Dragon breath brushed my hair as I stumbled forward, craning my head to peer in the direction Miles indicated. There, under her wing, a much smaller dragon lay sleeping. Its scales were deep blue, bordering on sky-bright around its nose. The dragonet seemed to be not much taller than I was.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered. “It’s adorable. What do we do?”
“I’m not going to kill a mother while her child is sleeping next to her,” Miles growled. “That’s just disgusting.”
I gripped his wrist. “I know. We’ll figure something out.” I touched the mother dragon’s cheek. Her scales were smooth as glass. Underneath her skin I could feel her shadowed power rumbling. “I can feel it. The Shadow’s magic.”
Miles tensed beside me. “You’re taking some?”
I curled my hand into a fist. “I don’t know. Maybe if I had magic, I could protect my town if the Shadow comes near.”
“You still want power.”
I shrugged guiltily. “It’s why I came into the forest. I’m kind of selfish.”
“You could end up like me, you know. No memories and an eternal hunger for human souls.”
I shut my eyes. I would only lose myself if I didn’t make it out. People had made it out before, trailing their magic behind them.
But so many never came back.
I opened my eyes to find Miles watching me apprehensively. A twinge of shame tugged at my chest when I considered how greedy I was. I opened my mouth to say something-- I wasn’t sure what-- when I glanced at the dragon’s face.
Her eyes were open.
They were beautiful eyes, a bright gradient from orange at the rim to gold in the center. She had slit pupils with a diamond shape in the center, almost like a cross. Those eyes were fixed unerringly on my face.
“Crap,” I breathed, stumbling back. Miles pressed against my side, body tense and ready to fight. The dragon, Miles, and I stared at each other for a terrifying, endless moment. Then she sat up.
She looked even bigger with her head raised, with her front legs supporting her shoulders. She pulled her wings tighter against her body, covering the little dragonet.
Miles and I backed up further and stopped, waiting for her to move. Every muscle in my body was prepared to run. The dragon leaned towards us, fangs all too visible despite the dim light. “Give me one reason,” she hissed, her voice like thunder and church bells, “I shouldn’t kill you both right now.”
“You can talk?” I gasped before I could stop myself.
She pulled her lips back in a distinct sneer. “I can do a lot of things, girl. I’m not one of your stupid beasts.”
“Oh. S-sorry, um. Ma’am.”
She grinned savagely. “I will ask you again. Give me one reason I shouldn’t end your lives.”
“We’re not here to hurt you,” Miles said. “You or your hatchling. We want to lift the Shadow, and we-- we heard you were the answer to that.”
“You heard correctly. The Shadow was my doing.” She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes at Miles. “Why do you want to lift it? You’re one of mine. The darkness is your home.”
“The Shadow is spreading,” Miles explained. “There are people on the outside who will die. And I--” he looked down at his hands. “I’m tired of being a monster.”
The dragon laughed. It sounded like an earthquake. “You want to be human again? Those worms are more monstrous than you’ll ever be. Their greed. Their anger. Their hate. They do not deserve to be spared. As my Shadow spreads again, the world is safe from them. My son is safe.”
I choked. “The Shadow is spreading rapidly again?” The dragon’s sneer widened. “You have to stop! My family lives near the Shadowvale!”
The dragon growled, and my chest shook with the sound. “Your family? Why should I think of your family when your people pressed swords to my son’s throat?” She sat back. “I have my own family to think of. Out of respect for your motive your death will be painless, though I cannot promise the same for your people.”
“No!” Miles pushed me behind him. “Don’t. Please.” He gripped my hand. “The humans on the outside are terrified of your Shadow. You don’t need to spread it to keep them out.”
“I don’t think you understand,” the dragon growled. “Fear is what drives humans to atrocities. Perhaps they won’t enter the forest now, but given enough time they will rage in and destroy it. I can’t take my chances. Now step aside, boy. You don’t need to die.”
Suddenly, the dragon’s head snapped toward the cave opening. A rumbling growl started low in her belly and shivered into my hair. A female voice called out into the cavern. “Oh, Yymerenn! Your magic has grown weak with your awakening, my dear. Did you forget in your haste to spread your Shadow that you had to watch out for the denizens of the forest?”
The dragon roared. “Leave, Queen! This is my forest. You relinquished it when you summoned me here.”
“I did no such thing.” The speaker drew closer. I could now make out her outline, as well as the shape of whoever strode beside her. “You stole my kingdom, and I shall take it back. You two,” she said to Miles and me, walking towards us. “You were supposed to kill her.” The speaker stepped close enough that I could make out her features: gold-brown hair, hazel eyes, a young, painfully beautiful face. Her ears sharpened to points, and upon her head was a crown of woven twigs. She was much taller and younger than before, but I recognized her.
“Bluewhen?” I gaped, astonished. “Aren’t you supposed to be old? And totally nuts?”
The wildwitch tossed back her delicate head and laughed a laugh like water. “That was merely a glamour, child.”
“You’re the Faerie Queen,” Miles grumbled. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice.”
“Do not judge yourself too harshly,” the Queen said. “I am very powerful.”
“Powerful,” the dragon agreed. “Prideful and stupid.”
Rage flashed in the fey Queen’s eyes. “You shall not speak to me like that,” she hissed. “You have no right--”
The dragon roared. “You don’t command me, faerie! Not in my own realm. This forest is mine, now, I claim it! This place is not yours, now that you’ve ripped me from my home and soaked my blood into this land’s soil. My magic runs deep. Leave!”
The Faerie Queen screamed in anger, and the stone around us screamed with her. The dragon rose on her four legs, fire and shadow building between her jaws. I scrambled backward to remove myself from the crossfire, pulling Miles with me, and turned to hurry from the cave in case it collapsed upon us, but a figure loomed in front of me. Pale fingers closed on my shoulder.
Keely. “You should run far,” she whispered. “This will not end well.”
“I got that,” I hissed, moving around her. I glanced over my shoulder. “Are you coming?”
She shook her head. “My place is with my queen.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Well, if by your place you mean dead.”
Keely glared. “Just go away.”
Miles’s talons caught my fingers, leading me towards the carvern's mouth. Keely stared after us for a moment, then turned away.
I stumbled to a halt on the gravelly beach, my head flicking between the lake and the cavern mouth. “What do we do?”
“I’m flying you to shore,” Miles said, “and I’m taking you very, very far away.”
I swallowed. “You don’t think we should… help?”
He twisted his hands. “Which side would you help?”
I hesitated. The Queen hovered on my tongue, because she’d helped us before, and the dragon was scary. But from what I’d gathered from our conversation with the big, scaly, Shadow lady, she’d only released the Shadow to protect her son. That seemed a good cause, even if she went about it the wrong way. And something about the Faerie Queen seemed off, like she’d give me candy then bite off my head to get it back. I sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Great.” He grabbed my hand. “Let’s go.”
“But what about the serpent? And the Shadow’s spreading--”
Miles pressed his hands to my face so I had to look at him. “Maddie. You can’t do anything if you’re dead.”
I sighed and drooped between his hands. “Fine. But we are coming back and we are saving my family.” I gripped his wrist. “And saving you.”
He gave me a look, but before I could puzzle out what it meant he froze, watching the cavern opening. I heard the rasp of fire and the thrum of stony magic, and much closer the click of claws on stone. When I turned, I found the little blue dragon slinking out of the cave, giving me a wary look.
I gave him a wary look back. Miles slipped an arm around my waist and moved slightly in front of me.
The dragon’s head waved back and forth, as if he was trying to make up his mind. Then he blurted: “Are you going to kill me or not?”
The voice was all rain showers and little boy, reminding me of several of the town kids. I shook my head in surprise, then in answer. “Of course not. Why--”
He sat down. “Oh. It’s only that humans tried to kill me before. With swords and things.” He eyed the sword strapped to Miles’ back.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “That’s why your mother made the Shadow, right? To keep them out?”
He nodded. “The Faerie Queen summoned us from our world. She wanted to use my mother’s heart to grow her realm, but when my mother bled into the ground, she used magic to claim the Queen’s forest as her own.” The dragonet swished his tail over the dirt. “The Queen was angry. She disguised herself as a human and convinced the other humans to kill my mother. Dragons are very strong against magic, but we fall to steel and iron. They came and tried to kill my mother by threatening my life and offering mine in exchange for hers. So she made the Shadow to keep them away.
“That made the Queen angrier. She spent all her magic to put my mother and me into a sleep, and used my mother’s Shadow to push back the limits of the forest, making it bigger every year. But my mother put a wall around our island. The fae couldn’t get in.” The dragonet turned his amber eyes on Miles, who stiffened beside me. “I remember you. You didn’t want to kill us, you wanted magic to save someone. Your brother? Your friend? I don’t remember exactly. Everything in the sleep is blurry. The Queen told you she’d give you the power to save him if you killed my mother. I couldn’t wake up, but I heard you talking. You were sorry.”
Miles’s face twisted in a way that was at once angry, frustrated, and sad. I felt something tearing a litttle inside me, like I was the one who’d lost my life, instead of him. Was this what it was like to love someone: their pain was as strong inside you as if it was your own? “My mother couldn’t wake up enough to kill you. She gave you a piece of the Shadow for your magic instead. So you wouldn’t kill us.”
“But I didn’t make it out of the Shadowvale,” Miles muttered. “And I was lost. Who-- who was I here for?”
“I don’t know. You didn’t say much. Just that you didn’t want to hurt us, but someone needed you.”
Miles turned to look at me. His black eyes were so wide. He looked like he wanted to cry, but had no tears left in him. I took his face in my hands and kissed his forehead. “I’ll find a way,” I promised. “I’ll find a way to pull the dark from you. And you’ll remember.”
“But where will you put it?” he growled. “Inside yourself? So I can watch you rot from the inside?”
I shook my head. “I’ll give it back to the dragon. Where it belongs.” I smiled at him. “I don’t need power,” I said. “I don’t need it to be worth something. Anyway, it costs too much. I don’t want to end up a slobbering shadow monster like you.”
Miles’ sadness broke into a shuddering laugh. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close enough to hear his heartbeat.
I pulled back without letting go. “Let’s stop the Shadow and our nutty witch,” I said. “I’m sick of the dark.”
Miles nodded. “Right. But you’re staying behind me, got it? We’re not going through the Dusk Wolf encounter again.”
I shivered. “I hear you.”
We turned to look at the Hill. Power shook it from its roots to the spire. A lick of flame shivered deep in the cavern.
The dragonet bounded over. “I can help you! I’m Sinnym, by the way--”
The Quiet Hill exploded.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered. “It’s adorable. What do we do?”
“I’m not going to kill a mother while her child is sleeping next to her,” Miles growled. “That’s just disgusting.”
I gripped his wrist. “I know. We’ll figure something out.” I touched the mother dragon’s cheek. Her scales were smooth as glass. Underneath her skin I could feel her shadowed power rumbling. “I can feel it. The Shadow’s magic.”
Miles tensed beside me. “You’re taking some?”
I curled my hand into a fist. “I don’t know. Maybe if I had magic, I could protect my town if the Shadow comes near.”
“You still want power.”
I shrugged guiltily. “It’s why I came into the forest. I’m kind of selfish.”
“You could end up like me, you know. No memories and an eternal hunger for human souls.”
I shut my eyes. I would only lose myself if I didn’t make it out. People had made it out before, trailing their magic behind them.
But so many never came back.
I opened my eyes to find Miles watching me apprehensively. A twinge of shame tugged at my chest when I considered how greedy I was. I opened my mouth to say something-- I wasn’t sure what-- when I glanced at the dragon’s face.
Her eyes were open.
They were beautiful eyes, a bright gradient from orange at the rim to gold in the center. She had slit pupils with a diamond shape in the center, almost like a cross. Those eyes were fixed unerringly on my face.
“Crap,” I breathed, stumbling back. Miles pressed against my side, body tense and ready to fight. The dragon, Miles, and I stared at each other for a terrifying, endless moment. Then she sat up.
She looked even bigger with her head raised, with her front legs supporting her shoulders. She pulled her wings tighter against her body, covering the little dragonet.
Miles and I backed up further and stopped, waiting for her to move. Every muscle in my body was prepared to run. The dragon leaned towards us, fangs all too visible despite the dim light. “Give me one reason,” she hissed, her voice like thunder and church bells, “I shouldn’t kill you both right now.”
“You can talk?” I gasped before I could stop myself.
She pulled her lips back in a distinct sneer. “I can do a lot of things, girl. I’m not one of your stupid beasts.”
“Oh. S-sorry, um. Ma’am.”
She grinned savagely. “I will ask you again. Give me one reason I shouldn’t end your lives.”
“We’re not here to hurt you,” Miles said. “You or your hatchling. We want to lift the Shadow, and we-- we heard you were the answer to that.”
“You heard correctly. The Shadow was my doing.” She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes at Miles. “Why do you want to lift it? You’re one of mine. The darkness is your home.”
“The Shadow is spreading,” Miles explained. “There are people on the outside who will die. And I--” he looked down at his hands. “I’m tired of being a monster.”
The dragon laughed. It sounded like an earthquake. “You want to be human again? Those worms are more monstrous than you’ll ever be. Their greed. Their anger. Their hate. They do not deserve to be spared. As my Shadow spreads again, the world is safe from them. My son is safe.”
I choked. “The Shadow is spreading rapidly again?” The dragon’s sneer widened. “You have to stop! My family lives near the Shadowvale!”
The dragon growled, and my chest shook with the sound. “Your family? Why should I think of your family when your people pressed swords to my son’s throat?” She sat back. “I have my own family to think of. Out of respect for your motive your death will be painless, though I cannot promise the same for your people.”
“No!” Miles pushed me behind him. “Don’t. Please.” He gripped my hand. “The humans on the outside are terrified of your Shadow. You don’t need to spread it to keep them out.”
“I don’t think you understand,” the dragon growled. “Fear is what drives humans to atrocities. Perhaps they won’t enter the forest now, but given enough time they will rage in and destroy it. I can’t take my chances. Now step aside, boy. You don’t need to die.”
Suddenly, the dragon’s head snapped toward the cave opening. A rumbling growl started low in her belly and shivered into my hair. A female voice called out into the cavern. “Oh, Yymerenn! Your magic has grown weak with your awakening, my dear. Did you forget in your haste to spread your Shadow that you had to watch out for the denizens of the forest?”
The dragon roared. “Leave, Queen! This is my forest. You relinquished it when you summoned me here.”
“I did no such thing.” The speaker drew closer. I could now make out her outline, as well as the shape of whoever strode beside her. “You stole my kingdom, and I shall take it back. You two,” she said to Miles and me, walking towards us. “You were supposed to kill her.” The speaker stepped close enough that I could make out her features: gold-brown hair, hazel eyes, a young, painfully beautiful face. Her ears sharpened to points, and upon her head was a crown of woven twigs. She was much taller and younger than before, but I recognized her.
“Bluewhen?” I gaped, astonished. “Aren’t you supposed to be old? And totally nuts?”
The wildwitch tossed back her delicate head and laughed a laugh like water. “That was merely a glamour, child.”
“You’re the Faerie Queen,” Miles grumbled. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice.”
“Do not judge yourself too harshly,” the Queen said. “I am very powerful.”
“Powerful,” the dragon agreed. “Prideful and stupid.”
Rage flashed in the fey Queen’s eyes. “You shall not speak to me like that,” she hissed. “You have no right--”
The dragon roared. “You don’t command me, faerie! Not in my own realm. This forest is mine, now, I claim it! This place is not yours, now that you’ve ripped me from my home and soaked my blood into this land’s soil. My magic runs deep. Leave!”
The Faerie Queen screamed in anger, and the stone around us screamed with her. The dragon rose on her four legs, fire and shadow building between her jaws. I scrambled backward to remove myself from the crossfire, pulling Miles with me, and turned to hurry from the cave in case it collapsed upon us, but a figure loomed in front of me. Pale fingers closed on my shoulder.
Keely. “You should run far,” she whispered. “This will not end well.”
“I got that,” I hissed, moving around her. I glanced over my shoulder. “Are you coming?”
She shook her head. “My place is with my queen.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Well, if by your place you mean dead.”
Keely glared. “Just go away.”
Miles’s talons caught my fingers, leading me towards the carvern's mouth. Keely stared after us for a moment, then turned away.
I stumbled to a halt on the gravelly beach, my head flicking between the lake and the cavern mouth. “What do we do?”
“I’m flying you to shore,” Miles said, “and I’m taking you very, very far away.”
I swallowed. “You don’t think we should… help?”
He twisted his hands. “Which side would you help?”
I hesitated. The Queen hovered on my tongue, because she’d helped us before, and the dragon was scary. But from what I’d gathered from our conversation with the big, scaly, Shadow lady, she’d only released the Shadow to protect her son. That seemed a good cause, even if she went about it the wrong way. And something about the Faerie Queen seemed off, like she’d give me candy then bite off my head to get it back. I sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Great.” He grabbed my hand. “Let’s go.”
“But what about the serpent? And the Shadow’s spreading--”
Miles pressed his hands to my face so I had to look at him. “Maddie. You can’t do anything if you’re dead.”
I sighed and drooped between his hands. “Fine. But we are coming back and we are saving my family.” I gripped his wrist. “And saving you.”
He gave me a look, but before I could puzzle out what it meant he froze, watching the cavern opening. I heard the rasp of fire and the thrum of stony magic, and much closer the click of claws on stone. When I turned, I found the little blue dragon slinking out of the cave, giving me a wary look.
I gave him a wary look back. Miles slipped an arm around my waist and moved slightly in front of me.
The dragon’s head waved back and forth, as if he was trying to make up his mind. Then he blurted: “Are you going to kill me or not?”
The voice was all rain showers and little boy, reminding me of several of the town kids. I shook my head in surprise, then in answer. “Of course not. Why--”
He sat down. “Oh. It’s only that humans tried to kill me before. With swords and things.” He eyed the sword strapped to Miles’ back.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “That’s why your mother made the Shadow, right? To keep them out?”
He nodded. “The Faerie Queen summoned us from our world. She wanted to use my mother’s heart to grow her realm, but when my mother bled into the ground, she used magic to claim the Queen’s forest as her own.” The dragonet swished his tail over the dirt. “The Queen was angry. She disguised herself as a human and convinced the other humans to kill my mother. Dragons are very strong against magic, but we fall to steel and iron. They came and tried to kill my mother by threatening my life and offering mine in exchange for hers. So she made the Shadow to keep them away.
“That made the Queen angrier. She spent all her magic to put my mother and me into a sleep, and used my mother’s Shadow to push back the limits of the forest, making it bigger every year. But my mother put a wall around our island. The fae couldn’t get in.” The dragonet turned his amber eyes on Miles, who stiffened beside me. “I remember you. You didn’t want to kill us, you wanted magic to save someone. Your brother? Your friend? I don’t remember exactly. Everything in the sleep is blurry. The Queen told you she’d give you the power to save him if you killed my mother. I couldn’t wake up, but I heard you talking. You were sorry.”
Miles’s face twisted in a way that was at once angry, frustrated, and sad. I felt something tearing a litttle inside me, like I was the one who’d lost my life, instead of him. Was this what it was like to love someone: their pain was as strong inside you as if it was your own? “My mother couldn’t wake up enough to kill you. She gave you a piece of the Shadow for your magic instead. So you wouldn’t kill us.”
“But I didn’t make it out of the Shadowvale,” Miles muttered. “And I was lost. Who-- who was I here for?”
“I don’t know. You didn’t say much. Just that you didn’t want to hurt us, but someone needed you.”
Miles turned to look at me. His black eyes were so wide. He looked like he wanted to cry, but had no tears left in him. I took his face in my hands and kissed his forehead. “I’ll find a way,” I promised. “I’ll find a way to pull the dark from you. And you’ll remember.”
“But where will you put it?” he growled. “Inside yourself? So I can watch you rot from the inside?”
I shook my head. “I’ll give it back to the dragon. Where it belongs.” I smiled at him. “I don’t need power,” I said. “I don’t need it to be worth something. Anyway, it costs too much. I don’t want to end up a slobbering shadow monster like you.”
Miles’ sadness broke into a shuddering laugh. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close enough to hear his heartbeat.
I pulled back without letting go. “Let’s stop the Shadow and our nutty witch,” I said. “I’m sick of the dark.”
Miles nodded. “Right. But you’re staying behind me, got it? We’re not going through the Dusk Wolf encounter again.”
I shivered. “I hear you.”
We turned to look at the Hill. Power shook it from its roots to the spire. A lick of flame shivered deep in the cavern.
The dragonet bounded over. “I can help you! I’m Sinnym, by the way--”
The Quiet Hill exploded.
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