E52 朗读版 | Raya's decision

Chapter 18 

“Raya! Raya!” 

Raya came to in darkness. Someone was calling her name. The sound seemed to be coming from far away. She pushed herself up. The movement made her feel dizzy and sick. Her forehead throbbed. For a second, she struggled to understand what was happening. 

With horror, Raya realized why it was so dark. The Druun had hemmed them in on every side, raging around them like a violent storm. Tong, Boun, Noi, and Namaari stood together with their backs to one another. They waved their Gem pieces, trying vainly to hold the monsters off.

Raya discovered her own Gem shard was still clutched in her fist. She staggered to her feet and joined them.
“The Gem’s magic is almost gone!” cried Boun.

The Gem pieces, once so bright, now had only a dull sheen.

Growling, Tong slashed his shard at a Druun, as if he was swinging his axe. The Druun shrank back, but only for a moment. Two more Druun advanced. “They aren’t backing off!” he shouted.

“They’re everywhere!” Boun exclaimed.

Raya heard a soft plink and looked down. The dragon pendant had fallen from Namaari’s pocket. Raya leaned over and picked it up. 

As she looked at the carving of Sisu, she had a flash of memory: she and Sisu standing together in the Chamber of the Dragon Gem. Sisu’s words suddenly came back to her.

“I don’t know why they chose me. It could have been any of us. All I know is I trusted them and they trusted me. And so. . .”

Raya’s eyes opened wide. The answer had been there all along. Why had it taken her so long to see it? “Everyone! Give me your gems!” she yelled over the roar of the Druun.

“We can still put it together. It can still work!”
The others gaped at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Sisu’s gone, Raya. We don’t have her magic,” Boun said.

“It’s not about magic,” Raya told him. “It’s about trust.”

“What?” Namaari asked.

“That’s why it worked. That’s why we can do it, too. By doing the one thing Sisu wanted us to do — what my ba wanted us to do — to finally trust each other and fix this. But we have to come together. Please.”

“After what she’s done?” Tong looked at Namaari in disgust.

“We’ll never trust her!” Boun exclaimed.

Raya looked at her friends. She couldn’t blame them. Only moments before, she had felt the same way.

“Then let me take the first step,” she said. She went to Namaari and placed her Gem piece in Namaari’s hand.

“Raya, no!” Boun cried. But it was too late.

The last thing Raya saw as the Druun swept over her was Namaari’s pale face staring back at her in shock.