The carriage ride from Chilltopia to the Fallen Isles was not as excruciating as the previous train ride had been, present company considered. Ivy and Lettuce kept mostly to themselves, looking out the windows. Maple was, as to be expected, buried in the book. There wasn't much else to do, so for the first real time, Grel was reading LOVELOCK, over her shoulder.
At a certain point she must have realized that he was because she started to linger before flipping the pages, making sure that he had read them. He had the sinking feeling that another magic-based conversation with her would be coming later that night, but in the meantime he was starting to understand why she was so invested in the book. It was a book of, mostly sappy, letters between Ruby and her human lover, a long, gross time ago. He tried not to think too much about human and dragon relations.
Still, between the sickly sweet love letters, there were lots of notes on magic. Ruby was a skilled mage during her time, and was meticulous about her notes. Grel had been told his whole life that his family had the deepest understanding of magic and that was why they trained the artificers, but Ruby knew far more than even Moonstone. The King didn't know a lick of magic, and that's why he was so reliant on Moonstone.
Moonstone was ancient, although that wasn't saying much in terms of dragons. She'd been the royal advisor for his and his father's entire lives. She had even known Ruby personally. Grel was trying his best to not think about her, or her daughter. Topaz was fine, but she was her mother's minion and Grel was never going to be anybody's stooge.
By the time they reached the gondola outpost for the Fallen Isles, the party of four hadn't exchanged more than 10 words betweeen one another. Before stepping out, Grel slipped his glasses on. He hadn't bothered wearing them during the ride. If they really wanted to be a part of this mess, they'd have deal with what it really meant. No one had complained.
There was a small crowd waiting for the gondolas to open. Beyond them, the Fallen Isles was really a sight to behold. Maple hadn't been exaggerating. It was almost like a series of canyons, massive islands of land scattered throughout a barren expanse. Some had fallen straight down, like arrows, and were mesa-like on top but balancing on a narrow tip. Others had fallen sideways, or upside down. The sky almost felt empty, like it was missing the space the islands once occupied. Overall, it was dry, arid and mercifully, blissfully warm.
Lettuce paid the carriage driver and left to arrange their passage, telling them not to worry about how last minute it was. There was a shriek of excitement from the crowd as he slipped past them and into the gondola offices. Grel, meanwhile, busied himself with their meager luggage and watched the girls as the carriage trundled away. Maple peeled off her heavy sweater to expose a frilly polka dot blouse underneath, but Ivy still wore her hooded cloak over dark leather armor. Like a living shadow.
The women couldn't be more different, but Grel disliked them equally. Although Maple was becoming, slightly, more tolerable. At least she was starting to understand him. Ivy, however, was like a walking sword: cold, sharp, deadly, and not inclined to make friends.
He was almost glad when Lettuce came back. Maple had made it out to be that this guy was the chillest of the chill, but the longer he was with him, the more Grel was seeing the same anxiety Maple had. It seemed to bubble up, then get stuffed back down. Whatever the guy was smoking probably helped. He'd obviously partaken before the carriage ride, but it had been a long, long ride indeed.
"Are you alright?" Ivy asked when he rejoined the group.
"Yeah, I'm fine, dude" he said with a smile that didn't fully reach his eyes. "I, uh, I just gotta make sure I get in touch with my manager is all. Like, as soon as we get to the cottages, try to send a letter to him. I thought they'd have a way to send one at the office, but I guess it's been broken."
"Oh no, Lett, you didn't," sighed Ivy, her normally stiff posture slumping. "Please tell me you talked to your manager about all this."
"I… did… not…" He said, almost shrinking back from his bodyguard. He closed his eyes, fists balled, and spoke quickly. "Remember when I said that I was done with the tour? I meant that I was done with it. Technically I'm not even halfway done."
"What do you mean 'you're done with it?'" Asked Ivy. She was more tender in asking than Grel had expected. Now is was Lettuce who slumped.
"I don't know. When you guys," he gestured to Maple and Grel, who were thoroughly confused, "were talking about magic and all that, it made me think about bards. Real bards, not like what I do. I love playing music, but they're letting me write less and less of my own stuff. I don't like using old spell books to write songs. I want to write my own, like, magic songs I guess." He deflated a little. "I'm sorry I lied to you first though, Ive. I know you're homesick and I was feeling weird about all of this for while. I thought we could both use a break. This was just something we couldn't pass up."
"Hold on-" said Grel, holding up a hand, trying not to sound too angry. This couldn't stand if he was right. "What do you mean spell books? Someone like you has access to spell books? Do you even know what I've had to go through to get this singular book?"
"The Magic Drought sapped all of the magic from Salt," said Maple. "Although, dragons seem to have it naturally within them. There are an incredible amount of spell books leftover, that's hugely what my archive back home consists of. Anybody can read them, but no one does because magic is defunct. Irrelevant, is what Peppermint likes to tell me."
"It's a trend right now to use them for lyrics," grumbled Lettuce.
Something churned uncomfortably in Grel's gut. Dragons did not have magic naturally within them, as Maple had decided. They had it hoarded away within the Lapidary Kingdom, bubbling away. He could only access it because he was the Prince, and even then he had been working blind until Maple had done whatever she had done back in Chilltopia.
LOVELOCK was the key to everything. He had been right all along. Suck on that, Dad. And Moonstone. And Topaz.
Still, Maple didn't need to know any of that. Neither did the new hangers on. He still had plans to ditch the lot of them once they arrived in Portỹa Colada. He'd shuck them off, and the barrier would keep them away, or the guards would toss them in the dungeon for the rest of their lives as far as he was concerned. It's not like any of them could survive the inside of the Smoulderbone anyway.
Until then, Maple could teach him how to use LOVELOCK, Ivy could be extra muscle, and Lettuce could waste his runaway pop star money on them.
"You're not in trouble with your manager are you?" Asked Maple. "I'd feel just terrible if joining us has made your life harder."
"No, I'm not really. I definitely made the right choice. Anyway, that book you keep reading, that's a spell book isn't it?" Lettuce leaned in closely, speaking softly. "Do you think I could take a look at it some time?"
Maple stiffened. To Grel's surprise, she cast a questioning glance to him. It was like she was asking him, 'should we share this?' with her big pink eyes. They had been functioning as team. Still, it felt nice to have his authority recognized for once, so he granted her a benevolent nod. It felt quite kingly. Lapidary Court, eat your heart out.
"Tonight," said Maple happily. "When we get to the cottages, I'll show you the best bits. Maybe you could help me. Grel and I were able to, somewhat, successfully apply one of these spells to his magic. Another set of eyes on it might help us figure it out even more. Especially if you're trying to think like a bard. Ivy, you could read it too."
"I'll leave the bookclub to you two," she said, and tugged her hood down again. "Come on, the gondolas are starting up."
There was one gondola that went directly to the cottages, and another that ran from the cottages to the other side of the Isles. It was impossible to ride both in one day, because the trips were too long and the gondolas only ran during specific hours each day. Maple explained, in detail, to them that that was to allow for maintenance on the gondolas and, if needed, to fight monsters that lurked in the canyons. Boring, but the monster part was cool.
The gondola was decently full, but not packed, by the time the group piled inside. A mostly non descript group of creatures, but the variety still felt significant to Grel, used to exclusively dragons. There were humans, but very few, and he had found that there were less humans than he had expected in general. Spice Rack City had a high concentration of them, sure, but everywhere he'd been since had been a bit of a mix.
Although, he still hadn't seen anyone that looked quite like Ivy. Jeez, what a freak show.
The group was a relatively unimpressive mix, but there was a pair of humans that struck him as strange. There was a woman, roughly Maple's age, and a boy who was clearly a fledgling human. The woman was tall, pale, and slender, with long blue hair, and wearing an elegant green dress and dark glasses. The boy had umber skin and cropped, dark hair, and wore a dirty looking pair of overalls and a pair of goggles on his head. He was doing his best to ignore everyone, tinkering with something in his hands that Grel couldn't make out.
While they did look weird, Grel took notice of them particularly when the woman dragged the boy over and got herself nice and close to him. She looked too young to be the boy's mother, but not old enough to know to leave Grel alone apparently. He took a large step over, which forced his own group to move over too with complaint.
"Oh," said the woman in a smokey voice. "I'm sorry. Was I in your way?"
"Yeah," Grel replied gruffly. "Ya' were."
She leaned back against the bar across the window. Her leg popped out of a slit in the skirt of the dress, complete with a high heeled shoe. "Then I'm terribly sorry. Is there a way I could make it up to you?"
"No. Thanks."
The blue haired woman ran a manicured finger down his arm, making his scales crawl. "We'll be staying at the cottages too, if you change your mind." She leaned in. "The boy and I have separate rooms."
Grel's brows knit with disgust. Was this human trying to initiate some pathetic attempt at a human's mating ritual? He didn't have a chance to respond, which would have been little more than laughing in her face anyway, because the tour guide began to pull back the gondola's window curtains and start his demonstation.
The guide was a satyr like Lettuce, but with sun-reddened skin and wearing a big floppy hat. He looked like he would be right at home in an archaeological dig, or a dusty old college. When he spoke his voice was warm and weathered.
"Welcome, folks. The ride is a little on the long side, but the sights are to die for. I mean that literally." No one laughed, expect for Maple. The tour guide gave her a surprised, but appreciative, smile. He went on to explain a lot of what Maple had already told Grel in detail, so he ignored most of it until the tour guide got to the interesting bit: the monsters.
"...creatures that once relied on the magic that ran throughout Salt. Today, imagine a waterfall, but no rushing river keeping it what it is, doing what its meant to do. Now imagine that same waterfall had legs and teeth. Whatever the magic once did for those poor creatures, the lack of it has transformed them into something terrible. It's hard to tell what any of them were before, but you'll find that they mostly just look like huge, horrible bugs these days. As you enjoy your gondola ride across the Fallen Isles, and your stay at our cottages, keep an eye out for any passing shadows across the rocks that aren't yours."
"You know, Grel," said Maple. She slid up to the other side of him, but as she talked she kept eyeing the blue haired woman who hadn't left. "There are those who believe that some of those creatures used to be dragons."
"Dragons?" The other woman scoffed. "Darling, dragons wouldn't be caught dead in these canyons."
"Grel do you know this woman?" Maple said suddenly. "She seems awfully… forward."
"I don't know this broad," said Grel dismissively. He took a step back as Maple and the other human glared at each other. His back bumped into the rails and he looked around for support, but Ivy and Lettuce had tucked themselves away in a corner and were actively ignoring them. Traitors.
"Oh that's not true. We've met, plenty of times. I've just, changed my appearance a bit."
Grel had had enough. "Listen, lady, I have no idea who you are. Me and my companions-"
"My companions and I," corrected Maple.
"Not now!" He snapped at her. She shrunk back, looking hurt. "Whatever, look we're busy and we don't have time for whatever you're selling or smoking."
The blue haired woman backed down and left, but not before giving Grel another brush of the arm and promising they'd talk later. Once she and boy, who had said nothing, left, Grel was frustrated that Maple still seemed upset.
"What is your problem?" He asked hotly, but quiet. The tour guide was still carrying on.
"My problem? Grel, we don't have time to be flirting and falling in love. Would you even date a human woman anyway? Because if not, you're being awfully cruel."
Grel took a step back, holding his hands up. He had no idea where this was coming from. He was used to her being annoying and asking a million questions, but this was coming from a different placee than her usual onslaught.
"I hate humans, Maple. Every. Last. One." There was a lot more he could say about the matter, but Maple looked deflated, which usually meant he had won.
He just didn't feel like much of a winner as he watched her slump away to another lonely corner of the gondola for the rest of the ride.