Page 105 of I Dream of Dragons

Ahead, I make out a monstrous shape.

A sea drak. It’s an agate green with a black crest, white lines on its muzzle. Her muzzle, in fact. From the screech, I know it’s a female.

A winged Oriole drak is lying motionless on the terrace, one wing torn, a long gash down her orange body.

Two guards are trying to push the sea drak back with their swords and she snaps at them. One of them is Arkin. I wonder where Tru is. And Jai?

“Arkin!” I yell.

“Get back!” he roars, then as he recognizes me, “Rae?”

“Where is he?”

He understands without me having to clarify. “He fell off the Oriole drak, over there!” He points. “Go check on him.”

“Planning on it.” I’m running already, not sure what I will be running into, though I don’t see any other dragons where I’m heading.

Yet somethingison the terrace, crawling through a broken part of the marble balustrade.

A mermaid.

Another is crawling toward her, I realize, and she has Jai.

Hells.She has an arm around his hips and is slowly dragging him backward, toward the balustrade. She lifts her head, and I start.

I know her.

“Alys! Let him go!” I pull the dagger out of my belt and point it at her. “Now!”

She jerks to a stop, glaring at me through huge aquamarine eyes. “I’m doing the queen’s bidding that you failed to do. Go away.”

“I can’t do that.” I run toward her. “I said, release him.”

“The sea wants him out of the way,” she says, not relinquishing her hold on him. “Him, and the king. This is your new mission.”

I stumble. “What? No. Why now?”

“He’s helping the king.”

“The king wants to open a gate and leave this world. If the king wants to leave, then good riddance.”

“You really think he won’t come back with an even bigger army and kill us all?”

I open my mouth to deny this but no words come out. She’s right, I don’t believe that. But I have to stop her.

“Athdara is learning to control Phaethon,” I say, trying to control my panic. “He won’t let the king open any gates.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I know him,” I say.

“Nonsense,” Alys hisses. “You barely know him. He’s distracting you from your mission.”

“No, he’s not. I know him, Alys. Let him go!” My voice trills, echoes, and a flicker of my power blooms in my chest. “Release him!”

She releases him and jerks back, snarling. “Then what is it? What’s your reason for not killing the king, apart from thinking he will just return this world to its rightful owners?”

“I can’t tell you. And I can’t let you have Jai.” He’s so still lying beside her. My heart is seizing.