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“What the fuck was that?” Brett muttered.
I looked around, wondering whether there was some terrible weapon coming to tear us apart. Who knew what other horrors Ilvar had contained on this island. The sea ebbed and flowed gently against the shore, utterly undisturbed. The creaking did not sound like anything natural, but I could not place the noise. Then it happened again. I winced and put my hands over my ears. Trees crunched and snapped, while leaves were ripped apart. It sounded close, but we couldn’t see anything from our vantage point. I pushed my way through the crowd and risked exposing myself, returning to the shore.
There I saw it, this behemoth rising from the forest. Branches and leaves fell away as it emerged, a sleek, silver craft.It was a triangular shape, expanding and widening towards the rear, with huge round exhaust ports jutting out of the back. My mouth dropped open at the sight of it. I had never seen anything like it before, and yet I knew it immediately. This was the ship that had carried us from Drakon. This was the vessel that had shepherded our ancestors to Earth and had subsequently been lost. To see it again was to see history before my eyes, and yet it also meant the future was being twisted in front of us.
Ilvar had done it. Even though Kadie said he had found the ship, I did not really believe it until I saw it for myself. There was no denying it though. Thick cables wrapped around the hull and were being supported by dragons. They strained against the weight and flapped their wings, guiding it towards the mouth of the volcano. This was it. This was how Ilvar was planning to leave. He was going to position the ship at the top of the volcano so it could absorb the heat and power generated by the Earth’s core. It would blast away, leaving nothing but debris behind.
The end of the world was close, and time was ticking away.
I blinked in disbelief before I shook the thought away from my mind. I needed to focus.
I strode back to the dragons. “We need a new plan. Ilvar is close. He has the ship and they’re taking it towards the volcano. It must mean he’s almost ready to set off. Brett, Buck, I want you to take some of the dragons and stop them from getting the ship to the volcano. Bring it back down to earth. Kadie, the rest of us will go with you to the volcano and we’ll try and figure out what’s going on with Ilvar.
“Wait, I can’t-” Buck said, gesturing towards Kadie. I knew what he was going to say before the words left his lips. He wanted to protect her. He couldn’t bear leaving her, but I wasn’t about to endure his insubordination. If anyone was going to face Ilvar it was me.
“You can, because these are your orders. If you wanted to decide what to do, then you should have become leader when you had the opportunity. We don’t have time to argue, Buck. This is where I need you, and if you’re pissed off, then we can sort it out next time we see each other, if there is a next time.”
His lower lip quivered, and I knew he was angry with me. I glared at him, trying to make it clear that he shouldn’t test me. Thankfully, he saw wisdom. He scowled and took a lingering look at Kadie, before he marched away with Brett. Half the dragons followed him. The other half remained. I glanced towards the volcano.
“Alright, let’s get moving. We don’t have long,” I said, and then began to stride away.
*
The island was not broad, so it did not take long for us to reach the base of the volcano. There was only so long we could hide, though. There were no dragons on the ground, no camp for us to avoid. There was just the forest. In the distance, we could hear the sound of battle. I spared a thought for Brett, Buck, and all the other dragons. I hoped against hope that they would come out of the battle unscathed, but if they did their part, then we might be able to convince Ilvar that he had no hope of succeeding.
Before we ascended the volcano, I turned to Kadie and looked in her deep, soulful eyes. “I’m going to interfere at the first sign of danger. If he hurts you-”
“I know,” she said softly. She took my hand and pressed it against her cheek. I immediately felt less tense. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to get through this,” she said.
I wished I had her confidence, but I guess I had to act like it. I turned to the rest of the dragons and gave them the sign to shift. We spread out our wings and rose along the volcano, following the brittle, dark rock. The closer we got to the peak,the more the air smelled dark and smokey. It was hotter than I expected, perhaps because of whatever Ilvar was doing. We reached the very top of the volcano. In the distance, I could see dragons in the heat of battle. I hated having to resist the urge to help my brethren, but there was more to do here. I looked down and did not see any sign of Ilvar yet, but the mouth of the volcano was dark. It was an abyss drilled into the heart of the Earth, and darkness awaited.
I looked over at Kadie, who inclined her head. We swooped down, plunging into the chasm. It was eerily silent. The rocky cone blocked out the sound from the outside world, which I hoped meant that Ilvar had no idea his dragons were being attacked. I tilted my head up and saw the stars getting farther and farther away, until they disappeared entirely, and we were swallowed by darkness. We were in a vertical tunnel, a shaft that reached down into the bowels of the planet. I should have been used to this, given we lived in caves, but there was something darker about this place, something more foreboding. As we descended, my anxiety increased, for I knew that, at the end of it, Ilvar would be waiting.
The temperature increased rapidly as we descended. I had no idea for how long we had been flying, but it seemed to be a long time. We must have passed through the Earth’s crust by now, and were going where no human had ever gone before. It was strange, I thought, that we had more intimate experience of their planet than they did. It was hardly a blessing though. Kadie was near me, as were the other dragons. We needed to be careful. If we were spotted, then we might be obliterated before we had a chance to strike. Who knew what kind of terrible weapons Ilvar had waiting down there.
Kadie was determined to speak to him by herself. I wasn’t thrilled with this plan, but if she wanted to try, then so be it.I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. It might have been impossible, as we needed a place to hide first.
Eventually, the darkness gave way to light. The tunnel twisted in various ways, and we followed it down. In the distance, I could hear a churning, roiling sound. The furnace of the earth was blazing, and it was filled with life. This was the fire that fueled the world, that warmed the surface, that gave the planet the ability to nurture life. It was this that Ilvar wanted to rob, to take it all in one brilliant, shining blaze and then leave this place consigned to darkness.
The air became hotter. I glanced at the other dragons. The rocky interior of the earth was made up of small pockets and plateaus where we could hide. We swooped in. Fear seized my heart as I saw Ilvar in the distance. I landed and cowered behind a ridge, turning back into a human. I was glad that even in this human form my dragon ancestry gave me resilience against this burning heat. Any normal human would have been incinerated. I pressed myself against the rock and then craned my neck over, looking towards Ilvar. I noticed the dragons perched at various angles. They were like carved gargoyles who were blasting fire from their throats into the core of the Earth.
“Yes! Keep going!” Ilvar cried, flailing his arms above his head in an effort to encourage his other dragons. He was trying to fuel the world, to overload it with heat and reignite this volcano. The molten heat that poured from their throats was so hot it turned white, and all the sparking spittle danced in the air. I could only look at it for a short time before my eyes began to ache.
But it wasn’t only Ilvar that caught my attention, it was the dragon beside him.
Jade was there.
I had no idea how she had come to stand by his side, or how she could have turned her back on our traditions, but it was unmistakably her.
“Okay, I’m going. If there’s any trouble then come and get me,” Kadie said. She moved to leave. I reached out and tugged at her wrist.
“Wait. I’m going to come with you.”
“Mason, no. I need to do this by myself. Besides, if Ilvar sees me with you then he’s not going to believe that I’m here to help him.”
“I’m not sure he’s going to believe that anyway. Kadie, we’ve already seen the ship. He’s close. I don’t think we’re going to get any more information from him. The best we can do is to distract him. But that person with him… I know her. She was a part of our thunder. She only left shortly before you arrived. I need to speak with her as well.”
Kadie’s eyes went wide with shock, but she did not seek to argue with me any further. I told the other dragons to hang back. They didn’t look entirely convinced, but I promised that it would be safe for a while. They looked at the dragons who were spewing fire and it was clear that they did not believe me, but I did not want to confront Ilvar with force because then he would have had no choice but to meet that force equally. If only Kadie and I approached him, perhaps he would be less inclined to fight.
