Gatekeepers Book 2: Galeforce

“Galán, what are you doing?” Draycos groaned. “I thought we were trying not to waste time?”

“Settle down, settle down,” Galán soothed. “It won’t kill us if we took a few minutes to enjoy the city.”

“It won’t kill you, at least,” Draycos mumbled under his breath so Galán wouldn’t hear him.

No sooner than Galán and Draycos began walking down the center street from Wyvern Plaza that Galán began browsing through the wares of all the merchant stalls set up along the sides of the street. The whole street was apparently devoted to merchants of their trades, with all the merchant stalls and the shops that lined the street. There were plenty of people roaming around as they shopped.

“Miss, what is this piece?” Galán asked the young lady running the jewelry stall he and Draycos now stood in front of, holding up an intricate golden ear piece with a red jewel set in it. The lady giggled and began explaining the piece in detail as she and Galán became deeply engrossed in their conversation. Draycos sighed.

Honestly, this guy has no sense of urgency. One second he’s all for making it to our destination, the next he’s content with flirting. I’m gonna have a big headache before the day is done.

As Draycos stood with his back to Galán’s conversation, a young woman walked by in front of him. At first, Draycos paid no attention to her, but as she passed him, something caught his eye. The woman had long, glossy black hair that seemed to reflect the very sunlight itself. Draycos’s head turned as she walked off, taking in the black skirt and white blouse she wore. The heels of her black high-heel shoes clacked against the cobblestone as she walked.

Draycos could only stare at the woman as she got farther away. As she walked into a large crowd of shoppers, Draycos snapped back to his senses and reached with his hand in the direction the girl went. “W-wait!” he called out, running off after her. He forced his way through the crowd and looked around before spotting the woman walk down a side street between some buildings. “Wait!” he called again, pursuing the woman.

Back at the jewelry stall, Galán turned around to show Draycos a piece of jewelry, only to find he was no longer there. The piece he was holding fell to the ground as his expression paled.

“Oh, God,” he whispered. “I really screwed up this time.”

“Wait!” Draycos continued to chase after the lady through the alleys and backstreets of the city. The women ignored all his pleas and continued to walk on, turning down a different alley every now and then.

“Iris! Is that you?!” Draycos yelled. The woman finally came to a stop at the end of an alley leading out to a street. Panting, Draycos caught up to her. “Come on, let me see your face,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. Or he tried to, anyways. His hand passed through the woman’s shoulder, and the female proceeded to vanish in thin air, as if her body had been made out of nothing but mist.

“Draycos!” an unexpected familiar voice screamed from a very close proximity. “Watch out below!”

“Wha-?” Draycos didn’t even have time to process what just happened before the cobblestones beneath his feet gave way, revealing a gaping hole in the ground that tried to swallow up Draycos. Reacting quickly, Draycos grabbed the cobblestone as he fell, stopping his fall. Taking a quick look down, Draycos couldn’t see the bottom of the black abyss. He hung there for a few seconds, straining his ears as he tried to listen for the fallen rubble to hit the bottom, but no such sounds reached his ears.

This is a really deep pit. And why did I see Iris just now? Why did she vanish? Draycos looked up as he felt the cobblestone he was holding shifted. I don’t have time for questions right now. Grunting, Draycos pulled himself out of the hole and back onto the street above. Panting for breath as he sat there on his hands and knees, he glanced back at the hole only to see it had filled itself in, making the street whole once more.

“That was a close one,” the voice from earlier spoke. “Are you alright, Draycos?”

Draycos attempted to catch his breath for a moment before answering. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for the warning. But I gotta ask....” he looked around, but didn’t spot the owner of the voice. “Where are you, Theravor? I can’t see you anywhere.”

Many different voices laughed at Draycos’s words, but Draycos still didn’t see a single person in his surroundings. Not a soul was to be seen.

“Draycos, the Dragon Council and myself are communicating to you through your pendant right now,” Theravor’s voice chuckled.

“Huh?” Draycos grabbed the pendant hanging from his neck in one hand and held it close to his face as he peered closely at it. The pendant glowed in a soft blue light every time some noise was transmitted through it.

“Didn’t you know that we made some extra modifications to the spells placed on the crystal?” Theravor’s voice asked.

“I was told some changes were made to it, but no one gave me any details.”

“I see. Sorry about that, there must have been a miscommunication or something about that.”

Theravor and the Dragon Council sat at their seats in the Council Chamber at Dragonspire Castle. The curtains were drawn across the windows, darkening the room. Along with the royal guards on standby in the room, Poseidon, Vertex, Damrabe, and Reothad were also present. Everyone was watching a semi-transparent orb of light that floated in the air above the table the council sat around. The orb displayed a close-up image of Draycos’s face, and was projected from a heart-shaped object very similar to what Damrabe had used to display information for the council in a previous meeting. Although, this one was red in color and larger with a different ornate design covering it.

“We’ve been monitoring everything that’s happened so far,” Zero said to the image. “However, right after you and Galán entered the plaza, we lost our connection due to some magical interference. We don’t know if it was a natural phenomenon or not, but by the time we managed to re-establish a connection, you were chasing after that illusion. We were barely able to warn you about that trap in time, too.”

Draycos was silent for a few moments as he digested what he had been told. “So I’m still not trusted enough to act on my own without anyone monitoring me?” he asked in a dejected tone.

Theravor was surprised by Draycos’s question. He wasn’t expecting the boy to be hung up on something like that. “It’s nothing like that, Draycos....” he started.

Draycos rose to his feet and glared at the pendant. “I’m sorry for being selfish right now, but I need some time to be truly alone. It’s been three months since I arrived in this world, and I haven’t had a second to myself the entire time.”

“You need some time alone?” Vinzgar growled. “You fool. Do you even realize how much time is of the essence right now?”

“Tell that to Galán!” Draycos snapped. “I’m the one trying to hurry things along, and he still takes his time to flirt with merchants and chat with the ladies on the street! I doubt it’ll kill me to spend an hour alone. Don’t worry; I’m not a kid. I can find my way to the Gatekeepers headquarters on my own. Now goodbye.” With that, Draycos lifted the necklace up from around his neck and stuck it into his pocket. Back at the Council Chamber, the image went black.

A shocked silence settled in throughout the room; even Theravor had a look of surprise on his face. The silence was broken by several low growls from around the table, primarily from the direction where the Killwings sat.

“Is that fool out of his mind?” Vinzgar hissed. “He intentionally cut off our means of communication with him just so he could have some alone time?! Does he realize that he’s going to be the one to take the blame for the loss of the Orb of the First King if he’s unable to find it?!”

“I’m in agreement with you, Vinzgar,” Boreta muttered, shaking her head with one hand over her face as if she was trying to shake off a headache. “I would think Draycos would know his situation far better than anyone else, but it appears that I was wrong.”

“This is your fault too, Poseidon!” Vinzgar shot at the aged dragon standing close to Theravor’s throne. “You’re the one who said that he’d never take that pendant off! You said we could place the spells on that instead of planting them inside Draycos’s body to avoid wasting time! How are you going to take responsibility for this?!”

Poseidon said nothing and simply looked at Vinzgar with a calm expression on his face, hands held behind his back.

“I think we’re all forgetting about something here.” Everyone turned to look at Zero when he spoke up. “Like Draycos said, he’s been here for three months and has been under constant surveillance this whole time. He arrived here just after his home city was burned to the ground.” Zero turned to look at Poseidon. “In the last three months, has Draycos shed even a single tear, other than from pain?”

“No, he hasn’t,” Poseidon responded, shaking his head.

Theravor sighed, lounging back in his throne. “Zero has a point,” he announced, resting his hand on his right fist. “We’ve all been ignoring the fact that Draycos suffered a huge loss just before coming here. We haven’t even given him the time to grieve.”

“So we’re going to give him time to do it now, right after we finally found a lead on the Orb’s location?” Vinzgar growled. “I’m sorry, Theravor, but I don’t think that’s a wise choice.”

“He saw an illusion of his deceased close friend,” Theravor stated flatly. The room fell quiet as he went on. “Given the fact that he hasn’t even been able to grieve for the past three months, can you even begin to imagine how Draycos might feel after seeing something like that? He’s been staying strong to meet our demands of him until now; let’s just give him a little bit of time to relieve himself of his stress. I’m sure he’ll put his pendant back on whenever he’s ready.”

Several dragons shared uncomfortable glances with their neighbors before turning to look at the king and nod in agreement. A sudden thought crossed Theravor’s mind. Alarmed, he bolted into a proper sitting position in his chair, grabbing both of the armrests with his hands.

“Theravor?” Vertex asked curiously from his position behind the king’s seat. “What’s the matter?”

“How did the illusionist know what that girl looked like?” Theravor asked in a hushed tone, a bead of cold sweat running down his neck scales. Everyone in the room froze at his words as what he was implying dawned on them. Theravor’s furious glare scanned the room, a low growl rumbling deep in his throat. His talons dug into his throne, cracking the stone as he tightened his grip.

“There’s a traitor in this room.”