WORTH | jason grace¹

20

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20. Festus

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Then Lorna snapped awake to Jason and Piper screaming.

They spiraled through the dark in a free fall, still on the dragon's back, but Festus's hide was cold. His ruby eyes were dim.

"Not again!" Leo yelled. "You can't fall again!"

Leo managed to pull open the panel on the dragon's neck. He toggled the switches. He tugged the wires.

Lorna saw the lights of a city below them—just flashes in the dark as they plummeted in circles. They had only seconds before they crashed.

"Jason!" Leo screamed. "Take Piper and Lorna and fly out of here!"

"What?"

"We need to lighten the load! I might be able to reboot Festus, but he's carrying too much weight!"

"What about you?" Piper cried. "If you can't reboot him—"

"I'll be fine," Leo yelled. "Just follow me to the ground. Go!"

Jason grabbed Lorna around the waist and Piper hooked onto Lorna. They unbuckled their harnesses, and in a flash they were gone —shooting into the air.

"There!" Lorna pointed to a big river. "I can cushion our fall!"

Jason nodded and strained to bring them there. When they were hovering over the river, Lorna summoned for a wave and it brought them to the bank.

In a distance, there was a big explosion followed by lasers.

"Leo!" Piper exclaimed and ran towards the explosion. Jason and Lorna followed her.

There was white mansion with a huge snowy lawn inside a tall brick perimeter fence which Jason had to fly us in.

When Leo came to his senses, Jason, Piper and Lorna were leaning over him. He was lying in the snow, covered in mud and grease.

He spit a clump of frozen grass out of his mouth. "Where—"

"Lie still." Piper had tears in her eyes. "You rolled pretty hard when—when Festus—"

"Where is he?" Leo sat up.

"Seriously, Leo," Jason said. "You could be hurt. You shouldn't—"

Leo pushed himself to his feet. Then he saw the wreckage. Festus must have dropped the big canary cages as he came over the fence, because they'd rolled in different directions and landed on their sides, perfectly undamaged. Festus hadn't been so lucky. The dragon had disintegrated. His limbs were scattered across the lawn. His tail hung on the fence. The main section of his body had plowed a trench twenty feet wide and fifty feet long across the mansion's yard before breaking apart. What remained of his hide was a charred, smoking pile of scraps. Only his neck and head were somewhat intact, resting across a row of frozen rosebushes like a pillow.

"No," Leo sobbed. He ran to the dragon's head and stroked its snout.

"You can't go," Leo pleaded. "You're the best thing I ever fixed."

The dragon's head whirred its gears, as if it were purring. Jason, Piper and Lorna stood next to him, but Leo kept his eyes fixed on the dragon.

"It's not fair," he said.

The dragon clicked. Long creak. Two short clicks. Creak. Creak. Almost like a pattern. He was using Morse code.

Leo listened.

"Yeah," Leo said. "I understand. I will. I promise."

The dragon's eyes went dark. Festus was gone. Leo cried. Lorna and Piper stood on either side, patting his shoulders, saying comforting things.

Finally Jason said, "I'm so sorry, man. What did you promise Festus?"

Leo sniffled. He opened the dragon's head pane.

"Something my dad told me," Leo said. "Everything can be reused."

"Your dad talked to you?" Jason asked. "When was this?"

Leo didn't answer. He worked at the dragon's neck hinges until the head was detached. Leo managed to hold it in his arms. He looked up at the starry sky and said, "Take him back to the bunker, Dad. Please, until I can reuse him. I've never asked you for anything. "

The wind picked up, and the dragon's head floated out of Leo's arms like it weighed nothing. It flew into the sky and disappeared.

Lorna looked at him in amazement. "He answered you?"

"I had a dream," Leo managed. "Tell you later."

Lorna looked around. The large white mansion glowed in the center of the grounds. Tall brick walls with lights and security cameras surrounded the perimeter.

"Where are we?" he asked. "I mean, what city?"

"Omaha, Nebraska," Piper said. "I saw a billboard as we flew in. But I don't know what this mansion is. We came in right behind you, but as you were landing, Leo, I swear it looked like —I don't know—"

"Lasers," Leo said.

He picked up a piece of dragon wreckage and threw it toward the top of the fence. Immediately a turret popped up from the brick wall and a beam of pure heat incinerated the bronze plating to ashes.

Jason whistled. "Some defense system. How are we even alive?"

"Festus," Leo said miserably. "He took the fire. The lasers sliced him to bits as he came in so they didn't focus on you. I led him into a death trap."

"You couldn't have known," Piper said. "He saved our lives again."

"But what now?" Jason said. "The main gates are locked, and I'm guessing I can't fly us out of here without getting shot down."

Leo looked up the walkway at the big white mansion. "Since we can't go out, we'll have to go in."