GABRIEL’S WORDS SEEMED TO SHOCK the dragon just as much as they did Fort and the others. His brother had been taken as well? That could only mean—
“You’re Michael’s brother?” Jia whispered as the dragon turned away in silence. “Then you’re also Colonel Charles’s son? But I thought your last name was Torrance?”
“He’s my stepfather,” Gabriel said, sneering. “My brother took his name, but I never will. That man sent Mike to learn magic when he wasn’t ready, took him from me. I’ll never forgive him for that.”
Suddenly a lot of Fort’s questions about his roommate were answered. That explained why Gabriel was getting special treatment from everyone, since his father was in charge of the school. His tour of the skeleton room now also made sense, as he’d probably been at the school before they’d even arrived.
And he had been having the same dreams Fort had. But had Gabriel known what Fort had planned? There was no way he could have… except that he knew Fort had stolen one of the books of magic, and if he was Colonel Charles’s son, it probably wasn’t that hard to figure out which one.
All this time, he’d had so much more in common with Gabriel than he’d ever known. They’d both had loved ones taken by the Dracsi and would do anything to get them back.
Part of him wished he’d known all along, so he could have talked to Gabriel about it. The other boy could have shared at any point but hadn’t wanted to for some reason. There had to still be more to it.
And how on earth could Gabriel ever know the location of the last dragon, even if there really was one? They’d talked about it in the skeleton room, but he hadn’t said he knew of one. Or was he bluffing?
“YOU MUST BE LYING,” the dragon said finally, whirling around to glare at them. “IF ANY OF MY CHILDREN YET EXISTED, I WOULD KNOW. THEIR FATE IS WELL KNOWN TO ME, AND NONE ESCAPED!”
“I’m not lying,” Gabriel said. “Use your magic to confirm it, I don’t care. If you don’t want him, then I’ll give him to the Old One with the tentacles. He was willing to give me my brother for it.”
The dragon sneered. “KETAS. HE WAS THE ONE WHO EXACTED MY FAMILY’S REVENGE UPON ME, FORCING ME TO CHANGE MY CHILDREN INTO THE MONSTERS THEY ARE NOW.”
“You did something to the dragons?” Jia asked. “What did you… wait, the Dracsi?”
“YES, THE CURSED DRACSI WERE ONCE MY DRAGONKIND,” the Old One said, whipping his tail about in sadness and rage. “KETAS CONTROLLED MY MIND AND USED MY POWERS TO EVOLVE THEM INTO THOSE MINDLESS BEASTS, A WEAPON HE AND THE OTHERS USED AGAINST HUMANITY.
“BUT YOUR KIND USED THE MAGIC MY CHILDREN TAUGHT YOU AND EXILED US FROM OUR HOME. AND NOW, WHENEVER AN OUTSIDER IS BROUGHT, KETAS USES ME AGAIN TO TURN THE OFFENDER INTO A NEW DRACSI, REPLENISHING THEIR RANKS.”
Fort’s eyes widened. The dragon created Dracsi out of any outsiders? If that was true, then—
“You turned my brother into one of those… those monsters?!” Gabriel roared, his muscles bulging as he struggled against the magic holding him in place. “If you hurt him, I’ll spend every last day of my life hunting you down—”
The dragon turned to him, his hand glowing, and Gabriel’s body stretched out until it was flat, then compressed to the size of a mouse, only to grow back to normal height a moment later, leaving the boy stunned and silent.
“I AM MASTER OF CORPOREAL MAGIC, WORM,” the dragon said. “YOU THINK I INFLICT PAIN FOR THE PLEASURE OF IT? I CAN MANIPULATE A LIVING BODY IN ANY WAY I WISH, AND CAUSE AS MUCH OR AS LITTLE DISTRESS AS I REQUIRE. IF YOU SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH WAYS, I WILL ILLUSTRATE IT AGAIN, THIS TIME CAUSING EVERY NERVE IN YOUR BODY TO FLARE IN PAIN.”
“… I’m sorry,” Gabriel said, catching his breath. “I shouldn’t have said that. But our deal still stands. I know where there’s a dragon on Earth. My friend has Summoning magic, and he can use it to take you there.”
“Um, Gabriel, maybe don’t give everything away?” Rachel hissed.
“I HAVE SAID THAT NO DRAGONS LIVE ON IN THEIR TRUE FORM,” the Old One said. “IF YOU DON’T LIE, THEN MY BRETHREN DID.”
“Why would they?” Fort asked, not sure if Gabriel was telling the truth or not, but it seemed like their best shot now. “They could have asked us for the book of Summoning, or for us to just open a portal, and that would have gotten them back to Earth. But they didn’t, they wanted the last dragon. Why lie?”
The dragon whipped his tail again in frustration. “THERE CANNOT BE ANY MORE DRAGONS! IF ONE OF MY CHILDREN WERE LEFT BEHIND, ALONE, IN DANGER… I CANNOT EVEN CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY!”
“Don’t think about the dangers it was in,” Fort said, his father’s image in his head. “Just imagine what it’d be like to have your child back! And we can give that to you, if you give us back our humans.”
“And let us go!” Rachel said.
The dragon sneered. “YOUR KIND ALWAYS DID BELIEVE THEY WERE SUPERIOR TO THEIR WORTH. YOU ARE AS TRAPPED HERE AS I AM! NO MAGIC CAN PENETRATE THESE WALLS. EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE POWER OF SPACE MAGIC, IT WILL DO YOU NO GOOD, NOT WHILE MY PRISON STANDS. D’VALE HERSELF BUILT THIS CAVERN, AND ONLY HER POWER CAN OPEN ITS GATES.”
D’vale? The dwarf had mentioned that name. She was the Old One who made the lightning. Which meant she was—
“Destruction magic!” Rachel shouted. “I can do that! I can get us out of here!”
“DESTRUCTION? HER POWER IS THAT OF THE ELEMENTS, HUMAN! YOU WARP ITS MEANING TO YOUR SIMPLE ENDS.”
“Yes, I warp its meaning, sure, but I can crack us through these walls, if that’s what it takes!” Rachel said. “Just let us go, and I’ll get us right out of here! And then you’ll be free to go looking for this dragon yourself, maybe.”
“I’ll take you there,” Gabriel said. “Just as soon as I have my brother back safe and sound.”
“And my father,” Fort added.
The dragon pondered this for a moment. Out of nowhere, control of his body returned to Fort, and he gently floated down to the floor, near one of the walls. “SHOW ME YOUR POWER, LITTLE HUMAN,” the dragon said to Rachel, climbing over the nearby mound of gold. “TEAR DOWN THE WALL THAT D’VALE CREATED, AND I SHALL CONSIDER YOUR BARGAIN.”
“Okay, give me a second,” Rachel shouted up at him, then turned to Fort and moved in close. “Is Gabriel telling the truth?” she whispered. “I don’t care what this thing looks like, it’s still an Old One. If we bring it back to Earth, there’ll be no stopping it. You saw what it did to Gabriel.”
“We’ll figure something out,” he whispered back.
“Oh, perfect,” she said, looking sick. “Improvising has gone so well for us in the past.”
She walked over to the wall and began to concentrate, as Gabriel took her place. “We’re going to make this work, no matter what it takes,” he said to Fort. “I need to know you’re with me.”
Fort looked at his roommate, now someone completely different than he’d thought. “I want my father back, and you know what I’m willing to do.” He leaned in close. “Do you really know where the last dragon is?”
Gabriel nodded. “I’m not going to say where, in case the Old One is listening. But my father has it trapped. He captured it a few days ago and won’t shut up about it.”
“He captured a dragon?” Fort said incredulously.
“Like I told you before, it’s the last dragon: What makes you think it isn’t hiding as something else?”
“So it’s human?”
“Dr. Opps is the one who told my father what it really is,” Gabriel said. “Dad doesn’t believe him, because he’s a fool. But once we get my brother and your dad back, we’ll bring the Old One over to the good colonel, and let those two discuss what it is. And then they can work it out between themselves who gets to keep it.”