Dragons vs. Drones (17 page)

“And then Dree found you.”

“Yes. She was just a little girl herself, but she cared for me. She spent every day with me in the cave, bringing me milk and whatever scraps she could manage from the city. I grew quickly, and soon I could hunt rabbits and birds and squirrels. But I was still alone, and Dree became everything for me. My whole world. Even as I grew, she was my big sister. She will always be that to me, and I will protect her at any cost.”

Marcus heard the emotion in Lourdvang's voice. Lourdvang had thought he'd lost her.

“Do you ever think about your parents?” Marcus asked.

“Always,” he said. “But they made their own paths, and I must make mine.”

Marcus thought about that for a while as they soared over the edge of the mountains. The city was visible in the distance. Over the past week, the drones had leveled much of it, though the downtown core was still intact. Smoking ruins covered the outer ring, and Marcus spotted a Tracker far in the distance, watching over the devastation.

“You must be angry that I brought them here,” Marcus said.

“I was,” Lourdvang replied. “But I know now you want to destroy them. I am angry with the people who sent them. They kill humans and dragons alike, and they must pay. I think our only chance to stop them is if the three of us work together.”

Marcus nodded. “Should we go check on Dree?”

“She is probably enjoying the peace and quiet,” Lourdvang chuckled, his eyes on his secret cave below, where Dree's family was sheltering from the drones. There were scattered clothes drying in the sun. “But she'll be happy to know her family is fine.”

They circled back toward Forost, the midday sun burning brightly over a lush, magical world of soldiers, dragons, and castles. It all seemed so real to Marcus—even more real than the world he had left. Arlington was starting to feel like a dream, far away and fading.

The thought disturbed him, but he didn't have much time think about it.

He had a palace to break into, and a world to save.

Chapter
20

D
ree gingerly put down the welding torch, her hands throbbing and calloused from hours of work. She had barely let go of the torch for two days, working endlessly on Baby Hybrid. Her eyes were dry and sore from welder's blindness—a common symptom of staring at a blazing hot flame all day and night. She was generally more immune to it than most, but working so many hours in the dark cavern had pushed her tolerance to the limit. She stepped back and wavered a little, exhausted.

Despite all that, she was very pleased. The hybrid had been completely salvaged, and she had even improved it: new armored plating on the wing joints, better flexibility on the legs, and an enhanced mouth mechanism. Baby Hybrid
could bite now and release limited fire from her gullet. It was closer to being a dragon than before, but it still needed help to become a true weapon. Dree didn't know exactly what the Egg could do, but if it gave Baby Hybrid dragon magic, it was worth the risk. Still, she was very proud of what she had done—the hybrid was magnificent.

What was more, for the first time in her life, she hadn't had any flashbacks. No images of burning hallways or screaming, even in the brief naps she had taken. Gavri wasn't there anymore, calling for her to help him. He was happy, riding somewhere on the back of a dragon, and he had told her to move on. To live her life. It was like she had finally gotten to say goodbye, and she looked at the world in a new light.

Now she just had to make sure it wasn't destroyed.

“All set,” Marcus called from where he was sitting in the corner.

“What's set?” Dree asked.

Marcus rubbed his hands together eagerly. “I programmed a homing beacon in Baby Hybrid. If I try to place a call from my cell, she will recognize the signal and find us immediately.”

“Impressive,” Dree said.

“At least we'll have a little backup if things go wrong in the palace,” he replied. “Now I just need to figure out how to turn Lourdvang's fire into a power source. Still working on that one. How's Baby Hybrid?”

“She's ready,” Dree said, running her hands over Baby Hybrid's snout.

Marcus grinned and climbed to his feet. Lourdvang was sleeping in the corner.

“It looks great,” Marcus said admiringly. “You have the touch.”

“I do try,” Dree replied. “I'm going to take her for a test spin.”

Marcus turned to Lourdvang. “I'll get—”

“No,” she said. “Let him sleep. He'll need it.”

“What if the hybrid conks out?”

She shook her head. “It won't. Not this time. We did everything right. I also made a new addition: two shafts leading to her heart. If she loses power, I can send some fire of my own to kick-start her again.”

“Brilliant,” Marcus said. “Want me to come?”

“No,” she replied. “I want to really stretch her legs this time.”

He laughed. “Okay. But be careful. She'll come right back here if there's trouble, so make sure you're on board.”

“Will do.” Dree turned to him, meeting his eyes. “Thank you for helping us with all this. I know you want to be out there searching for your father.”

“Saving Dracone is my responsibility,” he said. “There's nowhere I'd rather be.”

There was a moment of awkward silence, and then Dree looked away. “This is going to be bad . . . fighting the drones. Are you ready for war?”

“Not even close,” he admitted. “I feel faint just thinking about it.”

Dree laughed. “I know exactly you what you mean.”

She climbed on board the hybrid.

“Baby Hybrid,” she said. “Fly.”

Marcus watched as she raced out of the cavern, and then he went back to his laptop to see if he could find a way to get it working.

Outside, Dree was already hundreds of feet away, screaming across the sky. Today she was really going to push Baby Hybrid—she wanted to know exactly what it could do.

“Top speed!” she shouted, and the hybrid accelerated even faster.

She barely held on, her strong fingers clenching the steel plate. Baby Hybrid was incredibly fast. The mountains whizzed past beneath them, and Dree grinned.

“Dive!” she shouted, ducking low in preparation.

Baby Hybrid tilted its wings and sent them shooting downward, still slow but better than before. It turned and fired more effectively, and she laughed as it blew a massive boulder apart before turning and climbing back into the sky. The hybrid was definitely much improved, and Dree suspected that it might even be able to take on a drone. But four of them—there was still no chance. Not without the dragons' help.

She streaked over the last western mountain by the city, where her family was huddled in Lourdvang's secret cave. She thought about going down to see them, but she was afraid the hybrid might attract unwanted attention. If there were any drones in the area, they might investigate. For now, the safest thing was to leave her family alone.

Seeing no drones over the city, she made her way to the south end, low enough that she could see the destruction. As she passed over the docks, her stomach sank. The homes in her neighborhood were completely leveled—nothing but heaps of charred, smoking wood. Her house was gone, as was Mrs. Warmen's. Dree felt sick as she stared at the rubble.

Dree couldn't resist investigating. Her designs had been in the house. If they had survived the attack, she wanted them back.

“Baby Hybrid,” she said. “Land.”

The forward engines immediately stopped, and they started dropping downward in a controlled, steady descent. They touched down on the street in front of her house, and Dree leapt off of the hybrid's back. The docks were completely deserted. The area was in absolute ruins. Not a single house was standing in a half-mile radius. She felt her knees wobble as she looked out over the neighborhood she had grown up in. Streets she had played in, houses she had visited, people she had known. They were all gone. Glass littered the streets. Clothes and personal possessions were scattered everywhere—once-priceless things to a peasant that meant nothing in death.

It was all gone. She slowly stepped up onto the pile of debris that had been her home, pulling planks of wood and roof slats off, looking for the memories beneath. She found her father's armchair, mostly burned but still sitting in the same place. She half expected him to be sitting in it. She found the charred frame for one of her mother's prized
pictures—the image itself burned away. Pots and pans. A kitchen chair. Her little brothers' cots, still standing next to each other but with the blankets scorched to ashes.

Dree finally found her room in the rubble. Her cot was nothing but a blackened frame. She wanted to cry at the sight, but her tears had already emptied in the meadow. These were just things, and they could get more. Her family was safe, and that was all that really mattered. She pawed beneath the bed and finally found the small figurine of the dragon and its rider. Despite the fire and destruction, it remained.

Just like her and Lourdvang.

At least it was something. A memory that hadn't been completely destroyed.

Dree was just turning to go when a flash of movement caught her eye. She scooped up a chunk of wood by instinct, ready to fight, but it was too late. In an instant, five spears were held to her stomach and throat, wielded by grim-faced soldiers. Their chest plates were marked with a red flame, and their helmets were arched and curved over their cheeks. Each man was at least six feet tall and very muscular.

The Prime Minister's personal guard—the deadliest soldiers in Dracone.

Five more were slowly approaching Baby Hybrid, looking cautious. She understood: they had seen her land here, and they wanted to know what the hybrid was. They would take it back to the palace, and she would never see it again.

“Baby Hybrid,” she shouted, “go back to the mountain!”

The hybrid reacted instantly. It shot into the air, avoiding
the many iron spears hurled at it, and then shot toward the mountains in a flash. Dree grinned as it disappeared.

The Prime Minister wasn't going to get Baby Hybrid. Not if she could help it.

The lead soldier, a tall man with a black beard and hard eyes, turned to her. “That was not wise,” he snarled, and then he punched her right in the chin with a gauntleted right fist.

Dree didn't even see it coming. She just felt herself falling, and then there was darkness.

Chapter
21

M
arcus pumped his fist in excitement as the laptop suddenly turned on. He had managed to rig up a small power cell with leftover parts from the drone, but it still hadn't worked—not until he gently put his finger on the cell, making sure Lourdvang wasn't watching—and let the fire out. Usually it happened only when he was angry and not in control, but this time he just let it happen, and suddenly a scarlet flame snaked its way down his finger and into the power cell. As soon as it did, the laptop began charging. It confirmed Marcus's growing suspicion: The fire that he and Dree possessed was very similar to the power in
Lourdvang—not just fire, but energy.

It didn't make sense in the traditional notion of physics,
but it explained a lot about the dragons. The fire was their energy, keeping them aloft and never burning out. It wasn't just physics—it was magic. Or at least some combination of the two. As a science buff, he was reluctant to accept that physics couldn't explain everything. As a kid sitting in a lair with a dragon, he was more open to the possibilities.

But why could he create the fire? Did his father have the same ability?

There was so much he didn't know about his family. A father who had left him at four years old, and a mother he had never met. He thought back to the only discussion he'd ever had about his mother.

He had walked into the living room, where Jack was sitting on the couch. Jack would usually get home at nine, plop down, and watch TV until ten. He left Marcus money to buy pizzas or takeout or ready-made stuff from the grocery store, and Marcus always just left extra for him. He was the only ten-year-old he knew doing the grocery shopping.

This time Marcus was holding a photo album, the only one he had.

Jack saw it and smiled faintly, as if he knew what was coming. He took a sip of beer and kept his eyes on the TV.

“Can I ask you something?”

“You may,” he said quietly.

“Why are there no pictures of my mom?”

Jack was silent for a long moment. “Sit down.”

Marcus sat down next to him, the photo album in his lap.

“When I met your dad, your mother had already died,”
he said, his eyes still on the TV. Jack wasn't a very affectionate person. He didn't hug or clap shoulders or even make eye contact for long. “Even I don't know how. He told me once that she was a warrior, and that I would have liked her. I'm not sure if he meant she was a soldier, or perhaps that she had fought for her life. He didn't say, and I didn't want to ask. In fact, I never saw a picture of her either.”

Marcus frowned. “But why don't we have any?”

“Your dad didn't talk about her much, but when he did . . . I knew it was still painful. It was more than mourning, I think . . . almost as if he felt guilty for her death. It's a normal thing. We all want to protect the ones we love, and if we can't, we blame ourselves. I think he destroyed the pictures. Her clothes and possessions. He got rid of everything when he moved here, trying to leave the memories behind him.”

“Does that work?” Marcus murmured.

Jack paused. “Not for him.”

Marcus still remembered going back to his room with his photo album, wondering what his mother had looked like. Over time he had stopped wondering; he figured he would never know. But now that he was closer to his father, he wanted to know the truth.

For the moment, though, he was in a cave with a dragon, he had just turned on a computer with his fingers, and he was waiting for a girl to return on her flying dragon hybrid.

He watched as his operating system opened, and he thought about what Brian would say if he could see all this. He was fairly sure his best friend would faint when he first
saw Lourdvang, but he would be absolutely ecstatic to be in a world of swords and magic. Brian was an even bigger fantasy nerd than Marcus. Marcus wished he could bring him here, even for a day. Of course Brian would probably also swoon over Dree and break out in hives, so maybe it was for the best.

Marcus smiled and opened his coding program, figuring he might as well work on Baby Hybrid's programming while Dree was gone.

He was just starting when Baby Hybrid raced into the cavern, settling into the middle of the room and waiting. Marcus looked up to say hello and then pushed his laptop aside. He jumped to his feet, feeling his stomach flip. Dree wasn't there.

“Lourdvang!” he shouted, racing over to Baby Hybrid.

“What?” he rumbled, opening one blue eye.

“She's gone.”

Lourdvang was up in an instant, smoke roiling from his nose. “Gone where?”

“She took the drone out for a test. . . . She didn't come back.”

Lourdvang started for the opening, obviously going after her.

“Wait!” Marcus called. “We need Baby Hybrid.”

He leapt up onto its back and grabbed the steel plate.

“Take us back to where you were,” he ordered. “Now!”

Baby Hybrid immediately flew out of the cavern again, Lourdvang following after it. They shot into the air, and Marcus had to tell it to slow down a little so that Lourdvang
could keep up. Lourdvang was in a rage though, and he was flying fast. They raced over the mountains, and Marcus realized that they were heading for the city. Had she gone to visit her parents in the cave? Had she actually landed in the city? Had the drones picked her off before she could get there? They wouldn't know until Baby Hybrid stopped.

Marcus felt his insides churning at the thought of Dree being killed. His hands were trembling on the steel, and he felt a terrible heat racing through him. Why had he let her go by herself? He should have gone with her, or at least woken up Lourdvang to follow her. Now she was gone.

They reached the last mountain, where Dree's family was hidden, but Baby Hybrid kept flying. She hadn't seen her family—she was too smart to expose them like that. But where had she gone?

They flew out over the city, and Marcus anxiously scanned the horizon for drones. Nothing. If they had been here, they were long gone by now.

The ruined city passed below them, and then Baby Hybrid abruptly stopped and started to descend. Marcus looked down, trying to figure out why she had come here. It took him a moment to recognize where they were—the docks. She had come back to her home. Or what was left of it. The entire area was rubble. Her house had been wiped away like sand. Lourdvang descended right beside him, scanning the area for Dree.

“She must have landed,” Marcus called. “I'll look for her—”

He stopped as something caught his eye. A glint of sunlight.

Marcus leaned over the hybrid, narrowing his eyes. And then he saw them. Two men huddled against one of the ruined houses, spears in hand. Then he saw ten more close by, all taking shelter and waiting. Soldiers.

“Pull up!” he shouted desperately.

Lourdvang looked at him. “We have to—”

“Now!” he said. “Baby Hybrid . . . go up!”

The soldiers realized what was happening almost instantly. They stepped out from cover and started throwing spears and unleashing crossbow bolts. Lourdvang roared as a barbed arrow ripped through the membrane on his right wing. He swept upward, Baby Hybrid racing after him. Marcus heard an arrow hit the iron hull, falling away uselessly. They ascended far out of range, and Marcus turned to Lourdvang.

“Are you all right?” he asked worriedly.

“Fine,” Lourdvang growled. “I should kill them all.”

“I wouldn't argue,” Marcus said. “Let's go land somewhere. We need to figure this out.”

They landed soon after, up on the summit of a great mountain. Marcus looked at Lourdvang's injured wing in concern as he landed in the snow, sending a shower of steam billowing into the air. The hole was small enough that it didn't affect his flight, but it looked painful. Lourdvang dunked his wing in the snow, sighing as the steam shot out.

“They must have taken her,” Marcus said. “The soldiers. Who are they?”

“The Prime Minister's personal guard,” Lourdvang explained. “The Protectorate. They are the only soldiers who wear full fire-resistant armor. They specialize in dragon killing.”

“They must have seen Baby Hybrid and taken Dree for questioning,” Marcus said.

Lourdvang growled, shooting black smoke into the air. “Why did she have to land? Why didn't she tell me she was going? If they hurt her I'll burn that palace—”

“The drones will take care of that,” Marcus muttered. “Is that where they take prisoners?”

Lourdvang paused. “No. Dree told me of another place. Ancient dragon caves in one of the nearby mountains to the north. She said they had converted them into a prison some years ago. Supposedly impenetrable.”

“Great.”

“But they are dragon caves,” Lourdvang said, “stolen from my people. There is always more than one entrance. I bet the humans have not found them all.”

Marcus turned to him. “Time for a jailbreak.”