Part 15 (1/2)

'Dream!' Loup's eyes went wide. 'Normal dream, or more funny business? Tell me about it and don't waste words.'

Eric told him what little he remembered.

'More trickery!' Loup cried when he'd finished. His gnarled face twisted into a fury Eric had not before seen in him. 'And you clutz fool s.h.i.+t didn't think to wake me at the first scent of it!'

'See, here's where you explain to me what it all means. Then the next time it happens, I'll know what to do.'

'Next time if we're lucky!' Loup staggered back and fell as though he'd been shoved, hands to his face. 'You know what he's liable to do? He's like a wee tot taking toys apart to see what's inside em. What he'll be when he grows up? Well who knows that? If she's alive, call it more luck than a rain of diamonds. If she's not, it's your hands helped kill her, and I don't care if you're a Pilgrim or a common idiot or both. Scale! Where's the black scale? Oh there better be enough left. Pinch of green in the mix might help, might not. Oh what's he done ...?'

Wailing and cursing, Loup ran back up the steps.

Eric said to Stranger, 'If you are a captive here, I'm not your guard.'

She laughed. 'You'd turn a blind eye if I jumped out the window? I don't want to. I want nothing. He's right, the fire is out. Do you see? It's not the power I mourn, nor is it strictly him. I don't know if it was a spell that made me love him, that's beside the point. The connection, the bond. Its very threads, the firm grip of them. He didn't matter, I understand now. But his power made the bond stronger than anything I will have again. I'm over.'

'Unless he returns?'

She laughed. 'He won't. I know him now that we've parted, in the way you know a familiar place even more when it's left behind you. He was never mine. Just as we keep horses and beasts until they're not useful any more. That's all I was to him.'

Eric noted the choice of words. He won't return was not quite the same as even if he did return, I'd not have anything to do with him. Aloud he said, 'But that's not to say a person can't be a genuine friend to his steed.'

'Until it's of no more use,' she repeated sadly.

Far Gaze opened a bleary red eye and groaned. Unabashed by his nakedness he got up and moved very stiffly, like an old man, though he could not have been much older than forty. His hairy body was broad and muscled. 'Get me food,' he said. 'The mongrel tried to kill me.'

'What happened to Case?' Eric demanded.

'Jumped off a cliff. Said thanks for the ... I forget the words. He said something a friend would say in farewell. I have no more answers for you.'

'No more answers,' Eric echoed hollowly.

'I was in s.h.i.+fted form. Not ideal for playing messenger. Leave me be. I must think about what the wolf scented and heard. There's a lot.' Far Gaze c.o.c.ked a thick eyebrow at Eric, belatedly perceiving his att.i.tude. 'And as for saving you in the woods, from one peril after another, after keeping a dragon at bay, among other things, after a futile sprint across the world. You ... are ... welcome. Pilgrim.'

He went up the steps clutching his back. A moment later, through the window Eric and Stranger sat beneath, a drake's head burst in.

2.

It was well that Stranger saw in time there wasn't room for Aziel's head to clear the top of the window, or the Lord's daughter might have been sent tumbling to the small shelf of turf below. The drake pushed its way in, getting a wing caught on the window and flipping over onto its back with a grunt, almost landing squarely on Eric, who was too surprised to move until he heard the bone-breaking force of its squat body hitting the floor. Stranger pulled Aziel inside.

'Hands off me!' the girl yelled shrilly, thras.h.i.+ng her legs around. 'Leave me alone. Do you even know who I am?'

Stranger perhaps expecting 'thank you' for saving the new arrival's life was lost for words. The drake, on sight of Eric, got up and rushed at him. 'Help!' he yelled, backing into a wall, but the drake had him cornered. Rather than attack, it pushed its head into his midriff as though it wanted to have its ears scratched.

'He won't hurt you,' Aziel snapped at Eric. 'He's mine. Don't touch him.'

'What is yours?' said Stranger. 'Eric or the beast? Or maybe everyone and everything?'

'Don't speak to me that way!' said Aziel, though she sounded more frightened than anything. 'Do you even know-'

'You are Aziel, our Friend and Lord's daughter,' said Stranger with a smile. 'And I believe my prediction was right. Don't you, Eric?'

Eric was too busy fending off the drake's affections. It had propped itself up on its hind legs and tail, with one foreleg planted on his chest, looking into his face with what seemed imploring eyes. Eric felt his ribs bend under its weight. 'What's wrong with it?' he gasped.

'He might be thirsty,' Aziel said. 'He likes beer.'

'Is it going to breathe fire at me?'

'No! He doesn't do that much. He's a nice drake. Take me home. Take me back to Arch. I don't understand why I'm here or why it came and took me. I just want to go home.' She burst into tears.

Stranger laid a palm on her forehead, muttered something, then Aziel collapsed into sleep. 'You have a new friend,' said Stranger, a drop of blood leaking from her nose.

'I think so.' The drake had calmed down a little. Now it sat before Eric like a dog awaiting instructions from its master. It made sounds deep in its throat as though it were trying to speak, though the sounds had no meaning Eric could discern. 'It's trying to tell me something.'

Stranger stroked the beast's back. 'It seems very tame. There were some drakes trained for fighting, years ago. If they escaped their handlers, they were dangerous. It's quite remarkable, if this creature will stay with us and be a steed. Drakes are very rare.' The drake turned to her and made more sounds like it was trying to speak. Stranger said, 'They are the only dragon kin allowed to live in the human world, though they were hunted near to extinction for the privilege.'

'Why hunted?' said Eric, patting the creature's back.

'Drake skin makes fine leather armour, easily enchanted. Their blood and body parts are used in rituals. Highly potent, their blood. And they were ridden to war, killed faster than they bred.' Stranger took Aziel in her arms and carried her upstairs. 'I think your new friend will need a name, Eric,' she called over her shoulder.

'You're right.' Eric stroked the creature's hard leathery head. 'I'll name you after a friend of mine. Nice to meet you, Case.'

The drake shut its eyes, seemed to groan and, to Eric's confusion, twice head-b.u.t.ted the floor.

Eric laughed, thinking that the real Case would get a kick out of the beast's reaction, if only he were here to see it.

3.

Aziel slept deeply, for Stranger's spell ensured that no noise woke her. Watching her contemplatively, Far Gaze sat on the platform beneath a dark glittering ribbon of winding magic, sniffing in strands of it and murmuring. He'd wrapped a white sheet about himself.

When Loup's scale vision ended he rose from his bed ashen-faced. 'I couldn't find her,' he told Eric with a sigh. 'And I've used up the last little specks of black scale. She may well be gone now, lad.'

'Siel? But what the h.e.l.l happened?' said Eric.

'He took her. Shadow did.'

'How do you know, Loup? We've got an empty bed and a dream I had. That's enough for you to work out exactly what happened to her?'

Loup gave him a dark look but didn't answer. He filled a dish with water for the drake downstairs.

'What do drakes eat?' Stranger asked.