Pillage

  I opened my eyes in an effort to personally witness my own death. We were high in the air. Ishmael swooped down the mountainside and into the open valley. I could see the other dragons in the distance. It looked as if they were picking up bits of Kingsplot and moving them around. The large lakes surrounding the town were covered with mist as Pip and Saber tore apart the center of the city near the town hall and Callowbrow.

  Ishmael arched up and then down, shooting through the shorter tunnel that led into town. Two cars swerved out of the way and crashed into the wall. Ishmael burst out of the tunnel and plummeted swiftly down into town like an elevator that had been cut loose. I started to slide forward on his neck toward his head. I dug my heels into his side, looping my legs over the joint where his wings attached to his body. He turned his head just enough to stare at me with his wide right eye. He looked incredibly happy. I would have felt happy too if it had not been for the ground rising so quickly. I could see people running in the street and Mercury flying above me.

  Ishmael was gunning for the city’s clock tower. He slammed into it, ripping the top of it off with his talons. I could feel the extra weight pulling us down. The dragon flexed his wings, extending their reach, and pumped them to lift us.

  It suddenly occurred to me that I had no idea what I was doing. I beat on Ishmael’s back with my feet. He spun, bothered by my kicking. I could see Callowbrow. Sections of the roof had been ripped up and I could see Pip tearing apart the trophy case, scooping out lacrosse and badminton trophies with her mouth.

  Ishmael skimmed the surface of the town, darting between parked cars and the people who were valiantly running for their lives. Ishmael opened his jaws and picked up a public drinking fountain from the ground. The motion was so jarring I lost my grip and flew from his back onto a wet grassy field.

  I tumbled for a hundred feet and ended up on my back, staring up into the sky. I could see stars and rainbows. Then I saw Ishmael fly right over me and away.

  A dragon screamed in the air right above me. I looked up just in time to see Aeron shove his staff into Rydon’s neck while they were flying. The dragon screeched like a spastic whistle and slammed down against the ground, sliding to a stop a couple streets over.

  I ran toward them as fast as I could. People were ducking for cover and weeping. I watched a family run from their destroyed home into another home. I saw Saber swoop down and pull off the entire roof of the home that family had run into.

  Rounding the corner, I saw Aeron lying on the ground. Rydon had thrown him a long distance. I knelt down by Aeron and his eyes fluttered open. I thought he was going to say something compassionate and comforting. I should have known better.

  “Did you see that thing die?” he asked solemnly.

  I nodded.

  Aeron got up quickly, and ran to where Rydon’s lifeless body was slowly disappearing like a sandcastle being blown away. Aeron walked right up and yanked the staff from the dragon’s vanishing neck.

  All around us the sounds of chaos and panic filled the air. I watched Ishmael pick up a man and then drop him into the lake, screaming. I could see Mercury trying to lift up a purple car with a female passenger inside.

  “We need to go,” I said urgently as Rydon continued to disappear.

  “We have to wait to see if there’s a stone,” Aeron yelled. “We have to be sure this ends here.”

  “I thought there were no more stones!”

  “We have to be sure.”

  “You wait then,” I said, grabbing the staff from him.

  I ran around a demolished fountain and up behind Mercury. There was an empty car next to the one he was trying to lift. I jumped up onto the car’s roof and spun around, attempting to thrust the engraved staff into Mercury’s neck.

  I missed.

  The staff slid off the side of his neck, only scratching him. He looked at me and steam escaped his flared nostrils.

  “Uh-oh,” I muttered.

  Mercury dropped the purple car and shot up into the air, whistling like a shooting star. The woman in the car next to me looked up at me like I was a superhero. I smiled at her and jumped down, trying to be smooth. I landed wrong and went sliding on my face. I glanced back at her. She appeared less impressed than before.

  In the distance, Saber, the skinny orange dragon with long front teeth, was marching down the cobblestone main street. With his front legs he ripped up storefront awnings, looking for treasure to steal.

  Aeron ran toward me. “Give me the staff,” he yelled.

  I thought he was going to go after Saber, but as he turned the corner, I could see Pip running wildly after him. I threw the staff to Aeron. He caught it and spun but it was the wrong position to attack Pip. I saw the dragon open her jaws and lower her head to bite Aeron.

  “No, Pip,” I screamed.

  I jumped back onto the car and sprang up, reaching for Pip’s back. With one hand I held tightly to her long green hair and with my other fist I beat down on her neck.

  It worked—Pip stopped chasing Aeron and shook her head and neck, trying to toss me off. She rocketed up with me barely hanging onto the hair on the back of her neck.

  Pip arched her short back and shot like a bullet toward Callowbrow. She dropped through the large hole that had been torn in the cafeteria’s roof. It had not been too many weeks ago that lettuce had been flying around this very same room. Pip skidded across the tiled floor and slammed into the wall.

  The jolt sent me flying off of her back and into the teacher’s lounge. Pip regained her balance and began tearing apart a bank of lockers. She tore a section of seven lockers away from the wall and then picked up a cafeteria table in her mouth. Two seconds later she was gone out of the hole in the roof.

  “Are you okay?” a voice asked.

  I looked over to see Professor Squall hiding behind a couch.

  “I think so,” I said, out of breath. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was grading tests when the ceiling started to crumble.”

  “Did I pass?” I joked.

  “Your uncle was right,” he said apologetically, ignoring another one of my jokes. “I thought they were crazy.”

  “They?”

  “Aeron and Francine,” he answered absently. “I was in love with Francine. She left me to take you away. I thought it was just Aeron trying to ruin our lives.”

  “I know she was my aunt,” I said.

  “I wasn’t sure if you did.”

  “You need to read her journal,” I said. “She mentions you. Of course I didn’t know you were the Simon she was talking about. I think I have a picture of you two.”

  In the distance a dragon screamed.

  I stood up and tried to catch my breath. Callowbrow was in shambles. There were holes all over the roof, and a large area of walls had been ripped out. I could see down the hall and there were no longer any front doors.

  Professor Squall and I ran along a corridor by the band room, hopping over trash and wreckage. We were steps away from the missing doors and freedom when Mercury dropped down, blocking our way. He looked down the hall directly at us. I could see his large blue eyes smile mysteriously as he recognized me.

  “Oh, great.”

  We inched backward as Mercury folded his metallic-looking wings and ducked his head into the hallway.

  “Sorry about that whole trying-to-kill-you thing,” I yelled.

  He took two steps closer to us and blew a huge fountain of flame in our direction. The fire didn’t reach us, but the heat was intense enough to singe my eyebrows. Parts of the hallway caught on fire and lit up.

  I was hoping the burning corridor would deter him, but he pushed right through the fire, still looking at me as if he had a score to settle.

  “Over there!” Squall yelled. “In the bathroom. We can trap him.”

  I ran into the teacher’s small bathroom with Mercury following me. I climbed up onto one of the sinks and tried desperately to open the single window the bathroom had.

 
Mercury’s head crashed through the door and into the bathroom. His presence made me try harder and I popped the window open and pushed it out.

  Mercury struggled to get through the bathroom door and into the small space. He pulled his body in the room, his tail slithering in behind him.

  Squall closed the door, making it impossible for Mercury to back up.

  I jumped through the window’s opening and easily got the top half of my body out. Mercury blew fire and I could feel it roasting my legs. I pulled my body out of the window and fell into a thick tangle of ivy. Mercury stuck his head and long neck out of the window, trying to grab hold of me. I scrambled from the ivy, smoldering and scratched.

  The dragon screamed. He tried to pull his head back through the window, but the size didn’t allow him enough space to back out or move. He was trapped.

  Furious, Mercury began to torch the ivy and the trees outside the window. It wasn’t easy to do, seeing how all of Kingsplot was waterlogged.

  I ran back around the corner just as Aeron was shoving his staff into Saber’s neck while the dragon tried to pick up a car with his mouth. A group of three citizens with baseball bats watched in awe as Saber’s remains drifted off into the wind.

  “Aeron!” I yelled. “Aeron!”

  Aeron turned and saw me. He actually smiled and picked up the staff that had fallen to the ground. There was so much going on that I barely had time to notice Myth swooping down, aiming for Aeron.

  “Aeron!”

  He didn’t hear me, but managed to jump onto Myth’s

  back as she twisted in mid-air, skyrocketing upward. In the

  commotion of getting on, Aeron dropped the black staff. I watched it fall to the ground then ran to retrieve it.

  The sound of ambulances and gunshots filled the air. I watched as Myth settled onto a large weather vane on top of a beautiful little church. She wrapped her talons around the north and south arrows and pulled up, flapping her humongous blue wings. Two men on the street fired shotguns at her. The buckshot was absorbed by Myth’s body. Some buckshot blew holes in her wings, but the holes quickly closed back up.

  Myth pulled the top of the church up and shot sideways, clamping down on a streetlight with her teeth before flying up into the air and back to the manor. The sight was frightening but so impressive I couldn’t help but stare. I hoped Aeron was still on her back. I hoped even more that he’d make it back to the manor in one piece.

  “Beck!” a frightened voice called. “Down here, Beck!”

  I looked over to see Wyatt cowering beneath a bench at the bus stop. He was flat against the ground and more frightened than when he had been picked on by the lettuce. I ran over to him and reached my hand out.

  “No way,” Wyatt said. “What are they?”

  “Dragons,” I answered.

  “Dragons?”

  “Come on,” I insisted. “It’s not safe out here.”

  Wyatt scooted out, watching the sky at all times.

  “I was walking home when that big white one started chasing me,” he whimpered. “It got distracted by something and I crawled under the bench. I saw some guy kill an orange one.”

  “That was Aeron,” I answered as we darted across the open street.

  “Your uncle?”

  “My dad.”

  We jumped through the smashed window of a bakery, looking for shelter. Everything was a wreck, but it smelled so good. I slipped behind the counter and slid to the floor, out of breath. Wyatt slid down next to me.

  “How many are there?” he asked.

  “I think there’s four left.”

  “Where’d they come from?”

  I wanted to lie. I wanted more than anything to say, “I have no idea.” But this wasn’t like letting a bunch of bees loose into a ventilation system—a whole town was being torn apart.

  “I grew them,” I said apologetically.

  “On purpose?” Wyatt asked.

  “I didn’t know what they were.”

  “You really don’t live a normal life, do you?” he asked, almost kindly.

  I smiled.

  “So what’s that?” Wyatt asked, nodding toward the black staff.

  “This kills them.”

  Wyatt looked impressed. “Shouldn’t we be out there then? You know, killing them.”

  “They know we’re after them now,” I said. “It won’t be as easy. We need to attract the remaining ones to us.”

  “Attract them?” Wyatt said, concerned.

  “If they come to us, it will be much easier.”

  I raised my head above the counter and looked out the demolished front window. I could see the hat shop across the street and a large paint store.

  “What are you looking at?” Wyatt asked.

  “I remember something I read,” I answered. “About how dragons are drawn to gold and silver.”

  “So?”

  “Come on,” I said, jumping up.

  I reached the window and watched Ishmael latch onto and carry off a hot dog vending cart. We ran out the window, across the street, and over to the paint store. It looked to be the only business that wasn’t smashed open. I swung the staff and busted the front window. We carefully kicked shards of glass out of the way and stepped inside. The store was so organized and clean I felt bad about having to come in to take something. I promised myself I would come back and pay for it later.

  “What are we looking for?” Wyatt asked.

  “Gold paint. Maybe silver.”

  We found six gallons of gold paint and two gallons of silver. I grabbed a few paint rollers and brushes and a dozen cans of glitter spray paint. We also took four portable lights that could be used to paint at night.

  We tossed everything into a shopping cart and hurried across the street and down the back alleyway toward Callowbrow. The cart was heavy and, thanks to everything being torn apart, we had a difficult time finding a clear path. The town of Kingsplot was in total chaos and panic filled the streets.

  I could see Mercury’s head still sticking out the bathroom window. He was angrier than ever and blowing fire.

  “Into the courtyard,” I pointed.

  A few trees had fallen down in the brick courtyard at Callowbrow. We shoved the small trees out of the center of the courtyard and kicked away the debris. I grabbed a gallon of gold paint and tried to get the lid off. I had forgotten to take a paint can opener.

  “What do we do?” Wyatt worried.

  I shrugged and threw the paint can down against the bricks. It popped open and paint shot out.

  “Start rolling!” I ordered.

  Wyatt took a paint roller with a long handle and began to roll the thick, gold paint all over the bricks. I threw another can of gold paint down and then another and another. I grabbed my own roller and joined Wyatt while shooting spray paint with my other hand.

  The thick paint quickly covered most of the large open brick courtyard. I could hear a dragon screaming from the direction of the town’s center.

  “Hurry!” I yelled.

  Wyatt rolled paint spastically. “I can’t believe we’re doing this!”

  “Any other time it would be fun.” I smiled.

  Wyatt looked at me and laughed, rolling paint all over the bricks.

  “I’m sorry about all that stuff I did,” he apologized while painting. “You know, how I acted.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m not always easy to get along with.”

  Pip flew directly over Callowbrow, heading in the direction of the manor. I could hear people screaming and alarms and car horns going off.

  I kept painting.

  “I think they’re dropping off what they’ve pillaged,” I said loudly. “It doesn’t take them long. They’ll all be on their way back any moment.”

  I threw the rest of the cans onto the bricks and we spread the silver paint around with the gold. We covered the entire courtyard and then positioned the four, battery-powered lights around the edge of the paint.

  “Is t
his going to work?” Wyatt said, concerned.

  “I don’t think so,” I replied. “But it’s all I could think of.”

  I heard Mercury pitching a fit at still being jammed in the bathroom.

  “Wait here.”

  I ran out of the courtyard and down the corridor. I stepped through a huge hole in the wall and back outside. I pressed my back up against the wall. I could see Mercury blowing fire. I moved along the wall until I was under his neck that stuck out the window. I looked up at his silver scales and realized what a magnificent creature he was. His scales were iridescent and as smooth as ancient river rocks. Thin stripes of red ran down his neck like thread. I would have given anything to keep him—and all the other dragons—as pets, but I knew that as long as they lived, other people’s lives would be in jeopardy. I couldn’t let what I had started ruin any more lives.

  “Sorry,” I said, thrusting the black staff through the bottom of Mercury’s neck.

  Fire fizzled from his mouth and he relaxed, small particles of him beginning to break free and blow away into the wind. I stood up and peered through the window. There was no stone. In fact, there was nothing but an empty bathroom.

  “Sorry, Mercury,” I said, surprised by the horrible feeling I had in my chest. My heart felt swollen and raw. Seeing the dragons disappear was more depressing than I had anticipated. I had always wished that dragons were real, and now that I had helped bring some to life, I was getting rid of them. I knew I had to, but it felt dark and confusing.

  By the time I got back to the courtyard, Wyatt was hiding behind a short wall and I could see the first of the dragons coming back from the manor.

  “Only three left,” I said sadly.

  “That’s a good thing, right?” Wyatt asked.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “I can see now why my ancestors had such a hard time getting rid of them. They’ve kinda grown on me.”

  “Not me,” Wyatt said.

  A terrifying screech ripped through the air.

  “Hit the lights!” I yelled.

  The portable lights were directed upward into the air. I was hoping the light would act as a magical dragon trap, but in the daylight, the glow barely registered. The courtyard of gold-painted bricks just looked like a courtyard of gold-painted bricks.