Page 15 of I Dream of Dragons

Only someone else has made it there first. A young, dark-haired woman is struggling to scale it.

So I move on. My shoulder burns, the one that was almost wrenched out of its socket in the first trial, and other aches make themselves known as I keep going. My calf where that snake had bitten me. The soles of my feet I cut up on the broken coral pieces. There simply hasn’t been enough time to heal.

A shadow under the surface, down deep, catches my attention, and I dive underwater to see. My gills pulsate, and I choke for a moment before I stop trying to breathe in through my nose and mouth and let the water in.

It’s not a sea serpent as I’d feared but a group of mermaids.

They stop, beating their powerful, colorful tails, and turn to gaze up at me. They reach for me with pale, graceful arms. “Come with us,” they sing, the melody winding around my mind, “come join us.”

“I can’t,” I tell them, my voice echoing in the water.

“Alys is looking for you.”

“Later. Tell Alys I’ll find her later.”

But they won’t be deterred. They swim upward, reaching for me, their song rising and rising. It’s showing me images from my childhood—fields covered in flowers, rocky hill slopes where wild goats roam, my town with the forest at its edge where the witches live and the lesser fairies roam, the slow-flowing river, the old palace, my beloved family, Mars…

Hey, stop. Stop! Now is not the time.

I may not have my magic right now, but I’m still one of the finnfolk, so I manage to resist just enough to swim away from them. I’m trying to circle around them when a hand closes around my ankle, yanking me down.

Shit, no. No time for this, and the last thing I want to do is talk politics with the Sea Queen’s maidens.

“I said later!” I kick with my other foot at the grabbing hand, and when it relaxes, I kick again and shoot to the surface.

Dammit.

“Rae!”The voice startles me and I splash, turning around, looking for its source.“You can talk to me, you know. Ask for my help.”

“Who is that? Where…?” The voice rings inside my head, echoes trailing, and then it clicks: the darakin. “Remi?”

“Look up.”

Of course. I look up, and there he is, circling, gray and white, a reptilian, winged form, the morning light turning his membranous wings into lace.

Not sure I’m allowed to ask any dragon for help, I send the thought out.

“You can’t, but who’s to know we can communicate? I’ll guide you. I have a good dragon’s-eye view from up here.”

Guide me where? What else is there apart from these towers?

“Ah, see how useful I can be?”I swear he’s laughing at me.

You’re not useful yet.

He gets the hint and circles higher, then lower again until he’s hovering over me.

I need to get out of the water. Big fat advantage my gills gave me in a trial of the air. It’s so ironic I huff a laugh and promptly inhale water, because now I’m back to breathing through my nose.

The joy.

Spluttering, the inside of my nose and my throat burning from the unplanned salty water drink, I set my sights on the next tower. Hands touch my feet again and I kick out, cursing inwardly. Water blurs my vision. The tower sways right and left. Something else latches onto my foot.

That’s not a hand,I think as sharp teeth sink into my flesh.Shit.

“Watch out!”Remi’s voice inside my head is the only warning I get as he dives down from the sky and into the water, dislodging whatever had gotten hold of my foot.

Ow.