Rise of the Dragon Moon Page 20

  Toli paused. That could mean anything.

  “So, Princess. My sister Krala has told me that it was not my brethren, but you and your people who took my child. Tell me, have you come to return my youngling?” A deep rattle filled the room as she slid around Toli.

  “That’s a lie!” Toli said, forcing herself to stay calm. “Krala lied to you. We didn’t take her … but, yes … I do have her with me now.” She loosened the rope around her waist and reached into her tunic to gather Ruby into her arms. “We named her Ruby,” she whispered, a surge of pride echoing in her voice. “Will she be okay?”

  The Dragon-Queen hesitated, a split-second pause before she finished shifting around Toli, and lowered her head. She placed her muzzle over the young dragon, inhaling deeply. “What you say about Krala interests me. You will explain. Ruby. You have named her in the way of your people.”

  Words stuck in Toli’s throat, and she nodded.

  “I see.” The Dragon-Mother inhaled, pressing her nostrils close again. Toli shivered, despite the heat.

  “Is my mother safe? Is she—alive?”

  “Did you steal my child?”

  “We didn’t steal her. I swear! It was Krala Frost—”

  The Dragon-Mother hissed a laugh. “So you say.”

  “But it’s true!”

  “Shhh. You want answers. So do I. But first there must be trust between us. You have brought her home. That speaks of your wisdom, child, but not of your intent.” The mother’s head lifted high above Toli. “I have my own questions about my sister Krala. So I will have the truth of you, though we have no Seer as they do in the South.”

  Toli swallowed.

  “Follow me.”

  The Mother led her to the back of the cavern. There, a large geode, neatly sliced in half, rose from the floor. It was about two feet across and filled within a few inches of its crystalline edge with thick silver liquid. Toli reached out to touch it.

  “Do not,” the mother hissed. “It is sacred. And,” she added, lowering her head to peer at Toli, “it is poison.”

  Toli snatched her hand back.

  “Look inside, and tell me what you see.”

  “But—” Toli stilled as the Dragon-Mother’s gaze narrowed.

  “There will be something between us, Firstborn. It will be trust, or it will be death. You will choose.”

  Toli’s throat tightened. She set Ruby down gently, and bent to peer into the silver liquid as it lapped at the crystals inside the geode. At first she saw nothing. Then images began to roll like fog over the surface. She saw the shapes of people. Lots of people. They were in a place Toli had never seen before.

  Something wide and dark rolled over the landscape. Toli remembered Petal’s story of the long-ago sea. “Waves,” she whispered. Sleds scattered over the surface. Hundreds of sleds like hers—like the one they had burned. Her breath caught. “It’s true!” A chill shook her body. “There are people in the South.”

  She saw dragons filling the sky, their feathers and scales flashing reflections on the water. She gasped when they began to fall. One by one the sky emptied as they lost control and plunged, disappearing under the dark water.

  The scene changed as the sea rose and fell in waves, and she could see that there were things below the water—huge forms that shifted with bright flashes of light. Were they dragons? If so, they were like no dragons Toli had ever seen before. She leaned closer, struggling to see more as they undulated through the water.

  The sea in the South.

  The people in the South.

  “Who are they?” she cried as the scene changed again and she watched people along the shore drag nets from under the surface. The nets appeared out of the dark waves as though they were being conjured from nothing, and they were full of fish—more than Toli had ever seen in her life.

  The faces of the people turned toward her. She caught glimpses of luminescent skin—amber eyes. Did they know about Toli and the people of Gall? Had they always been there? The dragons were back in the sky—all around, but how could that be? Questions piled up in Toli’s head, all clamoring for answers.

  Toli shuddered. This was all wrong. There were no people in the South. Her mother would have known. Wouldn’t she? Someone would have known!

  She leaned closer to the surface of the silver liquid, and as if it somehow sensed her need to understand, her view shifted closer. Their faces were strange—yes, but certainly human. A girl Toli’s age spun to stare up at the sky as if she could feel Toli watching.

  Dread shifted in Toli’s gut like a living thing, cold and squirming. “It can’t be true,” she whispered, her thoughts rolling like the waves in the liquid silver beneath her. “I don’t understand.”

  The rush of the Dragon-Mother’s breath echoed around her. A cloud of steam rolled across her vision. “Your understanding can wait. Tell me what you see. Tell me the truth.”

  Could the Dragon-Mother not see the truth for herself? Toli wondered. Or was it a test? She considered lying. She could share a vision of her mother, walking free—of all of them, leaving the Mountain together, safe and sound.

  The Dragon-Mother rattled. “What … do … you … see?”

  The pool of silver showed her something else.

  Toli leaned closer, her nose almost touching the surface. It smelled of salt, and metal, and heat.

  Something huge fell from the sky, sending up a giant wave.

  Toli jerked back.

  “What is it? What do you see?”

  “Wait. Just a minute.” Toli took a breath and leaned in again. A dragon rose, struggling out of the surface of the sea.

  She leaned closer as it turned.

  “Tell me, Firstborn!”

  Toli gasped. It was the Dragon-Mother. It was the Dragon-Mother sinking again below the surface of the dark water. This time, she didn’t come back up.

  The truth spilled from Toli’s lips, her voice cracking like ice. “You can’t win,” she said, and scuttled back as the enormous head of a strange dragon, more spines than scales, rose from the pool of silver. It crackled with electricity as its mouth gaped wide. Toli stumbled, falling against the Dragon-Mother as the strange dragon withdrew into the silver sea.

  The Dragon-Mother turned away. “What else?”

  “I … I saw people. People everywhere—but they don’t look like us! They were on the land and … and in the sea, on sleds. They have nets full of fish. And I think there were other dragons too, below the water. They lit up under the water. And I … I saw your dragons falling from the sky, disappearing into the sea.”

  The Dragon-Mother spun with a hiss.

  Toli raised her eyes to meet the Dragon-Mother’s gaze. “And I saw you fall too.”

  The dragon’s muzzle wrinkled into a sneer, as though the thought carried a bad smell. “Just so, Firstborn.” She slipped around Toli, circling her and the silver pool with a rasping of scale on stone.

  “Who are they? All those people?”

  The Mother rattled. “They are humans—like you.”

  “But they look so different. Where did they come from?”

  Dry laughter rustled through the cavern. “Perhaps your Daughter Moon made them. They have been there as long as I.”

  “And the dragons in the South? They aren’t like you, are they.”

  “No. Not like my brethren.”

  A growing sense of foreboding made Toli pause. Was there a connection between her vision and what was happening now? “Is that … is that why you took my mother? Is it something to do with them?”

  “If I am to have allies of your kind, only the mightiest will do. Your mother is a queen. I need a queen’s might. I must have the strongest weapons at my side. Now it is my turn, little Firstborn. Give me my child. I’ll send for one I trust to take her to the center,” the Mother hissed. “The Mountain will heal her.”

  “Will I … will I see her again?”

  The dragon’s eyes widened. “Do you wish to?”

  Toli s
wallowed. “Yes,” she whispered. “And … what about my mother and my sister—and my friend?”

  The dragon rattled, lifting one pale talon. It came to rest on Toli’s chest, gentle as a kiss. “Now. You will tell me everything. You will tell me which of my seethe you believe has become unfaithful, and I will judge your words. You will tell me how my young came to be poisoned in your care. You will tell me what you know,” she said, her silver pupils narrowing. “And you will be precise.”

  Toli wanted answers—about her family, about Ruby, and about what she’d seen in the sacred pool. But one look at the Dragon-Mother’s silver eyes told her she would have to be patient. She swallowed, and began to talk. She didn’t hold back. Every instinct told her that if she wanted to save her mother, she should tell all, and that if she lied to the Dragon-Mother, or left things out, the dragon would know—so she told her everything. She started with the day her father died, the same day Spar got her burns.

  Toli was telling how Ruby had saved them by starting the pieces of the sled blazing when a small red dragon entered the cavern to take Ruby to the heart of the Mountain. Toli’s heart sank as they vanished down a winding black path into the dark. She hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye.

  A bitter taste rose in her throat as she hurried to tell the rest, and when she was done, the Dragon-Mother coiled around her. She lowered her head so that it hung even with Toli’s. Her silver eyes held golden flecks that sparked in the light. Like Ruby’s, Toli thought.

  “So, Dral is true.” The Dragon-Mother rose, lifting her ample, sinuous body to tower over Toli. “You were wise to tell me all.” Her tongue flicked the air near Toli’s head. “I would taste human lies.” A smug look settled on her face. “Krala Frost has forgotten how to scent a lie—or perhaps she never knew. She was always less than I. Tell me, girl. Will they be here soon—my treacherous brood?”

  As the Dragon-Mother spoke, she coiled around Toli, not quite touching Toli’s body, the rush of scales like a rising wind. “Are they on their way now—my unfaithful aunts? My false uncles? My faithless daughters? Are they coming to free the blood from my veins?”

  “Yes.” Toli forced the word through her stiff lips. “I don’t know when. I don’t think Dral will come. I … I’m telling the truth.”

  The Dragon-Mother’s head dropped. “Dral mourns for his sister. He knows Krala is mine to punish. I am the Mother,” she said, her body rising higher. Her eyes gleamed down at Toli. “There is nothing in this mountain that is not mine.”

  Like prey, Toli froze, fighting the urge to run—to try to run. “What can I do?” The words, dry with fear, stuck at the back of her throat.

  The Dragon-Mother’s quills stiffened, the shining feather-tips shivering around her face like leaves on a tree. “You cannot help me, Gall’s firstborn. I will have help enough.”

  “Then please. Please tell me if my mother is okay? Is she alive?”

  The Dragon-Mother uncoiled, spinning away as if she were going to leave. Toli opened her mouth to protest, then caught a glimpse of something beneath the dragon’s scales. Her mother’s face, peering up at her from under a layer of crystal, and smiling.

  Toli fell to her knees, peering down through the floor. There was a small cave below this one, sealed with crystal. Her mother was there, one palm pressed upward to meet Toli’s own. She could see her mother’s mouth moving, but the crystal was too thick to hear her.

  “She asks if you are hurt,” the Dragon-Mother whispered, coiling back to hang over Toli’s shoulder. “You may reassure her.”

  Toli shook her head, then pointed at her mother. The queen shook her head too, and Toli exhaled a sigh. Her mother glanced over Toli’s shoulder, and the flash of alarm that flew over her face tipped Toli off. She dived away, rolling to a crouch as the Dragon-Mother’s teeth snapped behind her. “What are you doing? I thought you believed me! I brought Ruby back to you!”

  The dragon’s quills quivered. “I do believe you! That is why you are alive. But you are a queen’s firstborn! All firstborns must endure testing. I wish to know your mettle. You wish me to trust you—therefore you must be tested. Did you think there would be only one test?”

  The Dragon-Mother huffed a breath of steam. A slow rattle filled the room. Toli raised her bow and drew the arrow back. As she looked the Dragon-Mother in the eyes, Spar’s words came back to her. A child of Gall is a child of the ice. You must be centered and certain before taking any action—even a breath.

  “You’re fast. That is good. So is your mother.”

  Toli took a deep breath, and her mind cleared. She lowered her bow. I’m not here to kill an enemy, she thought. And I’m not here to make one either. If it is a test of trust, then my only task is to survive.

  “A wise choice,” the Dragon-Mother rattled. “But the test is not over.” She shot forward, her mouth gaping, fire bursting in her throat. The flames raced toward Toli as she launched herself backward over the dragon’s tail. A tall, transparent crystal clipped her shoulder, but protected her from the blast. She could see the fire on the other side of her. The crystal grew hot.

  “Why is my mother in there?” she called, running for another gem—a wide red stone. She felt, rather than saw, the Dragon-Mother behind her and turned, throwing herself behind a cluster of obsidian.

  “For her own safety.”

  “Why are you doing this?” A rush of scales sounded against the floor of the cavern as the Mother came slowly around to face Toli.

  “Might,” she hissed, “isss right.”

  Sweat dripped down Toli’s face and into her eyes. She wiped it away, trying to will her heart to stop racing. She caught a glimpse of the Dragon-Mother’s quills dancing above her.

  “My children are full of pride,” the dragon hissed. “As is right. In the South, there are many upon many of your people. They aid our foe—you glimpsed them in the silver—dragons of the sea.” She slipped forward, her scales gleaming. “I do not wish to have any more of my children taken from me.”

  “The dragons falling—” Toli began.

  The Dragon-Mother shook her head, sending her mane of quills waving like a forest in the wind. The quills clacked like trees shivering together, echoes ricocheting off the cavern walls. “I hoped what I saw was a mistake. But you saw the same—saw us fall. The visions are signs, I believe. A sign of failure if we do not find a different way.”

  She turned away from Toli, her slow hiss echoing as she rose to survey the cavern. “There will be time enough for this chatter later,” she whispered. “You will do.”

  “I will?”

  A cloud of steam. “You have earned my trust. For now. Let us wait.”

  Toli gave her head a shake. Talking to the Dragon-Mother, it was hard to know which way was up. Was she safe—or not? Her mind had to run just to keep up. “What are we waiting for?”

  “I will settle with Krala, and with all my disloyal brethren. Your mother has explained that your people will worry. I see she was correct. If I survive the battle, I will send Bola Stone to your home. She will assure them.”

  Toli had the fleeting thought that she would be sorry to miss that—the look on Pendar’s face when Bola Stone assured him. “And if … if you…”

  The Dragon-Mother began to move away.

  “Wait! What happens if you lose to Krala?”

  “I will not lose.”

  The sweat on Toli’s skin was cold. “But … but if you do?”

  The dragon paused. “If Krala becomes our Mother, I die. And you die. Your mother dies. Your sister dies, and your friend.”

  The breath stopped in Toli’s throat, but the Dragon-Mother wasn’t finished. Every word was like a blow. “If Krala rules, there will be no peace for my children, nor, I think, for your people. Does that answer your question, Firstborn?”

  Toli’s mouth opened and closed, but her mind was blank. There were no words.

  At that moment, a rattle filled the chamber. Krala Frost slipped in, trailed by dragons.
<
br />   “I have heard that you call me faithless. But you are no Mother of mine.”

  “Will you be our queen, then, Sister?” The Dragon-Mother lifted herself, opening her wings in a display of white feathers and rainbow scales. “I would like to see you bring a seethe into battle. I would like to see you fail.”

  Krala Frost hissed and reared up, opening her blue-black wings as more dragons flanked her on either side. “You were great once. I do not doubt your greatness, but your time has come. Your time has passed.”

  “You have spoken your challenge,” the Dragon-Mother snarled at Krala. “We will not settle this dispute in the sacred chamber. We will gather on the scorched lands.”

  Between them, Toli sank to the ground. She pressed her hand to the crystal pane that separated her from her mother. Below her, the queen pounded on it, yelling words Toli couldn’t hear.

  Krala grinned and shot up, flying out of the Mountain through the wide opening far above. The other dragons followed like arrows.

  The Dragon-Mother turned to Toli, considering. “It seems to me I would be wise to test you further.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You are firstborn, yet I cannot tell if you are worthy to be a queen. You show great might in coming here to me. You have beaten death more than once, I think. And yet, I have not seen you tested in battle. That must change. Your mother will remain. She is safe here.”

  Before Toli could reply, the Dragon-Mother grasped her in a cool grip, spread her wide white wings, and rose like wind.

  “I’ll come back for you,” Toli called out to her mother as the cavern fell away. Above them, the vast sky opened.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  On the far side of Dragon Mountain stretched a charred black landscape, wide and dotted with melted stone. The air was fresh and cold. The afternoon sky was laced with aurora light and stars, and both moons were clear, on opposite sides of the sky, as if they too were about to do battle.

  Toli shivered as the smell of charred ground and dragon drifted over her.

  The Dragon-Mother touched down, setting Toli on a rise of black stone, like polished glass. “Now we will see what you are made of,” the Dragon-Mother whispered as Toli fell to her knees.