The Weight of a Heart

                                    

                                          


                          
"Yes, come to me, brave  Dragon Knight!" Lord Ash's hollow laugh rang out as he stood with arms  wide on a tall boulder in the center of the astral web of ley lines.  "Don't disappoint now—burn brightly one last time." 
                          
Kit's heart stunned in  his chest for a beat as the silent horde of Inorog raised their  red-rimmed spires in unison. The net of ley lines lifted off the ground  and flashed towards Aerohim. The orb of spellfire flaring in the  dragon's jaws winked out like a crushed firefly as the blinding fangs of  lightning tore into his flesh. The Inorogs' blow pushed the dragon many  leagues skyward before dissolving in a silver haze. Aerohim's wings  twisted and flapped as he spiraled out of control and plummeted straight  towards the crown of Mt. Galefang.
                          
"Duck!" Kit cried, diving to the ground and covering his head. 
                          
But Sheen stood tall beside him. "You don't dodge a falling dragon." Her ebony spire flared as a pearl-white sphere of light surrounded them. 
                          
Kit held his breath as  Aerohim smashed into the highest peak, and Mt. Galefang . . . broke. An  avalanche of boulders cascaded down the mountainside. Sheen's head bowed  as she strained to keep her magic barrier up as gigantic rocks bounced  off her pearly shell in a rumbling grind. Kit knew he should be afraid  of instant jellification, but all he could think about was the entrance  to the cavern. It was gone, obliterated in the dragon's fall. Had all of  his friends just been entombed in the cavern's collapse? He fought the  urge to retch as he thought of chatterbox Lil and dour Vi, Tad's scowls  and Minnow's bright-toothed grins, of the Mazak boy who never told him  his name . . . .
                          
Get up. 
                          
Sheen was shouting at  him, but he could barely hear her, barely move after the deafening  dragon fall left all his bones shaking and ears ringing. Kit blinked  through dusty lashes as his eyes adjusted to the shadows of ruin  swirling around them and found Aerohim. The dragon had slid several  hundred yards down the mountainside. Massive boulders pinned his wings  to the ground, but he didn't even bother struggling. Was he dead? 
                          
Sheen's head butted him in the shoulder, startling Kit out of his groggy daze. 
                          
"We've got to get to him first!" she cried as she used her teeth to tug him to his feet.  
                          
They'd never make  it. The horde of Inorog stung his eyes with their evil white glimmer as  they streamed towards the trapped dragon. The slice of their poison  horns would finish Aerohim. But then Kit raised his arm and squinted as a  second, far brighter light flared at the crumbled head of Mt. Galefang.  The familiar barrage of cannon fire pierced his skull as a fresh wave  of rocks mixed with the glint of gold exploded outwards. A sleek ship  with silver-trimmed sails burst through the rubble and rode the cascade  of spilling treasure as spritely as if it were sea foam. 
                          
"The Ladyslipper!" Kit cried. A fierce hope filled him as the mermaid mast rose to the shining coin crest.
                          
Sheen shuddered beside  him. "Please," she whispered, in a voice of such unnerving meekness that  it frightened him, "don't hold it against me if we die now." 
                          
Suddenly, the bright  metallic swell took on an ominous gleam; gold sapped unicorn magic,  which meant—a whole tidal wave of trouble! Kit didn't even have time to  flinch as the outer edge of the golden flood slammed over them. Sheen's  limbs trembled as wild currents of coins razed her magic sphere, only  the princess's stubborn will holding the flickering barrier in place.  But the Inorog stood squarely in the path of the gilded wave. 
                          
Lord Ash stood tall as  Mt. Galefang's ocean of antiquity rushed towards him. A smirk played  across his face as he raised his palm and sent rays of cold white light  arcing in a cage to surround his horde of marauders. But his smug  confidence vanished as Lady's massive anchor spun in the air like a  whirling gilded mace that struck his cage at the same time as a barrage  of cannon fire exploded into a cloud of powdered gold. Lord Ash coughed  as he inhaled the fine dust and his glowing cage wavered just as the  first wave of treasure hit and smothered the Inorog alive.