A Dragon's World 2 (DragonWorld) Read online

  You’re growing into your own Shepherd, my darling. I wish I was there to see you shine like the brilliant little star I always knew you were. But trust me, I am there with you in spirit, as is every other Shepherd. We are one entity, as much as we are ourselves, and we owe it to the collective to see ourselves to our full potential.

  The entry ended, and I saw a complex illustration starting the next one, but I had to set the book down. I now had more questions than ever, as well as tears in my eyes.

  God, I missed my Abuela. More than anything. Why did she have to go? Why couldn’t she teach me this when she was here? Didn’t she realize that her warm arms, and the smell of caramel on her breath was so much more comforting than cold ink on a page?

  Who were the Collective? Were they what made Shepherds? And why? How was any of this possible?

  And most importantly…was I developing a gift? Previously, I had just assumed these dreams were a leftover of the failed Dragonfire trial. Often, when it was quiet, I could still hear the smoke churning inside of me, its own little maelstrom of energy. But what if it wasn’t? What if that was just another something I would have to deal with later, and completely removed from the situation at hand?

  What if I was a seer.

  I scoffed at that. The chances would have to be one in a million that I had pretended to be some magical fortune teller to the dragons, only to become one a short time later. Unless…. Unless it was my subconscious knowing exactly what was happening? That seemed like a seer thing to do.

  “I don’t hear any writing. Is something wrong?”

  “No,” I answered quickly. Although I was (very slowly) beginning to trust Myrik, I was not willing to share with him those inner workings of my mind yet. Or potentially ever.

  For now, I just needed to go back to the beginning and write as much as I could for him while we still had the chance. Even while I was awake, I could feel something approaching on the horizon, and it made my stomach churn.

  Time was running out. I could sense it slipping through an hourglass and slowly suffocating me with sand. I needed to find my path, before it was too late.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “You have the higher ground. Your enemy is approaching both to the front, and your flank. You are outnumbered, and out-equipped. What is your strategy?”

  I looked blankly at the table that Myrik had cleared off and arranged dozens of colored stones on. It had been only two days since the last Court meeting, and I had thrown my everything into making sure I was prepared for the dread I felt lurking at the corner of my mind. Naturally, I had been surprised when the Advisor interrupted my efforts to haul me to another part of his study that had previously been piled high with all sorts of scrolls, tablets and tomes.

  “How am I supposed to know?”

  “You don’t,” he answered firmly. “Which is why we’re here. But I want to know how you think, how you would solve a conflict completely out of your depth.”

  “Oh, well, I…uh…” I looked down at the landscape painted onto the sizable surface we were standing in front of. I saw valleys, and rivers and castles, all beautifully depicted on the glossy expanse. They looked vaguely familiar, but it took me several seconds to realize that I had seen them before in my instantaneous journey by Dragonfire. “How much time do we have until they reach us?”

  Myrik grinned, and I felt a slight touch of pride. I had asked the right question. “Your scouts tell you that they will be within range in the morn, but are no doubt waiting until when the sun is behind them to attack.”

  I nodded, trying to take in all the details I could see. We were on a hill, and it looked like there were trees and other vegetation. The stones of the enemy were both attacking from valleys. Surely, I had to use that to my advantage?

  “I would put half of the men to work chopping down trees and creating supports to hold them up until the enemy came, then loosing them down the side of the hill. It probably won’t kill anyone, but it will definitely injure, slow down, and cause them to fall out of formation. If there are any mid-to-large sized rocks, use those too.

  “As for formation, we don’t want anyone at our backs, so a circle would be best. I don’t see anything representing heavy artillery, such as a catapult or anything like that, so there’s nothing to really put at the center.” I saw his face darken ever so slightly and pause. “Wait. Do we have archers? Depending on their range, it would be best to put them behind lines so they’re protected. But you have to make sure that the edge of the formation is well within their range. You don’t need any sort of friendly fire when you’re already outnumbered.”

  Myrik smiled, and I felt that pride grow a bit bigger. I don’t know why I was so pleased that I hadn’t miserably failed his little test, but something in me wanted the condescending dragon to approve of me. “Not bad. Better than I had expected.”

  Apparently, I had watched enough underdog movies to pick up on some common tactics. Who knew bringing classic war movies would have an actual benefit? “Thanks.”

  “But you did forget one thing.” The pride dimmed a little, but Myrik still seemed pleased so it didn’t wink out entirely. “Even with your plan, many of you—if not all of you—will die. Should that happen, the army that defeated you will march on, bringing more destruction onto whatever it was that you were trying to protect.”

  “Oh…”

  He gathered a small handful of stones and moved them down the side of the hill opposite of the two forces. “You must always remember, in war the most valuable thing is not weapons, or dragons, or wealth or armies. It is knowledge. You have invaluable evidence about the enemy and what kind of forces they send to conquer. You have a responsibility to send you fastest, and most competent scouts back to your people with the information they carry. Perhaps you will not live, but your sacrifice of just a few soldiers could save thousands of others.”

  “Wow, I…” I trailed off, the numbers rattling off inside of my head. “I never thought of that. That’s insane.”

  “Much of life is.” He paused to refill his chalice. “Now, you arrange the board and I will tell you what I would do.”

  “What? Really?”

  “Of course. I have seen an example of how you think, now it is time for you to see how I do. The better we understand each other, the better I can teach and you can learn.”

  “Alright then.” I stared at the table, and the piles of many colored stones at the edge. Part of me wanted to be petulant and make an impossible scenario for him to fluster through, but thankfully that was a small part.

  Myrik was giving me an opportunity to learn. What I needed to do was set up a scenario that I didn’t know the answer to, so I could watch what he did to ensure the best outcome. But I was no general, or even a soldier. How was I supposed to think up a grand battle when I never had even been in one?

  Wait.

  There was one particular scenario I knew. One that had foisted itself upon me again and again and again in my dreams.

  Face grim, I looked for a mountain range on the map. There were several, so I chose the one that harkened back to the glimpse of landscape I had had in my vision.

  I gathered a small handful of stones, and arranged less than ten of them at the middle of the mountain. Then, I shoveled a whole armful of differently colored markers and arranged them in front. Now, I knew there was a very narrow passage as the beginning of the cave from my vision. Maybe twenty men could fit abreast, but then quarters would be too tight for combat. With the shields and spears I had seen, most likely they were going to be ten to fifteen a line. I chose fifteen, then began arranging the pieces accordingly.

  It gave me a profound sense of déjà vu as I worked, and I could almost hear the sounds from my dreams playing themselves again. Goosebumps raised along my arms, but I kept on until everything was just as I had envisioned it. When I finally finished, I looked up to Myrik, only to see his smirk had grown even bigger.

  “Clever choice,” he murmured, before sitting down and
looking over what I had set up. “You’ve presented me with a bit of a quandary. I can lie about what protections we have, protections that I no doubt should keep a secret from you, and you would never know. But should I do that, I deny you the learning experience you clearly need to survive. So, do I reveal my people’s hidden defenses to you, and risk your eventual betrayal in the hope that you are exactly who and what you say you are, or do I play it safe and risk weakening an ally who needs all the power they can get?”

  I stared at the man, a bit taken aback. I had set up the scenario as a sort of solace. To know that there was a plan that would ensure his people’s survival even if what I saw happened. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

  “Of course, you didn’t, because you haven’t learned to yet. And you can’t learn to unless you know the full picture. And you can’t know the full picture unless I trust you. That is why—for now at least—I have to think these things for you.”

  “It sounds…very stressful inside your head.”

  He shrugged, his broad shoulders tensing then relaxing in an almost hypnotic rhythm. “We all have our burdens to bear. At least mine does not involve being thrown into a pen to have my basic rights as a sentient being violated.”

  The edge of his words took on a sharp edge, and it was the most emphatically I had ever heard him speak of the breeding program. Before, he had always seemed to look down on it, condemn it even, but in the same way one might discuss of something that wasn’t that important and merely a mild inconvenience. But now, now each syllable out of his mouth was clearly a pointed barb meant to riddle the corpse of whoever had championed so hard for it.

  I had to admit, it made me trust him a little bit more. It seemed that he understood the utter barbarity of it even more than Gael. It almost seemed…personal?

  “You’re staring at me again.”

  “Sorry.” I quickly averted my eyes, and felt my cheeks flush with color.

  “Don’t be. Attraction can be just as much of a weapon as your words, and we both are aware that we are attractive.”

  “We?” I echoed. “Is that a compliment?”

  “Of course not,” he answered flatly, still staring at my arrangement of stones. “It is simply a statement of fact. Granted, individuals all have flavors of what they like, but as a general default, both of us do quite well.”

  I didn’t say anything, but it still felt so odd to have such an ancient and powerful being call me beautiful so matter-of-factly. Like it was as obvious as the color of the sky, or whether it was raining or not.

  Several more minutes passed before Myrik finally spoke again. “You were right in that the soldiers would have to pass themselves through a small opening. But what you don’t know is that it narrows quite a bit more later on.”

  “Really? Then how do you dragons get in?”

  “Easily, actually. We just take human form.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous? To shapeshift before you’re in the safety of your own home?”

  “Perhaps. But even more dangerous is leaving a passage open than more than four at a time could fit.”

  I breathed a deep sigh of relief. Four soldiers abreast sounded a lot more manageable than fifteen.

  “And that same passage travels deep, deep down into the mountain. It will take them almost an hour to reach the farthest opening of our home,” Myrik continued. “Giving us plenty of time to unleash the defenses we have laying the path.”

  “Defenses?” I murmured.

  “Yes. Areas with pitfalls, ceilings set to collapse with a single spoken word, entire stretches that had been drenched in liquid fire over the millennia, so only a single spark is needed to set them all ablaze.” I saw a frenetic sort of gleam to his eye, the kind that only came from sizing up a challenge and taking it down. “Thousands of them will see their end in that passage.” He paused, and that gleam faded. “But it won’t be enough.”

  “It won’t?”

  He shook his head. “The force you have gathered is too big. Those at the back will not know what is happening to those at the front. As their brethren fall, they will continue their unending march forward, pushing those in the middle further and further. Even if they are scared, even if terror paralyzes them to their bones, they will have to keep moving forward or be trampled by the fear. And eventually, the traps will break. The pits will be full of bodies, the rocks will have crushed who they could, and the fire will have burnt itself off, but the humans will keep coming.”

  He pushed the rest of the attacking stones into the mountain. “At least a quarter of them will survive, and that will be too much.”

  “So, what do we do?” I whispered. I had expected a happy ending. A way for him to defeat the approaching hoard and for everyone to live happily ever after.

  “We run,” he said finally. “We get out as fast as we can and make sure not a single dragon is lost. Everything else can be rebuilt, reclaimed. But a single loss of dragon life is almost insurmountable at this point. Which is exactly where humans want us to be. We cannot risk a battle, so we must run. In order to defeat us, all they must do is find us, and find us, and find us until there is nowhere else to hide.”

  “But what of the hatching grounds?” I murmured, stomach dropping to the floor. “The nurseries? I know things have been hard, but haven’t all of you been pushing for an increase in population?”

  “Of course those exist. But it takes almost a decade for an egg to hatch, and fifty years for a dragon to reach maturity. If we had time, we could overrun humans without a worry. But we don’t have time. The hourglass was shattered long ago, and it’s only now that my people are realizing it.”

  I sat down across from him, the wind completely taken out of me. “It’s hopeless then?”

  “If we stay the course, yes.”

  “Then get off the course! Grab the reins and pull up until we get off this track or die trying!”

  “What do you think I am doing!” I was surprised at his pointed exclamation, and I fell silent. “Ever since I saw you, I hoped that you would be the very one who could shake us so hard that we would have no choice. Whether for evil, or for good, I knew I could not let you end up as some overprotected concubine in the Prince’s mansion. You could be so much more than that. You are so much more than that.”

  “But the Prince never—”

  “Never what? Planned that? Of course not. The Prince is as noble as they come and twice as blinded by it. He saw you, an honorable prisoner full of fire and justice, fighting against a force more powerful than yourself. Asking him to resist that is like asking a moth to resist the moon. He couldn’t; it’s not his nature.

  “But that same altruism is what almost ended up coddling you up in a cocoon so soft, you might not realize you were being strangled to death. That is why I challenged him. That is why I took you from him. And that is why you’re here.” His emerald eyes flicked to me with such intensity, I wanted to shrink back into the very chair I had perched myself in. “Save my people, Mercedes. Please.”

  I had no words. I had not expected any of this, nor had I ever thought of Myrik’s motivations beyond using me as an effective tool to serve his people. But he didn’t want me to serve them. He wanted me to save them.

  “Why didn’t you just ask?” I whispered, barely able to speak. “Why were you so mean? And secretive?”

  “Because I had no clue who you are. And I still don’t. You could just be an exceptionally adept spy for the humans, waiting for their chance to escape and reveal everything about us, sealing our end.”

  “And yet you’re trusting me.”

  “Yes. I am.”

  “Why?”

  He took another long, hard drink of his wine. “I can hear you, you know.” At first I didn’t know what he meant, but he continued, expression a strange mix between enraged and guilty. “Every night since you have arrived, you don’t sleep.”

  “What? I don’t slee—what do you mean?” He had to be going crazy. Of course I was sleeping. I wo
uld know, considering I was the one constantly being locked inside of my own nightmares.

  “Oh your eyes are closed, and your breathing evens out, but it never fails. In less than an hour, you’re up. Screaming, crying, wandering the halls and knocking things over. It’s…truly awful. I don’t think I’ve ever heard howling like that, and every single night I tell myself that there’s no way you could make a sound like that again, but then the next night we go through the same thing.”

  I blinked at him several times, feeling unreasonably slow. “I’m sleepwalking?”

  He let out a chuckle, but it was dry enough to be its own desert. “I wish it was something as simple as that. You seem to be in some sort of seer trance. You write messages, and you speak of things that I cannot comprehend. But what little I do understand always ends up the same way.”

  “And what’s that?” I murmured, a lump in my throat.

  “You die.” He swallowed hard, and the guilt in his eyes only increased. “Not in reality. But at the end of it, you always look to me and tell me you’ve failed, and then you collapse as if nothing had happened. I take you to your room, put you in your bed, and when you wake up in the morning you are none the wiser.

  “I contemplated binding you in place, to prevent you from harm, but that would mean I would have to tell you what happens when you close your eyes, and you already seem haunted enough by whatever you see on your side. I didn’t want to distract you with what I saw on mine.”

  I stared at him, incredulous. He had dumped so much info on me, and taken me on such an emotional rollercoaster, I didn’t know quite how to react. In just an hour, I felt like my entire perception of this man had flipped upside down, turned around, done a backflip and vaulted out of the nearest window.

  “I, um…I…”

  He shook his head. “It’s fine. I would not know what to reply to that with either. Perhaps there is nothing appropriate to say. I just thought perhaps it was time that we were both on the same page. I will teach you everything that could possibly be useful to you, you will tell me anything valuable those books of yours have.”