roar of a madman.
Of a killer.
Of a man who’d loved his mate too much to live without her and not become a monster.
“I see you!” I shouted into the abyss. “And so does Celia!”
The roar increased in volume and the dragon we all feared appeared in streams of shadow. “Do not speak her name,” he hissed at me.
I didn’t bother to respond.
Instead, I flung my voice out, once more singing the melody of a million losses, but this time adding in the horror of seeing the one you love descend into darkness.
With a roar of rage, Zowen flung me from the Shadow Realm.
Again.
I hit the ground hard and rolled over with a groan.
“I’m getting really tired of this,” I muttered as Vorzak helped me sit up, The Hissies petting me frantically. “I’m okay,” I told them as I struggled to my feet.
The Hissies weren’t particularly interested in helping me stand or walk as they writhed around me, petting me, wrapping my legs, nesting in my hair, and generally making nuisances of themselves.
Understanding they were simply frantic with worry, as was Vorzak, I pet them and dropped kisses on their heads, crooning softly to them, as Vorzak seethed in frustration at my back.
Soothing him would take a lot more time than soothing The Hissies and would go better if it was accomplished in privacy.
Unfortunately, it took time for the confusion to die down and still more time for me to share what had happened in the Shadow Realm with everyone.
“He’s getting stronger,” Headmistress Blackthorn said soberly.
“What makes you think so?” I asked.
Kasi was the one who answered. “In the past, I’ve been able to bring people back from the Shadow Realm because I could sense and find them anywhere there.
The last two times you’ve been taken, though, I haven’t sensed you anywhere.
I think he’s somehow figured out how to hide people in the shadows. ”
“That’s not good,” Vorzak rumbled, the first time he’d spoken since I’d been taken. He hadn’t moved from my side since, his arms and snakes wrapped around me, holding me close.
“It’s beginning to feel hopeless,” Mikaela said and I saw on her face that she was coming to understand the unthinkable decision the Supernatural Council had made.
If it was hopeless for us and we knew who Zowen was, how much worse had it been in the past, when he’d been a killer in the shadows no one could identify?
“I think my voice hurts him,” I said in an attempt to offer some hope. “It’s why he keeps throwing me out of the Shadow Realm. At least, that’s my best guess.”
“Your voice has power,” Blackthorn said. “It’s the gift of the sirens.”
I nodded. “I’m not sure how that helps though.”
“Every gift helps,” she said, “especially those we can wield as weapons.”
“Except he keeps taking us by surprise,” Jahrdran said. “We can never predict when he’s going to attack.”
“And even if we could, we still have no idea how to stop him,” Mikaela said.
“Yeah.” Kasi sighed. “The problem is figuring out how to cage a shadow.”
And that was how our final class of Dragon Riding 101 ended.
We won the Gauntlet, but yet another confrontation with Lydrel Zowen ended in a draw.
We still had no answers and no hope for defeating him.