Later that afternoon
Satya wasn’t afraid anymore. Not of Ms. Mauvais. Not of the dragons. Not of being stranded in the middle of a jungle in the middle of a crater in the middle of a desert. She figured she’d seen the worst of all of those things already, and she’d survived.
Survived. Like Cass. The survivalist. Satya’s new role model. Cass wasn’t afraid of anything.*
Still.
Not being afraid was no reason not to be careful.
She had Hero with her, of course. Her spy, bodyguard, and secret weapon. But Hero was unpredictable when it came to dragons. To say the least.
She looked at the laboratory building, trying to study it analytically.
Getting in wasn’t going to be a problem. She still had Gyorg’s keys. It was the getting out that would be tricky. Most staff members were occupied with salvaging materials from the castle and building temporary shelters. Nonetheless, it was more than possible that one or more guards might be chasing her. They might even go after her with a helicopter.
And then there was Bluebeard, still out there somewhere. Waiting to get revenge. Snowflake and Rover were back under the dome, but so far Bluebeard had evaded capture. The dragon had either found a way to deactivate its collar or flown so far afield that the collar no longer worked. All Midnight Sun staff were under orders to shoot the one-eyed menace on sight.
Satya had watched Dr. Paru exit the laboratory. Then she waited a full five minutes to make sure the scientist wasn’t coming back. (If Satya had hoped to find an ally in Dr. Paru, she’d given up; Dr. Paru was too married to her science, or too afraid of Ms. Mauvais, or simply too well paid, to question what the Midnight Sun was doing.) And now it was time. Satya unlocked the laboratory door and walked swiftly toward the nurseries. Hero was tense, even shaking a little bit, but the falcon seemed to understand that she was supposed to remain silent.
The little dragons, in contrast, were shrieking noisily. The last time they’d seen Hero, she’d really riled them up, and it appeared that they remembered. Satya wasn’t sure whether they regarded the falcon as friend or foe or food, but whatever the case, they didn’t find Hero’s presence soothing.
One by one, she released them from their cages. First the four babies, whom she called Louis, Percy, Sarah, and Garby (all named after former pets of Satya’s). Then Houdini and Bodhi, whose hoods and jesses she carefully removed. Usually so mellow, Bodhi wasn’t very mellow now. None of them were. There was total chaos in the room. Talons scratching walls. Bottles crashing to the floor.
Attempting to convey a sense of calm authority, she carried a cooler full of meat in front of her—the only thing that would focus the dragons’ attention—and walked out of the room. The little dragons followed her, fighting for the positions closest to the meat. They didn’t make a line so much as a writhing black ball. Hero circled the dragons, trying to keep them all going in the same direction, like a dog shepherding a flock of sheep.
Amazingly, the motley group made it outside without interruption. They appeared to be alone. Satya allowed herself a small sigh of relief as she marched her crew steadily forward.
Her father, she felt sure, would help her when the time came. They were to leave that afternoon, one way or another. He’d sworn it, and she intended to hold him to his promise. But they simply couldn’t leave knowing that all these baby dragons were still in captivity, property of the Midnight Sun.
So they would take the dragons. How? Vaguely, she imagined that she and her father would put all six dragons and Hero in a helicopter and then escape to parts unknown. An island, maybe. Or somewhere in the Arctic.
Realistic? Probably not. The dragons wouldn’t like being confined in the helicopter. How long before they revolted? And even if she and her father successfully relocated the dragons, what would they do when the dragons got bigger? But what other options were there?
One step at a time, she told herself. Or one flap of the wing, in the case of the dragons.
She noticed the silence first.
The chattering and the screeching, the flying and the fighting—suddenly, it had all stopped.
She looked down. There were no more little talons or teeth scratching and snapping at the cooler.
She turned around. Where were all the dragons?
A large fern drew her attention; a pair of yellow eyes stared out from the shadows beneath it.
Satya spotted the little dragons, one after another, peering out from the foliage. They were quiet but alert, quivering. She smiled uncertainly. Were they hiding from her? Was it some kind of game? No, they didn’t seem the least bit interested in her. It was something else. Something they feared.
Hero hissed in her ear.
Slowly, Satya raised her eyes to the sky.
Bluebeard.