He nodded a goodbye to me, and Estabis clapped me on the shoulder.
I wanted to stay with them to fight.
I needed to go, or we’d all watch each other die.
I slunk off into the descending night.
Chapter Six
I found Saboraak on the top of the open tower, nursing a gouge in her already torn tail. Tachril was licking it. Gross.
It will help it heal.
That or your boyfriend thinks you’re so sweet that he just wants to eat you up.
She rolled her eyes at me. I took that moment to quietly signal Nostar. He and the other riders sat in a tired ring, bandaging their own wounds and drinking from a waterskin. Just looking at the waterskin reminded me how dry my own tongue felt.
Nostar joined me in the shadows, offering me a smaller waterskin.
“Thanks,” I said, taking a long swig from the skin. “I need your help, Nostar.”
He nodded, tiredly. “This isn’t good, Tor. We’re losing this fight.”
“Yeah. We can’t get any initiative unless we have more information. You know that. And to get more, I need to sneak in behind enemy lines and see who is controlling these golems. I talked to Estabis about it like I told you I would. He agrees. But I can only do that if I really can sneak.” I pulled a dirty burlap sack out from the crates and barrels in the shadowed corner. It smelled of wet jute. “And that means it has to be Saboraak and me alone. No one else.”
Nostar shook his head.
“What? You don’t agree?” I asked, returning his waterskin and pulling out my belt knife to carve holes in the bottom of the sack.
“It’s not that. I do agree. But there’s no way we can separate Tachril and Saboraak. I can’t even get him to leave the rest of the wing anymore. He’s vigilant.”
“Leave her here when you fly back up. We can say she needs a few more moments of rest. Then, I’ll sneak out of here with her. Next time you need a break, use some kind of excuse to land somewhere else.”
He looked like he thought we were wasting time.
“Just try, okay?” I said. “We need this to work.”
I slipped the stinking sack over my head, wiggling my head and arms through the holes I’d cut. It was the closest thing I could find to camouflage.
Nostar sighed. “Your face is lit up like a Winternight festival.”
He pulled one of his scarves from where it wrapped his midsection and wound it around my head.
“Thank you,” I said. I knew that the giving of scarves was a big thing in Dragon Rider society – an assurance of loyalty or a bond of friendship.
“Pull your hood up, too,” he suggested. “Those tattoos aren’t doing you any favors.”
“You’ll help me, then?” I asked.
“She’ll just tell him. It won’t matter what I do.”
“Leave her to me.”
He nodded reluctantly and then he walked back to the group. I stayed in the shadows. No need to tip my hand.
“Mount up,” Nostar said, his voice heavy with exhaustion.
“Are you sure?” Letina asked. “The female dragon needs more time to rest.”
“We’ll fly without her for this round.”
It seemed to take forever for them to gather their things and urge their dragons back into their saddles. With every minute that passed, my nerves increased. How would I convince Saboraak to do this with me? What would we do if we were discovered out there in the middle of the golems and then they turned on us? Could we escape? What if there were more Magikas out there than just Eventen?
The questions rolled on, one after another like waves onto a beach and I didn’t have answers for any of them. When the Greens finally launched into the night sky, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Step one: complete.
Now for step two.
The step where you convince me to leave my beloved Tachril when he most needs me to join you in some hairbrained scheme?
“The step where I convince you to make Tachril proud and join me in the most ingenious move of this battle in a way that only you can. You know me, Saboraak – I’m a born winner.”
You’re a born something, that’s for sure.
I gave her my best grin, but it never worked on dragons. “That trick you did with the camouflage in the city street – the one where you blended into the landscape. Can you do that while we fly out over the fields behind enemy lines?”
It’s not easy to do while you’re moving. And I haven’t agreed to try.
“Well, obviously you’re going to try,” I said, grabbing her saddle and beginning to fit it to her back. “Why wouldn’t you?”
Because we could end up dead!
I cinched the belly strap, quickly securing the other straps, too, so I could hurry around to her face and take her snout in my hands.
“You’re an amazing dragon, Saboraak. You’ve never let me down.” I paused to let that sink in. “But now we have a whole city of people who need help and together we can’t let them down. Come on, old girl. Tell me you’re in!”
She looked away, rolling her eyes.
Just don’t get me killed, trout. I made promises to my Pledged Wing.
“I’ll try my best.”
I need a better promise than that.
I mounted her, strapping into the saddle.
“I’ll try your best. There, is that better?”
She huffed irritably, but we were in the air a moment later, climbing high into the sky above.
“Try not to let Tachril notice you. This is one time when an entourage is unwelcome.” As opposed to all the other times when I was just thrilled to have every step dogged by a posse of dragons.
I heard that.
Maybe I wanted her to.
I needed to stop teasing my dragon and pay attention. You know I love you, don’t you, Saboraak?
Would I be doing this if I didn’t?
Probably not.
“Look! See where the Black dragons are fighting a wave of flying golems over there?” I could just pick them out in the moonlight. “That’s a good distraction. Let’s try to stay clear of them and fly away from the city to the south and then circle far to the east, loop up north again, and sweep in behind the enemy.”
If you say so.
She sounded uncertain. I felt just as uncertain. It was hard to see the golems in the dark – hard to see anything with only a sliver of moonlight – and what we were doing was insane.
See, didn’t I imply that?
Was Saboraak camouflaging herself?
Yes. Not that it will do much at night with our silhouettes against the moonlight.
We’d just have to do our best.
We flew south, flying under or over or around any cloud or gust that made us think it might be a golem. I was already tired when we finally swept east. It was going to be a long night.
It’s always a long night for hardworking dragons when you are around, Tor. You’re a taskmaster.
See? I knew I was the master of something ...
Ha!
Chapter Seven
I should have asked Saboraak to sweep west.
You’ve thought that same thing five times in the last hour.
Yeah, well I’d forgotten that east of Estabis was nothing but rocky mountains. And we’d had to weave in and out of their ragged foothills and bluffs as we swung north. It didn’t help that I was exhausted. I’d been able to stay awake when I was fighting or moving but now, I was just sitting in one place huddled in an old stinking sack and so tired I thought I might fall asleep in the saddle.
Might? You’ve already nodded off more times than you’ve regretted heading east.
That explained the kink in my neck, but not why I felt more tired than ever.
We were almost behind the army, by my estimation, finally peeling away from the mountains and up to the north of the army. Saboraak should fly low so we didn’t make a silhouette against the night sky.
Teach your grandmother how to flame.
What?
Sorry. I’m tired, too. I mean that I can fly just fine without coaching. Why don’t you go back to sleep and let me do it?
I nodded off again, too tired to care that she thought my help was only an irritation.
Tor! Tor!
I woke at her frantic cry.
We were low in the air. There were rows of creeping golems below us. A small camp of tents not far away. A single flying golem, like a patrol rushing toward us like a shark through the ocean.
I raised a hand, thinking, “Stop!” as hard as I could and the golem dropped like a stone, hitting the ground with a clatter as the metal struck rock.
If that got the attention of the camp, then all our sneaking would be for nothing.
It came out of nowhere. I called you the second I saw it!
I didn’t blame her. Obviously, there would be patrols. I should have thought of that. They would want to prevent us from seeing what they were doing here as badly as we would want to know.
I took a deep breath, weighing my options.
“Okay,” I whispered. “See that little clump of trees just north of us?”
Yes.
“You are going to hide in there while I creep into the camp, okay? Let me know if anything gets close to you.”
Okay.
She was already low to the ground, but her belly practically swished through the grass as she covered the last little distance to the forest and snuck in between the trees.
I dismounted quickly, grabbing my knives and a waterskin from her saddlebags. I was beginning to regret leaving my spear behind.
You could carve yourself a quick quarterstaff from one of the saplings.
A good idea. I cut one quickly with my knife – a poplar with smooth bark and some good flex to it, about two thumbs thick and as tall as I was – delimbed it and then replaced my knife in the holster up my sleeve. I had ground to cover in the dark and no time to waste.
“Take care of yourself, Saboraak,” I whispered and then hurried out of the forest, swinging the staff as I walked and letting it serve as a prop whenever I stumbled over a root or dip that I couldn’t see in the dark.
The camp glowed like a steady beacon through the night. I glanced toward where the moon hung low in the sky. How many hours did I have until the sun rose? I hoped there would be enough.
I had tried to keep distance between myself and the golem ranks – who would have thought there would be more out here, motionless and still while so many flooded the city beyond? What were they doing here? Why didn’t they just join the others and overwhelm all our defenses? Did they want survivors to flee? Maybe whoever was controlling these golems wanted word to spread about what they could expect from the invaders. Maybe they wanted the Dominion to think it wasn’t worth trying to fight. Or maybe they just couldn’t fit more golems than were already packed into the city.
I steeled my jaw as I crept ever closer. I could feel the still golems shifting slightly as I passed, as if I was a wind blowing through leafy trees. There was a connection there. Some way in which I was a part of them. It worried me. It made me wonder. If golems were powered by human souls and if they responded to me – why? What was it about me that connected us?
I crept in behind the tents, keeping into the shadows. There were a handful of people standing around them, speaking quietly, drinking hot drinks. Looking like normal people. Except they wore Magika robes and kept their eyes south toward the city.
“How much longer, Eventen?” One of them asked irritably.
I almost jumped. Eventen. He was here! I crept behind one of the still tents, trying to listen without being seen.
“Until dawn. We’ll finish them then.”
“Dramatic,” a third voice said coolly – a female voice.
“You think so, Alician?” Eventen asked. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
His teasing tone sounded flirty. Did he flirt with all the women? He’d proposed marriage to Zyla. Now he was drawing the attention of this Alician. All while plotting the destruction of our Dominion. Yeah, no one would miss him when I was done with him. That was pretty clear.
“Why dawn?”
“Apeq A’kona is in position. He moves the troops at dawn. We’ll wait to finish off the city until he can see it collapse. He wants to see what happens so he’ll know what to do when we move further into the heart of the Dominion,” Eventen said.
“I don’t know why he’s bringing human soldiers at all,” Alician said. Her voice was crystal in the night air. “These golems are a thing of beauty. Five of us can take a city with them – and we don’t even need to be close.”
“It’s a strain, though,” the first voice said. “My head aches from flickering through so many sets of eyes. “And something is wrong with a lot of my golems. They’re frozen in place. I didn’t even see what stopped them.”
“Well, you can’t expect them to function perfectly,” Alician stated. “They’re ancient creations. There are bound to be some that are no longer in optimal working order.”
Ancient? What did that mean?
“I agree,” Eventen said. “Although A’kona did not mention malfunctions in his testing. According to him, he was able to reanimate any of the unresponsive golems with new sacrifices. We shouldn’t have this level of malfunction.”
“Maybe the soldiers simply destroyed them. I never guessed the dragons would be such formidable enemies to the wolf-golems before this started,” the first voice said again.
“No, there’s something else at play here,” Eventen said. “Maybe when Shabren’s second in command shows up here she’ll have some ideas. What was her name, again?”
“Ambrosia.”
“You’re kidding, right?” He snorted.
“Don’t let the name fool you,” Alician said. “She’s no fool. Worse than Shabren by a factor of ten. He was a megalomaniac. She’s a true believer.”
“Like Katlana Woelran?” Eventan asked.
“Worse. She thinks the world should be governed by Magikas and everyone and everything else should serve us.”
“Doesn’t sound so bad,” Eventen said.
“Tell her that. She’ll love you.”
“Maybe I will. If you don’t believe it, then why are you here?”
Alician’s voice sounded tight. “I have nowhere else to go. I was born to mud farmers near Sky City. Without magic, I’m back there, carting mud around in a wheelbarrow until my joints give out and I die of starvation.”
“They don’t really farm mud, do they?” the first voice asked.
“Might as well. What they do farm isn’t worth much more.”
“However we came here,” Eventen said, “Whatever our private goals, we can’t get distracted. Shabren showed us what happens when you get distracted.”
“They feed you mush out of a cup,” the first voice said.
“Actually,” Eventen said easily, “I heard they don’t need to do that anymore. Shabren died peacefully in his sleep.”
The first voice snickered. “Yeah. That’s what they always say when you die of magic.”
Alician cleared her throat. “Be careful. Shabren had friends. Including Ambrosia. If she hears you talking like that when she comes through the doorway tomorrow, you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
The doorway? My eyes widened. Could it be possible that there was a doorway here in the Dominion? I closed my eyes. Where would I put a doorway if I was here? I didn’t need to reason it out. Something was pulling at me – something I hadn’t noticed in all the excitement of listening in on the conversation. It pulled at me like the golems did, but stronger and deeper.
A doorway.
Here.
Quietly, I crept away from the tents, following the pull of the doorway.
Chapter Eight
I didn’t know what I’d expected, but it hadn’t been this.
Behind the tents, not far into the trees, a huge wooden cart built of rough-hewn timbers strong enough to build a bridge f
rom and standing on four iron-reinforced wheels taller than I was, stood on a cleared forest road. It was hitched to a team of ten wolf-golems. And no wonder. What else could pull such a thing?
But there were vines wrapped around their feet and mostly-melted snow drifts there, too as well as on their backs. They had been here for a long time. Maybe since autumn before the snow fell – when vines would still have grown. What would it have taken to hide this here without anyone from the city realizing?
A beaten track went from the back of the cart and out of the forest. A track that looked like hundreds of feet had used it.
I climbed the wooden stairs that someone had built behind the cart, my breath hitching in my throat at what the cart carried.
A slab of rock, roughly hewn, sat in the cart, propped up by stones and balking. Jutting up from the rock, stood a doorway, glowing very slightly in the night, symbols etched along the sides.
It was how they’d brought an army here, I realized, my heart speeding as I stepped toward it. And it was how they would bring more.
It was how Eventen had beat us to Estabis. Perhaps, they had one of these in Woelran, too. Perhaps it was that doorway that had brought the golems there. Perhaps it was a doorway there that had brought Katlana to Woelran. Perhaps it had even been one of these doorways that was used to suck out the souls of the people in Woelran.
I felt bile begin to rise in my throat at the thought of all the atrocities made possible by these doors and at how I was inexplicably tied to them.
I swallowed, reaching toward it with a trembling hand.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I nearly leapt out of my skin when the mimic spoke. “The last time you went through one of those things, you got me.”
I could feel it reaching to me just like I was reaching to it. Like a friend reaching out a hand of greeting. Like a lost love, reaching for an embrace.
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
“You could lose me.”
I snorted. That wouldn’t be a bad thing at all. And I had come this far. If I wanted to know what was coming for us through this doorway, then I needed to see it for myself. But I knew now that there were two sides to these doorways. One side took you right through and one side took you to the World of Legends. Which was destroyed now. It could be deadly to walk through that side.
Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 9-12 Page 9
