Page 121 of Scales ’N’ Spells: Volume Two

As they drew close to the source of the blue mushroom cloud, Sora’s mouth fell open. They were approaching the remains of what looked to be an abandoned military town. Old concrete buildings stretched up ten stories. They had likely once been barracks but were now crumbling and covered in graffiti. Trees were tangled with vines, and roads were cracked and rutted.

But there were signs of life among the old buildings. Clothes were hung out on balconies to dry, and there was a scattering of cars. And, of course, people were running around and screaming. They’d started pointing at the tall building engulfed in flames and belching out blue smoke.

It was the strangest thing Sora had ever seen. Whoever had done it had mixed some kind of explosive with magic.

And then the people noticed the dragons.

As one, the thunder of dragons let out a deafening battle cry that rose above the sounds of the fire. The fire dragons swooped down, moving east to west, pelting more of the barracks with fire. King Rodrigo and his bodyguards dove, moving from west to east, covering the roads in a thick layer of ice.

The earth and metal dragons landed first, shaking the earth and allowing their mages to set down a layer of protective spells over the dragons.

Sora remained in the air with the wind dragons, vainly searching for a clue to where they might find Ravi. Most of the Jaeggi were running, abandoning their cars now that the roads were useless to them. They plunged toward the surrounding woods, desperate for escape from the attacking dragons and mages.

It took everything he had to tear his eyes from the towers burning with orange and yellow flames. King Chalo was sure Ravi was underground. He wouldn’t be in the towers, so where was he? Where was the opening to the underground bunker?

On Sahan’s second pass over the city, Sora finally saw a bland grey door rolling open. It had been hidden by the earth during their first pass, but the new angle revealed how a narrow road led down into the earth and under the city.

“There!” he shouted. He leaned forward, pressing as close as he could to Sahan’s neck, and pointed toward the opening. “Ravi has to be down there!”

So close. He was so close to having his heart back.

An explosion echoed strangely through the underground tunnels, the boom seeming to go on and on until Ravi wasn’t sure if the sound was stuck in his head. It had been powerful enough to knock him off his feet, pulling his shoulders painfully.

What the hell had Nikki done?

Assuming they got out of this alive, Ravi would need to have a talk with them about what counted as a diversion and what threatened to bury both of them under thousands of tons of earth and concrete!

Outside his cell, shouts poured down the halls followed by pounding footsteps. Shadows flashed by the tiny window as the Jaeggi rushed down the halls toward the explosion.

Where was Nikki? They had to be close. The diversion needed to go off when they were close to the cell so they could slip inside with the damn key.

Maybe the explosion wasn’t Nikki. Maybe the explosion was Sora and Ravi’s family. The feeling of Sora’s love, his worry, was getting closer and closer. Ravi was sure it was only a matter of time before the dragons arrived, but Ravi’s goal had been to break free to help his family. It was more dangerous for them to all come underground looking for him.

The shouts and the sounds of footsteps died, until Ravi couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of his heart. It was as if all the Jaeggi fled the bunker, leaving him alone with the other prisoners.

“Ravi! Ravi! I got it!” Nikki’s excited voice jumped and danced through the window.

There was a scrape of the metal lock turning in its casing, and the door was jerked open to reveal Nikki’s smiling face. Their long hair was in a tangle, and there was a smudge of black dirt or soot across their face, but otherwise they looked fine.

“Thank goodness!” Ravi sighed.

It took three tries to get the key into the first manacle. Nikki wasn’t particularly tall, and Ravi was stretched just high enough off the ground to make the whole affair awkward. But with some cursing and sweating, the first manacle was unlocked.

Ravi groaned with relief and pain as he was finally able to lower his left arm to his side. He allowed himself only a moment before he grabbed the key to work on his other arm.

A second explosion rocked the compound, and the earth gave a long, slow, rolling roar as if someone had woken a giant under their feet. Ravi turned wide eyes to see Nikki’s matching startled expression.

“That—that was not me,” Nikki said as soon as they could manage the words. “I only set up one explosion. And it was a tiny one.”

“A tiny one?” Ravi squawked as he jammed the key into the second manacle. They needed to get moving, now.

“Yeah, I only used a little bit of reflected sunlight. And I scratched together a handful of griffon feathers. I didn’t think it would be so big.”

Ravi shook his head. He wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable about elements as the mages, but it sounded like Nikki was lucky they hadn’t torn a black hole in the world. Everyone was going to be a lot safer when Nikki had been trained up a bit by Lisette.

“I have a feeling the second explosion came from my family,” Ravi said as the lock finally clicked and the manacle opened. Pain shot through his other shoulder, and his calf muscles burned as he at last settled flat on his feet. He swayed a little, and Nikki was right there, wrapping an arm around his waist to steady him.

“Okay?”