Chapter 11

Trial

For days, Pelican had nothing more to do than to wonder what they were going to do to punish her for escaping. Gruesome thoughts filled her head. Yet days, weeks, passed by and she remained in her cell.

She had just started to think she was safe when it started happening. It was a normal day. There was nothing more ordinary that could have been going on. They were talking, hanging out, and generally doing nothing when she heard the flap-flap-flap of SeaWing talonsteps.

A thin dark blue SeaWing walked into their prison. Pelican became all too aware of the string of keys around his belt. He's- he's letting us free?

But the only dragon the blue SeaWing unlocked was Bloodspiller. Right before he did, he leaned forward and whispered to her, "I have guards swarming outside this door. If you so much as look at the exit to this place you'll be dead in a heartbeat. If you want to live, come with me."

So Bloodspiller followed, giving one last terrified glance at the dragons as the SeaWing pulled her roughly away. Pelican sat in silence, watching the crimson dragon leave.

She never came back.

The next day at noon, Salamander was taken, this time a bit less gently. "I'll get you," Salamander snarled, struggling in the grip of several SeaWings. "I'll stab you with my tail-"

"Shut it if you want to live," said one of the dragons, looking down at Salamander's heavily clamped tail.

"They're taking us one by one to kill us," said Falcon the next day, after Treejumper was taken. The sun was setting. "This is how they're punishing us. They're giving us a day to mourn, and then our grief starts fresh." He lashed his tail on the ground. "I hope mine's quick."

Quick and painless, Pelican thought hopelessly. Somehow she didn't think that would happen. "I hope so."

Pelican laid her head down and fell into a fretful sleep.

The next day, Falcon was taken.

Pelican felt a lump in her throat as the guards dragged him away. She clenched her teeth, fighting not to cry out. If I do, they'll kill me, she thought. Oh, what does it matter? She lashed her tail furiously. I'm going to die anyway.

As the guards reached the gate, Falcon whirled around and gave Pelican a last, horrified glance.

"Get going, hybrid," a guard snarled, pulling Falcon forwards, and the pale orange dragon disappeared behind the corner. Pelican felt as if she was choking. Her eyes were wet. All of the dragons she had grown up with were gone.

And her friends? She looked around at the only dragons who'd been kind enough to help her. Now, because of their generosity, they were in prison, too.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to Mange and Ocelot. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, Pelican," said Mange, her tail twined around her sister's. "We weren't in any better a situation there than we are here. And I'd rather be here knowing who my brother is-"

"Half brother," Cerise muttered-

"My half brother," Mange corrected herself, "Knowing who my half brother is than being on the other side of the continent, oblivious to the fact that his life was in danger."

"I'm going to be taken tomorrow," Pelican said quietly. "I'm sorry, guys. I've failed you."

"No, you haven't!" Ocelot and Startail cried at the same time.

"It's not your fault," said Catfish. He'd been extremely quiet since Treejumper had been taken. "But, Pelican- if- if you see Treejumper, tell her I- tell her I-"

Pelican looked down.

"Tell her I'm sorry," Catfish said, his voice cracking. "Tell her it's all my fault she's in this danger. Tell her I miss her. If she's not- if she's not-" he blinked, clearly not able to say the word dead.

"I will," Pelican promised.

"And tell Salamander we love him," said Mange, looking down at Ocelot's worried face.

"I will," Pelican repeated.

Cerise looked up. "When you see Iceberg, tell her I'm sorry for complaining about her."

Pelican was silent. She knew when you see Iceberg meant when you die.

"You mean if," said Startail, looking up at Cerise with big green eyes. "Pelican, you can still survive. I know you can. Try to survive, for me."

"For Treejumper," said Catfish.

"For Salamander," Ocelot whispered.

"For Iceberg," Cerise rasped.

Hurricane flashed his scales. Pelican had seen them before.

Good luck, Pelican.

.

The dragons pulled her out of her prison, guiding her down a long hallway. She looked around desperately for any sign of her friends, or any doorway to escape from, but there was nothing.

"What are you going to do to me?" Pelican whimpered.

"Quiet, hybrid," one of the guards snarled. "Let's think of it this way- if you're quiet, your death might be quick and painless. If you speak, it will hurt. A lot."

Pelican clamped her mouth shut.

As they walked down the hall, she began to notice that a lot of dragons were carrying what looked like a lot of sharp, white sticks in stretchers. She peered closer. Her stomach gave a sickening lurch and she wished she hadn't. They weren't sticks.

They were dragon bones.

Pelican felt her talons tremble. She had broken into a cold sweat. In her mind, each dragon skull was that of Falcon, each tail bone that passed by Bloodspiller's. Her brain swarmed with gruesome images of her friend's mangled bodies.

That's going to be me, Pelican realized.

"Stand still," the guards barked.

Pelican didn't think to disobey until she saw the club one of the guards swung down upon her head. She felt a burst of pain as the club swooped against her skull with a sickening crack!

Pelican lifted her talons to her head. Everything was spinning around her. Why did everything sound so... far away? Was it all... fading... away...

Hold on, Iceberg, she thought. I'm coming.

.

Pelican's vision was fuzzy.

I'm not dead, she thought. I'm not dead! Her head throbbed like crazy, but she wasn't dead! Instead, she was trapped in... another prison.

The prison was a tall ledge. Stalactites hung down from the ceiling, creating bars around her. A length of chain wrapped around her neck, the other end melted into the wall.

She peered through, looking for any sign of her friends, but all she saw was a large emerald green dragon in a cell like hers. "Hello?" she called out. Her voice was dusty with misuse. How long had she been out?

"Are you Pelican?" asked the emerald green dragon.

"How- how do you know my name?" Pelican asked fearfully. "Do you know where my friends are?"

"If your friends are a large, burly MudWing-looking thing, a dark bloodred SkyWing, and a pale SkyWing-y thing, then..." the emerald green dragon stopped.

"Yes!" Pelican cried. "Are they okay? Where are they?"

"They used to be here," the emerald SeaWing said. "And by the moons, that pale dragon with the orange scales would not shut up about you."

Pelican felt her cheeks get hot. "What did he say?" she asked curiously.

"Pelican won't survive! She'll never make it! She can't! Yadda yadda yadda." The SeaWing made her voice gruff and harsh, a startlingly good impression of Falcon.

"Where is he? Where are they?" Pelican asked desperately. She was a bit hurt that Falcon didn't think she could survive. On the other talon, it was nice that he'd thought of her.

"They left," said the emerald green SeaWing apologetically. "Sorry."

"Where did they go?" Pelican asked urgently.

"Every day, they get taken through there." The emerald dragon pointed a talon downwards, at a large boulder, presumably blocking the dragons from prison. "I think it's some kind of trial."

"A trial?" Pelican asked. "Like, if they vote in favor of you, then you go free?"

Free. Months ago, that word had seemed so far away. Then it was something that they'd achieved. Now... it was even further away than it had been to begin with. Just living sounded good to her.

"Yep."

"And why are you here?" Pelican pushed. "You don't get taken?"

"No," the SeaWing said dryly. Pelican opened her mouth to speak, but the emerald dragon held up her talon. "And before you ask, I don't know why. Probably to be the mad prophet of doom."

"Um..." Pelican bit her lip. "But why are you in prison?"

The SeaWing shrugged. "Long story, not important. It happened a long time ago, anyway. It's ancient history." Pelican knew better than to push it.

"So this is a trial?" Pelican repeated.

"I assume so." The SeaWing blinked with calm green eyes.

Pelican felt a shiver run down her spine. A new chance to prove her innocence. If she could convince them, she might have a chance at living.

If not...

She would join Iceberg.