“Here’s what we do,” said Ivy. “Steal horses, ride to the desert palace, rescue Aunt Rose. Ride back, bring her into the city of Valor, show everyone that she’s still alive. Everyone celebrates! Everyone is thrilled! Dad is so so happy that his sister isn’t really dead after all, it fixes his whole brain. I say to him, hey, Dad, you don’t really want to be lord anymore, do you? And he’s in such a good mood, he says, yeah, you’re right, let’s free the Wingwatchers and let them elect a new lord instead. And then we all live happily ever after! It’s such a great plan!”
“That sounds like one of my plans,” Daffodil objected. “The kind Violet would heartily make fun of.”
Leaf didn’t want to burst Ivy’s bubble — her face was all lit up for the first time since seeing the golden dragon, and she was so full of hope. But he couldn’t imagine any single part of this plan actually working out.
“Ivy,” Stone said, pouring cold tea into a cup. “I know this feeling. Believe me. I had a dream about her, too, remember? I sent myself on a pointless yearlong quest as a result. But it’s not possible. She’s really dead.”
“This wasn’t a dream!” Ivy said. “This was magic! Look, in your dream, was she still the teenager you remember?”
“Yes,” he said slowly.
“In mine, which wasn’t a dream, it was totally a vision, she was twenty years older. The age she really is now! And she was with the golden dragon! In the desert! I think the dragons have her out there!”
Stone handed her the tea and took the sapphire, examining it like a vegetable that might turn out to be poisonous.
“If she’s with dragons,” he said, “why haven’t they eaten her?”
“I don’t know,” Ivy said. “She was on the dragon’s shoulder, as though she rode around on it all the time. Maybe they’re keeping her there like, like, like that parakeet Violet’s dads had for a while, remember? Or Daffodil’s pet rabbit! Maybe the dragons think she’s cute.”
“Dragons don’t keep pets,” Stone argued. “Humans are the only species who do that.”
Leaf tried to remember whether he’d seen any pets in the mountain palace. He could kind of imagine the little red dragon having a pet, but certainly none of the big scary ones who smashed goats with their talons.
“We have to go find out,” Ivy pleaded. “If there’s a chance she’s in that palace, still alive, don’t we have to go see?”
“Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh,” Stone said, burying his head in his hands. “Yes.”
“What?” Daffodil cried. “I thought you were talking her out of this madness! I would have said more things if I knew she was convincing you. Ivy, what if the dragons don’t think you’re cute and they end up eating you? I mean, obviously I think you’re too cute to eat, but dragons might not be smart enough to realize that!”
“Also the flaws in every other part of the plan,” Leaf said. “(a) Going back into Valor to steal horses, (b) trying to get into the dragon palace, (c) coming back to Valor and hoping the Dragonslayer is happy to see you … all of these things sound kind of impossible, Ivy.”
“I’ll go get the horses,” Stone said, standing up. He pointed at Ivy as she started to get to her feet. “Alone.”
“But you can’t go to the palace without me,” she said. “I’m coming, too. You have to promise you won’t go without me.”
“Or me,” Leaf said. “I’m the only one here who’s escaped from a dragon palace before. I can be useful.”
“Also me!” Daffodil said. “I’m not at all useful, but I don’t want to sit here wondering if you’re all dead!”
Stone waved his hand at all of them. “I will get what I can get,” he growled, and stomped off into the forest.
“What about the treasure?” Ivy said. “Should we take it with us? Maybe we can exchange it for Rose!”
“I don’t think there’s any safe way to get it, Ivy,” Daffodil pointed out.
That was probably true. They debated it for a while longer, but even Ivy had to agree it was too risky.
“We can take them the sapphire, at least,” she said. “Maybe that’ll be enough.”
By nightfall, Stone still hadn’t returned, and Ivy had practically paced a groove around the temple. “We could walk to the palace!” she cried. “Who needs horses? I shouldn’t have let him go. It would only take a few days to walk to the palace, right?”
“Through the blistering hot desert,” Daffodil pointed out. She was lying on a blanket with her arm over her eyes. “With no water. That would be a very efficient way to die.”
“Let’s go back to the ruins,” Leaf suggested. “Maybe your friend Forest has come back, or maybe we’ll see Stone on his way.”
“Yes, please!” Daffodil said. “You guys go. When Ivy’s the one wearing me out, something is seriously wrong with the universe.”
Leaf lit a small lantern that Pine had left for them, and he and Ivy set off toward the ruins.
“What do you think about walking to the desert palace?” Ivy asked.
“Let’s give Stone a chance to come back with those horses,” he suggested. “I think it’s pretty hot out there.”
“I just feel useless,” Ivy said, waving her hands as though she was drawing a picture of all the nothing she was doing. “I don’t know how to stop my dad, I don’t know how to get the treasure to the dragons, I don’t know how to make everyone stop being angry. I feel like the only thing I can maybe do is go rescue Aunt Rose. Don’t you think that would make everyone feel better?”
I like her, imaginary Wren suddenly chimed in, after days of silence. She’s sort of ridiculous and I am enjoying it. You have my permission to like her, too.
I wasn’t ASKING for your permission, he pointed out.
Ivy led the way through the village to a set of stone stairs that had mostly collapsed. She sat down on one of the steps and he sat on the one below it, setting the lantern down beside them.
“If Aunt Rose were still here, I bet Dad wouldn’t be like this,” Ivy said. “She seems like someone who wouldn’t let him be terrible. I mean, maybe she’d be better at it than I am. Don’t you think?”
I wonder if you can stop people from being terrible, if that’s who they choose to be, Leaf thought. Maybe all you can do is be the opposite of terrible, as hard as you can, to balance them out.
“I’ve wondered the same thing about Wren,” he said. “Would Talisman be different if she had lived? Would she have told everyone the dragonmancers’ secrets? Maybe she would have stood up to them, and they wouldn’t be in charge anymore.”
“Roar roar roargle,” said the dragon that stepped out of the shadows right in front of them.
Leaf and Ivy both screamed and jumped off the stairs. All of Leaf’s instincts kicked in and he started to run — but when he looked over his shoulder, he saw that the dragon had moved to corner Ivy.
“ROAR roar ROAR!” the dragon shouted. “ROAR! GROARF!” Ivy tried to dart away and the dragon threw its tail in front of Ivy, tripping her. “ROARITY ROAR ROAR ROAWR!” The dragon leaped over and trapped Ivy between its claws, like a cat with a mouse.
Leaf pelted back toward them, grabbed the lantern, and flung it at the dragon as hard as he could. “Get away from her!” he shouted.
The lamp bounced off the dragon and it roared again, sounding distinctly angrier this time. Leaf’s legs were suddenly knocked out from under him, and he landed hard on his back. The dragon picked up Ivy and hopped back a step. It growled at Leaf and then at Ivy, who was struggling violently in its claws.
I’m not going to let this happen. I can fight this dragon. I have to stop her from eating Ivy! Leaf shoved himself back to his feet, trying to catch his breath.
The dragon made a very grumpy noise, stomped over to a tall stone wall nearby, and stuck Ivy up on top of it. Leaf was just picking up a rock to throw when the dragon snatched him up as well. He felt air whoosh by his face dizzily, and then he was suddenly on top of the wall next to Ivy.
It was very tall, too high to jump off without breaking an ankle, and then they’d be easy prey for the dragon to eat. Leaf clambered over to Ivy and put his arms around her.
“That was so much scarier than I expected!” Ivy said, clutching him. “Like, my whole body just went DEATH FROM THE SKY and made me scream and run, even while a little tiny part of my brain went, oh, amazing, a dragon! But the scared part won. It’s still winning. Why do you think it put us up here?”
“Orgle roargle roarfy growl,” the dragon said in a strangely pleasant voice, for a dragon. “Roarble groarf?”
Ivy looked at Leaf, then back at the dragon. “That sounded like a question, didn’t it?” she whispered to him.
“Maybe it just wants to talk to us,” he said, feeling like that was a HIGHLY optimistic view of the situation.
The dragon picked up a tree branch, set it on fire with a single breath, and stuck it in the ground like a giant torch.
“Oh!” Ivy said, seeing the color of its scales in the firelight. “Leaf, look! It’s the golden dragon! The one we saw! The one in my sapphire vision!”
The dragon cupped its front talons together in a bowl shape and rumbled something that also ended in an upward inflection — another question, or the same one.
“She knows I have the sapphire!” Ivy said. “I think she’s asking for it, don’t you?”
“How would she know that?” he argued.
“Because she saw me holding it! In my magic vision that I totally really had!” Ivy said. “I told you guys it was magic!”
“Isn’t it possible she’s just been hanging around the village waiting for a human to come along with treasure?” Leaf asked. “Or maybe she’s hungry. That could be a sign for food.”
“I hardly think a dragon needs our help to find food,” Ivy said skeptically.
“I’m just saying, if that’s not what she’s asking for, how is she going to react when you give it to her? What if she gets really mad and sets us on fire for being treasure thieves?”
“Or maybe she can help us find Rose and stop the dragons from burning villages,” Ivy said.
“It’s not her treasure, though, right?” he said. “If we give it to her, we can’t give it to the sand dragons.”
Ivy hesitated. “She was in the desert when I saw her, though … maybe she’s working with them.”
“ROARBLE roargrr argh roarf,” the dragon interjected. She reared up and put her open talons between them, palm up as if waiting for something. “Groar? Owrl? Roar?”
Ivy looked at Leaf for a moment, then reached into her belt and pulled out the sapphire. She dropped it into the dragon’s talons, where it suddenly looked a lot smaller.
The dragon made a delighted approving noise and held it up to inspect it in the firelight.
“See, she liked that,” Ivy said to Leaf.
“Boarf,” the dragon said. “Roarble roarble?”
They both stared at her. “What is she asking now?” Leaf whispered. “Isn’t that what she wanted?”
The dragon hummed a little impatiently. She put the sapphire on the ground, picked up another stick, and drew a big circle around it. She walked around the circle, adding stones to it and pretending to pluck things out of the air to put in the circle, too. Then she sat down and waved her wings at it. “Roarble roarble!” she insisted. “ROAR!” She picked up the sapphire and brandished it at them.
“See, I knew she’d be mad,” Leaf said. “Now she thinks we have lots of jewels and she wants all of them.”
Ivy pointed at the dragon’s shoulder. “We gave you the sapphire,” she said. “Now where is Aunt Rose? We want her back!”
The dragon tapped her chin thoughtfully, looking them over. Leaf didn’t know what to think of that look; it could have been an “ah, well, one jewel is enough, might as well let them go” kind of look. Or it could have been an “I’m going to need some salt and seasoning for these two” kind of look.
Maybe I can save Ivy, he thought. If I do something just a little bit insane. That’s my purpose, isn’t it? To save people? That’s what I’ve always wanted, even if I was doing it wrong before.
“I can get you the treasure,” he said to the dragon.
Ivy grabbed his shoulder. “Leaf, what are you doing?”
“I’ll go get it!” he said. He pointed at the circle the dragon had drawn on the ground, then at himself and the dragon, who looked extremely curious about all this miming. “Let us go, and I’ll come back to give it to you.”
Ivy stamped her foot. “Leaf, you can’t! We already agreed there’s no way to get back into my house!”
“I can try, can’t I?” he said. “And if she agrees, then at least you’ll be safe.”
The dragon growled something in what Leaf was starting to think of as her “friendly” voice. She reached out and gently scooped Leaf off the wall.
“YAAAAH!” he yelped, startled. “Wait! What about Ivy? Get her down, too!”
The dragon set him down and rumbled something, looking very pleased, then patted Ivy on the head.
But she didn’t lift her down.
“You have to let Ivy go!” Leaf shouted. He pointed at her and then the forest. “Let Ivy go first, and then I’ll go get you the treasure!”
“Roarble roarble roarble,” the dragon argued back. She pointed at the forest, too, then waved the sapphire, then pointed at Ivy.
“Oh, come on!” Leaf cried. “I can’t leave her here with you!”
“Roar roar roar growl roar,” said the dragon, pointing at all the things again, as though he might just be thick.
“I KNOW what you’re asking,” he said. “I’m just saying no! You have to let her go first!”
“I don’t think that’s going to work!” Ivy called, cupping her hands around her mouth. “You’ll have to go get the treasure. Unless you can convince her to switch me for you.”
“No — I’ll go,” he said. “I just don’t really love leaving you alone with a dragon.”
“It’ll be fine!” she said. “I’ll be safer here with her than you will be sneaking back into Valor. We’ll make friends. I’ll negotiate for Aunt Rose. Listen, the treasure is in the cabinet under the pedestal with the dragon tail on top. The combination is M-I-N-E, mine. Be SUPER CAREFUL, Leaf! Please don’t get caught and executed!”
“All right,” he said, taking a step back toward the woods. “You be careful, too!”
She waved, and then, hilariously, so did the dragon. Leaf turned and ran into the trees.
Find the treasure, find the treasure, his heart pounded. Don’t get caught. Come back to save Ivy. He wondered what the dragon would do to her if Leaf did get caught and couldn’t come back. Would she get angry and eat Ivy?
He ran faster.
It took him a little while to get his bearings and find Valor, but finally he recognized the hill he’d been on with Stone just a few nights ago. He scrambled back up it, climbing from boulder to boulder, until he reached the hole to Stone’s secret escape tunnel.
It looked untouched, half-filled-in just the way they’d left it. Had the guards not found the tunnel? Had they even checked Stone’s cave, or had they assumed Leaf escaped some other way?
There was no way for Leaf to know. He dug through the dirt with his hands until the hole was big enough to squeeze into again, and then he crawled back through the tunnel. It was slightly less terrifying this time, now that he’d done it once without suffocating to death.
He reached the tapestry and listened carefully, but there was no sound from the other side. He lifted it and peeked out to be sure — no one in Stone’s bedroom. No one in the next cave either, he discovered. And no one guarding the door, when he chanced a glance outside.
Leaf threw one of Stone’s cloaks around his shoulders and pulled up the hood so he could hurry through the corridors unnoticed. No one spoke to him; everyone seemed to be moving quickly with their heads down, as though they were all afraid to catch the wrong kind of attention.
He reached the tunnel outside Ivy’s caves and hesitated. What if the Dragonslayer was home? He certainly couldn’t knock, and there was no back way to sneak in, or Ivy would have told him about it. Leaf hovered in the hallway for a minute, then ducked back around the corner and searched until he found a discarded basket nearby. He crouched beside it, just within sight of Ivy’s door, pretending to arrange things inside the basket — a few rocks from the ground and nuts from his pockets, anything to make him look busy if someone came by.
It felt like a painfully long time passed. Leaf kept thinking of Ivy shivering on that wall, waiting for him. The Dragonslayer’s probably asleep, he thought. He’s probably not coming out until morning. I can’t lurk around here all night. But I can’t just barge in there either.
Yes. There were definitely some holes in this plan.
In desperation, he finally walked past the door, knocked quickly, and then flew around the corner to hide.
He heard the door open. “Hello?” said Ivy’s mother’s voice. “Hello?”
“WHO IS IT?” the Dragonslayer bellowed from inside the cave.
“Nobody, as far as I can tell,” she answered. “Strange.” She went back inside and closed the door.
So he is there. And not asleep, Leaf thought, pressing his shaking hands together. What do I do, what do I do?
Could he draw the Dragonslayer out somehow? With a message?
He wondered whether Ivy’s mother would recognize him. They’d only met once, briefly, in the market on Leaf’s third day in Valor. She’d been walking with Ivy, and Ivy had introduced them, but her mother had seemed distracted by the choices of vegetables, and their conversation had been short. And lit only by torches. Maybe she wouldn’t recognize him.
He didn’t have anything to write on, he was running out of time, and he didn’t have a choice.
Leaf took a deep breath, pulled up his hood, went back to the door, and tapped on it lightly again. This time he held his ground as footsteps approached.
“WHO IS IT NOW?” the Dragonslayer’s voice shouted from a back room as the door swung open.
Ivy’s mother was standing there, looking at Leaf in surprise.
Oh no. Maybe she does recognize me. He braced himself to run, ducked his head, and said, in as old a voice as he could muster, “Trouble down by the lake, ma’am. They’re asking for the Dragonslayer to come as quick as he can. Maybe, um — maybe both of you better come, actually.”
Her eyebrows slowly lifted, and she looked at him for a moment in silence.
She’s going to grab me. She’s going to call him and hand me over and I’ll have failed Ivy completely.
“Of course,” she said instead. “I will make sure he comes. Right away.” She looked into Leaf’s eyes again, then closed the door.
He let out a breath and went back to his hiding spot, around the corner in the opposite direction from the lake, bending over his basket. He heard shouting coming from inside Ivy’s cave (“Why ME?” crash crash crash “You didn’t ASK?”) and felt guilty for putting her mother in the path of the Dragonslayer’s anger.
After a few moments, the door slammed open and shut, and Leaf heard the Dragonslayer storming away, muttering curses to himself.
Had Ivy’s mother gone with him? Or was she still inside? Maybe she’d gone to bed …
“Come on,” said a quiet voice above him, making him jump. Ivy’s mother was standing there, beckoning.
“Um — I —” he stammered.
“It must be important, for you to risk coming back here,” she said.
He nodded and followed her into the cave. She shut the door and turned to watch him. “You don’t have long,” she said. “He’s fast when he’s angry, and he’ll be very angry he was lied to. Is Ivy all right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Leaf said, crossing quickly to the pedestal. He folded the cloth over the box and saw the cabinet Ivy had mentioned. “She’s safe. But I need to bring this to her for her to stay safe — it would take a long time to explain.” He crouched and fiddled the combination to M-I-N-E. The door popped open, and Ivy’s mother gasped.
There was so much treasure inside. Leaf had no idea how he was going to carry all this. Was this everything they’d stolen from the palace? Surely the Dragonslayer must have spent some of it over the years.
Ivy’s mother appeared behind him, holding a canvas bag. She knelt down and started helping him transfer the treasure into it.
“It’s so beautiful,” she said. “I asked him so many times if I could see it, but he always said it was hidden far away, somewhere safe. I had no idea it was right here all this time.” She lifted out a blue stone statue of a dragon. “I just wanted to see it, just once. I guess he didn’t trust me, same as everyone else.”
Leaf didn’t know what to say to that, and she didn’t say anything else as they finished filling the bag. She closed the door on the empty cabinet and reset the combination lock, then folded the cloth back over it.
“Hurry back to Ivy,” she said. “Tell her I love her, and that it’s not safe to come back yet.”
He wanted to ask her what was happening with the Wingwatchers and what she thought they should do about the Dragonslayer, but there wasn’t time. The bag was heavy on his shoulder as he checked out the door and found the corridor empty.
“Thank you,” he said to Ivy’s mother.
“Stay safe,” she said, and closed the door behind him.
He hid the bag under his cloak as he hurried through the halls, but he made it back to Stone’s cave without running into anyone. He ducked inside, ran to the tapestry, and dragged the bag into the tunnel with him.
I’m coming, golden dragon. Please don’t eat Ivy before I get there.