But I can’t do it.
I’m too upset by how I failed her.I flew in little circles while she died.I mean, we’re both alive now.She is.I am.Everything’s fine, only it’s not...
She’s not bonded to me anymore, which makes me inexplicably sad, even though I can’t remember any of this.I wish I could truly erase it so it never happened.I would if given the chance.
When Liz walks toward us, she looks nervous.“Are you ready to go?I think we’re done here.”
I don’t answer her.I walk far enough away to make a portal, careful to ensure it’s on the ground for the water blessed and humans who are walking through.When she tries to catch my eyes, I look away.
In New Hampshire, the group we gather’s much smaller.Sixty-four humans, twenty-one of which are bright enough to bond.The last stop of the day is better—we find another hundred and twelve brights, but all told, we have less than three hundred humans willing to save my people.
Hyperion’s going to lose his mind.I doubt Liz will get her third day.
She knows it.
I can tell from the expression on her face.
“What about the Orlando Renaissance festival?”Jean asks.“I know it’s riskier, but think about it.If we can’t convince the other blessed to wait...”She shrugs.
She’s right, and Liz knows it too.
“Tell me what you have in mind.”
“Today’s the last day, and since it’s a Sunday, I bet there are lots of people.Nerdy, fantasy-loving people.”Clearly Liz explained that not only do those people seem more likely to support us, but they also seem to have a higher incidence of brights.
Liz thinks that maybe brights are naturally drawn to fantasy.Norm believes it’s because the type of person who is likely to be worthy of bonding a dragon is more likely to be openminded.Either way, there appears to be some sort of correlation.
“And?”Liz asks.“We go and walk around, trying to talk to people?”
“I was thinking of something a little more direct.”Jean turns my way.“How would you feel about summoning anyone who can hear you?”
“He’d have to get close enough first.”Liz spends almost an hour investigating the location before ruling it out.“It just won’t work.It’s right next to an airport, for heaven’s sake.”
“Maybe he can fly over, disguised as a plane,” Jean says.
“Do you hear yourself?”Liz starts pacing.“It’s lunacy.”
“Seeing him like that,” Jean says.“It would be a bigger draw than summoning the brights.”
“How far away can you be and still talk to humans?”Liz is eyeing me strangely.“Let’s test it.”
Far, it turns out, but not far enough for me to call them from the wilderness on the east side of Orlando, and Liz throws her hands up in the air.“I just need more time.”
We don’t have it,I say.I’m sorry.
When she starts crying, for some reason it makes me want to melt something.I hate how much I hate it.If we’re going to return to Selfoss with less than three hundred brights, you know how Hyperion will react.There’s no way we can find a human to voluntarily bond each blessed in a week or ten days, not at this pace.
“I know,” she explodes, her hands clenched, her eyes wild.“I’m well aware, and I can’t even disagree with you.This method’s just too slow.”
“You have to gamble,” Jean says.
I’ll portal into the space beside the festival.There.I point at the map with my nose.You’ll be with me.We’ll call whoever we can, and then we’ll portal back out.
“How many humans would we need to convince him?”
At least a thousand,I say.
“A thousand?”She kicks a rock.“If we could do five hundred today, and then?—”
