IT WAS TAKING FAR MORE Healing bandages to wake the Old One up than Fort was comfortable using. That, and having an unconscious dragon meant he could have teleported the creature back to Dragon’s Teeth without any worry.
But for some reason he didn’t feel right, leaving it at the mercy of the other Old Ones. If Fort sent the egg back with him, they’d surely make him turn the new dragon into another Dracsi. And if he kept the egg safe on Earth, he’d be taking the Old One’s child from it, which also felt horribly wrong.
Still, what was he doing, healing a creature that had threatened all of humanity?
After the seventeenth bandage, the Old One’s eyes cracked open, and he groaned, then glanced up at Fort strangely. “YOU… RESTORED MY BODY? WHY?”
“Because that egg needs his father,” Fort said, backing away and hoping he hadn’t just made a very bad mistake. But the last thing he was going to do was take this new dragon’s dad from it, not with his own father lying on a hospital bed not far from him right now.
The Old One’s eyes widened, and he scrambled to his feet, relaxing after he saw the glowing blue dragon egg. Fort had carried it from the Old One’s arms when he wasn’t sure if the creature would wake up or not.
The dragon reached out a trembling hand and gently lay it on the egg, an odd expression on his face. “IT WORKED,” he said, sounding almost surprised. “IT TOOK ALMOST ALL OF MY POWER, BUT THE LITTLE ONE IS ALIVE AND WELL.” His eyes unfocused, and he put his other hand on the egg as well. “THOUGH THIS DRAGON… IT WILL BE DIFFERENT FROM MY LAST CHILDREN. MAGIC HAS CHANGED, HERE ON EARTH. IT… WANTS SOMETHING.”
Magic wanted something? That was terrifying. “Okay, great, but we still need to get you back to your dimension,” Fort told him. “You’re going to have to find some place to hide from your family—”
The Old One’s eyes refocused, and it sneered. “RUN? I WOULD SOONER DIE. I WILL FACE THEM AND MAKE THEM PAY FOR WHAT THEY’VE—”
“And put your egg in danger?” Fort said incredulously. “You’ve got to be kidding!”
The dragon moved his head in closer until his teeth were just inches from Fort’s fate. “DO NOT SPEAK TO ME AS IF—”
“Then don’t put your new child’s life in danger!” Fort shouted back, so angry that he didn’t even care if the Old One attacked. “You need to think about them, not just yourself and your need for revenge!”
“I WOULD SOONER PERISH THAN THREATEN THIS NEW LIFE,” the Old One said, backing off a bit and standing up, still holding the egg carefully in his arms. “YOU… YOU MAY BE CORRECT, HUMAN. AND I DO NOT SAY THAT LIGHTLY. BUT WE SHOULD GO. WE MUST HURRY BACK IF WE ARE TO HAVE ANY HOPE OF HIDING FROM MY BRETHREN.”
Really? The dragon was pulling an “I’m ready, we’re waiting on you now” on him? In spite of wanting to run back to the medical ward and check in on his father, Fort knew he couldn’t just teleport the Old One back and hope for the best. He needed to see this through, if just so he could look his dad in the eyes when the man woke up. With a long sigh, Fort opened a circle back to the portal beneath the old Oppenheimer School. “Let me go first,” he told the Old One. “I don’t want to scare Gabriel and Rachel.”
The dragon barely seemed to hear him, busy staring at its egg, so Fort stepped through the teleportation circle, ready to tell Rachel how right she’d been all along.
Except Rachel wasn’t there. Neither was Gabriel. The portal still burned in the floor of the cavern, but otherwise, there was no sign of anyone.
“Uh-oh,” Fort said, only to be knocked out of the way by the dragon pushing through the portal behind him.
“WHAT TRANSPIRES?” the Old One said, turning his body to protect the egg. “WHY DO YOU PANIC?”
“Because my friends were here, guarding the portal,” Fort said. “And now they’re gone. Do you… sense any humans nearby?”
The Old One shook his head. “YOU ALONE, FOR MANY MILES AROUND.”
Oh no. “Come on,” Fort said, and moved to the portal.
But the Old One held back. “IF THERE IS DANGER, WE MUST SHIELD THE EGG. I CANNOT BRING IT INTO PERIL. YOU JUST SAID—”
“I know what I said!” Fort shouted. “But my friends could be in trouble! We have to go now!”
The dragon sighed, then slowly held out the egg, his hands shaking. “HIDE IT,” the Old One commanded. “USE YOUR SPACE MAGIC AND HIDE THE EGG SOMEWHERE SAFE UNTIL WE FIND YOUR FRIENDS. I… I OWE YOU THIS MUCH.”
Fort just stared at the creature for a moment, then nodded and took the egg, forgetting how heavy it was. He thought for a moment, then opened a circle and deposited the egg in the safest place he could think of, right on the bed in his old room at his aunt’s house. “Okay,” he said, closing the teleportation circle. “No one will get to it there.” Unless his aunt decided to use her rowing machine. But still, it was much safer than the school, for sure.
The dragon nodded, his face now downcast. But instead of waiting, he grabbed Fort around the waist and dove into the portal, spreading his wings at the last possible moment before they hit the Dracsi cavern floor.
As soon as Fort could breathe again, he looked around in the dimly lit room, expecting to see, well, something. Not Dracsi, not anymore. But the elf should have been here, at least.
The cavern was completely empty, though. “Where are they all?” Fort asked the dragon as the Old One set him down on the ground.
The creature hissed as it landed, and Fort backed away nervously, his hands in the air again. “THEY HAVE ARRIVED,” he said, sending a cold chill down Fort’s back.
“The Old Ones? They’re here now?”
“THOSE STILL ALIVE,” the dragon said. “KETAS, MY BROTHER IN MIND; Q’BAOS, MY SISTER IN SPIRIT; AND D’VALE, MY SISTER IN THE ELEMENTS.”
So the Old Ones of Mind, Spirit, and Elemental magic, which was Destruction, if Fort remembered right. That only left Time and whatever the seventh form of magic was. That at least was fortunate: The last thing they needed was an Old One who could see the future.
Still, the three here could read and take over your mind, take over your spirit and force you into servitude, or… Destruction. So, blow everything up. That wasn’t much better.
But where had his friends gone? Had the Old Ones attacked the portal and taken them prisoner? If they had, why hadn’t they just passed through it? That was their goal all along, and without Gabriel and Rachel guarding it, the portal had been standing open for however long Fort had been gone.
No, if they’d known about it, they’d be on Earth now, and the dragon seemed convinced they were still in the Dracsi dimension. So what had happened to Gabriel and Rachel?
“THEY WILL SENSE MY PRESENCE,” the Old One hissed. “WE DO NOT HAVE MUCH TIME!”
“Do you sense any humans now?”
The dragon slowly nodded. “Two. They are with my brethren.”
And there it was. However it had happened, the Old Ones had his friends. And all because of him. Somehow, Cyrus had been wrong: In trying to save his father, he’d lost two friends, not just one.
“Then there’s nothing for it,” Fort said, feeling numb inside. “We have to face your family. We need to get them back.”
“THERE IS NO FACING THEM,” the Old One said, sneering at Fort. “PERHAPS ONE, MAYBE TWO OF THEM, BUT NOT THE THREE. THEY WILL DESTROY ME AND TAKE YOUR SPIRIT. YOU WILL BE THEIRS, BODY AND SOUL. WE HAVE NO HOPE AGAINST THEM ALL AT ONCE.”
“Can’t you paralyze them before they cast any magic?” Fort asked. “That’s your whole thing, you control bodies! You should be able to stop them before they’re even able to move!”
“THEY WILL TURN MY MIND OR SPIRIT AS SOON AS I APPEAR, AND I WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO OBEY THEM,” the Old One said. “THEN YOU WOULD FACE FOUR, NOT THREE.” He lifted a claw, and Fort felt the dragon’s invisible magic squeeze all around him. “AND YOU ARE NOT A MATCH FOR EVEN ME. THERE IS NO HOPE, HUMAN. YOUR FRIENDS ARE LOST.”
No! It couldn’t end like this, not with him losing both Rachel and Gabriel! Cyrus had said he’d only lose one friend, and even that was too many. “There’s got to be a way!” he shouted. “If we can’t outmagic them, then we’ll have to out-think them. If they’re going to attack you first, since you’re the greatest threat… maybe we can use that?”
The dragon snorted. “HOW, BY HAVING YOU ATTACK THEM?”
Fort’s eyes widened. “No. By having me be a distraction.”