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KAIROS HELD ON TIGHTLY to the dragon’s mane. Flying was not as bumpy as riding on a horse, but it certainly left the stomach in a number of places along the way, and the air was much colder up here than on the ship. He clutched the mane with one hand and tried holding his cloak together with the other, but with the wind blowing it open, his efforts were fruitless. They were high above the storm, so high that stars lit their way and if he looked down (he tried not to), there was nothing under him but layers and layers of clouds, dark and foreboding. And lightning.
Hawk hung onto his waist, untroubled by being in the heavens.
“There’s a man on the ship we need to rescue,” Hawk said. “Waylen is his name. He’s a good man, not at all like the others. He’s tied up near the Machine.”
“I understand. How will I know who he is?”
“He’s smaller than the others, thin, scraggly. Salt and pepper hair with a receding hairline. He has a raspy voice. You’ll know him.”
The dragon descended and Kairos’ stomach lurched again. He hung on now with both hands and gritted his teeth as the tail of the storm, the ocean, and the Enchantress came into sight. The dragon was moving faster than Kairos could imagine possible.
“They’ve spotted us,” the dragon said.
Sure enough, fiery bolts flew at them from the ship. The dragon turned sideways to dodge the barrage.
“Whoa!” Kairos groaned as his body lurched to the left. He could barely breathe what with the wind blowing into his nostrils and Hawk grabbing his waist like a skura’s talon. Kairos’ fists were white as they clung to the dragon’s mane.
“Good holy idols, boy you’ll kill me before the enemy even sees me!” Kairos gasped.
The dragon quickly leveled his body, wings outstretched, but before Kairos could get situated on his back again, the Keeper arched his neck, bringing Kairos forward. Hawk slammed into him. Without warning, the dragon’s body bloated with heat. The Keeper thrust his head forward, and flames gushed out of his mouth, sending the sorcerers scattering like ants attacked by a flood.
“Easy there, Keeper, we need to get some things out of that boat before we disintegrate it.” Hawk cautioned.
“I’m just shooing them out of the way so I can land,” the dragon said. He spread his wings and dove for the ship.
No sooner had the Keeper planted his feet on the Enchantress, did Hawk and Kairos jump off his back.
“I’ll be here,” the Keeper assured them.
“Good!” Kairos said, for at that second, he had to dodge behind the dragon to avoid a bolt of white lightning. Hawk was already battling Fengard with liquid spells from his vials. Kairos observed him only for a moment. The young man’s fingers flicked dollops of potions quicker than a hummingbird’s wings at his brother, sending sparks and lassoes which Fengard dodged and countered just as rapidly.
Neither one’s magic hit the other though Hawk’s brother was much more apt at his deviltry than Hawk. Flames and bright streaks of electrical light flashed from everywhere, most of them landing at Hawk’s feet until the Keeper stepped in the way.
“What was that?” Kairos asked as a streak of fire sped out over the ocean and he took cover behind the wall to the captain’s cabin.
“Jednah,” Hawk called to him. “The man’s a trickster. Look out for the blue light. The white light’s there for a feint.”
The dragon let out a deafening roar.
“Easy, Keeper. We need this ship afloat until we have the magic.”
Kairos followed Jednah’s trail of light to a pile of crates by the boom. When he peered around the corner, the white, fiery rod singed his right ear. Kairos’s first reaction was to duck away from it. He didn’t. He remained steadfast and sure enough, a blue bolt whizzed by his left ear close enough to have killed him if he had moved.
So, you want to play games, do you?
“Keep Hawk covered,” Kairos told the dragon. “I’ve got this one.”
Kairos licked his fingers and rolled up his sleeves, keeping a keen eye on the barrels that Jednah hid behind. He hadn’t nearly as many spells in his belt as the Neverworld sorcerers, but if he used what he had wisely, he might be able to take Jednah out and buy time for Hawk. Hopefully before the ship sinks. He glanced down at his boots, now in a foot of water.
Not much time.
He pulled out the vial with the yellow marble swirls, the one potion that would mirror whatever it touched. A simple spell. Holding it in one hand, and preparing the lasso energy in his other, he let a bead of liquid fall into the water at his feet. The drop expanded, rippling through the water until it turned a shimmering silver. He leaned over and looked into the mirror.
He scowled at his reflection.
“I’m a mess,” he muttered, wiping a smudge of ash from his cheek with the hand holding the vial. Remembering what he was doing, he pushed the image away from him. It floated onto the deck, the reflection of his face still flowing with it. After setting the vial back in his belt, attached the lasso to the mirror, and with one smooth whip of the magical rope, Kairos hoisted the mirror up out of the water.
Jednah released his white light and then his blue instantly. the bolts ricochet back at Jednah and killed him. The man’s dying scream lasted only a second before he splashed into the water.
There was nothing Kairos could do about his unpleasant reflection as it would roll about on the sea forever.
When he jogged to the Keeper, the dragon was still pivoting around, spitting fire whenever he thought he saw an enemy. Kairos dodged under his wing and regarded the enemy’s holdings. They were hiding. When a streak of fire shot out at them, Kairos saw a man run to another hiding place. There were at least a dozen sorcerers unaccounted for. The only ones still fighting were Fengard, and perhaps a few others whose attempt at harming the dragon fell short so far.
“Easy, Keeper, we need you,” Kairos warned when the dragon turned sharply and spat fire at the rigging portside.
“Burns don’t bother me, Kairos,” the Keeper said. “I have more heat inside than anyone will ever hit me with on the outside. I could turn this ship to ash with one breath.”
“Don’t,” Kairos pleaded. “There are two things yet to do before you demonstrate the full force of your power. Save a wizard named Waylen and release the magic back to the Cho Nisi.”
“Yes, well, these sorcerers are in my way.”
Fengard released a triple bolt at them. The Keeper swallowed it while Hawk dodged one way and Kairos ducked. Hawk struck back, ensuing a fusillade of fire.
“You need help?” Kairos asked.
“Please! Cover me. The idea is to get to the gear deck,” Hawk explained. “Distract them!”
In response, the Keeper breathed enough fire to send an inferno toward Fengard, igniting the mast and sails. Kairos cringed and Hawk dodged behind the dragon and raced away.
Just when Kairos noticed Hawk missing, a deafening sound pierced his ears. The clamor of metal, the hiss of steam, and thumping rattled the ship. Fengard ceased his attack and flew across the deck, racing for the gear room.
“You’ll not touch that!” he yelled. Hawk had his hands on the machine’s lever, unable to defend himself when Fengard struck. The projectile spun at the young wizard in slow motion and Hawk stared at it.
Kairos released a lasso, but he was too late.
Fengard ran toward his brother, elated that he had slain him. But just as the bolt was about to penetrate Hawk’s body, it reversed course and detonated in Fengard’s face. The ship quavered from the blast.
Kairos ducked as debris sailed into the air. When the dust settled, a scraggly little man in a blue cloak stood over Fengard’s remains, dusting his hands.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while now,” he said. “You all right, Hawk?”
Hawk nodded. “Thank you, Waylen.”
“We must hurry and get this magic to where it belongs before all your people drown,” Waylen warned, joining Hawk at the Machine.
Kairos, now knee deep in water, had forgotten about the storm encroaching on Barin and the Cho Nisi. The night was so dark, nothing to the west could be seen, not the sky, nor the sea, nor the ships that were enduring the tempest.
Hawk inverted the controls on the Machine, sending the power through the tubes backwards, which worked for what little bit of energy that was still feeding the storm, but it wasn’t enough to reverse the hurricane that had already overtaken Barin and his fleet.
Kairos’ shoulders dropped in despair as he watched the last puff of released magic surrounding the ship return to its chamber.
“We may be too late,” Hawk said, shutting the engine down and walking out on deck
“There was a time I could swallow a mountain giant,” the Keeper said as he looked out over the darkness. “I took pride in devouring creatures as large as that storm cloud over there. You remember them, Kairos?”
“I do.”
“As long as no more of that storm is reproducing, I believe I can fulfill my Bon Liga.”
He leaned out over the ocean, that proud and beautiful form of his like a statue on the steps of a king’s palace and opened his mouth. He sucked the fire within him until that his stomach swelled all the way down to the tip of his tail. Kairos thought he might explode with the head, but as the dragon inhaled, a remarkable thing happened. His scales slowly turned first purple, then blue, and the tip of his tail grew white as stone.
Little by little, the fire within him dissipated, and soon Kairos could see vapor going into the dragon’s mouth with each breath the dragon took. Mist from the sky glided to him like iron to a magnet. Then fog from the sea came rolling in as though it’d been looking for a home. A steady stream of moisture funneled into the Keeper until finally the thick, black clouds of the storm swirled through the air from the sea on a gust of wind that blew so hard that Kairos had to hold onto the rail of the ship to stay standing. The dragon swallowed the storm, and what remained was a calm and glassy ocean. The stars glistened in a cloudless sky when the Keeper finally shut his mouth.
Kairos’ heart swelled with gratitude and his eyes grew misty.
“Holy idols!” Hawk gushed as he took a place beside Kairos to watch the miracle.
There were no words that Kairos could utter. He hoped this would not be the end of the Keeper. The dragon had swelled to twice the size he had been, beads of water trickled from his scales. His entire body glowed blue under the moonlight.
One by one, the wizards of the Neverworld crept out of their hiding places to watch. Kairos eyed them, ready. They made no move against him. They weren’t even looking at him, but at the Keeper with eyes full of wonder.
“You surrender?” Hawk asked quietly.
“We surrender” the two alchemists said.
“We’re tired, Hawk,” she said. Hawk and Waylen disarmed them of their phials.
Kairos held up his hand when the Keeper finally turned to him.
“Say nothing,” Kairos ordered. “Lest the power of what you swallowed is released. I believe it’s time to visit the Cho Nisi. They may have a song for you. Can you fly?”
The dragon nodded.