The top of the geyser was crusted with salt, a solid platform that protected Zoey from the acid. She held the water in a constant stream underneath her feet.
“How are you doing that?” Alex asked.
“It feels a bit like wetting myself through my fingers,” Zoey called back. She pointed behind them. “I think you might want to join me.”
Now the backpack light and the skull’s erratic magic were gone, the parasites had regrouped. They swarmed over the broken deck, quickly closing the gap to pin Alex and Anil against the edge of the precipice. Kraken flared red and fired bullets of water, but it did nothing to deter the parasites’ advance.
Alex grabbed Anil and they jumped together onto the teetering top of the geyser.
“Now what?” Anil asked.
Zoey turned and extended a hand above the swamp below. Around them, the algae on the walls shimmered brighter. Alex felt a surge of magic. Fragile and desperate. Beyond Zoey, another geyser fountained from the swamp and hovered within reach.
“The dragon is too weak to help us directly,” Alex said, “so it’s given you sea magic instead.”
“What about me?” Anil threw a hand back towards the pursuing parasites. Nothing happened. “That doesn’t seem fair.”
There was no time to console him. The second geyser offered a stepping stone and they leaped across, Zoey already summoning another.
The parasites screeched and tumbled onto the first geyser. As soon as their armoured feet touched the salt platform it broke apart, sending the creatures tumbling into the acid below.
“What does it feel like?” Anil asked, after they had jumped to the next geyser.
“I’ve felt the power inside me since we entered the dragon. I just needed the right nudge to connect with it.” Zoey smiled. “I think you have it too. Maybe you just need to be moments from certain death before you can access it.”
Behind them, the parasites abandoned trying to follow the geyser path and now swarmed up the walls instead, scrambling towards the ceiling to give chase.
“You’d really think this would be enough,” Anil said.
The next geyser was slower to rise, the water stuttering upwards under its own weight. Zoey strained, sweat pouring down her face. Alex put a hand on her shoulder and let his magic flow. Their power mingled together as naturally as if they had always shared it. The geyser surged into place.
“Where are we actually going?” Anil shouted.
The tottering path had brought them close to the edge of the stomach. As if the dragon had overheard, the fleshy wall ahead twitched and a valve opened up to receive them.
“There!”
The salt crackled under their feet as they jumped to the next geyser. Below, Alex caught a glimpse of Callis in the wooden rowing boat, Brineblood’s skull glowing red as he used its power to propel himself to safety.
“We’ll get him,” Zoey spat.
Alex definitely wouldn’t want to mess with her now she had sea magic at her fingertips.
The parasites pressed forward across the roof, threatening to reach the far side of the stomach first and cut them off.
“Just a little further,” Alex said.
One more geyser would get them close enough to jump for the exit. Alex and Zoey combined their strength to tease it up from the swamp. This time, Anil dropped his hand onto Zoey’s other shoulder.
Power gushed. It seemed to blow the lid off their magic completely, throwing them wide open to each other. The power wasn’t divided between them. It didn’t just belong to the dragon. It was a single force, an unbreakable connection they all shared.
“I feel it!” Anil shouted.
Instead of holding firm, the geyser surged upwards to fling them all into the air. They flew into the waiting escape tunnel, parasite mandibles snapping at them as they passed, before the valve closed up and sealed the thwarted monsters on the other side.
The darkness made it nearly impossible to know if they were travelling in the right direction or if any further hazard lurked ahead. The backpack light had offered more than protection; it had allowed them to press towards their goal without delay.
Still, they waded on through ankle-deep sludge, sticking together so nobody could fall behind. A stifling, metallic odour wafted up from the gunk and the air grew clammily warm.
“I always thought you were milking the whole tired-after-using-magic thing,” Zoey panted. “But I’m exhausted.”
Alex wiped sweat from his forehead. His legs were almost too heavy to lift.
“Let’s find dry ground so we can rest.”
The sludgy trudge continued for what felt like hours but might have only been minutes. Finally, the sludge grew shallower until it was only squelching underfoot. They leaned against the side of the pipe to catch their breath.
“I did magic!” Anil turned his hands over in disbelief. “We both did!”
Zoey smiled, before trying to hide it.
“You were both incredible,” Alex said. “We wouldn’t have got out of there without you.”
Sheepishly, Zoey met his eye. “You don’t mind that we have magic too?”
“Why would I mind?” Alex supposed he could see why she would worry. But he had never thought of the magic as something that belonged to him. It was a blessing shared with him by the dragon because it believed he was worthy. It was no surprise at all that his friends were worthy too! “I’m glad it’s not just me any more.”
“Okay, good, because that was awesome!” Zoey high-fived Anil hard enough to make him wince. “But why now?”
“We know the Water Dragon has bonded with people and shared its magic before. That’s how Brineblood and Alex’s grandma got their powers,” Anil said. “After everything we’ve all been through together, it must have bonded with us too.”
Zoey poked a finger into the shallow sludge and tried to force her magic out, creating little more than a burping ripple. “It felt a lot easier to use it when I thought I was going to die.”
Anil smiled and threw out an arm, flexing his fingers dramatically. Nothing happened. “Maybe you can train us?”
“Of course I will.” Though Alex wasn’t quite sure how he would teach them. “For now, we have to get on with the mission.”
A familiar sound fuzzed from Zoey’s backpack. She scrambled to open it and retrieve the walkie-talkie.
“Do you receive me?” Meri’s voice crackled from the speaker.
“Doctor Dragon receiving, over!” Zoey said back.
“I’ve been trying to get through for ages! Is everything all right? We’ve been watching the storm wall for any signs of change. About an hour ago it started to weaken.”
Alex reached for the dragon along their frayed connection. Through the dark, smothering energy of the blighting parasites, he could feel the well of its power running dry. It wouldn’t be able to fight for much longer.
“We’re close to the brain,” Zoey said, though she sounded uncertain. “There’s still time.”
“Hurry. And stay safe!” Meri chuckled to acknowledge it might not be possible to do both. “Now the storm wall is weaker, we’re moving closer, so we’ll be ready to pick you up as soon as it’s done.”
“Keep the engine running,” Zoey said.
“We don’t have an engine, the ship is entirely—”
“Figure of speech!” Zoey shut off the walkie-talkie. “I’m going to mix up as much cure as I can while Anil works out where we’re going.”
“We can’t even see.” Anil turned hopefully to Kraken, perched reliably on Alex’s shoulder. “Octopuses are bioluminescent, right? Maybe she can light our way!”
Kraken picked herself up and flexed her arms as if straining with all her might. Although her skin rapidly cycled through colours – blue, green, yellow, orange – it offered no light.
“Some octopuses produce light,” Alex corrected, stroking her head reassuringly. “Not this species.”
Kraken refused to accept failure. Straining harder, her eyes bulged and legs curled. Her body rippled and a heavy splatter of black ink splashed onto Alex’s shoulder.
“That was a different kind of enlightening.” Anil dipped his pen into the ink and scribbled in his notebook.
After Zoey had mixed more of the cure, they began fumbling their way along the passage, sludge once again sucking at their ankles.
“Do you think Callis is going to come after us?” Anil asked as he led the way. “I know he could never beat us before. But now he’s got the power of Brineblood’s skull.”
Zoey squinted ahead into the dark. “Maybe he thinks the parasites will finish us off. He’s used to letting other people do the hard work.”
Thankfully, they hadn’t encountered any more parasites since their narrow escape from the dragon’s stomach. If – when? – they did, at least there would be three of them with magic to fend the monsters off.
“We can’t let Callis distract us. He only cares about escaping,” Alex said. “We can deal with him later.”
“If we ever find our way out of here,” Zoey grumbled.
A shudder ran through the wall of the passage. A deep booming sound followed it like distant thunder.
“What the heck was that?” asked Zoey.
Anil groaned. “I wish we could go five minutes without something bad happening.”
“It’s not bad.” Alex pushed past them. The sludge squelched beneath his feet. Zoey and Anil followed.
The passage shook again. The pursuing rumble was louder this time and doubled like a drumbeat: boo-boom.
“Ha!” Zoey exclaimed.
Anil brandished his fists, ready to fight. “What is it?”
“It’s the dragon’s heartbeat.” A smile broke across Alex’s face. “We’re close enough that we can hear it.”
The next thump-thump left them awestruck. It reverberated through the walls and inside their chests.
“That’s what we’re fighting to save,” Alex said. “The Water Dragon has spent centuries being attacked and hunted. Fighting to protect the oceans against a relentless tide of abuse. Even now, it doesn’t give up.”
One hand strayed to his pocket, where the vial of Argosy’s poison was still hidden.
“As long as that heart is beating, we have to do everything we can to help.”
Anil beamed. “And now we know we’re going the right way.”
Zoey glanced at the messy map he’d been sketching. “How?”
“If we’re close to its heart, we must be moving up the dragon’s body.” Anil pointed ahead. “We can use its heartbeat to help us navigate.”
He led the way, pushing quickly in pursuit of the heartbeat. Each resounding boo-boom seemed to chase the ache from their legs. Gradually, the direction of the sound shifted. It grew closer for a while, before steadily falling behind, spurring them forwards with every beat.
“The ground is sloping,” Anil said, breathing hard.
Almost imperceptibly, the sludge dried up completely. The dragon’s heartbeat fell further behind and the incline grew more severe. Soon they were taking exaggerated steps to tackle the steep angle.
“It’s coiling,” Zoey said. “We’re going around like a spiral staircase.”
Alex remembered the strange, coiled shape of the Water Dragon cocooned inside the storm. The whorls of its coils had grown tighter higher up its body, as if it were holding itself close for protection. Lower in its body, inside the looser curls, the ascent hadn’t been so obvious. Now the spiralling incline couldn’t be missed.
They climbed for a long while, legs burning, pushing themselves as hard as they could. Finally, an arch of light appeared ahead. The ground flattened and they emerged inside a vast domed chamber.
Alex, Zoey and Anil leaned on their knees to catch their breath. It took Kraken tugging impatiently on his hair for Alex to look up.
The Water Dragon’s brain stretched out overhead like an enormous sculpture. Two long, wrinkled lobes of grey flesh folding back on itself in an elegant swoop. Webs of delicate veins crackled with electricity across its surface.
They had finally reached their goal. Inside the dragon’s skull. It should have been a spectacular sight.
Instead, they stared up in horror.
Parasite eggs covered the entire underside of the dragon’s brain. Yellow beads the size of cannon balls nestled together in thick, slimy clumps, trailing strings of yellow ooze. Parasites lingered nearby, bristling at the arrival of invaders but staying close to their eggs.
Zoey fumbled for her backpack. “We have to use the antidote.”
“It’s too late.”
Sickness lurched in Alex’s belly as he gazed up at the impossibly huge nest. Everywhere, the eggs began to wobble, creatures stirring inside them. Popping and cracking sounds filled the air as sharp legs and ravenous mandibles broke the shells.
“They’re already hatching.”