Hellbender - Dana Cameron Page 0,30

why you left so abruptly. They found that . . . worrying.”

“I left? They didn’t . . . send me away from them? How did I get to Japan, then?”

“That was all of your doing. If you do not yet comprehend your powers, as you seem not to, you must study them as I do.”

The dragon’s rebuke was as stern as it was silly to me. If I’d had a chance to catch my breath, I’d be studying those powers very closely indeed.

“Perhaps I could speak with the Makers directly? I have many questions, especially about how we are considered to be broken. And what does ‘broken’ mean?” I recalled my own issues and the mishap that landed me in Japan. “What do they think we should look like?”

“I shall see if we may speak with them. And I shall ask your questions.” The dragon’s attention was suddenly elsewhere.

There was a long pause that worried me increasingly as it continued. At least Quarrel seemed relieved when he disengaged from the conversation and returned to me. “Ah, much is made clear.”

I tried not to be impatient. What was clear to dragons wasn’t necessarily clear to the rest of us. “Okay.”

“I have explained what most of us born to the Fang and the Talent perceive as our function. The Makers expressed great surprise at this, which is only partially what their intent was. Not at all what they expected to find here.”

“And what did they expect to find?”

Naserian picked up here; she could speak more easily now. Her voice was like iron, ringing against stone, with the weight of years and authority. “They anticipated, with some logic, to find, once we had grown sufficiently in power to communicate with them, that we would rule wherever we went.”

The dragons, believing their tasks completed, vanished.

I rested my head against the window, the vibration rattling my brain almost as much as my thoughts were. I’m as open-minded as a girl who’s a werewolf fighting an evil mutant army can be, but understanding dragons was beyond me. It made me worry about meeting something even more inscrutable than they were.

When Viktor came out to chat, I told him about my change in plans. “I guess I’m getting out in San Francisco. I’ll find my way to Anchorage, and maybe someone will be able to help me find Kuskokwim.”

“I’ve never heard of the place, and I have close Family in Alaska,” Viktor admitted. “But let me see what I can do to help.”

At least I had that much flexibility, though I didn’t like the idea of anything that took me away from going home. “Thank you.”

“I’ll let the folks in Boston know, too. Try to get some rest.” Viktor looked at me appraisingly. “You’re going to need it.”

Eventually, I managed to sleep, but my dreams were full of bloodshed and overdue library books.

Chapter Six

Viktor managed to arrange it so that a California Cousin, Hal, who was one of the western American partners in “Fangborn Air,” picked me up and flew me to Anchorage. From there, Hal gave me instructions on how to get to McGrath. I discovered that I’d have to travel on a small prop plane that only carried about a dozen passengers, which made me much more nervous than the very sleek and quiet jets Viktor and Hal had flown. We flew for about an hour into the bush to McGrath, a very small town where I’d get an even smaller plane to Kuskokwim. It was in there my luck ran out. The weather had turned; a nasty front was predicted. The sky was already dark and the clouds loomed.

I called Cousin Hal back in Anchorage. “I really need to get to Kuskokwim.”

He said, “You can need all you want, but if the pilot doesn’t think it’s safe, she’s not going to go. And the airfield isn’t going to let her.”

“I don’t suppose there’s a train? Or a rental car?”

His silence told me how fond a hope those were. “The only way in there is by plane. You could get there by boat, but only from somewhere else you’d have to get to by plane.”

I paused. He said, “There’s still a chance, but even if you get to Kuskokwim, you might not be able to get out again.”

“Can’t you fly over and take me?”

“Zoe, even if I could, if the weather is bad . . .”

“I can pay you,” I said. “Whatever you want.” The Family in Japan had set me up with emergency funds