Moonbreeze (The Dragonian Series Book 4) (48 page)

“Is that how they teach you to speak in Princess school?”

I smiled as he took a chair that was shoved underneath the table and sat on it, well laid in it was a better word.

“What are you reading?”

“Why the million questions?”

“Curious.”

It’s nothing,” I said and sighed as I closed the book and pushed it away.

He glanced at the title. “More maps?”

I squinted.
How the hell did he know that?
The Rubicon.

“Yes, I’m actually trying to find the Wyvern city but it’s not on any one of these maps. I think I’ve looked through every single one of them.” I fell back into my chair and stroked my face. I was never going to find Annie or Charles.

“What is the city’s name?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Elena, I can help.”

“It’s fine.”

“Why do you do this?” He was serious.

“Do what?”

“Someone offers you help and you just decline it.”

“Because it’s not that easy, okay.”

“What, accepting help?”

I shook my head.
No, coming from you.
I should’ve said that, made him back off again, especially after this afternoon.

“Fine, don’t answer, let me find out if David has any old maps. David!” Blake yelled his name before I could protest, and got up from his chair.

I heard them speak about maps and I was wondering why Blake had asked for an old map and not just a map.

David came over with a very old piece of parchment, well it looked old, and opened it carefully in front of me.

“Blake said that you are looking for a place.”

“Well, yeah, but I’m sure the names are wrong,” I said as he unfolded this map that looked slightly different from all the others I’d read. There were many more places on this one.

My eyes scanned through all the names I’d learned ever since I’d started searching for Eikenborough, and it went up higher. I’d never seen this part of the map on any of the others, and just like that, my eyes caught the little words of the village I was searching for. I scanned toward the sides, as I knew the farms were away from the villages. On the left, there were unknown names but on the right, I saw in big bold letters, Alkadeen.

I closed my eyes and smiled.

“What is it?” Blake asked.

“I’m not crazy. It’s on here,” I said and pointed at Eikenborough and Alkadeen.

Blake squinted at my finger and so did David. They both looked up.

“Are you sure that was where you were?” Blake asked as David had a look of pure shock on his face.

I nodded. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Eikenborough?” Blake asked.

“Yes, you heard of it?”

“You were in Eikenborough?” David asked too.

“Yes, and in Alkadeen. The farms are in Alkadeen.” What was wrong with them?

“Elena, Eikenborough used to be part of Etan.”

“And?” I didn’t understand a thing he was saying.

Blake shook his head. “You don’t understand, it’s still a part of Etan.”

T CAN’T BE. It’s right there.” I looked down at the map. “It’s there, in the Wyvern city.”

“Elena, it’s not the Wyvern city, it’s Etan.” Blake asked David for a new map.

He rolled it open.

Eikenborough disappeared again.

“The new maps were all printed without Etan and all its cities. Here.” He showed the black border right above the map. “These are the Creepers, Elena or where they start. You were in Etan.”

I shook my head. “It’s not possible, I would’ve remembered if I…” I trailed off trying to remember both times I’d supposedly passed through the Creepers.

The one night was when I thought I’d killed Blake. It was so fuzzy. The other night was the time in the forest when I’d killed the others.

I was in Etan.
I slammed down into the chair and leaned my face into my hands. It all made sense now, why they feared the Dragonian sign, why dragons didn’t want to transform, people losing hope. I had been in Etan. So close to my father and I didn’t even know it.

“You were in Etan,” Blake stated. He sounded relieved. Why I didn’t know. “I need to phone Master Longwei,” he said and left.

“How could this be?” I asked.

“You don’t remember going past the Creepers?” David wanted to know.

I shook my head. Then I remembered the noise. When we came here, I had a memory of the same buzzing, it was like a hissing, could it have been that?

David didn’t ask any more questions and we both just sat there thinking.

The past two months I’d searched every single Wyvern city to find Eikenborough and I just couldn’t.

At a stage I thought that maybe I had made it all up, but tonight it was there.

I knew Blake knew something as he’d just blurted out again about the maps. He knew I was searching and he wanted to help.

Then he’d just had to ask for an older map…

A part of him annoyed me so much, but after that kiss… I didn’t know what to do with him anymore.

He certainly was different. Still arrogant as hell, but he drove me insane and it was making me fall for him again. Something I didn’t want because I knew it was a spell.

He’d never wanted this.

“Is this true?” Connie came into the library. “You were in Etan?” she asked before she reached the table.

“Apparently.”

“I thought Eikenborough was lost?” David asked. “You know of the city before Eikenborough, Dichinell?”

I shook my head. “I never explored as I was too scared.”

Connie rubbed her husband’s shoulder.

David had tears in his eyes. I understood, he had family in Dichinell, I should’ve thought before I opened my mouth.

“He had a rider that lived in Dichinell. They shared a bond.”

“You are a dragon?”

David smiled and nodded. “I’m a Swallow Annex. Healing is my game.” He tried to make it come out as a joke, but he failed miserably.

“I’m so sorry to hear that, what was his name?”

“Charles,” Connie said with tears lingering in her eyes too.

Charles, he had a Swallow Annex because he still had his ability, but he lived in Alkadeen. It couldn’t be, could it?

“Are you speaking about Charles Benson?”

Both heads shot up and David wiped tears out of his eyes.

“You know him?”

I nodded. “But he doesn’t live in this place you mentioned. He lives on a farm in Alkadeen.”

David started to laugh, a good laugh. “He went, I thought he was waiting for that seal, you remember the seal he wanted to give to young Marcus?”

“I know Marcus too. And August, all of them. I lived with them for a month.”

I couldn’t stop talking. “August was born with the mark too. He can manipulate chlorine.”

“He’s a Green-Vapor’s rider?”

I nodded. I couldn’t explain this new feeling that erupted into my stomach but it was warm and so good. Telling someone that their family was alive was addictive. A laugh of pure happiness escaped my lips and we started speaking about Charles’s entire family.

I touched David’s hand. “He talked about you when they discovered I was born with the mark too. It’s not a good thing that side. They kill them if they discover they have the mark.”

“Kill them?”

I lifted up my sleeve that carried my barcode and showed it to them. “They brand everyone with this.”

Both their eyes locked on my barcode. “I lied and said that my dragon was killed and that he’d protected me all this time.” I shook my head. “It was a stupid lie, they didn’t know I lied. If I asked more questions I would’ve known I was in Etan.”

“Shhhh, it doesn’t matter Elena. You were there, and you collected valuable information in that four months. Information that we never would’ve had. It’s a good thing.”

“Then why do I feel so crappy all of a sudden?”

“You didn’t know. You protected yourself from the truth. If they knew that you were the key to enter and exit Etan… Elena, you saved lives by keeping it from them. I cannot imagine if the wrong people discovered the truth about you.”

That was why none of them knew who I was. A new fear overpowered me. If Goran found out...

“Did you see Goran?” David asked.

“No, I think they call him the Wyvern King now.”

Both David and Connie looked at each other.

“That is not good, is it?”

“Goran could always understand Wyvic, he was born with it. He’s also a powerful sorcerer, Elena. If anyone could find a way to tame the Wyverns, it’s him.”

I swallowed hard. There was going to be a war. One between Wyverns and dragons.

I didn’t like this.

“We need to get word to King Helmut, get more people here. We have to free the ones that don’t belong there.” I looked at both of them. “I’m so sorry for doing this to your beautiful place.

“Don’t, a part of us always knew this day would come. It’s a good day, Elena,” Connie said and she got up.

David cried again. He was just so happy.

“It all makes sense now.”

“What does?” I smiled.

“Why he flew so close to the Creepers each and every time. It wasn’t suicide. Deep inside he knew you were there.”

I squinted. All those times, what was he talking about?

“Sorry, it has nothing to do with me. I need to go and see if I can assist Connie.”

I went back to my room and sat on the bed. I needed to be alone so I wielded my shield and all the buzzing outside disappeared. It was so quiet.

Something David said laid heavy on my mind.
All those times.

How had the old man known that the Rubicon had looked for me?

I knew Constance said he tried, but how did David know?

I grabbed my Sonic device, glad that Sammy had put it in to kill time on this boring trip that they’d forced me on.

I plugged the small gel orbs on both sides of my temple and connected the plugs into the Sonic.

I took a deep breath as I hadn’t done it before without help from the scientists, and let it out slowly. My heart started to stammer as I spoke the words: Blake Leaf.

Immediately it showed a list of things about him.

The times he’d messed up, was drunk in public. The destruction of the City Hall in Tith that night.

I scrolled down. There was nothing on the first page about him searching for me.

I hit the next page and more topics popped up.

Then I saw it.

The Rubicon’s near death experience.

I hit it. It must have been when he’d kissed me that night, it had to be that night. I wanted to stop when everything around me vanished and I found myself inside the park.

It wasn’t my room or the night I left everything behind, the night I thought I’d killed him.

A woman stood a couple of paces from me. She was filming the beauty of the park, it was the park in Tith. Lucian and I met one another many times there. The same park Pappi and I’d shared ice cream and talked about so many things.

A couple of kids were playing on the jungle gym, and an ice cream cart’s bell rang.

I was ready to exit as this was clearly the wrong topic, and not what I thought it was, when the woman gasped.

I stopped and she pointed her camera to the sky.

Her husband and everyone around them looked up and so did I.

“What is that?” her husband asked.

It was huge, and had what looked like four sets of wings. I gasped as I saw two heads.

Plenty of people started asking the same thing, all talking at once.

“It looks like a dragon,” an old lady said.

“Mom,” her daughter answered. “Dragons don’t have two heads.”

I squinted and cupped the top of my head with my hand to block out the sun.

It was flying but it struggled, like it was weak.

When it came closer and the dragon came into view, I realized what it was.

A couple confirmed it too.

It wasn’t one dragon, it was two and the bigger one was injured.

The smaller one struggled to keep it in the air.

People started to retreat and an arm pulled me back as it came closer.

I had to run and even fell to the side when the two dragons connected with the ground. Everything rumbled and dust lingered heavy in my nostrils.

It was quiet for a long time, and then police sirens shrilled in the distance. They came closer and closer until it felt as if one was literally on top of me.

Everything came to life again.

I pushed myself up, my hands were bloody and I could feel something rolling down my face. I pressed my finger, no pain, but when my fingers came into view, they were crimson red.

The entire play area was destroyed, the pathways were completely taken out, and a couple of trees were lying on their sides.

The two dragons still lay on the ground, covered with rocks.

Then we all saw it. It was a huge leech/worm and it was attached to one of the dragons.

A horrible hissing sound was coming from it, almost screeching, and it was moving in all directions.

The people close by ducked and dove, some women even put voice to their fear.

The rest of us just watched in horror.

The police were keeping their distance too, and started to clear a good distance around the two dragons who still lay on the ground, not making a sound or moving.

More sirens filled the park and white vans pulled in. They had a Techno Lab sign on them. I’d visited that place once, it was my duty to meet all the scientists of this world. They’d worked hand in hand with my father as he didn’t own an ability and always created new weapons that could help Sir Robert’s acid.

Swallow Annex dragons landed and started healing the people that had gotten badly injured.

“Are you okay?” a guy with a doctor’s coat asked me and I nodded. He left and started asking the same question to a couple standing behind me.