Race for the Dragon Heartstone Read online

  Silver set the water jug at Nebekker’s feet. “Please tell me he’s better.”

  “Healing takes time,” Nebekker snapped. She closed her eyes, weary. “I have done what I can. We will know more in the morning. Now, sleep is the road to health for us all.”

  Silver shared a look with Mele. They had been dismissed, and all that was left to do was follow in Nebekker’s footsteps, wrap their furs and blankets tightly, and sleep off their wounds.

  * * *

  IN THE MORNING, Hiyyan was worse.

  “We have to do something, Nebekker!” Silver patted over Hiyyan’s scales, feeling the feverish heat of him. His wound oozed more than before, and his pain was greater. Silver knew this because her pain had increased, too.

  Her mind worked frantically. If Nebekker’s heartstone couldn’t heal Hiyyan, and Nebekker’s tinctures couldn’t heal Hiyyan, and strength and youth couldn’t heal Hiyyan, then what?

  “For Kirja, the heartstone is an antidote,” Silver said frantically, pacing the cave. Mele followed after her, trying to calm her down.

  Nebekker shared a look with Kirja, who was patiently sniffing Hiyyan’s wounds, performing her own health check.

  Nebekker grunted. “That’s a special case, and you know it.”

  “But then why can’t we just find a heartstone for Hiyyan?” Mele asked.

  Silver whirled around. “Mele, you’re a genius!”

  Nebekker scowled at Mele. “It’s not so easy just to find one. I’ve had mine for years, and even I’m not entirely sure about the nature of the stone or what it’s capable of.”

  Silver paused next to Hiyyan, frowning, her palms hovering over his wound. She knew dragon heartstones were mysterious objects. Little understood. Nebekker had said before that she couldn’t really even remember how she’d obtained hers. But Silver knew one thing for certain.

  “At this point, even if we got word from Ferdi, Hiyyan could never make it to the Island Nations. No. We’re going north,” Silver declared firmly. Hiyyan nodded in agreement. “For two reasons: If there’s an antidote in nature, the Watchers will know about it. They’re the closest human settlement to the Screw-Claw. Also, they’re bastions of sharing information. They’ll tell me everything they know about heartstones and how I can get one of my own.”

  Schoolchildren in the Desert Nations learned a few facts about the Watchers to go along with the strange rumors: how they were the keepers of knowledge and history, charged with sharing that knowledge freely; how they were responsible for choosing the ruler of the deserts when needed; how their Keep in the vast northern reaches was a place of political neutrality and welcomed all.

  “But what if our enemies are waiting for us there?” Mele asked.

  Silver drew her eyebrows together. No one had ever referred to Sagittaria Wonder or Queen Imea as her enemy. She didn’t like the sound of it. She hated even more the whimper of pain Hiyyan was trying to hold back, but couldn’t.

  Kirja shuffled closer, letting Hiyyan lean against her. Guilt rose in Silver’s chest. Not just her own for getting everyone into so much trouble, but a wave of emotion from … Kirja? Silver caught the mother Aquinder’s eye, but Kirja looked away quickly. She seemed to feel some responsibility for Hiyyan’s injury, as though she should have gotten to the ice cave sooner.

  “It’s a risk we have to take. Either way, the Watchers won’t turn us over to the queen. We could find shelter there while we plan our next move.”

  Mele went over to Luap, putting her arms gently around the Shorsa’s neck. “Some of us could find shelter there even longer than that. Or did you forget that I’m wanted by the queen, too?”

  The Shorsa caught Silver’s eye and raised her chin regally in the air. Even though Mele was, like Silver and Nebekker, bonded to her water dragon, Luap legally belonged to Queen Imea. When Mele decided to flee from Calidia with Silver, she became a thief.

  Silver had promised Mele freedom and safety, but she hadn’t delivered on that promise. Yet. Silver didn’t like what Mele was hinting at: that Mele and Luap would stay at the Keep even if Silver moved on.

  “We’ll have to wait,” Nebekker said, standing near the cave entrance. “An unexpected southerly wind is picking up, and it’s bringing sleet this way.”

  “Which means the path will be even more treacherous than usual,” Mele said.

  “That’s true for everyone else, too,” Silver said.

  Nebekker clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

  “We must go. Or we must resign Hi—ourselves—to dying here.” Silver jammed every possession—double-checking for her dagger—into her weather-worn leather bag, then rolled her blankets and buckled them to the harness Kirja would wear. She massaged her shoulder but couldn’t shake off the pain.

  Nebekker marched over, her long gray hair swaying, and kicked the harness across the cave floor. “Kirja and I are not going to the Keep. She’s wounded, too.”

  A quiet growl rolled from Kirja and Silver felt another wave from her, this time cold and angry. Anger toward Silver? Mele cleared her throat, looking at Kirja’s belly pointedly. The mother Aquinder’s wound had closed in the night, the long split in her skin sealed by new scales.

  Silver narrowed her eyes. “You’d leave us here to die on this mountain, just like you did your friend Arkilah?”

  In any other circumstance, Silver would have bitten her tongue until it bled before speaking to an elder with such a tone. She knew Nebekker’s abandonment of her old friend was painful history. But this was life or death, and Nebekker was simply being stubborn.

  Silver rushed on. “We have more supplies now. With trackers crawling over the mountains, which is the better option: wait to be found, or see if the Keep holds an antidote to Screw-Claw poison?”

  Nebekker cleared her throat, ready for her next argument, but she paused when Kirja craned her neck around to glare at the old woman. Hope rushed into Silver’s heart. Kirja was on her side! The two bonded elders stared each other down for several seconds. Kirja’s nostrils flared while Nebekker’s wrinkles slowly smoothed as she sat back in resignation. Kirja was, after all, Hiyyan’s mother. Silver fetched the harness and held it out to Nebekker.

  Nebekker sighed deeply, finished gathering her items, took the harness from Silver, and attached it to Kirja. “We’ll take the river up. It goes nearly as high as the Keep. Silver, you ride with Mele to alleviate the strain on Hiyyan. It’s a lot of weight for Luap, but we’ll be carrying the supplies, as well as assisting Hiyyan.”

  “As long as we’ll be back in the water,” Mele said happily.

  Nebekker took Silver’s bag and attached it to Kirja. “The freezing water.”

  “A temporary condition,” Mele said loftily. “But then, warmth! Hot food, fires, snuggling into thick blankets. Do you think there will be tea at the Watchers’ Keep? I have missed tea.”

  Nebekker hesitated. “It’s no Calidian Inn, but it’s surprisingly well-stocked.”

  Silver joined Mele at the cave entrance, pressing her shoulder against her friend’s. “Thank you, Mele. I hope there is more tea than you could drink in a lifetime.”

  Mele rewarded Silver with a smile. “How far do you think they are?”

  “The mercenaries?” Silver frowned. “It depends. We have no way of knowing when Brajon wrote his letter. They could still be at the base of the mountain or moments away.”

  “So it’s a race to the Keep,” Mele said. “Your favorite thing, Desert Fox.”

  Silver smiled at her friend. “And I race to win.”

  SIX

  As the band of six reached the riverbank, the humans climbed on the healthy water dragons and dipped into the current. The frozen layer of ice at the edge of the river crackled beneath their feet.

  Silver tucked her feet high and held onto Luap as best as she could, but two riders on the small Shorsa was awkward. She and Mele were just barely able to stay out of the water, even with Luap’s swimming as upright as she possibly could. It wouldn�
��t be long before they were soaked through and half-frozen. But it didn’t matter. Getting Hiyyan to the Keep as quickly as possible was what mattered. Silver beckoned for him to stay close to her.

  The Aquinder tucked his sore wing into his body and settled into the water. Just the little bit of movement from the cave down the slope to the river made his vision—and by extension Silver’s—blur around the edges.

  Silver sent him all the feelings of warmth and comfort she could muster. Soon, my Hiyyan.

  Traveling upriver was slow and strenuous. The current wasn’t as fast as it would be in the spring, but the water still rushed downhill to meet the lush greenery of Herd Valley before diving underground through the desert, meeting the seas past Calidia on the far end.

  Kirja looked over regularly, assessing her son’s ability to keep up. The water dragon caught Silver’s eye with a look of a shared mission.

  Must. Heal.

  Silver gritted her teeth and tried to drive her thoughts elsewhere.

  How long would it take to get to the Keep? Silver spared Nebekker a frustrated glance. She would ask the old woman, but Nebekker kept her secrets. Nebekker’s time at the Keep was shrouded in mystery, but then most everything about the Watchers was.

  Beyond that, nobody knew what else the Watchers did, how they were picked, why they didn’t also choose rulers in other regions—the Island Nations, for example, was a monarchy—and whether they really could do any number of rumored tricks: read minds, stop time, even communicate with the ancient goddesses. That last bit was something Silver had heard from a trader passing through Jaspaton years ago, but nobody believed it to be true.

  Then again, nobody had believed Aquinder existed, either.

  Silver nibbled the inside of her mouth as the roar of the river grew.

  The river banked sharply to the left, around a field of tall boulders. Luap’s muscles went taut.

  “Kccclut!” she called out.

  A barrage of white water met the group, pounding against their sides and sending them spinning.

  “Turn, Luap!” Mele yelled. She struggled to keep hold of her water dragon, and Silver struggled even harder to keep her arms around Mele. Waves leaped over boulders and slammed back into the river.

  The Shorsha waged a losing battle against the mighty flow of what Silver now realized was the main conduit down the mountain.

  “No,” Silver groaned. They’d only been on a tributary. The going would get even more strenuous from now on. Silver and Mele both leaned their bodies up-mountain, hoping their shifting weight would help Luap face the right direction once more.

  “We’re losing ground! Swim, Luap!” Mele clenched her jaw. Silver turned her face from the frigid spray that stung her eyes and lips. The river churned and forced them backward.

  “Gah!” Suddenly, Silver’s stomach rushed to her throat, and the world fell away beneath them.

  “Waaah!” Mele yelled, pointing wildly. “We’re going over a waterfall!”

  “AAIIEEE!” Silver shrieked. She caught a glimpse of Kirja rising into the air. As they were swept helplessly over the waterfall, Silver’s arms clenched around Mele, and Mele’s arms clenched around Luap’s neck. The Calidian girl’s scream was cast away into the thin mountain air.

  “Hiyyan!” Silver flung her arm out toward the Aquinder, as if she could catch him midfall.

  “Wwrraaahhrr!” Hiyyan roared as he instinctively flapped his wings, only to tip sideways when only one wing responded properly.

  Time seemed to slow, the flinging water like flashing crystals tossed into the sky, the pressure of dropping like a murderous hand pressing the life out of Silver’s chest, the battling roars—Hiyyan’s, the river’s, the air’s—exploding in Silver’s ears. And then Luap, too, tilted sideways. The last Silver saw of Hiyyan was his head hitting the swirling vortex below, followed by the rest of his body.

  “Hiyy—!” Silver’s scream was cut off as she, too, was plunged into the river.

  Silver slid down Luap’s back as the Shorsa unraveled her tail to push to the surface. Silver clung to Mele’s tunic, hoping it didn’t tear and leave her to flounder in the frigid water. She couldn’t feel her feet, her nose, the tips of her fingers. But still she held tight as Luap brought them back to the surface.

  “Help,” Silver moaned as they crested.

  “I … can’t … get hold.” Mele’s teeth chattered, and her hands slipped and slid over the makeshift reins crisscrossing Luap’s neck.

  Silver’s body quaked with cold, but she dug her hands into Luap’s side and held on. Where was Hiyyan?

  The river water was white and angry, racing over and around rapids created by boulders and downed trees.

  “Hang on!” Mele shouted.

  “I’m trying!”

  “Wrraahhrr!”

  It took a moment for Silver to realize that the next roar she heard wasn’t water, but Kirja overhead. The Aquinder’s talons hovered close to Silver in an attempt to pluck her out of the river, but Silver shook her head, droplets flinging from her hair. “Find Hiyyan!”

  “Let go, Silver!” Nebekker shouted.

  Silver flung her head back and gritted her teeth. “Hiyyan first!”

  Another drop in the river yanked Silver forward again. Pain seared across her upper shoulders, but Silver redoubled the tightness of her grip on Mele and pulled herself up Luap’s tail. The river’s pace would let up soon, wouldn’t it?

  Silver’s ankle banged against a rock, and she sucked in a breath. Her leg pulled up instinctively, tipping the weight on Luap.

  “Aaaghhh!” Mele screamed, her hands scrambling for purchase.

  “Kccclut, Kccclut,” Luap clicked. Her feet and tail circled madly to regain balance, but Silver and Mele went straight into another rock, swirled twice around a small whirlpool, and, finally, were thrown from the Shorsa’s back toward the riverbank.

  “Oomph!” Silver landed on her shoulder, crushing through a layer of thin ice. Mele tumbled farther down, her body rolling several times, before being spit out into the snow. She pushed herself up to all fours before coughing up the little food she’d eaten that morning.

  “Mele?” Silver asked weakly. Then she raised her head and sent her thoughts in another direction, scanning the river for emotion and warmth. “Hiyyan?”

  Mrraw.

  It was a delicate sound, coming from across the river, right into Silver’s heart, warming her from head to toe. Hiyyan was all right.

  “Good,” Silver croaked before letting her head hit a pillow of snow once more.

  * * *

  STAY AWAKE, SILVER.

  “Mom?”

  Get the furs around her—hurry!

  How many times did I say we shouldn’t come here?

  About as many times as I said we shouldn’t be in these horrible mountains at all.

  Quiet. Silver. Talk.

  “Hiyyan?” Silver mumbled.

  “Hiyyan’s fine. As fine as he can be. But your fingers are gray.” That was Mele, her voice thick with worry.

  “Silver,” Silver replied. “I’m Silver all over.”

  “This is no time for jokes.” She heard Mele sigh.

  A warm, velvety object nudged Silver’s cheek, and her lashes finally fluttered open. Hiyyan’s big eyes looked down at her.

  “Hello, friend,” Silver whispered, reaching up to rub his mane. Then, she glared at Nebekker. “Why didn’t you warn us about the waterfall? We weren’t even on the main river!”

  “I haven’t taken this route in many years. Landscapes shift on the mountain quicker than even desert dunes.”

  “The boulders that divided the river in two were probably part of a landslide,” Mele added. As if to prove her point, a smattering of pebbles tumbled raucously down the mountain to their left.

  Silver’s frown deepened, but she said no more.

  “You’ll ride with me,” Nebekker told Silver. “Sorry to saddle you with more weight, Kirja, but we have to keep moving. They’re here.”r />
  “Who?” Silver said, trying to sit up.

  “The mercenaries.” Mele pushed Silver’s body onto a fur and rolled it around her.

  “So quickly?” Silver remembered the feeling of being followed from the day before. Her glance shifted left to right across the silvery forests beyond the riverbanks as Mele helped Silver to her feet and deposited her on Kirja’s back. She’d assumed it had been the Screw-Claw waiting for dinner, but now it seemed more likely it was the trackers, close enough to reach out and snatch them up for Queen Imea.

  “Don’t fall off,” Mele said.

  Silver caught Hiyyan’s eye again and probed his senses. He was picking up all kinds of unfamiliar smells in the forest, but the familiarity of human scent hit her hard. They would be found soon.

  “Can you go on?” Silver asked Hiyyan, as though he had a choice.

  The Aquinder raised himself to full height, shaking his thick mane to throw off crystalline droplets of water. His muscles were taut and ready, but Silver frowned when he tried to tuck his wounded wing into his side only to have it droop uselessly, the tip dragging in the snow.

  Soon, Silver told her Aquinder. Her favorite word to him.

  Nebekker mounted behind Silver, and they pushed on, this time with all of them in the river, Kirja leading with a determination cultivated through age and endurance.

  Mele fretted over Luap. “She’s a tropical dweller. She’s not meant for these temperatures.”

  Silver overheard Mele making promises to spur her Shorsa on: roaring fireplaces, cozy blankets, dryness. They were always making promises to their water dragons, Silver and Mele and Nebekker. If only they could keep them.

  Hiyyan continued on bravely, and when he fell behind, Silver closed her eyes and, in her mind, sang to him the lullabies her mother sang to her when she was little. She sang until his body relaxed and his legs swam in a gentle but consistent rhythm.

  “Do you think they’ve been able to track us up the river?” Silver asked at one point, breaking a silence that had endured for an hour at least.