Chapter 14

Taken by Storm

Charla didn't know how long the silence lasted. At some point, she raised her head above the side of the boat and saw the frozen wasteland was but a white smudge in the distance. Islands drifted by on either side of them, great chunks of rock still littered with slight dustings of snow. Though it was creeping towards midday, the sun could not break through the blanket of grey cloud.

She looked over at Jayce, still rowing steadily in silence. He hadn't said a word since they'd escaped, and the wound on his shoulder had long since stopped bleeding. Charla stared at the matted blood in his fur, hardly daring to believe that they'd made it out alive. When she thought back on the night that had passed, it scarcely seemed possible. Yet there they were.

"Jayce?"

He uttered a tired grunt in reply without looking at her and without stopping the rhythmic push-and-pull of his oar. Charla hesitated and wondered on the best words to say.

"How did you find me?" she asked at length.

Jayce paused for a moment, resting the oar in the crook of his elbow as he rummaged in his pocket. Charla sat up a little straighter and jumped as Jayce tossed something her way. It clattered against the floor of the dinghy near her paws and lay there, glinting green in the sunlight. A gem. Charla frowned at it.

"Do you know what that is?" Jayce asked, shooting her a look as he dug the oar back into the waves.

Charla rolled the gem over under her paw, frowning. What was he getting at? She thought she could see a glint of reddish-orange in its centre, but maybe that was the sunlight playing tricks on her eyes. "A gem?"

"A type of spirit gem," Jayce corrected. "Silverback told you about them, didn't he?"

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Charla thought she remembered something like that, but it seemed so long ago. What were they again? Nevertheless, she nodded and Jayce continued.

"That gem is filled with your hatchling fire. Don't ask me how it works, but Silverback showed it to you when you were just a hatchling—and that was the result. He gave it to me just before we left the Well..." Jayce trailed off for a moment, his eyes glazed over.

Charla felt an ache somewhere deep in her belly. That must have been the last time Jayce had seen Silverback. She still recalled with painful clarity the last moments she had spent with him—right before she'd left him to face Cynder and Gaul alone.

Jayce took a deep breath and drew her attention back to him. His rowing had faltered and he was looking at the little green gem under her paws with a kind of reverence. "He told me that gem would lead me to you if we were ever separated. I don't know if he ever predicted something like this, but... It did. I don't know how, but it pulled me here and I found you."

Charla stared at the gem, silent and unassuming between her paws. What Jayce was saying made little sense, but she couldn't bring herself not to believe him. There was no other way he could have found her—and she always believed him. It seemed, even long after his death, Silverback was still helping them. The thought brought a smile to her face and a prickle of tears to her eyes.

"Silverback was amazing."

"He was," murmured Jayce.

Charla turned her face away to rub her eyes with the back of a paw. "Do you think...do you think he's really dead?"

Jayce didn't respond for a moment, but Charla heard the strokes of his oar slow and eventually stop. Finally, he said, "I don't know. I want to believe he's still alive, but... Well, who knows? Maybe Gaul thought he still had some use for old Silverback."

"That's no better..." Charla muttered under her breath, scowling at her paws. Silverback deserved better than to remain prisoner to the mad ape king. He deserved to be free. "I wish we'd never had to leave him."

"Charla..." Jayce lay the oar over his lap and reached for her, but she turned away again, blinking furiously.

As his hand touched her shoulder—warm, familiar and comforting—she couldn't hold the words in any longer. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I said all those things. I'm sorry I left without saying anything and got us both into this mess. I'm just..."

Jayce's hand tightened on her shoulder and turned her to face him. Through blurry eyes, she saw his smile, and then she was pulled against him. The smell and feel of fur surrounded her and Charla buried her face in his tunic.

"It's okay, Char," he said, as though she'd done little more than call him a bad name. "S'okay."

"Is it?" she mumbled. "Are you just saying that?"

"I mean what I'm 'just saying.' " He gripped her shoulders and pulled her from his chest, holding her at arms' length so that their eyes met. "I was so afraid when I found you gone. I knew it was my fault."

"What? No—" Charla faltered as Jayce placed a hand on her muzzle, but she scowled at him as he continued.

"All those things you said that night...I couldn't deny that some of them made sense. About you and me, dragon and ape. I was...afraid; frustrated. I didn't want to believe any of it. But if I'd just stayed up with you that night—if we'd just talked it over—maybe all of this could have been avoided."

"That's stupid," Charla said, pushing his hand away. "You can't blame yourself for that. I was confused and frightened—I convinced myself that what I was thinking was right. Nothing you could have said would have stopped me! It's—!"

Jayce shook his head. "Your fault. I know. We could go around in circles like this for hours, blaming ourselves. The point is that we both made mistakes, and we can fix them now."

Charla opened her mouth to speak, but Jayce gripped her shoulders with both hands and fixed her with such a serious look that all words died in her mouth.

"Just tell me," he said slowly, "do you still believe it? Do you still believe we don't belong together?"

The answer rose in her throat immediately, but it stuck there for a moment and she could only gape at him. There was fear in his eyes. Did he believe she would abandon him again after all this?

How could he?

"...No," she said, unable to stop the barest hint of anger from leeching into her voice. "Of course I don't believe that. I told you I made a mistake! I was—!"

He pulled her into a hug again before she could say anything more. "It's fine, Char. That's all I needed to hear."

Stiffening for only an instant, Charla sighed against his fur and let herself relax. Whatever fleeting anger she'd held trickled away as she nestled herself in his arms—just as she always did when she was afraid, cold, or just needed comfort—and let go of her last lingering doubts. Everything was fine. In that moment, it was as though nothing had ever come between them.

Seconds later, Charla blinked herself from her reverie and wriggled out of his hold, suddenly embarrassed. Averting her eyes, she grabbed the little green gem that had been forgotten in the bottom of the boat and tossed it back to him. "Better keep that. Don't want to lose me again, right?"

She stuck her tongue out and turned away, hoping Jayce hadn't seen the embarrassed grin on her face. Hooking her paws over the edge of the boat, she looked back towards the white smudge on the horizon. Her mind was buzzing too much to focus on anything, but after a moment she heard the splash of the oar again as Jayce started manoeuvring their dinghy through the water. Relieved, she rested her head on the edge of the boat and gazed into the distance.

After a moment of silence, Jayce spoke in a tentative voice. "So...what happened back there? With Cynder? How did you even end up in that place?"

The back of Charla's neck crawled just at the thought of Cynder. She curled her tail around herself. "I was stupid. I didn't know where else to go, and I just..." She sighed. "The apes got me eventually and I woke up in a cell. Then Cynder was there..."

Charla trailed off, frowning as she recalled the strange and disturbing moments she'd spent in prison. She was certain, even after the terror the previous night had brought, that there was something more to Cynder. Something that couldn't be seen with the naked eye. She remembered the way Silverback had looked at her as Gaul had presented her for the first time—the sadness and pity in his eyes. Why?

"Why didn't she kill you?" Jayce asked, his voice tight and his hands clenching visibly on the oar.

"I don't know," Charla admitted, looking back out to sea. "There was something...strange about her. She seemed almost uncertain, like she wasn't even sure what she was doing or why. Maybe I was just imagining it..."

She had to have imagined it. If anything, last night had shown her that Cynder was nothing more than a blood-thirsty creature with a sick sense of humour. She was, in every way, Gaul's equal. It only made sense that Charla had imagined that fleeting moment of uncertainty. Right?

Jayce made a deep-throated thoughtful noise and Charla glanced at him. He wasn't looking at her, instead fixing his gaze on a point somewhere ahead. When he finally spoke, his words were strange. "These are dangerous times for dragons. If they want to survive, they need to stick together. Maybe Cynder feels it too. No matter who she is or what side she fights for, she's still a dragon. That's one thing Gaul can't change."

"He may think Cynder will bring him and the Dark Army to victory, but I think he's already sealed his fate. She will be his undoing, no matter what he does. You can't force a dragon to fight her own kind without repercussions."

Jayce's words were so dark and bitter that Charla felt a chill down her spine. She clenched her paws and looked away, a pit of anxiety opening in her stomach. These last few days had shown her more of the war than she had ever seen or wanted to see. No matter which way she looked at it, she was surrounded on every side by mindless killing. Dragons were dying, apes were dying, and she didn't know why.

What right did dragons and apes have to kill each other? What right did Gaul have to force Cynder to fight against her own kind? Why?

It was all too much to take in. Things had been so simple before, when she hadn't known the extent of what was happening to the world. It would never be that way again. Not now that she had seen the face of the war.

"Hey, Jayce?" she asked after a while. "Can I ask something?"

"What is it?"

Charla hesitated for half a breath. "Will you...tell me how you saved me? From the very start? I want to know."

Jayce glanced over his shoulder and met her eyes, the strokes of the oar slowing. There was uncertainty in his eyes. "You mean...how I saved your egg. Right?"

She nodded. Jayce heaved a sigh and turned his gaze forward again, resuming his rowing. "It's a bit of a long story, but... I guess we don't have anything else to do. Alright. Just...try not to judge me, okay? I was young and stupid."

Charla felt a smile tug at the corner of her mouth. "Like me?"

Jayce shot her a grin. "Maybe a little stupider."

She giggled a little. As they fell back into silence, Jayce started to speak again. "I guess it starts about twelve years ago. Under Gaul's orders, we marched to the southern Dragon Temple, where all of the dragon eggs were kept that year..."

Jayce spoke well into the day and, when his tale came to an end, the frozen land they had escaped from was no longer in view. Heavy dark clouds had gathered on the horizon, and the sight of them seemed to make him uneasy. Charla was too busy mulling over his story to worry, her head buzzing with too much information to take in at once.

He had told her everything—everything from the night of the raid to the moments before he sprung her from Cynder's prison—including everything Silverback had told him. About the war. About the apes and their forgotten reason for fighting. About Gaul's purpose and the mysterious 'Dark Master.'

It was a story she wanted to remember as long as she lived.

But the sea was becoming choppy and their little dinghy was being buffeted to and fro by strengthening winds. It wouldn't be ignored. Jayce held the oar strong despite the surging waves. "We need to get to land. There's a storm brewing."

"Find an island, then," Charla said, clinging to the side of the boat and gazing over the waves. There were islands far behind them, and a few in the distance, but at the moment their little dinghy bobbed helplessly in open water.

"Where do you suggest?" Jayce shot back, grimacing as the waves battered at his oar.

"Over there," Charla said, gesturing vaguely towards a dark shape on the horizon. She wasn't unduly worried. They had dealt with storms before, and surely they could reach land before it picked up.

Jayce scowled. "If we even get that far."

Charla rolled her eyes at his pessimism and clung tighter as the boat lurched with a particularly large wave. Slowly, they edged towards the distant island, and Jayce grunted with every pull of the oar. Charla wished she could help, but her paws were useless with an oar and there was little she could do otherwise. Maybe if she'd been able to fly, she might have been able to help somehow, but that too was beyond her grasp.

Instead she just hung on and watched the steadily darkening skies. The first rumble of thunder startled her enough to flinch, and the first seed of worry planted itself in her belly. The clouds roiled above the horizon, a huge mass of black and grey. Anxiously, she glanced at Jayce.

His fur was flecked with sea water and his face was set in a perpetual grimace as he fought to continue rowing. Their boat was tossed to and fro by the waves. Charla's stomach churned with the movement and she clung tighter as another rumble of thunder split the air. The first drop of rain struck her right between the eyes, and she flinched at the sudden cold.

"It's starting to rain," she called to Jayce.

"I know!" he growled, his knuckles white against the oar. "How close is that island?

Charla turned her head and looked again towards the island she'd pointed out before. To her surprise, it was suddenly much closer than she had expected. She frowned through the hazy sheet of rain, trying to get a better look, and could have sworn that the island was moving. But that was ridiculous.

She dug her claws into the wood of the dinghy as the boat was rocked by another wave. The rain was starting to become heavier with a deep slow roar that resonated inside her head. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Squinting against the downpour, she stared again at the island. There was something about it that made her uneasy, and suddenly she realised what it was.

Pinpoints of green light—like huge eyes—were now glaring through the gloom of the brewing storm, bobbing with the island, which she was quite certain now was moving. There was something very unnatural about them.

"Jayce! What are those lights?!" she yelled over the rain. "Is that island moving or is it just me?!"

Jayce's head whipped back towards the island and, in the gloom, Charla thought she saw panic dawn in his eyes. He dug the oar viciously into the heaving waves. "That's not an island! It's a ship!"

"What?!" Charla whirled around, disbelieving, but Jayce's words rang true.

Slicing through the waves and heading their way was a huge ship the like of which she'd never seen. Green light spilled across its bow, painting it a sickening hue that shone feebly through the rain. Somehow, inexplicably, Charla knew it wasn't a ship they wanted to cross paths with. An awful, sinking feeling of dread took hold in her gut.

"Turn the boat around!" she yelled, whirling on Jayce, knowing she didn't need to explain why.

"I'm trying!" Jayce snapped back, digging the oar furiously into the heaving waves. "The storm isn't exactly making it easy!"

Her heart quickening, Charla swung back to face the ship and a great pit of horror opened deep inside her. It was heading straight for them. Unlike their tiny dinghy, it sat low in the water and looked almost unhindered by the raging storm. It cut like a knife through the waves, slicing closer with every passing second. In the light of the green lanterns, Charla thought she could see apes milling about on the huge open deck.

She flinched as the sky was split by a sudden flash of light and, as thunder boomed overhead, she saw the apes clearly. Several were pointing excitedly at their helpless wooden dinghy and she could just hear the loud high-pitched chattering of their voices over the rain. There was no doubt they'd been spotted.

The dinghy lurched sickeningly with another wave and Charla ducked her head against the rain, but she was already drenched and freezing. Fear had clasped iron claws around her belly, feeding her nausea. Apes... What was a huge ship of apes doing here?

"Hold on!" Jayce yelled, his voice strained.

Charla squinted through the rain and saw him struggling to keep a hold on the oar as the waves battered the side of the boat. She knew it was hopeless. Even if he did manage to turn their dinghy around, there was no way they could outrun that huge ship. Now that they had been spotted, there was no chance the apes would let them escape. Charla shot a fearful glance over her shoulder, blinking rainwater from her eyes, and found the ape ship so close it almost filled her whole vision.

Jayce uttered a strangled yell and Charla spun towards him, terrified. His hands were clenched on nothing and he was staring over the side of the boat, a horrified look in his eyes. He'd lost the oar. The waves were carrying it away. Charla saw it for a split second as the lightning flashed, but then it was gone—and so was their only chance to escape, if they'd ever had one.

Jayce swore loudly and swung his terrified face towards the ship. Lightning flashed in his eyes and he yelled, "Get down!"

Charla obeyed instantly, flattening herself in the water that had gathered in the bottom of the boat. Something whizzed by overhead. It struck the dinghy with a dull thud and stuck fast, and the whole boat lurched. Charla stifled a yelp and dug her claws into the damp wood, staring at the cable that had suddenly attached itself to their dinghy.

Before she could figure out what was happening, Jayce lurched to his feet and wrenched his remaining sword from its sheath. He took a wild swing and stumbled as the cable snapped. Charla stared in wide-eyed fear as it was thrown into the rain. The wind was picking up, howling vengefully over the waves.

Charla staggered to her feet. The ship was so close she could see the iron plating on its bow and the apes running to and fro on the deck. They were throwing things down at them—cables with hooked metal claws attached to the ends. Most fell short and splashed harmlessly into the heaving waters, but some struck home and stuck fast in the wood of their dinghy.

"They're trying to pull us in!" Jayce yelled, swinging his sword for another cable. "Help me!"

Charla threw herself at the nearest cable without a second thought, tearing into the taut fibres. It was severed within moments and Charla staggered back as the loose cable slapped her across the cheek before it was thrown into the wind. Her face stinging, she blinked away tears and rain and staggered as another cable was thrown to take its place. The metal claws struck the wood near her paw, missing it by inches, and she jerked back in fear.

"Reel them in!" a thunderous voice shouted over the storm—a horrible, familiar voice.

Charla looked up wildly and was transfixed by the huge ape standing upon the deck. His eyes—one so dark it was almost black, and the other as vivid and green as acid—glowered down upon her from his hideously scarred face. With a horrible, gut-wrenching terror, Charla recalled Cynder's words from only days before.

"Unless you'd rather wait here for Gaul..."

Gaul. How could she have forgotten? She'd heard he was on his way to the frozen wasteland even before Cynder had captured her. It had completely slipped her mind in the terror of the previous night's escape, but now...now they'd found his ship. Or, rather, he had found them.

"Jayce!" she shrieked as another metal claw struck their boat. The attached cable pulled taut and swung their boat sickeningly around towards the ship. Charla staggered and lost her footing, landing with a painful thud in the water in the bottom of the dinghy.

She heard Jayce's yell of alarm and anger, and the snap of another cable breaking, and she struggled to get up again. Another metal claw slammed into the wood beside her. The boat spun with a great lurch as the cable pulled it closer to the ape ship, and Charla heard a heavy thud that shuddered through the wood. She swung her head around in time to see Jayce struggling back to his feet.

There were too many cables for him to cut through before the apes on the ship threw more. They came thick and fast, like metal rain, some with deadly accuracy now that their dinghy was in range. They could do little more than avoid being hit by the claws themselves. They were being drawn in.

"I want them both alive!" Gaul roared over the rain. "The ape who brings me the traitor and his pet dragon will be rewarded!"

Rope ladders were thrown over the side of the ship and apes began to clamber down towards them. Charla staggered towards Jayce, struggling to keep her footing in the swaying dinghy. He got to his feet and pushed her back with the pommel of his sword, forcing her towards the bow of their tiny boat.

"Stay behind me!" he ordered, brandishing his sword in front of him as apes began to leap from the ladders and onto the dinghy. They landed one after the other, three of them, causing the boat to rock erratically and Charla to almost loose her footing again. Terrified, she shrank back as Jayce met the first ape sword-to-sword.

Against Jayce's sword-work, the unfortunate ape was no match and was quickly pitched into the surging waves with a gaping gash across his chest. The other two lurched forward at the same time, driving Jayce back, but they met the same fate as the one before. By then, others were crawling down the ladders, and Gaul watched it all, his emerald eye piercing through the storm.

Charla lurched forward and tried to spit fire at the closest apes harassing Jayce, but she felt that familiar tug in her chest from only hours before and expelled little more than a tiny scattering of embers. Her chest clenching with dread, she shrank back again and looked desperately for an escape. Only heaving waves, drenching rain and dark clouds met her eyes. Face the apes or brave the angry sea—they were the only choices. From what Charla could see, either way spelled death.

"My fire...!" she yelled to Jayce as he tipped another ape overboard and backed up a few steps. Any further back, and the both of them would be forced over the bow of the dinghy and into the churning waves.

"It was the fury you did earlier!" Jayce yelled over his shoulder. "Didn't Silverback ever tell you?"

"I don't know!" Charla was too terrified to try to recall the many lessons that Silverback had given her, but she knew one thing—her fire wouldn't help her now. She was useless. "What do we do?"

Maybe Jayce would know a way out—it was impossible, but it was all she had to rely on. He glanced over his shoulder and she caught his eyes for only a moment. They were filled with fear and something else—something that made her chest clench with dread. He was planning something.

"Do you trust me?" he yelled through the rain.

"Of course I do!" she screamed back.

"Then stay here!" With that demand, he lurched forward and speared his sword straight through the gut of an ape that had just leapt from the ladders.

Charla yelled wordlessly after him as he slashed the apes out of his way, but he didn't seem to hear. To her horror, he leapt from the boat, his free hand outstretched towards one of the rope ladders. For a heart-stopping second, Charla thought he wouldn't make it and he'd be lost amongst the waves like the other hapless apes, but then he caught one of the ladder's rungs and swung against the side of the ship.

Without stopping to rest, he hauled himself up one-handed and grabbed another rung with his feet. The apes on the deck shrieked and yelled, brandishing weapons as Jayce began to climb up towards them. Charla's heart leapt into her throat as some of them approached the ladder with swords raised, as though prepared to cut it free and send Jayce plummeting into the waves. But Gaul thrust them aside.

"Let him come!" the ape king roared. "I want the traitor alive! Fetch the dragon!"

Charla hissed through her teeth as two apes began to clamber down the other rope ladders, but one of them never made it to her boat. Jayce swung sideways on his ladder and slashed wildly with his sword, partially severing the other ladder and sending the ape spinning out of control. The hapless ape lost his grip and plummeted into the waves, and Jayce continued to climb.

Charla braced herself as the other, more fortunate ape leapt into the dinghy and started towards her. Just as she had taught herself in the months she and Jayce had spent as renegades, she ducked under the swing of his club and slammed her horns into his gut. The ape was thrown against the side of the dinghy and Charla slammed her tail into his chest, sending him toppling into the ocean. She whirled around, scanning desperately for Jayce, and spotted him just as he reached the top of the ladder.

With a great leap, he landed on the top of the wooden railing and slashed at the surrounding apes with his sword. They shrieked and staggered back, and Gaul lurched forwards, levelling his huge sceptre at Jayce. Charla's heart stopped. She yelled out his name, but Jayce had already moved. A shot of green magic from Gaul's staff seared past his head as he leapt onto the deck and swung wildly.

There was a great snapping sound, and then another, and Charla dug her claws in as the dinghy lurched. Startled, she whipped her gaze to and fro until she saw the severed cables falling into the sea. Jayce was cutting them. She had never seen him move so fast. He shouldered past the apes that tried to stop him, his sword aimed for the cables attached to the dinghy, heedless of whatever injuries he was sustaining. Charla knew he wouldn't get out of this unharmed, if he even got out of this at all.

Suddenly spurred into action, she lurched towards the rope ladders, fully intending to haul herself up there and help him. But then one of the last cables snapped and the dinghy swung wildly away from the ship, sending her crashing onto her side once more. Desperately, she thrashed in the shallow water in the bottom of the boat and struggled to get up, even as she heard the snapping of the final cables.

"Do not let the dragon escape!" Gaul was roaring, but another voice carried over the wind and rain and cut straight to Charla's heart.

"Go, Charla! I won't let them catch you! You are my dragon!"

"Jayce!" she screamed, lurching to her feet and throwing herself against the side of the dinghy as the waves tossed it away from the ship.

The apes on deck were shrieking and grabbing for more cables, but suddenly Jayce was among them, slashing his sword like a mad beast. Charla had never seen him fight like that. He fought with the desperation of a creature that had already seen his own death and wanted nothing more than to bring as many of his enemies down with him as he could. He fought like a creature that had nothing left to lose.

It was devastating. One ape should not have been able to create such havoc, but he would not be pinned down. Charla clung to the side of the boat and tried to spread her wings, but pain flared along the length of her left wing-joint and she faltered with a sharp cry. It was no use. She couldn't fly.

Filled with a roiling mix of fear and desperation, she screamed into the wind as Jayce was overrun by the apes on the deck. Gaul pushed his way through the throng and pointed his sceptre at Jayce once more. Green light flared across its head and shot straight into Jayce's chest, sending him staggering back and then to his knees, clutching his heart. Charla screamed and clawed at the waves, trying in vain to turn the dinghy back towards him.

"Your death will not be swift, Bladelizard!" Gaul's voice roared over the storm. "You will rot in my dungeons along with that old dragon-loving fool! You will suffer just as I have made him suffer, and when you beg for death I will deny it!"

Charla's heart lurched in her chest. But somehow, impossibly, Jayce rose back to his feet, one hand still clutched to his chest, the other defiantly lifting his sword. Even through the storm, Charla could see blood blossoming across his fur, and it churned her stomach. Without a word, Jayce flung himself towards Gaul, his face stretched in a soundless cry of rage. He cut down the apes in his way without mercy, heedless of the swords, spears and clubs that found their mark, somehow oblivious to the wounds that opened along his body.

"Do not kill him!" Gaul bellowed, but his terrified apes took no heed.

Charla's head reeled with horror and she tried again to turn the dinghy around, but the waves heaved and tossed her off her paws into the centre of the boat. Struggling back to her feet, she screamed for Jayce as Gaul finally tossed aside his sceptre and drew the two huge scimitars he wore on his back. He shoved aside the apes in front of him and Jayce threw himself forward. In a flash of lightning, Charla caught a glimpse of the rage etched into his face and then he was lost in the gloom of the storm.

A desperate urge flared in her belly to throw herself into the waves and swim back to Jayce, but Charla knew she would drown long before she reached him. She could only scream and howl as the wind drove her further from the ship, until all she could see through the storm was Gaul standing highlighted by the green lanterns, his emerald eye glowing like poison. He raised his swords above his head and brought them down.

Charla screamed with all the air in her lungs, but her voice was wrenched away by the wind and the rain and lost amongst the storm. Moments later, so was she.