Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary

"You knew about Seth?" Dougan asked. "I might have caught wind of his presence." Gavin crouched, examining the wounds in Warren’s shoulder and upper chest. Warren winced when Gavin fingered the sodden fabric near one of the punctures. "Ugly," Gavin said.

"Sharp antlers," Warren gasped. "Not a very impressive way to go. Stabbed by a deer. Don’t put that on my tombstone. Blame the dragon."

"You’ll be all right," Dougan assured him, his eyes less confident than his voice.

"Where’s Tanu?" Warren asked.

"Big guy took a spill," Dougan said. "Lost consciousness. Mara and Trask are trying to revive him."

"What stopped the dragon?" Warren asked.

"Gavin spoke to her," Seth said. "He used dragon talk. It was freaky. He calmed her down and sent her away."

"Seth and Kendra were holding their own," Gavin approved.

"Sorry to be the weak link," Warren muttered. "The deer gored me and kept on running. I was spitted on those antlers for a long time. Long enough to really notice, you know? To think about it."

Trask and Mara came jogging down from higher on the hill, led by Tanu. The brawny Samoan glared at Seth. "What are you doing here?"

"You missed me during your inspection," Seth replied.

"Perfect," Tanu muttered. He dropped to his knees beside Warren. "Sorry I’m late."

"Heard you banged your head," Warren said.

Wearing an embarrassed grin, Tanu smoothed a hand over his thick, dark hair. "Don’t know what happened. Must have tripped and hit a rock." Tanu produced a knife.

Warren grimaced as Tanu began to cut away his shirt. "I feel sorry for the rock."

Tanu shrugged. "It smacked me pretty good. I’ve never been knocked out before. Thick skull." He slashed away a wide section of fabric.

Warren eyed the knife. "You’re not dizzy or anything?"

"I do my best work dizzy." Tanu ripped away another portion of the bloody shirt. He set aside the knife, rummaged in his satchel, fished out a small bottle, uncapped it, and took a sip.

"How about some of that for me?" Warren carped.

Tanu squinted and clenched his teeth, then shook his head briskly. "You don’t want this stuff. This is to clear me up, sharpen my senses. Trust me, you’re going to want things dulled."

"You’re the doctor."

Tanu scrabbled through his satchel again. "Not strictly speaking."

"Right, well, you’re the medicine man."

"Try some of this." Tanu poured a small amount of potion onto a cotton ball, then wafted it beneath Warren’s nostrils.

"Whoa," Warren said, going slightly cross-eyed. "That’s more like it."

Tanu leaned forward and began meticulously applying a paste to the puncture wounds.

Kendra pushed open the knapsack’s flap. Gavin stooped and gave her a hand up.

"How’s Warren?" Kendra asked, emerging.

"He should be all right," Tanu said. "We’ll have to rest him in that knapsack of yours, and get out the unicorn horn."

"Will it heal him?" Seth asked.

Tanu shook his head. "The horn doesn’t heal. It only purifies. Keeping the horn in his grasp should prevent infection and counteract any toxins."

Kendra nodded. "How about you?"

Tanu shrugged. "I have a little headache. My pride took the biggest hit."

"Your pride?" Warren griped, his speech slurred. "I was vanquished by a deer!"

"A giant magical flying deer with fangs," Seth said, parroting a description Gavin had shared earlier.

"That sounds a little better," Warren conceded. "Seth is in charge of my tombstone."

"Don’t speak," Tanu soothed. "Relax. Breathe. You need to rest."

Gavin and Kendra had wandered away a few paces. Seth joined them. His sister glowered at him. "What?" he asked.

"You shouldn’t be here," Kendra snapped.

"How about thanks for saving–"

"Gavin would have saved me. That’s his specialty. Look at Warren. He’s a wreck and we’re barely getting started. I don’t want you dead."

"N-n-not to interrupt," Gavin said, "but Seth may very well have saved you, Kendra. I’m not sure I would have made it to you in time. Nafia was in hunting mode. She would have struck quickly."

Kendra rolled her eyes. "Seth doesn’t belong here. He hitched a ride uninvited. Wyrmroost is a death trap. Whether I die or not, I don’t want him getting killed."

"I don’t want to get killed either," Seth said agreeably. ‘"I’d much rather live. Partly because I know you’d write ‘I told you so’ on my gravestone. Believe it or not, I don’t want you to die, either. I know what it feels like to bury you, and I’d rather not go through it again."

Kendra folded her arms and shook her head. "I’m glad you helped me. I am. Too bad Grandma and Grandpa are going to kill you."

"We’ll have to make it out of Wyrmroost first," Seth responded. "Please, one crisis at a time."

"Did you two know that holding hands would make you dragon tamers?" Gavin asked.

Seth shook his head. "No, but it kind of makes sense. I’ve been thinking about it. At Fablehaven, when Ephira was attacking us, as long as I touched Warren, he shared my immunity to fear."

"When I faced the dragon, my mind was clear," Kendra recounted, "but I couldn’t make my mouth move. I was paralyzed. As soon as Seth touched me, I was free."

"And I wasn’t scared or frozen," Seth said, "but the dragon had me mesmerized. I couldn’t think. Except, when the dragon glanced away from me, and said she would kill us, some instinct made me grab Kendra. Half to comfort her, half to get comfort. I didn’t want to die alone. Then all of a sudden I could think clearly."

"Amazing," Gavin said. "I’ve never heard of anything like it."

"I’ve never heard anything like you speaking the dragon language," Seth chuckled. "When you first started, I thought you’d lost your mind."

"It made me self-conscious to have you guys watching," Gavin said. "I know how I look. And how I sound. Like a demented rooster."

"A demented rooster who saved our lives," Kendra said. "Thanks."

Gavin shrugged. "That’s why I’m here."

"Know what makes me mad?" Kendra said. "I could talk to Chalize. I was frozen, but I managed to speak. And I talked to Camarat too. But with Nafia glaring down at me, my jaw would not work."