The Dragon and the Hoard
Relief thrilled through Nathaniel as he caught sight of Violet through the open doors.
Jerome had found her before it was too late, and she’d bought enough time talking to Sedgwick for them to catch up, just as they’d planned.
There was so much he still needed to say to her, but he felt more hopeful than he had an hour ago that they would have time for that conversation.
And now here he stood next to his sister, who wielded her violin like a weapon, and Quinn, whose bees buzzed around her like a cyclone.
Fallon, who held fire in their hands like clay.
Even Bartleby, who was strapped to Jerome’s back with a dozen knives, real and improvised, clutched in his vines.
Nathaniel felt his chest swell with a pride and loyalty he’d never felt while in the Crucible.
“Idiots,” screeched Sedgwick, pulling on a rope behind him. The curtain above them shuddered, caught in a web of vines clearly grown by Violet. Still, powder spilled from the edges, casting the room in a cloud of smoke.
“Don’t touch it!” Nathaniel cried, and hurled a vial toward the trap on the ground in front of Sedgwick. Sure enough, it exploded with force and even more smoke.
“Watch out for Peri!” Violet yelled when Fallon followed up with a ball of fire, aiming for the unnervingly coffin-like box on the platform behind Sedgwick.
Their magic was weak these days, as they’d explained to Nathaniel, so they’d filled clay bottles with accelerant.
Fallon only had to light the hemp cord that protruded from one side and throw it in Sedgwick’s direction.
“Aye, watch your own end!” Fallon responded with a wink, jovial as ever. “I’ll bet you a dozen of Guy’s pastries my aim’s better than yours.”
Nathaniel looked for Peri and found the rock goblin in a heap on the ground.
Sedgwick had recovered from the shock of being faced with a crowd of angry villagers and was scrambling to protect the ritual circle as well as the sinister coffin at its center.
He wore his own bandolier of bottles and vials, and he plucked one from its bindings to throw at Violet.
It shattered before her feet and an orange mist rose in the air, but she summoned a wall of leafy, thorny plants to block her from the mist. The vines froze in place, hardening with a loud crackle.
“You can’t try that one again!” she called to him. “I know your tricks now, Sedgwick.”
“Keep him distracted,” Nathaniel told Quinn, who nodded and sent her bees in an angry cloud toward the other alchemist. “Pru! How are we doing?”
His twin smiled a smile he’d seen a million times throughout their childhood when she was about to loose a prank on him or their parents and couldn’t hold in her excitement. “Should be any moment.”
“Good. You know what to do.” As Pru tucked her violin under her chin, Nathaniel selected another vial and threw it to the ground before Sedgwick’s feet.
A cloud of viscous, horrible-smelling smoke arose, clinging to the first living organism it found—in this case, Sedgwick.
The other alchemist shrieked, and Nathaniel took off toward Peri as Pru drew her bow across the strings and began to play.
He had an entire arsenal’s worth of military secrets at his disposal when it came to alchemical weapons, but his options had been extremely limited due to time.
Still, he’d managed a few quick and dirty tricks.
Sedgwick was no idiot, though—he’d realize in a moment or two that the smoke only hovered in the air from chest level up.
Before he could duck free, Nathaniel swept the motionless rock goblin into his arms, noting the gaping hole in his chest where the peridot had once been.
He tucked Peri beneath his arm and bolted for the wall of vegetation Violet had created.
“Incoming!” He grabbed hold of the wall’s edge and swung himself behind it, coming face-to-face with Violet for the first time since the disastrous fight in her shop. “Hello.”
“Hi,” said Violet, avoiding his eyes as she took Peri from him.
“You know, despite being made of literal stone, he’s still heavier than I anticipated,” Nathaniel quipped, catching his breath.
Violet scanned Peri for injuries, grimacing at the hole where the stone once was. “Do you think he’ll be alright?”
“I hope so.” At the edge of the room, Pru coaxed a lively tune from her instrument as if she were onstage at Market Day or dancing between tables at the Claw I know you won’t kill me.”
“No,” she said coldly. One of her vines crept over Sedgwick’s mouth, silencing him. “I won’t have to.”
A rumbling sound echoed through the large room, and Nathaniel turned to his sister. “Pru, now!” he yelled, and she dropped her instrument, her job done.
“I was totally right, by the way!” she called out in the silence that fell over them all, her voice echoing. “The acoustics in here are great!”
The rumbling grew louder, like percussion to the absent tune, and all at once, a massive creature burst through the open doorway, taking part of the wall with it.
Nathaniel had seen a couple dozen rock goblins at once who sometimes combined to make a bigger form.
But this must have been the entire slide, and it was enormous.
The rock goblins took the shape of a four-legged creature that towered over everything else, dripping dust and bits of gravel from their joints as they moved as one.
Nathaniel ducked to avoid a bit of plaster that flew at him as the rock slide spread a pair of giant, stony wings, and his eyes widened as he realized what it was, the way its long neck swept from side to side, seeking the source of the music the rock goblins had followed here.
There were no eyes in its head, but the shape of the creature was clear.
Together, the rock goblins had formed a dragon.
“Got him?” Nathaniel called out.
“Aye!” Quinn yelled back.
“All good!” Violet added, her hands in front of her as she added more and more of her plants to Sedgwick’s bindings.
“Pru!” Nathaniel yelled again. His sister danced toward the front of the room, brought her instrument back into position, and began to play again. The rock goblins, entranced by her music as always, followed like a giant, unwieldy moth fluttering after a lantern.
“He’s the one,” Violet cried, sparing a hand to point at Sedgwick, who had begun to struggle furiously against his bindings. Her voice echoed through the hall. “He hurt Peri! He has the Eye of the Serpent!”
The stone dragon roared, a great groan like the clearing of a pipe, and as its head whipped to the side, Nathaniel caught a glimpse of one of the dragon’s empty eye sockets. A missing piece, just about the size of Peri.
His hunch had been correct, but the truth of what he was looking at struck Nathaniel like, well, a stone.
Peri didn’t just have the Eye by chance—Peri had it because the Eye was part of the dragon.
Years of storytelling wound complicated paths through his thoughts.
The witch and the warrior. The dragon turned to stone. It was all real.
And so the rock goblins, like the dragon they had once been, narrowed their gaze on the hapless alchemist who held the Eye of the Serpent.
It barreled forward, as unstoppable as a boulder crashing down the mountainside, and smashed the horrible metal coffin beneath its mighty feet.
As one, the rock goblin dragon surrounded Sedgwick, sweeping its tail around to trap him.
It roared again, a cacophony of scraping, croaking sounds that hurt Nathaniel’s ears, and reared its head, smashing through the rafters with a massive crack that shook the castle.
“We have to get out of here!” Nathaniel cried, looking around them. “It’ll take care of Sedgwick and will make sure Peri is okay!”
“Come on!” Violet cried to their companions. She swept an arm toward the door just in time for them to see the crack in the ceiling spread like forked lightning and take down a rafter. The huge beam of wood, and the chandelier connected to it, crashed to the ground, blocking the exit.
Nathaniel looked at Violet in horror.
They were trapped.