Isle of Dragons (Quest of the Nine Isles Book 1) Read online

  CHAPTER TEN

  The following morning I awoke to find the sun shining brightly. Despite my efforts to remain awake, I must have fallen asleep again sometime during the night. At least I had suffered no more troubling dreams. I caught a quick breakfast in the shallows along the shore, another of the small striped fish that seemed so common. But I was concerned to discover there was no water left from the other day’s rain. The crevices of all the rocks lining the beach were either dry or contaminated with salt from the ocean’s spray. And the brilliant blue sky showed no sign of rain. Later, I decided, I would have to go deep into the jungle in search of a freshwater source.

  But for now I sat before my cookfire and picked the last meat from the fish’s bones. Skybreaker reclined nearby beneath the shade of the trees along the edge of the shore, gazing out to sea. I wondered again if he was thinking of the Three Hopes lost beneath the ocean waves.

  I followed the mad dragon’s example in looking over the water in the direction of our sunken home. There was no land on the horizon and no ships, nothing but endless blue ocean seemingly stretching on forever to the ends of the earth. Again I felt the weight of guilt and the loneliness of knowing Skybreaker and I were the only survivors.

  I rubbed absently at my hand. I was getting used to the tingling feeling of the magic. It had been there ever since I first robbed the power from the stone. I hardly noticed the prickly sensation along the skin of my hand anymore, the feeling of wearing a tight invisible glove.

  Thinking of the stone, the murky beginnings of an idea began to form in my mind.

  “There’s a legend about the Sheltering Stone,” I said aloud to Skybreaker. “It’s been said that the magic stone originally came from a faraway land across the sea, that there is a whole mountain of such rocks.”

  I didn’t know why I spoke to the dragon, except to keep myself sane. There was certainly no one else to talk to in this place.

  I continued, “Nobody knows quite how the stone came to us on the Ninth Isle. Maybe it was a gift. Maybe somebody traveled far and fetched it back to protect us. Either way, it seems to me if the stone was brought to Corthium once and kept the big island afloat all those years, there’s no reason why a new stone couldn’t do the same again. The magic of the Sheltering Stone is broken. But if there is indeed a mountain of other rocks like it, someone would only have to find that place and bring one back. Who’s to say a powerful enough stone couldn’t raise the entire isle back from the bottom of the sea?”

  Skybreaker showed no reaction to my words. He probably didn’t understand them.

  I went on anyway. “If the Ninth Isle could be restored, maybe the past and the ways of the dragonkind needn’t be lost to the world forever. In saving the island, we would be preserving the memory of those who once lived there.”

  I didn’t voice the thought that this was the least I could do for my people after having been the unwitting cause of their destruction. As the only survivor, I had a duty to protect whatever could be salvaged of our legacy, to ensure the last of the Nine Isles was not wiped away as if it had never been.

  Skybreaker rolled over suddenly and climbed to his feet, shaking sand from his scales. For a second I thought my plan had got through to him. But then he began to plod off into the trees, heading into the jungle. He was going to hunt, I realized.

  Frustrated, I called after him, “It isn’t only the island that might be saved. What of the Three Hopes at the bottom of the sea? I’ve heard it said dragon eggs can survive underwater for a while. If the Hopes weren’t crushed during the sinking, it’s possible they can still be preserved. Surely that matters to you.”

  When there was no response, I added, “I can’t do this alone, lizard. If I’m to find a new magic stone, raise the Ninth Isle again, and save the Hopes, I will need your help. Or at least your wings to get me off this island.”

  The mad dragon didn’t slow. Without looking back, he disappeared into the shadows of the jungle. Angrily, I scrambled to my feet, about to go after him. But then I thought better of it.

  I was growing warm beneath the blazing sun, and my mouth was parched after eating. If I didn’t find a source of freshwater soon, the question of whether I could tame the dragon and bend him to my will would become irrelevant. Instead of chasing after him, perhaps it was best if I focused on finding something to drink and devising a means of storing it for later use.

  Remembering how I had climbed the cliff my first day here to get a view of the island, I closed my eyes now and tried to picture how the land had been laid out. There had been long stretches of jungle, so dense and shaded I couldn’t see what lay beneath the screen of treetops. Here and there the trees were broken up by stands of rock, like the one I had climbed. And always encircling the forest were beaches of white sand pounded by blue surf.

  It was possible there was a lake or river hidden somewhere in the jungle. Snatching up my spear, I set off to find out. I plunged into the cool shadows of the forest and headed in the direction I had gone last time. Gradually, the roar of the ocean waves grew distant, drowned out by new sounds. The green boughs overhead rustled in the wind. Brightly colored birds cawed and screeched to one another as they flitted between the branches. I caught more glimpses of the chattering, sharp-toothed creatures swinging by their arms and tails through the leafy canopy overhead. They made no move to attack me, and I made none against them.

  I roamed deeper into the jungle, leaving behind the areas I had explored before. The undergrowth grew so thick it became hard to see far in any direction. The shadows deepened, and the air was heavy as the dense foliage blocked out cheerful sunlight and cooling breezes. This was a different world from the open beach I had left behind. Sweat rolled down my forehead and into my eyes as I pushed my way through curtains of vines and clambered over knobby tree roots thrusting up from the ground. At least the earth was dark and damp here. Perspiration beaded on the leaves of the plants. That boded well for my hopes of finding drinking water.

  Eventually I pushed far enough into the gloom of the jungle that I began to fear I would become lost. Once I stopped and climbed a tall tree to look out over the top of the forest. Worryingly, I could no longer see the ocean from here. Neither did I catch any glimpse of Skybreaker. I thought of turning back but continued on. Not long after, I pushed through a screen of vines and found myself looking at exactly what I had been searching for. Ahead of me lay a small pool of freshwater. It wasn’t an inviting spot. Moss-covered trees overhung the water, their twisted roots forming a low barrier around the pool and making it hard to pick my way through. Even when I got to the edge, the bank was muddy and so soft that I sank up to my knees in the water. Neither did I like the smell of the place.

  But I was too parched to be particular. The water tasted good enough, and I drank thirstily, until I could hold no more. Again I regretted not having any container to carry the water away in. But I would be back, I promised myself. And next time I would bring a giant clamshell or one of the large hollowed-out pods that grew in the tops of the trees along the beach. The idea of camping in this place to stay close to the water barely occurred to me. The jungle was too oppressive, and although I had seen no predators large enough to attack me, I had no doubt they were out here.

  I took a final drink from the pool and set out to return the way I had come. But as I turned back, a startling sight met my eye. One of the great trees edging the pool had a deep scar across its bark. This carving wasn’t made by any animal but by the hand of man.

  Hope leaped in my breast. I wasn’t alone! Someone else was on this island after all. Or if they weren’t here now, they had been in the past. The carving looked recent. But when I examined it more closely, my excitement was quickly replaced by unease.

  The etching was the crude likeness of a face with one bulging eye in the center of its forehead. The downturned mouth was open in a snarl, revealing rows of large teeth, jagged like those of a meat-eating animal. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking at but it w
as impossible to miss the sense of menace about the message. This was a warning of some kind.

  Backing away, I looked around and realized for the first time that many of the trees circling the pond bore this same mark. Was whoever had carved it trying to warn that the water was bad? Or that something dangerous lived in it?

  I felt sick, remembering how much I had just drank. If the water was poisoned, I would soon know it. But maybe I was misreading the message. Maybe it wasn’t a warning but a curse from whoever had found the pond first, an attempt to chase away anyone else who might trespass.

  Either way, it suddenly seemed urgent that I get out of this place quickly. Gripping my spear tightly, I scrambled over the tangle of roots blocking my path and hurried away from the pool. Shoving through trailing vines and dodging between the trunks of trees growing closely together, I tried to follow the route that had brought me here. But I was disoriented. The sameness of the jungle made every tree look alike. After dodging around a high boulder that stood in my way, I gasped and came to an abrupt halt.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Directly before me was the face from the carving. The same single eye bulged fiercely from a high forehead, the same jagged teeth like those of a beast jutted out from a wide mouth. The body was like that of a large and muscular man, a giant that stood several heads taller than me and more than twice as broad. He was dressed in nothing but an animal skin around his waist. His head was shaven bald. An ornament around his neck was made of bones, sea shells, and the brightly colored feathers of jungle birds.

  My eye fell to a small throwing spear in his hand. More of them were hooked onto a cord at his waist. The idea of communicating with the one-eyed giant never occurred to me, any more than I would have greeted a hungry reef shark.

  The instant we nearly collided, his thick arm lifted, the tip of his spear pointing at my heart. Somehow I knew this giant hadn’t found me by accident. He had been watching, stalking me. Accompanying this realization was the discovery that the two of us weren’t alone.

  There was a movement in the trees behind the giant and then more one-eyed creatures like him appeared. There must have been a dozen of them, some male, others female. Each appeared as formidable as the last, and all of them carried the same deadly looking short spears.

  I didn’t dare move a muscle, surrounded in front and on both sides by these fierce beings. They stared at me silently, their glaring eyes unblinking. I was outnumbered and very aware that they could hurl their throwing spears faster than I could react. Besides, with nothing but the pool a short distance behind me, there was really nowhere to run.

  As if sensing my uncertainty, the giant nearest me advanced, drawing his arm back to throw his spear. Behind him, his companions did the same.

  Instinct made me half turn away and throw up my free hand, my magic hand, as if to protect myself from the sharp tips of those lances.

  In a split second, I heard whooshing sounds as many spears were launched at me. I braced, expecting to feel them pierce me. But I felt nothing.

  Surprised, I looked back to see my extended hand had emitted a brilliant flash of reddish-purple light. The colored light hung in the air like a semisolid thing, a shield of magic that blocked the descent of my enemies’ spears. Their weapons were suspended in nothingness, mere inches from my body, held unmoving by some invisible force. I should have been stabbed a dozen times over. But the magic prevented it.

  Startled, I lowered my hand and stared at it. Immediately, the light shrank inward and returned to shimmer around my hand. As the magic shield dissolved, the arrows that had been frozen in place clattered to the ground.

  My enemies looked as amazed as I felt.

  But I had no time to make sense of this strange experience or to figure out why the magic in my hand had unexpectedly come alive. Apparently threatened by what they had seen, the giants exchanged a series of unnatural animal sounds that were more like screeches and growls than words. They drew more weapons. Clearly they had no intention of giving me an opportunity to use my magic again.

  The nearest enemy charged. All thought of the magic left my mind. Although I had never fought anyone before, let alone a giant, I raised my spear to fend this one off.

  Suddenly there was a crashing sound, as branches snapped overhead. My enemy skidded to a halt and we both looked up. Loose leaves rained down as the treetops shook. Then small tree limbs began falling down all around us. One bough fell on my enemy, knocking him to the earth. A heavy whooshing noise filled the air, not the sound of flying spears this time but a noise like the approach of a storm. Or like the beating of powerful wings. The gusts of wind whipped my hair across my face, but through the veil of blue strands I made out the large shape of Skybreaker descending from above. Framed by the patch of blue sky he had created in the forest canopy, the mad dragon was a terrible sight.

  With an awful roar, he broke through the last branches barring his way and crashed to the ground with the clumsy force of a small avalanche. The jungle floor shook with the impact, the noise reverberating like thunder. This close, the beast’s next roar was earsplitting.

  Intentionally or not, he had landed directly between me and the one-eyed giants. My enemies had surely never seen a dragon before. They made frightened squealing noises, like a herd of wild boars, and fled away into the trees.

  But not fast enough. Skybreaker snaked his long neck out and snatched one giant up in his wide jaws, biting the creature in two. I could only watch in horror as he messily devoured his prey.

  Afterward, I half feared he would turn on me next. But the dragon quickly calmed, appearing satisfied by his gruesome meal.

  Only now that it seemed I wasn’t going to die any second did my heart finally stop hammering against my ribs. I took a deep breath and tried to set aside the awful spectacle I had just seen and the terror that had come before it. What had brought Skybreaker here, I wondered. Had he really only intervened because he was hungry? Or was he trying to rescue me? I could think of no reason he should want to do that. But what else could I make of the fact he had twice saved my life?

  As if aware I was studying him, the dragon swung around and fixed his fierce gaze on me. I stood transfixed by his fiery eyes, afraid to move. I had the horrible feeling any sudden movement might make me look like one of the wild creatures he hunted. I mustn’t show him my fear.

  But it wasn’t my feelings Skybreaker cared about. The reddish-purple glow of my magic hand was reflected in his snake-like pupils. As ever, the magic entranced him. Perhaps that was the reason for my rescue.

  I took advantage of his stillness. For the third time in as many days, I reached toward the dragon with my mind and brushed my thoughts against his. The strength of his emotions was like a deluge, confusion warring with fascination and, always underneath it all, a powerful undercurrent of pain and rage. What was it that hurt and angered him so much? Whatever it was, could it be this anger that had driven him mad in the first place?

  I saw a series of memories rushing through the dragon’s mind, images of the lush jungle surrounding the city on the Ninth Isle and of the ruined watchtower where he had been chained. Startlingly, a picture of the Three Hopes flashed through his thoughts. So he did know about the orphaned eggs, I realized. He had seen them before. I hadn’t been wrong in imagining he mourned their loss.

  Acting on sudden inspiration, I summoned a mental image of my own and pushed it at him. It was a view of the Ninth Isle rising again, the three dragon eggs still intact. I tried to show him my plan, a mountain filled with magic stones that might restore island and eggs together. It was difficult to picture, because I had never seen the legendary mountain and didn’t know what it looked like. Then I pushed a still murkier idea at him, a place I knew little of, besides its name. This was Port Unity, a floating town said to be not many days’ sailing from Corthium. It was to this location my grandmother used to believe my mother’s sister and her sailor had run away. We might find help there.

  I couldn’t tell
exactly what Skybreaker made of my suggestions. But to my surprise, I felt recognition stir within him at that last idea. He had seen the floating port before. It must have been many years ago, before he had been bound in chains, during a half-forgotten time when he had flown free.

  A sudden noise startled me into breaking contact with the dragon’s mind. There came the crashing sounds of many bodies rushing through the underbrush. I looked beyond Skybreaker to find that the fierce one-eyed giants had returned, this time in greater numbers. There must have been dozens of them now, running this way while brandishing throwing spears that glistened wetly with some greenish substance. They had dipped their spears in poison, I realized, to bring down Skybreaker.

  I thought fast. The dragon could tear apart many giant warriors. But it would be only a matter of time until one of those poison-tipped spears made it past his defenses. And once my winged protector was dead or paralyzed by the poison, I would be no match for this mob.

  With an angry roar, Skybreaker whirled to face the oncoming attackers. But before he could charge at them, I laid a hand on his wing. It was my magic hand, shimmering with its brilliant light. I felt surprise ripple through the great beast as the magic touched him. Somehow, impossibly, we became bonded in that moment. I didn’t know why it happened. But I instantly sensed the dragon was mine to command.

  No longer fearing his sharp claws and dagger teeth, I quickly grabbed one of the spikes on the ridge of Skybreaker’s wing and used it to drag myself up onto his broad back, as if clambering up the side of a rock pile. From atop the dragon’s scaly back, I looked down on the gathering giants. They seemed smaller from here but no less threatening.

  Perhaps Skybreaker didn’t know enough to be afraid of poisoned weapons. He lurched toward our enemies, snapping his massive jaws at them. At his rough movement, I lost my footing and nearly slid from my perch. Hastily sliding forward until I was sitting between his muscular shoulder blades, I grabbed one of the spikes along the back of his neck for support. I tried to convey my wishes to him through our connection. If I could make him see my thoughts, he would obey me. But as he rushed and snapped at the enemies darting to keep out from under his feet, he was too frenzied by fighting instinct for me to get through to him.