Dragon Racers: The Complete Trilogy, page 22
"Why not, Sharrah?" Rompart asked.
"Have you ever heard of Ox Head?" She asked.
He shook his head no.
"Because you never look back in the Otherworld or Ox Head will come eat you."
"The Otherworld?" Kin Kuul asked between slobbering heaves. "I'm not going to another world. What are you talking about?"
"If you want to breathe clean air again you'll come," Sharrah found the right shelf and pulled out the book with no writing on its spine. The section of shelving receded and then slid to the side. In the space that was left open there was an arched portal leading into a lush garden. Blooms of every color imaginable greeted Sharrah. The dragons followed her and Kin came behind them.
Sharrah looked at the cobbled path leading away from the garden. Even though she was terrified, and had no idea what would happen to any of them in here, she was glad when Sir Grady and Rompart came through. Rom was pushing a rolling cart full of gear and food. Only after the door disappeared behind them did Sharrah dare feel any sort of relief. Now the group was safe from the red coats and there was only one way left to go.
Trusting her father, she took in a deep breath of fresh air and said, "Welcome to the Otherworld."
Part II - Into the Otherworld
Chapter Four
"Kin, can you fasten this to the cart and help Sir Grady? By the gods, he has two broken legs." Sharrah handed him the doll carrier. He was still holding the salve she'd given him earlier. "Master Rompart, Kin is wounded. Can you look at his shoulder? Now that we are safe, I need a moment."
"Please," Sir Grady agreed. "This air is divine."
She slung her pack from her shoulder and dug out some of the food she'd stashed before the race. She was famished and needed rest but couldn't just plop down on the turf here in the garden, could she? She looked at all the colorful flowerbeds. Other than a few insects, and the flowers themselves, there was nothing else around but rolling hills, and the cobbled path.
She took a knee.
She was glad to feel the book in her bag. So far, she had memorized three spells from it, but only mastered one of them. Mastered wasn't the right word for it, she decided. But she could speak the spellwords right from her mind and move small objects, like she had Kin's cape in the race, and the doll box after. She'd surprised herself by bringing both fairies across the sky, from Meifeng to her at the same time. That was just before the spear tore through She'en's silvery hide, and left her and her rider falling.
Thinking of her mentor caused her to feel even worse for poor, broken, Sir Grady, but Sizzle stuck his playful snout between Sharrah and the hunk of beef and bread she was about to unwrap. Scorch's head came in from the other side, and the two dragons smelled the meat at the exact same time. The only way to physically tell the twin hatch mates apart when their wings were pulled in was by the notch Luumin cut into Sizzle's nostril. The two young wyrms found her mind the same way Azure did when they raced. She didn't have to speak with them. She could just think to them and they welcomed her into their endlessly hope filled world. Rom explained their optimism by saying they didn’t understand consequence, but Sharrah thought they simply lacked any sort of fear at all.
They respected her, and let her eat a little before imploring her to share. She took a few more bites and split the rest into thirds. After giving each dragon their piece, she stood and handed the last bit to Kin. He'd been with her since the race, and hadn't eaten in all that time either. Luckily for him, Master Rompart gave him a sip from his flask to help wash the taste from his mouth.
"How much of that is food?" Sharrah asked Sir Grady, while indicating the cart.
"One bag." He took an offered swig from Rompart's flask, too. "The rest is what Meifeng told me to get."
"I nearly died getting that stuff from her apartment," Rom chimed in. He sounded like he'd already taken a few nips of his plum liquor. "It's all clothes and jewelry, not gear and provisions like we hoped. The damn flat cart was a genius idea, though."
"Did you bring food for the dragons?" She asked.
"That is all we have." Sir Grady shrugged. "A sack full of whole chickens, and a couple hams."
"You didn't bring any food for us?" Kin Kuul asked around the bite he was chewing. "What kind of plan is this?"
"No one expected the red coats to show up before the race was even over," Rom took another pull from his flask and then held it upside down showing that it was empty. "I had to kill one of them in the nursery, you know?"
"I saw," Sharrah remembered the dead man.
"After Scorch fouled up the library," Rom's smile was sheepish. "Food was the last thing on our minds."
"Maybe we can find some berries or something?" Said Kin. "Why don't you sit on the front of the cart Sir Grady. The wheels are big enough I think I'll be able to push it once we get it off the grass." Then he looked at Sharrah. "We will never get anywhere if we don't get moving."
"Right," she agreed. "It looks like we are a long way from anything, and I've never been here after the sun goes down." She snapped her fingers and grabbed the young dragon's attention with a thought. "Come you two." She told them. "You can help me most by staying close and in my sight."
Sizzle and Scorch flanked Sharrah.
"Amazing," Master Rompart muttered. "They've never responded like that to me."
Rom helped Kin Kuul push the cart over to the vine covered arbor where the cobbled path started. Once it was there, Sir Grady climbed on. He looked silly sitting on the front with his stiff legs pointing straight out. He tried to help the others by using one of his crutches like an oar. He looked sort of like a hovering riverman. Sharrah wasn't sure what they were going to do when they started up the huge hill ahead, but thinking of how to control the cart when they were going down the other side was an even bigger curiosity.
They walked for a while on the gently down sloping cobbles. The path meandered this way and that, curving off of the main route to meet the occasional oval flowerbed. Just like in the garden, everything was perfectly manicured. Since Sharrah couldn't find the sun in the plain blue sky, she had no concept of how much time was passing. It seemed like dusk, in that the sky was darkening, but she saw no sunset, and decided it had to be hidden by the hill they were about to have to climb.
"Can we make it to the top and camp on higher ground?" She raised her hands indicating for them to stop. "If not, we should camp here."
"I can make it," Sir Grady used his crutches to get upright. "We did bring a lamp," he said. "I took one from the library."
He gave Sharrah a look, then glanced at Kin Kuul. "You haven't told me how the race turned out." He eased up beside her, letting Rom and Kin sort out who was going to push the lightened load first. "If he'd have won, I wouldn't have an ear left. I'm sure of it."
"We crossed at the same time," Kin called. "She did not win."
"It's true," she nodded. "But Azure and I were flying upside down. How do you think a tie will affect King Travvingto?"
"Not in the way Luumin hoped," he snorted. "How did She'en die?"
Sharrah didn't want to relive it all. The finish of the race was brutal. But she told him everything she could, if only to keep his mind off of his broken legs and the exertion of traversing the steeper incline on crutches.
Occasionally she had to reach out to one of the curious dragons and call them back from where they wandered off the cobbles. Every now and then they would stretch out their wings, the instinct to fly surging stronger and stronger within them. Sharrah felt it, too. But she also felt for Sizzle. His left wing was missing a bone, and she was sure he'd never be a racing wyrm. She doubted he would even be able to fly, but she kept those thoughts to herself. The last thing she wanted to do was discourage him or make him question his dominant nature.
They finally topped the hill, just as darkness was setting in, and what Sharrah saw before them, was as intriguing as it was daunting. Instead of traces of a sunset on the horizon she saw the yellow glow of a massive city sprawled out at the far end of a deep valley. In the middle of it all was a great lake.
"Lake o' the Dregs," Sir Grady said, the awe in his voice palpable. "I thought it was just a legend."
"No way," Kin said from beside her. "Impossible."
"It is not a legend. Nor is it impossible," Sharrah said. "Look." She pointed in the direction of the cluster of lights, but up above their hilltop elevation. "Sky Island," Sharrah said with such reverence even the young dragons stopped frolicking to take it in.
Hovering above the lake was a massive chunk of stone. The edge they could see had towering buildings built along it. The whole place was illuminated with colorful lights, not plain yellow fire and lamp light like the Dregs below. These shone pink, blue, and green, in variations from the spectrum Sharrah had never seen. And they didn't stay in place or the same vivid shade for very long.
"Light the lamp and feed the dragons," Sharrah said. "I've food enough for tonight and the morning in my pack. Hopefully we can make the Dregs before nightfall on the morrow."
Chapter Five
Rompart pulled the lantern from between two of the bags and handed it to Kin. Kin looked at it for a moment, then carried it over to Sir Grady, near where Sharrah was standing. There was no moon in the sky, nor any clouds, but the faint light was enough to see by, if barely. Sharrah watched Rom feed the dragons each a whole roasted chicken while the other two fumbled around trying to figure out how to light the old lamp’s wick.
Sharrah ran through the words of a spell in her mind. She then closed her eyes and tried to cast it. To her great surprise it worked. Not only that, but she felt the hatchlings add their natural dragon magic to her intention. She was left tingling from head to toe.
"By the gods," Sir Grady almost dropped the lamp when it flared to life.
"No way," marveled Kin Kuul. "I'm glad I didn't listen to Sir Deren." He looked at her with more respect in his eyes than he'd ever shown her. He only looked away to take the lamp from Sir Grady. "I'll go see if there are any blankets." He met her eyes again. A fleeting glimpse of the moment they shared when they first met revealed itself.
It was a nice warm feeling, but Sharrah had far more important things to concern herself with. She had no idea where they were going. She couldn't even remember the name of the city, but remembered it was in the Kingdom of Maipan, not here in the Otherworld. She could learn the name of the city just by asking someone what Maipanese city was set to host the upcoming chalice race, but who would she ask here? Would the people here know about chalice races in her world? What sort of creatures even lived in the Dregs? The more she thought about it the less sure she was about anything.
What she needed to do most was find someone who could save Inula and Tam. If she could manage that, she would have all the help she needed. Surely someone in the Dregs could help them. She had the sack full of silver coins she'd earned and suddenly remembered what Rom said about Meifeng's things.
"I'll ration out a meal," she put her hand on Sir Grady's shoulder. "Can you help Kin inventory Meifeng's bags? We may need coinage, or gems to trade when we get down there. You can separate her personals from the rest. I'm sure she will appreciate it when they catch up to us."
"Thank you," he reached around her waist and gave her a fatherly hug.
"For what?" Sharrah asked.
"For the hope," he kissed the top of her head and hobbled over to Kin.
Sharrah followed. She took the doll carrier from the cart, gave the men some room, and sat her pack between her legs. When she found the decanter of water, she drank from it deeply. She drank again and then passed it around knowing it would be empty come morning. She had more food than she thought though, and since the dragons were worn down from the day's travel, and already sated, she was able to give everyone a fair share without them bothering her.
After she was done with her pack, she opened the doll carrier. Inula and Tam were stiff and expressionless. They were well protected from jostling by the way they were holstered up to the waist in leather sleeves. Careful not to disturb them, she closed the box and fastened the clasps.
It turned out Meifeng packed more sensibly than Rompart told them. Sure, one of her bags was full of shoes and boots, and another had some different styles of clothes beyond racing wear. But one was full of racing gear. Sharrah had goggles but no strap. She'd ditched the glowing piece of material and the other strips Giin braided into her hair somewhere between Prydonia and Dragon's Keep. Her goggles had been stashed in her pack. She took a plain leather strap from the pile and pocketed it.
There were blankets and to Sharrah's surprise, their two almasty fur robes. Sharrah wanted to get in the soft cozy wrap but didn't want to dirty it. Instead she took a thin blanket and lay down close to Sizzle and Scorch. Kin acted like he wanted to lay close to her, but the dragons picked up on Sharrah's unease and resituated themselves around her. Rom picked up on it, too. He called Kin over by the cart where he and Sir Grady were trying to settle.
"Should we have a watch?" Rom asked loud enough for her to know he was asking her as much as any of them.
"We have the keenest kind of guardians, Master Rom," Sharrah assured him. The dragons were young, not even yearlings, but they were hyper sensitive and had a very strong survival instinct. Sharrah was tuned into them, even more so than usual since she'd cast the spark spell. She was feeling something strangely right, within. The Otherworld, Xuanpu the fairies called it, was where Sharrah wanted to be. No, it was where she was supposed to be. She wanted to win a chalice so she could race around the vast floating island she was studying even now.
But it was more than that. Her father, Luumin said he met her mother up on that floating utopia. Sharrah very well might have been born there. She remembered moving with her mother to North Harbor, in Kahmar when she was four or five, but nothing before. Oddly part of that memory held images of Aunt Sadie and Aunt Maralee. The urge to be up there was strong, but she had no idea how to get over to Sky Island without Azure to carry her. Neither of the twins could even fly yet, much less carry a rider.
Why her mother absconded to the Prydonian Coast was a mystery. Luumin didn't seem to know the answer, or at least he was good at dodging those sorts of questions.
She wondered at all the balconies facing outward along the edge of the floating rock. For a moment she imagined them full of people while dragons raced past. She could understand how thrilling a vantage that would be for the spectators, especially those who could see the finish. She could make out the pyre columns now, even though they weren't ablaze. Sky Island wasn't oval, and she could only see one side of it from where she was, so she had no idea how irregular the other side was.
She let her eyes close.
Despite all her concerns a smile spread across her face. There would be no starting from the ground in a stand still crouch here. Azure would like that.
She slipped into slumber and found herself flying with the young dragons. Both of them soared through the sky, darting this way and that. Sharrah was flying, too. Her arms were wings, and she was arcing and swooping playfully with Sizzle and Scorch. For a long while they played with the wind and took in the world from far above. She saw that Sizzle's wing was still missing the bone. Like Sharrah, who had no wings at all, his ability to maneuver through the sky was all just part of the dream.
As soon as she registered the thought, the young dragon fell from the sky.
She and Sizzle both woke with a start. Sharrah was flooded with the anxiety the young dragon was suddenly feeling. Scorch woke too. He growled and blasted a short, searing gout of flames above them.
Sharrah and Sizzle's dread vanished, only to be replaced by the awareness of threat. In the flash of the young wyrm’s fire Sharrah saw several pale skinned men looming. The flames looked to have startled them just as much as they startled her. She thought she might still be dreaming, because they weren't fairy sized and they were hovering above her on dark feathery wings. All of them wore some sort of sleeveless padded leather uniform with the same mark emblazoned on the chest. The symbol was an upward facing dragon, the silhouette one would see looking down from above, at a wyrm gliding with half-spread wings.
"Whoo ya beee?" One of them asked, his accent strong, like the sailors Sharrah grew up around.
Beside her, the two dragons hissed and reared. Sharrah tried to ease their dragonly outrage with her mind, but only managed to stay their aggression, for the moment. "We are just travelers looking for the portal to Maipan," Sharrah said quickly. "Unless you know someone who can heal my friends."
"Heal your friends?" A different man smarted sarcastically. "We’re gonna take you in, strange girl."
“Where’d you steal them racer clothes?” a third of them asked from the darkness behind. She wasn’t sure, but Sharrah figured there were at least a dozen of them hovering around the camp.
"This is the Spoils," the first winged man growled. "King Grayscon has a standing order. We take trespassers from the Dregs to the cells."
"Oh dear," Rompart said. Sharrah saw that Kin Kuul was still asleep, but the other two men were staring tight lipped at the spear tips pointing down at them.
"We didn't come from the Dregs, man," Sharrah shook her head. "Look." She pointed at the cobbled path leading back to Luumin’s library or who knew where. "That is where we came from. So you don't have to put us in the cells."
"Do you think we are daft? They may be human, but you-- You are Ping Nok." The second winged man said. "You could just as easily be going that way."
"Take 'em all in." The sentiment was echoed by several voices. And with spear tips forward, they started closing in.
Sharrah had no idea what to do. The dragons wanted to fight, and she wasn't sure if she disagreed with them. It irked her that even now, Kin Kuul was snoring. If she did decide to resist, he would be left defenseless.
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