Part 18 (1/2)

”No!” I raced for him, as though I could stop a dragon. He was ready to fly off and leave me, ready to kill Sam while I was stranded here, helpless to do anything about it. I threw my arms around his foreleg just as he lifted into the air, sylph shrieking behind me.

We were flying.

Icy wind stung my face, poured down my throat. I gasped and clung to the dragon's leg as he lifted it and growled. His scales were cool and slick, almost slick enough to drop me. I wrapped my legs around his anklea”what I supposed would be his anklea”and tried not to think about hurtling through the sky. On a dragon.

The one with the song.

What song?

Acid Breath dragged his foot, skimming treetops, which whipped and caught at me. Pine needles smacked my legs and arms, slithering into my sleeves and coat collar. My hands ached from the cold and holding on, but as his wings cracked against the air again and I looked up, I found the cliff rus.h.i.+ng at me.

The dragon hurled me to the ground, and the line of sylph that had formed around Sam, Stef, and Whit. I wrapped myself around my flute case as I rolled across rocks and dead gra.s.s. Sylph swarmed to surround me, and three pair of hands dragged me to my feet.

I didn't have time to thank them. I shucked off my backpack and pushed through the sylph.

”Stop!” I craned my neck as the trio of dragons pulled back as though to spit acid. ”If you hurt them, I won't play for you anymore.”

The dragons huffed, and an acrid stink washed over the ledge. They were standing in the forest below, heads held high enough to peer at us.

<the one=”” with=”” the=”” song.=”” he's=”” here.=””><she tricked=”” us.=””> <kill her.=””> ”Anaa””

I glanced over my shoulder at Sam and held out a hand for him to stay where he was behind the sylph. ”Just stay,” I said.

<she commands=”” the=”” one=”” with=”” the=”” song.=””> The dragons' words came like smoke around the edges of my consciousness. Fragments I was only peripherally aware of.

I hardly recognized my own wind-torn voice anymore as I faced the dragons. ”And maybe you don't care whether I play for you ever again. I don't care if I ever play for you again, honestly. But know this: if you hurt them, I will hunt you.”

<lies.> ”Not lies. I told you that Janan had warriors who hunted and captured a phoenix. Those warriors became sylph. They are with me now, my army and my armor, and I'm sure they remember how to capture something that doesn't want to be captured. If you hurt my friends, we will come for you and every other dragon in existence.”

<the phoenix=”” song.=”” the=”” one=”” with=”” the=”” song.=””> <we must=”” destroy=”” it.=””> <she knows=”” the=”” one=”” with=”” the=”” song.=”” she=”” will=”” use=”” the=”” song=”” against=”” us.=””><kill her=”” to=”” be=”” safe.=””> <she will=”” use=”” the=”” song=”” if=”” we=”” try.=”” the=”” one=”” with=”” the=”” song=”” will=”” do=”” it.=”” see=”” how=”” he=”” hovers.=””> <but she=”” wants=”” the=”” temple=”” destroyed.=””> The dragons' ringing intensified, filling my head like a swarm of bees. I staggered and caught myself on a boulder, raw hands sc.r.a.ping on stone. Voices called my name and sylph closed around me, but I pulled myself up and glared at the dragons and summoned what was left of my voice.

”I. Will not. Give up.”

Acid Breath blew a long stream of rancid air over the ledge, rustling trees and making sylph moan. Blue targeting lights flared, but I held up a hand again.

”Don't.” I couldn't look behind mea”I didn't have the energya”but the lights turned off. I focused on the dragons again. ”Do you understand me?”

Acid Breath glanced beyond me as more heat pressed around. The sylph I'd left at the wall had arrived. Just a dozen sylph had fought them off before. Twice that number . . .

They weren't afraid of the sylph, though. They were afraid of something else. The phoenix song. The one with the song.

<your friends=”” will=”” not=”” be=”” harmed.=””> I nodded, carefully, so my thoughts wouldn't swim. ”And will you destroy the tower on Soul Night? The spring equinox? Will you use your weapon?”

<we will=”” decide.=”” you=”” have=”” the=”” one=”” with=”” the=”” song.=”” you=”” refuse=”” to=”” let=”” us=”” destroy=”” it,=”” yet=”” you=”” ask=”” us=”” to=”” destroy=”” it.=”” we=”” will=”” decide.=””> Before I could respond, Acid Breath and the others pushed off the earth and into the sky. Trees cracked and fell under their power, and the cliff shuddered. Dragon thunder ripped, and I watched their receding forms as exhaustion and darkness overtook me.

But this time when I fell, there were hands to catch me.

20.

CONNECTION.

CONSCIOUSNESS RETURNED IN sharp fragments, like shards of gla.s.s and light. Warm water on my face and neck. Sips of thin soup. The scent of ozone. Voices that seemed as though they came from the other end of the earth.

A dark figure with his knees to his chest, face buried in his arms, shoulders hunched and heaving.

When awareness settled and stayed, I found myself wrapped inside my sleeping bag, wearing clean clothes and listening to a piano in one ear. My SED lay just outside my bedding, the wire of one earpiece twisting its way to me. The second earpiece played music at nothing.

”It's crooked.” My voice rasped as though I'd been screaming. Maybe it was just waking-up raspiness. ”The music. It's crooked.”

A quiet din I hadn't been aware of until now suddenly stopped, and someone gave a long, relieved sigh. Sam. ”You did that. You said one earpiece was for you, one was for us, and when I suggested using the SED speakers for everyone, you said you didn't have time to argue.”

”Oh.” That did sound like me, but I didn't remember the discussion. I pulled the earpiece out, silencing the piano sonata, and pushed myself onto my elbow. My whole body was stiff and aching.

Whit and Stef were sitting on their sleeping bags, paused from tapping at their SEDs while they looked at me. A pot of soup sat near the open tent flap, steaming with a sylph coiled around it. Slanted light fell through the opening, making the gloom of the rest of the tent darker and deeper.

”Look who's finally awake,” Whit said. ”When I said you should get some rest, I didn't mean this much.”

I made a face that might have been a smile.

Sam sat just beyond my SED, in the dark, so close I hadn't yet focused my eyes the right way to see him. But now I noted the folded paper in his hands, the slumped posture, the way he'd been right beside me when I awakened.

I sat up the rest of the way, ignoring the twinges of pain in my back and shoulders. ”Sam.” His name came out in a breath, sorrow and hope and longing all tangled up in three letters.

”Hey.” His voice was soft, rough, and for a moment we looked at each other and there was nothing else in the world.

Light rippled in the corner of my eye as the others got up and left the tent. Even the sylph vanished, leaving Sam and me alone.

He swallowed hard and leaned toward me. ”Ana, I'm so sorry. I don't know what else to say.”

I rubbed sleep from my eyes and s.h.i.+mmied out of my sleeping bag. ”Maybe start by telling me how long I was”a”not unconscious, even if that was the trutha””asleep.”

”Three days.”

Three days. Time we didn't have to waste.

I pushed hair off my face, s.h.i.+fting questions in my mind. Who'd washed and dressed me? Were we still at the same camp? I couldn't tell without peeking outside, and the light hurt my eyes. ”Have the dragons returned?”

What had they said? The one with the song? The phoenix song.

Sam shuddered. ”No. They haven't come back.”

”Okay.” I didn't know where to go from there. I'd done the impossible. I'd spoken with dragons. I'd survived. I'd kept the dragons from attacking my friends because I was a very frightening tiny person with little regard for her own life.

A high, hysterical giggle slipped out. My voice sounded thin and weak in the shadows of the tent, but I couldn't stop it. After everything, I could do nothing but laugh to release the knot of tension in my chest.

Sam just watched me until the fit wore off. ”Are you hungry?”