It’s getting harder and harder to see as we fall, the faintest light glinting off Astralux’s iridescent white scales. At last, I spot the bottom of the hole. Astralux uses her wings to coast at the end of our drop, and both of us cringe at the pain and cramping this causes her right wing, until she lands amongst the stones at the bottom. Finding her footing, Astralux crawls into a dark space, revealing a small cave within the maze of caves we’re already in. No doubt this will hide us if Vladykar Lochan or Pesokvglazu look down the hole. If they could even see this far.
I blink, realizing that I can see, and we’re in a pitch-black cave! There’s no light source whatsoever, and yet I can just barely make out the stone-strewn ground beyond our hiding spot. There’s not much room between the ground and the ceiling and when Astralux leans over to let me off, I slide down with my arms over my head in case I hit my head on a rock jutting out.
Astralux pants a couple of times and then stops, tilting her head to the side, as if she’s listening. I remain still, silent as well. I can just barely hear a strange echo of tapping sounds. Claws on stone, I realize—no doubt Pesokvglazu’s.
“Stay quiet,” Astralux whispers to me. I nod, wrapping my arms around myself.
The clicking sounds never get louder. As time passes, I realize they are fading. Relief sets in, and I exhale.
Astralux slumps against the far side of our small mini cave, heaving a sigh. Then she turns her head toward me, and I can just make out her dark blue eyes glaring at me. “‘You don’t want to hurt anyone?!’” she whispers, repeating my statement. “What about those evil minions of Noxmalum and Vladykar Malyncor that attacked us, huh?!”
My eyes fill with tears. “I don’t like to cast my fire magic, let alone at anyone.”
“You don’t like…?!” Astralux growls. “You have been gifted—gifted!—with an ability I’ve dreamed of having all my life.”
“So you want to see people in agony?” I ask, my pitch rising a little. “You like to see pain in people’s eyes?”
“Hardly,” Astralux scoffs. “I want to be able to defend and rescue the people I care about most effectively against beings like Pesokvglazu and Vladykar Lochan. Fire would be the perfect way to accomplish that.”
As she’s speaking, I can see—and feel—Astralux struggling to pull her right wing in to her body because of the wound. I tear off a bit of the bottom of my pants and walk over to her wing. I don’t know how to wrap the wound, but I hold the cloth to it to help slow the bleeding. I flinch as I feel pain in my back, but Astralux doesn’t even move.
“What’s wrong with your magic?” Astralux suddenly frowns at me. “You were born with it, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you hesitant to use such an awesome power?” Astralux starts to scrape a stone underneath her with a claw. But when it screeches she immediately stops, fidgeting in place.
“I told you. I don’t like to hurt anyone.” I tear off a bit more from my pant legs and use this to tie a thin strip of cloth around the base of her wing. It’s not great, I need way more material, but it does hold the cloth in place.
“But even to defend yourself?” Astralux asks. “To defend others?”
“Well, I did use my magic on both Vladykar Lochan and Pesokvglazu,” I mutter. “I still don’t like it.” I stare down at my hands for a moment. “Not that it matters. I couldn’t save Mom. Or Inizion.”
Astralux’s rage dies down, and she tilts her head to one side, watching me. I notice her scales smooth down around her wings—they had protruded a little, like a bird ruffling its feathers.
“I’m sorry,” Astralux says. The dragon lowers her head, looking me squarely in the face. “I forget that you are from Amenyl. You know nothing of dragons, of the Wards, of our fight with the Vladykars and King Gunner of Klevor, do you?”
“No,” I say. “I never saw a dragon in my life until tonight.”
Astralux sighs heavily. “And then I went and bonded us. What a mess I’ve made of things.” She lays her head on the ground. The strong air of confidence that she’s carried since I first saw her dissipates, and in its place I sense sorrow and regret. “The attack on Inizion is probably my fault. I got too close to the Vladykars, and they chased after me. I tried not to take a direct route back home. But in so doing, I got cornered, and flew more east than north, straight to the cliffs where I met you.”
I walk over to Astralux and sit beside where her head is. I want to comfort her, but I don’t know what’s comforting to a dragon, so I settle for patting her on the side of her face gently. “You can’t blame yourself for the actions of others. That’s what Mom always told me.”
Astralux’s eye looks up at me. “I’m truly sorry, Estelle.”
I wrap one arm around her head, just between the two spines at the top of her head, and lay my head against the side of her face. I keep expecting her scales to feel cold, but she actually radiates a good bit of warmth, and in the coolness of the cave it’s welcome. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you more,” I say.
Astralux gives a snort. “I’m more surprised than anything. You have the heart of a warrior.” When I frown, Astralux lifts and turns her head to face me. “I suppose you don’t even know about a dragon’s heart-vision ability, do you?”
“No,” I say. “But I’m not a warrior.”
“Actually….” Astralux stops herself. “Let me explain heart-vision. It’s an ability all dragons have. When we look deep into the eyes of a human, we can search out their soul. It tells us if they are good or evil, sometimes even how extreme one way or the other they are, as well as some of their top characteristics.”
I think back to when Astralux first looked at me, in the other cave where we had then bonded. I remember a strange sensation, like water being poured into me, filling all of my soul. “How do you do this?” I ask, amazed.
“How?” The corners of Astralux’s lips curl up a little. “We are dragons. I’m not sure how else to answer your question. In the same way you were born with magic, all dragons are born with this ability.”
“So, your heart-vision told you I’m a warrior?” I ask, trying to wrap my mind around this.
“Not a warrior,” Astralux clarifies. “I saw that you were pure of heart, and that you possess a bravery that usually only warriors have. I assumed that you had seen battle more regularly than it appears you have.”
I shake my head. “I’ve grown up as a medic in my hometown, helping Mom with the injured and the ill.”
“A healer!” Astralux puts a paw over her face, chuckling as she shakes her head. “This is why bonds should not happen quickly.”
“What is the bond?” I ask.
Astralux sets her paw down and glances at me before looking away. I have the impression that she’s a bit embarrassed or even ashamed. “Perhaps it would be best if we returned to Adytol,” she says at last. “It would be good for you to meet the Wards. They might be able to explain this better than I can.”
“Are you a Ward?” I ask.
“Yes. The Wards and the Vladykars have been at war for many years,” Astralux says. “That much I can tell you freely.”
“There are more dragons? Besides for you and Pesokvglazu?” I ask.
Astralux starts to laugh loudly but clamps her paws over her muzzle, shutting her mouth closed. She snickers a while longer. And then she gives a half-sigh, half-groan. “I really messed up this time. I wasn’t thinking straight.” Shaking her head, she peers around our cave up the hole beyond. “I haven’t heard anything in a while. We should get going.”
“But your wing,” I say.
“I can climb up. I’m more worried about you.” Astralux looks from me to her back. “Without a saddle, it’s difficult for me to carry you.”
I glance down at where her scales had started to tear through my clothes, especially at my knees. “I’ll try and stay seated between your spines.” I step up, but I’ve never tried to climb a dragon before. “How do I get up?”
Astralux huffs, but I don’t get the feeling she’s irritated at me. Then she arcs her neck around, easily able to look down at me. “See my spines coming out of the back of my right-front leg? Use those like a ladder. Then, once you’re higher up, you can grab onto my back spines.”
I follow her lead and clamber up. It’s awkward, and I can feel Astralux’s increasing frustration, but I do eventually make it back to the top of her back, sliding in-between her spines. I wrap my legs around the spine behind me and then grab a hold of the spine in front of me.
“Ready?” Astralux asks.
“Yes,” I say, not feeling ready, but not sure I want to wait in the near-darkness anymore.
Astralux slowly steps out from her cover, to where there’s just a bit more light. It shines off her scales, increasing visibility a little more, and I peer up into the darkness above, trying to make sense of the faint shapes I see beyond.
The dragon suddenly stands up on her back legs, and I tighten my grip on her spines in surprise. I didn’t know that she could do this. It seems to be difficult for her, however, and after a single step Astralux sets her front paws on the side of the cave, where there’s a good bit of rock sticking out. Then she begins to climb up. Her claws find every crevice and hole, crushing a little into the rock when there’s nothing to grab a hold of, and she slowly but steadily ascends.
I dislike this position, as I practically sit on one of her spines, and the sight of the ground below disappearing into darkness makes me feel like we’re many meters in the air again. Still, Astralux makes good progress, and I notice that my vision improves ever-so-slightly.
After what feels like hours, because my nerves make every second feel like forever, Astralux climbs over the edge to the maze of caves we had entered this hole by. I slide back down between her spines, grateful not to feel like we’re about to fall to our deaths, and sigh.
Astralux freezes, sniffing at the air. I’m not sure what she smells but I stay very still, not wanting to distract her. Then I realize I smell something different than the stagnant, moist rock around us. It’s kind of sharp yet sour, like nothing else I’ve smelled before.
And then I spot two large eyes, separated a bit, staring out at us from down one corridor. I hurriedly tap on Astralux’s back. “Astralux,” I whisper, “there’s…there’s….”
The two eyes begin to close the distance between us with a clattering of claws on stone, and I hear a deep, throaty chuckle. It’s another dragon. But I don’t think it’s Pesokvglazu—I start to make out that this dragon’s eyes are a bright, lime green.
“You must be Astralux and Estelle Brand,” the dragon says—definitely not Pesokvglazu. Its voice is just a bit lighter, and it has a different way it annunciates its words. “I’m Saurentais! Surrender now, or die.”
“You aren’t bonded,” Astralux says. She slowly steps backwards, down the opposite corridor. “We’re stronger than you.”
Saurentais grins. “We’ll see about that.” Then he opens his mouth.
Astralux bounds off down the corridor just as a green-hued, pale yellow line of liquid bursts forth from Saurentais’ mouth. It narrowly misses us, but where it strikes the stone there’s a sizzling sound, and the liquid begins to corrode away at the rock.
Ariadna help us, this dragon spits acid!
Tamara Rivers 
Leave a comment