I finally found my voice. “Then they failed. I am still alive.”
His laugh grated in my ears.
“They were not instructed to kill you. We needed you to find the pure magic. Discourage you. Make you suffer. Make you feel weak.”
The Dreamthief glided forward an inch. “Make you afraid,” it whispered.
The knife wobbled in my hands. I heard the goblins’ shuffling footsteps behind me.
Make you suffer. Make you feel weak. Make you afraid. This was their game. This was how they wanted to play. I wasn’t a person to them.
The Dreamthief hovered so close I saw the twin pinpricks of light glowing from its eye sockets. I couldn’t look away. Magic coursed from the specter, so strong I lost all sense of reality. It snuffed my magic out. Without it, I felt exposed. My only weapon, the knife, fell out of my hand. It landed on the floor with a sharp thump. Say what you will about fear, but when you truly experienced it, it consumed you. Your thoughts, your motivations, your intentions, all disappeared.
The goblins grabbed me up as Mr. Green spoke. “Now, shall we stop playing at this game? The sacrifice of your blood is needed for our spell.”
The Dreamthief moved toward me. I heard its words whisper in my head. Theht will return when the beating of your heart is stopped. You will bring death to our planet, and it will be glorious. You are the Deathbringer.
Calmness washed over me as they placed me on the altar once again. I shut my eyes. The Dreamthief’s words were meant to make me afraid, but I refused to let them.
It was then that I realized the Dreamthief’s power, something I’d known all along but only now understood. Fear. They used fear to paralyze me, make me helpless. They needed no spells or magic as long as I was afraid.
But I controlled my fear. Not them.
The chanting started once again. They stood around me, swaying back and forth. I ignored them as best as I could, instead focusing on one thing. With my magic gone, I knew I had no chance of fighting.
Ulizet, I whispered. Can you hear me?
The chanting grew into a wail. The knife appeared. This time, Mr. Green didn’t hesitate to plunge it into my chest.
I screamed as the sharp metal pierced through my skin. A huge vortex of wind funneled around us, drowning out my cries. The pain stole my breath.
My blood seeped around the blade. Dark crimson drops plopped onto the stone.
Help, please! Ulizet? Fan’twar? Anyone?
Mr. Green removed the knife with a violent jerk of his wrist. My blood came out in a gush. My head grew dizzy as I watched my lifeblood seep onto the table. I gasped, feeling my lungs collapse as my heart stopped pumping blood.
Anyone?
My eyes closed. Consciousness ebbed. I stood in the dragon’s forest. I was a little girl again. I sat by a campfire and rested on Fan’twar’s flanks. He told me stories that made me laugh.
An enormous clatter came from overhead. I remembered where I was. Was Theht coming? If so, I didn’t know why she spoke with a man’s voice, a deep, husky voice that sounded enraged.
The yells of a whole squadron of bloodthirsty warriors mingled with the man’s voice. I knew of only one group of people capable of such violence. I cracked my eyes open just long enough to confirm my suspicions.
The Wults attacked the goblins without remorse. A blue glow surrounded each warrior, and even in my weakened state I felt the power of Princess Euralysia’s spell.
Screams came from the goblins. Mr. Green’s cries joined them. I heard bodies ripping apart. Skulls slamming together. Skulls splitting.
My thoughts caught me once again. “And the prince found the den of naughty goblins. As punishment, he made them scrub his chamber pots clean. And he demanded that they only use pieces of paper parchment, which fell apart and made a horrid mess,” Fan’twar said. I laughed with the firelight warming my face.
Someone interrupted my dream and grabbed me up. Warm arms encircled me. The sound of crashing rocks filled my ears. Was the tower collapsing?
All I wanted to do was go back to sleep. It felt so lovely by that fire.
Cold wind slapped my face, waking me. I cracked open my eyes. I saw a room full of Wult warriors. Dead goblin bodies surrounded them. Mrs. Dickinson’s corpse lay atop the goblin’s disemboweled carcasses. Her gold cross, her only jewelry, lost its luster. A memory charm.
Blood stained the floor. It splattered the walls.
The goblin wearing Mr. Green’s clothing looked the worst.
My stomach heaved.
Kull’s face filled my vision. He placed me atop something that felt strangely like bones. I focused and found I sat atop the T-Rex skeleton. Princess Euralysia sat behind me. Her magic surrounded the skeleton and enveloped me in its warm glow. She raised her arms, and the skeleton lifted into the air as soon as Kull bounded onto it behind me.
We flew out of the ruined tower. I wanted to tell them I was hurt, but my thoughts drifted.
Once again, the fire warmed my face.
Chapter 40
Fan’twar’s voice came to me, but not from my dream. I opened my eyes. I lay in the dragon caves. Sunlight streamed through the huge, cathedral windows and fell in patches over the rug-strewn stone floors. Kull sat by me also, with his chin resting in his hands.
I felt the strange sensation of dragon magic tingling where my stab wound had been. I glanced at my chest and saw that I wore a white nightshirt. Beneath it, my stab wound had been dressed in white cloth. I gingerly touched the fabric covering the gash. The greenish glow of dragon magic hummed beneath my fingertips. Only a dull ache remained where the wound had been.
“You healed me?” I asked Fan’twar as he loomed over me.
“Yes,” he answered.
I sat up, trying to piece together the
