Shimmer glowered. “None of you were meant to be here,” he said.
“We… got through,” Trip burbled cheerfully.
Mik took a deep breath of enchanted air and felt another scale fall from his necklace. “Trip’s right…” he said. “The fact that we’re here… means we’re meant to be.”
The bronze knight crossed his arms over his broad chest, and his eyes narrowed. “Perhaps.”
“Lady Meinor is having trouble breathing,” Ula said, a touch of concern in her voice.
“Me, too!” blurted Trip.
“The seaweed magic’s fading,” Mik said.
“The surface can’t be far,” Ula replied.
“Hurry!” Karista gasped.
They turned and swam quickly upward, Ula, Mik, and Shimmer helping Trip and Karista Meinor.
Mog’s brain ached. He’d followed the fugitives through the tunnels for what seemed like hours. Several times, he became confused and almost lost sight of them before his keen nose set him straight again.
The water around him surged with unexpected currents. The sides of the passages wavered. Once he found himself turned completely around and realized his mistake only just in time to avoid losing his prey.
The problem grew steadily worse as he went. The tides roared in his ears, tiny glittering fish danced before his eyes, and his skin crawled with even more worms than usual. The Turbidus leech attached to his spine-his connection to Tempest-burned like a molten sword.
He almost turned back, but the thought of the sea dragon’s wrath spurred him on. Ahead, he dimly saw the shapes of his quarry. They had stopped at some kind of glowing barrier. Mog tried to swim closer but found he couldn’t. He bumped into one of the coral walls and clung there, dizzy and sick to his stomach.
A jolt shot through the water. Mog bit his tongue to keep from screaming. He looked up just as Karista Meinor passed through the Veil.
His mind suddenly cleared, and the dragonspawn swam cautiously forward as his prey disappeared into the distance. Ahead, the Veil wavered and rippled around a rapidly contracting hole in its enchantment.
Mog shot forward, swimming as quickly as he knew how. He thrust his scaly body toward the opening, but it shrank even as he did so.
His head slammed into the shimmering barrier. Fire shot down his spine, and his limbs twitched uncontrollably. His mouth felt as though it were full of sea urchins. Every scale on his body throbbed; his red eyes ached as though he’d rubbed them with sand.
He blinked back the pain and saw the Veil closing before him.
Summoning every iota of energy in his scaly flesh, he transformed into a sea snake and slithered through the hole just as it snapped shut.
Exhausted, he became Mog once more and settled into the sand at the bottom of the tunnel beyond the enchanted barrier.
His head felt clearer now, though his body ached as though a reef had fallen on top of him. The Turbidus leech burrowed into his mind howled with pain and indignation. It called to its dark mistress. Vaguely, like an echo in a typhoon, Mog heard Tempest respond.
For once, he ignored her and simply passed out.
Pure blue-white illumination flooded the tunnel ahead of them.
“Moonlight!” Trip bubbled. “For sure!”
The light rekindled the hopes of the weary fugitives, and they swam quickly toward it. An opening in the coral, distant and wavering, beckoned before them.
The tunnel leveled out and they walked up, out of the brine, onto a sandy-floored passageway.
Karista knelt at the water’s edge and spat the seaweed from her mouth. She sputtered and gasped for breath. “At last!” she said. “Thank the lost gods we made it!”
Trip pulled the magical seaweed out of his mouth and stuffed it into one of the pockets of his snake skin vest. “Hope I won’t need that again anytime soon,” he said.
“C’mon,” Mik said, leaning wearily against one wall of the tunnel. “It’s not much farther.” He glanced from his shipmates toward the sea elf and the knight.
Shimanloreth stood solidly on his bronze legs at the front of the group, waiting for the others to catch up. Ula leaned on her borrowed spear, taking a moment to catch her wind. Mik noticed that a circle of dolphins tattooed on her smooth, blue shoulder glittered slightly in the moonlight.
“Where do we go from here?” he silently wondered. An image of the huge blue-white diamond appeared in his mind, but he pushed it aside.
He and Trip helped Karista to her feet, and the three of them staggered after the sea dwellers and toward the light. It took them only a few moments to walk up, out of the tunnel and into the fresh air once more.
They emerged on a tiny coral atoll, its surface just tall enough to avoid submerging during high tide. They came out of the tunnel facing west, toward the way they’d come. Back, beyond the Veil, the ocean boiled with the sea dragon’s fury. Stormclouds clashed overhead, and lightning flashed down into the breakers with frightening regularity. The crash of thunder and the roar of the winds seemed oddly distant-unreal-as though the storm were part of another world.
Somewhere below those waves, the people of Reeftown were still fighting and dying. Mik felt glad that he and his friends were no longer a part of that terrible struggle. He turned to the east, away from the storm, and his heart filled with wonder.
Overhead, the moon shone brightly amid a field of twinkling stars. A mantle of purple and deep blue draped the sky, fading to violet and pink near the eastern horizon. The sun had not risen yet, but already its glow painted the skyline with the colors of the coming day.
The ocean lay still and quiet, reflecting the moon and the stars in its mirror-like, azure surface.
Dotting the placid waters, like emeralds on an opal sea, lay the Dragon Isles.
Part II: The Dragon Isles
Chapter Seventeen
Tempest’s massive jaws snapped shut, splintering the coral tower into shards. She chewed twice, to stop the annoying thrashing of the building’s defenders, then swallowed.
It had been a long time since the dragon had enjoyed herself so thoroughly. Around her, Reeftown lay in shambles. Blood stained the night sea black.
The sea elves fought back against the sharks, razorfish, Turbidus leeches, and Tempest’s cadre of dragonspawn. But with the titanic dragon leading them, the Reeftowners stood little chance.
Tempest bit another elf in half, savoring the sweet blood as it rolled down her gullet. She butted her massive head against a bony woman trying to poke her with a spear. The woman sailed through the water and crashed into a crumbling coral wall. The wall collapsed, burying the spear carrier.
The dragon surged forward, shattering an old shipwreck that had been converted into a tavern. The patrons hiding inside scattered like minnows. Tempest gulped them down one by one.
Something tugged at the dragon’s mind.
It took a few moments for her to recognize the familiar thoughts calling inside her brain.
The Veil! One of her minions had actually made it to the Veil’s final harrier!
In an instant, Tempest ripped the vital knowledge from the informant’s mind. Instantly, the path before her became clear.
Turning, she surged toward the distant reef, leaving her minions to fend for themselves.
The Veil shimmered ahead of her, penetrating reef and sea and sky. At its base stood a huge stone dragon, seemingly carved from the very bedrock. The statue’s diamond eyes blazed with the power of ancient enchantment.
The sea dragon hissed her anger and dived forward. As she approached, the Veil’s magic flickered, as though momentarily weakened.
Tempest flung herself against the barrier, summoning all her arcane might as she did so. The Veil shuddered, yielded slightly, then wrapped itself around the dragon’s huge form.