Core (26 page)

“No, it’s more than that. My dragon and I were almost killed by a black dragon for no good reason. Then we were exiled by the grey court.
Again for no good reason.”

Another dragon, this one short and stocky, coughed.
“Had to be a reason. Greys don’t act without reasons.”

Ava stood up again and paced, ignoring the smells coming from the ground. “What if the re
ason isn’t something we’ve done? What if it’s what we’re trying to do? Maybe they don’t want us to pact.”

The stocky dragon grunted. “Greys only care about the balance. Not about silly little girls.”

 Ava folded her arms and glared at him. “And who are you supposed to be?”

The man spat on the ground.
“Sherwin. Of Culvers Nest.”

“Well, Sherwin of Culvers Nest, let’s say you’re right. But take into consideration the fact that we haven’t done anything wrong. What
reason would the greys possibly have for killing off the only dragon with a rider in the last hundred years?”

Sherwin ran a hand through his blonde and unbelievably full beard. “You sure you aren’t evil? Maybe they don’t like evil.”

“She wouldn’t be in this hole with us if she was evil, Sherwin,” Philip said, rolling his eyes. Then he turned to Ava. “Don’t waste all your energy standing and pacing around, rothai. Sit down to keep from getting tired.”

So Ava sat down once more.
“Rothai? Cale called me that once. What does it mean?”

“Means 'rider',” Sherwin explained. “It’s red tongue. And it’s an honor for him to call you that.”

Ava pushed aside something she hoped was a chicken bone and not the remnants of a dragon. “I don’t get it.”

Sherwin sighed. “Of course you don’t. A dragon’s tongue comes from its core.” He tapped his chest. “From
who they are in their deepest parts. If Phillips calls you rothai, it’s because he believes it in here. He feels it.”

Up until then, Cale had been the only person to call her
rothai. She wished she could talk to him at that very moment. She wished she could tell him not to come find her, not to fall into the blue dragon’s trap. She wished she could save the first person who ever bothered to care for her, to call her
rider
.

Ava looked Phillip in the eye. “Thank you. I’m honored.”

Phillip and Sherwin exchanged looks until Sherwin sighed. “Alright, alright. I suppose she’s not so bad.”

Ava sat for hours amid the waste and the death and the dying while Sherwin and Philip took turns telling stories and singing songs to the
others. Ava quickly realized that these men were the reason the surviving dragons were alive. She had never heard dragons sing before, but as she listened, she felt the truth in their voices. 
It’s coming from their core.

The men’s voices lifted and fell, twisting and floating along, and she could tell they’d been singing together since they were children. She had no idea what the words to the song were. It was all in red tongue. But the melodies moved the soul so that even the other dragons closed their eyes and joined. When Ava closed her eyes, she imagined a dragon soaring through the skies.
 
Cale was right,
 she thought. 
Red dragons were made for flying.

When she opened her eyes again, there were dozens of werefolk peering over into the hole, watching and listening as the dragons finished their ballad. It gave Ava an idea.
A risky one. She stood up and pulled Phillip and Sherwin to their feet.

“How would you guys like to get out of here?
Tonight?”

The dragons exchanged skeptical looks. “
We told you. It’s not wise to try to climb out.”

Ava shook her head. “We’re not going to climb out. We’re going to get them to climb in.” She smiled, her eyes lighting up as the scattered pieces of her plan came together in her head. “Who wants to dance with me?”

Sherwin frowned the deepest, so Ava took him by the hand. “Phillip, I need you to sing for us.”

Phillip
nodded, confusion on his face. He began to sing a heart-crushing ballad when Ava smacked him in the shoulder. “Don’t make me cry. Sing something happy. And sexy.”

Phillip blink
ed at her. “You want something…sexy…so you can dance with 
Sherwin
?”

Sherwin grinned, his pudgy face lighting up. “I’ve never danced with a human before,” he said. He cracked his knuckles.

Ava almost laughed. “I don’t mean a fight,” she said, remembering Onna’s version of a dance. “I mean a real one. You guys dance for real too, right?”

“Of course,” Sherwin huffed. He put a hand on either side of Ava’s waist. She was taller than him by more than six inches, but she wiped the smirk off her face.

“Go on, Phillip,” Sherwin said.

Phillip began to sing something different. It was low and guttural, and he stomped his feet to the rhythm. Ava could imagine dancing to it at some sort of ancient party, where everyone sipped mead and flailed torches around.

Then, all of a sudden, she realized she was nervous. 
Crap. What am I thinking? I don’t know how to dance like this
. She stalled, then sucked in a breath and started again, uncertain of what she was doing as she swayed her hips from side to side. The faster Phillip began to sing, the easier it was for Ava to move along to the music, until Sherwin stepped aside and just let her go on. She twisted and turned, moving her arms to the ups and downs of Phillip’s song.

“That’s not bad,” Sherwin said.

“Give me better compliments than that,” Ava said in her sweetest voice.

She touched Sherwin’s chin, pretending to beckon him toward her. “I’m serious, Sherwin. Compliment me. A lot,” she whispered into his ear. He turned red, stammering over his words.

“What…uh…what a beautiful girl,” he said loudly, awkwardly. It sounded so forced that Ava almost stopped to give him a piece of her mind.

“Move,” someone said. A boy Ava had hardly noticed. He had been on the far side of the hole and Ava could have sworn he’d been half asleep the entire time. He was
pale blonde and thin, his face sunken in from lack of food. “You’re making them jealous?” he asked.

“Exactly.”

He nodded, took Ava’s hand, and spun her. “I’ll show you how to handle a woman like this,” he said loud enough for everyone listening to hear.

He pulled her in close and Ava gasped, playing the part like a professional.
 
Try to be like Onna,
 she told herself. 
She would be perfect at this.
 The boy moved along to the beat with her, sliding his hands over her hips, making sure that his eyes chased her every curve.

It was better than compliments. Ava could hear the sirens hissing their jealousy.

Sherwin folded his arms and scowled. “Hey, you can’t just steal a dragon’s partner,” he objected. The boy reached over and shoved him away.

“She’s mine,” he said. He returned to Ava and ran his hand down her spine as he pulled her closer to him.

Perfect,
 Ava thought. She didn’t dare look up at the eyes that loomed over the edge of the pit. The sirens were murmuring to each other while Ava moved in the arms of the boy until, finally, the boy made his move. He tripped Ava and she fell to the ground without struggle, catching on to where he was going. The boy climbed on top of her, straddling her, acting as though he was pinning her to the ground.

The werefolk couldn’t help
themselves. Jealousy forced them to screech as they flew into the hole. The boy rolled off of Ava and she tackled one, driving her fist into its neck hard enough for it to shriek in pain.

Sher
win laced his fingers together and Phillip placed his foot in his friend’s palms so that Sherwin could hoist him into the air. As tall as Phillip was, he was able to grab two werefolk by their hair and pull them into the pit as he landed.

Sherwin nodded to his friend, and the taller dragon scooped Ava into his arms and flung her up and out of the pit. She rolled, using her elbows to stop herself. She dodged a nightfolk who was brave en
ough to venture into the light, kicked it in the stomach, and ran toward the collection of dragonblades that the blue dragon had taken from his prisoners. The swords and knives were piled beneath the tree of tears. Ava grabbed as many weapons as she could carry and flung them into the pit, keeping one for herself.

She dug the blade into the dirt and used it to anchor herself as she lowered her arm into the hole. The boy who had danced with her took it, gripping her by the elbow and running up the wall until he was out.

Ava tried to reach back down for the others but Phillip, while driving his blade into the heart of two sirens at once, shouted up to the boy, “Get her back to Great Nest!”

The boy nodded and took Ava by the arm.

“We shouldn’t leave them,” Ava protested as he pulled her away.

“They’ll be fine,
rothai,” the boy said. “We have to run.”

He and Ava slashed their way past the throng. The blue dragon was nowhere to be seen as they forced their way into the trees. The boy was panting and from all the time she’d spent with Cale, Ava knew he must have been dying of thirst. But he led the way anyhow, sweat dripping from his brow.

They ran for a few miles before Ava stopped, clutching him by his shirt. She was shaky, her muscles giving out from lack of food. She hadn’t eaten since they left Miami and the holes that the sirens had bit into her ankle the night before made her leg throb. But it was for the boy’s sake she kneeled in the dead leaves. He fell to the ground beside her, gasping for air.

“They got to you,” Ava said. “I can help. Just stay put.”

The boy shook his head. “Keep running,” he said. The perspiration was slipping into his eyes. “I’ll catch up.”

Ava reached out to him but he hissed, pushing her hand away. “Keep going.”

Ava focused on keeping calm, on forcing her mind to stay clear. She couldn’t ignore the feeling that the sirens would overtake them.

“I don’t even know how to get back,” Ava said. “Let me help you,
then you can show me the way.”

“North,” he said, pointing.

Ava moved closer to him, but the boy lashed out with his dragonblade, slicing into Ava’s hand.  She blinked at the shallow wound in shock.

“I said I don’t want your help,” he gasped. “Now go.”

Ava narrowed her eyes. 
He must think I’m some kind of punk
. She moved toward him again and waited until he tried to cut her. Calmly, she pushed his arm down to the ground and stepped on his wrist. It was too easy. He barely had enough strength to keep his fingers tightened around his weapon.

Ava confiscated the sword and lifted him to his feet. She put one of his arms over her shoulders. “Keep up,” she said. “Or we’ll both die.”

Then she plowed through the underbrush, stumbling every now and again at the clumsiness of the dragon she half-carried. Finally, when Ava was sure he wouldn’t be able to walk any farther, she broke through the trees and saw Great Nest. She almost wept at the sight of the rotting fence posts.

They were spotted instantly. The gatekeepers rushed forward and took the ailing dragon on their shoulders.

“Take him to Juliette,” Ava said to the keepers.

She had already told Juliette how to heal the sirens tears. Apparently, before the blue dragon began collecting his special brand of tears, the reds only had to cover dragons with blankets and keep them warm until the poison passed. But these new, stronger tears moved so fast that the injured would never stand a chance. Karma’s medical expertise hadn’t been shared with the reds of the world until Ava passed it on to the
Coston’s.

Maurice took Ava’s hands and kissed them. But Ava didn’t have time to ponder his actions. Her eyes were roving the dirt paths of the little village. “Where’s Cale?”

Maurice frowned, releasing her hands. “You must forgive us,” he said.

“What do you mean?” she asked, almost yelling. Her heart was still racing. It was almost painful how alert she was, how far she felt from Cale.

“He would not listen to reason,” Maurice said, shaking his head. “We had to detain him. He insisted on going after you, but we thought it unwise to have both dragon and rider in danger. He is not happy with us, rothai. Perhaps you can calm him.”

Ava sighed.
The blue dragons plan to use both of them as leverage would never have worked. “Take me to him.”

They hopped over the fence and Maurice led Ava to the makeshift prison they’d stayed in on their first night in Great Nest. She looked through the slat in the big oak doors while Maurice fumbled to remove keys from his belt. The wooden stocks they’d been held in before were smashed to pieces. She could barely see Cale in the corner of the room. When Maurice finally opened the door, Ava rushed to him.

“Cale,” she gasped, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He was chained to the wall, and, when Maurice unlatched the shackles, he pounced on Ava, pressing her to him. He didn’t have words. He only knew he couldn’t let her out of his sight again.