TIME DID NOT MOVE at the same speed in Jintessa as it did in the land across the hostile sea. The magic based in the core of the islands that gave the Djinn their special powers was not affiliated with time, and so was immune to its clutches. It flowed like a whirlpool with neither beginning nor end. Time simply was, while across the ocean, the passage of time was marked by the rise and fall of the sun. In Jintessa, the sun was a stationary object that moved in lazy circles around the sky but never approached the horizon.
Elissa leaned over the stone wall to peer down at the flight zone, watching the dragons practice landing with their new charges perched on their backs. They had finally begun their flying lessons, something every one of them had longed to do since that first sleepy ride across the sea.
She had become used to the odd phenomena of the sun not sinking and found that taking naps was far more useful than the old practice of sleeping for eight hours straight. They trained and studied and absorbed their schooling that much faster for not having to waste a third of it in bed.
Druzy, her Djinn partner, sat on the top of the wall, oblivious to the height and the sharp rocks below. He had the uncanny balance of a cat and could walk the wall blindfolded. Elissa had seen him do it. It had something to do with his link to their dragon, Mysty. Mysty was a light grey dragon with multicoloured eyes that flashed with mischief. Mysty also displayed catlike qualities (Elissa was not really sure which of them possessed the feline skill set). Her eyes were uniquely suited for traversing dark passages, and in the never-ceasing light of day, she kept her second eyelid down, muting the glare. Consequently, the first time Elissa had really seen her dragon’s eyes was when she was first introduced to her in her nest on the fifth level. The cave of her nest had been pitch black when she arrived, but before she could light her lantern, a pair of hypnotizing eyes had blinked open, lighting up the space.
“Oh! What a wonderful talent!” she had exclaimed while Druzy brushed by her to stroke Mysty’s head.
“Always a show off,” he’d muttered, grinning the whole time. “But it does come in handy! Well, not so much around here, but in your world it will!” Mysty huffed in response and shot a thin stream of flame at a lantern on the wall, spreading a golden glow over the area.
That had been a year ago on this timeless island, but in human terms Elissa was nearly grown and awaiting the launch of their mission.
“You know, Druzy, I do not feel like I have only been here a year or that so much time has passed back home.”
Druzy gazed at her upside down from the handstand he was performing on the narrow wall, his black hair falling out of his eyes and hanging like a curtain between his arms. “Time is marked by events, not by planets. What you call time is a mortal thing. Your time is not yet, but soon. When you leave here, time will mark you differently. We are one now.” He pushed off the narrow ledge and flipped back onto his feet, catching the edge with his bare toes, then jumped lightly down beside her.
She smiled at him. She could feel his thoughts in her head even as she saw his lips move. It was not intrusive; he could not read her mind. It was more like they shared a portion of each other’s brain, co-existed in a friendly, family connection that felt as natural as breathing. He could not compel her, or she him. The truly strange connection was her bond to Mysty. She could feel her dragon as a heart beating beside her own. The vast intelligence she felt still had a feral, beastlike quality, a rawness that occasionally scraped along her nerves. She practiced the mental exercises taught to her by her tutors, constantly running through the drills to be able to maintain her presence while melded to the dragon.
The danger of losing her mind to the dragon was real. Her instructors warned that she must at all times remain in command of their combined will. A rampaging dragon was an incredible force of destruction. Druzy tilted his head at her tiny frown and patted her arm. He came to just shy of her shoulder in height, while in his human form.
“Can we really do this, Druzy? Will we be ready in time?”
“Yes, we can do it. We were born to do it. This has been your calling from your first breath. The dragons feel the pull. They know where the traitor resides. He is on your home world. He has hidden there for many ages, waiting for the perfect time to strike. Now he goes by the name of Emperor Madrid, but here he is known as Madrid the Malefactor. He is a deranged Djinn, an immortal criminal who fled to your lands to escape his punishment in Jintessa.”
Elissa shivered, a trickle of fear sliding down her back. She twisted a finger in one long ringlet of hair that hung down on the front of her shirt. “What was his crime?”
“Madrid the Malefactor is responsible for the slaughter of over one hundred dragons and their Djinn riders. This was a lifetime ago by your mortal reckonings. In one evening, he killed a generation of loyal Djinn defenders.”
“He did what?” Elissa stared at Druzy, her eyes wide and mouth opening with surprise. “The teachers never said that. How do you know?”
Druzy stepped back and fixed a black-eyed stare on her face. “I was there,” he said softly, his eyes hardening. “I witnessed the slaughter. Mysty was a new hatchling, and we were a recently bonded pair. We had been out for a fly, testing out the limits of our bond. We flew out over the ocean and were practicing diving and twisting manoeuvres when a boom sounded and a mushroom cloud of smoke and ash erupted from a crater below us. We had to dodge the burning missiles and as we twisted away from the plume. In the midst of the eruption, a thunderhead had formed above the explosion and lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled, and that was when I saw him. At the cusp of the crater was a young Djinn rider named Madrid. In his hand was a spear attached to a long coil of metal. The spear flashed as it absorbed the bolts of lightning, which he in turn directed at the hatchery below.” Druzy’s face darkened and furious anger glowed in his obsidian eyes. “Mysty’s kin lay scattered across the floor of the crater and beside them their bonded Djinn, my brothers and sisters. Sickened, we circled higher, keeping the cloud of ash between us and Madrid to hide from him. He never saw us. Over and over he struck the wounded until all lay still, and then he mounted his pale dragon and flew away. That day, we lost over two hundred Djinn and dragons. But he did not go alone. He grabbed ten young female Djinn and used them as hostages to secure his escape. That was the last we ever saw of him or the young women. We did not understand why he would take the female Djinn then, but we know now. He needed them to care for the missing dragon eggs, the eggs that he has now stolen.” Elissa’s eyes widened in shock. “Yes, I believe Emperor Madrid is behind the dragon egg thefts. It is the only thing that makes sense. He is building himself an army, one that can cross the treacherous seas.”
Druzy’s lips froze and he spoke through the bond. I think he is planning to attack Jintessa. I think he intends to rule both lands.
He turned back to the wall, and Elissa could feel him calling out to Mysty, who was resting on a ledge to their left. She raised her sparkling head to stare at the pair of them. Images flashed into Elissa’s mind, that were not her own, as Mysty shared her memories of that day. They were so real, Elissa grabbed the wall to steady herself at the press of thunder and the rumbles of the earth and the smell of burning flesh mixed with sulphur and a choking grey ash. She brushed a hand over her burning sleeve in a panic where she felt the burn of an ember, but when she glanced down her arm was whole and complete. Dragon sight was much more visceral than human, and it was one of the things that Elissa was struggling to master and balance against her own human senses.
“We will confront the traitor. We will avenge our kind. We will recover our kin, both dragon and Djinn.” Druzy’s eyes grabbed Elissa’s and promised revenge with a maniacal light. “We will free your people…and then he shall die. This I promise you.” The promise was echoed by Mysty, and a dragon roared in her mind.
Elissa shivered, her head turning unconsciously in the direction where she knew her homeland to be. They would be leaving soon to begin their mission to recover the eggs and the stolen Djinn. How hard could it be to locate a dragon egg? But somehow, she felt there was more to the quest. Much, much more.