The hot white flames hit the castle opening a hole. Towers crumbled, thundering, falling, raining debris, and crushing soldiers or automatons underneath the rock. The rock hissed, letting off steam and most of it melted, dripping down through the pathways, chasing people drowning those who couldn't dodge. 

Soon, the molten rock hardened, trapping some who couldn't make it. Others tried to dig them out, but they couldn't.

Airships with automatons switched their gears to attacking the dragon in front of them. Jack called to them, but they either couldn't hear him or wouldn't. Dragons fell away from the body of the Ragegon to their deaths, turning back to their true colors as they went.

I have to get to the Enchantress, Jack thought, but then at that moment, the Enchantress and her bubble vanished. 

Ragegon twisted his giant body and several small dragons dislodged themselves in droves. Spewing blood-colored molten rock, they came after the people running from the castle, swooping to pick up the slower children or the elders in snapping jaws. Dragons went after the airships and the automatons. The Ancient One breathed red flames at them, but they were unaffected.

"Rage flames can't touch them. They're made of rage," Espin said with fear in his voice. Ragegon roared and the air rippled with his anger. Then his throat glowed again.

"Get out of the way!" Jack called and the Ancient One flew up. The beam of white flames hit the castle again, smoldering it in fire, melting the rock, until there were only a few towers left standing. Beyond the castle were more stretches of villages and towns and Jack could see people running for their lives. 

Ragegon let out another roar and curled his body. A sheen of black light like a veil cocooned him and he rose into the sky, hiding inside the black clouds. As the glow from his body vanished, the sky darkened and only the burning buildings were left to give off any light.

The Ancient One rumbled something and Espin translated, "The core. You need to kill the core. That would weaken the Enchantress enough to kill her."

"What if I just kill the Enchantress before he wakes up again?" Jack asked.

Espin transformed into his human form. "This way, a lot easier to resist," he said with pain on his face. "Either one that easier. If you see her, that would be easier. You'd kill her and the dragons would be released. Ragegon would die."

"The core's the heart?"

"The throat. Where all dragons keep the heart of their powers." Espin nodded, touching his own neck. "It's warm here."

Jack touched his throat. It was warm. "So, I either kill the core or kill the wench."

But he had to get to the dragon either way. With a few dragon words to the Ancient One, Espin got him to take Jack to the cocoon, as close as he could get before the Ragegon would affect him. Jack patted the Ancient One's head in thanks as the dragon slithered through the sky to the black cloud mushrooming and growing as the minutes went by. 

Behind, other ancients were fighting against the smaller dragons that preyed on them in groups. The molten rock spewed gave black wounds. One ancient one faltered and fell to the ground with a thundering BOOM.

Hurry, or it'll be too late. Too much damage. Jack stood on the head of the Ancient One as they submerged in the black cloud. The sounds of the battle, of screaming and crying, of dragons shrieking or falling and airships exploding faded away. They were soon plunged into darkness and deafening quiet.

The clothes of magick that Jack was wearing fades and soon his old clothes return. The same dirty black suit with the scratched leather boots he was wearing when Gray found him. He turned to Espin who was gritting his teeth and clutching his neck. His throat was glowing red.

Tears formed in Espin's eyes as he spoke, "I'm sorry, I can't go on." The red turned black and began to spread through his body. "I have to protect him," he whispered, "I'm bound."

Jack felt a pang of something convenient in his chest. He acted on it. He grabbed Espin by the collar and kissed him. "I'm Jack of all trades. I protect you."

"No one has ever..." Espin gave a tired smile and turned into the small dragon fairy. Then he fell away, and a curl of black smoke cocooned him and picked him up, taking him into Ragegon.

"Rise higher," Jack said to the Ancient One, "we're so close."

They rose and then he saw the cocoon, as large as a castle, suspended in the air. A golden glow emitted from it, beating like a heart. The cocoon was made out of a gray lace, like a spiderweb. Jack could just make out the tail of Ragegon, a disturbing collection of thousands of black dragons merged together seamlessly like a child had squished clay balls together.

"I'm going to jump, you should leave," he said and didn't even wait for any grunt of reply. He leapt onto the cocoon. It tore apart as he did. Jack fell through, on top of the resting tail of Ragegon. Back through the opening, he could see the Ancient One hurriedly slithering away. Its tail was turning black at the tip.

The dragons shifted below Jack's knees and he stood. He took out his dagger, ready to strike, although he was sure he would die if even one of them woke up. He'd seen what the molten red rock did to people, melting their faces and eating their flesh.

But the dragon didn't move. He put his dagger away and walked along the tail. Ragegon up close and person was a mountain of dragons. 

Layers and layers of dragons piled up on each other. All different shapes and sizes squishing against each other, breathing as one. Even each clawed toe was made up of smaller dragons. Maybe if they had been different colors it might have been a bit of a pretty sight, but all the dragons were black, and it was hard to tell where one ended and another began.

It's like a ship. Jack knocked his fist against the dragon floor. 

It was hard as armor and the back of Ragegon was a long, grotesque walkway of thousands of black scales moving in time with the breathing of Ragegon. It seemed to go on forever before it sloped up toward the long neck. Several dragons made up spikes along the back like a strange kind of forest. 

Jack could see, up ahead, the golden glow where the core was. Either that, or the Enchantress he had to find. If she was here at all.

It was hard to tell how much time had passed before he finally reached the neck and on the underside was the throat. He didn't want to kill any dragons if he didn't have to, but there was no way to get inside the throat without being swallowed. He wasn't about to be killed before he could kill. It would just have to be a sacrifice.

Or two or three.

Using the dragons' bodies as footholds and handholds, he reached around to the front until he was right where the throat lump would be. The golden light pulsated like a heart and it was so hot here that Jack was sweating like it was summer. Licking his lips of sweat, he reached for his dagger when something shot up from below. Jack leapt into the air and landed on the back of Ragegon.

"Good reflexes," the Enchantress commented, "I thought you would be too distracted."

Jack was upon her in seconds, up in her face with the dagger at her throat. "And you're not?" He slashed at her neck, but she'd vanished. Cackling filled the cocoon, bouncing off the webs in hollow echoes. Then she was behind him and he stabbed her snakish leg. 

Shrieking, she coiled it close to her chest and vomited snakes at him. He fell back, fighting against the snapping snakes and wondered why evil wanted to be so snakish.

"I've eaten snakes," he said and sliced most of them in half while the others retreated. "Shall I make a roast meal out of you?" He sneered, feeling the familiarity of himself as Knave Diamondo.

Serena hissed, twitching her forked tongue. 

"I should have known," she spat, "Too long after you'd left, I realized, no, you aren't Jack Ogswold, my bastard son. When did it happen? When did he switch places with Jack Plantagenet? I thought the deed was perfect. Prince Jack was killed. My son killed him whether he knew he had to do that or not. But it was Jack Plantagenet all this while. All this while, you were the one I wanted dead!"

"Same sentiments," Jack shrugged, "well, the last part. And I didn't know you made Margorie and Jack Ogswold with the same man. What was so great about him? No offense to the only man I would ever call my father, but he's not exactly handsome."

Serena's snakish coils faded under her flowing green cloak. "You've never been in love then."

"I'm sorry, I don't really understand your kind of love. The jealous kind that killed Mary C."

"Mary Charviliousifillialianianna stole Emmett Ogswold from me!" Serena shrieked and her coils burst out from underneath her cloak again. The tips turned into snake heads with pointed fangs.

Jack snapped his fingers. "So, it does stand for something!" He had always wondered why it was just an initial.

And no wonder. If my name was like that, I would do the same.

"Enough of this. You know too much because I felt like talking. Why do you do that? You don't even have the protection disguised as a curse, oh!" She slapped her own cheek. "There I go again, telling you everything. I suppose I'll even tell you that Mary C. didn't die in the dungeon. I infused her power into Margorie to make Margorie stronger so that I could make her into Ragegon."

Jack couldn't believe how stupid this woman was, telling him everything. "I seem to have that effect on people," he said with a shrug. "So, Margorie is the throat?"

Serena let out a giggle. "She's the heart, a spare part when the throat's burned out, because the last flame would be the last for that flimsy throat. No, the throat is someone else entirely. I think you know a golden dragon well."

He gritted his teeth. He did know a golden dragon well. But Jack had come to save that damsel in distress, not let her get burned up in Ragegon. Moving swiftly, avoiding snakes, he reached the Enchantress and plunged the dagger deep in her heart, but all she did was laugh. Why wasn't she bleeding?

Pain zipped across his chest, and he fell to the ground. The dagger was in his own heart. His vision flickered and the edges blackened. How did that happen? He stabbed her and then he was stabbed.

The Enchantress bent over him. "Just a little spell to transfer my wounds to yours'. I can only use it once in a couple months," She pinched her own cheek, "there I go again, speaking too much."

Jack's mind was becoming foggy. He could feel the dragons below him begin to shift, moving about and waking up. Ragegon was ready for the next blast. Eli was going to die.

And me? Jack never thought he would ever be so close to death. He always escaped death. He was the one that killed, not be killed. 

Touching his chest, his hand came away with bright red blood. It was true, he was bleeding. His heart was working hard to keep him alive, pumping blood into his veins and out from the hole in his chest. It was doing more harm than good.

"At last, the prince is dead. I win," the Enchantress Serena whispered in his ear and left his side. Ragegon moved and Jack felt his body roll off and plummet into the air. Blood from his wound flew into his face as he fell. 

Soon, he broke through the black clouds and saw the burning land below. Jack was all out of tricks, with not even the art of deception, he was only a man falling to his death. Nothing he could do but give up. He closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

The roar of Ragegon reached his ears and air heated instantly.

Who am I kidding? A laugh bubbled out his mouth. "Espin!" he called. 

Purple light flashed before his eyes. The dagger yanked out and pain spasmed through his body, but quickly vanished. He imagined wings on his back and took an outstretched hand in a firm grip. The dragon fairy pulled him into an embrace, and they stopped falling. Jack laughed in Espin's arms.