56. The Hunted Desert

Leila heard the voice again. It was louder and clearer this time.

*Sla-thar..

It came from down below, but it was too dark to see anything from her current distance.

A faint reflection of the moon loomed beside Leila as she sunk downwards, cradled in Thorn’s arms. Unlike the cold and remote moon in the sky, its silver light was blazing hot, like the sun hanging over a parched desert. The path ahead was endless. The farther they went, the less it looked like an underwater world. It was the fishy scent that reminded her that she was deep in a river.

The pain in her belly was subsiding; it mellowed into a slight discomfort instead of a sharp, breathless ache. What was more disconcerting than the pain was the rate of its growth. Leila’s belly was growing larger at an unprecedented rate.

Thorn put his hand on it, feeling its heartbeat. Leila stared at him through the transparent bubbles on their heads, trying to decipher what he was thinking. His thick dark hair swayed in the water. His muscles were taut from swimming. She just wanted to be with him in a nice, comfortable little room, enjoying a warm drink as he held her. But their reality was anything but comfortable. To her relief, Leila saw happiness, the same emotion she felt, radiating from his eyes, while he tried his best to hide the concern in his pursed lips.

“How do you feel?” Thorn asked. His eyes shifted from her stomach, and he tightened his grip around Leila’s waist.

“Better.” Leila answered. A nameless strength rooted in her heart, making it a bit easier to hold back her tears. “Do you think it will survive?”

“Of course. It’s our child,” Thorn said, as if he already knew the outcome. He didn’t mention how painful it was to watch her suffer through her hellish fate.

He turned back to study the blood trail Leila had left in the water. She had finally stopped bleeding.

“I’ll try my best to protect it,” Leila rubbed his arm, giving him an encouraging look, “and Mother Dragon will help us, if she really had awakened like Ula said.”

Thorn furrowed his brow. He didn’t trust that siren queen anymore. Twice now, when Leila was in critical condition, she had appeared to provide help that no one else could. In fact, she had hinted to Thorn that he would need to bring Leila to Slather in the first place. There was more to her that meets the eye, and he didn’t have a good feeling about their destination. Thorn felt a crushing sense of vulnerability; Leila and the baby’s lives depended on this mysterious woman. He hated that he wasn’t in control.

“Quick!” Leila grabbed his hand with a jolt and placed it on her bulging belly. “It kicked!”

He felt a subtle thud on his palm, as if a butterfly was fluttering beneath her skin. Then, it kicked again. Thorn’s heart leapt.

“Our baby’s a fighter,” Leila said with a content smile.

A warmth Thorn had never known filled in his chest. A family of his own would desperately require his life-long commitment and protection. He was ready to take on the whole world if he had to.

As they continued to sink deeper into the water, they both suddenly felt their surroundings grow hotter and brighter.

Ben stopped himself from going any further and waited for Thorn and Leila, “Am I seeing things…?”

Leila’s gaze followed his finger as he pointed downwards. Instead of the coral and seaweed she expected to see, schools of fish were swimming above an endless expanse of scorching desert. A variety of cacti and shrubs dotted the sparkling sand. Mountainous, strange rocks were piled from the ground up, yet their surfaces were shiny and sleek. Leila raised her arm and waved; the resistance of the water was still there.

“Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you,” Thorn said to Ben. He was struck with an odd feeling of familiarity. The water pressure had made him weak, and he let out a lungful of air. “Be careful.”

Then, he wrapped his arms around Leila, securing her stomach in his arms, and dove forward to catch up with Ula.

They landed on the soft, sandy ground. The bubbles encasing their heads popped, and air rushed up from tiny shells strewn across the bottom of the sea.

“We’re here,” Ula announced with a sly grin as she looked back at Leila, “Finally.”

Thorn blocked her line of sight with his body and hid Leila’s stomach behind him.

“This is Slathar. The legendary realm of dragon spirits, where the ancient Stormy Clan used to call home,” Ula said proudly, “But this realm is too weak to exist in the real world, where the sun has lost half of its power.”

“No wonder I couldn’t find any visible traces of this place…” Thorn muttered, “Is Mother Dragon resting here?” Thorn inched closer to Ula, finding his voice trailing off in the water.

Purposefully ignoring him, Ula’s long exquisite tail carried her to the center of a circle of towering rocks. “I was sure when Leila’s experienced her heat.” A glint flashed across the siren queen’s eyes. “It’s been too long since she’s been willing to inject her power into the world, too long since we started waiting for this day.” She placed one hand on the ground, her tail pointed upwards, sweeping away loose sand and turning a switch concealed below. “But everything will be worth it.”

Thorn grabbed Leila’s arms, getting ready to hold her up in time.

Ula raised her voice as the sand swept forward at an unstoppable speed. “I, worshipper of the Father Dragon, loyal servant to the Mother Dragon, protector of this hidden desert, and guard to the lost Stormy Clan, am responsible for returning the princess today!” She then pulled the valve up.

The ground started to dissolve and cave in, all in complete silence. The sand flooded into a gigantic hole, like water down a drain. And everyone, including Ula, fell with it.

Luckily, a soft spongy ground met them below. Leila looked around. Her surroundings were dark and hot. She saw pale clusters of coral in the darkness. She was hit with an odd feeling, as if she’d been here before.

Ula glided onto the spongy ground and waited for them to follow.

“So,” Thorn’s lips curled downwards, clenching Leila’s hands tightly in his, “you planned all of this and tricked me into thinking that the Mother Dragon could bestow us with a mark. But your true goal was to bring Leila here on the night of the eclipse, so she can help this realm resurface when the moon is at its weakest.”

“And,” Ula added, “when the moon’s reflection is at its strongest.”

“You manipulated us from the beginning. What a genius, ” Thorn said without a trace of sincerity.

“Dragon prince,” Ula covered her mouth and giggled devilishly, “it took you long enough to realize. I wouldn’t have bothered you so much if I could leave the water realm myself. I’ve waited for this moment for a long time.” She walked over to a cluster of crystals with unbridled excitement. She broke off a chunk, and the crystal instantly shattered into a handful of dust.

“Blow on it,” She said to Leila, who was hiding herself behind Thorn. She did it as Ula said, wondering what would happen. The dust scattered in an arch and dissolved in the water.

Ula waited under the blazing moonlight, but nothing happened.

“What…?” Disappointment clouded Ola’s face. She frowned. “T—This isn’t right.”

Ula turned around to grab another handful of crystals. They shattered into dust, and she made Leila blow on it again.

Still, nothing happened.

Clear panic began to show itself on Ula’s face. She swam forward into the darkness, listening and feeling, trying to find any trace of what went wrong. “This isn’t right! Mother Dragon should react to the dust in her daughter’s breath…” Ula glared at Leila, muttering, “What did he do to you?” She approached her again, aggressively this time. Thorn put his arm across Leila.

Ula discovered her swollen stomach. “A child? Still alive?”

Thorn raised his arm in defense, “One more step and you’ll regret it.”

A dangerous spark shone in Ula’s eyes.

Thorn signaled Ben to take Leila away, then turned back around to face Ula.

“What did you do to her?!” Ula shouted. “How could this happen! You can’t produce a child without a mark! You’ve guaranteed your death!”

“Well, you’ve wanted to kill me for a while now. I suggest you try.” Thorn lifted a brow.

She waved her hands, water quickly condensed under her palm and forming into a long, nearly-invisible spear. “Don’t overestimate your power, dragon prince. You are still in the water realm.”

Ula lunged, aiming the spear right at Thorn’s heart. The spear was too fast to dodge, especially in his weakened state.

“I should have killed you last time,” Ula snarled.

Just before the spear penetrated Thorn’s heart, he was pushed to the side. To his own shock, a hand suddenly grasped onto the spear and stopped it in midair.