Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

SIYANA

My head throbbed with a dull ache and my vision blurred as I opened my eyes. I tried to sit up, but my body felt heavy and foreign. Panic set in as I looked around, trying to piece together where I was.

Icy wind bit at my skin as I took in the landscape. The tundra stretched endlessly in every direction, the only landmark a majestic castle of ice looming and glittering in the distance. As I took in my surroundings, I noticed a small, blue baby dragon lying beside me and startled. Its spine was tipped with glistening spikes of ice, and its milky white eyes were fixed on me.

Was I going to be its dinner? It seemed rather docile, the way it slowly rose to its feet and stretched out languidly. Their snout rose and swung to sniff at my face, and I went completely still as flurries of snow danced around us.

Once satisfied with their inspection, it seemed, they let out a soft, almost melodic growl and jerked their head toward the castle. I knew that we were bound together in this strange, frozen world. I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but it just felt like a statement of fact in my mind.

What I couldn’t recall as my brain whirled, was how I’d gotten here, and even worse…who I was.

A wave of fear washed over me as I struggled to piece together fragments of memory that remained just out of reach, teasing me to find a path to tether them back to me.

I blinked rapidly as I slowly rose to my feet, lifting my hands to block some of the glaring light reflecting from the castle and directly into my eyes. It seemed like the only logical option was to head in that direction, considering there seemed to be an endless embankment of snow every other direction I looked. So, why did my stomach fill with dread as I took a step forward?

The warmth of my companion pressed into my side, reassuring me, somehow. I lifted a hand to rest on the side of his neck, careful to stay away from the spikes that gleamed there, threatening to impale me if I didn’t use caution.

We began our trek toward the castle, but as its impressive size began to grow bigger and closer, my boots began to sink through the snow as it built up around us. Each step demanded exhausting exertion, my feet dragging through the mounds. Soon enough, the drifts were up to mid-thigh and I could barely feel my limbs through the tingling coldness that had settled into them. The fluffy snow was beginning to turn to slush around me, seeping into my bones and leaving me trembling with big, body-shaking shivers.

I wasn’t sure when my hand had lifted from the dragon, but as I glanced to the side for help, I found myself suddenly alone. How was that possible? Had I gone in a different direction?

It was as if I’d fallen into some kind of trance, so hyper fixated on the endless stretch of snow surrounding me and moving through it, that nothing else existed.

“Help!” I yelled as fear constricted my lungs, realizing I’d strayed too far from my friend.

Could they even help me? They seemed far too small to fly and I didn’t want them to be encapsulated and stuck like I was. Shit .

The slush began to harden, becoming immovable blocks of ice encompassing my entire lower body. I slapped my hands on the slick top of it as I desperately tried to lift my feet but felt the strain of the tendons running down my hips to my knees. If I pulled any harder, I was going to seriously injure myself.

Stay calm. Panicking won’t help you.

It was easier to tell myself that than to actually force myself to practice it, and after all of a few seconds of forced deep breaths, I gave up. My heart slammed wildly in my chest, as if it was trying to escape from me, the same way I was trying to break free from my prison of ice.

A roar echoed loudly through the air, and my head swung around, trying to place what direction it had come from.

That was no baby dragon.

I saw death coming for me as the snow parted and large jaws opened just twenty feet away. A maw filled with rows of razor sharp teeth promised to make it a painful, albeit quick, passing into the afterlife.

I didn’t want it to end like this. Sure, I wasn’t aware of who I was or what my aspirations and dreams were, but I had to have some, right? Had I had enough time to accomplish them? Did anyone out there love me enough to miss me when they realized I was gone and never coming back?

As the shimmering metallic blue of the dragon’s massive body became clear, I knew I only had seconds left. If their jaws alone weren’t the cause of my death, surely my end would come from the curled talons–that seemed to be the size of at least half my body–that were hanging eye-level with me. The dragon’s wingspan took my breath away, and as the shadow of their body cast over me, I shut my eyes, prepared to say goodbye.

Shockwaves rolled through my body as a large crack rang out and the ice around my body splintered. My eyes snapped open just in time to see the large dragon lift back off of the ice before pulling their wings in and dropping like a stone. Their weight shattered the ice around me with finality, and I just lifted my hands in time to block the shards from gouging my eyes out, though searing pain in my cheek and jaw signaled I hadn’t escaped unscathed.

“You’re injured. I’m sorry, but I wasn’t sure how else to help you escape. This body feels foreign to me, and I don’t know how to use all of the magical energy I feel racing through me. I didn’t want to risk tapping into that right now.”

My hands shot down to my sides as I glanced up at the only other creature near me.

“Did you…” I stuttered before taking a moment to blink and wipe away the blood trickling down my face and neck with the sleeve of my coat. “Did you just talk to me?”

Their large head lifted up and down before craning down to my height. Familiar milky-white eyes stared deep into my soul, and it clicked. This was my friend from earlier, but how was that even possible?

“Yes. I couldn’t speak to you earlier, but somehow by the time I’d realized we’d been separated and I found you, the ability seemed to open like a bridge between our minds.”

I stood there, in complete stupor, staring at the dragon. The voice was distinctly male, but the deep timber of it was jarring when I thought of the small baby he was what felt like mere minutes ago.

The dragon blinked those two large eyes at me, and I noticed a film that passed across their slitted pupils like a second shield beneath the lid. How fascinating. Even more so, I realized how quickly my fear had been replaced by tranquility when my brain connected this large dragon to our small friend.

Why did I trust him so implicitly?

“What’s your name?”

“Kaida, and you can speak back to me with your mind, instead of trying to yell through the wind.”

The thought of speaking into a dragon's mind seemed unreal, but I couldn’t recall if I’d ever even met a dragon before Kaida. Perhaps this was normal and I was severely behind the curve with my lack of knowledge.

I brushed off the ice that stuck to my coats and stomped my feet to try to get the blood flowing back through them as I attempted to project my thoughts to him. “So, Kaida, do you know where we are, or better yet, who I am?”

His head swung from side to side. “Please don’t yell.”

I grimaced and lowered my mental projection–well, at least I hoped I had. “Sorry.”

He seemed to settle as he gazed down at me with unblinking eyes. It occurred to me that perhaps I should have found Kaida’s gaze unnerving, considering I had no idea why I trusted him. “That’s better, and no, I don’t know either of those things. I do, however, feel a draw toward that castle. Perhaps we will find an answer there.”

My legs seemed to burn as tingles ran from my feet all the way up to my hips. Stepping forward gingerly, I was able to keep my balance, but a shuddering tremble passed through my limbs from the exertion demanded by our harsh environment.

“I don’t think I will be able to walk there until I find a way to warm myself. I don’t know how long I was walking through the slush before it turned to ice. Time seems like an odd construct here, like something that I can’t wrap my mind around.”

Steam puffed from his snout as he breathed. “Can you climb up my tail to my back? You can use the spikes to pull yourself up. I can carry us to the castle if so.”

My eyes traveled across his tail and up toward his back, a sense of déjà vu enveloping me. A part of me felt like I’d taken that exact path before and the memory of holding onto silver spikes hit me hard.

So I had been around dragons before. Why couldn’t I recall this?

The skin between my eyebrows furrowed as I shook the questions that began to build from my mind. I needed to focus on the present.

Kaida’s tail flicked around to lay at my feet and I stumbled toward the tip, eyeing the sharp points of his spikes. As soon as I attempted to lift my foot enough to step up onto the smallest part of him, my hip creaked with resistance. After multiple attempts, including trying to pull myself up with my hands on his scales, I heaved out a heavy breath, defeat hitting me square in the chest.

“I can’t do it. My body isn’t cooperating.”

The ground shook as he launched suddenly from it, the force from his wings sending a tidal wave of air over me, nearly knocking me to my ass. A whirlwind of snow flurries followed his sudden movement, and I reached up to shield my eyes from the sudden onslaught.

“Don’t move. I’m going to attempt to grab you with my claws.”

Fear spiked within me, making my chest clench with the lack of confidence I heard in his words.

“Are you sure you won’t impale me with a claw?” I asked, voice raising in pitch as he descended toward me once more.

“No. So, don’t move.”

My limbs didn’t want to move, anyways, so I didn’t think that would be our problem here.

“Maybe you should just leave me here,” I hedged as the tips of his talons gleamed above my head, extending out as he flexed them.

“Don’t be stupid, you will most certainly die here if I do that.” His sass took me off guard, yet it was exactly what I needed to relax as his clawed foot encompassed me. “Can you hold onto one of them? I don’t want to pierce you by closing them with you in the center.”

I leaned toward the talon in front of me, falling a bit as I wrapped my arms and feet around it to the best of my ability. “Okay. You can close them more.”

He did as I instructed, and suddenly I was encased perfectly, with only small slits between his claws allowing light and air in. I felt as if I were in a cocoon, and the thought comforted me. I wouldn’t fall from his grip unless he suddenly opened his claws. In my heart, I knew he would never do that.

Selfishly, I was happy that he’d decided on this method of transportation. As we launched into the sky and I felt the air grow colder as it flowed through the openings, I buried my face down against my chest. I couldn’t imagine how I would have managed to hold on with the fierce wind and freezing temperature making my extremities stiff and all but unusable. I ran my hands up and down against my pants, trying to heat them up with the friction. When that didn’t work, I settled on burying them behind my knees as I pulled my legs to my chest.

“Please don’t open your claw. I’m not holding on anymore.”

He screeched, making my wince at the sound. “I’m now wondering if you actually wish to die. Is that the case? Please let me know, so that I can stop making attempts to save you.”

My eyes rolled behind my closed lids. “No, I do not wish to die. I merely am trying to protect what little warmth my body is holding onto at present. Just warn me before we land and I will hold on again.”

“Anything else I can do to improve your flight, human?”

His sassy thoughts made me smirk. It seemed neither of us understood our draw to one another, yet we couldn’t fight or deny it. What existed between us felt like a genuine friendship. If only friendship could keep me warm.

Time passed quickly and I felt the shift in the air pressure as we descended. I got into position before he even warned me, so when he announced that the ground was approaching, I gave him the go ahead. Slowly, his clawed foot opened and I glanced down. Torches of burning fire lined the front of the castle and confusion stirred in me as I let my feet dangle from his claw. When the distance was safe, I dropped down, letting out a huff as my bones rattled with the impact.

I attempted to walk and found my limbs moving with a bit more ease now. Doing my best to hurry toward the entryway of the castle to get away from Kaida’s landing point, I managed to only stumble once.

Glee poured through me as I felt the warmth of the torches and wasted no time in lifting my hands toward one that was anchored to the icy archway.

“Do not go in there, human.”

The sudden fear in Kaida’s voice had me glancing back at him in confusion.

“Didn’t we both agree that we needed to come here?”

I gasped as his eyes swirled and sparked like the clouds that were suddenly gathering above the castle, filled with streaks of sparking lightning. No part of it felt natural.

“Answers you have been searching for will be found within but so will your death. Only you can decide if the price is worth the entry.”

His voice seemed void of his personality, as if he was completely detached.

I swallowed the lump building within my throat as I glanced back at the massive doors of ice beckoning me forward. It felt as if I was being pulled toward them by a force bigger than myself, and suddenly I stood at the base of the doors, without remembering even lifting my feet. A loud groan filled the air as they began to swing inwards.

I couldn’t escape whatever was waiting for me.

“I think I have to go in there, Kaida.”

“I will follow you.”

The strength behind his words slammed into me, and I turned back to find him ambling toward me, eyes back to their milky white voids I’d quickly grown to know. A deep sense of trust and love for this creature grew within me, like a ball of light burning brightly.

“No. I will not place your life at risk as well.”

He let out a growl and puffed steam at me. “I will not stay behind.”

A desire to keep him away from the ominous doorway filled me when I looked back into the void within the castle, darkness calling to me. This was for me to face alone, somehow I knew this without question.

An explosion of ice sounded behind me, and I whirled to find Kaida’s way blocked, a wall of ice now separating me from him and trapping me within the arched entryway. He roared before I saw his body through the translucent ice, running straight for the wall. A boom came as he slammed into it, yet the ice didn’t crack, even with such brute force hurtled against it.

“Trust me to do this.”

Still, he threw his weight into the ice over and over, and suddenly, I felt his emotions without him needing to voice them. A possessive desire to protect me. The overwhelming need to stay by my side. His love for me.

It nearly brought me to my knees, and yet I remained unflinching in my decision to go on without him. That same love he felt for me poured through my own heart and soul in my quest to ensure he didn’t die alongside me.

I wasn’t sure who he was to me, but I knew that I would do everything in my power to protect him.

“Don’t go!” he yelled into my mind, and so I began to build a wall there to keep him out, on instinct alone.

“Goodbye, Kaida,” I whispered to him before sealing it completely.

He clawed at my mind but I forced myself to walk into the darkness ahead. Everything went black as the doors slammed shut behind me. The force of them closing echoed through the room. As I took a deep breath and continued forward, a voice whispered in the darkness around me.

“Welcome, Siyana. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Siyana. As soon as I heard the name, I knew it referred to me. This knowledge of my name seemed to be the key to unlocking my mind, and my memories slammed into me with sudden force. It drove me to my knees as I groaned, faces and scenes rolling through me with alarming speed.

“Choose. Either you die or the dragon does,” the unknown voice demanded, seeming to come from all directions around me.

Without hesitation, I answered.

“Me. Take me.”