Warrior (16 page)

She leaned close to him. “Are you still with me?”

“Sort of. I can’t tell if I’m dreaming or not. For a minute I thought I was floating over a river watching Jason being attacked by wolves. It seemed so real. But a second later I was back here.” He opened his eyes wide. “Am I dreaming now?”

“No. You’re fine. But if you really were dreaming, then you couldn’t trust me when I’m saying that you’re not dreaming. Right?”

“I suppose so. But if this isn’t a dream, then you’re thinking clearly. How do you fight it so well?”

“Practice. I was chained in a dungeon for several weeks, and suffice it to say my captors weren’t the best housekeepers. So I trained myself to shut out certain input. I suppose it was a blessing that they fed me barely enough to survive.” She gave him a quizzical look. “You saw Jason?”

Wallace nodded. “He was with Koren and a man I’ve never seen before. I think Jason said his name was Uriel.”

“Uriel? Uriel Blackstone? Have you ever heard that name before?”

“No. Why?”

“I have a hunch.” Elyssa focused again on Cassabrie. Could Jason be with the real Uriel Blackstone? How could that be? Uriel Blackstone would have to be well over a hundred years old. Yet the vision had to come from a source other than Wallace’s mind. Had the energy particles provided Wallace with a view of something real? Could the Starlighter’s body be a gateway of some kind? Maybe the particles were pieces of visual reality, and her own probing abilities could search through them to see what was going on.

Elyssa blew out a sigh. There was only one way to find out. She nudged Wallace. “Stay alert. I’m going to let the influence take me. Snap me out of it in about three minutes.”

“All right. I’ll try. Don’t punch me if I have to hurt you to wake you up.”

Elyssa smiled. “I won’t. My hands are bound.”

She stared at Cassabrie’s green eyes, glassy, yet penetrating. Closing her own eyes, she probed the floating body with her mind. As the energy particles bathed her face, they drew her toward the source. Like a kite being taken by the wind, Elyssa let her mind go, hoping Wallace could keep hold of her lifeline.

She rushed to the pulsing light and splashed into its center. For a moment, brightness blinded her, but it soon cleared, giving way to a river. As if riding in a boat, she floated with the current. Trees rushed by on her left and a flower-filled meadow on her right, giving the impression of swift travel. No one spoke. Only the sound of tumbling water and rushing wind came through.

As the view bobbed and shifted, more of the panorama came in sight. She seemed to be sitting on a raft made of logs bound by vines. Jason sat near the back edge to the left, and an elderly man balanced himself at the right. With every bump, water splashed, and the two riders gripped the sides more tightly. Although both looked dirty and weary, they seemed in relatively good health. A bit of blood stained the upper part of Jason’s right sleeve, torn at the bicep, maybe the result of a recent battle. His fist and teeth were clenched. He was clearly upset.

Elyssa studied the scene. The elderly man was likely the same one Wallace had noticed. Was this Uriel Blackstone? And where was Koren?

Jason looked directly at her and said, “Okay, Cassabrie. You’re right. Tell me what we’ll find in the Northlands.”

“Elyssa!” someone hissed.

Jason and the older man began drifting away, and the river scene blurred.

“Elyssa!”

The bright light again blinded her. As she rushed back from it, Cassabrie’s body came into view, floating between the magnetic plates.

A sharp pain in her ribs snapped her to attention. Blinking, she turned to Wallace. “That was a pretty hefty jab.”

“You weren’t waking up.”

“Silence!” Thortune lumbered toward them and slapped Elyssa with a wing. The claw at the end caught her hair and jerked through it painfully. “I told you not to converse.”

As Elyssa’s eyes locked on the dragon’s, something odd happened. His countenance took on a relieved aspect, as if his brief journey to check the exit tunnel had confused him, and now he had returned to normal.

As Thortune breathed the charged air deeply, she studied his heightening satisfaction. Maybe he was chosen for this task because exposure to Cassabrie sharpened his mind instead of the opposite effect. This dragon wasn’t immune to the energy source; he was addicted to it. If he was accustomed to being absorbed in her power, what would happen to his mind if he could be persuaded to leave for more than a few minutes?

“In your great wisdom,” Elyssa said, “did you and your dragon cohorts discuss how to provide food for us or what to do about …” She searched for an impressive phrase. “About bodily waste elimination?”

“You will likely both be executed. It is inefficient to feed condemned prisoners.”

Elyssa felt Wallace flinch. The poor kid was trying to be brave, but such a menacing pronouncement would chill anyone. “Well,” she said, keeping her voice stern, “we still have bodily elimination systems to consider, and I, for one, have to use that system. I’m confident that you don’t want the odor to foul the air here. Am I correct?”

“You are. We cannot allow such odors in the Starlighter’s presence. But we have no facilities for humans in the Zodiac.”

“The tunnel to the Basilica,” Wallace said. “I saw alcoves there that will do. You can get a drone to clean it up later.”

Thortune snorted, mumbling something about troublesome human habits. “Very well. I will follow you into the tunnel, so do not think you can use this as a ploy to escape.”

Elyssa extended her hands. “Cut our bonds.”

“What?” Thortune scowled at her. “Why?”

She faked an impatient huff. “Dragons might have no problem going around naked, but we humans wear clothing that gets in the way. I can’t drop my trousers while my hands and feet are tied.”

Thortune swiped a wing claw through the rope around her wrists, then through the ankle bindings. After doing the same for Wallace, he walked toward the exit tunnel. “Stay close and silent. Remember, I can kill you quickly in a variety of ways.”

Her brain still awash in dizziness, Elyssa climbed to her feet and helped Wallace to his. When Thortune opened the wall, she glanced at the crevice where it had disappeared. What could she do to keep him from closing it? A distraction?

They marched through, Thortune leading the way. As soon as the dragon turned back toward the opening, Elyssa hurried ahead. “I’ll see you in the other tunnel,” she called behind her.

Thortune shouted, “No!” but she kept up her pace, not too fast, hoping he wouldn’t think she was trying to escape and blast her with a volley of flames, but fast enough to make him give chase.

Seconds later, a stiff wind blew her hair, and a shove from behind knocked her forward. She stumbled and landed on all fours.

“Foolish girl!” Thortune said as he settled next to her. “What were you trying to do?”

Elyssa suppressed a smile. Her plan to keep the wall open had worked. “I told you I have to go.”

Wallace arrived and helped her up. “She’s just like that,” he explained. “She does things without warning. It’s hard to get used to.”

“She had better alter her ways,” Thortune said. “The next rash move will be met with fire.”

Now walking with Thortune in front, they entered the room with the sharp stakes. The ceiling, which doubled as a floor for the corridor above, was closed, leaving the room dim. A single lantern at the entrance to the Basilica tunnel provided the only light.

Thortune slowed and looked both ways. With his ears and wings twitching, he seemed nervous, confused. When he found his new heading, a straight path toward the Basilica tunnel, they passed by the stakes.

Elyssa dropped back an extra step or two, snatched up one of the stakes she had broken, and hid it behind her. Wallace quickly shifted between her and the dragon.

As Thortune continued walking, he curled his neck back and stared at her. “What are you doing this time?”

She pushed the point of the stake into the waistband at her back and folded her hands in front of her. “Following you.”

He stopped and sniffed. His eyes glazed over, and his head swayed with his neck. “You are not being truthful. I can sense it.”

“Why? I
am
following you, just as I said.”

“You are hiding something. Turn around.”

Elyssa fidgeted. Thortune was losing his wits. If only she could delay him a little bit longer. “Turn around? Why?”

His head swayed erratically. “Just do as I say.”

As Elyssa began to turn, she glanced at Wallace and tried to communicate panic with her eyes. She needed his help, and she needed it now.

“I have to go!” Wallace ran toward the tunnel. “I’ll see you in there.”

Thortune looked that way and roared. “Come back here!”

Elyssa grasped the stake, jumped in front of Thortune, and rammed the point into the soft spot in his underbelly. The dragon belched a ball of fire at her, but she jumped out of the way, leaving the stake partially embedded. Now staggering, he launched a weak stream of flames at her, this time swiping her sleeve.

She lunged at Thortune and, shoving with all her might, thrust the stake as far as it would go. Grasping the butt end, she jerked it back out and leaped away.

As thick fluids poured, Thortune doubled over. Elyssa ran to the Basilica tunnel, still clutching the stake.

Wallace batted sparks from Elyssa’s sleeve, while both watched the scene. Thortune, gasping and gurgling, staggered from one side of the chamber to the other. For a moment, he paused, teetering. His expression twisted with puzzlement, as if he couldn’t understand why Elyssa had attacked him.

Finally, he toppled over and crashed into the stakes, breaking several with his tough scales. After twitching for a few seconds, he moved no more.

Wallace’s jaw dropped open. “Now what?”

“Now we go back to Cassabrie.” Elyssa tossed the bloodied stake next to Thortune’s body. A wave of remorse swept over her, but she shrugged it away. The dragons were probably going to kill her and Wallace. She had no choice.

“Are we going to take Cassabrie’s body?” Wallace asked.

“I don’t know if it’s even possible, but I want to study her and figure out what’s going on. They’re saving her for some reason, and I doubt it’s a good one.”

Elyssa ran past Thortune’s carcass, through the tunnel, and into the Starlighter’s room. She paused in front of Cassabrie and stared at her lifeless body. With her long white dress and dark blue cloak adorning her in fine array, she appeared to be ready for travel, though she likely hadn’t moved from this spot in years.

As Elyssa gazed at the lifeless visage, a similar face entered her mind, just an outline, a vague memory. Somehow, Cassabrie seemed familiar, someone she had met before. Who could it have been? Koren, maybe? They did look a lot alike.

Elyssa knelt and peered at the disc embedded in the floor’s oddly angled tiles. Underneath its transparent surface, seven glowing spheres, each about the size of a small acorn, floated in a slowly orbiting circle.

She bent back and looked at the large disc well above Cassabrie’s head. It, too, held a circle of tiny orbs, making it seem as though Cassabrie wore a crown.

Wallace knelt at the opposite side. “What are they?”

“I was going to ask you that.” She set a finger close to the surface. A tingle spread across her skin—not strong, but enough to make her pause. “The top is so clear, it looks like it’s not even there.”

Wallace reached out and touched it. The pad of his finger flattened as he pressed harder. “It’s there.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Not much.” He pulled back. “But I got those pictures in my mind again.”

“Let me see.” Elyssa lowered her finger, but it passed into thick liquid, as if she had poked a hole in jelled water. A storm of images flashed through her mind, so fast she couldn’t recognize anything.

Digging deeper, she touched one of the spheres and plucked it from its orbit. She drew it out and set it close to her eyes. The stream of images continued, but not quite as fast. Jason and Uriel flew by, along with other people she didn’t know. “This must have something to do with a Starlighter’s power.”

“Cassabrie doesn’t look any different,” Wallace said.

Elyssa stood and stepped backwards. Cassabrie’s radiance flowed unabated. “I guess taking one isn’t going to hurt anything, and it might help us find Jason.”

“Why couldn’t I put my finger in?”

She turned her gaze to the sphere once more. “I assume because you’re not a Diviner.”

Wallace joined her and touched the sphere. He jerked back and sucked his finger, grimacing. “Not being a Diviner is getting worse all the time.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Elyssa said. “It’s not polite.”

Wallace withdrew his finger and shook it. “Should we try to get Cassabrie out of here?”

“I don’t think so. These spheres might be keeping her body intact.” She gave him a nod. “Let’s go. As quietly as possible. Through the other tunnel and into the Basilica. We’ll have to scout for an exit from there.”

“So you don’t have to use your bodily elimination system after all?”

“I do, but I can wait.”

“Me, too, but not very long.”

With Wallace leading the way, they hurried into the tunnel and followed the series of lanterns, dimmer than before. The tiny sphere’s energy, now swarming like bees over Elyssa’s body, dizzied her mind worse than ever. Although she fought the influence, the march through the passageway felt like a dream. The walls seemed to close in, warped and surreal, like a charcoal drawing that reshaped at a whim.

When they reached the end, they found it blocked by a flat stone. Wallace laid his palm on it and examined the gaps at the edges. “Magnar said something about blocking the exits, but there’s some space here. I think I can squeeze through. Obviously he meant to stop Arxad, not a slave boy.”

“Makes sense.”

“What about you?” Wallace said, pointing at her.

Elyssa lifted her tunic’s hem, revealing a belt tightening her oversized trousers around her waist. “I ate only dungeon gruel for weeks. I’ll make it.”