Chapter Seven
ZYLA SQUEEZED INTO the tiny space with me. There was barely room for two. I could feel her every breath.
“Tor?” she whispered, her whisper so quiet I could barely hear it.
“Zyla?”
“What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing!” I hissed.
“I thought they’d killed you!”
Oh. I hadn’t thought that she might think that. Her breath was coming awful quickly, and it was getting warm with the two of us squeezed in this tiny enclosure. I leaned just a little bit forward as I composed my thoughts and my mask clinked against hers.
“It’s tight in here,” she said in a strangled voice.
“We need to stop meeting like this.” It sounded like a foolish comment while I was still saying it. I could almost feel her eyes rolling. “What are you doing with Apeq?”
“Surviving!” She hissed. “You and Bataar disappeared and no one told me anything!”
“How is Zin?”
“She’s a captive, in case you haven’t noticed. Just like me.”
“A captive who takes trips to theatrical productions and masked balls?”
“Yes!”
I pulled off my mask, not sure what else to do in my surprise. I couldn’t talk through these stupid things.
“I thought you didn’t believe me about Apeq! I thought you trusted him.”
“I was wrong, okay?” Her voice was muffled by the mask.
“What?”
She fumbled with the ribbons for her own mask, letting it slip free and then looking up at me, her huge eyes reflecting the blue and green lights from outside our hiding place.
“I was wrong.” Now her voice was clear and husky.
“How did you slip away?” I whispered.
“He was distracted by the Exalted of House Tanagers, but I don’t have long.”
“And then?” I breathed. I could feel her breath on my skin.
“And then I have to go back with him. Zin is at his mercy.”
I hadn’t thought of that. Her sister was a hostage.
“If you’re going to be a spy, Tor, you need to learn to see with those bright eyes of yours.” It sounded like she was scolding me, but her expression as soft.
“Look,” I said, glancing around. “Bataar and I are on to a few things –”
“He’s with you?”
“Yes. We found doves and money. We can communicate with Hubric. We can set you free, too. Okay?”
“No!” Her answer came too quickly. Had I misjudged? Did she want to stay with Apeq after all? “Apeq is up to something. I can do more spying from within.”
Now she was just confusing me. I thought she said she was a captive?
“But Zin – ”
“Will be fine until it’s time to leave. Just don’t step on my toes or reveal who I am by getting too close. We have to pretend to be strangers, Tor.”
She was so brave. And so crazy. So full of fire and power and intensity. I wanted to reach out and pull her against me. It was all I could do to suppress the urge.
There wasn’t room in this crevice to even nod my head, so I said, “If you say so.”
“I do.” She pulled her shoulders back to show her determination and I swallowed hard. “Leave it to me until then.”
I could tell she was about to leave.
“Zyla?”
“Yes?”
“Have you noticed silver in Apeq’s eyes?”
She hesitated as if she had expected me to say something else. Eventually, she said, “Yes. Is there anything else?”
My hand flexed and unflexed, longing to do or say more, but I had no idea what that might be, so I just said. “Don’t die.”
After all, it’s what Saboraak would have said to me.
She nodded curtly, tied her mask back on and slipped into the night. I had a terrible feeling that I’d done something wrong. That, somehow, I’d disappointed her.
Women. They were worse than dragons. Even worse than color-changing girl dragons.
I heard that.
Chapter Eight
I FUMBLED WITH MY MASK strap, trying to tie it back on. Who invented these stupid things? Who thought that covering half your face was a good idea at a party, anyway?
A body moved, blocking the way out of the crevice and I hunched further into the darkness. I didn’t want to answer questions about what I was doing in here.
How is the spying going?
I’d learned almost nothing of value except that Zyla was in more trouble than I thought and there were people with silver swirling in their eyes everywhere. What was causing that? It was a mystery just begging to be solved.
The figure that had been blocking the exit pushed, suddenly, into the crevice and I had to back up further into it to keep from being discovered. The buildings were separate all the way to the rock wall, but it was so narrow as the crevice went back that there was only room for me to stand stretched as tall as I could and sucking in my breath to fit in the tiny space. I could barely breathe. My heart was racing. If the newcomer reached back to where I was, he could touch me. It was hard to believe that he couldn’t hear me breathing.
A second figure squeezed into the crevice and the two of them put their heads together to whisper. Ha! This was a popular place to share secrets.
“The Midnight Artificers have made big promises, Apeq. But so far I’ve seen nothing.” The whisper sounded like it came from a man who was not used to being quiet. Even his whisper boomed.
“You will tonight. We have everything in hand.”
Apeq! I didn’t trust that man. The more I heard and saw of him, the more sure I was that he was planning something.
“The explosion at your warehouse suggests otherwise. People say it knocked a wall out.”
“The Bright Redemption had a small problem with a shipment. That is all. We will have it repaired in short order.”
I knew he was involved with that place!
“You promised us a force that could sweep across the Dominion, Apeq. Instead, we have a succession war brewing. That boy heir is nowhere to be found. My men combed Kav’ai looking for him. And the man who ruined Festival has yet to be found. He wore Ko on his arms!”
“And he jumped from a height so great he would need wings to break that fall!” Apeq said harshly. “He’s dead.”
“My spies tell me that they saw a dragon catch him.”
“All the Dominion Dragon Riders are contained. None of them may leave or go anywhere near their dragons.”
“And how long can we maintain that? Their government will notice!”
“Your cold feet are a problem, Mandrill,” Apeq snarled. “Are you so gutless that you can’t make a minor move without panicking?”
“My father is not convinced it is the right option.”
“Leave your father to me.”
“The Dominion is strong. They resisted our attack and we had Ifrits!”
Apeq laughed. “Our Ifrits weakened them. The Dominion is a shell of what they once were with a girl Dominar leading them. All we need is a strong force and we will sweep them off the earth and gain their dragons for ourselves.”
“And Baojang? The Rock Eaters?”
“They’re licking their wounds. The Dominion cracked their teeth. If we play this right, they will fall to us, too.”
“Your ambitions are too strong, Apeq. We don’t have the population for such a sprawling campaign. Ko’Torenth hasn’t taken land from anyone for three generations.”
“Then it’s time we did.”
“And you certainly won’t gain the support of the other Exalted Houses at this rate. We are divided. No one can agree on one leader.”
“By the end of tonight, that won’t be a problem. Now, rejoin the party. I’ve wasted enough time here.”
They left and I waited long moments before wriggling out of the inky-black shadow. This was bad – worse than I thought. Ko’Torenth really was planning to
take over the Dominion. Hubric needed to know this. He needed to know all of it.
It’s why he sent us here. He knew they were planning something.
But he couldn’t have believed it was this bad or he wouldn’t have sent just me and you!
And Zyla.
He should have sent full Dragon Riders!
Maybe we were all he had.
Maybe I should go find those Dragon Riders held by Apeq and tell them what is going on.
It sounded like they were prisoners.
Then its time for a prison break!
You don’t even know where he is holding them.
But I could find out.
I was still gathering my breath and wondering how I would find them when distant screams began.
Chapter Nine
I SCRAMBLED OUT OF the crevice in the rock and the cold hit me in an icy blast. I hadn’t realized how warm I was out of the wind.
Around me, people in masks and fancy dress were standing on tiptoe, craning their necks. A second burst of screams ripped through the air, from a level higher and to my left, I thought, but it was hard to tell in the icy air.
I have a bad feeling about this. I’m coming.
She would blow my cover.
Better to be discovered than to be dead.
She had a point. But I didn’t know what to do. I fumbled at my belt. I’d left the axe behind. It was too bulky to bring with me. My belt knife was there, but six inches of steel wouldn’t do much if there was a good reason for those screams. Maybe it was just one of those silver-eyed guys dying horribly. They did that from time to time.
I could hope for that, couldn’t I?
There was another scream, ripping through the air and then the people around me began to shuffle away from the sound, moving slowly, as if unsure of themselves. But despite their careful movements and cautious – almost nonchalant – surge to the ladders and stairs, there was an acid feel of fear in the air. It twanged through my own nerves, freezing me to the core.
I pressed against the tide of bodies. There were people here that I cared about – Zyla, certainly, and even Bataar wasn’t a bad sort. If they were in danger, they would need my help.
I tried to ignore the voice in my head asking me how I would help them if they were in trouble. After all, I was no warrior. I had no weapon beyond a belt knife, and I was as dependent as they were on Saboraak for any real help.
I will not let you down!
Dragons.
If I knew where the Dragon Riders were being held, this kind of distraction would be perfect to free them. Or free their dragons.
The crowd pushing past me was growing quicker and a little more frantic as the ladders and stairs leading down from here filled with pushing bodies and those behind them had to wait a turn. Masks hid faces, but fear filled the eyes of the masked as they pressed forward.
What a stupid idea – to put a half of a city of people into masks and fancy clothing and jam them all into one area. It was like a disaster planned to happen!
Pretty girls in bright fur dresses and cloaks and decorated masks breathed heavily as they passed, elderly people were pressed against rails or walls, not strong enough to keep up with the mass of bodies. I pressed against the tide, diving into spaces and dodging bodies like a salmon swimming upstream.
The screams were growing in intensity from single shrieks to the horrified shouts of many voices. Whatever was happening was on a massive scale.
There was a cry from above me and then, from the walkway above, a body plummeted past, smacking against the railing a level below. I leaned over my own rail to look down. A man sprawled faceup on the railing, bent the wrong way, his back clearly broken by the fall.
I swallowed hard as gasps and faint cries rose around me. A panic in a vertical city with nothing but narrow passages to follow was a terrible thing.
Beside me, a fight broke out as a group of men tried to press their way into a nearby window and were repelled by armed servants. There were screams as one of them fell, a gash across his belly and then the crowd pushed past them, forcing the servants back and flooding into the house.
Not everyone would fit in these houses. I scanned the boardwalks and the houses pressed against them. People were flooding into every house I could see, but still, there were people rushing down the boardwalk like water loosed from a dam long after the houses were full. I gritted my teeth, waded through the crowd, and grabbed a spear from the hand of the fallen man. I tried not to look too closely at him, not even when I wrenched the spear from his still-strong grip. I was no healer. I couldn’t fix a belly wound. And he wouldn’t need this spear anymore.
Callous.
I’m not callous! I just don’t want to hurt! Don’t you see?
I pushed against the crowd, teeth gritted, eyes narrowed, pushed toward danger and not away. There was no chance I would find Zyla in this. No chance, and yet I couldn’t not try.
If I didn’t force myself to be strong in the face of hurt and pain, I would crumble. I’d built these walls for a reason. But could I help it if she had put a crack in them? Could I help it if the thought of her in trouble spurred me to run faster? Could I help it if caring for her made me suddenly aware that everyone around me was precious to someone? At the end of that road lay madness. I’d seen people go that way before. If you cared too much, the pain of the world would sweep you away until you were nothing but a hollow shell.
I tripped on a fallen body and leaned hard on the shaft of the spear for support. I didn’t dare look down. I didn’t want to see what I had tripped on.
Screams ripped through the air one over another until there was no chance of hearing anything else.
I didn’t even look anymore when a shape dropped past, falling to his death over the railing. I didn’t dare look. There were too many just like it as the minutes dragged out. Too many fading screams. Too many gasps of collective horror. It was enough to fill my nightmares for the rest of my life.
The stairway nearby was blocked, but with the screams coming from above, I needed another way up. Every ladder or stairway in sight was choked with people trying to flee downward. From the sounds above, the fighting was a level or maybe even two levels above me.
How far could Zyla have traveled after our conversation? It had only been a few minutes. Maybe Saboraak could hear her mind?
Not a chance.
Maybe I could fly up a level on Saboraak’s back.
I ... ummm ... got involved here.
Involved? I thought she said she was coming to help me!
I thought you said there were dragons in the cotes whose riders were captured. Dragons who are as much prisoners as their riders are.
Uh oh.
And then you mentioned that now might be the perfect time – when there was a distraction – to save them and it occurred to me that I might be the only one who could save them.
From what? Three square meals a day and a warm place to sleep? There’s nothing holding them there!
Something holds them! Some kind of magic binds them in place.
Then it would take some kind of magic to release them!
There was this thing shaped like a whip in the hideout.
Are you flaming kidding me, Saboraak? I’ve got my hands full with a mass panic situation and people falling to their deaths all around me and you are in the middle of a prison break?
You aren’t the only hero out there, Tor.
Skies and Stars preserve me from heroes! And from dragons with their own agendas. Was that sheepishness I was feeling from her? It had better be!
I heard a scream from above that sounded terribly familiar. Zyla!
Well, there was no other way to do this. I’d have to scale the side of a building and see if I could find my friends and get them out of here – or even stop whatever was causing this madness in the first place. I had a feeling it had something to do with Apeq and these Midnight Artificers.
Maybe, if Saboraak was done her side quest by then
, she’d be able to help a guy out.
Don’t be so cranky. You’d do the same thing if you were me.
I rolled my eyes, shoved the spear through my belt, and began to climb up the rock-work on the side of the nearest building. Maybe I could reach that low roof and then jump from there to the boardwalk just above. Or maybe I could scale the roof tiles to get high enough.
Time to gamble with my life. Again.
Don’t be so dramatic.
Chapter Ten
STONEWORK IS NOT EASY to climb at the best of times – though I’d climbed it a lot living in the streets of Vanika. It’s amazing how few people bother to put bars over upper windows.
I tried to ignore what was going on around me and concentrate on spreading my weight evenly over the holds in the little ridges between the stones. I only had to get as far as the roof and then I could climb up on the tiles there.
This whip thing is horrible. It binds them in place! No one told me that humans did this! Why would anyone be so cruel?
I don’t know. Why would anyone kidnap Zin? Why would they stab a man in the belly for trying to climb in a window? Why did people do any of the awful things they did?
Dragons don’t do this.
Don’t get on your high horse. I bet dragons do bad things, too.
What’s a high horse?
When people ride a high horse, they get to look down on other people.
What about when they ride a dragon?
I guess you get to look down on everyone.
I think I like that.
There! The edge of the roof. I reached up, struggling to make the climb with the spear still stuck in my belt. I might need that for later. I didn’t want to show up weaponless. The way the screams were intensifying, whatever was up there was something you’d want to face with a weapon.
Almost there ... just a few more to go ...
What were we going to do with all those dragons? We’d have to shelter them, and that hideout was not big enough. Plus, it was bound to draw attention if dragons swooped in and out of that small crevice.
Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 1-4 Page 24
