Part 25 (1/2)
The dragon answered,We must not let them - He was interrupted by another blast.
Two new dragons streaked in out of the smoke-filled air. Jael and Ar flattened themselves. The dragons shot past, over their heads, and raked the first two attackers with withering fire. Pivoting in the air, seemingly on their wingtips, they came back around for another pa.s.s. A dragon voice filled the air: LEAVE WINDRUSH AND THE RIGGERS TO US! THEY ARE OURS! The first pair of dragons wheeled around, beating their wings angrily, but the new pair were far more determined. They laced the air with acrid fire, until Jael began to choke, clinging to Windrush. The original two finally veered away, snarling, and fled downrange to the left, hugging close to the lower mountain slopes.
Windrush climbed energetically, but the new pair of dragons crisscrossed beneath him until they rose on either side, fuming smoke and fire. They thundered out words Jael could not understand.Who is this?
Jael whispered, fearing that they had traded bad enemies for worse.
Windrush answered this new challenge with a roar and a tremendous flame, and the others replied in kind. Back and forth they bellowed, fire crackling. Jael clung to Windrush's back. Ed crouched close to her breast, his head in constant motion, peering at one dragon, then another.
Suddenly Windrush cried joyously,WELCOME BACK, BROTHERS! BROTHERS AGAIN! And he sent a triumphant tongue of fire into the air.
Jael's breath went out in a gasp.
Rrapanions - Ed!squawked the parrot, before she could gesture.
She looked at Ar. His eyes were dim with tiredness, and his lips were thin and straight. Nevertheless, he nodded gravely.Honored, he said.I am Ar.
The two dragons expelled steam from their nostrils and muttered wonderingly.Honored, they replied.
Wingtouch, said one.Farsight, said the other.
Jael nodded and sat back with a sigh. As the three dragons flew in a slow curve around the fiery mountain, she leaned to peer at the landscape below. Was it her imagination, or was there more color in the land than there had been before? It no longer seemed the same stark desolation of black and grey, and it didn't seem to her that the difference was entirely due to the gla.s.s-encapsulated glow of the red sun. She spoke to Windrush, and he dipped lower for a better view. The ground slipped silently beneath them. She glimpsed a scattering of green buds, and a few pink and lavender blossoms. The scent of the blossoms rose to her nostrils.Life is returning here, Windrush said approvingly.
It was Ar who voiced surprise.So soon?
I suspect it never really was gone,Windrush said.It was suppressed by the spell-making, by the twisting of the underweb of our world. I guess in time it truly would have died.
Will this happen all over the realm?Jael asked.
Windrush rumbled.Would that it were so, but how can we know? We have gained one victory against the powers of Tar-skel. But I doubt he will concede the realm so easily. There will be other battles, perhaps many others. But you have won us a beginning. He beat his wings harder, as though stirred by the thought of struggles to come.I am determined, as my brothers now are determined - and the spirit of my father is strong with us. There will be others, as well. As the iffling said, we have a great deal to do. And yet now perhaps we will find a way to the Dream Mountain, wherever it has gone, and seek the counsel and the strength of the draconae.
Jael nodded. She found herself thinking again of her own father, and realized that for the first time in many years, she was able to think of him with a profound sadness, but without anger. She caught Ar's gaze, but could not read his expression. Leaning closer to the dragon's head, she asked,Is there anything more we can do ?
Windrush laughed, and his laughter was as deep as an ocean and as full of pain and joy as his father's had been.We would always welcome your help, Jael! But I think this battle is not yours now, but ours. You have your own safety, your own duties, to think of.
Jael felt her gaze-again drawn to Ar's. His lips were crinkled in a weary smile. She had almost forgotten their s.h.i.+p, and their damaged flux-pile, and their cargo that had to be delivered. But Ar had not forgotten.
Windrush seemed to read her thoughts.We will help you if we can. We will bear you to the edge of the realm and leave you on a path that will carry you back to your own worlds.
Thank you,Ar murmured, as Jael nodded.The dragon chuckled.In your thoughts, long ago, you showed me your intended pathway. We can make the remainder of your journey light, and your way easier. But we must not delay. This land will soon be in turmoil, and it will be no place for riggers.
As he spoke, Jael wondered, How long had they been in the net without a break, anyway? She didn't know if they could make it to the edge of the realm without resting. She recalled one other time, when a dragon had borne her to the edge of the realm while she'd slept, and she wondered aloud if Windrush would do the same for them.
Indeed. Go and take your resting spell,the dragon answered.We will do the flying.
Jael nodded in grat.i.tude. As she turned to speak to Ar, he wavered and disappeared. She looked at Ed.
The parrot was sound asleep, cradled against her. Sighing, she reached into the net controls and folded Ed into safe storage. Then, with a farewell wave to the dragons, she, too, withdrew from the net.
Ar was standing at the nose of the bridge, staring at the instruments in the gloom. Jael swung out of her rigger-couch and stood beside him, wondering what he saw in the readouts. Ar looked at her without speaking; his eyes seemed unfocused, the sparkle that usually graced them, gone. She thought she had never seen him look so tired. ”I'm sorry,” she said finally. ”About all of that.”
”Sorry?” Ar murmured.
”I didn't mean for you to have to go through it. I -”
Ar sighed and turned away, leaving her in midsentence. He stopped, looked back, and said, ”You were right, Jael. About all of it. Now get some sleep.”
Then he walked from the bridge.
Jael stared blankly after him, then wearily followed.
She was awakened from a dead sleep by the trilling of the stabilizer alarm. She met Ar in the hallway, coming from the commons. He was chewing, and he handed her a piece of thick dark bread as he pa.s.sed on his way to the bridge. He looked remarkably refreshed. ”I'll check on it,” he said. ”Take your time.”
She hurried into the lavatory and splashed cold water on her face; then she rushed after Ar.
The net was sparkling with a golden sunrise glow. She found Ar astride Windrush, and Ed perched on Ar's shoulder. The dragon, still flanked by his brothers, was soaring in leisurely circles on an updraft.I was beginning to think you would rest forever, Windrush remarked.
Jael yawned, relieved that there was apparently no emergency.How did you get through to us? You must have upset our net somehow.
The dragon answered casually.I sent my thoughts in search of you. And before long, you were here.
Ar gestured to the land far below. For the first time, Jael realized that they were at the edge of the mountain range. A vast, verdant plain stretched out before them, and a silvery thread - a winding river - meandered in the direction they were now flying.They have found a route that'll take us to Eri Nine, where we can put in for repairs, Ar said.
Rawk!said Ed, flapping his wings.Fix it! Ed want to fly!Jael nodded.
It should be an easy flight for you,Windrush offered.
A lump came to her throat then, and she turned to look behind them. The mountain range of the dragons stretched out in a long grey line across the horizon, beneath a powder blue sky. She thought she saw a glint of red fire in the mountains, perhaps from what had once been the Black Peak, but was now something altogether different. Would it stay that way, as Windrush had wished?
The events of the last s.h.i.+pday spun dizzyingly through her mind.
Windrush,she said, recalling a question that had been troubling her.You told us that the dragons - or at least Tar-skel - and her voice quavered a little as she spoke that name -had been expecting us to come see Highwing die. What did you mean by that? The three dragons looked back and forth at each other, puffing steam. Thinking that they had not understood her question, she continued,It's just that it amazes me - that we should have come along at just this time, by accident, when we were needed.
By accident?Wingtouch asked.
Why - yes,Jael said, puzzled. She tried to explain how they had happened to come to the mountain range, from an unlikely distance, as a result of the Flux disturbance.
Well,Windrush said.I cannot say that you are wrong. You might have happened to come at just this crucial moment. But ...
Jael looked at Ar, who had a pained-looking expression, though his eyes remained closed. The parrot sitting on his shoulder was turning his head suspiciously one way, then the other.But what?