Darkstalker, Page 7

  Fathom wasn’t sure why Albatross wasn’t more excited. His grandfather had been so quiet all morning, his eyes more hooded than usual.

  And now he was missing the family gathering.

  Where could he be?

  Queen Lagoon was taking the SkyWings around, introducing them to each family member. Indigo saw her coming and stepped on Fathom’s tail trying to sidle away, but it was too late.

  “My niece, Manta,” Lagoon said to the SkyWings. “And her son, Fathom.” She glanced at Indigo for the briefest moment, then tipped her snout upward and adjusted her crown. “I’m delighted to introduce the SkyWing envoys, Eagle and Princess Sunset.”

  “Welcome to the Island Palace,” said Manta.

  “Hmm,” said Eagle.

  “It’s hotter than I expected,” said Sunset, fanning herself with her wings.

  “This is my friend, Indigo,” Fathom interjected, tugging Indigo a step closer.

  Eagle and Sunset looked supremely uninterested. Queen Lagoon managed to keep her frown small and refined.

  “Have you tried the shrimp?” Manta said quickly.

  Eagle sniffed. “Everything is so … raw,” he said.

  “I guess we could set it on fire.” Sunset sighed. “Then perhaps it would be palatable.”

  They moved toward the buffet table with Manta, but Queen Lagoon lingered for a moment, twitching her nose as if her own dinner had been unfortunately scorched.

  “You,” she said to Indigo. “Go find me a drink. Something with pineapple in it.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.” Indigo bobbed her head and whisked away.

  Fathom tried not to look irritated. Lagoon always spoke to Indigo exactly the way she spoke to the servants. But she was the queen; she could order around anyone she liked. There was nothing he could do about it.

  Something snapped in the garden beyond the terrace — someone stepping on a branch, perhaps, out in the growing shadows beyond the lanterns. Fathom twisted to look around, but couldn’t see anyone out there.

  “Fathom,” said the queen. “I’m going to be blunt with you.”

  That’ll be different how? he thought, steeling himself.

  “I thought I had dropped enough hints, but they don’t seem to be registering. Perhaps subtlety is not the best approach in a case like this.” She spread her wings, cornering him. “You need to stop wasting your time with that … that low-born purple dragonet.”

  Fathom actually had to think for a moment to figure out what she meant. “Stop being friends with Indigo?” he blurted. “Why would I do that?”

  “I cannot allow your affection to grow any stronger,” she said, emphasizing affection as though it were a rotten oyster. “I don’t know why your mother hasn’t intervened. Obviously you cannot marry her, so it would be best to get rid of her before other prospects hear any rumors and get scared off. Of course, as an animus dragon you’ll be in high demand. It was such a chore to choose a match for Albatross back in his day. Such a shame she died and he was too stubborn to marry again.”

  “Wait,” said Fathom, his head reeling. “I — who said anything about getting married? I’m only five!”

  “Please,” the queen scoffed. “I see the way you look at her. I see how she brings you what you need before you ask for it. I see how you create treasures for her out of your claws.”

  Another twig snapped behind them. Fathom still couldn’t see anything out there — the sun was going down, and the lanterns were messing with his night sight. But he suddenly had a crawling feeling down his spine, as if the jellyfish tentacles had slithered out of the aquariums to ensnare him.

  Someone was out there, staring at them. Staring at him.

  “What is this?” Eagle called to the queen. He was standing by the decorative pond in the center of the terrace.

  “Get rid of her yourself,” Lagoon hissed to Fathom, “or I’ll find a place for her that suits her station, as far away from you as possible.” She turned with a swirl of blue wings and went over to the SkyWings, her poised public face back in place again.

  She couldn’t be serious. Indigo wasn’t — she wasn’t a danger to Queen Lagoon’s plans.

  Although I’m not exactly thrilled about being the subject of those plans, I have to say.

  But Lagoon didn’t have to make threats and order him around. He wasn’t in love with Indigo or anything.

  Am I?

  Across the floor, he caught sight of Indigo at the drinks table, bobbing slightly to the rhythm of the music. She touched her head unconsciously for a moment, and he realized she was reaching to make sure Blob was safe before remembering the octopus wasn’t there.

  Unless that’s what this happy feeling is, the one I get every time I see her.

  Uh-oh.

  “That is a statue of me, of course,” the queen said to Eagle, smiling. Inlaid with sapphires that matched her scales, the marble statue coiled over the fountain with her wings spread, water spraying from her mouth.

  “How does it work?” Sunset asked, circling the fountain. “Where does the water come from?”

  “Oh, it’s enchanted,” Lagoon said, with barely suppressed glee. “By one of my animus dragons.”

  If she’d been hoping this news would hit the SkyWings like lightning, she couldn’t have been more successful. Eagle and Sunset both froze and stared at her as if she’d cut off her own head in front of them.

  “Didn’t I mention I have those?” she said. “Well, I do. That’s probably an important point to remember during negotiations tomorrow.”

  “You have animus dragons,” Sunset cried, “and you let them live?”

  “Whatever do you mean?” Queen Lagoon asked. “Of course I do. They’re extremely valuable.”

  The SkyWings glanced at one another. “We do not tolerate dangerous differences in the Sky Kingdom,” Eagle said firmly.

  Sunset leaned toward Lagoon, her amber eyes fierce. “Doesn’t your tribe know the legends? How using their magic eats away at their soul?”

  “Well, in order for that to work,” said a voice from behind her, “you’d probably have to have a soul of your own to begin with.”

  Albatross stepped out of the shadows, or melted out of them, was how it seemed to Fathom. One of the lanterns cast a halo around his head, making his eyes seem even darker than usual, as he stepped across the terrace toward his sister and the SkyWings.

  “There you are,” said the queen. “It’s about time.”

  Indigo appeared beside Fathom again, holding two coconut bowls and looking nervous. She handed one of them to Fathom, and he realized it was full of the mango-lime drink he loved. She brings you what you need before you ask for it.

  “I don’t want to interrupt the queen,” Indigo whispered to him, “but do you think she’ll be mad if I don’t bring her drink to her? Or more mad if I do?” She fidgeted with the other coconut shell, picking off shreds of brown fibers.

  “I think she’s forgotten she asked for it,” Fathom said honestly. “She was just trying to get you out of the way so she could lecture me. Again.”

  “Oh.” Indigo gave him a curious sideways glance, but didn’t say any more, because now most of the terrace had fallen silent. Only some of the more elderly cousins kept talking, a murmur over by the musicians. Albatross was still pacing slowly toward the queen.

  “Here is our first animus,” Queen Lagoon said to the SkyWings, who seemed to have figured that out themselves, judging by the looks of terror on their faces. “My brother, Albatross. We were just talking this morning about what his next project should be. I’m thinking big this time. Something that makes me invulnerable, perhaps. Or something that kills any dragon who might be a threat to me.”

  Beyond Albatross, over by the couches, Splash stiffened, and Fathom saw her crush one of the hibiscus blossoms between her claws. He glanced around and saw his father put a wing around Manta, who had gone pale.

  “Yes,” Albatross said. “Although you might recall I wasn’t exactly enthused about a
ny of those ideas.”

  “Then it’s lucky you’re not my only animus dragon,” Queen Lagoon said coldly. Fathom felt a shiver all the way down to the tip of his tail. If she asked him to do a spell like that, would he? Would he obey his queen and put his own mother in danger? Or disobey her, and perhaps put everyone he cared about in even worse danger?

  What would she do to Indigo if I ever said no to her?

  Albatross stopped right in front of the queen, snout-to-snout with her. Fathom couldn’t read his face. He looked as though he’d been carved from stone, any emotions chipped away.

  “Do you think you’re done?” Queen Lagoon said to him softly. “Do you think you’ll ever be done atoning for what you did to Sapphire? It’s not going to end, Albatross. You’ll always be mine.”

  Something clinked in the background, and Fathom turned, thinking he’d seen a flash of silver in the air, and then a line of red sliced slowly, darkly, murderously across Queen Lagoon’s throat like the widest smile in the world.

  She blinked at her brother in surprise and lifted one talon to her neck. Her last words were, “But I’m the queen,” and then her body fell in slow motion, legs crumpling, wings crashing down, head landing with a splash in the fountain. Clouds of blood spilled out, turning the water red and black.

  The queen of the SeaWings was dead.

  And her animus, Fathom’s grandfather, was holding the knife.

  Clearsight had been awake all day, fidgeting scrolls into tiny shredded pieces and knocking over inkwells with her tail as she paced around her room.

  “Time to wake up!” her mother called cheerily, poking her head into the room. “Oh dear.”

  “I know, look at this mess,” Clearsight said, her wings twitching jumpily. “Maybe I should stay home for one more night to clean it up.”

  “The real mess in this room is you, sweetheart,” said her mother. “It’s time to go and you know it. Come eat a nice rattlesnake for breakfast, and you’ll feel all energized and ready for school.”

  “No, rattlesnake will make me hiccup during the introduction circle,” Clearsight said. “Fish could make my talons slippery so I land awkwardly. I’ll have a squirrel; I can see that that has no unfortunate consequences.”

  Swiftwings rolled her eyes and retreated.

  Breathe, Clearsight told herself. Tonight. You’ll meet him tonight. You know it, and he almost certainly knows it, too.

  It was strange to feel so excited and so terrified at the same time.

  This doesn’t have to change everything. I’m still holding the threads. I can control what happens next.

  For instance, she knew Darkstalker was going to be waiting for her right outside the school. He wanted to meet her as soon as she landed. He might try to pretend for a moment that it was all a coincidence — Who are you? Have we met? What do you mean, what destiny? But she wasn’t going to play those games. He surely had her face in his head as clearly as she knew his.

  She could trick him, but only by being early. He could linger if she tried to arrive late, but he wouldn’t be able to get there with his sister as early as she could. And he wouldn’t expect it; her foresight was stronger than his.

  Clearsight hesitated for a moment over one of her scrolls. The branching timelines for today — should she bring it for reference?

  No, stopping in the hall to consult a scroll every time she had to make a decision was bound to get her some weird looks. And if anyone took it and read it, they’d think she was crazy.

  It’s all in my head anyway.

  She bolted through the other rooms, scooped up the squirrel, knocked over a bookshelf by accident with her tail, called “Sorry! Sorry sorry! I have to fly!” to her parents, and made it to the front entrance before they intercepted her.

  “What’s the rush?” her father asked. “Suddenly you’re desperate to get to school, after dragging your wings about it for years? What’s going on?”

  “Don’t you want us to come with you?” her mother chimed in.

  “No — no, no,” Clearsight said as brightly as she could manage. She had to delay the meeting between them and Darkstalker for as long as she could, mostly to avoid a lot of awkward arguments she could see lurking in the immediate future, but also partly for their own safety, for complicated reasons. “I’m fine! I know where I’m going. I’ll see you in the morning!” She tapped her snout against each of theirs and they reluctantly moved aside.

  Outside, the night was just starting to spill into the ravines, reaching its long dark claws down to the rivers and less desirable homes at the bottoms of the cliffs. Clearsight’s wasn’t quite at the bottom, but it was more than halfway down.

  One day, if she could use her power to do something valuable for the queen — a vision that helped defeat the IceWings in the war, for instance — her family would be able to move to somewhere higher and more skylit, closer to the stars. That was something else she had to think about when she studied the futures.

  She spread her wings and soared up the rocky cliff face into the sky. From up here, it was easy to navigate the Night Kingdom; all the canyons and outcroppings were spread out below her like a scroll.

  The school was to the north, not far from the palace, each of them forming one side of the Great Diamond with the museum and the library on the other two sides. The palace was the biggest of the four buildings and wrapped around Borderland Mountain, but the school was designed to look very similar: lots of black and gray marble terraces, hanging gardens, and long glittering waterfalls. And at this hour, as night fell for the nocturnal tribe, both the school and the palace were mobbed by hundreds of beating black wings.

  Clearsight had flown all the possible routes to the school six times in the last two days. She was prepared; she knew exactly where to land. Of the three entrances to the school, the quietest and least crowded was on the side facing away from the palace.

  She spiraled overhead for a moment, checking the dragons below her — no sign of Darkstalker — and then swooped down. Her talons landed neatly on the marble tiles and she folded in her wings.

  Several other dragons were arriving and hurrying into the school, but no one even looked at her.

  Right, she remembered. They don’t know yet that I’m important. They don’t realize that soon everyone will know my name, or that I can save them from so many horrible things.

  A shiver ran down her spine. She spent so much time thinking about the future, but this was now, actually now. Now was when the future would be shaped.

  She stepped into the arboretum entrance, a damp, leafy space where the last rays of sunshine poured through the skylights and plants lined the room. A colonnade led from here past the library to a vast hexagonal courtyard, with classrooms lining the six sides. The courtyard was designed as an obstacle course for flying practice, full of trees, twisting vines, loops, mazes, and tricks.

  Clearsight followed the sound of the longest waterfall to a pavilion on an upper level, to the main office, where a tired-looking dragon crouched behind a desk, moving piles of paper around.

  “Hello, Professor Truthfinder,” she said. “I’ve come for my placement.”

  “Oh,” said the dragon, pressing her talons to her temples. “Where did I put that?”

  Oh, please don’t make me take all those tests again, Clearsight thought. She’d spent an entire day filling out scroll after scroll to demonstrate that she was ready for class with the other three-year-olds, instead of having to start at the beginning with the one-year-olds. She was sure she’d done well.

  “Yes, yes, you did,” said Truthfinder absently. “Well enough that we could put you with the four-year-olds instead, we were thinking.”

  That’s HIS class. “No, thank you, that’s all right,” Clearsight said quickly. “With the other three-year-olds would be fine.”

  Truthfinder tilted her snout suspiciously. “Something you need to tell me? Are we going to have a problem?” The silver scales glittering from the corners of her eyes declared
Don’t lie — I can hear everything you think.

  “I would like to be with dragonets my own age,” Clearsight said as winningly as she could, clearing all other thoughts from her mind. “My parents think it would be best for my social development.” Maybe she should have brought them with her after all; maybe the clutter of their thoughts could have obscured hers.

  Not that there’s anything to worry about. I am SO excited to be starting school at last! Hooray for wonderful school!

  Truthfinder stared her down for a long moment. Clearsight was pretty sure the smile on her face was getting a little manic, but she couldn’t get rid of it now.

  “Very well,” Truthfinder said slowly. “Three-year-olds, advanced reading group, special seer training elective. I’m including a note that your maneuvers could use extra work in flight class, with an eye to possible remedial lessons. Any extracurriculars?”

  “Not right now,” Clearsight said. “Thank you.” Extra work? Flight class? Remedial lessons! She tried to squash down her indignant feelings. It’s true, I’ve spent more time in the library than flying. But for good reason!

  Truthfinder gave her a stern look and made another note on the scroll in front of her. “Give this to your teacher — room 3A.” She rolled it up and passed it to Clearsight.

  “But when is my seer training class?” Clearsight asked, glancing at the scroll. “I don’t see any information about it in here.”

  Truthfinder raised her eyebrows at her. “When you are ready for it, you will know.”

  Oh dear. It’s a test, Clearsight realized. But kind of a backward one, surely. If you were good enough at reading the future to figure out where and when your class would be, then did you really need any training?

  I shouldn’t think that way. I’m sure I need training. A really skilled seer will help me figure out how to read the timelines better and how to steer other dragons along the best paths.

  So she would find the class on her own; she could do that.

  “Thank you,” Clearsight said again, backing out of the room. She started down the hall and paused at one of the windows that overlooked the school’s main entrance.