Dragons of Marak: Book 1, Wings & Sword

#24

 The world was against her. She'd known it before, when Luka had told her the police would not help their dragons. Now she felt it in her heart. Riding alongside Leti and Sil in the carriage, back to Luka's mother's house, Ana spoke not a word. She ruminated on her father's obstinence, on her country's corruption. She felt dirty, and awful, and sad.

After a time, she looked out the window. The Iron Obelisk came into view on her left. It seemed to lean over the city, like a dark soul regarding its subjects. The top of the Obelisk was white in the sunlight. The sun was setting beyond it, the sky was turning orange.

They reached Luka's house—their safehouse—and Leti gave the carriage driver instructions to return in a few hours. Once inside, they explained everything that had gone on to Luka's mother. She let them be for a little while while she stumbled off, tears in her eyes.

"Luka..." she muttered as she left. "Luka...Luka..."

"We need a plan," Ana said.

"We need to go to the Obelisk," Leti said.

Ana found herself in agreement. "There are strong dragonbounds there," she was thinking of the one with the hadra. "We can't just go charging in."

Leti snacked on some crackers.

"So then, what do you think the plan should be?"

Ana wasn't sure. The sun was setting in the sky. The day was nearing its end, and soon it would be too dark to see well. In her mind, she debated what conditions would give them the best odds of success for setting Luka, Ashwell, and Jack free.

When I see you next, I expect you to be ready to give up your essdra, Ana's father's words replayed in her mind. She could not get the threat out of her head. He had threatened to kill Jack! If she and Leti tried to break into the Obelisk at the wrong time, it was also a possibility they might run into her father, and he might follow through on his threats.

"We've lost the ring, so we can't even try to use the distorted realm," she mused. She looked up at Cee, who floated above her. "The police won't help, either. We do know that the Iron Obelisk is also a hotel for dragons, who come to the city seeking human partners. My father's operations just exist on the upper two floors..."

"So if we pretend that our dragons wish to stay at the Obelisk, we can get in," Leti mused.

"Perhaps," Ana said. She liked the idea. "But they know my face. You'll have to do it. You and Sil, or Pero, rather."

"We can do it," Taea said.

"The other problem is I don't know if they'd let us up to the top floors. Probably not. They might not even let us past the first floor."

"It's still worth a try," Leti said.

"Yeah," Ana agreed, turning the idea over in her head. It seemed like their best bet. "Once we're inside, we just have to find a way to get to the top of the Obelisk."

"What is the top like?" Taea asked.

Ana described the lobby she'd been forced to wait in, she described the hallway beyond it, and the cages of dragons. Among the issues with getting to the top of the Obelisk was that the elevator required a special key for access.

"Maybe we can climb up the shaft," Taea suggested. She showed off her vines, implying that she could use them to help them climb.

"That might work," Ana said. "We would just need a way to cut through the elevator roof, to access the shaft."

"A dragon sword ought to do it," Cee said with a grin.

Ana wasn't sure if a dragon sword would cut through the metal, but she nodded, hoping it might work.