The answer was a rippling choir of voices.
Lavafire, friend of Highwing—
Cooltouch, friend of Highwing—
Gentlesong, friend of Highwing—
Starchime, friend of Highwing—
Strongthought, friend of Highwing—
Starfire, friend of Highwing—
Deeprock, friend of Highwing—
The names streamed by in a torrent, more than she could count. With each one she glimpsed the sparkling presence of a dracona, and felt the surge of a fiery soul. Finally she heard a different voice, the one that had come with her from the Cavern of Spirits. I am FullSky, brother of Windrush, it whispered, speaking with difficulty. Highwing was my father. And she felt something different about that one, not just that he was a male, one of the draconi, but that he was present here in a more tenuous and perilous fashion. She recognized great pain and weariness in him, and glimpsed the sacrifice of strength that he had made to bring her here. And even now, he was laboring, crafting a final spell for her.
That realization made her tremble. But she knew that, whatever it was he was preparing, it was something she could not refuse.
Then, my friends, she whispered, tell me what it is you want me to do.
Chapter 40
Window in the Battle
IN THE smoke and confusion of battle, Windrush dropped away from a trio of drahls that were pursuing him—or seemed to be. The Enemy's sorcery was endlessly confusing, not just to him, but to all of the dragons. The air was full of smoke and mirrors; everything was twisted and doubled and tripled, and nothing was as it seemed. Drahls and Tar-skel dragons had attacked in great numbers. But sometimes they were where they seemed to be, and sometimes they weren't. Many true dragons had already fallen, defeated as much by confusion as by the invincibility of the foe.
The dragon flights were in disarray, and Windrush could smell the discouragement in the air. The leaders shouted orders and encouragement, but their words were lost in the tumult. The dragons were losing confidence, and the illusion spells cast by the Enemy were growing stronger.
Windrush blew angry fire as he dove, and a cluster of drahls below him scattered in alarm. But above him, four others were still bearing down. Windrush veered and climbed sharply, then fell sideways into another dive. That seemed to shake the drahls; but he was even deeper now in the abyss of smoke, and it felt as if he would never climb out. Help us! he cried silently to the emptiness of the world, to the father who was gone, to the rigger who had not gotten through.
An instant later, he felt a violent shudder like a wind shear pass through the air, and he thought he heard a voice cry out to him. He nearly succumbed to a sudden dizziness and an unaccountable grief welling up out of his heart. He felt certain that a great power had just passed through the underrealm. The air was still shaking. But far from feeling like a Tar-skel sorcery, it felt like a sorcery coming unwoven.
He felt a great rush of wind, and the smoke that had coiled everywhere, enclosing the world, was suddenly torn away like a great curtain, revealing the land below. Windrush pulled up with a startled gasp; he was very low in the Dark Vale, speeding perilously close to dark pinnacles of stone and sharp-edged rock walls. The air overhead was filled with the swarming figures of dragons and drahls, vapor and flames, cries and screams. For the first time since the battle had begun, he could see his enemies clearly. And there were many of them, but not so many as he had thought.
He climbed to rejoin the fight; but even as he did so, he found himself distracted. Whatever had just happened, he knew that someone or something had touched him in that moment, touched his heart as it fled through the underrealm. But what—or who? Keeping a wary eye on the fight, he focused back on the sensation. What he had felt was a whisper of death, the passing of someone to the Final Dream Mountain.
Farsight? he thought, with a sudden dread. But no, no dragon's death would have shaken the underrealm so. But whose death would?
Jael! he whispered silently to the air. Jael, no!
He had heard the fleeting cry, but not recognized it. And now it was gone, and so was the presence that had touched him. He felt a new and burning emptiness in his soul. As surely as he rode the winds of battle in the Dark Vale, he knew that Jael had just died. And if Jael was gone, so was any hope for the realm.
He drew a breath and thundered his rage and anguish into the air: "NOOOOOOOO—!" So loud was his cry that a group of drahls scattered, and several dragons veered in mid-maneuver. "NOOOOOOO!" he cried again. "JAE-E-E-L-L-L-L!"
His cry echoed back from the floor of the Dark Vale, reverberating from one wall to the other. It seemed to still the battle for a moment. Windrush realized, too late, that it had been a cry of despair, and that it had been heard by all of the other dragons. He knew he should bellow something, some encouragement, to keep his brothers from losing heart, but he found no words of hope in him as he climbed to rejoin the battle.
A shriek rose in the air from the drahls—a sound of triumph, as if they too had sensed the passing of Jael. But it was a confused and wavering call, as if they were a little unsure of their triumph. Nevertheless, they wheeled in the air and attacked with renewed fury.
Windrush fought alongside his companions, but his fighting spirit was gone. He glanced down into the shadows of the vale, wondering if Jael had died in that grim place; and he wondered where down there the real Enemy, Tar-skel, was hiding. It hardly mattered now. This battle was the last for dragonkind.
Angry and sullen, he lashed out against a Tar-skel dragon, raking it spinning through the air. But his vigor gave out quickly. A blast of freezing drahl fire caught the top of his left wing, and he swooped dizzyingly and knocked the drahl from the sky even as he reeled from the pain. At the same time, he saw two of his brothers, set upon by traitor-dragons, tumble out of the air and vanish. The true-dragon force was dwindling. Windrush veered and swooped, weeping inwardly at the approaching end of his kind.
He was roused from his misery by an angry outcry: "STONEBINDER! YOU LYING TRAITOR!" Startled, Windrush banked and flew toward the source of the shout. He saw SearSky ahead, circling in a tight dueling orbit with the dragon who had betrayed them all, before their failed attack on the east camp. Even from a distance, Windrush could see the fury in SearSky's eyes, and the fear in Stonebinder's. "I hope you're ready to die, you betrayer of friends!" SearSky snarled.
Stonebinder squawked unsteadily, fire hissing from his mouth, "You're already beaten, SearSky! Can't you see it? It's hopeless!"
The two circled, glaring at each other.
Windrush saw two drahls dropping toward the black warrior's back. "SearSky! Drahls behind!" he shouted, increasing his speed.
SearSky turned sharply, raking Stonebinder with flame; then he pitched up and over to meet the drahls. One was fast, and caught him with freezing flame on the right wing. SearSky faltered for an instant, then burned the other drahl from the sky. The first was almost back upon him, when Hailfar swept down past it, knocking it away with an angry shout.
Stonebinder emerged from SearSky's flame and saw the diversion that the drahls had given him. Before any other dragon could intervene, Stonebinder shot past SearSky and clawed him, once, before fleeing. That was Stonebinder's final mistake. SearSky roared in pursuit, with Windrush finally pulling up to flank him.
The cries of other dragons filled the air as they plunged through the tumult of the battle. "STONEBINDER—TRAITOR!" "KILL HIM, SEARSKY!" "FOR THE LUMENS!" No one got in the way as SearSky caught the traitor's wingtip, spun him in the air, and seized him with both hind and foreclaws. They began falling, together. SearSky bellowed his rage into Stonebinder's face, then blasted him with the full force of his fire. Stonebinder writhed helplessly as they fell through the air. Then he turned to glass in SearSky's grip and vanished. SearSky broke out of the fall, favoring his right wing, but rumbling in satisfaction.
"Well done, SearSky!" Windrush called, then turned, sweeping the area, in momentary respite from the
battle. In that instant, he felt something new in his undersense. What now? he whispered, dizzy with exhaustion.
Come see . . . she lives . . . he thought he heard.
What? he cried silently, afraid that he was going mad.
Jael lives . . . a voice called, from very far away.
Windrush felt hope and rage burn together in his heart. Who was this, calling to him in the heat of battle?
The voice struggled to be heard. It is FullSky! There is no time to lose! Let me show you, in the underrealm!
Stunned, Windrush broke farther from the battle, seeking a place of relative quiet. There was a fractured pinnacle rising up below him. He spiraled down and landed, aware of the risk he was taking. But he had no choice. Farsight! he hissed in his undervoice, not wanting to draw attention to himself. I am landing to seek FullSky in the underrealm. Guard me if you can!
Without waiting for an answer, he closed his eyes and sank into the underweb of the world.
* * *
He passed at once into a window of silence. He felt FullSky's presence, invisibly accompanying him. My brother! he thought, but had no time for more. He was drawn instantly down a fine-stranded connection, and his kuutekka materialized in a place he had visited once before—flying fast and low over verdant lowlands, toward a sunset over the sea. And high over the sea, floating on a cloud, was the Dream Mountain, a white fire blazing within its glass vastness.
I have already seen this, he rumbled impatiently, wondering why it mattered now.
We haven't much time! See what has happened! Speak with her!
Stunned, Windrush flew higher in the underrealm, trying to reach the floating Mountain. Speak with—?
With Jael! Look! She has struck a magnificent blow! FullSky cried, and his voice sounded as if he were nearing the last of his strength. Look in the Mountain, Windrush!
He peered, straining to see. Though he was still far from the Mountain, he could just make out the figure of one who seemed to move through the Mountain like rippling light. He was suddenly weak with joy. JAEL! he cried, his voice tearing. Can you hear me? Is she alive, FullSky?
FullSky's voice sighed like a fading wind. She has died—and yet she lives! In the Dream Mountain, Windrush! She is WITH us . . . she has given her life . . . and struck a great blow against the sorcery!
Windrush struggled to comprehend. Struck a blow—by dying?
Look at the Enemy's web, FullSky whispered.
Behind the Mountain, Windrush saw the web of power glowing against the sky. It had grown stronger than ever—but it also had loose strands fluttering, in the beginning of what looked like a tear in the web. And the light that glowed from it was flickering with a slight unsteadiness. How was this possible?
Don't let this be in vain. FullSky's voice was fading. She needs your help!
Windrush gazed at Jael, and cried out in his heart to her. He thought he could sense her answering the cry; but she seemed terribly, terribly intent upon something.
Her voice seemed to whisper across the gulf of space: Windrush, my friend—be ready for me! Be ready to fly! Above all, believe! The Enemy can still be broken!
Jael—what can I do?
Her voice, answering, was drowned out by a much louder cry echoing from the emptiness around him. It was a cry of alarm filtering in from the outer world—a scream of urgency, calling him back. With a gasped, I'll be ready! Call for me! he blinked backward through FullSky's window and emerged from the underrealm.
* * *
Around him was chaos: dragon wings beating, flames thundering, and the chilling breath of drahls in the air. Windrush looked around in confusion. He was under attack—still perched on a pinnacle of rock! Half a dozen dragons had come to his defense, but the air was filled with enemy warriors. A cluster of drahls had just evaded his guardians and were diving straight toward him.
With an explosion of energy, Windrush leaped from the pinnacle and dove under the attacking drahls, forcing them to turn in a tight, fast bank. Windrush doubled back and beat upward, gaining altitude. "SHE LIVES!" he bellowed to the other dragons. "JAEL HAS REACHED THE DREAM MOUNTAIN! SHE LIVES TO FIGHT THE ENEMY!"
From the dragons rose a murmur of confusion. As a few of the dragons repeated his cry, the encouragement spread in a slow ripple. But the shout had cost Windrush energy that might have gone into speed—and now the drahls were hard on his tail, moving fast. Two shot past him, belching their chill fire; and though he managed to veer away from those two, he could not evade two others who caught him from behind, one landing on his shoulders and the other seizing his hindquarters. He roared out as their talons gripped him. He knew in an instant that he was caught, and he could feel their claws probing for entry. "Damn you!" he hissed, shaking violently—and through the pain, he bellowed out: "FOLLOW JAEL WHEN SHE CALLS! YOU MUST BELIEVE—!" and then his breath gasped out as the drahls' talons found a nerve.
He heard a shattering battle cry, and a wave of heat hit him from above. He nearly lost consciousness as dragon flame billowed over his head. But the two drahls fell away, burning, and as he veered to freedom, he struggled to clear his mind from the pain and heat, and he peered back up through the smoke to see who had saved him. "SearSky—!" he cried raggedly, seeing the black dragon emerge from a ring of fire. Windrush tried to cry out his thanks, but he could scarcely breathe.
He realized with sudden horror that SearSky was battling for his own life now, with a cluster of drahls fastened to his back. SearSky must have dived straight through those drahls to save Windrush. Now he bellowed with pain, his flame crackling uselessly, unable to reach the drahls.
"SearSky . . . help SearSky! Needs . . . help!" Windrush gasped, trying to wheel and climb to the warrior's aid. But he could not move fast enough; he was still afire with pain.
SearSky's coal-red eyes blazed through the flurry of wings and freezing fire, and he roared out, his voice razor-sharp with agony, "Windrush, you cannot—you must—lead the others! Find—your friend Jael—and—!"
Two other dragons had broken to SearSky's aid—but they were too late, all of them. The light in SearSky's eyes flickered and went out, and the black dragon fell from among the drahls, turning from obsidian to clear glass and vanishing before he hit the rocks below. "SearSky!" Windrush cried hoarsely, circling in disbelief.
"Windrush, talk to me!" he heard, as another dragon sped to his side, silver eyes gleaming.
"Farsight! SearSky just saved—"
"I saw! I could not come in time." Farsight's eyes blazed with regret. "What did you say about Jael? We heard you cry out!"
Windrush exhaled a sharp-tongued flame as he felt a rush of hope again. "She lives!" he gasped. "In the Dream Mountain! Let all the dragons know—we are not alone—we are not fighting alone!"
Farsight's cry was a trumpet blast that echoed across the vale. "DRAGONS! THE RIGGER JAEL LIVES AND FIGHTS IN THE DREAM MOUNTAIN! DO NOT DESERT HER, OR THE DRACONAE! PRESS THE BATTLE!" The effect of his cry was like a bolt of lightning. The dragons who had not heard earlier shouted out with a clamor that rose above the sound of battle.
"And now, brother," Farsight said, his clear-faceted eyes blazing into Windrush's, "you must tell me what we are to do to help Jael!"
Windrush's breath went out in a great sigh of bewilderment. "We must hold against the Enemy until she reaches out to us! That's all I know, Farsight—that's all we can do!"
Chapter 41
A Tear in the Dark Web
RENT WAS just casting a thread of sorcery out toward the Cavern of Spirits, to gather in his prisoner, when he felt the quake in the underrealm. For an instant, he believed he was imagining it. After all, it could not be . . . no, it was just that he was still upset over that cursed dragon's defiance. And then he felt it, without question—not just a background trembling in the underrealm, but something far more profound.
He did not at first realize that he felt a life passing. But even at this distance, he felt the sorcery of binding dissolving like smoke throug
h his fingers. And the only thing that could break that binding was the death of the one it held. The rigger Jael.
Rent felt it like a stab through his heart.
Jarvorus! he shrieked, speeding down the pathway to the cavern. What he found was a place that had been torn apart by an earthquake in the underrealm. An abyss yawned in the cavern floor, emptying into space. The impregnable weaving he had spun around his prisoner lay empty. The prisoner, the rigger, the One, was nowhere to be found. Nor was his servant Jarvorus, nor the ship in which the riggers had traveled. Only Hodakai was visible, quailing like a moth in his spirit jar.
With a rage such as he had not felt in a lifetime of rage, Rent flew like a flashing sun around the cavern. He hovered over the rift in the floor and glared down into the darkness of the abyss, and there, almost out of sight, he glimpsed the rigger-ship tumbling away into the distance. He felt a hot-blooded urge to pursue it, to destroy it. But it didn't hold the one he wanted; there was no presence of Jael on the ship.
Of course not—he had just felt her die.
Jarvorus! he screamed. He sensed that the sprite was around somewhere, but there was no answer.
He spun again, a spinning flame in midair, and hurled his anger at Hodakai. What has happened here, traitor? Tell me what has happened, before I destroy you!
Hodakai flickered once, twice, then suddenly burned bright in the underrealm presence of his spirit jar. His voice was low and trembling, but there was a shocking passion in it. Do you think that you have the only power in this world? She is gone, Rent. She has died—by HER choice, not by yours! Though Hodakai did not actually laugh, he sounded as though he wanted to.
Rent burned with fury. Fool! Traitor! His fury burned inwardly at himself, as well as at Hodakai. He had been far too complacent! He had trusted the sorcery! He groped for a way to express the magnitude of his rage.
Before he could find the words, he was interrupted by another voice—one that only he could hear. It was a voice that whispered through the underrealm, and thundered in his heart.
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