“But he has scales.”
“He does?”
“Mmm-hmm. On his legs, yes.”
“And that’s how you get through the door?”
Wow. My instincts were right. Tarq is fishing for info on Tomas. “No,” I say quickly. “Those scales don’t work.” Tarq nods. Like he knew this. Like maybe he’s testing me. “You need real dragon scales to make that spell work. And there used to be a dragon at Saint Mark’s.” Technically, not a lie.
“Used to be?”
“Yeah. It’s gone. But there were some scales left in the dungeon. That’s what we’re using.”
He reaches for me, his clawed fingertips gently catching on the chain around my neck. He lifts the dragon scale necklace out from my blouse and holds it in his hand. “This?”
I nod, suddenly feeling weird. He’s so close to me. And he’s literally got me on a chain.
He must notice that I’m becoming uncomfortable, because he drops my scale back under my blouse, and when the scale and metal hit my skin, I shiver with a sudden chill. “We have some scales,” he says. “But they don’t open doors. How did you make it work?”
Well, isn’t this interesting. In a very scary kind of way, that is. Because Tarq doesn’t know about the bloodhorn inside Pell. I almost involuntarily look up at his horns, wondering if he’s made of blood the way Pell is, but I catch myself just in time. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, the scales don’t work. That’s not the whole spell.”
I laugh a little. “Oh, that’s right. I came here for the banishing spell. Turns out, the portal door spell is the same as the one for banishing.”
I expect him to say “Oh!” or something that conveys surprise. But he doesn’t. He says, “It doesn’t work, Pie.”
“What?”
“I know that the banishing and portal-door spells are the same. And it works just fine for banishing, but it doesn’t open doors. We’ve tried it.”
I pull up my chain and hold my dragon scale in my hand. “Clearly, it does.”
“How did you get it to work?”
“I don’t know what you mean. A dragon scale plus bloodhorn.”
“Doesn’t work, Pie.” His voice is even lower now. Even more growly. Serious. “So how do you do it?”
“Well, I’m not sure what to say about that.” I want to be very careful here. I do not want to lie to this monster. But I don’t want him to know about Pell’s bloodhorn, either. If Pell is the only one made of blood fire, what would that mean to a monster like Tarq? He clearly wants to walk through the doors, and he can’t. I think they stole my dragon scale when I was here. And I think that one trip through the tomb was all he could take. I think he used my scale for that one trip and then it wore off. That’s why they never came for me when I didn’t show up.
They can’t walk through the doors.
They need Pell. And they don’t even know they need Pell.
“The spell calls for bloodhorn and a dragon scale,” I say, shrugging. “I swear, that’s all I use.”
Tarq lets out a long breath. “Interesting. How do you grow your bloodhorn? Do you add anything special to the soil? Do you feed it?”
“I can’t really help you there. I didn’t grow it. It was growing when I arrived. I didn’t even pick it. I just… used it.”
“Intriguing. So the Saint Mark’s bloodhorn is the only bloodhorn that works for the portal doors?”
“I have no idea, Tarq. I swear.” None of this is a lie, so it comes off as truth. “I wish I knew more about all this stuff, but I just don’t. I’m really not an alchemist.”
“No,” he agrees. “You’re not. But don’t worry, Pie.” His smile is back. “We’re gonna turn you into one.”
CHAPTER SIX –TOMAS