The Last Pendragon

Chapter 8

They stopped in the middle of the woods to camp so Kharro could rest after several hours carrying them all in flight. Kharro was already asleep and Lyza used a spell to start a small campfire. Kenji watched as she lay down on the ground and closed her eyes. Sleeping peacefully, Lyza’s innocence showed. She lost all of the hardness, the caution, and the walls that seemed to be up after years of being on the run. Kenji wanted to hold her and comfort her, but perhaps it was he who needed the comfort.

His dad was dead.

What were the last words he had ever spoken to his father? It wasn’t, “I love you,” Kenji remembered that much. Worry for his mom stirred inside him and the pain in his chest grew with each passing second. His father was dead because of who they were and Kenji couldn’t even remember the last thing he said to him. They never had a chance to make up, never had a chance for reconciliation.

Matt took a drink from a canteen and poured water on a cloth. His bare chest was covered in black and blue bruises, large welts, and cuts. With a wince, Matt sucked in a deep breath and used the cloth to clean the dried blood.

Kenji stared at him, trying to count all the massive bruises. There were too many to count. With the careful way Matt held himself, Kenji could clearly see he was in pain, although he never once showed it. His face was expressionless, even as he lightly winced as the cloth traced over his wounds. “Matt, let Lyza heal you.”

Matt glanced at Kenji, his jaw ticking as he lightly pressed the cloth on his ribs. “No. It will take too much time.”

“Matt—“

“Just get me a handful of Ibuprofen and a redbull and I’m good to go.” Matt spoke the words as if he had heard and spoken them a million times.

Kenji shook his head, closing his eyes as he felt tears in them. What had happened to his brother to make him like this? He was horrified to think of what he went through overseas. Not once had Kenji ever considered it. Matt was a completely different person from the older brother who took him to have fun, who would play pranks on him, and scream at their dad if he became too angry. The chick-magnet who taught Kenji everything he knew about getting girls, the older brother who played football in the backyard, who secretly built a log cabin on the back of their property even when their parents told them no. “You didn’t tell them anything, did you?” Kenji whispered.

Matt shook his head, sitting down to lean against a tree with a groan. “No.”

“How? How do you deal with all of it? How did you resist it?”

Matt stared out into space and stayed silent for so long, Kenji wondered if he had heard him. “You do what you have to.”

“You’ve been through it before haven't you? On your first tour, before the divorce, when they said you were rescued from an Iraqi prison. That was your first time…” Kenji swallowed deeply, unable to say the word out loud. He couldn’t fully process that his brother had been a prisoner who had been tortured, not once, but twice. Maybe more.

“... being tortured?” Matthew finished. His voice was overly calm and it scared Kenji. He couldn’t even say the word without cringing and yet Matt, who had been through it, said it as if it was no big deal. “Yeah. I mean, we trained for it, but that was the first time. ‘Till now.” Matt kept dabbing at the wounds on his chest with the cloth, wincing every once-in-a-while.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Kenji exhaled sharply and tried to imagine what it must have been like for Matt. How had he never known this? He felt like such an i***t. What had he been doing while his brother had been a prisoner for months? “I—I never knew. Wh—what else haven't you told me, Matt? I—I'm so sorry. I didn't... I didn't realize how much you went through over there.”

Matthew glared at the trees of the woods around them and stayed silent. Kenji didn’t think he was going to answer or respond. Matt never once blinked and just stayed quiet for several long minutes.

“Matt?” Kenji murmured softly, afraid to interrupt Matt’s thoughts.

When he didn’t respond, Kenji crawled over to his brother and lightly shook him. With rage in his eyes, Matthew suddenly flipped Kenji onto his back. They had grappled before, but Kenji knew Matt was serious. By the killer look in Matt’s gaze, Kenji knew.

“Matt... What are you doing? Matt, it's me! It's Kenji!”

Recognition flickered in Matthew's eyes and he shook his head. A look of horror crossed Matt’s features as he backed up with a shuddering breath.

Sitting up, Kenji leaned against a tree across from where Matt leaned against a tree of his own. “Matt—what was that?”

“... I’ve uh… I’ve been diagnosed with…” Matthew took a deep breath. “PTSD.”

Part of Kenji felt hurt that Matt had never told him. Nothing about what he had gone through as a prisoner on his first tour and nothing over the last one. Here he had been so angry for Matt for not being there for his mother during the divorce and yet… Matthew had gone through more than Kenji could imagine. “Matt…” His voice trailed off, unsure what to say to make up for what a terrible brother he’d been.

“Sometimes I go into what they call a dissociative state. Nothing feels real when I'm like that, not even myself and I guess I don't respond. Sometimes I can get violent, but I have no memory of it later,” Matt explained without meeting Kenji’s gaze.

“Why didn't you tell me? I mean, have you told Mom?”

Matthew shook his head. “There's a lot about me that you don't know, Kenji.”

Frowning, Kenji asked, “Why?”

“... It's better that way.”

*****

“I love you, Lyza,” Norak murmured.

“No, you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t have betrayed me,” Lyza wanted to say back. The words were right there, on the edge of her tongue, but when she opened her mouth, they were stuck there. Instead, she leaned in and surrendered to his arms around her, to his kiss.

He stabbed her. The agony was intense and red-hot. As he laughed, Lyza stared at the blade in shock. When she looked back up, he had transformed into Kenji.

Lyza’s eyes snapped open as she gasped awake. Kenji and Matt were both sleeping on opposite sides of the fire, on her left and right. Across from her, Kharro leaned against a tree, keeping watch.

“Nightmare?” Kharro inquired.

Lyza nodded, rubbing her eyes as she slowly sat up. The sky above was still dark and littered with beautiful stars. For a moment, their beauty took her away from the troubles she faced. “How did you find out about Merlin? What’s the truth, Kharro?”

“I know many dragons, Lyza. One in particular is far older than I am. Dragons have a code of honor when it comes to favors.”

“I can tell,” Lyza muttered.

Kharro shot her a look, but continued. “He owed me one, so I called it in. He and Merlin had a special bond… In the ancient days, we dragons would sometimes bond with Mages. We were both more powerful together. At least until they turned on us and began hunting us down. Merlin and my friend were the last ones to have such a bond. He knew that Merlin disappeared into the first hidden realm.”

Lyza gasped. “I thought that Nithal was the only hidden place!”

Kharro shook his head. “Mages hid realms and worlds even before Arthur’s curse. One of the first ones ever created was Shangri-la. Merlin knew he would be safe there—that any Mages who knew of it were long dead. That’s where he is and that is exactly where we’re going.”

“How do you know where it’s at?” Lyza c****d her head at him.

Kharro smiled. “We dragons have always known where it is.”

Lyza nodded mutely, unsure how to respond. She was still in shock that Merlin was even still alive. Her eyes flitted over to Kenji first and then Matt. Their father was dead because of her. They were Pendragons. More than that, they were from all seven Mage Families. Not only did they have magic, but Kenji could redirect spells. No Mage could do that. What was he and how was he able to do it?

Lyza’s thoughts reeled as her mind thought back to the dream. Her eyes landed on Kenji’s sleeping form. More than anything she wanted to trust him. She even liked him. Yet… Could she trust him? After Norak…

She couldn’t trust anyone.

*****

Oddly enough, riding on a dragon was a much smoother ride than in a helicopter. Matt found it relaxing, so much so that he had trouble keeping his eyes open. He hadn’t slept very well, even though he had been dehydrated and sleep-deprived, his body ached too badly for a deep sleep. Now, however, that was not the case. Matt’s eyes constantly kept closing and he found himself leaning to one side or the other. Kenji continuously grabbed onto his arms to keep him from falling thousands of feet to his death.

To try to stay awake, Matt focused on Lyza’s red hair, which looked silver in the moonlight above them, smacking him in the face because of the rough breeze. His arms lightly held her waist and he had to admit that she was attractive. “Where is Shangri-la anyway?” Kenji yelled from behind him.

Knowing that Lyza couldn’t hear him, Matt leaned forward to murmur in her ear. “Where’s Shangri-la?”

Lyza shrugged. “I don’t know!” she called back. “Kharro said all dragons know where it is! We’ll just have to see where he flies us.”

The sky above was slowly being taken over by dawn. Behind them, the sun was slowly peeking over the horizon. Oranges, reds, yellows, and pinks streaked across the sky as the stars and the moon slowly began to disappear. Lyza’s hair returned to its shockingly bright crimson state.

Below them, the mountain ranges of the Himalayas stretched on and on. Up here the air was cold and the vicious breeze attacked them and grew loud enough to make Matt’s ears ring. He groaned and grabbed his ears; his hearing wasn’t so good after he had survived an I.E.D. explosion.

“You alright?” Kenji asked, his voice muffled from the ringing.

“I’m good!” Matt rose his voice louder, over the ringing in his ears, over the roaring of the wind.

“I don’t believe you.” Kenji shook his head.

“Kenji, my ears just ring sometimes, that's all. That's what happens when you get to close to an explosion.” Matt glanced at his brother over his shoulder.

“You were...?”

“Yeah. Just loud. I'm good; trust me.” The ringing in his ears caused Matt’s head to ache until it throbbed, but he ground his teeth together and didn’t react. At this point, most of his body badly ached, so it was nothing new.

Ahead of them, one peak towered high above the others. “Mount Everest,” Matt shouted.

Kenji and Lyza both gasped. “Shangri-la is in Mount Everest?” Kenji shifted his weight behind Matt.

Lyza shook her head, smacking Matt with her hair, causing the bruise beneath his left eye to sting. “But humans have been on it so much… How did they miss it?”

Kharro roared loudly and Lyza immediately held on tightly. Matt and Kenji quickly did the same, as Kharro angled his body upward. They headed straight for the mountain’s side and at the last second, Kharro pulled up. It jerked them backward and the wind blew directly in their faces. As Lyza slammed against Matt’s chest, he groaned and struggled for breath.

“Don’t breathe!” Kenji yelled.

Matt wasn’t breathing much anyway. Kharro shot upward, toward the very peak of Everest. Rather than land on the top, as Matt had expected, he continued upward, even above the peak.

Cold air pierced Matt’s skin, making him groan and he didn’t even bother to try to take a breath. Above them, the sky opened up revealing a circle of shimmering energy. Kharro went straight through it.

Matt felt weightless and his stomach became nauseated. Whatever was going on made his lightheadedness worse and his vision blurred. His ears popped and the ringing in them suddenly stopped.

When his vision finally returned, Lyza and Kenji stood over him, shaking him. “I’m fine,” he said, standing up. His legs shook and he grabbed his ribs with a light gasp.

Kharro was already in human form. They were in the center of a grand valley, with tall green hills and mountains towering above them on either side. To their right and slightly ahead of them, was a river with water bubbling and flowing rapidly. Fish leapt out of it, jumping over small falls.

Matt peered at it closely to see that it wasn’t just fish. Tiny women, no larger than his middle finger, leapt from it too, blue dust spraying behind them. Overhead, many dragons flew. Some of them were long and serpentine; others were massive with six limbs, some had wings, and others were wingless and walked on the ground. They came in all colors—some that Matt didn’t even have words for.

The river widened ahead of them, a herd of Pegasai drank gracefully. Some of them jumped up into the air and flew off upon spotting them. In the grassy plains behind them, centaurs darted to and fro and farther back, Matt thought he saw houses forming some type of village.

Fairies darted through the trees above them. One of them landed on Lyza's shoulder and Matt thought he heard the fairy whisper in her ear in a high-pitched, twinkling voice. “You are pretty, Lyza Pendragon!”

Lyza stared at the fairy in shock. “You know who I am?”

“Of course, silly.” The fairy giggled, but to Matt it sounded like a high pitched whine, so he winced. The fairy flitted off and flew with the group of thousands of fairies twinkling above them. Matt’s expression was just as surprised as Kenji and Lyza’s as they all watched them for a moment.

Kharro cleared his throat and gestured down a dirt road that bordered the river. Matt couldn’t take his eyes off the scenery as they trekked through the thick forest. The river was only a few feet away, so close that the spray of the water got Matt damp.

Beautiful mermaids leapt and jumped out of the water. One of them, with bright orange hair, winked at Matt.

Kenji grinned at him. “Chick-magnet.”

For a moment, it almost felt like old times. Matt smiled but looked away from the mermaid and back at Lyza. Her widened eyes stared at the trees in awe with a huge grin on her face.

A centaur man with a bulky, black body galloped along the road toward them. He paused and gazed down at them and for once, Matt felt slightly intimidated. Slightly.

“Dragon-one,” the centaur addressed, “do you and your companions come here to Shangri-la with noble intentions?”

Kharro bowed and met the centaur’s eyes. “Yes, we do.”

The centaur smoothly stepped out of their way. “Then welcome, old friend.”

As Kharro thanked him, Matt, Lyza, and Kenji all gave him a strange look. He shrugged in response as the trees opened up to reveal the glistening silver gates of a magnificent city. “Welcome,” Kharro said, “to Shangri-la.”