Tales from Dargo Island: The Complete Trilogy (18 page)

When I opened
my eyes, I was walking. I had no idea where I was, but I knew it wasn’t the
chamber. I was outside, in broad daylight. My body didn’t ache like I expected
it to. I was carrying a basket of laundry along a stream in the woods and
couldn’t stop myself. I wasn’t in control of my body.

I knelt down,
grabbed a pair of pants and began washing them in the stream. I continued doing
this for five minutes, going through the whole basket.

“Father!”

I turned and
saw a little boy of about six running out of the woods toward me. He was
dressed in what looked like Pilgrim clothes. He had a little green jacket, with
pants that came up to his knees, with white stockings. He ran into my open arms
and looked in the direction from which he came.

I looked and
saw an old man run up a second later. “What is the meaning of this?” I asked
him.

“I caught your
lad stealing one of my chickens.”

“And? He’s just
a boy.”

The man blustered
at that. “Don’t think I don’t know what you and your boy are. The whole colony
knows. He was trying to acquire a chicken for a blood sacrifice.”

I laughed.
“What are you going on about, Thomas?”

He took a few
steps forward. “I know you’re a demon. I’ll prove it, and I’ll see you burn.”

“Those are
strong words. I still don’t understand why you think these things, Thomas.”

He laughed.
“You know exactly why I say these things, Dargonius.”

I understood,
then, that I was experiencing a flashback. I said to Thomas, “You claim to have
seen me fly. Do you not realize how ridiculous that sounds?”

“Prudence saw
you as well.”

“Prudence is an
old woman. She doesn’t know what she saw.”

My heart—or
Dargonius’s—sped up. I looked down at the boy. “Henry, does Thomas not say the
silliest things?”

He looked up at
me with bright eyes. “Yes, Father.”

I looked up at
Thomas, who backed away, pointing at me. “Your time will come, Dargonius. You
and your son’s.”

“None of that,
Thomas,” I said. The tone in my voice wasn’t lost on the other man. He ran
away.

Suddenly I was
flashing forward to another time. It was night and I was in bed.

My room was on
fire.

I jumped out of
bed and ran to a hall, where I saw the entire house was completely covered in
flames. I tried to run to a door that was blocked by fire. “Henry!”

“Father!” I
heard his tiny, scared voice from the room I couldn’t get to.

I raised my
hands and the fire parted. I ran through it and into the room. Henry was in a
corner, cowering in fear. I picked him up and ran back through the gap. Outside
the house, I saw over a dozen angry people screaming at me.

“Die, demon!”
an old woman screamed before throwing a rock at us.

I turned so it
hit me instead of Henry. It struck my back and I cried out in pain. More rocks
came. I turned back to the crowd and roared, and an invisible force shot
everyone away. Everyone flew at least twenty feet off the ground and landed
hard. I ran away, toward the woods with Henry in my arms. I didn’t know where I
was going until I got there.

A river. I
stepped into the freezing water, trying to cross to the other side. “Swim,
Henry.” The little boy tried to swim as the water reached up to my neck. I
could barely feel the bottom with my feet. I held on to Henry with one hand,
but he was slipping from my grip. “Henry!”

I lost hold of
him and he was carried away in the current. “Henry!” I screamed until my throat
was raw.

*
 
*
 
*

And then
suddenly I was somewhere else. I was floating on my back in a vast ocean,
looking up at the sky.

“That was just
a taste of the injustice I suffered at the hands of men,” a voice in my head
said.

“I’m sorry for
your loss,” I told Dargonius out loud. “Those were different times then.
Everyone who hurt you is dead.”

“It may be a
different time, but society will never truly change.”

“You’re no
better than them, in my opinion,” I said. “In fact, you’re worse. You’re
planning to kill people who have never done anything to you. You’re using your
power for evil. You’re becoming the monster those colonists accused you of
being.”

“Perhaps. But
it doesn’t matter now. My son died that night, and so did the old Dargonius.
When I found Henry, he was cold and pale, looking at me with lifeless eyes. I
held him for days, unable to move or speak or think.

“When I
regained my senses, I buried him and wandered into a village, sick with fever.
The people there took care of me for a while, but when my powers manifested
during a fever dream, the villagers reacted the same way as the colonists.

“I killed every
last one of them.

“On and on,
people reacted the same way when they discovered I had powers. Then, one day, I
met a woman who knew nothing about me. We got married, had children. Two girls
and a boy. When they started manifesting abilities of their own, my wife
panicked. She tried to kill them, so I killed her.”

“What happened
to your children?”

“I tried to
keep them safe, told them not to use their powers, but people found out anyway
and killed them. It was then that I realized I could not live a normal life in
a society that feared magic.”

“The world
doesn’t fear it the way it used to,” I said. “We even make movies and write
books about magic. No one would try to hurt you.”

“Rockne told me
the same thing. I don’t want to hurt society for what it might do now; I want
to hurt it for what it has already taken from me.”

“Is this
right?” I asked Nalke—Dad—as I swirled the dark gray clouds in front of me.

“Yes. That’s a
great start.”

Swirling the
clouds was like swirling paint on a canvas. It was cool, but also a little
messy. Since Dad’s palace was on top of a giant cloud, the other clouds moved
at the same time; I didn’t have to go chasing them. My little cloud was my
practice canvas, trying to conjure lightning.

“I’m so happy
you decided to hone your nature skills,” Dad said. “I’ve enjoyed training you
these couple of weeks.”

I nodded,
distracted by my art. “It’s like magic.”

“It’s exactly
like magic, yes.” He stepped up next to me. “You know, Rockne and I were actual
wizards once.”

I tore my eyes
away from the cloud. “I thought you were nature demons.”

“The nature
demons died out a long time ago. Before doing so, they appointed my father—your
grandfather—honorary nature demon. He took over when they vanished from this
world.”

“Can only wizards
become nature demons?”

“It would have
to be a being of supreme power. A giant, for instance, cannot become one.
Neither can werewolves or vampires. I was able to bring creatures up here, as
protection, but they hold no magic.”

“So, could I
become one?” I asked.

“You already
are. Your birth was the first of its kind—the union between a nature demon and
a sorceress. You can exist in both worlds in a way I cannot.”

“What about
Josh?”

“He is a human
with traces of my power. He can’t use it to his advantage. I don’t think he can
become one of us.”

“Oh.” I
abandoned my cloudy portrait, which was starting to look like Josh, and looked
over the edge of our cloud, which was like a giant gray front yard. I saw a
city beneath us, with little lights throughout. “Where are we?”

“Dallas, I
think.”

“What’s that?”
I asked, pointing. I saw five little red things flying not too far beneath us.
“Are those birds?”

Dad pulled a
little gold telescope from his robes. “I believe they are. The birds from
Dargo?”

I took the telescope.
“Yes. I’d recognize them from anywhere. We have to stop them before they infect
more people.”

“We’ll use the
elements.” Dad twirled his hands in a weird way, and a giant funnel cloud
dropped from a large cloud across from us.

I watched as
the tornado broke up the flock. It captured a couple of them, tearing them to
bits. The three remaining tried to fly away from the twister, but Dad caught
one of them. The tornado hadn’t touched down, and the birds flew closer to the
ground.

“I’ll have to
use something else,” Dad said.

“Can I try?” I
asked.

He looked at me
with pride. “Of course. Try lightning.”

We were too far
away, so we teleported to a cloud just in front of the two remaining birds. I
conjured lightning bolts very slowly. Dad had taught me to use anger to get
started, though it wasn’t necessary. I hadn’t been able to do it earlier, but I
could now.

Lightning shot
from the cloud, nearly striking the three birds. The near-hit made me even
angrier. I tossed half a dozen bolts at them, striking one out of the sky.
“These suckers are fast,” I muttered, squeezing my lips together.

Only one
remained, and it flew in a random pattern that was hard to predict. I tossed
more bolts, but none of them hit.

“Astrid, stop!”
Dad yelled, appearing behind me.

I stopped and
realized I was exhausted. I was breathing so fast I thought I would pass out.

“You can’t
exert yourself so much on your first try.”

“Sorry,” I
said, watching the last bird fly away. Dad tossed a bolt toward it and it
exploded, leaving no trace it ever existed.

He pulled out
his telescope. “I don’t see it. I think I got it.” He looked at me. “That was
very impressive, Astrid.”

“Thanks.” I was
breathing normally again.

“Perhaps it’s
time you returned to Dargo to give the good news.”

“Good idea.
Thanks for teaching me. It was more fun than I thought it would be.”

“You could make
this your home….” We reappeared on his home-cloud.

I looked at
him. “I like living on Dargo.”

“Even with all
that death?”

A crack of
thunder startled him. “Yes,” I said heatedly. “Even with all that death.”

“I’m sorry if I
offended you. Just know that you’re always welcome here in your second home,
where you can be young forever.”

I saw through
his sneaky invitation. “I’ve had my whole life to get used to my curse.” I
thought of something. “What would happen to nature if you died?”

“Without a
successor? I imagine absolute chaos.”

“So, I pretty
much have to take over for you?” I asked, my heart racing.

“You don’t have
to. I’m sure I can find another magical being to take over. Your mother could
become one if she were so inclined. She hasn’t used her powers in a while, but
she’s an excellent illusionist. I won’t have to worry for a long, long time.”

That made me
feel a little better, but not much. I walked to the center of the cloud-yard
and turned back to my dad. He waved. I waved back and said, “I’ll see you
soon.”

“I look forward
to it.”

In a flash of
light and a roaring wind I returned to my house on Dargo. When I stepped out of
the closet, I nearly ran into a boy I hadn’t seen in a while.

“Estevan?” I
yelled, backing away.

“Honey,” Mom
called, running from the living room. “Josh brought him here while you were
gone. He has the plague.”

“Oh. I’m so
sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. “Where is Josh?” I asked Mom. “Dad and
I killed the rest of the birds on the mainland.”

“He went to the
palace to check on the status of the cure nearly an hour ago. I haven’t heard
from him since.”

“I’m going up
there,” I said. “Is there another horse I can take?”

“Yes. Aneela
left us two of them. Josh took one, but the other is in the backyard.”

Before I got to
the palace I knew something was wrong. People were running around the
courtyard, yelling among each other. I couldn’t tell what they were talking
about. I jumped off the horse and ran inside the palace, where I found
Commander Rhys.

“What
happened?” I asked, running up to him.

“The queen was
attacked.”

“Is she okay?
Where’s Josh?”

“He’s missing.
The queen said Andor attacked her. She doesn’t know what happened after that.”

We stood at the
palace entrance. If we hadn’t been, we might not have heard the explosions. At
first I thought it was thunder, but I saw colors in the sky. I’d never seen
anything like it before. Reds, blues and greens rained down over the second
island.

“What is that?”
I asked, backing away.

“Fireworks,”
Aneela said, joining us. She had a big bruise on her left cheek. “Josh
mentioned them as something used to celebrate on the mainland.”

“They must be
on the second island,” I said.

We headed down
to he shore, but before we could even get to the boats, we saw one coming
toward us. Someone was standing in it. No one was rowing the boat; it was
rowing itself. The standing man stared at us, his arms crossed behind his back.

“Is that Josh?”
Rhys asked.

As soon as he
said it, I realized it was Josh. The boat came ashore, but he still stood
there. A man—Andor?—got out and tied the boat down. There was something else in
the boat, but it was covered with Josh’s jacket.

“Josh?” I said.
“Are you okay?”

He looked at me
like he didn’t recognize me.

At that moment,
I almost didn’t recognize him.

“And who are
you, sweet thing?” he asked me.

It was Josh’s
voice, but not his way of speaking.

“Who are you?”
I asked, because I knew it wasn’t Josh.

He turned to
Aneela. “Why don’t you do the honors of telling them?”

She looked at
us, and she looked more afraid than I’d ever seen her before. “It’s…Dargonius.
He took over Josh’s body.”

“How…how is
that possible?” Rhys asked. I was speechless.

Josh stepped
out of the boat just as more fireworks exploded over our heads, scaring
everyone around us.

“Don’t be
frightened, citizens of Dargo,” Josh said. “Now that I’ve returned, all will be
well. I will cure you of this plague. You are all my people, and I shall take
of you.”

He walked up to
me, and I backed away. “Again, sweet thing, who are you?” he repeated. “I feel
as if we’ve already met.”

“Astrid.”

“Astrid. It’s
lovely to make your acquaintance. Now that I’m free, perhaps we can get to know
each other better.”

He reached out
to touch my cheek but I slapped his hand away. Even Josh wouldn’t do something
like that, at least, not after our experiment earlier, so I sure as hell wasn’t
going to let Dargonius get away with it.

He looked
shocked. “I apologize. I assumed you and Joshua were…”

“We aren’t,” I
said.

He walked away
from me without another word, like he forgot I existed. He stepped up to
Commander Rhys. “Now that I’ve returned, you serve me.”

“I serve Queen
Aneela.”

“Aneela is no
longer queen. If you have a problem with that, I’m sure we can work something
out.”

Everyone heard
the threat in that last statement.

“Do what he
says, Rhys,” Aneela said. “No one has to get hurt. We can work together
peacefully.”

Rhys swallowed
hard, staring at Dargonius (I couldn’t think of him as Josh anymore). “Yes, My
Lord,” he said to the man in front of him.

“Call me
Dargo.” He turned to us, a big smile on his face. “Wonderful. I shall get to
work healing those afflicted with the plague.” He made his way up to the
palace.