“How much longer do you have?” Daniel asked, his gaze lowering to the land below us.
“I’m going to make it another two,” Lexen bit out.
He was going to kill himself trying to save us, that was for sure. “Don’t push yourself, just go as far as you can,” I said. A thought hit me then. “Would it have been easier just to fly back up the top justice level?”
“There is no going back up to the top,” Daniel told me. “This land works very hard to keep you in the justices. It only lets you move in one direction.”
Great, we’d stumbled into the Overworld version of Ikea. We were screwed; we were never getting out of here.
“It’d be good if you can make it past the Maze,” Daniel said to Lexen. “It’s filled with tricks and riddles to solve. If you don’t use your wits, you could be trapped there forever. We’ll get through no trouble, but it will take some time. Time we don’t really have.”
We were above that land now. I blinked as I watched it below, trying to wrap my mind around the sheer size of it. From our angle, it was sort of easy to make out a path through the massive green hedges, but if we’d been on the ground, and had to navigate through the miles and miles of twists and turns, it would be next to impossible.
Lexen dropped a little lower again. We were only about twenty feet up from the top of the maze now.
“Go left!” I shouted down at a figure standing near a crossroads.
Daniel covered my mouth. “No helping, remember,” he warned me again.
I shook my head, dislodging him. “You’re not the boss of me. I’ll help if I want to help.”
Annnd I was back to belligerent teenager. Being told what to do was a huge pet hate of mine. Lexen laughed and Daniel wisely said nothing more. We dropped a little more, and I thought that Lexen’s wing flaps were slowing. Lifting my hand, I pressed it to his chest. I wished I could send some of my energy into him, my clumsy, unathletic energy.
On second thought, that might be more of a hindrance.
His thumb caressed my spine again, and I swear I felt it all the way to the tips of my fingers. My hand was tingling where it remained pressed against him. I was wondering if our energies were clashing together somehow, because it felt like heat shifted between us, when Daniel cleared his throat. “Legreto level,” he said.
Legreto level…
We had left the maze and were now over a platform of water. Sunlight brushed across me. For the first time it was warm, almost like I was outside. Pure magic, because there was still only darkness above. The Land of Legreto was stunning. I’d never seen clearer water, aquamarine in color as it thrashed around its level. There were pockets of land scattered along the body of water, land which disappeared at each rise and fall of the tide. It looked like you’d have to have perfect timing to be able to cross, jumping from one to another. I could see a plethora of creatures swimming in the depths of the water. Some looked huge and were shaped like sharks, so I was guessing it wasn’t ideal to be caught in the waters.
We were going to find out, because Lexen was dropping rapidly now.
When we were about six feet above the water line, Daniel pointed toward a reasonably large domed section of land. “Put us down there, Lex. I see a clear run through.”
“I … can … make it.” The labored words were calling him out on his lie. But I knew he was going to give it a shot. He was practically gliding by this point.
I patted his chest, drawing his attention. “Just land. You still need enough energy to make it past the obstacles of the next level, and if I’m deducing anything from Daniel, it’s that your energy is not going to come back. The justices will keep draining you.”
I thought he was going to argue, but he tilted us just enough to glide the rest of the way down and land on the island Daniel had pointed out. His feet hit the ground, followed by his knees as he collapsed forward, flinging us free. I braced myself with my arms, stopping my face from smashing into the rocky ground.
Daniel was up and on his feet in a heartbeat, using his superior height to check out where we had to go next. Ignoring him, I took two steps back to Lexen, who was still on his knees. In his dragon form we were almost eye to eye. Actually he was still taller. I placed both hands on his cheeks, not liking the ragged way his chest heaved up and down.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He gave me one of those rare smiles with all of his teeth, the one where it felt like I’d been punched in the chest. “Going to protect me, badass?”
I snorted. “You two – and Jero – need to work on your nickname skills. You all suck.”
His eyes shuttered for a moment as he sucked in a deep breath, then with a rush of light and energy he pulled the dragon form back into himself. Scales disappeared as he shrank to his normal giant size. The wings were the last to vanish, disappearing into his back somehow.
“I can conserve more energy like this,” he explained as he got to his feet, with less grace than normal but still more than me.
“We need to move,” Daniel interrupted.
Before I could say a word, he had turned and snatched me up into his arms. I opened my mouth to protest just as he leapt from the island, landing us in a small patch of water. It was only ankle deep when he landed, but by the time Lexen joined us, it was already to their knees.
I tried to ignore the weird creatures swimming close by, some with long lacy-looking tendrils. “I can take her,” Lexen grumbled, staring his friend down.
