Free The Dragon King by Nils Johnson-Shelton

floodgates. Qwon’s mom was a great listener, and she took their weird news really well. She pushed back tears when she heard about Kynder but was relieved to hear Artie and Kay vow to bring him back. Artie even told them about the Scarffern whistle and showed it to them.
    “What’s it do?” Kay asked.
    “I have no idea. I nearly blew it when Merlin was trying to kill me, and then I thought I lost it, which would have sucked. Luckily, Q found it right after I shot through that emergency moongate.”
    “Why would it have been so bad to lose it, Artie?” Pammy asked.
    “Because Nyneve said it was the most powerful thing in either of the worlds! More powerful than Excalibur, even.” Artie snapped his fingers a few times, trying to remember exactly what Nyneve had told him. “She said something like, Excalibur is the symbol of my power and this thing is the secret of it. She also said not to use it unless absolutely necessary, so . . .”
    “So we save it for when we see our friend Merlin again,” Kay said.
    “Or Morgaine,” Qwon added.
    “Or whatever hellish thing is sure to be guarding the Holy Grail,” Artie said glumly.
    Kay stared into her juice glass. “Yeah, or that.”
    Pammy sighed. “You kids have really been through the wringer.” It took every ounce of her will not to forbid them to ever go back to this place that was so dangerous and unknown.
    “We have,” Artie said. They were quiet for a little while. Artie started thinking about his trip through the King’s Gate and how all the crossovers were open now. Finally, he asked, “Pammy—has weird stuff been happening on this side? Anything at all?”
    “Not that I’m aware of. Should there be?”
    “I don’t know. The worlds are rejoined now, like they had been for a long time until Morgaine closed up the Otherworld. I guess I was just curious if anything magical was happening over here. And I mean that literally.”
    “No, not yet,” Pammy said. “But this whole thing has had a weird effect on me. Obviously, when your daughter gets kidnapped to another world by a kid dressed in moss, you’ve got to come to terms with some things.”
    “I can imagine,” Artie said. Qwon reached out and squeezed her mom’s hand.
    “It also jogs some memories.” Pammy leaned forward, warming her free hand on her cup of tea. “Qwon, you know how your great-grandparents, Ojiichan and Obaachan, were devout believers in the spirit world? The Otherworld ?” Qwon nodded. “Ghosts and fairies and gnomes were everywhere for them, and for me too when I was a little girl. When I was young I heard of Kusanagi from old Tetsuo, just like you. And when my great-aunt, all one hundred and four years of her, gave me that monocle on my wedding day—the one you used to look between the worlds, Artie—she told me never to lose it for any reason. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘It is powerful, dear.’ ‘How?’ She didn’t know, or if she did, she wouldn’t tell me—it was like your whistle. But what reason did I have to doubt her, and what would have been the point if I had? I kept it safe. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have found Kusanagi. If you hadn’t found Kusanagi, then you wouldn’t have been able to bring Qwon back to me.” She took a sip of her tea. “I guess I’m a believer now, Artie, like my grandparents used to be.” Another sip. “And there’s one more thing. Something I’d completely forgotten until Qwon was back in my arms just today.”
    To everyone’s surprise, she turned to Kay and gave her a deeply sympathetic look.
    Kay shifted in her seat. “What is it, Mrs. Onakea?”
    “It’s about Cassie.”
    Kay’s heart skipped a beat. “My mom?”
    “Yes.”
    “What about her?”
    “We used to be pretty good friends before she, well, went crazy. And as far as I know, I was the last person on this side to see her before she disappeared. She came here in the middle of the night. She was a babbling mess. She couldn’t stop talking about how