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Bluey and Dragoon fled as fast as their dragon and Shoyru
legs could carry them. They darted through two twists in the dungeon and hid
in a corner, panting.
“Who was that?” Bluey gasped.
“Don’t know,” Dragoon replied, “but I wouldn’t
want to meet her in a dark alley.”
“We met her in a dark alley!”
“Well, I didn’t want to, did I?” Dragoon retorted.
He poked his head out to look in the hallway. “She’s not coming.”
“No wonder, I must have scared her off,” Bluey
asserted.
“Hm. Maybe she’s Nikola. The faerie who owns
the jewel, right?”
“Of course! She can take us to Darkmoon and Spirit!”
Someone poked Bluey’s shoulder. “Hey, I felt
that, Dragoon.”
“What?”
“You poked me,” said Bluey.
“No, I--” Dragoon’s eyes widened. He backed away
and stuttered, “B-b-bluey--”
“Hello,” said Nikola sweetly.
Bluey spun around and faced her. “You!” he exclaimed.
“I mean, sorry I scared you. We’re looking for our friends, you see. Can you
help us?”
Nikola’s eyes narrowed at this strange, foolish
dragon. Didn’t he fear her? “Friends...?”
Dragoon glanced at Bluey, wondering who should
make the next move.
“Darkmoon and Spirit,” Bluey explained calmly.
“A green Gelert and blue Zafara. Have you seen them?”
Now Dragoon knew his owner had made a mistake.
They saw them in the dungeon, at least he had. Maybe Bluey hadn’t looked? Or
maybe he was playing along to this mystical faerie?
“Yes, I have,” Nikola replied, raising her wand.
“Would you like to see them?”
“Sure,” said Bluey.
Dragoon winced and closed his eyes, expecting
the worst.
Nikola twirled her wand and--
“PSYCHE!” Bluey knocked it out of her hands,
and the spell backfired onto her.
Nikola swooned and fainted, now under her own
spell. Bluey caught her with a swift move of his dragon arm.
“Taste of your own medicine, eh?” Bluey muttered,
as Dragoon just gaped at him, awestruck. Bluey fumbled in Nikola’s pockets until
he found what he was looking for--a set of keys. He laid Nikola gently down
onto the stone floor and flew off, Dragoon following close behind.
“I just saw them, they were right--” Dragoon
rounded a corner and saw the door-- “here!”
Indeed they were. Bluey and Dragoon peeked in
the barred window to see Darkmoon, Spirit, and an unfamiliar Red Grarrl.
Bluey turned the key in the lock. It clicked,
and he opened the door.
“Bluey! Dragoon!” exclaimed Spirit, running up
to them. “It’s so good to see you!”
“Tell me about it!” Bluey exclaimed. “We’ve been
looking all over Neopia and here for you.”
“How’d you find us?” Darkmoon asked.
“Now’s not the time to discuss that,” Dragoon
said tersely. “We have to get you out of here. We’ve got a plan.”
“Even better!”
“C’mon, Dantus,” Spirit said. “This is my owner,
Bluey, and my brother, Dragoon.”
“Hi,” said Dantus, sitting up.
Bluey led them all out of the dungeon and up
a stairway to an inner corridor of the palace.
“To escape,” Bluey explained, “we need the jewel.
We’ve got it, and the Snowager told me what we need to do.”
“Wait--” said Spirit, stopping.
“What?”
“We can’t just go. We’ll be leaving everyone
else behind!”
“Spirit,” said Bluey, “think reasonably. You
see--”
“No, he’s right,” Darkmoon interrupted. “We’ve
seen all the other prisoners, and maybe you have, too. We can’t just go and
pretend they don’t exist.”
“We don’t have time for this!” snapped Bluey.
“We have to move! Nikola could be following us right now!”
“Or she could be welcoming new prisoners,” Dantus
said glumly.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“I say escaping isn’t enough. Even if we free
everyone, more Neopians will be trapped in the long run.”
“So what should we do?” Darkmoon asked quietly.
“Take on Nikola.”
“That’s absurd!” Bluey exclaimed. “We can’t possibly--she’s
an evil faerie! It took a good part of my skill to stall her for now! We should
just run now while we have a chance! And you don’t understand, when the jewel
is--”
“What, you’re scared of Nikola?” Dragoon taunted.
“He should be,” Nikola said smoothly, stepping
out of a shadow.
The five gasped in fear. They were in a central
hall, and the exit from the palace was still another room or so away. They couldn’t
make it in time.
“You forget, blue dragon,” she said to Bluey,
“that a spell placed on a faerie wears off rather quickly. Magic can’t stop
us.”
Dantus’s eyes wandered over to a blue glass window
in the side of the rectangular hall, leading out into the garden. It was twilight,
a warm twilight leading into what would normally be a quiet evening. Below the
sky in the garden was a pool of water. Of course, of course. Water faeries needed
water to cast their best spells, and they did them best in dim light. They hadn’t
much time.
“Nikola,” Dantus addressed, “don’t do this.”
Nikola lowered her wand and stared at him cunningly.
“You know what we’re doing, don’t you?”
“You’re trying to escape,” she hissed. “That
will not be allowed.”
“But why?” Dragoon demanded suddenly, thinking
of the jewel in his pocket. “Why did you make this world? You’re just trapping
people, innocent Neopians like us. And for what? A hobby?”
“You know nothing, little Shoyru.”
“Then show us,” said Dantus. “Go on. Or are you
too ashamed?”
Darkmoon and Spirit exchanged glances. If they’d
read Nikola’s diary correctly, the world wasn’t created for the best of reasons.
“You’re biding your time,” she whispered devilishly,
“but you may see. Keep in mind that it may be the last thing you see. Follow.”
To be continued....
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