Choke: 2 (Pillage Trilogy (Pillogy)) (19 page)

Kate and I walked back through the stables and over to the garage. When we reached the tracks we stopped to scrape mounds of mud off our boots. Kate was as wet as a person could be without actually drowning. Her hair was hanging from her head like cherry seaweed and the mascara around her blue eyes was running. She looked like a wet Goth angel. I commented on her appearance, and she started in on my windbreaker.

“What?” I said defensively. “It’s the only thing I have that’s rainproof.”

“You gotta stop having Thomas shop for you,” she smiled.

“He just shows up with these things. You should see some of the stuff I throw away.”

“No, thanks,” she said, trudging ahead of me along the rain-soaked tracks.

By the time we reached the cave we were so cold, tired, and drenched that my bones were soggy. I knew if I cracked my knuckles, water would spring out of my fingers. Despite our condition, the second I flipped on the lights I was excited. Apparently Kate felt likewise because she ran as fast as me to the large steel door.

We rolled it open and entered the massive back cavern.

“Lizzy!” I called out. “Lizzy!”

“I don’t see her,” Kate said frantically.

“Lizzy!”

All I saw were broken crates and split-open barrels that had once held dragon cereal. I could hear the sound of the spring gurgling and Kate breathing slowly. My eyes drifted back across the scene. The back door looked closed and the leafy cocoon was still lying in the center of the space next to its pole. Next to the cocoon were mounds of pushed-up dirt.

We both looked up at the ceiling.

“She’s too big to completely hide in the darkness anymore,” I told Kate. “Last time I saw her she was like a giant horse.”

“Then where is she?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I’m sure she’s bigger. Look at all the empty barrels.”

“So she just ate herself into nonexistence?”

“Maybe she . . .” I didn’t have to guess.

Loose dirt near the cocoon began to rumble up like the soil was giving birth. The ground shook, and Kate grabbed my right arm as the two of us stepped back. I could see something white rising.

Both Kate and I were struck speechless.

Lizzy continued to rise out of her dirt nest. She was mammoth; at least twice the size she had been when I last saw her. She pushed up on her legs and shook. Dirt flew around the cavern like terra-firma fireworks. A decent-sized clod smacked me in the face and stomach. Kate had the good sense to hide behind me.

Lizzy lifted her head and opened her wings. It looked as if she filled a fourth of the cavern. She folded her wings back, smacked her long white tail on the ground, and screeched. I could feel my eardrums melting. I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes hoping that would help.

Lizzy stopped screaming, and I opened my eyelids.

Two very distinct thoughts were running through my mind. One, I had never seen anything so beautiful. I know a guy like me is not really supposed to be talking about beautiful, but that’s what she was. I had seen ten other dragons before, and they were all amazing and awesome looking in their own right, but none of them looked like Lizzy. She appeared powerful just sitting there, and when she opened her wings she was no less spectacular than all eight wonders of the world. She made the pyramids look like baby blocks and the Great Wall of China seem like a hastily built backyard fence. I could barely breathe. My arms just hung to my sides and my body shivered—it felt like my fingernails were just going to slip off and drop into the dirt.

Lizzy lowered her head, and her blue eyes looked right through me.

The second thought running through my head was: I should have destroyed her the moment she was born. There was no way I could ever extinguish something so amazing and large.

Lizzy lowered her head to the ground in a submissive gesture. I could see that the horns above her ears were as long as elephant tusks now.

“She’s unbelievable,” Kate whispered. “My eyes aren’t able to quite adjust.”

“She wasn’t this big yesterday,” I whispered back.

“I think she wants you to climb on.”

“What?” I asked. A thrill of excitement bounced around my body.

“Look at how she’s standing.”

Lizzy’s head was resting on the ground, and her front legs were folded so that her shoulders were lowered.

“Maybe she wants you,” I said, still whispering.

“You’re the Pillage,” Kate reminded me. “Get on.”

“I should just walk up her neck?” I asked. “Like Fred Flintstone?”

Kate nodded.

I took little strides as I moved closer to Lizzy. Part of me wanted to cower in fear, but a larger part of me wanted to run toward her. I got about five feet away and stopped. She still hadn’t moved. Her head was resting on the ground, and her eyes were looking up at me like a dog that was both loyal and nervous. She appeared even more dazzling up close. Her scales were like diamonds that circled around her entire body, and the feathers that were around her ankles flared out like flames. I could see a gray streak running over her ridged back and down her tail.

“Hey,” I said soothingly. “Remember me?”

Lizzy snorted.

“I was here yesterday,” I went on. “I helped you hatch.” I looked back at Kate and she motioned for me to go on.

I took two steps closer.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I promised. “And hopefully you won’t hurt me.”

Two more steps.

I was close enough now that I could reach out and touch her. I shuffled my feet and got even nearer. I put my right hand out and touched her above the left eye. She felt like cool clay. Lizzy kept her head down and shivered. I watched the shiver move all the way down her back and shake out through the tip of her long tail.

“Get on her,” Kate called.

“Hold on,” I said impatiently.

“Are you scared?”

“Probably,” I answered. “It’s kinda hard to tell at the moment.”

I put my arm on Lizzy’s neck and leaned into her. She smelled kind of like corn chips. She didn’t move so I lifted my right leg and gently jumped onto her lowered neck. I slid back and came to a stop just above her front legs. She lifted her head and I grabbed onto one of the round ridges growing from the back of her neck.

Lizzy straightened out her powerful front legs and stood up on all fours. She cocked her head and began to walk directly toward Kate. With just three great steps, Lizzy was standing directly in front of Kate. Kate’s shoulders and arms were shaking.

Lizzy opened her mouth and snorted, and Kate wobbled like she was going to pass out. I wasn’t actually happy about this, but Kate was usually so cool and unfrazzled that it was kind of interesting to see her shaking. Kate stood her ground and grimaced at Lizzy. I had always imagined that someday two girls might fight over me. I just hadn’t thought that one of them would literally be able to bite the other one’s head off and then fly away.

I glanced down at Kate as she gazed up at me.

“You think you’re pretty cool, don’t you?” she said mockingly.

“Just a little,” I smiled and tossed my hair back.

Lizzy walked around the edge of the cavern three times with me on her back. I felt privileged just to be near her. I could see the huge hole she had dug in the middle of the cavern. It looked like an empty dirt swimming pool. None of the other dragons had ever nested like that.

At the end of the third trip around Lizzy stopped, lowered her head, and leaned to the right so that I slid off of her. She looked at me and almost smiled—at least that’s how I perceived it. She then nudged me with her head, screeched, and with one fantastic leap leaped toward the cavern’s ceiling. She twisted her body as she darted and rocketed feet first with her wings folded in. The blue talons on her back legs grabbed the stone roof and held fast.

Her body dangled like a white uvula.

Kate stepped up to me and put her arm around my waist.

“She’s incredible,” Kate said in awe. “But scary.”

“You’re just jealous,” I replied.

“So what do we do with her?”

“Whaddya mean?” I asked.

“I thought you were supposed to destroy her.”

“No way,” I insisted. “That guy lied about other things, and I’m not going to just take his word for it.”

“So what happens?” Kate asked passionately. “I mean, she can’t stay in this cave forever.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t be stupid, Beck. What if she keeps getting bigger?”

“I don’t know,” I answered with frustration. “But I’m not going to harm her. Look at her.”

We both stared at Lizzy as she slightly swayed.

“I guess you don’t know how to kill her anyway,” Kate said, defeated.

“Actually I do,” I told her.

“How?”

“I’m not saying.”

“What?”

“I’m not saying,” I repeated myself. “It wouldn’t be right.”

“It’s not like I’m actually going to use the information,” Kate argued.

“Still,” I lamely argued back.

“Listen, Beck,” she said. “I think Lizzy’s amazing. I haven’t really thought about much else since I first saw her. And now I don’t think I’ll think of anything else. But remember what happened last time?”

“This is different,” I insisted.

“How?”

“There were more dragons,” I said waving my arms. “And none of them were the queen. I’m pretty sure there’s some law somewhere that says you can’t kill a queen.”

“You’re quite the debater,” Kate said insultingly.

“Thanks,” I sniffed.

“This is ridiculous. What are you going to do? Just live in here with her?”

“Maybe.”

Kate shut her blue eyes and then opened them slowly. I could see the depth and a swirling energy in them. They didn’t pop like Lizzy’s, but they weren’t bad. Kate turned and walked toward the sliding steel door.

My shoulders drooped, and I sighed. “Come on, Kate, don’t go.”

Kate stopped and turned her head. “Are you going to tell me?”

“It’s not that easy,” I argued. “I can’t just . . .”

Kate kept walking.

“Kate.”

She stepped through the door and out of sight. I stood there for almost half an hour waiting for her to grow up and come back.

Apparently she liked being a child.

Illustration from page 47 of
The Grim Knot

CHAPTER 20

I remember when I was a child reading a book about a boy and a fish. The story went like this. A boy went into a pet shop and bought a fish. Before he left the pet shop the owner told the boy to not feed the fish too much. The wise boy, knowing that sometimes people said things that weren’t true, promptly went home and fed the fish a whole box of food. Well, almost instantly the fish grew too big for the fish bowl so the boy moved him to the tub. Then the fish grew too big for the bathtub, so he moved him to a pool. I don’t remember what happens after that. I think they had a huge neighborhood barbecue and everyone ate part of the fish. And although I can’t clearly remember the end, that story reminds me of Lizzy.

The day after Kate immaturely stormed out on me, Lizzy was a good bit bigger. The next day she was bigger than that, and the following three days she kept right on growing. By the end of the week she was too big for me to climb onto, unless she let me scale her tail and shimmy up her back.

She was frightening, but I was so taken with her I didn’t care.

Another problem was that she was going through food like a pig with a high metabolism. She could polish off a whole barrel of the dragon cereal in three bites. And after each bite I could practically see her size increase.

Still, she was perfect.

I hated being away from her. I had a hard time sleeping. It bothered me to have to take time to eat, and I felt great pain every time I had to lock that steel door behind me and hike back home.

Luckily the rain had finally stopped, and it was forecasted that we might actually have sun mixed with clouds for the next two weeks. Things were beginning to dry out, and it was much easier to get up to the cave.

I was still waiting for Kate to grow up. I figured now that it had stopped raining she would come over and apologize
for walking out—she didn’t. I even swallowed my pride and called her once, acting like I was one of her teachers. But her mom said she couldn’t come to the phone because she was meditating. Likely story—what kind of person younger than Buddha meditates?

The best news was that my dad came home. I went up to visit him a couple of times, but his thoughts were so preoccupied that he barely noticed me. I didn’t mention a thing about Lizzy because I was afraid he would go all legal-guardian on me. And since he had a really difficult time carrying on a conversation, or asking me about my life, it never came up. I did ask him where he had been. His answer was, “Putting something to rest.” It sounded like gangster-talk so I let it go.

Millie was happy my father was back in the manor—which made me happy because she spent less time fussing over me—which left me more time to spend with Lizzy.

I was walking through the courtyard, making my way to the train tracks, when I plowed into Wane as she came around the corner of the house. We collided and bounced apart from each other.