The Dragon Tree (11 page)

             
That moment, the sun touched the far edge of the visible Pacific. The multi-colored sky shimmered as the sunset began in earnest, as if the atmosphere itself knew what was about to happen to Billy.

             
“I just remembered,” said Billy as he looked down at his bare arms. The scale pattern was emerging much more quickly than it had the previous two nights. His skin was already turning gray-blue and his fingernails black and pointed.

             
“Remembered what?” asked Hiroki, trying to hide his awe and his fear.

             
“How much this hurts,” Billy winced.

***

              After the outdoor ceremony was over, most of the guests remained in the backyard under an elaborate array of exterior lights and heat lamps. Esther had spared no expense in ensuring that her guests would be comfortable after the sun went down. A catering crew in white dinner jackets removed all of the white chairs and set up several long tables where the guests could eat.

             
Eva slipped away from her parents, both of whom were eyeing the half-dozen carts of exotic food the caterers were rolling out onto the back patio. She had no particular destination in mind, but when she caught sight of open doors leading to the Humphries’ empty drawing room, she headed inside the house.

             
One broad side of the home’s enormous fireplace spanned the far wall. There were bookshelves running from floor to ceiling on each of the other walls. The books themselves were mostly leather-bound and surely expensive: first prints that had never been read by their rich owners and never would be. Eva gave the books very little attention, however. Her eyes were drawn to the decorations that hung on otherwise bare walls
between
the bookshelves.

             
Hunting trophies.

             
“Pretty badass, huh?” said Aidan as he entered the room on silent feet. He pulled the doors shut behind him and slid across the room to Eva. His arm was around her waist and pulling her close in a matter of seconds. “Dad took down every one of these animals on his own.”

             
Aidan hung onto Eva’s waist as he walked her to the nearest object of taxidermy wonder: the head of a zebra. Its lips were flared to reveal its yellow teeth, as if the animal were whinnying and would whinny – perfectly preserved – forever.

             
“White stripes or black stripes? Who gives a crap, right?” He spun Eva around and walked her along the wall, past other creatures suspended in time by sawdust and too many chemicals to count. There were half a dozen deer heads, each one with more points on its antlers than the last. There was an elk that looked more than a little surprised, as he must have been when a bullet struck him in the chest. There were two sharks Eva couldn’t identify, a sailfish and a swordfish. There were detached elephant tusks growing out of a piece of quartz.

             
But the highlight of the collection – the intended highlight, at least – was a massive male lion.

             
Unlike the other animals whose bodies had been discarded after death, the lion was intact and standing upright on its own four paws. The artisan who stuffed the carcass had done a remarkable job of posing it realistically. It appeared to be sauntering across the drawing room in search of a comfortable place to nap. Its eyes were drowsy, its mouth open just a crack. Its tail was suspended in a playful arc with the aid of a very thin wire that ran from its furry tip to a pinpoint hole in the floor.

             
Aidan brushed Eva’s hair away from her ear and placed a soft kiss on her temple. “The lion is my favorite too.”

             
“It’s not my… my favorite,” said Eva with a shudder.

             
“No? Which one do you like better?”

             
“None of them. They’re all disgusting.”

             
She pushed Aidan’s hands away from her waist and took a few hurried steps away from him. Her finger crept up to her temple reflexively and wiped the spot where he kissed her.

             
Aidan shook his head, grinning. “Okay, you’re obviously still mad at me. Want to talk about it?”

             
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Eva said softly.

             
“What? I can’t hear you.”

             
“I said there’s nothing to talk about.”

             
Aidan took a step toward Eva. When she flinched and hugged her body, he stopped short and raised his hands. “You heard my father. This is supposed to be a happy occasion, Eva. A celebration. You’re acting like you’re at a funeral.”

             
“Why are you dating me?” she blurted.

             
Aidan’s eyes went big at the question. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

             
“You want to talk? Let’s talk about us. Why are you dating me?

             
“You’re the most beautiful girl I know,” said Aidan, his easy charm returning. “Don’t I tell you that enough? If I don’t, I’m sorry. It’s my job to make sure you never doubt it. I’ll tell you every day from now on.”

             
“That’s all you got, huh?” asked Eva with a bitter laugh.

             
Aidan’s face contorted in a heavy frown. “Oh right. You think you’re smart and funny and charming, too. I’m supposed to like everything about you. Well okay, Eva Diaz. I’m dating you for all of the above. Satisfied?”

             
Eva charged across the room, precarious on her pink heels. She leaned back and swung with everything she had, her palm connecting flush with Aidan’s face. He was so surprised, he didn’t have time to stop smiling until it was over.

             
“Aggh!” Aidan bellowed.

             
“You don’t have to struggle for a reason to date me anymore, Aidan.” She rubbed her stinging palm and headed for the study doors.

             
“That’s right, Eva! Run off to your dorky little sycophant, Hiro. He’ll tell you how sensitive and special you are! That little turd will kiss your feet and tell you what a delicate flower you are!”

             
Eva was halfway out the door, but she turned back with a mischievous grin and batted her eyes at Aidan. “Or maybe I’ll just go to Hudson, instead. You know Hudson, that quaint little town next to Alpine that your horrible father doesn’t own. I know a cross-country fan in Hudson you might remember.”

             
Aidan’s eyes were bloodshot. His skin was flush from his forehead to the tight collar squeezing his throat. “Him?”

             
“Him,” she said, and waved goodbye. “He’s a better kisser than you.”

***

              Billy had to ignore the fear that tightened his hulking blue chest or he never would have stepped off the cliff. His black talons were curving out over the precipice and his mottled, outstretched wings were slicing the ocean wind that buffeted the rocks. He swiveled his heavy skull to look at each wing. How could that elastic skin and those thin bones just visible inside keep this heavy body of his in the air?

             
You did it last night, dumb ass. You can do it again.

             
But he knew it wasn’t true.  He had used the wings to slow his fall as he spun toward the water with Eva in his paw. But flapping the wings hadn’t worked well at all. If anything, it made the fall more spastic and uncontrolled.

             
But you caught her, didn’t you?

             
He had controlled his descent enough – if only for a few seconds – that he piloted his enormous frame directly toward Eva. It was only after he caught her and started thinking about flight that his flight turned so ugly. There was only one answer: the key to flying was to do it without thinking. Surely birds and bats and insects leapt out into space without first studying aerodynamics or checking their wings obsessively. They were
meant to fly
.

             
He was meant to fly, too. It was just that simple.

             
Hiroki was behind him, eyes pinned open with sheer amazement. Billy swished his tail at Hiroki to move him out of the way. Then he backed up a few steps, kicking up gravel with his talons, crouched low to the rocks then closed his eyes and scrabbled forward. He pumped his wings against the air and felt a strain where they met his shoulders. He opened his mighty jaws and tasted the salt on the air and then…

             
There was nowhere left to run. He was
in
the air.

             
He was
falling
through the air.

             
He opened his eyes wide and screeched as he tumbled downward toward the icy surf below. He whipped his tail left and right, trying to steer. That frantic effort only sent him into a violent spin like the previous night’s disaster.

             
Not your tail! Your wings!

             
Just as he was about to plunge into the bay, he extended his wings and locked them in place. They filled with cold air like parachutes and arrested his fall almost entirely. He was still drifting down slowly, and his tail dipped into the water, but his wings were holding him aloft.

             
Flap them, idiot!

             
And so he did.

             
He caught an amazed expression on Hiroki’s face as he flapped his way back up to the plateau. Then he screeched with exhilaration and used his tail to spin himself the opposite direction. He dropped his head low and held his body horizontally, then pounded the air with his wings to thrust himself forward.

             
So this is what clouds taste like.

             
Billy had climbed awkwardly from the height of the cliff to the bottom of the clouds in a matter of seconds. He wasn’t as swift or sure as an airplane surging for cruising altitude, but he felt like the fastest object the sky had ever seen.

             
With his huge black eyes – all pupil and no iris – he could see perfectly despite the minimal light. Up ahead he saw the curved belly of a cloud and happily charged toward it.

             
He closed his jaws to reduce drag and punched a path through the cloud. The gray white condensation that enveloped him snuffed out his visibility, but he didn’t care. There were no obstacles up here that he might crash into, nothing to slow him or turn him aside. The sky was his to navigate however he pleased.

             
He blasted through the clouds into open air and tried to turn around to plunge back into them. He was traveling so quickly that the abrupt change of direction was a complete failure and sent him somersaulting the way he had been flying. He screeched with delight as he struggled to regain his bearings, spreading his wings to slow his momentum and wagging his tail to balance himself.

             
Okay gravity, your turn.

             
He rolled forward like he was leaning over a railing, then pinned his wings to his body, straightened his tail directly above him and
dove
.

             
He passed through the clouds twice is fast and shot toward the earth like a meteor. The formless black sheet of the ocean quickly gained definition as he rushed toward it, the crests of waves drawn with delicate silver moonlight. He focused on the water, trying to judge the distance. He needed to learn how to land. Perhaps this was the best way? If he misfired, if he judged the distance incorrectly, the water would be more forgiving than the rocky cliff. Right?
Right?

             
A second later, he realized he had indeed misjudged the distance. Unable to slow himself or change direction, he had no choice but to test the theory.

             
He shut his eyes as he plunged into the downward slope of a twenty-foot wave snout-first. The front edge of both wings strained against the water and they felt like they might tear off, but the movement of the wave broke the surface tension in advance of his body. He sliced through the surface and disappeared into water twice as black as the night sky.

             
Under the water, Billy’s brilliant eyesight was every bit as effective. He could see fish large and small dart out of the way as he passed. He could see bits of plant matter twirling in the current. It couldn’t be true – simply
couldn’t
– but he thought he could see the currents themselves!

             
His ears began to hurt with the pressure. His voluminous lungs began to burn.