“You bastard!” Dusk roared, his thunderous growl shuddering the throne hall from its foundations to its chandeliers. “Layla was supposed to have immunity as my Witness!”
“I’m afraid the Witness you chose was rather dangerous,” King Markus’ diamond-white eyes glinted with a terrible subtlety. “She went mad in my rooms yesterday and had to be subdued. In addition, your Desert Dragon First invaded my boudoir to save her, which I could not allow. In any case, if you find them in time, you’ll all survive. But before you begin, there’s one more thing.”
Flicking his fingers, King Markus had the two enormous emerald drakes who had been guarding his doors move into the throne hall. Between them they carried a human-sized crystal sarcophagus in their jaws, and as they bowed their necks, setting that ornate coffin at the side of the dais, Layla saw Dusk’s brows knit, then rise in alarm. Rushing to the coffin, he cried out in dismay, before he was hauled back by six Crystal Dragon guards in blue livery.
Snarling up at King Markus upon his high dais, Dusk roared. “What have you done to her?! What have you done to my mother?!”
“She is fine. She is merely asleep, deep and without dreams.” King Markus spoke from his high throne. “Your mother is insurance to help you take my Trials seriously. Find your Dragon Bind and your Desert Dragon brother in the time allotted, and you can have Sky free and clear, with safe passage to our borders. Fail, and unfortunately they will all die, your mother included. While you writhe on in madness, dealing with your failure as you may.”
“I will kill you for this!” Dusk growled, utterly cold as he stood at the foot of the sapphire dais.
“I would like to see you try.” King Markus spoke levelly, holding Dusk’s gaze with his terrible presence. “You have twenty-four hours to complete your task. Don’t count on your friends to come rescue you; I have placed a large army at my borders to resist Reginald Durant and Rhennic Erdhelm’s forces so they cannot arrive in time to save you. Any other allies of yours caught sneaking into Crystal Dragon territory will be detained until all this is over. No one is coming. Adrian is dying and Layla is alone, far down in the black and beginning to lose air.”
Flicking his fingers at a massive crystal hourglass Layla hadn’t seen in her vision until just now, King Markus had his enormous emerald drakes turn the hourglass upside down, starting a flow of glittering sands within. As they began to sift into a small pile at the bottom of the enormous glass, King Markus gave Dusk a terrible smile.
“You have twenty-four hours. You may begin your Trials.”
The vision snapped out and Layla saw no more. But even as she breathed hard in astonishment, her hands still resting upon the shard in Adrian’s chest, she heard him groan. Adrian’s fingers gripped hers and Layla knew she had to hurry; too late she had the thought that King Markus’ prison of crystal had probably been extending Adrian’s life, to at least make it to the twenty-four hour mark.
But even as she had that thought, she felt the diamond sands of Markus’ power deep within her shift yet again. As they did, the whisper of a voice rose in her mind, like a sad ghost.
You can save him. If you take us from Markus… you can save your Desert drake.
“What? How?” Layla breathed, astonished and wondering who was contacting her.
Rise up. Rise up and find us.
As Layla heard that wisp of thought, she suddenly felt like the entire expanse of diamond sand within her was speaking. As if the source King Markus used to create his power had voices, had a mind or even many minds, Layla could feel them urging her to rise and search for something important to them. They would help her save Adrian, and they could, but she had to do something for them first before they were able to.
Suddenly, Layla understood she had to answer them before she could continue trying to shatter King Markus’ cruel shard protruding from Adrian’s chest.
“Adrian, I have to do something before I can break this shard.” Layla spoke to him quickly.
“Hurry.” He breathed, his voice extremely weak now as more froth bubbled at the corners of his mouth.
“Hold on. Be strong for me.” Layla spoke quickly, giving him a kiss on the lips as she released her grip on the shard. Straightening, Layla gazed around the octagonal catacomb, feeling how deep it was underground. By now, Dusk was somewhere in the Thin Ways, the ancient Crystal Dragon passages beneath the earth, searching for her. But trapped in this octagonal room with its milky white walls and floor, lit by the glowing white-blue crystals all around, Layla had no clue if Dusk could feel her or not. As she looked around, she realized she couldn’t feel him through their Bind either – as if the octagonal room was somehow insulated from the outside world.
Dusk couldn’t help them. It was up to her to save Adrian, and to do that, Layla had to feel her way through the puzzle of the diamond sands. With a growl, she stepped away from Adrian. Pacing the room, she slid a hand over the milky walls, a vicious fury rising inside her. Layla twisted, furious about Markus trying to control her Bind-magic, terrified for Adrian, her heart breaking for Dusk. As she growled again, walking the room and trying to figure out what she was supposed to do, she suddenly felt that vast diamond sand within her resonate with her own emotions.
Just as furious as she was, just as terrified, and just as heartbroken.
As Layla felt that resonance between her and the diamond sand, she suddenly felt it move. Shifting and whirling inside her, it was as if a hot desert wind had picked it all up, swirling it into a rageful funnel. As Layla felt that vicious motion inside her and all the wrathful power behind it, she suddenly couldn’t hold it in anymore. As she unleashed her fury in a roar, it came out broad and deep, thundering with bass notes she didn’t normally have in her own Dragon’s voice.
Thundering with thousands of voices at once.
As the wall before her shimmered in a long line of writhing golden veins beneath her fingertips, Layla stepped back in sudden shock. Her fingertips fell from the wall and the effect faded. But Layla knew what she had seen; what she had done. Somehow, her roar with the power of the diamond sand had passed into the wall through her fingertips. It had manipulated the crystal wall, resonated with it – and as Layla stared at the wall, she knew she could repeat it.
Find us.
The ghostly voice within her now seemed like thousands of voices as Layla faced the wall, setting both palms against it. Feeling its milky smoothness, she closed her eyes, digging deep. Spiraling back down into the place that held her Dragon, she took a breath. Burrowing her Dragon down into the vast diamond sands, Layla let it rage. She let the furious drakaina inside her roar and heave, shuddering up all that vast expanse in a tremendous wave of searing fury. Using all her emotions, every roar inside her soul, Layla whipped those sands up high inside her.
And they were like an animal as they rose to her call, wild-eyed and rageful.
With a swirl of scalding heat through her veins, Layla felt her fury lock to theirs. Unleashed as she opened some place inside her that normally kept her tremendous rage in check, she felt her fury come like a demon, as that spinning, snarling expanse of diamond sand came with it. Spiraling up inside her, the tremendous force of all that rage spilled out of her mouth in a primal scream, a terrible, thundering roar that contained all the vicious wrath of her drakaina – plus all those voices in the diamond sand.
The sound she made shuddered the wall before Layla, spiraling golden lines out from her palms as the entire wall lit in a vast wave. Suddenly, Layla knew that by using King Markus’ power in the diamond sands, she could break that wall. Dredging up an annihilating fury, Layla slammed her palms against the wall, roaring again from the seat of her being, and the combined effect of her fury plus those sands within her was like thunder as it pummeled into the wall – spiderwebbing the whole thing out from Layla’s palms in enormous golden cracks.
Layla’s drakaina surged in triumph, the entire chamber rang with echoes like a bell. As she hammered her fists against the cracks now, roaring with the diamond-sands, then spun into a vicious attack-maneuver with her palms together, shoving power at the wall, Layla felt a hammer of force leave her body.
