sure?" he said. "My Talent has been -"
"Now, Kaz!" I said.
"All right," he said with a sigh, walking over and pulling open a door. We'd used Kaz's Talent of getting lost to transport us before. Like all Smedry Talents, it was unpredictable - but it was fairly safe to use across short distances.
Besides, we didn't have time to try anything else. I raced through the doorway, Bastille behind me. Kaz pulled the door closed behind us.
The room smelled musty and wet inside, like mold or fungus, but it was too dark to see anything.
“Activate your Talent!" I told Kaz.
"I already did," he replied.
There was a scraping noise. Like something very large being pulled across the stone floor. I blinked as Bastille unsheathed her sword, the crystalline weapon shedding a cool, blue light across our surroundings. We were in a cave. And standing before us, looking very confused, was an enormous black dragon. It cocked its head at us, smoke trailing from its nostrils.
“Well," I said, relieved. "It's just a dragon. For a moment, I was frightened!" We'd met a dragon before, and it had quite nicely not eaten us. In fact, it had carried us on its back.
The dragon inhaled deeply.
"Kaz!" Bastille said, panicked.
"Put away that light!" he said. "It's hard to get lost if I can see where I'm going!"
I frowned at the others. "It's just a dragon."
"Just a free baledragon," Bastille said with alarm, "who - unlike Tzoctinatin - is not serving a prison sentence, and who is perfectly free to roast us because we're invading his den and violating the draco-human treaty!" She slammed her sword back in its sheath, plunging us into darkness.
"Oh,” I said.
A light appeared in front of us, illuminating the inside of the dragon's mouth as fire gathered in its throat and began to blast toward us.
"Reason number two hundred and fifty-seven why it's better to be a short person than a tall person!" Kaz exclaimed. "Standing next to a tall person gives you a really great shield for dragon's breath!"
Bastille grabbed me by the collar and yanked me hard after her, and everything spun. I felt a strange force around me, a lurching feeling as Kaz activated his Talent, getting us lost. The dragon's flames vanished.
I recognized that force - the force of the Talent - immediately, though I'd never experienced it before when Kaz had used his Talent. It was hard to explain. It felt like I could see the warping of the air, could tell what was going on as Kaz saved us.
It almost seemed familiar. Like Kaz wasn't just getting us lost, like he was . . . well, like he was breaking the way that motion worked. Deconstructing the natural, linear progression of the world and rebuilding it so that we could move in directions we shouldn't have been able to.
In that moment, I thought I saw something. An enormous, magnificent stone disk, full of carvings and etchings, divided into four different quadrants. And at the very center, a patch of black rock. There was something crouching there in the center, invisible because of how dark it was. A patch of midnight itself. And it reached tentacles out to the other quadrants, like black vines growing over a wall.
The Bane of Incarna. That which twists . . . th a t which corru p ts . . . that which destroys. . .
The Dark Talent. Of which all others are shadows .
The vision vanished, gone so quickly that I wasn't certain I'd even seen it. Everything was dark again, and I stumbled, tripping. When I hit the ground, I hit something wet, soft, and squishy.
“Ew!" I said, trying to push myself to my feet. The floor undulated beneath me, pulsing, quivering. It was like I'd fallen onto a massive trampoline covered with slick grease. And the stench was terrible . Like someone had pelted a skunk with rotten eggs.
Bastille made a gagging noise, pulling her sword from its sheath to give us light. The three of us were crowded together inside of a pink room, the walls and ceiling all made of the same soft, quivering material. It was like
"Now, Kaz!" I said.
"All right," he said with a sigh, walking over and pulling open a door. We'd used Kaz's Talent of getting lost to transport us before. Like all Smedry Talents, it was unpredictable - but it was fairly safe to use across short distances.
Besides, we didn't have time to try anything else. I raced through the doorway, Bastille behind me. Kaz pulled the door closed behind us.
The room smelled musty and wet inside, like mold or fungus, but it was too dark to see anything.
“Activate your Talent!" I told Kaz.
"I already did," he replied.
There was a scraping noise. Like something very large being pulled across the stone floor. I blinked as Bastille unsheathed her sword, the crystalline weapon shedding a cool, blue light across our surroundings. We were in a cave. And standing before us, looking very confused, was an enormous black dragon. It cocked its head at us, smoke trailing from its nostrils.
“Well," I said, relieved. "It's just a dragon. For a moment, I was frightened!" We'd met a dragon before, and it had quite nicely not eaten us. In fact, it had carried us on its back.
The dragon inhaled deeply.
"Kaz!" Bastille said, panicked.
"Put away that light!" he said. "It's hard to get lost if I can see where I'm going!"
I frowned at the others. "It's just a dragon."
"Just a free baledragon," Bastille said with alarm, "who - unlike Tzoctinatin - is not serving a prison sentence, and who is perfectly free to roast us because we're invading his den and violating the draco-human treaty!" She slammed her sword back in its sheath, plunging us into darkness.
"Oh,” I said.
A light appeared in front of us, illuminating the inside of the dragon's mouth as fire gathered in its throat and began to blast toward us.
"Reason number two hundred and fifty-seven why it's better to be a short person than a tall person!" Kaz exclaimed. "Standing next to a tall person gives you a really great shield for dragon's breath!"
Bastille grabbed me by the collar and yanked me hard after her, and everything spun. I felt a strange force around me, a lurching feeling as Kaz activated his Talent, getting us lost. The dragon's flames vanished.
I recognized that force - the force of the Talent - immediately, though I'd never experienced it before when Kaz had used his Talent. It was hard to explain. It felt like I could see the warping of the air, could tell what was going on as Kaz saved us.
It almost seemed familiar. Like Kaz wasn't just getting us lost, like he was . . . well, like he was breaking the way that motion worked. Deconstructing the natural, linear progression of the world and rebuilding it so that we could move in directions we shouldn't have been able to.
In that moment, I thought I saw something. An enormous, magnificent stone disk, full of carvings and etchings, divided into four different quadrants. And at the very center, a patch of black rock. There was something crouching there in the center, invisible because of how dark it was. A patch of midnight itself. And it reached tentacles out to the other quadrants, like black vines growing over a wall.
The Bane of Incarna. That which twists . . . th a t which corru p ts . . . that which destroys. . .
The Dark Talent. Of which all others are shadows .
The vision vanished, gone so quickly that I wasn't certain I'd even seen it. Everything was dark again, and I stumbled, tripping. When I hit the ground, I hit something wet, soft, and squishy.
“Ew!" I said, trying to push myself to my feet. The floor undulated beneath me, pulsing, quivering. It was like I'd fallen onto a massive trampoline covered with slick grease. And the stench was terrible . Like someone had pelted a skunk with rotten eggs.
Bastille made a gagging noise, pulling her sword from its sheath to give us light. The three of us were crowded together inside of a pink room, the walls and ceiling all made of the same soft, quivering material. It was like
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