Authors: Matt Myklusch
Junter looked at Dean. “Ready?”
Dean held tight to the sides of the boat. “Why wouldn’t I be? You’ve prepared me expertly.”
Junter ignored the comment. “Lie down,” he said as the
whitecaps rocked them back and forth. There was a rope anchored to a steel eyelet above the narrow crevice. He grabbed hold of it, and timed the ship’s rise and fall with the waves. Junter pulled hard on the rope when the tide was on a downswing, and dropped to his back as the current shot them into the snapdragon’s den.
Dean held his breath as they slid through a short tunnel, racing from darkness into light. Once they entered the cave, Dean had to rub his eyes and look again to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. The water in the Snapdragon Grotto was calm and glowed with supernatural luminescence. The entire cave was flooded with brilliant blue light. Dean’s mouth fell open as he marveled at the hidden wonder. The cavern was a wide basin thirty feet across, with a dome-shaped roof thirty feet high. The waves had carved it into the mountain over thousands of years, using vivid, glimmering water that simply had to be enchanted. Its fluorescent radiance put sparkling blue sapphires to shame, and made the water outside seem unclean by comparison. Dean cupped his hand and let the water run through his fingers.
“What is this? Magic?”
Junter rowed up to the wall of the cave. There was a stone ledge on one side of the basin that was big enough to stand on. He climbed out of the boat and cleared his nostrils with a mighty blow, emptying the contents of his nose into the water in a way that made Dean think of Scurvy Gill.
“What?” he asked Dean, as if he had just done the most civilized thing in the world.
“Nothing. You just remind me of someone is all.”
Junter wiped his nose with his sleeve. “It’s not magic. The water out there’s the same as the water in here. It’s just the sunlight reflecting through the sea.”
Dean looked around. “Reflected from where? The cave’s completely closed off.”
Junter pointed back at the opening they had just come in through. “Right there.” Dean joined Junter on the ledge and looked over at the blinding white light beyond the break in the wall. He didn’t see how it could have caused the glimmering effect inside the cave. “There’s another opening too, somewhere else in here,” Junter continued. “Somewhere below the waterline, or so the scholars say. You’d have to go swimming to find it, which I don’t recommend.”
Junter kicked the boat into the center of the pool and took a pack off his back. He reached inside the bag and took out a long heavy chain, all bunched up together. He loosened his grip on the links, and an iron ball the size of a grapefruit hit the stone floor with a heavy clang. He tossed Dean the bag. “You’ll want to arm yourself.” Dean took the bag with pleasure, but he was less than thrilled by what he found inside. He pulled out a net and two wooden sticks strung together with black rope.
“What’s this supposed to be?”
“That’s something the traders brought back from the Far East, years ago. My father’s weapons master called them nunchakus.” Dean gave the sticks a try and spun the nunchakus around. He nearly clocked himself in the head. “What am I supposed to do with this? Why isn’t there a cutlass or another one of those?”
Junter held up his ball and chain. “You ever use one of these?”
“Let me guess, you swing it around and hit things on the head. Seems simple enough to me.”
Junter shook his head. “A weapon like this needs a practiced hand. The snapdragon is a Zenhalan treasure. It’s hundreds of years old. If you kill it, you fail.”
“What if it kills me? What then?”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
“What’s that?”
Junter busied himself checking the links on his weapon. “To make sure it doesn’t.”
Dean sized up his dim-witted partner, feeling a little uneasy. He hadn’t met the other Ralian brothers yet, but it was clear that Verrick had been right about Junter not being the smart one. “Let’s hope you’re a better fighter than you are a conversationalist.”
“What’d you call me?”
There was a noise at the top of the cave, and Dean looked up to see a hatch being pulled open. “Never mind.”
Light poured in from above, causing the water’s mystic blue
color to fade. Dean shielded his eyes and saw the trial judge poke his head in. “Sons of Zenhala, I salute you!” he called out. “Your bravery is unmatched just for setting foot in this cave. Should you emerge unharmed, your noble hearts will be proven beyond contestation. This is your last chance to turn back. Shall we proceed?”
Junter spit on the ground and rattled his chain. “Get on with it, old man.”
Dean was surprised at Junter’s lack of respect for his elders. He looked at his own pathetic weapons. He was as ready as he could hope to be. “Aye, sir. Proceed.”
The trial judge nodded and withdrew. Through the opening at the roof of the cave, Dean watched him stand and raise a conch shell to his lips. Its booming call was loud enough to wake the dead, and Dean knew it would soon bring the snapdragon. He held tight to his weapons, despite his lack of faith in them. The trial judge disappeared from sight as the rooftop hatch was moved back into place, and Dean took a breath.
Three minutes, starting now.
“He’s not going to watch?” asked Dean.
Junter shook his head. “They’re afraid the creature might snap at them.”
Dean looked at the ceiling. He hadn’t expected that the snapdragon would be able to reach that high. “Captain Verrick said the snapdragon was small.”
“It is. For a sea serpent.”
Dean’s mouth went dry. The water stirred. Junter lifted his chin toward the shifting current, his eyes on full alert. “There. You see it?”
Dean’s eyes darted around the cave. “No. Where?”
Something swooped around the edge of the water, and the empty boat spun away from the ledge. It settled in the center of the pool. Junter spun his ball and chain in slow circles, getting ready to fight. The beast came around again, and followed the same path. This time, a row of sharp dorsal fins broke the surface of the water as it passed. The creature’s back was visible only for a moment before it dove out of sight. Junter shifted his weight to his toes and swung his ball and chain fast enough to make it hum.
“It’s coming.”
Dean’s heart sped up. The water in front of him swirled ominously, a thin veil that hid but would not hold back the creature below. He searched the cavern for defensive positions. More ledges like the one he was standing on lined the walls, high and low. Some were bigger than others, some longer, and some shorter. If Dean had to move, and he would most certainly have to move, he would use them to stay out of the water. The snapdragon was coming. Dean couldn’t see it yet, but he knew it was there. It circled the pool faster and faster, making the boat he had come in on spin like a carousel.
The snapdragon shot straight up out of the water and changed
direction in the blink of an eye, bearing down on the rowboat and punching straight through it. Dean had hardly gotten a look at the beast before it vanished beneath the waves once again. Splintered wood floated around the pool, left behind like a vicious calling card. Dean looked at Junter with wide eyes, but the Ralian boy paid him no attention. His eyes were on the pool. “Here it comes!”
The snapdragon sprang up again and arched its neck like a cobra ready to strike. It stared down the two boys and growled. Dean froze at the sight of it. Its curving, snakelike body was long and thick like the trunk of a palm tree. Only a portion of it was out of the water, and Dean put the beast at ten feet long with another twenty feet below. It made a chittering, clicking sound as it bared three rows of sharp teeth and looked back and forth between Dean and Junter. No doubt it was trying to decide which one of them would make a tastier treat. Its eyes were a mix of gold and dark bronze. Thick white drool hung down from its jaws like clam chowder. Its tough blue-green hide shaded to lime on its belly, and its back was covered with sharp, irregular-shaped fins. They grew along its twisting spine like razors, clumped together in random patches with large gaps between their spiky clusters.
Junter swung the ball and chain around in a wide loop, putting some distance between himself and the snapdragon. “Hello again, ugly. Remember me?”
The creature hissed at Junter and craned its neck away, turning toward the other side of the ledge, where Dean was standing. Dean
looked at the wooden sticks he had in one hand and the net he had in the other. He might as well have brought the snapdragon flowers. Dean swung the nunchakus back and forth, but he didn’t know how to use them. It was a good thing Junter was there.
That thought lasted Dean all of two seconds, as Junter swung the iron ball forward in a wide looping arc that the snapdragon dodged easily. The beast darted at Junter’s feet, and when he jumped back, the iron ball spun out, pounding Dean in the stomach. So much for Junter’s practiced hand.
All the air left Dean’s body in an instant. He thought he was going to throw up. Dean dropped to the ground as Junter ran and jumped onto another ledge along the cavern wall. The snapdragon nipped at his heels, then turned back toward Dean, who was still sprawled on his stomach. “Seaborne, move!” Dean heard Junter shouting, but the voice sounded miles away. Somehow, he found the strength to roll out of the path of the snapdragon’s diving teeth. The bite snagged his shoulder and tore his shirt, but not his flesh. The near miss gave Dean a shot of adrenaline that got him up as the sea serpent hit the waves and came back around for another attack. It reared its ugly head and paused again, this time focusing solely on Dean. Junter had the ball and chain spinning in front of him like a shield. Dean had nothing. One hand was clutching his stomach and the other was empty. His weapons were on the ground, five feet away. They might as well have been on the other side of the ocean. The nunchakus and net hadn’t
proved very useful, but Dean was far from ready to give up on them. He felt naked without them. He ran forward and snatched his weapons as the snapdragon launched itself at him. He just barely got them off the ground and back out of range in time. Dean sprinted across the stone platform and jumped, landing on another ledge. The snapdragon was right behind him. Dean swung the nunchakus at its face, and the creature ripped them clean out of his hands. It crushed them in its jaws like toothpicks and shrieked out an earsplitting howl.
Dean kept moving. He ran and jumped up, climbing onto another platform on the wall.
This is insane!
he thought.
What am I doing? No way is this worth it.
He looked around. There was nowhere to go. His back was literally against the wall. Dean had no idea how much time had passed so far, but he knew it wasn’t enough. The snapdragon gnashed its teeth and dove at him again. He dodged to the left, and the creature’s face hit the wall behind him. Dean lost his balance and fell, landing on a wider ledge below, closer to the water. The snapdragon was entirely focused on him. Junter had his iron ball spinning in a wide orbit, pinning Dean and the sea serpent on the opposite side of the cave.
“What are you doing, Junter? Help me!”
Junter swung the ball and chain at the snapdragon and missed. It hit the ledge above Dean. Rock fragments rained down on his head and neck.
“Watch it!”
“Sorry! I’m not used to being in here with anyone else.”
“Well, you ARE here with someone else! Me! Be careful with that thing!”
The snapdragon spun around on Junter to strike him, but he used the ball and chain to fend off its attack. Once again, the creature shifted its focus to Dean.
“You need to come around to this side,” Junter said. “Get behind me!”
It was a nice idea. Junter had been very effective in using his weapon to keep the snapdragon at bay, but he wasn’t giving Dean any opening to get in behind its protective rotation. “How am I supposed to do that if you won’t let me pass?”
“If I stop swinging the ball, that thing will tear me apart before I get it going again. You have to time your jump just right. You can do it!”
Dean gritted his teeth.
Some help this guy turned out to be.
He put his head down and ran along the wall toward Junter’s side of the chamber. The snapdragon dove headfirst into the water and threw its tail out, swatting Dean like an insect. He went flying and nearly fell into the water, but he held on, got up, and timed a perfect leap across the cave to get past Junter’s swirling weapon.
Dean stood up and felt the breeze from the spinning ball and chain’s vortex cool his back. He had made it to the protected side of the cave, and that wasn’t all he’d done. The conch shell horn blew again, and the stone slab hatch on the roof opened up. The
trial judge threw a line down. Dean had made it! It had been the worst three minutes of his life, but all things considered, the time passed quickly. He had made it through. Dean smiled up at Junter, even though his oversize comrade had proved to be more of a hindrance than anything else. “Time to go?”
Junter nodded. “It’s time, all right.” He gave the iron ball one last good swing to push the snapdragon back, and let go of the chain as it looped back around toward Dean. The ball hit the wall well above Dean’s head, but as it fell, the chain flew out and wrapped itself around his left foot. Dean was hooked. The iron ball bounced off the wall and into the water. The snapdragon pounced on it, and the pull of the chain took Dean right off his feet. Before he even knew what was happening, he was under the waves—in the water with the snapdragon. Dean swam furiously for the surface with the iron ball weighing him down. He got a breath of air, and one last look at Junter as he jumped off the ledge and grabbed the trial judge’s rope.
The weight of the chain dragged Dean under again, and from his squiggly, undulating point of view, he watched as his bulky second left the cave first. The light from the world outside vanished as they closed him in. Just like that, they had given up on him. He was trapped. Dead in the water with a chain around his leg and a hungry sea serpent ready to eat him. He looked around, frantic. The water was clear, but he didn’t see anything. He reached for the chain on his leg, desperate to unhook it, when
a pack of bony thorn spikes opened up his side. The sea serpent had brushed by him, using its razor-sharp fins to cut his ribs. It hurt like the devil, and the cuts were numerous, but not deep. The snapdragon was toying with him.