I took another step backward and stumbled slightly. It was a step down. I pulled my other foot down to quickly stabilize. Whew. It didn’t feel like I’d hurt my ankles. That was a close one!
When I looked back up, Shabren’s eyes were wide with shock.
Chapter Seventeen
I FELT A TINGLING IN the air. Without realizing it, I had stepped onto the platform. I could see the other two arms branching off next to the one I’d followed. Guards stood at the edges of the arms as if they were afraid to step on the platform, their eyes wide and their faces tight with fear.
Above me, the tingling air leapt and jumped along the intersecting arches, sizzling with leaping blue light.
“Where is it?” Shabren asked quietly, as if he was afraid his voice would shatter our special moment.
“In my hands, genius.”
Beneath me, the song in a thousand throats caught for a moment before morphing into something brighter, something almost triumphant. I didn’t understand it. But one thing I did know – I was glad my face was covered. I had a terrible feeling that every set of eyes in the city could see me right now.
“Not the spider, the book. Hubric didn’t have it when we caught up to him. There’s only one person he could have given it to.”
Caught up to them? Did they have Hubric? Was he okay? And what book was he talking about? Did he mean that weird prophecy book Hubric gave me before he left?
The spider pulled upward, as if being sucked up to where the arches intersected, but I held on tight even when it yanked my arms above my head and my sleeves fell down around my elbows. I wasn’t letting go of this thing. It was the most valuable thing I owned – or at least, I thought so. I was going to have to look at that book again.
There was a gasp – a gasp like the rush of the tide, a gasp torn from several thousand throats. Shabren’s eyes were locked on my arms above my head. I looked up. The silver tattoos glowed in the blue light of the arches.
At the arms of the other two arches, the guards dropped to their knees.
“The Ko,” Shabren breathed.
Run. I sense ... terrible evil.
Run where?
The spider ripped from my hands, rocketing up to the apex of the arches and sticking there as if by magic. I’d lost my only hope of fighting back – not that it had been working for me anyway.
Run anywhere!
“You’ll never escape now, boy.”
I let my eyes narrow and clenched my jaw. I’d never been a hero. I kept telling people that.
Then be a gambler. It’s what you keep on saying you are! Take a gamble. Do something no one would predict.
Okay, Saboraak. It’s now or never. You want to be my dragon? You get one chance at this.
I smiled at Shabren. “Watch me.”
I turned my back on him and ran, jumping through the arch and leaping out into the empty air beyond. If you’re going to die, do it dramatically.
My legs and arms wind-milled as I dropped, a meteor falling from the sky. My heart was in my throat, tears streaking down my face. What had I done? This gamble was too much!
It might be my last big bet.
The wind whistled around me as I dashed past thousands of horrified faces, past level after level of mountain city. My heart was pounding too hard. It was going to burst before my dice pips could be counted and the bet decided ...
I crashed into something hard.
It dipped under me, leveling off as I was still grasping for a hold of the saddle. A massive red head and neck spun around to give me a baleful look.
You can always bet on me, kid. Although, for future reference, I’d prefer that the risks you take be a little less suicidal in nature. I was thinking that you’d dart over the heads of the guards or try a spinning kick, or something ...
I had bet my life on my dragon.
And when I was done having a heart attack, I was going to feel all warm inside that my bet had paid off.
I’ll show you warm! I’ll toast your heels if you ever pull a stunt like that again!
It was actually kind of fun now that it was over ...
I’ll roast you like a pig on a spit!
And it was the first time I’d ever completely trusted someone else with my life.
Saboraak’s rage stuttered and was gone.
I’m starting to love you, too.
No one said anything about love.
I just did.
Dragon Chameleon: City of Ice
Chapter One
NOW WE’RE IN TROUBLE. Every single person on Eski has seen us and they will be looking for us.
My dragon was right, of course. She was more than just a thick scaly face.
I don’t need compliments. I need a plan.
Well, lucky for us, Saboraak could change shape and color. We could hide, and she could just pop out again as another dragon.
And you don’t think they’d be looking for that? They’re looking for a dragon with a boy riding her. It doesn’t matter what color I am, they’ll be looking for me.
You really haven’t been around humans long, have you? We don’t know that female dragons can change colors. If you show up as a different color, they will think you are a different dragon. And I had a scarf over my face. They don’t know what I look like under the scarf.
They saw those arms, though.
Don’t remind me.
The city was shrinking as we flew outward.
Hurry! Dive.
Why?
We needed a place to hide while we changed appearance. Maybe there would be a crag in the mountain below the city where we could hide out and then we could change our appearance and re-enter the city.
She was diving before I finished my thought. I wrapped my whole body around her like a squirrel hugging a tree. She could have at least worn a saddle!
I was in a bit of a hurry, as you might recall. You leapt from a platform at the apex of the city.
It was hard to fly like this! My palms were slick with the sweat of anxiety and her dive was making them worse. What if I lost my grip and fell from her back to the rocks beneath.
That will not happen.
I wanted to wipe the sweat from my brow, wanted to squint my eyes shut, but neither was an option in the middle of the skin-crawling anxiety of the moment.
You were the one who told me to dive.
I was. What a terrible idea. Why did she listen to me?
You’re hard to ignore.
Maybe you should practice!
I’ll take that under advisement.
We leveled off so quickly that my muscles were still wobbling like jelly when we were finally slowing toward the underside of the city. The dwellings here were more scattered and in poorer repair. There was a ramp system from the ground below and a steady flow of traffic following it, but the people here didn’t look at us. They were working hard to pretend we didn’t exist.
I wonder if you would judge me if I read their minds.
Why would I judge? I’d read everyone’s minds if I could. I hated secrets - unless they were mine. It only made sense to learn as much as you could about everything – including other people’s thoughts.
It’s considered ... unethical ... to read human minds indiscriminately.
What about dragon minds?
We all read each other’s minds all the time.
I straightened. I mean, obviously, they must, right? She was reading mine all the time. She never asked if she could. Kyrowat hadn’t asked either. They just did it. But Ephretti’s dragon didn’t do that.
All dragons can read each others’ minds. Only some dragons can speak to human minds. But all dragons can speak to dragon minds.
Weird.
It’s called communication. It’s the foundation of a functional society.
And we’d done enough of it for now. We needed a place to hide out and change. I felt a pull to the left. Could that be a good hiding place there? It was hard to tell. As we descended, the fog grew thicker. W
as that a crevice underneath a wide overhang? There was no ramp under it, though a wide rope cable hung from a trapdoor. It looked like the bottom of a building built into the rock. It was very tall – three levels at least – and the doors and windows were on the upper levels. My unconscious mind must have noticed the perfect spot and drawn me to it.
Or you just like to tell yourself that.
Either way. This was a place to hide and we needed to take it. Then Saboraak could change colors and shapes and I could ditch this red cloak and face scarf.
What about the axe?
It was my only weapon other than a belt knife.
Do you know how to use it without chopping your own leg off?
Insulting!
No, I mean it. Can you be trusted with that thing?
I was keeping it. If nothing else, it might be valuable enough to sell and we needed money.
If you sell it, it will draw attention to us.
We eased into the fog, finding the overhang. Despite the trapdoor on the underside of the overhang and the thick cable hanging out of it, no one from up there would be able to see us unless they stuck their heads out and deliberately looked.
So, why did I feel so drawn to that building? I wanted – badly – to climb the cable and see what was inside.
Your sense of adventure will be the death of you. You’re like a cat. You investigate everything and fear nothing. How many lives do you think you have?
Just the one ... obviously.
You don’t act like it. You act like you have ten more lives in your saddlebags.
There was a ledge under the overhang and Saboraak maneuvered us to it, sticking out her feet and clinging to the wall like a bat.
I resent that comparison.
Stop being so oversensitive and help me think of a disguise!
In the morning. First, we sleep.
Sleeping on the back of a dragon as she huddles on a tiny ledge is no easy thing. First, Saboraak had to find a position where I could lie across her neck without falling off. Then, I had to convince myself to stop having panic attacks from the precarious position for long enough that I could sleep. Sleep came slowly and was intermittent. Not only was it a terrifying height, but the cold of the night bit into my exposed skin. I had to keep rotating myself to heat my body against Saboraak’s hot hide.
It was almost morning when I heard a clunk in the building overhead. Something was coming down the cable!
My eyes snapped open and Saboraak jolted awake. I scrambled to hold on tighter to her.
At the sound of squeaking hinges, we froze.
Chapter Two
TWO VOICES GREW SLOWLY clearer as Saboraak and I leaned into the rock, trying our best to seem small.
“There are more coming today,” the first voice said. A woman. She sounded irritated. “And we don’t have room for the last ones. Someone needs to tell Shabren that even magic workers can’t add more rooms to a house and we can’t house them here. This is a shop and our enemies can easily send spies here.”
Shabren? What did this place have to do with him? He seemed to have feelers out everywhere. How could he have established himself so strongly in a matter of days?
“I don’t think he’ll listen,” the other voice said dryly – a man this time. “He says we need to move as many into the city as we can. You heard what happened to Aricas and Hriden. If we don’t figure out what is causing the leakage, then we’ll end up the same way.”
“Stuffing the safehouse to the gills won’t help with that, Cormaz.”
“Bringing in more Magikas might.”
The woman sighed. “Fine. I’ll keep this room shut off for the rest of the day, but if our friends don’t arrive by nightfall, then I need to open it up. We need the supply baskets that go through the floor here and without those supplies, we will all starve.”
“You can buy food in the markets today.”
Their voices were fading again.
“At those prices?”
A door shut behind them and we both let out a sigh of relief. I should look inside that trapdoor. Whatever was in that room was important. Perhaps it was a doorway like the one we used to arrive in Ko’Koren.
Or perhaps the woman simply meant that people would be coming up whatever baskets are cranked up the mountainside on that cable. We need to hurry, or we will be found.
Then we needed disguises.
Before I finished the thought, Saboraak was already morphing, her neck and tail extending and a wide frill sprouting out around her head. A pair of tentacle-like antennae grew out of her head and her skin grew a little less thick and burnished to a bright gold.
Perfect. Now it’s your turn.
I tried to ignore the call of the room as I pulled the cloak off and fashioned it into a skirt around my waist. The scarf morphed easily into a veil. Like magic, I was a girl.
Saboraak turned to give me a very dry look with one of her huge eyes.
You aren’t fooling me.
Yes, but she could read my mind. The key was to fool other people.
She kept staring at me.
Or ... I could go up that trapdoor and see what was up there myself. It was probably something amazing ... and maybe there would be clothing I could borrow.
No. Let’s go.
But people would still be on the lookout for a single dragon and rider. Perhaps if I took a passenger? Two people would surprise anyone watching.
I don’t have a saddle.
Then let’s find someone who won’t care. We flew slowly up out of the fog. Early daylight painted the cool tones of the city and snow had piled on the steeply sloped roofs and on the railings lining the narrow boardwalks.
We leveled off beside the ramps going up and down along the edge of the mountain. I scanned the up-ramp. The people with yudazgoats and carts wouldn’t need us. And no one who was already in a group would want to leave their friends. I needed someone who wouldn’t talk ... hmmm.
It helps to be a petty criminal when you are looking for a petty criminal. I noticed the signs immediately. One man walked on his own, his eyes on everyone but himself. He was likely a pickpocket or some other kind of thief. That was a man who would take a ride from a strange dragon.
Saboraak flew up to him and I gestured to him to join me on the dragon as Saboraak moved up to a bend in the ramp and settled down on it. The man looked around him, swallowing, watching to see who might notice, but after a heartbeat he joined us, a smile on his face.
“Are you offering me a ride?” I could see his eyes twinkling as he mentally added up what a dragon would be worth if he could steal it from an unsuspecting woman.
I was doing my own mental math. Older than me by at least ten years. No weapon, unless there was a knife hidden somewhere. He was heavier than I was, but I was faster.
How do you know?
I am always faster.
I beckoned with a hand and hoped my actions looked feminine enough.
You look ridiculous.
But not too ridiculous. The man shrugged and mounted.
“May I say what a lovely sight you are, my lady!” he said and when I didn’t respond he tried again. “Are you by any chance, a Zyvaar? Do your oaths bind your tongue? Will you take me two levels up? The climb is difficult in the cold.”
I nodded, hoping it would be enough as Saboraak launched into the air. The man behind me made a sickly sound in his throat as we slipped into the air. I turned back to see him green and sweating, but his eyes were still focused as he calculated his next move. Greed was a great lever. If someone wanted something – money, popularity, the good opinions of others, power – it was easy to use that as a lever to move them where you wanted them to go. He wanted something from me so I could convince him to mount a strange dragon. What lever would he try to use on me?
We were both silent as Saboraak climbed toward the dragon cotes.
“I don’t know why you wished to offer me a ride up through the city, lady, but it is appreciated,” the man t
ried to say. “Have you heard the latest news?”
I kept the alluring silence.
Good. Your voice would be the opposite of alluring right now.
Long minutes stretched as the man tried to make small talk.
“A person appeared in the city last night and displayed the Ko in the sacred place. You know what that means! He has declared his mastery of one of the sacred doorways. The Exalted are worried – and they should be. No one has challenged them in a hundred years!”
I could see a large structure ahead, shaped a lot like a honeycomb.
The dragon cotes. We will join our friends there.
“I am Apeq A’kona,” the man said as the silence on my end remained. “I sell marvels out of my shop in the seventh level. Perhaps you would like to come and see them, lady.”
If by ‘marvels,’ he meant items that had been pawned, I had no doubt he was telling the truth.
You might have need of someone like this, Tor.
Now that was surprising! Saboraak was the most straight-laced straight-lacer I’d ever met. Was she really suggesting that I maintain a friendship with a criminal?
I think he is more than he seems. And you only assumed he was a criminal by his behavior. You have no evidence. I’m starting to think you are tremendously lucky, Tor. First, you survive what should have been your death. Now, you run into someone who we might need.
Need?
Ask him about the cormorants.
I didn’t dare ask him anything! He’d know in a second that I was not a girl!
I think he already does. I’m afraid your figure is not shaped like a human female’s. Is that insulting?
No!
I think that Zyla’s password with her contact is cormorant. She keeps using it when she meets new people as if she is trying to connect with them.
And what made Saboraak think this man was Zyla’s contact? The man in question was rattling on about the various jade carvings he had bought over the decades.
You were right to think that he was watching people. But I do not think it’s because he is a criminal. You were also right to think you saw a glitter in his eyes at our appearance. And yet. I think it was for a different reason.
Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 1-4 Page 15
