Tales from Dargo Island: The Complete Trilogy (16 page)

We took two
boats to the new island, both filled with six people each. Aneela, Astrid and I
rode in the first boat, which was rowed into the inlet between two high rock
walls. When we reached land, a couple of the soldiers got out and pulled the
boat the rest of the way.

After that, we
had no idea what to do.

We didn’t have
to wait long, though. The remaining birds showed up. We were all wearing our
protective suits and helmets, but I was still scared. The birds circled over us
and then flew farther inland. We followed.

The island was
mostly one big hill in the center. We walked up the hill (a few soldiers had to
help me), through shoulder-high grass that had large black beetles. When we got
to the top, a large, dark-gray statue greeted us. It looked like a large door,
twenty feet tall. There was no knob, and I wasn’t sure what was holding it up.
The birds flew high above it.

“I think this
is the place,” I said.

“What do we do
now?” Astrid asked.

Aneela walked
to the other side of the door. “There’s nothing behind it.” She studied the
ground from where the thing stuck out. “I think this goes deep underground,
whatever it is.”

The ground was
sand a little darker than the shore. I kicked some up with my foot and
regretted it. The smell that came up was awful. “Smells like sewage.”

Aneela looked
at me for a second before going back to the door. Her soldiers got closer to
her, keeping their eyes on the birds. “There’s got to be a way to open this,”
she said, frustrated.

I suddenly
remembered the crystal. I told Aneela, and she nodded to one of the soldiers.
He’d been carrying it in a protective case. He set the case down and pulled out
the crystal, carrying it to his queen.

Aneela walked
up to the door, the crystal in her hands. Something appeared in the rock to the
right of her. It was some kind of indention, about the size of the crystal
itself. Aneela looked back at us one more time before placing the crystal
inside.

The ground
trembled, kicking up more dark sand. The smell got much worse. The whole island
felt like it was having an earthquake. Aneela backed away from the door just as
an opening appeared from the bottom and worked its way up. The crystal was
still there, in the indention next to this opening.

Beyond the
opening was total darkness. I walked up to it and saw a single step just
inside. “I think there’s a staircase here.”

None of us had
flashlights, so Aneela stepped forward, into the darkness. She took the first
step, and then carefully placed her foot into the black. Her foot touched
something, because she smiled at me and said, “You’re right.”

A soldier
started to reach for the crystal to take with us, I assumed, but Aneela stopped
him. “The door might close if you do that. Leave a few soldiers here to watch
over it until we return, Commander.”

“Yes, My
Queen.” He ordered two soldiers to stay outside while he and the other six went
with us.

*
 
*
 
*

As soon as we
entered, torches lit up the walls on both sides of the stairs. We saw
bottomless pits on either side of us, and that the wide staircase led down
quite a ways before ending at a large wooden door. The commander was in front
of us, leading the way. Two soldiers walked behind him and in front of Aneela,
with one next to her and two behind us. Despite all this protection, I still
didn’t feel safe.

After a minute
of careful walking we reached the bottom. The commander studied the door,
looking for some way to open it. “Perhaps we need the crystal again?” he
guessed.

“No, Commander
Rhys,” Aneela said, walking up next to him. “Look at these markings on the
door. They’re ancient Dargonian.”

I hadn’t
noticed the markings until she mentioned them. They were dark red slashes and
symbols. “Can you read that?” I asked her.

“Just barely. I
learned in school when I was a little girl. Ever since Rockne came, he managed
to ease us away from our way of life, our traditions.” She lightly touched the
markings, whispering to herself. Finally, she said, “‘Release me to undo the
Dark Dream.’” As soon as she said the words, they disappeared from the door.

Before anyone
could say anything, the door popped open, scaring us all. Commander Rhys pushed
it open the rest of the way. Inside was a large, circular room lit by more
torches. In the center of the room was a small, round pool filled with black
water.

In the center
of the pool was a clear cylinder at least eight feet tall.

And inside the
cylinder was a skeleton, hunched against the glass.

“Oh my Goddess,”
Aneela said, staring at the cylinder. “It’s Dargonius.”

I stepped
closer to the pool, my knees killing me. “How do you know?”

“See the ring
on the skeleton’s finger?” she asked.

I tried to see
it but was too far away—my eyesight was getting worse. I tried to get closer
but Aneela stopped me from stepping into the pool.

“Don’t touch
the water. It may be a trap.”

“Why would
Dargonius set a trap if he wanted to be unleashed?” Astrid asked.

“Think about
it. Dargonius didn’t put himself in that cylinder. Whoever did may have made it
so no one can get to him. The water could be acidic.”

I pulled out my
wallet and grabbed a card from a barbershop I used to go to. If I got nine
haircuts the tenth would be free. I’d already had my ninth, each number initialed
by the barber. “Oh, well,” I said, dropping the card into the black water.

It caught fire
and disappeared a second later.

“My Queen,”
Commander Rhys said, his expression worried under the yellow and blue paint,
“perhaps we should leave this dark place. Dargonius is dead, and therefore,
cannot do us any good.”

“That’s just
not true, Commander.”

The reply
didn’t come from Aneela, or any of us, for that matter. It came from the
cylinder.

The skeleton
still remained hunched against the glass, but a cyan-colored dust started to
swirl above it. The dust formed a figure that looked like a man. “I was
beginning to think you’d never arrive,” the figure said.

“You were
expecting us, Dargonius?” Aneela asked. She was clearly scared but was trying
to hide it.

“Eventually. As
soon as I felt the island reappear, I knew my Dark Dream had been unleashed.”

“What is the
Dark Dream?” she asked next.

“My plague upon
humanity. I was trapped here before I could put my Dream into action and hidden
away from the rest of Dargo Island.”

“Who trapped
you here?”

“That foul
wizard Rockne.”

“Why did he
trap you?” I asked.

“He found out
what I had planned and wanted to stop me, ‘old man,’ but what he didn’t know
was that I am the only one who can stop it once it’s unleashed. Which I’m guessing
is what happened.” The figure smiled. At least, I think he did.

“How do you
know this?” Aneela asked.

“The crystal is
what got you in here, what made the island reappear. One of my servants managed
to steal the crystal and flee to the chamber, awaiting the time he could
release me. Unfortunately, he got trapped and died there. You couldn’t have
possibly gotten the crystal without entering my chamber. The birds were in
there, were they not?”

“They were,”
Aneela confirmed. “Tell us how to defeat the plague.”

“Let me out.”

Aneela sighed.
“I don’t think so.”

“Then I can’t
help you.”

“How is it
you’re still alive after all this time?”

“I’m a being of
supreme magic. Rockne knew this when he imprisoned me. That’s why he went
through such great lengths to make sure no one found me.”

“You weren’t
that hard to find,” I said.

“Rockne wasn’t
as smart as he wanted people to believe.” Dargonius laughed. “He didn’t know
the location of my chamber. Otherwise, he would have destroyed my birds. Have
they fled the island yet?”

“They tried,” I
said. “Rockne’s brother stopped them.”

“Nalke? That
blasted creature!” Dargonius was no longer in a good mood.

“We’ve killed
half of them already,” Aneela added.

This made
Dargonius even angrier. “Not before infecting some of your people,” he said in
a menacing voice.

“That’s true,
but we have your scrolls. We will find a cure on our own.”

He laughed.
“The scrolls were instructions on building the birds. The plague wasn’t created
with ingredients found in my chamber. It was created from me, from my essence.
The only way to cure it is with me.”

“I will not
release you,” Aneela said.

“You will
change your mind once enough of your people die.”

“How do you
know what happened to your servant?” I asked him, remembering the body we found
in there. “You said he died in the chamber. How could you possibly know that if
you were trapped here?”

Dargonius
looked at me and laughed. “What are you, friend? You look aged but
seem…different.”

“None of your
business, friend.”

“What’s to stop
you from carrying on with your Dark Dream once we released you?” Astrid asked
Dargonius.

He looked at
her. “Nothing. But I could spare the people of this island.” He looked at
Aneela. “I have no ill will toward your people. I only want revenge upon the
people of the known world.”

“Everyone who
wronged you has been dead for hundreds of years,” she said.

“Their
ancestors still live. Their way of life still exists.”

“I won’t
unleash you so you can bring ruin upon the world. We’ll find a way to cure our
people; we have plenty of time.”

“Once you
realize how foolish you sound,” he said, “you know where to find me. What is
your name, sweet darling?”

“Aneela.”

“Are you the
queen of this island?”

“Yes.”

“Then let it go
down in history that Queen Aneela allowed her people to die when the cure was
within her grasp.”

Aneela shook
slightly, turned around and left the room. Her soldiers followed. I was the
last to leave, but before I closed the door, I turned back to Dargonius.

“I guess Rockne
wasn’t as bad as I thought he was, if he felt the need to trap you here.”

“I sense a
little of him in you,” Dargonius said. “Why is that?”

I left without
replying.

We got back to
the palace and immediately went to the sick ward. The room was nearly filled
with sick Dargons. Champagne walked among the people, soothing them with her
power. As soon as she placed her hand on their shoulders, they went from scared
to relaxed within seconds.

Champagne,
however, looked worse than when I last saw her. Her face was paler, and she
needed help from Victor to walk. I walked up to them and asked how they were
doing.

“I’m fine,
Sugar Cow,” Champagne replied. “I just need to lie down for a while, regain my
strength. Any luck on the second island?”

I leaned
against a table. “We found Dargonius.”

“That must’ve
been a grisly sight,” Victor said with a grin. “Did you find anything that will
help with the plague?”

I sighed. “I
mean, we found Dargonius
alive
.” I let that sink in for a second; Victor
and Champagne looked shocked. “He said he is the only cure for the plague, but
he’ll only do it if we let him out of his prison. He’s trapped in some kind of
cylinder in the middle of a round room, surrounded by an acid pool.”

“You don’t
trust him,” Victor guessed.

I looked at
Aneela, who was on the other side of the chamber, seeing to some of her sick
people. “He said he would cure everyone on this island, but he would kill
everyone else in the world. That was his plan before he was captured.”

“Well, that
sounds like a crappy deal,” he said, his grin vanishing.

“Our lives
aren’t worth that of the rest of the world, honey,” Champagne said. She said to
Victor, “Help me lie down.”

He helped her
up onto a bed against the wall. My friends were dying and there was nothing I
could do. A doctor, her face painted the way of the Dargons, checked on
Champagne. Even through the yellow-and-blue paint I could tell she looked
worried.

“What’s wrong?”
I asked the doctor.

She looked at
me. “If I didn’t know any better, I would say the illness is progressing much
faster in her than anyone else. See the dark veins on her neck?” I saw them.
“None of the others are showing this symptom. I studied the body of the first
victim. He looked much worse than this, but he had these same dark veins.”

“I remember,” I
said. Champagne looked like she’d been infected a week ago, even though it had
only been a couple of hours. She wouldn’t last much longer.

I hadn’t known
her that long, but I considered her a friend. We almost died together, fighting
Nalke’s army for Rockne. Looking around the chamber, I couldn’t imagine any of
the sick Dargons dying. They hadn’t done anything wrong. I believed Dargonius
when he said he would cure all of them in exchange for the rest of the world,
but Champagne’s words kept going through my head:
Our lives aren’t worth
that of the rest of the world, honey.

It seemed
logical enough to keep Dargonius in his cell.

In exchange, I
had to watch my friends die. I locked eyes with a man a few decades older than
me. He was comforting a little boy who I assumed was his son. The man looked
angry. I felt his pain.

A beep
distracted me from my dark thoughts. I pulled out my cell phone and saw a
reminder flashing on the screen. My phone was pretty much only good as a calculator,
clock and camera, since I couldn’t make or receive calls on the island.

“Oh, no!” I
said, reading the reminder. “Estevan is visiting today. I completely forgot.”

“When?” Astrid
asked.

“Tonight, when
I turn young. We’re supposed to hang out. He doesn’t know about the plague, and
I can’t call him.” I thought for a moment. “I’ll meet him at the station and
send him back before he can even get off the train.”

“Keep an eye
out for the birds,” Aneela said, walking up to us. “We haven’t accounted for
all of them, and as far as I can tell, there are at least five left.”

“What did you
do with the dead ones?” I asked.

“We’re studying
them very carefully.”

“Good idea,”
Victor said as he checked on Champagne.

Aneela looked
at the elderly woman. Champagne was asleep, her breathing very heavy. “Am I
doing the right thing?” she asked no one in particular.

“Yes,” Victor
said. “Even if we don’t find a cure, at least the rest of the world is safe.
There are over a billion people on this planet. From what I’ve heard about
Dargonius, he wouldn’t bat an eyelash at killing every last one of them. Would
you want
that
on your conscience?”

She grinned at
him. “I suppose not. Thank you, Victor.”

He nodded, his
red beard swaying. “Think nothing of it. You’re a wonderful, responsible queen.
Let no one tell you different.”

Astrid, Shae
and I returned to the Village, leaving Victor and Champagne in the care of
professionals. I sat in a chair in the living room and stared out the bay
window by the front door. My thoughts, as well as my body, were fading with
this aging spell. It really was getting worse every day. Pretty soon, I
wouldn’t be able to do anything until I returned to my real age at night.

Even then, I
felt sick. Whatever was affecting me in old age was spilling over.

Astrid sat next
to me and took my hand. “How are you doing?”

“I think I’m
dying. Really dying.”

“You can’t die.
Remember?”

I shook my
head. “If my time comes, I’m going to take it. I’m not going to leach off
anyone. If I die this time, it’ll be final.”

We stared at
each other for a while, neither of us speaking. The sun went down and we
returned to our original ages.

And then I
kissed Astrid.

She pulled
away, laughing. “What’s happening?”

“I’m sorry. I
just thought I’d see what it would feel like.”

“To kiss a girl?”

“To kiss you.”

We kissed
again, for almost a minute. Then we stopped and stared at each other.

“Anything?” she
asked.

“No. You?”

“Not a thing.
Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I
figured as much.”

I tried to
stand, but as expected, needed help. After Astrid got me to my feet, I was able
to make it outside. I tried to start Shae’s car, but it wouldn’t kick. I called
Aneela and she sent a soldier with a horse for me to borrow. We rode to the
train station.

The train was
just arriving as I walked onto the platform. I could barely see the Edge of the
World from where I stood. Estevan still claimed he hadn’t gotten used to seeing
that miles-wide waterfall as the train passed over it. I didn’t doubt him; I
still wasn’t used to it. My nose bled from fear the first time I saw that
startling sight.

The train
stopped in front of me, and just as the doors opened I stopped Estevan from
stepping off.

“You can’t stay
here,” I said, holding up my hand. “There’s a plague on the island, and I don’t
want you catching it. Go back to Dallas.”

He stood there,
mid-step, his eyes wide from all the information I’d just given him. “Okay….”

I looked at the
sky, making sure there weren’t any birds around.

“Are you sick,
too?” he asked me. “You look like hell.” He, of course, looked like a perfectly
healthy nineteen-year-old, with a full head of dark-brown hair.

I got a brief
glimpse of my reflection in the one of the windows. My skin was wrinkled and
pale. “I don’t have the plague, but I am sick. It’s the old-age curse. It’s
doing something to me.”

Estevan looked
worried. We’ve been friends since we were kids. He’s the only friend who knows
about Dargo. He even saved the island from a tidal wave, though he had Nalke’s
help with that. I hated putting such responsibility on his shoulders, but he seemed
to be handling it well enough.

“How are my
parents?” I asked him.

“They miss you
a lot. You should visit more often.”

“I know. When
this is over, I’ll visit. But not before then; it’s too dangerous.”

“I hope it
won’t be too late by then.”

Those words
stuck with me. What if I died before seeing my parents again? I’d inherited my
life-leaching power from my mom’s side of the family, and she had just told me
a few weeks ago. Imagine my surprise when I found out I’d killed my twin sister
while we were still in the womb. I’d been mad at Mom for keeping the secret
from me my whole life. I felt it was time to forgive her.

“We’re working
on a cure,” I told Estevan. “It shouldn’t be much longer. After that, I’ll
visit them. I promise.”

Estevan valued
his family more than most teenagers valued theirs. That’s one thing I respect
most about him.

He backed away
from me and retook his seat on the train. I set up the controls to return to
Dallas, and then watched the train glide away. The soldier took me back to the
Village and returned to the palace.

I was so tired
when I got home. I usually tried to make the most of my “young time,” but I
couldn’t imagine staying up much longer. I used to sleep during the day so I
could take advantage of the night, but the appearance of the birds threw my
schedule off. I meant to only rest for an hour, but when I woke up, it was
morning and I was old again.