Compass

The Dragon’s Grave Bloom grew quietly between the enormous bones of the ancient dragon.

Its pale blue petals gave off a faint, almost ghostly glow.

Joey stood several feet away from it, watching Behemoth examine the plant.

“So that's the thing that's going to save Malcolm?” Joey asked.

Behemoth nodded.

“If we harvest it correctly.”

Joey looked at the flower.

“There's a wrong way?”

“There is always a wrong way.”

Cassandra crossed her arms.

“You really need to stop saying things like that.”

Behemoth ignored her.

“The bloom has spent centuries absorbing the residual magic surrounding these remains. If we damage the roots or disrupt the magical connection incorrectly, the flower could lose the properties we need.”

Joey looked at Cassandra.

“Did Greta give us instructions for this part?”

Cassandra pulled the small device Greta had given them from her bag.

“No. Just instructions for keeping it alive after we get it.”

Joey looked at Behemoth.

“So you're doing it.”

Behemoth nodded.

“Obviously.”

He knelt beside the flower.

Golden light slowly formed around his fingers.

Joey watched as Behemoth placed one hand against the stone beside the plant.

The glow spread through the ground.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then the stone beneath the flower began to shimmer.

Thin lines of golden light traced themselves around the roots.

Cassandra crouched beside him.

“Tell me when.”

Behemoth carefully separated the magical roots from the dragon's remains.

“Now.”

Cassandra gently grasped the stem.

She pulled.

The flower came free without resistance.

The instant it left the ground, the entire area flashed blue-white.

Joey jumped backward.

“What the hell?”

The light vanished.

Cassandra stared at the flower in her hand.

It looked perfectly normal.

Behemoth stood.

“We have it.”

Joey looked around.

“And nothing tried to kill us.”

The ground gave a low rumble.

Joey sighed.

“I really need to stop saying things like that.”

Cassandra laughed.

She placed the bloom inside the stasis device.

The small container immediately activated.

Symbols appeared across its surface, glowing faintly.

The lid sealed itself.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the flower moved.

Joey leaned closer.

“Uh...”

Cassandra looked through the transparent section of the container.

The stem had slowly turned.

The flower was now pointing in one direction.

Behemoth stared at it.

“It is reacting.”

“To what?” Joey asked.

“The ancient magic.”

Joey frowned.

“I thought the whole place was full of ancient magic.”

“It is.”

“Then how does it know where to go?”

Behemoth examined the flower.

“It is not simply detecting magic.”

He looked toward the direction the flower was pointing.

“It is detecting the strongest concentration.”

Cassandra smiled.

“So it can lead us to the first dragons' magic.”

Behemoth nodded.

“A magical compass.”

Joey smiled.

“That's actually pretty damn useful.”

Cassandra held up the device.

“Then let's follow the flower.”

---

They started moving.

The flower remained pointed in the same direction.

For the first several hours, the journey wasn't particularly difficult.

The Graveyard, however, continued to change around them.

The terrain gradually became more rugged.

Massive stone formations rose from the ground, some shaped like enormous claws, others like broken teeth.

They passed the remains of dragons that had been partially swallowed by the earth.

In some places, only the skulls remained above the ground.

In others, enormous sections of skeleton protruded from cliffs.

Joey stopped beside one particularly massive set of ribs.

“Those are bigger than a house.”

Behemoth looked at them.

“Yes.”

Joey looked at him.

“You know, you don't always have to answer with one word.”

“I could answer with two.”

Cassandra laughed.

Joey shook his head.

“Never mind.”

They continued.

The Graveyard seemed to become stranger the farther they traveled.

At one point, Joey noticed several enormous bones floating above the ground.

He stopped.

“Is that normal?”

Behemoth looked up.

“No.”

“Great.”

The bones slowly rotated in the air.

Then they dropped.

Behemoth raised one hand.

Golden energy caught them before they could crash down on the group.

The bones settled back onto the ground.

Cassandra looked at Behemoth.

“Can you do that with everything?”

“No.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“That's reassuring.”

“It would be impossible to control every magical disturbance in this place.”

Joey looked around.

“So basically, don't touch anything.”

“That would be wise.”

Joey nodded.

“I can handle that.”

---

Several hours later, they reached a large valley.

At first, nothing seemed unusual.

Then Joey took another step.

His stomach suddenly lurched.

He nearly fell.

Cassandra caught his arm.

“Joey?”

“I don't know.”

He looked down.

His boots were barely touching the ground.

“What the hell?”

He slowly lifted one foot.

It drifted upward.

Joey stared.

“I'm floating.”

Cassandra grabbed him around the waist.

“I noticed.”

Behemoth looked around.

“The gravity has changed.”

Joey looked at him.

“That's a thing?”

“In this place, apparently.”

A large stone suddenly lifted from the ground.

Then another.

Then dozens.

The entire valley seemed to lose its sense of direction.

Rocks floated around them.

Bones drifted through the air.

A massive dragon skull rose slowly from the ground.

Joey pointed at it.

“I don't think that's supposed to happen.”

“No.”

The skull suddenly shot sideways.

Behemoth raised both hands.

Golden energy surrounded the group.

The skull slammed into the magical barrier and bounced away.

Cassandra pulled Joey closer.

“Stay with me.”

“I'm trying.”

The gravity shifted again.

Joey's feet slammed into the ground.

He grunted.

“Okay!”

The gravity changed once more.

This time everything around them seemed to fall sideways.

Cassandra grabbed a stone outcropping.

Behemoth planted his feet and created a golden field around the three of them.

“Do not move until I tell you.”

Joey looked at him.

“I'm perfectly happy staying right here.”

The bloom suddenly began glowing inside the stasis device.

Cassandra looked down.

“It changed.”

Behemoth glanced at it.

The flower was still pointing forward.

But now the petals were pulsing.

“It is telling us which path is safest.”

Joey stared at the device.

“You're telling me the flower has a built-in GPS?”

Cassandra smiled.

“Apparently.”

“Good flower.”

Behemoth gave Joey a strange look.

Joey shrugged.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Eventually the strange gravity began to weaken.

The floating stones slowly dropped.

The dragon skull settled back into the earth.

The ground became stable again.

Behemoth lowered his hands.

“We can move.”

Joey took one careful step.

Then another.

“Normal gravity.”

Cassandra smiled.

“Enjoy it while it lasts.”

---

The terrain beyond the gravity field was different.

The ground was darker.

The enormous bones became more common.

They passed the remains of ancient weapons fused into the stone.

Some were barely recognizable.

Others still carried faint traces of magic.

Joey noticed a broken spear embedded in the side of a dragon's rib cage.

“Were these dragons fighting each other?”

Behemoth shook his head.

“Not always.”

“What happened here?”

Behemoth looked toward the distant mountains.

“Wars.”

Joey studied him.

“Against who?”

“Everything.”

That answer made Joey uncomfortable.

He looked around again.

For the first time, the Graveyard didn't feel like a place where dragons had simply died.

It felt like the remains of a war.

An ancient one.

A war so old that almost everyone who had fought in it was gone.

Except perhaps for the creatures whose magic still lingered beneath the ground.

They continued following the bloom.

The farther they traveled, the more the landscape changed.

The stone became smoother.

The mist became thinner.

The air became colder.

Then they reached another obstacle.

A narrow path stretched along the side of a cliff.

On one side was a sheer wall of stone.

On the other was a drop into a valley filled with bones.

Joey looked down.

“Nope.”

Cassandra smiled.

“Afraid?”

“I'm smart.”

She laughed.

They carefully made their way along the path.

Halfway across, a section of rock cracked.

Joey froze.

“Don't move.”

Cassandra stopped.

Behemoth turned.

The rock beneath Joey's foot shifted.

Joey slowly moved his weight backward.

The stone broke loose.

He jumped.

Cassandra grabbed him.

The rock disappeared into the darkness below.

Joey stared after it.

“I'm starting to hate this place.”

Cassandra pulled him closer.

“You're doing fine.”

“That's what people say right before something else terrible happens.”

Behemoth glanced back.

“Something else terrible will probably happen.”

Joey looked at him.

“Thank you.”

“I prefer honesty.”

---

By the time they finally reached the other side of the cliffs, they were exhausted.

The Graveyard had become quieter.

The terrain leveled out.

The air was still.

Behemoth stopped.

Ahead was an enormous dragon skull partially buried beneath a hillside.

Its jaws formed a large natural opening.

He approached it cautiously.

After inspecting the area, he nodded.

“This should be safe.”

Cassandra looked around.

“Safe?”

“Safer.”

Joey dropped his pack.

“I'll take it.”

They entered the skull.

The inside was large enough for all three of them to stand comfortably.

The thick bones provided shelter from the wind, and whatever strange magical disturbances had been surrounding them seemed weaker here.

For the first time since entering the Graveyard, they had somewhere they could rest.

Joey sat against the inside of the skull.

Cassandra sat beside him.

Behemoth remained near the entrance.

Joey looked toward him.

“You're not going to rest?”

“I will.”

“When?”

“When necessary.”

Joey shook his head.

“That's a very Behemoth answer.”

Behemoth looked at him.

“I am Behemoth.”

“Exactly.”

Cassandra laughed.

Joey smiled.

For several minutes, they simply sat in silence.

Then Cassandra leaned against Joey.

He put an arm around her.

Neither spoke for a while.

Eventually Cassandra said quietly:

“I keep thinking about the hallucination.”

Joey looked down at her.

“So do I.”

“I didn't know it wasn't real.”

“You didn't?”

She looked up.

“No.”

Joey nodded.

“Neither did I.”

Cassandra was quiet.

Then she said:

“The thought of losing you...”

She stopped.

Joey squeezed her gently.

“I know.”

“The Graveyard knew exactly what to show us.”

Joey looked into the darkness outside.

“It showed me what I was most afraid of, too.”

Cassandra looked at him.

“Me?”

Joey nodded.

“You.”

She smiled sadly.

“That is both incredibly romantic and incredibly depressing.”

Joey chuckled.

“Yeah.”

She rested her head against him.

“We're going to stop Leviathan.”

Joey nodded.

“We are.”

“And we're getting Malcolm that flower.”

“We are.”

Cassandra looked at him.

“You sound very confident.”

Joey smiled.

“I've got a good team.”

She kissed his cheek.

“You do.”

---

After resting, they prepared to continue.

Cassandra checked the stasis device.

The Dragon’s Grave Bloom was still intact.

But it had changed.

Joey noticed immediately.

“Uh...”

Cassandra looked down.

The flower was glowing brighter.

Its petals were gently pulsing.

Behemoth approached.

“What is it?”

Cassandra held up the device.

“The bloom.”

Behemoth studied it.

The flower was no longer pointing in a vague direction.

It was pointing straight ahead.

And its glow was becoming stronger.

Behemoth's expression became serious.

“We are getting closer.”

Joey looked toward the darkness beyond the skull.

“To the first dragons?”

“Yes.”

“How close?”

Behemoth didn't answer immediately.

He studied the flower again.

Then he looked toward Joey.

“Closer than I expected.”

Joey frowned.

“What does that mean?”

Behemoth turned toward the exit.

“It means we should continue.”

Joey stood.

He adjusted his pack.

“Then let's go.”

Cassandra took his hand.

Together, they stepped out from beneath the ancient dragon skull.

The bloom pointed toward the distant mountains.

Somewhere beyond them waited the strongest concentration of the first dragons' ancient magic.

They still couldn't see it.

They couldn't feel it.

Not yet.

But the flower could.

And it was leading them there.