Ivy and the golden dragon regarded each other. After a long moment, the dragon said something that sounded very polite to Ivy, at least as far as a bunch of roars and growls could sound polite.
“I, too, find you very interesting,” Ivy said. “I wish I knew what you were saying. And I wish you could tell me where Aunt Rose is.”
“Roar roar growl roar roar,” the dragon said, in the same conversational tone.
“Aunt ROSE!” Ivy tried shouting. Maybe the key was to be loud and dragonlike. “Where is the PERSON who was on your SHOULDER in my VISION?” She pointed at the spot where Rose had been sitting. “ROOOOOOOOOOOOOSE! Where is she?”
The dragon tilted her head, as though she suddenly understood. “Roar? Roar roargrr roar?”
“Yes,” Ivy said firmly. “I am looking for Rose!”
“Roarble roarble,” said the dragon with a shrug, and she suddenly reached out and seized Ivy in her talons. Ivy screamed instinctively and the dragon jumped, nearly dropping her, then gave her a disgruntled look.
To Ivy’s utter and complete astonishment forever, the dragon lifted her up and set Ivy on her shoulder. There was a dip between her spine and her wings that was just the right size for a human to kneel in, with her arms around the dragon’s neck.
“What is happening right NOOOOOOOOOOOOOW,” Ivy shrieked as the dragon leaped into the sky.
They were flying. They were FLYING! Ivy was flying ON A DRAGON!
Ivy hugged the dragon’s neck, overcome with awe. They were up so high, surrounded by stars. The mountains went on forever, and there over to the west was the desert, and that went on forever, too. The world was so, so much bigger than she’d realized.
It was freezing up in the night sky, with the wind whipping Ivy’s hair all around her face, but the golden dragon’s scales were warm, like lying on sunbaked rocks in the summertime.
“I think I love you,” Ivy said to the dragon, resting her cheek on the dragon’s neck. They soared over the forest, over the hillside that hid all the entrances to Valor. The dragon glided in a wide circle, as if this was the simplest evening stroll for her. As if she was just popping down to Violet’s cave and back, when in fact she was taking Ivy three times as far as Ivy had ever been.
Valor is just one city in this enormous world, Ivy thought. We’re just one tiny group of people. All their heavy, insurmountable problems were like dandelion seeds up here; Ivy felt like she could blow them away with one breath.
She didn’t know how long they spent flying — later it seemed like a dream. But at some point the dragon tilted its wings and arrowed down toward the blackened hole in the forest; the ruins got closer and closer, and then the dragon landed gracefully, and there was Leaf.
He leaped back with a yelp of fright. “Ivy! I thought she’d taken you and eaten you and — IVY! YOU’RE ON A DRAGON! YOU’RE SITTING ON THE DRAGON IVY I THINK SHE MIGHT NOTICE!”
“She put me there!” Ivy said, sliding down the dragon’s wing to the ground. The warm scales moved away from her and her legs felt wobbly. “It was her idea! Leaf, she took me flying! I have no idea why!”
“That sounds very unsafe!” he cried. “I don’t know why I’m shouting. But it was alarming to come back and find you gone. I can’t believe you rode a dragon!”
“It was everything, Leaf! I want to do it every day for the rest of my life!”
The dragon cleared its throat, reached over Ivy, and seized the bag that Leaf was holding.
“Oh,” Ivy said as the dragon carried it over to the torch. “Oh, wow, you got it!”
“Your mom helped me,” he said. “She says she loves you and not to come back yet.”
Yet, Ivy thought with a thrill of relief. That means she thinks we can sometime. And she helped Leaf — I wouldn’t have guessed she’d do that. Oh, Mom, I love you, too.
The dragon emptied the treasure into an enormous glittering pile of gold, with gems the size of fists, each one more than enough for an entire family to become rich. Ivy remembered how her father talked about the treasure and how much he loved it. But he didn’t need all this. It made him powerful, but it also made him paranoid and suspicious and furious all the time.
Ivy watched the dragon sort through the gems, carefully at first, and then faster, with a look on her face that Ivy would have called distress if she’d been a human.
She’s looking for something specific, Ivy realized. Something she really needs.
Maybe all the dragons are looking for it, and that’s why they burn villages — not for vengeance, but because they need it back.
The golden dragon whipped around and roared at them.
“That’s all of it!” Leaf cried. “It’s all there, I promise!”
She roared again and lashed her tail, smoke rising from her snout. “ROOOOOAAARRR roargrrrrROARGRRROAR! ROAAARGH?”
“We’re sorry?” Ivy said. “Maybe … someone else has what you’re looking for?”
“GRRRRMPH,” said the dragon, sitting down and glaring at the treasure.
“She seems less thrilled than I expected,” Leaf said to Ivy.
“I can see that,” Ivy said.
The dragon started talking to herself in little growls and grumbles, as though she was listing all the things wrong with stupid treasure-stealing humans. Or possibly she was trying to figure out where else to look. Or she might have been debating whether to eat them, since they’d disappointed her so much; Ivy couldn’t really tell.
Ivy edged closer until she was right at the dragon’s feet. She reached out and patted one of the warm golden talons. “It’ll be all right, big scary dragon. Don’t be mad.”
The green eyes looked down at her like the dragon actually understood her. We can communicate with dragons, Ivy thought. If we try harder. They’re not all mindless hungry monsters. At least some of them are like this. If dragons like this can convince other dragons to stop eating us … maybe one day we can all be safe.
The dragon said something else, possibly to itself.
“I’d still like to know about Aunt Rose,” Ivy said. She pointed to the dragon’s shoulder again. “What happened to the human? Where is she? Can we have her back?”
“Roarmorgrrroarble,” the dragon said. She turned and swept the treasure back into the sack, including the sapphire. Then she made a little bow to Leaf and Ivy, spread her wings, and said something else in her growly way.
“Wait — don’t go,” Ivy said. “This is an enormous breakthrough for human-dragon relations! And you have to help me find Rose!”
The dragon patted Ivy’s head and then Leaf’s, and then she leaped into the sky and soared away, carrying the treasure sack in her talons.
“Wait!” Ivy cried, waving her arms. “Come back!”
The dark sky swallowed up the little golden dragon, and in a moment, she was gone.
Ivy looked at Leaf. Leaf looked at Ivy.
“So, wait,” he said. “Did … that dragon just … fly away with all our treasure?”
“Um,” said Ivy. “Yes. But! Maybe she’s going to give it back to the sand dragons?”
“She went that way,” Leaf observed, pointing east. “The desert is in the other direction.”
“True,” Ivy said. “True. Concerning, I’ll admit.”
“Do we think she’s coming back with your aunt?”
Ivy gazed up at the empty sky. “Maybe?”
But the dragon did not return. Not that night, not the following day. Ivy’s new best friend, her best chance at establishing peaceful human-dragon coexistence, had apparently not understood one single word that she’d said, and had flown away forever.
“That’s just fine,” Ivy said to Daffodil. “Who needs her? I’ll find a different dragon to change the world with me. No problem.”
“At least you got to fly!” Daffodil said indignantly. “SO unfair! I would obviously like to go flying, too, all you friendly dragons out there! Come on!”
Stone appeared next to the temple — very literally, suddenly materializing out of thin air about an arm’s length away from Leaf.
“YIIIIIIEEEE!” Leaf yelped in alarm. “What — how —”
“Oh, your invisibility necklace!” Ivy said. “I forgot about that! Did you use it inside Valor?”
“Did you see anyone?” Daffodil asked. “Like Violet or Foxglove?”
He shook his head. “Got horses,” he said. “Ready to go?”
Ivy scrambled to her feet. “Now? Yes! Now! OK! I’m ready. Oh, wow, we’re going to a dragon palace! Uncle Stone, wait until you hear what happened to us last night!”
Stone stopped Daffodil as she jumped up, too. “I could only get three,” he said. “Sorry — but a mob of humans showing up at the gate probably wouldn’t go well anyway.”
“I’m not a MOB,” Daffodil objected. “Ivy’s my best friend! Wherever she goes, I’m going, too!”
“Violet’s your best friend, too, though,” Ivy said, taking one of her hands. “She needs someone here in case things go badly in Valor. You and Forest might have to rescue her or something.”
“Yes!” Daffodil whispered, her eyes lighting up. “A heroic rescue, and then she’ll have to be grateful to me for forever! I am so up for that!”
Ivy hugged her. “We’ll be back as soon as we can. Hopefully with Aunt Rose. Stay safe.”
“Um, you stay safe,” Daffodil said. “You’re the one charging off into the dragons’ jaws.”
But as she and Leaf and Stone galloped into the desert, Ivy thought of the golden dragon again, and she felt just a bit less terrified.
They’re not all monsters, she reminded herself. That means we have a chance. A chance to save Rose, a chance to bring her back and save our friends, maybe even a chance to communicate with them.
Whatever was waiting for them at the palace of the desert queen, they could face it.
After all, Ivy told herself, now I’m a girl who’s ridden a dragon.