Shon stood in the middle of camp holding Stick with both hands in a blocking maneuver, and then brought it down hard in front of him in a striking motion. During the two weeks he had been with Solimar, the elf had taught Shon some defensive techniques he could use if he ever had to use the staff in a fight. Shon didn’t like the idea of using such a powerful conduit of magic as a blunt object, but Solimar had told him, “If you’re dead, it won’t matter how magical the staff is. You would do well to practice how to protect yourself.”

Shon now found himself practicing the techniques, not to better prepare himself for a fight, but to keep himself from hearing his own thoughts. The hot sun of noonday shone brightly on Shon’s head, making sweat bead up on his bald scalp.

“Go home where it’s safe, little larva,” the cold voice in his dream had said to him weeks ago. “You could never be one of them.” The memory of the dream echoed in Shon’s mind, as if he could hear the cruel voice just as clearly now as he had that night.

“Shut up!” Shon shouted out loud as he swung Stick around wildly. “I’m not a coward!” After brining the staff down hard upon his imaginary foe, Shon recalled the cruel, distant laughing of the voice in his dream. “No, I am a coward,” Shon said panting and out of breath. Hot tears began to well up behind his eyes. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”

Shon began carrying Stick back to his tent, with the intention of sleeping away the rest of the afternoon. Physical exertion didn’t seem to be quieting his thoughts after all, so maybe a nap would shut them up for a while. As he stood in front of his tent, however, he suddenly heard a piercing scream cut through the thoughts in his head.

Shon spun around to see where the scream had come from, but there was nobody else in the camp. He then heard another scream and realized he wasn’t hearing them with his ears, he was hearing them with his mind. Grasping Stick firmly and closing his eyes, Shon tried to locate the direction that the screams were coming from.

Shon realized very quickly that the screams were coming from the direction of Alderfold, and they were accompanied by feelings of acute terror. As he tried to decide what to do, Shon heard another scream from the town with a very clear message. Dragon!

Instantly a flood of images raced past Shon. He saw a large black shape flying distantly overhead against a clear blue sky. He saw the inky black shape move across the forest map of his dream, devouring huge, quivering X’s wherever it went. He saw the dragon emerge from the fog of the mountain, and swallow the injured cougar with one terrible bite in all her horrible glory. Then just as quickly as the images came, they left and Shon found himself still standing in the middle of camp. There was no immediate danger around him. For the moment he was not in harms way, and if he just stayed where he stood, he would probably remain safe.

In the front of his mind, Shon could hear the cruel distant voice telling him he was too small and afraid, and the only actions he was good for were standing petrified where he was or hiding under the wagon. But at the thought of the wagon, something tugged at the edges of his mind. Shon remembered how he had followed a similar tugging to escape the bear and find the poisoned animals and even locate the dragon’s cave. Is that what Empress meant by thoughts from the Ether? Shon decided to move and see where the stream from the Ether would take him now if he followed it.

The first place that his feet took him was to the green wagon where Krall kept the bundle of Dragon’s Bane that Shon and Tarun and delivered to him weeks ago. After retrieving the bundle, Shon ran off in the direction of Alderfold, leaving the distant cruel voice behind him.

***

Although he knew he was heading towards danger, Shon had been unprepared for the pandemonium and terror that would assault him from all sides once he had reached Alderfold. He saw women and children running away from the town in a panic. He saw grown men cowering behind doors, porches, or anything else that might hide them. He saw sheep with long quills sticking out of wool coats stained red and purple from poisoned blood and purple foam dripping from their mouths as they attacked the shepherds who had once protected them. The building where Shon had met the town headman was missing a wall.

Overhead, Shon saw the cause of all the madness as the huge black and purple dragon circled in the sky on outstretched wings. Shon wondered if she could have somehow grown even larger that the first time he had seen her. Shon kept his hood up tightly around his head and did not look at the dragon long. Even now, he could feel the pain and rage emanating from her.

Shon held the bundle containing the Dragon’s Bane tightly in his fist. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to use it, but he was sure that he was the only one who could save these people from the dragon above them. But why was she even attacking the town? She had stayed away and only attacked wildlife and livestock before, so why would she terrorize the town today? Could she somehow know what Krall and the others were planning to do back at her cave? If she did, why was she here instead of protecting her nest?

Shon kept his head down, trying to avoid looking at the dragon, and hoping to avoid being seen as well. Looking at his feet as he ran, Shon suddenly found himself tripping over someone small underfoot. After he hit the ground, Shon looked up, expecting to find a frightened child. Instead he found a pair of spiteful eyes glaring back at him.

“Watch where you’re going, idiot!” said a harsh, but high-pitched voice. It was the small man from the other dragon hunting party. The one that Jarkt and the others had called Mutt. Shon remembered the way Jarkt had treated Mutt the last time they met, and felt sorry for tripping over him.

Shon’s pity for Mutt was short-lived however. As soon as he looked at Mutt to apologize, Shon heard the thoughts in his head and the situation suddenly made sense. “You’re the reason the dragon’s here!” Shon shouted over the noise around them. “You stole something from her, and she followed you here to get it back.”

“Shut up!” hissed Mutt. “You want her to hear you?”

“I don’t care if the whole town hears me!” Shon shouted. He focused his mind on Mutt, but he couldn’t retrieve any more information at the moment. “What did you take from her?”

“None of your business,” said Mutt. “Treshigan says she needs the dragon gone for a few hours to set traps, so I make sure it’s away from the cave for a few hours. I do as she says and I stay alive.”

“Treshigan the witch?” asked Shon. “I thought you two were both Jarkt’s slaves.”

“Doesn’t he like to think that,” Mutt said with a sneer. “We’ll be done with him soon enough, and then he’ll be lucky to be alive.”

There was a roar overhead and Shon glanced up to see that the dragon was now circling closer to the ground. “Look,” said Shon, “I really don’t care about any of that. If Treshigan’s orders were to lead that thing away from her nest, that’s fine. But we have to get you out of this town before more people get hurt or someone gets killed. I think I have an idea of how we can get the dragon to follow us if we act quickly.”

“Are you insane?” Mutt squeaked. “I’m as good as dead if I don’t have this crowd to hide in!”

“So you’re just willing to let these people suffer so you can cower behind them?” shouted Shon.

“What have any of them ever done for me?” asked Mutt. “You know when we came through this town the first time, Jarkt had me on a leash?! You think any of these people came forward to help poor little Mutt with the rope around his neck? The dragon can have the whole lot of them for all I care!”

Shon felt such disgust at Mutt’s words that bile began to rise in his throat. He wanted to throttle the little man, but he knew that attacking him wouldn’t solve anything. He had to get them out of there. He tried to calm down and focus on the problem in front of him.

“Look, I know you’re angry,” Shon said, as calmly as he could. “But you know, that anger probably just started out as loneliness from your pancreas.”

Mutt stared at Shon in bewildered silence for a moment. “What in the world is that supposed to mean?” Mutt asked.

“It’s something an old teacher of mine would have said,” Shon said. “Look, forget it. The point is, I have something that we can use to keep the dragon away, even if you don’t have the crowd to hide in.”

Mutt eyed Shon suspiciously. “What is it?” he asked.

“This,” said Shon, pulling out the bundle of Dragon’s Bane, “is a plant that the dragon can’t bear the smell of. Just the residue of its smell has already saved my friend and me before. So let’s get you out of here, and we can use this to keep the dragon at a safe distance.”

“That’s your plan?” said Mutt, with contempt returning to his voice. “A smelly plant? Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll take my chances hiding here in town. It’s working out pretty well for me so far.”

At this last comment, Shon’s patience was more than spent. “We don’t have time for this,” said Shon. He grabbed Mutt by the wrist and before he could think through the situation, he used his free hand to remove his hood. Dragon! Shon called out with his mind. What you seek is down here!

As soon as Shon reached out to the dragon with his mind, he regretted it. The pain from the dragon hit Shon so forcefully, that he nearly lost his grip on Mutt’s wrist. The dragon’s reaction was also immediate and as she craned her neck in their direction, it was clear he had gotten her attention.

“What have you done?!” Mutt screamed at Shon. He then surprised Shon by deftly twisting the wrist that Shon was holding and using his other hand to pull back Shon’s middle finger, causing Shon to immediately lose his grip on his prisoner, and drop to knees. In a series of rapid movements, Mutt then kicked Shon in the ribs, punched the side of his head, and snatched the bundle of Dragon’s Bane out of Shon’s other hand.

“You should’ve just stayed out of it,” Mutt jeered right before he ran off with the Dragon’s Bane. “Good luck with the dragon.”

Shon’s vision began to blur. He could not tell if it was from the pain of Mutt’s unexpected blows, or from the increasing proximity of the dragon with all her rage and pain. Shon considered trying to pull up his hood to protect himself from the pain, but decided it was a futile effort. He had lost the Dragon’s Bane, and he had lost any chance of saving the people in the town. He was practically numb to the pain as a feeling of profound failure and hopelessness overcame him. He had not felt so helpless since being trapped by Treshigan and her magic.

And yet the stream of thought that had tugged him into action before still trickled past his mind. After all, when faced with certain defeat and humiliation it was Shon that was able to save them from Treshigan’s curse. Why not again? He could try couldn’t he? What did he have to lose?

As Shon grasped Stick firmly in his hands, he could hear still hear the thoughts and screams of everyone else in the town, but now his attention was focused solely on the dragon above him. He stared directly at her, trying to read her thoughts and send them back to her. This only seemed to make the dragon more angry than ever.

More, Shon thought to himself. I need more! He could tell that his mind was instinctively withdrawing from a portion of her pain and torment, and he tried to overcome the impulse. In the remaining reasoning left to him, Shon thought even a dragon like her must have a limit to the pain she could tolerate. I don’t need to feel it, Shon told himself, I just need to let it flow through me back to her unfiltered.

As Shon focused more and more on the dragon, time seemed to slow down in his mind. As the dragon descended towards him, he found it odd that he had time to think about his parents and Empress and Grodin. He wondered how long he would miss them when he was gone. Then he thought of Tarun with the dragon hunters who still had to kill this dragon coming down at him. They still need me, Shon realized.

With one last burst of strength and willpower, Shon opened his mind to its utmost limits. He was vaguely aware of the familiar egg inside his cloak pocket burning white hot against his skin, but he paid it no mind. The pain of the heat was nothing compared to the pain he was channeling from the dragon and back to her mind.

I need it all, Shon thought. I need all of her.

The dragon was now almost on top of Shon with open jaws and outstretched claws. As his vision continued to blur, he noticed that she really did look like the inky black shape from his dream. The black shape continued to grow and blur, until there was nothing but black, and Shon felt nothing at all.