Part 28 (2/2)
Where are you? he said. We were getting worried!
Bad things are happening. I need you and Lars to run, as fast as you can, to the northwest face of Castle Hill. The sally port in the side of the hill might have a hostile dragon emerging from it shortly.
Or it might have a very strong, wickedly fast old woman. There was still some uncertainty on that point.
How do we get down the castle wall on that side?
St. Masha's stone. You will find a way. I hoped that was true.
And what are the two of us to do against a hostile dragon?
I don't know. All I know is I am in the tunnels right now, behind it, and if you and Lars show up there will be twice as many people as there would be otherwise. We don't have to kill it; we just have to delay it until my uncle gets here.
I let him go because I could tell he was going to protest again and because I kept tripping over the uneven floor when my concentration was elsewhere.
We pa.s.sed the three doors, now unlocked and ajar, and knew that Lady Corongi had come this way as well. When we reached the natural cavern area, Kiggs drew his sword. He looked me up and down. ”We should have armed you before coming down here!” His eyes looked haunted in the lantern light. ”I want you to turn back.”
”Don't be ridiculous.”
”Phina, I don't know what I'd do if you were hurt! Please go back!” He squared himself as if he intended to block my way.
”Stop it!” I cried. ”You're wasting time.”
A veil of grief fell across his face, but he nodded and turned back toward the job at hand. We set off at a run.
We reached the mouth of the cave, but there was no one visible, just women's clothing scattered all over the floor like a shed skin. Kiggs and I glanced at each other, remembering the folded gown we'd found here before. It had been right in front of us, and we hadn't had the wit to see it.
Glisselda had clearly put up a struggle while ”Lady Corongi” undressed, so there was some hope the creature was not yet able to fly. We dashed out of the cave into the slick, snowy gra.s.s, looking around for the pair of them. Glisselda screamed; we turned toward the sound of her voice. Above the cave entrance, silhouetted against the growing pink of the sky, stood a wiry, naked man, Glisselda thrown over his shoulder.
He'd been at court disguised as an old woman for almost Glisselda's whole lifetime. Doused in perfume, avoiding other saar, worming his way close to Princess Dionne, he had bided his time with a patience only reptiles possess.
For all my exposure to saarantrai I had never before seen one change from human to dragon. He unfolded himself, stretched, telescoped, unfurled some more. It seemed logical as it happened, all his human parts plausibly dragon: his shoulders separating into wings, his spine extending back to tail, his face lengthening, his skin bursting out in scales. He managed the entire thing without letting go of Glisselda; he finished with her clasped firmly in his front talons.
If we had been smart, we would have charged him while he was transforming, but we'd stood rooted to the spot, too dumbfounded to think.
All doubt was finally removed: it was Imlann.
He would not be able to fly for several minutes; a newly transformed saar is soft and weak, like a b.u.t.terfly fresh from the chrysalis. His jaw worked; he could still spit fire. I pulled Kiggs back inside the cave before the fireball hit the dirt at the entrance, sending up a spray of scorched stones in a burst of brimstone. Imlann couldn't work up a very big gobbet yet, but if he craned his neck down into the cave, he wasn't going to need full flame, especially if Kiggs refused to retreat.
How long would it take Lars and Abdo to get here? And Orma, if he was even coming? I saw only one course of action, and turned to head back out of the cave.
”Are you mad?” cried Kiggs, grabbing my arm.
I was mad, as it happened. I turned back and kissed him squarely on the mouth, because this really could be the last thing I ever did, and I loved him, and it made me desperately sad that he would never know. The kiss startled him into releasing my arm, and I dashed out of his reach, out onto the snowy hillside.
”Imlann!” I cried, jumping and waving my arms like a fool. ”Take me with you!”
The monster c.o.c.ked his head and screamed, ”You're not a dragon; we resolved that in the laundry. What in blazes are you?”
This was it. I had to be interesting enough that he wouldn't kill me out of hand, and there was only one piece of information that could work: ”I'm your granddaughter!”
”Not possible.”
”Yes, possible! Linn married the human, Clau-”
”Do not speak his name. I want to die never having heard it uttered. He is a nameless thing, ant.i.thetical to ard.”
”Well, your nameless daughter bore a child to her nameless thing husband.”
”Orma told us-”
”Orma lied.”
”I should kill you.”
”You'd do better to take me with you. I could be of use in the coming conflict.” I spread my arms, posing dramatically, my crimson gown like a gaping wound in the snowy hillside. ”Being a half-breed has given me formidable abilities that neither dragons nor humans possess. I can contact other half-breeds with my mind; I can direct them at a distance with a thought. I have visions and maternal memories. How do you imagine I knew who you were?”
Imlann's nostrils flared, though I could not discern whether he was skeptical or intrigued. Down in the cave, Kiggs stirred, moving himself slowly and silently into position to attack.
”I know all about your cabal,” I said, feeling the urgency of keeping my mouth moving. ”I know the coup back home is going forward as we speak.”
Imlann raised his spines as if alarmed that I could know that. Had I guessed right? Despair washed over me, but I kept going: ”You've killed the Ardmagar and half the royal family; war is coming. But Goredd is not sufficiently weak that you will be able to walk right in. You're going to need my help.”
Imlann snorted, smoke curling from his nostrils. ”Liar. I know you bluffed me before. You should not have been so quick to brag. Even if I believed in your powers, your loyalty lies with the princeling in the cave. Which of your 'formidable abilities' will you use when I lean down and roast him? I've worked up quite a good flame now.”
I opened my mouth, and there was a sound like the world ending.
It wasn't me, although I was ridiculously slow to comprehend that. Lars, who'd sneaked up on the left, had started up his great war pipes, brawling and caterwauling and screaming musical obscenities at the dawn. Imlann jerked his head toward the sound and a shadowy figure leaped at him from the other side, vaulted up the dragon's neck, and clamped arms and legs around his still-soft throat. Imlann thrashed his neck around, but Abdo held tight-tight enough to prevent Imlann from spitting fire.
”Kiggs! Now!” I cried, but he was already there, stabbing at the foot that held Glisselda. Imlann uttered a gurgle and withdrew his foot reflexively. I reached Kiggs at just that moment; together we rolled Glisselda to one side. I helped the sobbing princess down the rocks toward the cave entrance while Kiggs, unwilling to leave well enough alone, took a stab at the dragon's other foot. Imlann lashed at Kiggs, knocking the prince down to our level. He landed on his back, all the air slammed out of him. Glisselda ran to his side.
There was a hot, sulfuric wind, and I looked up to see Imlann launching himself off the hillside, Abdo still clinging to his neck. I cried out, but there was nothing I could do. Abdo couldn't let go while he was in the air; the fall would kill him. Imlann circled lazily back toward us. If he was hardened enough to fly, he was too hard for Abdo to keep squeezing him flameless. He was coming back to torch us into cinders.
”Get back!” I cried to Glisselda and Kiggs, shoving them toward the cave. ”As far as you can!”
”Y-your lying saved us!” gasped Kiggs, still dazed from his fall.
My lying. Yes. ”Hurry! Run!” I urged him.
Something huge screamed through the sky just above us. I looked up to see Orma hurtling toward Imlann, and I wept with relief.
Imlann turned tail and fled, or appeared to. He let Orma nearly catch him before reeling around in the sky and grappling him. They pinned each other's wings and plummeted toward the earth but managed to escape each other's grasp before they hit the trees. They spiraled upward again, each looking for an opening. Imlann flamed; Orma, noticeably, did not.
He'd spotted Abdo and did not wish to harm him. The humanity of it took my breath away; the colossal stupidity of it filled me with despair.
Abdo, clamped onto Imlann's neck, would deprive Orma not only of the use of fire but also of the ability to bite Imlann's head off easily. Orma's only hope would be to successfully drop his father out of the sky, but his father was longer by a quarter. It was not going to be easy, and Abdo might still die.
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