Skylands Legends

15.2 The Lost City

Spyro watched as Jet Vac stepped into the elevator and rode it down to the cells beneath the academy. He waited until the count of twenty before crossing the hallway to the elevator too.

Before they had left the restricted section back in Mabulon, Spyro had spotted the sky baron slipping a book into his armor. Thievery was quite uncharacteristic of the potential next-in-line to lead the academy. Naturally, this sparked Spyro's curiosity. What would Jet Vac think is worth stealing?

He had wanted to confront him on the ride back to the academy, but he never had the chance. The sky baron had locked himself in his quarters for most of the flight. And every time he came out, Stealth Elf kept him busy until he returned to his locked room. Frustratingly, this left Spyro with one option; following him to see what he would do.

Which was why he was now attempting to take the lift down to the traptanium cells. Spyro walked up the elevator doors and looked them over. He pressed his hand against the pad on the wall and waited for the doors to open. The scan finished and flashed a red light at him.

"Seriously?" Spyro muttered. He couldn't believe they had removed his hand from the system. It's not like he was going to be a security threat to them or anything. It honestly felt like some kind of slight against him. And if anyone had done it, it would have been Jet Vac. The thought of that almost made him want to report the bastard for stealing a book from Mabulon. Almost.

Instead, Spyro resolved to wait in the hallway until he returned.

He must have dozed off at some point because the next thing he knew, the elevator doors were opening and Jet Vac was stepping out into the hallway. Once again, he was tucking a small red book into his armor. He took one look at Spyro in the hallway and frowned. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Spyro responded, rising to his feet.

"I asked you first."

"I don't care," Spyro said petulantly. "I wanna know what you're doing here first."

Jet Vac grunted in annoyance. "I was covering every base. Villains sometimes share plans or ideas with one another. Someone down there might know more than they let on."

Jet Vac would never give in that easily. Spyro thought, surprised by his easy answer. He was clearly lying. "So big, grumbling beast told psycho werewolf guy his plan for world domination is what you're going with?"

Jet Vac furrowed his brow. "I'm going with the truth."

"Which truth? The one you made up? Or the one that's just a straight up lie?"

The sky baron's eyes widened in anger at Spyro's comment. He saw him start to clench and unclench his fists as he visibly tried to hold back his anger. Might have pushed him a little too far with that, Spyro realized.

Jet Vac took a threatening step towards him. Spyro held his ground and met him glare for glare. He opened his beak to speak and, surprisingly, didn't chew Spyro out. Instead he said, "I know where Ethersin is."

Spyro's eyebrows shot up as Jet Vac stepped past him and started down the hall. That was the last response he had expected, and Jet Vac knew that. He just wanted to rattle him. Deciding to fight fire with fire, Spyro called out, "You get that information from your stolen book?"

Jet Vac came to a halt. He turned his head enough for Spyro to meet his eyes. "What does it matter?"

Spyro shrugged. "I'm just making sure it's good information and not just some wild goose chase."

The sky baron turned to face him. "It's good."

Spyro met his eyes. He studied them for a moment before deciding the high road was probably the best way to go in this situation. "Then let's go."