Sam opened the door to his quarters after being roused by a frantic pounding.
"Iyla! Bill! What on earth's the matter?"
"Tobias is alive!" Iyla cried, her eyes shining. Sam just stared at her, then looked at Bill, "What is she talking about?"
"It's true," said Bill, nodding his head vigorously to make the point.
"He's the one in my dream, the one I've been dreaming about; only they aren't dreams they're real! Sam, my brother is alive and he needs my help, he needs our help." Sam looked bemused, Iyla pushed Grimp through the doorway, "Ask him," she said, pointing to the little creature, "He's seen them, he just told us!"
"Them?"
"Tobias and Drago, his dragon." Iyla was virtually jumping up and down in her excitement.
"Dragon?" Sam frowned as if he was searching his memory for something but was still not quite awake enough to find it.
Iyla wrung her hands in exasperation and propelled Sam into his room, sitting him on the bed, "Stop repeating the last word I say," she said, "I was telling Bill about the dream I just had and Grimp was listening in."
"Grimp is sorry, it will never happen again, Grimp should not have ...." Iyla silenced him with a wave of her hand.
"Never mind that," she said, "It's ok, you did something really good." Grimps chest swelled with pride. Iyla looked back to Sam urgently, "Grimp told me he'd seen the dragon I described and that he belonged to a young man called Tobias." Grimp shivered involuntarily, muttering under his breath. "Tobias didn't die, don't you understand? Kade took him and his dragon away and he's been keeping them prisoner ever since. It was you who told me he uses dragons blood to protect himself from dragons fire. Grimp was enslaved by a man who worked for Kade in the Darklands, in his castle there, where he keeps all his prisoners. Grimp saw Tobias and Drago locked up." Her words were spilling out at such a rate Sam was having difficulty taking everything in.
"Grimp lived in Kades castle?"
"Yes! Grimp would go down to the dungeons with scraps for the prisoners, he saw Tobias and Drago down there."
"We haven't got the full story yet," Bill said, "We thought we should come and tell you."
"How can you be sure it's the same Tobias?" Sam asked maddeningly, Iyla just wanted him to accept what she was saying so they could start looking for her brother.
"When I saw him tonight, I felt like I recognised him, like there was something familiar about him. I'm telling you, it's him and he needs our help."
Sam's gaze was distant, his mind now fully awake, "Drago," he said, disbelief in his tone; and something else, a tinge of hope.
"You recognise the name!" Iyla said triumphantly, "That's what Tobias' dragon was called wasn't it?"
"Yes it was but ..."
"When I spoke to him tonight, it was as if he knew who I was, he looks about the right age to me, I mean he's thin and dirty so it's hard to tell, I thought he was younger the first time I saw him. But it has to be him!" Iyla suddenly desperately needed to believe that her brother was alive, that something from her past had survived, a real true link to her parents and her life before their death. If Sam could accept even the possibility that she was right, it would become more real.
Sam looked at her and she could see the dawning hope in his eyes becoming stronger, "Could it really be?"
"Yes it could! It is! And he's escaped, he's not a prisoner anymore, but Kade is after him and we have to find him first."
Sam looked as if he were searching his mind for something, "Tell me everything about your dreams from the very beginning, from the first one you remember." he said urgently.
Iyla recounted everything, speaking quickly in her impatience so that Sam had to keep stopping her and making her go back over things again. Bill sat silently watching their intense volley of conversation like a spectator at a tennis match.
"You say the dragon had wounds on its neck?"
"It looked like someone had stabbed it over and over," Iyla said sadly, "The poor thing, some of the wounds were old but some were much fresher."
"The dragon was chained and you saw the young man release it?"
"Tobias, I saw Tobias release it. Then tonight I saw them in a cave, they must be hiding from Kade." Realisation crossed Iyla's face, "Is that what's distracting Kade do you think? He's busy looking for Tobias and Drago?"
Sam didn't answer; he was pacing and mumbling to himself, "Kade must have taken Tobias so that he had access to his dragon to drink its blood and protect him from dragon flame in the event that you returned and dragons became a threat to him once more. What doesn't make sense is that Tobias' dragon allowed itself to be caught along with Tobias, unless they were both so badly injured ... Drago was not fully grown ..."
"So Kade has been distracted from trying to get to Iyla because he needs Drago's blood to protect him?" Bill asked, slowly getting his head around things.
"It would seem so," said Sam, "As dragon fire is the only thing that can harm an immortal the loss of dragon blood on tap has left Kade unprotected from the only thing that can truly hurt him. He only just escaped death when he unleashed the dragon heart stone. The power of that stone is highly concentrated, dragon fire alone in a quick burst from a dragon in combat wouldn't kill him but it would certainly hurt him. Sustained, intense dragon flame could kill him eventually. A thirteen-year-old girl with no powers of sorcery at present is the least of his worries. Our new contingent of thirty-one dragons and their tamers is a much more pressing concern for him. Without Drago, he is vulnerable to attack."
"We need to find Tobias, he said Kade was coming for him." Iyla voice was insistent and desperate. Her brother was alive, she felt like he was just out of her reach and every fibre of her being was telling her to find him.
Sam stopped pacing, he took her by the shoulders and his pale blue eyes stared solemnly into her green ones, "Iyla," he said softly, "I believe that Tobias may be alive, I do, but I do not want you to get your hopes up, there is so much we don't understand about what has happened."
"Like what?" The joy of hearing Sam admit that he believed Tobias to be alive was quickly replaced by the icy grip of his cautious words.
"Why is Grimp so scared by the thought of him? Why did Kade keep Tobias alive? He has had him for ten years, we have no way of knowing what may have happened to him, to who he is or was, in that time. Grimp says he hurts people Iyla."
Iyla sagged, her knees buckled and she slid to the floor crying, "He's my brother, he's alive and he has asked for my help. I've seen him with Drago, I've seen the pain it causes him to see his dragon so ill and abused. I've looked into his eyes and seen the fear and desolation and I've heard him crying out for help." She could barely speak through her sobs, "Please help me find him, please."
"We have to do something!" Bill insisted, backing up his friend, "We have to!"
Sam paused for a moment and suddenly his expression changed, he looked torn between what he wanted in his heart to believe and what his mind was telling him could be true, "I loved your father like a brother, your mother like a sister and you and Tobias as if you were my own children. I want more than anything for him to be alive and to come home to us." He held Iyla tightly, "I will speak to the King and Queen, we will call meeting and decide what can be done." Iyla nodded, wiping her eyes. "Go and get dressed," Sam said softly, "I will wake Camen, meet me in the Great Hall.
Iyla stood shakily, the adrenaline of her sudden realisation that Tobias was alive had subsided, dampened by waves of despair that she still may not be able to help him. Grimp gently guided her down the hallway, back towards her room.
Bill looked at Sam, "You don't see a happy ending do you?" he asked when Iyla was out of earshot.
Sam couldn't look him in the eye, "Kade is evil through and through Bill, there is no telling what impact ten years as his captive will have had on Tobias. There are many unanswered questions," he sighed, "Please, go with Iyla, look after her. I might not be able to give her the answers she wants to hear and she will need you then."
Bill nodded solemnly and followed Iyla and Grimp's path down the hallway and away from Sam.
Sam turned to walk in the direction of Camen's quarters but stopped as he reached the stairs. He gripped the banister, his pale skin shining in the moonlight that shone through a small window. He looked to the moon for a moment as if asking it for something then suddenly stooped as if he had been punched in the stomach and stayed there on the stairs, his body shaking with silent sobs.
He had spared Iyla details of the night her village had been attacked. Kade had unleashed a fury so powerful, so great, that the whole village and everyone in it had been so utterly destroyed there had been no bodies to find. Sam had been so close to reaching them in time, he had seen the fire, glowing green instead of red, unnatural flames with a heat so searing, there had been doubt in his mind anything could survive. Later, witnesses who had been far enough away to escape but close enough to see dragons struck from the sky, their riders plummeting with them into the flames, had convinced him that none of the dragons or their tamers could have possibly survived. Sam thought he understood Kades intention was only to destroy and he accepted that Iydra and Tobias had to be gone. He had helped rescuers dig Iyla's hiding place out from the piles of ash that had been her home after sensing her fear, a tiny toddler, utterly terrified and so close to running out of air, they had reached her just in time. He could sense no other survivors, not a single soul.
He had dealt with his fury, his all consuming grief, he had left his world behind to keep Iyla safe, but had he really abandoned another child? Had he left Tobias, a boy he loved as his own, to Kade for all this time? Had he really failed his closest friend so badly?