A Fate of Dragons

Thor reached around, grabbed him from behind by his collarbone, and began to swim with him, keeping both their heads above water. Thor heard a whelp and a whine, and as he turned, he was shocked to see Krohn: he must have leapt in after him. The leopard swam beside him, paddling up to Thor, whining. Thor felt terrible that Krohn was endangered like this – but his hands were full and there was little he could do.

Thor tried not to look all around him, at the waters, churning red, at the strange creatures surfacing and disappearing all around him. An ugly-looking creature, purple, with four arms and two heads, surfaced nearby, hissed at him, then submerged, making Thor flinch.

Thor turned and saw the rowboat, about twenty yards away, and swam for it frantically, using his one arm and his legs as he dragged the boy. The boy flailed and screamed, resisting, and Thor feared he might bring him down with him.

“Hold still!” Thor screamed harshly, hoping the boy would listen.

Finally, he did. Thor was momentarily relieved – until he heard a splash and turned his head the other way: right beside him, another creature surfaced, small, with a yellow head and four tentacles. It had a square head, and it swam right up to him, snarling and shaking. It looked like a rattlesnake that lived in the sea, except its head was too square. Thor braced himself as it got closer, preparing to be bitten – but then suddenly it opened its mouth wide and spat seawater at him. Thor blinked, trying to flush it from his eyes.

The creature swam around and around them, in circles, and Thor redoubled his efforts, swimming faster, trying to get away.

Thor was making progress, getting closer to the boat, when suddenly another creature surfaced on his other side. It was long, narrow, and orange, with two claws at its mouth and dozens of small legs. It also had a long tail, which it whipped about in every direction. It looked like a lobster, standing upright. It skirted along the water’s edge, like a water bug, and buzzed its way close to Thor, turning to the side and whipping its tail. The tail lashed Thor’s arm and he cried out in pain at the sting.

The creature whizzed back and forth, lashing out again and again. Thor wished he could draw his sword and attack it – but he only had one free hand, and he needed it to swim.

Krohn, swimming beside him, turned and snarled at the creature, a hair-raising noise, and as Krohn fearlessly swam its way, it scared the beast, making it disappear beneath the waters. Thor sighed with relief – until the creature suddenly reappeared on his other side, and lashed him again. Krohn turned and chased it all around, trying to catch it, snapping his jaws at it, and always missing.

Thor swam for his life, realizing the only way out of this mess was to get out of this sea. After what felt like forever, swimming harder than he’d ever had, he made it close to the rowboat, rocking violently in the waves. As he did, two Legion members, older boys who never spoke to Thor and his classmates, were waiting there to help him. To their credit, they leaned over and extended him a hand.

Thor helped the boy first, reaching around and hoisting him up towards the boat. The older boys grabbed the boy by his arms and dragged him up.

Thor then reached around, grabbed Krohn by his stomach and threw him up out of the water, and onto the boat. Krohn clamored with all four paws as he scratched and slipped on the wooden boat, dripping wet, shaking. He slid across the wet bottom, across the boat. Then he immediately bounced back up, turned, and ran back to the edge, looking for Thor. He stood there, looking down into the water, and yelped.

Thor reached up and grabbed the hand of one of the boys, and was just pulling himself into the boat when suddenly he felt something strong and muscular wrap itself around his ankle and thigh. He turned and looked down, and his heart froze as he saw a lime-green squid-like creature, wrapping a tentacle around his leg.

Thor cried out in pain as he felt its stingers pierce his flesh.

Thor realized that if he didn’t do something quick, he would be finished. With his free hand, he reached down to his belt, extracted a short dagger, leaned over, and slashed at it. But the tentacle was so thick, the dagger could not even pierce it.

It made it angry. The creature’s head suddenly surfaced – green, with no eyes and two jaws on its long neck, one atop the other – opened its rows of razor-sharp teeth and leaned in towards Thor. Thor felt the blood being cut off from his leg, and knew he had to act fast. Despite the elder boy’s efforts to hang onto him, Thor’s grip was slipping, and he was sinking back into the water.

Krohn yelped and yelped, hairs standing on his back, leaning over as if getting ready to pounce into the water. But even Krohn must have known it would be useless to attack this thing.

One of the older boys stepped forward and screamed:

“DUCK!”

Thor lowered his head, as the boy threw a spear. It whizzed through the air but it missed, flew harmlessly by and sank into the water. The creature was too skinny, and too quick.

Suddenly, Krohn leapt off the boat and back into the water, landing with his jaws open and his sharp teeth extended on the back of the creature’s neck. Krohn clamped down and swung the creature left and right, not letting go.

But it was a losing battle: the creature’s skin was too tough, and it was too muscular. The creature threw Krohn side to side then finally sent him flying into the water. Meanwhile, the creature’s grip tightened on Thor’s leg; it was like a vice, and Thor felt himself losing oxygen. The tentacles burned so badly, Thor felt as if his leg was about to be torn off his body.

In one final, desperate attempt, Thor let go of the boy’s hand and in the same motion swung around and reached for the short sword on his belt.

But he could not grab it in time; he slipped and spun and fell face first into the water.

Thor felt himself dragged away, farther from the boat, the creature pulling him out to sea. He was dragged backwards, faster and faster, and as he reached out helplessly, he watched the rowboat disappearing before him. The next thing he knew, he felt himself being pulled down, beneath the surface of the water, deep into the depths of the Sea of Fire.

Chapter Nine

Gwendolyn ran in the open meadow, her father, King MacGil, beside her. She was young, maybe ten, and her father was much younger, too. His beard was short, not showing any signs of the gray it would have later in life, and his skin was free of wrinkles, youthful, shining. He was happy, carefree, and laughed with abandon as he held her hand and ran with her through the fields. This was the father she remembered, the father she knew.

He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, spinning her again and again, laughing louder and louder, and she giggled hysterically. She felt so safe in his arms, and she wanted this time together to never end.

But when her father set her down, something strange happened. Suddenly, the day went from a sunny afternoon to twilight. When Gwen’s feet hit the ground, they were no longer in the flowers of the meadow, but stuck in mud, up to her ankles. Her father now lay in the mud, on his back, a few feet away from her – older, much older, too old – and he was stuck. Even farther away, lying in the mud, was his crown, sparkling.

“Gwendolyn,” he gasped. “My daughter. Help me.”

He lifted a hand out from the mud, reaching for her, desperate.

She was overcome with an urgency to help him, and she tried to go to him, to grab his hand. But her feet would not budge. She looked down and saw the mud hardening all around her, drying up, cracking. She wiggled and wiggled, trying to break free.

Gwen blinked and found herself standing on the parapets of the castle, looking down on King’s Court. Something was wrong: as she looked down, she did not see the usual splendor and festivities, but rather a sprawling cemetery. Where there once sat the shining splendor of King’s Court there were now fresh graves as far the eye could see.

She heard a shuffling of feet, and her heart stopped as she turned to see an assassin, wearing a black cloak and hood, approaching her. He sprinted for her, pulling back his hood, revealing a grotesque face, one eye missing, a thick, jagged scar over the socket. He snarled, raised one hand, and raised a glistening dagger, its hilt glowing red.

He was moving too fast and she could not react in time. She braced herself, knowing she was about to be killed as he brought the dagger down with full force.

It stopped suddenly, just inches from her face, and she opened her eyes to see her father, standing there, a corpse, catching the man’s wrist in mid-air. He squeezed the man’s hand until he dropped it, then hoisted the man over his shoulders and threw him off the parapet. Gwen listened to his screams as he plunged down over the edge.

Her father turned and stared at her; he grabbed her shoulders firmly with his decomposing hands and wore a stern expression.

“It is not safe for you here,” he warned. “It is not safe!” he screamed, his hands digging into her shoulders far too firmly, making her cry out.

Gwen woke screaming. She sat upright in bed, looking all around her chamber, expecting an attacker.

But she was met with nothing but silence – the thick, still silence that precedes dawn.

Sweating, breathing hard, she jumped from bed, dressed in her nighttime lace, and paced her room. She hurried over to a small, stone basin and splashed water in her face, again and again. She leaned against the wall, felt the cool stone on her bare feet on this warm summer morning, and tried to compose herself.

The dream had felt too real. She sensed it was more than a dream – a genuine warning from her father, a message. She felt an urgency to leave King’s Court, right now, and never come back.

She knew that was something she could not do. She had to compose herself, to gain her wits. But every time she blinked, she saw her father’s face, felt his warning. She had to do something to shake the dream off.

Gwen looked out and saw the first sun just beginning to rise, and she thought of the only place that would help her regain her composure: King’s River. Yes, she had to go.

* * *

Gwendolyn immersed herself again and again in the freezing cold springs of King’s River, holding her nose and ducking her head under water. She sat in the small, natural swimming pool carved from rock, hidden in the upper springs, that she had found and frequented ever since she was a child. She held her head beneath the water and lingered there, feeling the cold currents run through her hair, over her scalp, feeling it wash and cleanse her naked body.

She had found this secluded spot one day, hidden amidst a clump of trees, high up on the mountain, a small plateau where the river’s current slowed and created a pool that was deep and still. Above her, the river trickled in and below her, it continued to trickle down – yet here, on this plateau, the waters held just the slightest current. The pool was deep, the rocks smooth, and the place so well-hidden, she could bathe naked with abandon. She came here almost every morning in the summer, as the sun was rising, to clear her mind. Especially on days like today, when dreams haunted her, as they often did, it was her one place of refuge.

It was so hard for Gwen to know if it was just a dream, or something more. How was she to know when a dream was a message, an omen? To know whether it was just her mind playing tricks on her or if she was being given a chance to take action?

Gwendolyn rose for air, breathing in the warm summer morning, hearing the birds chirp all around her in the trees. She leaned back against the rock, her body immersed up to her neck, sitting on a natural ledge in the water, thinking. She reached up with her hands and splashed her face, then ran her hands through her long, strawberry hair. She looked down at the crystal surface of the water, reflecting the sky, the second sun, which was already beginning to rise, the trees which arched over the water, and her own face. Her almond eyes, glowing blue, looked back at her from the rippling reflection. She could see something of her father in them. She turned away, thinking again of her dream.

She knew it was dangerous for her to remain in King’s Court with her father’s assassination, with all the spies, all the plots – and especially, with Gareth as king. Her brother was unpredictable. Vindictive. Paranoid. And very, very jealous. He saw everyone as a threat – especially her. Anything could happen. She knew that she was not safe here. Nobody was.