On the other side of the Councilhouse, Deborl stood with his laser pistol raised. How had he gotten up here?
I ran for the key, but lost sight of it when another dragon landed on the roof and delicately placed a canister of poison near the temple. Then it took off, the force of its wings on air making me stagger back. Sam grabbed for me, and we both tried to watch the place where we’d last seen the key as the long, gold body lifted and talons latched onto the temple.
The key had moved.
Deborl ran for it, and desperately, I wished I hadn’t asked Acid Breath not to hurt the rest of the population. Either all humans looked alike to dragons and they thought Deborl was Whit, or the dragon leader had taken my request seriously.
I reached for my pistol as another dragon landed with a canister.
“Wait!” I shouted at the dragon. “Kill that one!”
But the cacophony of fear below was too loud. People ran for their weapons. Someone would release the air drones soon. When the dragon took off again, I aimed my pistol at Deborl, but he had moved, abandoning the key.
He stood by the canisters.
He’d guessed what we were doing, why we’d gone to Menehem’s lab.
My SED beeped four minutes to Soul Night.
Sam and I both shifted our aims, but Deborl was already moving. He shot open two of the canisters. Aerosol spewed from the holes.
“No!” I screamed and ran toward him, like I could plug the holes with my hands, but another dragon landed and blocked my way. “It’s too early!”
Sam was running with me, toward the dragon, toward the hissing canisters. Tears blurred my vision as I bent and grabbed the fallen key. The dragon took off. Sam and I staggered backward.
When the roof was clear of the dragon’s tail, Sam surged ahead and shot Deborl. He had moved as soon as Sam’s weapon was lifted, though. Only his arm was hit.
I tried to catch up, but another dragon arrived and placed its canister on the roof. I screamed and tried to get its attention, but the dragon’s face turned up, and the ringing in my ears made me stagger.
<Finally. The song . . .>
When the dragon took off, I found Sam and Deborl wrestling on the other side of the roof. Their pistols had fallen away. They were hitting, kicking. I’d never seen Sam fight before, not like this. I couldn’t tell if he was winning or not. He did have a size advantage, but Deborl was fast.
I raised my pistol to shoot Deborl, but my hands were shaking and I didn’t trust my aim. I might hit Sam.
And the canisters were still spewing the poison.
Two minutes.
The final dragon landed and placed its canister next to the others, pausing only a second to nudge one of the open canisters. <It has begun!> The dragon took off before I could attract its attention.
My ears rang with the din of dragon conversation above. They’d wrapped themselves around the temple, and globs of acid drooled down the sides.
One more glance at Sam and Deborl. They were still fighting, still grunting and trying to kill each other. I could help, as soon as I got this poison into the temple.
I pulled out the temple key and pressed the square. A door shimmered on the white wall, and I yanked it open, ready to shove the canisters inside, but singing stopped me.
-Ana!- All the sylph flowed across the roof, burning hotter. Beyond them, a dragon hung off the roof like a ladder, glaring at me.
“Help Sam!”
-No time.- Cris tangled around me. -Push the poison inside. We’ll heat the canisters. Hopefully the explosion will be enough.-
“Cris, no. Who knows what that could do to you?”
-Don’t argue. This is our redemption. We need to fight for it.-
One minute. I didn’t want to let the sylph be trapped in there with all that poison, but Cris was right: this was their fight, too. As quickly as I could, I began shoving twenty canisters of poison into the temple.
The doorway was all misty gray; I couldn’t see anything beyond, but the sylph threw themselves inside as I pushed the last canister in with a grunt.
Over my shoulder, I caught a glimpse of Sam wrestling Deborl to the ground. The younger boy stopped struggling, but his chest heaved with breath.
Sam looked back at me. “Are you all right?”
The door slammed shut as the last of the sylph vanished into the gray, and the shriek of dragon conversation made my head spin.
My SED beeped. Beyond the wall, the sun fell below the horizon.
Deborl’s outstretched hand closed around a laser pistol, and he brought it around.
“Look out!” There was no way Deborl could miss that shot.
Sam jerked away from the other boy just as darkness washed across the roof.
Soul Night was upon us.
And the temple was dark.
29
JANAN
ABOVE, DRAGONS ROARED in triumph as they coiled muscles and spit acid onto the dull, white stone. The reek of acid poured through the air, making my nose burn and my lungs ache.
The temple was dark.
It was Soul Night.