Freefall

"Wait, what?" Brinn chased after the Empress as she went back down from the parapet. "You cannot reason with them where a child is involved. You of all people know how irrational parents can be."

Aurora ignored her insult. "Do the dragons speak ancient tongue?"

"Yes," Brinn responded.

"Good. You will be my translator." The Empress stated with authority.

"Great…" Brinn rolled her eyes.

"What are those?" Mairwen asked as they came into the tower's chamber. Zan and Gandr had joined them. The group was crowded around the tiny tower window peering at the approaching thunder.

"They are dragons," Aurora said quickly as she continued to descend past them.

"Dragons? Why are they coming?" Zan called as fell in line after his leader. The rest followed suit.

"Because Cafer had the Queen's egg hidden in the palace somewhere," Alaron offered. In everyone's haste, they had almost forgotten he was with them.

"That filthy fiend! We are doomed." Gandr cursed. He had only seen a dragon once, but knowledge of the creature's strength and invincibility was legendary.

The group filed out onto the sky bridge between the two towers. Well, everyone except Junayd, who watched from the safety of the tower. He never could get over his fear of heights and this area was dizzyingly far from the ground.

It turned out that his maneuver was not in vain, for as Alaron saw the beasts nearing, he attempted to make a beeline for the exit while no one was looking. Junayd stopped the boy. "You are not escaping the fate of the rest of us, Your Highness," the general said.

"But they can crush us like grapes with their claws. I keep telling them to run but they will not listen." Alaron tried to move past the soldier again but was blocked. He grunted in frustration.

Meanwhile, the rest were lined up on the narrow path watching the doom approach. "Are you sure you do not want to go back to the land of magic?" Aurora asked Brinn.

"I am sure. Why?" the elf asked curiously.

"Well, if we can convince these dragons we are friends, perhaps this method will be more effective to get there than the one we devised. I mean we have yet to hear back..." The Empress stopped as she saw Brinn shake her head.

"You are on your own, girly. I would never ride a dragon. You never know when they might decide to eat you as a snack right off their back." The spymaster tucked her red hair behind her ear nervously.

"Good point," Aurora gulped. "Then you are in charge of His Highness if things go poorly. Hanna said he is the key to fixing this, even if he is blind to the truth. We must find a way to open his eyes."

Brinn nodded her understanding. From the other side, Devrim slipped his hand in his wife's. "What is my task if...?" he could not finish the thought.

"Take care of Mairwen. The princess takes after me and will likely do something foolish if things do not work out. You know how it goes," Aurora gave a wry chuckle. She went up on her toes and kissed the man with all her might.

"Why did that feel like a goodbye kiss?" Devrim asked with a furrowed brow.

"I am just being realistic. I mean I am about to try to reason with a dragon." Aurora could not help but smile at her own words. "I really am crazy, aren't I?"

"The best kind," Devrim confirmed with a weary grin.

The first dragon was now close enough to rattle them with his piercing roar. He seemed larger than the rest, and his green shining scales rivaled emeralds for their luminescence. The long tail was matched by a slender neck and two chiropteran wings spread wide in preparation for landing. He circled the tower opposite the humans and landed gracefully on top of it. Although Aurora was sure he was heavy enough to collapse the roof, not even a tile of the roof was misplaced by his delicate claws.

"This is Dragon King," Brinn whispered. Aurora nodded. It seemed her plans would have to change slightly. She and Brinn stepped forward to separate themselves from the others.

The Dragon King, Ejder, stared at them in cold fury. His mate, the queen, hovered above them in all her glory. Her vermilion scales were alive with fire. The fire burst forth from her mouth into the air with a snarl. Even at a great distance, those on the high walkway could feel the heat. In response, Ejder let his own flame burst forth in a wide upward spray, causing the queen and others to back away from the group.

"That was a gift," Ejder growled. "It will take a moment for my flame to rekindle. Now tell me: where is my heir? You have only a few moments to produce him."

Brinn translated his words. Aurora curtsied before the King. "Your Majesty," she proclaimed loudly. "We do not know where your child is. I think we have both been tricked."

The Dragon King tapped his claw against the roof skeptically. "My child has been hidden from me for years, but today it will burst from his shelled prison and I will see them. My child is here. I can feel it."

Brinn answered him without translating. "I can sense something too, but I do not know how to find it," she said in the ancient tongue. "If you could give us a clue to speed us in our search..."

"Lies!" The Queen, Deragona, shrieked. "Give me my child now!" It was clear the fire in her belly had not reached its full potential or she would have toasted them then and there. Ejder called for her silence and the Queen flew angrily out of sight behind the tower.

"What is happening?" Aurora asked. Brinn filled her in. Things were not going well.

"Your time is almost up, tiny mortals. Now, who do you claim has tricked us?" The Dragon King took a deep breath. His belly lit with the coming flame.

Gandr stepped confidently forward to try his luck with Zan on his heels. The halfling bowed. "I can attest that the gnomes have caused this treachery. King Baak himself has boasted of having the Dragon Heir."

"Hm," Ejder mused in the ancient tongue. "You smell like a gnome, walk like an elf and talk like a human. Why should I believe a word you say?"

"Because it is the truth," Zan responded easily. The Dragon King looked at the curious man with the silver eyes and a strange black cloak. He was not royal, but he did not seem to cower as humans should. Something about him was different.

"Truth or not," Ejder brushed their words aside with his claw. "You have only moments before my fire returns to hand over my child. Or I will destroy this palace and anyone left in it until I get what I want."

Brinn translated for Aurora. The Empress lowered her head in supplication. "We need more time to find your child. My soldiers are looking everywhere."

"You have a minute." The Dragon King growled.

"Are you not afraid of crushing your child?" Aurora asked when Brinn told her the time.

"If the child could withstand the fires in which it was formed, the rubble of this palace will not harm it. If that is what it takes to free my heir, I will not hesitate." Edjer was calm, but his swelling belly gave those on the sky bridge an ominous feeling. Brinn gave them his words.

"Aurora," the elf added softly. "The pulsing I can sense. It has changed. I think...I think the egg has hatched. And if I can sense it..."

Edjer snapped at the air. It seemed he had gotten a whiff of the change just like Brinn. "Your time is up! Give me my son."

Son? It was the first time that the Dragon King had called his child definitively male. "I am sorry," Aurora responded with open hands when she understood. "We have not found him."

"Then your castle will crumble with you inside." The strong claws of the Dragon King ripped apart his tower perch with barely any effort. The stone sheared off and tumbled down. Edjer breathed out a lungful of fire at the skybridge, blackening and melting the stone in front of the Empress. It was at this moment that Aurora realized how truly outmatched they were. "Tell the watchmen to ring the bells. Evacuate now," the Empress told the elf. Brinn took off quickly. "Get off the bridge now!" She called to the others. "We have to go!"

A screech from below them rang out. "Liar! Thief!" Deragona wailed. Her jaws snapped the skybridge between the tower and the Empress as she breathed out her belly of fire. With one tower crumbling and the other side no longer attached, Aurora, Zan and Gandr had only one direction they could go.

Plummeting toward the ground.