by James Maxey
Shay sat up, stretching his arms. "Good morning," he said, his voice low and hoarse. "Waking up next to you is like waking up in heaven." He looked up, following her gaze. "Okay," he said. "Even this close to heaven, I didn't expect angels."
The winged men halted about fifty yards away, hovering in the air. Jandra vaguely remembered that the wings didn't need to flap to keep the men airborne. It was the sort of memory that might prove useful, yet, as often happened whenever she tried to actively access Jazz's memories, the details faded away before she could grasp them.
"Hide," she said to Lizard.
Lizard crept away, low to the ground, slithering into pool with barely a ripple.
Shadrach, the highest ranking of the three guards, called out, "Intruders! You've violated the sanctity of the sanctuary of the goddess! The punishment is death!"
"Wait!" said Jandra. "You must know your goddess is dead! We're not violating the sanctity of anyone. There's no need for us to fight."
"She's right!" Meshach, the wounded one, snarled. "I told you the goddess was dead. Look around, Shadrach! The evidence is before your eyes!"
"Silence!" Shadrach snapped. "I'll bash in the other side of your face if you don't still your blasphemous tongue."
"But Shadrach," said Guido. "What if it's true? We don't need to follow the codes no more. We can make our own rules."
"We will obey the commandments!" Shadrach shouted. "Intruders are to be killed, not molested!"
"What if we just molested her a little?" said Guido. "We can kill her after we're done."
Shadrach spun around in the air, delivering a savage kick to Meshach's guts. Meshach doubled over, clutching his stomach.
"Guido suggested it!" Meshach whined.
"You were closer, and you were thinking it too," said Shadrach, completing his spin, halting as he faced Shay and Jandra once more. "Now, kill them!"
Shadrach lifted his crossbow. Guido did the same, though he didn't look happy about it. Meshach was still clutching his stomach. He looked a bit greenish.
Jandra flapped the blanket, jumping up as the crossbows rang out in simultaneous twangs. The crossbow bolt fired by Shadrach punched through the blanket, passed a few inches to the left of Jandra's belly, and buried itself in her backpack. The bolt fired by Guido was better aimed. It tore into Shay's left thigh, right on the inner edge of the skin a few inches above his knee. Shay's mouth opened as if to scream, but no sound came out. Jandra quickly analyzed the wound. The bolt had only cut the surface. His muscles looked uninjured, which was confirmed when he sprang to his feet.
Jandra dropped the blanket and dove toward the shotgun.
"Sweet goddess! She's naked!" Guido shouted. "Shadrach, you've got to-"
"Shut up!" said Shadrach, swinging out with the butt of his crossbow, smashing it into Guido's nose.
Guido did a loop in the air in response to the blow. He dropped down toward the saline lake, catching himself only five feet above the surface, with a massive down-flap of his silver wings that sent waves rolling toward the shore.
"Bastard!" Guido growled.
"The goddess is dead!" Meshach screamed, spraying spittle from his flapping lower lip. He was now the only guard with a loaded crossbow. He turned the weapon toward Shadrach. "I'll do as I please! There is no law!"
He fired, the crossbow bolt passing neatly through Shadrach's neck. The bearded man's eyes rolled up in his head as he tilted in the air. His body went limp, and his wings did as well. He plummeted toward the rocky shore, landing with a wet slap on the black beach.
"The woman is ours!" Meshach screamed, casting his one leering eye toward Jandra.
Jandra finished stuffing the shot bag down the gun barrel and pulled the ram rod free, dropping it onto the blanket at her feet. She took aim at Meshach. "I think I should have a say in this," she said, then pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Oh, right. The safety.
Meshach dropped his crossbow and zoomed toward her, his arms open, on a trajectory to tackle her and carry her back into the sky. She fumbled to release the safety, but somehow her finger couldn't quite find it. Guido was now racing toward her as well, coming in low, skimming along only a few feet above the ground.
Suddenly, Lizard shot out of the pool, his claws extended, his jaws open wide, flying like an angry green bobcat into Meshach's path. Meshach's already tortured face collided with a smack into the little dragon's belly. Lizard's claws snapped around the flying man's head like a mechanical trap. Meshach zoomed skyward, shrieking. Jandra tracked him with the shotgun, her finger finally on the safety. There was no way she could be certain she wouldn't hit Lizard as she fired. She lowered her gun to target Guido, but here, too, her aim was blocked. Shay jumped into the path of the on-rushing guardsmen. The short, winged man smacked into Shay's lanky, naked form at the knees, flipping him into the air. The impact was enough to knock Guido off course. He smashed face-first into the rocky beach, tumbling head over heel before coming to a splashing halt in the pool. He lay limp, his head underwater.
Meshach, still under assault by Lizard, had flown back out over the water. He was about thirty yards off shore, his toes grazing the surface of the salt lake, as if he were dancing upon it. He had both hands on Lizard, trying to pull him off. Lizard had his turtle-like beak clamped down in a death-grip on the man's right eyebrow, and both his fore-claws buried into the scalp behind Meshach's ears. Meshach released a string of loud, incoherent yelps that might have been curse words.
Shay rose on his hands and knees following his collision. He shook his head. Except for the blood trickling from his bolt-wound, he looked okay. Jandra ran toward the shore, worried about what would happen to Lizard if Meshach flew further away.
Meshach gave a blood-curdling shriek as he finally tugged the little dragon away from his face, throwing him toward the water below. Lizard left a trail of blood as he fell. Meshach's face bled from countless wounds.
Jandra raised her shotgun. As she sighted down the barrel, her eyes were drawn to something odd. The once flat surface of the lake was mounding up behind Meshach, a moving hump of water almost a yard tall rolling toward his dangling legs.
Jandra almost shouted a warning-almost. The hump of water suddenly shot into the air, splitting open into a pair of toothy jaws that clamped around Meshach's legs. As quickly as it had appeared, the ichthyosaur plunged back down into the water, taking Meshach's legs and hips with it, leaving the guard's remains floating in the air, a winged torso from which entrails slowly spilled.
Meshach looked down, his face growing pale beneath the bloody wounds that crisscrossed it. He gave a breathless sigh and fell into the water with a splash.
Jandra stood on the shore, feeling a chill that ran all the way down to her bones.
"Lizard!" she yelled, lowering her gun. "Lizard!"
Meshach's winged corpse bobbed upon the waves. Aside from this, there was no sign of motion. She turned back toward Shay. He was in the pool, crouched over Guido. It looked as if he was making sure the guard's head stayed beneath the water.
"Lizard didn't come up for air!" she shouted.
Shay looked up, his eyes scanning the waves.
"He can hold his breath for a long time," said Shay. "You saw him in the pool."
"There's an ichthyo…" he wasn't going to know what she was talking about, "a sea monster out there!"
"A what?"
"It's a great big ocean-dwelling reptile! It can swallow Lizard whole!"
Suddenly, Lizard popped to the surface, gasping for air. His limbs flailed wildly as he splashed across the surface of the lake in a bee-line toward Jandra.
"Bad fish!" he shrieked as the water mounded up behind him.
Jandra ran to the edge of the shore. The ichthyosaur's mouth gaped open, creating a suction that drew Lizard back toward its teeth.
Jandra aimed at the top of the ichthyosaur's snout and fired. The explosion knocked her onto her butt as her feet slipped on the slimy stone. The scaly sea beast snapped its jaws
closed with Lizard only inches from its teeth. Lizard shrieked as the monster flipped in a sudden u-turn. Bright red wounds speckled the ichthyosaur's snout. It dove beneath the water. The wave it left behind lifted Lizard, carrying him toward the shore. The wave broke over Jandra's legs, leaving Lizard sitting in her lap. Lizard swung his tail around and looked at it mournfully. The last four inches of it were missing.
"No more fish," he said, shaking his head.
"I'm comfortable with that," said Jandra.
Shay walked down the shore toward the still form of the first guard to fall. He poked the body with his foot, though it was pretty obvious from the angle of the man's head in relation to his shoulders that he was dead.
"This certainly wasn't the wake up I had in mind," he said.
Jandra chuckled grimly. "Me neither." She looked at the wings jutting up from Shadrach's corpse. The goddess memories stirred faintly and she realized she knew how to use the wings. "At least we don't have to build a raft now. We can just fly over to the island."
"Fly?" Shay asked, sounding skeptical. "I mean, yes, I saw them doing it, but it didn't look safe. None of these men had pleasant landings."
"The wings have an artificial intelligence that will do most of the flying for you. You'll be fine."
"If man were intended to fly, God would have given us wings," said Shay.
"The goddess corrected his oversight," said Jandra.
She stood up. She was covered in slimy grit all the way down the back of her legs.
"Looks like we'll need another bath," she said. "As long as we've got a pool of fresh, clean water-at least, we will once we pull Guido's corpse out-we should take this chance to wash our clothes."
"I only have one set of clothes," said Shay. "I don't want to walk around all day in wet pants."
"We can spend the day under the blanket while our things dry," said Jandra.
"Oh," said Shay, brushing his curly orange locks back from his face. "Yes, then. Of course. That sounds like a perfectly acceptable plan."
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
HER DRAGON SOUL
SHAY'S PANTS WERE stiff after they'd dried by the fire. He carefully tugged them up his legs, wincing. Many of his body parts were somewhat tender. Beside him, Jandra hummed as she pulled on her boots. The worried look that normally haunted her face was completely gone. She stood, buttoning the fine blue coat she'd recovered at the palace.
"What are you humming?"
"It's called 'Original Air Blue Gown,'" she said. Instantly, her face fell.
"What?" he asked.
"It's one of her memories. This song is a thousand years old."
Shay moved to her side and took her hand.
"It's okay," he said. "You're here now. Don't worry about all that other stuff in your head."
Jandra leaned into him. "I hate it when the lines blur. Some of the things we did came so naturally. What if I was drawing on her experience?"
Shay kissed her forehead. "Don't let it bother you. No one is a clean slate. We all have other people's voices in our heads. After all the books I've been through, I have a hard time untangling my own thoughts from the things I've read."
Jandra nodded. "I hear Vendevorex inside me sometimes. Perhaps one day I'll accept these new memories as part of who I am. I'm afraid I'll get lost inside my own head if I surrender to these thoughts."
Shay squeezed Jandra's hand. "I'll be beside you to help you find your way back."
Jandra smiled. She took the bracelet off her wrist and slid it onto Shay's hand. "Take this," she said.
"You need it to turn invisible," he said.
"I need you even more," she said. "It's all I have to give."
Shay knew she had given him so much more.
In the dead tree near the waterfall, Lizard was still sound asleep, his limbs dangling from the tree branch. The bandaged tip of his tail twitched in response to dreams Shay could only imagine.
Jandra pulled her hand away, her fingertips lingering until the last possible instant. "As wonderful as this moment is, we should do what we came here to do."
"Lead on," he said.
Jandra reached down beside her pack and picked up one of the three metal plates laying there. She handed one to Shay. It was remarkably light for a grooved steel disk a foot across and two inches deep. He'd watched as Jandra pulled these from the backs of the dead guards. The huge wings had folded into these compact shapes. Looking into the edge-groove, hundreds of delicate metallic feather tips could be seen, all packed up in neat rows.
"It should weigh more," said Shay. "It's as big as some cast iron skillets I've used, and they're pretty hefty. This weighs little more than a quill."
"It's made of carbon nanofibers. It's like woven diamonds. The wings generate some lift with their shape, but an ion discharge provides the real thrust. That's why you can hover in these."
"I have no clue what an ion or a nanofiber is," said Shay.
"It's not important," said Jandra. "Just stick it between your shoulder blades. Hyper-friction will hold it. Then, think about the wings unfolding."
Shay stood up and reached behind his back. He didn't see how it was possible to get the disk centered directly between his shoulder blades, but when he got the disk near, he felt a tug. The disk leapt from his fingers and grabbed onto his back. His skin tingled as the disk adjusted itself to the correct position. The tingling stopped abruptly. He turned, expecting to find the disk behind him, certain it had fallen off. Seeing bare ground, he reached behind his back and found the disk was still there.
He imagined the wings spreading. Instantly, they did so, growing outward in an intricate unfolding pattern until they stretched from his body several yards in each direction. The feathers chimed like tiny bells. To his surprise, he could feel the wings as if they were part of his body. The wing nearest the fire was warm-the wing extending out over the pool was cool, and he felt beads of water dripping across the surface. All the tiny breezes stirred by the waterfall ruffled the feathers. It felt as natural as the breeze playing with his hair.
Until this moment, he'd been skeptical that the wings would lift him, despite having witnessed the flight of the guards. Now, flight felt like it could occur with only the slightest flick of his wing tips.
He flicked.
The sensation of his feet leaving the ground was one he knew would remain with him forever. He rose three feet in the air and hung there, holding his breath as his heartbeat pounded in his ears. When he finally allowed himself to breath, he found himself giggling.
Jandra rose into the air in front of him, leveling out. They both hovered on outstretched wings. The air smelled curiously fresh.
Jandra tilted toward him and drifted over. He leaned forward to meet her. This resulted in a sudden acceleration. Their lips met with what could fairly be called a collision. They each jerked back.
"We, uh, should practice before we try that again," Jandra said, her voice muffled by her hand over her mouth. She seemed to be checking for loose teeth.
"Scary birds!" Lizard screamed.
The little earth-dragon was awake on his branch now, looking ready to leap into the pool. His eyes narrowed when Jandra spun around in the air to face him. Shay had to duck to avoid her wings as they passed over his head.
"It's okay, Lizard," said Jandra. "It's just Shay and me."
"Good boss?" Lizard asked, sounding skeptical.
Jandra floated toward him, her arms outstretched. "Jump on," she said. Lizard scooted further back on the branch. "Don't be scared," she said. Lizard looked down at his tail tip and changed the subject.
"Tail hurt," he said.
"I know," said Jandra.
"Eat soon?"
"Breakfast is the next item on the agenda," said Jandra.
"New meat?" Lizard asked. This wasn't a question Shay had heard before.
"Same old beef jerky and hard tack for now," said Jandra.
"New meat!" Lizard insisted.
Jandra cast a puzzl
ed glance back toward Shay. Shay shrugged. Lizard looked perturbed. He leapt down from the branch and skittered across the rocks like a small green monkey, traveling thirty yards in the space of a few seconds, until he reached the mound of stones that Shay had used to bury the guards.
Lizard sniffed the rocks. "New meat," he said, looking up at Jandra. Jandra grew pale as she realized what was on Lizard's mind.
"Lizard, we can't eat those men," she said.
Lizard cocked his head, confused. "Smell," he said, and drew a deep, whistling breath through the nostril slots in his beak. "New meat."
"Lizard, I wouldn't let the men back at Dragon Forge eat you. I'm not going to let you eat men."
Lizard tilted his head to the other side. It was as if thoughts were physically shifting around in his skull. "Lizard not meat," he said.
Jandra lowered herself onto the rocks beside the little dragon. He looked up at her with a mix of hunger and reverence. He reached to the grave and picked up a stone that looked too heavy for his small frame.
"Put that down!" Jandra snapped. Lizard dropped the rock and hopped backward, looking alert as he studied Jandra's face. "Who's the boss here?" Jandra asked.
Lizard lowered his eyes. "You boss."
"We eat hardtack. Any questions?"
"No boss," Lizard said softly.
"Now jump onto my shoulders."
The little dragon leapt as if gravity had no true claim upon him. He made it to her shoulders in a single bound and clung tightly as she glided back over the pond toward Shay. Together, they drifted down to a landing beside the fire. Her wings folded up with a soft, musical chiming. He willed his own wings to close and they did the same.
Lizard hopped down from her shoulder and sat before the pack with the last few bricks of hard tack, staring at it intently. Jandra glanced at Shay. The stern countenance she'd wore while bossing Lizard melted into a look of worry. Shay knew what she was thinking. If Lizard was hungry for human flesh now, with other food available, what would he be like if the food ran out?
