“I don’t have to do anything, Chloe.”
Chloe closed her eyes and squeezed her hair, like her dad did whenever an idea got the best of him. She jumped to her feet. “You — yes, you — have to help my friends. Without you they won’t live!”
The rainbow fish scattered again.
“There are many things that have never been done in my domain, and you have just done several.”
“Okay, sorry, but haven’t you ever had friends who really needed help? Please.”
The shepherd pointed to the shell once again. The first slave ship appeared, covered with wet river dwarfs clamoring up its side.
“That’s Tuftunder and that’s his crew.” Chloe pointed. “Slavers.”
“Slavers, you say. I must have startled them.” A wry smile worked across his face.
Chloe thought. “Well, maybe it was you, but they’re probably more afraid of Vaepor.”
The Shepherd scoffed. “Afraid of a wispy cloud? In the bay, I alone require reverence.”
“Oh, I hear you. I’m just saying that the dwarfs don’t seem to think so.”
“They don’t. Then they will be taught.” He glanced sideways at the shell. “Their ship carries an awfully small galley of slaves.”
The Shepherd swept away the image, and the hold of the ship appeared. In the center, a young boy lay shackled by the hands to a pole.
I know that face …
“Nick!”
“You know this boy?”
“I’ve been looking for so long … Please help him!”
“And this other boat?”
“Another slave ship. But I only need Nick and Nob and Scout.”
“And why has Vaepor stirred my waters?”
“I think he wants me.” Chloe quieted. “He’s so cruel … Help us —”
The Shepherd pointed toward the sky. “I care little about surface comings and goings. Vaepor draws from my strength, but I don’t feel the loss.
“And as far as your friends, this is my domain, not yours. I do as I please. I take who I wish to take, and leave who I wish to leave.” The Sea Shepherd blew a trail of bubbles toward the surface. “Your courage, Chloe, is great. Foolish anger is not. And so I will aid your friends. Two of your friends.”
“What? What do you mean two?”
“Nick, Nob, Scout; two will survive this crossing.” The Sea Shepherd turned and walked away. “And you may choose.”
I see heartache ahead for you, Chloe.
Chloe stared at the shell. The small boat listed badly. Nob gripped the mast and held on tight to Scout, who bobbed in and out of the water. Chloe whipped around.
“Please,” she cried. “I beg you, please! I’m sorry I was so demanding.”
“The next name you say is mine for the taking. Or say none and save none.”
She rubbed her hand over the shell. Her tears burned and floated away. “I can’t. I can’t choose.”
The scene on the surface worsened. The tiny boat capsized. Scout thrust his crippled leg out of the water and toward the boat.
“Oh, Scout,” Chloe whispered. “You can do it.”
“Done!”
The giant fist grabbed Chloe and thrust her upward. She shot out of the water and landed with a splash beside the broken mast. Once her eyes adjusted to the surface, she stared as the scaly hand wrapped its fingers around Tuftunder’s boat and yanked one hundred screaming dwarfs beneath the waterline.
Chloe swam toward Nob, who clung to a plank. “Chloe? Oh, lady! I thought — Lady, I lost Scout. I lost my brother. I couldn’t hold on. It’s my fault.”
“No,” Chloe cried. “It’s mine. It’s all mine.”
A wild scream. She looked up in time to see Nick splash into the water. He sputtered and thrashed.
“Help me!”
Without hesitation Chloe swam to him, gripped him beneath the arms, and wrestled him over the mast. “Nick, stop fighting. It’s me.”
He turned his head. “Chloe? You’re not a look-alike? Tell me something only you would know.”
She thought a moment. “Front row, far on the right.”
Nick’s body went limp and he leaned his head on her arm. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you.” Coughs racked his body. “What’s happened to us?”
Chloe shook her head and wept.
Dwarf divers leaped from the second boat and swam hard for what remained of the skiff. Nob looked up. “It’s okay. They’re friends from inside the mountain. Awake again.” Nob lowered his head until it rested on the plank. “Please, lady, have mercy and take your leave of me when we land. I told you that you’d be better off.”
Chloe stared at Nob with her hard Grandpa Salvador stare. “No. Not without you. He said two would reach the far shore. I’m not leaving you again.”
“Who said this?”
“In the boat.” She puffed out air. I’ll have a lot of explaining to do.
CHAPTER
24
CHLOE, NICK, AND NOB agreed to wait with stories until they landed. Thoughts were painful enough, what agony words would bring. But Chloe’s mind whirred with dread nonetheless. How can I tell Nob I’m the reason he’ll never see his brother again? Will he want to go on without his loyal Scout? And what should I tell Nick? She couldn’t help thinking the whole mess might have been averted had he not set off on his own.
Their ship came ashore in Shadowton, a city well named. Unlike Medahon, Shadowton had no walls. Nestled in the mouth of the valley of the eastern range, it lay protected by enormous mountains that hid the sun even in late afternoon.
Chloe stood on the dock staring up at the peaks, which disappeared into the clouds. Nob stopped at her side. “We’re very close now,” Chloe whispered. “I feel a heaviness.”
“Yes, lady, close to the City of Reckoning. To the pool. To Vaepor. Maybe to our end.”
“I need you —” Chloe said. “I need you to like me even after I tell you what I did.” She tried to look at him, this friend who came back for her, but she couldn’t even come within inches of meeting his eyes.
I’m so ashamed. Dad, I know exactly how you feel.
Her knees buckled and she stumbled, sobbing, onto the dock. Slowly, she calmed herself, and patted her back pocket. Her triumphant picture was still there — the image was certainly washed out by the water and her actions — but it was Dad’s weeping photo that haunted her. She thought of him walking out from the barn. She thought of the rusted trailer and Inky and the Connect-It-All, his wonder invention.
She thought of him looking the other way.
What would he see in your eyes, Chloe? Again, another’s voice pounded in her head. This time she did not look for the speaker — she knew who he was. Anger. Bitterness. What would he find in you?
Chloe buried her head in her hands.
No, Secholit. Maybe not now. Maybe he’d see love.
Nob held her, and Chloe felt the warm, wet surface of his face. In the city of his lost father, Nob cried too.
“Okay, lady, I’m here. No matter what you did, I’m not leaving.”
She leaned against Nob and glanced over to Nick, who stood a few yards off, seemingly oblivious to their sob session. He spun a slow circle, a frown working across his face.
“Shadowton. A big place, right?”
Nob wiped his tears with the heel of his hand. “The largest of the five great cities of Retinya.”
Nick stopped rotating. “So there should be lots of people.”
Chloe rose slowly. “Where are they?”
A few men and women scurried around the dock, but the city was largely deserted.
“They’re gone. Joined the others on Pilgrimage two days ago,” a burly sailor with a deep scar under his chin called from his ship.
“But you didn’t go.” Chloe reached for Nob’s hand.
“I’ve been there plenty, miss.” He clutched his stomach and winced. “I didn’t feel up to the trip this year.” He stared at Chloe and chuckled. “I’m surprised you aren??
?t with them.”
“I’ve never —” Nob kicked her. “We missed them, that’s all.”
“Get a move on, then.” He tied his skiff to the dock and stepped toward them. “When you hear the drummin’, you know you’re close.”
“What is everyone talking about?” Nick looked confused. “We shouldn’t follow anything. Let’s stay here. I mean, we have the place to ourselves.”
“Spoken like a fearful lad.” The sailor paused. “But this fear might serve you well.” His boots thumped heavy on the dock, which creaked beneath his weight. “I don’t know what the girl told you about the pool, but the dunk is a terrifying deed. You sink, and your very memories float away until you can’t remember why you ever came. You want to jump out, but around you memories, like shadows, moan and swirl, and you don’t dare twitch, and so you stay.” He pointed at his head. “This water tries to steal it all. Fear and faint whispers are all I have left.”
Again, the sailor winced, and his face darkened. “My advice? Stay away from the pool.”
Chloe squeezed Nob’s hand. His skin was ashen, and she followed his gaze back to the sailor.
“Grandpa Salvador?”
Grandpa stood where the sailor had been, his kind face smiling, eyes a-twinkle. Chloe stepped forward. “How did … how did you get here?”
“Through the window, in the same way you did. I’m so pleased to have found you.”
He shuffled forward until his knees gave out. He straightened and smiled. “I miss our walks.” Both Nob and Chloe inched back.
“Who do you see?” Chloe whispered.
“My dad.”
Chloe’s hands felt clammy. “Grandpa, remember when you accidentally filled my dad’s rear with buckshot?”
“Of course, my dear. Such a fool I was.”
“Why’d you do it?”
He paused, smiled Grandpa’s crooked grin, and reached out his arms. His shirt and hands were covered with blood. “Give your grandfather a hug.”
“Run!” Chloe screamed. She grabbed Nob’s sleeve and he broke from his trance. She hustled Nick off the dock and onto the wharf, and the three of them raced through the city with Salvador’s shape close behind.
“Why are we running from a sailor?” Nick huffed.
Chloe shoved him into a carpentry shop and slammed the door. “It’s a Senseri or worse. He wasn’t a sailor to me!”
“Nonsense.” Nick frowned. “What’s a Senseri?”
Nob pulled them deeper into the stockroom, where they scrambled beneath a pile of lumber. Chloe gazed out through a crack and fought to quiet her heartbeat. The door creaked open and Salvador hobbled in. He gently shut the door behind him.
“Why do you run? You’ve never run from me before.”
And with this last word, her body exploded into its huge dragon form. The shop was far too small to contain her; all four walls and the ceiling blew apart. She flapped her wings and blood oozed from her underbelly. Scout was right — the wound from his blade had not healed.
“This has gone on too long,” she croaked. “The two children are summoned. Come, Nob, go your way. I have no interest in a former prince.”
Chloe looked at Nob, who shook his head.
“All right,” the creature said. “You’ve tied your fate to the others’.”
“Will you promise not to hurt him?”
Chloe stared at herself, standing toe to talon, wondering how she’d ended up in front of this dragon. All she knew was she lost Scout. She would not rob Retinya of Nob.
The dragon reached its neck around Chloe, examining her from all sides. She fought to remain still, but an icy shiver worked across her body. Chloe always imagined that dragon breath would be hot, but this creature’s nostrils spewed cold — sickly cold.
“I make no promises about Nob, but he’s no longer a concern of mine.” She wagged her giant head to and fro. “And where’s his majesty?”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about! You have me! Take me, you stupid dragon.”
“Temper, Chloe. Not without his majesty.”
Nick rose, rough boards clattering to the ground around him. He raised his hands and shrugged. “It’s what they call me. At first it felt weird, but I’m getting used to it.” He turned to the dragon. “It’s about time you came back. What was that ship thing about? I was chained to a post. I almost drowned!”
“Apologies.” The dragon forced a bow.
Nob grabbed Chloe’s arm and yanked. “Nick’s not on our side. He’s a slave to that darkness. Haven’t you felt it?”
Chloe took a small step away from Nick. “You side with Vaepor?”
“Well, I guess you could say I was Vaepor. He told me what to say, I said it. It’s not a bad job, really. Creepy things slither around his palace walls, but they didn’t come too near my place. Chloe, you won’t believe the things I’ve seen.”
Chloe couldn’t speak.
“It’s okay,” Nick walked toward the dragon, who snatched him up in a talon. Nick wriggled and gave her an almost mechanical smile. “You’ll see how cool this is.”
“No.” The voice spiraled down from the sky. “She won’t.”
“Pindle!” Chloe screamed. He looked so small hovering above them, but his face was stern, and the large dragon trembled.
“Release the lad, Yizash. I saw you hatch. On that day I rejoiced, but now I weep. What have you become?”
Yizash threw Nick across the shop onto a crumbled, wooden heap. “I don’t — I don’t know you. I don’t remember you. You’re an old one. You’re all trapped in the hollows. You’ve been there —”
“Too long.” Pindle launched into the sky, screeched, and plummeted down. Yizash flapped once but barely left the ground before Pindle tucked and blasted through her wing. A roar went out from the injured dragon.
“You will never fly again, daughter.”
Yizash shrieked and beat the air. Her tattered, leathery wing provided no lift, and she crashed to the ground, flailed, and tumbled out of sight, leaving a trail of black blood as she fled.
“What have you done?” Nick walked over to Pindle. “That was my ride home.”
“Home?” Chloe raised her arms and let them flop. “This is all wrong. Why did you live with Vaepor? Why didn’t he destroy you?” She paced and rubbed her head like Dad often did.
What does Nick have that Vaepor needs?
“A body. A form.” She raised her finger toward the sky and kept pacing. “Vaepor has no form, so he frightens everyone. But what if you spoke for him? People wouldn’t be scared of you. They’d think his orders were kind.”
“You’re talking like a fool,” said Nick.
“But why you? I mean, any Senseri could speak for him. Why did he need you?”
“Have you seen the pool, Nick?” Nob approached, each step carefully placed.
“All this business about a pool … No, I haven’t.”
“So you’ve been to where Vaepor dwells, but he’s not allowed you in his palace or near the pool?” Nob repeated.
“Well, I’ve never been inside the palace walls. I stayed in a beautiful private house nearby …” He turned to Chloe. “That doesn’t really make sense, does it? They called me ‘your highness’ but they didn’t let me see the palace.”
“Because you were blind,” she said, and slumped over. “And you would see what I can’t. Scout told me. Your eyes could see what lurks around the pool. You might even have seen our way home. It needed you and at the same time It was afraid of you. Now that we’ve both survived the bay, It wants you because you and I are dangerous to It.”
“True.” Pindle hopped over to remnants of smoldering wing. “If Vaepor gave one of my children any spoken authority, they would not give it back.”
Nick frowned. “Why is he afraid of you?”
Chloe stroked her scar. “I think because I’m no longer afraid of him.”
“May I suggest we move?” Pindle said. “I came to give you word. Five more ships full of those
loyal to Blind Secholit have crossed the bay and even now reach Port’s End. The march on Vaepor’s palace stronghold has begun.”
“So everything’s working out!” Chloe exclaimed.
“The Old Retinyans are many for a dinner party, but for a war, they are too few. Unless they are joined by forces of thousands, their bravery will fail.”
“And where are you going to find the rest?” asked Nick.
“May I suggest that if Retinyans remember who they are, you will have freed such a force?”
Chloe brightened. “Oh, Pindle, that’s our last task!”
Help them remember!
Chloe ran to him. “Pindle, how quickly can you set us back on the Pilgrimage path?”
“In less than a day, but why enter what you can’t leave? You found Nick. There will be no turning off the road. Let me take you to Port’s End. You may approach a different way.”
“You heard Secholit. You know where I need to go. I need you to trust me,” Chloe said.
Pindle looked at Nob, who shrugged. “The force is mine to lead, but so is Chloe. I made her a promise. I won’t leave again.”
The dragon lowered his wings. “Well, then, I suppose we could fly, but we cannot follow the road out of Shadowton. We’ll cross Lake Lemont, and you can rejoin the pilgrims three days out from the City of Reckoning. From then on, you’ll be on your own.” He sighed. “But go with speed. When Yizash reaches Vaepor, It will know the residents of Hollow Mount are freed.”
“Which is why they’ll need lots of help.”
Pindle bowed low. “On my back, Nob, but don’t squeeze too tightly. The skin is not what it once was. Chloe, Nick, aged talons hurt, but there is no choice.”
“But he’s, but you’re … you’re so small!” Nick said.
Pindle’s face twitched and he fired toward Nick, skimming his hair and knocking him onto his back. The old dragon circled upward, glided down, and squeezed the children around the waist. The talons dug deep. He wasn’t exaggerating.
“Stop it! You’re squeezing too tightly,” Nick cried.
Chloe breathed deeply. She would have another scar.
For the first time, that didn’t matter.
CHAPTER
25