“Why would they?” Fort asked, not sure if Gabriel was telling the truth or not, but it seemed like their best shot now. “They could have asked us for the book of Summoning, or for us to just open a portal, and that would have gotten them back to Earth. But they didn’t, they wanted the last dragon. Why lie?”

The dragon whipped his tail again in frustration. “THERE CANNOT BE ANY MORE DRAGONS! IF ONE OF MY CHILDREN WERE LEFT BEHIND, ALONE, IN DANGER… I CANNOT EVEN CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY!”

“Don’t think about the dangers it was in,” Fort said, his father’s image in his head. “Just imagine what it’d be like to have your child back! And we can give that to you, if you give us back our humans.”

“And let us go!” Rachel said.

The dragon sneered. “YOUR KIND ALWAYS DID BELIEVE THEY WERE SUPERIOR TO THEIR WORTH. YOU ARE AS TRAPPED HERE AS I AM! NO MAGIC CAN PENETRATE THESE WALLS. EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE POWER OF SPACE MAGIC, IT WILL DO YOU NO GOOD, NOT WHILE MY PRISON STANDS. D’VALE HERSELF BUILT THIS CAVERN, AND ONLY HER POWER CAN OPEN ITS GATES.”

D’vale? The dwarf had mentioned that name. She was the Old One who made the lightning. Which meant she was—

“Destruction magic!” Rachel shouted. “I can do that! I can get us out of here!”

“DESTRUCTION? HER POWER IS THAT OF THE ELEMENTS, HUMAN! YOU WARP ITS MEANING TO YOUR SIMPLE ENDS.”

“Yes, I warp its meaning, sure, but I can crack us through these walls, if that’s what it takes!” Rachel said. “Just let us go, and I’ll get us right out of here! And then you’ll be free to go looking for this dragon yourself, maybe.”

“I’ll take you there,” Gabriel said. “Just as soon as I have my brother back safe and sound.”

“And my father,” Fort added.

The dragon pondered this for a moment. Out of nowhere, control of his body returned to Fort, and he gently floated down to the floor, near one of the walls. “SHOW ME YOUR POWER, LITTLE HUMAN,” the dragon said to Rachel, climbing over the nearby mound of gold. “TEAR DOWN THE WALL THAT D’VALE CREATED, AND I SHALL CONSIDER YOUR BARGAIN.”

“Okay, give me a second,” Rachel shouted up at him, then turned to Fort and moved in close. “Is Gabriel telling the truth?” she whispered. “I don’t care what this thing looks like, it’s still an Old One. If we bring it back to Earth, there’ll be no stopping it. You saw what it did to Gabriel.”

“We’ll figure something out,” he whispered back.

“Oh, perfect,” she said, looking sick. “Improvising has gone so well for us in the past.”