Dragonseed

a long moment, before rolling away to sit down, his hands on his knees. Tear tracks stained his soot-blackened cheeks.

'He's dead,' said the man.

'I'm sorry,' said Hex. He tried to rise, making it to all fours, trembling as he learned to control his muscles once more. Specks of light danced before him. He had the worst headache of his life.

'I'm Shay,' the man said. He sighed heavily. 'You're Hexilizan, Albekizan's eldest son. You know me because you were an aid to Dacorn and I was personal slave to Chapelion.'

'Ah,' said Hex, slowly rising onto his hind-talons, stretching his wings for balance. 'You traveled with Chapelion to the Isle of Horses. I remember now. I take it you've escaped?'

Shay tensed. His eyes searched across the ground, perhaps hunting for a weapon.

'You've nothing to fear,' said Hex. 'I am a fervent opponent of slavery.'

Shay nodded. He looked more relaxed now, but also more sorrowful.

'Jandra's gone,' he whispered. 'Lizard's dead. I warned her not to remove the sword from the heart.'

'Did you help her dig it up?'

Shay nodded.

'Perhaps dissuading her from taking that step would have been more effective.'

'I didn't know the heart would be alive,' Shay said. 'I thought it was some kind of machine. I imagined it like a heart-shaped clock.' Then, his face hardened. He stared up at Hex. 'You're the reason we came here! You're the dragon that stole her genie!'

Hex nodded. 'It's true. Jandra was in possession of incredible power. I couldn't trust that the spirit of the goddess wasn't lurking somewhere inside her.'

'You drove Jandra back into the kingdom of the goddess,' said Shay. 'You caused the thing you were trying to prevent!'

Hex kept his mouth shut. He wanted to argue that this wasn't his fault, but a significant part of his throbbing brain was shouting that he was, indeed, responsible. He decided to accept blame and move on to the next phase, finding a solution. 'No matter where Jazz has gone, I'll hunt her down.'

'And then what?' said Shay. 'You'll kill her?'

'I have no other choice. Though, as we've both witnessed, that may not be an easy task.'

'Jandra's still alive inside her,' said Shay. 'She was fighting to get back out. I don't understand everything that's happened here. But Jazz said her spirit had survived inside her genie. What if part of Jandra's spirit survives inside the genie you stole from her? What if we gave it back to Jandra? It might let her become the dominant mind inside her own body once more.'

'Or it might add to Jazz's already formidable powers,' said Hex.

'Just how much more powerful can she get?' asked Shay.

'You wouldn't ask that if you'd fought the goddess the first time. However, your idea is worthy. We'll go to the Free City.'

'The Free City? Why?'

'That's where I buried Jandra's genie. The Free City has been abandoned in the aftermath of the atrocities that took place there. No human or dragon would want to call that cursed place home. I'd planned to keep the genie there until I could locate some force powerful enough to destroy it.'

'After we get the genie, how can we find Jandra?' Shay asked.

Hex sat down. His legs were still weak. The dancing lights before his eyes were fading, at least. 'We should find Bitterwood. He killed Jazz last time. She may seek revenge. More importantly, Bitterwood is now the guardian of Zeeky, a girl who possessed a power that the goddess greatly desired.'

'What power?'

'I'll tell you what I understand, though when Jandra explained it to me I failed to grasp much of it. You witnessed the rainbow Jazz escaped through?'

'Yes. I've never seen anything like it.'

'Beneath our own reality, there's a larger reality known as underspace. The rainbow gates let you slip through underspace to travel instantly to any other part of our own world. Apparently it's possible to become trapped in underspace. If you linger outside our reality, you gain the ability to see all points of space and time. You become omniscient.'

'What does that have to do with Zeeky? She's smart for her age, but hardly omniscient.'

'Jazz trapped Zeeky's family inside underspace, sealed inside a crystal ball. The goddess can't communicate with them, but, somehow, Zeeky can. From what Jandra told me, Jazz wanted to study Zeeky to discover what quirk of her brain gave her this ability.'

Shay stood up. He walked over and picked up the flaming sword. 'It sounds as if we have a plan. Recover the genie. Find Bitterwood. Guard Zeeky and hope the goddess still wants her.'

He held up the sword, looking mournfully at the dancing flames. 'This blade cut her. If I'd been a better fighter, she might not have escaped.'

'Let me carry the sword. I trained extensively in my youth. When we find Bitterwood, we'll let him carry the blade.'

Shay frowned. 'How do I know you won't just fly off and bury this?'

Hex sighed. 'I've done nothing to earn your trust. Keep the blade. Let us hope your mistrust doesn't doom Jandra.'

'Let's hope your mistrust of Jandra, which led you to take her genie, doesn't doom us all,' said Shay.

'We can argue later. We should leave. We have a long journey from this place back to the surface.'

'Maybe not,' said Shay. 'We found a map at the barracks. It showed a shorter route out of here. We should stop and get it. There were other supplies that also would be useful.'

'Lead on,' said Hex.

Shay walked toward the fallen earth-dragon. The coat Jandra had discarded lay nearby. He knelt and wrapped the small body within it.

'I… I didn't like Lizard,' he said. He shook his head slowly. 'I thought Jandra was taking a risk in adopting him.' He cradled the bundle to his chest as he stood. 'When we make it back to the surface, I hope you don't mind if I pause for a while to bury him. He deserves better than to rot away down here in this sunless kingdom. I'd like to find a tranquil valley, or a sun-drenched mountain top. Some place… some place that…'

'Of course,' said Hex. He wanted to ask more about Jandra's adoption of a dragon, but held his tongue. In truth, he wasn't surprised. Jandra had befriended Hex almost from the moment they'd met. She'd been, perhaps, the most trusting, open-minded individual he'd ever known. The burden of betraying her still weighed heavily on his soul.

Could all of this have been avoided if he'd extended her the same faith and trust she'd shown him?

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:

STRUGGLE AGAINST MONSTERS

JAZZ FELL FROM nowhere, face-down onto the white sands of a sun-washed beach. She rolled to her side, squinting as she looked around; the beach sparkled like powdered diamonds. She closed her eyes, letting the bright sunlight sink into her silver shell. The tiny machines that coated her hummed with pleasure as they ate up the free energy. All around her, the air buzzed with nanites not guided by her genie. She exhaled a thin swarm of machines, commanding them to acts of piracy. Given time, she could manufacture more nanites; right now, here in Atlantis, it was simply more expedient to steal them.

The ghost of Jandra's personality shouted somewhere in the back of her mind, but as the power levels of her genie increased, the faint remnant grew quieter. Jazz sat up, wincing from her wounds. The dragon had given her quite the workout. She ran her silvery fingers along the three-inch gash he'd torn in her belly, knitting the wound shut. She turned her attention to her shoulder. The heat of the sword had carbonized much of the tissue. It wasn't going to be as easy a fix. She set her nanites to work on it, then flowed the silver shell of her genie back over the wound to prevent contamination.