Shattered (24 page)

“You grew up in India, right?” he asked, wanting to keep her talking.

She nodded. “I was orphaned when I was young and there was no one to take me in. I used to wander the streets by day, begging strangers for money, then sleep under piles of garbage at night. It was safer, you know, under the garbage, than being out in the open. Less chance of getting robbed or attacked. But it came with its own hazards. I was always petrified the pile of garbage would shift in the night and bury me alive.” She stared down into the pool and shuddered.

Connor thought back to his own childhood, the days before his father had been killed. They’d roamed the Surface Lands, sleeping in burnt-out corpses of buildings, always searching for the next dragon. Never enough food, never enough uncontaminated water. And always living in fear of the next dragon attack.

But in the end, they had each other. He had his brother. This girl before him, this strong, willful girl, had had no one.

“You got to understand,” Rashida added. “Where I come from, there is no American dream. You can’t hope to escape the life you were born into.” She paused then added, “Except somehow I actually did.”

“The Dracken,” Connor concluded.

She nodded. “It was a Monday. I was hanging out in this Internet café. My boyfriend was a gold farmer for that
Fields
of
Fantasy
video game, and his boss had promised him a bonus if he and his guild could score this particular epic sword from one of the big dungeons. It was enough money to get an apartment for at least a month so he was really trying hard. Since they couldn’t stop for breaks, I’d bring him curry from time to time to help keep him going.

“Anyway, it wasn’t going well. He hadn’t found the sword, and we were completely out of cash. Then this white guy came into the café. He was obviously rich, wearing a three-piece suit. And he asked if I would join him for dinner.” She snorted. “I thought he wanted something else, you know? What they usually want. But I said yes anyway. At that point, I pretty much would have sold my soul for a bowl of rice.” She grimaced.

“Instead he brought you back here,” Connor concluded. “And asked you to help him save the world.”

She glanced over at him, a regretful look on her face. “You gotta understand, Connor. For the first time in my life, I had clean clothes, real food, safe shelter. We even got to go to school—something I never thought I’d get to do.” She stared down into the pool, a bitter smile playing at the corners of her lips. “It may sound cliché, but it really was a dream come true. I should have known that eventually I’d have to wake up.”

Connor’s heart wrenched at the pain he recognized on her face. He reached over, putting a hand on her shoulder in a vain attempt to comfort her.

“It’s funny,” Rashida continued, her voice now taking on an acid tone. “When I was finally able to contact Mara and she said she was coming today, I was as excited as the rest of them. I thought this was it. We were going to be rescued. I knew things probably wouldn’t be as good as they’d been at the mall—at least for a while. But we’d all be together again. The Dracken would have a plan. The kids could go back to relying on them instead of me.” She sighed deeply, kicking her legs against the cement. “Boy, was I an idiot.”

“What happened?” Connor asked gently, though he thought he had a pretty good idea. “Why didn’t they take you?”

“Mara’s working with the government now,” she replied bitterly. “Maybe it was part of a deal to get her out of a prison sentence—I don’t know. Doesn’t matter, I guess. Point is, their plans have obviously changed and they don’t need us anymore. They don’t need any of us.”

She paused and Connor saw her swallow hard. “The kids all think they’re coming back. But I know the truth. The dream is over. They’re done with us. And from now on, we’re truly on our own.”

“I’m sorry,” Connor said.

Rashida squeezed her hands into fists, fury radiating from her lean frame. “How could they do this?” she blurted out. “Take us from our countries, give us hope for the future, then just dump us as if we were nothing more than the piles of garbage I used to sleep under?” She pounded her fists against the side of the pool. “It’s like…if I never knew how good things could be…If I never had any hope to begin with…”

She trailed off, as if too devastated to continue. Connor said nothing. He knew all too well how hard it was to face the truth sometimes—even if it was staring you straight in the face. But in the end, everyone had to come to their own conclusions. Rashida had to want to help him. On her own terms. Or it wouldn’t work.

“When Scarlet was leaving,” she said slowly, staring down at her trembling hands, “she pushed me these pictures. I don’t know where or how she got them, but I could tell they were real. They were of these dragons….”

Connor met her eyes. “Let me guess: deformed baby dragons? Locked in cages?”

She stared at him. “How did you…?” Then she shook her head. “Yeah, of course you’d know. You guys knew all along. Trinity tried to tell us. But we refused to listen…” She broke off, closing her eyes for a moment before continuing. “We’ve all been such fools. So blinded by all the stuff they did for us, we never thought to question what they were planning to do to the rest of the world.”

“Well, maybe it’s time to start,” Connor said gently. “It’s not too late, you know.”

She gave him a sharp look. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“You came here to save the world, right?” he said, piercing her with his gaze. “Well, how about we start by saving my brother?”

“Come on, Caleb, wake up!” Scarlet begged, poking him for what felt like the thousandth time. The back of the truck was hot, and the air tasted stale with the pungent odor of rotten bananas assaulting her nose. They’d been driving for at least an hour, and the motion of the vehicle combined with roads that had seen better days had her
this
close
to puking her guts out.

“Please!” she tried again, attempting to pry his eyes open with her fingers. “You have to wake up.”

Of course, even if he did, she wasn’t sure how much good it would do, at least in terms of making an escape. The truck’s back door was locked from the outside, and even if it weren’t, jumping from a fast-moving vehicle would only get them hurt or killed. Maybe Caleb would have some kind of miraculous plan on how to break free, though what it could be, she had no idea.

Still, at least if he were conscious, she wouldn’t feel so alone. She’d have a fellow prisoner. A partner in crime. Someone who could give her more information about what the hell was going on and, more importantly, whether there was anything they could do about it.

Part of her wanted to shake him. To slap him across the face and scream at him for giving up on her like he had. For retreating to the Nether and leaving her to face the monsters alone. Just like her brother had done to her two years before.

But no. It wasn’t totally his fault. Not really. She didn’t know exactly how this whole Nether thing worked, but she knew enough to recognize the look in his eyes when he saw that gem flash from Mara’s hand. He was sick, just like Mac had been sick. And it was his sickness that had made him make that selfish choice to take the easy way out. To leave her behind.

She looked down at him, her heart aching. If only she could reach him. To let him know it didn’t have to be like this. That it wasn’t too late. But once again she was stuck, utterly helpless, while faced with the suffering of those she cared about.

Caleb shuddered violently and she grabbed him to keep him from falling over. Wrapping her arms around him, she hugged his shivering frame close to hers.

“Come on, Bad Seed, stay with me,” she whispered. “It’s going to be okay.” Though of course she had no assurance that this was true—that anything would be okay ever again. For all she knew, this journey could be their last. Still, she reached out, putting her hand around his and squeezing it tightly, hoping she could offer some small comfort at least.

Instead, she found herself falling into blackness.

• • •

A moment later Scarlet opened her eyes, her jaw dropping in disbelief. Gone was the truck. The stench of rotten bananas, the stale air.

Gone was, well, everything, in fact.

In its place was a white void, stretching out as far as the eye could see. Like a blank canvas or the training room that Morpheus had taken Neo to in the beginning of the first
Matrix
film.

She gasped. “What the…?”

At first she thought she must be dreaming. That the truck had lurched. That she’d hit her head. Passed out cold. But all she remembered was comforting Caleb, wrapping her hand around his.

The hand that had been holding the Nether gem.

She started, her heart pounding in her chest as the implications hit her hard and fast. Had she somehow managed to hijack his ride? Arrived at the dragon dream world Rashida and Trevor had spoken of back at the house? It seemed impossible. But what other explanation could there be? She bit her lower lip, panic rising at an alarming rate.

Was she actually in the Nether now? And if so, would she be able to find Caleb?

She looked around, hoping to catch sight of him, but came up empty. He wasn’t anywhere nearby. Actually, there didn’t appear to be
anything
nearby. Just blankness—total blankness. Worry clawed at her gut as she wondered what she was supposed to do now.

“Hello?” she cried out. “Anyone there? Caleb? Can you hear me?”

At first there was no response. So she repeated her cry, a little more desperate this time, her voice quaking with fear. But still there was nothing. Only silence, emptiness, a vacuum that threatened to swallow her whole.

Then suddenly, she heard it. A strange thundering sound coming from high above. She looked up, her jaw dropping.

“No way…”

It was a dragon—no, make that two dragons—swooping down at her, coming in for a landing, their massive wings beating the air into submission. She gasped, shocked by their sheer size and blinding brilliance. And here she thought little Emmy was impressive. These beasts had to be the size of small houses.

The first dragon landed a few feet in front of her, dark pink with long, translucent claws, violet wings, and eyes just as purple. The second—which touched down a moment later—was black as night, with hints of gold flashing under its scales.

They observed her for a moment with piercing eyes. Then, to Scarlet’s surprise, the pink one dropped its front paw and dipped its purple wing so that the tip brushed against the ground. The wing rippled once, then folded in upon itself to create a sort of leathery staircase leading up to the dragon’s back. Scarlet stared at it then up at the dragon, incredulous.

“You want me to…?” She nodded at the wing, almost afraid to say it. “Get on your back?” It seemed the obvious conclusion to come to, but she wanted to make sure before she just started climbing.

We
will
take
you
to
the
one
you
seek.

The female voice whispered across her consciousness, much like Emmy’s had back in the real world. Did all their species have some sort of mental telepathy? she wondered. In any case, she certainly wasn’t going to look a gift dragon in the mouth.

Somehow she managed to pull herself together then started the climb, using her hands and feet to scale the dragon’s wing. When she reached the top, she straddled the creature’s back then examined its neck, searching for handholds. Finally she gave up, throwing her arms around its neck, her fingers latching on to two scales on either side.

The dragons seemed to nod at one another then stretched out their wings, giving one after the other a tentative flap, cracking the air like a pair of twin whips. Before Scarlet could even say, “Holy wingspan, Batman,” her pink dragon leapt off the ground.

They were off.

They shot upward, faster than even that roller coaster she’d ridden at the State Fair a few years back, and Scarlet found herself squealing in a mixture of delight and excitement as the wind blasted her face. Her stomach roiled, but in a good way, and as they quickly gained altitude, she wondered if she should be freaking out. Any rational person would be, she supposed, but at the same time it just felt so powerful, so free, flying through the air like this. How could she waste the moment by being afraid?

The dragons crested some ways up, settling into a horizontal flight pattern. Scarlet looked down at the all-encompassing whiteness below, exhilaration swimming through her as she imagined what it would be like to have a whole world beneath them—forests, fields, and oceans spreading out into infinity.

And then, to her surprise, suddenly they were there. The same forests, fields, and oceans she’d imagined, magically rolling out before her eyes, exactly how she’d pictured them in her head.

She stared down at it all, marveling. Was that how things worked here? Why everything seemed so blank when she’d first arrived? Because she hadn’t yet filled it with her own imagination? No wonder Caleb liked it here. An entire world of possibilities, dancing at your fingertips; a world where you pulled all the strings. A world where you could banish all the monsters and live among mighty dragons.

But it was also a world of illusion, she reminded herself, sobering. A temporary escape no different than her and Mac’s little hideout or, later, Mac’s big habit. You couldn’t run from the real world forever. At least not without leaving the ones you loved behind.

She turned her attention back to her winged guides. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along.”

The black dragon regarded her with golden eyes.
You
have
the
blood
of
the
dragon
swimming
through
your
veins,
he said sagely.
You
would
be
amazed
at
what
you
can
do.

The blood of the dragon? Scarlet swallowed hard. Did he mean Emmy’s blood? Could he tell, somehow, she had Emmy’s blood inside of her?

“I’m Scarlet, by the way,” she told them. “And I really appreciate your help.”

The pink one turned her head for a moment.
I
am
Zoe
, she said.
And
this
is
my
twin
brother, Zavier.
She paused then added,
And
we
are
always
pleased
to
help
a
friend
of
our
mother’s.

Scarlet did a double-take. “Wait, what? What do you…?” she cried. Then her eyes widened. “You don’t mean…Emmy’s your mother?”

Emmy had seemed so young. And she had said she was the last dragon. How could she have children of her own?

Well, not yet,
the black dragon—Zavier—corrected.
Which
is
why
we’re still here.

All
dragons
yet
to
be
born
as
well
as
those
who
have
already
died
exist
here,
added Zoe.
In
the
Nether.

This was getting crazier and crazier. “So when are you supposed to be born then?” she asked, struggling to understand all of this.

Zavier shrugged.
A
few
months? A year? Perhaps we will never be born. The future is not certain. Especially not for the world’s last dragon.

We
can
only
wait,
Zoe added.
And
hope
.

The
entire
race
of
dragons
has
pinned
its
hopes
on
our
mother,
Zavier added.
She
cannot
fail.

Scarlet shook her head. As if she wasn’t already all consumed with the idea of saving Emmy, now the fates of two more dragons—no, make that an entire race of dragons—depended on her survival. She looked from one majestic creature to the other, determination rising within her. She had to make this work somehow. She had to get to Caleb and figure out a way to make this all okay. Whether he liked it or not.

The journey took what felt like maybe ten minutes, but it could have easily been ten hours. Or maybe no time at all—she wasn’t even certain time existed here, at least not in the way she knew it. But at last, a tall glass structure rose up before them, like a crystal ball on top of a long, clear stem. A building manifested from someone else’s imagination, not her own.

Was this where she’d find him?

The dragons began their descent, touching down on a glass landing pad that looked too fragile to hold their weight but somehow did. Once they were settled, Zoe gently lowered her wing and Scarlet slid down, making a rather graceful landing, if she did say so herself.

She looked around. “Is that where I’ll find Caleb?” she asked.

“Depends on what you want from him.”

She whirled around, her eyes falling to none other than the boy himself, slouching against the doorway to the glass house. He was gaunt, worn, shadowed, wearing tight, black leather pants and a collared shirt he’d left half unbuttoned. His hair was tousled and his eyes were rimmed with red.

“Caleb!” she cried with relief. “Thank God.”

She turned back to her dragon, looking up into her purple eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. “And don’t worry. I’m going to do everything I can to save your mother. Trust me, I know how important mothers can be.”

Zoe seemed to smile at this, dipping her wing in a salute. Then she rose into the air, following her brother into the sky. Soon they were only two dark shadows burning against an orange sun. Scarlet watched them go for a minute, feeling a little wistful, wondering if she’d ever get to meet them again. Maybe in the real world, she decided, if everything managed to turn out okay.

Then she remembered Caleb. She turned back, realizing he was staring at her, an annoyed expression on his face.

“What do you think you’re doing here?” he asked curtly, his body stiff and his arms folded across his chest.

She nodded slowly, recognizing the stance all too well. He was in full bad-twin mode now. Ready to lash out at her to shield himself from whatever it was he didn’t want her to see. Just like Mac back in the day.

But she knew better now. And Caleb wasn’t getting off that easy.

And so she said nothing, just strolled casually into the house, purposely invading his fantasy space. Inside was a circular room encased entirely in glass. It appeared to have once been very beautiful. A mansion with luxurious appointments. But it had clearly fallen into ruin. The crimson drapes were moth eaten. The couch was saggy and tinged with mold. The wooden furniture was scarred and broken.

Just like a certain boy she knew.