THE DRAGON HELD FORT LIKE a rag doll in his hand, claws digging into him painfully as he waited for Fort to open a teleportation circle. Just thankful to be breathing, Fort had no idea where to start on a search for the last dragon, or even if taking the Old One to it was the safest choice. For all Fort knew, any new dragon they found could be just as much of a threat as its Old One creator.
And anything that happened would be Fort’s fault, just for going after his father.
He shook his head, unwilling to think about that until the Old One was taken care of. For now, he had to stall until he figured out what to do. Fort reached out and opened a teleportation circle to the first place that occurred to him, and the dragon leaped through without pause.
They emerged from the circle at the Great Wall of China, with the dragon’s momentum crashing them right through the wall. He quickly recovered and beat his wings hard, sending them soaring into the air to hover over the wall as visitors below looked up and screamed.
That’s when Fort realized his first mistake: It was broad daylight here. Of course there would be a ton of tourists around. And far too many of them were recording the dragon with their phones, which meant this was going to hit the news in a matter of moments.
“I SENSE NOTHING HERE,” the dragon roared, and the tourists below all ran at the power of its voice. Fort didn’t blame them: He’d have loved to run away right now too.
“They must have moved the dragon, then!” Fort shouted, bluffing for all he was worth. “I’ll take us somewhere else!” Preferably somewhere the sun wasn’t shining.
A shot rang out from below, and Fort glanced down to find local police aiming their weapons at the dragon. It roared in rage and started to dive toward them, so Fort immediately opened another teleportation circle right in front of the creature, more for the police’s sake than his or the dragon’s.
They emerged over the Eiffel Tower, diving straight for it. Paris sparkled before them as the sun began to rise, so at least he’d picked somewhere with less light out, but the dragon hadn’t stopped its dive, and they were quickly closing in on the streets.
Even at this early hour, people were up and about, and any that saw the creature coming for them screamed. This time Fort joined in as the dragon pulled up at the last possible moment, skimming just above the various cars and pedestrians. His tail swung out for balance right into a café’s awning as the dragon took a tight turn down a narrow street, and Fort looked back to find the awning still attached to its tail.
“I CAN SENSE SOMETHING!” the dragon shouted, sounding almost excited as they careened toward the Arc de Triomphe in the middle of a traffic circle. “SOMEWHERE CLOSE, ON AN ISLAND!”
“Okay but look out!” Fort shouted, and teleported them away just before the dragon’s wings hit the Arc. They emerged in the sky above London, just in front of an enormous Ferris wheel. The dragon braked, then swung out to the right to avoid hitting the wheel, its massive wings passing within inches. He circled around Big Ben and Parliament as his head snaked in every direction.
“IT IS CLOSE,” the dragon declared, then took off away from the direction of the rising sun, which unfortunately seemed to be heading them straight for an airport. A massive passenger jet was coming down right above them, but the Old One barely seemed to notice it, all its attention on the dragon it sensed. At the last possible moment, it swooped right over a plane so close that Fort could see the pilots’ horrified faces.
Fort just about threw up as the plane’s airstream hit, almost knocking the dragon from the air. “WHAT EVIL IS THIS?!” he shouted, barely righting himself as he turned to face the offending airplane. “RETURN TO ME, METAL BEAST, AND I SHALL DESTROY YOU!”
“I think that was an accident!” Fort shouted, not wanting to point out who’d really been at fault. “Don’t you want to find your child?”
The dragon sent a jet of fire after the plane in a huff, then turned and continued west.
As they flew, Fort wondered where they were heading, and if the dragon had actually managed to locate the last of its kind. Was this where Colonel Charles would keep a dragon imprisoned, in the United Kingdom? That seemed unlikely. But what else…
Wait. The UK had its own school for magic, the one that Cyrus had attended briefly. What if they also had a dragon skeleton, found with the book of Clairvoyance?
If that was the case, Fort was going to be left with one extremely angry Old One on his hands.
“Actually, I think this is a false alarm,” Fort said, screaming over the wind. Behind him, he heard the sounds of jet engines, and looked back to find two military planes coming up fast. “I’m taking us somewhere else!”
“NO!” the dragon shouted. “I SENSE IT HERE!”
The planes behind them launched a missile, and Fort screamed as one passed right over them. “We can’t stay here!” he yelled, and opened another circle just in front of them. He had no time to think, so he dumped them out in the first place that came to mind as the planes sent more missiles in their direction.
Unfortunately, the first place he could think of was New York City.
They shot out of a teleportation circle on the side of the Empire State Building with the missiles just behind them. Fort shut the circle as quickly as he could, but it was too late; the missiles emerged just before it closed, gaining quickly on them.
“Dive!” Fort shouted, right as the missiles were about to hit, and for once the dragon listened to him, plummeting to the streets below. The missiles passed harmlessly above them, but that wouldn’t be the case for long. What if they hit a building in the city, or kept flying across the river and hit something in New Jersey? Anyone hurt because of the missiles would be his fault, and he wasn’t going to let that happen.
Fort quickly opened another teleportation circle as they plummeted, this one just in front of the missiles, leading the only place he knew they wouldn’t cause any damage. He desperately hoped he’d aimed accurately, because it wasn’t easy casting a spell while falling through skyscrapers in New York, but the missiles flew right through the circle, and he sighed in relief.
Hopefully two explosions on the moon wouldn’t make the news, not with a dragon attack in multiple cities.
Just as he began to think they might be okay, the dragon tightened its grip on him, crushing the air from his lungs as the Old One pulled out of his dive, barely above street level. The dragon’s feet plowed into a row of parked cars, sending them crashing into each other as a row of traffic honked at it, and Fort waved his apologies at the New Yorkers, too breathless to do anything else.
Fortunately, it was still night here, so not as many people were around to see them as they soared back into the air. But they were still far too noticeable for Fort’s taste, and it was only a matter of time until another round of jets came after them, or worse. Missiles were one thing, but Colonel Charles’s soldiers with magical bows and lightning bullets would be a lot more dangerous.
“I SENSE ANOTHER,” the dragon said, to Fort’s surprise. He slowed to hover over the skyscrapers, then chose one to land on. They landed with a crunch, and part of the building gave way beneath the dragon’s weight, but at least they were stopped. Fort had never been so happy to not be flying in his life. “AWAY FROM THE SUN.”
So, west? Okay. At least that kept them moving, and harder to track. “We’ll keep looking until we find it,” Fort promised, inwardly still trying to think of a plan as he opened a teleportation circle a few feet away.
The dragon leaped off of the building, sending Fort’s stomach dropping, and they emerged in the middle of Chicago, where it was even darker than in New York. The lights below were almost peaceful in the silence of the night sky, though Fort wished he were seeing it from anywhere but a dragon’s hand, especially one that was going to wipe out humanity if it didn’t find its last remaining offspring.
“FARTHER,” the dragon said, and Fort opened another portal.
They emerged below the St. Louis Gateway Arch this time, and Fort hoped that wherever this last dragon was, it’d be near a landmark that he’d seen at least once. “FARTHER,” the dragon repeated, and Fort jumped them again, this time into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
Wait, why hadn’t he thought of this before? He’d seen pictures of national parks, mountains, lakes, all kinds of things that wouldn’t have many humans nearby. If the dragon was around one of these spots, Fort could surprise it, have it fly straight for another teleportation circle, and send it back into the cavern before it could realize what he’d done. It’d be hugely dangerous, but might be the only way to—
“NO,” the dragon said. “I SENSE IT NEAR MORE HUMANS. A LARGE AMOUNT OF YOUR KIND. BRING ME FARTHER AWAY FROM THE SUN, TO A LARGE GATHERING OF HUMANS.”
Fort sighed. A large gathering of humans meant a big city, which only put more people in danger. But what else could he do? He hadn’t figured out a way to get the dragon back to the portal, and there was no way he was going to stop until he did. None of these innocent people deserved whatever the Old One might put them through when he didn’t find his offspring. Not when he wouldn’t even be here if Fort hadn’t gone looking for his father.
But for now, all he could do was take the dragon where it wanted to go and hope he came up with an idea in the meantime.
“Let’s try another city, then,” Fort said, and opened a teleportation circle to the first place he could think of that matched the dragon’s description.
The lights from the Hollywood sign illuminated the landmark enough to see it, even through the portal, and before Fort could take a breath they soared through it, emerging into the sky above Los Angeles.