Soon, dozens of dragons were piling out of their quarters and walking toward us in the center of the corridor. Of course, the prince was not among them. I supposed that this was not a task for royalty. Once I counted about fifty, and it appeared that no more were coming, I pointed to the exit. We left the mountains and gathered in the clearing outside.
“You still haven’t told us where exactly you want to go,” Jeriad said.
“There are two islands not too far away from here,” I said. “Islands governed by the black witches. They have stolen a number of humans—young men and women—whom we want to try and rescue. We are hoping that at least some of them are still being held there.”
“Very well,” Jeriad said after a pause. “None of us are fond of black witches. It sounds like this task will not be a difficult one to put our hearts into.”
Without warning, the men started expanding. The eight of us backed up against the wall of the mountain to make space for the dragons as they assumed their full size. I craned my neck upward, looking for Jeriad. I spotted him about twenty feet away. Caleb and I walked straight to him. Jeriad reached out a massive hand and we climbed onto it. He lifted us upward so that we were level with his head. Caleb climbed up onto his back first, then held out a hand and pulled me up next to him. He sat behind the dragon’s neck, and I sat behind Caleb, wrapping my arms around his waist and holding on tight. The others were beginning to mount dragons too.
“You should fly in front, Jeriad,” Caleb said. “Out of all of us, I know best how to reach the island.”
As Jeriad was preparing to take flight, Mona called up to me from below. “Rose, what are we doing?”
“What?”
“It will be much faster if I just magic us all there.”
I felt like a fool for it to not have occurred to me. I was about to open my mouth to speak to Jeriad when the dragon shook his head.
“We fly there with you, or not at all,” he said.
I cast a glance down at Mona, who was looking irritated. “It would be instantaneous if you would allow me to take you there.”
Again the dragon shook his head. “No. We don’t accept that sort of assistance from witches. We will fly.”
Mona heaved a sigh, but didn’t argue back. She climbed up onto the dragon Kiev had already mounted and sat behind him.
“We’ll head to my island first,” Caleb called to everyone. “Let’s go.”
The dragons’ heavy wings beat the air and we launched into the sky with a jolt.
I already knew how fast dragons could fly. I estimated that it might only take an hour for us to reach there. Of course, it was more time than if Mona had just vanished us there. But for whatever reason, they weren’t comfortable with that.
I didn’t talk much to Caleb as we traveled. He needed to concentrate on making sure that we were all headed in the right direction. It had been a while since Caleb had visited that island. But he’d spent so many years in that dark place, I was sure that we would have no problem getting there.
It ended up taking one and a half hours before Caleb slowed all the dragons until they were just hovering in the air.
Caleb pointed directly ahead at what looked like nothing but more open sea. “Fly forward,” Caleb said to Jeriad.
The dragon began moving forward. Then he stopped, as if his head had hit against something solid.
Caleb nodded. “We have reached the boundary.”
We turned around to look at Mona. Anxiety was written on her face as she looked straight ahead. She let go of Kiev, and, levitating herself in the air, moved closer toward the boundary. She reached out her hands, laying them flat against it. She closed her eyes tight and her arms began to tremble. She uttered a chant. Five minutes passed in intense silence among the rest of us. All eyes were on Mona as she was lost in her own world, trying to crack the spell. Perhaps the strength of the boundary had increased since we had last visited. Perhaps it was so strong that even Mona couldn’t penetrate it.
But my fears were unfounded. It took ten more minutes of severe concentration on Mona’s part, but eventually her hands pushed through and she disappeared from sight. Although the island was still invisible to us, it appeared that she had broken down the protective barrier keeping people out.
She called from the other side of the boundary. “You can fly through now.”
Jeriad and all the other dragons did as she had requested. A cold blast of wind hit my face the moment we entered. This island was still covered with snow and was as frozen as ever. But whereas previously I would’ve been shivering, thanks to my recent transformation, I didn’t find the temperature disturbing. Sure, it was cold, but it wasn’t painful.
There were several submarines lined up by the port. But so far, there was nobody in sight. The dragons flew beyond the port and began to touch down in the clearing just before the thick woods started. The area wasn’t large enough for all of them, so when Jeriad landed, as soon as we climbed down from his back, he turned back into his human form. The others did the same until all of us were standing around the dark clearing.
Mona locked herself in a tight embrace with Kiev. She kissed him hard, then broke away and walked up to me.
“I’m sorry I can’t stay. Your parents are depending on me—”
“It’s not like you could do much even if we did find Rhys here,” I said, “He overpowers you now.”
She nodded, though she didn’t look any less concerned. “I’m worried about how you’re going to get to the other island without me.”