I glared at him. “I could have killed you in a dozen different ways already, but you are still alive!”
“Yes, but—” He shook his head. “I’m pretty sure that’s because of Andar. I’m sorry, Your Majesty. We’ll try to keep the dragons off you, but—”
“Aakil!” I wanted to sound commanding, but it came out more desperate. “Does it matter if you trust me?”
He tipped his head, that scholarly librarian look overtaking his expression. “What do you mean?”
He was listening. This was my chance. “Can you three take on six ice dragons? Even here, where your magic is strongest?”
He glanced at his friends. They scurried like mice dodging raptors, their magic irritating, but not threatening, the dragons. “No,” he said. “Our best chance is to slip their notice in the forest.”
I looked pointedly at the trees they’d ripped out. “They are giant vermin. They don’t avoid trees—they tear them out by the roots and burn down or stomp on things in their way. You need more hands to help you fight them.”
I couldn’t make him any promises about my magic or how I would normally feel confident in taking downa beast by myself—my magic was still out of reach. But I could make him think my magic would be helpful without actually promising it.
He hesitated. He had to know he needed me. He just didn’t know he needed a lot more than me in my current state.
He made a decision—I saw it flash in his brown eyes just before he ran up to me and stared into my gaze. “Will you promise not to attack us?”
Maybe I would survive long enough to disappear into the forest too. “I’ll do better than that. I promise not to hurt you, Bummel, or Amador deliberately.”
Satisfied, he released the rest of Andar’s bonds and gestured at his friends. “Let’s go help them.”
“Actually—” I swallowed. An uncomfortable sensation tightened my throat. Guilt? I wasn’t supposed to feel anything, but I couldn’t think of any other description for the lump in my throat. I turned my attention inward. Ah, there it was—a few weakened spots in the crystals around my heart were allowing feelings to seep through. The last few days had been too much to keep my walls unscathed. I’d have to—
One of the dragons roared, a bone-chilling, ground-shaking sound that stopped my internal reflection. I’d have to deal with those leaks later. When I could manipulate my magic. “I can’t help you,” I admitted to Aakil. My tight throat squeezed more as his jaw dropped. If this was guilt, I hoped Andar’s shame made him choke.
Aakil lifted his jaw enough to speak. “But I freed you.”
I raised my chin. I would not stare at the ground, even if I was humiliated. “Andar blocked my magic.” It was the simplest explanation. “I literally cannot help you.”
“But you said—” He cut off, probably realizing exactly what I had said. If this had been Bummel, I might have needed to spell it out, but Aakil understood. “Very well. I hope you survive.”
“And you.” One of my hands settled on my belt, and I traced the raised runes as I watched Aakil run toward his friends.
He pulled a pan flute out of a pouch on his side and started playing it. At the same time, one of the dragons pounced on Bummel, opening its giant maw and swallowing the musician. Aakil’s music grew louder and more frantic, but then shifted to an abrupt slower pace. The moment the tempo changed, the monster who had eaten Bummel twitched like it had been hit across the face. It opened its mouth, and Bummel fell out of it.
Two dragons turned on Aakil, but I couldn’t watch what happened because two others converged on me, blocking my view of everything besides their massive scaly bodies. One of them blew a fountain of blue fire right next to me, deepening the burns I already had on my arm. I wanted to grab the injury, but I knew that would only hurt it more. “Changing clothes will nothide you,” the dragon hissed. “Last chance. Relinquish the treasure.”
I hadn’t meant to change clothes, but my outfit had shifted to the dress. I would have enjoyed it more if the dragons weren’t trying to kill me. “I don’t have any treasures with me,” I panted, panic rising, “but I can get you one! I just need to get to the Kalshana Palace, and—”
“Lies!” the fire-happy dragon hissed, flooding my face with smoke and heat. “We want the Kahunamons treasure. I smell it on you.”
I had nothing left to say. I could not outrun them. I could not fight them. And I could not convince them that I didn’t have their treasure.
He opened his mouth again. Fire appeared in the back of his throat and rolled out of his mouth.
I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t see it hit me.
But instead of the kiss of death, an ear-splitting crack ripped through the air right in front of me. A physical shock wave bounced away from the sound and knocked me to the ground. I tore my eyes open and rubbed them, unable to make sense of what I saw. After a few seconds, Andar came into focus, clear and undeniable, standing between me and the dragons.
His raised hands supported a massive, invisible shield—I only knew it was there because the dragons’ blue flames burned against it, forming a wall of fire that Andar held over us.
My heart pounded at his dramatic rescue, but then rational thought returned. It was his fault that I neededhelp in the first place. “What are you doing here?” My words were little more than a snarl, and probably lost in the din of flames and dragons.
Or not. He turned to me, exposing the single bead of sweat that dripped down the side of his face. “I couldn’t leave you.”
I stood up and dusted the soil from my clothes. “Why not?”
